Paul and Jesus

Paul understood the mission of Christ, and by extension that of James and the twelve apostles, in a very particular way, intimately paired with that of his own calling as an apostle to the Gentiles. God, in sending his Son to the world, had inaugurated a two-stage plan. Stage one was fulfilled by Jesus, but stage two had been laid at the feet of Paul.

Jesus had been “born of a woman, born under the Law, to redeem those who were under the Law”—Paul’s terms for the Jews or Israelites (Galatians 4:4–5). Jesus was an Israelite of the tribe of Judah of the lineage of David and he was sent to the Jewish people: “For I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show God’s truthfulness, in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs, so that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy” (Romans 15:8–9). This is a surprising declaration. Paul says here that Jesus was sent to the Jews to fulfill God’s promises about sending the Messiah, but that God’s ultimate plan was that the Gentiles would come to glorify God. That second stage Christ would also fulfill, but only through the apostle Paul as his chosen “instrument.”

Paul follows this statement with a string of quotations from the Hebrew Scriptures that foresee the role of the Messiah as reaching the Gentiles and causing them to turn in praise to the One God of Israel. He includes a verse from Isaiah 11 that is particularly straightforward: “The root of Jesse shall come, he who rises to rule the Gentiles; in him shall the Gentiles hope” (Romans 15:12). The “root of Jesse” is a reference to the Messiah of the line of King David, whose father’s name was Jesse. Notice, this Messiah actually rises to rule the Gentiles, who come to hope in him—their resurrected Lord! This is what Paul regularly refers to as “the obedience of faith” among the nations (Romans 16:26). But Jesus never went to the Gentiles, having been sent as a “servant to the circumcised.” Even though Jesus did on occasion deal with non-Jews who showed extraordinary faith, we have no record of Jesus leading any movement to reach Gentiles. In fact, there are several strands of gospel tradition in which he explicitly avoids such a mission (Mark 7:27; Matthew 10:5; 15:24). Jesus’ twelve apostles were commissioned to extend Jesus’ work to reach those Israelites scattered throughout the world. The letter we have in the New Testament from James is addressed “to the Twelve tribes of the Diaspora” (James 1:1). Peter’s first letter is likewise addressed to “the exiles of the Diaspora.”

It is here that Paul finds his unique and pivotal role. Paul understands his mission as extending and advancing the work that Jesus inaugurated in his lifetime, but never completed. If the Messiah’s ultimate purpose is to rule over the Gentiles, what Paul calls the “reconciliation of the world,” causing them to turn to God, how can this goal ever be accomplished? Peter and the Twelve had already agreed with Paul that they would go “to the circumcision”—so what about the rest of the world?

As Paul fulfills this messianic mission he understands himself to be performing the work of Christ. In that sense Paul is an extension of Christ, finishing up the main task of the Messiah as a kind of “second Christ.” He explains this complicated dynamic in the following way: “[God gave me grace] to be a servant of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel of God, so that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit” (Romans 15:16). Here Paul is acting in behalf of Christ and his mission is to function like a priest who brings an offering to God—in this case the offering is the “obedience of the Gentiles,” which fulfills the messianic mission of Jesus. Paul says he will not boast of anything in this regard “except what Christ has worked through me, to win obedience from the Gentiles” (Romans 15:18). In Paul’s mind his work is really Christ’s work and whatever he does is as an extension of Christ, now acting in the world through him. In the same way he can tell the Corinthians to expel the man living with his stepmother in a gathering at which his Spirit would be present—everything that Paul did he attributed to Christ working through him, and his commands were thus the “commands of the Lord” (1 Corinthians 14:37).