Romans 4:9-12 showed that circumcision came along after faith. Now Paul equates the circumcision of those verses with the \u201cLaw\u201d (4:13). Law creates its own world as can be seen in this:<\/p>\n
For the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the law but through the righteousness of faith. If it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. For the law brings wrath; but where there is no law, neither is there violation.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Here clearly \u201cLaw\u201d refers to circumcision as an instance of what later came to be expressed as Torah. Paul\u2019s point is that the promise didn\u2019t come through Law. More important is how Paul defines that promise: it is the promise \u201cthat he would inherit the world.\u201d This is important, for Paul saw the Jewish mission to be a world-wide task<\/em> to all peoples, and instead of being concerned with the world, they were separating from that world. That<\/em> is the promise for Paul. That promise came by faith.
\nAnd now Paul turns up the heat. To live by the Law, which means to raise circumcision to the top bar level and thereby elevate Jewish privilege, means to live by these:
\nLaw creates transgression; very simply, transgression creates wrath. All you get with Law is sin and wrath. This is what commitment to the circumcision way of life will get you.
\nWright contends that Paul\u2019s eschatology is at work here: God will rule the world through Jesus the Messiah and all nations will participate in that kingdom. (This is contrary to the view by many of his fellow Jews who thought Israel would rule the world.)<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Romans 4:9-12 showed that circumcision came along after faith. Now Paul equates the circumcision of those verses with the \u201cLaw\u201d (4:13). Law creates its own world as can be seen in this:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1752],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-romans"],"yoast_head":"\n
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