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corpus-paul - Re: [Corpus-Paul] Galatians 2:16: Exploring the Relationshipbetween Faith and Works

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  • From: "John Brand" <jbrand AT gvsd.mb.ca>
  • To: Corpus-Paul <corpus-paul AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Corpus-Paul] Galatians 2:16: Exploring the Relationshipbetween Faith and Works
  • Date: Thu, 12 Aug 2004 12:53:36 -0500

> John Brand wrote:
>
> >
> > It is not that we are forgiven or made worthy of this kind of
> > process by our own merit. It is that we are forgiven freely on the
> > basis of Christ's sacrifice which frees God up to begin the inner
> > the work that is necessary to have us doing what he requires.
>
Jeffrey Gibson wrote:
> Is forgiveness really a central concern of Paul?

John:
No, is central concern is their walking in step with the Spirit or as a result of the inner work of the Spirit rather than by the outer code of the Judaizers.

Your question is thought provoking. My statement above obviously anticipates how Paul is interpretted after the reformation and offers an explanation of the relationship between justification as a process that includes sanctification (pre-Reformation) in view of the notional distinction between justification and sanctification that becomes prominent after the reformation.

Paul would be following in the line of the revelation of the prophets. Forgiveness is presupposed in the prophets since it is only as a result of His forgiveness that God moves toward the nation that has broken his covenant. For example, Jeremiah 31:34: 'for I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more' is provided as an explanation of why God makes a new covenant with Israel. Paul appears to be applying this idea to the Gentiles in Romans 2:15 'they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts.' The 'their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them' (v15) is well attested in Greco-Roman philosophical discourse (i.e. Apology of Socrates, Cicero's 'Laws'). Paul appears to be saying that this is an evidence of God's already beginning a work in the Gentile prior to the preaching of the Gospel just as he renews it in the Jew.

As far as Galatians is concerned, Paul's central concern is that they be walking by means of or as the result of the work of the spirit within them ('walk by the spirit' 5:16) rather than as a result of their conforming to the normative system imposed upon them from without by the Judaizers.. I would take chapter 3:2 as indicative of Paul's central concern: 'did you receive the Spirit by observing the law or by believing what you heard?' I would also think it appropriate to recall that for Isaiah, the Spirit is the key to the fulfilling of the justice that he sees as bringing the nation to ruin. For example, in chapter 11:2 the 'Spirit of YHWH' will rest upon the 'root of Jesse.' And, after a series of oracles against the nations, he envisions the Spirit being poured out on the remnant (32:15) and the result: 'justice will dwell in the desert' (v16) so that 'the fruit of justice will be peace' (v17).

Often the Spirit is thought of as a guarantee or seal (Ephesians 1:13-14) of a future inheritance which seems to be a logical corollary of the doctrine of justification as a change in status rather than a change in one's nature. I don't think that this is Paul's intention in Ephesians since in Galatians, he uses the reception of the Holy Spirit as a sign of the importance of hearing and believing rather than obeying an outward code of law. And in Colossians he points to the beginning of their experience with Christ (1:4) which was characterized by faith and love upon hearing of the hope laid up for them in heaven as the pattern they were to follow in their continuing their christian experience: 'as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord so walk in him' (2:6).



John Brand
B.A. Bib Stu (Providence College, Otterburne, MB, Canada, 1980)
M.Min. (Providence Seminary, 1991)
jbrand AT gvsd.mb.ca



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