By Schubert Ogden
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Granted Marxsen's observation that, in 2 Cor 5:18-21, Paul speaks simply of Christ, without mentioning his death, or his death and resurrection, doesn't Paul's formulation in Rom 5:10 provide good reason for supposing that, even in 2 Cor 5, he very likely has the death of Christ in mind, just as he certainly does when he says in Rom 5:11 that it is "our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received our reconciliation"?
Of course, concluding this still leaves Marxsen's main point intactnamelyintact – namely, that there are many functionally equivalent and completely interchangeable ways of formulating the decisive significance of Jesus as Christians experience and confess him. The sufficient proof of this is Paul's statements in Gal 4 making the birth of Jesus instead of his death the event having decisive soteriological significance.
28 May 1998