By Schubert Ogden
The Notebooks of Schubert Ogden
Yet another interesting indication in Paul's witness that Jesus Christ himself is not end but means is Romans 13:11-14.
Just as Paul can appeal to his readers to "put on the armor of light (vs. 11), so he can appeal to them to "put on the Lord Jesus Christ" (vs. 14). It seems clear, then, that Jesus Christ himself is the armor of light wherewith Christians are to struggle against the powers of darkness now that the day is at hand.
Interestingly, in the earlier, closely parallel passage in 1 Thessalonians 5:4-11, Paul appeals to the Thessalonians to put on "the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation" (vs. 8). Since the Thessalonians as Christians are "not of the night or of darkness," but are "all children of the light and children of the day," so "the breastplate of faith and love and [the] helmet of [the] hope of salvation" are evidently aptly describable as "the armor of light." Nor does this create any difficulty for Paul's later identification of "the armor of light" in Romans with Jesus Christ himself. Indeed, as the orthodox theologians rightly recognized, the media salutis are to be distinguished into media s. exhibitiva (i.e., word and sacraments) and medium s. apprehensivum (i.e., faith). Thus it is entirely possible to say that "the armor of light" admits of an analogous distinction, according to which Jesus Christ himself is the primal medium s. exhibitivum, while faith, love, and hope are the corresponding primal/primary media s. apprehensiva.
29 August 1998
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