Paul and Jesus

Paul understands the birthing of these heavenly children of God as an ongoing process. They have received the “Spirit of his Son,” which has joined with their spirits, making them “sons of God” (Galatians 4:6; 1 Corinthians 6:17). Paul calls this the “spirit of Son-ship,” which signifies and guarantees the intimate relationship between father and child, as well as the full rights of inheritance:

But you have received the spirit of Son-ship. When we cry, “Abba Father,” it is the Spirit itself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children then heirs, heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. (Romans 8:15–17)

This infusion of the Christ-Spirit into the elect group makes them also “Christs,” in that they participate fully in all that Jesus Christ has been given. Paul tells the group at Corinth: “It is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and he has anointed [chrisas] us; he has put his seal upon us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee” (2 Corinthians 1:21–22). The Greek verb chrio, which Paul uses here, is the same one used for the Messiah or Christ—whom God has anointed. The idea of being “anointed by the Spirit” far supersedes a ceremonial anointing with oil, routinely used for kings and priests in ancient Israel. In Jewish expectation of this period, the Messiah to come in the Last Days has just such an anointing of the Spirit.⁸ Paul and his followers, as anointed ones of the Spirit, are then “heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ” (Romans 8:17). The inheritance is theirs by birthright—in that like Christ, the same Spirit begets them.

Paul calls this Spirit the “Spirit of Son-ship” and it is the receiving of this divine Spirit that allows the children to cry out “Abba” to God as Father. “Abba” is the intimate term still used in Hebrew today when a child calls a father.⁹

Paul says that this Son-ship process is an ongoing one, much like the growth of an embryo or fetus in the womb of a mother. The “outer man is wasting away, while the inner self is being renewed day after day” (2 Corinthians 4:16). This is not Plato’s dualism of mortal body and immortal soul. It is the life-giving Spirit of Christ, dwelling in the mortal, decaying body, and which brings life. Paul says that the process of inner transformation has already begun: “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:18). In that sense, Paul says that these chosen ones are not “in the flesh” but instead “in the Spirit,” since the Spirit of Christ dwells in them, making their spirits alive, though their bodies are “dead” (Romans 8:9–11). The final step in the “Son-ship” is what he calls the “redemption” of the body, when it is set free from its bondage to decay (Romans 8:23).

THE LAST ADAM

Paul’s core understanding of the mystery is based upon his teaching about two Adams, a first and a second, or last. Theologians use the term Christology to refer to the various views of Jesus that were developed and debated in the early church. In what ways was Jesus understood to be more than an ordinary human being? Within the New Testament one already finds a complex and diverse mix of views.¹⁰ In Paul’s letter to the Philippians he provides us with what is generally considered to be our earliest expression of Christology. His words are carefully chosen and formally set forth. Many scholars have argued that Paul inherited this confession of faith, because it has the making of a formal creed, but I regard Paul as its author and originator since it reflects his unique view of Christ so completely. It is very nicely written in Greek, in stanzas, much like a hymn. Here is a very literal translation:

Though he [Christ] existed in the form of God, he did not consider being equal to God a thing to be grasped, but he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in the likeness of a man. And being so born, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Therefore God has highly exalted him and favored on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:6–11)

The allusions to Adam in the Genesis story are unmistakable. Adam is the one who tried to “grasp” equality with God, and thus he lost his potential to eat of the Tree of Life and live forever (Genesis 3:5, 22–23). As a “man of dust,” he and all his descendants were doomed to return to the dust, with no hope of escaping death (Genesis 3:19).