Thesis 7 - Pauline Corpus

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Statement: The focal point of the New Testament is the person of Jesus Christ.  The Damascus experience constituted Saul, the Pharisee and the persecutor of the Church, into a believer in Jesus Christ and an apostle to the Gentiles. The theological perspective of the Pauline Corpus is centred on the salvific events of Jesus’ Death and Resurrection (1 Cor 15, 3-5). Paul

expresses these saving events also through metaphors: reconciliation (2 Cor 5, 18-21), redemption and sacrifice (Rom 3, 24b-25). The salvific effects of these saving events are appropriated through faith in Jesus Christ (Rom 1:16-17); and the touch-stone of authentic Christian life is Agape (Rom 13:8-10; 1 Cor 13:13)

Introduction

·                   This thesis mainly deals with Paul’s experience of the Risen Christ and his            understanding of salvation      which is expressed in various metaphors such as reconciliation,                redemption, sacrifice etc.

·                     This thesis also focuses on the justification = salvation through faith in Jesus Christ and salvation to          be experienced and shown here on earth by agape.

1.             Jesus Christ is the focal point of the NT

·         In the OT or the TaNaK the hermeneutical key is Torah. On the basis of Torah, everything in OT is interpreted.

·         But in the NT, Jesus Christ is the focal point. Jesus is the hermeneutical key to interpret the entire NT.

·         Therefore in the Pauline letters also, the focal point is Jesus Christ(Epecially passion-death and resurrection)

    Greek bible is rearranged to show that Jesus is the fulfillment of the prophesies.

2. The Damascus experience constituted Saul, the Pharisee and the persecutor of the         Church, into a believer in Jesus Christ and an apostle to the Gentiles.

·                     For Saul – a Pharisee, law was everything.

·                     According to the book of Deuteronomy 21: 23 - The one who dies on the wood is cursed. Therefore Jesus who died on the cross cannot be the Messiah. Christians were proclaiming Jesus a Messiah but he cannot be the Messiah because it is against the law.

·                     Then Jesus Christ the risen Lord intervened and revealed to him as ‘Jesus of Nazareth whom he was persecuting’.

·                     So God out of love for Paul revealed himself through Christ.

·                     Now Paul realizes that law counts for nothing. Jesus is the end of the law and the fulfillment of the law.

·                     Jesus is alive; risen from the dead; he is not cursed.

·                     He is blessed and he can give blessing to others as he gave it to Paul.

·                     He became a strong believer in Jesus Christ. This is what conversion is.

·                     Therefore conversion is becoming a believer in Christ. Now what mattered to him is the faith in Christ.

·                     1 Cor 15: 3-8 …last of all as to one untimely born, appeared also to me. Untimely born refers to the unexpected apparition or encounter he had with Jesus.

ü    The Damacus experience of Paul  is his vocation story and is related to his mission.(Significance of Paul’s mission is that he is an apostle to the gentiles)

ü    Gal 1,15 – is the key text to understand his mission.

ü    Paul connects his vocation to Duetero Isaiah and Jeremiah, where he says,  ‘ before I was formed in the womb, God had set me apart to send me to proclaim to the gentiles.(Gal 1:15)

ü    Gal 1:16 - Paul is not an apostle by human beings but untimely from God through Jesus Christ – commissioned to present the gospel to the gentiles.

ü    By saying these words in Galatians, he identifies himself with two prophets -  Jeremiah(Jer 1,5)  and Duetero Isaiah( 49,1-6).

ü    Jer 1: 5 –‘ before I formed you I chose you as a prophet to the nations’.

ü    Is 49, 1-6 : How he was chosen as a light to the nations.(‘.... I will give you as a light of the nations.... to bring the good news to the ends of the earth.’)

ü    With these words Paul, identifies himself with the prophets, who were sent to gentiles.

2.        The theological perspective of the Pauline Corpus is centered on the salvific events      of Jesus’ Death and Resurrection.

·         In order to understand the salvation theme in St. Paul, we need to know the Pauline anthropology, his view on the human beings.

·         Paul uses four words while speaking of human – 1. Soma, 2.Psyche, 3.Sarx and 4.Pneuma.

·         He uses the Greek words but thinks like a Jew. The Greeks thought body and soul are different/ separate, but for the Jews they are the same.

·         Human beings are embodied. Soul is the life principle in the body. So, Human being is a living body: body-soul.

·         Sarx (flesh): in the OT, flesh refers to two things: 1. Creatureliness, 2. Community aspect.

·         Paul adds one more, flesh for him means the sinful nature. Since we are flesh, we are prone to sin, flesh is weak.

·         As much as we are creaturely, prone to the community and have sinful nature, we are flesh.

·         As much as we are under the influence of God(HS), we are saved and are in the sphere of the Spirit.

·         Salvation for Paul is a movement from flesh to the Spirit.

·         Jesus is the only person who had this movement from flesh to the Spirit. Jesus was weak, human, creaturely and he needed a community but he was obedient to God, always united to God, he was under the influence of the Holy Spirit and therefore even when he died physically, the spirit within him raised him from the dead. Therefore Paul says Jesus was raised from the dead by God, not that Jesus rose himself. Jesus was the only one who moved from the sphere of the flesh to the sphere of the resurrection.

·         For us, to move to the sphere of the Holy Spirit we need: 1. Faith in Jesus Christ, and 2. Baptism.

    Faith:

·         The Righteous shall live by faith (Habakkuk 2:4).

·         When we have faith in Jesus Christ, no matter who we are, the spirit will be poured into our hearts. This is the salvation for Paul.

1 Cor 15 / 3-5: core of Christian kerygma, also the Gospel that received and handed on to future generations.

·         Christ died for us: Christ died on behalf of humans to deal with our sins.

·         According to the scripture: according to the god’s plan of salvation for humanity. It is a sacrificial death( in OT = a sacrifice which has astonishing power Is 53/12)

·         Buried: affirmation/ confirmation of Jesus’ death.

·         Raised on the third day.  This is not a third day chronologically but an event with important salvific horizon.

·         Raised – is divine passive and by God. It is a perfect tense, which implies a past event but its effects still continue.

·         Appeared: made himself manifest.

ü  it is a sheer gift from God,  which needs faith, not based on the quality of the recipient

ü  it is an evidence to Jesus’ resurrection.

·         Risen Christ is the head of the new Humanity.

·         He is the New Adam.

·         In Jesus God not only reconciled with humankind but also with the entire cosmos.

·         Cross is no longer the stumbling block or folly but the power and the wisdom of God.

·         Jesus was hanged on the cross, not because he was cursed and sinned but because he took up our curse and sins and achieved a decisive victory over the power of death and sin.

·         Thus death and resurrection of Jesus is the whole process of fulfillment of the salvific plan of god.

·         What is  Salvation for paul?

 For this we need to understand the anthropology of Paul.

ü  Soma( body)

ü  Psyche(Soul)

ü  Sarx ( Flesh)

ü  Pneuma(Spirit).

Salvation for Paul is  - the movement from the flesh to the spirit. It is a movement from the sphere of flesh to the sphere of spirit.)

4. Paul expresses these saving events also through metaphors: reconciliation (2Cor 5, 18-21), redemption and sacrifice (Rom 3,24b-25).

 Saving Event through metaphors

These metaphors are taken from the day to day life.

a) Reconciliation( 2 Cor 5: 18-21)

v  This metaphor is taken from the personal human relationships.

v  God is reconciling the world through Jesus Christ.

v  God is therefore the subject. God is loving.

v  Concept of reconciliation in St Paul could be in two ways.

v  There was no change in the attitude of GOD – he is always loving.

v  No Change in the attitude of human being either – he is still a sinner and   rebellious.

v  But there is a change in the situation through the death and resurrection of Jesus.

v    This reconciliation is not only between God and the human beings but also between human beings and other human beings and between people and the world(Comos).

B) Redemption(Ransom): ( Rom 3: 24b -25)

Social metaphor – Share(Slave)  market.

2 sources of redemption

1.      OT background:

v     Goel(redeemer) is the kinsman who is supposed to buy the freedom of his relative.

v  YHWH is the Goel of Israel ( Exodus/Exile).

v      He need not have to pay. However there is no mention of purchase price in OT and therefore it is deliverance, liberation.

2.      Greek slave market(Sacred Manu Mission):

v  These slaves were not 24 hours slaves to their masters. They had their spare time also during which they earned extra money and put them in some temple of God.

v  The priest later would pay the money to the owners and liberate the slaves.

v   Then, they would become the property of God and nobody could make them slaves again.

v  Jesus also, in a way, purchased us and set us free.

v  Here also there is no purchase price. Jesus Christ, through his death and resurrection, delivered us from slavery to freedom. Now we are free to love.

C). Sacrifice:

  v  Here the important word is hilasterion – the Mercy Seat.

  v  This metaphor is taken from the ritual.

  v  Paul never used the word hilastomai but hilasterion.

  v  The Ark is kept in the Holy of Holies of the temple. On the Day of Atonement (Yomkipur), the High priest enters the Holy of Holies with the sacrificial blood and sprinkles it on the Mercy Seat and thus obtains forgiveness for the High priest as well as for the Israelites.

  v  It was repeated every year but Jesus’ sacrifice was once and for all.( covering all the previous sins and future as well).

  v  Thus the Mercy seat is the meeting place between God and the human beings where forgiveness takes place with the sacrificial blood.

  v  Now Paul tells, Jesus is the victim and the High priest. The cross has become the meeting place between God and the humans.

5.   The salvific effects of thee saving events are appropriated through faith in Jesus             Christ (Rom 1:16-17)

  v  In Pauline theology it is in justification through faith that we are redeemed.

  v  For Paul Faith(that Jesus is the Lord) is not an intellectual assent but the total surrender of the whole person to God.

  v  The Greek word for justification is dikaiosune which also means righteousness.

Justification:This metaphor is take from the court of law.

  v  Righteousness in the court language would mean we are made just, all the accusations against us are wiped out and we are declared innocent by the judge.

  v  This metaphor is taken from the law court. Dikaiosunehere would mean ‘to make somebody, something,’ ‘to make a guilty, innocent.’

   v   However in Paul, dikaiosune or righteousness is slightly different.

   v   For him, it is ‘treating someone as something,’ not making someone something.

  v   Not making but treating.

  v  When a sinner comes to God with faith in Jesus Christ, God treats the sinner as if innocent.

  v  However, God know that the person is a sinner.

  v  In Exodus 23 and Proverbs 13, it is said that it is an abomination to justify a guilty person.

  v  But Paul says that if a sinner has faith in Jesus Christ, God will treat him as an innocent person.

  v  This is the justification. When God treats someone as innocent, he also becomes innocent. This is called per formative.

  v  For example, when God says let there be light, there is light. It is performed.

And the touch-stone of authentic Christian life is Agape (Rom 13:8-10; 1 Cor 13:13)

v  In Paul, agape is nothing but the spirit that is poured within our hearts.

v  It is the experience of God and to come under the influence of God.

v  We receive it through faith and baptism.

v  This faith (pistis) is the total commitment to the person of Jesus Christ. Faith begins with hearing and ends with obedience.

v  When we utter with my lips that Jesus is the Lord and believe in my heart that God raised Jesus from the dead, I am saved.

v  Therefore preaching is important for Paul.

v  When one hears the gospel (the plan of God to save all in Jesus Christ) and believes in it, then one will spontaneously obey. Then he is saved and he will do good.

v  Here two words are important:

 (1) Pistis: refers to the relationship between God and humans; and

 (2) Agape is the relationship between human and other humans.

For Paul there is only one commandment: Love your neighbor.

    To elaborate agape there are three stages:

   1. To live in the spirit – a Christian is one who lives in the spirit;

   2. Gift of the Spirit;

   3. Fruit of the Spirit. Agape implies all these.

v  To live in the Spirit: to the extent we come from the influence of flesh to under the influence of God on account of our faith in Jesus Christ, then we will live in the Spirit. Therefore, as much as we live in the Spirit, we will be moving away from the sphere of flesh into the sphere of the Spirit. (Gal. 5: 16ff)

v  Gift of the Spirit: When we live in the Spirit, the Spirit will bestow us with the gifts – performing miracles, preaching, healing, and so on. These gifts are given to build a community. Thus, Agape refers mainly to build community.

v  Fruit of the Spirit: To the extent we move from flesh to the spirit, we will have the fruit of the Spirit – joy, sympathy, understanding, forgiveness and so on. (Gal. 5:22 ff)

    In simple terms, Agape is the expression of the experience of God. It is not just an emotion or feeling     but it is to do good to others.