Theology sunday... Jesus versus Paul - the fight is on!

I have had conversations with Christians that almost refuse to read Pauls letters. They will read the gospels and the gospels only. Their reasoning, they told me, is that they want to follow Christ and not some man. They consider Pauls letters to be not valid. Perhaps in the same way that the Anglican church considers the Apocrypha to be worthy for knowledge, but not for teaching or doctrine.

To me their decision is weak because of two main points.
1. The assumption is that Paul has misinformation about Jesus, or perhaps disagrees with Him and is therefore unworthy.
2. It completely misses the fact of God's involvement in putting together the Bible.

That second point is one that there has been a lot of teaching on, and I can get more information to you about if you would like to know further, for the rest of this blog post I want to focus on point 1. That Paul gives misinformation, or disagrees with Jesus. As it is not only misguided Christians who hold this view but also those who attack our faith and attempt to denigrate or diminish Jesus' worth.

They attack Jesus, in a way that is seemingly defending him, by saying that the main doctrines of the Christian faith, or if you will, the religion of Christianity was formed by Paul not Jesus.

They say that Jesus had something different to say, about God, Himself and the way to Salvation, and our faith today was basically invented by Paul.

Given that I and I hope you all, hold that God was involved in the bible, I think it is needless to say that I disagree with these people.

I do not have time to talk about all of their attacks but here are some of them and I will talk a little about why, other than just I think they are wrong, about why they are wrong in their attack and that what we hold to about Jesus is the truth that Jesus wants us to know whether He or Paul said it.

The attacks are;
1. Paul was getting his teaching from “revelation” and so was separate from the early church
2. Paul invented the divinity of Jesus
3. Crucified Christ/Messiah was Pauls invention
4. Lack of Paul talking about the life of Jesus
5. Lack of Paul quoting Jesus
6. The gospel Paul preaches is not the Gospel Jesus preached.

Lets go through these one by one.

1. Paul getting his teaching from “revelation” and so was separate from the early church

To answer his we have to ask where did he get his teaching from? Paul answers that question clearly in Galatians 1:11-12, where he states, "the gospel I preach is not something that man made up. I did not receive it from man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ".
In 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 he speaks of receiving from the Lord that which he passes on to them, ...the Gospel. He carefully points out that these are not things which he invented.


So assuming Paul was mistaken in where he got his teaching from does this mean he invented it all for his own, possibly diabolical, plans? The answer to that is to look at that which was taught before he came on the scene and to the reaction of those people when they heard what Paul was teaching.

You would do the same thing if a new vicar came along and said “the previous vicar always used to teach this...” You could go back and look at what the person taught and look at the reactions of the people who knew the previous vicar well, to this persons quotes. So can we look at what was taught prior to Paul and the reaction of the disciples to Paul.

We can do this as Paul did not come onto the scene until Act's chapter 7 where he was going by his former name of Saul, and he was there when St Stephen was being stoned to death holding to the truths that we will find Paul himself would begin to teach. Peters speech in Act chapter two, also holds all the key doctrines about Christ that Paul teaches, Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will return in glory.

And then after Christ came and got Paul on the road to Damascus, how did those disciples react, they did not trust him, but they listened to him, Saul then as Paul started to preach the truth about that which he had persecuted, his former comrades then tried to have him killed. Paul goes into hiding and three years later comes out to Jerusalem stays with Peter and again his life is in danger. Paul then goes out preaching as the missionary he was and then 14 years later there is a council at Jersualem and they very people who walked and talked with Jesus, listened to that which Paul was teaching and gave him “the right hand of fellowship” and agreed that Pauls should continue on the preach to the gentiles..

So while Paul's teaching may have come from Revelation, it was not contested by the disciples. Those who heard the teaching from Jesus's very own lips, agreed with what Paul taught.

We can add to this that Paul, admits, being a persecutor of the way, the discpiles did not initially trust him because for this, so how can someone invent a religion that they themselves had persecuted.

Myth one busted.
The teaching Paul received by Revelation was not in disagreement with the teachings of the disciples, the people who had lived with Jesus for 3 years, and they accepted what he taught as correct.

So lets look at the next point.
2. Paul invented the divinity of Jesus

The argument is that in order to promote his new teaching Paul added to the reputation of Jesus by giving him divinity, that Jesus was God in human form.


Well given that the disciples agreed with what Paul was teaching, and as this was one of his points, it is very easy to say it was not invented by Paul, but lets us have a look anyway. Was Paul the first to say Jesus was God? I have three cases for you that show Paul was not the first.

In John chapter 8 we read of Jesus saying “Before Abraham was born, I am!” At this point the good devout Jews around Jesus tried to kill him. They wanted him dead, not because of his bad grammar, saying Before..I am.

But because when Moses was confronted by the burning bush, and God told him to go to Egypt and set his people free, Moses asked. What is your name and god replied. “I Am who I Am”. (Which in Hebrew is pronounced “Yahweh, or by some Jehovah”) Jesus called himself by the holy name of god. Jehovah. To some just to say the name was a death penalty, but Jesus used it to refer to himself. No wonder they wanted him dead.

The next case is that in the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, we read of the trial of Jesus before the Jewish rulers. They asked him “are you the son of God?” Jesus said “Yes I AM”. That was the final nail in the coffin, they had no more need to ask him any further questions, they had the “blasphemy” from his own lips. He called himself God – that is worthy of the death penalty -unless of course it happened to be true but they were having none of that.

Then in what is probably my favourite scene from the bible, in the Gospel of John, we read of Thomas when confronted by the resurrected Jesus said to Him. “My Lord and my God” And Jesus did not disagree with him, Jesus did not tell him off, or correct him, in fact he said that those who also say that even though they have not seen him will be blessed.

OK... can it get any clearer than that? Thomas called Jesus God and Jesus said thank you.

That is just looking at the Gospels and it shows that the idea, the truth that Jesus is God, was not Paul's invention but was Jesus's. Now given that Jesus said it, that means he was either lying or telling the truth. If he was lying he was doing so because he was insane and thought he was, or because he was horribly evil. The good that he did do, shows he was not evil, the miracles he did show he was not an insane lier but that he was indeed telling the truth. Jesus said it, It's the truth, Paul repeated it. Jesus is the very form of the invisible God.

Myth two busted
Paul did not invent the divinity of Jesus. To say he did invent it would be like people saying I invented science fiction television. I did not invent it, it was there for a long time, I just keep talking about it. Same with Paul, he just keeps talking about the glory that is Jesus

3. Crucified Christ/Messiah was Pauls invention

To look at this let us first look into what is this Christ / Messiah thingy?

Messiah and Christ are two words from Hebrew and Greek and both mean in English “the Anointed One” This special or anointed one, is the one that the Jewish people were expecting. He had been prophesied about since Genesis chapter 3.

To boil it down to it's essence He was the one who was to bring the world back into a relationship with God, just as Adam and Eve had been in a relationship with Him back in the garden.

One of those prophesies is that he would be the King and ruler. Now if this was to come true then, what with the nation currently being occupied by those evil, evil romans, Christ is going to have to lead some great military or supernatural conquest.

But Jesus died. He led no campaign, he said the Kingdom was coming but did nothing except talk about it. Then they nailed him up and he died.

In the decades around that time there were others who said they were the messiah, they too died, they on the other hand used their followers to be what could be called freedom fighters, or to some terrorists. Jesus just talked and then he died.

So of course. Paul when starting up this religion of his would have to have something to set it apart. “I know, how about I say Jesus actually resurrected from the dead after he died? Then people will listen to me”

Small problem here. It wasn't Paul who first preached the resurrection!

Peter, Acts chapter 2 Repeats the resurrection over and over, it is key to his evidence that Jesus is the one, the messiah, that the people need to believe in and be baptised into.

So the resurrection was not invented by Paul. Also what was not invented by Paul is that the Christ had to be crucified. While many of the prophesies do talk about the Christ being king, Isaiah 53, Zech 12.10; Psalm 110, and Psalm 2 they all talk about the Rejected Messiah/Persecuted Messiah/ the Pierced God. Over all, that expected death, is the strongest messianic thread in the whole Old Testament prophesy.

Jesus himself also said that he had to be put to death. A cursory glance at the gospels will show just how seemingly dense the disciples must have been in not listening to what Jesus had to say.


21From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.
22Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. "Never, Lord!" he said. "This shall never happen to you!"
23Jesus turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men."(Matt 16.21f)

John the baptist also looked forward towards the death of Jesus as the Christ, as the one who would bear our punishment upon himself. The Baptist said. “Look, the lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” now as the Lamb is put to death in the sacrifice asking for forgiveness. John was pointing out that Jesus's death is the sacrifice for the sins of the world.

Paul did not invent the idea that Christ had to be crucified to make up for Jesus's death, He did not invent the resurrection to make Christianity different to the other dead rebel leaders, he didn't have to... the truth was already there and the people already knew it. He just kept on repeating the truth to everyone he knew until the world changed.

Myth 3 busted!
Paul could not invent the crucified Christ concept as it had been prophesied and Jesus himself said it would occur.

4. Lack of Paul talking about the life of Jesus

This has always seemed like an odd objection to me, because NONE of the non-gospel writings speak much about Jesus life either! Why would anyone single out Paul? Because there are more of his writings? Consider the references to the details of the life of Jesus in the non-gospel writings
In Acts we have the very general comments of Peter about Jesus' earthly life:
• Jesus was a man attested by God via miracles and signs (Acts 2.22)
• Jesus was delivered by God into the hands of those who crucified Him (2.23; 3.15; 4.10; 5.30; 7.52), both Jews and Gentiles (4.28)
• God raised Jesus from the dead (2.24, 32; 3.15; 4.10; 5.30)
• Jesus was the Davidic descendant of the prophetic OT (2.29-31)
• Jesus ascended to heaven, to the right hand of God (2.33-34; 5.31; 7.56)
This is quite a meager amount of historical information, and none of it detailed!



But let's try the General (non-Pauline) epistles (and Revelation) for information about Jesus' earthly life:
• Hebrews has many, many references to Jesus, but all are used to compare to various other servants of God (e.g. angels, Moses, Melchizedek). Most of the references have to do with His ministry of the New Covenant (7.22; 12.24), and the only earthly life detail given is that He was crucified outside the city (Hebrew 13.12).
• James, the brother of Jesus, has NO discussion (or even information) about the earthly life of Jesus whatsoever in his epistle!
• I Peter only makes reference to the sufferings, death, resurrection, and exaltation of Jesus (nothing about the pre-Passion events).
• 2nd Peter gives us one major piece of historical detail--the miracle at the Transfiguration. Peter recounts that he was an eyewitness of His Majestic transfiguration on the Mount. Other than this, there is no reference to earthly details.
• The Epistles of John only speak of the reality of Christ's human nature (they didn't have much of a problem with His deity in those circles--He was obviously God; they just couldn't accept that He was a man also!), and a reference or two to His death (as noted above).
• The epistle of Jude has no data either.
• The book of Revelation has no data either.
Given this data, there is no reason whatsoever to expect Paul to do any differently! So this accusation against Paul is totally irrelevant!

Myth 4 – true but irrelevant!

Just because we today, may want and expect to know exactly how many sequins Nicole Kidman had on her dress, or what Karl Urban ate for breakfast and pry into every corner of the lives of celebrities, but the writers of the non-gospel books were not concerned with that. We should not expect to see such things in Pauls writings.

The next point follows on a little from the last point but from a different tack.

5. Lack of Paul quoting Jesus

OK they say maybe Paul did not say lots about the life of Jesus why does Paul not quote him. This is a valid question. I after all would be very concern if in a sermon someone did not say at least one verbatim, word for word, quote from Jesus

Fortunately for us, people have looked into this.



Lets have a look at some of the findings...

(JESUS) Luke 6.27-28: "Love your enemies...bless those who curse you"
(JESUS) Matt 5.24: "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you"
(PAUL) Romans 12.14: "Bless those who persecute you, bless and do not curse"

(JESUS) Matt 17:20: "if you have faith...you will say to this mountain, 'Move'..."
(PAUL) I Cor 13.2: "if I have all faith so as to move mountains..."

(JESUS) Matt 19.21: "If you would be perfect, go, sell all your possessions and give to the poor..."
(PAUL) I Cor 13.3: "if I give away all my possessions..."

(JESUS) Matt 24.43: "But be sure of this, that if the head of the house had known at what time of the night the thief was coming, he would have been on the alert and would not have allowed his house to be broken into. 44 "For this reason you be ready too; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not think He will.
(PAUL) I Thess 5:2,4: "For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night...But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day should overtake you like a thief;

(JESUS) Mark 9.50: "live at peace with one another"
(PAUL) I Thess 5.13: "live at peace among yourselves"

(JESUS) Mark 14:36: "And He was saying, "Abba! Father" (very uncommon usage)
(PAUL) Gal 4.6: "And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!""
(PAUL) Rom 8.15: "you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, "Abba! Father!"

(JESUS) Mark 14:22-23: "And while they were eating, He took some bread, and after a blessing He broke it; and gave it to them, and said, "Take it; this is My body." 23 And when He had taken a cup, and given thanks, He gave it to them; and they all drank from it. 24 And He said to them, "This is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many.
(PAUL) I Cor 11:23: "For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread; 24 and when He had given thanks, He broke it, and said, "This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me." 25 In the same way He took the cup also, after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me." 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes." [the whole thing!]

(JESUS) Luke 10.7: "And stay in that house, eating and drinking what they give you; for the laborer is worthy of his wages.
(PAUL) I Cor 9.14: "So also the Lord directed those who proclaim the gospel to get their living from the gospel. "
(PAUL) I Tim 5.18: "For the Scripture says, "You shall not muzzle the ox while he is threshing," and "The laborer is worthy of his wages."


But not only did Paul know (and repeat) Jesus' teaching--often almost verbatim!--he constantly pointed his readers to the life of Christ as an example to follow.

• Philp 2.5: "Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus,"
• I Cor 11.1: "Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ.
• Eph 5.1f: "Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; 2 and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you, and gave Himself up for us"

Myth 5 busted!

6. The gospel Paul preaches is not the Gospel Jesus preached

The last accusation I will look at is that Paul and Jesus preached two different Gospels. That Paul preached one of faith saves you. Romans 4:28 “a man is justified by faith” yet Jesus seems to preach works. When asked by the rich young ruler what would give him eternal life, Jesus asked if he had been following the law, and then added more deeds for him to do. Shouldn't Jesus rather have said just have faith?!

First of all to me I think Jesus was telling that person to have faith. To have faith in something other than his money. That it the money that was holding him back and needed to be dealt with before Jesus could hit to the heart of the matter and tell the rich guy to believe in God.

But secondly and more important, as the rich ruler is just a distraction from the proper question.. What is the gospel Jesus preached ? What is the gospel Paul preached? How is it that they supposedly differ?

Well in a nutshell the gospel is...

1. That the Old Testament promised a future messianic age, in which God would break into history with His kingdom of righteousness and salvation.
2. That Jesus was the fulfillment of this Old Testament expectation (including of the 'kingdom of God')
3. That they key issue is responding to the Messianic status of Jesus of Nazareth.

Jesus confirmed this when he read from Isaiah when He was in Nazareth. There were messianic predictions, and He said, Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." (Luke 4.18-21) [Notice that Jesus claims that the Favorable Year of the Lord was fulfilled by HIS PRESENCE THERE.]


And then John, 3:16 is only one of many were Jesus said to believe in him is the way to Salvation.

So what does paul have to say?

Here are three verses I'm sure you know of more, or can drop your Bible open and find some that confirm that Paul agrees, with what Jesus said the gospel is!

1. Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God— 2the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures 3regarding his Son, who as to his human nature was a descendant of David, 4and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord. (Rom 1.1ff.)
2. "For no matter how many promises God has made, they are "Yes" in Christ. " (2 Cor 1.20)
3. But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.” (Rom 3.21)

Myth 6 busted.
The gospel preached by Jesus was taught by Paul.

I'm going to leave it there. And I want you, no not just I in fact Paul and Jesus, I”m sure want you to hold on to the truth. The bible is the word of God. You can trust every single letter of it. You may not know or understand why but god put the words in there. They are in agreement with one another, and no matter what, it is the authority that we can trust on God.

The bible is there and it tells us that Jesus not Paul is the author of our faith. Not only the author but he is the messiah, the focus, the sustainer and one day when he returns the finisher. Till that day, hold to the word, hold to Jesus.