Why is Reimagining Paul Necessary?

A problem of perception exists between Christianity and society. One major contributor—perhaps the primary cause—is confusion about the central message of Christianity. I don't mean society is confused about our message. I mean we are. That central message is supposed to be Divine Love, but all Christianity's auditors hear is Divine Judgment.

The unintentional founder of all this confusion is the historical figure Paul. His writings are rather more sophisticated than many of his interpreters have been equipped to understand. A product of first-century Mediterranean culture, Paul used literary techniques in his letters that are subject to misinterpretation. Nowhere has this misconstrual been more damaging than in Paul's longest letter, that which he sent to the Romans.

The particular technique that throws nearly all readers off is Paul's use of "speech in character," a literary device used in ancient (and modern) writings in order to carry on a debate with a specific opponent. Romans 1-4 contains quite a bit of this "speech in character." This facet of the letter would have been conveyed without mistake in the original distribution of Romans.

How can I say that? Because the letter was to be read aloud by Paul's messengers to the gathered congregation. And the messengers would convey the change in speaker by means of their oral performance.

Failing to grasp this dialogue of two speakers within Romans 1-4, theologians developed a theory of "salvation" based on a mishmash of the ideas of Paul and his opponent!

A reader in our time, dependent on translations, is utterly helpless to see past this mistaken process and find what Paul actually said. That's because the ideas from this mistaken theology of salvation are now baked into certain choices made by the translators. More accurate translations are certainly recoverable, but the typical reader will have no idea and will be at the mercy of modern versions of Paul's writings.

Behind the scenes, not reflected in the translations, there have been extensive debates about key phrases and also about the circumstances behind the letter to the Romans (and Galatians and Philippians). But in the early 2000's, Douglas Campbell put forth what is perhaps the most cogent reading yet of Paul with regard to salvation. For a thorough case geared toward academic readers, I commend The Deliverance of God: An Apocalyptic Rereading of Justification in Paul. For a shorter, less complex read: Beyond Justification: Liberating Paul's Gospel.

Campbell's voice is not in isolation, nor did he arrive at a new understanding without many preceding his work, questioning the common reading of Paul with regard to salvation. Scholars began questioning Pauline theology at least a hundred years ago. Following the Holocaust, many felt the common reading made Paul out to be an anti-Semite. Campbell calls this "the New Perspective on Judaism." The work of these scholars left many questions open and a school of thought called "the New Perspective on Paul" sought to answer them. In doing so, these scholars created more problems and solved only a few. "Paul within Judaism" and other movements continued adding new insight and approaching nearer and nearer to Campbell's reading.

One easy way to see Paul's belief in a new light—a way that, thankfully, is open to all readers—is to read Romans 5-8. There are still a few translation issues in these chapters, but far fewer than in Romans 1-4. The first thing a reader will probably notice is that chapters 5-8 are much simpler to understand than chapters 1-4. And if you consider what Paul is saying about Christ—about our being on the same trajectory with his death and resurrection, and about how it has all been of God's initiative and not our own—you will get a very different picture from the common reading.

Just what is this common reading I am seeking to dismantle? Some call it the "doctrine of justification." Campbell calls it "justification theory." Many call it "the Gospel" or "the Four Spiritual Laws" or "the Romans Road."

According to the common reading, God judges people based on what they deserve. Everyone knows right and wrong: Jews via the conscience as well as the Torah and non-Jews by means of the conscience. All are without excuse. Yet no one consistently does good and avoids evil. Even worse, God's perfection and glory are such that he requires perfect goodness and cannot tolerate the slightest stain of sin. No one can live up to that.

That's right, says the common reading: all are guilty and come up short. So God provided a solution. He sent his Son who became a human and lived a sinless life—the only one ever to do so. Then God's Son was executed as a criminal, becoming a kind of ritual sacrifice, a death that pays for guilt. God can apply the cleansing effected by Jesus' perfect sacrifice to whomever he wishes.

In his fairness and with mercy on the human race, God decided to make a much easier criterion for granting absolution. No longer would a person have to live a sinless life. Now a person simply has to "put their faith in" Jesus. Faith, being allegedly easier to acquire than perfection, is God's merciful requirement. This system is a contract. If you don't want to get what you deserve, then believe in Jesus.

This message—thought by many to be THE message of Christianity—is not the message of Paul. It is not the Gospel. The actual Gospel is not a contract. It is a gift. You do not need to convince yourself to believe something. And that's a good thing, because we cannot choose our beliefs.

The Gospel goes, rather, like this . . .

Humanity exists in a broken relationship with God typified by the Adam story (a story which need not be read literally). The story tells us that Sin and Death entered the sphere of human life through Adam. People are morally crippled under this Adamic condition. (Another way to say it: society, our biological drives, and perhaps other spiritual forces interfere with our moral drives). But God sent his Son to become what we are, to fully experience life as a human being.

He became what we are to make us what he is.

Jesus became an Adamic human, just like us, and yet he overcame both Sin and Death. He lived a perfect life. He died in order that we would die with him (we share in his death). Then he was resurrected to a new kind of life in order to include us also in that life (we rose with him). God's Spirit imparts this life to some people.

What can we say about people who have had the life of Christ imparted to them? They cannot boast. They did not deduce the Gospel or achieve some moral progress that impressed God into saving them. The Gospel was given to them, effected in their spirit by the Spirit. They had nothing to do with it.

There are many implications to this. What must a person do to be saved? Nothing; God saves. Will many be saved? Paul could hardly be more optimistic about this. To paraphrase him from Romans 5: "You know how many people inherited death from Adam? Even more will inherit life from Christ!"

The Gospel is not about persuasion. It is delivered simply by declaration. "Faith comes by hearing," Paul says in Romans 10. In other words, the magic can happen at any time when a person is hearing (or reading or seeing) about Christ and especially about his death and resurrection.

I write these essays because I know thousands upon thousands of people could experience life-changing liberty and purpose from understanding what Jesus Christ has actually done for us. And, like Paul, we will want to be like Jesus to others and bear on our bodies the marks of unconditional love and unshakeable faith in God. A dry faith, a tired faith, could use some truth to become new again. And maybe a lack of faith could be supplied by God with fulness. It is my prayer that the truth about Christ would fill you, bringing joy and understanding to the cycle of birth, growth, life, giving, receiving, aging, and dying.

In Paul's words, my prayer for you, is to understand this truth:

Therefore we have been buried with Him

through baptism into death,

so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead

through the glory of the Father,

so we too may walk in newness of life.

For if we have become united with [Him]

in the likeness of His death,

certainly we shall also be

[in the likeness] of His resurrection.

— Romans 6:4-5, NASB