Journal: Westminster Theological Journal
Volume: WTJ 57:2 (Fall 1995)
Article: The Apostle Paul’s Redemptive-Historical Argumentation In Galatians 5:13-26
Author: Walter Bo Russell III

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WTJ 57:2 (Fall 1995) p. 333

The Apostle Paul’s Redemptive-Historical Argumentation In Galatians 5:13-26

Walt Russell

I. Introduction

The brilliant Dutch Reformed exegete and theologian Herman Ridderbos has done NT studies an immeasurable service by underscoring the fundamental redemptive-historical perspective of the apostle Paul. In his lesser known works, in his magisterial work on Paul’s theology, and in his commentaries on some of Paul’s epistles,1 Ridderbos consistently illumined this basic framework of Paul’s theology. Preceding the recent emphasis on Paul’s Jewish milieu by almost a generation, Ridderbos approached the whole of Paul’s theology by emphasizing “the redemptive-historical, eschatological character of Paul’s proclamation”:

The governing motif of Paul’s preaching is the saving activity of God in the advent and the work, particularly in the death and the resurrection, of Christ. This activity is on the one hand the fulfillment of the work of God in the history of the nation Israel, the fulfillment therefore also of the Scriptures; on the other hand it reaches out to the ultimate consummation of the parousia of Christ and the coming of the kingdom of God. It is this great redemptive-historical framework within which the whole of Paul’s preaching must be understood and all of its subordinate parts receive their place and organically cohere.2

It is with a great personal debt to Herman Ridderbos that I owe my basic understanding of Pauline theology. Largely through the lens of his perspective, I have come to appreciate the missiological and theological passion of the apostle. However, I have also found through my own study of Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians the need to apply his redemptive-historical perspective even more extensively than he did. Specifically, Paul’s argumentation in Galatians 5–6 depends even more heavily upon a redemptive-historical perspective than Ridderbos determined in his commentary on Galatians.

WTJ 57:2 (Fall 1995) p. 334

Ridderbos’ failure to follow through with this perspective may reflect the fact that the commentary was written early in his Pauline work (1953); it may also be due in part to Ridderbos’ view of the spiritual life (cf. his comments on Gal 5:16–18, pp. 202-5). Whatever the reason, we should note that by underscoring the redemptive-historical framework of Paul’s reasoning in chaps. 5–6 and demonstrating its continuity with the same reasoning in chaps. 1–4...

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