8) Galatians 2:15-16

We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified. (Galatians 2:15-16, ESV Bible)

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Gentile Sinners

After retelling the Antioch Incident in which he rebuked Peter for returning to a segregationist policy of separating the Jewish and Gentile believers, Paul said in Galatians 2:15, "We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners." That sounds rather offensive. To elaborate on what Paul means by "Gentile sinners," we can read the first chapter of Romans, where he tells us exactly what he means by labeling the entire non-Jewish world as "Gentile sinners”:

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they  obecame futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them. (Romans 1:18-32, ESV Bible)

First-century Judaism divided the world into two main categories: Jews and Non-Jews. A "Non-Jew" could become a "Jew" by undergoing circumcision and legal conversion, so there was some crossover. Despite those few crossovers, there were two types of people in the world: Jews and Gentile sinners. Paul said to Peter:

We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified. (Galatians 2:15-16)

Three terms from Galatians 2:16 need to be defined in order to make sense of the passage:

1. Justified

2. Works of the law

3. Faith in Jesus Christ

Justification

To understand “justification” let’s examine its Hebrew equivalent, to helps nail down a concrete definition. For example, consider Deuteronomy 25:1:

If there is a dispute between men and they come into court and the judges decide between them, acquitting the innocent (hitzdiku) and condemning the guilty, then it shall be if the wicked man deserves to be beaten, the judge shall then make him lie down and be beaten in his presence with the number of stripes according to his guilt. (Deuteronomy 25:1-2)

When judges decide a law case, they acquit the innocent and condemn the guilty. The English Standard Version of the Bible translates the Hebrew word hitzdiku as "acquitting." I might say, "legally exonerating." It is the opposite of "condemning." To be condemned is to be found guilty by a court of law and delivered for punishment. Here's an example from the gospels. Jesus says:

"For by your words you will be justified [acquitted, legally exonerated], and by your words you will be condemned" (Matthew 12:37).

Likewise, in the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector, Jesus says:

"I tell you, this man went to his house justified [acquitted, legally exonerated] rather than the other" (Luke 18:10-14).

In the sense that Paul employs the term, he uses it to refer to a verdict in the heavenly court of law. The antithesis of the term is "condemnation." When you go before a court of law, the judge will offer a verdict. He will either say "Innocent" or "Guilty."

As in our own court system, the judge in a Torah court of law offers his verdict only in the eyes of the law and the court. It is a legal ruling, that's all. If the judge declares a man innocent, that does not make him actually innocent nor does it mean that he did not actually commit the offense. That's what it means to be justified: to be declared innocent, even if you aren't. In that sense, the old adage works: "Justification means just-as-if-I never-sinned." Actually, you did sin, but you are going to get away with it.

The same justification applied to the tax collector in the Master's parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. He was not innocent. He was a tax collector, collecting taxes for the evil empire of Rome. He left the Temple "justified," spared of condemnation in the eyes of God.

Justification does not make you sinless; it does not impart righteousness into your being and make you suddenly a more godly person. Instead, justification is a legal verdict of "not guilty" in the court of heaven, even though you are guilty. Justified means "not punishable." The justified person is reckoned righteous even if he is not.

Works of the Law

"Works of the law" is not a difficult term to understand. Works are deeds, so the term means "deeds of Torah." Among the Dead Sea Scrolls, one document has the title Miksat Ma'asei HaTorah, which I would translate as "Selection of the Works of the Law." The selection includes various purity measures, several of which are concerned with contamination by Gentiles. In 1994, Dead Sea Scroll scholar Martin Abegg published an article suggesting that when Paul spoke of the "works of the law," he was not speaking of keeping Torah in general, but rather of the type of rulings found in Miksat Maasei Halorah.

Abegg does not suggest that Paul was referring specifically to that Qumran document. Miksat Maasei HaTorah was essentially a halachic discourse on a few matters of Torah which had no relevance for the situation in Galatia, or in Rome, or in any of Paul's communities (or anywhere outside of an Essene compound for that matter). Abegg suggests, nonetheless, that Paul might have had sectarian rulings of that type in view. It does seem possible, as Abegg suggests, that "works of the law" should be understood as a specific subset of the Torah's commandments. In other words, it's not a generic term for obeying the Torah; it refers to certain ceremonial matters of Torah.

Likewise, in his book The New Perspective on Paul, James Dunn suggests that "works of the law" should be understood more narrowly than just "deeds of Torah" in general. Dunn claims that when Paul spoke of "works of the law," he was speaking of "the Torah's marks of Jewish identity." In that case, Paul had no problem with the Torah itself as a standard for righteousness for God-fearing Gentile believers. Instead, Paul took issue with imposing onto Gentiles the "works of the Torah" that marked Jewish identity: primarily the food laws, circumcision, the Sabbath, the calendar, and the sacrificial and Temple/Levitical obligations specifically those things that define who is Jewish and exclude the non-Jew.

I think Dunn is right about this because, as we know from the context, at least the circumcision and Jewish-identity question is on the table in Galatians. At the very least, "works of the law" means keeping the commandments, and for Jewish people, the most characterizing works of the law were, as Dunn says, those identity markers: sacrifice, food laws, circumcision, Sabbath, and calendar. What are the "works of the law"? In the context of contrasting Jews and Gentiles, they are the markers of Jewish identity: circumcision, Sabbath, dietary laws, Levitical obligations, etc.

For a more in depth look at the phrase “Works of the Law,” check out this study on Miksat Ma'asei HaTorah - “Works of the Law.”

Faith in Jesus Christ

Faith in Jesus Christ means believing in Jesus Christ, right? It does miss something in translation though. The translation "faith in Jesus Christ" translates the specific Greek phrase pisteos Yesou Christou. The phrase "faith in Jesus Christ" is actually a translation of a Greek phrase that looks more like "faith Jesus Christ" when you translate it directly. In English, when we have two nouns together like this, it often looks like a possessive form, like "John's book." Similarly, the original Greek phrase puts two nouns together, but it doesn't use a word that means "in."

In grammar, when two nouns are used this way, it can be taken two ways: one where Jesus Christ is the one having faith (like "faithfulness of Jesus Christ"), or the usual way we understand it, where it means faith directed towards Jesus Christ. However, the Greek doesn't have the word "in," which we usually use to show that the faith is directed towards Jesus. So, technically, saying "faithfulness of Jesus Christ" might be closer to what the original text is suggesting.

This is how Lloyd Gaston in his book Paul and the Torah translates the term. So it is not primarily about you and your belief in Jesus Christ as much as it is about the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. This is literally what the Greek says. It requires a fairly radical concept that challenges a lot of conventional notions about faith, but it is consistent with a literal reading of the Greek.

The "faithfulness of Jesus Christ" is his sinless obedience, his righteousness, his merit, and the favor (grace) that God found in him.

Rereading Galatians 2:15-16

Having defined our three terms, we are now ready to return to the text of Galatians:

• Justification: A legal verdict of exoneration (the opposite of condemnation) issued by a court of law or by God's court of law.

• Works of the law: The commandments of the Torah that identify a person as Jewish.

• Faith in Jesus Christ: The faithfulness of Jesus Christ.

Let's reread Galatians 2:15-16 with these definitions. The substituted definitions will be in square brackets [like this]:

We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; yet we know that [whether Jewish or Gentile] a person is not [legally exonerated] by [the commandments of Torah that identify a person as Jewish] but through [the faithfulness of] Jesus Christ, so we [Jewish believers] also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be [legally exonerated] by the [faithfulness of Jesus Christ] and not by [the commandments of Torah that identify a person as Jewish], because by [the commandments of Torah that identify a person as Jewish] no one will be [legally exonerated]. (Galatians 2:15-16)

According to that reading of the passage, Paul merely asked Peter, "Why would you require the Gentiles to take on the commandments of Torah that define a person as Jewish when even we Jews who keep those commandments know full well that those commandments do not exonerate us?" If the faithfulness of Jesus the Messiah is sufficient for Jews, it should be sufficient work for non-Jews. This is how Paul understands salvation. And he develops this concept in the book of Romans as well.

“Works of the Law” in Romans 3

We can apply the same term-substitution trick to an important parallel passage in Romans 3. It makes for tedious reading, but the clarity that it affords is worth the effort:

By [the commandments of Torah that define a person as Jewish] no human being will be [legally exonerated] in his sight; since through the [Torah] comes the knowledge of sin. But now the [legal exoneration] of God has been manifested apart from the [Torah], although the [Torah] and the Prophets bear witness to it--the righteousness of God through the [faithfulness of] Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction [between Jew and Gentile, in this regard]; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are [legally exonerated] by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus ... so that he might be just and the justifier [ie., the one who legally exonerates] of the one who has [the faithfulness of] Jesus. Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of [Torah]? By [the commandments that identity a person as Jewish]? No, but by the [Torah] of faith.

For we hold that one is [legally exonerated] by faith apart from [the commandments that identify a person as Jewish]. Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, since God is one-who will [legally exonerate] the [Jewish people] by faith and the [non-Jewish people] through faith.

Do we then overthrow the [Torah] by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the [Torah]. (Romans 3:20-31)

Paul was not criticizing being Jewish or keeping the commandments, nor did he set those things in antithesis to faith. Instead, he maintained that becoming Jewish is not the mechanism of salvation. That's not how justification works.

This entire argument would be completely irrelevant if Paul expected the Gentiles to perform the same "works of the law" as the Jewish believers. Instead, Paul assumed the Gentile believers were not going to do that. He assumed that they were not obligated to the commandments that identity a person as Jewish. For Paul, those commandments are the ones that make a difference between Jews and Gentiles.

Don't misunderstand. He was not discouraging Gentile believers from keeping the Sabbath, participating in the biblical lifestyle, or eating kosher, or anything of that nature. He was not discouraging them from Torah observance, but he was making it clear that there is a difference between Jews and Gentiles and their obligation to the works of the Torah. In Paul's mind, Jews are beholden to the commandments that identify a person as Jewish because that is what it means to be Jewish, whereas Gentiles are not. This distinction is irrelevant when it comes to the question of justification because both Jew and Gentile are in need of the faithfulness of Yeshua the Messiah.

In practical terms this means that we are all saved by grace, not by works, lest any man should boast. It also implies that Paul had no anticipation of the Gentile believers coming into obligation to those commandments which he termed as "works of the law." Therefore, the attempt on the part of the "circumcision party," the men from James in Galatians 2, or the Influencers who were convincing the Galatians to undergo circumcision were misplaced and distorted the essence of Paul's gospel.

This should help us immensely in understanding not just the epistle to the Galatians but all of Paul's writings. Paul did not erase the distinction between Jews and Gentiles. He did not mean to say, "There is no difference between a Jewish believer and a Gentile believer." Instead, he was simply saying, "Being Jewish is not what justifies you." What justifies a person? The faithfulness of Yeshua the Messiah: his righteous life, his obedience, his propitiating sacrifice, his resurrection.

Referneces

This lesson was curated from teachings from First Fruits of Zion “Holy Epistle to the Galatians.”