TeachingRE Issue 4.pdf - the Second Level Support Service

Paul? In his letter to the Romans Paulsums up the gospel in four littlewords,‘God is for us’. For Paul, that iswhat the life, death and resurrectionof Jesus tells us. It tells us that God isfor us, that God loves us.That is whyin that same letter to the RomansPaul refers to ‘the love of God inChrist Jesus our Lord’ (Rom 8:39). Itis above all the death of Jesus,according to Paul, that shows us thatGod is for us, that God is alwaysmoving towards us in love. In hisletter to the Romans, Paul expressesthis conviction very simply but verypowerfully, ‘God proves his love forus in that while we were still sinnersChrist died for us’ (Rom 5:8). Paulsums up the gospel he preaches as‘Jesus Christ, and him crucified’ (1Cor 2:2). It is Christ crucified whospeaks to us of God for us; it isChrist crucified who reveals God’slove to be stronger than sin, strongerthan death, stronger than any powerthat might be opposed to us.That iswhy, again in his letter to theRomans, Paul can say,‘I am convincedthat neither death, nor life, norangels, nor rulers, nor things present,nor things to come, nor powers, norheight, nor depth, nor anything elsein all creation, will be able toseparate us from the love of God inChrist Jesus our Lord’ (Rom8:38-39).That, for Paul, is the gospelwe are invited and called upon tobelieve. We can be slow to believesuch good news. We can betempted to think, ‘God may be forus, but how can God be for me?’.Yet,the gospel for Paul is that God inChrist is for each of us individually.The death of Christ on the crossreveals the love of God, the love ofChrist, for all humanity and for eachof us individually. In his letter to theGalatians Paul says, ‘I live by faith inthe Son of God, who loved me andgave himself for me’ (Gal 2:20). Heencourages each of us to believe thegood news that the Son of Godloved ‘me’ and gave himself for ‘me’.For Paul, faith in the Son of God wholoved us and gave himself for usgenerates hope. God has donesomething wonderful for us in thelife, death and resurrection of Jesus;God has embraced us in his love.God has gone further, according toPaul. The love of God that Jesusexpressed on the cross has beenpoured into our hearts through theHoly Spirit. It is that, for Paul, whichmakes us hopeful, ‘Hope does notdisappoint us because God’s lovehas been poured into our heartsthrough the Holy Spirit that hasbeen given to us’ (Rom 5:5). If Godhas already done so much for us, wecan be full of hope that God will doeven more.What is the ‘even more’that God will do for us? The HolySpirit is what Paul calls the ‘first fruit’of the final harvest.The final harvestis eternal life, a communal sharing inthe Lord’s own risen life. Usinganother image, Paul speaks of theHoly Spirit as a ‘first instalment’ (2Cor 1:22). The full instalment iseternal life. What God has alreadydone for us is the basis of Paul’shope in what God has yet to do forus. Having said in his letter to theRomans,‘God is for us… He did notwithhold his own Son, but gave himup to benefit us all’ (Rom 8:32), heimmediately goes on to ask,‘Will he(God) not with him (his Son) alsogive us everything else?’ ‘Everythingelse’ is the final harvest, the fullinstalment, of eternal life. For Paul, tobelieve in the gospel is to be full ofhope, even, and, indeed, especially, inthe face of death. Paul uses manyimages to express what we hope for,what we are waiting for. In hissecond letter to the Corinthians, forexample, he says, ‘We know that ifthe earthly tent we live in isdestroyed, we have a building fromGod, a house not made with hands,eternal in the heavens’ (2 Cor 5:1).In his letter to the Philippians, Paulexpresses this hope in differentterms, declaring that the Lord JesusChrist ‘will transform our humblebody so that it may be conformedto Christ’s glorious body’ (Phil 3:21).Our ultimate destiny is to becomelike the risen Christ.The Holy Spirit,the Spirit of God’s love, has beenpoured into our hearts to empowerus to become like Christ in this life.However, it is only beyond deaththat we will be fully conformed tothe image of God’s Son. At the verybeginning of his letter to thePhilippians, Paul declares, ‘I amconfident of this, that the one whobegan a good work among you willbring it to completion by the day ofJesus Christ’ (Phil 1:6). God has donea good work among us through thelife, death and resurrection of his Sonand by sending the Spirit into ourhearts. Believers can be assured thatGod will bring that good work tocompletion in eternity. Believing thegospel fills us with hope.If for Paul, faith and hope areinseparable, faith and love are equallyinseparable. In his letter to theGalatians he declares,‘the only thingthat counts is faith working throughlove’ (Gal 5:6).The gospel of ‘God forus’ impels us to be for each other.Believing the good news that God‘did not withhold his own Son, butgave him up for all of us’ inspires usto give ourselves up for others, forall those for whom God gave up hisSon. Opening our hearts in faith tothe Spirit of God’s love requires thatwe allow that Spirit to bear fruit inour lives and, for Paul, the primaryfruit of the Spirit is love. In chapter13 of his first letter to theCorinthians, perhaps the best knownpassage in all of Paul’s letters, Paulpaints a portrait of what he meansby love. ‘Love is patient; love is kind;love is not envious or boastful orarrogant or rude. It does not insiston its own way; it is not irritable orresentful; it does not rejoice inwrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth.It bears all things, believes all things,hopes all things, endures all things.Love never ends’ (1 Cor 13:4-8). Paulcould be said to be painting aportrait of Christ, of God’s love inChrist. It is also a portrait of thebeliever who, through the power ofthe Spirit, is being conformed toChrist. Paul goes on to say in thatsame chapter, ‘faith, hope and loveabide, these three; and the greatestof these is love’ (1 Cor 13:13). Faith,hope and love are of abiding value,but of the three ‘love’ is the greatest.We might have expected Paul to saythat ‘faith’ is the greatest. After all,faith is the foundation of hope andlove.Yet, for Paul, love is the greatestbecause it is only love that willcontinue into eternity.When ‘we seeface to face’, faith will no longer benecessary because it will have givenway to vision; hope will no longer benecessary because it will have givenway to possession. Only love willendure, because love is the very lifeof God, and eternal life is a sharingin God’s own life. ‘Love’, the fruit ofthe Spirit, is the presence of eternityin time.Paul was a man of faith, hope andlove. Allowing him to accompany uson our life’s journey through theliving word of his letters will help tokeep us faithful, hopeful and lovingmembers of Christ’s body and,thereby, enable us to be faithful toour calling to ‘shine like stars in theworld’ (Phil 2:15).12 TEACHING RELIGIOUS EDUCATION ISSUE FOUR SEPTEMBER 2009