2.2 Placing Paul's Jesus
© 2016 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
Paul’s gospel is that we are IN Christ and Christ is IN us.
Jesus did not give His true understanding to the other apostles, but reserved the full meaning of the gospel entirely for Paul. To the extent that the other New Testament writers came under the reality of Paul’s gospel, as John did, to that extent they were teaching the real gospel.
BUT –Paul, after he had received his revelation, visited only Peter and James, the brother of Jesus, although he did not share much with them at that time. Then James wrote his book in AD 45 around the same time that Paul began to preach his gospel in Antioch. James tolerated, but did not regard Paul’s gospel – ever.
Only John Understood. Then, Paul’s visit to Jerusalem in Galatians 2, after fourteen years, occurred just before Paul began his third missionary journey and just before he wrote 1 Corinthians. It is here that Paul said that he shared his gospel privately with James, the brother of Jesus, Peter, and John. Of these three, I suspect that only John held Paul’s words closely in his heart. The other two agreed only that the grace of God seemed to be upon Paul. James would not have easily dropped his opposition.
Here is the point – the other disciples did not know and did not preach Paul’s gospel. Only John wrote in agreement with it. For that reason we know in full that ANOTHER Jesus and ANOTHER gospel were pressing against Paul during his short 21 years of overall ministry (15 years of writing letters).
The Source of Paul’s Gospel. Now, there will be little emphasis on the negative in this course on Covenant. Nevertheless, it is at this crossroads, this juxtaposition, indeed, this Veil, at which God has placed the issues of His Covenant with us. We must see clearly.
Another gospel exists because of another Jesus. Paul’s Jesus must be our Jesus before we can know Paul’s gospel. The true gospel flows naturally out from the real Jesus.
More than that, Paul’s gospel is written out from his knowledge of the real Jesus. Thus all those who argue over Paul’s gospel and its role have no idea what anything Paul said means because they are thinking only of another Jesus. We must KNOW Paul’s Jesus above all things.
Paul’s Jesus. Here is the shortest definition of Paul’s Jesus. Christ lives in your hearts through faith (Ephesians 3:17). Eliminate EVERYTHING else, all other considerations of everything, and the Jesus of these words must grow in your understanding until they have indeed, swallowed up all else.
Let’s try to simplify the larger definition of Paul’s Jesus, in order to draw out Paul’s gospel in the next lesson. Paul’s Jesus is a personal Being inside of whom you and I exist, and this same personal Being is inside of all that we are. In order for this reality to exist, Jesus as a personal Being must possess two qualities. First, He must be utterly Human, and second, He must exist in the form of a life-giving Spirit.
A Personal View. If you do a word study (as I have done), writing out every verse in Paul’s letters containing the words “I, me, my, mine, our, ours,” or anything by which Paul refers to himself, you will discover that Paul’s view of God and the gospel was utterly personal and entwined entirely with his own personality.
Consider this claim of Paul’s. If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so: circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel…; concerning the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless (Philippians 3:4-6). Look at his final boast – I was blameless in all keeping of the law!
A Total Knockout. Yet this blameless keeper of all that God speaks waged war against God’s Christ. Then he fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” And he said, “Who are You, Lord?” Then the Lord said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting” (Acts 9:4-5).
I suspect that no human being before or since has experienced the devastating overthrow of everything, all the structures of thinking, all the ways of being and doing, all the values and pursuits, as happened in Paul’s soul in that moment. This steel-beam knockout occurred in AD 37. Paul tried to preach after that, but things did not work out. He did not really begin teaching his gospel for another eight years.
Life Is Something Different. Keeping the law to perfection, being blameless in all things before God in full obedience to the Scripture not only did nothing of any value for Paul, but led him into open opposition to God’s Messiah. ALL of Paul’s knowledge of Scripture, ALL of Paul’s dedicated devotion and obedience – BLAMELESS in God’s sight, had left him ENTIRELY and ONLY inside of death.
The thing Paul had to grapple with is this – Life is something entirely different. And the difference for Paul is foreshadowed in these words, reflective of Paul’s own personality. And he said, “Who are You, Lord?” Then the Lord said, “I am Jesus.”
I Am Jesus. I am Jesus. All that is Paul’s Jesus, and Paul’s gospel coming out from Paul’s Jesus, are found in these three words uttered by a very personal and real human Person.
And thus we can know that Paul would only say “Amen,” to my slight alteration of Ephesians 3:17. “I am Jesus” lives in our hearts through faith. Person to person, Person with person, Person in person, union and fellowship, fellowship and union. There is no other Jesus.
Paul’s Jesus is all here and all now and inside of you.
A Full Answer. You see, you, along with every other human being, could write out the entirety of Paul’s gospel for yourself. Raise any question or issue you wish, present that question to the Lord Jesus, and hear these words in response. “I am Jesus. I live inside of you, in your heart. Believe in Me.” From those words (Ephesians 3:17a) will come a full answer to every possible legitimate question.
There is a sci-fi movie that I enjoy (but am not necessarily recommending) titled The Guardians of the Galaxy. Five vagabonds are thrown together in an escape from prison. One of them is a tree-ish being who speaks only one three-word phrase: “I am Groot.”
All Answer to Everything. When you first hear “I am Groot,” you think he’s just giving his name. But as he says only that in response to everything, you think he is a limited being who doesn’t know much. By the end of the story, after Groot has lain down his life in order to save his friends, you finally understand deep inside that “I am Groot” meant so much more. “I am Groot” meant all that laying down one’s life for his friends could possibly mean.
I am not comparing Jesus to Groot, but rather using this concept to underline how “I am Jesus” is the depths of all answers to everything. And “I am Jesus” is a Personal Being speaking directly with you.
We Are the Body of Christ. The second thing about Paul’s Jesus that he could not escape was Jesus’ claim: “Saul, you are persecuting Me.” You see, Paul determined that Jesus was speaking literally, that these “Christians” were, in actuality, Jesus Himself. And thus Paul determined that his personal Jesus must live in Person in each one who belonged to Him, meaning we ARE the Body of Christ.
Paul never lost the understanding that Jesus is a Man (one Mediator between God and man, the Man, Christ Jesus). Yet this Man was personally each one who belonged to Him. And so Paul’s first expression of his Jesus, the first letter to the Corinthians, positioned Paul’s Jesus living as us (Chapter 6), as a many-membered Christ (Chapter 12), and as a personal and human, life-giving Spirit (Chapter 15).
A Personal Jesus. Paul’s gospel, then, is his attempt to answer the question, “HOW.” – How does this Jesus be who He is. You see, it’s not what Jesus does, but how Jesus is what He is, how, “I am Jesus” applies to every meaningful question.
But consider this. Paul spent little time with those disciples who had known Jesus outwardly. Only Mark’s gospel, received from Peter, was written before Paul wrote his two letters to the Corinthians. Paul did not have a good memory of Mark, yet he would likely have read Mark’s gospel. How did Paul know his Jesus? He knew Him personally.
The Lord said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9).
My Friend. Paul’s Jesus is a Personal Being, completely Human, living inside of me as a life-giving Spirit, making Himself a part of me and me a part of Him. Paul’s Jesus is my Friend, the One who cares for me, the One who trades His life for mine every moment. I fellowship at all times with Paul’s Jesus and He with me. I hear Him speaking out from my own heart. And always He speaks of Himself sufficient for me in all things, His glory in my weakness, His life in my flesh.
Just as I must say “me,” so you also must say “me.” I honor Paul’s Jesus in you, but I know Paul’s Jesus only IN me. I know Him NOWHERE else.
A Someday Jesus. Here is one of the strongest verses of a someday Jesus. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17).
Whatever this means, I will know only what I have known, that I am IN this revealed Jesus and that this revealed Jesus is IN me, now and forever. Those who know only a separated Jesus will see, in this moment, a separated Jesus; I will not be weeping with them.
Speaking only of One. The another Jesus is a “back-then” Jesus, an “up-there” Jesus, a “someday” Jesus, of limited consequence and of little present relevance.
And Paul said of all who preach this other Jesus, “Let them be accursed.” He said that for the simple reason that another Jesus serves only one purpose, and that is to keep God’s precious people from ever knowing Paul’s Jesus as their very and only life.
Thus, from here on out, through this course on Covenant, when we speak of the Bond of the Covenant, even the Covenant itself, we are speaking entirely and only of the One who says, “I am Jesus,” this One we each call “my Friend.”