40 years ago — 1976
When Paul had sought to be super-legalist, a Pharisee of the Pharisees, in zeal for the law, more zealous than any, he had seen the early Christians as corrupters of the law … destructive to the time honored legal tradition of the Jews. Perhaps Paul’s change of heart becomes even more shocking when we realize that the word he uses for “law” is a Greek translation of the Hebrew term “Torah.” The closest modern equivalent must surely be our word “Bible.” Freedom from bondage to the Bible!? … Regarding the Bible as law, he had failed to see it as gospel. What was appalling to him in later years was that in his zeal for the law he had tried to exterminate the new thing that God was doing. Paul saw the Bible in a new light. Instead of being a book of binding rules, it bore the gospel message of liberation. The law was not evil to the liberated Paul. It was good, but it was not God.
From the article, “Freedom from the law” by James C. Spalding
