Cruciformity Quotes

“To be in Christ is to be a living exegesis of the narrative of Christ, a new performance of the original drama of exaltation following humiliation, of humiliation as the voluntary renunciation of rights and selfish gain in order to serve and obey.”
― Michael J. Gorman, Cruciformity: Paul's Narrative Spirituality of the Cross

“To be sure, this justification is a gift, an unmerited act of sheer divine grace, but from start to finish the gift demands and offers complete identification with the cross of Christ, not only as the basis of a right relationship with God, but as the very shape of that relationship.”
― Michael J. Gorman, Cruciformity: Paul's Narrative Spirituality of the Cross

“Faith begins by acknowledging the faith of Jesus and dying with him by no longer relying on the law and the self for right relations with God. Faith continues by daily relying on Christ as the energizing force for all of life, and by allowing the faith of the Son
of God, expressed in his self-giving, loving death, to reexpress itself in the life of the believer”
― Michael J. Gorman, Cruciformity: Paul's Narrative Spirituality of the Cross

“faith is an initial and ongoing participation in the faith (i.e., faithful death) of Jesus.”
― Michael J. Gorman, Cruciformity: Paul's Narrative Spirituality of the Cross

“Those who respond in trust or faith to the faith of Christ are moved into Christ, into the sphere of his life. In that sphere, and there alone, is justification to be found. Simultaneously, those who move into Christ find that Christ has moved into them, so to speak.”
― Michael J. Gorman, Cruciformity: Paul's Narrative Spirituality of the Cross

“For Paul, the will of God is known in essence in the obedient death of Jesus. In concrete and specific ways, however, God's will is known only when one offers oneself and one's body daily as a living sacrifice to one's rightful Lord:”
― Michael J. Gorman, Cruciformity: Paul's Narrative Spirituality of the Cross

“Faith, then, for Paul is first of all cruciform participation with Christ that liberates participants from the hostile powers that rule human existence and brings them into the powerful sphere of Christ's benevolent lordship and community.”
― Michael J. Gorman, Cruciformity: Paul's Narrative Spirituality of the Cross

“faith is an inauguration into a community and into a life of dying, or cruciformity.”
― Michael J. Gorman, Cruciformity: Paul's Narrative Spirituality of the Cross

“Faith, therefore, is a liberation that is also an incorporation, specifically an incorporation into Christ the new lord, and into his body.”
― Michael J. Gorman, Cruciformity: Paul's Narrative Spirituality of the Cross

“Faith, for Paul, is a death experience, a death that creates life.”
― Michael J. Gorman, Cruciformity: Paul's Narrative Spirituality of the Cross

“The confession “Jesus is Lord,” Luke Johnson rightly contends, is a “performative statement — that is, a statement that finds its sense not only as a declaration about reality but as a declaration concerning how the speaker really lives.”51 This, then, is a confession with consequences, consequences that faith understood merely as assent to a divine promise or declaration (of forgiveness, for instance) would not necessarily include.”
― Michael J. Gorman, Cruciformity: Paul's Narrative Spirituality of the Cross

“Paul is not so much defining faith, or even salvation, here as he is declaring its universal availability.”
― Michael J. Gorman, Cruciformity: Paul's Narrative Spirituality of the Cross

“Romans 6:1–7:6 contains three closely related pairs of contrasts. It uses (a) the sacramental language of baptism, (b) the metaphorical language of slavery, and (c) the metaphorical language of the death of a spouse to describe the contrast, respectively, in terms of (a) life before and after dying with Christ, (b) life as slavery under one lord (sin) and then another (God, righteousness), and (c) life as an unbreakable relationship with sin until an event of death permits commitment to Another.”
― Michael J. Gorman, Cruciformity: Paul's Narrative Spirituality of the Cross

“Specifically, the believer's faith is cruciform faith because Christ's faith(fulness) was expressed on the cross.”
― Michael J. Gorman, Cruciformity: Paul's Narrative Spirituality of the Cross

“Faith is a separation from the law ("I died to the law") and the self ("It is no longer I who live"), and an identification with the cross of Christ ("I have been crucified").”
― Michael J. Gorman, Cruciformity: Paul's Narrative Spirituality of the Cross

“Paul's act of faith has enabled him to share in the faith of Jesus, the faith that expressed itself in self-giving love.”
― Michael J. Gorman, Cruciformity: Paul's Narrative Spirituality of the Cross

“Baptism is a symbolic narrative not only of incorporation into Christ but also of ongoing life in Christ. Although a once-for-all death to sin occurs in baptism, as Christ died only once, this death must be constantly reactualized.”
― Michael J. Gorman, Cruciformity: Paul's Narrative Spirituality of the Cross

“for Paul private belief and public confession of it - including baptism - go hand in hand.3 Both are needed for salvation.”
― Michael J. Gorman, Cruciformity: Paul's Narrative Spirituality of the Cross