Posted by Ray Kidder on 9/26/2009, 1:49 pm, in reply to "Re: I Corinthians 15"
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Searcher,
These verses in Romans 11 (NKJV) show that his Epistle was written to gentile Christians (although it may have also been written to Jewish Christians as well):
13 For I speak to you Gentiles; inasmuch as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry,
14 if by any means I may provoke to jealousy those who are my flesh and save some of them.
15 For if their being cast away is the reconciling of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?
These verses show how it would be beneficial for Jews to repent and follow Jesus, but why would an individual's enterence into the Kingdom of God be contingent upon this repentance of the Jews?
This is from Romans 13 (NKJV):
8 Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law.
9 For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not bear false witness,” “You shall not covet,” and if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
10 Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.
11 And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.
12 The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light.
13 Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy.
14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.
This passage shows how gentile Christians are expected to obey the latter half of the 10 Commandments, and not just to follow 4 ordinances as decided by the Jewish council. (Acts 15:19,20; Acts 21:25).
Doesn't such putting on of Christ mean that the gentile (or Jewish) Christian has attained to what St. Paul preached here in I Corinthians 15 (NKJV):
53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
54 So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”
St. Paul also levied the following upon gentile Christians earlier in Romans 13 (NKJV):
1 Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God.
2 Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves.
Back in Romans 2, St. Paul wrote that the doers of the law shall be justified, and then mentioned some gentiles as such doers of the law. Didn't these gentiles love and worship God?
Ray Kidder
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