Reading Paul

"For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. 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." (Galatians 2:19-20 ESV)

I've finished reading again Paul's Epistle to the Galatians -- and what a wonderful charter of freedom it is for the Christian! I've been helped with two companion studies. They are The Origin of Paul's Religion, by J. Gresham Machen (1921), and Paul: Apostle of the Heart Set Free, by F. F. Bruce (1977).

Here are just a few highlights from each... 

"One fundamental feature of the experience has too often been forgotten—the appearance on the road to Damascus [Acts 9] was the appearance of a person. Sometimes the event has been regarded merely as a supernatural interposition of God intended to produce belief in the fact of the resurrection, as merely a sign. Undoubtedly it was a sign. But it was far more; it was contact between persons."

"What was the origin of the religion of Paul? The most obvious answer to that question is that the religion of Paul was based upon Jesus. That is the answer which has always been given in the Church. The Church has always accepted the apostle Paul, not at all as a religious philosopher, but simply and solely as a witness to Jesus. If he was not a true disciple of Jesus, then the authority which he has always possessed and the influence which he has wielded have been based upon a misconception. But exactly the same answer was given by Paul himself. Paul regarded himself as a servant of Christ, and based his whole life upon what Christ had done and what Christ was continuing to do. 'It is no longer I that live,' he says, 'but Christ lives in me.'"

-- J. Gresham Machen, The Origin of Paul's Religion.

"The tension which finds expression in Romans 7:14-25 is the tension necessarily set up when one lives 'between the times' – in two eons simultaneously. How can one who exists temporally in 'the present evil age' nevertheless enjoy deliverance from it and live here and now the life of the age to come? By the aid of the indwelling Spirit, who not only makes effective in the believer the saving benefits of Christ's passion but also secures to him in advance the blessings of the age to come." 

"Paul goes on farther to show that the law in its stricter sense, as the embodiment of God's will, is upheld and fulfilled more adequately in the age of faith than was possible 'before faith came', when law kept the people of God 'under restraint' (Galatians 3:23). Only in an atmosphere of spiritual liberty can God's will be properly obeyed and his law upheld." 

"It is best to let Paul be Paul. And when we do that, we shall recognize in him the supreme libertarian, the great herald of Christian freedom, insisting that man in Christ has reached his spiritual majority and must no longer be confined to the leading-strings of infancy but enjoy the birthright of the freeborn sons of God. Here if anywhere, Luther entered into the mind of Paul: 'A Christian man is a most free lord of all, subject to none. A Christian man is a most dutiful servant of all, subject to all.'  'Subject to none' in respect of his liberty; 'subject to all' in respect of his charity. This, for Paul, is the law of Christ because this was the way of Christ. And in this way, for Paul, the divine purpose underlying Moses' law is vindicated and accomplished."

-- F. F. Bruce, Paul: Apostle of the Heart Set Free.