YEAR OF ST. PAUL

Apart from the law: Paul and the Old Testament

By Rev. Federico Colautti, S.T.D.

This is the second in a series of columns commemorating the year of St. Paul.

St. Paul affirms in Romans 3:21 that the saving action of Jesus Christ happened without any contribution of the law—as most translators would say, “apart from the law”; yet, according to the same verse, the Law and the Prophets are witnesses of this salvation. This double use of the word “law” can give us the key to understanding what Paul intended to convey, and dispel the seeming contradiction.

A word can be used to indicate more than one reality, which is why confusion arises every day. When we are not sure which meaning is indicated, we ask our interlocutor for clarification, but when the interlocutor is no longer available we are left alone to solve the riddle. In St. Paul’s case, this riddle is not easy. It is obvious that he uses the word “law” to indicate different realities or different views of the same reality. Sometimes he helps us by adding some connotation to this word, such as “the law of works” (Rom 3:27), or the most common cognate expression, “works of the law.” The problem arises when in the excitement of his argument he forgets to qualify it, and we need to discern the right meaning. This task is essential because his opposition between “law” and “faith” is only applicable to the “works of the law” and the “works of faith” (cf. Rom 3:28). To oppose tout court—without qualification—“faith” and “law” would completely betray St. Paul’s message.

In fact, St. Paul speaks of the law in a very positive way, even in the same verse of Romans 3:21 where he says that the Law is, together with the Prophets, a witness of Jesus Christ’s work of salvation.

So St. Paul seems to speak of “Law” uppercase, and “law” lowercase. This distinction enables us to see that there is no contradiction between St. Paul’s teaching and other texts of the New Testament, such as “I did not come to destroy but to fulfill the Law and the Prophets” (cf. Matt 5:17).

For our western minds this distinction of “Law” and “law” is complicated because generally speaking “law” is the sum of regulations that guide civil life. For a Jew of the first century, “law” was primarily the Torah, and their relationship to it was not meant to be solely legalistic. This approach was certainly possible, and there are many examples in the Gospels where Jesus calls his contemporaries to abandon a legalistic behavior and to look at the “Spirit of the Law.” These exhortations are also common in Jewish literature of that time and even later. It was possible also to see the Torah as the basis for a theocratic state, but this wasn’t the most common view.

There is a third way to understand the “Law”—it is God’s gift to be able to meet him and unite with him on this earth in our daily lives. Jesus’ disciples were not the only ones to have this vision; it was shared by many Jewish groups at the time of Jesus.

The Law set the boundaries wherein Life was possible—“Life,” uppercase, not just biological survival. Outside of it there was Death, which is separation from God, the source of Life. Life is a gift from God, but it has to be accepted. The Law is the way in which every person could answer freely to this gift. This understanding of the Law presents no contradiction with the Gospel (cf. 1Jn 2:7-8).

What St. Paul affirms is that no one was able to remain inside those boundaries set by the Law. Jesus Christ enters into this existential situation, into the realm of Death. It is in this realm that every person remains, because they have abandoned God and rejected the gift of his friendship. Jesus had to die in order to destroy death and so free everyone who was held under the fear of death (cf. Heb 2:14-15). This saving action of Christ happened “outside of the Law,” i.e. in the realm of death, and not apart from the law as most translators understand in Romans 3:21: “But now, apart from law, the righteousness of God has been disclosed, and is attested by the law and the prophets.” Here St. Paul is saying in other words what he says in Galatians 3:13: “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.’” Through his death he shared in our death, but through his resurrection Christ brought life into the kingdom of death. Thus, everyone has been reached by the saving power of God! This is what the Law and the Prophets had announced; they are witnesses to the paschal mystery of Jesus Christ.

Now the new covenant in Jesus Christ is offered to every person. The boundaries of the law have been expanded to include every human being, not only the people of Israel. In this way Jesus fulfills the Law, because he brings the possibility of God’s friendship to everyone.  Yet this gift has to be accepted, because God himself created us with free will and he wants us to love him freely. Those who accept this new life in Christ adhere to him, and no longer to a set of regulations. This is Christian faith, which is at the same time gift and acceptance of this gift. Those who reject this gift remain in their death, and are still a slave to the devil out of the fear of death.

Rev. Federico Colautti, S.T.D., is a Scripture professor and vice rector at Redemptoris Mater Archdiocesan Missionary Seminary in Denver.