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  • From: Loren Rosson <rossoiii AT yahoo.com>
  • To: corpus-paul AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Corpus-Paul] God's Elusive Judgment
  • Date: Mon, 11 Jun 2007 12:30:16 -0700 (PDT)

List-members --

Did Paul believe that God would judge the righteous?
That Christians, while guaranteed salvation, might
still be punished for bad deeds? Or did he believe
that God would judge only the wicked? That Christians
would appear before God at the judgment and give an
account of themselves, but would be waived through
after receiving their reward?

Not an easy question to answer, but I think the latter
is correct, with a qualification. The key texts in
question would be Rom 2, Rom 8:33-34, Rom 14:10-12, I
Cor 3:10-15, I Cor 4:1-5, II Cor 5:10, and Philip
2:12b-13.

Of those texts, I Cor 3:10-15 makes the strongest case
for a judgment on the righteous: Paul speaks of those
being "saved, but "only as through fire". But this
passage is really about church founders, not believers
in general. Paul seems to be saying that churches
founded by rival apostles leave much to be desired,
and are subject to judgment. The "builders" of these
churches may be saved in the end, but will suffer
serious punishment for leading others astray. Paul
apparently held pastors like himself to a higher
standard than "lay believers" who would not be judged.


For, as Philip Esler points out, Rom 8:33-34 implies
that no charge will be brought against God's elect.
And when we appreciate what Paul meant by DIKAIOSYNE,
this is easy to understand. Righteousness, for him,
was a form of ascribed honor, or privileged/blessed
identity. It had nothing to do with
forensic/declaratory categories, nor
behavioral/ethical ones. The righteous were acceptable
to God, period. Their righteousness was gifted to them
not because they'd done anything to deserve it, but
because God had chosen them (Rom 4, 9). They would not
be charged at the judgment: they would give an account
of themselves, and then be waived on after receiving
their reward. (See Conflict and Identity in Romans, pp
162, 265-266, as well as Esler's section on the
meaning of righteousness.) For better or worse, that
seems to be what Paul believed.

Esler doesn't comment on I Cor 3:10-15, but I would
reconcile it with his interpretation of Rom 8:33-34 as
follows. It was competition and rivalry which brought
out nuance in Paul's theology of the judgment -- much
indeed as we might expect of a Mediterranean macho
man. His belief that God would (naturally) not judge
the elect whom He had righteoused was tempered by
growing convictions that the deity might very well
make certain apostles "pay the price" for misleading
people in ways that were not pleasing to Paul.

What do list-members think of this?

Loren Rosson III
Nashua NH
http://lorenrosson.blogspot.com/



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