To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law.
-1 Corinthians 9:20-21 (NIV)
to the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might win Jews; to those who are under the law, as under the law [?], that I might win those who are under the law; to those who are without law, as without law (not being without aw toward God, but under law toward Christ), that I might win those who are without law.
-1 Corinthians 9:20-21 (NKJV)
The NIV and other dynamic equivalency translations from the minority texts have inserted the idea that Paul was not under the law. Well, he was never under the law for justification as to that end, the law can only condemn. A very clear point Paul makes in regard to the doctrine of justification is that justification (resurrection life through his name) is by faith alone. Abraham was declared righteous before he was circumcised (and centuries before anyone heard of the law or Moses or the Sinai Covenant).
Does this blessedness then come upon the circumcised only, or upon the uncircumcised also? For we say that faith was accounted to Abraham for righteousness. How then was it accounted? While he was circumcised, or uncircumcised? Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised.
-Romans 4:9-10 (NKJV, based on the Masoretic Text)
Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law.
-Romans 3:28 (NKJV)
So, back to our opening verses from 1 Corinthians 9, did Paul keep the law even though we have established it was never for justification for resurrection life? We note here the judgments pictured in the parables during the Lord's earthly ministry (to Israel alone, Matthew 15:24, etc.) and in The Revelation which distinguished between "good/bad" or "profitable/unprofitable" "servants" and "wise/unwise" "virgins," etc.
As with the casting into the outer darkness spoken by Lord first in Matthew 8:10-12, these judgments are for "the sons of the Kingdom." There. the sons are juxtaposed with "Gentiles." In other words, these are judgments that concern Israel and the earthly hope and Kingdom and New Jerusalem blessings. Things that are achieved. The free gift of resurrection life ("life in his name" John 20:31, by grace faith alone) is never achieved. It is granted to all who have been reconciled to God by faith (as he has already been reconciled to men through Christ alone, 2 Cor 5:16-21).
Paul surely did keep the law, however, as did the Jewish believers in the Acts age. Paul still taught circumcision for Jews too. What he didn’t do was put Gentiles under a Law they never had (apart from the laws in Leviticus for gentiles living among the Jews in Israel, Acts 15, Acts 21). That’s why he warned Gentiles not to get circumcised. We do not make these distinctions today.
Now then, why test God by putting a yoke upon the neck of the [Gentile] disciples, which neither our [Jewish] fathers nor we [Jews] have been able to bear? But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we [Jews] shall be saved, even as they [Gentiles].”
-Acts 15:10
Would we teach today that if any believer is circumcised he is obligated to keep the whole law?
Indeed I, Paul, say to you that if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing. I testify again to every man who is circumcised that he is obligated to keep the whole law. You have been cut off from Christ, whoever of you are justified by law; you have fallen from grace.
-Galatians 5:2-4
We have the clarification from the Apostles that the newly grafted in Gentiles would not be put under the entirety of the Law (which was never given to Gentiles anyway), yet we will see that these believing Gentiles were rather grafted in for the expressed purpose to make real, live, living Israel "jealous" (Romans 10:19; 11:11) that they might be converted.
Let us look at how the chosen, enlightened, Holy Spirit filled and approved Apostles handled the question of the Law in the Acts.
To the brothers who are of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia:
Greetings.
Since we have heard that some of us [Jews], whom we did not commission, have gone out and have troubled you with words, unsettling your minds, saying, “You must be circumcised and keep the law,” it seemed good to us, being assembled in unity, to send chosen men to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore we have sent Judas and Silas, who will also speak to you, saying the same things. For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to put on you [Gentiles] no greater burden than these necessary things: Abstain from food offered to idols, from sexual immorality, from strangled animals, and from blood. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well.
-Acts 15:23-29
For freedom Christ freed us. Stand fast therefore and do not be entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Indeed I, Paul, say to you that if you [Gentiles] become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing. I testify again to every man who is circumcised that he is obligated to keep the whole law. You have been cut off from Christ, whoever of you are justified by law; you have fallen from grace. For we, through the Spirit, by faith, eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, but faith which works through love.
-Galatian 5:1-6
For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves
-Romans 2:14
When we had come to Jerusalem, the brothers received us gladly. On the next day Paul went with us to James, and all the elders were present. He greeted them and recounted one by one what God had done among the Gentiles through his ministry. When they heard this, they glorified the Lord. Then they said to him, “You see, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are who believe, and they [Jews] are all zealous for the law. They have been informed concerning you that you teach all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children nor to observe the customs. What then shall be done? The assembly will certainly meet, for they will hear that you have come. Therefore do what we tell you. We have four men who have taken a vow. Take these men and be purified with them, and pay their expenses so that they may have their heads shaved. Then all will know that what they were told concerning you is nothing, but that you yourself live in observance of the law. As for the Gentiles who believe, we have written and concluded [conversely to the instructions for Jewish believers] that they should observe no such thing, except that they abstain from food offered to idols, from sexual immorality, from strangled animals, and from blood.”
-Acts 21:17-25
Paul, in the Acts, kept the Law (but never for redemption or reconciliation with God) and taught Jews to circumcise. He gave no such burden to Gentiles who never had the Law. There was a rumor that Paul “[taught] all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children nor to observe the customs.” This was a lie and James and Paul disputed it. “Then all will know that what they were told concerning you is nothing, but that you yourself live in observance of the law.”
The apostles contrasted the burden of the Law on Jewish believers in the Acts (again, never for justification, but for a position in the Kingdom) with the burden placed on Gentiles (drawn from the Laws for Gentiles living among, but not numbered with, Israel).
- Gentiles were never given the Law.
- We do not make these distinctions in the current (Post Acts) age.
I hear lots of things about what people think Ultra-dispensationalism teaches, but in the most simple terms in couplets:
There is a plan for the earth centered around the covenants and promises and Kingdom in Israel
There is a plan for unsearchable riches in the far above the heavens where Christ sits at the right hand of the Father.
The earthly plan was known by Moses and Prophets (which is all Christ taught and all Paul taught in the Acts as he testified) and was revealed since the ages began. Paul being in chains for “the hope of Israel” going always to the Jew first and the 12 waiting for “the restoration of the Kingdom in Israel.” Peter offering the restoration to Israel if she repents.
The heavenly plan was hidden from before the ages began and revealed only to Paul (unknown to the sons of men before). It has no ordinances, Sabbaths, or dietary restrictions (as both Jews and Gentiles had in the Acts); Paul in chains “for you Gentiles.”
The middle wall of separation was up in the Acts (very clearly up in the gospels), Jews and Gentiles with different sets of instructions, the Jew still first, Gentiles only warned they could be “cut off” from the blessings of Israel; Gentiles warned not to boast against Israel.
Middle wall comes down. The calling changed. No more distinctions.
Abraham is prominent in the gospels, Acts, and Acts epistles.
Abraham disappears post Acts as his blessings have to do with the earth.
The “Parousia” is the hope of the gospel and Acts (the presence of the King)
The “Parousia” disappears post Acts and the hope becomes the bright appearing.
Instructions for marriage change in light of the change of expectation. The tribulation and Kingdom were “near” and “at hand” in the gospels and Acts so young women instructed best to NOT marry and NOT bear children. The “time [was] short.”
Post Acts, young women and widows instructed they should marry and bear children as the expectation changed.
These couplets are obviously not exhaustive, simply differences for your consideration.
