seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
Romans 7:1 Do you not know, brothers and sisters—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law has authority over someone only as long as that person lives? 2 For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law that binds her to him. 3 So then, if she has sexual relations with another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not an adulteress if she marries another man.
4 So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. 5 For when we were in the realm of the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in us, so that we bore fruit for death. 6 But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.
Seriously, how can anyone stay awake with this dude going on and on and on? This is as boring as reading the law [Deuteronomy] in the Old Testament.Paul was defending himself in Rome, for the trouble he caused back in Jerusalem. His summation is taking forever. Then again, explaining change this big to people takes a while.
First of all, Paul is upsetting the apple cart by teaching cutting a man's thing is not necessary. This is a huge twist.
- The Jews felt special because they cut their thing and no one else would do it.
- The Jews felt special because their "Commandments" were written by God in stone on a mountain for Moses.
- The Jews felt special because their "laws" were written by Moses who talked to God on a mountain.
Paul was defending himself in Rome for saying that anyone can go to Heaven. According to the Sadducees, who really got upset, there is no Heaven. Sadducees taught here is no afterlife. No one should teach to the test. The Sadducees didn't think there was a test to teach to. The Sadducees said you live your best life and then you die. You have to follow all the rules [including cutting the thing] or you are guilty of breaking the law and you should be thrown out of the church. If you didn't belong to the church, you couldn't do business with anyone. If you didn't belong to the church, you would be an outcast. That's how it was. Paul upset them and now he is defending himself, and by extension, he is defending the church.
Paul was defending himself in Rome for saying anyone could become a Child of God.
Oh, how unfair.... the Jews lived centuries having to get their thing cut.... and being set aside "by God Himself".... and along comes Paul preaching "even Gentiles are welcome".
Paul might as well have been saying "even queers are welcome".
