The Interim Period of Paul
- Aaron Propp
- Mar 26
- 5 min read
Are Christians really justified by faith apart from works? Or are they just saved from the works of the Law? What parts of the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament are still valid? What parts have been abolished, and why?
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God -- not the result of works, so that no one may boast.
But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us. He has abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances.
Ephesians 2.8-9, 13-15 NRSV
Ephesians is not an authentic Pauline Epistle and does not represent anything that Paul actually wrote, however, it does represent the extremes that Pauline Christians are willing to go to undermine the concept of choice and obeying the words of God in the Hebrew Bible.
If asked, "What parts of the Hebrew Bible are still valid?", there'd hardly be a group of Pauline Christians, who'd give consistent answers unless they'd colluded in advance, and many of these same Pauline Christians will also affirm the need to have morality dictated by God in the form of things like the Ten Commandments and not just the words of the New Testament when rebuking secular morality.
Anything that violates the Ten Commandments is potentially or in the same category as in the Ten Commandments so like lying is potentially grave but it's not always grave...If grave damage is done in a situation, then that provides the grave matter, but in terms of the category, the standard categories of morality are principally summarized by the Ten Commandments.
Jimmy Akin, What Is Considered "Grave Matter" in Sin, YouTube
In my experience, the reason that there's so much confusion beyond the pious need to bend over backwards to accommodate obvious forgeries in the form of the Deutero-Pauline and Pastoral Epistles is because people don't understand what authentic Paul said about the Law and why it's done away with for him.
The law is binding on a person only during that person’s lifetime.
Romans 7.1 NRSV
Paul grounded his notions of the Law on a misunderstanding of the Law, and it's a faulty premise that Jesus did not share according to the authors of the Gospel of Matthew, who had their version of Jesus affirm a different idea about the Law.
Until heaven and earth pass away not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished
Matthew 5.18 NRSV
The version of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew made the duration of the Torah and the Hebrew Bible's validity predicated upon the existence of heaven and earth while Paul made the validity of the Law and the Prophets predicated on the existence of the individual.
We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now.
Romans 7.22 NRSV
For the present form of this world is passing away.
1 Corinthians 7.31 NRSV
The world where the Torah is binding is itself passing away for Paul, and soon there will be no more world where the Torah will be binding at all. Those, who come to believe in Christ, for Paul enter into something like the World to Come through various rites of initiation like repentance, baptism, and communion and through the ambiguous "receiving of the Spirit" in their lives, hearts, or whatever.
The crucifixion and resurrection ushered in a new rubric and definition of salvation through the atonement of Jesus for Paul, and it was one where the salvation guarantees that only limited aspects of the Law will be binding for a person after the threshold of salvation through grace and faith in Jesus where these violations could undermine or take away their once achieved salvation if not corrected.
Do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived! Fornicators, idolators, adulterers, male prostitutes, sodomites, thieves, the greedy, drunkards, revilers, robbers — none of these will inherit the kingdom of God.
I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother or sister who is sexually immoral or greedy, or an idolator, reviler, drunkard, or robber.
1 Corinthians 6.10, 5.11 NRSV
Just because Pauline Christians believe that they've come to be "slaves" "in the new life of the Spirit" (Romans 7.6), it doesn't mean that there aren't "works" that they'll be judged for doing or not doing. "Works" cannot merit a person salvation according to Paul, but certain "works" can remove that salvation even after "being saved".
The interim period of time from Jesus' death and resurrection until his second coming ushered in a new era in human history for Paul where the World to Come had partially come, and the Holy Spirit offered Paul the ability to act as though the World to Come had already come in some respects.
Dr. James Tabor called this interim period "Already But Not Yet" with a chapter of the same title in his book Paul And Jesus, and it’s the main rubric for Paul to decide which laws of the Hebrew Bible are still valid for a believer in Christ and which ones are not. Fulfilling the law at a "spiritual level" in contrast to in the flesh is how Paul justifies not putting into actions the ritualistic and dietary laws, but the same principle of fulling the law in spirit seems to dictate for Paul that certain moral laws keep being fulfilled especially those laws dealing with sex because the spirit should motivate them to keep those moral laws based on respecting the rights and needs of others.
Owe no one anything, except to love one another, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery; you shall not murder; you shall not steal; you shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.
Romans 13.8-10 NRSVUE
The death and resurrection of Jesus and the giving of the Holy Spirit began a process where the world is now transitioning to the World to Come where the Torah will no longer be binding according to Paul, and part of that transition is a stage where the Torah's done away with as a source of salvation but where parts of it are still binding for those believers in Christ living "in the Spirit".
To his credit authentic Paul was actually pretty clear on this, unfortunately Deutero-Paul in the form of Ephesians obscures his point entirely to make a new point that Paul wasn't making.
Paul still believed that baptized, Eucharist taking, believing Christians have to avoid certain sins "of their own doing", obtain merit for doing so, or be judged for committing those sins even with the grace, faith, and forgiveness offered by Jesus.
For Paul, he was living in a time when the world was transitioning into the Kingdom of God, and the Torah's abolishment for Paul was in stages just as the appearance of the Son of Man would come in stages.
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