Raised from the Dead
Paul anchored all that God has done in the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, which also inaugurated the age of fulfillment.
In his letter to the Galatians, Paul claimed that
his apostleship was from the same God who raised Jesus from the dead, the same
Messiah who died to “deliver us from this evil age.” He was responding to
men from Jerusalem who were operating in Galatia as if the
old era was still in effect.
Paul defined
his apostleship by asserting a negative (“neither from men nor through man”),
then issuing a positive affirmation (“but through Jesus Christ”). In
this way, he affirms his divine appointment to the apostolic office.
His opponents
did not dispute his office but claimed his apostleship was received from human
authorities, presumably, the church leadership in Jerusalem.
- (Galatians 1:1-5) - “Paul, an apostle, not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ, and God the Father who raised him from among the dead, and all the brethren with me; to the assemblies of Galatia; Grace to you and peace from God our Father and Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us out of the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory unto the ages of ages: Amen!”
Paul
denied that his commission was dependent on any human authority, whether the
mother church in Jerusalem or the church at Antioch. Instead, he claimed to
have received it directly from Jesus - (1 Corinthians 9:1, Acts
9:4-6, 22:7, 26:16).
PAUL’S COMMISSION
Unlike
his opponents, Paul received his commission from the risen Jesus. He also linked
his gospel to the “Father…who raised Jesus from the dead.” The
fatherhood of God plays an important role in the letter since in it he stresses
that believers have become children of God by “adoption” - (Galatians
3:7, 3:26, 4:2-7, 4:22-31).
Paul
presents the resurrection of Jesus as an apocalyptic event that signaled the commencement
of the messianic age. In his death and resurrection, all the “powers and principalities” that enslaved humanity were defeated, and most decisively so. As in his other letters, Paul points to the death and
resurrection of Christ as the central event in God’s redemptive plan.
The resurrection of Jesus marked the inauguration of an entirely new era and the final stage in the redemptive plan of God. And since then, nothing has ever been the same - (1 Corinthians 2:5-8, Ephesians 1:17-23, Colossians 2:15, 1 Peter 3:22).
Paul writes
from this perspective when he exhorts the Galatians not to subject themselves again
to the “elementary spirits of this world.” They will do so if they submit
to circumcision and place themselves under the calendrical rituals of the Torah.
With
the sacrificial death and the resurrection of the Son of God, the jurisdiction
of the old order reached its end. Jesus appeared in Galilee in the “fullness
of time,” inaugurating the long-awaited era of fulfillment - (Galatians 4:3-11).
DEATH AND RESURRECTION
By
reminding his audience that the God who commissioned him is the same One who
raised Jesus from the dead, Paul prepares his readers for the description of
how he received his gospel by direct revelation from Jesus - (Galatians 1:11-16).
Moreover,
Jesus is the one who “gave himself on account of our
sins.” His death was necessary “on account of” the sins of humanity that
had alienated men and women from God. The same idea is implicit in two declarations
in the letter - (Galatians 2:20, 3:13):
- “The life I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself on account of (huper) me.”
- “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse on account of (huper) us.”
His
death for men was “according to the will of our God and Father.” This
statement emphasizes the magnitude of what God did. If the believers place themselves
under the Mosaic Law, they risk the loss of God’s “grace and peace.” To
return to what preceded Jesus is regression. It is tantamount to rejecting the grace
of God made available to all through the sacrificial death of His Son.
By
means of Christ’s death, God “rescued us from the present evil age.”
In his death and resurrection, the expected messianic age has commenced, and the
time of “types and shadows” has given way to the era of fulfillment in
Jesus - (Romans 12:2, Colossians 1:12-13).
In the
Hebrew Bible, history is divided into two ages – the evil age
and the age to come. In Paul’s Christ-centered view, the Mosaic
law belongs to the “present age.” It is part of the old order that began
to “pass away” following the resurrection of Jesus - (Galatians 2:19, 4:3-9, 5:5, 1
Corinthians 7:31).
By emphasizing his death and resurrection, Paul highlights
the all-sufficiency of Christ’s death for the forgiveness of sins and the deliverance
of believers from this “present evil age.” In him, God has acted
decisively and thus impacted human history, indeed, the entire creation.
