Fully Devoted: The ChurchSample

How Jewish Are We Supposed to Be?

One of the earliest epistles Paul wrote was written to the Christian communities in the region of Galatia. At some point, a group of “agitators” came to these churches teaching a “different gospel,” which according to Paul, “is really no gospel at all.” This epistle was written to help these believers reorient their understanding of the gospel back to the original version. A version of the gospel that is good and true rather than this distorted version that is anything but good news. 

Remember, this is what epistles are meant to do: address the specific problems Christian communities were facing, and teach them the truth of the gospel so they can live as faithful disciples of Jesus. 

The specific problem the Galatian churches were facing was a distortion of the gospel that claimed that non-Jewish believers had to become Jewish in order to be a part of God’s family. This meant full adherence to the laws of Moses, including circumcision. 

Over the course of this six-chapter letter, Paul lays out his arguments for why that understanding of the gospel is not only misguided, but actually harmful—because, according to Paul, Jesus made it possible for all people to be adopted into the family of God. And as members of the family of God, we are all equals. 

Paul says as much at the end of the third chapter: 

So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. Galatians 3:26-29 NIV 

Because of Jesus, grace, forgiveness, and freedom have been made available to all people—not through perfect obedience to the law, but through His sacrifice on the cross. In the Kingdom of God, people from every tribe, nation, and tongue are stitched together by the Spirit of God into a unified family. It’s important to remember that unity is not the same thing as uniformity. Uniformity is when everyone is the same. Unity is what happens when a community of “differents” come together to make a difference. This is what the church is all about” a comm-unity of diverse believers joined together by the grace of God. 

Paul concludes the letter to the Galatians with these words:

Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is the new creation. Galatians 6:15 NIV

In Jesus, a new covenant has been formed between God and His creation. In Jesus, we’ve been given access to the power of new creation. In Jesus, we’re in the process of becoming a new humanity. None of this is something we can earn. It’s all a free gift of grace. 

This is the gospel that Paul preached and that all of us have been invited into. 

So how does this apply to us as disciples of Jesus living in the modern world? 

In the same way that these early believers had a difficult time understanding the relationship between the Old Testament laws and the New Testament teachings of Jesus, we can often find ourselves in a similar situation. 

A big part of what Paul wants the Galatian Christians to understand is that the Mosaic covenant was given to a specific group of people for a specific purpose. Those people were the people of Israel. But for anyone who is not Jewish, we’re not a part of that covenant, and therefore, are not called to obey the Law of Moses. As non-Jewish Christians, our covenant is the New Covenant and our law is the Law of Christ. 

Does this mean Paul was anti-Jewish? Of course not! Paul himself was Jewish! And so was Jesus! Paul’s goal is not to get Christians to throw out the Old Testament or devalue the covenant God made with Israel. Instead, Paul wants us to recognize the power of the gospel of Jesus to bring all people together into God’s family. 

The other thing that is incredibly relevant to us today is the importance of being able to stay true to the gospel of Jesus and reject any other version of the gospel that tries to creep in and distort our thinking. This is why making repentance a continual practice is so necessary to the life of a disciple. 

What is repentance? The basic meaning of the Greek word for repent, metanoia, is change your thinking. As disciples of Jesus, we must repent—change the way we think—regarding the gospel, turning away from what is not good and not true, and turning toward what is good and true. 

How do we do that? We reflect constantly on whether or not our understanding of the gospel is making us more like Jesus, or less like Jesus. In this very letter, Paul contrasts the fruit of the Spirit with the acts of the flesh, to help us recognize the kinds of people we’re becoming. When we live in step with the Spirit and in alignment with Jesus’ gospel, we’ll become people of “love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23 NIV). 

Journaling Questions 

• Write in your journal a verse from today’s reading that stuck out to you. Why did that verse stand out?
• How do you understand the relationship between the old covenant and the new covenant? Does it challenge you? Confuse you? Frustrate you? If so, why? 
• When you look at your life, do you see more evidence of the fruit of the Spirit being produced, or the acts of the flesh? Which aspects of the fruit do you want to be more present in your life?

Memory Verse

There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. Galatians 3:28-29 NIV