Chapter 7

Truly Good News

Jesus Christ, as Paul represents him, has perfect patience.[1] Paul was deeply persuaded of this since his personal experience of restoration was so dramatic. Remember, he was literally accosted by the Lord as he was traveling to Damascus to persecute Jesus’ followers. The perfection of Christ’s patience is found in the fact that his patience is totally unilateral, not contingent on the object, and, as in the case of Paul, is exercised in spite of the object, actually against the object’s will. Any other exercise of patience would be imperfect since it would depend to some degree on the object. Christ’s patience stands alone.[2] In fact Paul was the consummate champion of the all-sufficiency of God in Christ.[3] Paul never misses an opportunity to exalt over the glorious, transcendent attributes of God upon which his faith stands and his theology is formed.

In a practical sense Paul directs his followers to remember the transcendence of God by suspending judgment of others. We cannot know what God knows about them; their history, their present, their future. Our narrowly limited perspective does not allow for the extremely complex body of information necessary to properly judge a person.[4] Only God possesses that information; only God is able to handle it. In the proper time — in God’s appointed time — he will disclose the hidden things and the deep motives of the hearts. But for Paul, the judgment of God culminates not in grief and gloom but in praise for each person judged. His hope is not a shameful disappointing conclusion, but an eagerly waited for climax that sets the creation in good order — all based on these facts: God has an unlimited amount of time to get the results he desires; he is merciful, patient, kind and loving beyond comprehension; He is all-powerful and cannot be defeated in his plan to restore the whole creation.[5] Judgment will come to those who have not lived under the Mosaic Law as well as to those who have been under the law i.e., the Jews. Both groups are found to fall short of the Glory of God.[6] The human predicament permeates the race impartially. In the former case the predicament is witnessed by the conscience, in the latter by the written oracles delivered by Moses and the prophets. Nevertheless Paul’s gospel is indeed good news as the very word “gospel” suggests, since God judges through Christ Jesus,[7] who is the criterion of Divine judgment. This is Paul’s grand theme through which all his thoughts and convictions are filtered—Yahweh-Salvation, the Messiah crucified for the sins of the world.