Transformation

A. deSilva David

Description

The gospel is often presented as little more than a "get out of hell free" pass. But is that all there is to it? What made it so compelling that the Apostle Paul would give up everything, enduring hardships and deprivation to preach good news? David deSilva argues that some Christians have unintentionally reduced the gospel to a message Paul would hardly recognize. The "gift of righteousness" is far richer than many of us have dared to imagine!In Transformation: The Heart of Paul's Gospel, deSilva examines the gospel message as presented in Paul's letters. He demonstrates that Paul had nothing less than in mind than the means to transform and renew all of creation--including ourselves. Prepare to let Paul's message of change and renewal transform your own thinking.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• Christian theology
• Christianity

Informations

• Publié par: Lexham Press
• Date de parution: 18 septembre 2014
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781577995609
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

TRANSFORMATION
THE HEART OF PAUL’S GOSPEL
Snapshots
Michael F. Bird, Series Editor
David A. deSilva
 
Transformation: The Heart of Paul’s Gospel
Snapshots
Copyright 2014 David A. deSilva
Lexham Press, 1313 Commercial St., Bellingham, WA 98225
LexhamPress.com
All rights reserved. You may use brief quotations from this resource in presentations, articles, and books. For all other uses, please write Lexham Press for permission. Email us at [e-mail] .
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are the author’s own translation.
Scripture quotations marked (CEB) are taken from the Common English Bible © 2011 Common English Bible.
Scripture quotations marked (ESV) are taken from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version ® , copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version® NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Scripture quotations marked (NRSV) are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, Copyright © 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., and are used by permission. All rights reserved.
ISBN 978-1-57-799560-9
Series Editor: Michael F. Bird
Assistant Editors: Claire Brubaker, Lynnea Fraser, Abigail Stocker
Cover Design: Christine Gerhart
In memory of Dr. James E. Ridgway Sr. ( 1932–2014 ) ,
founder and former president of Educational Opportunities Tours
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Abbreviations
Introduction: Hearing the Whole of Paul’s Good News
Chapter 1
F OUNDATIONS FOR A B ROADER U NDERSTANDING OF P AUL’S G OSPEL OF T RANSFORMATION
Transformation in Paul’s Proclamation of Good News
The Necessity of Transformation: “There Is No Favoritism with God” (Rom 2:11)
The Necessity of Transformation: Paul Places Conditions on Salvation beyond Mere Belief
What Does “Justification” Involve for Paul?
Once Saved, Always Saved—but When “Saved”? Salvation as a “Work in Process”
A Great Gift Is a Great Responsibility
Chapter 2
T HE G OSPEL M EANS THE T RANSFORMATION OF THE I NDIVIDUAL: Y OU A RE F REE TO B ECOME A N EW P ERSON IN C HRIST
You Were Freed for a Fresh Start with God
You Were Freed from Being Who You Were to Become Holy and Just in God’s Sight
You Were Freed to Live a Life of Doing Good
Transformation Means a Putting Off and a Putting On
God Makes This Transformation Possible through the Gift of the Holy Spirit
You Are Free from the Fear of Death
Chapter 3
T HE G OSPEL M EANS THE T RANSFORMATION OF C OMMUNITY: Y OU A RE F REE TO R ELATE TO O NE A NOTHER IN N EW W AYS
The Transformation of Strangers into Family, Many Bodies into One Body
Paul’s Guidance for Living as a Transformed and Transforming Community
Restorative Intervention
Prioritizing Reconciliation
Sharing Like Family
Investing in and Encouraging One Another
Moving from Self-Centered Rights to Other-Centered Restraint
Breaking through Ethnic Barriers, Classes, Castes, and Gender Lines
No Room for Partisanship
Christian Families within the Christian Family
Conclusion
Chapter 4
T HE G OSPEL M EANS THE T RANSFORMATION OF THE C OSMOS: Y OU A RE F REE FROM THE W ORLD’S R ULES TO W ITNESS TO G OD’S R ULE
The “World” as Problem
The Transformation of Our Relationship to the Kosmos
The Transformation of Creation Itself
Subject and Author Index
Scripture Index
ABBREVIATIONS
Scripture Versions
CEB
Common English Bible
ESV
English Standard Version
HCSB
Holman Christian Standard Bible
NIV
New International Version
NRSV
New Revised Standard Version
Apocrypha and Septuagint
Sir
Sirach/Ecclesiasticus
Tob
Tobit
Wis
Wisdom of Solomon
Old Testament Pseudepigrapha
1 En.
1 Enoch
T. Job.
Testament of Job
Greek and Latin Works
Ad M. Caes.
Fronto, Ad Marcum Caesarem
Ap. (Josephus)
Josephus, Against Apion
Ant. (Josephus)
Josephus, Jewish Antiquities
Ben.
Seneca, De beneficiis
Rhod.
Dio Chrysostom, Rhodaica (Or. 31)
Pol.
Aristotle, Politica
Contempl.
Philo, De vita contemplativa
Decal.
Philo, De decalogo
Commentary Series and Journals
BECNT
Baker Evangelical Commentary on the New Testament
JBL
Journal of Biblical Literature
JSNT
Journal for the Study of the New Testament
NIGTC
New International Greek Testament Commentary
NTS
New Testament Studies
WBC
Word Biblical Commentary
INTRODUCTION
Hearing the Whole of Paul’s Good News
A s Paul traveled throughout the eastern Mediterranean, he was driven by a message he found so compelling that he became essentially a rootless wanderer. He went wherever a door for proclaiming this message opened for him—willingly enduring all hardships, any deprivation, to advance what he was convinced was God’s decisive intervention on behalf of humanity.
What was this “good news” that he announced throughout Syria, Turkey, Greece, and eventually even in Rome and possibly in areas further west? “You can be sure that, if you were to die tonight, you would go to heaven”; “If you trust Jesus, all your sins will be forgiven, and you’ll be guaranteed a ‘not guilty’ verdict at the Last Judgment”; “Jesus died in your place, so now you don’t need to be afraid of God, of judgment, or of death”; “All you need to do is to confess Jesus as your savior and believe in his name, and you can be sure that you’re saved.”
There’s truth in each of these statements, supported by one or more passages from Paul’s writings. It has long concerned me, however, that Christians often fail to connect these statements with passages in Paul’s letters that flesh out his larger understanding of how God has provided—out of his sheer goodness and generosity toward us—for our reconciliation, restoration, and rescue from the consequences of having participated in our race’s rebellion against God’s rule. To understand Paul’s “good news,” we need to listen to the whole of his message and to make sure in particular that we give due attention to those things he says that don’t really fit in with many (especially) Protestant constructs of Paul’s theology, lest we privilege our theology above the words of the apostle.
In this book I wish to suggest that Paul’s good news could be better summarized in a statement such as the following (as opposed to the statements above): “God offers you the means to become reconciled with him and to become a new person who will want and love and do what is pleasing to him because the Spirit of his Son will live in you and change you. The result of God’s kindness and activity is that you will live a new kind of life now and, after death, live forever with him.”
As I have come to understand Paul’s message, it is all about change . The good news is nothing less than that God has set in motion the forces and factors that can transform all of creation and make it new, good, and right once again—including us . This transformation remains from beginning to end a work of God’s favor or “grace,” for it begins at God’s initiative; it transpires through the working and the power of the gift that God has given, namely the Spirit; and it is brought to completion because of God’s commitment and faithfulness. But the accent remains on transformation as God’s goal for God’s gifts and as the result in our lives and churches if we have not “received God’s grace for nothing,” to borrow a phrase from 2 Cor 6:1 , or if we do not “set aside God’s grace,” to borrow a phrase from Gal 2:21 .
What does it mean, for Paul, to receive “the abundance of [God’s] grace and of the gift of righteousness” ( Rom 5:17 )? I want to make a case for this possibility: The “gift of righteousness” is God’s gift of the means and power to be changed from the inside out and from the outside in by the working of the Holy Spirit that God gave us and that Jesus died to procure for us ( Gal 3:14 ). It is the gift of being transformed into people who think, speak, and do what is right and pleasing and approved in God’s estimation. This is the “gift of God” that brings “eternal life” to those who trust ( Rom 6:23 ). If this was indeed a major facet of the gospel that Paul proclaimed, then those who focus on Paul’s gospel as essentially pertaining to the free gift of forgiveness of sins and forensic justification may be setting their expectations for what God desires and is able to do within believers and in the midst of the believing community far too low.
I do not presume to have Paul all figured out. Paul’s theology is quite complex, made frightfully more complex by two millennia of people commenting on Paul and offering their own reconstructions of his theology. But I am dissatisfied with some of the constructions of Paul’s gospel out there, particularly insofar as I do not see these constructions giving due weight to many of the passages that I will bring to the fore in the following chapters. My own construction may well also be deemed inadequate, but I will be satisfied if the reader leaves this book only with a commitment to think afresh about how these other texts inform the gospel’s promises and its claims on the believer.
There is a model for the essence of Paul’s gospel that commands attention simply on the basis of its pervasive influence in the global Church—the model often referred to as the “Romans Road,” which outlines, in logical progression, a proposed path to salvation. This model was a formative influence on my own theology as a young Christian, when it was communicated in the form of printed tracts. Now it is communicated, I would suppose far more widely, by means of the Internet. A query on “Romans Road” results in 27 million hits on Google, bearing witness to a massive Internet presence for this way of talking about the essence of Paul’s gospel. There’s some variation, but the basic outline is a