Abstract
What has time to do with Christian theology and spirituality? The Epistle to the Ephesians, perhaps written by a disciple of Paul, states: ‘God put [his] power to work in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come’ (Ephesians 1:20–21). Jervis denies that Paul himself understands time for Christians in terms of ‘this age’ and ‘the age to come’. According to an influential interpretation, however, Paul thought of Christians as living in an overlap time of two distinct ages: an old age that led into Christ’s resurrection and a new age that began with his resurrection. This approach, according to some commentators, helps Paul explain that although Christ was resurrected, his immediate followers were not.
L. Ann Jervis, emerita professor of New Testament at Wycliffe College and the University of Toronto, argues that, according to Paul, Christians live ‘exclusively in Christ’, and not in an overlap of two ages or even partially in the present (evil) age. In her view, Paul did not use an idea of overlapping ages to elucidate his understanding of the death, resurrection, and exaltation of Christ. Instead, she contends, ‘Paul conceived of the present aeon and the exalted Christ as two mutually exclusive realities. . .. The crucified, risen, and exalted Christ does not engage with the present age but lives liberated from it. Presumably this is the necessary basis of Christ’s ability to liberate humanity from the present evil age (Galatians 1:4)’ (p. 56). She infers: ‘Paul does not describe believers as partially in Christ and partially in the present evil age. They are completely in Christ’ (p. 56). ‘Union’ with (or in) Christ, in her view, differs from ‘conformity’ to Christ (becoming like Christ), the latter being an ongoing process (Philippians 3:8–11).
Jervis neglects Paul’s following remark: ‘Do not be conformed to this age [tō aiōni toutō], but be transformed by the renewing of the mind, so that you may discern what is the will of God – what is good and acceptable and perfect’ (Romans 12:2). This is not talk of ‘union’ with (or in) Christ, but it expresses Paul’s concern that Christians may undergo conformity (to some degree) to ‘this age’ rather than conformity to Christ. Conformity to Christ can be incomplete now in Paul’s thinking, as Jervis recognizes, but she infers that the divine redemptive goal is ‘Christ himself and not the new age’ (p. 57). Let’s call this ‘Christomonism’ about the divine redemptive goal; it echoes part of Karl Barth’s theology (and spirituality).
Paul evidently acknowledged a divine redemptive goal that includes and exceeds ‘Christ himself’ (or union with Christ). He does think of God’s redemption as aiming for humans to be ‘conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family’ (Romans 8:29). We must consider, however, that the divine Father of Jesus is part of this family and heads it.
Paul expresses the goal of divine redemption: [Christ] must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For ‘God has put all things in subjection under his feet’. But when it says, ‘All things are put in subjection’, it is plain that this does not include the one who put all things in subjection under him. When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to the one who put all things in subjection under him, so that God may be all in all. (1 Corinthians 15:25–28)
This is not Christomonism about God’s redemptive plan, because it is theo-centric, with Christ serving God’s redemptive plan. God’s plan, according to Paul, has Christ ultimately ‘subjected’ to God, ‘so that God may be all in all’. There is thus room for God’s new age of divine supremacy as the goal of divine redemption, an age that puts God at the centre, and not just Christ. Paul here contradicts Jervis’s claim that ‘Christ himself’ is ‘God’s redemptive goal’ and her similar claim that ‘the eschatological goal is the revelation of God’s Son’ (p. 168). The divine goal is more complicated than that, by Paul’s lights.
Union with Christ is not Paul’s full story of divine redemption for humans, and such redemption is not yet fully realized even if union with Christ is, in some sense. Without Christomonism, Paul can have both union with Christ, whereby Christ now works against human conformity to this age, and Christ’s working thereby to deliver the kingdom to his Father for the now-unfulfilled new age of completed redemption. This both-and approach captures Paul’s perspective and fits with the ongoing struggle known to Christian spirituality.
What difference does our disagreement make? One difference concerns Jervis’s claim that ‘the exalted Christ does not engage with the present age’. When Paul encourages Christians ‘not to be conformed to this age’ (Romans 12:2), he does not say that the present age ‘need not concern them’ (p. 167), and he does not exclude a role for the exalted Christ. Paul takes the exalted Christ to ‘intercede’ now for Christians, and he mentions this in connection with ‘affliction or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword’ (Romans 8:35). It seems clear that here Christ does engage the challenges of the present age for Christians. Jervis does not consider Paul’s view of the intercessory role of Christ, but it challenges her position. Paul does not seem to consider spiritual death fully defeated now for Christians, despite its eventual full defeat.
Paul offers a spirituality of divine family with God as perfect Father, going beyond Christomonism. Following Jesus, he recognizes children of a divine Father, and not just brothers and sisters of Christ. Christ sets an example by yielding fully to his divine Father, and his followers will do the same in the fullness of time, beyond ‘this age’. Paul thus needs a reference to a ‘new age’ when God is all in all, with all subjected to God as perfect Father. This book helpfully invites careful reflection on this important topic.