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corpus-paul - Re: [Corpus-Paul] Galatians 2:16: Exploringthe Relationshipbetween Faith and Works

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  • From: "Rabbi Saul" <tim AT rabbisaul.com>
  • To: "Corpus-Paul" <corpus-paul AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Corpus-Paul] Galatians 2:16: Exploringthe Relationshipbetween Faith and Works
  • Date: Thu, 12 Aug 2004 12:18:08 -0600

> John:
> Would you then take Paul to be saying that Jew as well as the Gentile were
not to
> observe the law? I see him saying that they cannot rely on the law to do
within them
> what only the Holy Spirit can do (cf. Deuteronomy 30:11ff) but I cannot
see Paul
> saying that they are no longer to employ the law as school master since by
the law
> comes knowledge of sin which, for the prophet Isaiah, is what keeps God
from bringing
> the blessings of the covenant to bear on the nation (Isaiah 59 quoted in
Romans 3).

"Schoolmaster" is not what paidagogos means. The word means
child-custodian, and only minors were under one. That is Paul's argument.

"The knowledge of hamartia," which appears in Romans 3.20, refers to Torah's
ability to focus upon the ruling power of Sin as a domain (see the context
of 3.9), and Paul does not believe that new covenant believers are any
longer under Sin (see Romans 6). Torah is a *covenant,* and believers,
whether Jew or Gentile, are only under one covenant: Christ. This is
Paul's explicit point in Gal 4.21-31 (he specifies the two covenants in Gal
4.24). This is reflected in numerous places, such as the marital transfer
from Torah to Christ in Rom 7.1-6; the eschatological interpretation of Deut
30 in Rom 10.6ff (where the "law in the mouth" becomes the confession of the
risen Christ in the mouth) etc.

> There still has to be a fulfilling of the just requirement of the law.

Certainly. Rom 8.4 is an aorist tense, and refers to the righteous sentence
of Torah against Sin. The singular term dikaioma ("righteous requirement")
is used in a similar way (although not specifically with reference to
Torah's judgment, which is an intensification of more general divine
judgment) in 1.32.

This is not to deny that Paul thinks believers "fulfill" Torah on a more
ethical level (e.g Rom 13.8ff; Gal 5.14) - but they "fulfill" it, not by
being "under it" as a covenant, but through obedience to Christ by the
Spirit; thus the new covenant takes up the "concerns" of the old covenant
but refracts them through the lens of the eschatological Christ-event.

tim

Tim Gallant
Pastor, Conrad Christian Reformed Church
Conrad, MT

Biblical Studies Center
http://www.timgallant.org/center.htm

Pauline studies:
http://www.rabbisaul.com

(406) 278-5846 / (406) 278-7809
Fax: (406) 278-7809
http://www.timgallant.org







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