Father, thank you that we can pause, pause because you are present, pause because you are great, pause because you are our comfort even tonight, pause because you are faithful to your word, pause because you've carried us through the semester to this point, you've exposed us to much of the particular messages of your word, and now we pray tonight, Lord, that we can bring some of these messages together, to get an overview, to see how your word flows together, to a mighty and powerful message of your love, your faithfulness, your concern and your speaking to us and to those around us, and in fact to the world. Lord, we pray that through the semester and tonight we would become servants of your word, and that you would use us in teaching, in preaching, in counseling, in living our lives, professional lives in various areas and capacities, in running our homes in a godly way, that you would be honored, oh Father, we need you so much, we need your counsel and your strength and your encouragement, we need your discipline. So we praise you for your faithfulness through your word and through the ministry of your Holy Spirit, we pray that you would bless this evening to conclude this time together under your word, and we pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. While we have not concluded all the analyses of the particular letters of Paul, tonight we come to a little bit of a summary and of an overview. We have seen that the topic of life and letters of Paul has taken us into the historical and theological account of the Book of Acts, and from that major platform we have hand out in terms of the chronology and the ministry of Paul into the various cities and situations, and followed and traced how Paul deals with the particular, and unique or also repeated issues that arise as the gospel impacts, various people and cultures and customs and preconceived ideas and philosophies to see how is Christ apply. Now perhaps you could have the impression that this is just bits and pieces, it is particular, there are specific instances, who knows whether the Corinthian situation will ever be repeated, who knows whether Ephesus will ever be repeated. We have the impression still, this is rather particular. I hope not. I hope you have already seen that while there is particularity, there is also applicability and a general thrust and a general message, namely that Christ applies to all areas of life. There is an answer in Christ to philosophical, religious, pragmatic, economic issues in the life of the early church, and that is really the challenge for us to come to that fountain of wisdom, to the center of strength, to the center of who God is and then to think and act and live out from that center in such a way that also we. It would be salt and light in our particular situation where we live, but if that is still a little too particular tonight, we are trying to draw things together, a little bit, look at the biographical aspects of Paul's life in summary and then look at the major impacts that his encounter with the risen Christ had on his thought and presentation concerning who man is. Who God is and how those two basic truths filter into the question of life, sanctification, glorification, faith, the relationship and the approach to the law and then also how it impacts relationships in various areas. And so tonight we are summarizing but we're also getting a little bit of an overview of how the gospel that Paul presents impacts the life that we live at this point. Let us look at the biographical notes to get started. I'm reminding you of the chronological overview that I have given to you where you have seen and been introduced to some of the dates, some of the particular places, some of the circumstances, a little bit of the tensions, but not so much in terms of Paul's life. The biographical information that I have scattered over that overview are particularly drawn from those sources, namely, Acts 21 and 22, where we find out that Paul is from Tarsus, Acts 21, 39 and 22, 3 to 5. That he studied at the feet of Gamaliel, that he was circumcised on the eighth day, comes from the tribe of Benjamin, et cetera. We draw mostly from Philippians 3. So besides Acts 21 and 22, we find a good bit of biographical information in Philippians 3, particularly for to 11. I've noted that on your handout, Philippians 3, 4 to 11. There are a few other references in Romans, in 2 Corinthians, et cetera, Galatians that give us further information on what we know about Paul. We can also summise from 1 Corinthians 7, 7 that he was not married at the stage of his apostolic ministry. Some people think that he had been married to be a member of the Sanhedrin. You perhaps know some of that discussion and that should not take a lot of our time. What we also see is that his father is concerned that Paul does not only grow in learning, but that he grows in trade, in his work. In the Jewish custom of the day, there was a concern that promising children would not only be trained intellectually, and in the case of Paul to be trained in the law, in the application of the law and interpretation, but that he would also know a trade. And so it's not unusual that here we have a tenth maker, somebody who is both involved in the commerce of his day, but also in the training. That is partially because a career of a teacher had held very little economic promise. And so you had to have something to earn your bread with, especially as a rabbinic teacher, if Saul ever should have come to that point, would have been completely dependent on the donations of his students. Which brings me to the main point of my lecture tonight, where's the hat? In fact, even dependent on his retirement, completely on the donation of the students, and so you had to have a trade to fall back on. But the significant thing is from the biographical references that we find also in Acts 9 and 22, which I have not mentioned explicitly, and then Acts 21 and 22 in Philippians 3, is that as we put this together, we see that Saul of Tarsus is a Jew at heart, a Greek in terms of learning and awareness and a Roman in terms of belonging to the political empire of the time by being a citizen of the Roman Empire by birth. However, that came about, we see that this is a man who is very much centrally placed in the world of his time. He is capable of speaking Aramaic to relate to the source of the Jewish faith. He certainly will read and understand Hebrew. He speaks and writes Greek, the lingua franca of his time, such as English nowadays. That's why I don't speak German to you, but English. And he is also enjoying the rights and privileges and responsibilities of a Roman citizen. This is an amazing opportunity for the gospel to be moved faithfully from the Palestinian soil into the Greco-Roman world. Without being broken, as light is broken through at prism, it is directly brought forth and carried into the Greco-Roman world. I think that's important that we recognize this as we reflect on Paul and his situation. More significant is the question of what religious milieu was Saul of Tarsus trained in as he moves to Jerusalem as he's being educated under Gamaliel in the less rigid branch of Phariseic Judaism. We know that he was a Pharisee. He presents that himself in the Philippian three passage. But in the reference to Gamaliel, we know that he comes from a particular tradition, namely the tradition of Hillel. And I have mentioned that before, but just so that we understand it is a little more open. It would still be staunchly conservative, all of Palestinian Judaism, particularly if the Pharisee branch would be staunchly conservative. But the school of Hillel, as opposed to the school of Shamai, was certainly a little more open. A little more open to the Hellenistic world, a little more open to the function of women in the society, et cetera. So when a judgment call was asked for in terms of interpreting the law, the school of Hillel was a little more open to be a little less rigid than the school of Shamai. But that is not sufficient. We really need to know and understand what this branch of Palestinian Judaism was made up of. Because this is the milieu, this is the setting, this is a situation that Saul of Tarsus moves in, and that develops his religious convictions, his beliefs about Israel and the Jews, his beliefs about the Gentiles, and certainly his beliefs about how man in the Jewish setting can be a finding approval before God and how he should conduct his life. And while I have mentioned before, and that should be mentioned here again, Palestinian Judaism is really a collective term for various branches, one of which is the branch of the Pharisees. Others would be this of the Essenes, and that of the Sadducees, and those of the Zalates. The Phariseic mindset and direction was certainly the most popular, and as far as I can see the most influential one, in terms of popular influence, not in the sense of power. Obviously the Sadducees held power till about 70 AD, the destruction of the temple, and then there is a Phariseic Judaism movement that moves towards Yamnia, et cetera, and then rabbinic Judaism is in some ways an outgrowth in the second, third, fourth century AD of Phariseic Judaism of the first century. If we go a little closer and analyze what is the mindset, what is the pattern of Palestinian Judaism, there is a lot of debate today exactly on that issue, and that seems to be perhaps initially a little theoretical. Why think about Palestinian Judaism? We're studying Paul. Well, to summarize things I would like to take you a little bit into that setting from which Paul comes out of. It is important to understand what Saul is being saved out of, what he is confronted with as he meets the risen Lord on the road to Damascus. What is that world that he lived in in Jerusalem? What is the world of Gamalia? What is the theological setting? In there I want to at least make you acquainted with one modern author who has done a lot of work in the area of analyzing Palestinian Judaism and his name is EP Sanders, and the most influential book that he wrote on that issue is still the older of his publications, Paul and Palestinian Judaism. This book has impacted Pauline's studies more than any other book. There are other voices here, and I don't want to bother you too much with that, but those of you who see and who would like to study more on that I want to at least mention that there are opponents to this position that I'm going to present in just a minute. Pauline's guidance, and then particularly Martin Hangel of the University of Tubingham, and then also the older Theologian Otto Schletter, especially these two, and these two in terms of more modern studies, these two also older studies have presented a clear case as far as I'm concerned that EP Sanders analysis of Palestinian Judaism and therefore the framework that Gamalia taught to Saul is really not acceptable. So I'm going to proceed to present to you a brief description but then a critique of EP Sanders and its effect on the understanding of the milieu in which Paul Saul lived out of which he was saved. You see EP Sanders, where's my see I walk off with these things and then I lose them because I have clear instructions that I'm supposed to write with white and not with yellow. The main hypothesis that EP Sanders presents about the description of Palestinian Judaism, part of which the Pharisees in Gamalia would be, is describable in one caption and that is covenantal, namism, covenantal, namism. In one caption of two words that would characterize Sanders view of the milieu of Palestinian Judaism, what does that mean? Namism means a focus on the law, the Greek word namus, focus on the law, focus on instructions of the five book of Moses, how should we live, what do we need to do, what happens if we fail, what are the blessings and curses, etc. The covenantal means that the regular Jew, especially the Pharisee Jew of the time of Saul, believed certainly that he or she was in the context of covenant. In the context of God's provision, in the context of God's grace, in the context of God's salvation, in the context of God's faithfulness, etc., etc., and embedded in this lovely nest of God's provision in grace, there are the instructions of dosendones and of living a life according to the purposes of God. Now, I've already mentioned to you, there are some historical reconstructions of the time of Jesus outside of the New Testament that try to capture what is the nature, what is the framework of teaching in at the time of Saul, and it clearly questions that there is that notion of covenantal. Not that no Jew that you would have asked would have not been able to give you an answer about what does covenantal mean, they would have said, probably, God's grace, God's love, God's provision, etc., but the reference to covenantal would be more an orthodox ascent or consent to some concepts that are there, but the real issue that influenced daily life was this. Namely, what happens if I do this? How do I stand before God if I do that? How shall we instruct Pharisees, the individual people in our synagogue, how they should live a proper life? Well, they need to do this, we need to continue to increase the fence around the law so that if we tell them not to do this, then they certainly won't break the law. So we'll just keep certain things in such a stringent way, like keeping of the Sabbath, that there's no way that you can break the Ten Commandments or the Torah in general. Nobody denies that there are illusions and awareness of covenant, that big debate is how real, how present, was the understanding of God's provision represented with this word covenant, and how real and how present was the understanding of God's law, and these gentlemen over here with a historical reconstruction against EP Sanders' work, would say, this is pale compared to the predominance and the central question of keeping the law. Now Sanders has made reference to some writings in the general confines of Palestinian Judaism, like as some Comran references that truly speak about God's grace and God's provision and God's kindness, true. But if you read through the total of the community rules in Comran, for instance, you are left with the clear impression that this is pale, and this is absolutely predominant if we keep the law, if we pursue the law much more stringently than even the Pharisees, then we will usher in the day of the Lord, he will come and he will visit us. The way for us to get rid of the Romans is to keep the law stringently. And so I'm arguing against EP Sanders' reconstruction of Palestinian Judaism and of Pharisee Judaism in particular, and I'm re-emphasizing that the picture we get from the gospels about Pharisee Judaism, for instance, is indeed correct and proper. It never denies that Pharisees in the gospel, it is never denied that Pharisees also have some understanding of covenant, but it's lost. It's just maybe a picture hanging on the wall, a Orthodox confession that everybody says, yes, that's what I agree to, but the daily life is marked by the detailed study of the law and the paying attention to the law, etc. So while this issue is much more complex and far-reaching, I would say here is a very important point of disagreement, and it has influenced Pauline's studies, as I have said, significantly. Perhaps one article for those of you who are interested may be by R.H. Gundry, published in Biblical, with the telling title, Grace works and staying saved, in which Gundry argues against Sanders that there is virtually no difference between what Paul was taught by Gamaliel and what he believes later on as a Christian namely regarding Grace works and staying saved. Biblical, 1985, 1-38. What did I say? 1985, 1-38, interesting article on this entire issue. So I'm not denying that Palestinian Judaism and that Gamaliel and that Saul would have had some notion of covenant, but it's somehow just a faint notion. Certainly in the Old Testament, as the people of Israel have come out of Egypt as they have experienced the saving hand of God, they would have had a vivid understanding of covenant. God has delivered us from slavery, God has brought us out of Egypt, and now he's giving us instruction. They would have still gotten that sequence right that context and even the children were taught as they learned the Ten Commandments, what? I believe in the God who has taken us out of Egypt and then come the laws that are to instruct life after Sinai. So I think it is very important and I would say correct to say Palestinian Judaism, the teaching that Saul received by Gamaliel was particularly focused on keeping the law. Now exactly what we get from the pages of Paul concerning his past in Galatians and Philippians particularly as we looked at those two letters in particular. So I think that would be good enough although we will come back a little bit to Palestinian Judaism in just a minute to move on to the next point here in the outline that I've given you. Number two, namely the conversion and the effect on Paul's theology. Did you have a question? No. Number two, lecture 33, see we're all in order. This is May 3rd, evening number 13, lecture 33, number two. Boy are we organized? Conversion and the effect on Paul's theology. If you keep in mind what will you? Paul comes out of what we read in Philippians then makes an enormous amount of sense and I want to read to you now Paul's self-testimony on who he was and where he has come out of in Philippians 3 verses 4 to 11. This is what he says. I'm starting a little earlier for his we who are the circumcision we who worship by the spirit of God who glory in Christ Jesus and who put no confidence in the flesh. This is the key word here. No confidence in the flesh and now in parentheses so to speak though I myself have reasons for such confidence. If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh I have more circumcised on the eighth day in Tarsus. Are the people of Israel a Jew or the tribe of Benjamin a Hebrew of Hebrews in regard to the law a Pharisee as for zeal you know as for practicing the law as for living it out consistently persecuting the church the trump card who is more consistent who is more pragmatic who is more applying the zeal for the Lord God then to persecute those who differ with the law of God. And as for legalistic righteousness although I stress as for righteousness but I think the NIV is interpreting correctly here legalistic righteousness faultless blameless perfect. This is what Paul Saul was taught under Gamaliel a nomism a sense of accomplishment and you see that gives you the root of the entire problem of this. If you have a faint notion of covenant you have a faint notion of God's provision of dependency upon him of drawing everything for salvation and growth from him. Nomism says I am able I am meant to and I'm going to and I will have done so. That's the notion and so the confidence in the flesh is really how Saul would summarise his training under Gamaliel a systematic training and confidence in the flesh of being able to do it being able to execute it. This is his state this is his understanding from Philippians 3 and now the amazing thing happens that this kind of Saul who is in no way having questions like Roman 7 in his life he's not he's not wavering as he goes to Damascus. He's not having second thoughts did Gamaliel teach me right maybe I should think a little bit about the covenantal aspect of our faith. You know I still don't quite master sin I have my doubts should I really persecute the Christians I don't think there's any notion of that. As he single-mindedly moves up to Damascus and has one thing in mind I am at the crest of righteousness and at the crest of pleasing God. The angels are rejoicing the harps are being played and the Lord God Zebaoth is joyful about what I'm doing. I'm moving against those who blaspheme the living God I'm moving beyond Jerusalem I'm showing my zeal and at that very crest of greatest accomplishment and strength. The risen Christ appears to Paul and identifies him as an enemy of the living God. That's the root of the gospel of Paul. At the very crest at the very top at the greatest accomplishment of God pleasing life and devotion and dedication to the rules and laws and presets of God completely dedicated not looking for his own game only for the gain of God. He comes and he has to see that Jesus doesn't stoop down and say Saul well done from a tribe of Benjamin great thing. Hebrew of Hebrews great thing circumcised wonderful born in Tarsus great trained in the Gamalia wonderful zealous for the against the church well we'll have to talk about that a little later. But you know Saul just a little something you don't believe in the Messiah just you know you need to have a little bit of more faith you're nearly there 95% you're really nearly there just come a little bit more and then you have it made. Saul Saul why are you persecuting me? Who are you opposing? Do you see that your entire life your entire disposition of life is opposition and enmity against the living God? Everything you can bring is not only deficient slightly deficient it is opposed to God. And therefore Paul can say in verse 7 in Philippine 3 but whatever was to my prophet I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. He didn't have second thoughts he didn't have an emotional breakdown he didn't have a psychotic something no I consider loss for the sake of Christ there was something that happened on the road to Damascus. What is more I consider everything a loss compared this is very important to understand Paul compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For who's sake I have lost all things I consider them rubbish that I may gain Christ and be found in him not having a righteousness of my own here you get it. Confidence in the flesh all the way up to Damascus and now that I may be found in him not having a righteousness of my own not having a boasting of myself that comes from the law but that which is through faith in Christ through appropriation through receiving the gift that comes unmerited to Saul. The righteousness that comes from God and is by faith I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings becoming like him in his death and so somehow to attain to the resurrection from the dead. The incision of God of assaults conversion between verses six and verses seven if we want to put an incision here in the Philippians chapter three that is the significant point and it is not a slight change of you know you've got to adjust your life just a little bit you've got to think slightly different it is a radical discontinuity of what he has done all along to this point. So all along to this point to what he is now has to do namely to let it all go and anything that he could boast about in terms of standing before God has served him nothing except to be an enemy of God what a catastrophic realization but you see and that's the key point it is not that Jesus raises his finger and says bad boy you messed it all up as much as that Saul is confronted with a glory a purity a righteousness a love a power a splendor that is nothing less than God himself. So therefore in comparison to that glory which Christ represents now as he is encountering the living living Christ his whole posting pales to nothing in fact it does not serve the purposes of God why we were yet sinners why we were yet enemies of God Christ died for us. Paul later will say applying that truth to the various Christians that he brings the gospel to and so I think we need to understand this root of the gospel at this point the effect on Paul's theology and I made the note here in your outline paradigm shift everything was determined from what can I do what do I need to do how do I need to behave what does God's words say. How do I need to appropriate how did I need to interpret it and I then must do it to who is God what has he done how is he providing for me what is my identity in him and how will he enable me to live yes the law a bider and the recipient of grace will be similar in the point of living out lives. They will meet again on the crossroads of ethics the crossroad of life but they will be completely differently conditioned that's why Paul will speak very emphatically against the judaizers because their whole conditioning their whole motivation their whole base is posting self generated life whereas the person who has received God's mercy will walk across that line of ethics and conduct as a loved child of God as a pardoned child of God as an enabled child of God as one who lives out of reconciliation a life of gratitude for the deeds that God has accomplished and he will seek to do that which is pleasing before the Lord as gratitude in a prayerful position of Lord help me to live according to your presence praise be to your name so the entire footing the entire base is diametrically opposed to where Paul has come from and that diametric opposition will mark his entire speaking and ministry to the Christians wherever they are wherever he goes just pass in your mind through Galatians 1 Corinthians 2 Corinthians Colossians Ephesians Philippians you see that there is always an argument against by works Romans obviously I nearly missed that by works and a strong emphasis of by faith and will come to that summary and faith in just a minute but this would be a most significant and the most fundamental understanding of what happens to Saul as he encounters the risen Christ he is blinded as a sign that his whole life was blinded his whole pursuing was blinded he was meaning well but he was completely self driven and now like a beggar like a a needy person he has to be led into Damascus he can't even walk himself he's completely dependent as if God was going to say that's how you're going to walk not in blind faith I don't like that word a lot but in a dependency upon God for his thinking for his acting for his teaching and the wonderful and amazing thing is that while Paul says here in Philippians all things I count for not yet he studies carefully scriptures again he has to go through and completely renewed seminary quote-unquote education and sit down and say what did I miss how did I miss it you know what covenant is the big thing God's provision is the big thing I see it already in the law of man law of Moses and I see the promise of Abraham the promise to all nations it's there it's in Scripture there is a servant of God who suffers on my behalf I didn't have the eyes to see it's all there so there's this time of refreshment where he rediscoveres the Old Testament not in terms of do's and don'ts primarily and initially but in terms of God's provision God's creation and redemptive provisions from creation through Adam through the history of salvation through the prophets to the climax of God's self revelation in Christ wonderful must have been an incredibly exhausting and overwhelming time as Paul studies scripture he knows it he has memorized it he's been trimmed from age seven all he has it inhaled an exhale scripture all his life and he has been taught in the particular applications of what you can cannot do on the Sabbath and now he rediscovered God's word just amazing and not then you can understand why he gets a little bit upset with the Galatians when they miss the point when they fall into do's and don'ts see he has experienced it and lived out lifted out in his own flesh in his own life and and God has fashioned an apostle who doesn't just sit on a desk and say you know what that should be the gospel he has been through it all and he has gone down completely and been re gallored by God and his sanity reestablished and reconstituted and then he moves out and presents the gospel by grace alone based on God's provision you can't get it wrong anymore and Paul is absolutely consistent throughout the epistles on that point of salvation and not only salvation but also staying saved if we go with Gendry's article on grace on works and staying saved by God's provision alone so that is the conversion and the effect on Paul's theology and we'll take a little break now and then move on to a changed anthropology because that's really highly important to our modern day and age let's understand what's happening here in terms of the teaching of Paul on who is man and then we'll go on to the question on who is God particularly by means of Jesus and we'll see how we get on.