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  • From: "Jerry Sumney" <jsumney AT lextheo.edu>
  • To: "Corpus-Paul" <corpus-paul AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Corpus-Paul] God's Elusive Judgment
  • Date: Wed, 20 Jun 2007 11:05:53 -0400

May I suggest 2 essays by Leander Keck. He distinguishes between being
responsible for one's own salvation and remaining accountable to God. I
think these categories (as he explicates them)are very helpful in
thinking about this matter. The essays are:
'Rethinking "New Testament Ethics"' JBL 115 (1996): 3-16
And
"The Accountable Self" in Theology and Ethics in Paul and His
Interpreters (Abingdon, 1996), pp. 1-13.

It is particularly in the latter essay that he addresses this issue.

All the best to all,

Jerry
Jerry L. Sumney
Professor of Biblical Studies
Lexington Theological Seminary
631 S. Limestone
Lexington, KY 40508
859-252-0361
jsumney AT lextheo.edu


-----Original Message-----
From: corpus-paul-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:corpus-paul-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Harold
Holmyard
Sent: Saturday, June 16, 2007 1:20 PM
To: Corpus-Paul
Subject: Re: [Corpus-Paul] God's Elusive Judgment

Dear Loren,
> 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?
>
Yes, the believers will be saved, but they will be judged. God judges
everything we do. That's why he disciplines us for our good.
> 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.
>

I don't think the passage is only talking about church founders. I don't
see rival apostles in the picture in 1 Corinthians 3. Paul addresses the
same people to whom he is writing the letter, all the people of the
church of Corinth, and speaks about their behavior:

1Cor. 3:3 You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and
quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere
men?

He uses himself as an example of someone who acted with wisdom and calls
on them to do the same:

1Cor. 3:9 For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's
building.
1Cor. 3:10 By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an
expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should
be careful how he builds.

Each one of them in Corinth was building, I think. Paul is speaking
somewhat metaphorically. He laid a foundation, and they are building on
it with their life choices. He had led them to Christ but how they lived
their lives was their responsibility, and they would have to give an
account of it to the Lord. That is, God would judge them for their
thoughts and actions.
>
> 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.

I don't agree with this. The NT language about righteousness is
thoroughly forensic at many points. But it is, as you say, as ascribed
righteousness through the merits of Christ, not a righteousness
fundamentally earned by the recipient of the status.

> The righteous were acceptable
> to God, period.

Right. But God can display displeasure even with his children:

Rev. 3:19 Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and
repent.

> Their righteousness was gifted to them not because they'd done
> anything to deserve it, but because God had chosen them (Rom 4, 9).

Right, but this is a forensic process involving the imputed
righteousness of Christ.

> 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.
>

It seems incorrect to say that we will not be judged when the Bible uses
the term to describe us:

Rom. 14:10 You, then, why do you judge your brother? Or why do you look
down on your brother? For we will all stand before God's judgment seat.
> 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?
>

You are evidently denying judgment in the sense that our eternal destiny
will not hang in the balance. I agree with that, but there are a lot of
ways that God can judge us, and Romans 14 states that he will judge us.
Determination of rewards or lack of rewards is a significant judgment in
itself.

Yours,
Harold Holmyard

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