The death of Jesus inaugurated the messianic age with consequent changes in the status of the Law and God’s people.
In Galatians, Paul declares that his apostleship originates
from the same God who raised Jesus from the dead, the Messiah who gave his life
to “deliver us from this evil age.” His declaration anticipates his proposition
that the arrival of Jesus changed the status of the Law for the covenant
community.
With his resurrection, one era entered its final stages while
another commenced. The old order with its rules and rituals reached its
endpoint, and the promised “age to come” dawned.
In Jesus, the promises are fulfilled, and the “mysteries
of God” are unveiled. With his death and resurrection, the time of “shadows”
ceased and the “last days” began, a perspective that permeates Paul’s letters.
KINGDOM OF HIS SON
Paul expresses a similar idea in Colossians.
God has “delivered us out of the power of darkness and
translated us into the kingdom of His beloved Son.” Believers
have been transferred from one realm to another.
And so, they now
“qualify to participate in the
inheritance of the saints.” No longer are they under the dominion of the “powers
and principalities” that once enslaved them.
Moreover, their new head is the “firstborn of all creation,” and therefore, those same hostile powers have been subjected to him. Believers must live accordingly – (Colossians 1:12-18).
And this change in eras has significant implications
for the Mosaic Law and the identity of God’s people. For example, Israel failed to attain
God’s “righteousness” because they did not understand that “Christ is
the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.” Since his
arrival, believers are put in a right relationship with God from the “faith
of Jesus Christ,” not from the “works of the law” – (Romans 3:21-26,
10:4).
This outlook can be labeled ‘apocalyptic.’ Since a
specific point in time, the revelation of God was made plain for all to see.
And this understanding influences how Paul deals with the Law in Galatians.
The letter is his reaction to certain men “from Jerusalem” who were claiming
that Gentiles must submit to circumcision and other “works of the law”
to “complete” their faith.
Paul chides the Galatians for seeking to “complete”
their faith from the “works of the law,” especially circumcision since already
they have received the Spirit. The gift of the Spirit is one of the expected
blessings of the messianic age. Therefore, having “begun in the Spirit,”
why do they now wish to revert to the “flesh” to complete their faith? Jesus
died so that the “blessing of Abraham” might
come upon the Gentiles, and Paul identifies it as the “promised Spirit” - (Galatians 3:1-5, 3:10-14).
He then presents the Law as an interim stage
between the covenant with Abraham and the arrival of the Messiah. The promises
were made to the patriarch and “his seed,” and that “seed,” singular,
is Jesus.
And once the Abrahamic covenant was confirmed, its
promises were unchangeable, therefore, the Law that came later could not alter
the original promises - (Galatians 3:15-18).
“UNTIL”
But
that raises the question – What was the purpose of the Law? It was given
to deal with “transgressions” but only “until the seed should come to whom the promise had been made.”
Here Paul uses an adverb of time to indicate the temporary
jurisdiction of the Law (Greek archi, “until, as far as, up to”).
Once the “seed” arrived, that function ceased. And in his description, the
time element is quite pronounced - (Galatians 3:19).
Next, Paul compares the function of the Law to
that of a custodian in charge of a minor child. Its job is to tutor God’s
people “for Christ, that we might be justified from faith.” But now that
the “faith” has come, the saints “no longer are under the custodian.”
Once again, he brings the temporal aspect into his
argument. The custodianship of the Law was to continue only until the
arrival of the Messiah. All this points to a fundamental change in eras and
law - (Galatians
3:23-25).
And this change is reinforced in his next statement regarding the status of believers. Now that the “seed” has come, we are all “sons of God” regardless of circumcision or ethnicity.
Having been “baptized into Christ, we have put
on Christ,” therefore, no longer can there be “Jew or Greek, bond or free, male and female, for you
all are one in
Christ Jesus” - (Galatians 3:25-28).
Paul
continues his argument from the analogy of the custodian, and once more, he stresses
the temporal aspect. A minor child governed by a tutor is under rules and
restrictions like any other household servant even though he is the heir
destined to inherit all things. But these limitations only persist “until
the day appointed by the father” when the child comes of age.
FULLNESS OF TIME
Likewise,
when believers were under the old order, they were in bondage “under the rudiments of the world.” However, when the “fullness
of the time came, God sent forth his Son…to redeem them that were under the
law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.”
And the term “fullness of time” is another way of saying that with the arrival of Jesus, the age of fulfillment commenced - (Ephesians 1:10).
The arrival of the Messiah means more than
just another among many seasonal changes. It was THE pivotal moment in human
history. Christians are the ones “upon whom the ends of the ages have come,”
and because we are now God’s “sons… no longer are we servants,” but
full “heirs” of the covenant promises - (1 Corinthians 10:11, Galatians
4:1-7).
And based on his ‘apocalyptic perspective’, Paul exhorts
believers not to subject themselves again to the “elementary spirits
of this world.” If they submit themselves to circumcision and the
calendrical rituals required by the Law, they will return to bondage under them.
With the coming of the Son, the old order had run its course - (Galatians
4:3-11).
And Paul leaves
no doubt as to the precise moment when the ages turned. As
he declares - “I died to the law that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but
Christ now lives in me… he who loved me and gave himself up for me.”
That is why the Apostle concludes his letter by “glorying
in the cross of our Lord Jesus
Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” Calvary was the
death knell for the “present evil age” - (Galatians 2:19-21, 6:14).
Jesus arrived
at the central point of history; therefore, nothing is the same or ever can be again,
and that includes how God’s people relate to Him and one another. One era has
passed, and the promised age of fulfillment is now underway.