Ephesians - Lesson 21

I want to spend some time discussing for a few moments Second Temple Judaism just in terms of general general comments to help us think more carefully about what What Paul is dealing with in Ephesians with respect to the law in relationship to these Jews and Gentiles who are now this one new man But before I do that, let me just give you a a shameless plug here I have a book that i've written on the gospel related to our previous lecture Paul's gospel in in romans vertical horizontal and cosmic dimensions where I make the argument for For how paul is presenting his gospel to the romans and then also I wrote a book on On galatians related to the spirit ethics and eternal life paul's vision for the christian life in galatians wherein I talk about how the gospel is Vertical horizontal horizontal and cosmic and how it also has these transformational elements to it While I also make very clear distinction between the vertical aspect of the gospel in terms of justification by faith and what it means to be Transformed by the power of the spirit. I make those distinctions very very clear and show that these are two very different theological realities for paul But that those who are justified by faith are justified by faith because of the gospel those who are transformed by the spirit Were transformed because of the gospel those who participate in new creation in the age to come do so because of the good news about jesus Christ Well, let's think for a moment about about second temple judaism. This is a big conversation.

I have um, I don't have the ability to say uh as much as needs to be said even if I had All the time in the world to do so because there's just so much to say But a few things i'd like to say in terms of helping us think a bit more carefully about About why paul makes these statements that he says about the law of moses Uh being divided being torn down by means of jesus's death on the cross one thing I want to say as I suggested in the previous lecture is that Is that second temple judaism was not monolithic That is it was diverse it had Certainly some commonalities you had emphasis on purity emphasis on the importance of the temple importance of the law And and other things but there were also There's also diversity within early judaism You have for example different groups the pharisees who have a certain set of beliefs the sadducees who have a certain set of beliefs You have groups like the essenes that are mentioned in josephus's works. You have The zealots you have the sakari and and then you have people who were not part of those groups That were also within second temple temple judaism Within second temple judaism, you also had different understandings of Of sociology or how how how jews believe that they participate in life in the age to come so if you read for example a A dead sea scroll that's called one qh in that scroll, there's this very strong emphasis on What scholars have called divine agency where the the authors of that scroll? suggest that um that god must work they pray in fact that god would work in the hearts of his people and grant repentance and this sort of language Then you also have in another death sea scroll called 4q mmt That you have the idea of justification in that scroll linked with works of law In that scroll now, there's a debate about how to interpret both justification And what paul mean or excuse me what the death sea scroll means by works of law in 4q mmt But the basic point that i'm making is is that within second temple judaism, in fact within these dead sea scrolls which represent sectarians in the desert You have one scroll one qh that prioritizes divine agency god god working within the heart Of his people to grant repentance, but then you also have 4q mmt which has a very different Presentation in terms of how one participates in life in the age to come if in fact i'm understanding How justification is being used? in that In that text and justification there in 4q mt is linked with works of law So again, my point I think is supported if i'm reading justification in 4q mt the right way The point is supported that that you have diversity within judaism, but then you also have other examples in an early jewish text where you have Texts like the the prayer manasseh, which would be a an apocryphal text where the the prayer strongly Urges the lord to grant again repentance and to grant mercy and to Provide forgiveness of sins by granting mercy and repentance and so on and so forth and then you also have a text where you have Like fourth ezra, which is a text written post 70 a.d Scholars believe it was written probably around the 90s represents a an apocalyptic version of second temple judaism where the the author in fourth ezra Is really trying to make sense of how to respond to the crisis of having the jerusalem City and their temple destroyed by the romans they're trying to figure out These jews in fourth ezra how to make sense of this and how to respond in light of this And in fourth ezra chapter 7, I can't remember the exact verses but in chapter 7 In fourth ezra you have this this appeal To keep the law Faithfully and to be devoted to the law as the as the means by which they're They're going to be able to escape escape another judgment So one thing I want us to understand is is that there's a diversity of views within judaism without about Certain things one more example here. Our second baruch is another text Second baruch would fit within this sort of apocalyptic understanding of second temple judaism and second baruch is is later Possibly than fourth ezra fourth ezra being likely in the 90s for second baruch Scholars suggest could have been written in the second century a.d And in second baruch you have language there that talks about measuring or Storing up treasures merit In order to participate in life in the age to come you have this language of of doing To achieve life in the age to come eternal life But that's not what you see in every single jewish text now, here's something that's very very important to remember There are there there is a interpretive tradition that has suggested That judaism as a whole was this Graceless religion.

It was all about legalism and self-righteousness and these sorts of things But the challenge to that proposition is what the sources actually say And so as i've just put forward to you There are sources that have sort of a different view of how one participates in life in the age to come a famous scholar writing in the 1970s Made the effort to sort of correct this understanding of judaism that identified it as legalistic and self-righteous By looking at a lot of primary text and one thing he he Attempted to argue was Is that there is grace? everywhere in judaism But here's one problem That this scholar according to recent scholarship made One recent scholar says that This particular author was right to point out that grace is everywhere in judaism. That is correct But that he was wrong to say that grace is everywhere the same in judaism So in other words recent scholarship has suggested that that this scholar who wrote the book in 19 in the 1970s Flattened out judaism to basically say Everywhere in judaism, there's grace and it's always Articulated in the same way. Whereas this particular author writing later said Grace is everywhere, but it's different And this is part of what he means by it's different that it's not the same He mean he means that if you look at a text That prioritizes human agency Let's say for example like second baruch That text does not have the same understanding of grace as a text like 1qh Because 1qh prioritizes it prioritizes divine agency And when I say divine agency, you know, I mean it prioritizes god-saving action that god god must work within God must take the initiative to grant what he demands 1qh you had that prayer manessa you have god grant repentance and mercy so on and so forth So you have an emphasis on divine action not to the exclusion of human action But what's prioritized is divine action That's different from second baruch which prioritizes human action or or fourth ezra Seven which prioritizes human action to obey the law or second baruch to store up treasures to experience life in the age to come or uh 1qs is another desi scroll talk links the idea of experiencing life in the age to come and and keeping the Keeping the the law 4qmt is another example of that as well and so divine texts that emphasize divine agency They have a different understanding of grace An understanding that emphasizes divine agency From texts that have an understanding of grace that emphasize human agency, but here's the thing we need to realize Even those texts that emphasize human agency to baruch for ezra They emphasize that In the context of assuming god's covenant with his people and election so in other words second baruch still has an understanding of grace because it assumes It assumes the covenant election so on and so forth if that makes sense Now when I say grace don't think christian theology here You know It's not it doesn't have the same understanding of grace as paul.

That's not what i'm saying. What i'm saying is The question has been historically Does judaism have any grace in it? And is what it is the thing that's new about christianity is that it's grace whereas judaism was no grace you see Legalism legalistic whatever you mean by that Whereas christianity is about grace So i'm not saying that when paul talks about grace He's talking about it in the same way as second baruch and i'm not saying that paul would even agree with second baruch That second baruch is talking about grace What i'm saying is when we're trying to figure out judaism and understand judaism on its own terms How are these texts presenting? to us their understanding of this concept of God's god's favor if you will So even when you have texts that prioritize human action They do so not because they have no understanding of a concept of God's grace or favor election is still important. It's just they're prioritizing human action There are other texts as well that we could we could talk about Texts that emphasize things like god entering into a covenant with abraham in these second temple texts Entering into a covenant with abraham Subsequent to abraham's obedience See, that's that's different from what you actually find in the genesis narrative, right? Where where god enters into a covenant with abraham? and god's initiation Was the prerequisite to abraham's response, correct? Yes So when we think of certain jewish texts that reverse the order of that From their perspective, they're still thinking through these issues of okay.

There are people the people of the covenant But they have front-loaded abraham's faithfulness and prioritize human action So the question then in the jewish texts are not grace or no grace It is different perceptions of grace within these texts different perceptions now when you come to the to paul I think paul looks at could look at these type of texts and he would not categorize that as The gift of the gospel the the kind of grace and gift we've been talking about I'll give you one example from from From galatians. Well, I think this is right Galatians chapter 2 verse 21. Here's what he says He says if righteousness Comes by means of the law Then christ died in vain Before he makes that statement, however, he makes a striking a striking claim in chapter 2 verse 21 He says I will not Nullify the grace Of god and then he says If righteousness comes through the law Then christ died in vain So notice the move he's making here He's situated in a context within second temple judaism as a second temple jew who's a follower of christ and he would understand some of these Deferring and views of differing views of of the concept of grace within early judaism I mean he was a pharisee, right? But now that god has revealed himself To paul To announce his son as the good news of the gentiles his entire conception of grace changes so that now when he looks at a Person like the opponents in galatia, for example Who are prioritizing human action? They're wanting these gentile followers of jesus in addition to faith in jesus they want them To adopt a jewish way of life Get circumcised.

That's the key mark Perhaps keep keep some food laws maybe or some special days chapter four seems to hint at that And paul sees the opponents as doing what preaching another message not the gospel But a message that leads to a curse in fact in galatians 1 6 paul says I'm shocked that they're turning you're turning so quickly from the one who called you by the grace of christ to another gospel Which is no gospel at all except some are troubling you and they want to distort the gospel about jesus And so he sees what they're saying about the need for gentiles There's a key point the need for gentile christ followers gentile christians to Observe a jewish way of life. He sees that as Opposed to the grace of the gospel and he sees it not as grace As a jewish person Paul would also I think agree that There is nothing inherently wrong nothing wrong with being jewish But here's what he is saying. However, is that? To prioritize a jewish way of life In compliance with the law of moses Instead of a jewish way of life Yielded to jesus as the jewish messiah Is not grace Understand that In other words, let me restate it grace in christ for jews and gentiles Is the only grace paul sees as god's gift of divine favor So that for jews who don't trust in jesus as the jewish messiah paul would say for him to articulate that god's divine favor can be connected to A torah observant way of life apart from faith in the jewish messiah.

That's not grace For him his conception of grace triumphs over the competing conceptions of grace in early judaism Triumphs over it and and disagrees with Those different conceptions of grace triumphs over them and disagrees with those those other conceptions of grace So that for paul, there's one way god is gracious In the redemptive action He said it multiple times by means of the gift of the gospel So then when you go back to the things that we talked about in earlier lectures in chapter three, for example verse seven After he talks about gentiles being fellow heirs I'm, sorry in verse six gentiles are fellow heirs Members of the same body partakers of the same Promise look at this in christ jesus through the gospel Of which I became a servant according to the gift namely The gift of god, which was gifted to me according to the supernatural working of his power So to talk about the gospel He used basically one two three different words that talk about Gift or grace first word is the greek word doreon according to the gift And then the second word is caritas or caris according to the gift of grace or according to the gift Namely the gift of god And then the next word is this verb that is translated to give the greek verb did on me So he's piling up these gift giving terms And he attaches them to the gospel of jesus christ And jews and gentiles sharing equally in these promises of god in christ so that for him This is so important now It's not supersessionism Where the christian faith wipes out jewish identity, it's not that or replacement theology It is paul saying the messiah has come The way god has definitively Ultimately revealed his saving grace is in the messiah So that these other expressions of god's grace through the law in the old era Those expressions are no longer sufficient Because you find them realized in the messiah those those expressions of righteous living in the old era Leading up to the time of the messiah those expressions are now realized by directing Directing faith toward the jewish messiah. Okay, then practically Practically then here's what this means for jews This means for jews and ephesians that gentiles participate With jews and all these promises that god gave to israel By faith in jesus christ and jews have those fulfilled in their lives by faith in jesus christ gentiles are included by faith in jesus christ But then here's what this means at some level for jews practically They don't have to stop being jews How could they do that? They can still practice a jewish way of life They can still do certain aspects of the law if they want to but for paul They're not the marks of who are god's people now and who received the promises So if jews want to celebrate passover, I don't think paul would have a problem with that If they want to eat kosher, I don't think they'd have he'd have a problem with that But when they impose those things on gentile christ followers, that's when he would have a serious problem And he would want jews to understand their identity as jews and god's redemptive plan throughout history in light of christ And now he would want gentiles to understand Their identity as gentiles is wrapped up in jesus and they can't be gentiles This is what's coming in chapter four like they were anymore. So then for gentiles, they do not have to become Jews in that they don't have to get circumcised and subscribe to the law of moses But they can't live like in more gentiles live.

So at some level they become more jewish than gentile in their behavior But their expression of that is by means of union with christ by faith their jewish messiah So then these patterns of behavior that come um in chapters four and five which paul emphasizes Are patterns of behavior that are linked with messiah That may echo some things in the law But they're linked with messiah the jewish messiah And so therefore then that messiah has included gentiles who were far off and has brought together jews together into this one new humanity that is different but shares unity in christ without eradicating or erasing Their jewish or gentile identities, but rather transforms them That's a much different reading I think than the reading that Says there's no grace at all anywhere in early judaism What paul was saying is actually much better than that. He's saying That the gospel of jesus christ triumphs over those other expressions of grace to the point that If you're looking in those other areas Instead of in trusting in jesus christ You're nullifying god's grace now because god's grace has shifted from what he was doing in the mosaic covenant to what he's doing now in christ So we we we love our jewish brothers and sisters and we love gentiles when we in many in many ways, of course but when we Share with them The message about the jewish messiah who is a message for all who repents and believe questions So it's typical for christians to meet on sundays to to worship together and so Of course in a jewish culture. You had the tradition of sabbath and and that practice that was part of their Part of their religion part of their relation with god which goes back to um You know even the creation narrative and so would you say that We as gentiles inherit the idea of Meeting once a week or setting apart a day to actually worship even though we don't do it as a Sabbath tradition we do it on sundays, so it's taking part of a jewish mindset and and including that as part of how we Worship and how how we celebrate our relationship with god Good question.

Yeah, I think the uh, you know the worshiping on the lord's day On sunday is linked with when jesus resurrected from the dead Um It seems to be a natural move to for christians to worship on the lord's day One historical note what's interesting is is that jews had some privileges from from the empire to to celebrate sabbath Whereas christians didn't have those privileges to worship jesus on sunday So jews who were the first christians, um when they They they had the blessing of not having to work to work and be able to rest on sabbath But the lord's day on sunday, they still had to go about their business and do their work so there's already already for these jews a um, a shift That was forced upon them from the empire in terms of how do they operate as jews as christians? Well differently because they can do the jewish Thing on friday and saturday on the sabbath, but they can't work that they can worship on the lord's day But they don't have the same privileges To be off from work on on the lord's day which could be one reason why um you You have a night service snacks when eunuchus falls asleep out the window. I mean, i'm just i'm guessing here. I mean who knows but um Yeah, I think the idea of worshiping on the lord's day is linked to the The time frame when jesus resurrected from the dead worship raising from the dead on the first day of the week now the idea of What that day the lord's day is different from it for for for Jews who were following christ the early christian jews And for us as well as as gentile christians The lord's day is different than any other day of the week Because we're intentionally jesus resurrected from the dead on sunday and then we Are intentionally gathering together to worship Worship as a part of our lives beyond sunday, but it's especially that day.

We corporately gather together and that that is a That is an echo of of a pattern you see In yeah in judaism where the people of god gather together and focus on scripture prayer Uh what's happening in the community of faith these sorts of things? Yeah Yeah I was thinking of um, you know missionaries Where we go and we take the gospel whatever uh nation or tribe or whatever it is and they have certain things that they do or And then when they come to the gospel, they see what they had been doing in view of the gospel now and I'm, you know again i've read where sometimes let's say western christians go in and they want them to conform to Western christianity if you will Uh, could that be something where maybe they're doing something in some way, but then they see What they're doing now in relation of the gospel Kind of like christmas. Yeah, you know and now they see it in a different Way, you know, but then they still want to celebrate or do that where we maybe want them to conform Again not like judaism, but we want them to conform like well we do it like this and this and this And this is the way you do Is that making sense? Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. I think let me i'm gonna answer that question Let me let me connect it back to the judaism point with with judaism. We we have to remember It's not it's not simply That god that that israel had some traditions and rules Like it's important to remember that god chose israel uh to be the the chosen people through whom Messiah would come and that abraham Was given a promise and that promise is worked out through his offspring the 12 tribes of israel Jacob is israel from jacob comes those come to those 12 tribes those 12 tribes come and The the messiah comes to one of those tribes And then then god marks off his people israel coming out of egyptian slavery He marks them off with torah And and remember they're heading somewhere to a promised land and this goes all the way back I think really the genesis 3 but with abraham it's promising abraham a World basically And and so that was a a gracious Redemptive plan of god to start with abraham Of course adam, but abraham and through him to bring about the messiah and what we learn from paul is is that The way in which god worked out his plan Through abraham and his offspring and through torah like like torah is Is was the temporary mark of god's people until messiah comes? So again, I just want to emphasize the point with paul is that the messianic age is the age to which The promises of abraham are pointing the law and the prophets were pointing to that age, okay When the messianic age comes You have the messiah So your your loyalty is is directed toward him.

So then the way you practice your uh Way of life as a jew or for us as a gentile It's linked directly to the messiah, but it doesn't mean we just all of a sudden stop anymore doing Everything that we've done unless those things are immoral. It just means all of those things whether it's torah observance or whether it's Not being a being a gentile who's not to observe it We have to be doing everything in compliance with the spirit Because the spirit ushers in this way of living and being that's linked to the messiah so so I would want to make a distinction between The torah and its function in salvation history And traditions related to that That were pointing to god's redemption and that look back on god's redemption like passover, for example Make a distinction between those things and the the traditions that we have say in the united states that have no theological or Connection to god's redemptive plan, but the principle is absolutely correct. So it's inappropriate for me to And when I invite someone to trust in jesus to impose on them my cultural preferences As As the prerequisite for them to become a christian So that one thing we have to do as christians is make sure we're clear when we're talking with unbelievers whether they are in our our contacts here or abroad internationally We have to make sure we're clear as to what we're inviting them to what the gospel is Uh The gospel has not become an american.

That's not the gospel It's not become Uh, not be in agreement with me and everything that I think the gospel is very very clear. And so um We we are all inclined I think to impose on someone Things that are not part of the gospel And then shut them out When they reject those cultural things And yet receive the gospel Yeah, that's um That's something we have to remember everybody Everybody experiences their christian faith in a particular social context. We all do And we're all shaped by it influenced by it Our experiences impact how we understand the faith how we view god people who had experiences with bad fathers tend to struggle with Understanding how god can be their father and we can project that on To people when we talk about god some people can talk about god's wrath very easily, but not god's love because they have no Category for a loving father, but they have a category for a for a wrathful father so but so we're all shaped by by our cultural preferences experiences and we always need to make sure we're being um, You know self-aware of that So when we share the gospel with people and disciple people we're not trying to convert them into a Into our into into our own image but into the image of god Through the spirit as we're trying to train them up in jesus christ They share in the image of god already by virtue of god creating them But but though the the new man that's being created recreated in christ that takes clear gospel teaching And discipleship that's anchored in the bible Not in projecting cultural expressions on people that are not anything related to the gospel at all Yeah, that's a good question Like if you're really a christian you will And whatever that you will if it's not in the bible, that's a problem Yeah Yeah, you know this is helpful as you think about um Things like Devotionals and prayer lives and and these sorts of things like how we How we think about the christian life in the 21st century Most people in the ancient world couldn't read Didn't have and certainly didn't have access to bibles We do have bibles.

We do have a high literacy rate So obviously we're going to emphasize when we talk about Uh the christian faith we're going to emphasize the importance of reading your bible every day reading your bible every day But we have to remember Christians in the first century didn't couldn't read their bible every day. They didn't have bibles It's one reason why they went to church Every sunday to hear the word of god proclaimed um But I think it's good and right for us to say We need to read our bibles every day It's not right to say well, if you don't read your bible every day, you're not saved. Oh, that's that's different, isn't it? um Yeah, so we have to be aware of those things Yeah Let me say a word of clarification though.

Um In terms of um the whole works versus uh Grace thing There's a lot of good work on this but there there is there there is evidence that That there are perspectives within judaism that that believe the individual People Must do things to earn life And that's the basis upon which that life is given. I mean there's evidence. I think tuberuca is a piece of that evidence um There's a Important book that was written related to this in the 2000s by a scholar named simon gather call simon is a Scholar teaches at cambridge and he wrote a book called where is boasting? Where's boasting? Uh paul sociology and romans one through five He basically just walks through a bunch of texts jewish texts and shows how You do have examples in early jewish texts that prioritize human agency And that are likewise basing the the sociological experience on on The individual's ability to do things Uh, and then you have other examples where you don't have that same sort of emphasis what i'm trying to help guard us from Is making blanket blanket statements about judaism that says judaism Was a graceless religion.

That is so not true So we got to be very careful how we think about that because it didn't because how we what we think about judaism Shapes what we think about what paul says about the gospel and ephesians