"The Law" and "The Catechism". (Sunday Forum)

by Oh Yet We Trust, Brisbane, Tuesday, May 19, 2009, 18:09 (1460 days ago) @ Oh Yet We Trust

Quoting myself here St Galdys:

In the legalistic way of thinking it was only by the observance of the Mosaic Law, or, at best, by the observance of the Law plus an added belief in Jesus Christ that made a person righteous and therefore, eligible for salvation. This resulted in many of the Jewish Christians believing that even the Gentiles were to adopt the laws of traditional Judaism. But for Paul, the Law was essentially a creation to monitor our human state of Sin and, therefore, subsequent need for God’s grace. Indeed the greater corpus of his letters to the Romans and Galatians is the exposition of ‘the wretchedness of carnal man subject to Law, Sin and Death’. (Rm.7:7-25).

It is not that the Law itself is actually evil, (the commands there-in call for a very high quality of life, both personal and communal). What the Law does, however, is more important than what it is. It condemns people to fear and death, the opposite to a salvation of hope and life, because of the inability one has in living up to its requirements. This inability for the Law to save is written into the Law by the law that one must be perfect in their observation of it in order to be justified and win salvation. People, therefore, were bound by the Law to keep that Law which in the end does not have the power to provide the ends sought in it. Instead, it lead to the revelation of sinfulness and, therefore, death, the ’wages’ of that Sin (Gal.3:1O—14).

A thought after reading it again. Replace "Law" with "Church Dogma" or "The almost-holier-than-the-bible-Catechism", and, "Jewish Christians" with "neo-conservative Catholics". Interesting (and perhaps bleedingly obvious already to most of you.

Would I be right in saying that the more 'conservative 'Christians' at the time were those attached to the first pope and that the gentiles were attached more to Paul. I know it's a very simplistic way to look at it but it is an interesting thought.

OYWT

Oh yet we trust that somehow good
Will be the final goal of ill