Paul and Jesus

When Paul first began to work in the provinces of Asia Minor and Greece in the early 50s A.D., he fully expected to live to see the return of Christ and the end of the age. In his earlier letters he writes in the first person of how “we who are alive” at that time will be lifted up into the clouds to meet the Lord in the air (1 Thessalonians 4:17). By the 60s A.D., when he had been imprisoned in Rome, he began to anticipate that his own life, like that of Christ, “would be poured out as a libation upon the sacrificial offering of your faith” (Philippians 2:17). The language here is difficult to translate, but Paul seems to be saying that as a priest he will bring the “faith” of his Gentile followers as an offering to God with the pouring of his own blood over it. He goes on to say, in the same letter to the Philippians, that he anticipates dying and being resurrected just as Christ had done:

For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things . . . that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that if possible I may attain being raised up out from [among] the dead. (Philippians 3:8b, 10)

Even though this imitative language has generally been taken as generic, that is, as applicable to the suffering of any follower of Christ, in this context Paul has been contemplating his own immediate death, which he describes as “departing to be with Christ” (Philippians 1:23). He also uses a rare compound verb, meaning “to be raised up out of,” found nowhere else in Jewish or Christian writings. In the same way he had written to the Corinthians that as an apostle he was “always carrying in the body the death of Jesus” and “being given up to death for Jesus’ sake,” so that life would come to them (2 Corinthians 4:10–12). He is comparing his own state of suffering, for the sake of his followers, with that of Jesus. It is in this context that he speaks of being “absent from the body” but “present with the Lord,” again speaking of his suffering and death (2 Corinthians 5:6–9). The two passages are closely parallel and they seem to refer to Paul alone.

Paul refers to those who die “in Christ” before the return of Jesus as the “dead in Christ,” or those who have “fallen asleep.” This is in keeping with the Hebrew view that the dead “sleep in the dust” (1 Thessalonians 4:13; 1 Corinthians 15:20; Daniel 12:2). They do not “depart” to be with Christ when they die but they rise up to meet him, literally, “in the air,” at his coming, raised from the dead in their newly glorified bodies: “And the dead in Christ will rise first; then we who are alive, who are left, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air” (1 Thessalonians 4:16b–17).¹⁰

I am convinced, as Albert Schweitzer suggested, that Paul had come to believe in the latter years of his life that he would likely not live to see the return of Christ but that he was to receive a special reward immediately upon his death.¹¹ Unlike others who “sleep in Christ,” awaiting the resurrection at Christ’s coming, Paul seems to believe that he will be raised up immediately out of Hades and taken to join Christ in heaven—being glorified together with him, as he has suffered and died with him. It is possible that he based this assurance of “departing to be with Christ” upon the special revelation he had when he was taken up into the third heaven and entered paradise. He indicates that he saw and heard things in that experience that he was not permitted to reveal (2 Corinthians 12:4).

We have no record of Paul’s last years, assuming he was executed during the reign of Nero, perhaps in A.D. 64 during the great persecution at Rome. Our last authentic letters are Philippians and Philemon, written most likely when he was being held under guard in Rome, perhaps between A.D. 60 and 62. He seems to contemplate his death, but also anticipates some possibility of his release.¹²

Given Paul’s extraordinary understanding of his special calling as an apostle, destined for a mission to the Gentiles ordained by God even before his birth, let’s examine the unique message that he preached. Paul offered a new and different message—a “revelation of Jesus Christ” that had now been revealed only to him as the Thirteenth Apostle—last but not least. Paul transformed the message of Jesus from earth to heaven. In the following chapters we will see to what extent he redefined the role of the Messiah, the kingdom of God, the people of Israel, and the revelation of Torah to launch his brand of Christianity on a collision course with Judaism and pave the way for a new and separate Christian faith.

FIVE

A COSMIC FAMILY AND A

HEAVENLY KINGDOM