Paul of Tarsus and Law Essay example

Liberty University

The Law as Revealed in Romans and Galatians

A Research Project submitted to Dr. Leo Percer
In Partial Fulfillment of the requirements For
The course NBST 522

Liberty Baptist Theological seminary

By
Kevin Brown - 147269

Lynchburg, Virginia
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Table of Contents
Introduction 1
An Apparent Contradiction 1
The Law and Fallen Humanity 2
The Purpose of the Law 4
The Fulfillment of the Law 6
The Law and the Christian 6
The Law of Christ 9
Conclusion 11
Bibliography 12

Introduction
The purpose of the Old Testament Jewish Law was to provide fallen humanity a temporary guardian. The law is fulfilled in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. By faith in Jesus Christ, people can receive the adoption as sons and daughters of God.
An Apparent Contradiction
Before undertaking the task of evaluating the Pauline theology concerning the law, especially as presented in Romans and Galatians, it is important to first clear up what may seem to be a contradiction on the part of the Apostle Paul. Paul wrote in Romans 2:13, “For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but he doers of law who will be justified” (Romans 2:13) and then writes in Romans 3:20, “For by the works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight.” In the books of Romans and Galatians Paul asserts that no one is justified through keeping the law. This is straightforward in Galatians 2:16 where Paul writes, “We know that a person is not justified by works of the law.” There is an apparent contradiction between Romans 2:13 and other passages dealing with the issue of law and justification. The importance of this issue is noted by Paul in Galatians 2:21 when he writes, “if justification were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.”
There are a number of ways that theologians have handled this apparent contradiction. One method is to assert that Paul is merely taking the perspective of Judaism. This interpretation holds that Paul is simply stating that as far as the law is concerned, hearing is not enough but only the doing of the law will suffice. Later, Romans 3:10-12, Paul quotes from the Psalms stating, “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” So keeping the law would lead to justification but no one has or ever will keep the law.
A second approach is to believe that Paul is writing from the perspective of the Gentiles who do not have the written law. This approach states that though the Gentiles do not have the law in code they do have it in conscience. This position maintains that though the Gentiles may have not had the law of God spelled out for them they do have the law of God written on their hearts. In this approach, as well as the Judaism approach, it is still maintained that the real truth is that none obey in action what they know to be right, whether what is known is based on a written code or heart conscience.
The Law and Fallen Humanity
As was previously noted, the book of Romans states that men are unrighteous. All men have sinned and not lived in accordance with the truth they possess. It is important to see and understand how this applies to both the Gentiles and Jewish people. Though each has been given a certain amount of truth, neither has lived up to the expectations of the truth they have been given. In fact, not only do people not live up to the truth they have they suppress the truth through their unrighteousness and it is for this reason that God displays his wrath (Romans 1:18).
The Law and the Gentiles
Even before Paul mentions the written law, he writes of a law of the heart. Romans 1:19-20 states, “For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since

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