| John's Index | Greater Emmanuel | Email John |
Comparing Paul with Paul
By John R. Gavazzoni
Comparing Paul with Paul leads to understanding Paul. He's very consistent in the manner of his thinking and how he expresses his thoughts. Where, in one place, what he writes may seem confusing and even contradictory, becoming very familiar with the whole body of his contribution to the canon of the New Testament, one statement of his, that might cause the reader to think, "huh; wait a minute, Paul, I'm not getting you at all here," that thought, given the reader's familiarity with Paul, might be followed by, "Oh, oh, come to think of it, he said something along the same line elsewhere. I think I'd best go there and read that other statement again carefully. It might shed light on this one I'm finding confusing."
Such might be the case when one reads, (from the KJV), "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure." (I prefer to capitalize all pronouns referring to Deity, though the KJV I'm quoting does not.). The question arises, if Paul means for us to work out our own salvation, but then follows up with, it's God willing and working, what are we to make of that? How is it that I should work when Paul goes on to say, in respect to having said we need to work, that it's God who works?
Well, remembering that other statement from Paul where he wrote in like manner, we go to, "I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me, and the life I now live, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me." Hmm: yes, here, Paul writes in a similar way, in that he speaks of himself living, yet not he, but Christ living in him. Note, on one hand, in respect to his living, he wrote, "yet not I..." nevertheless he goes on to affirm, "the life I now live." Clearly, he claims to be living life. "The life I now live," amounts to living life. Are you following me as to the seeming contradiction in both statements? Both seem to have an element of contradiction, but the second statement provides a clarification, i.e., that while it is not him living but Christ, he is, nevertheless living, because everything God does on behalf of us, He does by our union with Christ.
I don't cease living because it's Christ who lives in me. I indeed live, but since Christ has become my life, we're living that new life together. Christ is my life, and he is so as God's gift to me, but a gift given to one, then belongs to the one having received it, so that from henceforth having received the gift of, and which is, Christ, I can say it's/He's mine. (He that HAS the Son, HAS life.) Likewise, it can be so that I am working out my own salvation, even as it is God, in me, willing and working.
Ahh! Important truth involved taking into consideration both statements. What God does, we do, not to add to His doing, or even contribute some part to the doing, but to repeat, because what God does, I do, BECAUSE He does it. "Because," means He is the cause. The willing and the doing; the choosing and the performing are of God, by His initiation, by His dynamic, from beginning to end. This traces our union with Christ back to the manner of the Son's union with the Father. Note that Paul is in agreement with Jesus, who affirmed that He only did the things He saw His Father do, and in another place He spoke of the His words being the works of His Father dwelling in Him. It's not a typo: His words = the Father's work.
I dare say, that from the perspective of Christ living, and, even from the perspective of me living, both are two living as one. But the issue of Source is a major issue. From the Son's union with the Father ("I and the Father are one"), we derive our union with the Son, and since Jesus also said, "The Father has life in Himself, and gives (in the Greek "gives," as in ongoingly) the Son to have life in Himself" the Father is the Source, the Source without a source. As the Father is the uncreated Creator, He is the un-sourced Source. All being proceeds from Him, and all oneness, all unity, is by, with, and in Him. He is the One God and Father who is above all, in all, and through all.
| John's Index | Greater Emmanuel | Email John |
