The Galatians You’ve Never Heard - Part 1

The Protestant approach to Scripture has often been reading the Bible "backward", that is, interpreting the Old Testament through the lens of the New. While I believe this method is well-intentioned and often fruitful, exclusively using this method has also contributed to several misconceptions concerning the consistency of Scripture. Chief among these is the assumption that the Old Testament presents an inferior, works-based system of salvation through the law, while the New Testament introduces a superior, faith-based salvation through grace. This feeds into the age-old narrative: law versus grace, Old Testament versus New Testament, where law is understood as bad and grace as good.

Texts like Galatians are among the most common stumbling blocks. Paul wrote this letter to the church in Galatia in opposition to a faction called the Judiazers, who were spreading a false gospel. They taught that faith in Jesus wasn't enough for salvation. To be truly saved and welcomed into the covenant community, one had to perform works of the law...specifically circumcision. Essentially, they taught that salvation = Faith + Circumcision. And admittedly Paul's impassioned response in this letter has some pretty harsh things to say about the law, which is why it is at the forefront of this dispute.

I used to walk away from the letter to the Galatians thinking, "Wow! Thank God that He saved me from the burden of the law!" a thought I'm sure many of us have had or even heard from a Sunday sermon or small group discussion. It is hard to read the letter and reconcile the apparent condemnation of the law with its foundational role in the Hebrew Bible. However, in a deeper study of Old Testament theology, I have stepped away from my reading and wondered if that is legitimately what Paul was teaching. If you follow this line of thinking, Jesus starts to sound like a "Plan B" - a divine contingency because the law failed. And that just flat-out doesn't make sense!

The reality is: this issue is not a real textual tension. Scripture never presented two paths to salvation. The law is not inherently bad and it is not obsolete in our walk with Jesus. 

To that end, I invite you to a different kind of reading. 

The New Testament authors were interpreting the events of their day through the lens of the Old Testament, not the other way around. The authors knew these Scriptures inside and out! Paul especially, the self-described "Pharisee of Pharisees," who, according to Pharisaic training, likely had the entire Pentateuch (first five books of the Bible) and the Psalms committed to memory!  With that in mind, instead of allowing a text like Galatians to impact your interpretation of the Old Testament, what if you tried to understand Galatians with the Old Testament as its foundation? Just like Paul would have.

I recently read an essay by Daniel I. Block titled "Reading Galatians with Moses." In it, Block compares Paul's language of "faith" to Moses' charge for Israel to "fear the LORD" 1 - a concept tied to faith and covenantal fidelity. Inspired by his work, I want to examine key, and controversial passages in Galatians alongside Deuteronomy to challenge the Protestant "anti-law" interpretation of the letter.

But wait, why Deuteronomy? 

Deuteronomy (the last book of the Pentateuch) is a covenantal document written to a generation of uncircumcised Hebrews, and yet, God fully included them in His promise!

In the book of Deuteronomy, Moses spoke to a generation of Israelites preparing to enter the Promised Land - a generation who had not received the covenant at Sinai. Their ancestors who received the covenant had rebelled; they lacked faith in the promises of God, and as a consequence, they wandered in the wilderness for forty years until they all died. 

The book of Joshua tells us that the practice of circumcision was suspended during the wilderness years (Josh 5:5), which means the entire generation about to enter the land lacked the physical marker of the covenant, they were uncircumcised. By outward standards, they were not "qualified". And yet, Moses spoke to them as full participants in God's covenant.

It was not with our ancestors that the LORD made this covenant, but with us—with all of us who are alive here today.

Deuteronomy 5:3

Moses did not see circumcision as a barrier to entering the covenant community, because entry was never based on human effort. This sets a powerful precedent, one Paul would have known very well. Far from contradicting Moses, Paul draws from the same covenantal truth to confront the false gospel that was spreading in Galatia. 

What if Paul’s letter to the Galatians were not breaking from Old Testament theology but continuing the same message? What if Paul wasn't rejecting the law but correcting its misuse? 

Over the next several posts, I want to challenge the traditional "backward" reading of Galatians and ask you to reconsider how Paul is building his teachings on the very Scripture he knew by heart. I'm confident that when you read Paul with Moses, you will see unity in the Scriptures. One gospel, one promise, one God, from beginning to end.

Reflection Questions

• What assumptions have I carried about Paul's message to the Galatians—and where did they come from?

• How have those assumptions impacted my perspective on the law and its role in my life?

• How often do I let the New Testament reshape my view of the Old, without considering how the Old Testament shaped the New?

• What might I be missing in Paul’s message if I ignore his grounding in Moses?

Footnotes

1. Daniel I. Block, “Reading Galatians with Moses,” in The Triumph of Grace, (Eugene: Cascade Books, 2017).