THE CHURCH''S TASK

'...the church's task is to make more Jesus-people: people united to him who begin to look like him.' 

Jason B Hood, Imitating God in Christ, p.139. 

THE WAY OF THE CROSS

'The Messiahs's suffering did not provide bread and education for Africa's poor, leadership training for Latin American churches, evangelists for pagan North America, companionship for the rejected or families for the orphans and the lonely. Jesus' death and resurrection were God's great Word to us, but they did not do the hard work of translating the Bible into ten thousand languages. The church's suffering and self-sacrifice, with a million crosses modeled after his cross, meet these needs and more as we imitate the infinitely greater sacrifice and suffering of Jesus.' 

Jason B Hood, Imitating God in Christ, p.135. 

THE HOLY SPIRIT

'The Holy Spirit is God's present-tense guarantee that in due time he will deliver the full restoration for which his people are waiting.' 

Jason B Hood, Imitating God in Christ, p.111. 

THE GOSPEL

'The good news is that God has gone to work as a true human, from the incarnation to his triumphant return. The blast zone of his work is the church and the whole of the new creation, where God establishes his kingdom with renewed godlike humans enthroned as royalty according to his original design.' 

Jason B Hood, Imitating God in Christ, p.68. 

THE BIBLE'S STORY

'The great drama in Scripture revolves around the question, when will humans be the rulers God intended them to be?' 

Jason B Hood, Imitating God in Christ, p.63. 

THE HUMANITY OF CHRIST

'...in God's plan humanity saves itself. For muddy images mired in sin and misery, into the depths of humanity's tragedy and Israel's carnage, God sent a true human, the perfect participant in God's work and God's story. 

Jesus came to share or clay and restore our royalty. He is the human who brings humanity back to God and the world back to humanity.' 

Jason B Hood, Imitating God in Christ, p.57. 

IMAGE OF GOD

'For many evangelicals, the only significance of image-bearing is that murder and abortion are wrong. They have lost sight of the dignity God gave their work when he made it (after a fashion) his own work and enabled our thoughts and deeds to reflect his own. As a result, it is very easy to accept God's love for us on a spiritual level and ignore God's involvement and delight in everyday life, laughing or love-making. Many Christians do not believe that their activities - whether parenting or preaching, pastoring or partying - are important, that they have been done "in him" (Acts 17:28) and that God enjoys them. We struggle to affirm the good our unbelieving friends sometimes accomplish, such as great works of art, wise governance and acts of moral goodness. As Luther's comments on vocation suggest, we must learn to see ourselves as God's agents in tasks as humble as milking a cow and labors as spectacular as composing a masterful symphony.' 

Jason B Hood, Imitating God in Christ, p.55. 

GOD'S SOVEREIGNTY & HUMAN EFFORT

'Unless Christians are taught that God's work and human work are compatible, they often believe that in any given thought or action either God is at work or humans are, but never both. This dualistic approach can create confusion and even despair as Christians wrestle with sanctification, discipleship and mission. Many Christians believe than any use of their own mind or strength to accomplish a task means they have not worked in the Lord's strength. As a result, these believers have little vision for living life as God's agents, working for his kingdom and for his glory in their vocations, families, witness and relationship with God.

But the God-given ability to imitate makes humans participants in God's own mission. Thinking rightly about both our roles as participants in God's mission on the one hand and God's role in our efforts on the other encourages us and feds our fruitfulness. We discover that this message produces postures of restful reliance and radical effort. It simultaneously leads to security and striving, quiet confidence and courageous action.' 

Jason B Hood, Imitating God in Christ, p.49. 

THE DANGERS OF THEOLOGY

'Beliefs are always dangerous things. One of the hidden dangers in theology is that beliefs often come in pairs, like two sides of the coin, which can lead to error if we focus on one to the exclusion of the other: the divinity and the humanity of the Son of God, divine transcendence and immanence, divine sovereignty and human responsibility, grace and judgment. Throughout its history the church has had to learn and relearn that believers are sinners and saints all at once. We can fall into the pits of lawlessness and legalism; we can find ourselves trapped in the deep caves of hedonism or asceticism. The challenge is holding two notions together at the same time. The moment we get one idea nailed down, we must be aware of privileging that idea to the extent that we downplay or ignore a parallel concept that might keep our theology from going off rails.' 

Jason B Hood, Imitating God in Christ, p.25.