PAUL ON THE LAW (or Torah) 
Introduction
A major theme that Paul seemed to talk about a lot was the Law. In fact he only talked about it when he needed to, specifically in his letters to the Christians in Rome and Galatia. It is barely mentioned in 1 Corinthians, not at all in 2 Corinthians, Thessalonians or Colossians and just in one small specific passage in Philippians. So, while it was an important topic for him, it was not all-pervasive.
What does it mean
A big problem is the word itself, Law, or in Greek ‘nomos’. Paul uses it in three different ways:
1 Law as we know it, like laws which the government lays down and which are put into effect in law courts. This is the meaning which it has in 1 Corinthians. “To go to law with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather be wronged?…” Later in chapter 9 he defends his right to be supported by the local church. “Does not the law say the same? For it is written in the law of Moses ‘You shall not muzzle an ox…” Notice that Paul is writing to a largely Gentile church, so he clarifies his meaning by alluding to the “law of Moses”, i.e. the first five books of the Bible. It is in any case being appealed to as a quasi-legal document. In 14.34 he says that women should be silent, i.e. subordinate “as the law also says”. It could mean the Jewish law; it might also mean the Greek or Roman law. The only place where this interpretation will not work is in 15.56, “The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.” Paul suddenly brings in a concept of law which he spends the whole of the letter to the Romans discussing.
2 Law as a general principle, like the law of gravity. This is clearly the meaning of most of Romans 7.21-23. “So I find it to be a law that when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, but 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.” BUT “the law of God” above does not refer to a general principle. It refers to the law as given by angels to Moses – the Torah. Confusingly, Paul sometimes uses these two meanings next to each other, e.g. “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do…” (Romans 8.2,3) This should, I think, read, “For the principle of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the principle of sin and of death. For God has done what the Torah, weakened by the flesh, could not do…”
3 When Paul spoke of the law in Romans and Galatians, he was talking about the fundamental Jewish Scriptures, the first five books of the Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. Jesus called what we know as the Old Testament ‘the Law and the Prophets.’ The Law was the supreme authority for Jewish faith and life. And it was not just rules and regulations (though there are plenty of them). It starts with the creation of the world, and goes on to Adam and Eve, the faithfulness of Abraham, Joseph and his spectacular rise from prisoner to prime minister of Egypt, the amazing deliverance of the Hebrews from state slavery in Egypt and forty years of wandering in the desert before the conquest of the land of Canaan, and then a mixture of laws, stories and prayers. The basic meaning of “Torah” is not Law, but rather the Father’s teaching. The heart of the what I will now call the Torah comes in two quotes: “Hear , O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one, and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might” (Deuteronomy 6.4), and “you shall love your neighbour as yourself” (Leviticus 19.18)
The privileged position of Jews
Paul had a very high opinion of the Torah. In Philippians 3.4-6 he thinks back to his previous life as a devout Jew. He describes his early life: “circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.”
In Romans 2.19-20 he describes what a Jew felt about his spiritual position as an inheritor of the Torah. It meant he saw himself as “a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the Torah the embodiment of knowledge and truth…” Indeed, Paul himself bears witness to their extraordinarily privileged position in Romans 9.4-5: “they are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises; to them belong the patriarchs, and from them, according to the flesh, comes the Messiah, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen.”
So what had gone wrong?
The tragic mistake
The mistake which Paul’s fellow countrymen made was not that they did not believe that Jesus was the Messiah. Their mistake was in confusing a badge of identity with identity itself. This is the besetting sin of all religion. I believe that all religions go through three stages.
1: Someone has an immediate revelation form God. This is always life-giving and a person’s life comes to be imbued with faith.
2: That personal faith is spoken a bit, written about, buildings are built and hierarchies are created; a religion comes into being. This is inevitable because we are social beings, but it is a two-edged sword. It is meant to be a signpost pointing back to the original source of revelation; it can all too easily become a tentpole, a badge of identity – “This is who I am and woe betide anyone who thinks differently!”
3: The religion can attain power, when it can become demonic – all religions.
In Romans 2 Paul sets out to destroy Jewish pride in the Torah where it has become a badge of identity. He emhasizes that God judges everyone by the same standard; he looks at our reality, not the belief systems with which we clothe our reality. “For it is not the hearers of the Torah who are righteous in God’s sight, but the doers of the Torah who will be justified. When Gentiles, who do not possess the Torah, do instinctively what the Torah requires, these, though not having the Torah, are a Torah to themselves. For a person is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is true circumcision something external and physical. Rather, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly, and real circumcision is a matter of the heart” (Romans 2.13-14, 28-29 – my changes)
Because they were so certain that they had got it right – after all was not their religion far superior to anything in the pagan world around them? – the radical message that the Messiah had come and Israel had had him crucified was too difficult to be heard. But Paul is sure that their “No” was God’s permitted way of opening up the covenant to the Gentile world: “through their stumbling salvation has come to the Gentiles.” (Romans 11.11)
What counts is not what we portray externally – keeping the Torah’s rules, going to church, saying the five daily prayers etc.; what counts is faith: “As it is written, ‘The one who is righteous will live by faith’” (Romans 1.17), or “we are justified by faith”. (Romans 5.1)
To be continued…
Now there are a couple of words that need some unpacking! Including my least favourite word in the Bible, one that Paul uses a lot: ‘justification’. Don’t miss next week’s blog.