Romans and Galatians from the Perspective of Paul's Gospel?

What is Paul's gospel?
How can we read Romans and Galatians from the perspective of Paul's gospel?
Many people have read these letters one way or another.
Here is my approach to the gospel of Paul, which I believe helps readers see the essence of his message.

Freedom in the New Testament

What does the New Testament say about freedom?
Have you heard about three aspects of freedom?

Faith in the New Testament

What does the New Testament say about faith?

10 Lessons of the Parables of Jesus

How to interpret parables

• As a story about life 
• As a metaphor about the rule/reign of God
• As Jesus's story

Messiah in weakness

What is weakness (astheneia)? How can we see ourselves differently with this lens of weakness? How can we understand Jesus differently with this lens?

Resurrecting Jesus

Jesus cannot be domesticated! In Resurrecting Jesus, Kim asks the fundamental two-prong question, "What, then, can we learn from Jesus, and how can we build on the significance of his life and work as we do theology for our day in the here and now?" Kim abandons the traditional divide between criticism and theology and argues that a solid New Testament theology can be reconstructed from a critical study of the historical Jesus. Jesus is put back into the context of first-century Judaism in Palestine. Resurrecting Jesus reexamines Jesus' life, work, death, and resurrection, giving readers a better, clearer understanding about the historical Jesus and the New Testament writings that refer to him; an exploration into the significance of Jesus' life, teaching, and death, based not on doctrine but on his work of God in first-century Judaism and Palestine; and a redefinition of New Testament theology that is a process of discerning and engaging the historical Jesus and the New Testament writings.

Is John 14:6 an exclusive statement or an invitation to engage in the world?

“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6).

Is this an exclusive statement? Or, is this a metaphorical statement that asks people to follow the way he lived discerning God’s will, the truth he testified, and the life he exemplified teaching God’s word? Those who follow Jesus may experience the love of God, and then they are truly disciples of Jesus. Likewise, the Johannine community is given a new mission of love for the world. As Jesus was sent by God for that purpose, now this community is also given the same mission. In John 17 when Jesus prepares his departure to God, he prays to God and sends his disciples into the world to do this job. The implication: John’s gospel is not a triumphant gospel but an invitation to love and engage in the world. Pilate asked Jesus: ”So you are a king?” Jesus answered: “You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice” (18:37). TRUTH is “the truth of God” … which is God’s love of the world and people. Jesus came for the truth of God, and testified to it, and transformed the world.

New video: How can we read the Bible transformatively?

In A Transformative Reading of the Bible, Yung Suk Kim raises critical questions about human transformation in biblical studies. What is transformation? How are we transformed when we read biblical stories? Are all transformative aspects equally valid? What kind of relationships exists between self, neighbor, and God if transformation is involved in these three? Who or what is being changed, or who or what are we changing? What degree of change might be considered "transformative"? Kim explores a dynamic, cyclical process of human transformation and argues that healthy transformation involves three kinds of transformation: psycho-theological, ontological-theological, and political-theological transformation. With insights gained from phenomenological studies, political theology, and psychotheology, Kim proposes a new model for how to read the Bible transformatively, as he dares to read Hannah, Psalm 13, the Gospel of Mark, and Paul as stories of transformation. The author invites Christian readers, theological educators, and scholars to reexamine the idea of transformation and to engage biblical stories from the perspective of holistic human transformation.

My translation of the Dao De Jing

Dao De Jing is a classical wisdom book rooted in Laozi. It is one of the most-read books in the world today. It comprises 81 short poems. In some sense, it is close to Jesus's parables. My translation is for you for free and in the public domain.  

"To return is the movement of the Way." Daodejing 40

"To be weak is the function of the Way." Daodejing 40