No! That is the clear, unequivocal answer to the question, ”Did Jesus abolish the Law?” His heart, like that of King David, was: Oh how I love your Torah! It is my meditation all the day (Ps 119:97).
What about Paul? Did he abolish the Law/Torah?
It depends on who you ask because one man’s apostle is another man’s apostate. As the Apostle to the Gentiles, Saul/Paul, to most of the Jewish world, including some of his fellow Jewish believers in the first century, was an apostate.
It is the conviction of most Jewish scholars and certainly of most Jewish rabbis through the centuries that Paul did in fact abolish the Law. You may not know this, but it is relevant to our study. They go so far as to say that he is actually the founder of Christianity as we know it, not Jesus.
Jews who read the life of Yeshua and understand it in its historical cultural context of the First Century, can plainly see that he was an observant Jew (that does not mean they believe the resurrection accounts). That Jesus has a high regard for God’s Torah is clear to anyone Jewish who reads the Gospels. But what seems equally clear to them is that what Jesus did was one thing; what Paul came along and did was something entirely different.
You may be inclined to say, “I don’t believe that Paul abolished the Law.”
But you may be surprised to learn that for centuries, Christian teachers, wrestling with Paul’s complex relation to Torah and the Judaism of his day, have argued that he did. From their point of view, Paul boldly and blatantly comes out and says that Jesus canceled the Law; that he is the end of the Law. In so doing, he basically taught Jewish believers as well as Christians to do away with it.
Is that true?
The whole Protestant Reformation, which has so impacted all of us in the modern world, is based on the fundamental premise that salvation comes not by the works of the Law but by faith alone. Which I emphatically affirm. That being said, I contend that Paul’s multi-faceted relationship to the Law—aside from Jesus himself—is one of the most important subjects for New Testament believers to properly grasp in order to understand Paul.
His writings are complex. They are written at different times and places for various reasons. At times, they seem to be contradictory or inconsistent. It is true that Paul’s letters are neither systematic nor simple. But there is a logic undergirding all that he does.
What I am going to share with you are some of the insights into that logic, so that you can read Paul with new eyes and a more meaningful understanding.
Here is something to consider. Paul is one of only two Pharisees from the First Century (the other being Josephus) who have left us writings of their personal life. I find that interesting and compelling. We have snippets of information about other Pharisees preserved in Jewish tradition. But nothing like these two.
Josephus, of course, had an agenda aligned with Rome, but he still offers some useful historical insights. Paul, however, as they say, is a different kettle of fish. In his own words, I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated at the feet of Gamaliel according to the strict manner of the law of our fathers, being zealous for God, and, I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers (Acts 22:3, Gal. 1:14).
As a result, in some Jewish circles today , there is a renewed interest and study of Paul. Why? His letters provide important insight into the Judaism of the First Century. Do you see the irony? I do. Jewish scholars are studying Paul in historical context, while the “church” largely considers him only through the lens of theologians in different times and places throughout church history. Usually, quite apart from his context.
Our goal is to “travel” with Paul.
Because he was a man on a mission, I use the metaphor of “travel with” to mean that, in this study, we will try to hear him in his historical setting. I am going to give you some principles that I hope will be balanced, fair, and insightful, so that you can read Paul more objectively and apply what he teaches more accurately.
What exactly is Paul’s relationship to the Torah (Law)? It is an essential question, one that is rife with controversy. And let’s be clear, the issue is enormously complex, difficult, and not given to simple explanation. In fact, I cannot imagine a subject more difficult to make sense of than Paul’s teachings on the place of Torah in the New Covenant. One would have to be a fool to try to do so.
Well, I are one [laughter].
So, Paul, are you abolishing the Torah/Law? He answers that question directly in Romans 3:31: Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law [Torah]. He is talking here about faith. In verse 22, he says this righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus to all who believe. And then in verse 30, he says there is only one God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith.
He then asks those who say otherwise, ”By this teaching on faith alone, am I nullifying the Torah?” The word he uses here is related to the same Hebrew/Greek wording as abolish. In other words, the argument is the same. Is my teaching doing away with God’s Torah? In the original Greek, his answer is the strongest rhetorical response possible: “Absolutely not!” Rather, he says, ”We uphold, or we are actually putting the Torah on a firmer footing.”
Interesting. Jesus and Paul faced the same accusation, and they gave the same answer.
That is Paul’s claim. That is his conviction. Was he right? We will explore this pervasive theme and seek to answer that question as we endeavor to travel with Jesus’ hand-picked Apostle to the Gentile world.
