Heirs in Jesus
In his Letter to the Galatians, the Apostle Paul portrays the Mosaic Law as the “pedagogue” that supervised Israel “until the seed came,” and that “seed” is Jesus. In Greco-Roman society, the “pedagogue” was the slave with custodial and disciplinary authority over an underage child until he reached maturity, even though the custodian was often himself a slave. The child’s minority status and the custodian’s authority were temporary.
Previously, all things were confined under
sin, just as the Jews were kept under the Law until the faith was revealed in Jesus.
The Law guarded Israel until the “faith came.” Its purpose was to make
them aware of transgressions.
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| [Photo by Benjamin Davies on Unsplash] |
Likewise, the supervisory role of the Law would only last until the “faith was revealed… the promise from the faith of Jesus given to those who believe.” But with the coming of the promised “Seed,” we are no longer under the custodianship of the Law.
- (Galatians 3:23-25) – “Before the coming of the faith, however, we were kept in ward under the law, being shut up until the faith which should afterward be revealed. So that, the law has proved our custodian, training us for Christ, in order that, from faith, we might be declared righteous. But the faith having come, no longer are we under a custodian.”
The analogy of custodianship emphasizes the
temporal aspect of the Law. Since the Torah is compared to a “custodian,”
to say the heir is no longer under the custodian is to say the believer is no
longer under the jurisdiction of the Mosaic legislation. If the Law was unable
to acquit anyone before God, and if it was added after the “promise,”
which it could not modify, what was the purpose of the legislation given at Mount
Sinai?
Paul addresses this very question (“Why,
then, the law?”). It was given to teach Israel that sin constitutes
transgression of the expressed will of God. The Law was the “custodian” assigned
to guard Israel until the promised "Seed" arrived. However, the
custodial function was always temporary and provisional.
In Paul’s larger argument, the temporal
aspect of the Law comes to the fore. It was given as an interim stage in
God’s larger redemptive program. But with the arrival of the “Seed,”
it reached its termination point and no longer had jurisdiction over who was in
the covenant community and who was not. Paul then draws out the social
implications of this change:
- (Galatians 3:26-29): “For you all are sons of God through the faith in Christ Jesus; For you, as many as into Christ have been baptized, have put on Christ. There cannot be Jew or Greek, there cannot be slave or free, there cannot be male and female, for all are one in Christ Jesus: Now, if you are of Christ, by consequence, you are Abraham’s seed, according to promise, heirs.”
To return to the custodianship of the Law is a regression to an earlier stage in the Divine plan of Redemption, one that was characterized
by division between Jews and Gentiles, a barrier now eliminated by the death of
Jesus.
This paragraph is pivotal to the Letter since
it stresses the oneness of God's people. The old social distinctions are
wholly inappropriate now that the “promised seed” has arrived. To pressure
other believers to pursue a Torah-observant lifestyle would rebuild
the old and outdated barriers.
One function of the Law was to keep Israelites distinct from Gentiles, and this was by design. The arrival of Jesus meant there was a new basis for defining and delimiting the people of God.
Previously, uncircumcised Gentiles were
outside the Abrahamic Covenant, and therefore, NOT “sons of God.”
They could only become members of the covenant community by undergoing
circumcision and otherwise adopting a Torah-observant lifestyle.
Effectively, they ceased to be Gentiles and became Jews.
But the Law also distinguished between slaves and freemen, male and female. Women
could not fulfill certain requirements of the Law or participate fully in
corporate worship in the Temple because of periodic uncleanness from
menstruation. Women were restricted to the Court of Women at a further
distance from the presence of Yahweh. Religiously speaking, they were
second-class citizens. To now embrace a Torah-observant lifestyle would
reinstitute this inequity.
The clause, “you are all,” refers to
Gentile and Jewish believers (“That the promise should be given to those who
believe”). Before the coming of the “Seed,” all things were under
confinement, both Jews and Gentiles. Now, both groups are no longer confined
under sin or the Law, and both have become sons of God “through the faith of
Christ Jesus.”
Several times in the Letter Paul emphasizes
the word “all.” Both believing Jews and Gentiles have been made “sons
of God” through their faith in Jesus. It is “in Christ” that
believers become the true “sons of God” and “Abraham's seed, heirs
according to promise.”
This does not mean
that ethnicity and gender no matter in the daily lives of believers, but such
distinctions are irrelevant to anyone’s standing before God or membership in His
covenant community.
