There Is Nothing More Amazing Than Dead Men Walking (in “The Way”)

The Voice of Elijah®, January 2000

Excerpt From Newsletter

To understand what Paul is talking about, it is essential that you not lose sight of his mind-set. In the parabolic imagery of The Teaching, the True Believer is an individual member of Corporate Israel—the Body of Jesus Christ—but he is never viewed as being separate from that corporate Body. Therefore, since the Believer has parabolically died in Christ and has been resurrected in Christ, he can never be independent of Christ unless he is “cut off from” Christ. While that statement is not literally true, it certainly is parabolically true. And it is absolutely essential to an accurate understanding of how Paul uses the term law in his epistles.

Paul’s intent in the Book of Romans is to explain how the parabolic imagery that the Prophets used to describe the death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ applies to individual Believers in Christ. In so doing, he always uses the plural form of the verb and the plural form of the second person personal pronoun (you). He does that to emphasize that the parabolic imagery he is explaining applies to the Body of Believers collectively, not to the individual Believer alone. If you can’t understand that concept, you need to carefully consider the fact that when you finally stand before God, you will have nothing at all to commend you outside of your membership in the collective Body of Believers—those who make up Corporate Israel, which is the Body of Jesus Christ. That is, it is only those who have become members of Israel and have not been “cut off from” Israel who will be exonerated on that Great Day.

The most important thing to understand about what Paul says in Romans 7:1–3 is not the parabolic imagery he uses, or even his use of the second person plural form of the verb and pronoun. It is what he means when he says, “the Law.” I have already told you that Paul uses the term law in three different ways. I explained that when he says “law”—that is, when he uses the Greek noun nomos without the definite article—he is normally referring to the statutes, judgments, and commandments that Moses established for the sons of Israel in the wilderness.

“There Is Nothing More Amazing Than Dead Men Walking (in ‘The Way’),” The Voice of Elijah®, January 2000, p. 14

Newsletter Details

Contribution of $6.00
Pages 20
Author Larry Dee Harper
Language English

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