Paul's Spiritual Vision 3<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Rodney Reeves' new book, Spirituality according to Paul: Imitating the Apostle of Christ, contends that the way to beat the flesh in this life is to see\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/12\/19\/pauls-spiritual-vision-3\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Paul's Spiritual Vision 3\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Rodney Reeves' new book, Spirituality according to Paul: Imitating the Apostle of Christ, contends that the way to beat the flesh in this life is to see\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/12\/19\/pauls-spiritual-vision-3\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-12-19T11:07:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-12-18T15:10:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/files\/2011\/12\/Screen-shot-2011-12-16-at-3.13.55-PM-300x172.png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/12\/19\/pauls-spiritual-vision-3\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/12\/19\/pauls-spiritual-vision-3\/\",\"name\":\"Paul's Spiritual Vision 3\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-12-19T11:07:24+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-12-18T15:10:36+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\"},\"description\":\"Rodney Reeves' new book, Spirituality according to Paul: Imitating the Apostle of Christ, contends that the way to beat the flesh in this life is to see\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/12\/19\/pauls-spiritual-vision-3\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/12\/19\/pauls-spiritual-vision-3\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/12\/19\/pauls-spiritual-vision-3\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Paul’s Spiritual Vision 3\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\",\"name\":\"Jesus Creed\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight on Jesus and orthodox faith in the 21st century\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\",\"name\":\"Scot McKnight\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight is a recognized authority on the New Testament, early Christianity, and the historical Jesus. 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{"id":23508,"date":"2011-12-19T05:07:24","date_gmt":"2011-12-19T11:07:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/?p=23508"},"modified":"2011-12-18T09:10:36","modified_gmt":"2011-12-18T15:10:36","slug":"pauls-spiritual-vision-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/12\/19\/pauls-spiritual-vision-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Paul’s Spiritual Vision 3"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Rodney Reeves\u2019<\/strong><\/a> new book, Spirituality according to Paul: Imitating the Apostle of Christ<\/a><\/em><\/strong>, contends that the way to beat the flesh in this life is to see ourselves as temples, temples of the living God, wherein sacrifices of ourselves are offered to God. The upside of this idea is that Reeves avoids both legalism\u2019s reduction of self-denial to laws and rules as well as the liberty-drivers\u2019 desire to tell us that all things are good so live it up.<\/p>\n

$\"\"$ <\/a>But the problem is more than how to frame this stuff: the problem is the glory of God. Well, that\u2019s not the problem; the problem is that we want that glory. We want to rob God of glory because getting glory is so dadgummed delightful \u2014 for the moment. We love it when we are the center of attention. God has made the world full of good things, and his focus is food and sex, but neither is \u201cdone\u201d right until they are pointers to God and we use them for the good of others. In other words, food and sex are where we either act with idolatry or with sacrifice. When we use them to bring us pleasure, we gain the glory; when they are for the good of another, they bring glory to God.<\/p>\n

Context: Reeves\u2019 book beautifully baptizes the Christian life into the gospel of the death of Christ, the burial of Christ and the resurrection. At work in death is sacrifice, and that is why he uses the image of our being a temple where sacrifice occurs in order to comprehend how to deal with sin.<\/p>\n

If the gospel shapes the Christian life, is the death of Jesus \u2014 or our victory \u2014 the first word? What is the solution to church problems? What is the solution to personal problems? Does \u201csacrifice\u201d play an important role? Why are we tempted to beat the flesh with legalism? Or with extreme bouts of self-denial in asceticism?
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

So here\u2019s the problem: we can\u2019t capture God\u2019s glory in our own image. Take a look at that picture of a table mountain in Cape Town \u2014 if you\u2019ve been there and seen it, the picture never takes you far enough, and if you\u2019ve lived it for your life a picture can never do it justice \u2014 the picture can be a sacrament or an icon but it can never be the fullness. And that\u2019s what we do when we decide to grab the glory: we can\u2019t get enough of it and we rob the fullness of its glory.<\/p>\n

We turn food and sex into idols at seek glory in them \u2014 it\u2019s clear, I hope, that Reeves is focusing on Romans 1. And he turns as well to 1 Corinthians 3. In our culture both food and sex are worshiped, and they turn us inside out into self-gratifying and ultimately self-glorifying beastly humans.<\/p>\n

Paul\u2019s idea is that we have to see ourselves as temples of God: as Christ offered the perfect sacrifice to bring God\u2019s glory, so we sacrifice ourselves in order to glorify God. The key, then, to overcoming sin is to sacrifice. It\u2019s about the presence of God, which is like a fire that consumes sin. Reeves tells the story of a person who said a service felt like God was present, and Reeves said back: \u201cI don\u2019t think we really want God to show up \u2026 it might not be a pretty picture.\u201d<\/p>\n

When he was pastoring in Jonesboro Arkansas there was a notorious set of murder by two young men, and everyone began finding whom to blame \u2026 parents, neighbors \u2026 and Reeves said it all became clear when \u201cwe\u201d were the problem and that resolutions and healings began to occur when people one by one began to sacrifice to one another.<\/p>\n

\u201cSin feeds on selfishness; sacrifice brings God\u2019s glory\u201d (68). \u201cWhether you eat drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God\u201d \u2014 apostle Paul (1 Cor 10:31).<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"