CHAPTER II

THE NECESSITY AND CHARACTER OF COSMIC

REDEMPTION

LOOKED at through the eyes of Paul, the condition of the universe was not a happy one. The world, both of animate and of inanimate matter, groaned and travailed in pain, awaiting its deliverance from the Powers of Evil. It had been created by God capable of being made subject to these Powers, but with the purpose that it should be released ultimately from them, and given the freedom of the glory of the children of God. Men, in particular, groaned within themselves, confidently and momentarily expecting their final installation as sons of God, which carried with it the redemption of the body.37

It is evident that such phenomena as are here referred to were not to be expected as the result of a gradual or evolutionary process. The pic

37 Rom. 8:19-23. See also Rom. 1:18-3:18; 12:2; 1 Cor. 2:6; 2 Cor. 4:4; Eph. 2:2.

ture is of something sudden, cataclysmic, catastrophic. Moreover, the attitude of the cosmos, man included, is that of relative passivity. The contemplated changes are not predicated on the basis of processes at work within the cosmos but on the basis of an impending catastrophic divine act. It is by waiting, expecting and being prepared, that the blessings are to be secured. The redemption is something to be wrought out by God external to and for the benefit of the cosmos. This applies as well to men as to inanimate matter. If Paul exhorted the Philippians to work out their own salvation with fear and trembling, he immediately added: "For it is God who works in you both to will and to effect in you his good intention for you." 38 The world is unable to save itself; it must have a Redeemer or Savior from without.

The reason for this is to be found in the fact that the foes in whose thraldom it is held are superhuman foes. "For our conflict is not against blood and flesh, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world88 Phil. 2:12, 13.

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rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the super-terrestrial regions.' These foes are not going to relinquish their control over the world voluntarily. It must be taken away from them by force. But this requires a power stronger than they. There is but one such Power and that is God. Man must rely on God, the stronger Power, since of himself man can do nothing.

While it is true, as will appear later, that Christ is, from one point of view, the Redeemer, it is also true that Paul conceives God the Father to be ultimately the Redeemer of the cosmos. To be sure, the gospel, which contains the plan of redemption, is more frequently called the gospel of Christ, but it is also the "gospel of God."40 Redemption is an expression of the love of God.41 Eternal life is the free gift of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord.42 It was God the Father

39

Eph. 6:12. If one reads this entire passage, he will be struck with two things: the completeness of the Christian's armor, or panoply, and the entire absence of soldierly action. It is not the actual fighting, but the possession of the armor, which insures the victory.

40 Rom. 1:1; 15:16; 2 Cor. 11:7; 1 Thes. 2:2, 8, 9.

41

Rom. 5:7, 8; 8:39.

42 Rom. 6:23.

who sent his Son to redeem men from Sin.43 God is on the side of men in their fight against

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angels, principalities and powers. It was in accordance with the will of God that Christ gave himself for our sins, in order that he might deliver us from this present evil world.45 The righteousness of God which is revealed in the gospel is a condition of acceptance with God,46 which men enjoy by virtue of the fact that it was a God-provided righteousness. It had its origin in God. It was his grace, or love, that provided it as his gift to men.47 It is the power of God that is manifest in the gospel for the salvation of men.48 God did not intend us to be the victims of wrath, but the recipients of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.49

43 Rom. 8: 3, 32. Gal. 4:4.

44 Rom. 8:31-39.

45

Gal. 1:4.

"Deliver' strikes the key-note of the epistle. The Gospel is a rescue, an emancipation, from a state of bondage. See esp. 4:9, 31; 5:1, 13." Lightfoot, Commentary on Galatians, London and Cambridge, 1869, in loc.

46

The genitive in the phrase, δικαιοσύνη θεοῦ, is one of source. This is uniform in Paul's usage of this phrase, unless Rom. 3:5, 25, 26 be exceptions. But see pp. 98-109. 47 Rom. 3:24.

We must next inquire more closely into the character of the redemption, which God has effected for the world. In this inquiry, the first step will be to determine how Paul regarded the two cosmic foes, with which man had most of all to contend-Sin and Death. The next step will be to survey Paul's general conception of the benefits which accrue to those who avail themselves of the salvation which God has provided.

Fundamentally there is no sharp distinction to be drawn between Sin and Death, on the one side, and their chief, Satan, on the other. We approach Paul's thought more nearly when we regard Sin and Death as hypostases of Satan, the same in being and purpose with him. Jewish demonology was at no time reduced to a welldefined and fixed system, as to the particular functions which the various demonic beings were charged with. Still there was a general classification of them, from the standpoint of their rank and of the service they performed. But this differentiation of them, the one from the other, must not be thought of as a differentiation of kind, or ultimately of person. They were all generically one. In their unity they constituted