Tuesday, December 14, 2010

This understanding of the gospel as power may be seen in [Romans] 11:28; 15:16, 19, in proclamation which brings about the inauguration of the eschatological order of salvation of the kaine diatheke [i.e., new covenant] (2 Cor 3:6ff.). In this covenant God himself intervenes in the world with power as Lord, Creator, and Judge. He does so by establishing the present Christian message without, however, merging into it. The Christ event both precedes the message and continues itself in the message, so that it is not the content of an idea or of one doctrine among others.
-- Ernst Kasemann, Commentary on Romans

[Editor's Note: I have omitted the references Kasemann makes to external literature and have added the bold font to accent my reason for posting this excerpt.]

Monday, December 13, 2010

"God's own," "set apart for God" - that is the basic meaning of the word "saint" in the Bible. A man becomes a saint not when he has attained moral perfection but when God's call has consecrated him for God's uses; moral excellence is the result of sainthood, not the condition for it.
-- Martin H. Franzmann, Romans: A Commentary