The New Testament

The New Testament

Introduction

Salvation is widely defined as the “preservation or deliverance from harm, ruin or loss”, though when defined in a theological sense, salvation is deliverance from sin and its consequences, believed by Christians to be brought about by faith in Christ”6 (definitions taken from the Oxford dictionary online edition 2014). In the Catholic tradition, the term Soteriology is used when dealing with the question of what salvation (taken from the Greek word soteria) is, more specifically, what is “salvation and how it is acquired”, which in conjunction with the aforementioned theological definition, compromises of the ‘study of the ways in which salvation is conceived and especially the manner in which it is connected with the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ’ (McGrath4, 2011).

The New Testament is comprised of twenty-seven books attributed to eight different writers, and from these books content Edwards, 5 writes that they contain five concepts that deal with the “transformation of human existence through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus”. These five concepts “express the meaning of Jesus for us”, the fifth and perhaps the most important of the concepts is salvation. When summarising salvation in the New Testament at the conclusion of his five concepts, Edwards writes that that “the very diversity of the New Testament theologies of salvation, and metaphors for salvation, both speak of the vitality of the early Church’s experience of God’s saving action, and also makes clear that for the New Testament church no one image or theology was absolute”. In saying this, Edwards the “diversity” of the experience of the faithful as part of the young church, meaning that God had no set encounter between the faithful and salvation, who met in a myriad of ways with “no one image” or perception being “absolute”. As well as the New Testament providing new encounters with salvation and God, it also presented the opportunity for growth in the church’s teachings, as in “for the New Testament church no…theology was absolute”.

Scripture one: Ephesians 2: 1-10

This text is taken from St Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, which has its place towards the end of the New Testament as the tenth book which was written in epistolary form, or in the form of letters written by St Paul. This text makes up a section of the letters written by St Paul, a persecutor of Christian’s turned honorary apostle, as he spread the message of Jesus Christ. The use of letters as a literary form is recognised in this particular text, which St Paul utilised as part of his ministry. In this text, the letter is written from St Paul, who, though the date of the actual writing of the letters is unknown, wrote from prison in Rome. The letters were addressed to the church in Ephesus, which was comprised of gentile (non-Jewish) followers of Jesus Christ. The letter was written to the Ephesians for the purpose of encouraging them in their belief in Christ, and that through Christ, they are in union with all other believers, Jew and Gentile.

Before we can discuss St Paul’s writing in this particular letter, we have to take into account the theology of Pauline writings. In Brown 2, the concept of salvation in Paul’s writing is discussed, stating that salvation was a “fairly common way to express an effect of Christ”. Brown also discusses how the letter was written in Greek, salvation being referred to as “soteria” and “sozien”. These Greek words, when considered, bring about a deeper meaning to the St Paul’s writing’s, for example “soteria”, is taken from the Greek words “theosoter”, meaning used in time of need, in reference to the calling of God’s to help, and “soter”, which translated from Greek refers to a title applied to kings and other royalty6. When we consider St Paul’s use of these Greek words, we get an insight how Christ, as well as Christ’s message that St Paul was spreading, held so much respect and power. For example, St Paul refers to Jesus as “soter” 2, which portrays the high status role Jesus held, and the other Greek words derived from this title portrays the divine promise of being saved by Christ, which is described in Brown as a promise to the faithful that “deliverance or rescue from evil or harm, whether physical, psychic, national, cataclysmic or moral” would be available to them through Christ’s message being spread in St Paul’s ministry.

This particular text seeks to portray the theme of God’s power over death and life. Through this power (which is described by Swain 1as “essentially life-giving”), God raised Christ from the dead and is a promise of new life to the faithful. This promise, by which is a central factor to Christian faith, is God’s power in believers (which is also discussed