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  • From: Robert M Schacht <bobschacht AT juno.com>
  • To: corpus-paul AT franklin.oit.unc.edu
  • Subject: Re: If not me, who?
  • Date: Sat, 12 Jun 1999 15:17:06 -0700




On Sat, 12 Jun 1999 12:27:57 -0400 "David C. Hindley" <dhindley AT csi.com>
writes:
>Jeffery Gibson wrote:
>
>....In the light of this, may I request, then, that List Members who
have
>not seen discussed what you want to see discussed take the hold of
>the
>reins and initiate the threads you have interest in.
>
>Perhaps our motto should be the adage of Hillel:
>
>If not me, who?
>If not now, when?<<
>

Jeffrey,
I like the Hillel quote!
I have been lurking a bit, and I don't really qualify as the kind of
scholar you were writing about, but I'll respond to your invitation.

This month, many of the mainline churches will be reading from Romans
4-6. In the middle of this is, as I understand it, what has become known
as Paul's concept of election. Paul is contrasting the life of grace
under Jesus Christ with the heritage of Adam, and emphasizes that Jesus
died for our sins "while we were yet sinners." It seems he wants to say
that grace comes to us as a free gift.

But Paul is skating on thin ice here (pardon my use of an inappropriate
metaphor for the eastern Mediterranean), and he knows it. For if grace
comes to us because of God's initiative and not our own, then we have no
reason to repent of our sins and amend our way of life-- so Paul has to
address himself to that elsewhere.

So here's the first part of my question: When Paul stresses that God's
grace comes to us through Jesus Christ, does he mean that as a one-way
street? A perfectly free gift from God? Or does he mean "through Jesus
Christ" as a two-way street, perhaps initiated by God, but requiring an
appropriate response. In reading Paul, I get the feeling that he really
wants to have it both ways: that the gift is free, but that how we
respond to that gift is critical to the outcome (i.e., to our salvation).
Please note here that at issue in my question is what Paul was trying to
say (i.e., his theology), not whether or not what he was trying to say
was in some sense or another true.

The second part of my question involves boiling down current scholarship
on each segment of Romans 4-6 into one sentence. I have been given the
responsibility of writing scripture introductions for my church, and I
would like to embed the best Paul scholarship into what I write, to
whatever extent I can do so. I realize that to most scholars this means
hopeless oversimplification, but I hope some of you rise to help me with
this challenge. Note that I am not asking for a definitive answer in 25
words or less. What I am asking for is a short statement that, like the
rudder on a sailboat, helps the listener move in the right direction.
(This week I'm writing an intro for Romans 5:15b-19.)

Thanks in advance,
Bob

Robert M. Schacht, Ph.D.
Northern Arizona University
Flagstaff, AZ

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