Hi Mark,
Here is a my 'commentary' that I wrote in my own words on Paul that I got from another source.
Once you get the understanding on how Paul uses certain expressions, Paul makes sense.
Let me know what you think.
First what Paul always means is when he refers to works of the law(ergon nomos): “no one is justified before God by submission to a man-made ceremony as postulated by the prevailing halakhah of the 1st century Judaisms.”
The historic problem of the 1st century was ethno centric Jewish exclusiveness. The Jews never thought they were made righteous by works but rather by the actions of being in covenant by a gracious God whom they were committed to behave righteously by observing the Law(
).
(This is why I observe His laws. Not to earn salvation but because God is gracious and I am committed to behave on how He wants me to behave. I don't obey to get saved, I obey because I am saved )
Back to ethno centric Jewish exclusiveness means that they believed they were righteous ones because they were Israelites. Not because of works but because of ethnicity. In other words you had to be a Jew. The thinking of the 1st century was ‘I don’t keep the Law(
) to earn salvation, I keep it because I’m already a covenant member’. ‘I keep the Law(
) because that is what is expected of a covenant member’or ‘I am covenantly bound to be faithful to God’.
But the main point is ‘I keep it because I’m already a covenant member’ which means in the tradition of the 1st century(and even today in Orthodox Judaism) being an Israelite. Ask an average Jew today why he keeps the Law(
) he won’t tell you to earn ‘salvation’ most likely he’ll respond to you because that’s what Jews do(emphasis added). This is like saying that you cannot keep the Law(
) until you become a covenant member.
Paul was writing in the 1st when this was the prevailing(emphasis added) halachtic view point. Jews and only Jews were covenant members. As Jews they kept the Law(
) because God said so because they were trying to keep the covenant and not because of legalism. What is legalism. It’s doing works to earn salvation. This is where the church today see’s those that keep and observe the Law(
). If I do XYZ God will except me might be a better description of legalism.
Unfortuantely the historic view of Judaism's of the 1st century and even today were and are says trying to 'do' in order to be covenant members. Compared to 'doing' because of being covenant members.
Paul was battling Jews who were boasting because of the thinking that we're God's Chosen and/or the Elect. Their works were done to show that they were God's covenant people and it wasn't to earn their salvation.
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What was driving Paul it write the way he wrote was NOT a belief from a 1st century point of view that if I keep XYZ from the Law(
) I will become a covenant member.
Ergon nomos which is translated most often as deeds of the law or works of the law is a technical phrase that the Judaism of Paul’s day used to speak of the halacha , the proper way a Jew is to walk out the Law(
).
What was the prevailing halacha of 1st century Judaism? The prevailing view of the sages was a belief that Israel and Israel alone shared a place in the ‘World to Come’. Israel meaning Jewish only Israel. So if a non-Jew wished to enter into God’s blessings and promises such a person had to convert to Judaism first. So the entry point into covenantal membership was ethnicity. So it is a far teaching what most believe that ‘doing’ in order to become covenant members. They were teaching that because we are covenant members therefore the Law (
) is ours.
Paul used the circumcision and the conversion is his letters often because that is what marked you outwardly as a covenant member. Most of the time Paul isn’t talking about the surgical act of circumcision he’s really talking about Jewish identity in the conversion. Which means from the view of the 1st century you could think that you were born into the covenant as a Jew because you were circumcised on the 8th day. What did you have to do gain covenat membership? Not a thing. Your parents circumcised you and God graciously birthed you into the covenant. But the gentile who wasn’t born into the covenant had to go through the circumcision to become a Jew in order to gain membership into the covenant.
If you ask the Jewish community today who has the right to keep the Law(
) and they’ll tell you for Jews only.
Take a vote in ‘Christianity’ they’ll tell you it’s for the Jews and they'll also say we're not under anything.
The Law is for everyone who names the Name of Jesus.
Isn’t God both the God of both Jews and Gentiles?
Paul taught that you didn’t need to change your ethnicity before God could accept you.. Paul taught that the real change that takes place in a persons life is effected by the Holy Spirit. Because of Jesus sacrificial death the sinner takes on the status of righteousness. Paul also said that conversion added nothing to those wishing to be accounted as true Israelites.
Paul thoughts were that their genuine faith in the promise Word of the Lord as evidenced by the working of the Holy Spirit was all the indentity that they would need.
Marc
) teachers and believers. I'd like to discuss verses from Paul that clearly defend a commitment to 
