Brian S. Rosner, Principal of Ridley Melbourne, delivered the inaugural Leon Morris Memorial Lecture on 27 June at the College, where Leon Morris had been Principal from 1964 to 1979. Fittingly, the lecture brought resolution to what some have seen as a conflict between Law and Grace \u2013 the kind of conflict which Dr Morris was so adept at sorting out and reconciling. About 100 people attended, including Leon Morris\u2019s brother Max and previous Principal Maurice Betteridge (1979-1992).<\/p>\n
The lecture is set to become an annual event, remembering the life and work of one who was arguably the greatest New Testament scholar the Lord has so far raised up in Australia.<\/p>\n
Dr. Rosner said that the subject of Paul and the law is critical to the study of the New Testament in that it touches on the perennial question of the relationship between the grace of God in the gift of salvation and the demand of God in the call for holy living. Misunderstanding Paul and the law leads to distortions of one or both. From the very beginning, even in Paul\u2019s day, his teaching on the law has raised hackles on one of two fronts. Either people think that the free gift of salvation has been compromised, or a solid basis for the demand of God for obedience and a holy life has been removed. If justification is not by works of the law, doesn\u2019t that lead to license? If you remove the law, isn\u2019t the result lawlessness? Don\u2019t those without the law end up outlaws? And if we are still under the law in some sense, doesn\u2019t that compromise the free gift of salvation?<\/p>\n
The crux of the problem is the fact that Paul\u2019s letters present both negative critique and positive approval of the law. Paul affirms that, \u2018the law is holy, just and good,\u2019 insists that, \u2018we uphold the law’, quotes the law to regulate Christian conduct and asks rhetorically, \u2018does the law not speak entirely for our sake?\u2019 Yet the same Paul also holds that believers in Christ \u2018are not under the law,\u2019 believes that \u2018the law brings death\u2019 and \u2018works wrath,\u2019 and maintains that \u2018Christ is the end of the law.\u2019 Paul generally deals with the law as a unity, customarily referring to Mosaic \u2018law,\u2019 not \u2018laws.\u2019 This means that, in the main, his responses to the law are not to its various parts, however we may wish to divide it, but to the law as a whole. If Paul\u2019s letters are marked by negative and positive statements about the law, the question to ask is not \u2018which bits\u2019 of the law is he referring to in each case, but the hermeneutical question of \u2018in what sense,\u2019 or \u2018as what?\u2019 \u2018In my view,\u2019 he said, \u2018asking the question of \u201cthe capacity in which,\u201d or \u201cthe force with which,\u201d the law meets the Christian resolves the tension between the negative and the positive material.\u2019<\/p>\n
Paul responds to the law in three ways. First, he repudiates the law as law-covenant, for the law is a failed path to life and righteousness, and God has intervened with a tsunami wave of grace and mercy. Secondly, he replaces it, for Christians are not under the Law of Moses, but under the law of Christ, the law of faith and the law of the Spirit, and participate in newness of life, the new life of the Spirit, and the one new humanity. But thirdly, he reappropriates it as prophecy (of Christ and the gospel) and as wisdom (for living). This understanding of Paul and the law embraces without reservation both the negative and positive things that Paul says about and does with the law. It also takes seriously the complex character of the five volume, multi-genre work that is the Law of Moses, giving due weight to its seminal prophetic and wisdom elements, along with its legal material. And most importantly, it retains at full strength his twin emphases on the free gift of salvation and the demand of God for holy living: we are not under the Law of Moses, but under the law of Christ.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Paul and the Law: Keeping the Commandments of God Brian S. Rosner, Principal of Ridley Melbourne, delivered the inaugural Leon Morris Memorial Lecture on 27 June at the College, where Leon Morris had been Principal from 1964 to 1979. Fittingly, the lecture brought resolution to what some have seen as a conflict between Law and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"resource-author":[516],"topic":[5978],"class_list":["post-10624","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","resource-author-anonymous","topic-the-law"],"yoast_head":"\n