Pastor's Blog

We can never hope to fully understand Paul unless we constantly bear two things in mind about him:  (1) his identity as a Jew , and (2) his calling to be an apostle to the Gentiles . To lose sight of either of these (or both!) is to miss the most important context for understanding him. Paul lived at a very critical time in the history of redemption—when the saving benefits of the covenant God made with Abraham and his descendants were first extended en masse to all nations. It was a period of remarkable transition, quite unlike anything Israel had ever experienced. And Paul was called to participate in that transition. It brought about a fundamental change in the composition of the covenant people. Throughout history, God had dealt in a unique way with Israel. They were his “treasured possession among all peoples…a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Ex. 19:5-6). The Lord regarded them as “the apple of his eye” (Deut. 32:10; Zech. 2:8) and gave them many special favors. A...

How do we reconcile Paul and James? In Romans 3:28 Paul says, “We hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law ,” and James says in James 1:24, “You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone .” No reconciliation between Paul and James is necessary. They are good friends and they preach the same gospel. It is not the case—as some people have supposed—that Paul teaches a doctrine of justification by faith and James teaches a doctrine of justification by works. In these two passages they were addressing two very different concerns. Paul was making the case in Romans that Gentiles don’t have to become Jews in order to be justified. When he says, “one is justified by faith apart from works of the law,” he means, apart from circumcision, apart from the kosher laws, apart the ritual cleansing laws, apart from keeping the Jewish holy days, and so on. In other words, a Gentile may come into a right standing with God through Jesus Christ by faith, ...