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POSTED 13 SEPTEMBER, 2009
A Low
Hamartology
by
J.K. McKee
editor@tnnonline.net
reproduced from the McHuey Blog
What is the problem with holding to a low
theology of sin (hamartology), and how do we see
this problem fixed?
I had a very interesting dream the other night,
but before I begin, let me say something:
I
don’t have dreams. This does not
mean that I am not spiritual, it just means that
the Lord usually communicates to me through
prayer or His Word. This dream, however, was
pretty interesting. It involved me consciously
picking up various books and commentaries in my
library, and closely examining and re-examining
a passage of Scripture which is very important
to us understanding the proper role of the Torah
in the life of Believers: Galatians 3:23-25.
What does Galatians 3:23-25 say? Appearing in
the New American Standard Update, it reads,
“But before faith came, we were kept in custody
under the law, being shut up to the faith which
was later to be revealed. Therefore the Law has
become our tutor
to lead us to Messiah, so that we may be justified by
faith. But now that faith has come, we are no
longer under a tutor.”
Some immediate questions jump out at us when we
see this verse: Who are the “we” being spoken
of? What is “under the law” to mean? In what
regard is the Torah a “tutor”?
Some other questions may be asked when we
compare this with some other versions. There are
Bible translations that describe the Law as a
“custodian” (RSV), “disciplinarian” (NRSV), or
“guardian” (ESV). But most notably what jumps
out at you is the clause in v. 24: “until Christ
came” (RSV/NRSV/ESV).
The majority interpretation that I have
encountered in Galatians commentaries and other
writings on Paul reflect the view that in
Galatians 3:23-25, the Apostle is only
reflecting on a Jewish experience of having to
be subject to the Torah. “We
Jews,”
Paul would say, “were locked up by the Law of
Moses until the time of Christ. We
Jews do not have to follow any of this Law any more, which
means that it is surely not for you Galatians…”
Fast forwarding to today, the implications of
this could be that not only have non-Jewish
Believers such as myself been wasting their time
for the past fifteen years being Messianic—but
that today’s Messianic Judaism, as well,
probably needs to just close up shop and fold
back into the greater Christian Church with its
Law-free gospel and Law-free lifestyle. The Law
of Moses was for a previous age, and salvation
history has progressed forward. The Torah was
only until Messiah, and now that we have Him we
no longer need its commandments to regulate our
lives…and so on.
Is it at all impossible to view Galatians
3:23-25 differently?
There is always debate among commentators of
Paul about who the “we” and the “you” are in
various parts of his letters. When he talks
about the “we,” is he referring to himself as a
member of the Jewish people? Or, is the “we”
referring to his collective audience?
I believe there is another way of looking at
Galatians 3:23-25, which upholds the
significance of the Torah for all of God’s
people, aligns with the New Covenant ideal of
His commandments being written on the heart by
the Spirit (Jeremiah 31:31-33; Ezekiel
36:25-27), and above all recognizes the
centrality of Yeshua the Messiah.
“But before faith came, we were kept in custody
under the law, being shut up to the faith which
was later to be revealed” (Galatians 3:23).
The “we” Paul is talking about is himself, his
party in Antioch, and the Galatians. In v. 23
Paul talks about their common state as human
beings subject to sin, being under the
condemnation of the Torah pronounced upon
sinners, being shut up as prisoners until the
truth of the gospel would illuminate their lives
at the right time (cf. Galatians 4:2). The Torah
is something that Paul considers the whole world
to be accountable to (Romans 3:19b).
What is the role of the Torah for those who are
sinners, locked up as prisoners, deserving
nothing more than its full brunt of
condemnation?
“Therefore the Law has become our tutor
to lead us
to Messiah, so that we may be justified by
faith” (Galatians 3:24).
Paul labels the Torah as a
paidagōgos
(paidagwgoß),
which in a classical sense was a slave or
household servant, who guarded young boys to and
from their academies. It would be a very strict
disciplinarian, sometimes beating or chastising
them, until the time when the young men would
come of age and the services of the pedagogue
would no longer be required. The boys would be
mature, and would know foundational life
principles as second nature. The fact that Paul
is having to use a classical Greek term, to
describe a function of the Torah, is a very good
indication that this is something that affected
the non-Jewish Galatians equally as much as it
affected Paul as a good Jew.
The real debate is what is meant by the clause
eis
Christon
(eiß
Criston),
which could be rendered as either “to Christ,”
or the more common “until Christ.” Did the Torah
only serve as the Jewish pedagogue until the
arrival of Yeshua? Or, does it serve as
individuals’ pedagogue until a person receives
Yeshua into his or her life? Many conclude the
former, but if the Torah is to be likened to
some kind of child trainer—beating important
principles into a person prior to salvation—then
it is not unimportant to consider the fact that
the Galatians were certainly taught about the
Messiah from the Law and the Prophets during
Paul’s visit to Galatia in Acts 13:13-14:28.
Paul spoke to both Jewish people and non-Jewish
people when he traveled throughout Southern
Galatia. It is safe to say that when examining
Luke’s record, the Apostle Paul delivered the
same basic message wherever he went on this
journey. At Pisidian Antioch, he proclaimed on a
Shabbat,
“Therefore let it be known to you, brethren,
that through Him forgiveness of sins is
proclaimed to you, and through Him everyone who
believes is freed from all things, from which
you could not be freed through the Law of Moses”
(Acts 13:38-39).
The non-Jewish Galatians were certainly taught
this basic message from Paul, no different than
those Jews who were attending Sabbath services
as they always did, as he declared the good news
from the Torah and Prophets. Many of the
non-Jewish Galatians had already been involved
with a local synagogue in some way or another,
and had a basic understanding that the Creator
God condemned them for their disobedience to His
righteous standard in the Law.
Paul’s message in Pisidian Antioch is no
declaration about the Torah being abolished; it
is a reflection of how the Torah cannot free a
person from all of the condemnation or guilt of
sin. The
Torah is not enough. The Torah’s
standard of holiness and righteousness is quite
important. Yet the Torah as a pedagogue can only
harshly beat its commandments and standard of
righteousness into a non-Believer, who will
often feel condemned because he or she is not
doing enough. The non-Believer, trying to keep
God’s Law, will inevitably fail at times and
will be condemned by God’s commandments when
they are disobeyed—because we are only human.
This is why, in Galatians 3:24, the Torah is a
pedagogue that is
to lead
us to the Messiah. Having disciplined us enough,
showing us that on our own we will carry guilt
for disobedience to God’s commandments,
we are to be
driven to the feet of the cross and plead for
redemption. As the gospel of
salvation changes our lives, the Torah’s role as
a pedagogue for individuals, harshly condemning
them, is over:
“But now that faith has come, we are no longer
under a tutor” (Galatians 3:25).
This does not mean that the Torah no longer
plays a role in the lives of redeemed people!
Redeemed people empowered by the Holy Spirit are
to have His commandments written on the heart,
as the power of the New Covenant is enacted.
Such a redeemed person, filled with the Holy
Spirit and with a new nature desiring to obey
the Lord, understands the message of 1 John 5:3
very well: “For this is the love of God, that we
keep His commandments; and His commandments are
not burdensome.”
Following salvation, the Torah functioning as
pedagogue is over for a born again man or woman.
What follows is the Torah functioning as the
mission statement of a person’s new life in
Yeshua, where one can be a part of “a kingdom of
priests and a holy nation” (Exodus 19:6),
fulfilling God’s mandate to be a blessing to the
world (Galatians 3:8; Genesis 12:2-3). Having
the Torah’s principles imbued into the man or
woman empowered by God’s Spirit
makes the
Torah even more important following salvation—not
less important. It helps us learn about the
character of God, and how we need to learn to
act toward sinful humanity with love
the same as He
has acted toward us (Romans
5:6-9).
In examining various commentaries on Galatians,
I certainly saw how interpreters had to engage
with the thought that the Torah could serve as
an individual’s pedagogue, but then they all
pretty much rejected it. The Torah only serving
as a Jewish pedagogue until the time of Christ
was instead vastly preferred. The Torah serving
in any kind of an educational role for people on
the path to salvation, being shown their sin
nature from the high standard of God’s
commandments, was not really welcomed.
I have spent more time in prayer and
contemplation than you can know ruminating over
this issue, asking myself:
Why is this
the case? The answer is one that
really does grieve me, because I have a huge
amount of respect for people who dedicate their
lives to teaching and expositing God’s Word—in
some cases spending five to ten years writing
commentaries on texts like Galatians. These are
not immoral or God-less people by any means, but
in some places they are misdirected.
Consider how we all get really upset when we
encounter various Messianic individuals and
ministries who finally come out of the closet
and say that they hold to a low Christology,
failing to acknowledge the foundational
declaration of faith “Yeshua is
Lord”
(Romans 10:9). Yet the problem with much of
today’s evangelical Church is not too
dissimilar. Rejecting a view that Galatians
3:23-25 relates to individuals condemned by
God’s Torah as sinners, needing to be led to the
Messiah, is a reflection that too many of
today’s Christians hold to a
low
hamartology.
Hamartology is the study of sin.
Romans 3:20b is clear: “through the Law
comes
the knowledge of sin.” God’s Torah contains His
gold standard of what He considers sin to be,
and it begins with us contemplating the severity
of the Ten Commandments. But how many Christians
today are really taught what God’s commandments
are, much less that disobedience to them brings
the condemnation of the Creator down upon them?
How many of us have completely misdiagnosed what
“under the Law” really means
as being
subjected to the condemnation of the Torah,
a consequence of sin being someone’s master
(Romans 6:14)? How many Christians still sit
under the Law’s condemnation as (unredeemed)
sinners—and may not even know it—because their
salvation experience had nothing to do with
confessing their violation of even just a few of
the Ten Commandments (cf. 1 John 1:9)?
Today, the fact that much of the contemporary
Church holds to a low hamartology is evidencing
itself very clearly. Entire denominations are
splitting over the issue of homosexuality. Now I
am the last person who is going to say that gays
and lesbians should not be treated as human
people, deserving of respect and basic rights.
They
deserve our love, and not harsh treatment.
But if the Church held to a high, or at least a
higher, harmartology, then this would not be a
debate. Homosexual people would not be ordained
clergy, and we would not relegate the Torah’s
instructions on sexuality to the dustbin. I look
back at the two dominant religious traditions in
my family, Wesleyan-holiness and Reformed, and
neither one held to the low view of God’s Torah
as is often held in the contemporary Church. Yet
the denominations that adhere to these
ideologies either have already split, or are on
the verge of splitting sometime soon.
I think that the reason today’s Galatians
commentators do not want to see the necessity of
the Torah as ultimately leading people to the
Messiah (Romans 10:4, Grk.), is because of a low
hamartology. Discounting the role that God’s
Torah is to play is condemning sinners, but
ultimately having to drive them to the sacrifice
of Yeshua for forgiveness, is a severe
indictment against much of the contemporary
Church.
It has failed
in its proclamation of the gospel.
And then, when people do supposedly get saved by
its “Law-free gospel,” God’s Torah plays no role
in discipleship, or sometimes even Bible study.
It is just an interesting part of archaic
Biblical history to them.
Now you can see why I believe so strongly that
the Messianic movement possesses great potential
to be a force of God’s holiness and
righteousness. While many of us have been
blessed by having a more hands-on and
interactive faith, by remembering
Shabbat or the appointed times—we have the responsibility
of restoring
a high
hamartology to the
ekklēsia.
Keeping God’s Torah is by no means what saves
us; the Prophet Isaiah says that our human
righteousness is but “filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6,
KJV).
God’s Torah shows us how sinful we are, and how
much we need a Savior. But as
Believers empowered by the Holy Spirit,
following God’s Torah as redeemed people gives
us the ability to demonstrate good works and
conduct in a world marred by sin, enabling us to
show others His love and compassion (Matthew
5:16ff).
Today, we do not know what the emerging
Messianic movement is going to emerge into.
There are huge debates going on about whether
all of the Torah is a standard that all people
are affected by, or that only some of the Torah
affects non-Jewish Believers like me (and I am
not talking about the natural divisions of the
Torah’s commandments, nor about the difference
between its apodictic and casuistic laws). The
Messianic movement cannot at all agree about the
equality of all people in the Lord, including
not only Jews and non-Jews, but also women
(Galatians 3:28). The Messianic movement is
behind the curve in much of its theology and
scholarship, and its engagement level with
various issues and subjects where both Judaism
and evangelical Christianity are far ahead of
us.
Yet in spite of some of these challenges, I
believe that our Heavenly Father has chosen us
to do some important work in the days to come.
The
internal issues will subside and we will see His
mandate accomplished. In future
decades, our faith community may be some of a
small few who hold to
a high
hamartology, not having
relegated the Torah as important only to the
time period prior to the Messiah. But neither
will we make the mistake of discounting the good
Apostle Paul’s instructions as being irrelevant
as some do. We will be able, just as he did, to
proclaim to everyone how the Lord Yeshua “is the
culmination of the law so that there may be
righteousness for everyone who believes” (Romans
10:4, TNIV).
My friends, please join with us so that we can
finally move ahead with what we need to be
doing. There is much work, study, and
research that needs to be accomplished—and it is
high time that we align our objects with His
objectives! Our ministry represents a
perspective that now needs a wider hearing, one
which can help all Messianic Believers be all
that the Lord has called them to be.
J.K. McKee
(B.A., University of Oklahoma; M.A., Asbury
Theological Seminary) is the editor of TNN
Online (www.tnnonline.net) and is a Messianic
apologist.
He is a 2009 recipient of the Zondervan Biblical
Languages Award for Greek.
He
is author of
numerous books, dealing with a wide range of
topics that are important for today’s
Messianic Believers. He has also written many articles on
theological issues,
and is presently focusing his attention on Messianic commentaries
of various books of the Bible.
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