Paul's parallel between Redemptive History and Personal History
“Two threads are interwoven through this text. These two threads are easy to observe and difficult to express. These two ideas I am going to represent through this drawing. Hopefully, you will be able to see as well as hear how the apostle connects these two threads.
The Redemptive History Thread
"Woven through this text is redemptive history with Abraham, Moses and Christ coming. The cross is at the center of this line. The old is before the cross and the new is after the cross.
The Personal History Thread
"Also woven through this text is the personal history of each believer. At the center is the coming of faith, or conversion. There is a parallel, or a correspondence with redemptive history. Before conversion, you are in the old under the Law. After conversion, you are in the new under grace.
"Paul moves us into this paragraph (Galatians 3:23-29) with the surprising word, “imprisoned”. He then enlarges on that word as he considers the great change that has taken place. This great change has taken place in both redemptive history and in your personal history.
"Under the old, the status and plight of all in the Old Covenant and all of us before conversion is given. Now remember, our two threads are interwoven here.
"The first analogy is that of being imprisoned (v.23). The Law functioned, both in the Old Covenant and before our conversion, as a jailor. It kept people in custody. The “us” here refers historically to the Jews and personally to Paul. It was our jailor until the faith that was to come was revealed. When faith came and we believed, then we were set loose from our prison and released through our redemption.
"This word 'imprisoned' is helpful for it shows two important functions of the Law before Christ came in history and before faith came to you. It shows that we were guilty as charged. We were sinners. The Law was judge, jury and jailor. It passed a verdict and a sentence which it was unable by design to settle. It is a grace in that it had a restraining affect. The Law was given because of the multiplying of transgression. So it restrained Israel from sinking to horrific depths of the depraved practice of the pagans around them. It generally has the same affect on you personally. Growing up under Law restrains sinners so that society can exist with relative justice and peace. Peter tells us, using this same word, that we are guarded, warded, kept in protective custody by God’s power through faith (1 Peter 1:5) until the day when the new is complete.
"Paul’s second analogy is that of guardians over children (v.24). The Law functioned as our guardian, our schoolmaster, our nanny until Christ came. Here, he is referring primarily to the historical thread. He is tell us a historical fact as well as a theological truth. The Law instructed sinners about sin until the sacrifice for sin came. Further, the Law did this so that, for this purpose, we might be justified by faith. In other words, the Law was limited in what it could do. But that limitation served well because God had designed that we be justified by faith, not by works.
"Ah, but something grand takes place between verse 24 and 25. Faith has come. Now this certainly cannot mean, faith has come in history. He has just argued that Abraham was such a man of faith that we are to emulate him and his faith. No, this faith coming has to do with our personal history. So, until faith came, until it was given as an act of free and sovereign mercy and grace, each one of us was under the Law as our guardian. But when faith comes, when faith is given us8, then we are no longer under the guardian. Why?
"We are no longer under the guardian because we are now in Christ. Just as the old covenant is gone and the new has come and all of us now live in the age of the new covenant, so we are now in Christ. We are now no longer in the realm where the Law rules; we are in Christ. And since we are in Christ Jesus, we are now fully acknowledged sons and heirs. Being united to and thus being placed into Christ moves us from the old into the new.
"How does this take place? It takes place by the Spirit’s act of immersing us in Christ at our conversion (v.27). For me, here is the one verse that is the strongest argument not to transliterate batpizo but to translate it. Our translations ought to convey the original meaning, not the current theological coin. So, verse 27 is saying that everyone who has been placed into, immersed into Christ has put on or has been totaled submerged in Christ. The Biblical rite of water baptism is NOT in view here. Water baptism is the public, physical type of this inward, spiritual reality. But Paul is simply saying that if you have been placed into Christ, you are now immersed in a new realm. When you were saved, one of the things that happened is that a great spiritual cutting away from and a grand spiritual union into took place. You were “circumcised” from the realm of the old and your were “immersed” into the realm of the new, into Christ.
"Not only are we no longer under the old teacher, we are no longer spiritually identified in the creation order. In Christ, there is none of the creation, old order distinctions. We are simply in union with Christ and with one anther. This is important for something Paul will argue later. But it does raise a question? Should we continue to recognize these distinctions? Yes; while we are spiritually in Christ (and according to Ephesians, spiritually in the heavenlies) we are still physically here in the first creation. So we live in the already and not yet. We live in this world while not being of it. While we live in this world in these physical bodies, these distinctions still hold true, just not ultimately. So, Paul will speak to men and women, to Jews and Gentiles, to slave and free. Until all things are made new, we are living spiritually in the new and physically in the old.
"But here is the second great conclusion. If we are Christ’s, then you are really Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise. Here is the bookend to his argument. Christ is the offspring, the heir according to promise (v.1-14). You are in Christ by the act of God’s Spirit. Therefore, by faith, you are the offspring, the heirs according to promise." -- Russ Kennedy, "Freedom By the Gospel", mp3
"Woven through this text is redemptive history with Abraham, Moses and Christ coming. The cross is at the center of this line. The old is before the cross and the new is after the cross.
The Personal History Thread
"Also woven through this text is the personal history of each believer. At the center is the coming of faith, or conversion. There is a parallel, or a correspondence with redemptive history. Before conversion, you are in the old under the Law. After conversion, you are in the new under grace.
"Paul moves us into this paragraph (Galatians 3:23-29) with the surprising word, “imprisoned”. He then enlarges on that word as he considers the great change that has taken place. This great change has taken place in both redemptive history and in your personal history.
"Under the old, the status and plight of all in the Old Covenant and all of us before conversion is given. Now remember, our two threads are interwoven here.
"The first analogy is that of being imprisoned (v.23). The Law functioned, both in the Old Covenant and before our conversion, as a jailor. It kept people in custody. The “us” here refers historically to the Jews and personally to Paul. It was our jailor until the faith that was to come was revealed. When faith came and we believed, then we were set loose from our prison and released through our redemption.
"This word 'imprisoned' is helpful for it shows two important functions of the Law before Christ came in history and before faith came to you. It shows that we were guilty as charged. We were sinners. The Law was judge, jury and jailor. It passed a verdict and a sentence which it was unable by design to settle. It is a grace in that it had a restraining affect. The Law was given because of the multiplying of transgression. So it restrained Israel from sinking to horrific depths of the depraved practice of the pagans around them. It generally has the same affect on you personally. Growing up under Law restrains sinners so that society can exist with relative justice and peace. Peter tells us, using this same word, that we are guarded, warded, kept in protective custody by God’s power through faith (1 Peter 1:5) until the day when the new is complete.
"Paul’s second analogy is that of guardians over children (v.24). The Law functioned as our guardian, our schoolmaster, our nanny until Christ came. Here, he is referring primarily to the historical thread. He is tell us a historical fact as well as a theological truth. The Law instructed sinners about sin until the sacrifice for sin came. Further, the Law did this so that, for this purpose, we might be justified by faith. In other words, the Law was limited in what it could do. But that limitation served well because God had designed that we be justified by faith, not by works.
"Ah, but something grand takes place between verse 24 and 25. Faith has come. Now this certainly cannot mean, faith has come in history. He has just argued that Abraham was such a man of faith that we are to emulate him and his faith. No, this faith coming has to do with our personal history. So, until faith came, until it was given as an act of free and sovereign mercy and grace, each one of us was under the Law as our guardian. But when faith comes, when faith is given us8, then we are no longer under the guardian. Why?
"We are no longer under the guardian because we are now in Christ. Just as the old covenant is gone and the new has come and all of us now live in the age of the new covenant, so we are now in Christ. We are now no longer in the realm where the Law rules; we are in Christ. And since we are in Christ Jesus, we are now fully acknowledged sons and heirs. Being united to and thus being placed into Christ moves us from the old into the new.
"How does this take place? It takes place by the Spirit’s act of immersing us in Christ at our conversion (v.27). For me, here is the one verse that is the strongest argument not to transliterate batpizo but to translate it. Our translations ought to convey the original meaning, not the current theological coin. So, verse 27 is saying that everyone who has been placed into, immersed into Christ has put on or has been totaled submerged in Christ. The Biblical rite of water baptism is NOT in view here. Water baptism is the public, physical type of this inward, spiritual reality. But Paul is simply saying that if you have been placed into Christ, you are now immersed in a new realm. When you were saved, one of the things that happened is that a great spiritual cutting away from and a grand spiritual union into took place. You were “circumcised” from the realm of the old and your were “immersed” into the realm of the new, into Christ.
"Not only are we no longer under the old teacher, we are no longer spiritually identified in the creation order. In Christ, there is none of the creation, old order distinctions. We are simply in union with Christ and with one anther. This is important for something Paul will argue later. But it does raise a question? Should we continue to recognize these distinctions? Yes; while we are spiritually in Christ (and according to Ephesians, spiritually in the heavenlies) we are still physically here in the first creation. So we live in the already and not yet. We live in this world while not being of it. While we live in this world in these physical bodies, these distinctions still hold true, just not ultimately. So, Paul will speak to men and women, to Jews and Gentiles, to slave and free. Until all things are made new, we are living spiritually in the new and physically in the old.
"But here is the second great conclusion. If we are Christ’s, then you are really Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise. Here is the bookend to his argument. Christ is the offspring, the heir according to promise (v.1-14). You are in Christ by the act of God’s Spirit. Therefore, by faith, you are the offspring, the heirs according to promise." -- Russ Kennedy, "Freedom By the Gospel", mp3
posted by Chad Richard Bresson at 5/04/2007 05:15:00 PM
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