In Gospel times people looked at the Torah (the Law) in different ways. For most believing Jews the Torah was a kind of moral and legal code that was to be accepted and fulfilled unconditionally. At the same time it was taken for granted that this code was fulfillable...
In Gospel times people looked at the Torah (the Law) in different ways. For most believing Jews the Torah was a kind of moral and legal code that was to be accepted and fulfilled unconditionally. At the same time it was taken for granted that this code was fulfillable. And at the level to which the religious majority limited itself, there really were no insoluble problems with fulfilling the Torah. Of course, this required effort, but sincerely religious people are usually not sparing of such effort. And after making the effort and fulfilling the Torah, as it appeared to them, to the end, such people naturally considered themselves righteous. Indeed, from their own point of view, from the point of view of a religious person, they had nothing with which to reproach themselves. What more could God require of them? He had set out His requirements in the Torah, and they had fulfilled it.
Yet in those days there was another view of the Torah and of spiritual life. It was a view that, in essence, already went beyond the framework of traditional Jewish religiosity, and beyond the framework of any religiosity at all. In this case the matter concerned the inner Torah. A Torah perceived not as a legal or moral code, but as the revelation of God's will. God's will in the most literal sense. In the sense of God's intentions addressed to a person. Intentions that must determine the whole spiritual life of a person, and indeed that person's whole life in general. They must become the spiritual core that alone can make a person righteous, if it determines his life completely.
When speaking about the Torah, Paul often contrasts the inner Torah with the outer one. And the point is not that he is a principled opponent of all religiosity. He simply knows too well from his own experience that religion has never yet made anyone righteous, and cannot do so.
A religious person can do many things for God. But in spiritual life the main thing is not to do, but to be. What is needed is not a set of good and pious deeds, but a qualitative change of life. And here religion proves powerless, because it changes a person from the outside, through the norms and rules it offers. Real changes always happen from within. Here what is needed is precisely the inner Torah, but this is exactly what a fallen human being is unable to bring to fullness. Original sin stands in the way.
And the apostle understands this perfectly too: he himself tried to live this way and suffered a complete failure, described quite frankly by him in the Letter to the Romans. All that remains is hope in that breath of God, the breath of the Kingdom, which alone can make a person righteous. Of course, this is an admission of one's own spiritual insufficiency. But it is better to acknowledge the obvious and obtain the fullness of the life of the Kingdom than to try to put a good face on a bad situation and lose everything.
5
5:1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty - From the ceremonial law.Wherewith Christ hath made us - And all believers, free; and be not entangled again with the yoke of legal bondage.
5:2 If ye be circumcised - And seek to be justified thereby.Christ - The Christian institution. Will profit you nothing - For you hereby disclaim Christ, and all the blessings which are through faith in him.
5:3 I testify to every man - Every gentile. That is circumcised - He thereby makes himself a debtor - Obliges.
5:4 Therefore Christ is become of no effect to you - Who seek to be justified by the law. Ye are fallen from grace - Ye renounce the new covenant. Ye disclaim the benefit of this gracious dispensation.
5:5 For we - Who believe in Christ, Who are under the gospel dispensation. Through the Spirit - Without any of those carnal ordinances.Wait for - in sure confidence of attaining. The hope of righteousness - The righteousness we hope for, and full reward of it. This righteousnesswe receive of God through faith; and by faith we shall obtain the reward.
5:6 For in Christ Jesus - According to the institution which he hath established, according to the tenor of the Christian covenant.Neither circumcision - With the most punctual observance of the law.Nor uncircumcision - With the most exact heathen morality.Availeth anything - Toward present justification or eternal salvation.But faith - Alone; even that faith which worketh by love - All inward and outward holiness.
5:7 Ye did run well - In the race of faith. Who hath hindered you in your course, that ye should not still obey the truth?
5:8 This your present persuasion cometh not from God, who called you - to his kingdom and glory.
5:9 A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump - One troubler, ver. Gal 5:10, troubles all.
5:10 Yet I have confidence that - After ye have read this. Ye will be no otherwise minded - Than I am, and ye were. But he that troubleth you - It seems to have been one person chiefly who endeavoured to seduce them. Shall bear his judgment - A heavy burden, already hanging over his head.
5:11 But if I still preach circumcision - As that troubler seems to have affirmed, probably taking occasion from his having circumcised Timothy.Why do I still suffer persecution? then is the offence of the cross ceased - The grand reason why the Jews were so offended at his preaching Christ crucified, and so bitterly persecuted him for it, was, that it implied the abolition of the law. Yet St. Paul did not condemn the conforming, out of condescension to the weakness of any one, even to the ceremonial law; but he did absolutely condemn those who taught it as necessary to justification.
5:12 I would they were even cut off - From your communion; cast out of your church, that thus trouble you.