In his letters, Paul often describes all who are under the power of sin as enslaved "to the flesh." This does not simply mean, as we might be tempted to think, that we are enslaved to our desires for physical gratification, whatever they might be, although this can certainly be part of it. What Paul means by the "flesh" is that we are enslaved by human notions of what makes one a good human: competitiveness, greed, wealth, fame, and so forth. We seek to be admired by others and not to be in right relationship with God. If we really sought to be righteous in God's eyes, we would seek to live in the "spirit" rather than the "flesh." We would more closely mirror God in our own lives, acting out of love for one another as God had acted when He created us, and as He has continued to act despite our repeated failures.

Out of love, God offered a pathway to righteousness in the
law
(the precepts of the Mosaic covenant)

God could have left humanity under the powers of sin and death, and thus hopeless, living "for this life only"- but out of love, he offered a way out, a way for humanity to become righteous again- the law. Interestingly, when Paul discusses the law in his letters, it is usually Abraham who is his focus, and not Moses. The reason is this:  Abraham was chosen as the father of the nation of people to whom the law would be given. If Abraham had not been found worthy of his covenant with Yahweh, he would not have been chosen, and there would have been no law given to Moses.

Two important things: Abraham was chosen as a result of his faith, defined as both trust and obedience (revealed by his willingness to sacrifice his son). To be the chosen was a privilege- the instrument through which God would justify humanity. Therefore the law was a blessing, not a burden. Abraham's choice makes sense from Paul's point of view, if we understand what Paul means by faith.

Abraham was chosen on the basis of his great
faith
(trust in God's promise that results in obedience to what is thought to be God's will)

Ask someone to define the word "faith" and he will typically tell you that it is belief in something that cannot be known. Augustine called it "imperfect knowledge" which is defined as thinking of something as true that cannot be proven as true. This definition of faith has had an interesting impact on Christianity since the Reformation when Martin Luther, relying largely on Paul's letters to the Galatians and Romans, asserted that Christians are "justified by faith." Luther was responding to the corrupt system of indulgences in the Catholic church, in which one could buy a reduced penance. It was a system which implied that one could earn salvation and earn it in the worst way, by buying it. “Justification by wealth” you might say. While Luther's response may be an accurate use of Paul's language, was it an accurate use of Paul's terminology? In other words, did Luther (and subsequent reformers and counter-reformers) understand properly what Paul meant by "faith"?

Luther's claim that Christians are justified by their faith has left its mark on both Protestant and Catholic theology. Many Christian denominations assert that belief is the key to salvation: if you truly believe that Jesus is the son of God, sacrificed on the cross for our sins- if you "accept him as your personal savior"- you are saved even if you are still sometimes sinful. This has led to the mistaken impression among some Christians that belief was the only thing that mattered to Paul. While he may have offered advice on how to act, it was just advice and not essential to one's salvation.

As it turns out, this is probably a false dichotomy- an assumption about Paul's understanding of faith based on a meaning of the term that Paul did not assume. Consider the Abraham story: When God called Abraham to be the father of the chosen people, it was based on his faith, which was "credited to him as righteousness," but how did he prove it? If Abraham's faith was simply a matter of what he believed, then God could surely have searched his mind to know that Abraham truly believed in God. But he didn't. He tested Abraham, by commanding him to sacrifice his son Isaac. This was not just the sacrifice of a loved one, although it was certainly that. Isaac was the son to whom Abraham was to pass on his inheritance- his very identity. Isaac was also the son through whom Yahweh's covenant with Abraham was supposed to continue. How could the covenant be passed on if Isaac was sacrificed? Thus, God's test of Abraham required more than belief- it required a trust in God's ultimate plan, even when God himself did not appear to be fulfilling that plan. Most importantly, though, it required obedience- a willingness to act according to what Abraham was convinced God wanted, even if God's purpose was not immediately clear. Of course, Abraham never had to sacrifice Isaac, but he was willing to do so- his trust in God and his willingness to act on it proved his faith.

Who better to be the father of the chosen people than Abraham? These chosen ones, the nation of Israel, would have their faith tested by the law in precisely the same way that Abraham's faith was tested. To follow the law would require that they trust in God's promise to make humanity righteous through the law- and following it would require that they act in accordance with it, even though this would become very difficult at certain points in Israel's history. So for Paul, this is faith: it is both trust in God's overall plan for us and for creation itself, but it is a trust that manifests itself in our actions- we act in accordance with what we believe to be God's will for us. Obedience to God, Paul calls it.

Of course, when we see that word "obedience" we almost always react negatively- especially when we see this idea in Paul's letters showing up in passages about obedience to the gospel, or obedience to church authority. Today, obedience is often equated with submission, and submission with the exploitation of one person by another. It doesn't take a great leap to see that this can be true even in the case of the church- there are countless examples in history of church leadership exploiting the faithfulness of its members to bad ends. But Paul was not unaware of this problem- in fact, his letters reveal that even in his own lifetime churches could be led astray by apparently legitimate authority figures- see for example the problems faced by the Corinthian community that necessitated the writing of 1 Corinthians. Paul has a solution to this, which I will state simply now, hoping that it becomes clearer as we move along. Paul believes that it is the truth that we must ultimately be obedient to- the truth of what God is and what he wants from us. Only a true gospel and true authority (consistent with God's will) demand our obedience- but these demand it completely. To knowingly obey a false authority or a false gospel had dire consequences from Paul's perspective- and to be a false authority or preach a false gospel was even worse- but this is a bit outside our present scope.

Incidentally- Paul has something to say about our instinctively negative reaction to the word "obedience" and you can probably guess by now what it is. That instinctively negative reaction is a consequence of the presence of sin in the world- we are inclined to distrust rather than to trust. Overcome it, Paul would say, and be willing to trust even if means being led astray sometimes. The alternative is distrust- and distrust is ultimately separation. Sin, remember? And besides, what are we afraid of? Are we afraid that in trusting we might become victimized- like the spouse unaware of adultery in the above example? Boy, has Paul got an answer for that one. We'll come to it shortly.

For now, we need to return to our discussion of the Law. As you might have guessed by now, Paul does not think that the law brought righteousness to humanity and creation as it was supposed to- if it had done this, we would still be following it now, we would all be Jewish, and Jesus' death would have been unnecessary, or else the “day of the Lord” would have come, and righteousness would have been reestablished between God and humans. Apparently, neither of these has happened. Why not? Paul thinks that Israel, perhaps despite good intentions, failed to escape the power of sin when trying to follow the law. If Israel (and, for that matter, humanity) could understand the intention of the law and therefore follow it correctly, the law would be sufficient for righteousness. Unfortunately, humans are still under the power of sin, and Israel, under this power, used the law to separate itself from others (misunderstanding "chosen" as being physically set apart, or placed on a pedestal above the rest of humanity). Thus the law was intended to bring about righteousness, but it only made Israel "aware of sin"- encouraging humanities' reflexive disobedience.

This is where things get complicated, so follow carefully. Paul thinks that Israel meant well in its attempt to follow the law- it earnestly sought righteousness, but it overlooked the essence of the law by focusing excessively on legalism. Failing to "see the forest for the trees," Israel became obsessed with the minutiae of law and blinded to its spirit and true intent, which Paul sums up quite simply: Love one another ("agape" being the word used for love). Simple, yes, but radical in ways that we will never grasp today. Incidentally, it's worth noting at this point that Paul's emphasis on agape as the true meaning of the law is very consistent with Jesus' own teaching to his followers in the gospels. In some cases, Paul even seems to be quoting Jesus on this in his letters.

How did Israel go wrong? Jews believed that they could not eat certain foods that God had forbidden. As a result, they would not share meals with Gentiles who did not follow the law. Jews dressed in certain ways to distinguish themselves from their Gentile neighbors. They marked themselves with circumcision to set themselves apart from the nations as much as to dedicate themselves to God. They rested on the Sabbath- but because Gentiles worked on this day, Jews would not associate with them while the Sabbath was being observed. Those who were stricken with disease were labeled "unclean" and often exiled from the community (forced to live outside of it) for fear that they might make others unclean by association. All of this was done in the interest of keeping the community pure and free of anything that might lead one astray from the law. Jews called this sanctity- to be "set apart" for God. But what did it lead to? Physical separation from other humans. And separation, remember, is Paul's fundamental meaning for sin. The law was supposed to bring righteousness; instead it made Israel "aware of sin"- and when humans know how to sin, we do it. Israel was still a chosen people to Paul (in fact, he appears to have considered himself to be Jewish for all of his life, as far as we know), and salvation still came to Jews first, but something more was necessary if all of creation was to be made righteous. That something more, according to Paul, is Christ.

So here is humanity's predicament: we have fallen from righteousness as a result of sin, and sin keeps us from following the directions necessary to become righteous again. The solution? God, again acting out of love, has provided another way for humanity to be made righteous, without following the law- a way to be seen as sinless by God, without actually being sinless. How? Interestingly, Paul actually draws on the law to explain this. The law provides for sacrifices that can be offered to God for sins. Through Jesus' death on the cross, God offered a "perfect" once-and-for-all sacrifice to redeem and justify humanity. The word redemption means simply to be set free, but for a price. The word was commonly used in reference to the price one would pay to set a slave free in the ancient world.  Paul thinks that Jesus' death on the cross paid the price to free us from slavery to sin and death. His death was therefore an expiation, or sin offering. Because of it, God is willing to reconcile us to Him, or see us as innocent of sin. Sin may still be present within us, but God overlooks it. This is the meaning of being justified, which was essentially a legal term meaning "to be acquitted, or found innocent." To be justified meant to be in the right relationship with God- righteousness.

Because of Christ’s sacrifice, we are made righteous by God’s
grace
(charity, goodwill, a gift freely given and unearned, expecting nothing in return)

Why did God do this? It is a gift given to us by God out of agape. But- and this is important -  God has given this gift to us freely, not because we did anything to earn it. Paul stresses this repeatedly in his letters for an important reason. If this gift must be earned by us- then those who have it might be mislead into thinking that they deserve it, or that Gods owes it to them. They might "boast" in it, and in themselves, seeking to distinguish and separate themselves from those who have not earned it- thus giving in to sin. The gift is unearned specifically so that no one can boast in it.  Paul's word for this gift is grace, and he sees it as a power that was released into the world as a result of Jesus' sacrifice- a power that can defeat sin and death. Need proof that it can defeat these two? Jesus acted as God's faithful servant and obediently sacrificed himself on the cross- sin did not conquer him. And what happened to Jesus when he died on the cross? You guessed it, he was resurrected- he defeated death.

God’s grace leads us to
salvation
(to be safe from harm; for Paul, to safe from the powers of sin and death)

To say that grace is a gift is also to say that it is not forced upon us- we can choose to accept or reject it. So what difference does it make? What actually changes for us if we accept the gift of grace, and just how do we go about accepting it? The first part of that question is fairly easy to answer. If we accept grace, and God sees us as innocent of sin, then we are back in the right relationship with him. We are "saved" you might say. But for Paul, salvation was a future event, so being saved means that we can count on God to fulfill his promises as recorded in the scriptures and include us in his kingdom when he establishes it. We will be back "in the garden"- but more on that in a moment.

Let's cover the more complicated part of that earlier question, how do we go about accepting grace? Paul says in Romans: "for, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." If we believe that Jesus in fact defeated death and has become "Lord", and if we act on this- we confess it- we are saved. See where this is leading? Trust and obedience, proven through action: These are the essential components of faith.

We begin acting on our faith when we acknowledge it at our
baptism
(to be immersed in water, a ritual symbolizing the cleansing of sins;
for Paul, a spiritual mark that initiates one into God’s chosen people, 
and marks a change in one's life)

One sign of our faith is our baptism.  Paul uses this term in a variety of complicated ways in his letters, and we should reflect on those uses. The term originally meant simply "to immerse in water." In Judaism, baptism was ritually practiced as a symbolic cleansing. Jews would wash themselves before entering the temple in order to be purified. John the Baptist was baptizing at the Jordan River when Jesus appeared- again, as a symbolic “washing away” of sins. For Paul, the ritual immersion of baptism became an initiation ritual, marking one as chosen or "adopted" by God. It replaced the Jewish ritual of circumcision, which was a physical mark, with a “spiritual” mark- a “circumcision of the heart” and not of the flesh.

This distinction is important for Paul, because he believed the physical mark of circumcision had been used by Jews to set themselves apart from Gentiles, and this was Paul’s whole problem with the law. In a way, baptism does the opposite. While it marks us spiritually as adopted children of God, physically, it obliterates distinction rather than creating it:

For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free person, there is not male and female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's descendant, heirs according to the promise. – Galatians 3:27-29