The Christology of St. Paul, Apostle to the Gentiles

Edgar A. Gamboa
THEO 60114-01
Rev. Fr. Jerome Murphy-O’Connor, OP 
 
The Christology of St. Paul, Apostle to the Gentiles

In the spring of 53 AD, critical news from Galatia reached St. Paul. Jewish Christians from Antioch (likely from the austere Essene sect) had infiltrated the Galatian churches during St. Paul’s absence. These “Judaizers” were enticing St. Paul’s converts to undergo the rite of circumcision and to observe the ceremonial laws of the old Covenant as the indispensable means to sanctification and salvation. (1) They insisted on adherence to the Mosaic Law, while undermining St. Paul’s apostolic authority by asserting that the gospel he had preached to them was not in accordance with the teachings of the original apostles in Jerusalem. (2) In a carefully crafted response (and not without restrained anger), St. Paul wrote the letter to the Galatians which manifests for the first time his distinctive Christology.
The Judaizers accepted the Messianic character of Jesus but based their arguments on the history of salvation – Abraham’s faith, God’s covenant with Abraham and his descendants (cf. Gn 17.4-7), circumcision as the mark of the covenant (cf. Gn 17.10-14) and sacrament of initiation into the Jewish community (cf. Lv 12.3), the centrality of the Mosaic Law – which, as a former Pharisee, St. Paul knew by heart (“I was even more a zealot for my ancestral traditions”. Gal 1:14). While the letter was addressed to the Galatians, St. Paul intended his message for the Judaizers. To effectively deconstruct their arguments, St. Paul posed his thesis on Christ’s humanity. Jesus was ‘born of woman” (Gal. 4:4), a card-carrying member of the human race, the pre-eminent descendant of Abraham and heir to the covenant. In the process of exploring Jesus’
individual humanity (the historical Jesus), St. Paul gained further insights into Christ (the Cosmic Christ) and into the nature of the Christian community (Ecclesial Body of Christ).
To St. Paul, the key element was pistis. In the letter to the Galatians, he referred to pistis Iesou Christou (Gal 2:15; 3:22; cf. Rom. 3:22), pistis Christou (Gal 2:16; cf. Phil. 3:9), and pistis tou hyioutou theou (Gal: 2:20). Interpretation can be difficult because pistis can mean “belief” or “fidelity/faithfulness”. Furthermore, the genitive “of Jesus” can either be objective (“faith in Christ”) or subjective (“Christ’s faith”). St. Paul argued that just as Abraham found favor with God through his faith, so did Christ. “Through you shall all the nations be blessed.” Consequently, those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham who had faith. (Gal. 3.9).
God’s promises were made to Abraham and to his descendant (literally “and to his seed”). (Gal 3.16). St. Paul interpreted the collective singular to literally refer to Christ as the descendant of Abraham and, therefore, the preeminent heir to God’s covenant. By dying on the cross, “Christ ransomed us from the curse of the law” (Gal 3.13). In effect, the old covenant became irrelevant because through faith in Christ the promise would be given to believers in Jesus Christ (Gal 3:22). Indeed, “if justification comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing”. (Gal 2.21). In St. Paul’s view, to add the rite of circumcision and other requirements of the old Covenant to the Gospel was to exchange freedom in Christ for spiritual slavery. (3) “For freedom Christ set us free; so stand firm and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery (Gal. 5.1). By Christ’s redemptive offering of himself on the cross, the Mosaic Law was superseded by the new law, which is Christ himself (Gal 6.2).
Christ is both the cause and exemplar of the faith/fidelity of believers (Christians). Their actions are, through grace, enabled by Christ and modeled after Christ. Through faith, all become “children of God in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3.26.). “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free person, there is not male and female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendant, heir according to the promise.” (Gal 3:28-29).
Reflecting on Christ’s historical persona, St. Paul’s thoughts focused on his own transformation in Christ when he wrote: “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me, and the life I live in the flesh I live by faith, that of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal:2:19-20). This text identifies the pistis of Christ (Christ’s faith) as “love expressed in self-sacrifice for others”, in other words, “faith working through love” (Gal. 5:6), which is the essence of Christ’s humanity.
St. Paul was not inclined to pursue his reflections further (or, at least, he did not write them) unless situations in his various churches prompted him to react and to write his letters. Had he been a speculative theologian, we would have been the beneficiaries of far-reaching dissertations and even more profound meditations on how, after Christ had “apprehended” him (Phil 3.12), his intense union with Christ transformed him. We do get glimpses, as when he wrote in Phil 1.21-25 that “Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me life is Christ, and death is gain...I long to depart this life and be with Christ, for that is far better.” Later, in 2 Cor. 4.8-11, St. Paul talks about being “afflicted in every way, but not constrained; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our body. For we are constantly being given up to death for the sake of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh.” These texts indicate that the basis of St. Paul’s identification with Jesus, which was the bedrock of his
ministry, as explained in 2 Corinthians, was their shared experience of suffering. St. Paul viewed his suffering as a prolongation of the sacrifice of Christ.
Christ’s supreme act of self-sacrifice by ignominious death on the cross revealed the unimaginable magnitude of Christ’s unconditional love for us. That is why St. Paul consistently insisted that Christ suffered and died in a particularly horrible manner: “(Christ) emptied himself, taking the form of a slave” (Phil 2.7). “He humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross.”(Phil 2.8). By his death and resurrection, Jesus Christ became the New Adam of the new creation (Gal 6.15; cf.2 Cor 5.17), “the image and glory of God” (1 Cor 11.7), what Adam should have been, the living reality of what God intended a human being to be. As the sinless Messiah who did not need to be reconciled with God, Christ differed from Adam (and his descendants) but he was otherwise truly a member of the human race. To St. Paul, it was Christ’s authentic humanity which enabled him to gain salvation for humanity through the magnitude of his love and fidelity to his mission which culminated in his crucifixion (“faith working through love” Gal.5.6).
God then raised Christ from the dead and exalted him, St. Paul expressed later in Phil 2:9-11, quoting a liturgical hymn which, biblical scholars say, he edited (bold italics) to convey his insights into the cosmic dimension of Christ: “God greatly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” The same hymn is further modified in Colossian 1: 15-20. In brief, St. Paul aimed to express the universality of the work of Christ achieved through his crucifixion, an “Adamic Christology” -- Christ gained salvation for all by becoming the new Adam of the new creation.
In the new order, those who believe in Christ and are baptized and sanctified in Christ form the ecclesial body of Christ (Cor 12.12-31), which is the physical presence of Christ in the world. Its mission is the continuation of Christ’s ministry by manifesting, as Christ did, the power and wisdom of God (1 Cor 1.24). It is not like any other community, secular or otherwise, because its unity, which is rooted in Christ’s love (1 Thess 4.9), is not functional but organic. The Christian community does not only have a common mission; it also shares a common existence in Christ’s love. Though many, “we are one body in Christ” (1 Cor 10.17, Rom 12.5). Each member is endowed with a different spiritual gift which is necessary for the common good of the community (1 Cor 12:4-7). In such a community, Christians freed from the slavery of sin by Christ’s death and resurrection are kept protected from the world of sin (Gal 5.1). Bearing one another’s burdens and loving one another, in imitation of Christ, such Christian community “will fulfill the law of Christ” (Gal 6.2). “Owe nothing to anyone, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law” (Rom 13.8).
Sanctified by grace in His love, Christ brings together everyone who believes in him, so that he may incorporate everyone in himself (the Ecclesial body of Christ). In St. Paul’s breathtaking vision, the Cosmic Christ subordinates everything -- “in heaven, on earth, and under the earth” (Phil 2.10) -- in Himself, and then He subordinates Himself to God. “When everything is subjected to him, then the Son himself will be subjected to the one who subjected everything to him so that God may be all in all.” (1 Cor 15.28).
Notes
1.Ignatius Catholic Study Bible. The Letter of St. Paul to the Galatians and to the Ephesians. (Ignatius Press, San Francisco, 2005), p. 13.
2.St. Joseph Edition of the New American Bible. (Catholic Book Publishing, New York, 1992), p. 283.
3.Ignatius Catholic Study Bible, p. 13.

Bibliography

1.Jerome Murphy-O’Connor. Paul: A Critical Life (Oxford University Press, 1997)
2.Jerome Murphy-2. O’Connor. Paul: His Story (Oxford University Press, 2005)
3.James D. G. Dunn (Ed.). The Cambridge Companion to St. Paul (Cambridge University Press, 2008)