The Origin of Paul's ReligionMachen, J. Gresham (John Gresham)
Religion
The Origin of Paul's Religion
Machen, J. Gresham (John Gresham)
Bible. Epistles of Paul -- Theology; Paul, the Apostle, Saint
In the first place, Jesus and Paul present the same view of the
Kingdom of God. The term "kingdom of God" is not very frequent in
the Epistles; but it is used as though familiar to the readers, and
when it does occur, it has the same meaning as in the teaching of
Jesus. The similarity appears, in the first place, in a negative
feature--both in Jesus and in Paul, the idea of the Kingdom is
divorced from all political and materialistic associations. That
fact may seem to us to be a matter of course. But in the Judaism of
the first century it was far from being a matter of course. On the
contrary, it meant nothing less than a revolution in thought and in
life. How did Paul, the patriot and the Pharisee, come to separate
the thought of the Kingdom from political associations? How did he
come to do so even if he had come to think that the Messiah had
already appeared? How did he come to do so unless he was influenced
in some way by the teaching of Jesus? But the similarity is not
merely negative. In positive aspects also, the Kingdom of God in
Paul is similar to that which appears in the teaching of Jesus. Both
in Jesus and in Paul, the implications of entrance are ethical. "Or
know ye not," says Paul, "that the unrighteous shall not inherit the
kingdom of God" (1 Cor. vi. 9). Then follows, after these words,
as in Gal. v. 19-21, a long list of sins which exclude a man from
participation in the Kingdom. Paul is here continuing faithfully
the teaching of Him who said, "Repent ye; for the kingdom of heaven
is at hand." Finally both in Jesus and in Paul the Kingdom appears
partly as present and partly as future. In the above passages
from Galatians and 1 Corinthians, for example, and in 1 Cor. xv.
50, it is future; whereas in such passages as Rom. xiv. 17 ("for
the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking but righteousness
and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit"), the present aspect is
rather in view. The same two aspects of the Kingdom appear also in
the teaching of Jesus; all attempts at making Jesus' conception
thoroughly eschatological have failed. Both in Jesus and in Paul,
therefore, the Kingdom of God is both transcendent and ethical.
Both in Jesus and in Paul, finally, the coming of the Kingdom means
joy as well as judgment. When Paul says that the Kingdom of God is
"righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost," he is like
Jesus not merely in word but in the whole spirit of the message;
Jesus also proclaimed the coming of the Kingdom as a "gospel."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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