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" APOSTLE AMONG THE GENTILES (NATIONS) As we have seen, Paul’s encounter with the resurrected Jesus led him to the deep conviction that he had been called by God to be an apostle among the nations. Having experienced an appearance of the Lord, and having been commissioned, he, no less than Peter and those who had been with the earthly Jesus, was now the authoritative messenger of God (1 Cor 9: 1; 15: 7–11; Gal 1). Such is the basic meaning of ‘apostle’(Gk. apostolos)—one sent with the message and authority of the sender, and in the sender’s stead—an ‘emissary,’‘agent,’or ‘ambassador.’Paul believed himself to be sent because he himself had been ‘apprehended’(Phil 3: 12) by the Messiah Jesus and thus caught up in a divine mission—a mission not everyone appreciated, to put it mildly. This mission was to spread a gracious, powerful word of good news that would establish an ‘international’(empire-wide) network of transformed, multicultural communities obeying, glorifying, and bearing public witness to the one true God of Israel by conformity to God’s Son in the power of the Spirit. "
― Michael J. Gorman , Apostle of the Crucified Lord: A Theological Introduction to Paul and His Letters
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" To be Jewish was, and is, to be different. This is the root meaning of purity or, in biblical language, holiness - to be set apart for God's purposes. To be holy is to be distinctive; the term `holy,' when applied to people, is shorthand for `peculiar by virtue of being obedient to God's commandments.' Holiness is the way of life that marks out the covenant people, the expression of the fact that this people is called, or elected, by God. "
― Michael J. Gorman , Apostle of the Crucified Lord: A Theological Introduction to Paul and His Letters
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" Revelation draws on traditions about judgment from the Hebrew Bible and the teachings of Jesus, and he indicates several ways in which Revelation qualifies the violence. “Much more is happening,” he writes, “than God’s unmitigated revenge.”25 Specifically, according to Carter, there are seven significant qualifications to the book’s apparent vengeful violence:26 1. As noted above, “empire brings about its own demise,” meaning that justice, not merely revenge, is at work. 2. In the seven trumpets, mercy “tempers the destruction,” which is partial rather than total and is intended to bring about repentance. 3. In the figure of the slaughtered Lamb—himself the victim of imperial violence—raised by God we see God’s life-giving, nonviolent, counter-Roman means of triumph. 4. The Lamb’s final conquest comes not in the form of military action but in “revealing, persuading, and judging” words from one who did not kill but died for others. 5. Divine judgment ensues only when people refuse to repent. 6. The “overarching agenda seems to be salvation, not vengeful destruction.” 7. God’s people are not called to overthrow Empire violently but to resist it by nonviolent faithful living. "
― Michael J. Gorman , Reading Revelation Responsibly: Uncivil Worship and Witness: Following the Lamb into the New Creation
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" Accompanying Paul’s preaching, though this aspect is not often stressed, were deeds of power, as both Acts (e.g., 15: 12) and the letters (Rom 15: 14–21; 2 Cor 12: 12; Gal 3: 1–5) attest. Paul can even summarize his Spirit-empowered ministry as one that took place “by word and deed”(Rom 15: 18). This ministry of powerful deeds would certainly have included healings and possibly also exorcisms. Although Paul believed such “signs and wonders and mighty works”(2 Cor 12: 12) were of no significance apart from a ministry of Christlike service (2 Cor 12: 13–17), they were part of the evidence, both for Paul and apparently for his audiences and then his communities, of his apostleship: the presence of God’s power in him and his message. No less miraculous for Paul was the regular departure from pagan worship and ways of living that accompanied the response to his message. This too was the work of the Spirit, who, after all, is the Holy Spirit. Ironically, however, it was the message of the cross that brought about the outpouring of the Spirit through Paul and on his hearers (Gal 3: 1–5). The defeat of sin and evil powers on the cross was being translated into the defeat of sin and evil powers in people’s real lives. "
― Michael J. Gorman , Apostle of the Crucified Lord: A Theological Introduction to Paul and His Letters