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See also: The Empty Tomb 268–71 ■ The Road to Damascus 290–91 ■ Paul’s Arrest 294–95 ■ Armor of God 302–03ACTS, EPISTLES, AND REVELATION
notes that their good character had
been threatened by “false teachers,”
who claimed that righteousness
depended on keeping the Mosaic
Law of circumcision. Paul was
writing to the Christians in Philippi
to testify against this belief, and
argue that Christians received their
righteousness from God.Alive in Christ
Christians believe they become
righteous when faith leads them to
experience “the power of [Christ’s]
resurrection” (3:10). This means the
power of God that raised Jesus
from the dead similarly transforms
the spiritually “dead” (sinners) into
“living” saints. Indeed, Paul saw
any person’s conversion to faith in
Jesus as a manifestation of the
power of the resurrection.
In a letter to the Colossians,
Paul writes that although believers
once lived in sin, their sins have
been buried, and they have been
reborn through Jesus. By coming
to know God, they now share in his
resurrecting power. In Colossians
3:3–4, for example, Paul writes“for you died, and your life is now
hidden with Christ in God. When
Christ, who is your life, appears,
then you also will appear with
Him in glory.”
Paul teaches that the power of
the resurrection drives the entire
Christian way of living: Jesus’s
resurrection enables His people
thereafter to live new, transformed
lives, characterized by obeying
God’s laws in all that they do.
Peter’s teaching echoes this idea:
“His divine power has given us
everything we need for a godly life”
(2 Peter 1:3). Even in difficult times,
such as those faced by the early
Christians, belief in Christ’s
resurrection would transform
the character of the converts to
make them exemplary citizens in
Philippi—justifying the claim that
“Jesus is Lord” (Philippians 2:11).The final resurrection
Paul concludes that ultimate
experience of “the power of His
resurrection” will come in the
future, at the Second Coming
of Christ from heaven—whichis the true place of Christian
citizenship. At that time, the
dead will rise, and the living will
be brought up to meet Christ
in the air, in physical bodies like
that of the resurrected Lord.
In that moment, Paul writes,
the appearance of the resurrected
savior will complete the process
of eliminating sin and perfecting
righteousness in Christians. ■Paul’s influence
on ChristianityPaul molded Christianity more
than any other Apostle, paving
the way for it to become a major
world religion. Although Peter and
Philip converted the first Gentiles,
it was Paul’s tireless missionary
journeys that brought the Gospel
to thousands across the eastern
Roman Empire and finally in
Rome itself. Crucial in this quest
was Paul’s insistence, against
considerable opposition, that all
believers—Gentile and Jewish—
had equal status and thatGentile converts should not be
made to submit to the rite of
circumcision and Jewish dietary
laws. This helped Christianity
to spread throughout the Greek
and Roman worlds, rather than
merely remaining the faith of
a small Jewish sect.
Paul’s other legacy was
his letters. Thirteen of the
27 books of the New Testament
are attributed to him. These
letters elaborate much of the
New Testament’s theology and,
for Christians, act as a guide for
the application of its teaching
in a practical context.An illustration of the preaching
of the first missionary Apostles,
after a 15th-century Arras tapestry
in Tournai Cathedral, Belgium.At the name of Jesus
every knee [shall] bow ...
and every tongue
acknowledge that
Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God
the Father.
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