Theological Musings of a Thirty-Something

Galatians Series: I am currently memorizing the letter of Galatians in its entirety. This series of blog posts is simply a fruit of that process. I wanted to put into writing some of my random thoughts on passages I find interesting. May you be challenged to follow King Jesus with greater conviction and clarity in reading.

Christ “Publicly Portrayed as Crucified” Embodying the Gospel of the Suffering King

Preaching the gospel is central to the mission of the church. That much is clear. But how is the church called to preach the gospel? What might it mean to not simply announce the gospel with words, but to embody it for the world, even if this embodying is risky?

Galatians 3:1, a notoriously difficult passage, might have some helpful answers to this question.

O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. (Gal 3:1, ESV)

Many teachers and commentators have been puzzled over what Paul could have meant by writing that Christ was “publicly portrayed as crucified” before the very eyes of the Galatians? The Galatians almost certainly weren’t at the crucifixion of Jesus in Jerusalem twenty-five years prior. What on earth did Paul mean by this?

For starters, the phrase “publicly portrayed,” is from the Greek prographo, meaning “to write before” or “to depict/portray openly.” Paul uses this specific verb two other times in his letters, always for actual writing (Rom 15:4; Eph 3:3), and the word can be used for a written edict posted in a public space.

But does this help clarify the passage? Did Paul write something on a piece of paper about the crucified Jesus for the Galatians to see or read? Or perhaps it was as Martin Luther wrote, that “Paul described Christ to the Galatians so vividly that they could almost see and handle Him.” John Calvin says something similar in his commentary on Galatians, saying that this passage showed “how energetic Paul’s preaching was…exhibiting to the Galatians, in a lively manner, the image of Christ.”

Perhaps these men were right. But what if Paul isn’t talking about ‘vivid preaching’ at all, but about ‘vivid embodying?’

This is my interpretation. I think that when Paul says that Christ was “publicly portrayed as crucified,” he was referring to his own suffering. Paul’s suffering – his bruised and beaten body – was the “public portrayal” of the crucified Jesus, akin to a herald posting a public edict within a town square.

This might seem like a stretch, but I will support my interpretation by first (1) showing the centrality of suffering in the letter to the Galatians and then (2) use two parallel passages in other letters of Paul that show Paul thought in this way.

(1) The Centrality of Suffering in Galatians

So, why would Paul be bringing up a point about his suffering here in this letter? Well, the first thing to notice is that suffering is a central theme in Galatians (though this isn’t often given the attention it deserves in my opinion). We can see this through a series of verses.

1. First, Paul says that the agenda of “the Judaizers” was to avoid suffering. The Judaizers were the missionaries who had come to Galatia and started convincing the Galatians to be circumcised. Paul said they did this “only in order that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ.” (Gal 6:12)
2. In another verse, Paul says that he “bears on his body the marks of Jesus.” (Gal 6:17). It is the marks of suffering on his body (and not the mark of circumcision) that demonstrate his apostleship — that demonstrated that he belongs to Jesus. Those who belong to God experience the sufferings of Jesus.
3. Next, in Paul’s fascinating allegorical reading of the story of Hagar and Sarah (in Gal 4:21-31) he emphasizes how Isaac, “the child born according to the Spirit,” was persecuted by Ishmael, “the child born according to the flesh” (4:28). Paul’s conclusion in this allegory is this: God’s true people are those persecuted by false brothers. To avoid persecution through circumcision is to deny one’s identity. God’s people suffer.
4. And finally, Paul emphasizes how much suffering there was for both the Galatians and himself when he visited them for the first time. He says that the Galatians “suffer[ed] so many things” (3:4) when they first believed. On his end, Paul wrote: “it was because of a bodily ailment that I preached the gospel to you at first, and though my condition was a trial to you, you did not scorn or despise me, but received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus.” (4:13-14). This “bodily ailment” and “trial” might very well be a reference to his recent persecution and sufferings (Acts 13-14). Nevertheless, Paul came in physical suffering, yet he was “received” by the Galatians “as Christ Jesus.”

In conclusion, the theme of suffering seems to be central in Galatians. The agenda of the Judaizers was to avoid suffering, and by contrast, Paul emphasizes his own suffering and the suffering of God’s people to suggest that suffering and the gospel go together. For Paul, to avoid suffering is to draw back from the scandal of the cross.

(2) Parallel Passages about Embodying Christ’s Suffering

So, again, we are trying to see how Paul saying Christ was “publicly portrayed as crucified” to the Galatians was a reference to his own apostolic suffering (not vivid preaching). Since I (hopefully) have successfully shown the centrality of suffering in Galatians, we will look at two other New Testament passages that talk about Paul’s apostolic suffering.

2 Corinthians 4:8-12. “We [Paul and his team] are always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you [Corinthians]!”

This verse is astounding. Paul doesn’t just proclaim the gospel, but he embodies the gospel through his suffering. He embodies the proclamation of Jesus through sharing in the death of the Jesus he proclaims.

Consider that last sentence of the passage: “So death is a work us, but life in you!” (4:12)

My expanded paraphrase of that passage is the following:

“So, while the crucifixion-death of Jesus is at work in us [Paul and his team], the resurrection-life of Jesus is at work in you [Corinthians]!”

Wow. What a breath-taking reality. Paul, as the suffering, bruised and beaten traveling apostle of King Jesus, wasn’t simply proclaiming the gospel, but he became the gospel. He became cruciform (cross-formed) in shape, so that he “carried in his body the death of Jesus” (4:10). It’s as if Paul was a traveling embodiment of the cross, for the nations to see and behold, and discover “the aroma Christ to God” (2 Cor 2:15). It was through Paul’s suffering ministry (carrying Jesus’ death) that the life of Jesus was being experienced among his churches.

The second parallel passage from Colossians only confirms this reading of Paul.

Colossians 1:24. “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church.”

This passage certainly has its own difficulties, but those difficulties aside, for our purpose it seems to reinforce what 2 Corinthians has already made clear: Paul understood his apostolic ministry as embodying the sufferings of Jesus (“filling up what is lacking in Christ’s affliction”) as the means through which the life of the gospel would extend into the nations (“for the sake of the body”).

Brining it All Together

So, can we bring this all together to help us understand Galatians 3:1? I think so. Let’s look at the verse in question again:

O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. (Gal 3:1, ESV)

So, what happens if we read Paul’s puzzling statement that “Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified,” not simply as referring to a “vivid description” of Christ’s death through the means of mere words, but as Paul publicly portraying the crucifixion of Christ vividly through his very own apostolic sufferings? If we do that, I think the verse makes perfect sense. Powerful sense, in fact.

It would seem that Paul saw his own suffering body among the Galatians as the vivid public display of Christ’s death. As a herald of King Jesus, Paul was a walking (and suffering) public edict for all the nations to come. As he says elsewhere (2 Cor 2:15), his suffering ministry was “the aroma of Christ to God.”

But, if this interpretation is true, why say this in his appeal to the Galatians?

I think it makes perfect sense for Paul to make this point. Remember, Paul had come to the Galatians in suffering (Gal 4:13-14) and the Galatians had suffered when they accepted the gospel (Gal 3:4). Yet now, the Galatians were believing the Judaizers who were seeking to avoid persecution themselves (Gal 6:12), going so far as to tell the Galatians that their suffering for the gospel was in vain! (Gal 3:4) They told the Galatians that if they simply embraced circumcision (became Jewish) they could forgo the suffering brought upon them as New Creation People (Gal 6:15) because they worshipped Israel’s God as non-Jews (a social category that didn’t fit within either the Roman or Jewish world, and therefore led to persecution).

But Paul would have none of this! Paul is reminding them that they embraced the gospel of the crucified Jesus from the ‘cruciform-Apostle.’ They beheld Christ crucified in Paul’s own suffering body! Yet now, they are denying Christ’s death in favor of a gospel void of cross-shaped suffering. Paul was shocked. Indeed, how could they be so foolish!

No, the true gospel proclamation goes hand-in-hand with suffering. To think otherwise is to “cut” dangerously close with false teaching and a false gospel. A needed warning for the Galatians two millennia ago and, perhaps a needed warning for us in the western church today.

The Challenge to the Church: Embodying the Gospel

So, what about us?

I find it fascinating that both Luther and Calvin only conceived of this verse as talking about Paul “speaking vividly” about Jesus. The gospel, in that interpretation, is simply a message to be vividly proclaimed with words.

Yet, I think Paul is saying here that the gospel is not simply a message to be proclaimed, but a message to be embodied, primarily through cross-shaped suffering.

So I return to my initial point at the very beginning of this post: proclaiming the gospel is central to the mission of the church. This much is clear. But how do we do this? Do we simply settle for proclaiming the gospel without embodying it? Do we talk about Jesus without embodying the love of this Jesus through our own suffering love and thereby joining Paul in putting Christ on public display?

Perhaps the world is actually waiting to look upon a suffering church, one that is cruciform in shape, and thereby “behold Christ publicly portrayed as crucified.”

Perhaps it is in this very moment of our suffering and their beholding that the nations will see Christ clearly, and find his abundant resurrection life.

And a word of encouragement. Perhaps we find ourselves in situations of suffering, persecution and weakness. Perhaps our bodies are full of “ailment” and “trials” to those around us, as Paul’s was when he came to the Galatians preaching the gospel. But be encouraged church, perhaps it is in this very situation that Christ wants to be embodied and displayed to a world ready to see Him.

As Paul himself said about his suffering ministry: “So death is a work us, but life in you!” (2 Cor 4:12)