Status Updates From Jesus Is Lord, Caesar Is No...

"The New Testament writers seem to do two things simultaneously: (1) affirm the reality of the imperial influence of the Roman Empire, and (2) adroitly demonstrate that Jesus’ mandate of the kingdom of God stands in direct opposition to the principalities and powers." (McKnight & Modica, 257)

Paul celebrates that a person put to death by Roman authorities as a royal pretender had been brought back to life by Israel’s God and is now installed as Lord of God’s coming kingdom...everything that Rome stood for was on the precipice of annihilation (see Rom 5:21; 6:23; 7:24-25; 8:11, 38). Michael Bird, 188