Thursday 20 February 2014

Background

Paul is still concerned to answer the question: who are thepeople of God? He moves on from the task of showing that God is notunjust in choosing some and not others, to explain the impact ofJesus on the make-up of God's people.

Righteousness is a way of life: life as God's people. It isbased on faith in Christ. Paul contrasts the pursuit ofrighteousness through faith with the place of actions ('works' (v.32)) in achieving this way of life. This has led in outdatedscholarship to the condemnation of Judaism as a legalistic,works-based faith, a view which has done considerable damage overthe years. Careful reading of Jewish texts reveals acovenant-centred faith, where keeping the law is a delight, ajoyful response to God's covenant love (Psalm119:97-104) which shapes a whole community into God's people.Paul uses the word 'zeal' to express this (v. 2), and heunderstands this from the inside (Philippians 3:6). Nevertheless, in Paul's eyesthis focus on the law prevents some Jews from recognising Jesus asthe final consummation of God's purposes, the person to whom thelaw points, and a yet more joyful way of responding to God's love.Earlier in his ministry, Paul had used the image of the law as atutor, keeping a young person in check until in maturity theybecame able to act independently in Christ (Galatians 3:24).

Paul returns to the Old Testament, spinning together a number oftexts which stress that keeping God's commandments comes naturallyto God's people (Deuteronomy 30:11-14) - no-one needs to battleto discover God's will. If this is true, then for Paul, the gift offaith in Christ comes to us even more naturally, through theconfession that Christ is Lord and the inner faith that God raisedhim from the dead. The final outcome of this will be salvation(verse 9) in God's new age when evil will finally be destroyed andGod's purposes for this world will finally be achieved.

To Ponder

• The very first statement of belief among the earliestChristians was simple: Jesus is Lord. What difference does it maketo life to believe this?

• For Paul, final salvation is a future event. To what extentdoes this make sense in light of your own walk with God?