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Assuming that Luther's interpretation of Paul points in the right direction, and that Bultmann's draws the necessary inference therefrom, I see the most direct and important connection between all three of their understandings and my own – -- at the very point where its appropriateness to Jesus Christ is widely supposed to be most open to objection!

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With Bultmann, however, any such radical difference between the terms of our life or righteousness in this life and in the next is expressly denied – -- and that on the warrant of an interpretation of Paul! Thus, in the concluding sentences of Das Urchristentum, Bultmann says: "Paul indeed speaks of the glory about to be revealed to us (Rom 8:18), of the eternal 'weight' of glory being prepared for us (2 Cor 4:17). But he likewise says that faith, hope, and love do not cease but abide even when 'the perfect' comes (1 Cor 13:13), which is to say, he can imagine no consummation in which the unworldly is simply a possession. In other words, the openness of Christian existence never ends" (233).

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