by Angus Harley
Recently, we took a look at Galatians 3, concentrating on the theme of Abraham and his relevance as the father of the promise. Instead of seeing an OT picture of Abraham as the father of fleshly Israel, he was described as the spiritual father of all Gentiles and Jews of faith in the true and proper heir of the Abrahamic promise, Jesus Christ. In that setting, the Law of Moses and its covenant were contrasted in absolute terms to the Abrahamic Covenant and to faith, and also to the reception of the inheritance spoken about in that Covenant’s promise. Thus, to distinguish between the Mosaic Covenant and the Abrahamic, I referred to the Abrahamic Covenant-promise.1 I will continue this theology of Paul’s redemptive-historical storyline in Galatians 3 now, this time with special focus upon Christ Jesus himself and the role of faith in him.
Christ-centric
Standard storyline. Let us remind ourselves of the standard storyline of redemptive history given in Biblical Theology. It says that covenant, grace, and Jesus are in a straight-line of positive continuity drawn from Adam unto Abraham, then going on to Moses, and arriving at Jesus. Paul does not touch on the pre-Fall setting (prelapsarian) in Galatians, so we can put that era to the side. Which, according to prevailing BT wisdom, leaves us with the line of positive continuity of Abraham-the Law-Christ, all linked together in terms of grace and covenant.
Christological touchstone. The key to reading redemptive history here in Galatians 3 is that Paul compares and contrasts the relationship of the Abrahamic Covenant-promise and the era of the Mosaic Law to the Son of God.
Take Abraham, for example. He, as we saw yesterday, is not set apart as a historical figure in and of himself, as if he were the great father according to the flesh who gave rise to Ishmael, and then, far more importantly, to Isaac, Jacob, and Israel of the flesh; and, then again, of even higher value, the fleshly Abrahamic lineage is consummated in the coming of Jesus the Jew.
His value in Galatians 3 is completely bound up with the promise given to him concerning the Seed. Abraham’s worth, in this setting, is as the one to whom the Covenant-promise was given concerning the Seed. And, by extension, his fatherly role to those of faith is solely due to his own relationship by faith to the Christ. That is why we read that the promise was “spoken to Abraham and to his Seed“.
Now, look at the Mosaic Law. It is not measured in and of itself. Its value- or lack of- is set according to how Jesus Christ relates to it. This is a completely negative relationship, in Galatians 3, and the evidence is so overwhelming it is best to allow most of the chapter to speak for itself:
1 You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified?….10 For as many as are of the works of the Law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law, to perform them.”….12 However, the Law is not of faith; on the contrary, “He who practices them shall live by them.” 13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”— 14 in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we would receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.16 Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as referring to many, but rather to one, “And to your seed,” that is, Christ. 17 What I am saying is this: the Law, which came four hundred and thirty years later, does not invalidate a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to nullify the promise. 18 For if the inheritance is based on law, it is no longer based on a promise; but God has granted it to Abraham by means of a promise. 19 Why the Law then? It was added because of transgressions, having been ordained through angels by the agency of a mediator, until the seed would come to whom the promise had been made. 20 Now a mediator is not for one party only; whereas God is only one. 21 Is the Law then contrary to the promises of God? May it never be! For if a law had been given which was able to impart life, then righteousness would indeed have been based on law. 22 But the Scripture has shut up everyone under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. 23 But before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law, being shut up to the faith which was later to be revealed. 24 Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith. 25 But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. 26 For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. 27 For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to promise.
The only relationship, here, that Jesus has to the Law, according to Galatians 3, is that he bears its curse in order to redeem the heirs of Abraham from their sin. Not a scintilla is stated concerning some kind of obedience to the Mosaic Law by Christ Jesus.
It is then that Paul comes to the final stage, that of faith in Christ Jesus (3:22-23). Faith is positively united to Christ Jesus because it is the same link or union that Abraham was tied to Jesus Christ with (3:9).
So, the image drawn by Paul is as follows:
Abraham: the man of faith in Christ; the promise; father of heirs who believe in the promise of the Gospel of the Christ.
The Law: the absence of faith in Christ; the absence of Gospel; the absence of redemption; the absence of the Holy Spirit, justification by faith, and miracles; the heirs of Abraham in bondage; the overbearing, imprisoning, and punishing Law; Christ bears the curse of the Law’s bondage for them.
Faith: in the Christ who died on the cross to deal with the curse of the Law for Abraham’s heirs; faith that results in the promise of the Holy Spirit and his power; faith in Christ Jesus that does not rely on a works-righteousness model of salvation based on the Law of Moses.
The control, or touchstone, of this version of redemptive history is not faith per se, or covenant, or even promise, or Abraham, or Israel, or Gentiles, or any other concept. The sole touchstone is Christ himself. ‘Everything’ and ‘everyone’ is interpreted via him and his cross-righteousness. Even so, we have to further refine and define the Christ-centric perspective.
The ascended-Christ vantage-point. If anyone is familiar with the writings of Herman Ridderbos, he will immediately get a feel for Paul’s logic here in Galatians 3. Ridderbos strongly pushed the position that Paul described salvation in Jesus from the vantage point of the resurrected and ascended Christ. It is from that position that Paul wants the reader to then look back on redemptive history, even upon the death of Jesus himself.2
“Christ Jesus” is not just another name for Jesus, in other words, as it denotes his royal and ascended status as the Son of God who overcame the Law and its bondage to bring redemption and the Spirit to the heirs of Abraham. Jesus is the Christ of “the ages unto ages” (“forever”).3 He came from that world, into ours, to return to it with Abraham’s heirs. He comes into his own as the ‘Christ’ (the Anointed One) and ‘Jesus’ (Savior) as the ascended One at the right hand of the Father, in whom, through faith, the heirs of Abraham from the nations receive the promised Spirit.
Put another way, Paul looks back upon the history of God’s plan- starting from Abraham- as not only leading to (linear history) Jesus’ ascension, but as interpretively controlled by the victory and reign of the ascended Christ who was crucified for us (the other world’s/ages’ vantage point). Even before his incarnation, before the the Law, and also before the giving of the promise in the Abrahamic Covenant, there was the Son who was above and reigning, and the promise was given to him in anticipation of his role as the Christ who, by his death and then his ascension, brings Abraham’s heirs into the heavenly city of God.
Solving a Christological riddle. You might have noticed how Paul describes Jesus as having borne the curse of the Law, implying Jesus’ insertion into that era of bondage; yet, in contradiction, it would seem, Jesus comes after the Law, along with faith. Somewhat of a riddle. Did he come into the era of the Law, or after it? Or was it both? How should we view this?
In a closer reading of Galatians 3, we see that Jesus did not come into the era of the Law itself to advance it in some form. In Galatians 3, he is not weighed up as Jew or an Israelite, as if performing obedience as a Jew, albeit the ultimate Israelite. To understand this ‘mystery’, we must go back to the interpretive control of Christ as the One from heaven, even as the ascended One. In that regard, please bear in mind that the Seed existed before the Law: the promise was given to Abraham and to the Christ, and this promise was given 430 years before the Law. Jesus was not, therefore, ‘locked into’ the Law era, as if beholden to it and its ways. His true ‘identity’ outranks and outstrips anything or anyone in this world. He belongs to the “ages of ages” as the Son. That is his ‘citizenship’, his origin, to speak loosely, and his abode as the Christ. This is a similar argument to Jesus saying, “Before Abraham was, I am”. Jesus was not, therefore, attempting to fix the problem of a broken Law and its curse by being a successful Jew of the flesh who kept the Mosaic Law perfectly. Instead, as the One from above, from the other world, and for the sake of Abraham’s true heirs, he absorbs the Mosaic Law and its curse to bring that oppressive regime and era to an end, so that he might bring the true heirs of Abraham with him into the ages of ages. He can only do this if he is, truly speaking, by nature aloof and outside of all that is in this world. So, Paul rejoices in the Son who has returned to his natural home and the place of his regality as the ascended Christ.
Cross-righteousness, not Law-righteousness. It is therefore misplaced to say Jesus came to keep the Law of Moses perfectly. And it is, to be frank, rather bewildering that the majority of theologians then ‘complement’ this inaccurate position with the contradictory idea of Jesus dying on the cross to bear the curse of the Law. For both these forms are antithetical to one another and are illogical, nay, totally self-contradictory, as the contrast between the Deuteronomic curses and blessings evinces. For in the modern ‘system’ Jesus is wrongly upheld as both perfectly obedient to the Mosaic Law (active obedience) and yet ‘counted’ as the ultimate Mosaic ‘villain’ (passive obedience)!4 He simply cannot be, or do, both at the same time. Not only so, even a superficial look at the Mosaic Law and its Covenant reveals that the reward of the Mosaic Law was solely material, this-world blessings (Deut.27-31). Not a word about justification by faith and the Spirit of God. And what does the same Covenant-Law language tell us about curses? The curse of the Mosaic Law indicates its severe violation, implying the complete absence of obedience to the Law. Jesus’ relationship to the Law is simply that he came to end it and to remove its curse. He did this not by observing the Law, but by bearing its curse for Abraham’s heirs. Why would Paul imply (for he never says) Jesus upheld the Law, when Paul refers to how faith in Christ entails the tearing down of the past and reliance on the Law as a Jew (2:18)? And why would Paul directly tie Christ Jesus to a ‘system’ of promise and faith completely outside of, and in contrast, to the Law, if Law-obedience/righteousness was at the heart of the Gospel? Does Paul ever say, in effect, ‘believe in Jesus the keeper of the Law of Moses’? Why Evangelicals wish to place their faith in a Christ whose righteousness was, in great measure, legalistic, for it was perfect obedience to the Law of Moses, supposedly, is beyond me! If what the majority say is correct, shouldn’t we be singing songs that praise the Lord for Jesus the legalist? And isn’t our ‘foundation’ Christ and his legal righteousness (plus the cross)?
Concluding words. We are free as NCTers to read Paul in this way because we are not bound to the wooden-linear model that is generally upheld that ‘locks’ Jesus into the dispensation of the Law itself as a Jew. For we, of first importance, consider Jesus as the Christ of the “ages unto ages”, who was and is from above, and was promised to Abraham’s heirs as their Christ and Savior, so that through his death and ascension, they might be redeemed from the Law, in order to receive the promised gift of the Spirit.
The reader will perhaps be itching, for there are a number of ‘Law’ issues in Galatians 3 that I did not get into. My next article will try to scratch that itch by going further into Paul’s theology of the Law in Galatians 3.
1Angus Harley, “Hermeneutics and Galatians 3, Part 1”, All Things New Covenant, December 31, 2023, https://allthingsnewcovenant.com/2023/12/31/hermeneutics-and-galatians-3-part-1/.
2It is for this reason that Ridderbos favors Paul’s writings and the Gospel of John. For this Gospel records an almost identical theology to Paul, in which the Word from above comes to earth, redeems his people, and returns to his Father with whom he was with from eternity. The risen Son (‘the Christ’) is said, by John, to take his own to be with him and the Father in heaven.
3Angus Harley, “Hermeneutics and Galatians 2”, All Things New Covenant, December 29, 2023, https://allthingsnewcovenant.com/2023/12/29/hermeneutics-and-galatians-2/.
4J. Angus Harley, Jesus, Son of Liberty: A New Covenant Theology Reply to the Doctrine of the Active Obedience of Christ (Self-published, 2020).