The Three-Stage Gospel Narrative, Part 3
The Three-Stage Gospel Narrative, Part 3
The Pauline Letters
(avg. read time: 4–7 mins.)
Part 3: The Pauline Letters
Part 4: Hebrews and the General Epistles
From the very opening of Paul’s letter to the Romans, which is his letter that is designed to summarize his teaching for an audience he has not directly taught before, we see the same pattern of the gospel narrative in his opening summary in Rom 1:1–4. The gospel he proclaims, which (as seen many times already) is presented as fulfilling Scripture (e.g., Davidic texts and promises in 2 Sam 7:11–14; Ps 2:7–9), concerns God’s Son Jesus Christ, appointed in power by his resurrection from the dead. Clearly, Jesus’s resurrection, and his death by implication, is at the center of his gospel and his summary is further encompassed by appeal to the exaltation, hence the references to Jesus as Son of God and Lord here.
Other appeals to the gospel and its salvific benefits in Romans tend to focus on the death and resurrection, linking them to atonement, justification, and reconciliation by sharing in Jesus’s death and life (4:24–25; 5:6–11; 7:4). This pattern of the gospel is also on display in Paul’s teaching on baptism and rising to walk in the newness of life, which Paul correlates to Jesus’s death and resurrection that believers thus signify their participation in (6:1–11). This pattern, though, will not be completed until we literally and concretely share in his resurrection by the redemption of our own bodies (5:10; 6:8; 8:9–11, 18–24). But this pattern also includes exaltation, as Paul articulates in 8:29–30, wherein he notes that those who are conformed to the image of God’s Son are not only justified, but also glorified, being conformed to his exaltation. Indeed, in this same context he provides a succinct three-stage summary referring to Jesus as having died, as having been raised to life, and as being at God’s right hand, a typical description of Jesus’s exaltation (8:34). This gospel is also well summarized by the fundamental statement of faith in 10:9 that Jesus is Lord (exaltation) and that God raised him from the dead.
Of course, the most remarkable gospel summary in Paul appears in 1 Cor 15. This text is remarkable because it has the marks of being a pre-Pauline tradition and it is likely the earliest composition in form in the NT, as scholars generally date its origin to between three months and three years after Jesus’s death and resurrection. Scholars debate just how much of this text is pre-Pauline tradition or how much of this text belongs to one pre-Pauline tradition, but the general agreement is that at least vv. 3–4 or 5 is part of this earliest tradition. In this earliest of traditions the gospel is defined as Christ dying for our sins according to the Scriptures, being buried, being raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and appearing to disciples. The exaltation as such is not explicitly referenced here as part of the summary, but it is part of the framework of this proclamation, as Christ is the one who commissioned the gospel proclamation in his name in his appearances (hence Paul’s appeal to having seen “the Lord” as the basis of his apostleship in 9:1).
His exaltation is also articulated as part of the gospel in vv. 20–28, where the result of his resurrection is his being the “firstfruits,” a statement in this context that signifies priority both in terms of timing and rank. This is borne out by the fact that he is exalted beyond the status of Adam as the new progenitor who gives everlasting life to his progeny of faith. It is also articulated in terms of Christ currently reigning in heaven and fulfilling Pss 8 and 110 as a result. The logical flow of this text follows the gospel progression, in which Jesus’s resurrection defeats death and precedes exaltation. Of course, this gospel pattern is expanded, as in Romans, to include Christ’s people, in that the general resurrection must precede the consummate kingdom in which God will be all in all.
To the same audience in 2 Corinthians, Paul once again defines the content of the gospel by reference to Jesus’s death and resurrection in 5:15, here made as an identity statement about Jesus (“the one who…”). The exaltation of Jesus is once again not directly stated, but it is implied in the context of this statement in the reference in 5:10 to the judgment seat of Christ, as well as in statements about Christ’s glory (3:18; 4:4, 6; 8:19, 23), and in the entire framework of the letter in statements collocating him with God the Father (1:2; 13:14). Finally, as this is the letter that most thoroughly explicates Paul’s teaching on the apostolic ministry, this letter also features several statements of how the apostolic ministry in particular (as well as the Christian life in general by implication) bears the pattern of the gospel narrative in suffering/death and resurrection (1:5–9; 4:10–12, 14; 5:15; 13:4), as well as exaltation (3:18; 4:17–18).
We see a similar pattern in Ephesians, although there we also see more of a stress on Jesus’s exaltation. Paul summarizes the gospel in 1:19–23, where he describes God’s power to raise the dead, by which he resurrected Christ and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, once again alluding to Ps 110. But this time he further accentuates the exaltation, as Paul also makes a point in this letter of noting the enemy powers arrayed against Christ and his followers. Thus he says that Christ was exalted far above every principality, authority, power, dominion, and name, and that this exaltation is permanent, lasting from now into the everlasting age to come (1:21). To put an even finer point on the exaltation, he says that all things have been placed under his feet, a statement which echoes both Ps 8:6 and 110:1, as in 1 Cor 15, and that he is the head of the body that is the Church (1:22–23). He also notes how this gospel pattern is the narrative pattern for Christ’s followers, who are made alive with Christ and are exalted with him (2:4–10).
Paul also makes much of the gospel narrative pattern for the life of the believer in his letter to the Philippians. When he enjoins the Philippians to be humble by having the mind of Christ Jesus (2:5), he makes his point through an appeal to a gospel summary that refers to Christ’s humbling Incarnation for his death on the cross (2:6–8), which, after an implicit resurrection, is followed by God’s exalting him as Lord above all (2:9–11). Those who follow the narrative pattern of the gospel in humbling themselves with the mind of Christ will likewise follow the pattern of being exalted by God (2:12–16). Paul also makes this point about the need to make the gospel story one’s own story in 3:10–11 (a text I have written about elsewhere) with a focus on the death and resurrection of Jesus. This pattern is also implied in the expressed hope for resurrection and exaltation in 3:20–21. Interestingly, all three stages of the gospel narrative are invoked in some capacity in paired forms, but never all at once in explicit fashion in this letter.
Where the three-stage pattern does explicitly appear is in Paul’s letter to the Colossians. However one should describe the form and function of Col 1:15–20, the latter half references the three-stage gospel narrative, first to the resurrection (as he is the firstborn from among the dead), then to the exaltation that resulted from it (1:18), and then to the death by which God made peace (1:19–20). Those who are “in him” go through the same narrative pattern, as signified in baptism and rising to walk in the newness of life (2:11–15), taking part in God’s victory over the powers achieved by the cross, and having the assurance that those who are raised with Christ will also appear with him in glory, thus partaking also of his exaltation (3:1–4).
The last summary in Paul’s letters appears in 2 Timothy, his farewell letter. He speaks of Jesus Christ raised from the dead and descended from David (thus evoking the fulfillment of Scripture in the gospel events, as in Rom 1:3) as his gospel (2:8). This fits with how he describes Christ Jesus as the one who has destroyed death and brought life and immortality through the gospel (1:10). Of course, as in Acts, reference to the resurrection tends to bring the other events in tow. Although such is not present in the summary in 2:8, the “trustworthy word” Paul uses in 2:11–13 brings in the other events in reference to the gospel pattern applied to the lives of believers, including dying with him, living with him, and reigning with him.