A new creation
Dear People of St. Boniface,
My CV as an ardent Jew is spelled out by me in Galatians 1:14 and Philippians 3:4-6. I was highly educated in the Jewish faith and scrupulous with regard to its traditions and practices. But then Jesus Christ caught me on the road to Damascus.
Conversion of St Paul
What did this mean? Did I then become a sort of “fulfilled Jew”, adding my belief in Christ on top of my Judaism, like icing on a cake? No! I believe it made me something new; as I say in Colossians 3:11, Christ caused all old distinctions to dissolve: “Christ is all, and is in all”.
I passionately believe that in accepting Christ, we become Christ. We have the Spirit of Christ, we share his sufferings so as to share his glory [Romans 8: 9,17], we have the mind of Christ [1 Corinthians 2:16]. This is more than just a ‘top-up’; it makes us a “new creation” [2 Corinthians 5:17; Galatians 6:15].
So does this mean that I think Judaism was actually pointless? Not at all! It was all a wonderful and privileged preparation accompanied by rich gifts from God [Romans 9: 4-5]. I often speak of Christ as being the “fulfilment of the Scriptures” [1 Corinthians 15:3-4]. And the religious law, the law of Moses, I see as a stepping-stone to the law of the Holy Spirit in Christ; I call it a “tutor”, training people for adulthood, when they leave the tutor behind [Galatians 3:24].
Nor has God now rejected his people – absolutely not! They are being held in trust, as it were, until the time they are able to say “Jesus is Lord” [Romans 10:9].
Of course this was not what everybody wanted to hear, and everywhere I went I was pursued by other so-called teachers who tried to put the Jewish genie back into the Christian bottle. In Galatia, they said that I had been in such a hurry that I had only preached part of the Gospel, and they were now supplying it all – including observing the Jewish law [Galatians 1:6].
It would have caused me much less grief to have said something ‘nicer’, but this is not the truth as I see it. At a given moment, chosen by God, Christ entered the world [Galatians 4:4] and when Christ died and rose again – bang! – the light flooded in [2 Corinthians 3:15-18].
My blessing, from Heaven, PAUL.