Apologeticae sive Theologiae Fundamentalis, Tomus I: Demonstratio Christiana

The Acts of the Apostles transmit the sum of Pauline christology, which the epistles of Paul himself treat in greater detail. From these same epistles we learn what faith the whole Church gave to the divinity of Jesus while the apostle of the Gentiles was living and writing. Radical and liberal critics, to be sure, maintain that he does not exhibit Christ as God, but as a mere heavenly man, i.e., a man who pre-existed in heaven before his earthly life and returned to heaven after his earthly life.¹ In reality, however, St. Paul bears witness to the divinity of Jesus both implicitly and explicitly.

1. Implicit confession of the divinity of Jesus.

St. Paul ascribes to Jesus Christ divine operation, divine attributes, divine nature.

a) Divine operation, namely the creation and redemption of the world.

Creation. The Son of the Father's love, says Paul, "is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature, because in him were created all things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominations or powers: all things were created through him and in him: and he is before all, and all things hold together in him."² The Son of God "made the ages ... upholding all things by the word of his power ... for whom are all things and through whom are all things".³ Redemption. "For indeed God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself"⁴ "When the fullness of time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman ... that we might receive the adoption of sons."⁵ "In whom we have redemption through his blood, the remission of sins."⁶ He himself is the fountain of supernatural grace and eternal glory,⁷ he himself is simply the "author of salvation".⁸

b) Divine attributes, namely omnipotence, omniscience, eternity.

Omnipotence. St. Paul is by no means unaware that the creation and redemption of the world presuppose the omnipotence of the Son. Everywhere, indeed, he reckons creation⁹ and redemption¹⁰ among the works of the omnipotent God.

Omniscience. For he proclaims "Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God".¹¹ "In whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge."¹² With these words he already implicitly sets forth the Johannine doctrine of the Logos, or the divine Word.

Eternity. For what is declared in the Old Testament¹³ concerning the eternity of Jahve, St. Paul simply applies to Jesus Christ: "In the beginning, O Lord, you founded the earth, and the heavens are the works of your hands. They shall perish, but you shall remain, and all of them shall grow old like a garment, and like a cloak you shall change them, and they shall be changed: but you are the same, and your years shall not fail."¹⁴ Nay, just as Jahve defines himself simply as the eternal being, so: "Jesus Christ, yesterday and today, he himself and unto the ages".¹⁵

c) Divine nature. Jesus Christ is not merely in the image of God, like men,¹⁶ but he himself "is the image of God",¹⁷ "the image of the invisible God",¹⁸ "the splendor of his glory and the figure of his substance".¹⁹ "In him dwells all the fullness of the divinity corporally."²⁰ "Who, being in the form of God, did not think it robbery to be equal with God."²¹ Since, then, he is the image of God, the fullness of the divinity, equal to God, he is one with God the Father, distinguished from him only in person. "There is no God but one", says Paul, and immediately adds two distinct persons in the one God, namely the Father and Jesus Christ.²²

2. Explicit confession of the divinity of Jesus.

St. Paul calls Jesus Christ the Son of God, God, Lord.

a) The Son of God, not in the ethical or adoptive sense, but physical and natural. For the doctor of the Gentiles writes in Greek and for Greek-Christians. Now it is certain that the Greeks and Westerners generally used the word "son" only in the natural sense, being unacquainted with the metaphorical filiation of the Orientals. Therefore Paul too, whenever he calls Jesus the Son of God, understands him as the natural Son of God. Moreover, almost all the texts already cited, in which Paul implicitly teaches the divinity of Christ, refer to Christ inasmuch as he is the Son of God. Therefore, for the doctor of the Gentiles, the Son of God is God by nature. Moreover, Paul calls the Son of God simply:

b) God. Paul says that it was said of the Son: "Your throne, O God, is forever and ever".²³²⁴ He admonishes the faithful "to adorn in all things the doctrine of God our Savior ... waiting for the blessed hope and the coming of the glory of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ".²⁵ "Christ is above all, God blessed forever."²⁶ For the most part, however, he calls Jesus by another divine name:

c) Lord. We know that the primitive Church attributed to Jesus Christ the name of Lord = Adonai = Jahve. In the same sense Paul too salutes the Savior as "Lord". For he transfers to Christ the "Lord" what is predicated of Adonai, or Jahve, in the Old Testament. Jahve, who led the Israelites out of Egypt, is Christ himself, the "Lord".²⁷ Of Christ the "Lord" it is written in Psalm 101, 26: "In the beginning, O Lord [Adonai = Jahve], you founded the earth,"²⁸ and likewise in the prophecy of Joel 2, 32: "Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord [Adonai = Jahve] shall be saved."²⁹ Jesus obtains that ineffable name of Jahve, to be adored by all creatures, by which God willed to be called in the old covenant:³⁰

"God exalted him [Christ] and gave him the name that is above every name [Jahve = ὁ κύριος = Lord], so that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father."³¹

Hence Paul also devotes to Christ the "Lord" the worship due to God alone. He commends himself and his fortunes and deeds to God the Father and to the "Lord" Jesus Christ.³² From God our Father and the "Lord" Jesus Christ he wishes grace, peace and mercy to the churches.³³ Likewise, all Christians in Paul's time everywhere adore and invoke the "Lord" Jesus Christ.³⁴ All live and die to the "Lord" Jesus Christ: "For whether we live, we live to the Lord; whether we die, we die to the Lord. Whether, therefore, we live or die, we are the Lord's."³⁵ By this divine worship shown to God the Father and to the "Lord" Jesus, Christians are united among themselves and distinguished from all other men: "For there are many gods and many lords: yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we through him."³⁶ When Paul, separating the double name of the divinity (Jahve Elohim, κύριος ὁ θεός, Lord God), calls the Father "God" and Christ "Lord", he professes the divine nature of both and nonetheless removes every dualism from the Godhead.

There is no one who does not see that this Pauline christology is the same as the doctrine of the primitive Church, of the apostles, and of Christ himself. And indeed St. Paul testifies that he received his christology partly from intercourse with and the instruction of Christ's disciples, partly from the revelation of Christ himself: "For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you³⁷ ... For I did not receive it from man, nor was I taught it, but through the revelation of Jesus Christ ... It pleased him [God] ... to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the Gentiles."³⁸