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I can only assume that Paul wants us to read Galatians the same way that he wanted the people of Galatia to read it, as something of a wake-up call. At the beginning of chapter three, Paul seems to be using a combination of the pragmatic theory of truth and the correspondence theory of truth. He begins by reminding the people of Galatia, and the generations of people that would read this letter in the future, that salvation by faith “works” better than relying on works of the law. Paul writes, “Does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law, or because you believe what you heard?” (NIV)
Paul then seems to drift into using the correspondence theory of truth when he recalls the story of Abraham. Paul writes “Consider Abraham: He believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” (NIV) He is showing that the truth claims that he was making about faith “match up” with what happened to Abraham hundreds of years before that. But, you could also say that Paul was incorporating the semantic theory of truth because he was writing them on the assumption that they had experienced a reception of the Spirit and that they believed the Abraham story to be true.
It’s really very easy for me to read this letter in the same way, or as close to the same way as I can nearly 2000 years later, as the people in Galatia might have, simply because I am a believer. As believers, we might tend to have slightly varying interpretations but there is a relevance that we all give to Paul’s truth claims that non-believers don’t.
I base my conviction that Paul’s truth claims are relevant simply on my own experience. A person can read all the books on apologetics in the world, but I don’t think it’s until they experience that “being made right” through faith that they are able to give any relevance to Christian truth claims. We need to be open to the power of the Holy Spirit and what methods the Spirit might use through us to bring about that “being made right” in somebody else. But we need to know that ultimately it is the Spirit that manifests that transformation and not us.
I really connected with what Keifert wrote about Christianity not being relevant or beneficial to someone who doesn’t believe it’s truth claims. It reminded me of conversations that I used to have with Mormon missionaries. They would use the Book of Mormon to support their claims and my response would be “How can you expect that to have any meaning to me when I haven’t been convinced that the Book of Mormon itself is true?” I’m not trying to use this as an opportunity to bash Mormonism. Actually, I have a great deal of admiration for the devotion and commitment the Mormon Church is somehow able to inspire in its believers. I was just trying to make an example.
Sorry for the lengthy reflection, but this week’s topic really got me thinking.