DeConick A.D

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PAUL AND GNOSTIC DOGMA
also have joined Christ in his resurrection. They are alive to a new life as
spiritually engaged creatures (Romans 6:3–11; 2 Corinthians 4:16, 5:17;
Philippians 3:18–21; Colossians 3:7–10). They have come to know Christ
and the power of his resurrection (Philippians 3:10).
In Paul’s opinion, this spiritual metamorphosis occurs progressively over
the lifetime of the initiate, as the initiate’s unity with Christ’s Spirit works
to create a synergy between the human spirit and God’s Spirit (Ephesians
3:20, 4:13, 22). Paul believes that the human spirit must be filled with
God’s Spirit in order for the person to have gnosis, knowledge of God
(1 Corinthians 2:11–12, 3:16). He calls this instruction pneumatic (spiritual)
and says that it is only given to pneumatics, who are converts filled with
the Spirit at baptism. People who have not been initiated are called by Paul
“psychics,” people who have only their own psyches or souls but not yet
God’s Spirit. Because God’s Spirit has not united with their own spirits,
these people are unable to receive gnosis (1 Corinthians 2:13, 15:34).
The process of induction is gradual training, beginning with the public
teaching about Jesus the crucified Messiah, baptism, and the gift of the
Spirit. It concludes when the initiate’s newly created spiritual body is resurrected
at the close of time (1 Corinthians 15:37–51; 2 Corinthians 5:1–5).
At first, initiates are considered babies, who must be given milk to drink
before they can be given meat (1 Corinthians 3:1). Paul likens his own
Gnostic experience to peering into a dim mirror, which can only convey
gnosis in part. It is not until the end of the process that the convert will be
able to see God face-to-face, to fully know God and to be fully known by
God (1 Corinthians 13:12; compare with 2 Corinthians 1:13). Such fullness
of the knowledge of God will come according to God’s plan, when the
end of time reveals the mystery of God’s will, the ingathering of all things
to himself (Ephesians 1:9–10).
All Things Are Lawful
Where does the Jewish law, the Torah, fit into all of this? Two thousand
years ago, Paul recognized that God’s law had never really been kept,
because it was impossible to keep. And because the Bible prescribes the
death penalty for anyone who breaks God’s laws, Paul thought that this
had resulted in the untenable situation in which all people stand condemned
to death before God’s throne.