Q. Does the Book of Galatians teach that the Law has been done away with?

A. The book does not teach that the Torah has been done away with. It deals with a specific issue that was hotly debated in the first century and that issue was whether a Gentile who believed in Yeshua should be ritually circumcised, or become Jewish, to be saved. We see the issue debated in Acts 15 and it was decided that they did not have to be ritually circumcised. It comes up again in Galatians. So, we need to look at this issue to understand what Paul is saying and it is complicated but then again very simple to understand. In the first century a system of works righteousness was being taught. This system developed after the Babylonian captivity and was another debated issue (Rom 9.30-10.3) often illustrated by contrasting the spirit of the law and the letter of the law. The Pharisees in particular did not often agree on this issue and once they became believers in Yeshua their theology came with them and that is the issue in Acts 15.. There was the teaching that a Gentile had to become Jewish to be saved and they entered into that change of status by circumcision. There are two types of circumcision. One is called Abrahamic this is done if you are a descendant of Abraham , Isaac and Jacob and it was a sign that the Messiah would come through that lineage. Gentiles were not a part of this because the Messiah was not going to descend through them. There are reasons for Gentile circumcision but that involved eating the Passover and being a part of the household, but Abrahamic circumcision did not apply to Gentiles. The other type is called “ritual circumcision” and this a part of the oral law, not the written Torah of God. This view said that a Gentile must undergo circumcision to be saved. In the Jewish mind, when one talks about circumcising a Gentile it means “to become Jewish.” So there were two types of circumcisions in the first century, one was biblical and the other rabbinical. When Yeshua gave the Great Commission in Matthew 28. 19-20 to “go and make disciples of the Gentiles and teach them all the things I have commanded you” it was in the mind of the apostles that the Gentiles had to become Jewish and ritual circumcision was a part of that. The Lord straightened out that theology in Acts 10-11 with the conversion of the Roman centurion Cornelius before he was circumcised. Peter tells the others and they changed their view on this. But the issue did not go away all at once and the Galatians, about 21 years after Yeshua , were being told by certain Jewish believers that they had to get a ritual circumcision (become Jewish) to be saved and Paul writes this letter stating that they did not. Ritual circumcision is a man-made law and Paul is saying that if they gave into obeying man-made laws then the grace of God is of no value because man-made works has entered the picture. When Paul says that if they receive man-made , ritual circumcision then they must keep the “whole law.” Now keep this in mind when Paul uses the term “whole law” he is not only talking the written commandments but also about the oral tradition passed down by the rabbi’s and 95% of the “whole law” was man-made, rabbinical oral law. What Paul is teaching in Galatians is you do not follow man-made laws if they contradict written Scripture. Scripture does not teach that a Gentile must be circumcised to be saved therefore the law is invalid. But, he is not teaching that the Law of God found in the Scriptures has been done away with because Paul himself kept the Torah. In Acts 21 Paul was coming out of a Nazarite vow (see Numbers 6) and was coming to Jerusalem to keep the feast of Shavuot (Lev 23) and to offer the animal sacrifices required in Numbers 6 and give alms (Acts 24.17). James tells Paul that there is a rumor that Paul is telling the Jews among the nations to forsake Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children. Paul says that this is untrue, which means he IS telling them to follow Moses and he IS telling them to circumcise their children. So, in order to prove that these things are not true he agrees to pay for the animal sacrifices required for four other believers in Yeshua who are also coming out of a Nazarite vow (Acts 21.22-26). Now, I bring up this account because this was nearly 30 years after Yeshua and after he wrote Galatians. Now let this sink in. If the law has been done away with, why is Paul keeping the Nazarite vow in Numbers 6 , keeping a biblical festival and offering animal sacrifices in the Temple? He also says in Acts 24.14 that he had done nothing in violation of the Torah and he obeyed it. Paul’s own testimony about himself and illustrated by his life is that he obeyed the Torah and taught it to others (1Cor 11.1-2). He had Timothy circumcised in Acts 16.1-3 because his mother was Jewish and his father was Greek and it had not been done. That is the Abrahamic circumcision that Paul practiced. In Galatians 2.3 Titus was not compelled to be ritually circumcised (become Jewish) because he was a Gentile and ritual circumcision was a man-made law and didn’t apply to him because he had already received the grace of God and was a believer. That is a perfect illustration of the difference between Abrahamic circumcision (Timothy) and ritual circumcision (Titus). So, Galatians is not teaching that the Law, commandments, the Torah, the instruction of God has been done away with but it says that you cannot do anything to improve on the grace of God already received by obeying man-made rabbinical oral law. Once a believer has righteousness from God as a free gift and the Holy Spirit has circumcised the heart he follows, keeps, obeys the Torah as a way of life because that is the law written on his heart( Deut. 30.6; Jer. 31.31-34) and in doing so learns about Messiah (Rom 10.4; Luke 24.27; John 5.39-47), prophecy and the things to come (Col 2.16-17). This “way” is illustrated by the life of Paul and all the writers of the New Testament who were Torah observant believers. Many have misunderstood Galatians as a “spiritual Magna Carta” but that is not true. I will close with a quote from Peter himself when he says that Paul in his letters “speaks of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and the unstable distort as also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction.” Paul cannot be obeying the Torah in his own life and then write any book that says the law has been done away with. That would make Paul a liar and that is exactly what people say if they use the writings of Paul to teach that the law has been done away with. The only way that could be taught is to distort what he said and that is what Peter is saying and that is why Galatians is so misunderstood. I would not entertain the thought or even listen to any so-called teacher of the Scriptures who tells you the Law has been done away with. Paul says himself in 1 Cor 7.17-19 that a man was to remain in the condition he was called. If you were called circumcised (Jewish) then don’t seek to be uncircumcised ( by under- going a surgery to reverse it called an Epispasm for instance). If you were called uncircumcised (Gentile) don’t seek to be circumcised (become Jewish). Circumcision is nothing and un-circumcision is nothing but the only thing that matters is the keeping of the commandments of God (as they apply). I hope this helps.