Between Two Worlds

In the post below, I referenced Stephen Westerholm's summation of Luther on the law. Here is Westerholm's take on how Paul viewed the law following his Damascus Road conversion (taken from "The Law in God's Scheme," in Perspectives Old and New on Paul, pp. 408-439).

1. Human beings find themselves in an ordered world not of their making, with the capacity to acknowledge or deny their dependence on the Creator, to conform to or to deny their dependence on the Creator, to conform to or defy the wise ordering of his creation. Life and divine favor are enjoyed by those who fear the Lord and do good. Those who reject what is good and do what is “wise in their own eyes” court disaster.
2. The law of Moses articulates the appropriate human response to life in God’s creation. It is a divine gift to Israel, a signal token of God’s favor to his people.
3. The law of Moses contains ordinances binding only on Jews; their observance has marked Jews off from other nations as God’s people.
4. Adamic humanity does not, and cannot, submit to God’s law.
5. For Adamic human beings the law cannot serve as the path to righteousness and life.
6. The giving of the law served to highlight, at the same time as it exacerbated, human bondage to sin.
7. The righteousness of God revealed in Christ Jesus is operative apart from law. Those who continue to pursue the righteousness of the law mistakenly attribute to the works of their unredeemed flesh a role in securing divine approval.
8. Believers in Christ are not under law.
9. Christian righteousness nonetheless fulfills the law.