A Scandalous People

Book excerpt: This book is not a commentary, an exegetical study, or a work of systematic theology. It is a conversation. Let’s sit down together, read Ephesians, strain our minds and our imaginations, and have a good chat. If you want all your difficult textual questions answered, there are many good commentaries on the shelf. This book is here to help you ask some new questions—and not just about this ancient letter, but about God, your life, and the purpose of the entire universe. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians is a work of timeless theological genius which brilliantly addresses many of the enduring questions about human life. It presents a scintillating vision of the glory of God and the meaning of Christian faith. It also brings an urgent and revitalizing message to the church in our time: in Christ, God has enacted a plan for the world which is most surprising in the face of its conventional rationalities and religious common sense. God has invited us to be inhabitants of this redemptive drama through faith, and insofar as we do so, we are a scandalous people.