Listening to one of Delirious' worship concert album, I could not help but to notice how the lead singer made a theological mistake in reading Paul. And this mistake is related to the current tension between the Reformed view of Paul and the New Perspective. The lead singer thought that Jesus came to set us free from the shackles of the law of Moses. He gave the impression as if the law of God in the Old Testament was bad.
But, you would not find this kind of view while reading the New Testament. The Lord Jesus Christ and Paul affirmed the goodness of the law given by God through Moses. Our Lord came to fulfill it and Paul reassured us in Romans that the law is good, inline with the covenant made with Abraham.
So, how did the lead singer get this view that the law of God was something evil which we should be freed from through Christ Jesus? I believe it came from the Reformed tradition. In battling the corrupted papal practices of his time, Luther has overdone his case in making an enemy out of the law which was incongruent with Paul's understanding of the law.
For Paul, he was arguing the case that since the coming of the Lord, justification or God's declaration that we are now the righteous people of God was not accomplished by the observance of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ. He was arguing against those who tried to make Gentile believers to become like the Jews, by keeping the works of the law in order to be declared as the righteous and chosen people of God.
In no way was Paul saying that the law was evil bonds that Christ died to set us free from. The wrong was a misrepresentation of the gospel of Jesus Christ to the Gentile believers by forcing them to become like Jews in order to be God's people. Paul was arguing that the sign of being God's people was the giving of the Holy Spirit by God which guaranteed the Gentiles' status as His righteous children. And he reminded them that this was obtained through faith in Jesus Christ.
To me, this is the argument of the New Perspective against the Reformed traditions of Paul's theology. And indeed, judging from the response of the crowd in th worship concert, the NPP camp does have a warranted case because the misinterpretation of Paul's view on the law is so widely disseminated and accepted by the majority of believers that to a point, it has become detrimental to our faith unless something is done about it.
But, you would not find this kind of view while reading the New Testament. The Lord Jesus Christ and Paul affirmed the goodness of the law given by God through Moses. Our Lord came to fulfill it and Paul reassured us in Romans that the law is good, inline with the covenant made with Abraham.
So, how did the lead singer get this view that the law of God was something evil which we should be freed from through Christ Jesus? I believe it came from the Reformed tradition. In battling the corrupted papal practices of his time, Luther has overdone his case in making an enemy out of the law which was incongruent with Paul's understanding of the law.
For Paul, he was arguing the case that since the coming of the Lord, justification or God's declaration that we are now the righteous people of God was not accomplished by the observance of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ. He was arguing against those who tried to make Gentile believers to become like the Jews, by keeping the works of the law in order to be declared as the righteous and chosen people of God.
In no way was Paul saying that the law was evil bonds that Christ died to set us free from. The wrong was a misrepresentation of the gospel of Jesus Christ to the Gentile believers by forcing them to become like Jews in order to be God's people. Paul was arguing that the sign of being God's people was the giving of the Holy Spirit by God which guaranteed the Gentiles' status as His righteous children. And he reminded them that this was obtained through faith in Jesus Christ.
To me, this is the argument of the New Perspective against the Reformed traditions of Paul's theology. And indeed, judging from the response of the crowd in th worship concert, the NPP camp does have a warranted case because the misinterpretation of Paul's view on the law is so widely disseminated and accepted by the majority of believers that to a point, it has become detrimental to our faith unless something is done about it.
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