Jun 12 2014 - Paul and the Faithfulness of God

Confined as I am to hospital (see previous Blog), I have taken the opportunity afforded by enforced rest to begin reading the latest of Tom Wright's massive series on Christian Origins and the Question of God namely the 1500 page, two volume work Paul and the Faithfulness of God. Thus far I have completed the first volume. I enjoyed it immensely and found it both helpful and thought provoking. Here I plan, rather impertinently, to offer a summary of the first volume - a mere 565 pages.

Wright spends some time sketching out the three worlds of first century Judaism, Hellenism and the Roman Empire and then dealing with the way Paul transforms the first and responds to and with the other worlds. This is anticipated in the first chapter by his brilliant and seminal consideration of Paul's letter to Philemon.

Wright emphasises that Paul the apostle does not abandon the Jewish faith which was his as Saul the Pharisee; rather, it is transformed and refocused in Jesus the crucified and risen Messiah. In particular, Wright argues that Paul's worldview (that through which he sees and interprets the world) is structured in terms of story. Israel told a story - the story of Abraham and the promised land, of slavery and of exodus - the story of Israel. Within that story was the story of David and Jerusalem, Solomon and the Temple. This story included the story of Israel's disobedience and exile (interpreted against the background of Deuteronomy) and the hope of 'return' and restoration grounded in a reading of such prophecies as Isaiah 40-66.

Wright develops Paul's transformed understanding of this story in terms of three stories, each embedded within the previous outer story - like Russian dolls. The first is the story of Monotheism - of the one God who is creator of all things. He created the world (cosmos) that it might reflect and be filled with his glory - that he might dwell in and with his creation and that it might delight in him and he be its delight. He placed humankind, made in his image, to govern the creation in his name - to orchestrate its delight in and praise of its creator. But something went wrong both in terms of human rebellion and in terms of the mysterious (in origin) powers which now have an influence on this world. All creation is marred. God's purpose is to restore creation so that it might be the good creation he intended it to be. Since human rebellion was the cause of its 'fall' (not sure that Wright uses this term), it can only be restored by first restoring humankind. Moreover, just as creation was spoilt through human rebellion, so it must be restored through human agency. This is the outer story which must not be forgotten if the inner stories are to be understood correctly.

The next inner layer of the story is that of Abraham and Israel - the story of Election. God chose Abraham and his descendants to be the means by which the world would be restored - all nations are to be blessed through him. The promise of the land is in some sense an anticipation - a sign - of the promise of the restoration of the entire creation. Many sub-themes are dealt with here such as: God's presence and glory which were with his people whom he redeemed from Egypt, focused in the Tabernacle and then the Temple but lost through disobedience; the Temple as symbolic of creation and sign of the day when God's glory would fill he whole earth; Sabbath as as a sign of God resting not only from his act of creating but in his creation and so an anticipation of the day when God would again fill the earth with his presence and glory, resting in his completed creation.

Wright believes that the three foundations of Jewish world view were Monotheism, Election and Eschatology. Israel thus had a vocation to be a light to the nations, the hope of the world.

But Israel also failed to live up to its calling and went the way of Adam. God, however, was faithful to his covenant by bringing upon them the judgment foretold in Deuteronomy; God's glory departed from the Temple (from Israel) and the people were sent into exile. Yet, beyond judgment, there remains the hope of Israel's restoration (sometimes linked in second temple Judaism with the hope of the Messiah). The restoration would not only restore Israel, but would also bring blessing to the nations who would be drawn to the God of Israel. God's glory would at last fill the whole earth.

Wright argues that a common theme in first century (or more widely, second temple) Judaism was that the exile had not finished with the return to Babylon. (In this connection he considers Daniel's vision in which he is told that the seventy years of exile will actually be seven times seventy years.) God's glory had not yet returned, the land was ruled by others and the children of Israel remained a scattered people. The restoration of all things still awaited the restoration of Israel.

The central story for Paul is the story of Jesus the Christ (the Messiah). Wright argues that for Paul, 'Christ' is not a proper name (a surname) but is always a conscious title. In Jesus, God has appeared to redeem Israel as he did before in rescuing them from slavery in Egypt and constituting them as his people. In doing so, God is redeeming the whole creation (remember the concentric stories). Jesus the Christ took upon himself the burden and vocation of Israel. He suffered its rejection of the calling of God in his own rejection and crucifixion. In his resurrection he has become the future of Israel - the future of the people of God. He is the fulfilment of all the promises of God - in particular, the fulfilment of the promise to Abraham that through his 'seed' all nations will be blessed. He is the one in whom creation is restored - he is the new creation.

This is a highly abbreviated (and inadequate) summary but the best I can do in a few words and from memory since I do not now have vol 1 with me.

Many sub-themes are dealt with along the way:

• Temple. Jesus himself is that of which the Temple was a sign - the dwelling of God with humankind and in the midst of his creation. This reality which has appeared in Jesus becomes a characteristic of his people - we are the Temple of God, the people in whom he displays the glory of his presence.
• Vocation. Those who have come to know Christ and who have entered the fellowship of his people through baptism share in his vocation - his calling. We, Jew and non-Jew, are heirs to the vocation (as well as the promise) of Abraham and of Israel. We are to be a people through whom the whole world encounters the one creator God, through whom all are blessed.
• Israel. There is no rejection of God's purpose for Israel (no supersession, no plan B). There is one people of God, one children of Abraham, one Olive Tree defined by and focused in Jesus the Christ.
• Kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is God's active rule over his world. It has an eschatological dimension (see 1 Corinthians 15 where Paul says that at the end of this age, Christ will hand over the kingdom to the Father), but there is also a present dimension - an already to the not yet. God's kingdom is manifest in and through those who live in obedience to the King - to Jesus the Messiah. There is no progressive advance to this kingdom; people do not die a little less because Jesus is risen from the dead. The people of God are signs of the kingdom and their activity is an anticipation of the kingdom but it does not bring in the kingdom (we build for the kingdom rather than are building the kingdom as NTW puts it elsewhere).
• Justification. Justification is firstly God declaring his Messiah to be in the right through his resurrection from the dead. Secondly, it is his declaration that his people, those who have faith in Christ, who are in Christ, are in the right. It is an anticipation of the last day, he day of judgment, when they will be declared and shown to be in the right, an anticipation of the day when all things - all creation - will be put to rights. The behaviour and character of his people - a transformed and obedient people - is evidence now of their justification which is an eschatological declaration which has broken into the middle of history through Christ's resurrection from the dead.

There are many more themes which deserve to be picked up, such as: the Law; the principalities, powers and rulers of this present age; the role of the Spirit as the Spirit of the risen Christ, the one who brings the power of the age to come into the present age; etc. Memory and space fail me.

This book (and I have yet to read the second and larger volume) is a tour de force; a book which demands and rewards reading and careful consideration. I believe that it helps us towards a better understanding of the worldview (theology if you like) of Paul which fired the self-understanding of his vocation as apostle to the Gentiles and which undergirds the message of his letters.

I thoroughly commend this massive and extraordinary piece of work.

Peter Misselbrook