Chapter 20

Thinking about the actual books that comprise the Bible tends to boggle my mind. As sometimes I tend to think that these books were written specifically for my faith and my everyday life. This has probably arisen as I have USED the Bible to solidify my faith and for God to challenge, encourage and convict me. However, those words that I take personally and apply to my life they essentially are the words of the Jewish Torah, the Gospel accounts, and Paul’s letters. A great deal of these words was written to a specific group of people at a specific time regarding a specific event. These words can so easily be taken at face value and inserted into different parts of our lives. I am not arguing against applying the Bible to our lives, but instead my point argues against ignorance of the context of the word. Drane makes it very clear that Paul’s letters were in no way intended to outline Christian theology. We however, should look at the way God was working through Paul and the people around him to draw insight and wisdom.
It is really quite amazing to think of Paul’s thought process when he fully understood that Jesus was the Messiah to his Jewish faith. The amount of thought restructuring that would have needed to occur before he began his ministry must have been extensive (probably why he took that 3 year gap time). The Old Testament needed to be investigated from a different perspective. The validity of the Torah was still very important to him as it was still God’s word. Perhaps the Law was now different because of what Jesus did. Paul knew and understood that following the Law and being of Jewish descent didn’t bring full satisfaction of spirit or provide intimate communication with God. A relationship with Jesus however, did do all these things so Paul probably just acted out of faith that he didn’t need to follow the Law in the same way as when he was a Pharisee. And so began his understanding of what it meant to be a Christian...

Some thoughts and observations on Paul’s point made in his letters regarding the Christian faith:
Don’t need to have mystery and irrationality to have a faith. Faith comes from a personal and proclaimed commitment to accept God’s generous and undeserved gift of love. This can be based on the factual knowledge that Jesus lived as a human, died and rose again to cover humanity’s sin.
Upon meeting the Christians in Damascus, Paul’s mind was ‘boggled’ even further by Christ’ love when he saw it displayed in Christian community. This powerful tool of community can break through hard hearts and resonate within the minds of sceptics. I have seen people pursue Jesus and the love they received from Christian community was what tipped the scale for them to eventually accept him as their Saviour.
Drane points out that the Jewish people would have found it hard to accept that Jesus was their Messiah as scriptures point out that a death done on the cross is one of shame and disrespect. Following the theology of Christianity, it would be valid that as Jesus was hanging on the cross, he was cursed. This is because he was cursed with all the sin of humanity upon him. Understanding this, it is clear that Jesus the scripture is valid.
Paul based his theology on making Christ the center of life and faith- this is clear from his letters when people begin to go ‘off track’ his main instructions are to become more firm in Jesus. He consistently points toward Christ’s power and significance in human life.
Paul realized the spiritual implications of becoming a Christian- meaning that it will be a life full of Christ’ love but with that comes a battle for Christ fighting within a fallen world.
It is interesting when we think about our morals and ideals and as Christians sometimes presume that everyone else is completely immoral and has no concept of God’s will. All Christians at some point essentially weren’t Christians. We all had to make a decision at some point. Therefore it is logical to recognize that before that choice was made we weren’t completely oblivious to human moral or God’s will. Drane points out that this is because we were all born in ‘God’s image’ and therefore have the ability to comprehend his vision.