CHAPTER TEN

THE RHETORIC OF PAUL'S GLORY-CHRISTOLOGY

A. GLORY IN THE GRAMMAR OF PAUL'S THEOLOGY In his book Paul, the Law, and the Jewish People, E. P. Sanders has helpfully divined the way in which Paul's theology works. 1 He describes Paul's "pattern of religion" by his (now famous) categories of "getting in" and "staying in." Sanders' description of Paul's "soteriological pattern" (what I shall refer to as the gammar of Paul's theology2) has some distinct advantages: (1) it unveils the way in which Paul's diverse language functions paradigmatically and (2) discloses the essential, coherent emplottment of Paul's theological structure, while (3) not artificlally subsuming Paul's theology under a single Leitmotif. Sanders identifies two basic "movements" in Paul's theology. The horizontal movement Sanders calls a "transfer" from one "status" to another. In a Pauline construal, this is how one "gets in." All human beings begin in astate of condemnation: they are "under sin," "in sin," "under law," "sinners," "enemies," "condemned," "unrighteous" and are, due to the "works of the flesh," destined to suffer "death" and "destruction." Through the activity of Christ, specifically his death, human beings are transferred out from under "sin," "law" and "death," and experience "life," "acquittal," "righteousness," "Spirit" and adoption as "sons." Paul variously refers to this process of

1 Sanders, Paul, the Law, and the Jewish People, 4-10. 2 Cf. Richard B. Hays' ("Crucified with Christ," 319) use of the words "grammar" and "syntax" to refer to Paul's convictionallfoundational story, which, for Hays, includes the soteriological pattern of Paul's religion (see below). 214 CHAPTER TEN transfer as "believing," "having faith," "being justified," "being reconciled," "being washed" and "being sanctified."3 The vertical, or "staying in," axis reflects required "behavior within each state and its consequences." Once transferred, one is to engage in a new behavior, namely, to bear "fruit of the Spirit," "fruit of righteousness," "to keep the law of Christ," "to keep the whole law," to be "blameless," "guiltless," "holy" and "pure" [in one's behavior]--the believer is simply to "do good." According to Sanders' reading of Paul, for those who persist in doing good, salvation; for those who commit transgressions and repent, salvation; but for those who commit transgressions and do not repent, (eschatological?) exclusion.4 In short, according to Sanders, Paul teaches that one be comes saved by belief in Jesus, but one remains saved by good works and repentance.5 Sanders lays no claim to completeness, and thus it is not surprising to find several who have disagreed and/or stated with more precision how Paul's religion works.6 (1) Despite his own disclaimers to the contrary,7 Sanders' understanding of how a believer "maintains" his or her status in Pauline Christianity opens hirn up to the charge of making Paul rather schizophrenie: Paul, having abandoned "covenantal nomisim" as his religion, now espouses a new, Christian form of the same.8 As Robert

3 Rom. 5:8-10, 18, 19; 6:4, 7; 7:4-6; 8:lf.; 1 Cor. 6:9-11; Gal. 2:16; 3:2,7, 14,21,26; Phil. 3:6-11; cf. Fitzmyer, Paul, 59-71. 4 Cf. Rom. 8:4; 13:8-10; 1 Cor. 1:8; 3:12-15; 4:4-5; 5:1-5, 9, 11-13; 6:9; 7:19, 34; 9:21; 11:30-32; 2 Cor. 5:10; 7:1, 9-10; 12:21; Gal 5:14, 19, 21,5 22; 6:2, 9; Phil. 1:9-11; 2:15; 1 Thess. 1:3-4; 3:13; 5:23. Sanders, Paul, 543. 6 Thomas F. Best, "The Apostle Paul and E. P. Sanders: The Significance of Paul and Palestinian Judaism," Restoration Quarterly 25 (1982): 65-74: "The presentation of the pattern of religion in Pauline Christianity is still waiting to be done [72] .... What Sanders should now do, having exorcised the demons of Bultmann, Käsemann, and Bornkamm, is to write the holist [sie] treatment of Pauline Christianity called for above, exploring more fully the implications of a participationist approach to Paul and basing his work upon the total Pauline corpus" [73]. 7 Sanders, Paul, the Law, and the Jewish People, 210 n.l; idem, Paul, 511-18. 8 See, especially, the criticisms of Morna D. Hooker, "Paul and 'Covenantal Nomism,"' Paul and Paulinism: Essays in Honour 0/ C. K. Barrett (London: SPCK, 1982),47-56.