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    Jesus in the Letters of Paul
    Jesus in the Letters of Paul
    Jesus in the Letters of Paul
    Ebook238 pages2 hours

    Jesus in the Letters of Paul

    By Edwin Walhout

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    Examining how Paul incorporates Jesus in his gospel message. Christology does not stand alone but depends on Theology as its source and on Soteriology as its effect. Paul is thoroughly theocentric in all his letters, and always down to earth.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherEdwin Walhout
    Release dateMay 30, 2012
    ISBN9781476341149
    Jesus in the Letters of Paul
    Author

    Edwin Walhout

    I am a retired minister of the Christian Reformed Church, living in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Being retired from professional life, I am now free to explore theology without the constraints of ecclesiastical loyalties. You will be challenged by the ebooks I am supplying on Smashwords.

    Read more from Edwin Walhout

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      Book preview

      Jesus in the Letters of Paul - Edwin Walhout

      JESUS in Paul’s Letters

      An Exegetical Analysis

      by Edwin Walhout

      Published by Edwin Walhout

      Smashwords Edition

      Copyright 2010 Edwin Walhout

      Cover design by Amy Cole (amy.cole@comcast.net)

      See Smashwords.com for additional titles by this author.

      Biblical quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version.

      Smashwords Edition, License Notes

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      CONTENTS

      Chapter 1 Jesus in Galatians

      Chapter 2 Jesus in 1 Thessalonians

      Chapter 3 Jesus in 2 Thessalonians

      Chapter 4 Jesus in 1 Corinthians

      Chapter 5 Jesus in 2 Corinthians

      Chapter 6 Jesus in Romans

      Chapter 7 Jesus in Colossians

      Chapter 8 Jesus in Ephesians

      Chapter 9 Jesus in Philippians

      Chapter 10 Jesus in 1 Timothy

      Chapter 11 Jesus in Titus

      Chapter 12 Jesus in 2 Timothy

      Chapter 13 Final Summation

      JESUS in PAUL’S LETTERS

      This project began as an exegetical exploration of the somewhat baffling things Paul writes about Jesus in his letters to the churches in Colossae and Ephesus. Having completed those studies I turned to the oft-misunderstood kenosis passage in Philippians, and from there decided to look at all the letters of Paul to see what they meant for Christology. In this project I examine the letters of Paul in the order in which he wrote them. I will be concerned only with the way Paul explains the significance of Jesus, not about other implications. Traditional theological studies of Christology usually cluster around two facets: the Person and the Work of Jesus. I will not be using that scheme, but simply examine selected passages in which Paul explains Jesus to the people to whom he is writing, an exegetical exercise.

      Chapter 1 JESUS in GALATIANS

      Scholarly opinion differs as to which of Paul’s letters came first. Galatians is sometimes assigned to the same time period as Romans, based on a similarity of emphasis on justification by faith. I, however, think Galatians is the first extant letter Paul wrote, based on such factors as the content, the evidence of a still too volatile temper, and lack of the theological sophistication of the much longer letter to Rome. I think he wrote this letter after his first missionary journey, from Antioch where he had returned, and after he heard reports from travelers about what was happening in the young churches of Galatia that he and Barnabas had just established. Judaizers were threatening the work that Paul had been doing, and Paul was deeply incensed. He would be revisiting these churches in person as soon as possible, but first he had to be part of a commission to discuss related matters in Jerusalem before he could arrange that second missionary journey. His letter is sent as a substitute for an immediate personal visit. We will be examining passages from this letter that have significance for understanding Paul’s Christology.

      Galatians 2:15-16

      Ἡμεῖς φύσει Ἰουδαῖοι καὶ οὐκ ἐξ ἐθνῶν ἁμαρτωλοί,

      εἰδότες [δὲ] ὅτι οὐ δικαιοῦται ἄνθρωπος ἐξ ἔργων νόμου

      ἐὰν μὴ διὰ πίστεως Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ,

      καὶ ἡμεῖς εἰς Χριστὸν Ἰησοῦν ἐπιστεύσαμεν,

      ἵνα δικαιωθῶμεν ἐκ πίστεως Χριστοῦ καὶ οὐκ ἐξ ἔργων νόμου,

      ὅτι ἐξ ἔργων νόμου οὐ δικαιωθήσεται πᾶσα σάρξ.

      "We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners;

      yet we know that a person is justified not by works of the law

      but through faith in Jesus Christ.

      And we have come to believe in Christ Jesus,

      so that we might be justified by faith in Christ,

      and not by doing the works of the law,

      because no one will be justified by the works of the law."

      Here we see a vivid example of Paul’s habit of parallelism, a habit he derived surely from the ancient writers of the Hebrew scriptures. Three times he expresses the negative – we are not justified by works of the law; two times the positive – we are justified by faith in Jesus.

      To understand the intensely personal tone of Paul’s writing here we need to put it in the context of his conversion. He knows full well that his adolescent devotion to the Torah made him into a fanatical opponent of Jesus. He knows that the Jewish national devotion to the Torah resulted in the rejection of the messiah God sent to them. So he understands personally what he is talking about. His whole life was on the wrong track, as was the commitment of his people Israel, in spite of their total allegiance to the Law of God.

      So we need to understand the meaning of the term justification in that setting. It means having your life on the right track. That did not happen from obeying the works of the law, neither for Paul as an individual nor for the nation as a whole. But it does happen, and did happen, when Paul was converted at Damascus. When he realized Jesus was indeed risen from the dead, and that he was all wrong, his life reversed itself and he became a servant of the Lord Jesus. He was justified.

      Our theological definition of justification sometimes is so abstract that one wonders what it means in terms of daily life. We should recognize, accordingly, that for Paul the term means a radical reversal of his life effectuated by the grace of God. This does not come from diligent keeping of the precepts of the Law but by simple faith and trust in the Lord Jesus.

      Galatians 2:17-18

      εἰ δὲ ζητοῦντες δικαιωθῆναι ἐν Χριστῷ εὑρέθημεν καὶ αὐτοὶ ἁμαρτωλοί,

      ἆρα Χριστὸς ἁμαρτίας διάκονος; μὴ γένοιτο.

      εἰ γὰρ ἃ κατέλυσα ταῦτα πάλιν οἰκοδομῶ,

      παραβάτην ἐμαυτὸν συνιστάνω.

      "But if, in our effort to be justified in Christ, we ourselves have been found to be sinners,

      is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not!

      But if I build up again the very things that I once tore down,

      then I demonstrate that I am a transgressor."

      What kind of argumentation is this? What reasoning could go into an accusation that Christ is a servant of sin? It isn’t immediately clear what is going on in Paul’s mind.

      Paul means an argument that Jesus approves of sin if he justifies sinners. If I am a sinner, and if Jesus justifies me, then Jesus approves of me as a sinner, and also thereby approves my sin.

      No way, writes Paul. Paul knows to be justified is to build up the things he once tore down. There is a change in life involved, a leaving off of the way of sin. The conclusion is not that Jesus approves of sin, but that Paul was a sinner and is so no longer. Justification does not involve approval of sin but involves recognizing that sin and turning away from it.

      It is not clear whether or not Paul’s visiting travelers reported some such argument to be going on in the Galatian churches, but it is very likely. Else why would he write this way? Paul cannot be correct, they might be saying, since if Jesus justifies sinners and approves of sinners, that would make Jesus to be a servant of sin. So, the argument may have gone, there has to be more than mere faith, there has to be a more objective control, namely the Torah of God. It’s the Judaizing argument. Perhaps that is some of the reasoning going on which made Paul come near to losing his self-control in dictating this letter (You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you?).

      Galatians 2:19-21

      ἐγὼ γὰρ διὰ νόμου νόμῳ ἀπέθανον ἵνα θεῷ ζήσω.

      Χριστῷ συνεσταύρωμαι:

      ζῶ δὲ οὐκέτι ἐγώ, ζῇ δὲ ἐν ἐμοὶ Χριστός:

      ὃ δὲ νῦν ζῶ ἐν σαρκί, ἐν πίστει ζῶ τῇ τοῦ υἱοῦ τοῦ θεοῦ

      τοῦ ἀγαπήσαντός με καὶ παραδόντος ἑαυτὸν ὑπὲρ ἐμοῦ.

      οὐκ ἀθετῶ τὴν χάριν τοῦ θεοῦ: εἰ γὰρ διὰ νόμου δικαιοσύνη,

      ἄρα Χριστὸς δωρεὰν ἀπέθανεν.

      "For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God.

      I have been crucified with Christ,

      and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.

      And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God,

      who loved me and gave himself for me.

      I do not nullify the grace of God, for if justification comes through the law,

      then Christ died for nothing."

      This is how Paul, at this time in his life, saw his connection with Jesus. He was crucified with Christ. We note that Paul is making this connection to Jesus only in terms of Jesus’ death. In later letters, as his understanding of matters matured, he would expand this connection to include Jesus’ resurrection, and in Ephesians also to his ascension. But for now, in what is probably Paul’s first extant letter, he makes the connection only in terms of Jesus’ crucifixion and the subsequent work of the Spirit of Jesus in his life.

      But he does make a very strong point of it, does he not? If what Paul is saying isn’t true, then Christ died for nothing. The crucifixion means nothing if it does not produce justification in the lives of those who believe, that is, if there is no change of life involved. Paul means that he dies to the life of sin that plagued him as an adolescent, and he does not hesitate to describe that change as being crucified with Christ.

      So that is his argument against the Judaizers. That change of life, that justification, does not happen when all you have is dedicated observance of the precepts of the Torah. Faithful Christians must not allow themselves to be drawn back into the attitude that legal diligence to rules produces a godly life. It does not. Only faith in Jesus, faith that shares crucifixion, does that. The person who believes truly in Jesus dies to his previous life of sin and self-centeredness.

      Consider again the abstract character of our traditional doctrine of justification. We say that Jesus died for our sins, and of course that is true. But we mean, it appears, only that we are forgiven, that God no longer holds us guilty. Jesus has taken the punishment we deserve. But Paul’s way of describing justification is much deeper and richer than that. It is not merely forgiveness, though that would also be implied, but it is the radical transformation of our lives. For Paul, justification is more than forgiveness, it is conversion, the leaving off of the life of sin.

      Galatians 3:1

      ω ἀνόητοι Γαλάται, τίς ὑμᾶς ἐβάσκανεν,

      οἷς κατ' ὀφθαλμοὺς Ἰησοῦς Χριστὸς προεγράφη ἐσταυρωμένος;

      "You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you?

      It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly exhibited as crucified!"

      Paul is incensed at the Judaizers who have, apparently, persuaded the new Christians in the churches of Galatia to keep relying on the requirements of the Torah. They wanted to do both, keep the Torah and believe in Jesus as their messiah. But Paul is almost obsessed by the recognition that Torah obedience produces the opposite of genuine obedience to God. Who bewitched you, anyway? Don’t go that way!

      But what he says next is surprising. He speaks of Jesus’ crucifixion. But his own experience of conversion came from a recognition of Jesus’ resurrection. When, at the gates of Damascus Paul realized that what the followers of the Way were saying was true, that Jesus was alive, he yielded his life to the Lord. What is surprising, then, about this statement of rebuke to the Galatians, is that he mentions crucifixion but not resurrection as the reason they should forsake the Torah. Does the mere fact that Jesus died carry with it the power of conversion? It didn’t for Paul up to that time. It didn’t for anyone at the time. What did carry that power is the resurrection, the recognition that the powers of sin and evil have been overcome. We would think Paul would mention the fact of Jesus’ resurrection at this point rather than his death.

      So what might have been going through Paul’s mind with this locution? He was thinking in terms of justification. Justification for Paul meant a radical turnaround in one’s lifestyle, the kind of change that took place in his own life at his conversion. Paul, in his mind, was thinking that these people in Galatia who were now being persuaded to stay with the Torah would not be experiencing that radical change in their lives that true faith should produce. Torah does not do the job.

      If they stay with Torah their lives will not change; they will still be held in the legalistic bondage that inhibits true obedience. If they stay with Torah, in other words, they will not die to the sinful way of life that Torah produces. But Jesus did die, and so must believers; not physically as Jesus did, but spiritually, morally, die to sin and evil. So this is the thought process going through Paul’s mind with this surprising observation that they know very well that Jesus has been crucified; they must be crucified with Jesus.

      Galatians 3:2-4

      τοῦτο μόνον θέλω μαθεῖν ἀφ' ὑμῶν,

      ἐξ ἔργων νόμου τὸ πνεῦμα ἐλάβετε ἢ ἐξ ἀκοῆς πίστεως; οὕτως ἀνόητοί ἐστε;

      ἐναρξάμενοι πνεύματι νῦν σαρκὶ ἐπιτελεῖσθε;

      τοσαῦτα ἐπάθετε εἰκῇ; εἴ γε καὶ εἰκῇ.

      "The only thing I want to learn from you is this:

      Did you receive the Spirit by doing the works of the law or by believing what you heard?

      Having started with the Spirit, are you now ending with the flesh?

      Did you experience so much for nothing? – if it really was for nothing."

      Paul does not mention Jesus in the first question, he mentions the spirit (NRSV supplies the upper case initial). By spirit it is apparent he means what happens in a person when converted. A new spirit takes over, the spirit of humble faith and obedience to God. How did this happen for you? Paul asks. Did it happen because you obeyed the Torah? A rhetorical question, since everybody knows that did not happen. Nobody received the new spirit from observing the Jewish ceremonies. They received it simply by believing what Paul told them about Jesus.

      The second question is another example of the parallelism that is so pervasive in Paul’s letters. You know as well as I do, writes Paul, that your new life changed when you believed, so how can you figure that it will be made better by going back to what you had before? The second question puts the same point in different terminology, Having started with the Spirit, are you now ending with the flesh? Paul equates the flesh with obeying the traditional Jewish customs of the Torah; and he equates the spirit with believing what Paul told them about Jesus, that is, the gospel. If you go back to what you had before, you will be negating everything that you gained by believing. Don’t go that way, is the sum of what Paul writes here.

      We conclude the study of Paul’s depiction of Jesus in Galatians at this point. Paul does not engage in a rationalistic attempt to explain Jesus philosophically or dogmatically as we sometimes do in our Systematic Theologies. When he writes about Jesus he does so with an intensely personal involvement. Jesus died and we too must die to our sins. If that doesn’t happen in us our faith is misplaced. Jesus died to no avail. Paul’s understanding of the connection between Jesus and those who believe will mature somewhat as he grows older and reflects more deeply on the facts of Jesus’ life, death, resurrection, ascension, and session, but the beginnings are seen clearly here as he connects believers to Jesus’ death.

      Chapter 2 JESUS in 1 THESSALONIANS

      Paul was well along on his second missionary journey, having revisited the Galatian churches, traveled on to Troas, across to Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea, and Athens. He is now in Corinth, waiting for Timothy and Silas to make their report. He had sent them earlier to go back to Thessalonica and Philippi to see how things were going for the new believers. They finally get back to him in Corinth, make their report, and Paul senses that there is a problem in Thessalonica that needs his advice. So he writes the letter we know as First Thessalonians. I will call attention to a few passages that bear on

      how Paul makes the connection with Jesus.

      1 Thessalonians 4:1-4

      Λοιπὸν οὖν, ἀδελφοί, ἐρωτῶμεν ὑμᾶς καὶ παρακαλοῦμεν ἐν κυρίῳ Ἰησοῦ,

      ἵνα καθὼς παρελάβετε παρ' ἡμῶν τὸ πῶς δεῖ ὑμᾶς περιπατεῖν καὶ ἀρέσκειν θεῷ,

      καθὼς καὶ περιπατεῖτε, ἵνα περισσεύητε μᾶλλον.

      οἴδατε γὰρ τίνας παραγγελίας ἐδώκαμεν ὑμῖν διὰ τοῦ κυρίου Ἰησοῦ.

      τοῦτο γάρ ἐστιν θέλημα τοῦ θεοῦ, ὁ ἁγιασμὸς ὑμῶν,

      ἀπέχεσθαι ὑμᾶς ἀπὸ τῆς πορνείας,

      "Finally, brothers and sisters, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus that,

      as you learned from us how you ought to live and to please God

      (as in fact you are doing), you should do so more and more.

      For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus.

      For this is the will of God, your sanctification:

      that you abstain from fornication."

      In the first three chapters of this letter Paul deals mostly with personal matters, such as reminding them of his own involvement in their conversion. He does not deal directly with matters we would regard as germane to Christology. But here in chapter 4 he does begin to say some things that are useful to notice in regard to the way faith in Jesus impacts the lives of those who believe.

      In this passage he writes that it is "in the

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