I must admit that I have never been a prodigious reader of Paul. My initial understanding of Paul is that everything points to the cross and therefore away from the life and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth. I have always felt that his proclamation of “Christ crucified” ignored the inclusion of the sayings and works of Jesus prior to his death and resurrection, and because of this, Jesus’ sayings were relegated to second place over and above Paul’s own theological vision.
Prior to studying Paul, I believed that his main message to his Christian communities about salvation in Christ was essentially about a belief that through the cross and the vindication of the resurrection, Jesus was the rightful Messiah of Israel; one just simply needed to believe in this idea to be justified. Contrary to this idea, I have always leaned heavily on the book of James (James 2:14-26).
Concerning Paul’s expectations of how his communities were to behave, while he has always been consistent in expressing the love principle and that all things come from God, Paul was also responding to specific circumstances that arose in the early Christian communities. In so doing, whether intentionally or unintentionally, he created a set of values that would be later erroneously built upon to justify the condemnation of homosexuals (1 Corinthians 6:9–10) and the servitude of women to their husbands (1 Cor. 11:3; 7-9; 14:33-35).
Whatever my ideas were before studying Paul, he has always been the linch-pin to my faith, my firm belief that Jesus of Nazareth was raised from the dead, which confirms his authority as the true Messiah. Without Paul, one can doubt the existence of the resurrection and dismiss the other Apostles’ resurrection experiences as some sor...
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...effect on my soul. Now, as never before, the words “Christ crucified” are highly significant in my perception of what it means to partake of communion and to be a Christian.
Aside from Paul’s theological works, the most significant addition to my faith development has been the exposure to the pistis Christou debate. The idea of having “faith in Christ” has always presented me with a spiritual challenge. It always seemed to me that all I had to do was simply believe that Jesus was the true Messiah and I would then be saved, but to have the “faith of Christ” completely redefines my spiritual world view. If indeed this is what Paul meant, and I would like to think it was, then this transforms my faith from that of believing to that of doing. Having the “faith of Christ” demands more of me and connects me to the Jesus of Nazareth, not only the crucified Christ.
Ruden, Sarah. Paul among the People: The Apostle Reinterpreted and Reimagined in His Own Time. New York: Pantheon, 2010. Print.
Paul the Apostle is the central figure in many New Testament writings. Many historians have attributed fourteen New Testament letters to Paul’s writing; seven of these letters are uncontested meaning historians are sure that Paul wrote them, the remaining seven are contested. Paul was not always a Christian; in fact, he persecuted Christians before Christ came and temporarily blinded him. Upon seeing Christ, Paul devoted his life to Christianity and set out to spread the teachings of Christ. Scholars often credit Paul’s leadership to the ability of the Church to become Hellenistic in one generation. Paul also answered specific worries and questions that his converters may have had in many of his writings; one of these writings is 1 Corinthians. In 1 Corinthians, Paul set out to deal with the many believers in Corinth who are divided into the followings of Paul or Apollos rather than Christianity as a whole. The converts of Paul in 1 Corinthians 12-14 were divided during times of worship because of jealousy invoked by the spiritual gifts received from the “Spirit”; the worships and the church became a place to boast who is closest to God, instead of a place of worship, interpretation, and love. In 1 Corinthians 14:26-33, Paul set guidelines in times of worship to heal the divide among his converts present in 1 Corinthians 12-14.
Justification by faith alone is an important point of Paul in Romans, however the matter of whose faith is less clear. Faith, as basis for justification, can be viewed in one of two ways: the faithfulness of Christ or the human response of faith. Greathouse and Lyons suggest that perhaps it is both. As they write, “If Law as the system of salvation by human achievement is rejected as the means of being made righteous, faith as the system of trusting the crucified Christ alone for salvation includes both aspects of faith as used in Romans.”6 Consequently, justification by faith must be first understood as the display of Christ faithfulness to which humans can then respond to the divinely initiated act as an invitation to participate in the life of God. In other words, the faithfulness of God, displayed in the faithfulness of Christ that bring justification to all who believe, is an invitation of response to participate in the life of God through the empowerment of the Holy Spirit to live lives of
Paul and Jesus both have similar topics they teach. Not only that, but Paul and Jesus have very similar teaching styles, with the key difference being how they react to mistakes made by their pupils. Paul and Jesus both lose their temper at points and get very angry, but Jesus transforms his anger into forgiveness, where Paul does not. These similarities and differences presented allow us to better understand what Jesus taught by referencing Galatians as a guide. Overall, we see that Mark and Paul’s letter to the Galatians show the similar beliefs Paul and Jesus had, but also show how they react when those beliefs are
Paul the Apostle, was a famous preacher of first century Christianity and was God’s tool used to spread the light of the gospel to the Gentiles. Paul is credited fir having written many books in the New Testament of the Bible. He was born an Israelite to a clan of the tribe of Benjamin, speaking the Aramaic and Hebrew tongues from infancy. He was an enthusiastic student and a stringent devotee of the Torah. He was the man that later had a peculiar meeting with the Lord Jesus Christ while on the road to Damascus. His life and duty were considerably altered and in turn eventually changed the course of the development of Western Civilization and culture.
"The elements of the Person of Christ are to be established; the faith which accompanies the theoretic process always presupposes their unity; this is for faith immediately certain, though not as yet narrowly defined, not as yet mediately cognised through the knowledge of the distinct elements, which
As we have looked in to the Christian worldview of God, our humanity, the Son of God, and the restoration of our lives back into God’s purpose. Now we have a better understanding of what it means to be a member of the Christian community. God wants believers to dwell in union and in community having the same mind that is in Jesus Christ (Phil 2:1-11). This paper showed how God and Jesus Christ are at the fundamental core of all Christian beliefs regardless of the countless differences many Christians may
My curiosity took over me and I am a bit confused on Paul’s thoughts. Is he a believer of Jesus as a God or is he not?
5. Paul’s testimony on the resurrection of Christ is an asset to Christian apologetics. In addition, The early historical record that the apostle provided in his letters about the death and resurrection of Jesus the Nazareth make the strong argument that the miracle of resurrection was not a myth or legend. The early historical records are poor that the resurrection was not a myth or legend invented by his followers. (124,
Jesus and Paul are two crucial characters in the New Testament. They both depict the Gospel on which Christianity is based upon, but there is debate about rather these two versions of the Gospel are complementary. Scholars like George Shaw claim that Paul is “anti-Christian,” and he “produced a fantastic theology” (Shaw 415-416). On the other hand, I believe that even though Jesus and Paul may present the Gospel different at times, they are still advocating the same religion. Through the understanding of the Gospels and Paul’s letters it is clear that Jesus and Paul have the same underlining goals and values.
Dr. Constable would argue that “Without question, the story of Saul’s ‘conversion’ is one of the most important events if not the most important event, that Luke records in Acts.” This is a key turning point in Acts, and the event spurs on the man eventually write much of the New Testament. Paul’s rebirth served as an example to the Gentiles, the apostles, and to our own lives. Because Paul was not fully Jewish, his presence earned equal potential for Jews and Gentiles to trust or dismiss him. This is evident in his persecution at the hands of Jews and Gentiles alike, particularly when both parties attempt to Stone Paul and Barnabas in Iconium. (Acts 14:2-5) Additionally, Paul’s Roman citizenship would play an enormous part in his missionary work further in his life. This attribute was unique to Paul amongst the apostles, giving him a unique privilege to work amongst the Roman culture more freely. Early after his encounter with Jesus, the church was extremely weary of Paul and his attempts to minister alongside them. How could God call the great persecutor of the church to the same role as those who followed Jesus in person? Even the church did not originally understand what Polhill calls “the complete transformation of Paul from persecutor of the church to the one who was persecuted for
Veres 12-28 of chapter 15 of 1 Corinthians illustrates the influence Paul had on the formation of early Christianity. To Corinth, Paul rationalizes that if Corinth believes that there is no resurrection of the dead then Christ himself could not have been risen and if Christ has not been risen then their faith is in vain. Paul uses their own faith against them in a since as with his argument he forces Corinth to either reconcile with Paul’s views of resurrection or seemingly disband with Christianity altogether. As Paul himself claims in 1 Corinthians 3:6 to have founded the church in Corinth it seems most unde...
When other popular teachers died, their movement died with them. However, after the death of Jesus, his movement continued to build strength and grew rapidly. James, Peter, John and Paul, Jude and the writer of Hebrews were convinced of Jesus’ resurrection, they believed this with such conviction that they did not even try to defend or prove this. They stated it as fact. “In each narrative, names are given of those to whom the resin Christ presented himself (Barnett 130)”.
The Apostle Paul is known as the greatest missionary of the early church. Paul, who once vowed to wipe out belief in Jesus Christ, was later converted to do the work of Christ. He would author almost half of the 27 books in the New Testament. He endured sickness, rejection, and repeated attacks on his life to bring the message of God's grace and forgiveness to Gentiles. Paul was the apostle largely responsible for the solid inception and growth of Christianity. He spoke before Jews, Greeks, and Romans. Paul is known as the apostle to the Gentiles. He defended God's Word before kings and emperors of this world. By the end of his life, much of the Mediterranean world had been reached with the gospel.
address a problem, which the Corinthians had concerning an interpretation of sex and marriage. Paul's words in these verses of Scripture should be understood in light of the broader teaching of the Bible concerning sex and marriage. Before devoting our attention to the distorted views of sex and marriage held by some of the Corinthians, we must understand what the Bible has to say about the subject of marriage.