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corpus-paul - Re: The purpose of the law in salvation-history

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  • From: "Bob MacDonald" <bobmacdonald AT home.com>
  • To: "Corpus-paul" <corpus-paul AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: The purpose of the law in salvation-history
  • Date: Mon, 3 Sep 2001 01:03:57 -0700


Loren wrote
>>You view Paul a bit too "purely" for my taste.

I had written of Paul as having >>confidence, love, and a spring to his step
that has considerable resilience and is in no danger of wearing out... <<g>>

Yes, my description of Paul may be too positive.

But back to your question on his view of Law in salvation history.

When Paul arrives at a point in his argumentation that is absurd in his
view - he simply stops and says so (God forbid in KJV)

(Romans)
- God is not unfaithful,
- God may take vengeance,
- we establish the law by faith,
- we will not sin to provoke an increase in grace,
- or because we are under grace,
- the Law is not sin,
- what is good is not death to me, sin is powerful against me but not
against God,
- God is not unrighteous,
- has not cast away his people,
- his people have not stumbled permanently,
(Galatians)
- Christ is not a minister of sin,
- the law is not against the promises of God,
- we do not glory in the flesh.

These are axioms for him, not things to be proven. So if his logic
implicates God, the conclusion is simply not accepted.

This is a measure of his confidence.

What does MH GENOITO mean anyway? Something like - may it not be - or if
this is the way it is, we might as well give up the struggle (in purely
human terms and assuming the constancy of time, faithfulness in covenant
amongst us is an evolutionary necessity).

As to whether Paul is pure: he stands or falls to his own master, not to me.
While I do have some differences with him - e.g. I don't wish that the
"knife would slip", he does not usually argue with his own self at the
centre. This is a principle that I can learn from him, though application is
often very difficult since our motivations are not subject to an objective
viewpoint. (E.g. his negation of himself produces an enormous presence of
that same self - so much so that we are studying the body of his letters
many years later)

here is the resilient spring to his step

Learning such a principle is less important than receiving the blessing he
is trying to communicate. (As he says - I would that all were even as I
myself am. 1 Cor 7:7) In this he, as a chosen vessel, pure or not, is worth
a listen. (Note the last of the God forbid's in 1 Cor 6:15 - we will not
take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot.)

As to his "anguish, futility, and despair" in Romans chapter 7, I guess we
will have to disagree for now: I agree that this can describe a human, but
who will deliver such a one? Well you know Paul's answer. (7:24, 8:1, 8:11
etc)

Does this describe a man in despair? not by his own admission. And whom
should I believe? Him or his interpreters?

If his salvation is only in the age to come and not also in the present age,
then he might be seen as hopeful but deluded or at best speculating on what
we in human terms cannot know. And some see him that way. I don't.

(He does have anguish in chapter 9 - but for a wholly different reason - the
human reason is 'love of his brethren'; this shows him as a man of
compassion.)

hmmm love - and without quoting Acts

This may be a matter of my 'taste' or predisposition. But that seems beyond
the scope of our judgment or disputation. (De gustibus...)

Bob

mailto::BobMacDonald AT home.com
+ + + Victoria, B.C., Canada + + +

Catch the foxes for us,
the little foxes that make havoc of the vineyards,
for our vineyards are in flower. (Song 2.15)
http://members.home.net/bobmacdonald/homepage.htm





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