Why Foreign Missions? 20b. The Gospel According to Paul in the Corinthian Correspondence, Gordon Fee
Why Foreign Missions? 20b. The Gospel According to Paul in the
Corinthian Correspondence, Gordon Fee
The previous study offered two ways to explore the content
of the Gospel in the early Church: by examining confessional formulae and the
speeches of Acts. In this study, a third
approach to identifying the Gospel will be presented through an essay by
+Gordon D. Fee.[1] His method is to examine Paul’s correspondence
with the Corinthian church. While his
method again demonstrates that the Gospel is focussed on Jesus, it identifies
several dimensions to the Gospel that expand points noted in the previous
study.
The Gospel has
Content
First, Fee points out that the Gospel has a content
(pp. 112f). Existentialist eisegesis of
the 20th century attempted to argue that, originally, the Church
spoke of the act of believing rather than what was to be believed. While such a distinction is surely ludicrous
in its own right, one might, nevertheless, point out that Paul does indeed speak
as though there is a content to the Gospel (Gal. 2.2, 5, 14). I would add that Paul speaks of 'truth' 55
times in 52 verses, and he uses the phrase 'truth of the Gospel' in the
following places:
*Galatians
2:5 we did not submit to them even for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might always
remain with you.
*Galatians
2:14 But when I saw that they were not acting consistently with the truth of the gospel, I said to
Cephas before them all, "If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not
like a Jew, how can you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?"
*Ephesians
1:13 In him you also, when you had heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and had believed
in him, were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit;
*Colossians
1:5 because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. You have heard of this
hope before in the word of the truth,
the gospel.
The Content
of the Gospel in 1 and 2 Corinthians
Paul offers, Fee continues, some (minimal) content
to the gospel on two occasions: 1 Cor. 15.3-5; Rom. 1.16-17. As with the previous study, Fee also
identifies some other semi-creedal statements in Paul: 1 Th. 1.9f; 5.9f; 2 Th.
2.13f; 1 Cor. 6.11; 2 Cor. 1.21f; 13.13; Gal. 4.4-7; Rom. 5.1-5; 8.3f; 8.15-17;
Eph. 1.13f; 4.4-6; Tit. 3.5-7. Fee
suggests that these texts might be built upon by other, related texts in Paul, such
as: 1 Cor. 1.4-7; 2.4-5; 6.19f; 12.4-6; 2 Cor. 3.16-18; Gal. 3.1-5; Rom.
8.9-11; 15.16; 15.18f; 15.30; Col. 3.16; Eph. 1.3; 1.17-20; 2.17-18; 2.19-22;
3.16-19; 5.18-19; Phil. 1.19f; 3.3.
From these texts, three things might be stated:
1. No one text is identical with another. If Paul were drawing from a ‘pre-formed pool’
of tradition, one would expect otherwise (Fee, p. 113, n. 8). Fee concludes by this that Paul is
responsible for most of these formulations.
2. Most of these are expressed not for
their own sake but to support another concern (p. 113).
3. Almost always there is ‘an experiential dimension to what is
affirmed theologically (the experience of
salvation obviously transcends mere theologizing about it)’ (p. 113).
As Fee focusses on 1
and 2 Corinthians, he particularly emphasises that Paul’s Gospel emphasises the
salvation that comes through Jesus Christ and that there is a trinitarian substructure
to the Gospel (p. 114). Thus:
*God is the initiator
of salvation in Christ;
*Christ is the content
of the gospel, and
*The Spirit is the one
by whom the historical reality of Christ’s redemption is made personal and
corporate in believers’ lives (p. 114).[2]
Fee demonstrates these
points from 1 and 2 Corinthians in his comments on the following texts.
*2 Cor. 11.4: For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than
the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you
received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you submit to it
readily enough.
In 2 Cor. 11.4, salvation is clearly said to be found in Jesus. Righteousness comes not through the Torah but
through Jesus. The third item in the
verse (‘a different gospel from the one you accepted’) interprets the first two
(Jesus and the Spirit). By re-introducing
the old covenant (cf. 2 Cor. 3.1-18), Paul’s opponents end up with a different
Jesus from the one Paul preached, and this too involves a different Spirit—a
faith with no role for the Spirit (pp. 117-122).
*1 Cor. 1.17-2.16:
In this longer passage, Fee again
argues that the issue he is facing with the Corinthian church is not about what
the church understood of Jesus—christology.
Rather, the conflict is over what the church believes about salvation (soteriology). What Jesus has done to accomplish salvation
is the content of the Gospel that gives unity to the contingent theology of 1
and 2 Corinthians.
At issue is Paul’s contention
that the content of the gospel is not wisdom (sophia) but a crucified Messiah (1.18-25). This alters the understanding of the church’s
identity, as many in the church are not wise, influential, or well-born (1.26-31). This also alters the understanding of the
nature of preaching, which is in weakness and not with rhetorical skill or
wisdom, and it is through the Spirit’s power, 2.1-5 (122f).
Furthermore, Paul again has a trinitarian substructure to his
argument. First, he speaks of God’s
wisdom and power. Second, God’s gospel
is all about Christ, the cross, and redemption through him. Third, all this is experienced through the
Spirit (2.4f).
*1 Cor. 6.11: And this is what some
of you used to be. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified
[or better, ‘made righteous’] in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the
Spirit of our God.
Here again, Fee avers, one can find a trinitarian
substructure to the Gospel: God is the assumed subject of the verbs,[3]
Christ is the name by which this salvation is accomplished, and salvation is
realised through the Spirit (125f).
Other aspects of the Gospel already
noted can be found here too. The focus
on salvation can be seen in the rich metaphors of ‘washed,’ ‘sanctified,’ and ‘made
righteous’ (cf. 1 Cor. 1.30). The
experiential dimension can be seen in the term ‘washed’ and the role of the
Spirit (p. 126).
*2 Corinthians 1:18-20 18 As surely as God is faithful,
our word to you has not been "Yes and No." 19 For the Son of God, Jesus
Christ, whom we proclaimed among you, Silvanus and Timothy and I, was not
"Yes and No"; but in him it is always "Yes." 20 For in him every one of God's promises
is a "Yes." For this reason it is through him that we say the
"Amen," to the glory of God.
In these verses, where Paul defends his
integrity, he first appeals to God’s character. God is trustworthy, and all his promises have
been realized in Jesus Christ. Second,
Paul makes note of God’s saving activity. As Fee states, God’s saving activity
is but an outflow of his character. Thus, as always in Paul, God’s own character
stands as both the ground and initiative of his saving activity, which was
effected historically by his Son and appropriated in the lives of believers by
his Spirit, who is also the present guarantor of the final eschatological glory
(p. 128).
*2
Cor. 2.14-4.6
In these verses, the crucified Messiah
is hinted at (‘triumphal procession’—see 1 Cor. 4.9 and therefore 1.18-25), and
elsewhere in the epistle. But here the
central role is played by the Spirit.
The Spirit brings freedom from the veil of Torah observance, and so has
to do with a salvation in Christ made real through the Spirit, transforming
‘God’s new covenant people into Christ’s likeness’ (p. 130). Once again, the trinitarian substructure and
the experienced nature of theology is in view.
*2 Corinthians 13:13 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love
of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.
In this benediction to 2 Corinthians, we once again
observe Paul’s association of the Gospel with the trinity, his focus on
salvation (grace), his understanding that the Gospel is initiated in God’s
character (his love), and his understanding that the Gospel is experienced
through fellowship with the Spirit.
Finally, two of Paul’s concerns in 2
Corinthians are rooted in the Gospel: Paul’s apostleship (e.g., 2 Cor. 2.14-7.4
and chs. 10-12) and the Corinthian’s participation in the collection for the
poor in Jerusalem (2 Cor. 8-9—note 8.9) (pp. 132f).
Conclusion
[1] Gordon
D. Fee, ‘Another Gospel Which you did not Embrace: 2 Corinthians 11.4 and the
Theology of 1 and 2 Corinthians,’ in Gospel
in Paul: Studies on Corinthians, Galatians and Romans for Richard N.
Longenecker, JSNTS 108, eds. L. Ann Jervis and Peter Richardson (Sheffield:
Sheffield Academic Press, 1994), pp. 111-133.
[2] Cf.
Gal. 4.4-6.
[3] The
passive verbs lack a subject. This usage
of the passive in Greek is called a ‘divine passive,’ and it means that God is
the assumed subject.
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