From Zealot to Witness: How Paul’s Political Imagination Was Transformed by Jesus (Reconciling Faith and Politics Series)

Voxology

Religion & Spirituality, Philosophy, Society & Culture

4.7 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 9 July 2018

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

How the apostle Paul’s encounter with the risen Jesus radically reshaped his political vision, identity, and understanding of salvation—and what that means for the church today. This third installment of the Exile Series dives into how Paul’s pre- and post-conversion worldview about kingdom, nation, power, and mission underwent a massive transformation, ultimately redefining faith as political allegiance to a crucified and risen king.

Mike unpacks the deeply political nature of Paul’s conversion, reframing salvation not as a personal escape to heaven but as entrance into a cross-shaped community—“the new creation polis of Jesus.” The episode explores the robust implications of Jesus’ resurrection and lordship on how Christians engage politics, identity, and vocation in the world.

Key Takeaways:
• Understanding Salvation as Political Allegiance – Why Paul shifted from viewing Jesus as a failed insurrectionist to proclaiming him as Lord over all creation, a move that reframes salvation within a deeply political lens.
• The Cross as the Shape of God’s Politics – How Jesus’ crucifixion reoriented Paul’s understanding of authority, declaring that God's kingdom advances not by power but by self-giving love.
• The Kingdom Is Now – Paul realized that resurrection wasn’t only an end-times event, but had begun in Jesus and now spreads through a new community of Spirit-filled disciples.
• From Jewish Nationalism to Global Invitation – How Paul’s prejudices were undone as he saw that non-Jews didn’t need to become Jewish but were co-heirs through Jesus, prompting a redefinition of God's people.
• Church as the New Political Community – The ekklesia as a holy, elected body called to embody the radically inclusive and cruciform vocation originally entrusted to Israel.

Resources Mentioned:
• Ephesians 1 – Paul’s vision of cosmic Lordship
• Exodus 19 – The church’s vocation as a royal priesthood and holy nation
• Michael Gorman – On cruciformity and Pauline politics
• Tim Gombis – Pauline insights and gospel-centered political imagination

For those wrestling with the collision of politics and faith, this episode offers a powerful reorientation toward a kingdom rooted in the cross—not in nationalism or tribalism. Be part of the conversation as we challenge distorted ideas of power and identity and rediscover the church’s true calling in the politically charged landscape of today.

We’d love to hear your thoughts! Email us your feedback or questions at [email protected] and engage with us on Facebook and Instagram.

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Music by Timothy John Stafford
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Music in this episode by Timothy John Stafford

Instagram & Twitter: @GoneTimothy

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, everybody, Mike here. Welcome to the Vox podcast. And if you don't know, Vox is a Latin word for voice.
0:09.1	And on, there are other Vox podcasts out there. There's this big Vox Media Empire. But for us,
0:14.9	in our little corner of the internet, Vox, the reason we're entitled Vox is we think that there's something
0:20.6	beautiful about Jesus's
0:21.9	voice to the world. That, you know, while we argue over, you know, scripture and the existence
0:27.8	of God and his goodness and providence in the world, all those sorts of things, there's something
0:32.2	very simply and radically beautiful about just reflecting on the voice of Jesus, that Jesus is the voice of God
0:39.7	to the world. And so the goal of the Vox podcast, and I love, I actually read something on
0:45.5	Twitter today that I absolutely love. This person had tweeted out, the goal of priests isn't to run a spiritual, religious business offering goods
0:57.7	and services, but rather to make people curious about Jesus. And I love that. I absolutely
1:05.2	love that. And I know I'm saying absolutely a lot, but I absolutely love it. Because I think that if, you know, if you could summarize the
1:13.6	goal of the podcast, it would at least be that, that we think there's something beautiful
1:19.1	about Jesus that has been distorted by the Christian subculture that's grown up around him.
1:25.3	And so, in our words, we want to help people deconstruct that
1:29.2	subculture and reconstruct their faith in the authentic, the real true, beautiful Jesus. And so
1:35.6	doing that has just created this beautiful community, literally a church community in California,
1:42.9	lots of informal communities across the nation,
1:47.3	and then listeners all around the globe.
1:49.3	I mean, we're just thrilled to be a part of this whole thing.
1:53.8	People financially support us on Patreon.
1:56.9	People review us on iTunes, which I love and rate us and all that's super, super helpful.
2:03.3	I got a rating or I got a review from somebody.
	...

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