The Cradle, the Cross, and the Crown (132 page)

While they once strove to make the gospel known alongside Paul, united in the common cause of Christian witness, they now were in need of a mediator to work out their differences, whatever they were (4:3). This, most likely, is why Paul wrote earlier in the letter: “Just one thing: live your life in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or am absent, I will hear about you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind, working side by side for the faith of the gospel” (1:27).

Paul also exhorted the Philippians to “[d]o nothing out of rivalry or conceit, but in humility consider others as more important than yourselves. Everyone should look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others” (2:3—4). This is followed by a moving and poetic description of Jesus Christ, who renounced all his privileges in order to meet humanity's desperate need for salvation, as the supreme example of such humility (2:5-11).

Consequently, believers are exhorted to “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who is working in you, enabling you both to will and to act for His good purpose” (2:12—13). Paul's concern was for the unity of believers so that the
gospel proclamation would not be hindered. Internal disunity continues to be a major tool of Satan hindering effective Christian ministry. The gospel will go forth, and God will be glorified if only the Euodias and Syntyches in the churches will lay aside their differences and “agree in the Lord” (4:2).

Joy in Christ
One must not discount the theological theme of joy merely because it is not the primary theme of the letter. Paul used the “joy” word family 16 times in this short letter. Thus Philippians testifies to the deep-rooted reality of joy in the life of a follower of Christ. One should not regard delight in Christ as an “icing on the cake” version of Christianity but as an essential outgrowth of union with Christ in the gospel. Joy is an inevitable overflow of progressively perceiving the “surpassing value” of knowing Christ Jesus as Lord through faith in the gospel of Christ. F. Thielman summarized Philippians as “a sustained attempt to persuade believers to rejoice in what matters (1:10,18).”
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Christian Suffering
Suffering is an important theological theme in Philippians that is often neglected.
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Paul's trying circumstances had served to advance the gospel (1:12—13). Paul faced the prospect of death in his imprisonment (1:20—21), and Epaphroditus almost died in the cause of the gospel as well (2:27). In the Philippians’ fight for the faith of the gospel (1:27), they would meet suffering as well; but they needed to respond to opposition without being frightened (1:28). They also needed to regard their suffering, like their faith, as a gracious gift from God (1:29). This experience of conflict mirrored Paul's suffering, which they had both witnessed in the past and now heard about in the present (1:30). Paul's use of the suffering theme invited the Philippians to “see their marginalization as a sign of their citizenship in another, heavenly society” because “though the citizenry of Philippi have marginalized them, they are citizens of a heavenly city and that one day the ruler of that city will subject all other entities to himself.”
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Paul mentioned the suffering of Christ on the cross (2:8) and regarded his own suffering as a fellowship in Christ's sufferings and conformity to his death (3:11). What is more, Paul could endure suffering, such as hunger and poverty, (4:12) through the strength that Christ provided (4:13). Joy in the midst of suffering is especially illuminating in the account of Paul and Silas rejoicing at midnight in a Philippian prison after being beaten with rods (Acts 16:16-25).

Justification by Faith Alone
Philippians 3:9 is one of the most emphatic statements concerning justification in the entire NT.
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Philippians 3:3—6 summarizes the thrust of Paul's former pursuit for salvation before his Damascus road encounter. His flawless Jewish credentials (3:5—6) led him to put confidence in the flesh (3:4). Paul's conversion caused a radical reassessment. These former credentials (3:7) and all other things (3:8) were loss
compared to knowing and gaining Christ. Paul now identified two contrasting types of righteousness
after
his experience with the risen Christ: a righteousness that came from the law; and a righteousness that came from God (3:9).
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Therefore Paul saw a marked contrast between a righteousness that he mustered by obeying the law and a righteousness provided by God and received through faith in Christ.
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The only hope unrighteous humanity had for acceptance by the divine judge was the gift of righteousness that came from God and was received by faith.

These verses are saturated with accounting language and probably refer to the image of the heavenly judge as a great shopkeeper who kept an enormous ledger. Each time a person sinned, the sin was recorded on the debit side of the ledger. Many Jews also believed that good works were recorded on the credit side of the ledger. If a person could remain “in the black,” that is, perform more good works than bad works, he would receive a reward in judgment. If a person's account was “in the red,” he would be sentenced to eternal punishment when the moral account was balanced on the day of judgment
(m. Avot
3:15—16). Paul's point was that the very things he once depended on as credits to his account with God were in reality debits. They could in no way contribute to, and were in reality hindrances to, his salvation. He had discovered that Christ was the only credit to his account that would ensure that he could pass God's scrutinizing examination on judgment day. Paul now depended not on his own personal attempts at righteousness for his salvation; instead, he relied completely on the righteousness that God imputed to him through his faith in Jesus.

This text is an important part of a wider debate concerning the New Perspective on Paul.
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The New Perspective's understanding of this verse, which views righteousness in a nationalistic sense, does not cohere well with the passage itself. Paul's own righteousness cannot be restricted to Jewish nationalism and exclusivism (Jews as opposed to Gentiles) because he distinguished his own personal righteousness from that of other Jews in his day. In other words, he distinguished his own personal righteousness by distancing himself
from the lower attainments of some of his countrymen, not from Gentiles outside the confines of Israel.

Ephesians

KEY FACTS

INTRODUCTION

E
PHESIANS IS A magisterial summary of Paul's teaching and was Calvin's personal favorite.
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R. Brown claimed that only Romans has exercised more influence on Christian thought throughout church history
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The letter continues to encourage Christians today with the cosmic scale of Christ's reconciling work and to challenge believers to maintain the unity of the church that Christ purchased and that the Spirit produced.

Ephesians makes numerous and significant contributions to the canon. First, Paul presented the theme of subjecting all things to Christ's lordship most clearly and articulately in Ephesians. Paul developed this cosmic realignment of proper submission to God's authority along the lines of the reconciling work of Christ in two spheres: the heavens and the earth. Paul's focus on trinitarian-based soteriology, gospel-centered ecclesiology, Spirit-empowered ethics, and spiritual warfare are all encompassed by this overarching theme.

Second, perhaps only Colossians can compare with Ephesians’ emphasis on the staggering aspects of Christ's victory that believers already enjoy in Christ. Christ is exalted
above all other powers to the point that they will all serve as the footstool for his feet. A unified church consisting of Jews and Gentiles shares that victory as the church sits and reigns with Christ.

Third, Ephesians contains perhaps the most developed discussion of and vision for the church. This same church that already shares in Christ's victory serves as a herald or foreshadowing of God's great plan to “bring all things back together under one head,” the Lord Jesus Christ (1:10, author's translation). Therefore, the unified church testifies to the unified universe in God's new creation when he will place all hostile forces under the feet of his Son.
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This same church possesses a moral identity apart from ethnicity that proclaims the character of God. The church consisting of God's adopted sons bears a family resemblance to their Creator and Redeemer.

Fourth, Ephesians also contains the most developed discussion of spiritual warfare in the NT (6:10—18; see 2 Cor 10:3—6). The church plays a crucial role in these times as all things are being subjected to the authority of Christ. The two realms clash in warfare as the hostile heavenly powers wage war against the redeemed forces of humanity upon the earth. Believers advance by standing united in God's armor. This unity heralds God's manifold wisdom to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms. Standing against their ungodly onslaught shows that God's work in Christ has crushed their feeble attempt to frustrate God's plan for his creation.

HISTORY

Author

Authenticity
It has become fashionable to speak of three tiers within the “Pauline” corpus: (1) undisputed letters (Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, 1 Thessalonians, Philemon); (2) Deutero-Pauline letters (Ephesians, Colossians, 2 Thessalonians); and (3) pseudonymous letters (1 and 2 Timothy, Titus). Many modern scholars reject the traditional view that Ephesians is an authentic Pauline letter.

This denial began in the nineteenth century when F. C. Baur argued that Ephesians employed gnostic terms and ideas. The late date of Gnosticism effectively precluded Paul's authorship. R. Bultmann and his disciples followed Baur, which led to an escalating loss of confidence that Paul wrote Ephesians. Though many scholars have rightly abandoned the idea of a gnostic background to Ephesians, literary and theological issues continue to call Paul's authorship into question today. Scholars who dismiss Paul's authorship of Ephesians point to five lines of evidence: (1) theology, (2) vocabulary, (3) literary style, (4) the relationship to Colossians, and (5) the impersonal nature of Ephesians.

In terms of theology, three themes dominate the debate: cosmic Christology, developed ecclesiology, and realized eschatology. The cosmic Christology of Ephesians raises red flags for some exegetes because they argue that Ephesians emphasizes Christ's status as Lord over the cosmos and thus focuses more on his exaltation than his death. Advocates of authenticity respond by pointing out that (1) there are four references to the death of Christ (1:7; 2:16; 5:2, 25) in Ephesians; (2) other Pauline texts emphasize exaltation (1 Cor 15:3—28; Phil 2:5—11); and (3) the cross and exaltation go together in Paul's thought.
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The ecclesiology of Ephesians has given many scholars pause since it deviates from Paul's customary use of the term for “church”
(ekklesia).
The apostle normally used the term to refer to the local church, but every usage in Ephesians has the universal church as the referent (1:22; 3:10,21; 5:23-25,27,29,32). Ephesians also makes the claim that Christ is the head of the church, which is his body (1:23; 4:15-16; cf. Col 1:18). Moreover, whereas Christ is the foundation of the church in the undisputed letter 1 Corinthians (3:11), Ephesians states that the church is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets (2:20). R. Schnackenburg read the letter as occupying a later stage of tradition that looked back at Paul's establishment of the church and the apostolic tradition.
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E. Käsemann interpreted the ecclesiology of Ephesians as an example of early Catholicism.
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Advocates of authenticity argue that other Pauline texts also refer to the universal church as the church of God (1 Cor 10:32; 15:9; Gal 1:13; Phil 3:6). Therefore, Paul addressed not only “God's church at Corinth,” but also “all those…who call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord—theirs and ours” (1 Cor 1:2). Moreover, the portrayal of Christ as the head of the body also appears in Col 1:18 and is a natural extension of Paul's earlier metaphor of the church as the body of Christ in the undisputed letters. Thus it represents a development of, not a departure from, his thought. Likewise, although Ephesians presents the apostles and prophets as the foundation of the church, this claim does not contradict the earlier claim that the foundation is Christ because the apostles and prophets establish this foundation through their witness to the life, death, and resurrection of Christ, so that Jesus remains the “cornerstone” (Eph 2:20—22). Ephesians does not read like it belongs to a later time in ecclesiastical tradition, which looks back to the time of the apostles and prophets who have passed from the scene. Ephesians shows that the risen Christ continued to give the gifts of apostles and prophets to the church at the time the letter was written (4:11-12).

In terms of eschatology, some scholars hold that the “realized” eschatology of Ephesians makes a clean break with Paul's typical eschatological approach.
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Ephesians portrays the believer as presently seated with Christ (2:6) and emphasizes one's relationship to Christ in
the heavenly realms (1:3,20—21). Those who believe that Paul wrote Ephesians attempt to show that the letter does present a future dimension to salvation. The letter includes references to future redemption (1:13—14; 4:30), the “coming ages” (1:21; 2:7), and the future presentation of the church to Christ (5:27). Ephesians also clearly speaks of eschatology in terms of uniting all creation under Christ's headship in the future “fullness of the times” (1:10 NASB).
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As Hoehner said, Ephesians does not present “a realized eschatology with no future realization but a present realization of what we are in Christ with a future consummation. Thus, it is not an either/or but a both/and situation.”
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A. T. Lincoln, who argued against authenticity, has made a sustained case for seeing a futurist eschatology in Ephesians.
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