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  • From: "Tim Gallant" <tim AT rabbisaul.com>
  • To: "Corpus-Paul" <corpus-paul AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Corpus-Paul] The use of shame in reasoning
  • Date: Tue, 1 Feb 2005 11:42:40 -0700

In short, I do not think that
Abraham's faith (or righteousness) was different from other heroes of faith
for Paul.

I agree with Mark on this one. I think it is special pleading to ignore David in the very context where Paul exalts Abraham's faith in Rom 4 (see 4.6ff; Paul uses the "just as" formula too). Some people say that Paul is quoting a general statement and David's identity is irrelevant. Well, even if that were so, it would be every bit as problematic. But the fact is that Paul doesn't use Scripture that way, and the Psalm Paul is citing is stated from David's personal perspective of having sinned and received the forgiveness in view. And thus the transition from Rom 4.5 to 4.6 very clearly implies that David's faith was accounted to him for righteousness in the very same way Abraham's was.

That's not to deny a dramatic salvation-historical shift in Paul's thought, but the shape of it is not a flat denial of faith between Abraham and Christ.

Part of what we must recover is a biblical (OT) view of what justification entails. The judge did not simply make a bare verdict, but executed the sentence. The primary sentence of condemnation, Paul says in Rom 5, is death. And that means that the ultimate meaning of justification is resurrection - precisely what Paul indicates in 4.25. Paul draws the parallel in the passage - Abraham received life from the dead (justification) through the birth of Isaac (if you think that sounds odd, look at 4.17 carefully). That's the thrust of much of 4.13-25.

Paul sees the resurrection of Jesus as the representative justification of God's people. And in that sense, something dramatically new has broken into the world. He is not denying that preliminary justification - the forgiveness of sins - by way of faith has *always* occurred throughout redemptive history. But it is only in Christ that eschatological justification has arrived.

This has huge implications for the rest of Romans, but I don't have time to explore them now. Just thought I would throw that out there.

tim

Tim Gallant
Pastor, Conrad Christian Reformed Church

http://www.timgallant.org
tim | gallant site group





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