9) Galatians 2:17-21

But if, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not! For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor. For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose. (Galatians 2:17-21, ESV Bible)

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For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. (Galatians 2:19)

Dead to the Law

For most of Christendom, this saying holds little to no difficulty; the meaning is self-evident. Paul simply distinguished between his former life as a Jew and his new life as a Christian. Formerly, he tried to live to Torah, for the Torah, and by keeping the Torah in order to earn salvation, but ultimately he realized that he could not earn salvation because his sin prevented him from meeting the Torah's impossible standards. In that way he died to the Torah, became a Christian, quit trying to keep the Torah, and learned to simply live to God by grace through faith without practicing Judaism any longer-that religion of dead and lifeless works.

This is the conventional Christian interpretation of what it means to die to the law through the law and live to God. To put it more simply, Paul is saying, "I was a Jew, but now I'm a Christian." Or "I used to be under the law, but now I'm under grace."

That explanation will work for most of Christianity. It has worked for most of the nearly two thousand years that the book of Galatians has been read and revered by Christians. But it does not work for a Messianic Jewish reading of the New Testament.

This explanation does not work for a Jewish reading of the text because the Messianic Jewish perspective recognizes that Messiah did not cancel the Torah and that Paul walked faithfully according to the Torah all his life. By his own testimony, "Neither against the law of the Jews, nor against the temple, nor against Caesar have I committed any offense" (Acts 25:8). He went so far as to claim to have "done nothing against our people or the customs of our fathers" (Acts 28:17). For more information on Paul check out this lesson from the Discipleship Study, Module One, entitled “Why Study the Bible Through a Jewish Lens? - Part 4: Recognizing the Jewishness of Paul.”

Paul did not reject Torah or Judaism. According to the book of Acts, the testimony of James, the elders at Jerusalem, and according to Paul himself, he remained Torah-observant all his life: a Pharisee the son of a Pharisee, a Hebrew of Hebrews, a Jew, under the full obligation of the law, despite the fact that he considered himself an apostle to the Gentiles.

From a messianic perspective then, what did Paul mean when he said, "For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God"?

Antioch Context

Most of the time, the problem we have with Paul is our failure to recognize that he makes a distinction between Jewish and Gentile believers and their respective relationships to the Torah.

For example, in the present case, when Paul says the law, or the Torah, we immediately are thinking about the scroll of Moses and keeping the commandments of Torah, whether the prohibition on adultery or the prohibition on pork.

But that's not what Paul was thinking about. He did not think of the Torah in a monolithic, one-size-fits-all sense. When Paul spoke of being "under the law," he meant halachically (legally) Jewish, and when he spoke of the "works of the law," he meant the commandments of the Torah that define and identify a person as Jewish. And it is in that same sense that he spoke of dying to the law through the law in our passage.

The troubling verse comes from the context of the Antioch Incident. It has to do with the anecdote about Peter and the men from James and their decision to withdraw from eating with the Gentile believers in Antioch. At that time, Paul rebuked Peter, pointing out that "If we rebuild the separation between Jew and Gentile that we originally tore down-that you yourself tore down-then we prove ourselves to be transgressors."

No Longer I Who Live

Let’s look at these verses in light of recent definitions we have established:

But if, in our endeavor [as Jewish believers] to be [legally exonerated] in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not! For if I rebuild what I tore down, [i.e., if I rebuild the exclusivity of Jewish segregation from Gentiles] I prove myself to be a transgressor [because I as a Jew have already received and accepted Gentile believers and eaten and fellowshipped with them for years]. For through the law [that is to say, by virtue of relying on my Jewish status] I died to the law [which is to say, I realized that being Jewish is not sufficient for legal exoneration], so that I might live to God [by relying on the faithfulness of Messiah rather than on my Jewish status]. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by [the faithfulness of] the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for [if legal exoneration and salvation were the result of being Jewish], then Christ died for no purpose. (Galatians 2:17-21)

When Paul said that through the law he died to the law, he means that through being Jewish and relying on Jewish status for salvation, he realized his own inadequacy before God even as a Torah-keeping Jew. He learned he could not rely upon that status. It does not mean he ceased to be Jewish or keep the Torah.

Instead, it is as if he died with Messiah and was raised with Messiah. He learned to rely upon the Messiah for salvation, for justification, and for legal exoneration in the court of heaven. So he said, "I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me" (Galatians 2:20).

Dogs, Evil Doers and Mutilators

Paul expresses an almost identical sentiment in his epistle to the Philippians. Philippi was the Roman colony where Paul found Lydia and the other God-fearing women keeping the Sabbath in the absence of any Jews living in the city (Acts 16). They found no synagogue in the city; they met for Sabbath services by the river outside of town. Paul and Silas ended up in jail, and they sang through the night before their miraculous release. Paul addressed his epistle to the Philippians to that community:

Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is no trouble to me and is safe for you. Look out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh. (Philippians 3:1-2)

Notice here that Paul warned the God-fearing Philippian Gentiles to look out for three different types of people: dogs, evildoers, and mutilators of the flesh. These are not three descriptions of the same type of person, rather they are three different types of people.

Look Out for the Dogs!

In Jewish parlance, "dogs" are the heathen, the pagan world, the unbelieving Gentile world; as our Master said, "Do not cast pearls before swine or give what is sacred to dogs." Everyone to whom Paul wrote in Philippi was also a Gentile, so Paul redefined the term "dogs" to refer to idolaters. He contrasts them against the God-fearing believers of Philippi.

Look Out for the Evil Doers!

Evildoers are evildoers. Philippi had a lot of evildoers, such as the men who used the python girl for fortunetelling and had Paul and Silas arrested and charged with the crime of being Jews.

Look Out for Those Who Mutilate the Flesh!

Those who mutilate the flesh is a nasty, vitriolic way of referring to Paul's opponents among the Jewish believers who insisted on Gentile conversion to Judaism for the God-fearing Gentile believers. Since Paul's visit to Philippi, the God-fearing Gentile community he left behind had come into contact with both the larger Jewish world and other Jewish believers. They had experienced some of the same pressure to convert that the Galatian community did. Paul was not referring to circumcision as a mutilation of the flesh -except when it was pressed upon the Gentile believers under a theology of mandate. So Paul referred to them as "those who mutilate the flesh"-and no, Paul was not above being nasty with his opponents.

He went on to say, "For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh" (Philippians 3:3). He referred specifically to himself and Timothy, the authors of the epistle, but the Philippians would have also remembered Silas and probably Luke the physician as well. He also referred to other Jewish believers in his camp, including the apostles in Jerusalem who endorsed his gospel to the Gentiles. He said that he and the Jewish believers in agreement with him "put no confidence in the flesh," i.e., they did not rely on being Jewish for justification.

Paul told the Philippians that if anyone should have confidence in Jewish identity, it was him. He boasted of being circumcised on the eighth day, meaning he was not a convert. He was of the people of Israel and of the tribe of Benjamin, meaning he was not a convert and not a descendant of converts. He described himself as a Hebrew of Hebrews and a member of the sect of the Pharisees. Regarding his zeal for God, he had so much zeal that he persecuted other believers for God's sake, and "as to righteousness under the law, blameless" (Philippians 3:6).

Since becoming a follower of the Messiah, however, Paul said, "Whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ" (Philippians 3:7-8).

This does not in any way imply that after meeting the Messiah, Paul was no longer circumcised on the eighth day, or of the people of Israel, or of the tribe of Benjamin, or a Hebrew of Hebrews. It does not even mean that he no longer considered himself a Pharisee. (He did. See Acts 23:6.) It does not mean that he no longer lived blamelessly according to the righteousness under the law. It does mean that he no longer relied on the status and prestige he once derived from those things for salvation or justification.

He claimed to no longer seek legal exoneration of his own "that comes from the law," i.e., from being Jewish, "but that which comes through [the faithfulness of] Christ, the [legal exoneration] from God that depends on faith that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead" (Philippians 3:9-11).

Another way to say this: "Through the law, I died to the law, that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me" (Galatians 2:19-20).

A Different Perspective on Paul

When understood from this perspective of distinction between Jew and Gentile, Paul's letters become far more intelligible. One is able to hear Paul's voice unfettered, unencumbered. His message is not that complex. It boils down to this: Gentiles can be saved, too. The faithfulness of Yeshua is adequate for Gentiles as well.

It turns out that Paul was not at all about denigrating the Torah or Torah observance. He was not starting a new religion. He was not advocating lawlessness or arguing against Judaism. He was not forsaking being Jewish. Instead, he was bringing the teachings of Judaism of his day, as they related to Gentiles, forward in his arguments against other Jewish believers who contended that Gentiles must be under the law.

The picture of Paul that emerges from this "new perspective" (as it is called in academic circles) is one of a faithful Jew. He lived his life faithfully in obedience to the Torah, but he no longer relied on that status for his place in the kingdom or the world to come. Instead, he relied solely upon the faithfulness of the Messiah, and he encouraged Gentiles to do the same.

Paul was also a mystic, always internalizing his theology. He did not speak only in legal categories; instead, he internalized his theology, saying in Galatians 2:20, "I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh [as a Jew and as a human being] I live by [the faithfulness of] the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."

Three Christian Clichés

Consider the mysticism of the statement: "I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh [as a Jew and as a human being] I live by [the faithfulness of] the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.".

It seems a little bit self-centered for Paul to claim that Messiah died for him. As far as we know, Yeshua of Nazareth and Paul of Tarsus never met one another during all the years that the Master lived in the flesh. It seems a little presumptuous for Paul to say that Yeshua died specifically for him. The Messiah died for everyone, right? At least for all Israel. But Paul said, "For me."

Have vou ever heard this Christian cliche: "Even if I were the only person on earth, Messiah would have died for me"? Really?

Paul says yes. It's no cliché; it's real. God has set his affection on you, and the height, the width, the breadth, the depth of God's love is unfathomable. Romans 5:8 says, "God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." The Apostle John says, "In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him" (1 John 4:9).

Have you heard this cliché: "I have Jesus in my heart"? Paul said that he did. It's not a cliché. Paul internalized and personalized this theology of not just knowing about God and His Messiah, but of actually knowing God and knowing his Messiah on a personal level.

Have you heard this cliché: "Do you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ?" The honest answer is "No." You do not know him personally, and neither did Paul. But the mystical answer is "yes." And it is not just a cliché or theological platitude; the believer knows him and is known by him. He is bound to him, and he to the believer. The believer must live to him. He lives through the believer.

This idea of being bound up with the Messiah so that the Messiah lives through us has parallels in Judaism. The evangelical Christian "clichés" of personal relationship with the Messiah are similar to expressions of Jewish mysticism.

Chassidic Judaism teaches the same kind of mystical internalization and personalization of relationship with God through an intermediary. The Chasid connects with God through his relationship with his rebbe, the tzaddik. For example, I once read an interview with some Lubavitch girls who were doing outreach to secular Jews, handing out Sabbath candles and inviting them to a Shabbaton (Sabbath retreat). In the interview, they explained, "It wasn't us. It was the rebbe doing it through us." From their perspective, they had their rebbe in their heart. Likewise, Breslov Chassidim preface their prayers with a declaration, "I hereby attach myself to the soul of and in the merit of Rebbe Nachman."

The Christian life should be one of concentration on this inwardness. Every thought and action should be measured against this one intention: it is no longer I who live but Messiah who lives in me. This applies to every choice and decision in life, from the small things to the great things, from the choices we make in entertainment to the choices we make in employment and spouse. This mantra should be the thing that sets our alarm clocks and puts us to bed at night. A man should rise up in the morning like a lion because it is no longer he who lives, but Messiah who lives in him. We should take care of our bodies because they no longer belong to us, but to Messiah who lives in us. We should govern our passions because it is no longer about us and our desires, but Messiah who lives in us and through us. This is what Christian living is all about.

It is the governing principle for the believer's life. Towards the goal that we may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible we may attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that we have already obtained this or are already perfect, but we press on to make it our own because our Master has made us his OWN.

"Through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God" Paul says. All he means is, "It's not about being Jewish or not being Jewish. It is about the faithfulness of the Son of God, Messiah within you, the love of God lavished upon you."

Referneces

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