One New Man: The Cross and Racial Reconciliation in Pauline Theology
Overview
In the Bible, Paul argues that sin has broken humanity’s relationship with God as well as his fellow man, and he recognizes Jesus as God’s provision for the universal problem of sin. Therefore, Christ’s death for our sin is God’s only solution to racial hostility and the only provision for racial reconciliation.
Today, many Christians still allow cultural prejudices to shape their understanding of race instead of scripture. One New Man endeavors to help Christians understand what the gospel says about race and race relations by focusing on selected Pauline texts. Since many churches have either limited their ministry to those within their respective race or homogeneous unit (people within the same ethnic, social, cultural, linguistic, or class context), author Jarvis Williams aims to liberate individual Christians and churches from their bondage to racist ideologies, from a secular model of race relations, and from their disdain toward different races that arise from both the impact of their respective cultures and from the universal impact of sin.
- Aims to provide Christians with a biblical worldview of race and race relations
- Addresses the issue of racial reconciliation by focusing material on the Pauline corpus
- Makes use of the exegetical method to argue that Jesus' death for humanity's sin is foundational to Paul's theology of racial reconciliation
Top Highlights
“ faith unites all Christians in Christ regardless of their race” (Page 5)
“The law and all of its ordinances served as a fence of protection around Israel in order to protect the nation from the pollution of the Gentiles (see 3 Macc 1:3). This interpretation is supported by one Jewish perspective of the law in Second Temple Judaism (STJ).” (Page 120)
“commandment on Sinai.114 Third, ‘I’ is an autobiographical reference to Paul’s pre-Christian115 or Christian experience” (Page 48)
“introduced eternal life; (3) the law intensifies the severity of sin introduced to creation by the disobedience of” (Page 45)
“Paul’s day, there were three classes of people: Jews, Samaritans, and Gentiles. There” (Page 140)
“Finally. The church has waited too long for an exegetical excavation and application of the Bible’s teaching about ethnicity, Christ, the cross, and our new humanity. Jarvis Williams serves us all by helping us to see more clearly the implications of Paul’s theology of the cross and reconciliation. Heartily commended.”
Thabiti Anyabwile, Senior Pastor, First Baptist Church of Grand Cayman
“The Apostle Paul is clear: our vertical reconciliation with God occurs as he reconciles horizontally those who have been at enmity with one another, who then are reconciled together, as one new man, to God in Christ (Eph 2:14-18) . . . Jarvis Williams demonstrates in a clear and compelling way that racial reconciliation is no nice optional ‘extra’ to the substance and proclamation of the gospel but is at the heart of that message of the cross itself . . . the practical impact of this book is monumental.”
Bruce A. Ware, Professor of Christian Theology, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
“Williams’s book on racial reconciliation is an important contribution to a sadly neglected issue in our churches (and) is characterized by careful study of relevant biblical passages and suggestions for application. Particularly important . . . is the author’s distinction between ethnic diversity and racial reconciliation. The church, he argues, must not be content with diversity; it must push forward to a biblically distinctive, Christ-centered and Spirit-led embrace of one another in love.”
Douglas J. Moo, Blanchard Professor of New Testament, Wheaton College
- Title: One New Man: The Cross and Racial Reconciliation in Pauline Theology
- Authors: Thomas Schreiner, Jarvis J. Williams
- Publisher: B&H
- Print Publication Date: 2010
- Logos Release Date: 2014
- Era: era:contemporary
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subjects: Bible. › Epistle of Paul--Theology; Paul, › the Apostle, Saint; Race relations › Religious aspects--Christianity
- ISBNs: 9781430077602, 9781433673009, 1433673002, 1430077603
- Resource ID: LLS:9781433673009
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2024-03-06T20:49:22Z