After encountering Jesus on the road to Damascus, Paul went to Arabia (Galatians 1:17). Based on a connection that Paul makes later in the letter to the Galatians (4:25) and the background provided by the Old Testament– particularly the story of Elijah, I suggested in a previous blog that Paul went to Mount Sinai. There at Sinai he encountered God, and received a new commission. The man who once demonstrated his zeal through violent opposition to the church will now show that zeal in a new way– by taking the name of Jesus before Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. What exactly is this recommissioned and zealous prophet supposed to announce? How has Paul’s understanding of what it means to be zealous for God changed from persecuting the church to promoting the church? Both of these questions are answered by facing another, more fundamental, question– how is Paul after his encounter with Jesus now reading the Bible differently?
There is a pattern in the first pages of the Bible. That pattern is grace, rebellion, judgement, new grace. It is seen in the story of creation. God in his grace creates humanity and gives them not just everything they need to survive, but to thrive. He places them in a garden that is bursting with fruit that is good to eat. Humanity responds to this grace in rebellion. They take of the tree from which they have been told not to eat, and their eyes are opened. God judges their rebellion by casting them out of the garden, and death enters the world. Then God gives new grace. He clothes the naked man and woman and promises a deliverer who will break the power of evil. Grace. Rebellion. Judgement. New grace.
The pattern is followed a chapter later in the story of Cain and Abel. God in his grace gives Adam and Eve a son and Abel a brother. Cain, in jealousy rises up against his brother and kills him. God judges Cain, saying to him that he will be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth. Cain cries out, “My punishment is more than I can bear.” God responds with new grace, promising to be his protector and defender. Grace. Rebellion. Judgement. New grace. The last time we encounter the pattern is in the story of the people of Babel. God blesses the people and they thrive. In rebellion they say, “Let us remain in one place. Let us make a name for ourselves. Let us build a tower with its top in the heavens.” God in judgement comes down, views their piddling tower, confuses their language, and scatters them across the earth. Something important happens to the pattern in its final rendition, or rather doesn’t happen. There is no new grace. There is no blessing to follow the judgement. It’s as though God has grown weary of humanity’s repeated rebellion.
Then after Genesis 11– the story of Babel, and the final rendition for the grace, rebellion, judgement, new grace pattern, comes Genesis 12. Here we find the story of Abraham. (I know we first meet him as Abram, but I have chosen to use the same name throughout.) God says to Abraham, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonours you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 12:1-3).
Interestingly, after the people of Babel have made a mess of things by saying repeatedly “Let us,” God responds with “I will.” There is significant overlap between what the people of Babel attempted to do for themselves and what God promises to do for Abraham. With his encounter with Jesus fresh in his mind Paul must have seen this. He must have recognized the connection between Babel and Abraham. That is, he recognized that Abraham is God’s new grace following the story of Babel. Abraham and his family are intended as God’s blessing to the whole world. In fact, what God is doing is in complete contrast to what the people of Babel did. They are concerned with their name, their city, their nation. God is concerned with all the families of the earth and he demonstrates this concern through Abraham’s line which is to be the pathway through which all these families are blessed. God’s concerns are much broader than Abraham and his descendants. That in itself would not have been entirely new to Paul. What is different is that Paul now begins to understand that the blessing is not passive. It is not simply “will be blessed,” but will be blessed as they bless Abraham. The families of the earth can choose to get on board with what God is doing through Abraham. So, what exactly is God doing through Abraham?
Paul had always thought that it was all about the many descendants. He was wrong. The descendants are peripheral. They are a consequence, not a cause. Something else stands at the centre of God’s work. Abraham, after all, is already 75 when God calls him and he has no children. By the time he’s a hundred he has only one son, and he’s ready to give him back. The story must be about more than father Abraham’s many sons. At the centre of the story is Abraham’s faith. The way to get on board with what God is doing through Abraham, is faith. This is most clearly evident in Genesis 15 when God cuts a covenant with Abraham.
Covenant is not a word we use very often anymore but, we still practice covenants– like marriage. What we say through a covenant is, “This is what I will do. If I do it, may I be blessed. If I fail to do it, may I be cursed.” God enters into a covenant with Abraham saying, “This is what I will do for you.” This covenant is a response to Arbaham’s faith. Before God gives the covenant, Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness (Genesis 15:6). Paul begins to understand that the way into the blessing that God has promised is not the bloodline of Abraham, but though faith in God’s promise.
If this is true then the Gentiles– the Romans and Greeks and Scythians, can receive the blessing that God has promised through faith. These non-Jews will– through faith, receive the blessing of the God of Israel. The commission of the prophet, or better apostle, is to go out and proclaim the good news of Jesus, and invite Jews and Gentiles into communities of Jesus’ people who have received blessing through Abraham like faith. The dividing the wall that once separated people has been broken down. In one of Paul’s letters he likely quotes a baptismal formula saying, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” It is about faith.
This is all wonderful theory. Then it has to be lived out, and it becomes incredibly messy, incredibly quickly. A Gentile sits beside a Jew and they think differently and they act differently and they begin to judge one another because one eats pork and one doesn’t. One observes this holiday and the other doesn’t. These communities that Paul and other early Christians formed around Jesus begin to splinter around such issues. In Romans, Paul sets out to put the community in Rome back together again by calling their attention to the Gospel. The better they understand the Gospel the more able they will be able to maintain meaningful unity across their many differences. This is what the book of Romans is about– the Gospel transforming our life together. It teaches very different believers how to follow Christ together.