Theological Knowledge N.t. Wright Exegesis

Front 1

What are Judaizers?

Back 1

They are not strict jews or any kind of jews for the matter, rather they are Gentiles who are trying to become Jews, which is what some "agitators" in Galatians wish them to do.

Front 2

What is the freedom, which Titus and Paul believe in, which failed to compel Titus to become circumcised?

Back 2

The freedom of Gentile Christians to stay as gentile Christians and not have to become Jews in order to belong to the people of God

Front 3

What is the basic question being asked in 2 Galatians?

Back 3

Is it right for Christian Gentiles and Jews to eat together?

Front 4

When Paul accuses Peter of living like a Pagan in Galatians 2, what does he mean?

Back 4

That he is used to eating with gentiles and makes no difference between them and him

Front 5

What connotations did the term "Gentile sinners" have?

Back 5

It meant half breeds. This refers to ethnic identity

Front 6

What has the gospel done in Galatians 2?

Back 6

It has broken down the barriers between ethnicities and created a new identity for those in Christ

Front 7

What did Jews perceive that you get by 'living' like a Jew in Galatians 2? And what is a misunderstanding of this?

Back 7

You get the assurance that you belong to the people of God. It is not the case that you are storing up for oneself moral merit.

Front 8

Where would one find the famous Pistis Iesou Chrstou debate in Galatians?

Back 8

Galatians 2:16

Front 9

What is the purpose of the "faithfulness of the messiah" in the Pistis debate?

Back 9

this is the messiah's faithfulness to the long, single purposes of God. The death of the messiah redefines the people of God as those who in faith belong to him.

Front 10

What are the two reasons why the works of the law cannot justify?

Back 10

First, God has redefined his people through the faithfulness of the messiah - thus works of the law divide Jew from Gentile. Secondly, the works of the law cannot justify because what the law really does is reveal sin - nobody can keep it perfectly

Front 11

How do the Old perspective and New sit comfortably in terms of two problems in the old testament and Abraham as its solution?

Back 11

The problem of Genesis 11 (the fracturing of humanity) is the outworking of Genesis 3 (sin) and the problem of Abraham is the answer to both together.

Front 12

So what is the rough framework of Pauls train of thought concerning justification in Galatians?

Back 12

1. God called Abraham to bless the whole world and create a family out of Jew and Gentile. 2. This has been accomplished by the faithful Jesus and all who believe in him constitute this new family. 3 The law was given to keep Israel on track, but it could never serve to achieve God's goals because it forever separated Jew and Gentile and also it always showed the Jews as sinners because it couldn't be kept perfectly. The Messiah's death deals with both of these problems

Front 13

Galatians 2:15 We who are Jews by nature and not sinners of the Gentiles,

Back 13

Here Paul refers to the gentiles as sinners, meaning not that the jews are not sinning, but that they are half breeds or outcasts.

Front 14

Galatians 2:16 knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified.

Back 14

Here, the previously mentioned context tells us that the works of the law is "living like a jew". These are not moral good works, but things that divide like Jews not eating with gentiles.

Front 15

Galatians 2:17 But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is Christ therefore a minister of sin? Certainly not!

Back 15

So if we are seeking to find our identity as Gods people in the Messiah, trusting in his faithfulness, this means that in terms of Torah we find ourselves outside standing alongside Gentile "sinners". And does this mean that Christ is stirring up sinful behaviour? encouraging people to live outside the law? Certainly not!!

Front 16

Galatians 2:18 For if I build again those things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor

Back 16

Paul is saying, "If, having pulled down the wall of partition between myself and the Gentiles, having discovered that it is abolished through the messiah, I then build it up again by separating myself from the gentiles, all I accomplish is to erect a sign (the Torah itself) which says "you have transgressed"

Front 17

What are Peter's options theologically in Galatians based on his behaviour (according to Paul)

Back 17

Either you stay in the Jew-plus-Gentile family of the Messiah, or you erect again the wall of Torah between them-but there will be a notice on your side of that wall, saying, "By the way, you have broken me"- both in General, because nobody keeps it perfectly, and in particular, because you have recently been living "like a Gentile, not like a Jew"

Front 18

Galatians 2:19 For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God.

Back 18

The "I" here is a way of saying "This is what happens to Jews" without saying it as something that Paul does from the outside. Paul here is talking about his identity under the law being removed that he might live for a different identity, and that it would live in him.

Front 19

Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ; it is not longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Back 19

After dying to the old identity of the Torah, one is raised to new life in the identity of the Messiah, passing from the old age into that of the new. The act of Christ dying was an act of supreme love which embodied the very grace of God

Front 20

Galatians 2:21 I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.

Back 20

The death of Christ was God's grace in its fullest and to deny oneself this identity is the grossest ingratitude. If Paul were to accept the torah as his identity then the death of Christ served no purpose.