Ok, I admit it, I've fallen behind on my 'morning after' thoughts.
How's that jingle go about the 'best laid plans?' Well, anyway, I thought I'd pick back up with these thoughts especially this week following what seems to me to be a VERY interesting text from Romans 10.
First of all, there's the verse that the lectionary omitted, vs 4: "For Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes." (nrsv) A **LOT** can and should be said about this verse. For instance, if "end" means nullification, then what Paul is saying is that the Torah is now done & over with and should be tossed in the nearest trash can. The problem with that idea--regardless of what one may think Paul's view of Torah was--is that it doesn't square very well with Jesus own words: "For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law (Torah) until all is accomplished." (Mt 5:18, nrsv). Romans 10:4 makes much more sense when we see that in the Greek the word we translate 'end' is 'telos'.....a word which means completion or even culmination. In other words, what Paul is saying is that Messiah is the culmination of the Torah. What, in the final analysis is the Torah all about? Is it about rules to live by, is it about working your way to heaven? NO. It's about the Messiah. Everything in Torah was supposed to point and lead one to the Messiah.
Now, on to the verses in the text, 5-15.
Of course as I said in my sermon the thing that really stands out is how Paul dons his Jewish Rabbi hat to martial huge chunks of the Old Testament to his argument. Again, tho, we miss a very important point in most of the English translations. It all boils down to the translation of the Greek conjunction "de." Most of the English translations of Romans assume that Paul is setting up an adversative scenario between what Moses says vs. what he (Paul) is saying. One classic, but very wrong, way of spinning this would be to say that Moses preached a righteousness according to the law, **but** Paul proclaims a righteousness according to the Gospel. Here's the nrsv version of vss 5-6:
5 Moses writes concerning the righteousness that comes from the law, that "the person who does these things will live by them." 6 ***But*** (Greek "de") the righteousness that comes from faith says, "Do not say in your heart, "Who will ascend into heaven?' " (that is, to bring Christ down) etc.
The problem is that in the context of these verses the English word "but" is too strong. Besides, it makes no sense for Paul to say that Moses was dead wrong about something (righteousness according to the law), and then go on directly quoting from Moses (Deut 30). The key is to see that the Greek word "de" should be translated softer.....something along the lines of "and moreover." In this way, what Paul is doing is offering his midrash (commentary) on what Moses is talking about. In other words, Paul would say that Moses would say that "living according to the Torah" is **not** about the rules or "works salvation," but rather living by grace believing in the God of the Torah and His Messiah that is to come; a totally grace-based, faith-based perspective. Paul's point all through Romans is that **this** is the true perspective of the ancient Jewish faith, the Patriarchs and Prophets, but not the current leadership of Judaism who've rejected their own Messiah.
Cheers,
TM
