by Angus Harley

We continue our look at Galatians and hermeneutics, especially the NCT hermeneutic. A ‘hermeneutic’, in this case, is an interpretive key or control. The basic NCT interpretive control (hermeneutic) is that the NT has interpretive priority over the OT. In the previous article, I gave an overview of this same hermeneutic in action via the paradigm of the two gospels.1 I advise the reader to look at it in preparation for the series of articles that examine each chapter in Galatians, for in them we are going to take a deeper dive into the world of hermeneutics, and go way beyond the two-gospels paradigm.

Before proceeding, I wish to relate a little bit about approaching this study. As the NT is the key to reading the OT, I encourage you, reader, to resist the temptation of jumping back to the OT and using it to control the NT. Paul is going to tell us what the OT is all about. A second temptation to be delivered from is similar to the above: try to resist the temptation of making the book of Romans the control of Galatians. Galatians was written before Romans, and Romans borrows much of its theology from Galatians, not the other way round. Whatever else Paul might add in Romans, his letter to the Galatians must stand by itself without Romans becoming a control. My third point is kind of similar to the last, but is different: as my aim is to help the reader track Paul’s thinking in Galatians, I will only only sometimes include his theology from his other writings, or from elsewhere in the bible. I want Paul’s theology in Galatians to be fresh and to stand out all by itself. Lastly, although this series on Galatians will look at each chapter in turn, they are not, strictly speaking, exegetical, but are describing a hermeneutic, an interpretive model that is in Galatians itself. Please don’t expect an ‘exegesis’, therefore. Let’s go!

Paul’s two-age structure

If any of you have ever read a modern Biblical Theology book, especially concerning Paul’s theology, you might have come across the idea of an ‘aeon’. It’s reflecting the Greek term aionos or “age” in Galatians 1:4. So, Biblical Theology scholars like Vos and Ridderbos refer to two ‘ages’: the present evil age (1:4) in radical contrast to the divine age.

This present evil age is referring to life in this world now, thus “present” (Gk., enistemi). This present age is the world as a fallen place that harasses and persecutes the people of God. 2 Timothy 3:1 states that in the last days difficult times will come (enistemi). These are the last days. Thus, Paul writes that Jesus overcomes “things present” (enistemi) (Rom.8:38; 1 Cor.3:22), for there is much that distresses the Christian in the present (enistemi) (1 Cor.7:26).

The present evil age is radically contrasted to the ages, “to whom be glory forever more”, where “forever” is the Greek term aioonos, once more. Paul literally writes “ages unto ages’, (aionas ton aionon) or “forever”. But “forever” simply does not do justice to Paul’s theological salute to God’s victory in Christ. For, it is the divine glory imposing itself over the current evil age, and its victory is so complete that it is plurality upon plurality in contrast to the singular evil “age” (Rom.8:18; 12:2; 1 Cor.1:20; 2:6, 7, 8; 3:8; 2 Cor.4:4; Eph.1:21; 2:2, 7; 3:11; 1 Tim.6:17;2 Tim.4:10; Tit.2:12). Although the “ages unto ages” is, from the perspective of life in this world”, in the future (Eph.2:7), it is the victory and life of the resurrection Christ that is in that other, heavenly, world, which we now share in, and we will participate in it more fully in the ages that succeed this present evil age.

The Christ of the “ages”

Jesus Christ is described as “raised from the dead” (1:1) to highlight the world that he belongs to- the resurrection life of ages unto ages, the world of heaven and of the Father. Although he participated as man in this present evil age (see Gal.4:4), it was exclusively to the end of delivering the heirs of Abraham from this age unto the next world and the ages unto ages. That is why translators often translate aionos as “world” (Rom.12:2; 1 Cor.1:20; 2:6, 7, 8; 2 Cor.4:4; Eph.2:2; 1 Tim.6:17; 2 Tim.4:10; Tit.2:12), the conceptual overlap of the “ages” and “world” being too strong to hold back.

Specifically, Christ gave himself for our sins to rescue us from this present evil age. This act of self-giving happened on the cross through his death (3:10-14), the ultimate form of the evil world of this age.

Now, this is pretty standard stuff. Yet, the crucial point being made is that Jesus Christ is not described as tied to this world, even though he came into it. He came as the Son of God into this world to be a man and a Jew (4:4), but his participation in this age was solely with the goal of ending it, not resuscitating it, or perfecting it. Nor is his salvation rooted in this world, as if the world has the bits and pieces that are necessary for salvation. For his self-giving sacrifice was to save his people from this present evil age. Even his sacrifice in this age was evidence of the presence of evil, in that death assaulted him. This had to happen for him to deal with the greatest of evils in this world, sin. Put simply, the Gospel of the Apostle Paul is that to break Abraham’s heirs free from this present evil age, the Son had to come to earth as a man, and open himself up fully to the assault of the evil that controls the present age. The fact that the Son now reigns in heaven with the Father as Christ Jesus is evidence of the full and complete victory of our Lord on behalf of Abraham’s heirs.

The assemblies of the “ages”

Now, just as Jesus Christ participated in this present evil age, and this came to its end point in his death on the cross, so the assemblies of God also participate in this age, in the present evil world. These assemblies were from Galatia, not so as to recognize Galatia as some kind of holy place on earth. For this world is evil. The recognition of their human placement in Galatia is in demonstration of the victory of Jesus’ death and resurrection, for they are saved from this world, from all of its evil, from all of its places, from all of its walks of life. From ages unto ages, the vast multitude of saints in the new world will praise God and his Lamb for delivering sinners from everywhere in this present evil age. No place or people was secure in this present evil age, or immune from the assault and power of the risen Son. The glory is that the salvation of the world to come reigns over the present evil age, as demonstrated by the “assemblies of Galatia” (1:2).

Just as the Son came from above and returned there victoriously, so the true heirs of Abraham are absorbed into the heavenly family, and now call God their “Father”, and rest in the Son as “Jesus Christ” the risen One.

It is vital to understand that, although the earthly placement of these assemblies is noted in Galatians 1- they are in Galatia- Paul does not label them as ‘Gentile’. Their earthly placement is important, as said above, but they are saved from this world to become a new type of people. The Galatians were not, properly speaking, ‘converted Gentiles’; for, the true nature of the assemblies of God outstrips that of earthly identification, as the true heirs of Abraham belong to the world to come, one which pays no heed to this world, to Jew or Gentile, nor to circumcision or uncircumcision. To be pointed, the assemblies on earth are the new creation (3:26-28; 6:14-15).

Paul was an heir of Abraham as a new creation. He places himself into the same heavenly family as the assemblies in Galatia, “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” (1:3). That’s why throughout Galatians 1 there is only ever one true Gospel, not many ‘gospels’, for God and his Christ are one with the assemblies in Galatia and with Paul (see 3:20).

The apostle of the “ages”

Unfortunately, Paul had to defend himself as an apostle. Yet, what is very often buried underneath interpretations of Galatians 1 are his ‘other age’ credentials. It is very true that Paul cites himself as an apostle to the Gentiles, and that he adds that Peter was an apostle to the Jews (2:9). Even so, the apostleship itself was derived from heaven, being an expression of the victory of the risen Christ and the world to come, “Paul, an apostle (not sent from men nor through the agency of man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised Him from the dead)” (1:1). Indeed, the risen Son was “revealed in” Paul, so that Paul received his apostleship directly by revelation from the risen Christ himself (1:11-12, 15=16). Also, the apostles in general, but Paul in particular, are following the same path as Jesus. He came from above to below, having been sent by the Father. Paul was saved, then sent by above to all the Gentiles ‘below’, to bring the Gospel to them.

Paul didn’t derive his apostleship from an earthly source. Remember, earth is the present evil age. Salvation and its accouterments are derived from above. It is plain, however, that some had said that Paul’s apostleship was entirely fake. His accusers would have been those who had misled the Galatians into embracing a faux Gospel (see 1:6-10), one from the earth. Paul glories in his ‘above’ apostleship, and implies that any apostleship derived from below is a fraud. So, Paul bends over backwards to say that his relationship with the extant apostles, who were based in earthly Jerusalem, was- excuse the wording- solely ‘professional’ (1:11-24). He was not beholden to them as apostles on this earth, nor did he derive his apostleship from them. His apostolic authority was not derived from their earthly, Jewish, in Jerusalem, imprimatur, but directly from the risen Christ and from God in heaven.

There is much, much more that could have been said about Paul’s hermeneutic as found in Galatians 1, but we’ll limit ourselves to the expanded structure given above that focuses on the two ages.

NCT perspective

One might wonder how it is that the NCT hermeneutic comes into play. What relevance to the above is the belief that the NT has interpretive priority over the Old? My dear brother and sister, the entirety of Galatians, and Galatians 1 in particular, is based on the premise of the victory of the risen Christ, and the ages unto ages of the new creation that he brings in. He brings in nothing from this world, as it is the present evil age. All the OT language and imagery of salvation and redemption, including the titles and terminology given to Israel of the flesh, that are so readily tied to life this world according to the OT Scriptures, are spiritually absorbed into New Covenant. They are not ‘reappropriated’, for reappropriation entails continuity, the taking back of something. Instead, the Old is removed and the new is brought in. All of this terminology and language now reflect a new covenant of the new ages and their new-creation life. To put the focus of salvation on this world in any way, shape, or form- for example, a revived Israel of the flesh, or an earthly Messianic kingdom- is to make exactly the same mistake of the faux Gospel Paul opposes that puts its roots down in the soil of Judaism, Israel of the flesh, and of the Law of Moses.

1 Angus Harley, “Hermeneutics and Galatians: the two gospels’ paradigm”, All Things New Covenant, December 22, 2023, https://allthingsnewcovenant.com/2023/12/22/hermeneutics-and-galatians-the-two-gospels-paradigm/.