End Time Insights

Anyone who is under the Law of Moses is obligated to keep all its required deeds and rituals, and therefore, risks coming under its curse . In his Letter to the Galatians , Paul responded to teachings by certain “ men from Jerusalem ” who were disrupting the churches, claiming that male Gentiles must be circumcised “ to complete ” their faith. This group also promoted following the Hebrew calendar and the Levitical dietary regulations.

Returning to the jurisdiction of the Torah means the restoration of the old social barriers between Jews and Gentiles . The third chapter of Galatians  is pivotal to Paul’s argument for the unity of God’s people. The old social divisions under the Mosaic Legislation are inappropriate in God’s One Covenant Community since the promised “ Seed of Abraham ”  has arrived, namely, Jesus of Nazareth. In Christ’s Assembly, “ No longer can there be Jew or Greek ! ”

Returning to the custodianship of the Law would mean rebuilding the wall between Jews and Gentiles, but “you are all one in Christ.” The Apostle Paul compared the Mosaic Law to a “ pedagogue ” in its supervision of Israel “ until the seed came .” That “ Seed ” was Jesus. In Greco-Roman society, the “pedagogue” was a slave with custodial and disciplinary authority over an underage child until he reached maturity. The minority status of the child and the authority of the custodian over him were both temporary.

Paul argued that adopting the rite of circumcision would constitute regression to something rudimentary, and an earlier stage in the redemptive history of God’s people. If Gentile believers did so, they would be obligated to keep the whole Law, and they could easily find themselves “ severed from Christ ” - (Galatians 5:1-4).

The key issue in Galatia is whether Gentiles must be circumcised and keep some, at least, of the deeds required by the Torah .  Paul’s letter to the Galatians is his response to a controversy in the churches of Galatia. The issue is the status of Gentile believers. Must they conform to Jewish practices and submit to the regulation of the Mosaic Law, especially the rite of circumcision?

OVERVIEW  -  If a man is not justified from the works of the Law, what was the purpose of the Torah given through Moses at Mount Sinai?  –  Galatians 3:19 .  In his  Letter to the Galatians , the Apostle Paul declared that we are set right with God from the “ faith of Jesus Christ ,” and not “ from the works of the Law .” But if keeping the “ works of the Law ” does not justify us before God, logically, this raises the question:  Why, then, the Law? What was the purpose of the  Torah ? Paul answered this question in the third chapter of his letter.