As I indicated in the last issue of this article on the New Testament, it is from the Letter to the Romans that Protestantism, in the person of Martin Luther, finds the basis for its understanding of the faith. Three words from Paul\u2019s letter were combined to express the basis of his faith: justification by grace through faith, often shortened to justification by faith. Both phrases have become theological shorthand for a widespread Protestant emphasis: we are saved by believing in Jesus. As commonly understood, to be saved and salvation mean a blessed afterlife – going to heaven when we die. The means by which we are saved are not good works, according to Protestants, even though they matter. What ultimately matters is faith, understood as believing in Jesus. From this good works will flow. But faith is primary. It is the gateway to heaven.
\nMany scholars, especially Marcus Borg, believe that this interpretation is a serious misunderstanding of Paul\u2019s use of these words. The greatest distortion is caused by imagining that Paul was writing about how to get to heaven.
\nHeaven, the afterlife, was not central to Paul and early Christianity. Did they even believe in an afterlife? No! For Paul, salvation was not primarily about an afterlife but about transformation this side of death – the transformation of ourselves and of this world. Justification by grace through faith is not about how we get to heaven, but how we are transformed here and now.
\nSo Paul was not addressing the question of eternal salvation in heaven and how to get there. Rather, as he wrote about justification and grace and faith, he was addressing the issue of Christian Jews and Christian Gentiles; both, he affirms, are justified by grace through faith in Jesus. They are equals in the solidarity of failure and in the solidarity of grace, and equally dependent on the same grace.
\nWe must remember what St. John wrote later: salvation is knowing God and Jesus Christ, it is not about heaven or hell. The idea of an afterlife was only beginning to be thought about in the Jewish community at this time. There was no real formulated idea about heaven or hell.
\nWe must come to the conclusion that salvation meant something different for Paul than it does for many Christians today. This misunderstanding has grown in Western culture over the last three centuries or so. Beliefs about Jesus have changed from what everybody took for granted to claims that are questionable in the minds of many. Faith has come to mean believing in a particular set of claims about Jesus to be true in spite of perhaps somewhat persuasive reasons to question them.
\nWe must remember that Jesus never preached about heaven or an afterlife.<\/p>\n
As I indicated in the last issue of this article on the New Testament, it is from the Letter to the Romans that Protestantism, in the person of Martin Luther, finds the basis for its understanding of the faith. Three … Continue reading