The Readings: Numbers 24:1-13; Romans 8:12-17; Matthew 22:15-22

With Wright, the Romans text does sound like Exodus 2.0, with the people guided not by pillars of cloud and fire, but by the Spirit toward the promised inheritance, with Ex 4:2 (“Israel is my firstborn son”) one of the sources words like ‘adoption’ and ‘children’. The last is particularly striking: the Father “sending his own Son” (v.3) and us “in Christ Jesus” (v.1) described through another series of verbs with ‘sun’ (‘with’) prefixed (see June 27 post): inheriting with Christ, suffering with Christ, being glorified with Christ.

“Crying out ‘Abba [Aramaic] Patēr [Greek]’”—what would it take to recover this as a central celebration of our identity?