The Blessed Hope Podcast -- with Dr. Kim Riddlebarger

We’ve completed our fourteen-part series on the Book of Galatians.  But one question remains unanswered.  What happened after Paul sent his letter to the churches in Galatia?  In Acts 15, we get our answer.  The Judaizing heresy became an issue of concern far beyond Galatia.  In response, the Apostles and elders of the Jerusalem church convene a church assembly–known to us as the “Jerusalem Council.”  The assembled churches and their leaders wanted to hear from Paul about the great success of the Gentile mission.  But they must also address the controversy in the churches which arose precisely because so many Gentiles were coming to faith in Jesus Christ.  The question was being asked in many churches where there were also Jewish converts to Christianity present.  Must Gentile converts live as Jews?  How does the law of Moses apply to the people of God in light of the gospel?  Although Paul addressed these matters in his Galatian letter, the issues raised by the Judaizers were being debated throughout Judea and especially in Antioch, where Paul and Barnabas were currently ministering.  It became necessary for the collective churches to meet in Jerusalem and respond to on-going the Judaizing controversy.   In this episode I’ll also answer listener questions and offer a first-take critique of N. T. Wright’s new commentary on Galatians.https://www.kimriddlebarger.com/the-blessed-hope-podcastFor show notes and other recommended materials located at the Riddleblog as mentioned during the Blessed Hope Podcast, click here: https://www.kimriddlebarger.com/

In the first century Greco-Roman world crucifixion was something that polite and well mannered people didn’t talk about.  Considered a cruel instrument of torture and shame, nevertheless, the cross is the one thing about which the apostle Paul chooses to boast–not just any cross, but the cross of Jesus Christ, where the guilt and power of sin which enslaved us are removed and broken.  And yet, because it was an instrument of shame, Paul’s opponents in Galatia (the Judaizers) refuse to preach the cross of Christ.  Instead, they are champions of human merit earned through “works of the law.”  They boast about the number of coverts they have made, yet they neither obey the commandments nor can they see that the crucified and risen Jesus has ushered in the New Creation and established the true Israel of God.  We have indeed come to the end of Paul’s Galatian letter–the Magna Carta of Christian liberty.  Paul will point us to the cross of Christ, a fitting way to conclude our time in this remarkable letter.https://www.kimriddlebarger.com/the-blessed-hope-podcastFor show notes and other recommended materials located at the Riddleblog as mentioned during the Blessed Hope Podcast, click here: https://www.kimriddlebarger.com/

In the sixth and concluding chapter of Galatians, Paul addresses the fallout caused by the Judaizers spying on those throughout the region exercising their liberty in Christ.  It should not come as a surprise that the Judaizers would find people engaging in sinful conduct, shame them, and use them as examples of why Paul’s gospel supposedly leads to license and sinful behavior.  Paul instructs the leaders of the churches of Galatia to bear with those struggling with sin and work to restore them–not shame nor leave them to the Judaizing wolves.  Paul describes the actions of the Judaizers as sowing to the flesh and warms them that if they sow to the flesh, well then, then they will reap from the flesh.  God is not deceived.  Christians are to bear one another’s burdens and do those things which benefit their neighbors, especially those in the household of faith. https://www.kimriddlebarger.com/the-blessed-hope-podcastFor show notes and other recommended materials located at the Riddleblog as mentioned during the Blessed Hope Podcast, click here: https://www.kimriddlebarger.com/

In the last half of Galatians 5, Paul contrasts the works of the flesh with the fruit of the Spirit.  In comparing the two lists, it sounds very much like the Apostle is describing two warring factions–which he is, the flesh against the Spirit.  The works of the flesh are the visible outcome of what it means to have a sinful nature.  Because we are “flesh” apart from God’s grace, this is what our lives will often look like.  They are characterized by all kinds of bad behavior.  Yet when we are delivered from the flesh by the death of Jesus and the indwelling Holy Spirit, the change from “in the flesh” to living “in the Spirit” manifests itself in the presence of the so-called “Fruit of the Spirit.”  If we walk in the Spirit, the Spirit will produce his fruit.  So what are these fruit, and what does it mean to walk in the Spirit?  We’ll tackle these questions and a few more in this episode of the Blessed Hope Podcast.https://www.kimriddlebarger.com/the-blessed-hope-podcastFor show notes and other recommended materials located at the Riddleblog as mentioned during the Blessed Hope Podcast, click here: https://www.kimriddlebarger.com/

In Galatians chapter 5, the apostle Paul is discussing how the Galatian Christians ought understand the implications of their freedom in Christ–especially in the face of pressure to return to works of law as insisted by the Judaizers.  To help ensure that the Galatians stand firm against the legalistic error spreading quickly throughout the churches of the region, Paul makes appeal to the doctrine of justification by grace alone, through faith alone, on account of Christ alone, as the basis for the Christian life, which Paul describes as “walking in the Spirit.”  Here, we see the sharp contrast between the flesh (the impulses and desires of the fallen nature) and the Spirit (who now indwells the people God securing their union w/Christ).  Walking in the Spirit–which is tied to the fruit of the Spirit in the balance of chapter–also entails an intense struggle against the flesh (what we were before coming to faith in Jesus Christ).  Now free from the condemnation of the law, the Spirit gives us both the desire and ability to obey God’s commands (especially the love of neighbor).  But the indwelling Spirit is opposed by the sinful habits of the flesh which is the desire to seek self interest–in Galatia, manifest in the biting and devouring of each other then going on– and this after the flesh no longer dominates and characterizes us.  In Galatians 5:13-18, Paul discusses what it means to walk in the Spirit, even as we struggle against the flesh."The Blessed Hope Podcast with Dr. Kim Riddlebarger"For show notes and other recommended materials located at the Riddleblog as mentioned during the Blessed Hope Podcast, click here: https://www.kimriddlebarger.com/

Paul exhorts the Galatians, “for freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.”  But this is an unlikely assertion for a well-known religious figure like the apostle Paul to make.  Most people would expect Paul to shout something like, “try harder, do better, live a godly and good life.  This is what God wants from you.”  But people who think such things have never read Paul’s letter to the Galatians.  They think the essence of religion in general and Christianity in particular is good behavior, not a gospel.  But apart from our union with Christ through faith and a justifying righteousness imputed to us, works of law only condemn and make us even guiltier.  This is why Paul grounds the Christian life in the freedom won for us by Jesus Christ.https://www.kimriddlebarger.com/the-blessed-hope-podcastFor show notes and other recommended materials located at the Riddleblog as mentioned during the Blessed Hope Podcast, click here: https://www.kimriddlebarger.com/

Paul understood Israel’s history and the biblical accounts of Moses and Abraham one way before his conversion, and in an entirely different way after.  Once Jesus had come, fulfilled his messianic mission, and called Paul to faith, Paul’s understanding of the Old Testament completely changed.  In Ephesians 4:21-31, Paul speaks of two women (Sarah and Hagar), two mountains (Zion and Sinai), two covenants (Abraham and Moses), and two cities (the Jerusalem above and the earthly city of Jerusalem).  Now reading the familiar story of Genesis 16 (among others) through a Christ-centered lens, Paul reinterprets the two women, mountains, covenants, and cities from the vantage point of New Testament fulfillment.  Paul will teach us how we should read and understand the Old Testament.  https://www.kimriddlebarger.com/the-blessed-hope-podcastFor show notes and other recommended materials located at the Riddleblog as mentioned during the Blessed Hope Podcast, click here: https://www.kimriddlebarger.com/

Paul’s question to those listening to the agitators in Galatia is simple but profound.  “What has happened to all of your joy?”  Paul is referring to that joy the Galatians had experienced together with Paul when he first preached the gospel to them.  These people were Paul’s spiritual children.  He loved them, and he thought they loved him.  They took him in when he had been felled by illness.  The Galatians received the gospel with great joy.  There was Christian liberty.  But then the Judaizers came.The spoiled fruit of such legalism is not only a loss of Christian liberty, but also the loss of the assurance of salvation.  The agitators turn the church into a court–a contentious place of charges, complaints and accusations.  How can I eat with so and so?  They still eat pork.  They do this, and they don’t do that.  They don’t care about Moses or his law.  Paul describes the Judaizing legalism as a return to the elementary principles of the world, in effect, a return to the slavery of sin–putting back on the shackles of works of law after they were removed by the cross of Christ.Paul reminds the Galatians that God sent his Son and his Spirit, so that the Galatians can call God their father.  Why would anyone wish to give up such wonderful freedom and liberty?  Why replace freedom with works of law and go back to the basic principles of this world?  This is our subject for this edition of the Blessed Hope podcast.https://www.kimriddlebarger.com/the-blessed-hope-podcastFor show notes and other recommended materials located at the Riddleblog as mentioned during the Blessed Hope Podcast, click here: https://www.kimriddlebarger.com/

Paul has made his case that all believing Jews and Gentiles are children of Abraham through faith in Jesus Christ.  Paul has also made the point that the giving of the law at Mount Sinai does not annual the prior covenant God made with Abraham.  But, at some point in his Galatian letter, Paul must address the question, “why then did God give the law?”  The law, he says, was given for a particular period in redemptive history (from the time of Moses to until the coming of Jesus Christ) and plays a vital role (to expose sin).  The law, Paul says, functions as a guardian until Christ comes.  The law exposes and incites sin.  But once faith has come, God’s people enter into a new era in redemptive history–the new covenant, in which the promises to Abraham have been fulfilled.  It is only after the coming of Jesus Christ that we can understand the law’s true purpose.Since the Judaizers have denied the true meaning of circumcision, Paul must explain how baptism replaces circumcision as sign and seal of God’s gracious covenant.  The Apostle will also point out the consequences of Judaizing divisions in the churches of Galatia along racial and social lines, since baptism is a sign of the unity of Christ’s church (all those who believe).So join us as Paul teaches us how to read and understand the Old Testament.https://www.kimriddlebarger.com/the-blessed-hope-podcastFor show notes and other recommended materials located at the Riddleblog as mentioned during the Blessed Hope Podcast, click here: https://www.kimriddlebarger.com/

To correct the error of the Judaizers–which is to insist that Gentiles undergo circumcision and live like Jews in order to be justified–Paul makes a series of important distinctions in his letter to the Galatians.  He contrasts faith and works, the Spirit and the flesh, the law and the gospel, as well as carefully distinguishing between the covenants God made with Abraham (in which Abraham was reckoned as righteous), and the covenant God made with Israel at Mount Sinai, (in which the law of God was given to his people).  The covenant God made with Abraham is gracious, while the covenant God made with Israel at Sinai is closely tied to the blessing/curse principle.  The Judaizers conflated these two covenants, thereby mistakenly seeing the sign and seal of God’s gracious covenant with Abraham (circumcision), through the lens of the blessing curse principle, thereby turning circumcision into a meritorious work. For Paul, the heart of the matter (and the basis for keeping the two covenants distinct) is the coming of Jesus, who, by becoming a curse for us when crucified upon the cross, takes away the curse we’ve earned and which we deserve.Throughout this section, Paul is teaching us how we ought to read and understand the Old Testament in light of the person and work of Jesus Christ, in whom all of God’s gracious covenant promises are fulfilled.  That, of course, is a vital and important exercise.For show notes and other recommended materials located at the Riddleblog as mentioned during the Blessed Hope Podcast, click here: https://www.kimriddlebarger.com/