Jesus the Lord according to Paul the Apostle: A Concise Introduction
Overview
Representing the fruit of a lifetime of study, this work from renowned scholar Gordon Fee offers a concise summary of Paul’s teaching about Jesus.
In the course of his extensive teaching and writing career in New Testament studies, Fee noticed a considerable gap in the scholarly literature regarding Paul’s understanding of the person of Christ. His comprehensive Pauline Christology has been very useful for scholars, but it did not fulfill Fee’s ultimate aim of the project–to make the results accessible to any interested reader of Scripture. This concise volume offers a theological synthesis of the exegetical work found in Fee’s Pauline Christology, making it more accessible to a wider readership. The book includes a foreword by Cherith Fee Nordling.
Key Features
- Presents an introduction to Paul’s understanding of Jesus
- Expands on ideas in Pauline Christology to be more accessible
Contents
- Part 1: The Savior
- The Divine Savior
- The Preexistent and Incarnate Savior
- Part 2: The Second Adam
- Paul and New Creation Theology
- The Pauline Emphasis: A Truly Human Divine Savior
- Part 3: The Jewish Messiah and Son of God
- The Anticipation of Jesus in the Story of Israel
- Jesus as the Son of David
- Jesus as the Eternal Son of God
- Part 4: The Jewish Messiah and Exalted Lord
- Paul’s Use of the “Name” of the Lord
- Paul’s Understanding of the Role of Jesus as Lord
- Jesus the Lord: Sharer of Other Divine Prerogatives
- Conclusion: Paul as a Proto-trinitarian
Top Highlights
“I argue that Christ came among us for two basic reasons: first, to reveal the true nature and character of the eternal God and, second, to redeem us from our fallen, and thus broken, condition.” (Page 1)
“At the same time, a believer some twenty centuries later needs also to hear what Paul’s own context makes quite clear—that salvation based on faith in Christ Jesus assumes also that the believer is expected to live in a way that reflects the character of Christ Jesus, just as our Lord himself during his earthly life lived so as to exemplify God’s own character. To put it in more contemporary language, the whole purpose of Christ’s coming, and of our own salvation, is to re-create a people of God who—redeemed by the Savior Christ and endowed by the Holy Spirit—live out God’s original intent. It is to re-create a people who personally and corporately bear the divine likeness in their everyday lives and especially in their relationships with others.” (Page 8)
“The radicalism of Paul’s Christology is not his emphasis on Jesus’s humanity but his equation of Jesus with God: God Incarnate among us but not using that to his advantage (hence living submitted to the Spirit), crucified and resurrected, now exalted and reigning, and bringing God’s Spirit-born children into the first stages of their new eschatological life together.” (Page xv)
“But the biblical usage must win out. Only as all of those who belong to Christ live in ways in keeping with their Lord himself will the world listen to our gospel.” (Page 10)
“Rather, Paul’s language is meant to encourage us to ‘assemble’ as a church, so as to worship God and Christ as well as to be in fellowship with others.” (Page 10)
Praise for the Print Edition
Gordon Fee is among the most respected New Testament scholars of our time. With this focus on Jesus as Lord he offers the church a practical, compelling, and even eye-opening demonstration of Paul’s high Christology. He gives sound treatment of crucial texts and of the relation of the Father, Son, and Spirit in Paul’s letters. This book deserves your attention.
—Klyne Snodgrass, Paul W. Brandel Professor of New Testament Studies, North Park Theological Seminary
Exegetically grounded and theologically synthetic, academic and devotionally reverent, grounded in research but practical and simple to follow, Fee’s Jesus the Lord according to Paul the Apostle makes the fruits of his years of careful work on Paul’s letters and Christology more widely available. Intertextually rich and theologically provocative, this book invites us to rethink traditional academic constructions of Paul’s theology in light of the primary data provided rather conspicuously by Paul’s own letters.
—Craig S. Keener, F.M. and Ada Thompson Professor of Biblical Studies, Asbury Theological Seminary
I cut my intellectual teeth on Gordon Fee’s 1 Corinthians commentary as an undergraduate student. Again and again his academic insight astounded me, and his pastoral wisdom and overt Pentecostal spirituality encouraged me. Almost twenty years later my respect for him has not diminished; I routinely check his works in my own research and teaching. So many of his areas of scholarly and practical passion combine in Jesus the Lord according to Paul the Apostle, including his careful reading of texts, his emphasis on Christian behavior (as opposed to ‘works’), his interest in the Spirit, and his bridge work between biblical studies and systematic theology. This is a classic Fee feast. Chew on this. Chew well.
—Holly Beers, assistant professor of religious studies, Westmont College
- Title: Jesus the Lord according to Paul the Apostle: A Concise Introduction
- Author: Gordon Fee
- Publisher: Baker Academic
- Print Publication Date: 2018
- Logos Release Date: 2018
- Pages: 224
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subjects: Jesus Christ › Person and offices; Bible. N.T. Epistles of Paul › Theology
- ISBNs: 9781493418459, 9780801049828, 1493418459, 0801049822
- Resource ID: LLS:JSSLRDCNNTRDCTN
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-30T00:57:52Z
Gordon D. Fee (1934–2022) was a leading expert in pneumatology and textual criticism of the New Testament. He was an ordained minister of the Assemblies of God and served as professor emeritus of New Testament studies at Regent College in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Fee earned degrees from Seattle Pacific University and University of Southern California. He was also awarded an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from Northwest University. Before teaching at Regent College, Fee taught at Wheaton College, Vanguard University of Southern California, and Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary. Fee was a member of the Committee on Bible Translation that translated the New International Version and its revision, the Today’s New International Version.
In addition to Fee’s many highly respected commentaries in series like the Understanding the Bible Commentary Series: New Testament and The New International Commentary on the New Testament (NICNT), he is also the author of How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth, God’s Empowering Presence: The Holy Spirit in the Letters of Paul, Pauline Christology: An Exegetical-Theological Study, and To What End Exegesis?