Featured The gospel according to Paul

There are many gospels being presented within Christianity, but according to the Apostle Paul there's only one gospel. I state this with Gal 1:6-9 in mind:

6 I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel; 7 which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we i.e., Paul and the Apostles) have preached to you, he is to be accursed! 9 As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed!

 

I think all Christians can agree that the gospel is "the birth, life, death and resurrection of Christ". That, however, is a statement. The gospel is more than a statement. The gospel explains how Christ, as the Son of Man, legally saved the fallen Adamic race from under law to under grace.

 

The gospel that Christianity presents must be able to answer a basic question and that is how can God legally justify sinners on the basis of what Christ did and still maintain His integrity to His own law which condemns us to death?

 

According to the book of the law, no innocent person is allowed to be punished for the guilt of another [see Deut. 24:16; note also Ezk. 18:20.]

Since Christ committed no sin, the big question is: how could God punish Him on the cross for our sins? Is He not going against His own law?

This was the main issue fought over the doctrine of justification by faith, in the Counter Reformation. Roman Catholic scholars, like Osiender and Newman, accused the Reformers of legal fiction. If God can justify sinners without first making them righteous, they argued, than He Himself is guilty of breaking His own law. Today, the Muslim scholars are putting forth the same argument and accusing Christianity of being the most unethical religion in the world.

 

You've got it backwards. Paul's letters were either to individual believers or the Christian churches. His evangelistic presentations of the gospel were not recorded, nevertheless the gospel can be found in his letters.

 

For example let's look at Romans 7:4 NASB

"Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another...."

Who is Paul addressing? His fellow believers (i.e., brethren) in the church of Roman.

What happened to these believers in "the body of Christ" previous to their conversion?

They "were made to die to the law through the body of Christ"

Why did they have "to die to the law"?

Because God's law demands the death of the sinner. [See Romans 3:9-20, especially verse 19 KJV]

How were these believers put into Christ before they were converted? That is, how were they incorporated into the body of Christ so that when "the son of man" died, they died too*?

The answer is the gospel....

But before I establish the truth as it is "in Christ", i.e., the gospel, I must prove our sinfulness & mortality "in Adam". As Paul states "in Adam all die".....

* Rom 6:6

 

It is Paul whom God set aside to explain the gospel. You cannot understand Paul’s theology or his wonderful truth of “righteousness by faith” that he explains in Galatians and Romans unless you have understood the “in Christ” motif.

 

“through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned (in Adam)” Rom 5:12

How did all mankind sin in one man, Adam? Because the human race was "in Adam" when he sinned just as Eve was in Adam before she was created. See Gen 2:22-23 The human race was implicated in Adam's sin because it was in him.

This conception of corporate-oneness can be seen in Heb 7:9 and Gen 25:23

"And as I may so say, Levi also, who receiveth tithes, payed tithes in Abraham. 10 For he was yet in the loins of his father, when Melchisedec met him."

"The LORD said to her, 'Two nations are in your womb; And two peoples will be separated from your body; And one people shall be stronger than the other; And the older shall serve the younger."

 

Romans 5:18 states the same:

"... through one transgression [Adam's transgression] there resulted condemnation to all men..."

Again, "all men" were condemned because they were implicated in Adam's sin. His sin condemned the human race within him the moment he transgressed.

Likewise "through one act of righteousness [Christ', "the last Adam"] there resulted justification of life to all men"

How did Christ, as the self-existing Son of God, unite Himself to our corporate fallen life in order to justify us in Himself before His Father's law? The answer is the gospel....This gospel places Calvin's gospel in the dust of the ground.

 

In other words you and I aren't responsible for eating the fruit of the tree of good and evil? Yes...I agree. So we aren't guilty of Adam's original sin.

The best thing is for us to look at the context of Roman chapter 5.

BTW, Paul is my favorite NT writer. Romans and Galatians are my favorite books of the Bible....

Rom 5:12 ... through one man (Adam) sin (singular) entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned—

verse 13 For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law.

Legally speaking God's law cannot charge the sinner with transgression unless he knows the law, either directly or indirectly.

verse 14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam...

Those between Adam and Moses (where the law was given) were not guilty of transgression! Why? The law had not been officially posted. Therefore "where there is no law neither is there any violation" Rom 4:15

So they weren't dying because they were transgressors, but because they were sinners.

We are sinners because we share in Adam's corporate life after the fall. We are, after all, the multiplication of his fallen life.