Savior / Gospel - Titles of Benevolence

The Roman imperial cult used divine titles to portray the emperor as a benefactor who cared for and provided for his empire. This use of divine titles can be traced as far back as the Egyptian belief that the Pharaoh was responsible to provide protection and prosperity for his nation.1 Nearly twenty different Greek words ascribe benevolent provision to the emperor.2 The most prominent titles and terms of benevolence from the imperial cult that also appear regularly in Paul’s epistles are “savior” and “gospel.”

Savior: Deliverance

In Josephus’s Antiquities, Joseph became a savior of Egypt by preparing for the great famine, and Mordecai became Artaxerxes’s savior by reporting an assassination attempt and saving the king’s life. In the Septuagint, Ehud delivers Israel by killing Eglon and is identified as a savior (Jdg. 3.15). Dio describes civil authorities in words similar to Romans 13: “These indeed are the saviours and guardians of all who can be saved, confining and controlling vice before it reaches its final stage.” Being a savior meant protecting one’s people by restraining crime. In a medical context, a physician with effective medicine was a savior to the sick. Though the dangers in these various contexts range from illness to oppression, the common function of the savior is to provide protection from whatever danger is at hand.

Emperors as “Savior”

Preceding the establishment of the empire proper, Julius is given the title “Savior of his country” after emerging victorious in Rome’s civil war (Appian Civil Wars 2.16). Philo refers to Augustus as “our savior and benefactor” with reference to Augustus’s appointment of thirty-­‐‑eight elders to preside over Jewish affairs (Flaccus 74.1). Philo also highlights the dissonance between Caligula’s acceptance of this title and his wickedness by acknowledging that he was “looked upon as a savior” while describing his shift from pretense to flagrant misrule (On the Embassy to Gaius 22.1). Although Vespasian ruled after Paul’s death, the use of the title savior to describe him appears in a context of his successful accession to power (Josephus Jewish Wars 7.71).

Jesus as Savior

Eph 5.32: “For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior.”

Jesus “loved the church and gave himself up for her” in order to “sanctify her,” “present the church … in splendor” and make her “holy and without blemish.”

Phil 3.20-21: “But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.”

One author identifies this verse as “the center of the anti-­imperial reading of Philippians” (Lynn Cohick, in Jesus Is Lord, Caesar Is Not, 172). The argument is made that Paul begins this verse by positing an alternate citizenship to Rome and ends with an alternative Savior to the emperor.

In Philippians 3, Paul describes Jesus’ position as head over the Christian’s heavenly citizenship by calling him “savior.” The secular use of this title does provide some context for this verse: as the emperor was protector over his citizens, Jesus is the protector over his people. This understanding is helpful, but Philippians 3.20 does not match imperial use of “savior.” Jesus is not the leader of a competing realm with Caesar’s. While citizenship under an emperor governed many aspects of daily life, citizenship under Jesus was not opposed directly to human citizenship. Philippians 3.19 identifies “minds set on earthly things,” not Roman citizenship, as the opposite of life as Jesus’ citizen. Citizenship under Jesus does not focus on physical wellbeing or military protection in this life. Paul’s emphasis on waiting for Jesus’ return shows that his message was not intended to call people to present subversion, but rather to patient anticipation.

2Ti 1.10: “Grace … has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel”

Tit 1.4: “Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.”

Tit 2.13: “The grace of God has appeared … training us … to live, … waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.”

Tit 3.6: “He saved us [by] the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior.”

The first three of these verses identify Jesus the Savior as the source of grace. This is a very different kind of welfare from the protection promised by the empire under the corporate salvation it offered. The grace that Jesus as Savior provides is explained more fully by the final reference in this section. The last passage, Titus 3.4-­,7 gives a detailed explanation of what that salvation entails:

But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior
appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

Comparison

Paul’s use of the title “savior” for Jesus shares its basic components of meaning with the imperial cult. Both refer to deliverance from danger and protection of welfare, both personal and corporate. The imperial cult presented Caesar as the governmental and military savior of the political empire and its citizens. Paul, however, presented Jesus as a sacrificial savior of those who have a personal faith relationship with him, delivering them from divine wrath and into eternal spiritual life.

Gospel: Good News

The word gospel means good news. In its secular usage, it most frequently referred to news of an enemy’s death. Plutarch uses it with reference to the death of Cyrus from the perspective of Artaxerxes (Artaxerxes 14.6, 8). Appian describes the report of Cicero’s death to Antony as good news (Civil Wars 4.4). Gospel was also used frequently for the more general reports of military success. Plutarch uses gospel for the news brought by the runner after the battle of Marathon (On the Fame of the Athenians 347D). Plutarch tells an amusing tale of a man who deceived the city of Athens with false “good news” that they had won a battle which they had actually lost and then takes credit for making them happy when they could have been sad (Precepts of Statecraft 799F).

The Imperial “Gospel”

In the Roman imperial cult, this good news typically resulted from military victory. Plutarch records that Romans were eager to offer sacrifices of good tidings after Julius had defeated several neighboring nations in battle. When Vespasian took power as emperor, that good news was met with festivals and sacrifices across the empire. This news would have seemed especially good since his accession marked the end of the infamous “Year of Four Emperors” and brought much-­needed stability to the empire.

There is a Greek inscription (ca. 9 BC) referring to Caesar Augustus which reads “But the birthday of the god was for the world the beginning of tidings of joy on his account.”

Though his reign ended in disgrace and madness, news of Caligula’s accession was initially hailed as good news: “When Gaius assumed the imperial power, … it was from our city that rumor to carry the good tidings sped to the others.”

Paul’s Gospel

Delivering the Gospel

2Cor 10.14: “For we are not overextending ourselves, as though we did not reach you. For we were the first to come all the way to you with the gospel of Christ.”

1Th 3.2: “We sent Timothy, our brother and God’s coworker in the gospel of Christ, to establish and exhort you in your faith.”

Responses to the Gospel

2Cor 9.13: “By their approval of this service, they will glorify God because of your submission flowing from your confession of the gospel of Christ, and the generosity of your contribution for them and for all others.”

Gal 1.7: “Not that there is another [gospel], but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.”

Obligation to the Gospel

Obligation on Ministers

Rom 15.19: “From Jerusalem and all the way around to Illyricum I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ.”

Obligation on Christians

Phil 1.27: “Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel.”

Obligation on All Men

2Th 1.8: “Jesus will be revealed … in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.”

This truth is important for those of us who claim to live “gospel-­centered” lives. While we don’t deny the importance of gospel‐‑governed holiness, sometimes our emphasis falls nearly exclusively on the gospel as a truth to be believed, while the gospel’s lifestyle obligations are less prominent. Paul presents Jesus’ gospel as truth not only to be believed, but also to be obeyed. This is a passage that the imperial background helps us understand. The announcement of a new emperor was met with feasts and celebrations, but it was not merely positive news. Its obvious corollary was that every citizen was obligated to obey the new emperor. If Paul had this sense of “gospel” in mind as he wrote to the Thessalonian believers, the gospel of Jesus is not merely a message that results in benefit and celebration: it also implies that Jesus is the ruler who must be obeyed.

N. T. Wright:

The gospel “is not, then, a system of how people get saved. The announcement of the gospel results in people being saved – Paul says as much a few verses later [in Romans 1]. But ‘the gospel’ itself, strictly speaking, is the narrative proclamation of King Jesus. [Paul] can speak equally of ‘announcing the gospel’ and of ‘announcing Jesus’, using the term kerussein, ‘to act as a herald’ in each case (e.g., 1 Corinthians 1:23; 15:12; 2 Corinthians 1:19; 4:5; 11:4; Galatians 2:2; 1 Thessalonians 2:9. When the herald makes a royal proclamation, he says ‘Nero (or whoever) has become emperor.’ He does not say ‘If you would like to have an experience of living under an emperor, you might care to try Nero.’ The proclamation is an authoritative summons to obedience – in Paul’s case, to what he calls ‘the obedience of faith.’”

Comparison

Paul uses the word “Gospel” to proclaim good news about Jesus. The gospel is a message about Jesus that must be conveyed; the appropriate response to this message is agreement, and it places an obligation to obedience upon those who hear it. This understanding of the gospel does bear some surface similarity to Roman imperial gospels. Broadly speaking, the good news about Jesus can be considered an accession announcement. Both Paul and the cult saw the gospel as a message to be spread without limit. In both Paul and the imperial cult, the good news was not merely positive information: it carried authority and demanded obedience.

Application