CHAPTER lWO JUDAIC LEGALISM THE LAW In Galatians is found Paul's foremost polemic against the judaizers' gospel (}:7-9). They held that a man is justified, reckoned righteous before God and made alive by works of the law (2 :16, 21; 3:11, 21; 5:4). The law rests on faith, they claimed; that is, legal obedience and righteousness depend on faith (3:12). Moreover, held Paul's opponents, to receive and to be led by the Spirit are inseparable from the requirement of subjection to the law <3:2, 5; 5:18, 23; 6:1-2).1 They considered law and grace to be compatible (2:21; 5:4), The inheritance (XA"YjPOVOfJ.(oc) promised to Abraham and his offspring-heirs is received through keeping the covenant with Abraham and the law of Moses (3:17-18,21,29; cf. 4:30-31). From this it follows that it was by grace that Christ allegedly renewed the covenant based on law. The revelation of faith in Christ does not remove the law as teacher (3:23-25) and guardian (4:2) or redeem from servitude those who were under the law (4:1-5, 30-31). Paul's opponents relied on works of the law (3:10) and led the Galatian converts to desire <OfAovn:c) to be under the law of the old covenant (4:21, 24). Paul thus saw them as enslaved to it and to its givers, the angels or crTO~XE~OC of the world 3:19; 4:3, 5, 7-10, 24-25, 30-5:1). The Judaizers accused the Apostle of trying to please Gentiles and win their favor by preaching freedom through the Gospel of Christ (}:9-11; cf. 1 Cor. 10:33). In 2:5, 14 ~ OCA~eE~OC TOi) EUyyEA(OU refers to the liberty in Christ from bondage to the law. This freedom through faith, they charged, provides an opportunity for the flesh (5:13, 16ffJ and makes Christ an agent of sin (2:17-18). The law, they held, makes one alive and empowers hirn to avoid sin <3:21ffJ. They sought to impose the law upon Gentile believers by stages; circumcision represented an important level (5:3; 6:13). The Pauline message related by Acts 13:38-39 as having been preached at Pisidian Antioch proved to be the point of attack: "by this man (Jesus) every one that believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses." 1 H. Lietzmann, Der Brief des Apostels Paulus an die Galater (Handbuch z.N.T.l, Tübingen (J. C. B. Mohr H'aul Siebeckl, 1932, 3rd ed.), 39; Oostendorp, op. cit., 36). 60 JUDAIC LEGALISM The Apostle warned the Colossians not to be moved away from the hope of the gospel ,(i.e. of being presented holy, blameless and irreproachable before God) which they had heard and of which he became a minister (1:22-23). He hoped through his preaching to present every man 7c:),d(us in Christ (1:28; cf. 4:12). They had learned of the hope laid up for them when they heard "the word of the truth of the gospel" (1:6). For they were in danger of being beguiled with persuasive, but false, reasonings ("ClpClAoY[(Yl'rClL sv m6ClvoAoy[Cl) (2:4), that is, "by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the cr't"OLXC:LCl of the world, and not according to Christ" (2:8). To follow or serve these cr't"OLXC:LCl involved subjection to regulations (ÖOYfLCl't"L(c:cr6d, "Do not handle, do not taste, Do not touch . .. according to human precepts and doctrines" (2:20-22). These seductive standards, which allegedly promoted divine growth (2:19b) and by which the readers were being judged (2:16), pertained to eating, drinking, feasts, new moons and sabbaths. But, warned Paul, "these are only a shadow of what is to corne"; the reality is received only from Christ (2:16-17). Moreover, God had "canceled the bond which stood against us with its legal demands ((~OYfLOC't"OC); this he set aside, nailing it to the cross" (2:14). The crucifixion removed the unpayable debt. The hostile ordinances handwritten on the heavenly tablets were rubbed off. Maurice Jones 2 commented on 2:14-15: "Freedom from the Law meant at the same time freedom from the angels who in company with other principalities and powers held the world in thraldorn." Both Colossians (1:22-23, 27-28; 2:4-10) and Galatians (2:20-21l attack a legal righteousness which has been replaced in Pauline theology by holiness from the indwelling Christ received through faith. A comparison of the false legal teachings attacked in Colossians and those in Galatians reveals a similar submission to supposedly still valid regulations received from the cr't"OLXc:LOC. But, whereas in Galatians Paul was willing to grant the role of God (3:19-21l and Moses (3:17) in giving these laws, in the more developped polemic of Colossians the role of human (cf. Isa. 29:13 LXX; Mk. 7:7) tradition and philosophy in applying and teaching them is attacked. The ÖOYfLOC't"Cl to which the opponents hoped to subject the Colossians were not only revealed (2:14) but also angelic (2:20). and human (2:22). When Paul first encountered the legalists in Galatia, he instinctively used the arguments about justification which 1 Thc Epistles ot St. Paul to thc Colossians, London (SPCK, 1923), 38..