Paul, the Apostle to the Gentile - Essay Example

HUMANITIES PAPER INTRODUCTION Paul, the Apostle to the Gentile, provides us with a paradigm with which we may be able to grasp the conception of our faith that is rooted not only in tradition but is based on the actual experience of the power of God. As such in this paper, I will try address some questions pertinent to Paul and his message. This is done with the hope that a better understanding of the Pauline message will enable me to become a better witness to the goodness of the Triune God. THE DAMASCUS EXPERIENCE Saul of Tarsus as has been called prior to his conversion or his recognition of the resurrected Christ has been one of the early Christian persecutors. It started with Saul’s approval in the stoning of Stephen that marked ‘’the beginning of a great persecution against the Church in Jerusalem’’ (Acts 8:1). It is Saul’s zeal to fulfil his agenda of persecuting the early Christians which were heavily influenced by his commitment to his belief as a strict ‘’Shammaite Pharisee’’ (Wright, p. 26). His dedication to persecute the church justifies his action ‘’even beyond the borders of the Holy Land itself’’ (Wright, p. 26). On his way to Damascus to carry his mission, ‘’a light from the sky suddenly flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice…’’ (Acts 9: 3-4). He was blinded by the light, as the word of Wright, ‘’Saul of Tarsus … lay blinded and perhaps bruised on the road to Damascus’’ (Wright, p. 36). Stories and testimonies of the apostles seeing the resurrected Jesus as has been mentioned in 1 Cor. 15:5, flew like wildfire. And, Saul himself witness in his very eyes that Jesus was alive, that Jesus resurrected from the dead since Saul himself knew that he was crucified and eventually died on the cross for quite a number of days. This experience marks the beginning of his conversion. Saul now is facing a new challenge. The strict Shammaite Pharisee who carried the mission of obliterating the church is now the vanguard of the faith and is willing to give his life for what he believes. It was his encounter with the resurrected Jesus that changed everything. ‘’The resurrection demarcated Jesus as the true Messiah, the true bearer of Israel’s God-sent destiny’’ (Wright, p. 37). Saul has awaken and now profess ‘’…once I found Christ, all those things that I might have considered as profit, I reckoned as loss’’ (Phil. 3:7). Saul’s experience in his way to Damascus perhaps the most dramatic if not an abrupt event or story of conversion. Nonetheless, his experience changed the very core of his being and changes his perspective. The man once ‘’believe passionately that the great prophetic promises had not yet been fulfilled’’ (Wright, p. 30), now believes that ‘’the one true God had done for Jesus of Nazareth’’ (Wright, p. 36). Once the persecutor of the pagans, the non-Jews and the followers of Christ, now earns his merit as the apostle to the Gentiles. EUANGELION IN THE MODERN CHURCH The word gospel (euangelion) somehow has a clear connotation in our time, it simply mean good news – about Jesus Christ. And we are satisfied by that explanation. Perhaps many of the common believers dare not to ask, or did it ever slip into their minds to pose a query on the origin of the word. No matter how ambiguous the presentation, people usually pretend that they understand what has been announced, ‘’they assume… they know from their own context what they mean by the gospel’’ (Wright, p. 40). However, the modern church has technically misunderstood the term euangelion as it assumes without question that it refers to the good news and that by doing so it has made the term so broad that it has now become vague. Vague since it can now denote many things like “religious meeting … and as a for utterly reliable metaphor information…” (Wright, p 40) PAUL’S USAGE OF THE TERM Noting that there are two different cultures from where the word euangelion gets its origin, it is wise to glance at them so we could understand the original meaning of the word. In the Greek culture it ‘’refer to the announcement of a great victory, or to the birth, or accession, of an emperor’’ (Wright, p. 43). In the Jewish tradition, ‘’good news or glad tidings would be the message that the long-awaited release from captivity was at hand’’ (Wright, p. 43). With this cultural background, we now read in the Pauline letters the good news of Jesus’ victory over the ‘’pretensions of the imperial cult, and indeed all other paganisms whether ‘religious’ and ‘secular’ ’’(Wright, p 44). And at the same time, Jesus’ victory is the fulfilment of the Isaianic message. Thus, we find at the core of Pauline letters is the good news of Jesus’ victory over all powers and evils on this earth and that Jesus’ victory is the fulfilment of the Isaianic promise. THE FOUR-FOLD EVANGELION CONCERNING JESUS The “announcement made by Paul” (Wright, p 46) is the story of Jesus of Nazareth, “…His announcement was that the crucified Jesus of Nazareth had been raised from the dead; that he was thereby proved to be Israel’s Messiah; that he was thereby installed as the Lord of the world. Or to put it more compactly: Jesus, the crucified and the risen Messiah, is Lord.”(Wright, p 46) THE FIRST EUANGELION: THE CRUCIFIED JESUS The crucifixion of Jesus is God’s way of reversing the values of this world. “He has turned shame into glory and glory into shame. His is the folly that outsmarts the wise, the weakness that overpowers the strong.” (Wright, p 47) The crucifixion is central in Paul for he announced that the crucifixion of Jesus is the triumph of the God of Israel over all other pagan gods and that by the crucifixion of Jesus God has triumphed over all the powers and evils of the earth. This is the concrete picture of the “Servant of YHWH, suffering and being vindicated” (Wright, p 47) Thus, the death of Jesus has opened the gates of the Heavens not only to the Jews but to the Gentiles as well for “In Christ Jesus, all of you are sons and daughters of god through faith. Here there is no longer difference between Jew or Greek, or between slave or freed, or between man or woman; but all of you are one in Christ Jesus” (Gal 3:26, 28) THE SECOND EUANGELION: THE RISEN JESUS The story of Jesus did not end at his crucifixion and death, but that the majestic power, the omnipotence of God has been made manifest in the resurrection of Jesus. When Jesus rose from the dead, God has sealed his triumph over all the evils and powers of this earth. Jesus’ resurrection has propelled humanity to a new world order. A new world order since the pagan world of the ancient period has been defeated and conquered by the death and resurrection of Jesus. Jesus’ resurrection ushers in a ‘new world order’ for Jesus triumph over death is not only transcendental in essence but that it is in fact the start of the of the new “physical existence…a body which is constituted in spirit” (Wright, p 50), thus Paul says, “For there shall be a spiritual body as there is at present a living body. Scripture says that Adam the first human being, was given natural life, but the last Adam has become spirit that gives life.” (1 Cor 15: 44-45) THE THIRD EVANGELION: KING JESUS Paul’s announcement regarding the Kingship of Jesus is anchored on the fact that Jesus is a seed of David thereby fulfilling the Isaianic prophecy that the coming Messiah will be from the line of David as promise by the One true God of Israel. But more than that, Paul keeps coming back to the story of Jesus’ death and resurrection as the surest sign of Jesus Kingship since it is via these two events that Jesus has conquered death and sin. Being such, the kingship of Jesus yields the Kingship of the One true God over all the earth for his great power has defeated the gods of Babylon. Thus, it can be perceived that the gospel of Paul present to us that at Jesus crucifixion and death God has reversed the values of this world and in this reversal of values God has fully manifested His wisdom and man’s folly. But God’s omnipotence does not end there. In Jesus’ resurrection, God has sealed His triumph over all the earth. Thus, through the death and resurrection of Jesus, Jesus becomes the King of all the earth. THE FOURTH EVANGELION: JESUS IS LORD Jesus is Lord is the full manifestation of God’s power and love for humanity. The word ‘lord’ is derived from Kyrios. According to Wright, this term is not just a simple address to ordinary people but that he term lord is solely used to refer to the emperor (56). Thus, it can be inferred that the moment that Paul called Jesus ‘Lord’, he moved away from the Roman ideation that there is only one emperor in this world – the roman emperor. But that he presented the truism, that over and above their emperor is the Lordship of the one true God of Israel in Jesus. This tenet destroys everything that is against the loving wisdom of God and affirms what has been foretold since the beginning of time – the One True God is with us, ”Every tongue shall confess that Jesus is Lord” (Phil 3: ) JEWISH MONOTHEISM Jewish monotheism asserts that there is only One True God and that there is no other God beside Him. All the other gods of the ancient world fall short in splendour and glory if compared with the One True God of Israel. More over, it denies the dualism intrinsic in polytheism but it affirms the goodness of the world as it is created by the One Good God of Israel. But what makes this more significant is the fact that the One True God of Israel is involved in the history of His people. He is not a God who meddles arbitrarily but that He is a God who is concern with the plight of His people. And for that reason, the emperor cannot be a god, for there is only One True God. JESUS AND JEWISH MONOTHEISM Jesus is the “human face of YHWH”. (Wright, p70) Paul has presented beautifully the relationship of the Triune God. Jesus is not different from God. Jesus himself shares the very same nature of God for He is the Son of God. But though Jesus is God he did not cling to it but rather he opted to take our human form “Though he was in a form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to take advantage of, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in humbleness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to death, even the death of the cross” (Phil 2: 6 – 8). The beauty of this is that it moves away from divinizing Jesus but it affirms as a first premise the Divinity of Jesus. But Jesus’ divinity is made more pronounced by the fact that he did not take advantage of it, and instead Jesus assumed the human form. In this exposition, Paul has presented beautifully Jesus in the Jewish monotheism – Jesus is the recognizable human face of YHWH. SPIRIT AND MONOTHEISM The Spirit within Paul’s Jewish monotheism shows to us relation of the Triune God – Father, Son and Spirit- Three divine Persons, One God and the idea of indwelling. God in His loving goodness send His Son to redeem the world and the Son send the Spirit to speak of God. In the New Age, the Torah and the tabernacle (the physical manifestation of God’s dwelling with humanity), are relegated in the periphery for it is God himself now who is dwelling with humanity itself - Spirit. BIBLIOGRAPHY Wright, N.T. (2003) What Saint Paul Really Said: Was Paul of Tarsus the Real Founder of Christianity. Michigan: William B. Eerdsman Pub. Co. Christian Community Bible 2nd Ed. Philippines: Claretian Publications. Read More