Mar 29, 2019
Here Paul concludes the argument he has been developing for 2.5 chapters: everyone stands utterly guilty before God. There is no excuse to be made, no special status to be conferred, humanity is rightly deserving of God's just wrath. It is the news we must hear if we are to truly take in what comes next: grace! The...
Mar 20, 2019
If Israel is humanity in microcosm, and Israel has not only failed in her covenant obligations, but the very signs of her belonging to God (circumcision and Torah) only further testify to her unfaithfulness, what hope is left of salvation? Surely the rest of humanity would fare no better were the covenant given...
Mar 4, 2019
Nothing was more elemental to Jewish identity, nor more distinguishing of the boundary between Jew and Gentile than circumcision. It was a mark, in the flesh, of one's belonging (or not) to the people of YHWH, long before obedience to Torah was possible.
Yet Paul here Paul declares that even circumcision is of...