Bible Studies

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Our Fathers Have Inherited Lies 4
The Galatians Discussion
By David Wiseman
“Then Jesus said to the Jews who believed in him, ‘If you abide by my word, you are truly my disciples. And you will know the truth, and that very truth will make you free.” Yukhanan (John) 8:31-32 (Lamsa)
He sat in his usual place, surrounded by musty books and layers of dust decades old. To get there he had come in the front door of the imposing edifice of the library and gone all the way past the new releases, the adult fiction and the large print. Then he had turned right and threaded his way through the tables and shelves and random books lying out in the reference section. Turning left, he went into a side-room that housed the microfiche. There was a little circular stairway at the back of the room, and he went up that. At the top of the stairs he turned right and picked his way through the maps and huge, dull volumes of the geology department. At the very far side of the room, nearly hidden by a tall bookshelf, was a door. On the other side of this door was a room with a very low ceiling, very private.
The room all around David was long and narrow, and piled high with books. One wall was dedicated to Talmud and various Jewish commentaries by such renowned scholars as Rav Yehuda, Ramban, and Akiva. Another wall was dedicated to such commentaries as Matthew Henry, John Calvin, and Martin Luther. The other two walls were filled with books with archaic binding that looked as though it had lasted several generations. They had things like “The NESLE Text” and “The Interlinear Peshitta” and “The Fifth Edition of the Biblia Hebraica In Hebrew and English” and “The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls” printed on their binding.
David sat in an antiquated library chair with his great interlinear Bible in front of him, and beside that a musty lexicon and an ancient codex. Through the single door at the far end of the room burst a tall, slender man in a dark blue, glossy suit and tie. While David, short and in a pair of kakis and a brown, short-sleeve, button-up shirt, and with his thick, brown beard, seemed to blend into the ancient books, this man stood out in stark contrast to them.
Rapidly eating up the distance between the two of them, the tall man waved a slender Bible around in the air and spoke rapidly. Unable to understand a word the tall man, John, was saying, David motioned for him to stop, and have a seat. John set a massive pile of books on the ground and started to talk again, slower this time.
“Look at Galatians 3. There are several verses I want you to look at. Start with verse 2. ‘This only would I learn of you, received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?’” He finished with a triumphant air and leaned back in his seat.
David nodded slowly. “It’s a very nice verse.”
There was an awkward silence. Then John burst out, “This shows that we don’t have to keep the Law anymore.”
Wrinkling his brow David asked, “It does? Doesn’t it just say that the Spirit comes by faith, not by works? That doesn’t mean we don’t need to keep the Law.”
“But” John countered, “If you read on, it says, ‘Are ye so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit are ye now made perfect in the flesh? Have ye suffered so many things in vain? If it be yet in vain. He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?’ And then in verses 6 and 9 it talks about how faith makes us children of Abraham.”
“Yes. And In verse 11 he says, ‘But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith.’ Quoting Habakkuk 2:4.” Answered David.
“Doesn’t that contradict your idea that we need to keep the Law?” John asked.
“No. Because the Torah never was for salvation, or for bringing the Holy Spirit, which is what this is talking about. In fact, this teaches that we’re under the same Law that Abraham was.”
John smiled. “But the Torah didn’t exist before Mount Sinai. Like it says right there in Galatians 3:17, ‘And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect.’”
“That is speaking of the written Torah. The Torah existed long before Abraham. In Genesis 4:5 it says, ‘And He did not look to Cain and his offering. And Cain glowed greatly with anger, and his face fell.’ (LITV) Then down in verse 7, ‘If you do well, is there not exaltation? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is toward you; but you should rule over it.’ (LITV) How was Cain supposed to know how to sacrifice if there was no Torah to tell him? Then in Genesis 38:26, ‘And Judah looked intently, and said, “She is more righteous than I, because I did not give her to my son Shelah.” (LITV) And he never knew her again.’ The law commanding passing a daughter down to other sons if her first husband dies is an intricate part of the ‘ceremonial law.’ How could Judah have known about it if there was no Torah? The list goes on. How was Cain supposed to know that murder was wrong? How was Judah supposed to know that his daughter-in-law committing adultery was wrong? How was Simeon supposed to know that sleeping with his father’s concubine was wrong? But Genesis tells us that they knew all of these things. And the sacrifice and the passing his daughter-in-law on you can’t say was a moral instinct, because these are not common mores, but specific to Torah. The Torah was only a specific application of this Torah.”
John groaned, sighed, and then came back. “But we are not justified by the Law.”
David nodded in agreement. “And we never were. ‘And Abraham had faith and it was accounted to him for righteousness.’ ‘Behold the proud, his soul is not upright in him, but the just shall live by his faith.’ These are in the pre-Messiah Scriptures.”
“But Galatians 3:10 says, ‘For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.’ Then in verse 13, ‘Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:’”
“It says He redeemed us from the curse of the Law, not from the Law itself. Remember what Paul himself said in Romans 7:13, ‘Then that which is good, has it become death to me? Let it not be! But sin, that it might appear to be sin, having worked out death to me through the good, in order that sin might become excessively sinful through the commandment.’ (LITV) The Law itself is not a curse.
“In verse 19 it says, ‘Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator.’ So when Jesus came we stopped needing the Law.”
“Oh, absolutely. But what Law is this talking about? The legalistic observance of the Law. Remember what it says in Jeremiah 31:31-33, ‘Behold, the days come, says Jehovah, that I will cut a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant I cut with them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—which covenant of Mine they broke, although I was a husband to them, says Jehovah—but this shall be the covenant that I will cut with the house of Israel: After those days, declares Jehovah, I will put My Law in their inward parts, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.’ (LITV) This is the Torah written on our hearts that will last forever like it says in Numbers 15:15.”
“Well…” John continued, “I guess we already went over verses 24 and 25 when we talked before.” He was silent for a little. “Let’s go on to chapter 4. Verse 5 says, ‘To redeem them that were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.’ He redeemed us from the Law.”
“Did He? Verse 3 says, ‘Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world.’ It doesn’t say that we were in bondage to the Torah, but to the elements of this world. The ‘law’ in this case is not the Torah, but the law of this world.”
“But in verse 10 it talks about what they’re in bondage to by saying, ‘Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years.’”
“Yes. But these days and months, etc. are not the set times of the Father. That is made clear if you look back at verses 8 and 9. ‘Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods. But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?’ These days, months, times, and years were pagan festivals that they were in bondage to.” David answered.
“What about verses 21 and 25, ‘Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law?’ then, ‘For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.’”
“Look at verse 23, ‘But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise.’ The one that represents Sinai is the one born according to the flesh, and the other according to the promise, or the covenant. That covenant or promise is Torah. The law of the flesh is not the Torah. Remember what Paul says in Romans 7:23, ‘But I see another law in my members warring against the Law of my mind, and taking me captive by the law of sin being in my members.’ This is the flesh, the law of sin and death. But remember, Paul says clearly in Romans 7:13 that the Torah is not death.”
“What about in chapter 5 verse 2 where it says, ‘Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing.’”
“In verse 4,” replied David, “he states what he is talking about in no uncertain terms. ‘Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.’ He is talking about those that are trying to be justified by Torah. He has said repeatedly that salvation is and never was by works, but by faith.”
John came back, “But in verse 14 it says, ‘For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.’”
“Here Paul is echoing Y’shua. Matthew 22:37-40, ‘Jesus said unto him, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”’ It comes down to what ‘fulfilled’ means? It means that it is given a greater meaning, or that it is truly done. The Torah is given a greater meaning by love, and it is really done by love. Not that it is ended.”
“What about in verse 18, where Paul says, ‘But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.’” John countered.
“All of these quotes are taken out of context, and really ought to be compared to Romans. Look back at verses 16 and 17, ‘This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.’ This law is clearly defined as the lusts of the flesh, which is completely contrary to the Torah. And he talks more about them in verses 19-21, ‘Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.’ Only by taking verse 18 completely out of context can it possibly say that we are not under the Torah. It is surrounded by verses talking about the lusts of the flesh as being the law of the flesh. Remember Romans 7:23, ‘But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and taking me captive by the law of sin being in my members.’(LITV)”
John rejoined, “In chapter 6, verse 15 Paul states, ‘For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.’”
“Yes.” David answered, “He is making a statement about covenant, especially about race. Remember what he said just a little while before in Galatians 3:28, ‘There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.’”
“But all through the first part of chapter 1 Paul talks down the Torah.” John protested.
“No,” replied David, “he is teaching against Judaism, against the religion of Judaism and against ‘the traditions of my fathers’ as he says in verse 14. He’s talking about the Rabbinic Law, which is different from the Torah. The Rabbinic Law is what was added onto the Torah by the ‘rabbis.’”
There was a long silence while John pondered, then David spoke again, “ Look back at Galatians 2, starting in verse 14. ‘But when I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, I said unto Peter before them all, If thou, being a Jew, livest after the manner of Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews? We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles, Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid. For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.’ Paul is telling Peter that, while they are justified by faith, that doesn’t mean they should go out and break the Torah, because they would be making liars of themselves. Then in verse 19, Paul makes an amazing statement. ‘For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God.’ This is a confusing statement if we don’t keep Torah. But it makes sense when rephrased, ‘For I through the Torah am dead to the law of the flesh, that I might live unto God.’”
“Hmm…” Pondered John. “So what are you studying?”
I call Heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Therefore, choose life, that you may live, you and your seed.
Deuteronomy 30:19, LITV.

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