Gordon Fee on the Experience of the Holy Spirit

"For Paul, the Spirit was an experienced, empowering reality. Paul would not have understood most historic Protestantism. I know that sounds unkind but it is true. The reason he would not have understood it is because he would not have understood a Christian life in which the experienced life of the Spirit was not the key to every dimension of that life".

Gordon Fee - speaking at Holy Trinity Brompton 1996 - cited by Greg Haslam - "Be filled with the Spirit" - Preach the Word! (Ed. Greg Haslam) - Sovereign World, London (2006) - p606.

Gordon Fee on the Radical Balance of Glossolalia

"Paul does not damn tongues with faint praise (as some have said) nor does he stand in awe of the phenomenon as apparently the Corinthians had done and some later Pentecostals/charismatics as well".

Gordon Fee - "A Theology of Glossolalia" - Regent College, Vancouver.

Gordon Fee on the Vital Presence of the Spirit

"Whatever else the Spirit was experienced in the Pauline churches".

So why isn't He today in cessationist churches (and many so-called charismatic churches)?

Gordon Fee - "The Theology of Glossolalia" - Regents College, Vancouver.

Gordon Fee (and the apostle Paul's) answer to Cessationism!

"The evidence for example from 1 Thessalonians 5:19-22 and 1 Corinthians 12-14 and Romans 12:6 and especially Galatians 3:2-5 - with it's matter of fact appeal to the continuing presence of miracles in the churches - makes it certain that Pauline churches were charismatic in the sense that a dynamic Presence of the Spirit was manifested in their gatherings".

Gordon Fee - "The Theology of Glossolalia" - Regents College, Vancouver.

Gordon Fee on the Holy Spirit in Us

"The Spirit is thus the empowering Presence of God for living the life of God in the present".

Gordon Fee - "Paul, the Spirit and the People of God" - Hodders (1995) - (p183).

Gordon Fee on the Spirit Crying "ABBA!"

"Here is the ultimate evidence that we are God's own children; we address God with the same term of intimate relationship that Jesus Himself used. We are not slaves but children. The Spirit has taken us far beyond mere conformity to religious obligation. God Himself ... has come to indwell His people and He has sealed that relationship by given to them the language of His Son, the language of personal relationship. For Paul and us this is the ultimate expression of grace".

Gordon D Fee - "Pauline Christology - An Exegetical/Theological Study" - Hendrikson (2007) - (p219).

Gordon Fee on Where Christ is NOW (And it isn't the Cross!)

"Christ is now the warrior-King who through His death AND resurrection not only subdued all of God's enemies but also is the source of all gifting in His body, the Church".

Gordon D Fee - "Pauline Christology - An Exegetical/Theological Study" - Hendrikson (2007) - (p358-359).

Gordon Fee on the Title; "Saviour".

A note of explanation - some Christians seem to prefer to use the title of "Saviour" for Jesus Christ more than that of "Lord" or even His Name itself. I am not sure how much Biblical precident this has.

"This (Philippians) is the first and only time in the Church corpus that the title "Saviour" appears (3:20). In this case since it occurs in the context of "citizenship" it almost certainly stands in direct confrontation with the Emperor Nero who is acclaimed throughout the empire as "Lord and Saviour ...

Significantly for both his readers context and for our understanding of Paul's christology, the One who we "eagerly await" is first of all designated "Saviour". The significance of this is highlighted by it's rarity in Paul's writings - only once heretofore (Ephesians 5:23) has he used this appellation of Christ and in that case it was not fully titular".

Gordon D Fee - "Pauline Christology - An Exegetical/Theological Study" - Hendrikson (2007) - (pp371, 402).

Gordon Fee on the Presence of the Spirit and Church

"For (Paul) the Presence of the Spirit as an experienced and living reality was the crucial matter for Christian life from beginning to end".

Gordon Fee - "Paul, the Spirit and the People of God" - Hodders (1996) - (p173).

Gordon Fee on Normal Church Life

"A visible charismatic dimension of life in the Spirit was the normal experience of Paul's churches".

Gordon Fee - "Paul, the Spirit and the People of God" - Hodders (1996) - (p173).

Gordon Fee on the Gospel

"The single concern: the Gospel proclaimed through human weakness but accompanied by the powerful work of the Spirit so that lives are changed through a divine-human encounter".

Professor Gordon D Fee - "The First Epistle to the Corinthians" - Eerdmans Publishing (1987) - (p96).

Gordon Fee on Title - "Saviour".

"This (Philippians) is the first and only time in the Church corpus that the title "Saviour" appears (3:20). In this case since it occurs in the context of "citizenship" it almost certainly stands in direct confrontation with the Emperor Nero who is acclaimed throughout the empire as "Lord and Saviour ...

Significantly for both his readers context and for our understanding of Paul's christology, the One who we "eagerly await" is first of all designated "Saviour". The significance of this is highlighted by it's rarity in Paul's writings - only once heretofore (Ephesians 5:23) has he used this appellation of Christ and in that case it was not fully titular".

Gordon D Fee - "Pauline Christology - An Exegetical/Theological Study" - Hendrikson (2007) - (pp371, 402).

Gordon Fee on Christ's Present Position

"Christ is now the warrior-King who through His death AND resurrection not only subdued all of God's enemies but also is the source of all gifting in His body, the Church".

Gordon D Fee - "Pauline Christology - An Exegetical/Theological Study" - Hendrikson (2007) - (p358-359).

Gordon Fee on Book of Ephesians

"The most unique feature of Ephesians is that nothing within the letter seems to have called it forth".

Gordon D Fee - "Pauline Christology - An Exegetical/Theological Study" - Hendrikson (2007) - (p339).

Gordon Fee on the Church

"The Church where Jew and Gentile have become the one People of God is pictured as the Body of Christ - the Lord who now sits enthroned in the heavenlies is the Head and under whose feet all other powers have been subjected".

Gordon D Fee - "Pauline Christology - An Exegetical/Theological Study" - Hendrikson (2007) - (p354).

Gordon Fee on Holy Spirit Crying "Abba!"

"Here is the ultimate evidence that we are God's own children; we address God with the same term of intimate relationship that Jesus Himself used. We are not slaves but children. The Spirit has taken us far beyond mere conformity to religious obligation. God Himself ... has come to indwell His people and He has sealed that relationship by given to them the language of His Son, the language of personal relationship. For Paul and us this is the ultimate expression of grace".

Gordon D Fee - "Pauline Christology - An Exegetical/Theological Study" - Hendrikson (2007) - (p219).

Gordon Fee on Holy Spirit Crying "Abba!"

"We need to take seriously that believers "cried out" Abba to God within the gathered Christian community and that they did so with full awareness that the Spirit was moving them to do so, and that they were thus using Jesus own words of intimate relationship with the Father".

Gordon D Fee - "Pauline Christology - An Exegetical/Theological Study" - Hendrikson (2007) - (p127).

Gordon Fee on Kingdom of God

"The radical change to traditional Messianism is that one finds in Paul's thought - the Kingdom is NOW and the Son of God currently reigns".

Gordon D Fee - "Pauline Christology - An Exegetical/Theological Study" - Hendrikson (2007) - p110).

Gordon Fee on the Holy Spirit

"Most importantly God becomes "our Father" through the gift of the Holy Spirit whom Paul explicitly identifies in Galatians 4:6 as "the Spirit of the Son" whom God sent into our hearts and Who is thus responsible for believers crying out to God the Father in the language of the Son ("Abba")".

Gordon D Fee in "Pauline Christology - An Exegetical-Theological Study" - Hendrikson (2007) - p37

Gordon Fee on Jesus Christ

"Christ is now the Warrior King who through His death and resurrection, not only subdued all of God's enemies but also is the source of all gifting in His Body - the Church. Secondy what are ordinarily and rightly understood as the preogatives of God alone are now equally shared by Christ the Lor and this without apology or explanation".

Gordon D Fee - "Pauline Christology - An Exegetical/Theological Study" - Hendrikson (2007) - (pp358-359).