Paul and the Law - The 2011 Moore College Lectures

In August of 2011 Dr Brian Rosner gave the Annual Moore College Lectures on the Topic of "Paul and the Law: Keeping the Commandments of God." (Brian Rosner is a Senior Lecturer in New Testament and Ethics at Moore College.) I only got to one of the lectures, but I have enjoyed listening since they have been available on the Moore College website.

The lectures are a great resource for reflecting on how to understand the role of the law in the New Testament in general and in Paul's letter's in particular. They tie in nicely with previous posts on the role of the law according to the letter to the Hebrews.

Since the files on the Moore College Library site are a little hard to access, I thought I would post the links here (in order). The first lecture was a public overview (which I will call Lecture 0). Each lecture had an accompanying handout which is available as a PDF. The lectures were:

Lecture 0: Paul and the Law: Keeping the Commandments of God.   PDF Here.

Lecture 1: Circumcision is Nothing: Paul and the Puzzle of the Law.   PDF Here.

Lecture 2: "Not Under the Law": Paul's Repudiation of the Law as Legal Code.  PDF Here.

Lecture 3: "Under the Law of Christ": Paul's Replacement of the Law.  PDF Here.

Lecture 4: "Witness to the Gospel": Paul's Reappropriation of the Law as Prophecy.  PDF Here.

Lecture 5: "Written for Our Instruction":  Paul's Reappropriation of the Law as Wisdom.  PDF Here.


The Moore College Library online resource page is here.


Please let me know if there are any problems with the links.  Enjoy ...

The Case For God

I've recently been doing some preparation for some outreach meetings on campus where we have asked people what questions they have for God. In doing this thinking I find the CPX website invaluable.
I came across a series by Greg Clarke written in response to the Atheist convention held in Australia early in 2010. His article on 'The Case for God' is very helpful (and a good length!)
Here are two (brief) arguments for God:

1. An originating capital-M Mind is the best explanation of why there is something rather than nothing, of why the universe is here at all. A more complicated statement that might also hold true is that our observance of the natural world leads us to conclude that it looks like a capital-M Mind was involved in its structuring, and furthermore, rationally, a capital-M Mind explains very well why the conditions of the universe are so finely tuned for life.

2. It is very hard to convince a human being, whether religious or an atheist, that the universe is without meaning, without values and without purpose. We are all pretty much agreed that it is full of these things: meaning (our lives matter), values (we can recognise with some finesse the difference between good and bad), and purpose (history is going somewhere). The hypothesis that there is a God does a better job of explaining these things than its alternative, the naturalist hypothesis, simply because with God these things are then real rather than illusory, as they are in the naturalist worldview. Real meaning, genuine values, lasting purpose. God is the best explanation of these elements of existence.

Greg also makes the important point that very few people are ever argued into the kingdom of God. Much more helpful is an encounter with the Lord Jesus through the scriptures, however this kind of article can be helpful in laying down the philosphical background and framework that helps Christians (and not-yet-Christians) understand the philosophical underpinnings of faith.
It is certainly worth reading the rest of Greg's article, here: http://publicchristianity.org/library/response-to-global-atheism-conference-a-short-case-for-god.

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John Lennox on Science, the Bible and Belief in the 21st Century

John Lennox is currently in Australia. He is Professor of Mathematics and Philosophy of Science at Oxford University. I went to hear him this week speak to a packed auditorium at a school in Southern Sydney. He particularly spoke about the arguments of the 'New Atheists' (who include Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins and Peter Singer - all of whom he has debated) and some of the flaws in their arguments.

It was a helpful talk that also presented clearly some of the arguments for Christianity and the basis of Lennox's own belief.  Unfortunately it was all-too-brief and has motivated me to continue reading his book (which I have just started): God's undertaker: Has Science Buried God (2009).

This interview from CPX was recorded on a previous visit to Australia, and discusses some of the issues in a helpful way:


Science, the Bible and belief in the 21st Century from CPX on Vimeo.


You can find more Lennox videos at:  http://www.publicchristianity.com/lennoxvids.html

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Being Truly Human - Part 3 - Living as True Humans

The Conclusion of my talk from MYC 2011.

In my last post I argued that we can only become truly human if we come into relationship with God through the True Human - Jesus Christ.

6. Living as a True Humans


So how do we live as True humans?

What we don’t do is live for ourselves. We are brought out of Adam’s humanity and out of slavery to sin and death, but we are not give freedom to do what we like or live for ourselves. We are set free to serve. We are set free to become slaves to righteousness.  As we saw in Colossians 3:

Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3 For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

We are to put to death what belongs to our sinful earthly nature (3:5), ‘because of these the wrath of God is coming’; and we are to ‘clothe ourselves’ with godliness (3:12); we are to let the Word of Christ dwell among us richly (3:16); and, according to Colossians 3:10 we are to: "put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator."

In our sinful natures we are cut off from relationship with God, but God is at work by his Holy Spirit transforming us to be like Christ, to be more like the image of God that we were intended to be. Of course we will never be perfect this side of heaven – we live in the overlap of the ages. But if we are in Christ we can know that we will finally be perfected in heaven.

But how do we live?  => We put off ungodliness, and we put on righteousness and we participate in the Rule of Christ. In other words we work.

7. True Humanism

This is where we see that Christians, as true humans (in relationship with God) are the true humanists.

Humanism is seeking the full potential of humanity. The secular humanists are on the quest to advance humanity while rejecting God, but Christians seek the best for humanity in the name of Christ and for his glory. So our work ought to be for that purpose – exercising the rule of Christ by caring for the creation and seeking the good of humanity.

Can you see how being truly human can give you a different perspective on your work? A different purpose? And so any and all work can be done with this motivation:

- Manual labour.

- Providing for the material needs of others in the name of Christ.

- Doing the good works God has prepared in advance for us to do.

- Raising godly offspring has to be part of the work of ‘being fruitful and multiplying’.

- But there is a kind of work that most directly advances the good of humanity, and that is work of the gospel, because that is the work that helps people become truly human as they come into relationship with Christ.

So friends, I hope that you will leave from MYC this year knowing more about what it means to be human. Even more than that, I hope you will leave here as a true human, because you know THE true human – and your identity is found in him.

I hope you will leave here committed to living out your true humanity in relationship with Christ; and I hope you will leave here committed to being a true humanist – using every ounce of your humanity to serve Christ and to making him known – on your campus, throughout Australia and around the world.
. . .

Being Truly Human - Part 2 - Following the True Human

The continuation of my talk at Mid Year Conference 2011.

I concluded previously by saying that: "To be human means to be a sinner. And like our father Adam we deserve the death that we all face and the judgement that goes with that." 

4. The True Human


That is a pretty sad analysis of what it means to be human, but God doesn’t leave us without hope. God sends the True Human into the world. The true human is, of course, Jesus Christ – as the writer to the Hebrews makes clear (Heb 2:6-9), beginning with a quote from Psalm 8:

But there is a place where someone has testified: ‘‘What is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? 7 You made him a little lower than the angels; you crowned him with glory and honor 8 and put everything under his feet.” In putting everything under him, God left nothing that is not subject to him. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to him. 9 But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.

We see Jesus, who according to Hebrews 1:3 is truly God, “The radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being”. God the Son becomes ‘a little lower than the angels’ - he becomes truly human - like us in every way except sin (according to Hebrews 4:15).

According to the logic of Hebrews the Son had to become fully human so that he could be our perfect High priest who offered the perfect sacrifice of himself on the cross, in order that he might ‘taste death for everyone’ cf 2:14-17:

Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— 15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. 16 For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants. 17 For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people.

Only the True Human could do that for us.

Because we are sinners, we are cut off from God, yet through the sacrificial death of Christ on the cross of Calvary we can have our access to the Father restored – we can be truly human again.

5. Being Truly Human
In our natural state we are not truly human. When we belong to the humanity led by Adam we are cut off from God, we are not able to be in the relationship we are made for.

Yet Christ - through his death – makes it possible for us to be forgiven, to be restored, to have access into the relationship with the Father that we are cut off from by our sin.

True Humanity comes from being united with the True Human. So how can we be united to Christ?

Carl showed us that this happens by Spiritual Baptism through faith (Romans 6; cf. Mark 1-10 and Acts 2). When we put our trust in Christ the Spirit brings us into that relationship with Christ that changes everything.  We move from being “in Adam” to being “in Christ”.

I loved that illustration he quoted (from The Briefing #393, June 2011, p11 "Union With Christ" by Rory Shiner).

"The key relationship you need with the plane is not to be under it, behind it or inspired by it, You need to be in it. . .  Because by being in the plane, what happens to the plane will also happen to you." 

Then our destiny will be intimately united with the destiny of the plane.

And if we are united with Christ like this by God’s grace through faith, then His status is our status. If God sees Christ as Holy, he sees us as holy. If God sees Christ as righteous, he sees us as righteous. You can’t get a much closer relationship with God than that – except that now we only experience it in part, we only see as a reflection in a cracked mirror (because we live in the overlap of the ages) – but then we will see him face to face.

And so we are not defined as humans by our looks (whether or not the people at beautifulpeople.com accept us). We are not defined by our wealth or how nice our house is or what suburb we live in. We are not defined by how sporty we are or how sexy we are or what job we are doing or our course or our grades or . . . by anything that is just part of this fallen world.

If we are in Christ then we are defined by being in him. We are defined as being right with God and being seated at God’s right hand. We are defined as being in Christ.

In the same way, being “in Christ” means that we are now seated with him in the heavenly realms, we are now seated at the right hand of God with Christ. We have access to the father because Christ is in the Father’s presence. Our destiny is united with him.The Son becomes truly human in order to defeat the devil and rescue us from our slavery to sin and death. He offers himself as the sacrifice of atonement (the ‘propitiation’) that turns aside God’s anger and makes it possible for us to have the relationship with God that we were made to have.

Being Truly Human - Part 1 - Created in God's Image

Being notes from a talk which attempted to summarise the main themes of Mid Year Conference.

1. Understanding Humanity


I hope you have found it encouraging to look at ‘Humanity’, because we are getting to know and understand ourselves.

As we study this topic we are not content to understand ourselves as the sum of our parts – 206 bones, 9 metres of intestines, etc.  We are not content to understand our physiology or our psychology. We are not going to understand who we are the way the Secular Humanists want us to – rejecting any idea of God. Rather we want to understand ourselves the way that God sees us – the way he unveils humanity in his Word. So we study God’s word to understand what it means to be truly human in relation to God

And what do we see?

2. Created in God’s image

We see that human beings are made by God – we are his creatures and not independent. But we humans are special creatures – the last created – the ‘pinnacle of creation’ - and the only creatures made “in the image of God”.

We have spent some time this week pondering what it means to be made in God’s image. => Remember Genesis 1:27

So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.

Not just telling us that God has one head, two legs, two arms, eyebrows, kneecaps and so on – not particularly about resemblance.

But it is especially about two attributes: relationship and rule.

Just A Closer Bop with Thee

This week I enjoyed a night out with my wife at Venue 505 to listen to some Jazz. The band was 'Transit' -  'an exciting collaboration of Sydney and Melbourne Jazz musicians' featuring Sydney musicians Con Campbell (tenor sax), Peter Kohlhoff (bass), John Morrison (drums) alongside Melbournians Greg Ambroisine (trumpet) and Andy Vance (piano)'.  We have heard Con Campbell a number of times at a variety of events - often outreach events put on by Christian groups - but this is the first time we have heard Transit. 

Venue 505 in Surry Hills was the 'atmospheric' (read dingy) venue - much of the seating is on ancient lounges. The attendance was reasonable, but nowhere near as crowded as might have been expected from the standard of the music - which was quite brilliant. Even more exciting was the commitedly Christian foundation of the band.

The music was not the usual 1930's and 40's fare often played by Jazz bands, but included adaptations of a number of hymns, including 'All People that on Earth Do Dwell' (1551), 'Crown Him with Many Crowns', 'Be Still My Soul' and 'Just a Closer Walk (Bop?) with Thee'. There were also a number of brilliant Andy Vance originals including 'Baker Man', 'Full House' and 'New Hope'.

We were so impressed we bought the CD, but of course there is something special about a live Jazz concert. The sad news is that Greg is headed to Germany shortly, so live concerts may be in short supply!

You can check out some more music on the website at: http://www.transitjazz.com/en/listen

Or listen to "Just a Closer Walk" here:

Jesus, a Prophet of Islam??

Diaa Mohamed is the founder of Mypeace, an Islamic organisation seeking to promote understanding between Christians and Muslims and is behind the recent posters around Sydney proclaiming Jesus as a prophet of Islam. He recently spoke with John Dickson in the CPX studio for a conversation about the differences in how Muslims and Christians view Jesus. Helpful in understanding how Muslims view Jesus and all the other Prophets they claim to hold in common with Jews and Christians.



Jesus a prophet of Islam? from CPX on Vimeo.


The video can be found on the CPX website here: http://publicchristianity.org/Videos/jesus_a_prophet_of_islam.html