Section 39
3. THE THEOLOGICAL BASIS FOR THE NEW TESTAMENT PEOPLE OF GOD
Before turning our attention to some observations about the nature of structures and ministry in the New Testament, it is time now to suggest the theological/experiential basis for the New Testament church’s discontinuity with the old, and thus for their being a newly constituted people, which in turn accounts for their relaxed attitude toward governance structures as such. This basis, I suggest, is a combination of three realities:103 the work of Christ, the gift of the Spirit, and the eschatological framework within which both of these were understood.