The call to good conduct in Christ Research Paper

The call to good conduct in Christ - Research Paper Example As a scholar in the making, it is imperative that I take a standpoint on the debate at hand, by postulating that the answer to the argument entails both elements of a yes and a no. First, by referring to the ways and thinking of the Gentiles as being darkened in understanding St. Paul means that the Gentiles lost consciousness of the presence of the true God. This can be explained by the fact that God in Genesis 12 had chosen the nation of Israel as an instrument of His revelation to the world and thereby handed the Law, the Scripture, religious traditions and above all Jesus the Christ through Israel. As such, unlike the gentiles who had no uniform source of specific and divine revelation of the true God, Israel had a covenant which consisted of the law and the prophets. In the Law there was the (old) covenant, the sacrificial system, circumcision on the eighth day of a male child’s life, the kosher law, law on dressings and law which governed man-man relations and man-God co ntacts. Besides these, the Jew had been blessed with the prophets who called them to repentance, reproved them, exhorted them, and gave them divine oracles concerning God’s will at a specific time. ... Biblically, deadness does not denote inexistence, it means separation. Thus, the loss of the consciousness of God is spiritual death and the effect is a life that is fashioned by the will of the natural man. The natural man is dictated by debase passions and extremes such as lust, anger, lasciviousness, idolatry, strife dissensions, simulations, fornication, and debauchery, because his mind is focused on natural things, yet these vices are natural. It is the life by the will of the natural man that is scripturally referred to as the works of the flesh. It is these works of the flesh that are spoken against as having the potency to inhibit entrance into eternal life; while life after the natural life is referred to as enmity with God – not the ethno-cultural values that a given gentile community may be living by. According to Dunn (2006), it is also not proper to assume that in Ephesians 4: 17-25 an interest to standard conduct on the part of God is shown. The fact that God is not interested in behavioral uniformity is a matter that is well underscored by the events and outcome of the Jerusalem Council in 50 AD. The Council of Jerusalem comes against a backdrop of a heated and gradual disagreement between Apostle Paul and members of the Pharisees who had converted to Christianity. These Pharisees wanted the gentile Christians to subject themselves to the ceremonial laws of Moses, much to St. Paul’s disagreement. The matter raised enough controversy to elicit a strong public rebuke from Paul to Peter, in the Gentile Church in Antioch (Galatians 2:11-14). Upon the matter being taken to Jerusalem for a uniform decision by the 12 apostles, it was decided that it