Journal: Detroit Baptist Seminary Journal
Volume: DBSJ 16:1 (NA 2011)
Article: The Integrative Role Of The Spirit In The Ethics Of Galatians
Author: Paul A. Hartog

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DBSJ 16:1 (2011) p. 19

The Integrative Role Of The Spirit In The Ethics Of Galatians

Paul Hartog1

“How is Paul’s ethic grounded in his theology?” queries Richard Hays. “This problem has long vexed interpreters.”2 Brian Rosner underscores, “The challenge for every student of Paul is to discover in Paul’s thought not only theological coherence but ethical integration.”3 This quest for “integration” (including Paul’s view of “law and grace”) has led to historic divides between theological systems, such as Lutherans, the Reformed, and dispensationalists.4 Some scholars have recently claimed that theological-ethical integration can only be achieved through adaptations of the “New Perspective(s)” on Paul.5

DBSJ 16:1 (2011) p. 20

On a prima facie level, it might seem that the structure of Pauline theology would ultimately undermine ethics. “If God has already declared the believer to be righteous…then what motivation does the believer have for ethical behavior?”6 Commenting on Paul’s statement that God “justifies the ungodly” (Rom 4:5), Leander Keck exclaims that the notion “offends the most elemental moral perception and seems to annihilate ethics altogether.”7 C. K. Barrett declares, “Every moral philosophy, every ethical religion, has to answer the question, Why be good? Has not Paul made the question so difficult that it must remain virtually unanswered?”8

By narrowing the investigation to the epistle to the Galatians, this article will demonstrate that Paul’s ethics can indeed be integrated with Paul’s theology of grace.9 Barrett pronounces that “the very existence of Christian ethics is a paradox; the paradox is nowhere sharper than it is with Paul, and nowhere sharper in Paul than in Galatians.”10 Unfortunately, the ethics of Galatians has sometimes been slighted, causing Bernard Lategan to reference “the apparently underdeveloped nature of Paul’s ethical statements” in Galatians and the “ethical deficit” in the epistle.11 Hays laments that “it has proven difficult to establish any direct inner connection between Pau...

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