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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadBob Utley You Can Understand the Bible - Galatians 3:23 - 3:29
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Gal_3:23-29
23But before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law, being shut up to the faith which was later to be revealed. 24Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith. 25But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. 26For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. 27For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28There 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. 29And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's descendants, heirs according to promise.
Gal_3:23 "But before this faith came" The definite article used in tandem with "faith" implies the body of Christian truth (i.e., the gospel, cf. Act_6:7; Act_13:8; Act_14:22; Gal_1:23; Gal_6:10; Jud_1:3; Jud_1:20). However, in this context, it is metaphorical for the gospel age.
NASB "we were kept in custody under the law, being shut up to the faith which was later to be revealed"
NKJV "we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed"
NRSV "we were imprisoned and guarded under the law until faith would be revealed"
TEV "the Law kept us all locked up as prisoners, until this coming faith should be revealed"
NJB "we were allowed no freedom by the Law; we were being looked after till faith was revealed"
The law was first depicted as a jailor as in v.22. Humans were put in protective custody until the Messiah came (cf. Php_4:7; 1Pe_1:5). The second metaphor used to describe the law is in Gal_3:24, where it is called our custodian (cf. Gal_4:1-2). In Greek and Roman society, this term referred to caretakers of young Greek or Roman boys. The guardian was in charge of their protection, food, transportation, and tutoring, so "custodian" had a dual connotation: protector and disciplinarian. Paul distinguished the two intentional purposes of the law in the plan of God:
1. to show us our sinfulness
2. to keep us as a guardian until the free offer of grace in Christ came (cf. Joh_1:12; Joh_3:16; Rom_1:16; Rom_10:9-13)
Gal_3:24
NASB "the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ"
NKJV "the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ"
NRSV "the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came"
TEV "So the Law was in charge of us until Christ came"
NJB "The Law was to be our guardian until the Christ came"
Two varying interpretations of the prepositional phrase "to Christ" are possible: (1) to bring us to Christ, as in the NASB, NKJV, and NIV or (2) until Christ came, as in NRSV, TEV, and the JB.
▣ "that we may be justified by faith" "Justified by faith" was Luther's famous slogan of the Reformation. The Law has a part to play in God's free gift in Christ. It provides a necessary pre-condition to the gospel—our need! The saving "faith" always has (1) cognitive, (2) volitional, and (3) relational elements.
Gal_3:25 "But now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor" Believers are no longer underage children, but they have become full sons, full heirs! All of this occurs through God's grace, Christ's finished work, and our repentant faith response.
Gal_3:26 "you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus" The phrase "are all sons of God" refers to those who have received Christ by faith (cf. Joh_1:12; Joh_3:16; Rom_8:14-17). This verse does not advocate universalism; nor does Rom_5:18 or 11:32, but it does speak of the universal offer of salvation. "All" appears first in the Greek sentence for emphasis.
Gal_3:27 "For all of you who were baptized into Christ" This is not an emphasis on baptism as a means to salvation, for that is exactly the argument the Judaizers were using in connection with circumcision. Christian baptism is a sign of the work of the Spirit which is mentioned earlier in verses Gal_3:2-3; Gal_3:5; Gal_3:14 (cf. 1Co_12:13). To be baptized in/by/with the Spirit was a biblical metaphor for becoming a Christian. Baptism was simply the opportunity for a public confession of faith in Christ and an accompanying symbol of an inner change. To make water baptism a precondition for salvation is to become a neo-Judaizer!
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▣ "have clothed yourselves with Christ" This is an aorist middle indicative which emphasizes a purposeful action on our part. This involves the idea of our "putting on" (as a garment) the family characteristics of God. This clothing metaphor was used often by Paul (cf. Rom_13:14; Eph_4:22; Eph_4:24-25; Eph_4:31; Col_3:10; Col_3:12; Col_3:14). It is possible that it refers to the Roman rite of passage when a boy traded his childhood toga for his adult toga, thereby becoming a full citizen (like the Jewish rite, Bar Mitzvah). This then would symbolize our becoming of full age and, thereby, a full heir.
Gal_3:28 The distinctions which the Judaizers emphasized are now totally removed in Christ. There are no barriers for anyone to become a Christian. The Jewish arrogance against Gentiles, slaves, and women has been totally removed. Distinctions are not valid for salvation (cf. Rom_3:22; 1Co_12:13; and Col_3:11), yet this does not mean that we are no longer male or female, slave or free, Jew or Greek. Those distinctions remain and there are passages that speak to these distinctions, but in the area of becoming a Christian there are no barriers. Every barrier raised by self-righteous, legalistic or biased humans, Christ has knocked down once and for all. Hallelujah!
Manfred T. Brauch, Abusing Scripture, p. 68 (also F. F. Bruce, The Epistle to the Galatians, p. 187) asserts that the three contrasting groups reflect an ancient synagogue prayer where Jewish men thank God they were not created as women, slaves, or Gentiles! The new reality in Christ has negated and revealed the bias of first century Judaism. "In Christ" supercedes everything!
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▣ "for you are all one in Christ Jesus" As humans are all one in Adam (Rom_5:12 ff.), they are all potentially one in Christ (cf. Rom_5:18). The only barrier is personal repentance and faith in Christ (Mar_1:15; Act_3:16; Act_3:19; Act_20:21).
This collective emphasis is very similar to the concept of corporate Israel. We are now one new collective unit, the Church (cf. John 17; Rom_12:4-5; 1Co_12:12 ff.).
Gal_3:29 "if" Here, "if" introduces a first class conditional sentence, assumed to be true from the author's perspective or for his literary purposes.
▣ "if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's descendants, heirs according to promise" Not all national or racial Israel is truly spiritual Israel (cf. Gal_6:16; Rom_2:28-29; Rom_9:6), but all who are the true Israel are so by faith. Therefore, no more distinction was made between Jew and Gentile; only between those who have faith in the Messiah and those who do not. There is no favoritism with God. God's one-time, universal gracious plan for the redemption of mankind is repentance and faith in His crucified Son. Those who respond by faith are made sons and heirs of God (cf. Tit_3:7)! There is no longer the OT distinction of Jew vs. Greek.
This new reality also affects the nationalistic and geographical prophecies. The distinction between Jew and Gentile is no longer valid. Now the distinction is unbeliever and believer. No NT author, including Jesus, ever reaffirms the OT nationalistic prophecies to Israel. Palestine and Jerusalem are no longer the focus of God's activity. The whole world is the new holy land. Jerusalem is no longer a special, holy city. It is now "new Jerusalem" (cf. Rev_3:12; Rev_21:2; Rev_21:10), which is a symbol of heaven. Be careful of systematic theologies that focus or magnify OT prophecies as ultimate future realities!
Here is a selected part of the introductory notes to my commentary on Revelation (pp. 1-2).
"FIRST TENSION (OT racial, national, and geographical categories vs. all believers over all the world)
The OT prophets predict a restoration of a Jewish kingdom in Palestine centered in Jerusalem where all the nations of the earth gather to praise and serve a Davidic ruler, but Jesus nor the NT Apostles ever focus on this agenda. Is not the OT inspired (cf. Mat_5:17-19)? Have the NT authors omitted crucial end-time events?
There are several sources of information about the end of the world:
1. OT prophets (Isaiah, Micah, Malachi)
2. OT apocalyptic writers (cf. Ezekiel 37-39; Daniel 7-12; Zech.)
3. intertestamental, non-canonical Jewish apocalyptic writers (like I Enoch, which is alluded to in Jude)
4. Jesus Himself (cf. Matthew 24; Mark 13; Luke 21)
5. the writings of Paul (cf. 1 Corinthians 15; 2 Corinthians 5; 1 Thessalonians 4-5; 2 Thessalonians 2)
6. the writings of John (1 John and Revelation).
Do these all clearly teach an end-time agenda (events, chronology, persons)? If not, why? Are they not all inspired (except the Jewish intertestamental writings)?
The Spirit revealed truths to the OT writers in terms and categories they could understand. However, through progressive revelation the Spirit has expanded these OT eschatological concepts to a universal scope ("the mystery of Christ," cf. Eph_2:11 to Eph_3:13. See Special Topic at Gal. 10:7). Here are some relevant examples:
1. The city of Jerusalem in the OT is used as a metaphor of the people of God (Zion), but is projected into the NT as a term expressing God's acceptance of all repentant, believing humans (the new Jerusalem of Revelation 21-22). The theological expansion of a literal, physical city into the new people of God (believing Jews and Gentiles) is foreshadowed in God's promise to redeem fallen mankind in Gen_3:15, before there even were any Jews or a Jewish capital city. Even Abraham's call (cf. Gen_12:1-3) involved the Gentiles (cf. Gen_12:3; Exo_19:5).
2. In the OT the enemies of God's people are the surrounding nations of the Ancient Near East, but in the NT they have been expanded to all unbelieving, anti-God, Satanically-inspired people. The battle has moved from a geographical, regional conflict to a worldwide, cosmic conflict (cf. Colossians).
3. The promise of a land which is so integral in the OT (the Patriarchal promises of Genesis, cf. Gen_12:7; Gen_13:15; Gen_15:7; Gen_15:15; Gen_17:8) has now become the whole earth. New Jerusalem comes down to a recreated earth, not the Near East only or exclusively (cf. Revelation 21-22).
4. Some other examples of OT prophetic concepts being expanded are:
a. the seed of Abraham is now the spiritually circumcised (cf. Rom_2:28-29)
b. the covenant people now include Gentiles (cf. Hos_1:10; Hos_2:23, quoted in Rom_9:24-26; also Lev_26:12; Exo_29:45, quoted in 2Co_6:16-18 and Exo_19:5; Deu_14:2, quoted in Tit_2:14)
c. the temple is now Jesus (cf. Mat_26:61; Mat_27:40; Joh_2:19-21) and through Him the local church (cf. 1Co_3:16) or the individual believer (cf. 1Co_6:19)
d. even Israel and its characteristic descriptive OT phrases now refer to the whole people of God (i.e.,"Israel," cf. Rom_9:6; Gal_6:16, i.e.,"kingdom of priests," cf. 1Pe_2:5; 1Pe_2:9-10; Rev_1:6)
The prophetic model has been fulfilled, expanded, and is now more inclusive. Jesus and the Apostolic writers do not present the end-time in the same way as the OT prophets (cf. Martin Wyngaarden, The Future of The Kingdom in Prophecy and Fulfillment). Modern interpreters who try to make the OT model literal or normative twist the Revelation into a very Jewish book and force meaning into atomized, ambiguous phrases of Jesus and Paul! The NT writers do not negate the OT prophets, but show their ultimate universal implication. There is no organized, logical system to Jesus' or Paul's eschatology. Their purpose is primarily redemptive or pastoral.
However, even within the NT there is tension. There is no clear systemization of eschatological events. In many ways the Revelation surprisingly uses OT allusions in describing the end instead of the teachings of Jesus (cf. Matthew 24; Mark 13)! It follows the literary genre initiated by Ezekiel, Daniel, and Zechariah, but developed during the intertestamental period (Jewish apocalyptic literature). This may have been John's way of linking the Old and New Covenants. It shows the age-old pattern of human rebellion and God's commitment to redemption! But it must be noted that although Revelation uses OT language, persons, and events, it reinterprets them in light of first century Rome (cf. Rev_1:7)."
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