rived at this merely as the conclusion of a syllogism. They were
74 THE BIBLICAL BASIS
Israelite peoples into the purview of God's purpose (Amos 9:7). The writer of 1 Kings records the purpose-of the building of the Temple: "that all the peoples of the earth may know thy name and fear thee, as do thy people Israel" (1 Kings 8:43). The implications of monotheism are most clearly set forth by Second Isaiah: "there is no other god besides me.... Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other" (Is. 45:21 f.).
It is clear that Paul's concern to take the Gospel to the whole world was rooted in this aspect of his heritage. He insisted that the Gentiles were the heirs of God's grace because God is one: "Is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, since God is one" (Rom. 3:29 f.; cf. also Rom. 10:12; 1 Cor. 8:4 ff.; Eph. 4:6). Were there no other motivation, belief in one God who is thereby the God of all men lays on the Church an inescapable obligation to mission. The one God is God of all.
2. Neither Paul nor the Old Testament writers, however, arrived at this merely as the conclusion of a syllogism. They were not philosophers speculating about the nature of God and the > relevance of this to life. Their monotheism rested ultimately on the
fact that God had revealed Himself as Lord. His Lordship rested on the dual facts of creation and redemption. Although patently creation precedes redemption, yet it seems quite likely that it was through His redemptive activity that God revealed Himself as Creator.
At the Exodus God had made Himself known as a compassionate, saving God. Moses was commissioned in this fashion: "I have seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters; I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them" (Ex. 3:7 f.). The psalm commemorating the Exodus event exults: "The Lord is my strength
_ and my song, and he has become my salvation" (Ex. 15:2). The _ covenant was renewed to Moses with the words: "The Lord, the -_ Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding _ in steadfast love" (Ex. 34:6). Micah voiced the common conviction
_ of the prophets when he termed the Exodus and what followed
_ "the saving acts of the Lord" (Mic. 6:5). Second Isaiah encouraged
his forlorn people with these words: "But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: 'Fear
Pauline Motives for the Christian Mission 75
not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine'" (Is. 43:1). In the history of His people, God had revealed Himself as a God of sheer grace and mercy.
But in so doing, He had Tmanifested His power over all the forces of nature and over all the supposed gods who were identified with the forces of nature: "on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord [Yahweh]" (Ex. 12:12). God's redemptive
activity demonstrated Him as Yahweh (Ex. 3:14), "He who causes
to be what comes into existence." 5 He was the one who "in the beginning . . . created the heavens and the earth" (Gen. 1:1). As
maker and redeemer, then, Yahweh is Lord. To Him all that is
belongs. Nature exists to serve His purposes. Man is a creature made to live under the loving will of his Creator.
The Lordship of the redeeming God Paul believed to have been manifested finally in Jesus Christ. Out of many examples, one may serve to make this clear. In Romans 10:13, Paul quotes Joel 2:32: "every one who calls upon the name of the Lord [Yahweh, in Joel] will be saved." This word about the Lordship of Yahweh he applies directly to Jesus: "if you confess ...that Jesus is Lord
.. you will be saved" (Rom. 10:9). But in addition to God's Lordship in redemption, His Lordship in creation is also mania
fested in Jesus: "in him [Jesus] all things were created, in heaven : and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or authorities—all things were created through him and for him" (Col. 1:16). "Jesus is Lord," as the agent both of creation and redemption, is the earliest Christian creed.
Every rebellion, therefore, against God's will, and all indifference to the claims of His love made known in Christ, is a challenge to His rightful Lordship. Those who do not acknowledge Christ's Lordship are "alienated from the life of God" (Eph. 4:18), "enemies" who need to be "reconciled to God" (Rom. 5:10). Christian — conversion, then, is a radical break with a world hostile to God and — a decisive transference "to the kingdom of his beloved Son" (Col.
aie
1:13). There can be no truce between the kingdom of Christ and —
alien forces. It is Christ's purpose to subdue all Ss to God,
to destroy "every rule and every authority and power,' "including —
death, so that "God may be everything to every one" (1 Cor. 5
15:24 ff.). Those, therefore, who accept God's Lordship in Christ
*Cft. W. F. Albright, From the Stone Age to nee (Baltimore: ee Johns ee Press, 1940), pp. 197 f. =