By Schubert Ogden
...
Whatever may have been the case with Jesus' own proclamationandproclamation -- and, surely, the most plausible view is still Bultmann's, that Jesus himself already pointed not only to one factum (= the future reign of God), but also to another (= his own present person and word) as decisive -- there can be little doubt that the earliest community understood itself precisely as the eschatological community called together by God through Jesus, and thus implicitly understood Jesus himself, his having already come or been sent, as decisive. Thus, even if for it -- just as, presumably, for Jesus himself -- the main emphasis of its explicit witness and theology falls on the future rather than the present or past, implicitly, at least, the decisive event has already happened in the coming or sending of Jesus, through which God has constituted the eschatological community. In the case of Paul, on the other hand, the main emphasis of his explicit witness and theology is reversed, although implicitly, certainly, and, for Paul, rather more than for John, explicitly as well, salvation is still future.
27 October 1980; rev. 12 December 2000