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CONCL.DOC
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CONCLUSION
Paul and his influence can be compared to a natural,
biological family tree. At the bottom would be Paul. Then
those whom he led to the Lord--those who have been given
Christ's life through him--branch out through time. Some of
the main trunk branches are Augustine, Luther, Calvin, Wesley
and Barth.
This is the tree of life in human history. It is the
tree of life because it is part of the Church, part of the
Body of Christ. It IS. These are not intellectual
children, philosophers. These are they who have eternal
life through Christ. This is the stream of life down
through history. These are IN CHRIST:
For St. Paul the life of the Christian is life in
Christ, and it can at the same time be described
as the life of Christ in the believer. It is a
participation in the life of Christ who is even
now at the right hand of the Father. [Lesslie
Newbigin, THE HOUSEHOLD OF GOD (New York:
Friendship Press, 1954), p. 71].
Paul's children are not biological, but the life passed on
is just as real--in fact more real--it is eternal life.
Barclay summarizes it well. The phrase IN CHRIST
is not so much the essence of Paul's theology, as
it is the summary of his whole religion. For Paul
this phrase IN CHRIST was always a compendious
statement of the Christian faith. . . . . From
the beginning to the end of his Christian life it
was the centre and soul of his Christian experi-
ence.
Still further, we must note that Paul never
at any time looked on this phrase as describing a
religious experience which was unique and peculiar
to himself. [William Barclay, THE MIND OF ST.
PAUL (New York: Harper and Brothers, Publishers,
1958), pp. 12-13].
Paul had many spiritual children. And they have been
grasped by the only basis of ecumenicity, ecumenicity that
IS, regardless of petty doctrinal bias. It IS because of
the only true and real Bond who indwells them--the Spirit of
Christ. They are all IN CHRIST.
END