Is it a bad thing to know that the devotional conversation must labor for its wellbeing? Is it wrong to understand that no one is sincerely “covered” by “blood”? Is it embarrassing to know that “God” hasn’t done it all? Maybe for us now alive it is, but when Paul was establishing the semantics of his doctrine, it wasn’t.
What did Paul teach? A quick breakdown, through verses, says: “Being now justified by his blood,” Romans 5:9, and, “Now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight,” Colossians 1:21,22, and, “Ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God,” Colossians 3:3.
Paul taught of one’s need to join into the spiritual community of his gospel. According to Paul, if failing to join into this spiritual community, one is not reconciled to God, is yet without forgiveness of sins, and is without the only righteousness able to stand before God. If in this spiritual community, one has all of these gifts, due to the labor of the Logos within the Father’s chosen servant, freely given to them.
How is it that the free experience of pardon, of reconciliation, and of righteousness was given to this spiritual community? This experience was given, according to Paul, on condition. On condition of what? Paul says, “Unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake; having the same conflict which ye saw in me, and now hear to be in me,” Philippians 1:29,30.
The Logos, according to Paul, labored within the Father’s chosen servant to create a new spiritual tribe and congregation. Only that servant, according to Paul, due to the Logos working within him, had his person, in however way you’d like to think about it, cleansed and fit to stand before the Father. Hereafter every other human being, if joined to this servant’s spiritual community, shares the victory the Logos claimed for mankind, yet if failing to maintain the standard lifestyle of suffering for the spirit of the Logos, then one is disqualified from sharing in that victory, ultimately leading to one failing to be remembered on the day of resurrection.
This is a brief summary of Paul’s gospel, which the Christian religion later perverted into what we today now know it to be, and I’ve reviewed it to show that not even Paul taught that a full “covering by Jesus” existed. Ignoring the fact that this Paul’s gospel grossly deviates from the actual intention and philosophy within the scriptures, when observing his call to yet encourage the individual to discipline their self for mirroring the character of that servant hosting the Logos within him, it is evident that not even this Paul would convince his hearers that God had done everything for them.
This Paul envisioned a spiritual congregation maintaining itself as a stoic community. How can we say this? We may say this from how Paul writes, “And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things,” 1 Corinthians 9:25, and, “Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth,” Colossians 3:5, and, “I die daily,” 1 Corinthians 14:31.
Paul brought similar stoic concerns into his gospel’s intention. His gospel taught of a spiritual community dedicated to the Father, infused by the Logos, and given into the hand of the risen, ascended, and ordained demigod. This community existed, according to Paul, so that they may live as did stoic-type communities.
But Paul’s spiritual community was better. It was better because the God of the stoics had manifested within a human being so that such a lifestyle could be achieved, and achieved for the purpose of qualifying for resurrection from the dead. This is why he writes, “If ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live,” Romans 8:12, and, “Grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption,” Ephesians 4:30.
Again, this is not the foundation of Christianity, or what we assume Christianity to be. Paul’s gospel was about the Son of the Father, who is the Logos, joining himself to a virtuous servant of the Father. Once joined to that servant, the Logos then set within himself, so that a new and more complete spiritual priesthood and community could be formed, to suffer unto death. In this community, because of the labor of the Logos within that man, pardon of sin and the imputing of righteousness would automatically fall to its members.
This gift is given so that the members can then live the virtuous lifestyle that the Logos lived when in that man, and that the man embodied while on earth. Such a lifestyle is one where virtue, and suffering for the virtue demonstrated by the Logos through that man, is the highest aim. Again, only by doing so does one qualify for resurrection from the dead; fail to honor the code of the spiritual community and suffer God’s wrath.
Why is any of this important? This is important because we presently need to understand that “God” has not independently done anything for our human condition. This Paul understood this to be the case, which is why, although his gospel teaches of a free gift given to humanity, that gift is given only when that human being inwardly and physically suffers for (and whatever that may have been to that community) the virtue of the Logos and of the man he joined himself to.
Again, ignoring the fact that this Paul’s gospel, concerning the Messiah, their role, their mission, and their doctrine, perverts the actual philosophy within the scriptures, the historicity of Paul’s gospel, concerning this blog post, is necessary to show that not even Paul believed in a complete “covering” by “blood.” To this Paul, “God” took care of “God” things, but now, having “God” on the side of his invented community, the human member must take care of their human condition, the underlying lesson falling back to what the Bible, beyond and above Paul’s gospel and present Christian religious theory, teaches:
“…to him that ordereth his conversation aright will I shew the salvation of God,” Psalm 50:22.