Bearing Faithful Witness
Paul did not intend to write deathless "Scripture." The Hebrew Scriptures were sufficient for him. He wrote letters that dealt with specific concerns arising in specific churches. Sometimes the church felt the strong presence of the Holy Spirit in Paul’s writings (e.g. I Cor. 13) but Paul did not always feel it (e.g. I Cor. 7:25).
Does this tell us something about the nature of Scripture?
If someone told Paul that they were going to take his letters, written to support, guide and encourage churches, and give them the designation "Scripture", what do you suppose his reaction would have been?
- Would he rewrite them?
- Would he allow some to be included but not others?
- Would he write something else?
Paul clearly states that God’s covenant with Israel has not been abrogated (Rom. 11:1-2) and that the church continues to be in relationship with Israel. Paul was never "converted" from Judaism to Christianity; he was called to be the apostle to the gentiles (Gal. 1:11-17). He first served God within Judaism and after his call he served the same God among the gentiles. He was proud of being Jewish (Philippians 3:4-6) and he understood the significance of the Torah for Judaism. This Jewish background undergirded his understanding of God’s purpose for gentiles.
For Jews the Torah is supremely the gracious gift of God. To keep the law is not a burden but a delight.
Paul did not see himself as a teacher to Jews (Galatians 2:1-9). The opponents with whom he struggled cannot have been Jews or Judaism. His writings about Jewish matters are directed largely or even completely to gentile congregations, assuring them of their acceptance by God without adhering to the Torah of Israel. Jews come to God through Torah, gentiles through Christ. Paul claims that in Christ the "goal" (not end) of Torah is reached (Romans 10:4) by bringing the gentiles to the God of Israel (Romans 15:8-12). God is righteous and faithful to his promise in a new act, by bringing gentiles to God through Christ, apart from Torah, but not in contradiction to it (Romans 3:21).
Paul uses ‘law’ in two ways: positively as the Jewish covenantal relationship with God (Gal. 6:2; the Torah of Christ) and negatively as the ‘condemnation’, under which the gentile world lives in a condition of disobedience to God (Romans 6:14; not under law [= condemnation] but under grace). Gentiles (non-Jews) live under condemnation until, in Christ, they are set free to do God’s will.
Paul thought that God was using the church to fulfill the promise to Abraham that lies at the root of Judaism’s reason for being: "through you all nations of the earth shall bless themselves" (Gen. 12:3); Judaism may not think that this is necessary, but the truth of the claim resides with God and the clues to its truth or falsehood reside in the degree of blessing that Judaism and Christianity actually are to the nations of the world.
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