Holiness cannot be created or achieved by not doing something. For Paul holiness cannot be defined by what a person does not do. For Paul the believer’s holiness can be endangered and diminished by committing various transgressions and offense, but it cannot be increased or established by not committing those transgressions and offenses. For Paul, the believer’s relationship with Christ is active not passive. It is what a person does, not what they do not do that establishes them in a state of righteousness before God.1
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1. Roy A. Fisher, “Paul and the Faith of Jesus: Justification by Faith in Eschatological Participatory Soteriology” (paper for requirements in the PhD in Near Eastern Religions, University of California Berkeley, in an email to author, April 24, 2008), 12. Here, Fisher apparently is following Sanders’s view of participatory soteriology in Paul.[Back]
the archives near Emmaus 
JD, A most important quote! The whole life of the Christian is one of union with Christ, and this union is sustained by the believers synergy in and with God in Christ. (Col. 1:24-29)
I tend to agree. Of course, I guess it depends on what the broader thesis is arguing one must “do”.
I agree, though one must be careful how he says this publicly. A preacher-friend of mine once stated in a sermon: “Christianity is not what you don’t do…it’s what you do do.” The 10 year old in me loves it 😉
Fr. Robert: Very true. Thanks for pointing out the Colossians verses.
Brian: I’m not sure I have that figured quite out. Since it is from a UPCI perspective, my guess is that the person must at the very least receive the Holy Spirit evidenced by speaking in tongues.
Matthew: LOL! Explaining this sort of thing does require some caution. 🙂
@JohnDave: If that is part of his argument his professors ought to shred the paper since Paul never deals with that subject, anywhere. If that doctrine has any ground it is purely Lukan and that will have no bearing on Paul unless he is writing from a canonical angle (which I doubt if at UC Berkeley in a history doctorate).