Responding to Dispensationalism, Installation # 25: T.B. Baines

Moving on to another pertinent passage, Baines furthermore dismisses the evidence of the relationship of Christians to spiritual Israel by removing verses 27-29 of Galatians 3 from their context entirely. Here is the passage in Galatians 3 in context.

7 Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. 8 And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, "In you shall all the nations be blessed." 9 So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. 10 For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, "Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them." 11 Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for "The righteous shall live by faith." 14 so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith. 15 To give a human example, brothers: even with a man-made covenant, no one annuls it or adds to it once it has been ratified. 16 Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, "And to offsprings," referring to many, but referring to one, "And to your offspring," who is Christ. 17 This is what I mean: the law, which came 430 years afterward, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to make the promise void. 18 For if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes by promise; but God gave it to Abraham by a promise. 19 Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made, and it was put in place through angels by an intermediary. 20 Now an intermediary implies more than one, but God is one. 21 Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law. 22 But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.

Here is how Baines quotes the passage,

“In Galatians 3: 7, we are told "that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham." In ver. 27-29, we read, "As many of you as have been baptized unto Christ, have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise." Here the promise is the blessing of all nations in the seed, that is, in Christ. Of this promise believers are heirs as made one with Christ. The chapter does not name the promise given to the multitudinous seed, much less show the Church as taking this promise away from Israel.”

The explanation itself is a bit confusing because, on the one hand he says that, If I understand him correctly, Baines has said that the “The chapter does not name the promise given to the multitudinous seed”, but just before that he makes this positive statement about the character of the promise, “Here the promise is the blessing of all nations in the seed”. So which is it, does the chapter not name the promise given or is the promise simply the promise that Abraham’s Seed, which is Christ, bless the whole world? I cannot just assume that the blessing gained by the promise (the blessing Baines would have in mind) is that gentiles will also be saved because their were proselytes to the Jewish cultic system who also were saved from the wrath of God in the same way as the Jew, by forward looking to the ultimate sacrifice of Christ, so what blessing could the Judaizers possibly had in mind that would have gotten them so riled up? Was it the fact that under the Old Covenant the proselyte had to be circumcised and now under the New Covenant Paul had said that no one had to be circumcised?

In verses 1-6, Paul has chastised the Galatians for trying to uphold their position in Christ (one gained by faith and not by works) by Law keeping, and he does so by reminding them that they were first saved by a spiritual salvation and it is not by a fleshly ordinance that they will continue to be saved (namely circumcision because the battle Paul was fighting in this epistle was against those Judaizers who thought it a scandal for gentiles to be brought near to the promises of God without having to be circumcised) in Paul’s mind this is ridiculous and he sums it up with this statement, “27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 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. 29 And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise.”—notice how the promise of land and rest were not explicitly excluded; believers across the ages are heirs according to promise, not heirs according to obedience.