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CHAPTER 2
THE MESSAGE
Paul did not "grasp" a new theology, or begin a new
religion. Rather, he was "grasped" by God, and then he
began to proclaim the true religion that Christ had re-
established. "Christ originated Christianity; Paul
formulated it." [J. W. Mendenhall, PLATO AND PAUL; OR
PHILOSOPHY AND CHRISTIANITY (Cincinnati: Cranston and Stowe,
1886), p. 428].
From his experience in Christ, Paul was made to see the
coherence of the Old and the New. He sees in Abraham the
same thing he sees in himself and he formulates this
universal theology of God's redemption in Christ Jesus.
This experience is trans-dispensational and supercultural:
He built his theology upon his own experience,
plus the living gospel tradition of the church
which had been passed on to him and upon which he
brought to bear his vigorous mind. He did not
create a theology; he drew out rather the
implications of what already existed in the mind
of the early church . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
His theology, therefore, is an attempt to give
rational expression to the meaning of Christian
experience, particular his own experience, and to
give what he believed to be the theological
implications of what God had been pleased to
accomplish in history through Christ and his
church. (ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA, 1965 ed.,
s.v. "Paul, Saint," by Elias Andrews).
Concerning other possible sources of Paul's theology,
Andrews comments,
Many opinions have been expressed concerning the
sources of Paul's thought. Men have searched the
pagan mystery religions, the hellenistic
environment, the current philosophies
(particularly Stoicism) to find parallels and
dependence. This search has produced far less
than the labour put into it might lead us to
expect. Modern scholarship tends to find the
sources for the essentials of Paul's thought main-
ly in his Jewish background, in the Old Testament
and in rabbinic Judaism. . . . . Whatever he
borrowed, however, from any source, he transformed
under the power and presence of him "in whom are
hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge"
(Col. ii, 3). (ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA, 1965
ed., s.v. "Paul, Saint," by Elias Andrews).
Paul was a fragmatist and not a systematic thinker. (A
fragmatist, according to Ralph Earle, is one who proclaims
the truths he understands well. He does not interpolate and
extrapolate other doctrines to produce a systematic
theology).
Paul expressed "the Christian faith in forms that
enabled it to transcend those limitations that would have
kept it sectarian." (ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA, 1965 ed.,
s.v. "Paul, Saint," by Elias Andrews).
Mendenhall laudes Paul:
Out of this obscurity Paul is sure to come, for,
next to the Son of Man, he is the world's greatest
religious teacher, if not the world's greatest
moral hero, and history will gradually recognize
his relations to all religious movements, and
necessarily to the world's civilization. As no
other man, he is the representative of Christ's
truths; as Plato stands for Philosophy, so PAUL
MAY PROPERLY STAND FOR CHRISTIANITY. (Mendenhall,
PLATO AND PAUL; OR PHILOSOPHY AND CHRISTIANITY, P.
3560.
What truths did Paul emphasize?
Ramsay gives great importance to Paul's conversion:
. . . that the vision was real, Saul could never
doubt. It was the most real event in his life.
It changed his whole career. It has altered the
course of all history, and affected the entire
world. The full comprehension of this great and
marvelous event is fundamental in the Christian
life. The more one ponders over it, and the
better one understands it, the more real is one's
grasp of the true nature of religion and of the
true relation between God and man. [William M.
Ramsay, PICTURES OF THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH (Grand
Rapids: Baker Book House, 1959), pp. 102-103].
Karl Barth is describing Christian conversion in his
commentary on Romans 8:1-2. He presents a perspective on the
experience more from God's vantage point, like Calvin.
Barth is not dealing with mere abstract doctrine, but with
the life-changing experience of meeting Christ. The result
of Christian conversion is that we are IN CHRIST JESUS.
[Karl Barth, THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS (London: Oxford
University Press, 1957), pp. 271 ff.].
Machen assigns great importance to Paul's conversion:
Upon this immediateness of the conversion, Paul is
willing to stake the whole of his life; upon it he
bases his apostolic authority. (Machen, THE
ORIGIN OF PAUL'S RELIGION, p. 68).
Machen also notes the uniqueness of Paul's conversion in
that Jesus appeared to him visibly. (Machen, THE ORIGIN OF
PAUL'S RELIGION, p. 68).
Conversion to Christ is vital to individuals and it is
important to God because he loves us. Paul's primary goal
in life was to please God and help people by leading them
to Christ. The very nature of God is revealed in concrete
redemptive acts throughout Old Testament and New Testament
history. God's desire to be reconciled to man and to redeem
man is revealed in his sending Christ to die for us.
Judgment is only a necessary second alternative.
Paul's first goal was to see people converted to
Christ. His next goal was to see Christ formed within each
convert:
For those God foreknew [those who would
accept Christ as Savior] he also
predestined to be conformed to the
likeness of his Son, that he might be
the firstborn among many brothers.
(Romans 8:29, NIV).
Paul himself was a good example of being Christlike:
In him the Spirit of Christ was incarnate in an
extraordinary degree. The life of the Son of God
was made manifest in his flesh. (Jefferson, THE
CHARACTER OF PAUL, p. 10).
The Father, motivate by love, opened himself to rejection by
opening his heart to man to redeem man. What greater pain
is there than having one's love rejected? Paul, also
motivated by love, opened his heart to people in sharing the
good news of redemption through Christ. Paul had completely
identified with Christ.
God, through love and wisdom, made the plan of
salvation simple. Through fairness to all, God made only
one plan: Christ. God's holiness is the source of his fair-
ness:
God's Holiness--> Justice--> Fairness
Paul and Silas stated the plan concisely: " . . . believe in
the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved . . . ." (Acts 16:31,
RSV).
Paul's message was simply Christ and his work.
Salvation is in the person Jesus Christ. Christ's work is
appropriated through faith, not by keeping the Law:
In place of legalism, Jesus and Paul put the
doctrine of salvation by grace through faith. The
doctrine is implicit in Jesus and explicit in
Paul. [William Hordern, A LAYMAN'S GUIDE TO
PROTESTANT THEOLOGY (New York: The Macmillan
Company, 1962), p. 24].
The nature of this salvation is not philosophical,
theological, religious, autoergosoteric, but life in Christ.
Christ IS--everything else is illusion and inauthenic. One
IS when he is brought into Christ by the Holy Spirit on the
condition of faith. This is the gospel message Paul
received from God. (Galatians 1:11-12).
Invitation
A fitting conclusion for so great a truth is to receive
Christ as your Savior if you have not done so. Here is how
to receive Christ:
1. GOD LOVES YOU. Realize that God loves you and desires a
life of joy for you:
For God so loved the world, that he gave
his only begotten Son, that whosoever
believeth in him should not perish, but
have everlasting life. (John 3:16).
Not only did God tell you that he loves you, but he
proved his love by sending his Son to die for you! His love
is also expressed by the full and high quality life he has
planned for you NOW--in this life as well as in the life to
come. Jesus said,
The thief [Satan] comes only to steal and
kill and destroy; I have come that they
may have life, and have it to the full.
(John 10:10, NIV).
Why is there so much evil in the world and why do many
people not experience the abundant life?
2. SIN HAS SEPARATED YOU FROM GOD. Because people are sinful,
they are cut off from God and his blessings. The Bible
teaches and human experience confirms that we are sinful:
For all have sinned, and come short of
the glory of God; (Romans 3:23).
We were created for fellowship with God. However, that
fellowship was broken when we rebelled against God. Sin
brought us spiritual death:
For the wages of sin is death, but the
gift of God is eternal life in Christ
Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23, NIV).
We continually strive for the abundant life but always
fall short. Business success, wealth, education, religion,
fame, drugs, pleasure and all human substitutes cannot fill
the God-shaped void in the human heart. How do we become
reconciled with God and experience the abundant life?
3. JESUS CHRIST IS THE ONLY ANSWER. Jesus Christ is God's
only provision to forgive our sin and give us abundant life.
Jesus died for us--he took our penalty of spiritual death:
Very rarely will anyone die for a
righteous man, though for a good man
someone might possibly dare to die. But
God demonstrates his own love for us in
this: WHILE WE WERE STILL SINNERS, CHRIST
DIED FOR US. [Italics mine]. (Romans
5:7-8, NIV).
God demonstrated that Christ's death was accepted as a
sacrifice for us by raising Christ from the dead:
For what I received I passed on to
you as of first importance: that Christ
died for our sins according to the
Scriptures, that he was buried, that he
was raised on the third day according to
the Scriptures, and that he appeared to
Peter, and then to the Twelve. After
that, he appeared to more than five
hundred of the brothers at the same time,
most of whom are still living, though
some have fallen asleep. Then he
appeared to James, then to all the
apostles, and last of all he appeared to
me also, as to one abnormally born.
(1 Corinthians 15:3-8, NIV).
Christ is the only way to God:
Jesus answered, "I am the way and
the truth and the life, No one comes to the
Father except through me." (John 14:6,
NIV).
It is not enough to know that God loves you, that sin
has cut you off from God and that Jesus Christ is the only
way to God.
4. YOU MUST RECEIVE CHRIST PERSONALLY. You must personally
receive Christ as your Lord and Savior. The Bible states
that,
Yet to all who received him, to those who
believed in his name, he gave the right
to become children of God--children born
not of natural descent, nor of human
decision or a husband's will, but born of
God. (John 1:12-13, NIV).
You receive Christ by faith:
For it is by grace you have been saved,
through faith--and this is not from
yourselves, it is the gift of God--not by
works, so that no one can boast, For we
are God's workmanship, created in Christ
Jesus to do good works, which God
prepared in advance for us to do.
(Ephesians 2:8-9, NIV).
If you choose to receive the truth about Jesus Christ,
then the Holy Spirit will give you faith to trust him as your
personal Savior. Then, when you receive Christ, the Holy
Spirit will give you a spiritual rebirth. Jesus called this
being born again:
You should not be surprised at my saying,
`You must be born again.' (John 3:7,
NIV).
This is the most important experience that you will ever
have. God will bring new life into your being. This new life
will make you more like the Lord Jesus.
The Prophet Isaiah painted this beautiful word picture
concerning the ministry of Christ:
The Spirit of the Sovereign
Lord is on me
because the Lord has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent men to bind up the
brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the
captives
and release from darkness for the
prisoners,
to proclaim the year of the Lord's
favor
and the day of vengeance of our
God,
to comfort all who mourn,
and provide for those who grieve
in Zion--
to bestow on them a crown of
beauty
instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness
instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise
instead of a spirit of despair.
They will be called oaks of
righteousness,
a planting of the Lord
for the display of his splendor.
(Isaiah 61:1-3, NIV)
Isaiah speaks of the joy of deliverance from past guilt
and bondage of sin. However, it does not happen auto-
matically.
Christ stands at your heart's door, but you must open
the door:
Look! I have been standing at the
door and I am constantly knocking. If
anyone hears me calling him and opens the
door, I will come in and fellowship with
him, and he with me. (Revelation 3:20,
The Living Bible).
You can receive Christ in your heart right now. Pray
this prayer from your heart:
Almighty God, I confess that I have sinned
against you. I ask you to forgive me. I receive
Christ as my Lord and Savior. Thank you for
forgiving my sins and giving me eternal life.
In Jesus' Name, Amen.
Tell someone that you have accepted Christ as your
Savior. Please write me and tell me the good news also.
(This presentation of the plan of salvation was adapted from
Dr. Bill Bright's "Four Spiritual Laws.")
END
