Paul In Mosaic Law

- Text is dealing with a group called judiazers in the church o Judiazers claimed that Christ plus parts of Mosaic law were essential for salvation o Paul is about to refute that by showing that nothing commends us to God except Jesus Christ
 He does that by first defining what a true Christian is in v3
• Then going on to say that if anyone had some reason why they think they could stand before God, he could have
• But he goes on to explain how none of the things that people would naturally think commend him to God are of any benefit o Then in beautiful language describes the preciousness of Christ
- I want to use this passage to somewhat describe his life and then draw to some lessons we can learn form the life of Paul as we read it in

• So that would be south east modern day Turkey
• He mentions in v5 how he was circumsied on the 8th day o This was what Jewish law prescribed o This was a sign that the child was part of God’s people
• He goes on to mention how he was from the tribe of Benjamin o So not only was he part of God’s people but he was of the particular tribe of Benjamin
 This was a prestigious tribe to be part of
• Saul, Israel’s first king was from this tribe
• Jersualem the Holy city was located in its border that it shared with Judah
• Furthermore at this point in history with the northern tribes having gone into exile, there were very few Jews who knew what tribe they belonged to... o It was only the Levites, the benjemites and those from the tribe of Judah who knew what tribe they belonged to
 The rest of the Jews formed a mass merely being jewish
 His family were in a part of Jewish tradition known as Pharisees
• V5 ends with the phrase, “as to the law a Pharisee”
• The Pharisees interpreted the law with great care and diligence o Paul mentions this to show how devoted to observing God’s law he was o Of all the grouping in Judaism he was part of the group that took the law the most

 It’s also worth pointing out the because of the city that Saul was born in he was also a Roman citizen, the afforded him certain benefits at this time in history
 At the age of 13 Saul was sent to Palestine
• There he was taught God’s law from a famous rabbi named Gamaliel o Saul spent 5-6 years under Gamaliel’s teaching
 Here Saul would have learned diatribe
• This was a method of quesin and answers that helped a rabbi debate the finer points of Jewish law so that they could know who broke it or who had kept it o Saul went on to become a lawyer and it seemed that he was going to become part of the Sanhedrin
 A Jewish supreme court made up of 71 men who ruled all of Jewish life and religion
• Saul was very zealous for his religion and he would not allow any compriomise
• In Acts 5:27-42 Saul was present at a trial that the Sanhedrin were ruling o Perhaps he was there to learn o At this trial Peter gave a defense of the gospel and Saul’s rabbi, Gamaliel got the council to not stone Peter, but rather just flog him and release him
 From that moment on Saul hated the church even more o In v6 he says, “as to zeal a persecutor of the