From Background Notes [BN] for June 2nd & 3rd written
by Pastor Bob Brown:
By all accounts Paul has died to his old way of being righteous, that is, of being accepted as one of the people of God. It's not about circumcision or birthright or separation from the pagan world or achievement under Torah.
By all accounts Paul has died to his old way of being righteous, that is, of being accepted as one of the people of God. It's not about circumcision or birthright or separation from the pagan world or achievement under Torah.
Quite the opposite (or, as we would put it, quite upside-down from all of that!), in place of this, Paul discovers a new kind of identity, the sort given to him by Christ himself. Recall his conversation with the risen, exalted Jesus on the road to Damascus [Note: There are four accounts of Paul’s conversion: Galatians 1:15-17 (from Paul himself); Acts 9:1-19 (Luke relating Paul's experience); Acts 22:2b-16 (Luke relating Paul's telling of his conversion to the crowd in Jerusalem); Acts 26:9-18 (Luke relating Paul's telling of his conversion to Agrippa). There are also allusions to Paul's conversion in Galatians 1:11-12; 1 Corinthians 9:1; 15:8. You are encouraged to reader each of these and think about the implications for our study here]. During that exchange with Jesus, Paul gets a new commission: to bring the Gospel to the pagan world, that is, to Gentiles, the hated goyim. Nothing could have been more off the beaten path for this set-in-his-ways Pharisee, bent on purifying Judaism of its paganism. With his fresh vocation, Paul had to let go of all of that. "You are," Jesus was telling Paul, "my servant and witness to the Gentiles. Everything else amounts to nothing compared to this vocation." An undiscovered life lay before him, and the old life was laid in its grave at the cross of the risen Christ. Life would not be the same for Paul ever again. [BN, 9-10]
Join us this week in Study, Worship, Praise and Celebration at Chicago First Church of the Nazarene –
* Saturday 6:00pm
* Sunday 8:30am & 11:00am, 5:30pm
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