The two greatest developments in Christian thought?

One of my favourite gospel stories is told in Mark 2:1-12 and parallels, the healing of the paralyzed man which is simultaneously the releasing of the man paralyzed by sin through Jesus's word of forgiveness. But this word is given by Jesus who identifies himself as the Son of Man, a quite specific Jewish term for the long awaited Messiah sent by Israel's God (see, e.g., Daniel 7:9-13; Isaiah 42; Isaiah 61). At this point in time, we have Good News for Israel.

The first of the two greatest developments in Christian thought is initiated through the Apostle Paul - Saul the persecutor of Christians who is dramatically converted and understands in a (fairly literal) flash that everything he is opposed to is in fact true, that Christ was crucified for the salvation of all humanity, non-Jew and Jew. That the fledgling movement of followers of Jesus within the Judaism(s) of his day, in the territory of Israel and beyond, became a universal faith, open to all humanity, flows from the revelation God gave to Paul. Christianity is a universal faith and not "another" Jewish movement because of Paul. The forgiveness of sins is universal, not national.

What is the second greatest development? Again, if we take Mark 2:1-12 as a starting point, we see in this story that Jesus makes a startling claim, to be able to forgive sins, as though he himself were God. That this was a startling claim is noted in the story itself which reports,

Some teachers of the Law who were stitting there thought to themselves, "How does he dare talk like this? This is blasphemy! God is the only one who can forgive sins!" (2:6-7 GNB).

In various ways, across texts in the gospels and the epistles, this kind of expression is made - the kind which tentatively raises the question of Jesus' relationship with and status before God, without quite making explicit anything which looks like the later Nicene confession of the church, that Jesus Christ is very God.

The second greatest development in Christian thought takes place through the writing of John the Evangelist, the author of the Gospel bearing his name. All the talk elsewhere in the New Testament - - such as in Mark 2:1-12 - about Jesus being - in some way or another, to some degree or another - divine, and rightly being deemed "the Son of God", does not cross the line, over which Jesus is not merely divine, but a participant in deity, not only named "the Son of God" (so, also, could be: Israel, high angels, and you and me, the children of God) but the Son who is in eternal union with the Father. John takes us across that line.

In the beginning the Word already existed; the Word was with God, and the Word was God ... The Word became a human being and, full of grace and truth, lived among us. We saw his glory, the glory which he received as the Father's only Son ... No one has ever seen God. The only Son, who is the same as God and is at the Father's side, he has made him known (John 1:1; 14; 18).

There is, post John's Gospel, still work for the church to do. To settle the place  Holy Spirit in the Godhead. To work on the nature/s of Jesus Christ as human and divine. Hence the theological battles of the first centuries towards the creeds of the church being agreed to. But the cut through, the map of the path to those creeds, is opened up and sketched out by the Fourth Gospel. 

The two greatest theologians of the Christian movement are Paul and John - or John and Paul, I am not giving any order to their respective importance.

Of course, what this means for the Christian movement today is worth thinking about:

1. Any narrowing of the vision of God for the salvation of humanity, that it is the whole of humanity in God's sight, and not a select few, is contrary to the revelation God has given us through Paul.

2. Any diminution of understanding that God is Trinity; that Jesus Christ is both fully divine and fully human, is a profound misunderstanding of God's revelation in and through Jesus Christ and his apostles.