Bamboozled?
I'm feeling bamboozled by your last response too. Seems we have a lot of work to do...
Um, Pauline theology...
In Christ, according to Paul, the believer IS a new creation. So his or her old identity is entirely gone: i.e. their "tribal" identity, economic identity, gender identity, all that no longer exists.
. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus."
Why? Because Xian identity can no longer be defined at all by this world's definitions...
. Romans 12 - (Paul's big "therefore") Therefore I exhort you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a sacrifice—alive, holy, and pleasing to God—which is your reasonable service. Do not be conformed to this present world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may test and approve what is the will of God—what is good and well-pleasing and perfect.
( Notice the part I emph'd there? )
So,according to Paul, there is considerable fluidity in xianity. (Counterbalanced obviously by the demand for considerable responsibility; in fact, as you must recall, Paul says it's better if you don't even marry, just focus on pleasing God. ) What that theologian is saying, I think, is that in the new creation, there is nothing "natural". There is only the UNNatural joining together of tribes, economic classes, and genders for the purpose of bringing in the Kingdom of God....
. .. This would mean, as Paul claims, that sexual ethics in the Body must revolve around communal recreativity rather than individual procreativity. If we took it seriously, neither “male and female,” nor “male” and “female,” nor heterosexuality, nor homosexuality, nor either kind of marriage would be a Christian good—only the sexual and sexed / gendered performances that unnaturally unite divided peoples, in the Body of Christ, for lives of Christian service. •
So, like that. There are NO (hard and fixed) RULES (or roles). Or expectations for life. All bets are off.
Yet, there is also great responsibility - "it's not all about YOU" - & it's insufficient to be "good" according to the old Law or any other set of rules. (Cf my quote from Christ above.) We live - and are strengthened - by the Spirit and that IS both "freedom" and "abundant life". Xianity, after all, is meant to fulfill this quote from Jeremiah
. Jeremiah 31:33 "This is the covenant I will make with the people of ...
"I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. New Living Translation ...
I think that's the basic Pauline view. Does that help?