Paul in one sentence:
Paul preached, and then explained in various pastoral, community-forming letters,
a narrative, apocalyptic, theopolitical gospel of God’s shocking faithfulness and grace,
(1) in continuity with the story of Israel and
(2) in distinction to the imperial gospel of Rome (and analogous powers),
that was centered on God’s crucified and exalted Messiah Jesus,
whose incarnation, life, and death by crucifixion were validated and vindicated by God in his resurrection and exaltation as Lord,
which inaugurated the new age or new creation,
in which all members of this diverse but consistently covenantally dysfunctional human race who respond in self-abandoning and self-committing faith thereby participate in Christ’s death and resurrection and are
(1) justified, or restored to right covenant relations with God and with others, and adopted into God’s family;
(2) incorporated into a particular manifestation of Christ the Lord’s body on earth, the church,
which is an alternative community to the status-quo human communities committed to and governed by Caesar (and analogous rulers) and by values contrary to the gospel; and
(3) infused both individually and corporately by the Spirit of God’s Son so that they may lead ‘bifocal’ lives,
focused both back on Christ’s first coming and ahead to his second,
consisting of Christlike, cruciform
(1) faith(fulness) and
(2) hope toward God and
(3) love toward both neighbors and enemies (a love marked by peaceableness and hospitality),
thereby bearing witness in word and deed to the one true God and the Lordship of Christ, and
participating by the power of the Holy Spirit in God’s mission of reconciliation and restorative justice in Christ,
even at the risk of suffering and death,
all in joyful anticipation of
(1) the return of Christ,
(2) the resurrection of the dead to eternal life, and
(3) the renewal of the entire creation.
Gorman, Michael J.. Apostle of the Crucified Lord: A Theological Introduction to Paul and His Letters (p. 183). Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.. Kindle Edition.
(bolding mine)
