The Gospel of Paul Revisited: 8 Points

What are some of my findings regarding the gospel according to Paul? As I wrap up a book project that has taken up the majority of my writing time since my Sabbatical last year, here are 8 things I would like to share about what I discovered from my research:

1. Origin of the Gospel

The origin of Paul’s use of the word “gospel” (euangelion) appears to be adopted from the earliest apostles in Jerusalem, who adopted it from Jesus. Namely, recurring phrases such as “the gospel of the kingdom” and the noun use in such texts as Mark 13:10 and Matthew 24:14 support that the voice of Jesus used the noun “gospel.” He probably first used an Aramaic equivalent.

The verb form “to proclaim the gospel” or “gospelize” (euangelizo) also originates with Jesus and his allusions to fulfilling the text of Isaiah’s anointed one who brings good news to the poor and healing (Isa 61:1–2; cf. Matt 11:2–6; Luke 7:18–23).

The focus of Jesus’s gospel was to repent for the kingdom of God drew near. Post-Easter, the gospel message of his disciples centered on Jesus, who he was and his accomplishments. Repentance and aspects of the kingdom, though, remained important.

Paul does not seem to make any major distinctions between the noun and verb form of the gospel. He seems to use them interchangeably (e.g., Rom 1:15–16; 10:15–16).

2. Creedlets

Certain gospel kerygma or creedlets in Paul’s letters appear to be pre-Pauline. In other words, they have been around longer than Paul has been a believer in Jesus. Clusters of summarized belief statements disclose central points of the primitive gospel. Such creedlets include, for example, 1 Cor 15:3–7 and Rom 1:3–4, among other possible texts.

These creedlets suggest the central content of the gospel included, for instance, Jesus as Davidic Messiah, son of God, and the importance of his death, resurrection, and exaltation. I discovered plenty of others, too.

3. The Book of Acts

Acts is helpful in distilling some pre-Pauline elements of the gospel based on recurring themes and motifs in the early proclamations of the apostles prior to Paul’s Damascus experience.

Among recurrences are, for example, that God has appointed Jesus, that he is the Messiah, that he died and rose again, that he presently sits at the right hand of God, that confessing Jesus as Lord at baptism is what one should do in response to the gospel message. Reception of the Spirit results from believing the gospel and trusting in Jesus.

4. Paul’s Damascus experience

Paul, former persecutor of the Jesus-believers, speaks of his first revelatory encounter with Jesus in Gal 1:11–16, indirectly in 2 Cor 4:4–6, and fragmentarily in texts such as 1 Cor 1:17; 9:1; 15:8–10. The event is significant, not only because it changed his life, but because this is when Paul claims to have first received his gospel.

Three distinct versions of Paul’s Damascus experience are given in Acts 9, 22, and 26. If we combine Paul’s letters with Acts, we find, among other things, that Jesus revealed himself to Paul as the son of God, and Paul is to proclaim the gospel to his people and the nations (gentiles).

5. Three distinct gospel messages Paul proclaims based on his audience

• To Jews, proselytes, and god-fearers in the synagogue: his message is characterized by points such as Jesus as Messiah and righteousness by faith/trust. The gospel message in Romans 1–4 and 10 is a prime example of this type of message.

• To uncircumcised gentiles: his message is characterized by urging hearers to turn from idols to the living God, and Jesus is the son of God who plays an important role in future judgment. Such a message we find summarized in 1 Thessalonians 1:9–10.

• To those who already believe: his gospel has a ministering focus that involves follow-up teachings, discipleship, and has the aim of presenting his converts holy and blameless before the Lord at final judgment. This type of message is characterized in Philippians 1:27 and Romans 5–8.

6. Development of Paul’s gospel

Paul’s gospel seems to have developed. It was not handed to him fully intact through his Damascus experience. An apparently important confirmation for him took place in a vision he received in Jerusalem, three years after his Damascus experience (Acts 22:17–21 in comparison with Gal 1:17–20 and Acts 9:26–30). Here is where the Lord specifically directs him to focus his attention on reaching the nations (gentiles). After this vision, this is probably when his gospel starts becoming circumcision-free for gentiles. There is hardly any information about his time in Cilicia. By the time he is a minister in Antioch, his circumcision-free message appears to be in full bloom.

7. Paul’s gospel and other gospels

Paul’s gospel and that of the other apostles have essentially the same content. The main distinction is that his gospel targets the uncircumcised, whereas Peter’s targets the circumcised (Gal 2:7–10). Paul’s gospel is circumcision free and not centered on Jewish customs related to Mosaic law, given that gentiles are his primary converts.

His opponents who proclaim “another” gospel are those who try to compel his converts to be circumcised (Galatians), or they attempt to exploit his converts and lead them astray from his ministry (2 Corinthians).

8. Four facets of Paul’s gospel include its content, mode, appropriation, and efficacy

8.1 The content of the gospel includes Jesus as messianic son of God, his dying on the cross for the sins of humankind, his resurrection from the dead, his exaltation at the right hand of God, his coming return as judge, and so forth.

8.2 The modes of how Paul communicates the gospel include preaching, miracles, teaching and exhortation, ministry, and embodiment.

8.3 Appropriation of the gospel includes trust and obedience.

8.4 Efficacy of the gospel includes righteousness, salvation, union with Christ, and the gift of the Holy Spirit (pneuma). The Spirit empowers believers for service and to resist works of the sinful nature when believers walk in the Spirit—the Spirit energizing the one who thus walks is what I call pneumagism.

The Spirit plays a significant role in the new covenant. The Pneuma is involved in justification, our union with Christ and knowing God, and is associated with the law in the heart. Likewise, the Spirit is involved in making us sons and daughters of God and animating our resurrected bodies in the age to come. Such activities I call new covenant pneumaism. Or, playing on E. P. Sanders’ term, covenantal nomism, we might want to say, covenantal pneumaism.