"Christians are often described as 'people of the Book'... we acknowledge the Bible as embodying divine revelation and for this reason continually look to Scripture for instruction as to what we should believe and what we should do." (Page ?? paragraph 4)

Stanley Grenz sums up very well the desire of most Christians. Our difficulty though is that, as Hays points out,

"...everybody wants to claim the Bible." (Page 2 paragraph 3)

The Bible, whilst not taken seriously by secular culture, still has a certain recognised authority or inherent honesty that politicians especially will want to claim. Hays gives us a few examples from the USA, where the Christian vote is quite large, but in the UK, where the church in general is less right wing, the appeal is more subtle. Tony Blair, for example, when campaigning for office made sure that publicity was given to his and his family's church attendance, this had a twofold effect; first the Christians felt an affinity with him and second, secular culture perceived him trustworthy. This was not a direct appeal to Scripture but an indirect use of Scripture's perceived authority.

Hays makes it quite clear that the task

"Whenever we appeal to the authority of the New Testament, we are necessarily engaged in metaphor-making, placing our communities life imaginatively within the world articulated by the texts." (Page 6 paragraph 3)

facing the Christian of using the Bible for instruction on Christian ethics is exceptionally difficult for two reasons. The first is that the Bible itself contains different points of view and the second is that a different interpretation will be afforded with different interpretative methods. Our task is to examine some of the thinking on the subject and try to understand how we may use Scripture with integrity.

The key, says Grenz, is in the middle with an understanding of the purpose of revelation. If the Bible is God's self-revelation to man we have to find the answer to why God has revealed himself? This purpose is relationship with God, not relationship with a set of rules. The principles and laws contained within God's self revelation serve the Bible's purpose to facilitate the community of faith. Just living according to a set of laws, even his laws, will not produce the life God intended. The ethical life, as outlined in Scripture can only be brought about by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:3-4). Only living in relationship with God and one another can we fulfil the ethical demands of Scripture.

God as Covenant Maker elicits a response from the people of God. I his covenant with Abraham in Genesis 18:19 there is responsibility on Abraham to,

There are many parallels of this ethic with the New Testament, especially in the ethical living expected of the Israelites and the light that Jesus talks of being shone out from each Christian in Matthew 5:14. The New Testament has less of a story of God's relationship with mankind and more exhortation to different aspects of the moral life. Each different writer seems to have a distinct point of few. Mark wishes to emphasise God's purpose in creation; Matthew, surpassing righteousness; Luke, the care for the poor and powerless; John, that the Father's love seeks mutual love; Paul, the renewing of the mind, and there are more each with a slightly different ethical emphasis. The task for the Christian is to discern how to use all of these different voices to inform the ethical life.

Some common words found in the essay are:
Holy Spirit, Commandments Exodus, Bible Paul, Creator God, Tony Blair, John Father's, Ignatius Whenever, Bible God's, Word God, Abraham Genesis, holy spirit, god covenant, community faith, god creator, relationship god, people god, descriptive synthetic tasks, human life, god people, experience community, god's created, experience community faith, god creator god, god covenant maker,
Approximate Word count = 2238
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)