Four Views on the Apostle Paul (Counterpoints: Bible and Theology) by Bird Michael F

Author:Bird, Michael F. [Bird, Michael F.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780310572541
Publisher: Zondervan
Published: 2012-08-07T00:00:00+00:00

The Ethical Argument

In the extended argument of Romans 5:12 – 8:13, God’s loving action for humanity in Christ is given more precise shape, so we learn more here about salvation in Paul and about its “framework.” It becomes apparent that God has not merely benevolently come all the way down to humanity in Christ, living as a person, but that he has done this for a reason. He has done what humanity could not do — dealt decisively and powerfully with the evil that surrounds it and lives within it. And in doing so he has lifted humanity back up to himself.33 His grace is therefore a “yes” provided to a “yes.”34

This ongoing living in Christ by the brothers is a critical feature of Paul’s thought. It explains his basic approach to ethics and his flexibility toward aspects of the Jewish Torah—the specific issues that structure his argument in the central part of Romans 5 – 8. Once we have grasped these dynamics in a little more detail, the basic elements of Paul’s thought will be in place and the specific questions that we are exploring in this volume will have been answered in a powerful, provisional fashion.

Paul’s argument in this section is constructed out of four main blocks of material—5:12 – 21, 6:1 – 23, 7:7 – 25, and 8:1 – 13 — along with a short illustration (7:1 – 4), and an even shorter transitional summary statement, which is nevertheless quite revealing (7:5 – 6). Each block supplies new insights so we will address each briefly in turn.

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