J Philip Bible Readings

¹⁴ But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, “If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?”

¹⁵ We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; ¹⁶ yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.

¹⁷ But if, in our endeavour to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not! ¹⁸ For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor. ¹⁹ For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. ²⁰ I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. ²¹ I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.

The new creation, then, is a sphere in which 'law' does not operate. Hence the emphasis on 'having died to the law' in 19. But what does the phrase mean? This speaks of what our forefathers used to refer to as 'the killing work of the law' - bringing us to an end of ourselves. On the one hand, it was through the law itself that Paul was led to abandon it and seek salvation in Christ. On the other hand it was through the law that he was brought to an end of himself, to the place of death to self - and this is where he found life. Paul's extended treatment of the law in Romans 7 is very important for a true understanding of his point here. There, he points out that the law is holy and just and good; but it becomes something else, through sin, namely, a destroying power, and it is from this destroying power that Christ sets us free, in His death and resurrection. It is not law as the expression of the character of God that is bad, but law as it has become, through sin a means of salvation. It is in this latter sense that it has an enslaving, destroying power. In the new creation we receive the law written in our hearts, and by this we fulfil it in its proper, original intention, by love. This is why we find seemingly paradoxical and perplexing references in Jesus' teaching - and in Paul's too - about 'keeping His commandments' (which is law). This general theme will come up again for discussion when we come to 3:17ff, with Paul's question, 'Wherefore, then, serveth the law?', and we shall say more on the subject then.