Deadness of the Law - Galatians 3:11-12

3:11 - For the people who want to reinstitute the law of Moses, we really have to ask ourselves why that was such an important point of contention for them? I can think of a few reasons just off the top of my head. First, if they truly believed in Judaism as God’s true religion, then it would be hard to let a lifetime of worship fall to the side. And because the Jews in Judea didn’t really understand that the law of Moses was meant to prepare them to receive the Messiah, it would seem like Christianity just came in and said “the law of Moses isn’t important so we’re just going to let it go.” That would be hard to accept if you truly believed that the law of Moses was the way to God, but didn’t understand why or how. It seems like perhaps the Jewish Christian converts hadn’t reconciled the past of Judaism and the future of Jesus Christ, and I get it, it is a big transition. Second, for those who are perhaps not so committed to the cause of any religion, but were more interested in the “leadership” aspect of it, then it doesn’t really matter what the teachings are, Mosaic vs. Christian, it was all about getting people to do what they say, and what better way to test their commitment than to have them cut off a piece of their junk. Third, it’s kind of like when I see a young person wearing a bomber jacket and Doc Martins, I think “how dare you wear that, you didn’t mourn Kurt Cobain like I did.” It’s the idea that these gentiles who lived their whole lives as heathens, are now about to be saved just as much as those who were devout Jews for generations. I’m reminded of the parable of the master of the vineyard who went out several times throughout the day to hire more laborers, but he paid all he hired the same wage. Those who had been working all day disputed that it wasn’t fair that those who only worked for a few hours got the same generous pay that they did. This argument, of course, is untrue. When the laborers were initially hired, they agreed to do a day’s worth of work for a penny, which at the time was a very generous wage. What the other laborers were paid had no impact on the agreement the earlier workers had with the householder. All this meaning that perhaps the Jewish converts didn’t think it was fair that they had been devout to the true religion all along and these pagans that they had hated were now supposed to be their equal. I can accept that this might be a hard pill to swallow for some people, or at a minimum a complete mind shift that might have taken some time to reconcile. Paul seems to be trying to get the Jewish converts to recognize that it’s not obedience to the law of Moses that saves them, but instead obedience to the laws of Christ, and ironically, these laws include loving their fellow beings, including the gentiles they are struggling with so much. Furthering his point, Paul quotes Habakkuk 2:4 which says, “the just shall live by his faith.” Referencing their own sacred scriptures, Paul is adding to his position, maybe pointing out that this has always been the reality, they just didn’t see it that way. I don’t remember where I read it, because I can’t find it now, but the people in the Book of Mormon were able to use observance of the law of Moses to build their faith in Jesus Christ and look forward to His coming as the Messiah. I think the reference to “the just” doesn’t mean those who are correctly about to determine right and wrong for themselves, but instead those who are able to be “justified” or forgiven for their sins. So in other words, “those who live by faith shall be forgiven.” 3:12 - I have to go back to the NIV here because I read, “the law is not of faith” and I feel like that means a certain thing, but I just can’t understand it in my own words. But the NIV translates that to mean, “the law is not based on faith.” I think about word we can use here is “salvation” for “faith.” They don’t necessarily mean the same thing, but they work for the same purpose. If I substitute it here, the conundrum we discussed the other day makes a little bit more sense. With the substitution, it reads, “the law is not of salvation,” which to me, means that the law is not what saves us. But Paul continues, “but, the man that doeth them shall live in them.” This is like saying, “the law doesn’t save you, but obedience to the law allows you to have salvation.” It’s the “obedience” part because the laws or commandments or rules, have absolutely no power to forgive sins, only Jesus does, but when we obey the laws or keep the commandments the best we can, and when we do it because we wants to do what God says, then our faith grows, our efforts are rewarded, and we accept the terms Jesus set forth to partake in his atonement. It’s a difficult concept to understand, especially when we are dealing with more abstract commandments such as love and serve and all that. When this is regarding rituals and ceremonies and specifics, it’s a little bit easier to see the deadness of the law. But we mostly deal with the immaterial rules, like love God and your neighbor, so the understanding can be a little bit more complicated.