The Blessed Hope Podcast -- with Dr. Kim Riddlebarger

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/

Paul identifies all those who believe his gospel as “sons of Abraham”–which includes both Jews and Gentiles.  But he does not include those who seek to be right before God on the basis of works of the law, which Paul has declared, do not justify.The Judaizers have been spying on the Galatians Christian liberty.  Gentile Christians in these churches do not follow a kosher diet, they do not observe the feasts of Israel, and there is no requirement that Gentiles be circumcised in order to be justified, or declared “right with God.”  Jews and Gentiles worship together, they eat together, and they embrace the same gospel, without, according to the Judaizers, proper observance of the law of Moses; the reason why they were so vocally challenging Paul’s authority and his gospel.In response, Paul turns to the account of Abraham, who, as we read in Genesis 15:6, believed God and was reckoned as “righteous.”  Paul appeals to the story of Abraham to refute the Judaizing idea that those justified before God, are such, because of “works of the law.”  Abraham is the “man of faith” and the spiritual father of all who believe Paul’s gospel, which Paul says, YHWH had preached to Abraham and which was foretold through the Scriptures.How can uncircumcised Gentiles be identified as “children of Abraham,” Paul is about to tell us.To see show notes, 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/

Peter enjoyed table fellowship with Gentiles until men from James pressured him to withdraw from table fellowship with them.  Even Barnabas felt the pressure to distance himself from the unclean–those not circumcised.  He too grew hesitant to eat with Gentiles. Paul knew that if the Judaizers got wind of this, they would claim that Peter’s actions proved that Paul’s gospel was a novelty.  Paul, they could argue, was preaching something new and different from that which the Apostles (and the Jerusalem church) were teaching.Paul addressed the question of the origin of his gospel in 1:11-2:10.  But when Peter came to Antioch–Paul’s current base of operations–Paul knew he needed to confront the chief apostle in front of all the church.  In this episode (the first part) we will address Paul’s confrontation with Peter.  Having learned of Peter’s hypocritical actions toward the Gentiles, Paul knows Peter’s actions undermine the gospel and will be used to deny the doctrine of justification, which Paul had been preaching.  For Paul, the confrontation with Peter is not personal.  It is about the gospel.  In Galatians 2:16 he puts matters as clearly as words will allow--sinners are justified by faith in Christ, not by works of the law (i.e, personal obedience to God’s commandments as a requirement to be justified).We move to discuss why many of our contemporaries think that Paul’s doctrine of justification is not about how sinners ‘get saved,” but rather is about identifying who is in the church.  The issue of table fellowship with Gentiles in Galatians 2:11-14, has become a huge point of contention, and is used by advocates of the New Perspective on Paul (NPP) to dismiss Luther and Calvin and those who follow them as badly distorting Paul’s message, making it into a message of how God “saves guilty sinners,” not one of Jewish boasting.Next, we will take up Paul’s contention in Galatians 2:16 that justification is by faith and not by works, and that those like Peter, who now excludes Gentiles from full fellowship in the church, are undermining the gospel Paul has been preaching.This episode is packed, so let us take up Galatians 2:11-21, the account of Paul’s confrontation with Peter, and Paul’s clarification of how sinners (Jew and Gentile) are justified before God – “we are justified by faith, and not by works of the law.”To see show notes, 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 was well-known to the Galatians.  He came into Galatia preaching the gospel revealed to him by Jesus Christ.  The Galatians knew Paul.  He stayed with them for a time.  He lived with them, he ate with them, prayed with them, and preached to them.  When he fell ill, they nursed him back to health and once he had recovered, they sent him on his way.  No doubt, they prayed for Paul and encouraged him when he left Galatia to continue his work elsewhere as Apostle to the Gentiles.But after Paul left the area, a group of false teachers, known to us as the Judaizers entered the area and began attacking Paul’s gospel – Paul, they said, was denying that obedience to the law was required of God’s people, and he was teaching that Gentile converts need not submit to circumcision or produce “works of law” to be numbered among the people of God.  The Judaizers resented the freedom enjoyed by these new Gentile converts.  The Judaizers even sought to spy on their liberty–to see if the Gentiles who were following Paul demonstrated sufficient zeal for obedience to the law.But the Judaizers also attacked Paul on a deeply personal level.  They claimed he was an apostate from Israel, that he was a religious huckster trying to attract a group of followers unto himself, that he was not doing the Lord’s work, but was leading the Galatians astray.Paul must defend himself and his apostolic call to people who knew him well, and but now came to question his motives.  He must prove that his gospel is the same as that preached by the other apostles, the Twelve, and that he and his companion Barnabas, had received the blessing of all of Jesus’ disciples as well as the Jerusalem church.As Paul does so in Galatians 1:10-2:11 (or text for this episode), we learn a great deal about Paul and his own personal biography, as well as learning more about the gospel Paul has been preaching.For show notes and other recommended materials located at the Riddleblog as mentioned during the Blessed Hope Podcast, click here: https://www.kimriddlebarger.com/

What would you do if an angel suddenly appeared to you and proclaimed a gospel much different from that gospel which Paul preached to the Galatians?What would you do if one of your closest friends or a family member encourages you to listen to a celebrity, a life coach, an influencer, or a religious teacher who proclaims a message different from that taught by Paul?What would you do if a well-known Bible teacher or preacher, perhaps someone in your church, or even your own pastor, teaches a gospel different from the one Paul presents in the Book of Galatians.Paul will tell us, as we turn to the opening verses of Paul’s letter to the churches in GalatiaTo see the show notes, go to:  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/