But He will never forget the pact that He's made for Israel.
quote:
Abraham believed God's promise and was rewarded with a right standing before God, or, as Paul calls it, "righteousness." In Paul's view, this promise was fulfilled in Jesus...
Lets not forget that Paul was a Jew. A devout Jew, no less. A Pharisee even, among the strictest sect of Judaism!
Yes, and then he saw Jesus and changed his ways:
quote:
Paul came to believe that a person could not be put into a right standing before God by keeping the Law; only faith in Christ could do this.
For Paul, there were the Law-abiding Jews”which he
had been”and the Christ-abiding Jews”which he
had become. I am not implying that Paul
hated any of these Jews, or anyone, for that matter, only to point out that he was quite clear that the old Jewish way of salvation through the Law was pointless. He also discouraged Gentiles from following the Law as a means to salvation, since if through the Law they could gain salvation, then Jesus' death was pointless; for Paul, Christ was the
only way.
Paul made a distinction between the old Jews who thought salvation came from the Law, and the new Jews that
knew salvation came through Jesus. Remember, he doesn't accuse such and such a Jew of being responsible for Christ's death, but instead the Jews themselves.
...not only was Paul a Jew
Who had changed his ways; see above.
...but Jesus as well
So? What does Jesus have to do with Christianity?
Paul made a distinction. Paul blamed the Jews. Paul took responsibility for his acts as a Jew. Paul claimed he was forgiven by converting to Christ. Unfortunately, there was no forgiveness for the Jews still following the old ways, the ones who had yet to put faith in Christ. They were still "contrary", "not pleasing to God", "fill[ing] up their sin" buckets. He claims the Jews to be persecutors of Christ and His followers (1 Thes. 2:14-15).
Paul has made the distinction between the sinful Jews of old, and the saved Jews (and other Christ-followers) of new. This separation only widens with time, till Luther's declarations, till Hitler's genocides.
"Come, O Zion!
...
No two ways about that.
All completely irrelevant.
Jon
__________
Ehrman, The New Testament: A Historical Introduction 3d ed., 299.
Ibid., 296
Ibid., 289