Sonship & Law in the Old and New Testaments

Sonship & Law in the Old and New Testaments

Our working theme of Galatians: “Grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, as taught in Scripture alone, to the glory of God alone”

CHARTING THE COURSE FOR THIS STUDY

Ø The Fullness of time

Ø The Galatians’ initial love and concern for Paul and Paul’s concern and love for the Galatians

THE FULLNESS OF TIME (Galatians 4:1-11)

A. Minors, slaves, guardians and managers/lords (vv.1-3).

B. Paul moves temporally from immaturity to maturity, minor to adult.

“The sentence comprising vv 3-5 is nothing less than the theological center of the entire letter. It contains nearly all of the letter’s major motifs, and it relates them to one another in such a way as to state what we may call the good news of Paul’s letter to the Galatians” (Martyn, Galatians, 388).

1. “until” (3:19)

2. “before…later” (3:23)

3. “to the time of” (3:24)

4. “tutor” (3:24,25)

5. “as long as…minor” (4:1)

6. “under guardians and managers until the date set by the father” (4:2)

7. “when the fullness of the time came” (4:4)

C. Full adoption as sons (vv.4-7).

1. Old Testament background of sonship (Jer 3:4,19; Isa 63:16; 64:8; cf. Exodus 4:22,23; Numbers 11:12; Deuteronomy 14:1; 32:6,18; 2 Sam.7:12-14; 1 Chronicles 29:10; Psalm 68:5; 103:13; Isaiah 1:2; 45:10–12; Jeremiah 31:9; Hosea 1:10; 11:Malachi 1:6; 2:10; Romans 9:4)

a. God’s son, Israel, was redeemed from Egypt at the time and according to the promise given to Abraham (Genesis 15:13-14).

b. God’s Son, Jesus redeemed us from the power of sin and the devil according to the promise given to Abraham, et al (Gal.4:4-5).

c. The NT often links the Exodus with Christ’s work (cf. 1 Cor.10:1-6,11):

i. The Lord’s Supper was instituted during the Passover.

ii. Jesus is “the Lamb of God” (cf. John 19:31-33).

2. Possible Graeco/Roman background

D. In the Old Testament Jews were “sons” and God was their “Father” (Exodus 4:22-23). Three things need to be kept in mind:

1. The Old Testament concept of Sonship must be understood Christologically. (Gen.22:2,12-18; 2 Samuel 7:14//1 Chron.17:13; Psalm 2:7; 89:26-27; Isaiah 9:6; Matt 3:17; Mark 1:11; Luke 3:22).

2. Old Testament Jews were sons of God through faith in the coming of God’s Son (see Romans 9:30-33).

3. Jews in the Old Testament were minors and underage. This explains the paradox that the Israelites were redeemed from Egypt and placed under the custody and tutelage of the Law.

E. One of the messages of the New Testament is that Jesus is the full revelation of Sonship (Matthew 16:16; 26:63-64; Mark 9:7; Acts 9:20; 13:32-33; Romans 1:1-4; 2 Peter 1:16-18). To reject Jesus is to reject Old Testament sonship.

1. Jesus’ baptism was a revelation of His Sonship, “This is My beloved Son…” (Matt.3:17; cf. Matthew 2:15).

2. The Mount of Transfiguration was a revelation of Jesus’ Sonship (Matthew 17:4-5).

3. Peter’s confession included the Sonship of Jesus, who do you say that I am?”
16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16).

4. Jesus’ oath before the High Priest was that He was the Son of God (Matthew 26:63,64).

5. John’s Gospel was written “that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:31).

6. When Paul was converted he immediately began to proclaim, “He is the Son of God” (Acts 9:20).

F. The meaning of Abba, Father.

G. Obedience to God is rooted in our sonship and not vice versa.

1. Sonship is not merited but inherited.

2. It seems the Judaizers were of the opinion that adoption into the family of God is rooted in our works (i.e. circumcision, genealogy).

3. Sonship is rooted in the work of the Son of God alone.

H. Does our sonship and the Spirit’s work in our hearts make God’s Law unnecessary?

1. Dispensationalists typically answer that it makes Mosaic Law unnecessary and they completely disassociate the Mosaic Law from the Law of Christ (cf. Gal.6:2).

a. “Sons and daughters who live in communion with the Father under the direction of the Spirit do not need the law to guide and discipline them. They are directed by a far superior power: the power of the Spirit” (Hansen, Galatians).

b. “The Law of Moses has been disannulled, so believers are now under a new law. Galatians 6:2 calls this new law the Law of Christ; Romans 8:2 refers to it as the Law of the Spirit of Life. This is a brand-new law, totally distinct from the Law of Moses” (Arnold Fruchtenbaum, “Israelology – Part 3 of 6”; CTSJ 5:4 [September 1999] p.35).

2. Dispensationalists mistakenly believe that when Jesus returns and establishes His earthly millennial kingdom the Mosaic Law will in some way go back into effect.

a. “Clearly animal sacrifices will be offered in the millennium” (Charles Ryrie).

b. “Lest anyone advance the idea that the law of the kingdom is different than the law of Moses, his attention is directed to Deuteronomy 30:8, “And thou shalt return and obey the voice of the Lord, and do all his commandments which I command thee this day.” Moses clearly indicates that the commandments which the Jews will obey in the kingdom will be the same commandments which he instituted in his day” (James Rand).

c. Ironically, many dispensationalists teach the tithe as a principle for New Testament giving!

“There is perhaps no part of divinity attended with so much intricacy, and wherein orthodox divines so much differ, as the stating the precise agreement and difference between the two dispensations of Moses and Christ” (Jonathan Edwards, Works, New York, 1881, Vol. I, p. 160).

3. The New Covenant is not lawless, but rather the Law is written upon the heart by God (Ezekiel 36:26-27; Jeremiah 31:33//Hebrews 8:10; Gal.6:2; cf. Matthew 5:17-20; 2 Cor.3:3).

a. In the Mosaic Covenant, the Ten Commandments were written on stone by the finger of God (Exodus 31:18; 32:15, 16; 34:1, 28; Deut.9:10).

b. The “finger of God” is the Spirit of God (Matthew 12:28 with Luke 11:20; cf. Exodus 8:19).

c. The Ten Commandments were stored in the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies.

d. In the New Covenant, God’s Law is written on hearts by the Spirit/finger of God (Jeremiah 31:33). The implication is that God’s people are “temples” wherein God’s Law is deposited (1 Cor.6:19).

“Jeremiah 31, particularly verse 33, and its use in the New Testament. The law "put within them" and "written on their hearts," associated with the dawn of the new covenant, is not an experience unknown before then. It is present in Abraham (and others) who "walked by faith and not by sight" (cf. Heb. 11 and, in the case of Abraham, Gen. 26:5). The correlative notion of "heart circumcision" is not only a future (new covenant) indicative (Deut. 30:6) but a present imperative (l0:16; Jer. 4:4), finding its response in the likes of David and other Psalmists (e.g., 1:2; 19:7-11, 14; 119 passim). To appeal to the fact that in Israel such heart-renewal was not typical, perhaps quite infrequent, is really beside the point. It may not have been typical but it was normative, an integral aspect of old covenant religion realized over the centuries in the true Israel (Rom. 9:6-8), in "a remnant chosen by grace" (11:6).” (Richard Gaffin “Pentecost Before and After” in Kerux Vol.X Number 2).

“But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares Yahweh, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people” (Jeremiah 31:33).

4. The Old Covenant was not sonless or Spiritless. Rather, the essential difference between New and Old is:

a. The New Covenant reveals Jesus Christ as the obedient Son of God (cf. “fullness of the time…” [Gal.4:4]).

b. The New Covenant reveals Jesus Christ as the life-giving Spirit (John 7:38-39; 20:22 with Gen.2:7; 1 Cor.15:45; 2 Cor.3:17).

i. Christ, not the Holy Spirit is the primary subject on the day of Pentecost.

ii. Christ is the primary actor at Pentecost (Luke 3:16).

c. The Scriptures aren’t concerned to describe how the experience of Old Covenant believers differed from New Covenant (see Richard Gaffin “Pentecost Before and After” in Kerux Vol.X Number 2 pp.3-24 and Perspectives on Pentecost).

“The soteriological "newness" of Pentecost is not, at least not in the first place, anthropological-individual-experiential but christological and ecclesiological-missiological: 1) The Spirit is now present, at last, on the basis of the finished work of Christ; he is the eschatological Spirit. 2) The Spirit is now "poured out on all flesh" (Acts 2:17), Gentiles as well as Jews; he is the universal Spirit” (Richard Gaffin “Pentecost Before and After” in Kerux Vol.X Number 2).

5. Jesus Christ has not abolished all law and all commandments (cf. 1 John). Rather, He has fulfilled Moses! (Matthew 5:17-20)[1]

a. You can’t therefore go back before the fullness of the time to the Mosaic Law. It is now Christ’s Law (Gal.6:2; cf. Matthew 5-7; Rom.7:2, 6; 2 Cor.3:7,11,13; Eph.2:15).

b. You can’t go back to the Mosaic feasts days and the 7^th Day Sabbath. Jesus Christ is our Passover, Jesus Christ has entered God’s rest and has inaugurated a greater redemption and the new creation (Gal.4:5,10; 6:15; Hebrews 4:1-11).

c. You can’t go back to the types and shadows of Old Covenant worship (i.e. the “smells and bells”; cf. Hebrews; esp. Heb.7:12).

d. You can’t go back to circumcision.

i. One thing circumcision signified was the impurity of the heart (Lev.26:41; Deut.10:16; 30:6; Jer.4:4; 9:25,26).

ii. Our hearts are circumcised through faith in Jesus, the Son of God (Gen.22:16-18; Col.2:11).

iii. The Spirit of God testifies in our hearts that we are God’s sons (Gal.4:6).

6. The post-apostolic church upheld the validity of the Ten Commandments but insisted upon a Christological interpretation of them.

a. Ignatius (35-c.117 AD) wrote, “no longer observing the Sabbath, but living in the observance of the Lord's Day” (Epistle to the Magnesians, chp 9. Ante-Nicene Fathers , vol. 1, pg. 62-63).

b. “There is no other thing for which you blame us, my friends, is there than this? That we do not live according to the Law, nor, are we circumcised in the flesh as your forefathers, nor do we observe the Sabbath as you do” (Justin Martyr [100-165 AD], Dialogue with Trypho 10:1)

c. “Because of His advent in the flesh,” the Ten Commandments "have received extension and increase, but not abrogation.” (Irenaeus [c.130-202 AD])

d. “If we summarise the attitude of the church before Constantine (272-337 AD), there is no doubt that they were unanimous in treating the Decalogue as being still applicable to Christians” (Stott, This is the Day p.131).

I. Paul equates being “under the law” with idolatry (vv.8-11. cf Romans 3:23).

a. The Jews were children held in bondage under the elemental things of the world (Gal.4:3).

b. The Gentiles were now turning back to the elemental things of Jewish “immaturity” (Gal.4:9).

J. The Christian’s identity is not “in Moses” but faith “in Christ.”

THE GALATIANS’ INITIAL LOVE AND CONCERN FOR PAUL AND PAUL’S CONCERN AND LOVE FOR THE GALATIANS (Galatians 4:12-20)

What does Paul mean when he begs the Galatians to imitate him? (v.12)

How did Paul become like the Galatians? (v.12; cf. 1 Cor.9:19-22)

A. The circumstances of Paul’s first preaching the Gospel in Galatia and their reception of Paul (vv.13-15).

What was Paul’s bodily illness that led him to Galatia? (v.13)

Even though we are not certain what Paul’s illness was, what was Paul’s attitude about his illness?

How did the Galatians initially receive Paul and his message? (v.14)