Jesus Christ in the Apostle Paul's Epistles

According to Paul’s thinking, there are two classical ways of presenting Jesus Christ. The first insists on Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection as redemptive acts (1 Cor. 2:2; Gal. 6:14, and 2 Cor. 4:5). “For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2, ESV). In this line of interpretation, what comes first is not a definition of faith or of righteousness by faith but a narrative of Jesus’ Passion and vindication. The name of Friedrich Büchsel is attached to this theological position.¹

The second way underscores the subjective side of Christology, the means by which the message of the Cross reaches the believers. What is original in the apostle’s thought is not the historical depicting of Jesus’ ministry, death, and resurrection, but the manner through which the Word forces the person to pass from unbelief to faith by the manifestation of God’s righteousness. Characteristic passages here are Romans 1:16, 17 and 3:21, 22. “But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been disclosed, and is attested by the law and the prophets, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe” (Rom. 3:21, 22, NRSV). This is the path followed by Rudolf Bultmann,² who refuses the simple narrative of historical facts and considers as mythological the recourse to the category of sacrifice. Only God’s Word has the power to bring the believers to a true understanding of themselves and a pure appropriation of faith.

There is a third way, which I suggest here. If we consider Paul’s personal encounter with Jesus Christ and his responsibility as an apostle, it is possible, even advisable, to respect four situations in Paul’s experience, both personal and social, and to investigate how the apostle develops his own Christology in precise historical situations.

The first is the time of his conversion on the road to Damascus. It occurs in the presence of Jesus Christ at this decisive moment in Paul’s life. It is the time of the apostle’s training—his learning of being a disciple (mathêtês) of Christ. The second is the time of Paul’s missionary activity when the apostle preaches and teaches along with the other apostles. This is Paul’s period of being an instructor (didaskalos). The third situation is then created when Jewish-Christians attack him and criticize his understanding of the Mosaic Law. Paul in that period pursues a reflection on the relationship between Christ and the Law. The final one arises when Paul is accused of not having deepened enough his knowledge of Christ through the gift of the Spirit.

If the front against the Jewish-Christians is open in Asia Minor and evidence of it is preserved in the Epistle to the Galatians, the front against the Enthusiasts is located in Corinth and witnessed in the First Epistle to the Corinthians. As Paul’s biography makes it clear, these two confrontations occur around the same time (around 50–55 C.E.), while the conversion to Christ occurred around 34 C.E., and the regular mission took place since then.

“For to me, living is Christ and dying is gain” (Phil. 1:21, NRSV).

Jesus Christ has been an element of rupture in Paul’s life. There was a before and an after for the meeting with Christ on the road to Damascus.

The cause of this decisive turning point was not a heroic depiction of Jesus’ death but a divine intervention, a Christophany. Paul gives an account of this event in Galatians 1:13–17; Philippians 3:7–11; and perhaps Romans 7:18–25. Before this meeting with the risen Christ, life was for Paul a time of obedience to the Mosaic Law, of belonging to the Pharisaic movement, and of polemic against the Christian communities. After this event came the communion with Christ, the discovery of the gospel, the benefice of freedom, the belonging to the Christian church, and the missionary activity, particularly among the Gentiles.

Three terms help to characterize this new period in Paul’s existence. The first term is rupture. Christ has been a source of violent rupture for Paul, walking along his travel to Damascus: Paul’s Jewish life has been suddenly broken. It is no longer the obedience to the Law but the righteousness by faith that dictates Paul’s own life. The second term is totality. It means that the whole life of Paul has changed drastically. The change has been, not gradual, but brusque and sudden. It tells also how global Jesus Christ’s input was in the apostle’s life. Everything that does not belong to Christ belongs now to the past. Everything that survives is transfigured. Paul died to the Law, and from now on Christ is Paul’s life. “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” (Gal. 2:19, 20, NRSV). “Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him.” (Phil. 3:7–9, NRSV). The third term is exclusive service. As answer to Christ’s intervention in his life, Paul accepts the role of “servant.” He recognizes this bond when he says, “If I proclaim the gospel, this gives me no ground for boasting, for an obligation is laid on me, and woe to me if I do not proclaim the gospel!” (1 Cor. 9:16, NRSV). This relationship between the Lord and his servant is for Paul not a source of subordination but a source of freedom, of liberation from the old bonds. Paul feels himself more responsible for others than before, and he claims to be in communion with Christ. In summary, Jesus Christ for Paul the recent convert, the new Christian, has been a cause of an existential rupture and the source of a total new life. Jesus Christ remains a constant loving and authoritative Person. He has been the content of the revelation. He is at the origin of Paul’s Christian faith and apostolic ministry. Divine calling and divine election are inexplicable without Him. Without Christ, Paul would not have reached the true faith and would not have been baptized.

“For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again . . .” (1 Thess. 4:14, NRSV)

Jesus Christ, who had such a personal impact on Paul, is not an unknown deity, not an agnôstos theos, whom the apostle would be the first to reveal. Even if Paul insists on the direct link that connects him to Christ (Gal. 1:1, 12), he recognizes that his Lord is the same as the Lord of the primitive church. Direct revelation, like the one on the road to Damascus, can live side by side with the human witness and the ecclesiastic traditions, liturgical (1 Cor. 11:23), ethical (1 Thess. 4:1), or doctrinal (1 Cor. 15:3–5). Paul can affirm that liturgical elements, as human expressions, nevertheless came “from the Lord” (1 Cor. 11:23). This reasoning explains that Paul does not hesitate to use and to quote creeds and hymns of the first communities. He shares with “those who were already apostles before me” (Gal. 1:17, NRSV) not only a treasure of traditions but also a cluster of Christological convictions. He believes that it is more important to know Jesus Christ’s work of redemption than the exact identity of the Lord’s person. He realizes with them that behind Jesus Christ’s tragic destiny is the agenda of the benevolent God of Israel. “In Christ God was reconciling the world to himself” (2 Cor. 5:19, NRSV): Christ’s event is imbedded in God’s will. To use other words, God’s righteousness expresses itself in terms of grace and love (see Rom. 3:24; 5:15). This theological program does not arrive unexpectedly but constitutes the result of the prophecy inscribed in the Hebrew Bible (see Rom. 3:21 and in 1 Cor. 15:3, 4 the double mention “in accordance with the Scriptures”). In harmony with the church, Paul believes that Jesus came in an act of obedience and love (see Gal. 4:4; Phil. 2:6, 7; Rom. 8:3, 4; 2 Cor. 8:9). In agreement with the church, he knows that Jesus was crucifi ed and that this death can be interpreted as an act of redemption (Rom. 3:24–26); that God on the third day has vindicated His Son (1 Cor. 15:3–5).

“For Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes” (Rom. 10:4, NRSV).

Paul had to fight a Christian form of religion that he could not accept. According to his Judaizing opponents, God’s promises are exclusively for Israel; a form of obedience opposed to the freedom that the apostle has discovered in Christ is required from every Christian. For these adversaries, the obedience to the Law in its external and ritual requirements is still valid; circumcision is the permanent mark of election; the death of the Messiah is a sacrifice only for the people of God and not for the nations. Acts 15:1–5 and the Epistle to the Galatians give us a glimpse into the doctrinal position of these adversaries.

What is, in this polemical context, Paul’s Christological emphasis? First, the apostle’s answer is extremely harsh. The adversaries’ gospel is not another gospel; it is not a gospel at all (Gal. 1:6), because it brings the believers back to slavery (Gal. 4:9, 10). Second, insisting so much on the obedience to the Law (Gal. 4:1), these people do not understand the Hebrew Scriptures. They are not able to give a Christological interpretation of the Law, nor do they know how to distinguish prescription and promise, old and new covenant, flesh and spirit. Third, they do not realize the importance of righteousness through faith and have doubt in the eschatological power of Jesus’ death. The result is that, according to their view, Christ died in vain (Gal. 2:20, 21; see also Gal. 5:2). Paul, on the contrary, places his pride in Christ and in Christ crucifi ed (Gal. 6:13, 14). This is the skandalon, the offense of the Cross. It should not be removed, nor marginalized, for the Lord Jesus Christ “gave himself for our sins to set us free from the present age, according to the will of our God and Father” (Gal. 1: 3, 4; see also Gal. 3:13; 4:4, 5). Through His sacrifice on the cross Christ liberates human beings and offers them adoption. Such is the core of Paul’s Christological message in his fight against the Jewish-Christians.

“Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctifi cation and redemption . . .” (1 Cor. 1:30)

On the other front, Paul had to fight the Enthusiasts in Corinth, extremists who would underscore only the freedom and the presence of the divine spirit.³ These opponents do not appreciate any allusion to the Cross, and they take pleasure in a logos sophias, a preaching centered on the wisdom of God. Paul’s reaction is as harsh here as it was against the Jewish-Christians. To assimilate, as little as it may be, the Christian kêrygma with a human wisdom, is to pervert it completely. As they erase the value of the Cross, Paul’s Corinthian adversaries transform the gospel into a human teaching. Paul does not fear to consider the Cross as a failure and the Christian message as an apparent foolishness, a môria opposed to any human wisdom (1 Cor. 2:6). But this apparent foolishness is in fact the real wisdom because it is connected with God’s power and God’s Spirit. Finally Christ is himself the true incarnation of God’s Wisdom. He offers access to God, and He is the only one to offer it. He brings this gift while He ends any effort to reach righteousness by oneself.

If humanity accepts the Christian way, a way that refuses any human wisdom and knowledge, then humanity may have communion with God. Christ may reach these people coming to them through His Spirit. Therefore this life in Christ is not only suffering and foolishness, but through them the way of wisdom, the only sophia for the perfect (1 Cor. 2:6–16). If Christ is for the apostle Paul the end of the Law, He is also the beginning and the core of the wisdom.