Biblical Studies New Testament

Revelation of the Risen and Exalted Christ to Paul on Damascus Road

Revelation of the Risen and Exalted Christ to Paul on Damascus RoadOPDC Part 5/6

A. The Risen and Exalted Christ
First, the apostle learned that Jesus was still alive – though in a form transcending mere flesh and blood. If Jesus after his death had been exalted in heaven, then this surely meant Jesus’ claims, or at least the claims made about Jesus, had been vindicated. Thus, Paul in Romans 1:4 says that Jesus was vindicated as or designated to be the Son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead.

B. The Preexistence of the Divine Jesus
Paul regarded Jesus as a preexistent person who was sent by God to earth and became human. Galatians 4:4 and Romans 8:3. Paul twice declares that God “sent” his “Son” underscores the Son’s origins with God and his full participation in humanity.

C. Philippians 2:5–11 – Christ’s Humiliation and Exaltation

v. 6 – Pre-existence and divine status
Note the distinction between Morphe and Schema
Morphe identified with the essence of a person or thing. The classical use of the word closely links it with ousia (essence), which then suggests that being in the form of God means possessing deity. Paul affirms that Christ, “existing in the form of God” (en morphē theou hyparchōn), possessed divine glory prior to the incarnation.

v. 7 – Voluntary self-emptying and incarnation
ἁρπαγμός harpagmos – something one already possesses (status, qualities) but decline to exploit for one’s own advantage. Instead Christ chose kenosis. The parallel between “form of God” and “form of servant” indicates not loss of deity but addition of humanity, pointing to humiliation through incarnation and obedience – Christ veiled his deity by assuming existence in the form of flesh.

v. 8 – Climactic humiliation in obedience unto death
Christ’s self-humbling reaches its climax in obedience “to the point of death – even death on a cross.”
The logic is downward: divine glory → servanthood → human likeness → obedient death → cross.

vv. 9–11 – Divine exaltation and universal lordship
In response, “God highly exalted him” (hyperypsōsen) and bestowed “the name above every name,” most plausibly “Lord” (Kyrios), echoing Isaiah 45:23. The one who humbled himself is now enthroned in universal sovereignty, receiving the worship due to YHWH.

The shift from “form of God” to “form of a slave” implies a transition from a heavenly position to human form. The text thus implies a V-shaped narrative, with Jesus’ divine preexistence (Phil. 2:6), humanity and humiliation (Phil. 2:7–8), and subsequent exaltation (Phil. 2:9–11).

D. Phil. 2: 5-11 and the NT Salvation Historical Framework
The emphasis is not just an isolated metaphysical hymn but a coherent New Testament Salvation-history framework. Philippians 2:5–11 should be read as:
1. Pre-Existence and the Eternal Starting Point of Salvation History (v. 6).
2. Adamic Failure and Christ’s Reversal (v. 6).
3. Incarnation as the Turning Point of History (v. 7).
4. Obedience unto Death as the Redemptive Climax (v. 8)
5. Exaltation as God’s Eschatological Verdict (v. 9).
6. The Gift of the Name and the Reconfiguration of Monotheism (vv. 9–11).

Narrated Christology (what God has done in history)
• Interpreted teleologically (toward God’s final purpose).
• Integrated with biblical-theological motifs (Last Adam, Servant, Lordship).
Paul’s concern is not how divinity works in itself, but how God’s saving action unfolds in time through the Son.

Conclusion
Paul, shaped by his cosmopolitan background and Jewish heritage and above all his climatic vision of the resurrected Christ on Damascus Road presents an unparalleled vision of the person and work of Christ.
Philippians 2:5–11 presents salvation history as the story of God’s eternal Son entering human history in obedient humility, accomplishing redemption through the cross, and being exalted as universal Lord– thereby inaugurating the new creation and defining the shape of redeemed human existence.

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Revelation of the Risen and Exalted Christ to Paul on Damascus Road. OPDC Part 5/6

Christological Significance of Paul’s Damascus Experience

Christological Significance of Paul’s Damascus Experience. OPDC Part 4/6

Key features of Pauline Christology arising from this experience, according to Kim:

1. Divine Identity of Jesus: The Kyrios (Lord) At Damascus, Paul saw the glorified, heavenly form of Jesus (Acts 9, 22, 26; cf. 1 Cor. 9:1, 15:8). Crucially, Paul perceived that Jesus shared in the divine glory (δόξα) – the visible manifestation of God’s presence (the Kabod Yahweh of the Old Testament). Christ is God’s own image and form (μορφῇ) – participating in God’s very being.
2. “Image of God”: Christ as the Visible Manifestation of God’s Glory, Vision of Divine Glory (2 Cor. 4:4-6) Paul saw divine glory mediated through the risen Jesus. Therefore, Christ is understood as the Image of God, This is not abstract metaphysics but experiential theology.
3. Pre-existence and Incarnation: If the heavenly Christ possessed divine glory, he must have existed with God before his earthly life. The one who was in “the form of God” (μορφὴ θεοῦ) took on “the form of a servant” (μορφὴ δούλου) (Phil. 2:6-7). Continue reading “Christological Significance of Paul’s Damascus Experience”

“Regeneration Precedes Faith”. An AI-assisted Calvinist Rebuttal to Arminian David Allen’s Analysis of Key Verses in 1 John

1 John 5:1 Πᾶς ὁ πιστεύων ὅτι Ἰησοῦς ἐστιν ὁ Χριστός, ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ γεγέννηται, καὶ πᾶς ὁ ἀγαπῶν τὸν γεννήσαντα ἀγαπᾷ [καὶ] τὸν γεγεννημένον ἐξ αὐτοῦ.

I. Does the Calvinist teaching “regeneration precedes faith” find support in Greek grammar?

Within Reformed (Calvinist) theology, it is maintained that regeneration logically precedes faith. That is, fallen human beings—being spiritually dead—are incapable of believing unless the Holy Spirit first imparts new life. This doctrine safeguards the monergistic character of salvation: it is wholly the work of God’s grace and not dependent on human initiative.

Several biblical texts are commonly cited in support of this position:
1. John 3:3–8 “Unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Jesus teaches that spiritual rebirth is a necessary precondition for perceiving and entering the kingdom. Faith—understood as seeing and believing—follows regeneration.
2. 1 John 5:1 “Everyone who believes [present active participle] that Jesus is the Christ has been born [perfect passive verb] of God.” The Greek construction suggests that the state of having been born of God grounds the act of believing.
3. Ephesians 2:4–5 “Even when we were dead in trespasses, [God] made us alive together with Christ.” A dead person must be made alive (regenerated) before he can exercise faith.

II. Allen’s Challenge
In his article “Does Regeneration Precede Faith?” (JBTM, 2014), David Allen challenges the Reformed interpretation of 1 John 5:1, arguing that the claim “regeneration precedes faith” cannot be proven from Greek grammar. According to Allen, “The most that can be said from the Greek present participle and perfect tense verb combination is that the actions are contemporaneous” (p. 41). He appeals to the broader context of John’s writings, noting that passages such as John 20:31 present faith as the condition for life, not its result. Continue reading ““Regeneration Precedes Faith”. An AI-assisted Calvinist Rebuttal to Arminian David Allen’s Analysis of Key Verses in 1 John”

Bart Ehrman on the Date and Historical Reliability of Acts. A Challenge to Evangelicals to Renew Studies on NT Introduction

Bart Ehrman’s Challenge to Evangelicals to Renew Studies on NT Introduction
Bart Ehrman, in his youtube video “Christianity One Year After Jesus,” speaks favorably both of scholars who suggest that Luke was dependent on the writings of Josephus from the 90s AD, and other scholars who suggest that Luke was written around 120 AD. Ehrman eventually settles for around 80s AD for the date of Luke.

Not surprisingly, he also questions the historical reliability of the book of Acts. According to Ehrman, Acts says things which seem implausible given what else we know about the world at that time and what we know about early Christianity etc.

If one rejects the historical reliability of Acts, the earliest historical record of the birth of Christianity, everything else in the NT is called into question. NT history is then reconfigured according to the skeptical presuppositions of critics like Ehrman. Continue reading “Bart Ehrman on the Date and Historical Reliability of Acts. A Challenge to Evangelicals to Renew Studies on NT Introduction”

The Resurrection of Christ in Pauline Theology. Part 3/3: Resurrection and Pauline Soteriology

Our earlier discussion on the resurrected Christ as the life-giving Spirit leads us to consider how crucial the resurrection of Christ is in Pauline soteriology, seen especially in 1 Cor. 15. There is a debate over who Paul’s Corinthian opponents really were. /1/ Some suggest that they were those who because of Hellenistic philosophy denied the resurrection of the body or flesh and looked for a survival of the immortal soul beyond the grave. /2/ However, this view implies that Paul missed the point of his opponents and that he failed to argue why a disembodied survival is not an adequate hope.

William Dykstra observes that Paul responds to the denial of resurrection not with a simple logical argument but with a salvation-historical argument. For the Corinthians could still accept Christ’s resurrection and at the same time deny any future resurrection for others, Christ’s case being a unique one for them. As such, a good case can be made for arguing that the Corinthians were guilty of the error of over-realized eschatology, as it gives a more consistent reading of the rest of the epistle. /3/ Continue reading “The Resurrection of Christ in Pauline Theology. Part 3/3: Resurrection and Pauline Soteriology”

The Resurrection of Christ in Pauline Theology. Part 2/3: Resurrection and Pauline Christology

What was Paul’s new perception of the resurrected Christ after his conversion through an encounter with the risen Lord on the road to Damascus? We shall consider Rom 1:3-4, 2 Cor. 3:17 and 1 Cor. 15:45 as the pivotal points in our discussion of this question.

A. Romans 1:3, 4
We can trace a clear development of what Paul has to say about Christ in this long introduction to the epistle. In verse 1, Jesus is the Messiah. In verse 3, the Messiah is God’s Son. In verse 4a, this Messiah Jesus, whose sonship was veiled in the days of his flesh, is suddenly (by the resurrection) revealed as ‘Son of God in power’. Finally, the climactic stage in the progressive revelation of Jesus is Paul’s confession that “Jesus is Lord”.

A pattern of parallels and contrasts is also evident in verses 3 and 4:

Verse 3	Verse 4
1. born (γενομένου, genomenou)	– declared (ὁρισθέντος, horisthentos)
2. according to the flesh (κατὰ σάρκα, kata sarka)	– according to the spirit of holiness, ie., the Holy Spirit (κατὰ πνεῦμα ἁγιωσύνης, kata pneuma hagiōsynēs) /1/
3. of the seed of David (ἐκ σπέρματος Δαυὶδ, ek spermatos Dauid)	– by the resurrection of the dead (ἐξ ἀναστάσεως νεκρῶν, ex anastaseōs nekrōn)

Continue reading “The Resurrection of Christ in Pauline Theology. Part 2/3: Resurrection and Pauline Christology”

The Resurrection of Christ in Pauline Theology. Part 1/3: Resurrection and Apostolic Commissioning

I. Apostolic Witness
Any discussion on the resurrection of Christ must take seriously the testimony of Paul’s first-hand account of the resurrection appearance of Jesus Christ. In Paul that we have immediate access to an eye-witness to the resurrection, a witness who could say, “last of all… he also appeared to me” (1 Cor. 15:8). Furthermore, he is a witness whose radical transformation of life only underscores the veracity of his testimony when he changed from being a persecutor bent on the destruction of the early church to becoming its foremost defender. Jesus, who he once rejected as a pretended Messiah, he now preached as the resurrected Lord, exalted at the right hand of God. Before the Damascus experience he could only regard Christ from a human point of view (2 Cor. 5:16), i.e., he applied worldly (Pharisaic) standards to his understanding of Christ, judging him according to the concepts of the Messiah at that time. /1/ This worldview was shattered on Damascus Road and was then substituted by another anchored solely on the risen Christ. /2/ Such a change, we submit, is neither due to the process of Paul yielding to the logic of the early witnesses, nor to be reduced to a fruition of psychological preparations in his life. /3/ Rather, it was because as Paul himself testified, he was confronted by the risen Christ on Damascus Road. It was a revelation of Jesus Christ, ἀποκαλύψεως Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ (apokalypseōs Iēsou Christou, Gal. 1:12). This phrase is probably not a subjective genitive (i.e., from Jesus Christ; NIV) but is an objective genitive, i.e., God revealed Jesus Christ and the gospel. /4/ As F.F. Bruce writes, “The gospel and the risen Christ were inseparable; both were revealed to Paul in the same moment. To preach the gospel (Gal. 1:11) was to preach Christ (Gal.1:16).”/5/ Continue reading “The Resurrection of Christ in Pauline Theology. Part 1/3: Resurrection and Apostolic Commissioning”

Historical Origin of Divine Christology Part 5. The Son from Pre-existence to the Consummation of Creation

A. Two Fundamental Roots of Christology – Promised Messiah and Resurrection
It is observed that various elements from the Old Testament and Jewish sources were incorporated in the development of the Son of God Christology in the first twenty years of the infant church leading to the development of Paul’s mission after the Apostolic Council. However, the Jewish categories were transformed through a creative process that was stimulated by the extraordinary event of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Martin Hengel explains:

First and foremost, we must remember that what happened cannot just have been a simple reproduction of earlier Jewish speculations about hypostases and mediators. Earliest christology has a quite original stamp, and is ultimately rooted in the contingent event of the activity of Jesus, his death and resurrection appearances. A history-of-religions comparison can only explain the derivation of individual themes, traditions, phrases and functions, and not the phenomenon of the origin of christology as a whole. At the same time, we must also consider the possibility of ‘unparalleled’ innovation. [Martin Hengel, The Son of God (Fortress Press, 1976), pp. 56-57]

Hengel identifies two fundamental roots of Christology based on Rom. 1:3-4. First, the earthly Jesus is the fulfilment of God’s promise that the messiah is from the seed of David. Second, the crucified Jesus is declared to be the Son of God in power by virtue of his resurrection from the dead. Continue reading “Historical Origin of Divine Christology Part 5. The Son from Pre-existence to the Consummation of Creation”

Historical Origin of Divine Christology Part 4 – Reading on the Son of God in the Fourth Gospel

One of the most distinct differences between the Synoptics and John is the different role Jesus’ sonship to God plays. In the Synoptic tradition, Jesus is reticent to speak of his sonship and God’s Fatherhood. Pater is used by Jesus of God in Mark four times, Q eight or nine, Matthew some twenty-three times. In the Synoptics this form of speech is confined to the latter half of his ministry, and is used by Jesus only when speaking to his disciples. However, Jesus speaks of God as Father 106 times in John, and the usage is not restricted to any period of his ministry or to any group of hearers. He speaks of “my Father” twenty four times in John, eighteen in Matthew, six in Mark, three in Luke. It is obvious that Jesus’ sonship is the central christological idea in John, and that he writes his Gospel to make explicit what was implich in the Synoptics. The Gospel is written that people may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, but more than Messiah; he is the Son of God (John 20:31)… Continue reading “Historical Origin of Divine Christology Part 4 – Reading on the Son of God in the Fourth Gospel”