Corpus-Paul

[Loren Rosson <rossoiii AT yahoo.com>]

Jason, you wrote:
 
> The only righteousness that
> comes from the law is that
> which is achieved by perfect
> works.

The righteousness that comes from the law is
emphatically not a righteousness according to perfect
works. It is the righteousness which Paul alludes to
in Philip. 3:6, which is simply intending to live by
the law, repenting for failures, etc. Perfection was
never required; it was never an issue.

We need to be careful with Gal. 3:10-14. There Paul
seems to set up a standard of perfection, suggesting
that his Gentile converts in Galatia can never hope to
keep the law’s requirements with the same “perfection”
that he did as a Pharisee (Philip. 3:6) -- and with
the same “perfection” other Pharisees, and other Jews,
still do. But literal perfection is not an issue. Paul
would have never made the preposterous claim that he
was a perfect human being (in Philip. 3:6), anymore
than other Jews would have.

(See also the archives, where Moon and I discussed
Gal. 3:10-14 from a rhetorical point of view.)

> Rom 10 begins as a prayer for 
> Israel.  He speaks of their
> misuse of the law.  They missed
> the intended point of the law,
> the righteousness of God, and
> they tried to use the law to
> make their own
> righteousness.

It sounds suspiciously like you’re saying Israel tried
to gain salvation by her own efforts -- which ignores
issues of grace and election. I don’t agree with your
statements here. (Have you read stuff by Stendahl and
Sanders?)

> The law was made to show the
> sins of the flesh, not to fix them.
> All the law can 
> do for me is show me my sin.

I certainly hope the law can do more than that for
you! But for our purposes here, what would Paul have
said? He would have said that ONE function of the law
is to reveal sin, but I doubt he would have pressed
that THE function of the law was to do this. 

> The Jews died to the law relieving
> them of their obligation to it(Rom.
> 7:1-6). 

Only partly. “Dying” is not complete until the end of
all things.

> Their only obligation is the same as
> that of the Gentiles,

I disagree. Paul naturally allowed that Jews should go
on living as Jews, and abiding by “works” (Rom.
14:1-15:6, Acts passim, etc.). He went on living as a
Jew himself.

> There is no verse that says we must
> go on fulfilling the law itself. 

Indeed there are. Gal. 6:2; Rom. 8:4, for instance.
And many other texts imply it.

Loren Rosson III,
Nashua NH
rossoiii AT yahoo.com


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