Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
General Christian
History and Religion
The Gospel of Paul: Evaluating a Protestant Perspective

The Gospel of Paul: Evaluating a Protestant Perspective

Last updated on: February 28, 2024 at 8:44 pm by B. J. Oropeza

The Gospel of Paul: Evaluating a Protestant Perspective 2024-02-28T20:44:10-07:00 B. J. Oropeza

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

What does the gospel according to Paul look like from a traditional Protestant perspective? This question is relevant for someone like me who compares and evaluates theological perspectives on Paul. A fellow scholar recently mentioned to me that in his earlier years he was influenced by Archibald M. Hunter’s book, The Gospel According to St. Paul (London: SCM, 1966/Philadelphia: Westminster, 1967).

Dr. Hunter was Yates Professor of New Testament Greek and Exegesis at Mansfield College, Oxford. He then became Professor of New Testament at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland. Originally, he wrote this book in 1954 under the title, Interpreting Paul’s Gospel before revising and retitling it twelve years later.

As a moderately critical scholar from the 20th century, Hunter adopts ten of Paul’s letters as genuine, all except the Pastoral letters (1–2 Timothy, Titus). Here are some takeaways from his gospel according to Paul:

Gospel according to Paul

The Apostle Paul. “St Paul Saint” via pixabay.com

Influenced by the Damascus Road Experience

In agreement with a number of scholars, Hunter regards as significant Paul’s experience with Christ on the way to Damascus (Gal 1:11–16; Acts 9). This encounter shaped his theology. The implications of this event, however, took time to become clear to Paul. Hunter distills “three decisive consequences” resulting from it:

(1) Paul encountered Jesus of Nazareth who was alive as Messiah.

(2) Paul understood now that Jesus was crucified but risen again, and his death was “for us.”

(3) Paul considered salvation to be by divine grace (charis). This term becomes for Paul “almost a single-word expression for the Gospel he preached” (p. 13).

Paul’s Gospel of Salvation

Hunter interprets Paul’s gospel foremost though the term “salvation” (soteria). Paul calls his gospel “the gospel of your salvation” in Ephesians 1:13, the “power of God for salvation” in Romans 1:16, and the “word of salvation” during his first sermon depicted in Acts 13:26. Salvation signifies bodily and spiritual soundness, well-being “in all its forms,” and deliverance from sin and death. Paul stresses not only the notion of being saved from such things as sin, but also being saved to other things such as “reconciliation and righteousness and life” (p. 15).

According to Hunter, Paul uses salvation in terms of a past event (Rom 8:24), present experience (1 Cor 15:2), and future hope (Rom 5:9).

Salvation as a Past Event

Salvation as a past event looks back to the crucifixion, the finished work of Christ on the cross.

The Human Predicament

The human predicament was such that sin enslaved humans, making use of their “flesh” (sarx) to do so. In this predicament, humans also attempted to secure salvation by Mosaic (and natural) Law, which involved trying to attain salvation through their own efforts and strength. Hunter identifies this as “legalism.”

If the predicament is described by the threefold notions of sin, the flesh, and the law, its remedy takes place by means of redemption, justification, and reconciliation (p. 19).

The Remedy

Redemption involves deliverance from sin’s servitude (Eph 1:7; Col 1:14; Rom 3:24; 1 Cor 6:20; cf. Mark 10:45). Hunter brings up from Greco-Roman tradition an illustration made famous by Adolf Deissmann (Light from the Ancient East)—“sacral manumission.” The term refers to slaves purchasing their freedom via a ritual in which their masters sell them to a temple god and receive the lutron (money paid from the slave’s earnings). The slave now symbolically becomes a servant to the god but is freed from his human master. The exodus narrative in which Israel was delivered from Egyptian slavery provides another example.

Justification not only has to do with divine acquittal or being declared righteous (Rom 8:32-33) but also forgiveness (Rom 4:6–8). Hunter, who follows John Wesley on this, emphasizes the point. He also understands “the righteousness of God” (Rom 1:17) as a divine activity involving God’s saving and vindicating action (Isa 56:1; Psa 98:2). Here it seems that Hunter may be influenced by Ernst Käsemann, though in the Preface he only mentions by name Joachim Jeremias, T. W. Manson, and Oscar Cullmann.

Reconciliation assumes relationships. In this case, sin has alienated the human from a relationship in which he or she is to be restored to “God’s family circle” (p. 23; Rom 5:10–11; 2 Cor 5:18–20; Eph 2:16; Col 1:19ff). Reconciliatory change targets not the person’s legal status but his/her entire life; the believer becomes a “new creature” (2 Cor 5:17).

Faith involves utter trust. It is opposed to works as a condition of salvation (meritorious human effort), but this is not the same things as “good works.” The latter is a consequence of salvation (such as faith working through love: Gal 5:6).

Salvation as a Present Experience

Salvation is also a present experience for Hunter. This experience segues from justification to sanctification, or what the German theologians call Gabe und Aufgabe, gift and task (cf. Col 1:13; Rom 1:17; 5:2).

To be “in Christ” is to belong to the body of Christ, the Church, which connects the individual to fellow believers. This state likewise describes the living presence of Christ through the Holy Spirit: to be “in Christ” is to be “in the Spirit.” “The Spirit is God in Christ at work in men, helping, inspiring, illuminating, quickening, sanctifying” (p. 37; cf. 35).

The present experience highlights the importance of ethics. Believers are to live in a manner “worthy of the Gospel of Christ” (Phil 1:27; cf. Eph 4:1; Col 3:1). Pauline moral behavior includes acting as Christ did (imitating Christ), acting as Christ directed (following the law of Christ: Gal 6:2; 1 Cor 9:21; his moral teachings), acting as members of the body of Christ, and acting in love (apape, esp. p. 47).

Salvation as a Future Hope

Finally, salvation includes a future hope. Here Hunter brings up Oscar Cullmann’s World War II illustration of believers currently living, as it were, between D-Day and V-Day in God’s salvific calendar. Salvation is already realized in the sense of a decisive action that took place on the cross (“D-Day”), but “V-Day” is yet to come. The latter involves the Parousia or “royal coming” of the Lord Jesus Christ (p. 52). There will also be a general resurrection from the dead, final judgment, and manifestation of the eternal kingdom of God.

My Reflections

Hunter interprets Paul’s gospel in a more-or-less standard fashion for 20th-century Protestantism. This gospel centers on salvation, which is quite understandable given the many Pauline passages relevant to soteriology. Paul, however, seems to be more interested in the salvation of Jews and gentiles as people groups than Hunter brings out. He wants to focus on the salvation of individuals.

His stress on soteriology centers on the function of the gospel more so than its content. The content of the gospel is Jesus identified as Messiah, Lord, and Son of God, who died on the cross for us and rose again (1 Cor 15:1–4; Rom 1:1–4). The function of the gospel is what it intends to do and how it is to be appropriated—Jews and gentiles are to believe (that is, trust in) the gospel’s content and follow the person it proclaims. This is where Hunter’s select passages from Roman 1:16 (and v. 17) and Ephesians 1:13 fit in. Since he accepts Ephesians and Colossians as genuinely Pauline, these letters enhance his viewpoints.

It seems that Hunter uses Paul’s gospel and Paul’s theology somewhat interchangeably. In many ways they can indeed be interchangeable, but we should recognize that “gospel” is Paul’s term, and “theology” is ours.

Commendation

Rightly, in my opinion, Hunter brings out the importance of Paul’s Damascus experience as a sort of fountainhead for his theology. His inclusion of being “in Christ,” the importance of the Holy Spirit’s work, and the goal of restoring the divine “family” (a prelude to N. T. Wright), are all commendable features that seem to be ahead of their time.

Critique

A glaring distinction between Hunter’s position and newer perspectives on Paul centers on Mosaic Law. Tremors of a new perspective in this regard were already being felt through Krister Stendahl’s work, even as Hunter revised his book in the 1960’s. The 1970’s would then experience ground-breaking change with E. P. Sanders’s Paul and Palestinian Judaism that birthed the New Perspective on Paul. Sanders demonstrated through Second Temple Jewish literature that the “Judaism” of that time was a religion marked by grace. It will no longer do to claim that ancient Judaism was a legalistic religion of works-righteousness, as characterized by many Protestants at that time, including A. M. Hunter. Since then, Sanders has faced his share of critics, but his point about grace in Second Temple Judaism has stood the test of time fairly well.

On the other hand, in relation to Hunter and the older perspective, what has also stood the test of time is that, for Paul, Mosaic law does not save—trust in Jesus Messiah is what saves.

Another shortcoming in Hunter’s study is that he fails to unpack the meaning of the term “gospel.” The gospel (euangelion and its verb cognate) refers to the “good news,” as I have explained in a previous blog. For Paul the term seems to be derived from Jewish Scripture (Psalms 39[40]:10; 95[96]:2; Isa 40:9; 52:7; 60:6; 61:1; Nah 1:15), significantly Isaiah 52:7 which he quotes in Romans 10:15. As well, he may have known some traditions about Jesus’s use of the term (e.g., Mark 1:14–15; Luke 4:16–21).

Moreover, the gospel communicates not only salvation, but also the inbreaking of a new era, the hope of the restoration of Israel, the ingathering of the nations (gentiles), and of course, its message becomes centered on the person of Jesus as Messiah.

Contemplative

History and Religion

Education and Religion

New Perspective on Paul

Paul the Apostle: Studies

Pauline Theology

salvation

Salvation/Soteriology

About B. J. Oropeza

B. J. Oropeza is Professor of Biblical and Religious Studies at Azusa Pacific University and Seminary. Among his many publications are Perspectives on Paul: Five Views (Baker Academic) and Jews, Gentiles, and the Opponents of Paul: The Pauline Letters (Cascade). He can be followed on X-Twitter (@bjoropeza1) and Instagram (@bjoropeza1) You can read more about the author here.

Previous Post

February 12, 2024

A Jewish Paul: Part 3 of the Interview with Matthew Thiessen

Next Post

March 3, 2024 Paul and Eastern Orthodox Tradition: New & Old Perspectives

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category "in Christ" 1 Corinthians 1 Enoch 1 John 2:19 1 Peter 1 Thessalonians 1 Timothy 1Peter 2 Corinthians 2 Timothy 400 years of silence A. I. A. M. Hunter Abraham Achilles Tatius Acts 13 Acts 19 Acts 22 Acts 26 Acts 9 addiction adultery Aesop's Fables Affliction afterlife allegiance allusions amanuensis Amen Ananias Ancient Biography Andrew Wilson Andronicus Angels anger Anglicanism anointing aorist tense Apep apocalypse apocalyptic Apocrypha apologetics apostasy Apostle Apostle Paul Aquinas archaeology archangel Ardel Caneday Arminianism armor of God article from journal artificial intelligence Asbury ascension atlas atonement Augustine Augustus authorship Awakening awards baptism Battle of Armageddon beasts behemoth Belial Beliar belief Benediction between Testaments Beverly Roberts Gaventa Bible Bible discrepancies Bible Gateway Bible reading Bible reading plan Bible Study Bible translations Bible version Bible versions biblical inerrancy Biblical Theology blasphemy blindness Boethius boldness Book of Acts Book Review Born Again bravery burial Caesar calling Calvinism canon canon Cassius Dio Catholics Channing Crisler charistmatic Christ Christian behavior Christian origins Christian theology Christians Christology church church fathers Church of England Chuza Cleopas Commandments Commentaries congregation conversion Corinthian letters coronavirus courage Covenant covenant theology covenantal nomism coveting COVID-19 Craig Keener Crescens crocodile Cross crucifixion curse custom Cyprian Daily Bread Dale Allison Damascus Damascus Experience Damascus road David Moffitt Day of Atonement deacon dead Dead Sea Scrolls death Deity of Christ Demas demonology demons determinism Deuteronomy Devil devotion dinosaur Dio Chrysostom divided I Divine Christology divine punishment divorce Do not fear Doxology dragon E. P. Sanders Eastern Orthodox Ebeneazer Urga echoes ekklesia election Elijah the Prophet Elymas embodiment of the gospel embodying the gospel emperor empty tomb Encouragement end times enlightement Ephesians Ephesus Epistles of Paul eschatology eternal life Ethics (Christian) euchlaion Eusebius of Caesarea evangelical evangelism evidence exile extreme unction Ezekiel faith falling away false prophet fate father Father's Day favorite Fear film Final Judgment Flood foreknowledge foreordain forgiveness fornication freewill from Saul to Paul Galatians Gary Cooper Genesis Gentile studies Gentiles geography giants gift gift giving global perspective Glossa Ordinaria God God perception good news gospel gospel 2.0 Gospel of John Gospel of Luke Gospel of Mark Gospel of Matthew Gospels grace gratitude Great Awakening Greco-Roman Greco-Roman world Greek Greek classic literature Greek lexicon Greek Orthodox Greek prepositions greetings guilt Habakkuk hair Halloween head covering head coverings healing heaven Hebrew Hebrews hermeneutics Hesed high Christology Higher Christology highlights holiness holy Holy Bible Holy Scriptures Holy Spirit Homer hospitable hospitality how to read the Bible human effort I Am sayings imperialism in Adam In Christ inspiration intercession Interpretation intertestamental period Intertextuality Interview intimidation Isaiah Israel Israel (land of) James James D. G. Dunn Jason Staples Jerome Jesus Jesus sayings Jesus traditions Jesus: Studies Jewish literature Jewish names Jewish Scripture Jewish studies Jews Joanna Job John John 3:16 John Chrysostom John Hyrcanus John Mark John of Damascus John the Baptist John Wesley Josephus joy Judaism Judgment day Julia Junia Justice justification kerygma King Kingdom kingdom of God Krister Stendahl lament Law lecture hall letter writing Letters of Paul Leucippe et Clitophon Leviathan Leviticus light Logical fallacy looting Lord Lord's Prayer lose salvation Lot Lotan love lovingkindness Lucifer Luke lust Luther LXX maenads Malachi Marcion marginalization marital affair marriage martyrdom Mary Matt Damon Medieval theologians Medieval theology memorization mercy Michael the Archangel miracles Mishnah missiology mission missionary missions monergism monogenes monster monsters Mysterious Ways mythology N. T. Wright name change names narrative Nephilim New Birth new covenant new covenant pneumaism new creation New Perspective on Paul New Testament New Testament use of Old Testament Noah Noah's ark non-Christian oath obedience Odysseus Odyssey oil Old Testament only begotten Origen Outpouring pagan pagans parable paraceratherium Parousia participation in Christ Pastoral Letters patristic theology Paul in prison Paul letter of Paul teaching Paul the Apostle: Studies Paul within Judaism Paul's calling Paul's conversion Paul's death Pauline Theology persecution perseverance perseverance of the saints Persis personal devotion pesher Peter Abelard Philo philosophy Phoebe Pink Floyd pistis Plague plutarch pneuma pneumagism popular culture sayings Porneia Post-New Perspective on Paul praise prayer preaching predestination Prisca Priscilla Prison Epistle Prophecy prophets Psalm Psalms Pseudepigrapha Q Q source quest for the historic Jesus quotations Rabbi Pinhas be Yair Rabbinic literature Rainer Riesner raised from the dead rapture reading missiologically reading plan recipients reciprocity reconciliation Red Herring red letter edition redemption Reformation Regeneration rejoicing reminder renewal repentance restoration resurrection revival righteousness riot Roman Antiquity Roman names romance Romans Romans 12-16 Romans 16 Romans 4:25 Romans 7 Rome Rufus's mother sacrificial system salvation Salvation/Soteriology sanctification Satan Satan's fall Saul the Pharisee SBL Scholars school Scripture Second coming of Christ Second Temple Judaism secretary Septuagint Sergeant York Sergius Paulus Servant in Isaiah sex and sexuality sex ethics sexual immorality sheep sick sin sinful nature single Christians and dating social justice Society of Biblical Literature sons of God soteriology spinosaurus spiritual gifts spiritual renewal spiritual warfare Stephen Wilson struggle Study Bible studying the Bible Suetonius suffering Suffering Servant suggestive commentary Survey synergism Synoptic Gospels Tacitus teacher teaching telos temptation Tertius The Chosen the flesh Theology Thomas Aquinas Thomas Robinson Thomas Schreiner Thorn Thucydides Timothy Titus tongues Top 10 top 12 Torah trust Tryphaena Tryphosa Tyrannus U2 Ugaritic Ukraine Ukrainian Uncategorized unconditional love unforgiving Union with Christ unity/solidarity unpardonable sin Valentine's Day veils vice vices victory warnings Watchers witnessing Woman ministers women women ministers women speakers women teachers word of God works works of the law worship writing YouVersion Zen Hess

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who said, "The Lord said to my Lord, ‘Sit at my right hand’"?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Moses Solomon David Isaiah