Moral Vision

Some thoughts from Richard Hays' Moral Vision of the New Testament :

"The appearing of the kingdom of God in Jesus ruptures the status quo, just as new wine bursts old wineskins. Illusions of stability and authority - both the authority of Roman rule and the authority of the Jewish religious establishment - are stripped away. History cannot be seen as a closed system of immanent causes and effects; God's abrupt intervention fractures apparent historical continuties, and human life is laid bare before God. The cries of the demons are the sure sign of a cataclysmic disturbance in the cosmic order : "What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us?". The answer is yes : in the coming of Jesus, God has mounted a decisive campaign against the powers of evil that oppress humanity. But the campaign is waged in a mysterious way that no one could have expected, culminating in the cross." ~pg. 89

"To be trained for the kingdom is to be trained to see the world from the perspective of God's future - and therefore askew from what the world counts as common sense." ~pg.98