Paul, by N.T. Wright

Chapter 15

1. For Paul there was no question about the starting point. It was always Jesus: Jesus as the shocking fulfillment of Israel’s hopes; Jesus as the genuinely human being, the true “image”; Jesus the embodiment of Israel’s God—so that, without leaving Jewish monotheism, one would worship and invoke Jesus as Lord within, not alongside, the service of the “living and true God.” Jesus, the one for whose sake one would forsake all idols, all rival “lords.” Jesus, above all, who had come to his kingdom, the true lordship of the world, in the way that Paul’s friends who were starting to write the Jesus story at that time had emphasized: by dying under the weight of the world’s sin in order to break the power of the dark forces that had enslaved all humans, Israel included.

- In what ways is Jesus the starting point & goal for Christians today?

2.The point of being human, after all, was never simply to be a passive inhabitant of God’s world. As far as Paul was concerned, the point of being human was to be an image-bearer, to reflect God’s wisdom and order into the world and to reflect the praises of creation back to God. Humans were therefore made to stand at the threshold of heaven and earth—like an “image” in a temple, no less—and to be the conduit through which God’s life would come to earth and earth’s praises would rise to God. Here, then, is the point of Paul’s vision of human rescue and renewal (“salvation,” in traditional language): those who are grasped by grace in the gospel and who bear witness to that in their loyal belief in the One God, focused on Jesus, are not merely beneficiaries, recipients of God’s mercy; they are also agents. They are poems in which God is addressing his world, and, as poems are designed to do, they break open existing ways of looking at things and spark the mind to imagine a different way to be human.

- What does it mean to be God’s image-bearers, agents, and poems?

3. Paul directs us to think and act with the “mind of the Messiah.”

- Where are you invited and challenged to think/act in this way?

4. Paul invites us to calculate ourselves as being dead to sin and alive to God in the Messiah, Jesus...and to live accordingly, trusting in the resurrected life to come.

- How does this “calculation” shape your attitudes & expectations when faced with life’s challenges & disappointments?

5. Wright attributes Paul’s success to his sheer energy, his blunt way of telling it as he sees it, as well as many other personality traits.

- Which of Paul’s traits have most affected your faith & your life?

6. Paul’s letters and writings allowed the early churches to flourish and expand...creating a new sense of community, a new definition of family.

- How has Paul’s witness to complete inclusivity in Christ reshaped the Christian landscape of our day?

7. Paul ultimately lived and died in constant prayer.

- How does Paul’s life of prayer motivate us to do the same?

- Looking back over the past 15 weeks of reading, what will you take away from this remarkable book?

* Our next book will be, Incarnation, by William Willimon.  Since Pastor Mark is away on sabbatical in July, August & September, we will begin our new book on October 10at Panera Bread.