Understanding Paul from a Messianic Perspective

The Following Teaching is a response to an individuals questions regarding Pauline Scriptures.

 Question:

Interpret Gen. 15:6 and Rom. 14:1-3 and 13. Gal. 3:21-24. Rom. 6:14 & Gal. 5:18 & Rom. 8:2. But the law is not to be trod under as Paul explains Rom. 6:15 & Gal. 5:14; and further in Rom. 8:3-4. Yet in Matt. 5:17-19 we have Jesus giving us a concise picture for those who have further questions in their hearts. Last we have Col 2:16.

 Response:

First, thanks for listing scriptures to compare, iron sharpens iron when we learn from the word.

Second, this is just an observation, but notice that your argument only involves arguments found from Paul. Paul actually makes up under 5% of the entire Word of God and yet people base their entire theology on what he said. Especially since there are many many scriptures that tend to contradict the scriptures you have laid out written by Paul, but I will go through that for you. My point is, if Paul contradicts 95% of scripture than maybe we should take another look at Paul and maybe Paul is saying something different than the way we have interpreted it. I believe in the common thread of scripture, several threads telling the same story throughout history. Abraham walked within these threads, Moses, David and all the way up to Jesus. Its startling to say the least that based on 5% of the Bible (and thats not even accurate itself because Paul only deals with these issues sometimes so more like 2%) has changed the way God dictated how he wanted people to live into something that looks completely contrary to the Bible.

Scripture Comparisons:

Genesis 15:6 "6And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness."

Romans 14:1-3 "1 As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. 2 One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. 3 Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him."

Romans 14:13 "13Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother."

Faith is where we all begin such as the case with Abraham. Abraham had faith and then the covenant was made with him to outwardly show that faith. Later on his descendants were given the Torah to show how that covenant plays out in a community, how they are to act towards God and towards one another. Let us not forget that God himself gave the Torah to Moses, Moses didn't come up with this stuff, God gave him the instructions on how to become the type of people that he desired. Now moving into the Pauline scriptures, you will notice that in verse two the quarrel is over whether or not to eat meat, in a Jewish context which this setting is Jewish these are Jewish people in a predominant Jewish setting, the argument is not about clean or unclean meat the argument is about whether or not you should be a vegetarian. Apparently, as many discussions happen in these days some people thought it best to go back to the time of the Garden and get all the way back to what God originally intended which was to eat from every fruit and seed of the trees and the Earth not eating animals. So the discussion going on in 14 is as such, if your brother wants to be a vegetarian let him, if your other brother wants to eat meat (in this case in a Jewish context it being clean meat, but he did not have to specify because obviously he meant clean meat) do not argue or cause strife with one another.

Galatians 3:21-24 "21Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law. 22 But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. 23 Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. 24 So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith."

This is a perfect example of Jeremiah 31:33 "For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people." Meaning the "law" (and let me just say right here that translating Torah as Law is a bad translation of what the true meaning of the word is, it means "teaching" or "instruction") the "teachings' themselves do not bring forth life except when done by faith through faith with the spirit enlightening the scriptures and filling our lives and hearts with the new covenant. Right there in 24 it says that the "law" was the guardian until Christ came so that the people would understand holiness and then when faith in Christ came there motivation to do holiness would be based in faith and love not tradition and ritual. God's teachings are God's teachings, but how you obey his teachings is what pleases or displeases him.

Romans 6:14 "For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace."

Here in Romans you find that Paul is using the term law or the Greek word nomos very lightly, he actually lists six throughout Romans

The Law of God: (Rom. 3:31; 7:22-25; 8:7)

The Law of Sin: (Rom. 7:23-25)

The Law of Sin and Death: Rom. 8:2)

The Law of the Spirit of Life: (Rom. 82)

The Law of Faith: (Rom. 2:27)

The Law of Righteousness: (Rom. 9:31)

Every time he uses the word Law in these instances it is not in reference to "Torah" it is in reference to the attached terminology he is trying to apply to it. I'm not going to list Romans 6:1-14, but go back and read it and try to take off your normal traditional hermeneutic glasses and read these verses with a different perspective. Paul is saying that you are no longer under the Law of Sin because Romans 6:10For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 11So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. you no longer have to be bound to sin you can be free in Christ to live a life holy and faithful to the Father.

Galatians 5:18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

You singled out this verse, but read the first two verses before it "16But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do." You are not under the "law of the Flesh" anymore because you are a new creation in Christ and Paul even gives you the list of things that are considered to be the "laws of the flesh' in the very next three verses "19Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21envy,d drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God." Keep things in context and they make much more sense. No where in this entire passage is he referring to anything that remotely looks like the Torah.

Romans 8:2 "2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death."

We have already discussed this type of verbiage from Paul and as you can see here he wanted you to know what law he was talking about the "Law of Sin and Death" not the Law of Moses or the Torah. Its not your fault that you have come to learn and understand Paul in this manner, but what I'm saying is that Paul cant be advocating for something that is in complete contradiction with the rest of scripture and Jesus himself. Therefore we really need to re-read Paul and for that matter re-read the Gospels. Its my firm belief if people would start studying Jesus more than they study Pauline theology things begin to get allot clearer, but you have to remove yourself from the way the church has predominately interpreted to Paul to begin to look at his epistles with a fresher perspective.

Romans 6:15 What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!

Makes more sense now right, if people thought there was no more sin and they were living under grace then they would live however they wanted because "hey the law of sin has been destroyed and now we are free from the repercussions of sin because of grace", but Paul tells them this is not the case you must live Holy because you are not bound by sin anymore because your free in Christ, this has nothing to do with the Torah.

Galatians 5:14 "For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

This is a known Rabbinic quote about the Torah from Jesus' time by Rabbi Gamaliel who in fact was Paul's mentor, Acts 22:3 “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated at the feet of Gamaliel according to the strict manner of the law of our fathers, being zealous for God as all of you are this day." Love and Faith are the two most important keys of making God happy, by loving and having faith in him and by loving one another. This is just a common teaching all throughout scripture from Deuteronomy and Leviticus to the Gospels it doesn't mean you don't abide by Torah. In fact let me take this second to actually define what Torah is; Torah is the revelation of God given in the first five books of the Bible, it is his revelation to us that he is our creator, that he loves us, that he is holy and cares about right conduct amongst his creation and that he wants a people who will love and follow his ways, his festivals/holidays, his Sabbaths, his teachings the way he wants it and not the way we do. The Torah is five books revealing all of these things to us why would Paul say it is now abolished and we don't have to live under it when it isn't just simply rules or regulations its so much more (oh and as I believe he isn't advocating for that at all if we read him properly and within the full understanding of scripture)

Romans 8:3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

The Torah requires righteousness as he says here in verse 4, you cannot walk with the Torah in righteousness if you are living in the flesh you cannot fulfill the requirements of holiness, but only if you live by the spirit and you can only do all of this if you have the righteousness of Christ placed upon you through faith as you live out the covenant between you and Christ on a daily basis. This doesn't mean you don't try to live holy or righteousness, you try with the help of the Holy Spirit and what is holiness and righteousness it is defined by the Torah, without the Torah how could we know what God expects out of us, in the Torah he gives it to us in detail and then Christ lived it out to show us a living walking example.

Matthew 5:16-17 I already covered previosuly.

Colossians 2:16 Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath.

Here's the next verse you left out "17 These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ." Here's an obvious rational perspective on these two verses to start with, if Paul says in verse 17 that they are a shadow of things to come then apparently they have importance because he expects them to continue and come to full fruition. The substance of these things are in Christ they belong to him as all things do as John tells us in John 1:1-3. Here's another scripture that gives light on what Paul is thinking:

 Isaiah 2:2It shall come to pass in the latter days

that the mountain of the house of the Lord

shall be established as the highest of the mountains,

and shall be lifted up above the hills;

and all the nations shall flow to it,

3 and many peoples shall come, and say:

“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,

to the house of the God of Jacob,

that he may teach us his ways

and that we may walk in his paths.”

For out of Zion shall go the law,a

and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

In verse 3 there that word being translated law is Torah in the Hebrew, meaning that in the last days as we see in verse 2 this is referring to, the Torah will go forth to teach Gods ways to the nations. Why because Gods ways that he gave to Moses on Mt. Sinai are still relevant to him whether we have disregarded them or not.

Here is a second perspective of interpreting Colossians 2:16, we have already discussed that just because Paul is telling people not to argue over food and drink does not mean he is nullifying the clean and unclean laws, he could very well be talking about whether someone wants to eat clean meat or not, if they want to be vegetarian or not, if they want to drin alcoholic wine or only grape juice if you make Paul say what you want him to say and have no buffer or rule to apply his words to you can make him say anything. As far as arguing the Sabbath and the Festivals and New Moons he put these together for a reason. If you study 1st century Judaism you will find that the Pharisees, Sadducee and Essenes all argued about when you should celebrate certain Festivals such as Passover or Trumpets, some chose the 13th while others chose the 14th and they argued about these things also about when to begin counting the Omer for the Feast of Pentecost and which Sabbath you choose for such things... Research on this is easy to find if you care to really understand Paul and what was going on in his day and era and why a statement like this would be relevant. He is telling the new converts who are listening to the arguments for how to keep the feasts Sabbaths and so on that  you should not bicker about when to keep it, decide which one you agree with and keep it then and don't hound your brother who keeps it the next day, but in no way would he be saying that these things are now irrelevant.

Now I have answered your compare and contrast suggestions from Paul. You may not agree with the interpretation or perspective I am giving, but the perspective I am giving falls in line with the rest of scripture and continues the common thread of scripture. The traditional way of interpreting Paul goes against the other 95% of scripture and therefore is more problematic.

Consider Peter who walked with the Lord Jesus Christ and his comments on Paul:

2 Peter 3:14Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace. 15And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, 16as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures. 17You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. 18But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.

Peter says in verse 16 that somethings Paul speaks of are difficult to understand, if they were difficult for Peter who walked with Christ, new Paul, spoke the same language and grew up in the same culture how much harder is it for us 2000 years later. Notice the key here in verse 17 that Peter warns us about, if you know this beforehand do not get carried away with the error of LAWLESS people. Right here Peter is saying that Paul is not advocating for the abolishment of the law so don't let anyone tell you that; you must take his words in full context of scripture and during these times the only scripture there was was the Old Testament or if you prefer the TANAK and TORAH.

Romans 2:13

Romans 3:27-31

Romans 7

1 Corinthians 7:19

Acts 24:14

These are just some scriptures that you have to wrestle with that come from Paul that are saying the opposite of what you were trying to argue for here. So here's my point, Paul is difficult, there is no doubt about that, but if your leaning towards understanding scripture solely based on Pauline Epistles you will falter greatly because there is a whole word of God before you and trying to interpret the whole of scripture through one persons perspective whose theology is not clearly understood and is it extremely difficult to understand is not wise. Look for what the whole of scripture is saying and then test Paul's teachings accordingly do not try to make the rest of scripture conform to Paul because it will never work. It is irrational to interpret any book based on 5% of that book without understanding the other 95%. If the other 95% does not fully agree with the 5% and the 95% is in complete agreement with itself then there is something wrong with the 5% or in this case at least our understanding and interpretation of the 5%. Who is your Messiah Jesus or Paul?