The Story of Scripture in the Letters of St. Paul

Despite what many people think, Scripture isn’t just a collection of doctrines, loosely-related stories, moral examples, or anything else of the sort. Rather, it is the story of our salvation, and everything in it – from Genesis to Revelation – contributes to that one overarching narrative.

Salvation History

It is the story of how God created a good world, how Adam and Eve messed that world up when they sinned, and how God set in motion a plan to rescue it through Abraham’s descendants (Genesis 22:18, cf. Galatians 3:8), the people of Israel. Of course, Israel ended up being just as sinful as the rest of the world, so they too needed to be redeemed by a single faithful Israelite, the Messiah (Isaiah 49:5), who would also do Israel’s job for it and fulfill God’s promise to Abraham (Isaiah 49:6). In doing so, he would allow the faithful Israelites who followed Him (the first Christians, who were all Jews) to finally fulfill their vocation and spread His salvation to other nations as well.

When we talk about that story, we tend to focus more on the Gospels than on any other New Testament books, and for good reason. Jesus is the fulcrum of this entire narrative, so it makes sense that we would focus on the most direct accounts of Him. However, in doing so, we usually leave out an important piece of evidence: the letters of St. Paul. These witness that this story is really what Scripture is all about

While Paul never lays this narrative all out in one place, he does give us a few clues throughout his writings that this is how he views Scripture, and that is what I want to talk about in this article. In a short article we obviously can’t go over everything he says about this topic, but I want to look at a few passages that, when taken together, make it very clear that this is in fact the backdrop for everything St. Paul says about Jesus and the salvation He came to bring us.

Teachers of Other Nations

Let’s start with a text from the early chapters of Romans:

But if you call yourself a Jew and rely upon the law and boast of your relation to God and know his will and approve what is excellent, because you are instructed in the law, and if you are sure that you are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth— you then who teach others, will you not teach yourself? While you preach against stealing, do you steal? You who say that one must not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who boast in the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law? For, as it is written, “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.” (Romans 2:17-24)

That is a long passage, but it is important to read the whole thing. In context, Paul is explaining that all people, Jew and Gentile alike, are sinners, and after showing that Gentiles fall under this condemnation, he turns to his kinsmen.

Interestingly, he doesn’t simply say that the Jews are just as sinful as anybody else. He doesn’t simply say that sin is just as prevalent in his people as in any other. No, he also brings up their supposed status as “a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of children,” and he mentions that their sinfulness causes God’s Name to be blasphemed throughout the world. This is entirely unnecessary for his argument, but he includes it anyway. Why is that?

God’s Instruments

At that early point in the text, we cannot be entirely sure. Paul does not explicitly tell us what he is getting at, but if we know the story of Scripture, we can venture an educated guess: he is referring to Israel’s vocation in the Old Testament to be God’s instrument to save other nations. God gave them His Law to show them how to behave as His children, and they were supposed to use that Law to teach the rest of humanity.

But they didn’t. Not every member of God’s people violated the commandments, of course, but the nation as a whole was simply too sinful to teach other nations, so other nations remained in their sins and continued to rebel against God. Consequently, the Jews’ problem wasn’t just that they were sinful. It was that they were sinful even though they were supposed to be God’s instrument to root sin out from the world.

Our Smoking Gun

And if we read a bit further, Paul confirms that this is in fact what he had in mind. Take a look at this text:

Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision? Much in every way. To begin with, the Jews are entrusted with the oracles of God. What if some were unfaithful? Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? By no means! Let God be true though every man be false, as it is written, “That you may be justified in your words, and prevail when you are judged.” (Romans 3:1-4)

In this passage, Paul is essentially asking about what makes the Jews God’s special people. And even though he only gives one answer (it gets him so sidetracked that he doesn’t come back to it until a few chapters later), it is enough. He says that the Jews “are entrusted with the oracles of God,” and that is our smoking gun.

The Meaning of “Entrusted”

If you are entrusted with something, it often means that you are supposed to guard it and then give it to someone else. For example, I can entrust you with a message to relay to another person. Granted, the word doesn’t mean that in every circumstance, but it often does, and more importantly, that is how St. Paul uses it. Take a look at these examples:

“I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been entrusted with the gospel to the circumcised….” (Galatians 2:7)

“For our appeal does not spring from error or uncleanness, nor is it made with guile; but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please men, but to please God who tests our hearts.” (1 Thessalonians 2:3-4)

In these passages, Paul isn’t saying that he received the Gospel just so he can keep it for himself. His whole point is that he has been entrusted with the message of Jesus Christ so he can bring that message to the entire world. Consequently, when he says that the Jews “are entrusted with the oracles of God,” it means that they too were supposed to bring those oracles to the rest of the world.

The Faithfulness of God

As mentioned, that is our smoking gun, but if we still need further confirmation, the rest of the passage bears it out even more. Immediately after this, Paul goes on to ask, “What if some were unfaithful? Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God?” and at first, that seems like a strange question to ask. How do people’s sins make God unfaithful?

Much like the first passage we looked at, Paul doesn’t spell out an answer for us, but the question makes perfect sense if we assume that he is talking about the story of God’s plan to save the world through the Israelites. If they are unfaithful, God cannot save the world through them. He needs them to be faithful to Him so they can teach the other nations to do the same, so their sinfulness creates a problem. If they cannot do the job they were meant to do, how is God going to fulfill His promise to Abraham? Paul doesn’t answer that question right away, but a few verses later, he tells us that God has done exactly that through Jesus Christ, the one faithful Israelite who was completely without sin (Romans 3:21-26).

Admittedly, that is just the tip of the iceberg, but it is enough to make the point. When St. Paul thought and wrote about God’s saving work in Jesus Christ, he had the entire story of Scripture in mind. For him, the Old Testament wasn’t just a bunch of moral lessons or people who merely foreshadowed Jesus. No, he viewed the Old Testament as the story of how God promised to save the world through the Israelites, and how Jesus is the ultimate fulfillment of that promise, the fulfillment that cuts through all the problems caused by Israel’s own sinfulness and the One who redeems the entire human race, Jew and Gentile alike.