by Pastor Mark Chin
The Apostle Paul: Republican or Democrat?
Christian Identity in Light of Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians
INTRODUCTION
What is to determine the Christian identity in America? What are the means with which this identity is to be expressed? In response to these questions, the political history of the past decade points to a disturbing trend. As the theological landscape of the evangelical church has become increasingly fragmented, conservative evangelical Christians have enthusiastically engaged in the post-modern culture wars and identity politics of the twenty first century, mobilizing themselves into a political power base, choosing to be defined by political platforms, asserting their agenda through party politics, and embracing politicians who can talk their talk. In contrast to such a trend, Jesus’ refusal to engage in political agendas, even to defend His own innocence, pointing out to Pilate that his kingdom was not of this world, somehow seems embarrassingly passé (not to mention His commands to love our enemies and to turn the other cheek).
Ever faithful to the Lord and Savior to whose Gospel he had been called, the life and message of the apostle Paul also stands in stark contrast to the identity path being charted by the politically invested post-modern American evangelical. His epistle to the Galatians is a case in point. Written in all likelihood on the eve of the first Jerusalem Council, in passionate opposition to those who were attempting to redefine the Christian identity by a Christ-plus-culture formula, the apostle Paul in his epistle to the Galatians clearly articulates what is to determine the Christian identity.[1] Party politics, moral agendas, personality cults, and even, arguably, partisanship to a particular theological system are conspicuously absent in Paul’s letter. For the apostle Paul, it is the true Gospel alone, Christ crucified for the sins of believers and resurrected by God, which is to determine the Christian identity. A believer is to be like Christ, which can be accomplished only through a life lived by faith in union with the crucified and resurrected Christ – nothing more, nothing less.
PAUL’S EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS: ONE WEAPON FOR TWO FRONTS
The epistle to the Galatians, likely the earliest of Paul’s extant letters, has always held a position of primacy in the Christian faith.[2] It is considered by some to be Paul’s most direct defense and exposition of justification by faith, which is so much the heart of Paul’s understanding of the Gospel and of the Christian experience.[3] Its divine challenge to distortions of the gospel is fundamental to the apostle Paul, to the individual believer, to the Church, and to the true Christian faith, especially during times of soteriological uncertainty. Its divine power to bring true biblical change has rarely been matched. Nowhere was this more evident in the West than in the hands of a German monk some fourteen hundred plus years after Galatians was first penned. Yet to reduce the message of Galatians to the now infamous reformation anthem, “justification by faith alone” or to a “salvation by faith rather than works” apologetic is to miss much and to risk stepping into a “non-Lordship salvation” misunderstanding of Paul’s argument.
With this letter, Paul was waging a war against an insidious heresy on two fronts. The obvious frontal attack against the true gospel was clearly being made by the Judaizer faction within the early church. This faction claimed that Paul’s gospel to the Gentiles was not divine but rather Paul’s own invention (Gal 1:11), that circumcision (i.e. fulfillment of the Law) was a prerequisite for full acceptance by God (i.e. justification, being declared right before God by God), and that living by means of the Jewish Law was the only way to check the excesses of the flesh and to live a life pleasing to God (i.e. sanctification, a life set apart for God).[4] Far more insidious and dangerous was the rear attack coming from some of the apostles themselves, Peter most notably, as well as Barnabas (Gal 2:14) who had stopped eating publicly with Gentile Christians in conformity to the Mosaic Law. Though publicly confessing with Paul salvation from the wrath of God for all men through faith in Christ alone (Acts 10:43) and not by works of the Law (Acts 11:17), unlike Paul, these Christian leaders were exemplifying a different faith – a Christ-plus-culture Christianity whose identity was based on a conservative, traditional, man-centered, merit-based, legalistic system of salvation. Paul summed up this type of Christian walk in one word, “hypocrisy” (Gal 2:13).
The true Gospel, then, was not merely being attacked by outsiders with a blatant salvation-by-Judaism message. Galatians 2:15-16 suggests that the assault was being made by insiders and Christian leaders who actually confessed the key tenets of the faith – Jesus as Lord and justification/salvation by faith in Christ – plus a Christian identity based on a now cultural religious system of merit. For Paul, Christ was everything and sufficient for the entirety of the Christian experience and identity. A faith composed of Christ plus anything else, including a cultural Christianity, whether in word or deed, was a deviation from the truth of the Gospel (Gal 2:14), worthy of public condemnation (Gal 2:11), and a damnable heresy (Gal 1:8). The heart of Paul’s argument in support of this is found in the pivotal passage of Gal 2:15-21 which provides both the conclusion of Paul’s narrative introduction and his proposition for the entire letter.[5] It is one weapon that destroys the enemies of the Gospel on every front. The heart of Paul’s argument, considered by many to be the very heart of Paul’s entire ministry, is the doctrine of union with Christ – the summation and consummation of the entire gospel message in the life of the believer.
UNION WITH CHRIST: COUNTER-CULTURE BY WAY OF THE CROSS
“I have been crucified with Christ…”
For Paul, the true gospel is not a creed, a confession, a tag line, or rallying cry, nor is it even the founding theory of a religious, theological, or political system. “It is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes… “ (Rm 1:16). It is the work of God in Christ that unites sinful man with the holy Sovereign God of the universe, doing so by way of the cross. As such, Paul makes clear in Gal 2:20b, using an emphatic gnomic “I” to represent all true believers, that the Gospel is to be lived and experienced in its entirety, not in part, and that this can be done only in union with the life of Christ.[6] Union with Christ is an inclusive term for the whole of salvation that characterizes the profound relation between man and God by way of the believer’s personal identification and fellowship with the Savior, Jesus Christ.[7] The consequence for the believer of this union with Christ is the personal appropriation of the effects of the life, resurrection, and glorification of Jesus Christ that are shared and experienced as radical life-transforming identity-shaping living realities.[8] The believer’s life becomes inseparable from Christ’s life – past, present, and future.
Standing at the center of this union is neither culture nor political persuasion, but rather the cross of Christ. The cross of Christ represents a true historical and spiritual event. It demonstrates emphatically and without exception that union with Christ is entirely built upon the will and work of God in Christ and that no system of man, be it religious, political, philosophical, cultural, or economic, has any place in that union. The entire first two chapters leading up to Gal 2:15-21 show that all aspects of a believer’s union with Christ, including the believer’s justification and sanctification, are the product of God’s divine work in the believer’s life. This includes God’s will (Gal 1:4), Christ’s work (Gal 1:4), God’s calling (Gal 1:6), Christ’s grace (Gal 1:6), God’s Gospel (Gal 1:11), and God’s apostle (Gal 1:1), all of which are made manifest most fully to man at the cross of Christ. No system of man finds any place in the believer’s union with Christ at the cross. In fact, the crucifixion of Christ historically, as it testifies to the complete grace of God in salvation, damningly testifies to the complete hateful rejection of that grace by all human systems of merit, including the ones already mentioned. All human systems of merit, religious, political, philosophical, cultural, economic, etc…, willingly participated in the crucifixion of Christ and to all these systems including the Judaic system of Law, Christ died once and for all, demonstrating for all the magnitude of both His humanity and His deity. To be united with Christ is to be united with His cross and everything that it represents, hence Paul’s confession in Gal 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ.”
So then, how can participation in any of these human systems of merit that clearly hate God make a man right with God? Paul’s argument in Gal 2:15-21 not only affirms without question that they cannot,[9] “a man is not justified by works of the Law … since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified” (Gal 2:16), but also proves that all such systems of human merit are actually antagonistic and detrimental to the believer’s union with Christ (2:17-21). Participation then in salvation and union with Christ can only happen by a means that excludes any system of human merit or effort. The only means adequate for such a task is God’s gift of grace, faith in Christ (Eph 1:7; 2:8; Gal 2:16; 3:26). The cross of Christ leaves room for nothing else.
FAITH = CHRIST ALONE : CHRIST = FAITH ALONE
“… the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God…”
The biblical concept of faith, from the OT (amen) through the NT (pistis) is a declarative, rather than a causative, expression for man’s relation to God[10] that expresses both a positive affirmation and negative renunciation.[11] It is a complete positive affirmation of God’s word as being true, resulting in complete persevering commitment, dependence, and obedience to the will and word of God.[12] The notion of complete trust, confidence, assurance, and hope in God and His word are part of this positive affirmation.[13] Conversely, faith is also a negative renunciation of anything that is not of God, including self-confidence, self-assurance, self-righteousness, human achievement, or any human systems of merit. Abraham serves as our example, displaying a faith that included a positive reliance upon God and a negative renunciation of his own ability to please God.[14]
Faith in Christ, then, brings all these aspects into play. Faith is the instrument of participation and Christ is the source, the object, the basis, and the sphere of that faith. Faith in Christ expresses a complete persevering dependence on the work and person of Jesus Christ for everything in the life of the believer and a complete persevering abandonment of anything that is not of Christ. As such, it can only be a gift of God since it rejects any work of sinful man. By definition, then, faith in Christ is incompatible with the world and all its systems of merit. Like the cross, it is in fact an affirmation of the war that exists between the two. Union with Christ, then, is by faith in Christ alone.
This union with Christ by faith, however, is not a mere affirmation of the name of Christ or a rejection of certain sins or sinners, actions which are so frequently applauded in evangelical circles. True faith in Christ alone actually unites the believer with Christ in His crucifixion and His resurrection. “In both Romans and Galatians, Paul is referring to the fact that when a person exercises faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, he is placed in transcendent spiritual union with Christ in the historical event of His death and resurrection, in which the penalty of sin was paid in full.”[15] The believer then, by faith, not only rejects the law, but dies to the law and to any claim the law may have on him. As a result, the believer participates in a new life in Christ, where Christ literally indwells the believer through the bond of the Holy Spirit.[16] As in a marriage, the two become one, the unity becoming the identity of both, thereby heralding a new life which, as Paul states in Gal 2:20, is lived out in the flesh by this same faith in the Son of God. Any other identity by any other means is, therefore, not only incompatible with true union with Christ, but an expression of infidelity to the cross and to Christ.
CONCLUSION
For Paul, there is only one Christian identity, and that is an identity determined solely by a believer’s union with Christ, His life, His death, and His resurrection. Such a union is not merely a theory, a systematic theology, a verbal confession, or an intellectual assent – it is a living, historical and spiritual reality whereby a believer is actually crucified with Christ and Christ actually indwells the believer by faith in Christ alone. Union with Christ, then, is a literal and supernatural identification with all aspects of the life of Christ. The centrality of the cross and of faith in Christ alone to this union, by definition, leaves no room for any human system of merit in any aspect of the believer’s life. The Gospel is, by definition, at war with the world and all its systems of merit, even as the world and all its systems of merit are at war with the Gospel. The testimony of Galatians is that any Christ plus other, be it culture, politics, religion, etc…, formula of faith is a departure from the truth of the Gospel and as such is a damnable heresy. Conservative evangelical Americans would do well to consider the message of the epistle that has brought apostles and popes to their knees – a message that will one day bring all men to their knees – including both Republicans and Democrats.
[1] Richard Longenecker, Word Biblical Commentary: Galatians. [Columbia: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1990], xli.
[2] Longnecker, Galatians, xli.
[3] Ronald Y.K. Fung, The Epistle to the Galatians. [Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. , 1988], xi.
[4] Fung, Galatians, xcviii.
[5] Longnecker, Galatians, 80,83.
[6] Longenecker, Galatians, 92.
[7] James Demarest, The Cross and Salvation: The Doctrine of Salvation, [Wheaton: Crossway Books, 1997], 323.
[8] Baker Theological Dictionary of the Bible, s.v. “Union with Christ”.
[9] Fung, Galatians, 114. Fung contends that “The implication of Paul’s statement, however, may well include the rejection of “any and all works as works-of-merit” – that is, of legalism – as of no avail in the matter of justification; for “if even the works prescribed by the holy law of Israel do not contribute to justification, then a fortiori other works certainly do not.”
[10] TDNT, 187.
[11] George J. Zemek, A Biblical Theology of the Doctrines of Sovereign Grace: Exegetical Considerations of Key Anthropological, Hamartiological and Soteriological Terms and Motifs. [ Eugene: Wipf & Stock Publishers, 2005], 174.
[12] John MacArthur, The MacArthur New Testament Commentary: Galatians. [ Chicago: Moody Press, 1987], 57 .
[13] TDNT, 195.
[14] Zemek, A Biblical Theology of the Doctrines of Sovereign Grace, 174.
[15] John MacArthur, The MacArthur New Testament Commentary: Galatians [Chicago: Moody Press, 1987], 59.
[16] Donald Guthrie, New Testament Theology. [ Downer’s Grove: Inter-Varsity Press, 1981], 654. Guthrie notes that Paul never makes any significant distinction between the function of Christ and of the Spirit within the believer.