Corpus-Paul

["Harold R. Holmyard III" <hholmyard AT ont.com>]

Title: Re: [Corpus-Paul] Did Paul break the Law?

Dear Tony,

>  If observing the
> law is an attempt to build or earn one's own salvation, it becomes a
> matter of works and comes under condemnation.  If it is an
> _expression_ of faith, a living-out of a salvation which already
> accepted in faith (analogous to his urging in Phil.2:12?), then law
> itself is faith and therefore acceptable to God.  (And Mark's
> celebration of Sabbath is a Good Thing - enjoy!)

HH: I think this is the correct position.

> Paul might be a
> systematic theologian in the making, but I suspect he hadn't quite got
> there - we can see the trajectories his thinking is taking, but the
> inconsistencies are not yet resolved.  that might be our job, in
> terms of developing our own theology, but we should be cautious about
> saying the final form is Paul's!

HH: Rather I think you need to consider the motives that the Gentiles in Galatia had, and Paul states that they were trying to be justified by keeping the law:

Gal. 5:4 You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.

HH: So the force of his presentation to them must be viewed in those terms, not as theology inconsistent with Romans. Paul's letter was wisdom given him by God as Peter says (2 Pet 3:15). We accept him as speaking with apostolic authority, as giving the word of God:

1Th. 2:13 ¶ And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is at work in you who believe.

HH: Paul considered his written words as bearing the same divine authority as his preached word, and I believe we are to do the same:

1Cor. 14:37 If anybody thinks he is a prophet or spiritually gifted, let him acknowledge that what I am writing to you is the Lord's command.

HH: It does not seem necessary to introduce the notion of inconsistency to account for the apparently different ways that Paul communicates in Romans and Galatians. Indeed your word above does a sufficient job. The Jewish Christians in Acts 21:20 who kept the law did it as a manifestation of their faith, just as you say. They loved the law, as did the Psalmist (Ps 119:97):

Psa. 119:97 ¶  [Mem] Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long.

HH: The Galatians' motives were different.

                                        Yours,

                                        Harold Holmyard