I just rediscovered my old notes on Richard B. Gaffin, Jr.’s The Centrality of the Resurrection: A Study in Paul’s Soteriology. I enjoyed the book, and it helped me make some connections between Paul’s view of Christ’s resurrection, the resurrection of believers, and Pauline eschatology. Here are two quotations that I found interesting and wanted to share with my you:
“[T]he significance of Christ’s resurrection does not lie where the difference between him and believers is most pronounced but in what they have in common. Paul is not primarily interested in Jesus’ resurrection for its apologetic value as an especially evident display and powerful proof of his divinity. Rather…he views it as the vindication of the incarnate Christ in his sufferings and obedience unto death, as his constitution as ‘firstborn among many brothers’ (Rom. 8:29).” (p. 64)
“Not justification by faith but union with the resurrected Christ by faith (of which union, to be sure, the justifying aspect stands out perhaps most prominently) is the central motif of Paul’s applied soteriology.” (p. 132)
Join other dedicated readers of Thinking and Believing and subscribe to the email list. You'll receive every new post in your inbox, so you never have to worry about missing a post. Click here to subscribe.
