Quid Probe Quo

WHO ARE THE RIGHTEOUS?

The letter to the Galatians circulated across the Roman Empire centuries ago.  It presents a reasoned, deliberate answer to this question.  PROBE the argument and possibly re-think the polite exchanges that prefer to consider who are ‘the more’ righteous.

An Historic Juncture

This letter was first intended for specific assemblies in the trade-route cities of the roman province of Galatia (central Turkey on today’s map).  Paul, a Jew from nearby Tarsus had visited this area carrying the news of the life-purpose of Jesus.  Gladdened by this news all manner of people assembled together to purposefully honor Jesus as the Anointed one for humanity, a savior-king who’s coming was widely anticipated.

But then, these Galatian assemblies were sold a bill of credentials.  Following hard after Paul was a more impressive credential; Paul called them “somebodies.”  These somebodies postured as reputable agents of reputable leaders in Jerusalem, the reputable headquarters.  Paul’s incomplete version –similarities acknowledged of course—was too simplistic, not their idea of righteous.

Well, Paul did not buy any of it.  Knowing that the Jerusalem leaders did not send these somebodies, he exposed them as manipulators whose religion hacked at people thereby diminishing the Savior.

Not at all in conflict with Peter and James and John who had walked with Jesus, Paul refused to settle short in behalf of these people.  He storms against the notion that anyone dare convert to their own use the good news concerning Jesus.

Their hybrid version was usual stock:  pretentious duty, persona upkeep, naïve self-esteem.  None of it satisfies the most basic need of the human soul, which is the need to be justified.  This is what Jesus is anointed to do.

Here is the first-writing from among those first dispatched by Jesus.  An instrument of the mission, the letter intervenes in crisis to manifest righteous standing with the Creator for full-blown, pristine freedom.

Letter to the Galatians

Paul, agent on dispatch:  not from humans nor through human agency; but through agency of Jesus Anointed-king and God the father who raised him out from the place of the dead.

And the brothers:  with me in all respects

To:  The assemblies in Galatia 

I wonder.  So hastily you are shifting off the one who called you within Anointed’s favor into an alternative good news?  As to that, no other one exists.  Merely somebodies exist who are agitating you and intending to usurp the good news of the Anointed-king. But even if we would, or if a courier out of heaven might newscarry alongside what we newscarried to you, consider him abandoned.  As we have said already, so I am stating exactly once more: if any one newscarries to you alongside what you received, consider him abandoned.

Now exactly am I persuading humans or the God?  Or seeking to please humans?  If I were still pleasing humans, I could not be Anointed’s bondservant.  For I am making known among you, brothers, the good news:  this newscarried by me that is not humanistic (for not even one such as I received it by human tradition nor was I taught) rather, it is through revelation from Jesus Anointed-king.

For you heard of my own involvement once in the Jew’s religion.  To excess I was pursuing the God’s assembly and ravaging her.  And in the Jew’s religion I was hacking onward beyond many peers in my generation, an extreme zealot springing from the traditions of my fathers.  Yet when he (who defines me from my mother’s womb and calls through his favor) consented to reveal his son by me so that I could newscarry him among the nationalities, I did not directly put to committee with flesh and blood; nor did I come back for Jerusalem facing dispatches preceding me. Instead I went off for Arabia; then I veered back for Damascus.

Next after three years I went back for Jerusalem to apprise Cephas, and persisted close by him fifteen days.  But an alternative among dispatches I did not see, notwithstanding James the brother of the Lord. (Outright! what I write to you in the God’s presence: I am not lying.)

Next I went into the Syrian and Cilician regions.  But I was unknown by the face in the Jewish assemblies in Anointed’s kingdom and they were only hearing: “he who at one time pursued us, now newscarries the reliance which once he ravaged;” and they were glorifying the God in my case.

But from those reputed to be somewhat (once what they were makes no difference for me; face, God does not take of man) indeed with me, these reputed ones by no means put to committee. Instead the opposite!  Seeing that I was entrusted the good news for the shamecovered even as Peter for the circumcision (he who energized in Peter for dispatch concerning the circumcision energized also in me for the nationalities) and knowing the kind of favor given to me, James and Cephas and John—those reputed to be pillars—gave right-hands of commonpurpose to me, as well as Barnabas, so that we into the nationalities, but they into the circumcision. Only the beggarly!  we should remember.  Precisely what I was serious to do.

Yet when Cephas went into Antioch, I confronted him concerning face because there was guilt. For prior to the coming of somebodies from James, he was commingling with the nationalities at meals.  But when they came, he started recoiling and defining himself fearing the circumcision based. And with him, the remaining Jews co-roleplayed such that even Barnabas was co-opted by them in this roleplay.  Certainly when I saw that they were not straight tracking near the truthfulness of the good news, I said to this Cephas in front of everyone:  “You, Judah’s offspring: if you are living internationally and not Jewishly, how do you force the nationalities to Judahize?”

We:  Jews naturally and not nation based waywards.  Yet aware that man is not justified based in law’s duties (unless through reliance on Anointed Jesus) even we! into Anointed Jesus we have relied so that we would be justified based in reliance on Anointed, and not based in law’s duties. This is because all flesh will not be justified based in law’s duties.  Yet if while seeking to be justified by Anointed-king we were found quite the same waywards!  maybe Anointed-king: a server for missed-way?  Not conceivable.

For if I restructure what I disbanded, I frame myself a transgressor.  Really it is I who dies: through law, by law so that for God I may live.  With Anointed-king I share in getting hanged on a stake; yet I am alive.  No longer is it I!  Indeed Anointed-king is living in me.  But now what I live in flesh, in reliance I live by the life of the son of the God who esteemed me and gave himself substituting over for me.  I am not canceling the favor of the God.

If then it is justification by means of law, so Anointed-king overcharitably dies? O unthinking Galatians: who charmed you in whose eyes Jesus Anointed-king was placarded: HANGED ON STAKE?  This alone I intend to learn from you:  you got the spirit based in law’s duties or based in a hearing for reliance?  Are you in this way unthinking?  Originated by spirit now by flesh you finish off?  So many things you tolerate carelessly.  Well then, too carelessly!

Brothers, humanways I am stating:  Albeit human no one cancels or stipulates upon a ratified covenant.

Now the promises issued for this Abraham and for the seed of him.  He does not state, “and for the seeds,” as upon many, but as upon one, “and for the seed of you,” who is Anointed-king.

So this I am stating: the 430-year-come-later law is not unratifying a covenant ratified already by the God, so as to disengage this promise. For if based in law, the inheritance is no longer based in promise.  But the God grants to this Abraham by a promise. Then why the law?  In consideration of the transgressions, it was adjoined until the seed would come to whom promised, assigned by couriers in intermediary’s hand.

But the unilateral intermediary does not exist.  Yet the God is a unilateral.

Thus:  the law versus God’s promises? Not conceivable. Really if an able-to-make-life law were given, summarily the justification might be based in law.  Instead the scripture confined the totality of it under missed-way in order that the promise based in reliance on Jesus Anointed-king would be given to those who rely.  Furthermore prior to the coming of this reliance, we were safeguarded under law, being confined for the purpose of the about to be revealed reliance.  Thus the law becomes a nanny for us for Anointed’s purpose, so that we would be justified based in reliance.  Since the reliance came, we no longer consist under a nanny.

Now you are all sons of God (through this reliance) within Anointed Jesus.  So all who were deepened for Anointed-king, you went in Anointed’s kingdom.  Not Jewish in; and not Greek.  Not bound in; and not free.  Not in masculine and feminine.  In fact you all are one in Anointed Jesus.  Furthermore if you belong to Anointed-king, thereby you consist of the Abraham seed: promiseway heirs.

And I am stating: over as much time as the heir is a juvenile, there is no difference from a bondservant; though being owner of everything, he is under guardians and managers during the preset from the father. So also are we.  While we were juveniles under the elements of the system, we were bondaged. But when the fullness of the time came, the God dispatched out his son (became so out of woman, became so under law) so that he could exchange those under law, in order that we would take back the sonship. And because you are sons, the God dispatched out the spirit of his son into our hearts bellowing, “papa!”—the father. 

Thus no longer are you a bondservant.  Instead: a son! And if a son, really an heir through God.

Otherwise formerly unaware of God, you were bondservants for the non-being gods. But presently knowing God (better yet known by God) how is it that you are turning back again onto the deficient and beggarly elements?  For that you intend to be in bondage all over again?  Days you ritualize: and months; and seasons; and years.  I am alarmed at you.  Hardly in some careless way did I strain for you!

Become as I, since even I am as you, brothers. I appeal to you. You wronged me in nothing. You are aware that through a flesh deficiency I newscarried to you the first time; and the test for you in the flesh of me you did not trivialize nor spit out.  Instead you accepted me as God’s courier, as if Anointed Jesus!  So now where’s your happyday?  Indeed I am testifying to you, that if doable, you would have dug out and given your eyes to me.  So then, your enemy I become, being truthful with you!

They are feverish for you, not admirably. But they mean to isolate you so you would be feverish for them. Yet admirable it is to get feverish concern within admirableness at all times, and not only on occasion of my presence with you my children—for whom once again I travail to the point wherein Anointed’s kingdom is shaped among you. But I could wish to be present facing you at once and to change my tone, since I am at an impasse as to you.

In the other case, Jerusalem-above is free: this way is our mother.  It is written:
Cheer up, you the sterile, unbearing; burst and shout you non-travailer!  For many are the children of the deserted, more than the one holding the man.

So you are!  Brothers, you are promise children like Isaac.  But even as then—the fleshway generated pursuing the spiritway— that’s the way now too.  But what does the scripture state?
    Banish the bondmaid and her son.  For sure the son of the bondmaid shall never inherit jointly with the son of the free.  
So throughout, brothers, we do not consist as bondmaid kind of children.  Instead the free kind!  To this freedom Anointed-king freed us.  Therefore maintain standing.  And, do not be held again in a bondage yoke.

Look!  I, Paul!  I am stating to you: if you would be circumcised, Anointed-king will gain you nothing.  Furthermore, I summon back every circumcised man, since an obligor exists wholly to do the law.  You were disengaged off Anointed-king, you who would be justified within law; you fell from the favor.  But we: by spirit, based in reliance, in a righteousness-kind of hope, we wait securely.  So, in Anointed Jesus neither circumcision nor shamecovered is sustaining something strong.  Instead it is reliance energized through love that esteems.

You were running well; who hacked in your way toward persuading for the truth? (The persuasion not out of the one calling you—a little ferment wholly ferments the mix.)  I, the confident one for you, am persuaded in the Lord that you will consider nothing else; and the one agitating you:  he shall bear the judgment no matter who he is.  As for me brothers, if I still herald circumcision (as if the tripwire of the stake had been disengaged) why am I still pursued?  Deservedly they could hack off in their own interests,  they who  disrupt you!

As for you: to freedom you were called, brothers.  Absolutely not the freedom for wherewithal to the flesh!  But by this love that esteems, be a bondservant one for another.  For in one statement the entire law gets filled entirely in the: 
    you shall esteem your neighbor as yourself.
Yet if you bite and devour one another, look out lest you could be used up by one another.

Furthermore, I am stating:  walk by spirit and do not at all finish flesh’s craving.

For the flesh craves versus the spirit and the spirit versus the flesh.  Indeed these counter position one to another, so it is not: anything you might intend, you may do.  But if you are led by spirit, you do not consist under law.

Yet obvious is the fleshworks.  It consists of any of these:  promiscuity, purge denial, brazenness, image fixation, drug use, enmities, contentiousness, jealous posture, tempers, opportunism, divisiveness, choice mongering, envies, liquor habits, group frenzy, and the like to these of which I am openly stating to you (even as I was plainspoken):  those dealing such way shall not inherit God’s kingdom.

However, the fruit from the spirit consists of love that esteems, joy, peace, long temper, useful kindness, goodness, reliance, composure, inner dominion: versus such as these is no law!  So those belonging to Anointed Jesus hang on a stake the flesh with the reactives and the cravings.  If we are alive by spirit, by spirit also we should align.

We should not become hollow reputed, calling one another out, envying one to another.  Brothers, even if a person is prepossessed in a somebody fall away, you are the spirit-based; you adjust such as this in composure spirit—monitoring yourself, lest you too be tested.  Mutually bear the weights, and this way fill up the law from the Anointed-king.  For if a somebody is supposing to be something (being nothing) he does mindtricks on himself.  In fact, each must authenticate the work for himself.  Even then for himself alone he will hold the boast and not for this alternative.  For each shall bear the load appropriately. Yet, commoncause in all good essentials:  the one coached in the statement with the coach.

Do not vacillate; God is not snubbed.  Surely whatever man seeds, this also he will harvest.  That being so, the one who seeds into the flesh for himself will harvest rot based in the flesh; but the one who seeds into the spirit will harvest perpetual life based in the spirit.  So in the matter of yielding quality, we should not misbehave; for at an appropriate opportunity we shall harvest but for slacking.  Surely therefore, as we are holding an opportunity, we should work the good purpose toward everybody, and foremost toward the homegrown of the reliance. 

You see very bold lettering for you!  I write like this, by my own hand.  How very bold are they who intend to be showy in flesh interest.  These force you to be circumcised merely that they would not be pursued by the stake of the Anointed-king; for not even the circumcised themselves are watchful of law.  Instead they intend for you to be circumcised, so that they might boast in this:  your flesh.  But for me to boast?  Not conceivable —unless in the stake of the Lord of us Jesus Anointed-king, through whom system is staked by me.  And I by system.

For neither circumcision nor shamecovered is why and wherefore.  Instead:  new peopling!  Then by that template as many who align:  peace upon them and mercy, namely upon the God-striver belonging to the God.

From now on no person broadside hacks at me.  For I do indeed bear the slave tattoo of this Jesus within my body.

The favor of the Lord of us Jesus Anointed-king be with your spirit, brothers.  Firm.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

LIFE CORNERSTONES

Your Creator wants you to walk together with Him.

I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go,

I will counsel you with My eye upon you. (Psalm 32:8 NASB)

Happy are those who observe His testimonies…They walk in His ways.(Psalm 119:2)

But we have missed (sin) the Creator’s way choosing to walk contrary to His purpose, indifferent to righteousness, and accepting the phoniness of religious self-righteousness.

All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way.(Isaiah 53:6 NASB)

He who is of God hears the words of God, for this reason you do not hear them because you are not of

God. (John 8:47 NASB)

In order to initiate forgiveness and provide wholeness for us, the Creator lowered Himself becoming a man with the intention of being a Savior who satisfies justice by accepting the death sentence that was due us.

I lay down My life so that I may take it again. (John 10:17 NASB)

For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God,

having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit. (1Peter 3:18 NASB)

We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us. (1 John 3:16 NASB)

Each person is charged with putting his trust in Savior Jesus that His dying and raising from the dead are all-sufficient to reconcile us to our Creator and preserve the walk.

I am the way, the truthfulness, and the life. (John 14:6)

I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies.(John 11:25NASB)

Happy the one who has made the Lord his trust. (Psalm 40:4)

TALKS FOR THE WALK

Let the Lord talk to you.

Read the Bible every day asking the Lord for understanding.

Then a voice came out of the cloud, saying: “This is My Son, My chosen one, listen to Him.(Luke 9:35NASB

Happy is the man who listens to Me, watching daily at My gates, waiting at my doorposts.(Proverbs 8:34)

Talk to the Father in Jesus name.

When you pray you are appealing to the Sovereign who judges one and all righteously and mercifully.

To pray is to ask the Lord (owner) to do for you.

He was telling them a parable to show that at all times they ought to pray and not lose heart.

(Luke 18:1 NASB)

The Lord gives grace and glory; no good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly.

(Psalm 84: 11 NASB)

Talk with others who are walking the way of trust.

By this all men will know that you are My disciples if you have love for one another.(John 13:35NASB)

Therefore encourage one another and build up one another. (1 Thessalonians 5:11 NASB)

Talk to others who need to hear this Good News (Gospel): there is a Savior.

Share briefly; it doesn’t require teaching theology.

…one thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see. (John 9:25 NASB)

There is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name given among men

by which we must be saved. (Acts 4:12 NASB)

Like apples of gold in settings of silver is a word spoken in right circumstances. (Proverbs 25:11NASB)

---

Paul, the Writer

Considered “a Hebrew out of Hebrews” the young rabbinical student named Saul would later introduce himself as: Paul, a slave of Jesus.

Born in 10 AD to a strict Jewish family in Tarsus (S.E. coastal city of    present-day Turkey) he was held in close-community around the synagogue.  This community of tradesmen and merchants prescribed strict fidelity to the Law of Moses plus an oral tradition of regulations as self-disciplining preparation for a deliverer from Jehovah God.  Great expectation lay with this gifted young man in sending him to Jerusalem for study under Gamaliel, grandson of the renown Jewish scholar Hillel.

In Jerusalem perhaps within months of the final days of Jesus on earth, he was quickly immersed in a revolution.  Thousands at a time were openly trusting Jesus as the promised savior-deliverer.  But these fervent Jews of the Way were not leaving the temple; and they were not leaving the Scriptures.  As a young zealot with connections to leading families, it was not difficult to become an instrument of the religious authorities.  He dutifully busted into houses to drag such “wayward” Jews off to jail where they were harangued, beaten, and often condemned in a Jewish court that Rome allowed for religious matters.

Two events would bring enlightened knowledge and turn the course of his life.  First, in the trial of Stephen at the court of the Jewish elders, his religious veneer was penetrated by Stephen’s skillful use of the Scriptures in the defense.  Then while on assignment to Damascus to uproot Jews of the Way a second event occurred when he was stopped in the roadway by an intense light.  All travelers saw the light; Saul saw Jesus and heard, “Saul! Saul! Why do you pursue me? Stiff of you to kick at goads!”  In 35 AD that is the way he met the promised deliverer. 

Around 49 AD going by the name Paul, he wrote the letter to the Galatians.  Twelve more such letters –all preserved in the New Testament section of the Holy Bible– would follow as Paul news-carried among merchants and governors, philosophers and slaves, traversing from Jerusalem to Spain until the crazed emperor Nero executed him in 67 AD.

---

Probe Further

Consider these references in your Bible and continue your probe:

Acts 4: 1–12
Isaiah 53
John 1: 9–13
John 3: 1–21
Luke 15: 11–32
John 20: 24–29
1 John 1: 1– 2:2
Romans 14: 22-23
Hebrews 11: 6
Hebrews 12: 1–2
Psalm 9: 10 And they that know Your name will put their trust in You.

Usage Note: Believe as used in the Bible carries the strength of rely on, trust in.  Faith as used in the Bible is reliance, trust.  The Galatians text herein uses rely for believe, reliance for faith because as Paul persuades: faith should be put! not put on.

Translation Notes

The Letter to the Galatians is one of 27 titles in the New Testament Bible.  This text encourages uninterrupted progress of thought in a one-sitting read.  The New Testament writers intended their works as circulars; and a common, trade language in the first century facilitated circulation across multiple cultures.  When a circular arrived it was read aloud in assembly of believers.  Can it be doubted the circular was read in its entirety?  Would any group have tolerated added subtitles or highlighted phrases?  Or summary statements?  Cross-reference to other circulars and detailed study would and should flourish.  But let’s read it first!  All of it.

Lines in the text that appear in script (like this) are references from Holy Scripture of the day. Variously called ‘The Law & The Prophets’ or simply ‘Scripture,’ it is the section in today’s Bible known as the Old Testament.  This was considered authoritative as are both Old Testament and New Testament today.

This translation offers literal, word-for-word renderings from the Common Greek original.  A recast of many traditional words unveils the impact of common, trade-language words spoken across the Roman Empire.  For example, the word ‘apostle’ used in modern English versions of the New Testament is a borrowed Greek word that now carries a significance added by church theologians.  In that day it evoked a military as well as diplomatic sense of dispatch on a mission.  A royal envoy, entire armies and naval expeditionary forces were ‘apostled.’  Paul pressed into service a mix of words from warfare, agriculture, and commerce—everyday words.  One authority has said, “Paul’s writing reads bumpy as compared to other works from the era.”  While this text may seem to plod in following the Greek original, the goal is to preserve the bumpy.

Name Key

 Cephas/Peter — This is one person: Simon, the fisherman of Galilee.  Cephas is an Aramaic word, Peter a Greek word each meaning stone.  Like Pedro/Pierre!  Jesus conferred this descriptive name to Simon.   [Observe the context in the letter of alternating use of Cephas/Peter.  Paul skillfully discredits those reputation somebodies whose talk likely ran:  “We are of Cephas!  This Paul fellow –he is of Peter.”]

 James — At Paul’s writing James was the head of the churches in Jerusalem.  He was the half-brother of Jesus, yet he was unresponsive to Jesus’ claims until after the resurrection.

 Barnabas — This nickname of Joseph of Cyprus was occasioned by his extraordinary act of generosity. It means Son of Encouragement.  He partnered with Paul on their first mission which included ministry in Galatia.

 Titus — A Greek possibly from Antioch in Syria, he trusted in Jesus through Paul’s ministry.  Titus remained a trusted co-worker with Paul throughout.

 James, Cephas, and John — This refers to leaders of leaders within the Twelve that Jesus trained.

 Abraham — The account of Abraham’s response to Jehovah God is recorded in Genesis Ch. 11-25.  Abraham was a notable figure chronicled by Alexandrian historians and acclaimed by marketplace Jews scattered among all cultures.

Hagar — She was the personal servant of Abraham’s wife, Sarah.  At age 86 Abraham fathered Ishmael with Hagar.  At the time of Paul’s writing, Hagar was the Arab name for the wilderness mountain the Jews called Sinai.

Isaac — He was born to Abraham and Sarah when he was 100 and she was 90.  Isaac was born 25 years after Jehovah God’s promises to Abraham.

Translator – Jim Tesdall

The philosophers and assorted learned thinkers of first-century Athens rated Paul as a ‘seed picker.’  They assessed his educational experience as picking up scraps of knowledge: a little here, a little there, some suspect.  Paul was exceptionally well-educated –just not in their circles.

I, however, can rightly be awarded the title of seed picker.  After studying at 6 schools but earning just one degree, I submitted to tutoring in Biblical Greek from a retired seminary professor.  Over the years I have acquired lexicons, grammars, and word study volumes some of which I spied when meeting with classic languages scholars for consultation. But it was through reading – and re-reading – Paul’s Letter to the Galatians since my early 20’s that I soon discovered the grounding for the oft-quoted Fruit of the Spirit.

A compelling argument in a conversational correspondence deserves a one-sitting read. Therefore chapter/verse numbering had to go, and with it subtitles, footnotes, and anything that would interrupt progress of thought. My first attempts at publishing the Galatians letter were leaflets: Freesponsibilidom (1996) and Righteous Overwrought (2005). In 2011 I published and copyrighted a booklet: A Relieved Version of Paul’s Letter to the Galatians. Now on line in a different format I continue with 2 concerns. First, people should read Paul’s letter to the Galatians. Second, people should re-read Paul’s letter to the Galatians.