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St. Paul, Theology and Everyday Living
www.theosmanchester.co.uk

• What is the Gap between Theology and Ethics?
• For Paul, theology is always community building
• Ethical Theology Grows Community Hope
• Pauls View of Scripture
• Romans 154 - For whatever was written in former
  days was written for our instruction, so that by
  steadfastness and by the encouragement of the
  scriptures we might have hope.
• Galatians 5 Not Rules but Fruit of the Spirit
• 1 Corinthians 1011 - These things were written
  down to instruct us, on whom the ends of the ages
  have come.

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St. Paul, Theology and Everyday Living
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• An Ethical Gospel
• Philippians 127 Live your life in a manner
  worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that, whether
  I come and see you or am absent and hear about
  you, I will know that you are standing firm in
  one spirit, striving side by side with one mind
  for the faith of the gospel.
• What is the Gospel for Paul?

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St. Paul, Theology and Everyday Living
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• A revolutionary proclamation about Gods saving
  activity
• Romans 11-5 Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ,
  called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel
  of God, which he promised beforehand through his
  prophets in the holy scriptures, the gospel
  concerning his Son, who was descended from David
  according to the flesh and was declared to be Son
  of God with power according to the spirit of
  holiness by resurrection from the dead, Jesus
  Christ our Lord, through whom we have received
  grace and apostleship to bring about the
  obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for the
  sake of his name.

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St. Paul, Theology and Everyday Living
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• Why Should Christians Live Differently?
• Three Key Questions
• What Time is It?
• What is God Doing in the World?
• What is Our Vocation as Gods People
• 2 Corinthians 517- 62 - So if anyone is in
  Christ, there is a new creation everything old
  has passed away see, everything has become new!
  All this is from God, who reconciled us to
  himself through Christ, and has given us the
  ministry of reconciliation that is, in Christ
  God was reconciling the world to himself, not
  counting their trespasses against them, and
  entrusting the message of reconciliation to us.
  So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is
  making his appeal through us we entreat you on
  behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our
  sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so
  that in him we might become the righteousness of
  God. As we work together with him, we urge you
  also not to accept the grace of God in vain. For
  he says, At an acceptable time I have
  listened to you,    and on a day of salvation
  I have helped you.See, now is the acceptable
  time see, now is the day of salvation!

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St. Paul, Theology and Everyday Living
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• A Framework for Those Questions
• Eschatology A Father Committed to His Creation
• Romans 818-25 -  I consider that the sufferings
  of this present time are not worth comparing with
  the glory about to be revealed to us. For the
  creation waits with eager longing for the
  revealing of the children of God for the
  creation was subjected to futility, not of its
  own will but by the will of the one who subjected
  it, in hope that the creation itself will be set
  free from its bondage to decay and will obtain
  the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
  We know that the whole creation has been groaning
  in labour pains until now and not only the
  creation, but we ourselves, who have the first
  fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we
  wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.
  For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen
  is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen? But
  if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it
  with patience.

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St. Paul, Theology and Everyday Living
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• A Framework for Those Questions
• Eschatology A Father Committed to His Creation
• Romans 818-25 -  Notice that Creation suffers
  and draws the sons of God into that suffering
• Remember 2 Corinthians 517
• Present reality and future hope overlap at the
  turn of the ages, in the church (1 Cor. 1011)
• The church becomes the landing ground, where the
  power of God has invaded the world

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St. Paul, Theology and Everyday Living
www.theosmanchester.co.uk

• A Framework for Those Questions
• Cross The Son defines suffering and life
• Romans 817 -  we suffer with him so that we may
  also be glorified with him
• The sacrificial obedience of Christ is an ethical
  model
• Galatians 13-4 - Jesus Christ, who gave himself
  for our sins to set us free from the present evil
  age
• Galatians 219-20 - I have been crucified with
  Christ and it is no longer I who live, but it is
  Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live
  in the flesh I live by the faithfulness of the
  Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

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St. Paul, Theology and Everyday Living
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• A Framework for Those Questions
• Cross The Son defines suffering and life
• Jesus death is an act of faithfulness that
  simultaneously reconciles humanity to God and
  establishes a new reality in which we are set
  free from the power of sin, able to be conformed
  to the pattern of his life.
• 2 Corinthians 410 - always carrying in the body
  the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may
  also be made visible in our bodies.

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St. Paul, Theology and Everyday Living
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• A Framework for Those Questions
• Community A people powered by Spirit
• Galatians 62 - Bear one anothers burdens, and
  in this way you will fulfil the law of Christ.
• The church community is the gap between the cross
  and new creation
• How we live (ethics) defines our success at that
  role
• The importance of Community can be seen in Pauls
  vice and virtue lists in Galatians 5.

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St. Paul, Theology and Everyday Living
www.theosmanchester.co.uk

• A Framework for Those Questions
• Community A people powered by Spirit
• Galatians 62 - Bear one anothers burdens, and
  in this way you will fulfil the law of Christ.
• The church community is the gap between the cross
  and new creation
• How we live (ethics) defines our success at that
  role
• The importance of Community can be seen in Pauls
  vice and virtue lists in Galatians 5.

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St. Paul, Theology and Everyday Living
www.theosmanchester.co.uk

• This framework of our ethics shows us what it is
  to be Christian
• The Age, Sacrifice and Community all defined
  by Suffering
• This reminds us that things are not as they
  should be
• Romans 121-2 I appeal to you therefore,
  brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your
  bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable
  to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not
  be conformed to this age, but be transformed by
  the renewing of your minds, so that you may
  discern what is the will of Godwhat is good and
  acceptable and perfect.
• Living Sacrifice is the vocation of the new
  creation community

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St. Paul, Theology and Everyday Living
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• This framework of our ethics shows us what it is
  to be Christian
• Richard B. Hays The God of Israel, the creator
  of the world, has acted (astoundingly) to rescue
  a lost and broken world through the death and
  resurrection of Jesus the full scope of that
  rescue is not yet apparent, but God has created a
  community of witnesses to this good news, the
  church. While awaiting the grand conclusion of
  the story, the church, empowered by the Holy
  Spirit, is called to re-enact the loving
  obedience of Jesus Christ and thus to serve as a
  sign of Gods redemptive purposes for the world.

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St. Paul, Theology and Everyday Living
www.theosmanchester.co.uk

• Beyond a Faith Only Gospel
• Romans 83-4 - For God has done what the law,
  weakened by the flesh, could not do by sending
  his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and
  to deal with sin, he condemned sin in the flesh,
  so that the just requirement of the law might be
  fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the
  flesh but according to the Spirit.
• Philippians 212-13 - Work out your own
  salvation with fear and trembling for it is God
  who is at work in you, enabling you both to will
  and to work for his good pleasure.
• We must realise that God is working through
  Jesus Faithfulness in our Spirit community of
  faith to re-imagine and remake the world

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St. Paul, Theology and Everyday Living
www.theosmanchester.co.uk

• Theology is the account of Gods work
  transforming us into the image of Christ
• The three motifs remind us of this
  transformation
• Community The Church is a countercultural
  community of discipleship, and this community is
  the primary addressee of Gods imperatives.
• Cross Jesus death on a cross is the paradigm
  for faithfulness to God in this world.
• New Creation The Church embodies the power of
  the resurrection in the midst of a
  not-yet-redeemed world.

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St. Paul, Theology and Everyday Living
www.theosmanchester.co.uk
Subversive Ethics Romans 1314 In an world of
defined identity, what does it mean to Put on
Christ? Colossians 115If Jesus is the 'image'
(in Greek the 'icon') of God, what does that say
about the images we model ourselves
on?Colossians 117If all things hold together
in him, what is the correct response to the
current state of the financial markets?Colossian
s 120If Jesus made peace through the empire of
his day's biggest symbol of oppression, what is
Christian peacemaking?
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St. Paul, Theology and Everyday Living
www.theosmanchester.co.uk
Recommended Reading
Jesus wants to save Christians (A Manifesto for a
Church in Exile) Rob Bell Don Golden
Colossians Remixed (Subverting the Empire) Brian
Walsh Sylvia Keesmaat
The Moral Vision of the New Testament (An
Introduction to New Testament Ethics) Richard B.
Hays
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St. Paul, Theology and Everyday Living
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THEOS online
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St. Paul, Theology and Everyday Living
www.theosmanchester.co.uk
THEOS online
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