StephenBarkley.com

We’re now turning the corner from Christology to Soteriology. (As I wrote that sentence, I had mental flash-backs to 8 a.m. Bible College classes. Thankfully, I’m far more interested in the subject matter now!) Let’s dive into God’s plan in Christ to save this world. . . .

My particular background in the Christian tradition used to speak of the foursquare gospel: Jesus saves, Jesus heals, Jesus baptizes, and Jesus is coming again. I’m not interested in debating the amount of skew that places on our understanding of Jesus. I want to point out how cherished the topic of Jesus’ second coming is [...]

Now we enter mysterious territory. The question is: how did Paul understand Jesus’ existence before the incarnation, and how does that line up with the Old Testament? I’m really looking forward to this discussion. Let’s get to it. . . .

In this chapter we move from Good Friday to Easter Sunday. Just what is the relationship between Jesus’ death and resurrection? We know that his death is Paul’s most important theme—is his resurrection an afterthought or something more significant? . . .

This chapter transitions us from what we don’t know to what are overwhelmed with. As much as Paul assumes most of Jesus’ life, he makes explicit the significance of his death as a key part of the substance of Gospel. . . .

Now that we’ve considered what “Gospel” means for Paul, Dunn moves on to some essentials of Christology: Jesus Christ the human, crucified, resurrected, and ultimately pre-existent. This chapter focuses on how Paul understood the relevance of Jesus’ incarnate life. . . .

It’s time to turn the corner. After three chapters expounding humanities failures (Romans 1:18-30), it’s time to look to the solution: the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I have to admit: after reading about Adam’s failures, Sin, Death, and the Law, I’m about ready for some good news. I suppose that’s why Paul spent so much [...]

This is the third section in the chapter, “Humankind under Indictment”. In it, we will see how the Christ-transformed Paul understood the law (nomos)—that which is most precious to any Jew. This chapter should clarify Dunn’s New Perspective on Paul further. Here we go… . . .

This section is the middle of three in the chapter, “Humankind under Indictment”. Now that we’ve seen how Adam completely blew it (§4), we turn to the role of sin and death in the life of a believer. Only after that will we examine the role of the law in human failure. Then (finally), we [...]

This chapter looks at all of Paul’s allusions to the Adam and Eve narrative from Genesis 1-3. If Christ is the second Adam, we had better understand the first one. . . .