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 THE AUTHORITY OF THE GOSPEL FOR
THE MINISTRY OF PAULl
GEOFFREY W. GROGAN, GLASGOW

I. Divine Authority and the Christian Faith

1. The importance of authority
It would be difficult to exaggerate the importance of authority
as an issue for Christianity. It is not simply that every other
theological question is related to it. Certainly, Christian truth
is a unity, with every doctrine intimately connected with every
other. The doctrine of authority is, however, unique. Without
it no other theological truth has a basis thai is at all adequate.
Destroy authority and Bible teaching is reduced to interesting
religious thought which may or may not have some value
today as a stimulating approach to life.
For this reason, the issue of authority has come into focus
at every important stage in the history of doctrine. What was
the ultimate issue in the church's encounter with Gnosticism?
What lay beneath the debate over justification between
Catholics and Protestants at the Reformation? What is the
issue between conservative Evangelicals and liberals? In each
case it is authority.

2. Revelation, interpretation, inspiration and authority

It is important to distinguish between revelation and
interpretation. We might be tempted to generalise and to say
that in revelation the grammatical subject is God whereas in
interpretation it is a human being. God reveals, man or
woman interprets.
This is not, however, always true. The revelation itself
often includes an element of interpretation. If the revelation
comes through an historical event, that event needs to be
interpreted before it can be fully revealing, and sometimes
God interpreted it directly without human agency.
The Exodus and the cross were historical events, while the
redemption of Israel and the atonement through Christ are

1 The Finlayson Memorial Lecture delivered at the annual conference

of the Scottish Evangelical Theology Society on Friday 26 March
1993 at the Faith Mission Bible College, Edinburgh.
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SCOITISH BULLETIN OF EVANGEUCAL THEOLOGY

events divinely interpreted. God did not simply tell Moses that
the Exodus would happen, but that it would constitute his
deliverance of the people from Egyptian bondage. Jesus not
only told his disciples he would be crucified, but that he
would give his life a ransom for many. His interpretation
was, of course, as clearly divine as God's Word to Moses,
because he is God manifest in the flesh. In these two cases the
revelation consisted of event plus interpretation. Often of
course there was human interpretation. When this was given
by the Spirit of God through human agency it could become
part of the Word of God for the readers of the Bible.
So then interpretation, attributed to the Father, the Son or
the Holy Spirit, is often found within the bosom of revelation.
This fact becomes especially important when we consider the
way God's revelation of himself unfolded in historical eras.
Systematic theology is sometimes in danger of giving the
historical factor less than its proper consideration. Biblical
theology is an important discipline because it gives due weight
to the chronological nature of the historical form in which the
revelation was given.
So, in the stage-by-stage unfolding of God's revelation, the
inspired human channels of revelation often evaluated and
interpreted what was given earlier. The prophets, for instance,
often comment on God's disclosure of himself through the
great events of Israel's early history, and at a later stage the
apostles comment on the Old Testament. These comments are
of such importance for the prophetic and apostolic witness
respectively that they play a major part in the revelation given
through these inspired persons. This revelation came to its
climax and its completion in the great event of Jesus Christ.
He is the Word of God made flesh. This great historical
event, which was really a series of events all associated with
one person, also needed and was given inspired
interpretation.
But if the historical revelation is complete, interpretation is
not. It continues in every generation, for each must have an
understanding and application appropriate to its specific
situation and needs. There is, however, a major difference
between interpretation which is enclosed within the revelatory
process and that which is not. It is true that interpretation
always requires dependence on the Holy Spirit. But in the
case of the biblical writers, there was a special work of the
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 AUTHORITY OF THE GOSPEL FOR THE MINISTRY OF PAUL

Spirit, his inspiration, which guarantees the reliability of the

interpretation. In this lecture we are interested in interpretation
which is part of revelation, in so far as Paul, inspired by the
Spirit, comments on earlier stages of revelation. It is of course
because God's revelation takes written form in the inspired
Scriptures that the Bible possesses authority.

3. Christ and the gospel

The gospel is a message, and that message is an interpretation
of the event that is Christ and in particular an understanding of
the events of central importance, his death and his resurrection
from the dead. How are Christ and the gospel, event and
interpretation, connected?
The interpretation was first given in essence by Christ
himself. He was the first preacher of the gospel He is said in
the gospels to have preached the gospel, or the gospel of the
kingdom, or the kingdom itself, the kingly rule of God. This
means that the gospel possesses authority from God, and that
this is the authority of the completed revelation. Here the seed
planted many centuries earlier has come to full fruition.

4. The authority of the apostles and of the New

Testament
What then is the role of the apostles? Christ committed the
truth of his gospel to them, and appointed them to proclaim it
with authority. Mter the saving events had themselves taken
place, their meaning was expounded with great fullness by the
inspired preachers and writers of the New Testament, all of
whom were either apostles or so close to them that the gospel,
the apostolic doctrine, was normative for them.
It is important to remember that the gospel is essentially
truth. Some may suggest that it is 'better felt than telt', but, if
it is to do its work, it must be proclaimed and expounded in
all its saving truth. The apostles not only proclaimed the
gospel to the unconverted, but they taught Christians.
Although the Acts of the Apostles records the fact of their
preaching and also something of its content, there is very little
in Acts about the teaching they gave to Christians, although
what is given there is valuable. It is in fact in the Gospels and
Epistles that we find their teaching given much more fully.
Now it has been recognised that all this material finds
integration in one common gospel, expressed in different
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SCOTIISH BULLETIN OF EVANGELICAL THEOLOGY

ways, but basically the same. This view was put forward in
its most influential form by C.H. Dodd in his book, The
Apostolic Preaching and its Developments. 2 Dodd's view
has been challenged, 3 but it can be well defended, although it
would take us too far from our main purpose to do this now.
We will take it for granted in what follows. If Dodd was
right, the gospel is the substance not only of the preaching but
also of the teaching. If there is a difference, it is the difference
of the seed and the plant, of the baby and the adult. The most
apt analogy is the relation between the text and expository
sermon. The teaching of the New Testament is simply
bringing out more fully the meaning and implications of the
gospel. It is obviously time we looked more fully at the
gospel itself.

11. The Nature and Authority of the Gospel

1. Its substance
A study of the sermons in the Acts of the Apostles and of
references to the gospel in the Epistles yields a summary
something like the following. God's promises in the Old
Testament have now been fulfilled in Jesus the Christ, and
especially in his death and resurrection for human salvation.
The hearers are called to respond to his good news in
repentance and faith, expressed in baptism. In this way God's
kingly rule is established among human beings.
The reference to Old Testament fulfilment, although
frequent, is not invariable. It is always present in preaching to
Jews and also to Gentiles of the synagogue, but in preaching
to pagans it is usually replaced by a reference to the God of
creation.4 B. Gartner, however, in his study of the Areopagus
AddressS, has shown that even when Paul is addressing a
pagan audience his thought is consistently true to the Old
Testament background of the gospel despite the fact that he

2 C.H. Dodd, The Apostolic Preaching and its Developments

(London, 1936).
3 See e.g. J.D.G. Dunn, Unity and Diversity in the New
Testament. An Inquiry into the Character of Earliest
Christianity (London, 1977).
4 See Acts 14:15-17, 17:24-31.
5 B. Gartner, Tile Areopagus Speech and Natural Revelation,
trans. by C.H. King (Lund, 1955).
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 AUTHORITY OF THE GOSPEL FOR THE MINISTRY OF PAUL

never quotes it. It was always the background for him, the
preacher, even if it was not for them, the hearers.

2. Its status
What is its status? Was it revelation or was it interpretation?
Or was it both? It is best to think of it as both. It was
revelation, because, like the Old Testament, it is called 'the
word of God' 6 • This is a revelation term. It is not simply
revelation; it is the very summit of revelation.
It is interpretation for two reasons: First, it provides a
hermeneutic of the Old Testament. The good news was
intimately related to the fulfilment of earlier revelation.
Contemporary Judaism had not altogether understood the Old
Testament; God gave his own hermeneutic of it in the fact of
Christ. Secondly, it provided a hermeneutic of that great fact.
This hermeneutic embraced selection and significance.
Jesus did many things. In fact, John tells us that if they
were all recorded the world itself could not contain the
books. 7 The writers of the four Gospels therefore select
materials, as all biographers must. They were, however, no
ordinary biographers. They were preaching a message. They
therefore place emphasis on the death and resurrection of
Jesus, knowing their significance as the supreme saving acts
of God. In so doing they are in tune with the emphasis on
these events that we find in the rest of the New Testament.
We must not forget that the hermeneutical material is itself part
of the revelation and therefore carries divine authority.

3. Its connection with the apostles

The relationship between the gospel and the apostles of Christ
is significant and important. Jesus committed his gospel to
these men. If he is the substance of its message, these were
the people who knew him best of all. They had been close to
him, they had seen his acts, and they had heard him teach the
people on countless occasions. He had also given special
courses of instruction to these men themselves.
It is important to note that this teaching specially directed to
them focussed on his coming death and resurrection. The

6 E.g. in Acts 4:31; 6:7; 13:46; 1 Cor. 14:36; 1 Thes. 2:13; Heb
13:7; Rev. 1:9.
7 John 21:25.
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Synoptic writers make this clear to us. They do not give a full
account of this teaching, but they do indicate its main themes,
and the words they use make it abundantly clear that it was
given as a definite course of instruction.s This teaching was
given particularly on his last great journey to Jerusalem, the
place where these awesome events actually took place.
Most important of all, these men were witnesses of his
resurrection. The resurrection is the most important evidence
for the truth of the Christian faith and these men had seen the
risen Christ. This fact is mentioned over and over again as we
listen to the sermons in the Acts of the Apostles.9 Also they
had been endowed with the Holy Spirit specifically as the
Spirit of Truth. It is interesting to note how the prophecies
and promises of Jesus about him relate particularly to our
Lord's own teaching and also to exposition of the fact of
Christ.lO These found literary form in the New Testament
Gospels and Epistles respectively.

4. Its place in the apostolic ministry of Paul

It should be said that we are assuming the Pauline authorship
of the thirteen Epistles in the New Testament that claim to be
his, and also the authenticity of the Lucan account of his
apostolic ministry. What was the essential qualification for
apostleship? It must have been at the very least the call of
Christ. But were there other qualifications? Acts 1:21 might
suggest there were: not only being a witness of his
resurrection, but also companying with him throughout his
earthly ministry. We should however remember that on this
occasion they were in fact concerned with filling a gap in a
group composed entirely of men who had been with Jesus in
that way. We may be wrong, therefore, if we suppose they
were stating a qualification of quite invariable application.
Paul was no disciple during the ministry of Jesus, but he
did claim to have seen the risen Christ and to have been
appointed by him. It is not impossible that others, like
Barnabas and James, the Lord's brother, were apostles in the
technical sense,ll and also Andronicus and Junias whoever

8 E.g. Mark 8:31; 9:12-13, 30-2; 10:32-4.

9 E.g. Acts 2:22-4; 3:32, 33; 4:33; 5:32; 10:39-42.
10 John 14:26; 15:26, 27; 16:12-15.
11 Note the use of the word 'apostles' in Acts 14:14; 1 Cor. 15:7.
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 AUTHORITY OF THE GOSPEL FOR THE MINISTRY OF PAUL

they were.12 Our present concern, however, is not to

vindicate the apostolic claims of Paul; rather, assuming them
to be true, it is to enquire what link there is in his writings
between apostleship and the gospel, and then to see how his
concern for the gospel affected everything he did in the course
of his ministry.
In actual fact, our interest is not so much in what authority
Paul possessed, but rather what authority the gospel had over
him. Now there is no doubt that Paul was enormously
preoccupied with the gospel. James Barr has warned us
against placing too much emphasis on word-counting in
constructing a biblical theology.13 Yet without doubt such an
exercise has its place, so long as we remember that words are
important for the ideas they express, which may also
sometimes be expressed in other words. Paul makes
considerable use of the terminology of the good news.
Euangelion ('gospel') occurs sixty times, while it is found
only sixteen times in the rest of the New Testament. He is
also the major user of euangelizomai ('preach the gospel'),
with Luke, his companion, coming second. We have also to
add to this the many passages where he places emphasis on
the death and/or resurrection of Jesus, the central events
proclaimed and expounded in the gospel.

S. Tradition and inspiration in the ministry of Paul.

In the Pauline letters we need to reckon with the work both of
the second and third persons of the Trinity.
Paul uses the language of tradition, 14 and it is clear that the
ultimate source of tradition for him is Jesus.15 He received the
gospel from him. 16 He also quotes Jesus and alludes to his
teaching.17 Even though he was not a disciple of Jesus during
his earthly ministry, he stood in the apostolic mainstream as
far as the dominical tradition is concerned.

12 Rom. 16:7.
13 J. Barr, The Semantics of Biblical Language (Oxford, 1961).
14 When he writes of teaching being delivered (or passed on) or
received, e.g. in 1 Cor. 11:2, 23; 15:1-3; 2 Thes. 2:15; 3:6.
15 Note 1 Cor. 7:10 and 11:23.
16 Gal. 1:1; 1:11-2:10.
17 E.g. Acts 20:25; 1 Tim. 5:18; cf. Luke 10:7.
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He says less about the Holy Spirit in relation to his own

inspiration. Writing to the Thessalonians, he refers to the
Spirit in connection with his preaching of the gospel at
Thessalonica, but he has in view the power of his preaching,
not its content.18
1 Corinthians 7 makes an interesting study in the
relationship between the tradition which comes from the Son
of God and the inspiration that comes from the Holy Spirit. In
verses 10, 12 and 25, Paul distinguishes between commands
of the Lord and his own judgements. There can be little doubt
that the former relate to the teaching of Jesus on the subject of
divorce.19 The latter concern situations for which there was
no such guidance given by Jesus himself. In these Paul makes
judgements. The decisive word 'judgement' is a better
translation of gnome here than the weaker and perhaps even
tentative English word 'opinion'. Mter all, Paul wrote both
Corinthian Epistles as an apostle of Christ (1 Cor. 1:1; 2 Cor.
1:1), and he was well aware that his apostleship carried with it
authority from the Lord (2 Cor. 10:8-11; 13:10).
What then is the status of these judgements? In 1
Corinthians 7: 25, Paul says, 'Now about virgins: I have no
command from the Lord, but I give my judgement as one who
by the Lord's mercy is trustworthy.' This trustworthiness
was, of course, the product of the work of the Spirit. Paul
makes an interesting reference to him at the close of 1
Corinthians 7. Here he says, 'A woman is bound to her
husband as long as she lives. But if her husband dies, she is
free to marry anyone she wishes, but he must belong to the
Lord. In my judgement, she is happier if she stays as she is -
and I think that I too have the Spirit of God.' There can be
little doubt that the closing words of this passage are ironic.
The Corinthians were very conscious of the activity of the
Holy Spirit in their church life and probably made claims for
his activity too easily. Paul's moderate expression therefore
may well have been used by him in ironic contrast with their
too easily made claims.20

18 1 Thes. 1:5.
19 Compare 1 Cor. 7:10, 11 and Luke 16:18.
20 We might compare Paul with Jeremiah over against the false
prophets of his day.
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 Al.ITHORITY OF THE GOSPEL FOR THE MINISTRY OF PAUL

We might compare these words of Paul with what he says

in 1 Corinthians 14:37, 38: 'H anybody thinks he is a prophet
or spiritually gifted, let him acknowledge that what I am
writing to you is the Lord's command. If he ignores this, he
himself will be ignored.' Although Paul uses two different
words for command, epitage in chapter 7 and entole in
chapter 14, they are equivalent in meaning. Both of course
imply authority. So Paul recognises the authority of the
dominical tradition, and also asserts the authority of his own
teaching under the inspiration of the Spirit. In fact, here in 1
Corinthians 14 he seems to be going as far as to indicate that
recognition of the authority of his own teaching was a test of
what claimed to be prophetic truth.
It looks then as if we need to say that the gospel itself and
some basic implications of it (such as some aspects of
marriage ethics) belong to the apostolic tradition deriving from
Christ himself, but that there was a continuing work of the
Spirit in guiding Paul and the other apostles in their
application of the gospel to particular situations.

Ill. The Implications of Gospel Authority for

Paul's Ministry
1. Theological implication
Paul was clearly very concerned that the authenticity and
purity of the gospel should be maintained. We see this clearly
in Galatians 1:6-9, where he includes himself and even angels
in a general condemnation if they should pervert the gospel.
We see it also in 2 Corinthians 11:4, where he links the
gospel with Christ and the Spirit. Just as there can be only
one true Christ and one true Spirit, so there can be only one
true gospel. Perhaps all three rest on the Old Testament
assertion that there is only one God.
Thomas Kuhn has promoted and expounded the concept of
the paradigm shift. This is the notion that a new idea, or at
least a newly influential idea, comes to have such a controlling
effect on the mind of an individual or even of a whole society
that the total perspective of the individual or community is
altered. Kuhn put forward this concept in the context of a
philosophy of science, but it is of course applicable in other

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SCOTIISH BUlLETIN OF EVANGEUCAL THEOLOGY

subject areas as we11.21 No doubt this happened on the

Damascus Road. Paul knew now that Jesus, whom he had
been persecuting in his followers, was alive and that he was
indeed the Christ. The opening of his physical eyes after the
temporary blinding on the Damascus Road was undoubtedly a
symbol of the inner enlightenment he received then. In
Galatians 1:16, he describes it in terms which include an inner
as well as an outer light: 'It pleased God to reveal his Son in
(eis, literally, 'into') me.'
Obviously this great experience would profoundly influence
his understanding of the Old Testament. It lost none of its
authority for him, but his understanding of it would alter in
significant ways as he approached it in the light of the gospel
of Christ.22 He came to see the theological implications of the
gospel with crystal clarity. We will spell out some of these.

i. God saves people by his grace through Christ and his

work alone.
The gospel had so mastered Paul's mind that he was
convinced Christ is the only Saviour and that his death and
resurrection established the only way of salvation there was,
there had ever been or ever would be.
So there could be no compromise with paganism. The
pagan could not simply accept Christ by incorporating him
into his paganism, so that, for instance, Christ would become
one of a number of deities, or even the chief god in a
pantheon. As Paul says to the Corinthians, there can be no
question of partaking both of the table of the Lord and the
table of demons.23 The promise and demand of the gospel are
equally radical. It insists on a faith that embraces the promise
in Christ and a repentance that turns away from rebellion
against God. This rebellion often shows itself in the worship
of other gods and dependence on other saviours, including
self-salvation.

21 T. Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, 2nd edit.

(Chicago, 1970).
22 So he was able in the synagogues to argue for the gospel on the
basis of a shared outlook on the OT (Acts 17:1-3). For Paul's
attitude to the OT, see E.E. Ellis, Paul's Use of the Old
Testament (Edinburgh, 1957).
23 1 Cor. 10:14-22.
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 AUTHORITY OF TilE GOSPEL FOR TilE MINISTRY OF PAUL

If the gospel confronts the pagan with its radical promise

and demand, it also confronts legalistic Judaism just as
radically. The Jew must give up any attempt to save himself.
Christ is the end of the law for righteousness. What the law
could not do, God did in Christ.24The Jew needs to see this
and bow the knee to Jesus. Moreover, there can be no
question of adding anything to the gospel. Paul reminds the
Corinthians that the Jews expected miraculous signs as
evidence of power and the Greeks looked for eloquence as
evidence of wisdom, but that Christian preachers brought the
simple message of salvation through the cross of Jesus. In
that cross and its message however God's power and wisdom
were revealed, and yet at the same time hidden, because they
were completely contrary to the thinking of the unregenerate
world.25
Paul also saw that the Gentile does not need to become a
Jew and submit to circumcision. Paul could be quite mild-
mannered at times, but he wrote with deep passion to the
Galatians. He could see that the Judaizing insistence on
circumcision was in fact undermining the gospel. It
introduced to the mind of the believer the idea that there were
acts necessary to give certainty to his Christian standing. This
idea was abhorrent to Paul, gripped as he was by the gospel.
This means, of course, that God's final purpose for Israel
could only be fulfilled through the gospel. There can be no
doubt from the whole tenor of Romans 9-11 that Paul saw
Israel's complete salvation as coming only through Christ and
the gospel. He therefore understood the Old Testament
promises of a great future for Israel in gospel terms.26
His strong belief in the sovereignty of God and therefore of
the certainty of that future salvation for Israel could not in any
way qualify his insistence on faith in Christ. He says that if
they do not persist in unbelief they will be grafted into the
olive tree again and then goes on to affirm that a time would
come when 'all Israel will be saved'. Certain it may be, but its

24 Rom. 8:3; 10:4.

25 1 Cor. 1:22-2:16.
26 For the attitude of the NT writers to the Israel prophecies of the
OT, see O.T. Allis, Prophecy and the Church (Philadelphia, PA,
1945).
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practical realization can only be brought about by grace

through faith.27
What about saved Israelites of the past? Were they also
saved through the gospel? Certainly Paul states in Romans 4
that Abraham was saved by grace through faith and that
words of David confirm this as God's way. He has less to
say about Christ and his work in relation to the godly men and
women of the past. He clearly believed in universal judgement
but also in Old Testament salvation and yet he was able to say
that God, in his forbearance, had left past sins unpunished28
until the coming of Christ crucified. We can only reconcile
these facts if we assume that he believed, as the writer to the
Hebrews clearly did,29 that salvation came to people in Old
Testament times on the basis of the work of him who was to
come.
We can easily understand why he has little to say about
this. In his conflict with the Judaizers at Galatia, the issue was
not so much whether or not salvation comes through Christ.
Rather it was whether it is entirely of grace, so that faith is
sufficient to enable us to benefit from that salvation. His main
emphasis therefore is on the fact that salvation has always
been given on the basis of faith, and not of works ofthe law.

ii. Christ's resurrection and deity are essential to the

gospel.
At Corinth there were apKarently people who denied the
resurrection of the dead.3 1 This may have been due to the
influence of Greek views on the lower, or even evil, status of
the body. Paul saw the seriousness of this denial. He
therefore treats it very seriously, although he does not come
out with all guns firing as he did when wming to the
Galatians. On the face of it, this was a less grave error than
that which was influencing the Galatians, for it did not in
itself undermine the central facts of the gospel. What Paul
realized however is that, when taken to its logical conclusion,
it would destroy the gospel.

27 Rom. 11:23-32.
28 Rom. 3:25, 26.
29 Heb. 9:15.
30 1 Cor. 15:12.
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 AUTHORITY OF THE GOSPEL FOR THE MINISTRY OF PAUL

Such errors need to be exposed. Logic is a kind of

intellectual dynamic that moves the mind. If the logical
consequence of a theological position is radical heresy, then
the minds of some of those holding it are almost sure to move
in that direction eventually. We probably need then to
introduce a middle category between central and peripheral
truth, perhaps calling it medial. If we think of primary truth as
essential to the gospel and peripheral truth as incidental to it,
medial truth will consist of doctrines which are not central in
themselves but which, when denied, may lead to a denial of
central truth. The resurrection of the dead is one of these.
In the Epistle to the Colossians, the issue is the deity of
Christ. The nature of the Colossian heresy is still disputed,31
but whatever its nature and its antecedents were, it is clear it
challenged the value the gospel placed on Christ. In this
Epistle, Paul links Christ's person and work closely,
indicating, for instance, that he is both the one in whom all the
fullness of God was pleased to dwell and also that it was
through his blood that reconciliation was effected.32
Clearly then, when Paul says that Christ died for our sins,
he had a particular conception of Christ in his mind. It was the
Christ who is divine. It was Christ according to his own
valuation of himself. As Athanasius, Anselm and Luther all
saw so clearly in their differing ways, the deity of Christ is
absolutely essential to the efficacy of his atoning work. It is
only one who is divine who could deal effectively and
decisively with the immense sin problem and bring us into the
presence and the righteousness and the family of God.

ill. The gospel brings illumination to human destiny.

In it life and immortality have been brought to light.33 It
therefore has profound eschatological implications. The
debate at Corinth about the resurrection shows that for some
the nature of immortality as resurrection was difficult to
grasp. So the gospel really cut across certain cherished
philosophical tenets of the Greeks.

31 See R.P. Martin, The Church's Lord and the Christian's

Liberty (Exeter, 1972), pp. 4-20.
32 Col. 1:19-20.
33 2 Tim. 1:9-11.
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The gospel also spoke of judgement, as Paul makes clear in

Romans 2:16. We may be surprised to find such a close
connection between 'good news' and 'judgement', but if the
good news of Jesus is God's only way of salvation, there
must be judgement for those who reject it.

iv. Christian progress is found exclusively within the

parameters of the gospel.
This was evidently another issue within the Colossian church.
It could well have become an issue for the Corinthians as
well, with their interest in wisdom. Paul declared that all the
treasures of wisdom and knowledge are to be found in Christ
and that the Colossian Christians, having received Christ
Jesus as Lord, were complete in him. They should therefore
now walk in him.34 This means then that there was no second
stage of Christian experience which was not in itself a deeper
realization of the first. The One who justifies and the One who
sanctifies are one and the same Christ. Christianity is not a
kind of freemasonry with varying degrees. Christ is all.
Christian teaching then simply exposes for the Christian
believer the implications of the gospel. This means that
preaching and teaching are intimately related. So Paul says
that it is by the gospel Christians are established.35 The same
gospel that had saved them would also make them strong. In
fact, it seems from 2 Thessalonians 2:13-17 that for Paul the
gospel was the whole Christian faith. It is the gospel that
bears fruit. 36

2. Ethical Implications
It is of course a commonplace idea that Christian ethics arise
out of Christian theology. This may be seen, for instance, in
the Epistle to the Romans. Chapters 12 to 16 are based on
chapters 1 to 11, as the pivotal passage in chapter 12:1-2,
reveals: 'Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's
mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices.' Paul has
been expounding God's mercy for eleven chapters. Now they
were to respond in consecration to God.

34 Col. 2:1-8.
35 Rom. 16:25.
36 Col. 1:6, 7.
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i. The death and resurrection of Christ are both the cause

and pattern of the new life of the believer.
This links with the theological point made above in connexion
with the fact that all true Christian growth is within the
parameters of the gospel. This in itself shows the intimate
connection for Paul between theology and ethics.
Romans 6 was Rudolf Bultmann's favourite New
Testament chapter. He saw very clearly that it indicated the
pattern and shape Christian discipleship should take in the
world. Bultmann's insight was not, however, based on the
gospel of an atoning death and a literal evidential resurrection,
for he dismissed both as mythological elements in Paul's
presentation. 37 We must insist that it is not possible to detach
Romans 6 from Romans 1-5 without doing violence to Paul's
whole conception of the Christian message. It is because
Christ died for us and rose again that any repetition of the
pattern in our lives is possible. Apart from his substitutionary
atonement there is no way out of the impasse created by sin,
either in terms of forgiveness or in terms of a new moral
vitality creating and leading to a new lifestyle.
Identification with Christ in his death and resurrection are
only possible if these are both real and if they are aspects of
one reality. If the death was physical, the resurrection must be
physical too. In this great act our sins are purged. It is also
true that the death of Jesus was far more than a physical act,
for it was the culmination of a life of obedience, in which
Jesus had in fact accepted his death as God's will long before
it happened.
Martin Heidegger's form of existentialism involved a call
for people to move into authentic existence from inauthentic
by an acceptance of the principle of death. Bultmann gave this
theological form and saw the attitude of Jesus to death as the
supreme example of it. So the gospel for him became a call to
reproduce this attitude in our lifestyle. It is most important,
however, to realise that this is not what Paul calls the gospel.
For him, the gospel is fundamentally about what God has
done in the substitutionary bearing of our sins by the dying

37 R. Bultmann, writing in H.W. Bartsch (ed.), Kerygma and Myth,

trans. by R.H. Fuller, vol. 1 (London, 1953), p. 35.
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Saviour. This atoning work has great su~ective effect, but it

is essentially objective, finished, perfect.
It is only when this is seen that the call to identification with
Christ has its proper basis. To say that our subjective
identification with him is an implication of the gospel is one
thing; to say that it is the gospel is quite another. Identification
is with the attitude of Jesus, a willingness to do God's will
whatever the cost.39 The spiritual resurrection to newness of
life is as much a divine act of vindication as was God's
evidential act in the physical resurrection of Jesus. 40 Because
this is our attitude we are then to yield our members to him in
newness of life.41

ii. Conversion establishes a pattern which should become

constant.
It is most helpful to compare Colossians 3:9, 10 and
Ephesians 4:22-4 here. Paul uses much the same terminology
in the two passages, but in Colossians he writes of putting off
the old man and putting on the new as something that has
occurred already, while in Ephesians he is commending it as a
constant pattern.
In conversion, in the repentance and faith for which the
gospel calls, we put off the old man and put on the new. We
are however to do this constantly. In Colossians 2:6, 7, Paul
says that as we have received Christ Jesus as Lord, so we are
to walk in him. The various moral imperatives in the ethical
sections of Ephesians and Colossians are best understood as
emerging out of this pattern and pressing home its moral
implications. Our manner of life then is to be worthy of the
gospel.42 In Philippians 1:27, Paul seems to imply that this
will reveal itself in the unity of the Philippian Christians and
the testimony this will give to the world.

38 E.g. see the way he treats reconciliation as objectively secured

prior to its subjective appropriation: Rom. 5:10,11; 2 Cor. 5:18-
21.
39 Rom. 6:1-4; cf. Luke 9:22,23.
40 Cf. Rom. 6:11-14 with Acts 13:30, 31; Rom. 4:25.
41 The pamllel in Romans 6 between Christ and those who are united
to him certainly suggests this.
42 Eph. 4:1; Phil. 1:27; Col. 1:10; 1 Thes. 2:12.
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iii. Our new lifestyle is the product of gratitude for the

gospel.
Note the emphasis on gratitude in Paul's letter to the
Colossians. Of course, human beings ought to be thankful for
the mere fact of life and all the good things a benevolent
Creator has given us, 43 but when Paul writes of Christian
gratitude it is clear he has in view thanksgiving for the gospel.
This is plain from an examination of Colossians 1:12. The
three references in Colossians 3:15-17 come in the context of
Christian worship, which in the Lord's supper was centred in
the cross.
In writing to the Corinthians about the collection for the
poor saints at Jerusalem, Paul writes of an obedience to the
gospel of Christ which shows itself in generosity and which
will cause others to give thanks, and closes by saying,
'Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift. •44 So here too it
is the cross which is the great cause of gratitude for the
Christian.

iv. Failure to live this new lifestyle undermines gospel

witness.
Paul makes it very clear in 1 Timothy 1:3-11 that, although
the Christian faith is not legalistic, neither is it antinomian.
What the law condemns is also contrary to the gospel. The
gospel does not deliver us from moral living but into it. This
means that the moral quality of the Christian life should be
consistent with the gospel we profess. The way Paul frames
his thought at the close of this passage is particularly
interesting. Having referred to various sins, he then goes on
to write of 'whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine
that conforms to the glorious gospel of the blessed God,
which he entrusted to me' (vv. 10,11). In this way he
demonstrates as clearly as possible that his ethics were based
on his doctrine, which in its turn was based on his gospel.
Here then he spells out the fundamental nature of the gospel.

v. The Holy Spirit, who witnesses to Christ in the gospel,

is the inner dynamic of this new life in Christ.

43 Rom. 1:21.
44 2 Cor. 9:12-15.
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As we have seen already, Paul writes that he preached the

gospel in the power of the Spirit at Thessalonica, so that the
word of the gospel and the power of the Spirit were both
essential to his gospel ministry. When the Thessalonians
welcomed the message, it was 'with the joy given by the Holy
Spirit'.45
Paul's doctrine of the Holy Spirit is many-sided.
Something of this many-sidedness may be glimpsed, for
instance, in his Epistle to the Ephesians. Here there is no one
passage dealing in any fullness with the Spirit and his work,
but there are many allusions, which together build up into an
impressive doctrine. In Ephesians 1:13-14, he writes of the
preaching of the gospel of salvation and the fact that the
believing response of his readers was confirmed by the gift of
the Holy Spirit as the seal and deposit guaranteeing their
inheritance in Christ. Out of this gift comes of course the
inner dynamic for the Christian life. This is revealed in a great
passage like Romans 8, in his reference to the fruit of the
Spirit in Galatians 5:22, 23, and in many other passages.

3. Ecclesiastical implications
i. The churches are built on the gospel.
The Acts of the Apostles gives us many examples of churches
established after the preaching of the gospel in a particular
area. Those who responded to the preaching were not treated
as isolated individuals, but were gathered into churches, for
worship, teaching and pastoral care. In Romans 1: 1-7, the
introduction to the Roman Epistle, Paul writes of the gospel
and relates it to his own apostolic ministry, making it
abundantly clear that the purpose of the gospel was to call
people from all nations and to bring them together in
fellowship in Christ.

ii. Differences between believers that do not affect the

gospel, or gospel testimony, should not divide them.
In Romans 15:7, the apostle says, 'Accept one another, then,
just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.'
Through the gospel they had been accepted, and so they ought
in turn to accept one another. Romans 14 and 15 show us that
these believers were differing on the kind of matters that

45 1 Thes. 1:6.
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normally made a sharp distinction between Jews in the

Diaspora and the gentiles among whom they lived, that is,
matters of diet and the observance of special days.
Fellowship between believers in every age and location
often expresses itself in sharing in a common meal, not only
at the Lord's supper, but in the informal fellowship of the
Christian home. The difference of practice between these two
groups at Rome must have made such informal fellowship
across the Jew/gentile divide very difficult. It is well worth
noting, however, that Paul never suggests to these believers
that they should simply settle for a division of their church
into two. After all, the existence of a number of house
churches in Rome would probably have made this an easy
solution. Paul however would have regarded it as
unacceptable. The gospel accepted by both groups should be
much stronger in uniting them than the differences over social
practices which were threatening to divide them.

iii. The work of the church should minister to effective

gospel witness.
The churches established through the gospel ministry of Paul
and his friends became in their turn evangelistic centres from
which the gospel went out. It seems likely that several of the
seven churches for whom the Book of the Revelation was
initially written owed their existence to evangelistic work from
the church at Ephesus, which was established by Paul.
Certainly this would seem to have been true of another in the
province of Asia, the church at Colossae.46
Similarly, as Paul indicates in 1 Thessalonians 1:7-20, the
church at Thessalonica became an evangelistic centre from
which the gospel was going out over a wide area, not only in
the two Greek provinces of Macedonia and Achaia, but even
beyond these. This is remarkable in a church so recently
established. Paul's great joy in this reflects his own strong
commitment to the spread of the good news of Jesus. In this
chapter, he writes of the example he and his companions
sought to be, and then goes on to say that the Thessalonians
in turn became a model for the other believers in Greece. The
NIV's failure to translate gar ('for') in verse 8 has had the
unfortunate result of obscuring the fact that this model was

46 Col. 1:7.
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quite specifically related to their zeal for the gospel. Paul is

therefore indicating that every church ought to regard the
spreading of the gospel as a high priority.
Paul describes his fellowship with the believers at Philippi
and Thessalonica as fellowship in the gospei.47 This suggests
then that to him fellowship was not simply the enjoyment of
the company of other Christians, but that it was on-the-job
sharing in the task of spreading the good news of Jesus. He
also implies that the task of the whole church is to preach the
gospel. Ephesians is the epistle of the universal church, and in
Ephesians 6:15, using language reminiscent of Isaiah 52:7,48
he says that the Christians are to be shod with the shoes of the
gospel of peace. So they need to be prepared for gospel
witness at all times.

iv. The church's sacraments bear witness to and

symbolise the gospel.
This is clear with baptism. In Romans 6, Paul says we are
baptised into Christ and specifically into his death and
resurrection. This means that the ceremony of Christian
initiation bears eloquent testimony to the gospel itself,
dramatizing its two central features. In Romans 6, at least, the
mode indicated seems to be immersion, and this suggests the
totality of the individual's response to Christ in repentance
and faith, and so his total indentification with him in his death
and resurrection.
In I Corinthians 11, the Lord's supper is a remembrance
and proclamation of Christ's death until he comes. In its
symbolism, the death of Christ becomes the means of
nurturing the new life just as baptism had shown it was the
source of its initial imparting. In baptism the believer is placed
in the sacramental element, while in the Lord's supper the
reverse is true. This reminds us of the fact that Paul says not
only that believers are in Christ but also that he indwells
them.49

4. Vocational and personal implications

47 Phil. 1:5; 1 Thes. 3:2.

48 Cf. Rom. 10:15.
49 E.g. in Col. 1:27; 2:10.
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it is not easy to separate these, as though Paul had one life as

a public and another as a private person, or as if one can
divide his Christian service and his Christian life. For him, all
life in Christ involved service for him, in fact it was in itself
Christian service.

i. The gospel is all-important.

It is this which he delivered to the Corinthians as of primary
importance.50 Moreover, he had a personal sense of
compulsion to preach it, as we see in chapter 9, verse 16, of
the same Epistle, where he says, 'I am compelled to preach.
Woe is me if I do not preach the gospel.' In Romans 1, he
says he is a debtor, both to the Jew and to the Greek, to
proclaim the good news of Jesus to them. The translation of
this into practice can be illustrated many times over from the
Acts of the Apostles.

ii. All practical decisions should be in line with the

gospel.
This was Paul's complaint about Peter's actions at Antioch.
Although at first having table fellowship with gentile
believers, he later withdrew from this. Paul knew that Peter's
actions were not in line with the gospel which both of them,
and the other apostles, all accepted was a gospel of grace.51
Paul stated clearly, in 1 Corinthians 9:3, 4, that those who
serve the gospel are entitled to receive their living from the
gospel. There were, however, times when he would not use
this right. What then was the basis of his decision either to
take money or to refuse it? It was the effect this would have
on the progress of the gospel.
Paul has often been criticised on account of the sharp
disagreement he had with Barnabas over John Mark.52 We
cannot of course be altogether sure of the spirit of the
encounter between the two men, but we do know its cause. It
was because Mark had failed to complete the first missionary
journey. Paul wanted workers whose commitm~nt "! ~e
gospel and its spread was strong like his own. So hJS .d~ISIOD
was consistent with his gospel-centred approach. ThiS means

50 1 Cor. 15:3ff.
51 Gal. 2:14ff.
52 Acts 15:36-41.
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then that the two clashes we know of with other Christians,

those with Peter and with Barnabas, were both related to the
gospel.

iii. The gospel is served by respecting the legitimate

scruples of others.
He would do nothing to hinder the gospel, so, to the Jew he
would be as a Jew and to the gentile as a gentile. In 1
Corinthians 9:23, he says, 'I do all this for the sake of the
gospel, that I may share in its blessings.'
Timothy's mother was a Jewess, but his father a Greek.
Even today, if a man has a Jewish mother, he is regarded by
the Jews as one of themselves, no matter who his father is.
Paul knew therefore that Timothy's uncircumcised state
would be a hindrance to the progress of the gospel among the
Jews, and so he circumcised him before he brought him into
his itinerant evangelistic team. 53
The situation with Titus was different, for he was a full
Greek. When some tried to compel him to be circumcised,
Paul resisted this. This, as he says, to the Galatians, was 'so
that the truth of the gospel might remain with you', 54 because,
of course, there was no need whatever for Greeks and other
gentiles to become Jews before they experienced salvation.
These two incidents are particularly interesting because they
show that Paul was capable of making apparently opposite
decisions when the true basis of the decision in each case was
the effect it would have on the progress of the gospel. If he
was consistent, then, it was a gospel consistency.

iv. True apostles should be characterised by a gospel

lifestyle, including willingness to suffer.
In 2 Corinthians, chapters 10 to 13, Paul is seeking to combat
the claims of the false apostles at Corinth. All he says is of
great interest, but the account of his trials, privations,
persecutions and other sufferings given in 11:22-9 is
particularly moving. Then, in verse 30, he says, 'If I must
boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.'
Murray Harris, commenting on this section of 2 Corinthians,
says, 'For a moment Paul pauses and reflects upon the

53 Acts 16:1-3.
54 Gal. 2:3-5.
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paragraph he has just dictated to his stunned amanuensis.

Both he and his opponents might boast, but his boasting was
distinctive, since, paradoxically, he prided himself on
evidences of his weakness that became evidence of God's
surpassing power in supporting and delivering him (cf. 1:8-
10; 3:5; 4:7, 10, 11; 12:5, 9, 10).'55
One striking feature of these great chapters is the way Paul
links his own weakness with that of the crucified Christ, in
other words how he links it to the gospel. He says, 'he was
crucified in weakness, yet he lives by God's power.
Likewise, we are weak in him, yet by God's power we will
live with him to serve you. •56 here then is a truly gospel-
controlled approach to the Christian life and to Christian
ministry.
In fact, as Christ's crucifixion in weakness was the cause
of the salvation of others, so Paul's gospel service to others
was promoted as he shared something of the crucified
weakness of Jesus. In 2 Corinthians 4:10-12, he says, 'We
always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that
the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we
who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus'
sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body. So
then death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.' The
same thought emerges in Colossians 1:24, where Paul writes
that he fills up in his flesh 'what is still lacking in regard to
Christ's afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the
church.' Here he realised that his identification with the
sufferings of Christ was as yet incomplete. These sufferings
were 'for you', 'for the sake of his body, which is the
church'. Here then is a profound doctrine of Christian service
as patterned after Christ's suffering service.
We might note also, in this connection, the parallel between
Philippians 2:5-11 and 3:4-11. In the first of these passages
Paul outlines the course of Christ's humiliation, his surrender
of equality with God and his assumption not only of
manhood, but of the deepest shame and suffering as his
service to God. He prefaces this profound passage with t~e
words, 'Your attitude should be the same as that of Chnst

55 '2 Corinthians' in Expositor's Bible Commentary, vol. 10 (Grand

Rapids, 1976), on 2 Cor. 11:30, 31.
56 2 Cor. 13:4.
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SCOTIISH BULLETIN OF EVANGELICAL THEOLOGY

Jesus.' In chapter 3, he writes of putting aside the things that

had induced self-confidence in him. He counted everything
but loss, and for what? To gain Christ and his righteousness,
and a deep identification with him in his death and
resurrection. This then was the lifestyle for which he earnestly
longed, a true gospel lifestyle because patterned on the death
and resurrection of Christ.

v. Personal frustration is fully acceptable if it serves the

interests of the gospel.
This comes out very strongly in Philippians 1. Paul has been
put into prison and yet, far from bemoaning this restriction of
his freedom, he rejoices in the opportunities this has given
him for spreading the gospel throughout the palace guard,
who might not otherwise have heard it. More than this, and
especially significant, is the fact that, as a result of his
imprisonment, many brothers in the Lord have begun to
witness more courageously. How striking it is that Paul not
only rejoices in this, but does so even when he knows that the
motivation of such people is not right!
The gospel is much more important than Paul himself. It
matters not a whit whether he is out there preaching it far and
wide or whether others are doing it, so long as it is being
done. Moreover, even motivation, which he certainly would
have regarded as important, was less important than the fact
that the gospel was getting a wider hearing.
The gospel, the gospel, the gospel - let Paul perish, so long
as the gospel progresses! I find much personal challenge in
that.

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