The 90% and the 10% in Paul

The common reading of Paul—which we are calling justification theory or the justification Gospel—is based on 10% of his writings (this is according to Douglas Campbell, in Deliverance of God and also in Beyond Justification). The other 90% of Paul's corpus, however, indicates the participatory, resurrectional, transformational, apocalyptic, unconditional Gospel (see "8 Truths from Paul's Actual Gospel").

That's right, 90% of Paul is about a loving God who sets no conditions, but gives salvation for free, unearned. It's only in the 10% of Paul that we think (wrongly) he is saying people must deduce God and their guilt for sin and in which people must believe a set of propositions about Jesus in order to earn salvation by faith. I know it sounds weird to accuse the popular view of the Gospel of requiring people to earn salvation, but it's true. In the popular Gospel, faith is called "saving faith" because acquiring that faith saves you. In Paul's actual Gospel, God saves you, not faith.

So, what is this 10% and what can we say about the 90% in Paul? Let's start with the 10% and where you can find it:

Romans 1:16 – 5:1

Romans 6:7-8

Romans 9:30 – 10:17

Galatians 2:15 – 3:26

Galatians 5:5

Ephesians 2:8-10

Philippians 3:2-11

These 172 verses comprise the 10% out of Paul's 1,791 verses total (omitting 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus). The three letters known as 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus are suspected by many scholars as being from the school of Paul (i.e., his disciples) and not Paul himself. If Paul did write 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus, then the justification passages are less than 10% of his words!

What can we say about this 10% in Paul? Why is it here? Why do these sections seem to have a different Gospel from the 90%?

As Douglas Campbell has painstakingly demonstrated, the 10% of Paul's writings which mention "justification" are part of a specific controversy which unfolded over a few years in Asia Minor (see Campbell's Deliverance of God and Framing Paul for the full case). Influencers who had a different message than Paul had come to Galatia and Philippi and Paul feared they would come to Rome. We cannot say for certain what they believed other than a few well-established ideas such as mandatory circumcision for pagan men who wished to follow Jesus. They probably also required full observance of Jewish commandments such as the Sabbath and dietary laws. Paul implies, so perhaps it was simply true, that they believed these practices were necessary in order to be saved.

Now, before I press on to speak more about the 10% and the 90% in Paul, I have to clarify that these Influencers were not teaching Judaism properly. It is not a Jewish belief that non-Jews must be circumcised and if they are they can attain to an afterlife with the God of Israel. Paul's enemy in the justification passages is not Judaism, but a specific sect of Jesus-following teachers who completely misunderstood the Jewish law (Torah). It is important to make this clarification because too many readers of Paul have, for the past two millennia, turned Judaism into the enemy.

Here is the thing: should we base our belief on a small fraction of Paul's words instead of the much larger message in his letters? Definitely not.

So, the "why" for the 10% is simple: Paul is using special arguments against a false gospel.

But how can we say the other 90% of Paul supports the participatory Gospel? First, the "justification" issue in Paul—whatever it may be, and we will address that in the future—is not mentioned in the other 90%. But continual references to the phrase "in Christ" occur throughout the remainder of Paul's writings. And Campbell sees something very special in Paul's emphasis on people being "in Christ."

And what does it mean to be "in Christ"? We participate with Christ in salvation. He leads the way and brings us along with him. And he becomes our everything. Paul uses the phrase "in Christ" and variations of it over 150 times.

One key place to learn what "in Christ" means is Galatians 3:26-28:

All of you who are in Christ Jesus are,

by means of that fidelity,

sons of God.

For you have been immersed into Christ;

You have been clothed with Christ.

There is no "Jew" or "pagan,"

No "slave" or "free,"

No "male" or "female."

All of you who are in Christ Jesus

are one and the same.

—Galatians 3:26-28, Campbell and DePue's translation, Beyond Justification

In Romans 6, we read that we "died with him" and have been "raised with him." In Ephesians 2, we read that we are "seated with him" at God's right hand. In Colossians 3, we find that out life is hidden with Christ in God. And in Colossians 1, we discover that we have Christ in us.

Perhaps the most theologically correct titles for Paul's belief would be phrases like "the Participatory Gospel" or "the Apocalyptic Gospel." We could use modifiers like resurrectional or transformational.

But maybe the simplest and best name for Paul's Gospel would simply be "in Christ." And that is the 90% of Paul. So don't let the 10% crowd it out. Don't make the mistake of believing Paul's rivals instead of Paul. God is not angry. He is love. God is not demanding something from you in order to forestall his plan to torture you eternally. God gives you salvation for free and even gives you the faith to believe in it. God is not judging you for your many sins. He is busy healing you from the elemental forces of Sin.

May we get past the old, dead readings of Paul and the New Testament and the stifling, misshapen Gospel that is keeping the Church from loving the world as God does.