Some Great stuff....

Gordon Fee, a Pentecostal New Testament scholar, talks about 2 Cor 5:14-17. The text and his quote are below.

For the love of Messiah constrains us; because we judge thus, that one died for all, therefore all died. He died for all, that those who live should no longer live to themselves, but to him who for their sakes died and rose again. Therefore we know no one after the flesh from now on. Even though we have known Messiah after the flesh, yet now we know him so no more. Therefore if anyone is in Messiah, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new.
(2Co 5:14-17)

"Paul argues with the Corinthians who are calling into question both his gospel of a crucified Messiah and his cruciform apostleship. He responds that the new creation brought about by Christ's death and resurrection nullifies one's viewing anything any longer from the old age point of view (Gk. kata sarka, "according to the flesh"). Christ's death means that the whole human race has come under the sentence of death (v. 14), so that those who do live (in God's order) now life for the one who died for them and was raised again (v. 15). The result, he goes on, is that fromthis point on, to view either Christ or anyone/anything else from a perspective that is "according to the flesh" is no longer valid (v. 16). Why? Because being in Christ means that one belongs to the new creation: the old has gone, the new has come (v. 17). It doesn't take much reading of Paul to recognize that this radical, new order point of view- life marked by the cross- lies at the heart of everything he thinks and does." pg 57 Listening to The Spirit in the Text.

I guess the point of this is that the way of Jesus is difficult to pin down. It's not postmodern (cause truth is real- though I don't necessarily thing that postmodernism automatically equals relativism, another story I don't know enough to talk about). It's beyond modernism (cause truth can't be reduced to principles). It's not democratic, republican, masculine, feminine, pacifist, activist or conservative or liberal. It's beyond catholic or protestant.

Don't get me wrong. My friend Linda pointed out to me that it is absolutely necessary to understand that the Gospel is true in any meaningful sense of the word. It is real and true and objective. It's got to be worth proclaming for us to proclam it, but how we proclaim it is not in any type of human mold. The Bible is a story, first and foremost, and it cannot be justifably used to prove someone's human viewpoint. It is a viewpoint all it's own. It takes over life. It is a comprehensive, wholistic movement that we join, not a prayer that we pray or a thing that we do. It colors all our perceptions, thoughts, motivations, reservations and anticipations. It dominates. It's like the sky on a clear blue day, bigger than the scope of your perception, bluer than words can express, yet the very breath in your lungs and the wind at your back. It is the very essence of life, the very adventure of almighty God.

God is soooo cool!

Daniel