You can read the text here.
Paul and his coworkers know and respect God. And given the coming judgment they seek to bring others to know and fear the Lord. But it's not only other people they are open to scrutiny from, God knows them well and approves of them and Paul hopes that the Corinthians share in that judgment.[1] Paul's not trying to convince the Corinthians that God is with them and working through them. He is letting them know how God works so that they can counter those who argue against the divine origins of Paul's mission based on his outward appearance. Yes, Paul did not display ecstatic religious behavior before them, but those experiences were private and not something that would benefit the Corinthians to see. They carry on and persevere in their perilous apostleship because Jesus' love compels them;[2] they need to spread the good news! Jesus died a death for all,[3] so that we would serve him as our Lord and Master, living to please him rather than our own interests. This is exactly the lifestyle Paul and his co-workers live.
Jesus changed the way Paul saw the world. They used to see everyone just like the Corinthians did, using worldly markers for success, but now they evaluate with a different set of criteria. Old creation, or new creation. Those who have been incorporated into Christ's body are a new creation. He is the last Adam of the new created order bringing new life to those who are in him. This is God's work through Christ, to reconcile the world to himself, to fix the shattered relationship. That work was accomplished through Christ and continued to be carried out by his chosen ambassadors, Paul and his co-workers, as they announced the message of reconciliation, the message of forgiveness, so that those who were part of the old creation could experience transformation into new creation that came through reconciliation with God. Jesus died to bear Paul's sin[4] and enable reconciliation with God so that he could be God's ambassador and embody and spread God's righteousness to the world.[5][6]
-----------------------------------------
[1] Thrall was especially useful in clarifying the second half of verse 11.
[2] So Matera.
[3] As both Matera and Thrall point out, this death is, at a minimum, representative. The text does not require a substitutionary reading.
[4] 'Bear' requires substitution, but bear could mean absorbing and taking away, no sense of punishment is required.
[5] Here I am fairly certain that righteous standing is not the point. The whole argument of several paragraphs has been about new life and transformation.
[6] Vs. 21 is notoriously difficult. I see strong argument that the 'our' refers to Paul and his companions, keeping the pronoun references consistent throughout the passage. At the same time, it seems odd to seemingly limit the effect of the God's action in Christ to Paul and his co-workers. However, as Wright has pointed out repeatedly, the entire flow of thought is about Paul and his coworkers, not writing a treatise on justification, and second referring to God's purposes for Paul and his colleagues does not inherently exclude the benefits of Christ's death to others (as has already been noted earlier in the paragraph). Paul is simply focusing on the impact of Jesus' death on him, bringing about his calling, which was important both for him and the Corinthians. So in the end, I read this passage differently than both Matera and Thrall. Now, that is not to say that there are not implications or valid extensions of this passage to other individuals, because surely the same mechanics are in place for others. Jesus bears our sin which reconciles and transforms us for a new work on his behalf.
Paul and his coworkers know and respect God. And given the coming judgment they seek to bring others to know and fear the Lord. But it's not only other people they are open to scrutiny from, God knows them well and approves of them and Paul hopes that the Corinthians share in that judgment.[1] Paul's not trying to convince the Corinthians that God is with them and working through them. He is letting them know how God works so that they can counter those who argue against the divine origins of Paul's mission based on his outward appearance. Yes, Paul did not display ecstatic religious behavior before them, but those experiences were private and not something that would benefit the Corinthians to see. They carry on and persevere in their perilous apostleship because Jesus' love compels them;[2] they need to spread the good news! Jesus died a death for all,[3] so that we would serve him as our Lord and Master, living to please him rather than our own interests. This is exactly the lifestyle Paul and his co-workers live.
Jesus changed the way Paul saw the world. They used to see everyone just like the Corinthians did, using worldly markers for success, but now they evaluate with a different set of criteria. Old creation, or new creation. Those who have been incorporated into Christ's body are a new creation. He is the last Adam of the new created order bringing new life to those who are in him. This is God's work through Christ, to reconcile the world to himself, to fix the shattered relationship. That work was accomplished through Christ and continued to be carried out by his chosen ambassadors, Paul and his co-workers, as they announced the message of reconciliation, the message of forgiveness, so that those who were part of the old creation could experience transformation into new creation that came through reconciliation with God. Jesus died to bear Paul's sin[4] and enable reconciliation with God so that he could be God's ambassador and embody and spread God's righteousness to the world.[5][6]
-----------------------------------------
[1] Thrall was especially useful in clarifying the second half of verse 11.
[2] So Matera.
[3] As both Matera and Thrall point out, this death is, at a minimum, representative. The text does not require a substitutionary reading.
[4] 'Bear' requires substitution, but bear could mean absorbing and taking away, no sense of punishment is required.
[5] Here I am fairly certain that righteous standing is not the point. The whole argument of several paragraphs has been about new life and transformation.
[6] Vs. 21 is notoriously difficult. I see strong argument that the 'our' refers to Paul and his companions, keeping the pronoun references consistent throughout the passage. At the same time, it seems odd to seemingly limit the effect of the God's action in Christ to Paul and his co-workers. However, as Wright has pointed out repeatedly, the entire flow of thought is about Paul and his coworkers, not writing a treatise on justification, and second referring to God's purposes for Paul and his colleagues does not inherently exclude the benefits of Christ's death to others (as has already been noted earlier in the paragraph). Paul is simply focusing on the impact of Jesus' death on him, bringing about his calling, which was important both for him and the Corinthians. So in the end, I read this passage differently than both Matera and Thrall. Now, that is not to say that there are not implications or valid extensions of this passage to other individuals, because surely the same mechanics are in place for others. Jesus bears our sin which reconciles and transforms us for a new work on his behalf.
Comments
Post a Comment