Category Archives: Paul

Paul and the historical Jesus

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‘The lack of reference to the historical Jesus [in Paul’s writings] has often been exaggerated.

  • [he] shows himself aware of the birth of Jesus and his descent from both Abraham and David; (Rom 1:3; Gal 3:16; 4:4)
  • he knows of the betrayal of Jesus on the night on which he also instituted a fellowship meal; (1 Cor 11:23-25)
  • the crucifixion is frequently mentioned, a death in which the Jewish leaders were implicated; (1 Thess 2:15)
  • he speaks of the burial of Jesus and of the eyewitnesses to his resurrection.
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Justification in Luke’s Gospel

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A foundational assumption of those who adopt some version of the ‘New Perspective on Paul’ is that Second-Temple Judaism was a not a religion of works-righteousness, but of grace.  ‘Works’ were not seen as the way of meriting salvation, as has often been thought, but rather were the ‘boundary-markers’ of God’s people; the things that marked them out as belonging to him.

I have long viewed this with some suspicion.  There seem to be too many instances in the Gospels when people did seek to justify themselves before God.  …

1 Tim 6:3-21 – Apostolic concerns – sermon notes

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1 Timothy 6:3-21

Parents can love their children too much – or so they are sometimes tempted to think.

Here are some apostolic concerns, for Timothy, ‘my true son in the faith,’ (1:2).

1. A concern about belief

Cf. 1 Tim 1:3-11; 1 Tim 6:1 ,3,5,11,12,14,20,21.

We know that mere head-knowledge does not make a Christian.  Indeed, it’s a menace.  The devil is a better theologian than any of us, but still a devil.

I’d might even be willing to concede that Christian belief is less important than Christian behaviour. …

Satan in Paul’s epistles

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Paul told the Corinthian believers

  • to hand the incestuous person over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh (1 Cor. 5:5)
  • that husbands and wives should not deprive one another sexually lest Satan tempt them because of their lack of self-control (1 Cor. 7:7)
  • that they should reinstate the presumably repentant offender so that Satan might not outwit us (2 Cor. 2:11)
  • that Satan masquerades as angel of light (2 Cor. 11:14)
  • and that the apostle himself was given a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment him so as to prevent him from becoming conceited (2 Cor.
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Romans: a ‘Cook’s Tour’ of interpretative options

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Before we embarked on a preaching series in Paul’s Letter to the Romans in our church, I was asked to provide a summary of some of the main interpretative issues.  Most (but not all) of these are related to the so-called ‘New Perspective on Paul’.

Issues Questions Implications
1.     Reformation spectacles (Rom 1:17) Have we distorted the message of Paul by reading it through ‘reformation spectacles’? Protestant/Catholic relations
2.     1st-century Judaism (Rom 2:17ff; see also Lk 11:37ff) Was the Judaism of Paul’s (and Jesus’) day essentially a religion of merit, or of grace? 
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Rom 7:24 – Who is the ‘wretched man’?

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Paul describes, in vv15-24, a high level of emotional turmoil.  But who is the “I” of this passage?  Is it Paul himself, or someone else?  And is the state he describe that of a believer, or an unbeliever; a regenerate, or an unregenerate person?

It is true, as Moo says, that what Paul says about the law still amounts to much the same thing, whatever conclusion one arrives at: ‘One can preach this paragraph, in its basic intention, without even making a definite identification of the ‘ego’.’ …

Radical faith – sermon notes

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Text: Romans 4

There is much concern about ‘radical’ religion these days.  But what does radical Christianity look like?

Previously (3:21-31): humanity’s perilous plight – ‘all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God’, v23; God’s drastic solution, v24f – ‘God presented Christ Jesus as sacrifice of atonement’; and the means by which we experience this: v28 – ’a person is justified by faith apart from observing the law.’

Justification by faith is

1.

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Why preachers cannot ignore the New Perspective on Paul

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To talk of a ‘New Perspective on Paul’ (NPP) is to imply that there is an ‘Old Perspective’ that has now come under scrutiny.

It might be tempting to respond by saying, “A curse on both your houses! I shall ignore them both and simply read and preach the text itself.”

An understandable aim, no doubt, but one that would be unwise to attempt, and impossible to achieve.

Unwise to attempt, because we would then be elevating what we think the Holy Spirit is telling us about what God’s word means, above what others, possibly more insightful than us, think he has told them.…

The law in Romans

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According to Paul’s letter to the Romans, God’s law

  1. reveals sin, Rom 3:20.
  2. incites sin, Rom 5:20; 7:8.
  3. “law brings wrath” Rom 4:15.
  4. is provisional and temporary, Rom 7:1–3; 1 Cor 7:39.
  5. is “spiritual” and of divine origin, Rom 7:14.
  6. is fulfilled by the indwelling of the Spirit in believers Rom 8:4; Gal. 5:16.

See James Edwards: Romans (UBCS)…

Was Paul a Catholic?

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It is interesting to note that the New Perspective on Paul has flourished in the wake of the Holocaust and the onset of the ecumenical movement, and the development of closer ties between Roman Catholics and Protestants.

The link here is that the ‘old’ (Protestant, and especially Lutheran) perspective on Paul taught that both Judaism and Roman Catholicism were (and are) beset by legalism, and that Paul’s doctrine of justification by faith alone was needed to counter-act this.…