UNDERSTANDING OF JESUS CHRIST IN THE PAULINE CORPUS

Exploring and understanding Christ in the Pauline corpus 

Introduction

The Pauline corpus is composed by 14 epistles. 7 epistles (1Thessalonians, Philippians, Philemon, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians and Romans) are considered to be authentic whereas the others (2Thessalonians, Colossians, Ephesians, Titus, 1and 2 Timothy) are attributed to Paul.

Pauline corpus refer to the thirteen letters arranged from longest to shortest in the NT starting with Romans and ending with Philemon.

 

Paul distinguishes in the life of Christ three stages or phases:

1. The eternal pre-existence of the Son with the Father or pre-history (1Cor 8:6)
2. His historical appearance on earth in the fullness of time
3. The glorious exaltation of the risen Christ

·      The most concise resume of Christology is contained in the formula: “Our Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God.” (1 Cor 1:9).

·      The great Christological text is Phil 2:6-11 where Christ had three stages: the divine life, the life of trial and the glorified life.

 

For Paul Christ belongs to an order superior to every created being (Eph 1:21).

He is himself the creator and preserver of the world (Col 1:16-17)

All is by him, in him and for him (Col 1:16-17)

He is the efficient, exemplary and final cause of all that exists, and is therefore God.

 

Christ is the image of the invisible Father (2Cor 4:4; Col 1:15)

He is the Son of God, but not like the other sons; he is so in an incommunicable way; he is the Son, God’s own Son, the Beloved, and he has always been so (2Cor 1:19; Rom 8:3-32; Col 1:13; Eph 1:6).

He proceeds therefore from the divine essence, and is consubstantial with the Father.

 

Christ is the object of doxologies reserved for God (Rom 4:5; 2Tim 4:18).

Christians pray to him as well as to the Father (2 Cor 12:8-9; Rom 10:12-140

They expect fro him blessings which it is in the power of God alone to confer – grace, mercy and salvation (Rom 1:7; 1Cor 1:3)

Before him every knee must bow in heaven, on earth and in hell, as every knee bends in adoration before the majesty of the Most High (Phil 2:10).

 

Christ posses all the divine attributes: he is eternal, since he is the first born of every creature and existed before all the ages (Col 1:15-17); he is immutable, since he is in the form of God (Phil 2:6); he is all-powerful, since he has the power to make fruitful even nothingness (Eph 4:18); he is infinite, since the fullness of the Godhead dwells in him or rather, he is the fullness of Godhead (Col 2:9); all that is the special property of God belongs to him as the rightful owner; the tribunal of God is the tribunal of Christ (Rom 14:10), the gospel of God is the gospel of Christ (Rom 1:1), the church of God is the church of Christ (1Cor 1:2), the kingdom of God is the kingdom of Christ (Eph 5:5), and the Spirit of God is the Spirit of Christ (Rom 8:90.

 

Christ is the only Lord (1Cor 8:6); he identifies himself with the Jehovah of the Old Covenant (1Cor 10:4-9).

He is the God who has redeemed the church with his own blood (Act 20:28).

He is “Our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13).

He is even “God exalted above all things” (Rom 4:5) dominating all created things.

Christ is God and Man – He is like all men except sin. “There is one God one mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1Tim 2:5).

He was manifest in the flesh and the flesh means a human composite.

Being God and man at the same time, Jesus Christ must receive all the attributes which belong to God and man.

 

Historical Jesus

Before coming to this earth Christ pre-existed in the form of God (Phil 2:6); he was rich with all the riches of heaven (2Cor 8:9).

At the appointed time the Son of God is sent by his Father to accomplish the work of Salvation (Gal 4:4; Rom 8:3).

Jesus is the descendant of Abraham (Gal 3:16); the son of david (rom 1:3), the glory of the Hebrew people (Rom 4:5)

He is born of a woman under the law (Gal 4:4); he lived in the midst of Jews and Jerusalem is the centre of his church (Rom 15:8; Gal 1:17).

He is truly man, in all respects like ourselves yet without sin (Rom 5:15; 2 Cor 5:21)

In short, Paul tells us next to nothing about the life and ministry of Jesus apart from its climactic finale. Christ crucified is also he whom God raised from the dead. In and by the resurrection, Christ became last Adam (1Cor 15:21-22). As Adam represents humankind through life to death, so Christ represents humankind through death to life.

When we consider Paul’s thought about Jesus Christ through his letters, what we notice first and foremost is that Paul’s presentation of Jesus is not speculative theology but rather religious presentation. In fact, Paul is concerned by telling men and women an experience-based faith, by which they might live. When he speaks of Jesus, he is simply setting down his own experience of his risen Lord. On can ask then, what is the content of his experience-based faith? Or how does he understands and presents Jesus Christ?

Jesus Christ, Son of God

With the exception of 2Thessalonians and Philemon, there is not one single letter in which Paul does not refer to Jesus as the Son of God. It is to be noted that the statement Jesus is the Son of God occurs at the very beginning of Paul’s letters as if by it he struck what was for him the keynote of the Christian Gospel (see 1 Thes.1: 10; Gal.1: 16; 2:20; 4: 4; 1 Cor.1: 9; 2 Cor.1: 19; Rm.1: 3; 1: 9; 8: 32; Eph.1: 3; Col.1: 3). Paul believes that Jesus stood in a unique relationship with God.

Paul goes further, in his letter to the Colossians, where he says that Jesus is the fullness of the godhead bodily (Col.2: 9); this is about revelation.  Jesus is, in this sense, God’s self-disclosure. Through the incarnation, God became a human being in order to elevate mankind to its dignity of created in God’s image that was damaged by sin. This was the purpose of the Kenosis (Phil.2: 5-11). In fact, this passage from the letter to Phil.2: 5-11 combines both the mystery of incarnation and the doctrine of the pre-existence of the Son. It expresses the love of God for humanity. He says that the work of the Son is ever done in obedience to the Father. Behind every event, action and word in the life of Jesus stands God. In Col.1: 15, Paul speaks of Jesus as the image of the invisible God, and the first born of all creatures. Paul too will present the doctrine of the pre-existence of the Son as found in John’s Gospel. In Eph.3: 11 he speaks of the eternal purpose which God purposed in Jesus Christ. The pre-existence of the Son means that the love which was demonstrated on Calvary is an eternal movement of the heart of God to men and women.

Who or What Jesus Christ is derives from his work

Actually, Paul describes Jesus from what he has done as far as the relation God-human is concerned. Paul talks of Jesus Christ the resurrection point of view. Thus, looking at the total Christ-event he realized that the salvation brought by Christ is multi faceted reality that can be understood through the variety of metaphors Paul uses to explain the same reality:

1. Salvation as redemption: The idea here is to ransom, meaning to pay back. From 1 Timothy 2:1-6, Paul speaks of Christ as one “who gave himself as a ransom for all.” The very same thought is echoed in the letter to Titus 2: 14, “he offered himself for us in order to ransom us.” Again Paul, in 1 Cor.6: 20, says: “you were brought with a price” that is the blood of Christ.

2. Salvation as justification: According to Paul, through Christ, we share God’s own justice, God’s own righteousness (see Rm.3: 21-26). In fact, Justification is all about right relationships. Jesus has transformed our human freedom so that we can live in right relationship with God, with each other and with our own selves.

3. Salvation as expiation: Our justification came about through the grace of redemption in Christ. Romans 3: 24-25 talks of Jesus Christ whom God set forth as an expiation, through faith, by his blood, to prove his righteousness because of the forgiveness of sins previously committed.

4. Salvation as reconciliation:  God has restored humanity back to true friendship and intimacy through the impact of Jesus Christ. Paul says: “In Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself” (2 Cor.5: 18-19; Rm.11: 15). When Paul applies this image of reconciliation to the Christ-event, he always speaks of God reconciling human beings, enemies and sinners to Himself. “He loved us even when we were his enemies” (see Rm.5: 10).

5. Salvation as liberation:  Liberation means here making free (about freedom). Paul often describes the impact of the Christ event in terms of liberation and he constantly stresses the freedom of Christians. “When Christ freed us, he meant us to remain free” (Gal.5: 1). “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (2 Cor.3: 17). Christ has liberated us from the bondage to the law (Gal.5: 1-12), from sin (Rm.6: 14-23), and from death (1 Cor.15). For Paul, then, Jesus has set human beings free from sin, self, law and death, has given them the rights of citizens of a free city. We are freed from slavery and freed for freedom.

Conclusion

  The work of salvation portrays Jesus Christ as the savior, redeemer, justifier, liberator, reconciler and all that his death and resurrection have achieved. He is also the revealer of the Father. In this way, Jesus is the New Adam (1 Cor.15: 21-22; 15: 45; Rm.5: 12). Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the promise made to Abraham because all people are blessed through Christ (Rm.4: 24); the unity of all people may testify the greatness of God’s people as Abraham’s children (Gal.3: 28-29).