Paul’s Starting Point: Talking with Dr. Michael Burer about Galatians

On the occasion of the publication of his new commentary on Galatians, we met with Dr. Michael Burer (ThM, 1998; PhD, 2004), dean of faculty and professor of New Testament studies at DTS.

Tell us a little about yourself and your work at DTS.

I have two roles at DTS: professor and dean. I teach in the New Testament department, where my bread and butter are our core courses for the ThM. That means I teach a lot of Greek language and exegesis. Occasionally, I teach an elective or two on the Gospels, Galatians, or Matthew. My other role is dean of faculty. Wearing that hat, I work with Dr. George Hillman, VP for education, to help our faculty become the best professors they can be. Outside of my day job, I serve as an elder at Trinity Bible Church in Richardson, TX; that involves pastoral care over our members and, sometimes, teaching and preaching. I’ve been married to Melony for over thirty-one years, and we have two married kids and one still in college.

Why is writing exegetical literature important to you?

Writing exegetical literature joins two of my passions. First, I’m passionate for the truth of God’s Word. The Bible is God’s Word to us, inspired and inerrant. It is the only authoritative guide for Christian faith and practice. As followers of Christ, we ought to strive to learn its meaning, and exegesis is the way to do that. Second, I’m passionate for the people of Christ’s church, all of whom need to understand God’s Word to grow in Christlikeness. Writing exegetical literature joins those two passions in an exciting way: Through exegesis, I get to dig into the meaning of the New Testament, and through commentaries, I get to explain it to God’s people.

How did you get involved in the Galatians commentary for this series?

When Logos/Lexham picked up the Evangelical Exegetical Commentary series a number of years ago, they asked one of my DTS colleagues, Dr. Hall Harris, to be the editor for the New Testament volumes. As a junior faculty member at that time, I was eager for a book project. I would occasionally ask Dr. Harris if any volumes were available to take on, and for a while there were none. All the books had been assigned, and each author was apparently making progress. One day I asked him again, and for some reason, the author previously assigned to Galatians had stepped away from the project. Dr. Harris asked me if I was willing to take it on, and I immediately said yes! The product of that decision was a number of years in the making, with some bumps and hurdles along the way, but I’m thankful to have finished the work. I’m especially thankful that Dr. Harris, a longtime mentor to me, was instrumental in making it possible.

What makes this commentary series distinct?

The name really says it all: “Evangelical Exegetical Commentary.” This commentary series is evangelical, in that the publisher and authors hold to the historic essentials of the Christian faith that are widely regarded as “evangelical”—most notably, the deity of Christ and the inspiration and inerrancy of the Bible. This sets the stage for author and reader to accept the Bible as authoritative and to willingly submit to its teaching. This commentary series is exegetical, in that it concerns itself with the meaning of the text, using study methods which have proven themselves over time as appropriate and central to that task.

What makes your commentary distinct?

There are a lot of different ways to write a commentary nowadays, from approaches which draw from the social sciences to those that draw from rhetoric and communication theories. This is especially so with Galatians, which scholars have studied from all these approaches and more. My conviction about exegesis is that our approach first and foremost ought to be grammatical and historical—that is, our energy should be spent first in dealing with the language of the text and the historical context of the authors and readers. This is a more traditional approach, not avant-garde in any way, but I believe it’s the best way to study the biblical text. That’s the way I teach my students, and that’s the way I wrote this commentary. In today’s landscape of commentaries, that approach makes this one distinct from others, but sometimes there’s no school like the old school!

What was Paul dealing with in the Galatian churches which caused him to write the book?

Paul established the churches in Galatia during his first missionary journey, detailed in Acts 13–14. (For those who are aware of the discussion, you can infer from this assertion that I hold to the South Galatia theory.) Soon after he left those congregations, Jewish Christian missionaries arrived and began to undermine both the gospel that Paul had preached and the faith of these young churches. Paul had preached a clear message of faith alone in the crucified and resurrected Christ. Because of Christ’s sacrificial, atoning death on the cross, Christ accomplished everything needed for salvation. All anyone, whether Jew or Gentile, needed to do for salvation to enter God’s family was to profess faith in Jesus Christ. Like Paul, these Jewish Christian missionaries believed Jesus was the promised Messiah; but unlike Paul, they believed that in order to fully become part of God’s family, Jew and Gentile alike had to keep the Law. This effectively meant that for Gentiles to find salvation, they had to become Jewish! This teaching created difficult problems for the young congregations: It caused them to doubt Paul and his gospel, and it created divisions and difficulties. Paul responded to this difficult situation by writing the book of Galatians.

What’s the central argument of the book?

Galatians is a call to action based on a profound theological truth. The call to action is clear: Paul wants the Galatian churches to return to the gospel he preached, rejecting any teaching or preaching or person that adds any requirement for salvation beyond simple faith in Jesus, like obedience to Law. The theological truth is profound: Properly understood, Paul’s apostleship and gospel, the message of the Old Testament, and the work of the Spirit argue that salvation is available through faith in Christ alone. This implies that Jew and Gentile can live together in the church on the basis of that faith alone.

What are some exciting things you learned while studying Galatians?

I believe Galatians is the first book Paul wrote, and as such, it gives us an important starting point for understanding his theology and how it developed. Take the concept of “flesh” (σάρξ). When people discuss this, they often argue that in Paul’s writings, “flesh” means the sinful impulse or predisposition of the human person. But to say that’s the same everywhere flattens the nuances of Paul’s writing and misses the development we can see over the breadth of his writings. In Galatians, the presenting problem was a demand for circumcision on the part of Gentile believers. When Paul said “flesh,” he really meant the flesh, the physical body! So we have to realize that Paul had a tangible, earthy argument: Doing anything to the body in an attempt to achieve salvation or to stave off sin is a dead end. In fact, it awakens the body to even more sinful desires exactly opposite to the intended goal. The only means of salvation is faith in Christ, and the only provision for holy living is found in the Spirit.

On the other hand, as Paul’s first book, Galatians gives us an important anchor for theological truths which remained constant throughout his writings. I argue that Paul wrote Galatians in AD 49, on the eve of the Jerusalem Council detailed in Acts 15. Even at this early stage, Paul powerfully asserted the deity of Jesus and the Spirit. So although Paul expresses his Trinitarian conviction in seminal form, he still expresses it powerfully and early, about fifteen years after the death and resurrection of Jesus. This is wonderful evidence that the early church, of which Paul was a key part, deeply understood key truths which we still proclaim today. It cuts off specious arguments for a later development of the deity of Christ and the deity Spirit.

How do you hope the commentary will benefit your readers?

My prayer is that through this book, readers will know and appreciate the meaning of the text of Galatians. I also pray they will grow both in their commitment to the simple gospel of Jesus Christ and to the wonderful truth of “faith alone.”