Let Paul be Paul


In one of our Bible studies, we're going through Paul's epistle to the Romans. We're in chapter seven, discussing what he means by no longer being under the Law. Here's a good quote from F. F. Bruce...

"The tension which finds expression in Romans 7:14-25 is the tension necessarily set up when one lives 'between the times' – in two eons simultaneously. How can one who exists temporally in 'the present evil age' nevertheless enjoy deliverance from it and live here and now the life of the age to come? By the aid of the indwelling Spirit, who not only makes effective in the believer the saving benefits of Christ's passion but also secures to him in advance the blessings of the age to come." 

"Paul goes on farther to show that the law in its stricter sense, as the embodiment of God's will, is upheld and fulfilled more adequately in the age of faith than was possible 'before faith came', when law kept the people of God 'under restraint' (Galatians 3:23). Only in an atmosphere of spiritual liberty can God's will be properly obeyed and his law upheld." 

"It is best to let Paul be Paul. And when we do that, we shall recognize in him the supreme libertarian, the great herald of Christian freedom, insisting that man in Christ has reached his spiritual majority and must no longer be confined to the leading-strings of infancy but enjoy the birthright of the freeborn sons of God. Here if anywhere, Luther entered into the mind of Paul: 'A Christian man is a most free lord of all, subject to none. A Christian man is a most dutiful servant of all, subject to all.'  'Subject to none' in respect of his liberty; 'subject to all' in respect of his charity. This, for Paul, is the law of Christ because this was the way of Christ. And in this way, for Paul, the divine purpose underlying Moses' law is vindicated and accomplished."

-- F.F. Bruce, Paul: Apostle of the Heart Set Free


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