Breakin' the Law, Breakin' the Law!

"Law controls the lesser man...Right conduct controls the greater one."

-Mark Twain

Needless to say, nowadays we, the upstanding chuchgoers that we are, revere Paul, AKA the Pharisee Formerly Known As Saul, as a hero of the faith. I'm so glad we got to read Romans in class today because it is one of my favorite books of the Bible and widely regarded as one of the most important (sorry, Numbers). Indeed, not only is he responsible for breaking down the barrier between Jews and Gentiles & laying down the foundation for Christianity in Rome, which would then spread throughout Western civilization, but also for providing the New Testament with thirteen books. His books constitute almost half of our New Testament as well a major portion of our theology regarding Jesus. His greatness cannot be overstated, and is arguably the single greatest Christian of all time.

Now, throw all of that away and let's look at what he said and taught, and pretend that he has come to tell us Christians that everything we're doing is pointless. He went to the Jews, members of his former religion, and basically said that, because of Jesus, all of their hallowed and sacred institutions, such as physical circumcision and sacrifice, are unnecessary and that all we need to do is worship the Messiah with our hearts and our minds. These are traditions that they had been following since the beginning, laws laid down by Yahweh Himself, and here comes a convert, a heretic, that everything they know and practice is wrong. What if someone were to come to us and tell us that the basics of our theology, set down from the beginning, are wrong? He would show us Biblical truth probably, but he is saying things that contradict everything we understand about our religion. Would we not still be set in our ways and tell him where to shove his?

It's always a scary thing when people claim they know the real will of God as such things can be dangerous and quite possibly cultist (hello, Charles Manson). It can also be unsettling when people start trying to move your beliefs away from theology and into happy-go-lucky feel good ear candy that may have scriptual basis but misses the point of God's real purpose (hello, Joel Osteen). Paul certainly was persecuted, a lot of people definitely didn't buy his teachings, and he was eventually killed for spreading his word. All I can figure is that Paul actually did know what he was talking about because his teachings have endured millenia past his age, he did manage to establish the church, and I believe that God has indeed blessed his letters, for they have brought many to Christ and remain the standard of Western theology. Ultimately, Paul does not deserve any glory for doing what he did, for it is only by the grace of God that he was successful.

Well, this will be my last post for a long time, I have enjoyed blogging and look forward to doing more in the future. As always, feel free to comment on or question anything you have read in this post. I commented on Sara Dye's post, God's Grace: It's Not About You, as well.

Have a blessed Christmas and a joyous New Year, I love you all!