For Longenecker, the impartation of the Spirit is the key to both the identity of Jesus-followers and their ability to be transformed and to develop moral character and activity as a reflection of the life of Jesus himself. So, "to have the Spirit active in one's life is to give formation to Jesus Christ within one's life" (51).
So, on to some of the impactful quotes from this essay: On Gal 2:20: "loving and giving one's self for the benefit of others are virtually synonymous concepts. It is as if Paul has redefined the word love in light of the story of the self-giving Son of God... Burden bearing among Christians and others is, in essence, a reflection of the saving event of Jesus's self-giving in death and his resurrection to life and lordship by God the Father" (53). On Sin and Death as powers: "In Paul's worldview, God created a good creation that came under the threat of being hijacked by suprahuman cosmic forces that oppose the ways of the creator God. In particular, these forces include the powers of Sin and Death-forces with intentionality that roam within God's good creation and have conscripted the human race in their efforts to denude God of his creation. The power of Sin... has found the human heart to be its spawning ground for perpetuating chaos within God's good creation" (56). On Jesus and "the problem": "For Paul, repairing humanity through divine self-giving love is an essential component of the gospel, but there is more to be done that the reparation of the human heart. Jesus did not die simply to take care of human sins, but also to eradicate the cosmic forces that capture human hearts within their grasp and manipulate them like puppets in a program of turning God's created order into cha0s" (57). On ethnic identity and being "in Christ": "In fact, it is essential for Paul's ethic that differences be preserved "in Christ" in order to testify to the transforming power of God; in Paul's view, caring for those of difference is attributable only to the Spirit of God, since actions of self-giving toward those who are notably different is not an attribute of the human condition" (59). On corporate unity: "Christian community is the place where the future triumph of God is manifest already, by the power of the Spirit, who fosters the character of the self-giving Christ among Christians, whose similar Christlike profiles are not monochrome but reflect the glorious richness of God's creative ingenuity" (62).
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