Obrázky na stránke
PDF
ePub

eis

(d) The ultimate end of the entire development of God is the glory of God; for as all is from Him and by Him, so is He the end for which all is intended (Rom. xi. 36: тà Táνта ἐξ αὐτοῦ καὶ δι' αὐτοῦ καὶ εἰς αὐτόν), and this applies specially to the world of redeemed men (1 Cor. viii. 6: ¿§ où Tà πάντα καὶ ἡμεῖς εἰς αὐτόν). Hence to Him is due the honour for ever (Gal. i. 5; Rom. xi. 36, xvi. 27; comp. Eph. iii. 21; Phil. iv. 20), which the apostle presents to Him in his doxologies (2 Cor. xi. 31, i. 3; Rom. i. 25; comp. Eph. i. 3). This ultimate end is to be kept steadily in view in the earthly realization of the divine purpose of salvation. If the Church is bound together in unanimity according to the will of Christ (Rom. xv. 5), she strives after this ultimate end, that all with one heart and one mouth should praise God (ver. 6). To advance this praise of God, Christ has cared for us (ver. 7), and in particular for the Gentiles (ver. 9). The fulfilment of all the promises of God in Christ have Him in view (2 Cor. i. 20; comp. Eph. i. 6, 12, 14, iii. 21; Phil. i. 11, ii. 11). The whole conduct of Christians is thus to conduce to the glory of God (1 Cor. vi. 20, x. 31: Távта eis Sóğav Oεoû Toleîтe; comp. Gal. i. 24; 2 Cor. ix. 13). But this takes place in particular by the continual thanksgiving (evxapioτia) for all the present gracious acts of God (2 Cor. iv. 15). And hence the apostle's mouth overflows with thanksgiving for what God's grace has done for the Church (1 Cor. i. 4; 2 Cor. viii. 16, ix. 15; Rom. i. 8, vi. 17; comp. 1 Thess. i. 2, ii. 13; 2 Thess. i. 3, ii. 13; Col. i. 3; Eph. i. 16; Philem. 4; Phil. i. 3) and for himself (1 Cor. i. 14, xiv. 18, xv. 57; 2 Cor. ii. 14; Rom. vii. 25). And hence he never ceases to exhort them to similar thanksgiving (2 Cor. i. 11, iv. 15, ix. 11, 12; comp. 1 Thess. v. 18; Phil. iv. 6; Col. i. 12, ii. 7, iii. 17, iv. 2; Eph. v. 4, 20).

SECTION III.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF PAULINISM IN THE EPISTLES OF THE IMPRISONMENT.

CHAPTER XI.

THE PAULINE FIRST PRINCIPLES.

$ 100. The Doctrine of Justification.

Although discussion on the presuppositions of the doctrine of justification falls into abeyance in the Epistles of the imprisonment, yet these Epistles proceed on the same fundamental principles, and, in particular, on the same anthropological ideas, as the earlier Epistles (a), and on the same religious-historical view of heathenism and Judaism (6). Here also begins the time of grace, mediated by Christ, a time whose institution of salvation rests on the death of Christ (c). Finally, the thesis of justification appears, quite by the way, in all its sharpness, and with it the doctrine of the new filial relationship to God (d).

(a) Along with the polemic against Judaism (comp. § 59, c), the more thorough discussion and grounding of the presuppositions, on which the doctrine of justification rests, must necessarily fall into abeyance in the Epistles of the imprisonment. Yet they do not disappear. Even the idea of righteousness (comp. § 65) is conceived of as in the earlier Epistles, and its relation to aλýleia is quite Pauline. Alkaloσúvn, as the normal condition of man created after God, corresponds to truth as moral principle (Eph. iv. 24:

1 What is termed (Col. iii. 20) simply suάpsorov, what is acceptable to God (Rom. xii. 1, 2; comp. xiv. 18; 2 Cor. v. 9; Eph. v. 10; Phil. iv. 18), is called in the parallel passage (Eph. vi. 1) díxasov. A relaxing of the stronger doctrinal statements is shown only in this, that Col. iv. 1, Phil. i. 7, corresponding rather to the classical use of the word, díxav denotes that which corresponds to the relation of man to man. If, on the other hand, adınıïv (Col. iii. 35; Philem. 18) is used of unrighteous dealing towards others in the stricter sense, that is the case also in the earlier Epistles, according to § 65, b, footnote 2.

3

δικαιοσύνη τῆς ἀληθείας), the right is also the true (Phil. iv. 8), righteousness and truth are synonymous ideas (Eph. v. 9, vi. 14). The righteousness of God appears as impartiality (Eph. vi. 9; Col. iii. 25); it is His anger which comes on the children of disobedience (Eph. v. 6, ii. 2, 3; Col. iii. 6), and brings destruction on them (Phil. iii. 19; comp. i. 28). There is no doubt here also a way man may procure righteousness for himself, by obeying the law (Phil. iii. 9 : ἡ ἐμὴ δικαιοσύνη ἡ ἐκ τοῦ νόμου; comp. § 66, α); but here righteousness is never actually attained in this way.3 Heathens and Jews walk in lusts which deceive men; while they promise them deliverance and therewith blessedness (Eph. iv. 22), they allow them instead to sink into passion (πálos: Col. iii. 5) and the wrath of God (Eph. ii. 2, 3). It is this empirical state also that the term o kooμos characterizes; it rarely designates the universe (Eph. i. 4), but ordinarily the world of men (Col. i. 6), and the unchristian world to be sure (ii. 8, 20), the ungodly (Eph. ii. 12), which is ruled by sin (Phil. ii. 15 = γενεὰ σκολιὰ καὶ διεστραμμένη), as it applies to the pre-Messianic age (Eph. ii. 2: ó alwv Toû κόσμου τούτου), in contrast to the Messianic (i. 21: ἐν τῷ αἰῶνι τούτῳ καὶ ἐν τῷ μέλλοντι). Above all, the anthropological principles, on which the assertion of the general sinfulness rests, are in our Epistles specifically Pauline (comp.

Besides, aλua denotes, as § 65, b, footnote 3, the truth of a statement (Eph. iv. 25), or the sincerity of an effort (Phil. i. 18), the truth, as the contents of the Gospel (Col. i. 5; Eph. i. 13), or that the being instructed in Christ is real (ἀλήθεια = rò àλnéwév: Eph. iv. 21), the knowledge of the readers is a knowledge in truth (Col. i. 6). Along with the opposition to the doctrines of the law, on the other hand, there disappears here the designation of sins (àμapría: : Eph. ii. 1; Col. i. 14; xapaxrúμara: Eph. i. 7, ii. 1, 5; Col. ii. 13; ïpya Tovnpá: Col. i. 21; comp. Eph. v. 16) as rapaßáous, and their principle as avouía. On the other hand, the essence of righteousness is very frequently designated as a doing of the will of God (Eph. vi. 6; comp. v. 17; Col. i. 9, iv. 12), or of what is well-pleasing to God (Col. iii. 20; comp. Eph. v. 10), as good works (Col. i. 10; Eph. ii. 10), or as goodness generally (ayalwoúvn: Eph. v. 9; comp. 2 Thess. i. 11; Gal. v. 22; Rom. xv. 14).

[ocr errors]

3 When the apostle says (Phil. iii. 6) that he is as to the dixon à in cậ blameless, it is clear from the connection that the question is discussed only on the ideal of the Pharisees, an ideal which he had no doubt fully realized that this blamelessness is not meant according to the standpoint of God, but from that of his party. It may, however, be conceded that in the conflict with Judaistic teaching about the law, he would not have made use of any such expression, on account of possible misapplication.

§ 68). Here also the ideas of σάρξ, ψυχή, καρδία, common to the whole New Testament, form the presupposition, as has been shown already, § 67, d (comp. especially footnotes 6 and 7), and § 68, d, footnote 12; but the peculiar change is now introduced by which the natural σáp§ is human nature untouched by grace in general (comp. Phil. i. 22, iii. 3, and therewith § 68, b, footnote 5), and in this sense it is the seat of sin (Eph. ii. 3: éπOvμíaι Tĥs σаρκós). Connected with this it is that the ψυχή, or the natural human πνεύμα (at Col. ii. 5; comp. § 68, c, footnote 9), no longer appears as the bearer of the higher life in man; that is rather said, Eph. iii. 16, quite as § 68, d, of the eow aveρwπos, which requires to be strengthened by the Spirit in the natural man; it is therefore weak because it wants this Spirit, and ver. 17 shows that the cow aveρwπos has its seat in the heart, as has the νοῦς, identical with it, along with its νοήματα.

(b) The religious-historical consideration of heathenism in

✦ This is shown very clearly (Col. ii. 11) where the rõμa rūs àμæprías (Rom. vi. 6) is called the cŵμa rñs capxós (Eph. ii. 3; Col. ii. 18), where mention is made of the sańμare and a vous rãs capxós, and ii. 23, where severity to the body works a satisfying of the flesh, the two therefore forming a relative contrast. It is, moreover, specially noteworthy how human masters are here called xúpos xarà ☛ápna, in contrast to the higher Master believers in Christ have (Eph. vi. 5; Col. iii. 22; comp. Philem. 16), where the lordship can be regarded as within the sphere of this present visible world quite as little as in the similar expressions in the earlier Epistles (comp. R. Schmidt, p. 23, and therewith § 68, a, footnote 3).

* There is only an apparent contradiction to the Pauline opposition of the vous and ☛ápg when the Christian, who surrenders himself to self-devised human wisdom, becomes, according to Col. ii. 18, puffed up by his fleshly vous. It is rather as clear as possible how the rap is the natural human nature in opposition to the divine, to which belong even spiritual sins such as pride. As the ráp remains in the Christian, and even contends with the μa, it may naturally the more easily master the vous, which has been made capable of resistance only through the spirit; and it is a sign that the spa has again fallen under the power of the ráp (comp. the caμa r. capós : Col. ii. 11), if the Christian becomes puffed up by it in sinful pride. Just so is the expression ữμa To vos μ (Eph. iv. 23) simply explained thereby, as even Pfleiderer, p. 456 [E. T. ii. 188], cannot well question that the vous of the natural man furnishes the point of connection for the divine sμa, by which the inner man or the " is strengthened (iii. 16) and renewed (comp. Rom. xii. 2), after it has been weakened by sin and emptied of its true contents (iv. 17). Here also the vous remains in the Christian the seat of the rational reflective consciousness (comp. § 86, b), which cannot comprehend how one may be calm and joyful in the face of all fates (comp. Eph. iii. 20), and is thus the source of the care which is to be conquered by the peace of God (Phil. iv. 7; comp. ver. 6).

our Epistles furnishes the most interesting parallels to the representation of the earlier Epistles (comp. § 69, 70). The heathen, or the Greeks (Col. iii. 11), walk in the paraιórns of their voûs (Eph. iv. 17), because they have emptied it of its true contents by their departure from God (comp. Rom. i. 21), and their hearts have become thereby even harder, ie. they have become unreceptive of the knowledge of the divine, and thus they have become the victims of an ignorance which is the result of their own guilt (ver. 18: Sià Tηv äyvolav Tǹv οὖσαν ἐν αὐτοῖς διὰ τὴν πώρωσιν τ. καρδίας αὐτῶν, a point which Pfleiderer, p. 435 [E. T. ii. 166], overlooks; comp. Acts xvii. 30), by which they are darkened in their whole mental activity (ver. 18: éσкотwμévoi Tŷ diavola; comp. v. 8: ἦτε . . . πότε σκότος). From a practical point of view, the consequence of that departure from God was in principle disobedience (ii. 2, v. 6: vioì Tîs ȧπeideías), which is alienated from Him and at enmity in mind (Col. i. 21); it was also the specific heathenish lusts of covetousness and uncleanness, which are here designated as eidwλoλaтpela, i.e. as an idolizing of earthly lust and earthly treasure (Col. iii. 5; Eph. v. 5), and as a secret horror, about which decency forbids one to speak (ver. 12). Here also idolatry, on the one hand, is a worshipping of beings which are not gods (äeoɩ: ii. 12); on the other hand, a bondage under the powers of darkness (Col. i. 13; Acts xxvi. 18), which as the rulers of the world govern the children of disobedience (ii. 2). The result of the moral development in heathenism, which appears here incidentally as a judgment of God (v. 6), is complete loss of feeling towards every upbraiding of conscience (iv. 19: άπηλYNKÓTES), in which they give themselves up without check or shame to unchastity (ἀσέλγεια). On the other hand, heathenism is here regarded as a rudimentary religion, as the Gentile Christians of Colosse, according to Col. ii. 20, by their being dead with Christ, have been emancipated from the σToixeîa TоÛ KÓσμOV. From it Judaism (the circumcision, in contradistinction to the uncircumcision: Eph. ii. 11; Col. iii. 11, iv. 11) is separated by means of the law, which hems in all their forms of life by its definite restrictions like a hedge (Eph. ii. 14, 15). Yet the Jews really walk in the lusts of the flesh like the children of disobedience, and are on tha

« PredošláPokračovať »