Jews And Gentiles: The Mystery Of Christ

In the time Paul was writing to the Romans there was conflict between the Gentiles and the Jews. Many of today’s scholars have presented a number of likely reasons as to why Paul may have written the book of Romans. One of these believed reasons was for him to address the continued power struggle between the Gentiles and the Jews. In the book of Romans, Paul encourages unity as people of God and begs the Jews and Gentiles to have peace and love with not only each other but with everyone in the world.

Paul became an advocate for the inclusion of the Gentiles among the ‘true’ followers of Christianity. Until this moment in history, Jewish Christians believed that non-Jews had to convert to Judaism and follow the law like them, which included many dietary restrictions and circumcision. Gentiles who worship in the synagogue but did not convert were only

E. Harrison (p. 275) summarizes the message of the Epistle in these words: The greatest single overall emphasis seems to be on the unity of the local church as the body of Christ, which is brought out not only in connection with the discussion of the groups (i.e.; the factions within the church), but also in relation to the Lord’s Supper and spiritual gifts. A corollary is the sanctity of the church as members of Christ, both corporately and individually, (note, especially, such passages as 1 Cor. 3:16-17 and 6:15-20.) We may add, it is in this Epistle that the Holy Spirit through the Apostle Paul most eloquently sets forth the supremacy of love as “the most excellent way,” which the Christian is called to follow (1 Cor. 12:31b-13:13

Judaizers wanted to preach works but Paul wrote that we must preach Christ alone. 7. Paul was not a passive individual as he describes himself in verse 14 he was “exceedingly zealous”. He appears to be talking to an audience who knew him in the past as a strong Jew who upheld the traditions of his people. He also stated in verse 14 that he “profited in the Jews’ religion” 8. so he was possibly politically powerful and personally benefiting from his status in the community while upholding the Jewish traditions of his fathers. He wants to make it clear to his audience that what he is preaching to them now is not of man but is by divine revelation from God by his grace. To demonstrate his point, Paul recounts his conversion, in which he switched from being a persecutor of the church to being a preacher of its gospel. He wants to advise that his conversion occurred through a direct act of God, who “was pleased to reveal his Son to me, 9. so that I might proclaim him among the Gentiles”. The revelation of who Jesus really was came directly from God and for a clear purpose so that Paul could take the message to the Gentiles. Paul insisted that the Spirit is the same Spirit through whom God spoke and acted in the history of Israel, the difference is that through Jesus the Spirit is now poured out on all God’s people, Jew and Gentile alike. 10. The fact that Paul criticized some aspects of his native Judaism 11. and that he announced a gospel to the

In this passage, Paul stated that “those who believe are the descendants of Abraham,” which connected the Gentiles to a Jewish context. Paul told the Gentiles that they do not need circumcision to become Jewish but instead need to have faith. Paul placed them into a Jewish context by saying that they only needed faith to be a descendant of Abraham, or a Jew. Like Abraham, if the Gentiles believed, they would be righteous, which also illustrates the promise that God made to Abraham in Genesis 14 and why the law of circumcision was unnecessary for the Gentiles to be redeemed by Christ’s

These words usually are synced with one’s sins, and Paul saying this is him pointing out how sinful the Gentiles used to be before Christ came and saved them. Paul stresses even more how segregated the Jews and Gentiles were in verse twelve. He constantly repeats the word “without” when referring to the Gentiles. He says they are without God, without citizenship, without hope and without Christ.

Paul addresses many issues throughout his letter concerning both people groups. For the Gentiles, “Paul directly addressed Gentiles using the second person in Rom 11:13, 31 in a rebuke of Gentile pride over their election by God.” And for the Jews, “Paul's rebuke of Jewish pride and hypocritical self-righteousness in Romans 2 frequently uses the second person and implies that Paul was directly addressing people of Jewish origin.” The early conformation of a church blended of Jews and Gentiles had the potential to be catastrophic for gospel as intense arguments between Jews and Gentiles could lead to many people missing the importance of the gospel. “These factors in the historical setting help explain why much of the letter to the Romans addresses issues of importance to the relationship between Jewish and Gentile

They simply wanted the men and women who had converted over as Gentile to change their attitudes and behaviors. By changing their behaviors and attitudes they would become more “Jewish like”. Most readings dealing with Paul perceive him as being anti-Jewish. However, this is not only a misinterpretation of Paul, but it is also a misunderstanding of the letters and Judaism itself. I believe Allen and Williamson wants the readers to understand that Paul never intended to harm or betray the Jews. He never wanted to separate himself from the Jews and initiate an independent religion that would someday take over the Jews. Paul’s letters was not even about Judaism. Paul’s writings were about the Judaism’s understanding and relationship with the

Paul, having figuratively died and rose again with Christ, demonstrates a profound change in his outlook. Armed with a transformed mindset, the once vitriolic man who had been possessed by the demonic “Us vs. Them” mentality, goes on to champion unity and equality -- “In Christ’s family there can be no division into Jew and non-Jew, slave and free, male and female. Among us you are all equal” (Gal. 3:28; The Message). He then implores fellow Christians to defy conformity, exhorting them to be transformed by gauging their values against the credo that holds ultimate significance -- the will of God, which Micah defines as acting justly, loving mercy and walking humbly with God (Rom 12:2; Micah 6:8).

Throughout the history of the world, God has been working to bring humanity back to him. Due to the loss of constant communion in the fall, God set forth multiple promises to eventually establish his eternal Kingdom, the New Testament, is the culmination of these promises. The Gospels are the most specific in how Jesus Christ fulfilled the covenants God made with Abraham and David. More importantly he is the fulfillment of the new covenant, which washes away sin and brings humanity back into communion with God. What is modeled in the Gospels is reaffirmed in Acts, by the way the church is to function according to the culmination of the Covenants. Acts begins to reveal the great mystery that is the inclusion of the Gentiles in God’s covenant. Paul’s Epistles take the culmination a step further and defend the idea that the fulfillment of God’s covenants does not just affect the people of Israel, but the Gentiles as well. The General epistles teach that the people are no longer bound by the mosaic covenant since the New Covenant was fulfilled via Jesus Christ. Yet practice of the law is still an important factor of the Christian life style even if superseded by the New Covenant. Revelation shows that covenants are leading up to the lord’s victory and salvation of his people. The sins of the Jews and Gentiles are washed away by Jesus the blood of the lamb so in reality the battle is already won because of the New Covenants fulfillment in Jesus. It is clear from

In 1:5, Paul tells the Philippians that he prays for them with joy because of their partnership in the gospel. The Philippian Christians showed commitment to the task of spreading the gospel from the moment of their conversion up to the day that Paul was writing this letter (a span of about twelve years). In 1:7, Paul states that a driving passion in his life was to “defend and confirm the gospel”. In 1:12-26, Paul says to the Philippians that they should not despair over his imprisonment because what had happened to him was helping to spread the gospel. Paul does not want disunity in the church in Philippi to hinder the advance of the gospel.

Paul’s letter shows part of the game of interpretation with the Galatians. Paul started by traveling around and telling people about Jesus and what that would mean for the Jewish

Paul is revered as a great Christian thinker, but in his text he never seems to stray to far away from his Jewish decent. He always stressed the common relationship between Judaism and the new religion. He believes Christianity is revealed through Jesus’ ministry, but is defined by the Hebrew bible. He continuously throughout his writings uses scriptures from the Hebrew bible to validate something in his particular Gospel. Before his call from Jesus’ Paul was a member of the Pharisee party, he obeyed the Torah everyway possible. He was so zealous in his obedience and to prove his loyalty to Pharisaic Judaism he even persecuted those who believed that Jesus was the Jewish Messiah.

Believers have been unified in salvation by grace and are called to live like Christ.

Is thought that the recipient of the letter were people from a province in central Asia Minor and Paul preached them during his first mission. The authors of the letter to the Galatians was Paul and Jesus Spirit. One of the main purpose of the letter or theme was to address the relationship from the Gentile Christians towards Judaism. The main points of the letter are to be truthful to God and commit to Him, in order to gain the Kingdom of heaven. In verse Gal 1:7 Paul clarifies that there is no other Gospel than the one that Jesus proclaimed. Paul explains that there is people that try to confuse Christians and pervert the gospel of Christ but he is warning us not to fall into that. It repeats over and over to not follow the law of the world but the teachings of Jesus Christ. We all are the church. The ones who believe on God are the church. To be the church in this letter means to believe in Jesus Christ and only worship God because He gave us freedom from sin and He is the only one that can lead us to the Kingdom of God. It also means to live by the fruit of the Spirit which is in love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Gal 5:22-23). It means to die to the sin, to reject the sin of, fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing (Gal 5:19-21), and anything that looks like