Was Paul ever "without the Law once"?

[Anto9us]

Rom 7:9
For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.

Is Paul truly speaking AUTOBIOGRAPHICALLY here, or metaphorically?

How could one "brought up at the feet of Gamaliel" ever have been "without the law once"?

 

[JLB]

Rom 7:9
For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.

Is Paul truly speaking AUTOBIOGRAPHICALLY here, or metaphorically?

How could one "brought up at the feet of Gamaliel" ever have been "without the law once"?

He was without the law, when He was converted after meeting Jesus.

15 But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, 16 to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood, 17 nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me; but I went to Arabia, and returned again to Damascus. 18 Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and remained with him fifteen days. 19 But I saw none of the other apostles except James, the Lord’s brother. 20 (Now concerning the things which I write to you, indeed, before God, I do not lie.) Galatians 1:15-20



JLB

 

[chessman]

How could one "brought up at the feet of Gamaliel" ever have been "without the law once"?

He was once an infant (born of a Jewish mother/womb yet Roman father thus having the Latin name Paul), not knowing good/evil prior to being "brought up"/educated by Gamaliel.

Acts 22:2-3 And when they heard that he was addressing them in the Aramaic language, they became even more silent. And he said, “I am a Jewish man born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, educated according to the exactness of the law received from our fathers, being zealous for God, just as all of you are today. ​

Romans 7:7 What then shall we say? Is the law sin? May it never be! But I would not have known sin except through the law, for I would not have known covetousness if the law had not said, “Do not covet.”​

Paul's "autobiography" summary is:

1. Born 1/2 Jew, 1/2 Roman/Gentile.
2. An infant not knowing right from wrong even in the simplest of commandments (don't covet).
3. Convictions of sin coming coming through learning the Law (and the traditions of Jews).
4. Weekly/yearly cleans through early adulthood.
5. Died to those traditions (released from the old like a widow is) and given eternal life through re-marriage to Christ.

I.e. Pretty much like the rest of us.

Galatians 1:11-12 For I make known to you, brothers, the gospel that has been proclaimed by me, that it is not of human origin. For neither did I receive it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. ​

BTW, if Paul in the opening chapter of Galatians is making known the Gospel to his "brothers", are they Jewish brothers or Christian brothers?

 

[Eugene]

Rom 7:9
For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.
Is Paul truly speaking AUTOBIOGRAPHICALLY here, or metaphorically?

How could one "brought up at the feet of Gamaliel" ever have been "without the law once"?

I’m not sure of my thoughts on this, but Paul was saved when he wrote this passage in Rom 7:9.
For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.

But when we go back to Rom 7:4 Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ. (Paul believed this: what happened to shake his faith?)

Having received the gospel by revelation of our risen Lord (Gal 1:11-12), had Paul realized he was free from the law once he believed on Jesus, and then come to have a “Back to the past moment, or a reality check”, become fearful and finally realize that he could never follow the law before it came back to him that it wasn’t him sinning, but in Rom 7:17 Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

Did God take Paul through this experience so he could write with conviction that “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus”, Rom 8:1?

 

[JLB]

I’m not sure of my thoughts on this, but Paul was saved when he wrote this passage in Rom 7:9.

Exactly.


He was recounting when he was learning to walk in the Spirit, when he first got saved.



JLB

 

[Soul man]

Paul was never alive without the law, being born into it, Paul is speaking retrospectively. The commandment that came to Adam, Paul can speak to it from a born again point of view.
He goes on in the rest of the chapter to describe the sin-nature, from a born again standpoint.