Freedom or Faith——The dilemma in Galatians

Paul accomplished Galatians, and it was one of his earlier pieces during his stay in Corinth. This letter, along with the Romance, is seen as the foundation of the reformed theology by faith and justification of law. Different from many other works, Galatians is not a theological treatment but a real letter written to Galatians on the problems in the church of Galatian. Paul was not writing out of casual interest, but because of the austere circumstance. Paul’s gospel and apostleship were no longer accepted by Galatians. After he left, his opponents came from outside. A group of Jewish Christian missionaries came, and they told the people that if they want to be saved, they must practice Jewish doctrine. Besides, there are also torah-observant Judaizers, and others in relation with James the Lord’s brother in Jerusalem. Besides them, also accusations brought against him. Therefore, Paul wrote this little in response to these accusations.

This letter consists of six parts, and it happened to fit perfectly to Aristotle’s forensic rhetoric. Among these six components, two thematic words, “faith” and “freedom” are raised. They two are closely related too each other. Moreover, due to the difference of age and language, some meaning of the word seems to be multiple ambiguities, and leaving space for readers later on to discuss.

The first questions is, as it was a work finished ages ago, the situation of the receiver of this letter became a mystery. For studiers of Galatians, the receivers of this letter remain undetermined. Though it was written to the churches of Galatians and Paul seemed to write to all Galatians, who are Galatians and the statues of the churches are still not clear.

The body of the letter begins with the introduction, and this introduction can be further divided into two parts. Paul started with a greeting that can be seen as a response to the doubt of his authority. He emphasized his authority came from the god rather than anyone else, and he was an apostlos. Following his greeting, he did not hide his disgust of the betrayal of Galatians. Some studiers had found that in his letter, Paul kept using the third person to refer to those who distracted his readers (referred as the second person), and they assumed that it indicated that the opponents came from outer rather than generated among his followers. In this section, Paul warned the readers several time times that the results of trusting these distractors were severe.

Against the accusation, Paul went down in chapter three to defend himself. Paul recalled his personal experience and pointed out that his gospel had come directly from Jesus. He declared his independent from other apostlos, his interations with other apostlos, and he also blamed Peter, the apostlos who has close interaction with his contradictors.

Chapter three is also Paul’s defense of “justification by faith.” He explained it by life experience, the Bible, and logic. To begin with, he believed that the Galatians are stupid to mix up the law and the classic, and what they did seemed like they are in a kind of confusion without sense. In order to wake up these people, Paul threw questions to them, asking how they feel the holly spirit. And the answer was clear that was nothing about abiding the law itself but listening to the gospel, and since the justification and the holly spirit have no relation with the law, believing in the gospel therefore is clearly superior to the law. About the miracle, for Paul, the Satan also can show miracle, but to believe Mosaic law or the holly spirit was like a contrast between behavior and faith. Moreover, he pointed out that only by following the law can people became the son of Abraham is wrong, and he claimed that according to the logic of those strict followers of the law, people abided by the law would be cursed by the law itself. He referred to the genesis to prove his view that the son of Abraham is not his biographical offspring but those who believe in god. Circumcision is not a must as a part of the law, its importance comes from that it indicates people’s faith in the god and therefore got the justification. Furthermore, he continued his reasoning, pointed out there are fallacies in the law and thus to gain justification need only the holly spirit. By this logic reasoning, Paul was trying to mark out the difference between to gain justification by proper behavior and to gain justification by faith. However, Paul did not deny the necessity of the existence of law. He wrote that the value of law lies in the purpose to increase and even to irritate crimes, and hence it leaves those offenders no other ways to go except to have faith. The purpose of law is never for justification, it is set as a mirror to reflect people’s crime and let them realize they are slave of crimes. When people realize this, they will know they should gain savior from god by their own faith. In the later half of chapter four, after the argument of the problem the law follower made, Paul elaborated his understanding of the law and persuade people to abandon the legalism.

How to lead a life without constrains of the law. Paul discuss this question in the forth chapter. There also contains debates of both sides. He raised an example that if people chose to obey the law as they had already started the circumcision, then they should further obey all the other laws, but this was impossible for “sinners.” If they chose the road of obeying the law, they have fallen from the sacred road God assigned for people, and they will detour to the wrong way. Also from the other side, according to the signs in the Bible, the god never take back his promise, and it proves that even people fail the law of circumcision，god would not abandon them, and therefore what the law’s followers claims is a self-contradiction. Paul persuaded people to lead a life without constrains of law, and follow the holly spirit.

In the conclusion of the letter, Paul appeal to end the fights in Galatians. This letter with a severe start came to a gentle salution as the end.

Galatian amazes me in many ways. The most amazing part is that even it has already been a letter with some parts lost in translation, the remaining parts still reveals to us a thinker’s mind. The contradiction between faith and behavior is not the trouble of ancient people but still people today. Are people already good enough to obey the law. The answer seems clear——they are not. There are many other things law can not conclude. However, to live a world without law is also unimaginable for me. Without a clear “do and don’t” to follow and self-discipline, how many places of the world nowadays are still in chaos, and where to seek the holly spirit, and what to do when the “holly spirit” guides contrast the law? This is a dilemma of human society. But what seems absolute to me after reading Galatians is that there is no absolute freedom exists at all. In the end, what people seek are always the way for self-redemption. For me, the fights between behavior or faith, just a debate of different way.


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