Spirit and Flesh - The Egalitarian Basis of Galatians 3:28

 

 

Scholars have long recognized the egalitarian sentiments in Paul’s letter to the Galatians, particularly in verse 3:28, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (NASB20). They note Paul’s concern that requiring Jewish ethnic practices (like circumcision) for full membership in the Church would divide Christians, assert Jewish privilege over Gentiles, and enslave both under spiritual Powers. While many understand the place of 3:28 in Paul’s argument, few recognize its Scriptural basis, the underlying theological framework, and how Paul conceptualized his “egalitarian” approach to ministry and mission. We can recognize the apostle’s understanding by observing the patterns of his argument throughout his letters.[1] In short, Paul bases his egalitarianism on Christ’s death and resurrection, the outpouring of the Spirit, and the nature of God.

In the biblical conception, inequality and the privilege-oppression dynamic begin in idolatry. Humans elevate the good aspects of God’s creation to the point of worship, particularly those aspects which order our world and mark out distinctions in creation’s diversity. For example, God creates the sun, moon, and stars that order days, years, and seasons (Gen 1:16-18), and humanity worships them (Deut 4:19; 17:3; 2 Kings 23:5). God creates beasts of various kinds (Gen 1:20-26), and humanity worships them (Rom 1:23). God creates cooperating authorities (Rom 13:1-3), and humanity worships government (Rev 13:12, 15; 14:9, 11). In the process, humanity becomes more like the idols they worship and less like the image of God (Ps 115:8; 135:18; Isa 6:9f; Rom 1:23ff; 8:29; 12:2; Phil 3:19ff). At the same time, the idolator sees others in terms of their idolatry. A person who idolizes wealth from the vegetation of the ordered seasons will enslave a person of a different race to feed his greed. The idolator has objectified another human, treating him as less than the image of God. Or man who idolizes sex and masculinity, sees women in those terms, objectifies them, treating them as both subordinate to men and less than the image of God. The result is the establishment of various privileged-oppressed patterns of behavior that objectify, exploit, and diminish the image of God in humanity.

However, even within this privileged-oppression dynamic, both privileged and oppressed are imprisoned by the spiritual forces behind these idolized, ordering powers of creation thru sin, though the former enjoy the benefits that result from greater collaboration. There are numerous designators for these forces. Both Paul and Peter identify them, in part, as “principalities and powers” (Rom 8:38; 13:1-3; Col 1:13-16; Eph 1:21; 3:10; 6:12; 1 Cor 15:24; 1 Pet 3:22). The idea of spiritual forces behind the ordering powers of creation is well-recognized.[2] The same idea is present in the so-called gods that were said to exist behind idols (1 Cor 10:19-21). Similarly, there are spiritual powers (such as angels) closely connected to nations,[3] governments (1 Cor 2:8; Col 1:16; Rom 13:1-3), and even churches (Rev 1:20).

One term Paul uses for these ordering powers of creation is stoicheia (Gal 4:3, 9; Col 2:8, 20). This term has a range of meanings dependent upon its context. It can refer to the essential elements of the universe (2 Pet 3:10, 12), to basic principles of religious teaching (Heb 5:12), or to the spiritual forces that are connected to the elements of the cosmos (T. Sol. 8:2, 4). In Colossians 2:8-10, Paul warns the church to not be “taken captive” (sylagogeo, a likely pun on synagogue) by false philosophies and traditions rather than that of Christ who is above all “principality and power,” and who has both disarmed and triumphed over the powers in his death (vv. 14-15). In 2:18, he warns them about the worship of angels (see Acts 7:42-43; Amos 5:25-27). As in Galatians, Paul dissuades the Colossians against circumcision (2:11-13) and both Jewish calendric and its aesthetic practices such as food, drink, festivals, new moons, and sabbath days (Col 2:11, 16, 21-23). In Galatians 4:3 and 4:9, Paul mentions the stoicheia of the world, identifying them as basic elements of pagan idolatry that held the Gentiles in bondage, and from which Christ has freed them (again, see Col 2:20). In doing so, Paul again identifies the basic elements of the Jewish Law as stoicheia, citing the observance of days, months, seasons, and years (Gal 4:10). This follows a close connection between (or identification of) angels and the mediation of the Law (3:19), an idea that is present elsewhere.[4] Therefore, in both Galatians and Colossians, Paul likens religious practice under the Law to pagan idolatry; both were characterized by bondage to spiritual powers. That, of course, is Paul’s argument in Galatians 3. The Law confined the Jews under bondage and under sin,[5] with the intent of separating them from the corruption and influence of the pagan Gentile world (Eph 2:12-19). In Acts 10:12 & 11:6, the noted “unclean” animals that, in part, separated Jews from Gentiles are the same mentioned in Rom 1:23 and Genesis 1:20-26. Yet, the Spirit is poured out upon the Gentiles as had happened to the Jews at Pentecost (Acts 2:2-4, 17-21; 10:44-47).

Importantly, there was nothing evil in the Law itself (Rom 7:7). Rather, it was human sin corrupting the Law in the flesh (Rom 7:5, 25; 8:3-8). The same corruption was at work with other ordering aspects of God’s good creation. The biblical conception is of sin corrupting aspects of our base natures, then corrupting others, and finally creating corporate solidarities or allegiances along the lines of the aforementioned orders and distinctions. The term Paul frequently uses to denote this corruption-solidarity dynamic is “flesh.” In neutral terms, the Hebrew conception of “flesh” (basar) lends itself to solidarity thinking in terms of marriage (“one flesh” [Gen 2:23f.; 1 Cor 6:16]), families or kin groups (“bone and flesh” [2 Sam 19:12f.; Gen 29:14; Rom 9:3]), and humanity in general (“all flesh” [Gen 6:12; Joel 2:28f.]). While the Greeks had a term for “flesh” (sarx) and a term for “body” (soma), the Hebrews had only one word, basar (“flesh”), to cover both ideas. Therefore, there are times when “flesh” and “body” are near synonymous terms in Paul (1 Cor 6:15-19; 15:39-40; Eph 5:28-33).

Paul teaches that participation in Christ’s death (Rom 6:3-11; Col 2:12, 20; 3:32; 2 Cor 5:14-15; Phil 3:10) strips believers of “fleshly” solidarities - essentially dying to such solidarities and dying to the ordered distinctions that create them. For example, both Paul and Jesus say the “one flesh” solidarity of marriage ends at death (Rom 7:2-3; Mark 12:25). Similarly, Paul says that the jurisdiction of the Law ends at death (Gal 2:19-20; Rom 6:14; 7:1, 4-9). In Colossians 2:20, Paul tells the Gentile Christians that they’ve died with Christ to the stoicheia. We can add to this that death to sin liberates from the slavery to the body of sin, or the flesh of sin (Rom 6:2-22; 8:3). There are different ways in which Paul expresses this idea, including, being baptized into Christ or into his death (Rom 6:3-5; Col 2:12), stripping off or crucifying the “old self” or “old human” (anthropos [Rom 6:6; Eph 4:22; Col 3:9]), and removing the body of the flesh (Col 2:11). But while death in Christ breaks the old solidarities of the flesh, participation in Christ’s resurrection (Rom 6:4-11; Col 2:12-13; 3:1) creates a new solidarity in Christ, energized by the Spirit. Paul refers to this as being clothed with or putting on Christ (Gal 3:27; Rom 13:14; 1 Cor 15:53-54) or putting on the “new self” or “new human” (anthropos [Rom 6:6; Eph 2:15; 4:24; Col 3:10]).

Importantly, these distinctions and solidarities aren’t eliminated by participation in Christ; they are just no longer the bases for exclusion, division, privilege, and oppression. Rather, believers are One in Christ, and creation returns to the ordered goodness of God’s original intention, which is why Paul can state that neither the Law’s circumcision (Gal 5:6; 6:15; 1 Cor 7:19) nor food sacrificed to idols (1 Cor 8) ultimately matters.

In Galatians, some Christians were mandating circumcision as a requirement for full membership in the Church and in the family of Abraham. Paul responds to this perceived threat to the freedom of the Christian (2:4; 5:1, 13) by noting the Law’s intent, which included contemporary confinement until the fulfillment of God’s promise to bless the Gentiles in the family of Abraham. He argues that requiring circumcision and other “works of the Law” (see 2:11-14) will divide the Church along ethnic lines (3:16), assert Jewish privilege over and against Gentile Christians, and bring them back under the bondage of the same kinds of spiritual powers from which Christ had freed them (1:4; 4:3, 9-10).

The word “promise” (epangelia) is mentioned six times in Galatians 3 (twice more in Galatians 4), starting with verse 14, which identifies it as the “promise of the Spirit.”[6]

It is in Acts 2 that the promised Spirit was poured out on Jesus’ Jewish disciples,[7] so that Peter (v. 17-18) could proclaim it to be the fulfilment of Joel’s prophecy:

“It will come about after this that I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind [literally “flesh”]; and your sons and your daughters will prophesy, your old men will have dreams, your young men will see visions. And even on the male and female servants I will pour out My Spirit in those days” (Joel 2:28-29 NASB).

In Acts 10:44-47 (see also 11:15-18; 15:8), the Spirit then comes upon Gentiles.

In chapter 3, Paul reminds the Galatians that they’re received the Spirit of promise (3:2-3, 5, 14; see also 4:6; 5:16, 18). He then notes in vv. 27-28,

“For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

Paul is citing Joel 2:28-29. Both passages are about the Spirit coming upon people. Instead of “flesh” (which includes both Jew and Gentile), Paul makes the point explicit since the distinction is vital to his main point, but he similarly includes the references to men and women and both slave and free – the free being implicit in Joel.

E. C. Rust says, “Joel promises a democratization of the prophetic consciousness in the new age when God shall pour out his Spirit upon all flesh.”[8]

And note the language Paul uses in v. 27: “baptized into Christ” and “putting (enduo) on Christ.” This is the language of dying to the solidarities of the “flesh” (Gal 3:3) and living in the solidarity of Christ – a solidarity energized by the Spirit, rather than the flesh (3:3; 4:29; 5:16-25; 6:8) - so that Jew, Gentile, slave, free, man, & woman are now one in Christ. And Galatians isn’t the only letter in which Paul makes a connection between Joel 2 and the solidarities of the “flesh.” In 1 Corinthians, Paul writes,

“For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit” (1 Cor 12:13).

In this chapter, Paul notes the varieties of gifts, ministries, and effects but the same Spirit, Lord, & God (vv. 4-11), with the example of many members but One body (vv. 12-13, 20, 27) with One Spirit (v.13), in which there should be no division (v. 25; see also 1:10; 11:18).[9] Again, body and flesh can be near synonyms in Paul and in this letter (1 Cor 6:15-19; 15:39-40). Again, we have the language of participation in Christ’s death. In chapter 15, when he addresses the reality of Christ’s resurrection, the believer’s relation to that resurrection, the subjugation of “principalities and powers” (vv. 24-28), the inability of the flesh to inherit the next age (vv. 35-50), and how resurrected believers will bear the image of the heavenly Christ (vv. 47-49), Paul says the perishable will “put on” (enduo – same as in Gal 3:27) imperishable (vv. 53-54; see also vv. 42-52). In chapter 6, he had already noted the Christians participation in Christ (vv. 14-15), noting the “one flesh” solidarity of marriage (v. 16; see also 7:4). Back to 12:13, Paul says that all our baptized into One body with One Spirit, whether Jews or Greek or slaves or free. This is the same argument Paul used in Gal 3:27-28, and he appears to be thinking again of Joel 2:28-29. Even as he applies the Oneness of Christ’s body to the varieties of gifts by the One Spirit, he emphasizes the importance of all these gifts. Even if some gifts and their positions are more important to the body (12:28-30; 14:1-40), Paul encourages the Corinthians to earnestly pursue those gifts and positions (12:31; 14:1, 39; 11:5). Regardless, we see a pattern emerging in Paul’s thinking: participation in Christ’s death and resurrection takes off the old solidarities of the flesh and puts on the new solidarity of Christ – a solidarity energized by the Spirit (6:17-19; 12:11-13; 15:42-47). We see the same line of reasoning in Colossians where Paul writes,

“Do not lie to one another, since you stripped off the old self with its evil practices, and have put on the new self, which is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created it— a renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, and free, but Christ is all, and in all” (Col 3:9-11).

Here again, Paul tells the Christians that they’ve died to the solidarities of the “flesh.” Paul had already noted that the Colossians had died and been raised in Christ (1:22; 2:12-13, 20; 3:1, 3). They’ve stripped off the old self and put on (enduo – as in Gal 3:27 and 1 Cor 12:13) the new self (see 2:11). And just as in Galatians 3:28, there is now no distinction among Greek-Jew, circumcised-uncircumcised, barbarian-Scythian, and slave-free. “Christ is all, and in all.” Bound together in the unity of Christ’s one body (2:19; 3:14-15). The pattern in Colossians 3 is the same as in 1 Corinthians 12 and Galatians 3, even if particularities are stressed more than others in a given letter and even if the distinctions vary: death and resurrection in Christ, new solidarity in unity (3:14-15), including victory over the Powers (1:16; 2:15), the stoicheia (2:8, 20), and references to Jewish ethnic rituals such as circumcision (2:8, 11-23: 3:11). References to male and female are absent here, but barbarian and Scythian are included. Of course, Paul was primarily an apostle to the Gentiles (Rom 11:13), and his variations on the “all flesh” of Joel 2:28 bear this out. Nevertheless, the pattern reveals the principle - one that could be interchanged depending upon situation. Circumcision separated Jews and Greeks, “culture” separated Greeks from “barbarians” and Scythians. Certainly, patriarchy separates men and women. Indeed, as a sign of the covenant, circumcision established both Jewish and male privilege.

We can see further evidence of this pattern and principle in Ephesians 2. Gentiles once separated and excluded have now joined in the “blood of Christ” (v. 13), tearing down the divider of the Law’s commandments and ordinances in his flesh (vv. 14-15), putting to death the hostility (v. 16), making Jew and Gentile into one new person (anthropos - v. 15), in one body (v. 16),[10] by one Spirit (v. 18). Two chapters later (4:17-25), he notes that the Gentile Christians are no longer excluded from the life of God, no longer walking in the futile thinking of their idolatrous ways. They’ve taken off the old self and put on (enduo) the new self, renewed in the spirit of their minds, all members of one body.[11] Additionally, in Romans 13:14, Paul tells the church to “put on” (enduo) Christ and make no provision for the flesh. He immediately follows this in 14:1-23, reprimanding them on quarrels and disunity over the subjects of eating, drinking, and kosher diets, noting that no food is truly unclean (14:14), but that the believer should make considerations for the conscience of the “weaker.”

That’s similar to the point Paul makes in 1 Corinthians 8 on the respecting the consciences of “weaker” believers and food sacrificed to idols. He nevertheless notes that because there is One God, One Lord, by whom all things are made (v. 6), all foods are open for consumption. He’ll touch on this point again at 10:26, asserting that all food is kosher because all the earth is God’s and all that it contains (Ps 24:1). In Acts 10, Peter's vision of unclean animals to eat results in his understanding that all Gentiles can come to God because God shows no partiality (v. 34). Paul agrees with Peter (Gal 2:6; Eph 6:9; Rom 2:11). The idea of divine impartiality comes this from Deuteronomy 10:17, which bases societal justice and impartiality on the impartiality of God (see also 2 Chron 19:7). Thus, because God is impartial, his image-bearers are to be impartial (Deut 1:17; Job 13:10; Ps 82:2; Prov 18:5; 24:23; 28:21; Mal 2:9; 1 Tim 5:21). In his letter, James calls partiality a sin, reprimanding his audience for their unequal distinctions,[12] while tying impartiality to “love of neighbor” (2:4-9). Indeed, that’s a point Paul makes in Colossians 3:10-15: to put on the new self is to put on compassion and love, dwelling in the one body of Christ. In Christ, neither circumcision nor circumcision matters, but faith working through love (Gal 5:6).

While Paul appears to have rightly understood the “pouring out of my Spirit on all flesh” to refer to the solidarity of all humans (Gen 6:17), implying both Jew and Gentile, he also understood it to refer to all types of "fleshly" solidarities needing the Spirit poured out upon them. The so-called "Household Codes" in Ephesians 5:21 to 6:9 are a further elaboration of what it means to be filled with the Spirit (5:18) and covers many of the same ideas found in Galatians 3, Colossians 3, and 1 Corinthians 12, also probably based on Joel 2:28-29, particularly as it covers the similar subjects of the Spirit working through the “fleshly” solidarities of women and men, parents and children, free and slave. Paul had already talked about the Spirit working thru the "fleshly" solidarities of Jews and Gentiles in 2:11-22.

As such, the “household codes” describe a life of mutual submission (v.21), love of neighbor as self (5:28-33), reciprocity (6:5-9), and impartiality (6:9). As “one flesh,” “one body,” or “one self,” (1 Cor 6:16; 15:39; Eph 5:31; Gen 2:4; Matt 19:5-6; Mark 10:8), the wife and husband each “have authority/rights” (exousiazō) over the other’s body (1 Cor 7:4), just as an individual as “authority/rights” (exousia) over one’s self (1 Cor 7:37; 8:9; 9:4, 5, 6, 12, 18), even as no one is to “have authority” (exousiazō) over others in the Church (Luke 22:25; 1 Cor 6:12), even as the Church is one body (Rom 12:4-5; 1 Cor 10:17; 12:12-13, 20; Eph 2:16; 4:4; Col 3:15). Therefore, the "Love of wife as self" is the same as "love of neighbor as self" (Lev 19:18; Mark 12:31; Gal 5:14). However, I'd note the old solidarity of marriage ends at death, but the new solidarity in Christ necessarily continues into eternity (Mark 3:33-34), extending beyond Israel (Luke 10:29-37). Also, note “masters according to the flesh” (6:5) – similar to Gentiles in the flesh (2:3) and circumcision in the flesh (Col 2:11). Again, both distinctions and “fleshly” solidarities are parts of God’s good creation; the problem arises when they are used for privilege & oppression.

Returning to 1 Corinthians 8, Paul’s point in v. 6 about their being One God, the Father and One Lord, Christ is a reference to the Shema prayer of Deuteronomy 6:4-5 that the Lord God is One, in which Paul now includes Jesus. In 12:9, 13, he mentions the One Spirit. And as we look through all these focused passages, we see the unity of Church based on the unity of God: One Lord (Col 3:15; 1 Cor 12:4; Eph 4:5), One body (1 Cor 12:12-13, 20; Eph 2:16; 4:4; Rom 12:4-5), One Christ (Gal 3:16), One Spirit (1 Cor 12:4, 8-9, 11, 13; Eph 2:18; 4:4), One Father (Eph 4:6), One God (Gal 3:20; 1 Cor 12:6; Gal 3:20; Eph 4:6). If God is One then he is the God of all races, sexes, ages, & classes. Not just men. This is the social justice implications of creative monotheism. And just as with God’s impartiality, so with his love. In Matt 22:36-40, Jesus takes the greatest commandment of Deuteronomy 6:5, combines it with the second greatest commandment of Leviticus 19:18 ("love of neighbor"), which we understand as irrespective of distinctions.[13] Love, impartiality, unity, and equality flow out of the Oneness of God. And God wants his creation and his image-bearers to reflect that unity and equality.

Therefore, we can see how Paul conceptualized his egalitarian approach to ministry. The apostle understood the basic problem of inequality, which faced both society and the Church: humans worship the ordering aspects of creation and the various marks of distinction as idols. In doing so, they create solidarities or allegiances (“flesh”) with a privilege-oppression dynamic, which separates and excludes as the basis of unequal, societal injustices. Once again, there is nothing fundamentally wrong with these orders and distinctions or with these solidarities or allegiances. Food, drink, circumcision, the Law, marriage, race, and sex are all the good creation of a God. It is only when these good creations are idolized and used as the basis of oppression and injustice that become tools for evil. Paul’s solution to this privilege-oppression scenario is participation in Christ's death & resurrection. In doing so, we die to the idols and the “principalities and powers” behind them, shedding the old solidarities, putting on the new solidarity of Christ.[14] We become part of that One unified body, for One crucified and resurrected Lord, by One poured out Spirit, all accomplished by One creator God. This is the thinking that undergirds Paul’s teaching in Galatians 3:28. Properly understood, it is a fundamental point of biblical egalitarianism.

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[1] In this article, I accept the tradition of attributing Pauline authorship to both Colossians and Ephesians along with the generally undisputed letters. The authorship of Second Thessalonians and the Pastorals do not factor into my argument.

[2] Rev 7:1; 14:18; 16:5; Jub. 2:2; 1 En. 21:3; 43:1; 60:11-24; 80:1, 6-7; 2 En. [Longer recension] 4:1-2; 12:1; 15:1; 16:7; T. Sol. 4:6; 8:2; 18:1-42

[3] Deut 4:19; 32:8 (LXX); Dan 10:13, 20-21; Sir 17:14; 1 En. 89:59-61; 4QDeut^j,n; 1 Clem. 29:2.

[4] Deut 33:2; Ps 68:17; Jub. 1:27-29; Acts 7:53; Gal 3:19; Heb 2:2; Somn. 1:140-44; Ant. 15.5.3)

[5] Gal 3:19, 22-24; 4:1-3, 5, 8-9, 21-31; 5:1, 18; Rom 5:20; 7:8-13; 11:32

[6] See also Eph 1:13; 3:5-6; Luke 24:49; Acts 1:4-5; 2:33, 38-39.

[7] See Isa 32:15-20; 44:3; Ezek 36:24-30; 39:29; Joel 2:28-29; Zech 12:10; Rom 5:5; Titus 3:5-6.

[8] E.C. Rust, Nature and Man in Biblical Thought (London: Lutterworth Press, 1953), 137.

[9] 1 Corinthians 12 shares many of the same ideas of Romans 12: diversity amidst unity, the analogy of the human body and the “body of Christ,” and the gifts of the Spirit.

[10] If you’re thinking of man and woman becoming “one flesh,” you are on the right track.

[11] The deluding effects of idolatry are noted in Scripture (Ps 115:5-8; Zech 10:2; Rom 1:21-22, 31). What Paul says here in Ephesians 4 about the futile thinking of idolators and need for mind renewal, he says in Romans 1:18-32 and 12:1-8, including being members of one body and the aforementioned unity amidst charismatic diversity.

[12] See also Acts 10:20; 11:12; 15:8-9 and Romans 10:12.

[13] See also Romans 13:8-10 and Galatians 5:14.

[14] In 2 Corinthians 5:1-17, in much the same way that justification by faith in Christ is the new badge that identifies in the present the final verdict on the last day, Paul points to that final judgment in which the Spirit who presently “clothes” the believer in the new solidarity in Christ as a pledge from God (v. 5; see also 1:22; Eph 1:14), bring a renewed, imperishable body. Therefore, because of participation in Christ’s death and resurrection (vv. 14-15), “we recognize no one by what they are in the flesh” (v. 16).