Queen's Road Cell

We addressed the issue of the similarities and differences in these parallel passages in the gospels: 28  One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” 29  “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. [ e ] 30  Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ [ f ] 31  The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ [ g ] There is no commandment greater than these.” 32  “Well said, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. 33  To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.” 34  When Jesus saw that he had answer

We began our study by looking at Romans 10:5-17. Here, Paul contrasts the "righteousness that is based on the law" (v.5) and "the righteousness based on faith" (v.6).The Jews had sought to establish their own righteousness through the former, instead of the God's righteousness based on the latter (v.3). Paul takes the words of Deut 30 and says that, just as Christ is the 'end' (the objective and completion) of the law (v. 4), so also the words of Dt 30:12-13 also find their ultimate fulfilment in Christ, who has both come down from heaven and is raised from the dead. His completed work makes works of the law unnecessary. Instead, the word of life is found in confessing (the truth of our allegiance to Christ in public, before others) with the mouth and believing (trusting in) the whole complex of belief associated with His resurrection (i.e. the need for His death as atonement for our sin and His resurrection from the dead). We noted that co