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CHAPTER 4
THE MEN
Who has not been influenced by Paul? It would be a
physical impossibility to find all those who have been
influenced by the apostle. Paul has positively affected all
civilization.
Paul has been the standard by which living Christianity
has measured itself:
Men go back to Paul because they find in him the
first courageous and competent handling of
essential beliefs and practices of the church.
That is why he has exercised, through the
centuries, a critical function. Whenever the
Christian faith has been in danger of losing its
soul, of becoming fettered with legalism and
ceremonialisms, of allowing the tyranny of
traditions and institutions to become a substitute
for a man's personal approach to and trust in God,
Paul has returned like a refining fire, and men
have rediscovered the essence of Christianity in
his doctrines of the free grace of God and the
liberty of the Christian soul. Augustine, Luther,
Wesley, Karl Barth, all witness to the influence
of Paul's thought in crucial periods of history.
It is doubtful whether, without him, Christianity
would have survived in its pristine character,
much less become the religion of the western
world. And, had this not occurred, much would
have been lost to western civilization itself.
(ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA, 1965 ed., s.v.
"Paul, Saint," by Elias Andrews).
Since Paul's influence is so vast we must necessarily
limit his influence to some key men. Jefferson feels that,
We can judge of his greatness by the great men who have
kindled their torch at his fire. It was he who convert-
ed Augustine and made him the greatest of all the theo-
logians. It was he who broke the chains of Luther and
made him the greatest of all the reformers. It was he
who kindled the heart of Wesley and made him the great-
est of all the evangelists. Augustine, Luther, Wesley,
are the three most potent personalities which the
Church from the age of the Apostles to the twentieth
century has produced, all three of them giants, and all
three aroused and made mighty by a giant greater than
them all--Saul of Tarsus. (Jefferson, THE CHARACTER OF
PAUL, p. 379).
Augustine
Although Pfleiderer understands that Augustine Roman-
izes the evangelical truth, he sees Augustine as sharing with
Paul the
profound sense of dependence on God, of the
unconditionality of the Divine grace, without
which he felt himself to be as powerless for good
as he was wretched and reprobate. . . . .
[Augustine] . . . experienced in his own person
the saving power of the gospel of the grace of God
in Christ. [Otto Pfleiderer, LECTURES ON THE
INFLUENCE OF THE APOSTLE PAUL ON THE DEVELOPMENT
OF CHRISTIANITY (London: Williams and Norgate,
1885), p. 263].
Let us go to Augustine for a firsthand account of his
conversion. The scripture that most affected Augustine was
Paul's writings. [Augustine, THE CONFESSIONS OF ST.
AUGUSTINE, trans. by Edward B. Pusey (New York: Pocket Books,
Inc., 1957), p. 125]. Augustine tells of the struggle within
concerning his mistresses. Then he speaks of his shedding
tears over his sinful condition and asking the Lord to
cleanse him. He then heard a voice repeated chanting, "Take
up and read." This voice he felt to be from God for him to
open the scriptures. He opened to Romans 13:13-14,
Let us behave decently, as in the day-
time, not in orgies and drunkenness, not
in sexual immorality and debauchery, not
in dissension and jealousy. Rather,
clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus
Christ, and do not think about how to
gratify the desires of the sinful
nature. (Romans 13:13-14, NIV).
After reading this passage of scripture, Augustine was
converted. (Augustine, THE CONFESSIONS OF ST. AUGUSTINE,
pp. 145 ff.).
After his conversion, Augustine made the truth of the
conversion experience
. . . the one absorbing idea of his whole life.
As Paul had felt himself and the whole world
crucified with Christ, and was thenceforth
determined to know nothing else save Jesus Christ
as crucified, so Augustine, after his violent
break with his past life, regarded everything
belonging to natural humanity as worthless in
comparison with the sole source of truth and
goodness which had been opened up to him in the
grace of Christ. (Pfleiderer, LECTURES ON THE
INFLUENCE OF THE APOSTLE PAUL ON THE DEVELOPMENT
OF CHRISTIANITY, pp. 263 ff.).
Augustine was radically changed for the better when he met
Christ personally. The light and life of Christ flooded his
entire being and he was literally transformed.
Martin Luther
Martin Luther was another great in the history of the
Church.
It was LUTHER in whom the spirit of Paulinism
first re-appeared in all its power, successfully
bursting the fetters . . . by which it had been
held bound for fourteen hundred years. How may men
get rid of their sins and be righteous? This
cardinal point of the doctrine of Paul was the
burning question of Luther's life, and settlement
of which he had vainly sought in the ecclesiasti-
cal religion of works, and at length, like Paul,
found faith in Christ the Reconciler. (Pfleiderer,
LECTURES ON THE INFLUENCE OF THE APOSTLE PAUL ON
THE DEVELOPMENT OF CHRISTIANITY, pp. 273-274).
Although Luther was not completely orthodox in all points of
doctrine, yet he met the Lord and told others how to reach
him. Justification by faith alone was a living truth for him
and his followers.
John Calvin
John Calvin was converted somewhere between 1529 and
1532. (James Hastings, ed., ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF RELIGION AND
ETHICS, 1928 ed., s.v. "Calvinism," by James Orr). It may
well have been that Calvin was converted by hearing Paul,
for he says of Paul's letter to the Romans,
. . . when anyone understands this Epistle, he has
a passage opened to him to the understanding of
the whole Scripture. [John Calvin, COMMENTARIES
ON THE EPISTLE OF PAUL THE APOSTLE TO THE ROMANS,
trans. and ed. by John Owen (Grand Rapids: William
B. Eerdmans, 1947), p. xxiv].
John Wesley
That John Wesley was influenced by Paul is undeniable.
Here is an account from his Journal, May 12, 1738:
14. In the evening I went very unwillingly to a
society in Altersgate Street, where one was
reading Luther's preface to the Epistle to the
Romans. About a quarter before nine, while he was
describing the change which God works in the heart
through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely
warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ
alone, for salvation: and an assurance was given
me, that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and
saved me from the law of sin and death. [John
Wesley, JOHN WESLEY'S JOURNAL, Abridged ed.,
(London: The Epworth Press, 1903), p. 51].
Luther thought very highly of Romans, for he says in
his preface to this book,
This Epistle is really the chief part of the New
Testament and the very purest Gospel . . . .
[Martin Luther, "Prefaces to the Books of the
Bible," trans. C. M. Jacobs, VOL. VI: WORKS OF
MARTIN LUTHER (Philadelphia: Muhlenburg Press,
1932), p. 447].
Peter Bohler was the one reading Luther's Preface to Romans
that night. No doubt John Wesley was convinced that same
night of his conversion by passages such as these:
To fulfill the law, however, is to do its works
with pleasure and love, and to live a godly and
good life of one's own accord, without the
compulsion of the law. This pleasure and love for
the law is put into the heart by the Holy Ghost,
as he says in the introduction; and faith does not
come, save only through God's Word or Gospel,
which preaches Christ, that He is God's Son and a
man, and has died and risen again for our sakes,
as he says in chapters iii, iv, and x. [Martin
Luther, "Preface to the Books of the Bible,"
trans. C. M. Jacobs, VOL. VI: WORKS OF MARTIN
LUTHER (Philadelphia: Muhlenburg Press, 1932), pp.
449-450].
Wesley, as Paul, had tried to fill the void in his heart and
overcome guilt by doing good deeds and by attempting to keep
the Mosaic Law. Then, like Paul, he met Christ face-to-face
and was justified freely, by faith in Christ.
Karl Barth
Karl Barth also found Christ as Paul did. Thus, a
"liberal" theologian found Christ and started the "Neo-
Orthodoxy" movement.
Paul taught many truths that helped many people.
However, his teaching on Justification by Faith is the most
important since it leads to new life in Christ. These men
are some of the more important people that have been
impacted by Paul's teaching on Justification by Faith.
END