Matthew Wright’s Reviews > Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church > Status Update

Justice, Beauty, & Evangelism; is the foundation, I believe, for the work of hope in the day-to-day life of the church.

putting evangelism and conversion within the context of new creation means that the convert, who has heard the message in terms of the sovereign and saving lordship of Jesus himself, will never be inclined to think that Christian behavior is an optional extra or simply a matter of wrapping your head around some rather strange rules and regulations.

to see evangelism in terms of the announcement of God's kingdom, of Jesus's lordship and of the consequent new cre-ation, avoids from the start any suggestion that the main or central thing that has happened is that the new Christian has entered into a private relationship with God or with Jesus and that this relationship is the main or only thing that matters.

The power of the gospel lies not in the offer of a new spirituality or religious experience, but in the powerful announcement that God is God, that Jesus is Lord, that the powers of evil have been defeated, that God's new world has begun.

your praying and your preaching should be of the same length. You don't want to find yourself limping, with one leg shorter than the other. God works as a result of prayer and faithfulness, not technique and cleverness.

You would insist that the new life of the Spirit, in obedience to the lordship of Jesus Christ, should produce radical transformation of behavior in the present life, anticipating the life to come even though we know we shall never be complete and whole until then. That is, actually, the lesson of Romans 6. Well, apply the same to Romans 8!

idolatry is always the perversion of something good.

Greed is the perversion of the God-given instinct for the proper enjoyment of the good creation.

The proper response to idolatry is the renewed worship of the Creator God, which sets the context for the proper enjoyment and use of the created order without the danger of worshipping it.

what we can and must do in the present, if we are obedient to the gospel, if we are following Jesus, and if we are indwelt, ener-gized, and directed by the Spirit, is to build for the kingdom.

he equips humans to help in the work of getting the project back on track. So the objection about us trying to build God's kingdom by our own efforts, though it seems humble and pious, can actually be a way of hiding from responsi-bility, of keeping one's head well down when the boss is looking for volunteers. Not that one can go on eluding God's call forever... but still.