Hunger for Love: Exploring the Relationship Between Law and Morality

1. Prayer:One does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes forth from the mouth of God. Mt. 4Lord, there is a hunger for ordinary bread but there is a greater hunger in our families and world for love, for kindness, for mutual understanding and for intimacy. Help us to love like you, Lord. Amen.

2. Journal:Read Deuteronomy 27 & 28. Then read Galatians 3:1-14. What is the relationship between the two passages. Pay specific attention to Galatians 3:13.

3. CHAPTER THREE Law as a Guide to Freedom Why Obey God?

4. Law and Morality Paul in Acts. -What is the role of his Jewish identity? -Is the Gospel meant for the Gentiles?

5. Law and Morality Does Grace undo Ethics? Paul’s detractors were already asserting that his gospel did away with Law and order, removing the necessary restraints on human sinfulness. Many of his Jewish compatriots, including fellow Jewish Christians, were scandalized by the freedom with which Paul dismissed the particular commandments of the Torah

6. Law and Morality Galatians 5 For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. (5:13) -The Crucifixion of Jesus -Works of the flesh vs. works of the spirit

7. Law and Morality Romans 3 Are we better than they? Not at all; for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin (Rom 3:9) The power of God for salvation (Rom 1: 16). -What happens to Israel’s status as elect? -We are radically dependent on God for his grace

8. Law and Morality Romans 3:7-9 5 But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? The God who inflicts wrath is not unrighteous, is He? (I am speaking in human terms.) 6 May it never be! For otherwise, how will God judge the world? 7 But if through my lie the truth of God abounded to His glory, why am I also still being judged as a sinner? 8 And why not say (as we are slanderously reported and as some claim that we say), “Let us do evil that good may come”? Their condemnation is just. 9 What then? Are we better than they? Not at all; for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin.

9. Law and Morality Romans 5:18-21 18 So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men. 19 For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous. 20 The Law came in so that the transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, 21 so that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

10. Law and Morality Three fundamental warrants for obedience that are intrinsic to Paul’s gospel: 1) Through union with Christ, we undergo transformation that should cause us to “walk in newness of life.” 2) Because God has liberated us from the power of sin, we should transfer our allegiance to the one who has set us free. 3) Because the Holy Spirit is at work in the community of faith, the fruit of the Spirit should be manifest in the community’s life.

11. Law and Morality Romans 6:1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?

12. Law and Morality Romans 6:2-5 May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection,

13. Law and Morality Romans 6:6-9 Knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; 7 for he who has died is freed from sin. 8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. 10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. 11 Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

14. Law and Morality Transformation & Slavery -This notion of effective transformation through union with Christ is fundamental to Paul’s theological ethics. -The gospel does not destroy the ethical imperative; those who suppose that it does, Paul contends, have simply failed to understand that his gospel proclaims an act of God that grasps us and remakes us.

15. Law and Morality Romans 6:14-18 14 For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace. 15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be! 16 Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, 18 and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.

16. Law and Morality Three fundamental warrants for obedience that are intrinsic to Paul’s gospel: 1. Through union with Christ, we undergo transformation that should cause us to “walk in newness of life.” 2. Because God has liberated us from the power of sin, we should transfer our allegiance to the one who has set us free. 3. Because the Holy Spirit is at work in the community of faith, the fruit of the Spirit should be manifest in the community’s life.

17. Law and Morality Positive warrants vs. Negative warrants (Carrot vs. Stick) Philemon 1: 8 Therefore, though I have enough confidence in Christ to order you to do what is proper, 9 yet for love’s sake I rather appeal to you—since I am such a person as Paul, the aged, and now also a prisoner of Christ Jesus. Paul would seemingly like to only use positive warrants but does resort to negative warrants in some instances. (cf. 2 Cor. 5: 9–10; Rom. 2: 1– 16; 14: 10– 12; 1 Cor. 3: 10– 17; 11: 27– 32; 1 Thess. 4: 23– 25)

18. Law and Morality The Eschatological fullness of Paul’s Gospel. Judgment vs. Grace “Do not be deceived; God is not mocked” (Gal. 6: 7).

19. Law and Morality Split into four groups and prepare a presentation on the following passages of Scripture: 1. Romans 4:1-5:20 2. 6:1-23 3. 7:1-8:11 4. 8:12-9:5 Prepare a group presentation. It might be helpful to think about the following questions: 1. Does grace (or Paul’s gospel) undo ethics? (this is a different question from does Grace undo the Law, the Law being a very specific ethical system.) 2. What kind of Freedom is described in the passage 3. What doe the passage say about Jewish-Christian relations. 4. How does the gospel relate to the rest of Romans?

20. References: Hays, Richard (2013-07-30). The Moral Vision of the New Testament.