I wonder if you would like to share what you think might be the most misunderstood passages of the Pauline epistles?
For me, it would definitely include Romans 7 & 8, Colossians 2, and 2 Corinthians 3. I guess that's fairly obvious by now. :)
I don't know how clear this will come across. I haven't spent the time to polish it--yet I wanted to give you a more immediate response. It deserves it. Very good questions, very good Scriptures to ask about, and something I've wrestled with for years.
Romans 7. Paul speaks of the cessation of the system of the Law, which is superseded by the new system of Christ. We get confused because it seems Christ did not just come out and declare the old system was dead and the new system would be in the resurrection. But in fact he did say that the temple system would be obliterated, and that he is the Way, and the true temple of God.
Paul basically argued that Israel had been separated from God due to the failure of one party, Israel, to fulfill the terms of the marital agreement, and due to the other party, Christ, dying. Both elements caused the covenant of Law to fail for Israel.
Embracing Christ as our advocate for the court sentencing, we died with him when he died for sins that we actually committed. His death for those sins showed that we deserved to die with him for those very sins. And spiritually entering into him, by faith, we actually do die with him. The power over of sin over our lives has been broken, I believe.
Having died, the condemnation of the Law, which certified that we were ineligible for eternal life, was removed. And we would stay condemned had we not been joined to Christ, our advocate, who after his death was raised from the dead. Again, being spiritually united with him, we actually benefit from his righteousness. We actually display it. Hence, we were raised up with him, no longer condemned by the Law, but judged as though judged the way Christ is, as sinless and eligible for eternal life.
In the latter part of Rom 7, Paul is arguing about his experience with the Law even after that system had been superseded by Christian Grace. He had not yet experienced Christian Grace, and still lived under a system that was designed to show the incapacity of the independent flesh to obtain eternal life. Until Paul came to Christ, he remained under condemnation, particularly as he lived apart from Christ.
This was not saying that the Law was still an active system, nor was it saying that when the Law had been active that Israel necessarily lived ungodly lives. Paul is only saying that at that time in the history of Israel, when Israel had generally lost its spirituality, only proved what the Law had stated, that man, going his own way, was condemned to death. The smallest sin could condemn to death. And despicable sin by an entire nation accomplished the same.
Rom 8. Paul goes on to speak of what true spirituality under the Law was meant to produce after Christ had made a final atonement for sin. The record of failure could be erased by joining onto Christ, and thus obtaining his record of sinlessness.
The Law was never meant to show that Israel could only live under that system in the corrupt ways of flesh. Rather, it was designed to show that whether living in righteousness or in sin, apart from Christ nothing was good enough to achieve eternal life apart from Christ. The record of man apart from Christian Grace would always show sin, which in turn renders man ineligible for eternal life.
Again, Paul was arguing as a Jew who had initially rejected Christian Grace. He therefore found himself under indictment by the very Law that had been intended by God to show man's ineligibility for eternal life apart from Christ.
Col 2. Today I realize that the self-disciplinary exercises Paul relegated to vanity was not just Judaism, but Gnosticism as well. It referred to contemporary practices of self-denial that did not achieve eternal life, any more than the Law, as spiritual as it was, could not obtain eternal life when that system was in effect.
2 Cor 3. The Law was veiled in the sense that it was a system that portrayed the inability of man, apart from Christ's atonement, to obtain eternal life. Christ was veiled, when that system was in place, because he had not yet come, and not because Israel was necessarily unspiritual. It was not because Israel was disallowed from seeing him when he came.
God simply kept Christ from being clearly seen under the system of Law until it was time to bring testimony to final atonement through Christ. Until Christ actually came, God wanted Israel to testify to the Law, and thus to the inability of man to obtain eternal life by his own independent works. It was a testimony to our need to live by faith in God's grace and forgiveness.
Paul applied this temporary lack of insight under the Law to his own time, when the Jews had become particularly blind, due to backsliding and degeneracy. They could not see Christ even after he had come because they were still binding themselves to independent living, which was the very thing the Law was given to testify against!
