The Creation Law
The founding act of God with respect to the Jewish people was his delivering them from slavery in Egypt, and subsequently presenting the law, the Decalogue, to Moses for the people. That establishes the covenant, what E.P. Sanders calls ‘covenantal nomism', wherin Yahweh is the God of the Chosen People and watches out for them (drowns enemies as may be required), while the Chosen People receive and agree to follow God's Law (ten commandments plus about 600 more regulations as indicated in Leviticus and Numbers, and special decrees from time to time).
The Founding Act:
I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. ~Exod. 20:2 //Deut. 5:6
Quite different is the founding act for everyone else, which was the death and resurrection of Jesus.
The Founding Act:
The words ‘counted to him’ are meant to apply not only to Abraham, but to us; our faith too is to be ‘counted’, the faith in the God who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead; for he was given up to death for our misdeeds, and raised to life for our justification. Rom. 4:23-25
The gentiles are not excused from not knowing God. They should have known, in Paul’s view, ever since the beginning. They obstinately refused to see.
Likeness of God Lost by the Gentiles:
For all that can be known of God lies plain before their eyes; indeed god himself has disclosed it to them. Ever since the world began his invisible attributes, that is to say everlasting power and deity, have been visible to the eye of reason, in all the things he has made. Their conduct, therefore, is indefensible; knowing God, they have refused to honor him as God or render him thanks. Hence all their thinking has ended in futility and their misguided minds are plunged into darkness. They boast of their wisdom, but they have made fools of themselves, exchanging the glory of the immortal God for an image shaped like a mortal man, even for images like birds, beasts, and reptiles. ~Rom. 1:18-23
Now everyone must keep God’s commands, but these commands (as will appear) are not those of the Mosaic Law.
Christian Behavior:
Circumcision or uncircumcision is neither here nor there; what matters is to keep God’s commands. ~ I Cor. 7:19
Paul does what he has to do to get converts, but the only law he is under is the Creation Law from Genesis.
Christ’s Law:
To Jews I behaved like a Jew, to win Jews; that is, to win those under the [Mosaic] law I behaved as if under the [Mosaic] law, though not myself subject to the [Mosaic] law. To win those outside that [Mosaic] law, I behaved as if outside the [Mosaic] law, though not myself outside God’s [Creation] law, but subject to the [Creation] law of Christ. Rom. 9:20-21
The law of sin and death, the law broken by Adam, is this Creation Law. Man was disobedient. He was to rule over all Creation in the image of God in which he was made, but disobeyed. As a result Adam & Eve were expelled from the Garden.
Death
The sting of death is sin, and sin gains its power from the law. But thanks be to God! He gave us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. ~1 Cor. 15:56-57
The Creation Command
‘You may eat from any tree in the garden’, he told the man, ‘except from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; the day you eat from that, you are surely doomed to die.’ ~Gen. 2:16-17
But with the coming of Jesus Christ, we have a New Adam, whose perfect obedience corrects the Fall of Adam and re-establishes the relationship between God and Man. The bondage to sin and death is terminated by this gracious sacrifice and Mankind is liberated.
New Creation:
Circumcision is nothing; uncircumcision is nothing; the only thing that counts is new creation! ~Gal. 6:15
It follows, my friends, that our old nature has no claim on us; we are not obliged to live that was. If you do so, you must die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the base pursuits of the body, then you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. The spirit you have received is not a spirit of slavery, leading you back into a life of fear, but a Spirit of adoption, enabling us to cry ’Abba! Father!’ ~Rom. 8:12-15
In the days of Moses God made the Jews his Chosen People.
The Chosen People
If only you will now listen to me and keep my covenant, then out of all peoples you will become my special possession; for the whole earth is mine. ~Exod. 19:5
But with the New Creation, the timeline is rolled back to before there was a Jew or Gentile, but just humankind. Therefore the new Chosen People are those who accept the gospel and are indwelt by the Holy Spirit.
The New Chosen People
My dear friends, beloved by God, we are certain that he has chosen you, because when we brought you the gospel we did not bring it in mere words but in the power of the Holy Spirit and with strong conviction. 1 1 Thess. 1:5
Much of the time, if not most of the time, Paul is talking about the Creation Law rather than the Mosaic Law, but he never makes this perfectly clear. This leads to a seriously wrong understanding of Paul’s theology.
Redemptive Obedience of Christ Corrects Adam’s Disobedience
For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, how much more, being reconciled, shall we be saved by his life! And that is not all: we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus, through whom we have now been granted reconciliation. What does this imply? It was through one man that sin entered the world, and thus death pervaded the whole human race, inasmuch as all have sinned. For sin was already in the world before there was law; and although in the absence of law no reckoning is kept of sin, death held sway from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned as Adam did, by disobeying a direct command.--- and Adam foreshadows the man who was to come. ~Rom. 5:10-14
The Founding Act:
I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. ~Exod. 20:2 //Deut. 5:6
Quite different is the founding act for everyone else, which was the death and resurrection of Jesus.
The Founding Act:
The words ‘counted to him’ are meant to apply not only to Abraham, but to us; our faith too is to be ‘counted’, the faith in the God who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead; for he was given up to death for our misdeeds, and raised to life for our justification. Rom. 4:23-25
The gentiles are not excused from not knowing God. They should have known, in Paul’s view, ever since the beginning. They obstinately refused to see.
Likeness of God Lost by the Gentiles:
For all that can be known of God lies plain before their eyes; indeed god himself has disclosed it to them. Ever since the world began his invisible attributes, that is to say everlasting power and deity, have been visible to the eye of reason, in all the things he has made. Their conduct, therefore, is indefensible; knowing God, they have refused to honor him as God or render him thanks. Hence all their thinking has ended in futility and their misguided minds are plunged into darkness. They boast of their wisdom, but they have made fools of themselves, exchanging the glory of the immortal God for an image shaped like a mortal man, even for images like birds, beasts, and reptiles. ~Rom. 1:18-23
Now everyone must keep God’s commands, but these commands (as will appear) are not those of the Mosaic Law.
Christian Behavior:
Circumcision or uncircumcision is neither here nor there; what matters is to keep God’s commands. ~ I Cor. 7:19
Paul does what he has to do to get converts, but the only law he is under is the Creation Law from Genesis.
Christ’s Law:
To Jews I behaved like a Jew, to win Jews; that is, to win those under the [Mosaic] law I behaved as if under the [Mosaic] law, though not myself subject to the [Mosaic] law. To win those outside that [Mosaic] law, I behaved as if outside the [Mosaic] law, though not myself outside God’s [Creation] law, but subject to the [Creation] law of Christ. Rom. 9:20-21
The law of sin and death, the law broken by Adam, is this Creation Law. Man was disobedient. He was to rule over all Creation in the image of God in which he was made, but disobeyed. As a result Adam & Eve were expelled from the Garden.
Death
The sting of death is sin, and sin gains its power from the law. But thanks be to God! He gave us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. ~1 Cor. 15:56-57
The Creation Command
‘You may eat from any tree in the garden’, he told the man, ‘except from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; the day you eat from that, you are surely doomed to die.’ ~Gen. 2:16-17
But with the coming of Jesus Christ, we have a New Adam, whose perfect obedience corrects the Fall of Adam and re-establishes the relationship between God and Man. The bondage to sin and death is terminated by this gracious sacrifice and Mankind is liberated.
New Creation:
Circumcision is nothing; uncircumcision is nothing; the only thing that counts is new creation! ~Gal. 6:15
It follows, my friends, that our old nature has no claim on us; we are not obliged to live that was. If you do so, you must die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the base pursuits of the body, then you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. The spirit you have received is not a spirit of slavery, leading you back into a life of fear, but a Spirit of adoption, enabling us to cry ’Abba! Father!’ ~Rom. 8:12-15
In the days of Moses God made the Jews his Chosen People.
The Chosen People
If only you will now listen to me and keep my covenant, then out of all peoples you will become my special possession; for the whole earth is mine. ~Exod. 19:5
But with the New Creation, the timeline is rolled back to before there was a Jew or Gentile, but just humankind. Therefore the new Chosen People are those who accept the gospel and are indwelt by the Holy Spirit.
The New Chosen People
My dear friends, beloved by God, we are certain that he has chosen you, because when we brought you the gospel we did not bring it in mere words but in the power of the Holy Spirit and with strong conviction. 1 1 Thess. 1:5
Much of the time, if not most of the time, Paul is talking about the Creation Law rather than the Mosaic Law, but he never makes this perfectly clear. This leads to a seriously wrong understanding of Paul’s theology.
Redemptive Obedience of Christ Corrects Adam’s Disobedience
For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, how much more, being reconciled, shall we be saved by his life! And that is not all: we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus, through whom we have now been granted reconciliation. What does this imply? It was through one man that sin entered the world, and thus death pervaded the whole human race, inasmuch as all have sinned. For sin was already in the world before there was law; and although in the absence of law no reckoning is kept of sin, death held sway from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned as Adam did, by disobeying a direct command.--- and Adam foreshadows the man who was to come. ~Rom. 5:10-14
posted by SkipChurch at
11:40 AM
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