KEY THEOLOGICAL TERMS - faith / law / justified by faith / teacher / Christian baptism / Christians as "Abraham’s offspring"

BASIC IDEA - key theological concepts that may need some explanation in order for 21st century listeners to understand Paul’s basic argument-the role of the law prior to the emphasis of faith / why Paul considers Jewish law to function as a "marm" or "disciplinarian" (NRSV) / the relationship of baptism to faith / and why faith in Christ makes gender, race, and economic status of little significance.

PAIDAGÔGOS - "teacher" is probably not the best translation of the term, though such may be what appears in your Bible. The paidagôgos (lit. "child-leader") was a slave in the Greco-Roman household who supervised and guarded children. His responsibility was to walk them to and from school, to see that they behaved properly and stayed out of harm’s way. The paidagôgos, however, was not a member of the family, and when the child grew to a certain age, his services were no longer required. [1] Such, Paul says was the role of the Law.

What kind of legalisms do Christians fall prey to?

Where is the balance between saving faith and works at this point in your life? Has there been any shifting or re-thinking in your mind concerning this struggle?

C.S. Lewis speaks eloquently to the universality of "law" or standards of behavior that humanity requires in order to exist an ordered world. He reminds us that without laws we would live in a world where Nazism would not be an outrage, where murder and rape would carry no sense of wrongness. But thankfully, behind all of the acts that we call horrible and intolerable is, as Lewis points out, a sense of justice, a standard of measurement by which we do judge actions.

Paul the apostle would agree with that very point. A healthy sense of justice is good - it forms boundaries to keep us safe and the other person safe from us. But, the problem is, according to Paul’s teaching, is that we’re not very good in staying inside the boundaries-the rules of justice. Our newspapers are full of stories that remind us of our inability to keep even basic, common sense laws, let alone the more subtle sense of rightness and wrongness. In our inability to keep the "law" is the very reason why we need more than law to help us behave humanely toward each other.

I once heard a funny illustration that worked for me. It helped me to visualize this concept of Paul about our inability to keep the law so impeccably (no pun intended!) that we could reach perfection in God’s sight through our law-keeping. Goes like this:

A man and his German shepherd sit near a school yard. The dog wears a muzzle over its beak. Seems so tame that children can actually come up and pet its head. "Nice doggie," they say, whapping it on the head. But the dog is really "nice" so long as the owner keeps the muzzle on. Inside the dog is really lusting for that kid’s leg. But for all appearance, it’s a nice dog.

That German shepherd is so us at times. We’re actually so tamed and all. But inside we’re breaking every law in the book! Paul says that "in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ . . . and if you belong to Christ then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.

What that old leg-lusting German shepherd needs is not a new and improved muzzle, but a new and docile nature! When we receive Christ by faith, theologically, we invite the Spirit into our lives so that a new Christ-shaped life is formed-a life and character that has the capacity to love and serve.

That the law was never designed to create a perfect human, might be illustrated by a morning ritual. A man gets out of bed in the morning and rubs his hand across his face. Lots of stubble. So he goes into the bathroom and looks into the mirror. "Oh my," he mutters, "I’ve really got to shave!" The guy knows generally that he probably could use a shave, but the mirror shows him categorically where exactly he needs to shave. It would be silly, wouldn’t it, if the same Joe takes the mirror down off the cabinet and tries to use it to shave his face! The mirror drives him to the razor! And so does the Law drive us to Christ

_______________________________________________________
[1] New Interpreter’s Bible XI (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2000), page 269.