Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 177:705 (Jan 2020)
Article: “Because Of His Mercy”
Author: Douglas J. Moo

BSac 177:705 (January-March 2020) p. 3

“Because Of His Mercy”^*

Douglas J. Moo

* This is the first article in the four-part series “Salvation in Paul’s Epistles,” delivered as the W. H. Griffith Thomas lectures at Dallas Theological Seminary, February 5–8, 2019.

Douglas J. Moo is Wessner Chair of Biblical Studies, Wheaton College, Wheaton, Illinois.

He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy.—Titus 3:5

The dominant and distinctive feature of New Testament teaching is the way the early believers celebrate their identity as members of the new realm. Paul, of course, joins the chorus of joyful wonder: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” (2 Cor 5:17); “I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation” (6:2); “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ” (Eph 1:3); “Giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Col 1:12–14).1

Of course, this enthusiasm for the “already” arrival of the new realm is tempered by the reality of the “not yet” culmination to come—and keeping these in right balance is critical to understanding and living in the new realm. But we should not mute the note

BSac 177:705 (January-March 2020) p. 4

of rejoicing in the present enjoyment of the new realm that permeates the letters of Paul.

In these lectures, I focus on the inauguration of this new realm. I use the language of “new realm” to capture the basic salvation-historical framework of Paul’s theology. With Jesus and other New Testament authors, Paul views Christian experience in terms of a new era that God has brought into being, in fulfillment of his Old Testament promises. Labeling this new era a “realm” reminds us that Christian identity is determined by and guided by the powers of this new era: Christ the Lord, of course, but also righteousness, life, holiness, etc. The founding events of that new realm are my concern.2