Chapter # 2 Paragraph # 2 Study # 3
February 15, 2005
Lincolnton, N.C.
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<100> Thesis:   "Boasting" in God means to express the conviction that God "has accepted" the one who is "boasting". Introduction:   In our study last week we noted that Paul's words in 2:17 are coming off of the heels of 2:15-16 where two things stand out. First, there is the declared fact that a Day of Wrath is inevitably coming. Second, there is the declared fact that man has an internal critic whose decisions regarding his behavior generate tension in view of the coming Day. We also noted that the Jews had mounted three defenses against the "tension". They attempted to relieve themselves by appealing to their "Jewishness", which boiled down to a claim to exemption from wrath on the basis of genetics. Then, they attempted to relieve themselves by appealing to the legitimacy of their "knowledge base": the Law. And, finally, they attempted to relieve themselves by appealing to their "God-connection". We made the claim that these "attempts" to relieve themselves fell into the biblical categories of body, soul, and spirit as the fundamental areas of human interest. The "Day of Wrath" is reported in Scripture to harbor three basic threats: fire (for the body); tears (for the soul); and gnashing of teeth (for the spirit). Thus, any attempt to relieve oneself from the tensions built into the threats has to address each of the potentialities. This evening we come to the third of these "attempts": the "God-connection".