Richard Gaffin Jr. In the Fullness of Time: An Introduction to the Biblical Theology of Acts and Paul

Richard Gaffin's latest work is the result of a lifetime of teaching and interacting with the Lukan and Pauline witness to the risen Christ and the gift of the Spirit to the church.Gaffin's indebtedness to Geerhardus Vos and Herman Ridderbos is manifest throughout.The introduction gives an overview of Gaffin's redemptive-historical ap proach and some basic presuppositions underlying the material developed in the following chapters.Chapter 1 highlights the importance of Pentecost for the church as the outpouring of God's Spirit that prolongs the eschatological novum of Jesus's death and resurrection.Both the events of Holy Week and Pentecost signal and embody the coming of the eschatological rule of God.Chapter 2 then develops Jesus's proclamation of the kingdom of God as fundamental to the message of the New Testament.Since Jesus's ministry represents the in-breaking of God's messianic rule, the church's existence, which flows from it, is also profoundly eschatological.Chapter 3 draws out the connection between Jesus's preaching and the gift of the Spirit at Pentecost.Chapters 4 and 5 flesh out Gaffin's teaching on Pentecost.The gift of the Spirit is the kingdom gift par excellence, along with Christ's death, resurrection, and ascension, and all of these together form a unified redemptive complex, the parts of which are inseparable.Pentecost is not to be viewed as a "paradigmatic event" repeated at each generation; it is unique, given to the whole church for her mission until Christ's return.By the event of Pentecost the church is made into the dwelling place-the temple-of the Spirit.The church is thus the fulfillment of the Old Testament promises to Israel, all that Israel was called to be.Chapters 6 through 14 then turn to Paul's theology.It is here that Ridderbos's influence is most clearly felt.After a preliminary chapter on methodol-