Quotes from George Eldon Ladd

Biblical theology must be done from a starting point that is biblical-historical in orientation. Only this approach can deal adequately with the reality of God and his inbreaking into history. This is the methodology employed by the present writer in the study of New Testament theology.

The differences between John and the Synoptics must not be glossed over. These differences in theology are corollaries to differences in matters of introduction. There is a difference in the locale of Jesus' ministry. In the Synoptics, with the exception of the last week, Jesus' ministry is largely devoted to Galilee; while in John his ministry centers around several visits to Jerusalem.

There is therefore a background in Jewish thought for combining the roles of advocacy and instruction that somewhat parallels the dual usage of parakl?tos in John.

Therefore, when Paul proclaimed the eschatological meaning of Jesus' death, resurrection, and exaltation, he was proclaiming all that Jesus' life, deeds, and words had meant, and far more. His relative silence about Jesus reflects neither historical nor theological disinterest in Jesus, but only the actual situation in the unfolding of redemptive history. All that Jesus in history had meant was included, and enlarged, in the preaching of the exalted one.

The heart of the Pauline proclamation is the Lordship of Christ (2 Cor. 4:5).

Jesus' sonship postulates a relationship that is independent of any historical experience that seems to involve "a community of nature between the Father and the Son."39

The church was an eschatological congregation, not because it had experienced the blessings of the messianic age but because it was the people designated for the future eschatological age.

The future Kingdom has invaded the present order to bring to human beings the blessings of the Age to Come.

Jesus' rebuff of Satan meant in effect that he would not forsake the role of the Servant of God. "Jesus is the Son of God not as a miracle-worker, but in the obedient fulfillment of his task — precisely his task of suffering."19

The text does not say that he emptied himself of the morph? theou or of equality with God. From other references we know that Paul regards Jesus incarnate as the embodiment of deity (Col. 1:19). All that the text states is that "he emptied himself by taking something else to himself, namely, the manner of being, the nature or form of a servant or slave."47 By becoming human, by entering on a path of humiliation that led to death, the divine Son of God emptied himself.

Wrath is the divine reaction to sin. Atonement is necessary because human beings stand under the wrath and judgment of God. "Unless we give real content to the wrath of God, unless we hold that men really deserve to have God visit upon them the painful consequences of their wrongdoing, we empty God's forgiveness of its meaning.

A second guideline may be found from the implicit comparison between Christ and Adam.48 The heart of the Adamic temptation was to grasp for equality with God (Gen. 3:5: "You will be like God"). Adam attempted to seize equality with God; Christ did not. By contrast, Christ chose the way of self-emptying rather than self-aggrandizement. For these two reasons the second rendition is to be preferred.49

We conclude that the "blood" in separation from the flesh does not mean life but death, life surrendered in sacrifice.18

The church is but the result of the coming of God's Kingdom into the world by the mission of Jesus Christ.

In such instances a person serves not only as a representative but is acting in the stead of the other. In such passages as 2 Corinthians 5:15, "He died for all," and Galatians 3:13 where it is said that Christ became a curse on our behalf, the idea of substitution is demanded and "only violence to the context can get rid of it.

In Hebrews faith is the faculty to perceive the reality of the unseen world of God and to make it the primary object of one's life, in contrast to the transitory and often evil character of present human existence.

Fullness" (pl?r?ma) has two different meanings. Some take it to mean that the church completes Christ — fills him up. However, it is easier to take it to mean that the church as the body of Christ is filled with his life and power,54 which are to work through Christ in the world. The church is a "partaker of all that He owns and is for the purpose of continuing his work."55

The main significance of Christ's death is to be found in its objective character as a propitiatory, substitutionary sacrifice, the benefits of which are to be received by faith as a gracious gift; but the subjective influence of his death in arousing the response of love in the hearts of men and women can be neither denied nor ignored. There is both an objective and a subjective significance in Christ's death. Redemptive Another

Thus entrance into the Kingdom means participation in the church; but entrance into the church is not necessarily synonymous with entrance into the Kingdom.38

Biblical theology is that discipline which sets forth the message of the books of the Bible in their historical setting. Biblical theology is primarily a descriptive discipline.

It is not at all clear that Paul conceived of baptism as the Christian equivalent of circumcision.65 The "circumcision of Christ" (Col. 2:11) is easiest to understand as the circumcision of the heart that Christ performs.66 This is an altogether spiritual event, one "made without hands," and is synonymous with dying to sin. Circumcision then stands in contrast to baptism, not in correlation with it.67

While Vincent Taylor has not adequately recognized all that is involved in the death of Christ, he has expressed himself effectively when he says, "The idea that no act of requital is due to a holy God, or is needed by men, is a modern notion which it would be a libel to attribute to the ancient world; and to say that Jesus cannot have spoken of his death in this way is to modernize his figure and his thought."33

Therefore when Christ said, "I am the truth" (14:6), he means that he is the full revelation and embodiment of the redemptive purpose of God. The coming of Christ is the disclosure of the faithfulness of God to his own character, of his continuing purpose to make his saving will known.

The time of fulfillment has come; but the Day of the Lord remains an eschatological event in the indeterminate future.