How can Scripture be of value for contemporary Christian ethics?
             "Christians are often described as 'people of the Book'... we acknowledge the Bible as embodying divine revelation and for this reason continually look to Scripture for instruction as to what we should believe and what we should do." (Page? paragraph 4)
             Stanley Grenz sums up very well the desire of most Christians. Our difficulty though is that, as Hays points out,
             "...everybody wants to claim the Bible." (Page 2 paragraph 3)
             The Bible, whilst not taken seriously by secular culture, still has a certain recognised authority or inherent honesty that politicians especially will want to claim. Hays gives us a few examples from the USA, where the Christian vote is quite large, but in the UK, where the church in general is less right wing, the appeal is more subtle. Tony Blair, for example, when campaigning for office made sure that publicity was given to his and his family's church attendance, this had a twofold effect; first the Christians felt an affinity with him and second, secular culture perceived him trustworthy. This was not a direct appeal to Scripture but an indirect use of Scripture's perceived authority.
             Hays makes it quite clear that the task facing the Christian of using the Bible for instruction on Christian ethics is exceptionally difficult for two reasons. The first is that the Bible itself contains different points of view and the second is that a different interpretation will be afforded with different interpretative methods. Our task is to examine some of the thinking on the subject and try to understand how we may use Scripture with integrity.
             The Bible is essentially the revelation of God and therefore should form our response to him. The Old Testament shows us God in three different ways. God as Creator, God as Covenant Maker and God as Redeemer. Each of these three views of God reveals different as...