Reflections on Paul

Number 10

The recurring, or more precisely, the continuing theme of Paul teaching to avoid reliance on the law and to live by faith in Jesus is both simple and yet maddeningly complex in grasping. The law proclaim by Moses was really quite simple  and was contained in 10 simple commandments. Laws are important because they provide a construct for forming a community or society and provide a framework that will endure down through generations. 

We need law for there to be order so laws are critical to the successful formation of a human organization. The problem is that what God gave to us in simplicity we made complex through our use of logic. We managed to take 10 simple rules and make them so burdensome that they become paralyzing. How did the commandment to keep holy the Sabbath get to the point that it became unlawful to drag a chair across the room? We lost the ability to remember to focus on the giver of the law but rather became consumed by the law itself. 

Paul preached that we should return our focus to God and his gift to us. the reality of Christ crucified for us is that God chose that gift as a way of restoring our focus on him. Paul does not teach us to be lawless because he exhorted us to "walk with God" and to live a moral life befitting our spiritual relationship with God. If we allow the gospel to govern us we will not need the old law but will allow God to guide our actions as Jesus taught us in the beatitudes.