Sin & Death

One of the stranger aspects of Paul’s theology is his conception of Sin and Death as personified forces to be overcome, and which have been in fact overcome by Christ. These demonic enemies got us in bondage through Adam’s disobedience. "…death held sway from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned as Adam did, by disobeying a direct command.--- and Adam foreshadows the man who was to come". ~Rom. 5:10-14.

How this works precisely is far from clear. Paul seizes on any metaphor he can: Christ pays our ransom; Christ is a sufficient sacrifice for our sin; Christ wins a victory over our demonic enemies. Paul writes in Second Corinthians that, “Christ was innocent of sin, and yet for our sake God made him one with human sinfulness, so that we might be made one with the righteousness of God.” Why God should do it that particular way is hard to imagine. For the apostle, using his reverse logic, it is plain that God in fact did it that way, and for Paul further inquiry is unnecessary and probably fruitless.

Paul is a thoroughgoing apocalypticist. He believes that the End of the Age is at hand. How the humble life of Jesus, his death and resurrection, could have had the saving effect Paul writes of is not explained in his writings. Be that as it may, it is evident that Paul believed it, and we have to suppose that the case was convincingly made to his churches through Paul’s preaching.

The evidence for both Paul and his churches that the Change of the Age is at hand is the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the mighty works of God that they understood to be at work, and which validated their faith as no doctrinal argument could.