Justification

For centuries there has been much debate over the subject of justification, and no doubt any discussion here will do very little to settle the debate once and for all. This being said, I'd love to read your views on the subject.


Here's the launching point for this discussion: Romans 3 & 4. For the sake of legitimacy, please stay true to the Text.


Justified — δικαιόω [dikaioō - dik-ah-yo'-o]

1. to render righteous or such he ought to be
2. to show, exhibit, evince, one to be righteous, such as he is and wishes himself to be considered
3. to declare, pronounce, one to be just, righteous, or such as he ought to be

Justification — δικαίωσις [dikaiōsis - dik-ah'-yo-sis]

1. the act of God declaring men free from guilt and acceptable to him
2. abjuring to be righteous, justification

I look forward to reading your responses.

Galatians 3

Have you ever noticed how people completely ignore biblical Truth and principle so that they don't have to face the fact of their personal misunderstanding of the Text? Textual awareness and understanding vs religious and denominational ignorance; this ought to make for a good discussion.


One of—in my opinion—the greatest lies ever perpetuated by our enemy is religion. You see, religion lies to her followers, fooling them into believing that they are following GOD, when in truth they are sold out to a lie. The deeper sadness here is the fact that GOD gave humanity His Truth and far too many don't even recognize Him.


Someone once said that the Text is the story of GOD wanting to reconnect with humanity, personally (the "personally" applied to both GOD and each individual). GOD personally became flesh so that He could personally become sin so that He could personally redeem each and every person, personally. When we deny the humanity of Jesus we deny the true power of salvation. Without the shedding of Jesus' blood there could be no redemption for sin. GOD's flesh had to bleed. Spirit can't bleed. The Spirit had to become flesh; thus the intensifying power of Jesus' human-ness. To all my fellow monotheists, don't be afraid of Sonship. The role of the Son proves beyond all measure the Unity and One-ness of our GOD. However, to truly understand Sonship you have to be willing to truly study the Text and history to discover why the phraseology of referring to Jesus as the Son of GOD was used in the New Testament.


So, if the Text is GOD's story of reconnection, then He must have included His Purpose within the various letters. I believe that He did. While there are many examples of GOD's Purpose throughout both the Old and New Testaments, one of the most powerful examples of GOD's thought-process is found in Paul's letter to the Galatian Community. The study of the Galatian Letter is of critical importance to Christians today. Not only to we learn of a departure from the Gospel in ancient days, we also see that there is a similar error being proclaimed today. Many Christians have accepted this divergence from the Gospel, not knowing the seriousness of their error and misunderstanding. We have to understand the importance of identifying the Galatian Error so that we can recognize similar false teachings that are becoming more and more widely accepted. The time has come to identify false teaching for exactly what it is—a departure from the Gospel, thus a departure from Salvation.


The Community at Galatia was somewhat divided into two regional groups. For this to make sense we have to agree upon the approximate date of Paul's writing the letter. The date of authorship helps to define the region of Galatia. The difficulty in determining what Paul meant by the term Galatia results from the fact that Galatia can be used in two different ways: 1) as a reference to the whole Roman administrative district (especially the southern part of this district); 2) to designate ethnic Galatia (only the northern part of the district). For example, Paul used the Roman provincial names in his letter, while Luke—in his Acts of the Apostles—used the ethnic designations (Acts 14). Because of this we can infer that Paul is speaking of the larger territory which included the southern portion of Galatia. Why is this important? This designation is important because the Jewish population was greater in the south than in the north, thus a problem with Judaizers would be more likely in that region. In his letter, Paul assumes his readers have a fair knowledge of the Torah and Judaism in general, an assumption that would be more likely in the south. Also, because of Luke's reference in Acts 14, we know that there was considerable opposition to Paul's preaching in the cities of South Galatia. This would date this letter slightly before the Jerusalem Council (circa 50 AD). Around this time Paul and Barnabas had embarked on their first missionary journey, traveling to the South Galatian cities of Antioch, Iconium, Lystra and Derbe. The team then returned to Syrian Antioch and spent a considerable amount of time in the locale (Acts 14:28). Peter had come to Antioch to see how this community was doing and fell into hypocrisy when some other Jews arrived from Jerusalem. Paul then rebuked Peter publicly (Galatians 2:11-21). While in Antioch, Paul must have received word that some of the community were falling prey to the teaching of the Judaizers. The arrival of Judaizers in Antioch would have intensified Paul's concerns. Because of this timeline, we can conclude that Paul's letter to the Galatian Community was written some time before the Jerusalem Council. The fact that there is no mention of the Council's decision in His letter to the Galatians also provides strength to this contention.*


So, by now you're wondering what all this has to do with this article. The connector between this brief history lesson and this article are the Judaizers. The Judaizers were a group of Jewish Christians in the 1st Century who preached to the Gentile Diaspora the need to conform to the Torah, even after the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. There's not a lot of specific knowledge about this group, but most scholars agree that the group originated in Jerusalem, and that at least some were Pharisees (Acts 15:5). No one knows how organized they were as a movement or any of the names of the individuals within the movement. The most important thing that we do know about them is the fact that they attempted to make Jews out of Gentile Christians. The importance of this group is not so much what they taught but the reaction to their teachings. Paul attacks their teachings head-on in his letters. He wanted to demonstrate to these diasporic communities that Jesus had instituted a new covenant, thus fulfilling the Torah (Law) and making null and void the activities performed under the Mosaic Covenant. To break this down, the Judaizers taught that because the Jews were GOD's Chosen People, when a non-Jew was Spirit-baptized they must become a ceremonial Jew (via circumcision and tradition) in order to access Salvation. In essence, Salvation is based on works rather than on faith.


We have now come full circle back to the introduction of this article. The Judaizers preached a religion of works-based sanctification: the better you are, the more of GOD you have. Sound familiar? Walking with GOD was saddled with a list of actions that were acceptable and necessary and any variance from these confines constituted rebellion and back-sliding. The Judaizers essentially said, live by our rules because we are GOD's mouthpieces. This didn't sit well with Paul. We see him attacking this religious bigotry in his letters to Galatia, Corinth, Colassae and Rome. When a Judaizer would yell Torah, Paul would declare Grace. The Judaziers denied the fact that Jesus had fulfilled the Torah at Calvary, that His Passion ripped the veil to allow Grace to cleanse humanity. The Judaizers denied the power of faith and preferred works.


If you study Paul's Galatian Letter you'll find him painstakingly demonstrating Jesus' fulfillment of the Torah and the advent of Grace. He points out that anyone who tries to live by his own effort—independant of GOD—is doomed to failure. He then provides Text to prove his contention: Utterly cursed is every person who fails to carry out every detail written in the Book of the Law, [Galations 3:9-10, quoting Deuteronomy 27:26]. Paul then drops the bomb in verses 11-12: The obvious impossibility of carrying out such a moral program should make it plain that no one can sustain a relationship with GOD that way. The person who lives in right relationship with GOD does it by embracing what GOD arranges for him. Doing things for GOD is the opposite of entering into what GOD does for you. Habakkuk had it right: The person who believes GOD, is set right by GOD—and that's the real life. Rule-keeping does not naturally evolve into living by faith, but only perpetuates itself in more and more rule-keeping, a fact observed in Scripture: The one who does these things (rule-keeping) continues to live by them. [Galatians 3:11-12, The Message. Paul first quotes Habbakkuk 2:4, then Leviticus 18:5].


In verses 13-14, Paul shows us that Jesus-Messiah [literally the Salvation of YHWH] redeemed us from the cursed life of rule-keeping by absorbing that life into Himself. Jesus became a curse, and at the same time dissolved the curse of the Law. But, the only way to receive GOD's life (l'chaim: true life over existence) is by believing, by faith.


The purpose of the Law was to keep a sinful people in the way of Salvation until Jesus-Messiah came. The Law was not a first-hand encounter with GOD, but was administered through a middle-man, Moses. But, relating to GOD via an intermediary runs contrary to GOD's promise to Abraham. This original promise is the direct blessing of GOD, and was then, and must now be received by faith. Paul points out that the Law fulfilled the role of a tutor who escorts children to school and protected them from danger or distraction, making sure that the children actually arrive at the place for which they set out [Galatians 3:23-24]. But he doesn't stop there, he continues, But now you have arrived at your destination: by faith in Jesus-Messiah you are in direct relationship with GOD. Your baptism in Jesus-Messiah was not just washing you up for a fresh start. It also involved dressing you in an adult faith wardrobe—Salvation's life, the fulfillment of GOD's original promise, [Galatians 3:25-27, The Message].


There are those who would negate faith and the power of true relationship by saddling every member of the Community with addendums to the New Covenant, but any addition to this Covenant negates it. The New Covenant established by Jesus-Messiah says that He would fill us with His Holy Spirit to keep us and lead us by the hand into all Truth. This Covenant says that there is no way that you or I will ever be able to be good enough, but because of Grace our sins were forgiven once and for all. This New Covenant says that when we sin (and we will because we are flawed flesh and not yet perfected) that all we have to do to return to right relationship with Jesus is repent (confession and turning away from our sin and turning to His Abundant Life); our repentance allows Grace to kiss Mercy, thus enabling our faith to usher us back into GOD's holy Presence.


Stop trying to be good, you'll never make it. Start living life within the confines of Jesus-Messiah's New Covenant; a Covenant of Grace and Mercy through faith in an Eternal GOD. The Law is fulfilled, don't step back under it. If you do you're damning yourself to an eternity of failure, because you'll never be able to make it. Jesus never intended us to die trying to prove ourselves worthy of His Grace and Mercy; He already knew we could never be worthy. But… He is worthy, He is perfect, He is complete, He is pure… 


All we have to do is believe.


* Here are a few authors that you can read to find out more about this subject:
1. Cf. William Barclay, The Letters to the Galatians and Ephesians (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, Rev. Ed., 1976), pp. xi-xiii.
2. F. F. Bruce,Commentary on Galatians (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1982)
3. R. A. Cole, The Epistle of Paul to the Galatians (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1965)
4. Herman N. Ridderbos,The Epistle of Paul to the Churches of Galatia (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1953)