Saturday, November 21, 2009

(2) Jesus Unto Christ

However, there's another batch of writing when it comes to Jesus.
The Epistles by St. Paul were letters to various communities of the
Early Church. But Paul the Apostle barely touches upon any
historical elements about Jesus, though he must have had some
knowledge in that he was occasionally in touch with James, the
older brother of Jesus. James the Just headed the Jerusalem
church after Jesus' death. I can only surmise that Paul would have
heard some historical detail about Jesus through this contact.

But Paul evidently had other plans, actually a matter of contention
between the Jerusalem church and him. Paul decided to announce
Jesus as the Christ to the Gentiles, more specifically to potential
converts who lived within the Greco-Roman cultures. Hence his
many trips to places like Cornith, Ephesus, Antioch, and Athens.

However, Paul puts his own "spin" into who Jesus was! For any
one who has studied Classical Greek Philosophy some of Paul's
interpretations of Christ sounded very familiar. Paul was obviously
literate and aware of the Greek sense of the "Logos," the Ground
of Being. Basically he preached Jesus as the Logos come among
us. The Logos chose to become a "slave," incarnated as a human
being!

Quoting St. Paul:
• "To a God Unknown"...For the God who made the
world and all that is in it, the Lord of heaven and earth, does not
dwell in sanctuaries made by human hands; nor does he receive
man's service as if he were in need of it. Rather, it is he who gives
to all life and breath and everything else. From one stock he made
every nation of mankind to dwell on the face of the earth. It is he
who set limits to their epochs and fixed the boundaries of their
regions. They were to seek God, yes to grope for him and perhaps
eventually to find him--though he is not really far from any one of us.
In him we live and move and have our being..."for we too are his
offspring." [Acts. 17: 23-28] 

• Since the creation of the world, invisible realities, God's
eternal power and divinity, have become visible, recognized
through the things he has made. [Romans. 1: 20] 

• ...it is not those who hear the law who are just in the
sight of God; it is those who keep it who will be declared just. When
Gentiles who do not have the law keep it as by instinct, these men
although without the law serve as a law for themselves. They show
that the demands of the law are written in their hearts.
[Romans. 2: 13-15] 

• ...this hope will not leave us disappointed, because
the love of God has been poured out in our ears through the Holy
Spirit who has been given to us. [Romans. 5: 5] 

• All who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God...
The Spirit himself gives witness with our spirit that we are children
of God. [Romans. 8: 14, 16] 

• Christ is the end of the law. Through him, justice
comes to everyone who believes. [Romans. 10: 4] 

• The earth and its fullness are the Lord's.
[1 Corinthians. 10: 26] 

• The Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord
is, there is freedom. All of us, gazing on the Lord's glory with unveiled
faces, are being transformed from glory to glory into his very image
by the Lord who is the Spirit. [2 Corinthians. 3: 17-18]