The Cradle, the Cross, and the Crown (139 page)

Paul demonstrated Christ's preeminence in all matters by exclaiming that Jesus was not only the Lord of creation; he is also the Lord of the new creation. He is the head of the church by virtue of his resurrection from the dead (1:18). Jesus’ resurrection is the key to the transformation of rebellious sinners into the holy people of God and the promise of final redemption. Jesus’ qualification as the “firstborn from the dead” serves to identify him as the beginning of the church, the founder of a new humanity.

Paul's description of Jesus’ supremacy climaxed with an amazing statement:

“For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him” (1:19). The word “fullness”
(plērōma)
means “the sum total” or “completeness.” Thus Paul asserted that the sum total or completeness of God dwelled in Christ. This statement was later clarified by Paul in 2:9, “For in Him the entire fullness of God's nature dwells bodily.” Not just a part of God, but God in his completeness made his home in the body of Jesus. Jesus is not partially but completely God. Everything that makes God God has made its home in the body of Jesus Christ.

This certainly was an amazing statement to the readers of this letter who were familiar with the OT. The OT often spoke of how tremendous the fullness of God is. Solomon said God is too vast for the temple to contain his fullness. When Solomon dedicated the magnificent temple he had built for Yahweh, he prayed and said, “But will God indeed
live on earth with man? Even heaven, the highest heaven, cannot contain You, much less this temple I have built” (2 Chron 6:18). But now Paul revealed that the wonder of all wonders, the fullness of God that the temple, and the earth, and the very universe could not contain, gladly resided in the body of Jesus Christ. One can hardly imagine a Christology any higher than this.

The Work of Christ in Salvation
Christ's status as Lord over the church introduces a question regarding his work. How does Paul describe the work of Christ in Colossians? In a word, Christ's work is sufficient. He is the one who provides redemption, that is, the forgiveness of sins (1:14). Redemption refers to an act of paying a price in order to liberate a slave or prisoner of war from captivity or to rescue a criminal from punishment. Since Paul equated redemption with the forgiveness of sins, he apparently had the rescue of condemned criminals in mind.

Jesus is the one who provides reconciliation through the blood of his cross (1:20,22). This reconciliation is cosmic in scope and includes all created things. Paul's point is not that all created beings will enter into a joyful fellowship with God but that God acted through Jesus’ death to restore all of creation to its prefall submission to the authority of the Creator (1:20). The believer's former enmity with God has been replaced with submission to and fellowship with God through his own voluntary surrender. Others who live in rebellion against God will ultimately submit to his authority through forced subjugation, much like the authorities and powers described in 2:15.

The flow of thought in 2:8—10 gloriously conveys the believer's completeness in Christ. Believers should not be held captive by a “philosophy” that commends certain supplements to faith in Christ (2:8) because
all the
fullness of deity is found in Christ (2:9) and because Christ possesses all the fullness, believers are also complete in him (2:10). Despite being dead in transgressions and uncircumcision, humanity receives new life in union with Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection (2:11—13). This new life results in a radical transformation of the believer's character and behavior.

Believers experience forgiveness of all transgressions. The spiritual certificate of debt that lists the transgressor's sins and demands his punishment was nailed to the top of Jesus’ cross in the very spot where the crimes of the victim of crucifixion were normally listed (2:14). This demonstrated that Christ himself bore the punishment for the believer's sins in his place, so that the believer could escape the condemnation that he rightly deserved. Because of Jesus’ substitutionary death, the believer's sin list has been erased so that he will be declared innocent in eschatological judgment. This “glorious thought” makes all well within the believer's soul because, in the words of Horatio Spafford, “My sin…not in part but the whole, is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more, praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!”

SIDEBAR 14.1: WHAT IS “THE CIRCUMCISION OF CHRIST”
IN COL 2:12?

The meaning of the phrase “the circumcision of Christ” is debated. Is the genitive (1) objective (the circumcision that Christ received), (2) subjective (the circumcision that Christ performs), or (3) possessive (the circumcision that belongs to Christ, that is, Christian circumcision) ?

On the whole, the first of these options (objective genitive) appears to be the most defensible reading. This approach understands circumcision as the act of death, when Christ stripped off his physical body. P. T. O'Brien argued for the objective genitive because the phrases “putting off the body of flesh” and “the circumcision of Christ” are parallel expressions.
¹
This reading would render both of the genitives in an objective sense so that Paul effectively says, “The body of the flesh was stripped off when Christ was circumcised, that is, when he died.” O'Brien cited the earlier reference to the death of Christ in 1:22 as a parallel expression to 2:11. He also stated that this meaning results in a familiar Pauline theme (see Rom 6:3-4; 1 Cor 15:3-4) of death (circumcision), burial, and resurrection.

T. R. Schreiner also understood the “circumcision of Christ” as the death of Christ.
²
He asserted that the passage fits with the argument of Galatians in which Paul said that the cross replaced circumcision as the new point of entrance into the people of God. Therefore, “the new circumcision for believers is accomplished in the cross.”
³

The second option (subjective genitive), while less likely, has received some support because of the parallelism with “uncircumcision of your flesh” in verse 13. Paul identified “uncircumcision of your flesh” as something people possess who are dead in transgressions, so the “circumcision performed by Christ” must be something believers possess. But the text does not require this meaning for the parallel to work. The text only says that the “circumcision of Christ” removes the “uncircumcision of your flesh.”

The third alternative (genitive as possessive), while yielding a straightforward reading, has also the most difficulties. The reading demands that “of Christ” equals “Christian,” which is far from normative in the literature of the NT. It also begs the question of identity: What does Paul mean by “Christian” circumcision?

__________________________

¹
O'Brien,
Colossians, Philemon
, 117.

²
T. R. Schreiner, “Circumcision,” in
Dictionary of Paul and His Letters
, ed. G. R Hawthorne, R. P. Martin, and D. G. Reid (Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 1993), 139.

³
See also P. Borgen, “Paul Preaches Circumcision and Pleases Men,” in
Paul and Paulinism: Essays in Honour of C. K Barrett
, ed. M. D. Hooker and S. G. Wilson (London: SPCK, 1982), 85-102.

Christ's sufficient work allows believers to stand complete even against evil forces (2:15).
²²⁰
Christ has conquered the demonic spirits that rebelled against the authority of the Almighty. “He stripped them of their malevolent abilities, just as captured soldiers are
stripped of their weapons, and he led them in a triumphal procession, just as a victorious general leads defeated soldiers to their execution.”
²²¹

The supremacy of Christ and the sufficiency of his work shatter any false notion that one must supplement anything that is lacking in the life of a Christian. Nothing can be added to the infinite fullness of Christ, and therefore nothing can be added to faith in him. Christ's lordship is so complete that Paul called believers to live in the light of it by bringing every aspect of their lives under it (chaps. 3—4). Thus the theological theme of ethics flows out of Paul's focus on Christology.

Proper Christian Conduct (Ethics)
The indicative explanations in Colossians 1—2 of who Christ is and what he has done leads to the imperative proclamation in chaps. 3—4 of who believers are and what they are to do. E. Lohse said it well: “Christ is Lord over everything—over powers and principalities, but also over the Christian's daily life.”
²²²
Paul established the cosmic scope of Christ's lordship and the complete scope of the believer's salvation in him (chaps. 1—2); he applied these two points in three broad ways (chaps. 3-4).

First, the complete scope of Christ's sufficient work and believers’ spiritual union with him means that they can keep pursuing the things above where Christ dwells (3:1—2). Though believers are complete in Christ, the Christian life is not static. Believers should have a passion to pursue Christ, and that pursuit necessitates looking away from earthly things and putting to death earthly passions and deeds that belong to the old way of life (3:5).

Second, union with Christ means that the believer is a new creature and acts accordingly. The believer has “put off the old man with his practices” (3:9) and has “put on the new man” (3:10). Paul stated earlier that Christ is the image of God (1:15) and the Creator (1:16), and now in union with Christ the believer is made anew according to the image of the Creator (3:10). Thus the believer is being transformed so that he becomes more and more like Christ.

Third, the cosmic scope of Christ's lordship has staggering implications for his lordship over every aspect of the believer's life, which is especially emphasized in the household code in 3:18—4:1.
²²³
A. Kuyper made the sweeping claim that “there is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry: #8216;Mine!’”
²²⁴
Christ's lordship extends to one's personal holiness, family life, work life, and everything in between (“whatever you do, in word or in deed,” 3:17).

Philemon

KEY FACTS

INTRODUCTION

E
VEN THOUGH PHILEMON is separated in the NT canon from the book of Colossians, it shares with Colossians its likely destination and its presumed date of writing during Paul's first Roman imprisonment with Philippians, Ephesians, and Colossians. For this reason it is appropriate to group Philemon with the other Prison Epistles (Philippians, Ephesians, and Colossians) and to discuss the letter under the present rubric.

Philemon bears the distinction of being the shortest Pauline letter with its 335 words in the Greek text.
²²⁵
Carson and Moo also characterized Philemon as the “most personal” letter of Paul.
²²⁶
The issue of slavery is probably the first thought that comes to mind when the average Christian thinks about Philemon, but Paul's letter is not a position paper on slavery. Rather, it makes a much more multifaceted contribution to the canon than a one-dimensional reading of the letter might suggest.

While Philemon may be the shortest Pauline letter, it still makes a significant contribution to NT theology. It effectively takes Colossians’ concept of cosmic reconciliation through the cross of Christ and translates it into a specific setting of reconciliation between two individuals. The gospel message does not stand alone; it has an important message on
how to deal with real-life issues. In a very real sense, relationships in the body of Christ are gospel relationships, and social issues such as slavery are gospel issues.

HISTORY

Author

Authenticity
Philemon is almost universally recognized as an authentic letter of the apostle Paul. The only sustained case against Pauline authorship was made by the Tübingen School in the nineteenth century. As mentioned previously, F. C. Baur affirmed the authenticity of only four letters ascribed to Paul—Romans, 1—2 Corinthians, and Galatians—which he categorically called the
Hauptbriefe
(German for “major epistles”).
²²⁷
His arguments against authenticity are now dismissed by virtually all Pauline scholars.
²²⁸

Literary Integrity
No serious challenges to the integrity of Philemon have arisen. Both the letter's brevity and its personal nature provide obstacles for those who would contend against its literary integrity.

Date

The date for Philemon depends largely on the date assigned to Colossians. The evidence for the close relationship between the two letters is as follows: (1) Colossians refers to Onesimus (Col 4:9); (2) both letters have Timothy as the cosender (Phlm 1:1; Col 1:1); (3) both letters refer to Epaphras (Phlm 23; Col 1:7) and Archippus (Phlm 2; Col 4:17); and (4) both letters include Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke among Paul's companions (Phlm 24; Col 4:10,14). Assuming the Roman provenance of Colossians, the letter should be dated to around the year 60.

Destination

Paul addressed the letter to Philemon, whom Paul called his “dear friend and co-worker” (v. 1). Virtually everyone accepts this destination. John Knox suggested that Philemon was the initial recipient of the letter, while Archippus was the ultimate recipient, but his view has generated little acceptance.
²²⁹