Chapter 6

A Universal Message

There are two salient themes that must be recognized in Paul’s teachings and a critical eye must be cast on his letters to make accurate distinctions and proper interpretations. Paul’s message is to the world; it has universal consequence. His letters completed the Divine oracle, the logos to mankind. The world had exhausted its resources. Nothing had worked; a change was needed; Christ came and changed everything. Paul was the instrument, the voice, the expounder of the change Christ brought to the whole world; this is the universal Paul, the Paul for all men everywhere. To be sure, there is a message to his converts, the Gentile church that speaks specifically to their calling and purpose in the universal plan of God. But it must be kept in mind that Paul’s ministry to the church was always in view of their role in the cosmic plan of God, never in isolation as if God was planning separate worlds; one for the believing Church and one for all others.[1] If Paul is careful not to equivocate on a subject, it is the subject of the universal supremacy of Jesus Christ. He is forcefully and consistently clear that Christ is the completion of the cosmos and of every individual in the cosmos. The Pauline ethos is not easily ascertained and may seem convoluted or intentionally obfuscated. Paul was uniquely challenged to present the whole message of Christ which encompassed the entire creation and every creature that has ever existed, of the physical as well as the extra-physical. He speaks to heaven and earth;[2] his mission is universal and particular—he speaks to everyone and each one.[3] No longer a rabbi of the mosaic monolith, he became the arbiter of universal truth which meant he would speak essential truth to four primary categories of the offspring of God; the Jews, the Gentiles, the Church and the angelic orders. And beyond this admittedly simplistic structure, he addresses subcategories and nuances of the cosmic strata that will ultimately constitute the Kingdom of God; made possible through the redemptive work of Christ and proclaimed by Paul.[4] With vocabulary and intellect pressed to exhaustion Paul strains at reducing his God-revealed truth to language that makes physical, earthly sense. Over-taxed superlatives describe metaphysical reality that “passes knowledge” and is “exceedingly, abundantly above all that we ask or think”.[5] Contrary to popular and too often “scholarly” opinion, Paul was not a dogmatist. Dogma happens when the capacity for understanding a thing has reached its limit; what can be grasped constitutes all potential knowledge. At this point we tend to formulate dogma. Dogma is static and adamantine; it is a closed circuit unable to flow outside or beyond its own hard wiring.[6] Paul is a dynamic man; in the tradition of the Hebrew prophets and the Greek philosopher Socrates, Paul embodied his message. No mere academic, he refers to himself with visceral metaphors such as servant, slave, father, farmer, fool… and in the end, like them, he is martyred for the cause. He never ceased to live and grow and learn.[7] And, like Socrates, Paul even interpreted his death as a continuation of life; an exciting part of the ongoing journey into truth and discovery.[8] Death did not loom ominously before them; it was the sunrise, not sunset; an entrance, not an exit. Paul’s view of the future is formed by this dynamic, unfolding experience of reality which transcends time as we conceive of it. He couches the redemptive timeframe of God in eonian terms. Eons[9] are the indefinite periods of time God uses to begin, develop and complete the redemption and restoration[10] of His creation. The mistranslation of this word into various terms defined and understood as being infinite or endless in duration has been the cause of profuse interpretive confusion and frequent contention concerning the efficacy and scope of the redemption procured by the cross of Christ.  A diligent objective perusal of Pauline thought provides a panoramic view of Christ’s redemption which gloriously sustains the Christian maxims that God is good, just, and loving toward all men, everywhere, for all time.