Are You Getting What He's Saying?

We often inadvertently allow the importance of Jesus's death and resurrection to eclipse, subsume, and even minimize what Jesus taught. But he meant what he said when he said it, and what he had to say "worked", even before there was any hint that he would one day die and rise again. Jesus's teaching should therefore influence how we understand the writings of Paul and the other letters of the New Testament, and also inform us in how to follow Jesus in today's day and age.