Machen RQs

Question 1

1. Some critics argue that Paul did not know much about Jesus’ life and teachings as proved by the paucity of historical information provided by Paul about Jesus. Give Machen’s nuanced answer to this objection. [This question and answer cover the entire reading.]

Answer 1

-Paul undoubtedly knew some of Jesus’s life and teachings before his conversion as he persecuted the church, then heard more from disciples in Damascus, Peter and James 3 years later, and Barnabas and John Mark. Paul was surrounded constantly by those who walked with Jesus on Earth, and even wrote the Gospels, so it is inconceivable he did not know the details of Jesus’s life.
-While not frequent, Paul does refer to Jesus’s command on divorce, teaching living out the Gospel, promise of his return, and institution of the Lord’s supper, showing he had a bank of knowledge to draw on, and even more regarding Christ’s crucifixion, resurrection, and character. That Paul’s references are usually in response to error and assume prior knowledge shows he probably knew and taught much more than what came up for discussion in his letters. Paul’s religion did not focus on the teaching or life of Jesus though, but on what Jesus had done for him. The details are valuable only as a means to the end of saving faith.

Question 2

2. According to Machen, the teaching of Jesus and Paul agree on the “conception of the fatherhood of God.” Give several specifics that prove this point.

Answer 2

Fatherhood is seen in Jesus and Paul as personal for individuals, fervent, and possessed not by the world but by believers.
- They have
a. The same view of the Kingdom of God;
b. the doctrine of the fatherhood of God;
c. the doctrine of grace;
d. the ethical teaching.

Question 3

3. Explain Machen’s comment on p. 167, “[Jesus] was primarily not a teacher, but a Redeemer.”

Answer 3

Jesus taught, but he did not come primarily to teach but to give life through his death and resurrection. All that Christ did is important, but not significant unless it leads to saving faith in Christ’s redemptive work.

Question 4

4. Explain Machen’s comment on p. 168, “Christianity, according to Paul, is both a life and a doctrine—but logically the doctrine comes first. The life is the expression of the doctrine and not vice versa.”

Answer 4

• He goes on to say that “life is the expression of the doctrine and not vice versa.
• His theology does not flow from his experience.
• Rather, because of what he knows of Christ, his life is shaped by it.