Paul’s Christology 'I want to know Christ' - Phil 3:10

Paul's encounter with the risen Christ on the road to Damascus changed him dramatically. For one who
had been a vigorous persecutor of the early Christian movement, what then became the most important
thing in his life was being ''conformed'' to Christ: ''I want to know Christ and the power of his
resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain
the resurrection from the dead'' (Phil 3:10-11).

That is the best summary of Paul's Christology. With Paul's conversion there also came a call or vocation
to proclaim Christ among the Gentiles (see Gal 1:16), which he fulfilled by founding new churches all
over the Mediterranean world.

Paul was a pastoral theologian who developed his Christology in response to the communities he had
founded and continued to advise as they confronted various problems and crises.

Paul's letters are precious resources for their witness to what early Christians believed about Jesus, their
focus on the effects of Jesus' death and resurrection, and their concern with integrating Christian beliefs
and practice in everyday life.

Witness to Early Traditions

Between Jesus' death and Paul's first extant letter (1 Thessalonians) was a period of about 20 years.
What is remarkable is the speed with which early Christians developed a vocabulary and theological
conceptuality about Jesus. The first verse in 1 Thessalonians places Jesus on a par with God the Father
and refers to Him as ''the Lord Jesus Christ.'' Throughout Paul's letters, ''Christ'' (or ''Messiah'') is so
familiar and taken for granted that it functions almost as Jesus' surname.

Moreover, the ''Lord'' was reserved among Jews for God the Father and used by the Romans as a title
for the emperor. Both Paul and his converts also knew Jesus to be the Son of David, Son of God, and Son
of Adam (perhaps Paul's equivalent of Son of Man). More than a gradual development, these titles
reflect the explosion of beliefs about Jesus very shortly after His death and resurrection.

In the course of his letters Paul also quoted several already existing summaries of Christian faith that
could serve as common ground between him and his readers. These formulaic statements (e.g., 1 Cor
15:3-5; Rom 1:3-4; 3:25) focus on Jesus' death and resurrection and on His significance in atoning for our
sins and bringing about right relationship with God.

The same emphasis appears in what seem to be early Christian hymns that celebrate Christ as the
Servant of God (Phil 2:6-11) and as the Wisdom of God (Col 1:15-20). The very early Christological titles,
creedal statements, and hymns transmitted to us by Paul provided the building blocks for Paul's
Christology and for that of the Church ever since.

The Effects of the Christ Event

Paul was interested about Jesus was His death and resurrection. Yet he spends little or no time
recounting the details of Jesus' crucifixion or describing the empty tomb. Rather, Paul's major concern
was the saving effects of what is often called the Paschal Mystery or the Christ event.

For Paul, Christology is soteriology. That is, he was mainly interested in what Jesus' death and
resurrection brought about for humankind: forgiveness of sins, justification, access to God,
reconciliation, salvation, redemption, freedom, peace with God, glorification, grace, holiness, eternal life
and so forth.

These effects of the Christ event are not so much stages along a developmental spectrum as they are
different aspects of the same divine mystery. In Rom 5:12-21, Paul contrasts the destiny that the first
Adam brought to humankind (sin, death, condemnation, disobedience) and the destiny that Christ as
new Adam has made possible (grace, justification, righteousness, obedience).

Paul's problem with the Law of Moses was that it could not do what Christ did -- bring about right
relationship with God. On the one hand, Paul insists that the Law is ''holy and just and good'' (Rom 7:12).
On the other hand, he regards the Law as temporary and provisional, at best a preparation for Christ
(Gal 3:19-22), and at worst a stimulus to sin (Rom 7:13-25).

Paul suggests that the problem with the Law came when Jews like himself thought that its perfect
observance could bring about right relationship with God. But through his experience of the risen Jesus
he had come to believe that only God's favor or grace manifested in Christ could bring that about and
that all peoples -- Jews and Gentiles alike -- needed and could share in the benefits of Jesus' death and
resurrection.

The greatest benefit of all is to share in the resurrection of Jesus. Paul does not base his (and our) hope
for resurrection and eternal life on the Greek concept of the immortality of the soul, Jewish
eschatological expectations for the full coming of God's kingdom, or the promises of the Old Testament
Scriptures.

Rather, he appeals first and foremost to Christ's resurrection as the only solid foundation of our hope for
resurrection (1 Cor 15). And we come to participate in the Paschal Mystery and all the benefits
associated with it through baptism, which is our identification with Christ's death and resurrection (Rom
6:1-4).

Living ''in Christ''

For Paul, Jesus was not simply a wise teacher or powerful healer who was executed under Pontius Pilate
in A.D. 30 or so. Rather, his focus of attention was the risen Christ whom he believed to be reigning in
glory with His heavenly Father and destined to come again with the fullness of God's kingdom (1 Thess
4:13-5:11).

Moreover, what sustained Paul most of all in the present was a kind of ''Christ mysticism'' expressed
most clearly in Gal 2: 20: ''it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.'' For Paul, Christology
was not an abstract science or detached theological speculation. It is what made Paul tick. It was the
most practical matter imaginable to him.

Paul was convinced that the work of the risen Christ in the world was being carried on by the ''Spirit of
Christ'' (Rom 8:9-11). In the time between Christ's resurrection and his glorious second coming, the Holy
Spirit animates each and every Christian and guides the community toward its goal of fullness of life.

The gifts of the Spirit are given for building up the body of Christ. Being ''in Christ'' is not a solitary or
individual mode of existence. What brings us together in the body is Christ. Christ makes us into His
body. We form the body precisely because we are in Christ.

The celebration of the Lord's Supper or Eucharist is a sign of our belonging to the body of Christ. There
we affirm that the Spirit of Christ animates us all and makes us one body. It is no accident that Paul's
only two explicit references to the Eucharist occur in the context of resolving communal problems (1 Cor
10:14-21; 11:17-34).

What is sometimes described as Christian ethics is in fact the appropriate response to the mystery of
Christ, and so it too is an aspect of Paul's Christology. Rather than appealing to specific sayings of Jesus
on which to base his ethical advice, Paul prefers to point to the person of Jesus. For example, in
encouraging the Corinthians to contribute to the collection for the poor Christians at Jerusalem, Paul
holds up ''the generous act of our Lord Jesus Christ'' who especially in His death on the cross became
poor for our sake (2 Cor 8:9).

In fact, applying the terms ''ethics'' and ''morality'' to Paul's writings is not entirely accurate. A more
appropriate designation may be ''spirituality,'' since Paul's ideal of life in Christ is ''faith working through
love'' (Gal 5:6). From that principle, everything else flows. What we call ''virtues,'' Paul labels ''the fruit
of the Spirit'' (Gal 5:22).

Paul's Christology is traditional, comprehensive and practical. Paul based his Christology on the
Christological titles, creedal summaries and hymns that exploded on the scene in the 20 years between
Jesus' death and his first extant letter.

The focus of Paul's Christology is the saving significance of Jesus' death and resurrection (soteriology),
which in turn provided the basis for all the other elements in his theology. And Paul insisted that what
we believe about Christ and who we are in Christ must express itself in what we do and how we relate
to God and other persons.