Paul's dramatic conversion and counter-cultural life only makes sense if the risen Jesus appeared to him.
The last lesson was about James: Jesus' brother and a joyful martyr.
What's more unlikely? That Jesus' brother became a martyr? Or that Paul, who killed Christians in the name of God, would become a Christian martyr? It's hard to say.
In 1 Corinthians 15:8-11, Paul shares his experience of seeing the risen Jesus. Especially in an honor-shame culture, it's astonishing that Paul so freely reminds his Christian audience that he was formerly a Christian-killer.
Consider Philippians 3. Paul mentions that he outdid his opponents in zeal by how he formerly persecuted the church (3:6). Then he writes:
"But everything that was a gain to me, I have considered to be a loss because of Christ. More than that, I also consider everything to be a loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Because of him I have suffered the loss of all things and consider them as dung, so that I may gain Christ..."
**Here's the apologetic point: it's rare for someone to earnestly attempt to reverse their individual and cultural values.** For Paul, what counted as 'honor' is now 'shame' and what was 'shame' is now 'honor'! For his opposition to Roman and Jewish cultural values, and his commitment to proclaiming Jesus as Lord, he was martyred.
Why? How? Who does that?
Paul tells us why and how in 1 Corinthians 15: Jesus appeared to him. He experienced God's grace. He wholeheartedly committed himself to Jesus and his mission.
Dr. Te-Li Lau explains that Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection authoritatively reversed the categories of shame and honor. So, Paul, who met the risen Jesus, seeks to imitate Christ's example: joyfully enduring suffering and cultural shame now, that he also might be resurrected to God's eternal honor.
**Many theories have been proposed for Paul's change of life. But to my mind, the only sufficient explanation for the pattern of Paul's culturally subversive and sacrificial Christian life is the one he gives us: he was imitating the pattern of Jesus' crucifixion — and his glorious resurrection.**
But this raises a challenging question: if the risen Jesus appeared to you and to me, do our lives look like Paul's?
More than that, I also consider everything to be a loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Because of him I have suffered the loss of all things and consider them as dung, so that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own from the law, but one that is through faith in Christ—the righteousness from God based on faith. My goal is to know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death, assuming that I will somehow reach the resurrection from among the dead.
What is honored in your cultural context? What is seen or experienced as shameful?
In your life and culture, what would it look like to 'consider everything to be a loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord' (Philippians 3:8)?
How could the 'power of Jesus resurrection' transform the kind of person you want to become?
As Paul wrote, 'Join in imitating me.' Identify one way you can imitate Paul's counter-cultural commitment to Christ this week.
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