NOTES for Gal 3:2
What does the apostle call "works of the Torah" or "works of the Law"? The deeds of a righteous person? Following the Torah and fulfilling the commandments given by God? And why does he set them against the "hearing of faithfulness" or "hearing of faith," as the corresponding Greek text literally sounds? To answer the question, it is important to know what was meant in Paul's time by "works of the Torah." Initially the matter concerned keeping the commandments and deeds of righteousness. But over time, and in the process of a certain formalization of religious life, this came to be the name for what we today would define as religious duties. It is these religious duties that Paul contrasts with the witness of faith or faithfulness, having in mind another meaning of the corresponding Greek word. In such a context the situation becomes clearer: on one side, witness; on the other, religious duties. And at the same time the apostle's words to the church of Galatia become clearer. Indeed, what relation can the fulfillment or nonfulfillment of religious duties have to the Kingdom? The same relation, perhaps, as religion as such. And in this respect the same Paul always held a definite position. He, of course, did not oppose religion in principle: after all, he himself was a religious man, like every Jew of his age. But he was always sharply opposed to any attempts to impose religion on the Church and on its individual members. For him the Church was, in his own words, the "body of Christ," not a religious organization. It consisted not of people professing one religion or another, but of people living in the Kingdom. And the Kingdom is open to everyone, regardless of religion; to enter it, what is needed is not religion but faithfulness to Christ, who brought the Kingdom into the world. This is necessary, and this is enough. And now in the church, judging by the meaning of what the apostle wrote, people have appeared who have begun to put religion, religious duties, in first place, as though religiousness in itself could save anyone. And Paul asks his fellow believers a question entirely natural in such a situation: when you felt upon yourselves that breath of the Kingdom which made you different, new people, with what was that breath connected for you: with the witness about Christ and about what He did for our salvation, or with some religion? And if everything is so, why then do you put religion in first place? The question is rhetorical. And relevant. For all times.