This plan of salvation is not an afterthought by God, or a 'plan B' if Israel failed to keep the covenant, but how he planned to bring salvation all along. For Paul "the law" in Romans is how we become conscious of sin, not just the Jews but the Gentiles too. But have the Gentiles heard the Torah ? No, but they know the difference between right and wrong. So what Paul is saying here is that "the law" is not just some set of rules like the rules of football or the rules of etiquette which are just made up but "the law" is the difference between right and wrong, which we know in our hearts. Being ethical, the law is made up of ethical and moral principles, which the law set out in specific commands, but even if those commands aren't read by someone, they still know the principles behind them in their hearts. These principles on which the Torah is based are themselves in the Torah, "love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind" (Deut 6:5, Matt 22:37) and "love your neighbour as yourself" (Lev 19:18, Matt 22:39).

So for Paul this law, whether known in the heart or from Moses, makes us conscious of sin (Rom 3:20), but it cannot save us, all it can do is bring the wrath of God on us for doing wrong (Rom 4:15), the law itself is powerless (Rom 8:3). Paul points out that if we didn't know the difference between right and wrong we couldn't be punished (Rom 5:13), but the law in showing us what is sinful only makes us sin more (Rom 7:7-11), "the power of sin is the law" (1 Cor 15:56). The law brought more sin, but only so God could show us more grace in saving us (Rom 5:20-21).

Paul says that because of our sinful nature we are naturally inclined to sin, indeed we are "slaves to sin" (Rom 6:20), "when we were controlled by the sinful nature, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, so that we bore fruit for death" (Rom 7:5). In Galatians, Paul says that the Law of Moses was given to supervise Israel because of her sin ("what then was the purpose of the law ? It was added because of transgressions" Gal 3:19) but that law could not impart life (Gal 3:21).

This situation of being under the supervision of the law which could not change our inner being Paul calls being "under law" (Gal 3:25,4:5). Now God chooses to save us from this state, "while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Rom 5:8). God saves us from our state of being "under law", or in sin through Christ's death and resurrection, which have achieved a reconciliation between us and God (Rom 5:11). This is because "we have been united with him (Christ) in his death" (Rom 6:5) and we have been "justified by his blood" (Rom 5:9), "the gift... brought justification" (Rom 5:16), "you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Cor 6:11) and how have we come to be united with Christ ? "we may be justified by faith in Christ" (Gal 2:15), "for in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: "the righteous will live by faith"" (Rom 1:17).

This righteousness from God, this justification, this reconciliation, comes from faith, not from the law. As we have shown previously, under the Torah, God promises to save us if we keep all the commandments, but this salvation does not come from observance of the Torah, but by faith: "but now a righteousness from God, apart from the law has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God come through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe" (Rom 3:21), "know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ" (Gal; 2:15). So by faith we have become united with Christ in his death, and so justified. Can we boast about this "faith", as if it was something we had done ? No, for in every aspect of our salvation it is God's work, not ours. We were predestined to be saved "he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with HIS pleasure and will" (Eph 1:4), "in him, we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will" (Eph 1:11),"for those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; and those he called he also justified; and those he justified he also glorified" (Rom 8:29-30). We are God's chosen (the elect) "as God's chosen people" (Col 3:12), "who will bring any charge against those who God has chosen" (Rom 8:33), "we have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father" (1 Peter 1:2).

So having been buried and raised in Christ (Col 2:12,Col 3:1,Rom 6:5) we have put off our sinful nature (Col 2:11,Rom 6:6-7;8:9) and given the Spirit, which is God's seal, "having believed you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession" (Eph 1:13-14), "and do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption" (Eph 4:30), "he has anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come" (2 Cor 1:22). We are in Christ, "you were included in Christ" (Eph 1:13), "as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him" (Col 2:6) and have been sanctified, "sanctified by the Holy Spirit" (Rom 15:16), "sanctified in Christ" (1 Cor 1:2), "you were washed, you were sanctified" (1 Cor 6:11). This gift of the Spirit makes us a "new creation" (2 Cor 5:17), we have been "made new" (Eph 4:23).

Often Paul identified the old life of sin with the law, "for sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law but under grace" (Rom 6:14), "we have been released from the law" (Rom 7:6), "Christ is the end of the law" (Rom 10:4), "through the law I died to the law" (Gal 2:19), "now that faith has come we are no longer under the supervision of the law" (Gal 3:25), "if you are lad by the Spirit you are not under law" (Gal 5:18). But at the same time Paul never says there is anything bad about the law, "the law is holy" (Rom 7:12), "do we then nullify the law by this faith ? Not at all ! Rather we uphold the law" (Rom 3:31). What law is Paul referring to when he speaks of the "law of sin" (Rom 7:25) ? This is external form of the law, the written commandments, "we serve in the new way of the Spirit, not the old way of the written code" (Rom 7:6), "he forgave us all our sins, having cancelled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross" (Col 2:14), "you show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts" (2 Cor 3:3), "he has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant- not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life" (2 Cor 3:6), "the ministry which brought death... was engraved in letters of stone" (2 Cor 3:7). When Paul refers to the law of Christ he is referring to the principles which are behind the law, and when we obey these principles, written in our hearts by the holy spirit, we obey the real law: "he who loves his fellow man has fulfilled the law. The commandments, "do not commit adultery", "do not murder", "do not steal", "do not covert" and whatever other commandments there may be, are summed up in this one rule: "Love your neighbour as yourself." Love does no harm to its neighbour. Therefore love is the fulfilment of the law" (Rom 13:8-10). Similarly in 2 Corinthians Paul shows that Christ has replaced the written law of the old covenant, this old law, "engraved in letters of stone" (2 Cor 3:7) came with glory, but that glory faded (2 Cor 3:7), the new "ministry of the Spirit" (2 Cor 3:9) will be even more glorious.

We have already showed in John how Christ replaces the Law of Moses with his new commandments, which Paul calls the law of Christ and James the law of liberty. The written law was to separate Israel from her neighbours, but now God does not distinguish between Jew and Gentile: "for he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of two, thus making peace" (Eph 2:14-15), so this new law of the Spirit cannot be the old law of sin, for the "barrier" of the Torah has been abolished.

But if we don't have a written law of rules and regulations, how do we know how to behave? Because Christ is the perfect expression of how we should live, and from his example ("forgiving each other as Christ forgave you" Eph 4:32) and from his Spirit ("live... according to the Spirit" Rom 8:4; "the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace" Rom 8:6; "sanctified by the Holy Spirit" Rom 15:16). This life in the Spirit is how we can keep the principles of God's law (Rom 8:3).

The Galatians had been saved by faith, but then they began to keep the written law. Paul shows that this makes all his work in vain. Keeping the written law is "another gospel" (Gal 1:6), Christians do not have to keep the written law (Gal 2:19), for by faith we receive the Spirit and we serve through the Spirit. Paul says that in keeping the written law we become slaves again, for we are free of the written law (Gal 4), "it is for freedom that Christ has set us free" (Gal 5:1). But now note at the end that this freedom from the written law is not freedom to sin. Paul reminds the Galatians of the "law of Christ", which is the law of love. He says "carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfil the law of Christ" (Gal 6:2). In Acts we get the story of how the Jerusalem church discovered God wished the Gentiles to be saved and not keep the Torah (Acts 10:9-22, 11:1-18). At the council of Jerusalem Peter calls the written law "a yoke that neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear" (Acts 15:10), and the council concludes that the Gentiles do not have to keep it (the commands are a form of the covenant of Noah, compare Acts 15:24-29 with Gen 9:1-17).

God's gift of a new life has only just begun at out new creation: "he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Jesus Christ" (Phil 1:6), "for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose" (Phil 2:13), "so then just as you received Jesus Christ as Lord continue to live in him rooted and built up in him, strengthened and built up in the faith as you were taught" (Col 2:7), "not that I have already... been made perfect" (Phil 3:12).

Paul's letters are full of calls to live holy lives. He explains what love means (Rom 12:9-21, 1 Cor 13), and warns believers away from the world, e.g. "put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed" (Col 3:5, see also 1 Thess 4:3-9; 2 Thess 3:6-15; Eph 4:25-32; Eph 5:1-21; Gal 6:1-10; 1 Cor 5:13-20; Rom 1:28-32; Rom 13:13-14 etc.). Calls believers to accept one another (see Rom 14), to help those weak in faith (1 Cor 10:23-33), to conduct orderly worship (1 Cor 14:26-40), to "live a life of love as Christ loved us" (Eph 5:2), to be humble (Phil 2:1-11) and follow Christ's example. He warns the believers about false teachings (1 Cor 1:20-31, 1 Cor 15:12, Gal 1:1-10; Col 3:1-6; Col 2:18-23; 1 Thess 4:13; 2 Thess 2:3; 2 Tim 4:1-8).

Paul, then, is very concerned about believers living holy lives and avoiding sin, but at no time in all these lists of right and wrong does he ever mention that religious deeds such as observing special days or eating special foods are to be followed.

So we can see that for Paul the believer is saved by faith in Christ, and is then called to follow Christ's example of humility and love. This Paul realises is the true law of God, what he really requires. Like Christ, he is not concerned with religious ceremonies, holy days and special diets. They both show that what God wants is holy living: loving one another and loving God. For Paul the written law is a law of sin, it is a barrier between Jew and Gentile and in telling the believers not to worry about keeping special days holy or eating special food or getting circumcised Paul shows that they are not a part of the law of Christ.

© John Mann 1983