Introducing Paul

1. Adult Education: Fall 2009 Introducing Paul

2. Living a Life Worthy of the Gospel

3. Discussion Question: Think of a theological idea from Paul that we’ve discussed, any one. State the idea and a behavior implication that logically follows. Paul gives us a powerful one in Philippians 2 when he tells his readers to have the same mind that was in Christ, who was God, came to the world, and was lifted up and reigns with the Father. If we had the same mind how would our lives look? Draw other behaviors that saved people ought to be practicing.

4. Introduction’ Paul, while a brilliant theologian responsible for development of the ideas of justification, the end times, nature of the church, and the sacraments is more concerned about believer behavior and church lifestyle than about theological purity.

5. Ya’ll gotta walk the walk!

6. The situation in the Corinthian Congregation illustrates: • Although the Corinthian Christians are numbered among those ‘being saved’ they still struggle against the sinful impulses of the world, flesh and the devil. • They have to confront the problem of how to live in a pagan city without reflecting the values and decadence of a pagan society. • They are confronted with the problem of how to differentiate between areas of conviction and areas of command. This is especially acute in Jewish-Gentile congregations, where people have very different ideas about how to live a God-pleasing life and about which parts of the Mosaic law continue into the new age inaugurated by Christ and the Spirit.

7. The New Has Come • Paul’s view of the end times teaches that a fundamental new circumstance has already broken into the world and Christians must live accordingly • Christians are paradoxically, dead and reborn, crucified and resurrected, wasting away and being renewed • We live as part of the new creation even though it isn’t here yet • The basic human struggle isn’t resolving a war of good and evil raging within us, but to be and act as we truly are and as the world will eventually be • Analogy—we don’t play LPs on a CD player. We play CDs on a CD player

8. Because of this, do that! Paul’s ethical instruction is rooted in the prior act of salvation God has wrought in Christ

9. Examples from Paul’s writings Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. --Romans 6.4 I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. –Romans 12.1 Clean out the old yeast so that you may be a new batch, as you really are unleavened. For our paschal lamb, Christ, has been sacrificed. 8Therefore, let us celebrate the festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. --I Corinthians 5.7,8 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own? 20For you were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body. –I Corinthians 6.19--20

10. The basic structure of Paul’s letters consist of first an indicative section followed by an imperative. Because this is true behave this way.

11. The Weakness of the Law • Paul disregarded the Mosaic law (and all religious law by extension) as a necessary requirement for admission into the church • The law is bound up with the old age and is part of the forces of law—sin—death which bring condemnation

12. Why has this baby pulled out these pots and pans?

13. Paul’s view of the function of the • Mosaic Law which can condemn but not redeem • The law highlights God’s holiness and sin’s severity • The law is a temporary expression of God’s grace—in blocking us from destroying ourselves • The law foreshadows and introduces the coming of Jesus Christ. The goodness of God in giving the law is superseded by the coming of Jesus Christ

14. Freed from the Law • The law can condemn but not redeem. It can highlight sin, but not restrain it. • What the law could not do, God did by sending his Son and his Spirit so that sinful people could both be accounted as righteous. • Possession of the law with its moral aspects and distinctive practices of circumcision, Sabbath-keeping and dietary laws, no longer marks out God’s elect. • Performance of the law cannot be the basis of vindication on Judgment Day. • Practice of the law is no longer the definitive character for the life of the new-covenant people (Christians).

15. Romans 7 selected verses What then should we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet, if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, ‘You shall not covet.’ 8But sin, seizing an opportunity in the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. Apart from the law sin lies dead. 9I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived 10and I died, and the very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. 11For sin, seizing an opportunity in the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. 12So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good.

16. Did what is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, working death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure.

17. For we know that the law is spiritual; but I am of the flesh, sold into slavery under sin. 15I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. 17But in fact it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me. 18For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. 19For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. 20Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me.

18. 21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand. 22For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, 23but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with my mind I am a slave to the law of God, but with my flesh I am a slave to the law of sin.

19. Observations on Romans 7 • Romans 7 must be read in the context of Paul’s overall argument that Christians are no longer under the law • The passage cannot refer to the pre-Christian Paul • Paul is not talking about post-conversion Christians in this section • Paul is not talking explicitly about Adam • The ‘I’ language of Romans 7.7-25 is very similar to some of the psalms where the psalmist oscillates between the ‘I/me’ and ‘Israel.’

20. The Fruitful Life of the Christian Paul states his ethical understanding positively through the idea of bearing fruit through our relationship with Jesus Christ.

21. Paul’s teachings on bearing fruit derive from four sources: • The example of Christ. Jesus’ life and death are unique in their character, and they serve as an example to believers. • The teachings of Christ. Paul’s use of the expression ‘law of Christ’ is probably emblematic of the whole substance of Christian moral teaching. • Life in the Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the sanctifying agency in the lives of believers. The Spirit wages perpetual warfare against the flesh empowered by law. • The law of love. The centrality of love in Paul’s ethics is amply demonstrated by the frequency of times the Apostle enjoins readers to act out of love.

22. I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died, and the very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me.

23. Woe be to us, if from the summits of religion there pours forth nothing but religion! Religion casts us into the deepest of all prisons: it cannot liberate us. Flesh is flesh; and all that takes place within its sphere, every step we undertake towards God, is as such weak. Because of the qualitative distinction between God and man the history of religion, Church History, is weak utterly weak.— The Epistle to the Romans, Karl Barth

24. Paul’s Ethics Part Two

25. Pursue the Things that Make for Peace

26. Early Church Debates over Food and Fellowship • In a city like Corinth, where most of the meat sold in the marketplace was sacrificed and dedicated to pagan deities, what were Christians to do? • Paul thought that such gods didn’t exist, so there was no real reason not to eat such meat. • But if this practice disturbed the faith of a younger believer it was best to refrain. • Paul’s concern was twofold: that the weak were not offended and that the strong were not bullied into accommodation.

27. Discussion Question: Identify a current behavior that is perfectly acceptable from the perspective of Christian ethics, but might be deemed as immoral in some people’s minds.

28. Some Guidelines • Learn to differentiate between areas of conviction and areas of command. • Don’t major on minor doctrines. • Withhold judgment where the gospel is not threatened. • Exercise your conviction to build others up, not to tear them down. • Do not exchange freedom in Christ for slavery to human tradition. • At all times act in love and fulfill the law of Christ.

29. Freedom, Liberty, and License • Paul is rightly called the Apostle of Liberty. • For freedom, Christ has set us free. (Galatians 5.1) • Paul warns of the misuse of freedom for the purpose of cultivating sin.

30. Paul, Sex, and Women • The basic ethic for sexual conduct in Christian tradition has long been, celibacy in singleness and faithfulness in marriage. • Paul further enjoins Christians to abstain from adultery, prostitutes, sexual immorality, and homosexuality.

31. Paul’s instruction on sexuality is based his understanding of God’s intention for human sexuality. • Violating this intention results in painful effects in human relationships. • The society that rejects God will be driven to pursue power or pleasure. • The church always welcomes all people regardless of their sexual inclinations. • The transforming power of the Spirit will address those areas that need transformation.

32. Homosexuality in Paul’s Thought • At several points the OT forbids homosexual acts. • For unmarried men in the Greco-Roman world the primary means of sexual release were through slaves, raping during war, prostitutes, and same-sex partners. • It was the unnatural character of homosexuality that constituted the Jewish objection to it as a sinful practice.

33. For this reason God gave them up to degrading passions. Their women exchanged natural intercourse for unnatural, 27and in the same way also the men, giving up natural intercourse with women, were consumed with passion for one another. Men committed shameless acts with men and received in their own persons the due penalty for their error. Romans 1.26-7

34. Several Observations • Paul is talking about homosexual activity of both men and women. • Rejection of the created design for human sexuality is symptomatic of rejection of the Creator • Sexual acts of this order dishonor both God and human beings. • The consequences of homosexual practices (physical, emotional, psychological) in a sense constitute their own punishment. • Homosexual acts are part of the web of sin and rebellion that prompts God to reveal his wrath against humankind.

35. Counter Arguments • Paul is condemning only pederasty, • Heterosexuals engaged in homosexual promiscuity, • Sexual exploitation of slaves, • Homosexual practice in the context of pagan worship. • Paul knew nothing of sexual orientation • Or long-term homosexual commitment

36. Women • Several texts speak of the husband’s authority over his wife (I Corinthians 11.2-16; Ephesians 5.22-33; Colossians 3.18) • In Ephesus, Paul restricts women as teachers, probably because there existed there an heresy that attempted to redefine the role of women by distorting the creation narrative. • Elsewhere, it was clear that women taught in Pauline churches, apparently with Paul’s approval. • Paul speaks of mutual submission (Eph. 5.21) and mutual authority (I Cor. 7.4) between husbands and wives.

37. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.

38. …The glory of the new creation made known in Christ means the negation of the distinctions that have ordinarily separated human beings from one another. Neither race, nor class, nor gender places one closer to the throne of God. The family of Abraham is a diverse family with children from every nation, rich and poor, make and female…All persons stand before God on the same level and no one has the inside track or can plead they are better or more useful than any other person.

39. Believers are enabled to live a new life by virtue of the work of Christ on their behalf and through the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit. God’s work, however, does not cancel the response to human beings but establishes it. The indicative is the basis for the imperative, and Paul summons his churches to live out the gospel they have embraced.