Since the Bible can't ever contradict the Church's teachings, what is the message that Paul is trying to convey here in Galatians: chapter 3? He speaks alot of being saved without works of the law. What is the law he is speaking of? Is this the 10 commandments? Any Catholics insight into this chapter will be appreciated.

-- D Joseph (newfiedufie@msn.com), November 18, 2004

Answers

The key phrase here is "of the law". "The law" He is speaking of here is of course the Mosaic law, and particularly the hundreds of religious rules and regulations which the Pharisees had added to Mosaic law, and required the people to practice. This is what Jesus referred to when, addressing the Pharisees, He said, "Woe unto you also, for ye lade men with burdens grievous to be borne, and ye yourselves touch not the burdens with one of your fingers." ( Luke 11:46) In Galatians 3 Jesus sets people free from such unreasonable manmade legalities as a means of doing God's will. Thereafter, the works that will be required in order to be saved are responses to the love of God, expressed through works of Christian charity, as explained in Matthew 25:34-46 and James 2:14-26, not rigid adherence to legalistic religious requirements.

-- Paul M. (PaulCyp@cox.net), November 18, 2004.

As always Paul, Great explanation. God bless,

-- john placette (jplacette@catholic.org), November 18, 2004.

Paul M is exactly right. For a lengthier explanation, here's the intro to Galatians in the NAB:

"In any case, the new Christians whom Paul is addressing were converts from paganism (Gal 4:8-9) who were now being enticed by other missionaries to add the observances of the Jewish law, including the rite of circumcision, to the cross of Christ as a means of salvation. For, since Paul's visit, some other interpretation of Christianity had been brought to these neophytes, probably by converts from Judaism (the name "Judaizers" is sometimes applied to them); it has specifically been suggested that they were Jewish Christians who had come from the austere Essene sect.

These interlopers insisted on the necessity of following certain precepts of the Mosaic law along with faith in Christ. They were undermining Paul's authority also, asserting that he had not been trained by Jesus himself, that his gospel did not agree with that of the original and true apostles in Jerusalem, that he had kept from his converts in Galatia the necessity of accepting circumcision and other key obligations of the Jewish law, in order more easily to win them to Christ, and that his gospel was thus not the full and authentic one held by "those of repute" in Jerusalem (Gal 2:2). Some scholars also see in Gal 5; 6 another set of opponents against whom Paul writes, people who in their emphasis on the Spirit set aside all norms for conduct and became libertines in practice.

When Paul learned of the situation, he wrote this defense of his apostolic authority and of the correct understanding of the faith. He set forth the unique importance of Christ and his redemptive sacrifice on the cross, the freedom that Christians enjoy from the old burdens of the law, the total sufficiency of Christ and of faith in Christ as the way to God and to eternal life, and the beauty of the new life of the Spirit. Galatians is thus a summary of basic Pauline theology. Its themes were more fully and less polemically developed in the Letter to the Romans.

Autobiographically, the letter gives us Paul's own accounts of how he came to faith (Gal 1:15-24), the agreement in "the truth of the gospel" (Gal 2:5, 14) that he shared with the Jewish Christian leaders in Jerusalem, James, Kephas, and John (Gal 2:1-10), and the rebuke he had to deliver to Kephas in Antioch for inconsistency, contrary to the gospel, on the issue of table fellowship in the racially mixed church of Jewish and Gentile Christians in Antioch (Gal 2:11-14; cf Gal 2:15-21). At the conclusion of the letter (Gal 6:11-18), Paul wrote in his own hand (cf 2 Thes 3:17-18) a vivid summary of the message to the Galatians.

In his vigorous emphasis on the absolute preeminence of Christ and his cross as God's way to salvation and holiness, Paul stresses Christian freedom and the ineffectiveness of the Mosaic law for gaining divine favor and blessings (Gal 3:19-29). The pious Jew saw in the law a way established by God to win divine approval by a life of meticulous observance of ritual, social, and moral regulations. But Paul's profound insight into the higher designs of God in Christ led him to understand and welcome the priority of promise and faith (shown in the experience of Abraham, Gal 3:6-18) and the supernatural gifts of the Spirit (Gal 3:2-5; 5:16-6:10). His enthusiasm for this new vision of the life of grace in Christ and of the uniquely salvific role of Christ's redemptive death on the cross shines through this whole letter."

Posted in full at www.usccb.org/nab/bible/galatians/intro.htm

-- Andy S ("ask3332004@yahoo.com"), November 19, 2004.