Finished Galatians!

This might not interest many of you, but it's free. I began preaching through Galatians at the beginning of the year and finished yesterday. I generally followed the conventional interpretation of the letter, with a few interesting (to me at least) deviations. Here are some of my interpretations that I did not hold before I began:

1. Galatians 1 is Paul's defense of his unique gospel presentation for the Gentiles. When he says he received it by revelation, not from man, he is not contradicting his words in 1 Corinthians 15:3, when he said he received the gospel as tradition passed down to him. He had certainly heard the facts about Jesus while he was persecuting Christians; that's why he could immediately start preaching that Jesus was the Son of God after he was baptized in Damascus (Acts 9).

2. Galatians 2:1 is not meant to be the continuation of Paul's personal narrative. I think it is Paul's account of the "Jerusalem Council" that Luke described in Acts 15 (scholars debate this point). Paul jumps to that occasion because it was the first major time when Paul's understanding of what the gospel implied for Gentiles (which was his distinct personal calling from Christ, his unique contribution among the apostles) was in jeopardy of being contradicted by Jewish Christians with the support of the other apostles. Paul says, in essence, I made the convincing case that faith in Jesus was the exclusive way to be right with God, and that meant that Gentiles did not need to become like the Jews in order to be God's people. Since the Jerusalem Council affirmed that Paul accurately represented what the gospel implied for Gentiles, he was absolutely right to call Peter out when the leader of the original Twelve was undermining gospel implications by his behavior. Paul didn't write about who won the showdown because Peter obviously had not thought through all the implications of the gospel for the Gentiles.

3. I was surprised how many brilliant scholars hold that believers are justified by "the faith/faithfulness of Christ." (See Gal. 2:16-21) I don't buy it at all, but I'll save you the reasons. The traditional view seems right: we are justified by "faith in Christ."

4. That Gentiles and Jews alike are sons of Abraham and heirs of the promise by faith is what renders circumcision ineffective. Thus, when Paul talks about "the Israel of God" in 6:16, he is talking about the same group of people "who walk according to this rule." It would make no sense to argue for the whole letter that Gentiles and Jews are "one in Christ," only to draw a distinction between "God's Israel" and those others, the Gentile Christians. The Israel of God (in this context) = the Church.

5. Galatians 4:21-31 is tough, but I think it is a vivid illustration of living by the flesh.

6. Paul says walking by the Spirit is the superior replacement to living under the Law; if believers are free from the Law, how are they supposed to live? "Walking by the Spirit" is radically others-focused, developing Christ's character in us and creating a community that fulfills the second Great Commandment. When Paul says "Walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh," he's not describing the internal struggle we face to do the right thing. He's saying that the Spirit is the most effective strategy to keep us from everyone doing what is right in his own eyes. Walking by the Spirit is not first about moment-by-moment communication from God (other texts must be used to make that case) - it's first about using your freedom to love and serve our fellow believers and others as opportunity arises.

Too wordy already, so I'll say this: Galatians presents the Christian basics and challenges us deeply to make our boast "in the cross of Christ" and to use our freedom to serve others.

Finished the mini-Marathon

Saturday, April 26th, I ran the Kentucky Derby mini-Marathon. Thankfully, I was not injured during or after the race; I have heard about a few people who were hurt during the race. To my knowledge, PETA has not threatened organizers about how the injured from this race were handled.

I did not purchase the photos that were taken during the race of me, but I'll link them. I showed this one to my 8th grader friend, Brian, who said it looked like I was walking. The other shot isn't great either. And truly, the race T-shirt and the medal are both things I would hesitate to wear in public. So, you must trust me that I did run the entire race. My official time was 1:43:24, putting me comfortably behind 735 other runners, many of whom were much older, one of whom was a 13-year-old boy, and a few hundred of whom were women. That might be enough for me to retire from racing.

What caught the attention of this first-time racer? Four Elvis impersonators, one Spiderman, one princess, my first time in Churchill Downs, the gigantic litter volume created by racers, all the free stuff at the Finish line, the energizing effect of crowds cheering along the road, and the value of keeping pace with a seasoned runner for the last five miles.

Gone Swimmin'

Today we took Wesley for his first dip in a pool. He loved it! We went up to the seminary and swam for about 45 minutes. Wesley was a big fan of chewing on his bath toy while kicking his little legs all around behind him. He checked everyone out and let out quite a few giggles. When his face went in the water, he was pretty shocked, but handled it well. We had a really fun time. Wesley promptly conked out after getting all dried off and changed and getting strapped into his car seat.