 
### Paul's Letter to the Romans

A Pastoral Commentary

by Edwin Walhout

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2015 Edwin Walhout

Cover design by Amy Cole

See www.edwinwalhout.com for additional titles by this author.

Biblical quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version.

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

CONTENTS

Chapter 1: SOME INTRODUCTORY MATTERS

Chapter 2: PROLOGUE Romans 1:1-7

Chapter 3: PAUL'S HOPE TO VISIT ROME Romans 1:8-17

Chapter 4: THE WRATH OF GOD Romans 1:18-32

Chapter 5: NO PARTIALITY Romans 2:1-11

Chapter 6: THE LAW Romans 2:12-29

Chapter 7: THE JEWISH ADVANTAGE Romans 3:1-31

Chapter 8: ABRAHAM Romans 4:1-25

Chapter 9: PEACE WITH GOD Romans 5:1-11

Chapter 10: ADAM AND JESUS Romans 5:12-21

Chapter 11: UNION WITH JESUS Romans 6:1-23

Chapter 12: THE FUNCTION OF THE LAW Romans 7:1-25

Chapter 13: THE FUNCTION OF THE SPIRIT Romans 8:1-17

Chapter 14: THE BIG PICTURE Romans 8:18-39

Chapter 15: SO WHAT ABOUT JEWISH HISTORY? Romans 9:1-33

Chapter 16: THE CALL OF THE GOSPEL Romans 10:1-21

Chapter 17: ECCLESIASTICAL GRAFTING Romans 11:1-36

Chapter 18: DUTY TO GOD Romans 12:1-21

Chapter 19: DUTY TO GOVERNMENT Romans 13:1-7

Chapter 20: DUTY TO ONE ANOTHER Romans 13:8-14

Chapter 21: DUTY TO WEAKER BRETHREN Romans 14:1-23 and Romans 15:1-13

Chapter 22: PAUL'S PLANS Romans 15:14-33

Chapter 23: GREETINGS Romans 16:1-24

Chapter 24: DOXOLOGY Romans 16:25-27

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Chapter 1

SOME INTRODUCTORY MATTERS

1. First, a comment about the title of this book: why a _pastoral_ commentary? This title is chosen to distinguish it from the kind of commentary a professional exegete might write, addressed to those who are well advanced in academic and scholarly pursuits. I want, on the contrary, to write in such a way that will explain simply and clearly why Paul writes the way he does and what he is trying to communicate to the people in Rome. The level of writing, therefore, will be on a pastoral level not on an academic or professional level, the sort of thing a pastor might say in a small Bible-study group of interested church members.

2. Next, a bit about why Paul wrote this letter. We need to understand something of what was going on in Paul's life at the time he wrote this letter. Paul was as close to Rome as he had ever been, on what we call his third missionary journey, but circumstances were such that he could not make a personal visit to Rome at the time. He was in Greece, Corinth to be exact, but he had been taking a collection of funds from the Christian people in various cities to relieve the poverty of Christians in Jerusalem. Interesting! He was taking a collection on the mission field for the support of the home church.

So that is why he could not take the time to make a personal visit to Rome. He wanted to take that collection of money back to the suffering saints in Jerusalem. What we have, therefore, in this letter to Rome, is a rehashing of the kinds of things he would have been saying in person if he could have gone there. Paul had never been in Rome, had never visited the church there, though he obviously knew a good many of the people in the church. He lists many of them by name at the end of the letter. He draws on all of his prior experience of explaining the gospel, and does his best to hit all the main points he thinks the people in Rome need to understand about Jesus, sometimes addressing the questions Gentile believers might be asking, and sometimes addressing the questions Jewish believers might be wondering about.

We should, accordingly, recognize that he is not first of all addressing specific problems in the church, as he has been in some of his other letters. He may well know that there are typical problems there, as in all churches, but he is writing in general rather than in specific terms. This makes the letter more theological and a bit more abstract than some of the other letters in which he has been personally involved.

3. One other observation is necessary to understand this letter. Paul had poor eyesight, probably the result of his blindness at the time of his conversion outside the gate of Damascus. Very likely this was the "thorn in the flesh" that he had complained to God about several times. Because of his poor vision he could not see to write very well and had to resort to dictating what he wanted to say to one of his assistants. In this case, Romans, the writer was Tertius (16:22). For First Corinthians it was Sosthenes (1:1) For Second Corinthians it was Timothy (1:1)

This will explain much of the style of his writing in this letter to Rome. We can imagine him dictating fairly rapidly, Tertius scribbling hard to keep up with him, Paul pausing occasionally to let Tertius catch up, then going on again sometimes belaboring his thoughts in somewhat different terminology. And then, not finishing the letter in one sitting, coming back to it after a meal or the next day, and picking it up perhaps at a different point. So we need to remember these actual conditions in which the letter was written, and allow for it when we try to understand his main points.

4. Still another item we do well to remember as we make our way through this letter to the Roman church. Paul himself was not an eyewitness to most of the events of Jesus' life and ministry. He was a rabbi student in Jerusalem at the time of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, and he was deathly opposed to Jesus and the early Christians at the time. It was several years after Jesus had ascended to heaven that Paul was converted and became a Christian.

Paul never did have what we might describe as a Christian education. He knew the documents of the Old Testament very well, having been a diligent student rabbi, but most of what he learned about Jesus' life would have been second-hand, what others told him. There is very little in any of Paul's letters that refers to such incidents as we read in the Gospels.

So when we read the explanations of the gospel in Romans we need to understand that nobody else taught him these things. Simply on the basis of what he knew about Jesus and the Old Testament he came gradually to understand how God had been working in the past and how he is now working in the present. He was guided by the Holy Spirit of Jesus into his understanding of the truth of God and into his unique way of presenting the gospel. It was, after all, ten years after his conversion before he was ready to become a pastor and apostle, all which time he had been led by the Holy Spirit to figure out answers to the questions he himself was raising about the importance of Jesus and what God was doing through Jesus.

So now with that introduction, let us turn to the actual text of the letter to the Romans. We will not be analyzing each and every word, but trying to trace the sequence of his train of thought.

Chapter 2

PROLOGUE

Romans 1:1-7

Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures, the gospel concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for the sake of his name, including yourselves who are called to belong to Jesus Christ,

To all God's beloved in Rome, who are called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

1. It was customary in those days when writing a letter to identify oneself right away at the beginning. A person receiving a scroll would not know from whom it came until opening the seal and unrolling it sufficiently to read the name of the person sending it. So the very first word of this letter is "Paul."

Paul understands that whoever was the first person to open this scroll might not know immediately who this "Paul" was, so he provides his credentials by way of explaining who he is, "Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ." It was just possible that someone in Rome remembered him from years ago when he was a persecutor of the church, so Paul insists right away at the beginning of his letter that he is now a servant, not a persecutor, of Jesus.

2. Then he adds immediately, "called to be an apostle." An apostle is what we today might refer to as a missionary, someone sent out officially to bring the story of Jesus to other people. Paul knows that there is a common perception among some Jewish Christians scattered across the empire that since he was not one of the original twelve disciples of Jesus he could not claim the title of apostle.

Some of these people were critics of Paul, insisting Paul was bringing only half the gospel, so they rejected the authority he claimed of being an apostle. These critics wanted Paul to insist that it was necessary for Gentile believers to obey the requirements of the Jewish Torah, something Paul refused to do. So Paul is at pains to make this claim to genuine apostleship right away at the beginning of his letter. After all he has been officially sent out by the church in Syrian Antioch.

3. It's interesting next to note that already here in his personal profile he makes mention of something he is very well acquainted with, the ancient sacred writings of the Jewish people. The gospel of God is, he writes, that "which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures." This is what Paul knows a lot about, having studied those ancient documents very intensely during his student years, and concerning which he spent years trying to put together with what he knew of God's purposes in sending Jesus.

So far as we know not many of the original twelve disciples were well educated. Matthew might have been since he was an employee of the Roman occupation forces, a tax collector. John may have gained some education later, since he, along with Matthew, are the only two of the disciples to have written lengthy accounts of the life and ministry of Jesus. But now here is Paul, highly educated in the Jewish scriptures, taking over the responsibility of doing what Jesus had commissioned the disciples to do, namely to disciple the nations. Paul could not draw on the actual words and deeds of Jesus, as could all the disciples, but he could see Jesus in a broader historical dimension, how God himself was working out his plan for the salvation of the world. Paul could put Jesus in this larger dimension, whereas, it seems, it was more difficult for others to do so. At any rate, here already in the opening prologue Paul is making that connection with the prophets who wrote the holy scriptures, something he was uniquely qualified to do.

We might note also at this point that this mention about the Jewish scriptures would have little meaning for Gentile Christians who did not have that particular heritage. But it would be very reassuring to Jewish Christians who depended greatly on the ancient Torah, God's Law, given in those scriptures.

4. Continuing the historical perspective, Paul explains that Jesus is the descendant of David, hence in the historic royal line, eligible in this respect to have been considered the king of the Jews. That, Paul explains, is who Jesus is when considered merely from the human point of view, Jesus as a human person, "according to the flesh."

But there is another aspect of Jesus that must also be recognized, namely that he is "the Son of God." How do we know Jesus was the Son of God? Paul does not cite the virgin birth or mother Mary, as do the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, but he cites the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. He "was declared to be the Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by resurrection from the dead."

How would the resurrection of Jesus prove that he was the Son of God? Well, simply from the fact that resurrection is not something that happens without the special work of God. Only God can do that, raise people from the dead, so the fact that he did it for Jesus proves that Jesus was something special for God, special enough to be called God's Son.

We must be careful here not to think in terms of the deity of Jesus. It was Jesus as a man whom God raised from the dead. Furthermore we must also be careful not to think that the term "Son of God" implies the deity of Jesus. It does not. Nowhere in the ancient Hebrew scriptures was the term used except to describe special human persons: Solomon, an unnamed king, the nation of Israel. Besides, in the New Testament scriptures, the term also conveys the same notion: special humans such as Adam, every believer in Jesus, and of course Jesus himself. To be a child of God does not in any way suggest that we are divine beings, so it does not for Jesus either.

This is in contrast to the prevalent Greek and Roman usage of the term within a polytheistic setting. Father Zeus and Mother Hera have produced numerous progeny, sons and daughters, each of whom is another god. We must not import this meaning into the sacred scriptures of the Christian and Jewish faiths.

So we do need to recognize that the resurrection of Jesus plays an enormously important role in the thinking and theology of the Apostle Paul. It proves that Jesus, being the Son of God, plays a central part in the plan of God for the salvation of the world. Paul will be insisting that you can't believe in God without also believing in Jesus whom he raised from the dead, thereby proving that Jesus is God's Son through whom he is saving the world.

5. Paul has more to say about himself in this introductory profile. He has "received grace and apostleship" from God through faith in Jesus. He would have in mind the process whereby God brought him out of his hatred for the gospel to be converted and slowly guided by the Holy Spirit to understand the complexities of how God was bringing his Old Testament promises to fulfillment through Jesus. That is, the process God put him through to change him from a person who hated Jesus to someone who loved him and came to know him as the Son of God.

Then Paul puts into words the purpose for which God has made him an apostle, "to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for the sake of his name." The obedience of faith. Not just faith, but also the evidence of that faith which is shown in obedience to the will of God. Later James will be writing that faith without works is dead. And that is implied also here in the language of Paul, "the obedience of faith" puts the emphasis on what we do, our entire lifestyle, not merely on what we believe. How does faith carry over into action? Paul will be writing much about that later in this letter.

6. After this account of his personal status Paul then mentions to whom this letter is sent, "To all God's beloved in Rome, who are called to be saints." (1:7) Ordinarily, in those days, a letter like this would name first the writer of the letter and then immediately the person to whom it is sent. But Paul has deemed it necessary to justify himself and his standing at some length in describing who he is and with what authority he comes. So that illustrates one of the characteristics of Paul's writing, that he has a tendency as he is dictating to express whatever is passing through his mind. He can do this, of course, because he is talking not writing, dictating and not thinking about what words to put down on papyrus. We will notice this often as we work our way through this long letter.

It may be worth noting also how Paul uses the term "saints." He doesn't mean what Roman Catholic tradition means, special holy people who have done miracles. He means simply people who believe in Jesus, live in that faith to the best of their ability, and are thus sanctified in that faith. "Saint" is a contraction of "sanctified." A saint is any person who is being sanctified through faith in Jesus, not some special holy person.

7. And then, the third part of the Prologue: the Salutation. "Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." By "grace" Paul means something in general like joy or happiness or contentment. Paul wishes them the joy of being in Christ. By "peace" we may derive something like the Hebrew "shalom" which would be a rather comprehensive term wishing that everything will be going well in their lives. Paul wants them to have the joy and satisfaction that God brings to them via Jesus.

8. We may take note also here that Paul speaks as a committed theist. He has already spoken of the "gospel of God," of the "Son of God," of "God's beloved in Rome," and now of "grace and peace from God our Father." Everything Paul thinks and says and writes is in the context of God and of what God is doing through Jesus. Paul is not what we might call "Christ-centered," he is always "God-centered." We will note this feature of Paul's thinking again and again as he proceeds with his letter.

Chapter 3

PAUL'S HOPE TO VISIT ROME

Romans 1:8-17

First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed throughout the world. For God, whom I serve with my spirit by announcing the gospel of his Son, is my witness that without ceasing I remember you always in my prayers, asking that by God's will I may somehow at last succeed in coming to you. For I am longing to see you so that I may share with you some spiritual gift to strengthen you—or rather so that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, both yours and mine. I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that I have often intended to come to you (but thus far have been prevented), in order that I may reap some harvest among you as I have among the rest of the Gentiles. I am a debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish—hence my eagerness to proclaim the gospel to you also who are in Rome.

For I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith; as it is written, 'The one who is righteous will live by faith.'

1. Paul advises the Christians in Rome that he wants to visit them but is being prevented from doing so. He does not explain why, but he had decided it was more necessary to return to Jerusalem with a substantial monetary gift for the relief of the suffering people there.

It is worth noting that Paul begins this letter with an encouraging, affirmative sentence. "I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you." Note the theocentric orientation; Paul is thanking God.

In some of his earlier letters Paul strikes a harsh note. He excoriates the people, "I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel." (Galatians 1:6) And in 2 Corinthians he writes, "I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by its cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from the sincere and pure devotion to Christ." (2 Corinthians 11:3). Paul himself was largely responsible for establishing those churches, so he felt personally responsible when he learned they were departing from the things he had taught them. But not here in Rome. There will be a lot of teaching and explanations in the letter to Rome, but not the kind of sharp criticism as in the two letters cited.

2. Paul seems to have been a rather forceful and dominant kind of person. Recall that in his younger years he had volunteered his services to the Jewish leaders to hunt down Christians and bring them to trial before the Sanhedrin. God had been using that aggressiveness in the promotion of the gospel for several years now, and we see a trace of it in this opening paragraph. He writes, "For I am longing to see you so that I may share with you some spiritual gift to strengthen you—or rather so that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, both yours and mine." Paul does not want to seem imperious, as if he has all the answers and they must listen to him. So he modifies that implication in the first half of the sentence by toning it down, "or rather." We can learn together and encourage one another.

3. Paul writes, "I am a debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish." What does he mean? How is he indebted to Greeks and barbarians? He means that God has placed on him the responsibility of making the transition that allows non-Jewish people to enter the kingdom of God on the same basis as Jewish people. The debt is not imposed on him by Gentiles but by God. Paul regards himself as God's apostle to the Gentiles. His duty is to persuade Gentiles to become believers, and then to persuade Jews to accept Gentile believers on an equal basis in the church.

Paul knows that the church in Rome is already far along in this process of assimilating non-Jewish believers, so he writes, "Hence my eagerness to proclaim the gospel to you also who are in Rome." He wants to do what he can to support and strengthen that bond which was proving to be so difficult elsewhere.

Paul explains that the gospel "is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek." The gospel is not merely the truth of God, certainly not merely the opinion of Paul, but indeed "the power of God." Usually when we think of God's power we think of the creation of the world as described in Genesis One. But here Paul sees it as that which brings about the salvation of people who respond to the gospel in faith, the evidence of God's power.

"To the Jew first." Of course. God began his work of salvation with the ancient Jewish people all the way back to Abraham and Moses. Jesus himself was a Jew. So, yes, they were first.

"And also to the Greek." That was the greatest difficulty that Jewish Christians had. They had been indoctrinated for centuries to think of themselves as God's people in contrast to all other nations who were not God's people. Understandably they were finding it very very difficult to grow out of that exclusiveness in such a way as to include non-Jewish believers without prejudice. Paul was well aware of this difficulty. He had been running into it everywhere he went, particularly in the insistence that non-Jewish Christians must obey the Torah laws if they wish to be good children of God. Paul will get into this discussion more fully later in the letter.

4. But for now Paul insists that the gospel displays the righteousness of God! How so? How is the righteousness of God involved in the gospel? Paul means to say that God is no longer making a distinction between Jew and Gentile. God created all humans in the beginning, so that his choosing to work separately with the Jewish people must be seen as a temporary measure intended to bring all humans back to God. That is the righteousness of God, that he no longer regards the Jewish people as special. All humans are eligible to enter the kingdom of God, without racial or nationality preferences. That is the heart of the gospel that Paul is bringing.

Chapter 4

THE WRATH OF GOD

Romans 1:18-32

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and wickedness of those who by their wickedness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. Ever since the creation of the world his eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things he has made. So they are without excuse; for though they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their senseless minds were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools; and they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling a mortal human being or birds or four-footed animals or reptiles.

Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the degrading of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed for ever! Amen.

For this reason God gave them up to degrading passions. Their women exchanged natural intercourse for unnatural, and in the same way also the men, giving up natural intercourse with women, were consumed with passion for one another. Men committed shameless acts with men and received in their own persons the due penalty for their error.

And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind and to things that should not be done. They were filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, covetousness, malice. Full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, craftiness, they are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, rebellious towards parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. They know God's decree, that those who practice such things deserve to die—yet they not only do them but even applaud others who practice them.

1. One of the dominant concerns of Paul in all of his missionary work was to get Jewish believers and Gentile (Greek) believers to cooperate fully as brothers and sisters in the Lord. Here, early in his letter, Paul is explaining how God sees it all, particularly in what respects Jews and Gentiles are alike in the sight of God.

Paul has already established his positive relationship with the church in Rome, "I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you." So what he says here, beginning in 1:18, is in that perspective, not to be understood as negative criticism of anyone, but of explaining how God sees all people.

God created all humans in his image, good, even very good as Genesis 1 insists, but with the potential of either obeying or of disobeying. Genesis 3 shows us that the human race has chosen to disobey and consequently has fallen into all manner of sin and evil. Paul knows the ancient Jewish scriptures very well, and that basic Hebrew understanding of God and of the human race is rooted deeply in his entire being.

So in this section of his letter Paul is describing the specific nature of the sinful disobedience that people in general have chosen and in which they now live. But what Paul is concerned about is to show what God thinks about it all and how God is dealing with it, a genuine and clear theistic orientation.

How does Paul dare to say what God thinks? He is shaped and formed and controlled by the traditional Hebrew, now Hebrew/Christian, world and life view, the basic way Jewish and now also Christian people understood the ways of God, as illustrated and exemplified in the sacred scriptures of the Jewish people.

The goodness of God and what God created; the failure of humans to live up to what God desired from them; the tragic consequences of human sin; and now in particular what God is doing to bring the human race back on track. Those four points.

Paul has no compunctions at all about describing what God thinks, not because he himself is so smart, but because this is how God himself has revealed his will and plan in the history of Israel. Paul sees it, listens carefully to it, preaches it, and is now writing it. God has spoken, Paul is listening, and Paul is passing on this powerful message of the gospel for the benefit of the entire human race.

2. "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and wickedness of those who by their wickedness suppress the truth."

Paul writes that we suppress the truth when we sin. How so? Truth in this sense is the way God created the world to run, the whole universe including the human race. There is a divinely created, built-in, way the world is supposed to run. The natural world doesn't have a choice in the matter, but humans do. The forces of nature function according to the laws that God created for them. But in the case of human beings, made to image God in the way they function, there is the complicating matter of decision-making, choosing how to live, deciding what is right and wrong.

So Paul is explaining here exactly the same thing that Genesis 3 teaches. Sin is our human decision to go our own way within God's world, rather than to follow the way that God has structured into the world. Of course it can't work. We can't choose the wrong road and expect to arrive at our destination. We can't expect to receive the blessing of God if we don't respect his truth.

3. Paul talks about "the wrath of God." Just what does that imply? What is God's wrath? How can a loving God, a God who is indeed love, exercise wrath?

It's built-in. If God says, this is the way to go, but we choose to go a different way, we won't get where God wants us to be. If we choose the road to hell, for example, it will not lead us to heaven. That's God's wrath in operation. It's built-in. Violate the laws of nature and you will suffer for it. Automatically. That's the way God created the world and the way he created us. You want a good life? Listen to God first and then do what he says. If you don't listen and don't obey you won't get the good life you want. That's what Paul means when he talks about the wrath of God. And he is saying here in Romans One that this is what we humans have been doing: suppressing the truth of God as it is built into the structure of nature, thus bringing ourselves under the wrath of God.

The same thing we learn from Genesis 3. Eve and Adam suppressed the command of God in the garden of Eden, and as a result they were driven out of it, getting a worse life rather than a better one.

4. We sometimes hear a complaint that it is unjust for God to hold people responsible for not believing in Jesus when they have never heard the gospel. Well, that is not what God does. Paul insists that "what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them." God holds people responsible for what he has shown them, not for what they do not know.

Paul is not saying that everybody ought to know the gospel, he is saying everybody does know right from wrong simply on the basis that they live in the world God made. Paul is saying that God communicates with every human being by forcing us to confront what he has said in the creation of the world. We simply must accommodate ourselves to the requirements of nature; if we don't we suffer for it or even die.

Similarly for the rightness and wrongness of our decision-making. Certain decisions will contribute to our well-being, other decisions will be detrimental. That's built-in the way God made us. And that is the background for Paul insisting that it is plain to us all what God requires of us. Simply on the basis of nature we know we should cooperate with one another, not steal, not murder, but respect and love each other. When we do not do this we are, to use Paul's language, suppressing the truth that God is showing us via the avenue of nature.

5. Paul mentions two basic ways in which people suppress the truth; the first is idolatry and the second is homosexuality. Here is how he expresses the first: "Claiming to be wise, they became fools; and they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling a mortal human being or birds or four-footed animals or reptiles."

When Paul uses the expression, "claiming to be wise," he is echoing Genesis 3 where the devil promises Eve that if she eats the forbidden fruit she will become wise and be like God, able to decide what is right and what is wrong. But that kind of wisdom is chimerical; it turns out to be absolute foolishness. Just plain wrong.

Nonetheless that is the choice made by Eve and Adam, and it is the choice made by the human race as a whole as its history gradually unfolded. What results from that choice? Idolatry, writes Paul. Exchanging the true Creator for man-made images. We do not want to acknowledge dependence on the real Creator, so we make our own gods, gods whom we can manipulate and control. Of course they are no gods at all, since they did not create us, we create them. They do not speak to us, we speak to them. They do not hold us responsible, they let us go our own way and get into all kinds of trouble because of it.

But the real God does not let us go our own way. He calls us up short. He is not willing to let us destroy ourselves. So he does what is necessary to get us to see our stupidity, change our ways, and come back into obedience.

So that is what Paul is getting at by specifying this matter of idolatry. He will be explaining as best he can what the gospel of Jesus Christ is all about, and what he writes here is the way he prepares for that subject. We are all sinners in need of correction. Jesus supplies that correction.

6. Paul's second example of what happens when we suppress the truth is homosexuality. Here is how he puts it. "For this reason God gave them up to degrading passions. Their women exchanged natural intercourse for unnatural, and in the same way also the men, giving up natural intercourse with women, were consumed with passion for one another. Men committed shameless acts with men and received in their own persons the due penalty for their error."

Paul employs the term "natural intercourse." He is saying it is natural for a man and a woman to come together sexually. This, of course, is for the purpose of producing children, and it echoes God's command in Genesis 1 that part of our human task is to populate the earth, fill it, replenish it sufficiently to gain control of the forces of nature.

Paul contrasts this natural intercourse with what he calls "unnatural," women with women, and men with men. Paul is saying in no uncertain language that homosexuality is unnatural. He means contrary to the way God created male and female to relate to one another. It is, in Paul's context here in Romans 1, one of two evidences that we humans are suppressing the truth of God.

It's interesting that Paul selects these two evidences: idolatry and homosexuality. He doesn't specify, for example, murder or stealing or war or violence or slavery or racial suppression, though later he does make a long list of evils in society. These are the two main evidences for what Paul is writing. One wonders if these two characteristics of Roman culture were the most prominent sins in it, or whether homosexuality was more prevalent in Rome than elsewhere. It does not appear that Paul mentions it anywhere else in his letters.

7. Three times Paul uses the sentence, "God gave them up."

"Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, . . .

"For this reason God gave them up to degrading passions. . . .

"God gave them up to a debased mind and to things that should not be done."

We may ask whether God gives up on people at all. Is this what Paul is teaching, that people, some people at least, are so bad God gives up on them?

No, this is not what he means. He means that since we suppress the truth, God lets us receive the results of that suppression. We choose impurity, so God allows us to live in its consequences. We choose idolatry, so God allows us to endure its effects. We choose homosexuality, so God allows us to receive its effects. We choose to disregard the truth of God and God lets us wallow in a debased mind and doing things that ought not to be done.

God gives us up to the sins and the results of sin, but always for the purpose of bringing us to acknowledge our sin, repent, and find a better life in the Holy Spirit. That is the context of Paul's phraseology about God giving us up to our wickedness.

8. Paul can think of a ton of sins that he has seen as he goes about bringing the gospel, and he rattles off a whole chain of them now to Tertius. It's a wonder Tertius can keep up with him. "They were filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, covetousness, malice. Full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, craftiness, they are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, rebellious towards parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless."

Of course this is not intended to be a carefully crafted list of all possible sins, but a rather comprehensive sampling of the things that are uppermost in Paul's mind as he is dictating the letter. If he had thought further he could have added numerous other items, say for example, following the order of the ten commandments.

But the main point Paul is making is that when we choose to disregard the will of God, as Genesis Three shows us, and try to make a good life outside his will, outside Eden, we find ourselves mired down in all kinds of ungodly and inhumane actions. This is how the wrath of God is administered. God has created us in such a way that when we choose to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil we find ourselves cast out of the good life of Eden into the morass of a world of our own making, and we discover soon enough that it isn't the way it's supposed to be. We endure the evils we ourselves have constructed into society, wishing always for something better, but no matter how hard we try we only make it worse.

Until, Paul will be explaining, we repent and turn to the Lord Jesus in faith and to our Creator in obedience. Until, in Matthew's perspective, the nations are discipled.

Chapter 5

NO PARTIALITY

Romans 2:1-11

Therefore you have no excuse, whoever you are, when you judge others; for in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, are doing the very same things. You say, 'We know that God's judgment on those who do such things is in accordance with truth.' Do you imagine, whoever you are, that when you judge those who do such things and yet do them yourself, you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you despise the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience? Do you not realize that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But by your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath, when God's righteous judgment will be revealed. For he will repay according to each one's deeds: to those who by patiently doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; while for those who are self-seeking and who obey not the truth but wickedness, there will be wrath and fury. There will be anguish and distress for everyone who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. For God shows no partiality.

1. Paul is aware that when we think about all the things that are wrong in human life and society we can easily become self-righteous. Look how bad everybody else is; but not me. I'm OK, but they aren't. So Paul warns against making that conclusion. "Therefore you have no excuse, whoever you are, when you judge others; for in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, are doing the very same things."

But is Paul right? Are we really doing the very same things? Paul means to say that the entire pattern of evil which we see in the human race includes us as well. Our sins may not be the same identical ones which we condemn in others, but are equally sinful in the sight of God. Paul is insisting in this paragraph that we must not separate between us and them when we consider this matter of sin and evil. We are all caught up in it.

More specifically, Paul is addressing the relationship of Jew and Gentile in the churches. Jewish people have been raised for a thousand years to think of themselves as God's special covenant people, with the understanding that all other nations were not. We and they, Jew and Gentile, good and bad. They are the sinners; we aren't. We are God's own holy people. Just look at their cultures, how bad they are.

So the main point that Paul is making here is that we must no longer think that way, dividing people into two groups, good and bad, we and they, Jew and Greek. Perhaps the nature of our sins is different, but we are all sinful and thus come under the judgment of God. That is why Paul can insist that we must not condemn one another. When we do that our words of condemnation rebound back upon ourselves because we too are under the wrath of God for sin.

2. "Do you not realize that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?" Paul's purpose in bringing the gospel of Jesus Christ is to show people the way to get out of the oppressive control of a culture based on sin and evil, a culture that demands conformity to its evil institutions and practices. That way is to recognize the kindness of God in sending his son Jesus to open up the way to repentance, forgiveness, and the liberating power of the Holy Spirit.

This is extremely important for us to recognize. The gospel of Jesus Christ comes to the world with the promise of a better way of life, a way out of the culture of sin. Jesus had prayed that the Father would not take the disciples out of the world but would keep them from the evil one. This is the context of Paul's statement that God wishes to lead us to repentance, change from the life of sin and its untoward consequences as is evident all around us. Everyone, it seems, dreams of a better world, a world of justice, goodness, trustworthiness, love, cooperation. But on our own initiative it is clear enough that we don't know how to get it.

God, in his kindness, is showing us the way. It is demonstrated in the life and ministry of Jesus. He is the Way to go. That's the Truth of the matter. And that's the way to get the Life which God is offering to us.

God, let us also note clearly, does not bypass our essential humanity, our complete responsibility for the way we live, for the decisions we make. God requires us to make the decisions that respond to the truth of the gospel, and that begins with repentance, as Paul puts it here in the beginning of Romans Two. And repentance can come only when we realize and openly acknowledge that we are sinners in the sight of God.

Paul knew that in his own experience, having been adamantly opposed to Jesus in his earlier years. He had to see that he was wrong; he had to be beaten down by the truth of God; and he had to emerge out of it as a devout and dedicated follower of Jesus. He was now finding the purpose of his life in the service of his Lord, so that the fanaticism of his earlier years was now being directed for the Lord rather than against him. Paul is saying here to the Romans that everyone of us must learn somehow what it means to repent and to be reversed in the direction of our lives.

3. "For he will repay according to each one's deeds." What Paul writes here does not seem to correspond with what we observe in daily life, so we need to ask what precisely he means and then how to understand it in terms of how we live. It does seem sometimes that wicked people do not get what they deserve, especially if they are rich or powerful. They seem to ride roughshod over any and all opposition and impose their will on those whom they dominate. Conversely, it sometimes seems that people who want to be honest and loving and kind get the opposite of what they deserve, sorrow and pain and suffering of various kinds. So how can Paul say that God repays everyone according to his deeds?

The traditional solution to this dilemma is that we will get what we deserve, not in this life, but in the next, after we die. Good people will go to heaven, bad people will go to hell.

I am suggesting, however, that in the context that Paul has set he is not talking about life after death but about life here and now. He has been talking about current moral conditions in the Roman world, about the relation of Jews and Gentiles here and now in the churches, about how God's wrath is demonstrated in the miserable conditions our sinful cultures have produced. Its all about this life, not about a future life beyond the grave.

It would appear that Paul wants his readers to understand that the gospel has to do with enabling people to get out from under the debilitating pressure of idolatry, homosexuality, and all the other vices he mentions. Paul wants them to get a better life by believing in Jesus and repenting and being led by the Holy Spirit. That's the function of the gospel as Paul is presenting it here in Romans.

Parenthetically, it seems that this function of the gospel, to improve the conditions of life in the present world, is one of the major reasons for the incredible growth of the Christian church in the first three or four centuries. By the year 390 Christianity was declared to be the only acceptable religion in the Roman Empire! Nothing could stop the power of Christ through the gospel and the inner working of the Holy Spirit.

4. However, this is how Paul explains his meaning, "To those who by patiently doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; while for those who are self-seeking and who obey not the truth but wickedness, there will be wrath and fury." Doesn't this imply clearly enough that the rewards and punishments come in heaven, the future not the present? Isn't eternal life what we expect after we die? And isn't the "wrath and fury" Paul mentions a proper description of hell?

It surely has been traditionally explained that way, but there is another way to look at it. The term "eternal life" in our traditional religion means "unending life," and therefore implies an unending life after death, after a general resurrection of all people who have ever lived. Some will go to eternal hell, others to eternal heaven. That's the traditional theology of eternal life.

However, that is not what the Bible itself means. The Apostle John writes, "And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent." (John 17:3) Not unending life in heaven but sacred life here on earth. To know God is to see him in what he does and to hear him in what he speaks. God has spoken Jesus Christ into existence, the Word producing flesh, and to see how God is working out his eternal will through Jesus is to possess the life that we describe in English as "eternal."

John also writes, "And I know that his commandment is eternal life." (John 12:50) When we believe in Jesus in such a way as to begin to live according the the will of God for us, then we are living the life that is eternal, the life that is godly and holy and righteous, that comes from God and his Holy Spirit.

We may extrapolate that what John writes is the authentic meaning of the term in the Jewish mentality. And if this is indeed the case, then it would be the context of the way Paul employs the term also. If we seek patiently to do what is good and right, according to God's will, we will ipso facto have eternal life. If, on the contrary, we obey not truth but wickedness, then we will receive the wrath of God in the form of suffering the inescapable consequences of our sins. This is the way Paul explains that God repays us according to our deeds. Of course it has to be that way. That's the way God created the world and created us. What Paul is saying here is precisely the same point he has been making earlier about how the wrath of God functions.

5. Let us recall that the basic reason for Paul writing this letter is to help the church in Rome to amalgamate Gentile believers into the church which was begun by Jewish believers. The point he has been making all this while in the opening arguments is that the gospel is for Jew and Greek alike, with no distinction. Jewish Christians may not look upon Gentile Christians as inferior or as second-class members of the church. "God shows no partiality," writes Paul.

"There will be anguish and distress for everyone who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. For God shows no partiality."

It doesn't matter whether you are Jewish or Greek, Paul explains, if you live a wicked life you will suffer its consequences. Similarly, if you honestly strive to do good, to live the kind of life God created you for, then you will receive the blessing of God. Racial distinctions do not matter, national differences do not matter, only whether or not we try honestly to live holy lives the way we were created to do. Eternal life is to live a holy life obedient to God.

Chapter 6

THE LAW

Romans 2:12-29

All who have sinned apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous in God's sight, but the doers of the law who will be justified. When Gentiles, who do not possess the law, do instinctively what the law requires, these, though not having the law, are a law to themselves. They show that what the law requires is written on their hearts, to which their own conscience also bears witness; and their conflicting thoughts will accuse or perhaps excuse them on the day when, according to my gospel, God, through Jesus Christ, will judge the secret thoughts of all.

But if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the law and boast of your relation to God and know his will and determine what is best because you are instructed in the law, and if you are sure that you are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth, you, then, that teach others, will you not teach yourself? While you preach against stealing, do you steal? You that forbid adultery, do you commit adultery? You that abhor idols, do you rob temples? You that boast in the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law? For, as it is written, 'The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.'

Circumcision indeed is of value if you obey the law; but if you break the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. So, if those who are uncircumcised keep the requirements of the law, will not their uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? Then those who are physically uncircumcised but keep the law will condemn you that have the written code and circumcision but break the law. For a person is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is true circumcision something external and physical. Rather, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly, and real circumcision is a matter of the heart—it is spiritual and not literal. Such a person receives praise not from others but from God.

1. Here Paul moves on to the critical point with which all the Jewish Christians were struggling. Does God want us to keep on observing the requirements of the Torah, the Law of Moses? If not, why not? If so, must not also all Gentile believers keep them? What do we do about all those hallowed practices that have defined our religion from time immemorial, such matters as sabbath observance, kosher food, circumcision, Passover, temple requirements?

In order to understand Paul's discussion of this issue we need to bear in mind that he himself was once a fanatic adherent of the Law, persecuting Christians who seemed to be less diligent about the centrality of such obedience. Paul's commitment to the Law made him an opponent of Jesus Christ, and it was not until God struck him down at the gates of Damascus that he began to see that there was something even more important than the Law. It is in that personal context that Paul is now trying to explain, particularly to his Jewish friends, how they should think about the issue.

2. "All who have sinned apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law." This is a rather curious way of putting it, but Paul is saying basically that sin is sin, whether it is committed by people who do not have the Law or by people who do have the Law. The kinds of sin committed by people who do not have Moses will be essentially violations of nature, that is, the human nature that God created, whereas the kinds of sin committed by people who do have the Law may also include those as well as violations of the specifics of the Torah. God's impartiality is thus honored in the way Paul writes. God holds us all responsible for what we do have, and judges us accordingly. He does not judge us on the basis of what we do not have.

Here it will be helpful to recall something Moses said after he had delivered the Torah to the people at Mount Sinai, "The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that have been revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the things of this law." (Deuteronomy 29:29) God holds us responsible for living according to what he has given us. There is always a great deal that we do not know, that only God knows. God does not hold us responsible for that. He holds us responsible for what he has revealed. Abraham did not have the Torah but now Israel has it. God did not judge Abraham by the requirements of Torah, but he does judge Israel by it.

To update the process, during Paul's time God had revealed something again to the people, the gospel of Jesus Christ. What the people were now wondering is how to relate the gospel to the Torah. Here now is a new revelation from God. We are called to live by what he has revealed. But what does this all have to do with our traditional religious practices, those that have defined Judaism for hundreds of years? That is what Paul is now explaining.

3. "For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous in God's sight, but the doers of the law who will be justified." What counts is action. Decision. Choice. It's what we do, not what we know.

We need to examine closely just what Paul includes in his usage of the term "law." In common Jewish usage the term meant the Torah, the Law of God delivered by Moses to Israel at Mount Sinai. But was there no law of God prior to that? Of course there was. We may understand the term, then, to mean what God requires of all human beings. There is a natural law, meaning how God created nature to function. So there is also a natural law pertaining to how human beings ought to function.

If we take Genesis 1 as our starting point, then, we may say that God created human beings to live as his images, to work in such a way that they could say, as God did about what he created, "Behold it is very good." For Adam in Genesis 3 this natural law was formulated as a prohibition of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. That's a negative orientation. The positive counterpart would be taking nourishment from the tree of life. And that in turn would mean simply living the way God desired, according to the requirements that God imbedded in the human soul.

That is why Paul could write, "They show that what the law requires is written on their hearts." We come into the world as creatures of God, as human beings who, if we lived the way we are created to live, that is, naturally, we would image the goodness of God in everything we think or say or do. There is in us all a basic human sense of right and wrong, a sense implanted in us by our Creator. What God requires of us as human beings is to live naturally, doing what the divinely-created nature requires of us.

4. So Paul explains that Gentile persons do sometimes sense what is truly right and wrong, and they may well live accordingly. "When Gentiles, who do not possess the law, do instinctively what the law requires, these, though not having the law, are a law to themselves." It's Paul's way of illustrating what he has written earlier, that God judges Gentiles not by what they do not have, the Torah, but by what they do have, namely the law of nature that God has provided to every human being.

5. So, next, Paul addresses particularly the Jewish Christians, and he challenges them bluntly. "You that boast in the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law? For, as it is written, 'The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.'"

Why does Paul do this? Why refer to what Gentiles are thinking about Jews? Because when the people who have God's Law and profess loudly that they are proud of it, and when they live in such a way as to be unjust, unloving, untruthful, then their sin is as bad or even worse than people who live decent lives without the Law.

Very likely Paul has in mind more than simply the ceremonial requirements of the Torah. He may well be having in mind those parts of the Torah that urge us to love God with all our heart and to show this in our love and respect for our neighbors, or that require us to care for the poor and aged and otherwise needy people in our community. Paul is saying that to observe rigorous religious requirements without the heart of compassion is to violate God's Law. It is much the same as what Jesus once said to the Pharisees, "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill, and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith." (Matthew 23:23) Thinking they were honoring God by their devotion to the ceremonial laws they were in fact dishonoring him by a false heart.

So Paul here addresses the Christians who come from the Jewish community, and who may be trying to figure out why or why not they should continue to observe their traditional ceremonies. Paul is telling them subtly that there are more important things involved, namely following Jesus.

6. Next Paul writes something that would be seen as earth-shaking for traditional Jews. "For a person is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is true circumcision something external and physical. Rather, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly, and real circumcision is a matter of the heart—it is spiritual and not literal."

He is saying that if the real importance of some religious ceremony does not carry over into one's life it has no meaning at all. If circumcising one's sons does not produce sons who are cleansed in their heart and life, the sacrament is useless. If abstaining from non-kosher food does not result in abstaining from all kinds of sin, then it is useless. If bringing offerings to the temple does not carry over into yielding oneself heart and body and soul to God, then the offerings are a waste of time and effort.

What happens within us, Paul is saying, is more important than what happens outside us. What we think and desire, the attitudes we embrace, the relationships we form – all of these are more important than the religious sacraments we follow or the religious duties we perform.

We should understand Paul's context. Paul is concerned to explain why it is that Gentile believers must be as important a part of the church as Jewish believers. So he is preparing the way here for them to understand that the traditional religious practices that defined Judaism for hundreds of years are important only in so far as they produce truly human beings who image God in their daily lives and work.

Paul will be following up on this by insisting that this goal of imaging God can be reached by Gentiles without practicing the traditional Jewish ceremonies. They can become living images of God by believing in Jesus and living in his Spirit. So the Judaizers in the church of Rome, if indeed there are any, must recognize this possibility and not insist that all church members must obey the Torah.

Chapter 7

THE JEWISH ADVANTAGE

Romans 3:1-31

Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision? Much, in every way. For in the first place the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God. What if some were unfaithful? Will their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? By no means! Although everyone is a liar, let God be proved true, as it is written, 'So that you may be justified in your words, and prevail in your judging.'

But if our injustice serves to confirm the justice of God, what should we say? That God is unjust to inflict wrath on us? (I speak in a human way.) By no means! For then how could God judge the world? But if through my falsehood God's truthfulness abounds to his glory, why am I still being condemned as a sinner? And why not say (as some people slander us by saying that we say), 'Let us do evil so that good may come'? Their condemnation is deserved!

What then? Are we any better off? No, not at all; for we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under the power of sin, as it is written: 'There is no one who is righteous, not even one; there is no one who has understanding, there is no one who seeks God. All have turned aside, together they have become worthless; there is no one who shows kindness, there is not even one.' 'Their throats are opened graves; they use their tongues to deceive.' 'The venom of vipers is under their lips.' 'Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.' 'Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery are in their paths, and the way of peace they have not known.' 'There is no fear of God before their eyes.'

Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For 'no human being will be justified in his sight' by deeds prescribed by the law, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin.

But now, irrespective of law, the righteousness of God has been disclosed, and is attested by the law and the prophets, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction, since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement by his blood, effective through faith. He did this to show his righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over the sins previously committed; it was to prove at the present time that he himself is righteous and that he justifies the one who has faith in Jesus.

Then what becomes of boasting? It is excluded. By what law? By that of works? No, but by the law of faith. For we hold that a person is justified by faith apart from works prescribed by the law. Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, since God is one; and he will justify the circumcised on the ground of faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith. Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law.

1. Paul has had enough experience explaining these matters to know the kind of questions and objections that will be raised. Here he deals with one of those. What you say, Paul, seems to imply that everything we Jews have done for the past thousand years is a mistake, all wrong, useless. If Gentiles can be accepted into the ranks of God's people without obeying the Law of God, then what was the use of our being so concerned about the requirements of the Torah? "Then what advantage has the Jew?" Are you implying that our history of being God's special people is now something of no importance or value?

It is not hard to understand the perplexity of Jewish believers back then. Suppose someone today would come and insist that everything we have believed and practiced as Christians for the past thousand years is now about to be replaced by something even better. We would not like that at all and would be sorely tempted to reject the message.

That's pretty much the situation that Paul faced. Jesus has come with a new covenant to replace the old covenant, a good one replaced by a better one. But the people of the old covenant would find it very difficult to move out into a new one. What good has it been that we have tried to be so faithful for all these centuries? Is that all now down the drain?

2. "Much, in every way. For in the first place the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God." "In the first place" suggests that Paul is about to begin a list of items with which the Jewish people have been blessed in ways Gentiles have not. First then, we have been entrusted with "the oracles of God."

Jewish people have been recipients of the special messages from God that have helped to shape the character of the nation as a whole. God established a covenant with Abraham and expanded that covenant with Israel at Mount Sinai. He sent prophets and priests and kings to assist the people in maintaining a better way of life than that of the surrounding peoples. He provided lengthy manuscripts to contain historical records, preserve personal and national piety, give guidance in understanding the ways of the Lord in history. All of this has helped to make the nation of the Jews a godly nation in contrast to the polytheistic nations surrounding it.

3. But right away Paul senses that those oracles of God, invaluable as they have been, did not produce the kind of holy nation they were designed for. So, instead of continuing the list that he has begun (he does get back to it, but not until 9:4) he begins to talk about that problem, and of course Tertius has to scramble to get it all down as fast as Paul can talk.

"What if some were unfaithful? Will their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? By no means!" True enough, we haven't always been as faithful as we ought to be, but that doesn't change the fact that we have had God's true oracles and guidance. That's to our advantage because God remains faithful to his word and to us his people even when we aren't.

4. Paul is a confirmed and dedicated theist. He is God-centered in all his thinking and speaking and writing. He has just explained that our failure to obey God's oracles does not cancel out the truth of God's purposes. God remains faithful to his own purposes even when his guidance and commands are disobeyed. (That is also the significance of the story of the sin of Adam and Eve in Genesis 3, is it not?)

So now Paul's active mind and restless tongue pursues this matter also. Has it been fair for God to punish us when we are really his children, his holy people? "But if our injustice serves to confirm the justice of God, what should we say? That God is unjust to inflict wrath on us? (I speak in a human way.) By no means!"

It isn't easy to follow Paul's train of thought. If God is just and we are his people, then why should he "inflict wrath on us?" We can sense immediately that this is not really what we expected when he began by saying, "In the first place. . . ." We would expect him to continue his listing of the advantages that Jews had over Gentiles, and not this sidetrack discussion of whether or not God is just in the way he treats us. But that is Paul. He lets his own mental gymnastics take over rather than the consistent and steady development of the main thesis.

But he does insist that "by no means" may we regard God as unjust, and this insistence reflects his thoroughgoing theism. No matter what intellectual problems we may develop in our attempt to understand how God functions, nothing could possibly lead to a conclusion that there is something wrong with God.

As a comparable application to today's world, there are people who regard the God of the Old Testament to be unjust, too violent, someone who offends our sense of love, compassion, and integrity. A person who is deeply committed to a theistic outlook on life, however, cannot allow himself to draw that conclusion. If we do not understand something in the Old Testament, that isn't God's fault, it's ours. God simply is not unjust, not cruel. But truth is truth, nature is nature, and if we find ourselves at odds with something that involves God we have to keep working at it till we come to some conviction that God is after all right. No way may we permit ourselves to bring God under our judgment.

5. Paul has asked the question of what advantage Jews have had over non-Jews. He answered that they have had the oracles of God to guide them throughout their history. But he now counters with a reminder that Jewish people have not taken advantage of their blessing but have reduced the Torah to a matter of routine practices. Their heart was not right with God and it showed in all kinds of ways in the way they lived.

That is why he can write so directly, "What then? Are we any better off? No, not at all; for we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under the power of sin." Jewish Christians must not suppose that their Jewish heritage puts them in a higher class of God's people than Gentile Christians. Typical Jewish sins might well be different from typical Gentile sins, judged by the Torah, but sin is sin and all sinners need the forgiveness that comes through faith in Jesus, Jews as well as Gentiles.

6. Paul quotes long passages from the Old Testament to bolster his insights, and then makes a statement by which he again insists that Jews and Gentiles are now on the same plane before God. "Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced, and the whole world may be held accountable to God."

But what is difficult here is that if Paul means the Torah by "the law", as he often does, then how can this result in Gentiles being held accountable? They have not had the Torah. Jews can be held accountable by the Torah, but not Gentiles.

So we have to conclude that Paul does not mean the Torah when he uses the term "the law." He must mean something by which Gentiles can be held accountable as well as Jews, "the whole world" as he puts it.

What "law" is sufficient to hold Gentiles accountable? The law of God that God created in the beginning, the law that is imbedded in nature and in human nature. The same law by which Adam and Eve were held accountable, and by which the entire human race is judged. The law that requires all humans to live the way God created them to live, as his image. Paul is saying therefore that all humans are held accountable to God because they do not image God in their daily living.

7. Paul now turns to the gospel. He has sufficiently explained that all of us are sinners. Now, granted that is true, what does God do about it? Paul answers, God has revealed his own righteousness. "But now, irrespective of law, the righteousness of God has been disclosed, and is attested by the law and the prophets, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe." How so?

The righteousness of God – what is that? Before we can understand that term we will have to understand Paul's phrase, "irrespective of law." Paul is explaining to the Christians in Rome that it is not necessary for Gentiles to obey the Jewish Torah, that is, its prescribed ceremonies, the religious practices that are distinctive to Judaism. "Irrespective of the law" then means without regard to the law, in this case the Torah. Jewish people did not as a matter of fact achieve righteousness by obeying the Torah. What they did achieve was legalism, obedience to rules, but not the amelioration of the spirit which bows in penitence before the Lord. So now Paul is explaining that God is providing a different way to achieve righteousness, a way that does not involve the ceremonial practices so beloved by Jewish people.

"The righteousness of God" then means this new way of achieving righteousness. Paul explains that God has provided in Jesus a new way of achieving the kind of life for which God created us all. Not from rote observance of rituals, but stemming from faith in Jesus Christ. This new way is "for all who believe," no longer any distinction of race or nationality, no partiality in favor of Jews.

8. We may remind ourselves at this point that Paul has begun this discussion by trying to list the advantages that Jewish people did have over Gentile people, even though now as Christians there is no partiality and no advantage for one over another. So he next relates the passion of Jesus to the traditional Jewish ceremonial sacrifices so central to Judaism for ages. "They are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement by his blood, effective through faith."

"A sacrifice of atonement by his blood." Clearly a reference to the temple sacrifices required by the Torah since the time of Moses. Paul is acknowledging that this history of making sacrifices to God is indeed a great advantage that Jews have had over Gentiles in past centuries. Those sacrifices taught the people that they had a responsibility to God; they have helped to create in their national psyche a thoroughgoing theism, a sense of being God's special holy people. Gentile people did not have this history, and their polytheistic pantheon of gods did not involve the deep sense of responsibility that characterized the Jewish race.

But even so, Paul is explaining, all of that advantage did not produce the kind of obedience, righteousness, national character, that God desires. It helped greatly but it fell short of God's goal, evidenced by the fact that they crucified God's Son Jesus. So God is now providing a better way, not by sacrificing the blood of animals, but by the blood of Jesus, that is, by his crucifixion looked at as a sacrifice replacing the sacrifice of animal blood.

It would be worth noting here, however, that in Paul's understanding of the atonement of Jesus he does not concentrate exclusively on the cross but involves the entirety of Jesus' passion, his resurrection and ascension as well as his crucifixion and the sending of his Holy Spirit. So we should always understand that when Paul writes about the cross or about Jesus' blood he means to include the full range of Jesus' ministry, all of it being necessary to bring about the kind of righteousness that God requires. Jesus' death, all by itself, would not have done the job. Not until the Pentecostal arrival of the Holy Spirit did the disciples begin to live in the faith and obedience that Jesus came to provide.

9. "Then what becomes of boasting? It is excluded. By what law? By that of works? No, but by the law of faith. For we hold that a person is justified by faith apart from works prescribed by the law." We must assume that Tertius got it all down just as Paul expressed it, but maybe even he didn't get it clearly in his own mind.

What Paul wants to convey here is that Jewish Christians must not allow themselves to think their special heritage as God's own people makes them better or more worthwhile or closer to God than Gentile believers. They must not "boast" about having the Torah and being able to meet all its ceremonial requirements, as if this made them more acceptable to God. It is not by meeting their ceremonial duties, the deeds required by the Torah law, that they are justified before God. It is, on the contrary entirely apart from this apparatus of ritual, simply believing in Jesus and living accordingly.

10. The phrase "justified by faith" has become a hallmark of Protestantism. And, sadly, sometimes this extremely important insight has been extended considerably farther than Paul intended it. The idea of "works" in Paul's usage means the works, deeds, actions, demanded by the Torah, such matters as circumcision, sabbath observance, kosher food, sacrifices, Passover, and the like, all the distinctive behavior patterns that still distinguish Judaism from other cultures.

But one hears occasionally that insight extended from works of law to all works of any kind whatsoever, the implication being that the simple matter of believing in Jesus is what justifies us before God. And further, whether or not this is intended by such theologians, the implication extends to the idea that our deeds, our decisions, our way of life, is entirely irrelevant to our salvation.

This could, conceivably, result in persons becoming Christians, justified, but not overly concerned about how they put that faith into practice in their lives. I believe in Jesus, I know my sins are forgiven, that I am justified before God, so it doesn't much matter how I live, as long as I don't go off the deep end.

But Paul will show later in his dictation that being justified by faith, not by works of law, must indeed carry over into sanctified living. He fully agrees with James who insists that faith without works is dead. Not works of legal obedience to ceremonial requirements, but works of love and truth and faithfulness and discipline, evidence of the Holy Spirit. We should, therefore, be careful to understand what Paul is driving at, and shape our theology accordingly.

11. Paul is still working at the matter of the relationship of Jewish and Gentile believers in the church. He is trying his best to explain why it is that there should not be any sense of superiority on the part of Jewish believers. He inserts into his dictation a remarkably important comment which might at first reading seem entirely clear to us, but which in that polytheistic culture was anything but. He says, "Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, since God is one."

As a Christian community today we understand well enough that there is only one God, the Creator of the whole world and who is in infinite control over how that world develops. But at the time Paul was writing, this knowledge was limited to the Jewish people. All Gentile peoples were raised in a culture that assumed that there were whole families of gods who were somehow getting involved in human affairs now and then.

Paul insists "God is one." Not two or three or a dozen. One God and one God only. So, if this is so, he is as much the God of Gentiles as he is of Jews. If there is only one God he is the God of everyone and everything. We do not invent gods. We do not create them. Everything that exists and every person who ever lives is under this one Creator God. So, in Paul's intention, Jewish people may not claim that God is their God exclusively, not the God of Gentiles.

12. Paul has begun this section of his letter by asking what advantage Jews have had over Gentiles. His vigorous and active mind goes into overdrive as he reviews in his mind the kind of problems he knows Jewish people have with receiving Gentiles into the church. So he senses the same kind of problems that he himself has wrestled with in the long years after his conversion and before he became an apostle. Paul has struggled himself with the same issues he now addresses in this important letter to the church in Rome.

Paul knows that some, probably many, Jewish people think that if Gentile believers are not required to obey the precepts of Torah that Paul is undermining the Law of God. There had always been a number of non-Jewish people attracted to the Jewish faith because of its higher standards of morality, and these people, proselytes, were required to practice the same rituals as all Jews, even if they were excluded from certain precincts of the temple.

The people we know as Judaizers, those Christians who insisted all believers must continue to obey God's Law, these people simply wanted to continue the same practices as related to proselytes. But Paul was vigorous in insisting, Not so.

So Paul asks the question these Judaizers would be demanding of Paul, "Do we then overthrow the law by this faith?" They would be thinking Paul was tossing out God's Law if he insists that Gentile Christians need not obey it.

13. Paul replies, "By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law." How does he come to that conclusion? This is upholding the law, insisting that Gentiles do not have to obey it?

Paul has in mind that the law as Jewish people possessed it, the Torah, is itself an expression of a still more basic law, the law of creation. He has explained earlier that there is a natural law, created by God, that is built-into the existence of the world, and that this natural law includes human beings as well as all the rest of the created world.

Hence, when God gave Moses the Torah law at Mount Sinai it was for the purpose of enabling the people of Israel to live in the way they were supposed to live, according to the built-in laws that God has embedded in the world. The Torah is just one way of bringing that more basic law into play, reduced as it were to specifics but with the larger goal of achieving a holy life for human beings.

For all of its necessity and for all of its actual help, the fact of the matter in Paul's day was that the Torah did not in real life produce the inner piety that is basic to a holy life. The evidence of that was the historical fact that the people of Israel, the Jews, rejected the son of God, Jesus, by crucifying him. Paul wants his readers to understand that, and that is why he could say that the gospel which supersedes the Torah and makes it obsolete is in fact "upholding the law."

Upholding the law in the sense of upholding the purpose of the Torah, the purpose of achieving a holy life. The Torah did not in actual fact produce a holy people but only a people who went through the motions of observing ceremonial laws. The gospel of Jesus Christ now comes, Paul insists, in such a way as to accomplish the purpose of God in creating a holy people living in such a way as to image the divine character.

Observing Torah ceremonial laws would not contribute anything at all to that process. It is something accomplished only through faith in Jesus and the subsequent indwelling of the Holy Spirit. That is why Paul is so insistent that Gentile believers not be compelled to observe traditional Jewish forms of piety.

Chapter 8

ABRAHAM

Romans 4:1-25

What then are we to say was gained by Abraham, our ancestor according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the scripture say? 'Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.' Now to one who works, wages are not reckoned as a gift but as something due. But to one who without works trusts him who justifies the ungodly, such faith is reckoned as righteousness. So also David speaks of the blessedness of those to whom God reckons righteousness irrespective of works: 'Blessed are those whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the one against whom the Lord will not reckon sin.'

Is this blessedness, then, pronounced only on the circumcised, or also on the uncircumcised? We say, 'Faith was reckoned to Abraham as righteousness.' How then was it reckoned to him? Was it before or after he had been circumcised? It was not after, but before he was circumcised. He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. The purpose was to make him the ancestor of all who believe without being circumcised and who thus have righteousness reckoned to them, and likewise the ancestor of the circumcised who are not only circumcised but who also follow the example of the faith that our ancestor Abraham had before he was circumcised.

For the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the law but through the righteousness of faith. If it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. For the law brings wrath; but where there is no law, neither is there violation.

For this reason it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his descendants, not only to the adherents of the law but also to those who share the faith of Abraham (for he is the father of all of us, as it is written, 'I have made you the father of many nations')—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. Hoping against hope, he believed that he would become 'the father of many nations', according to what was said, 'So numerous shall your descendants be.' He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was already as good as dead (for he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb. No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, being fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.

Therefore his faith 'was reckoned to him as righteousness.' Now the words, 'it was reckoned to him', were written not for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be reckoned to us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was handed over to death for our trespasses and was raised for our justification.

1. Of course we do not know, but it seems possible that Paul and Tertius took a break after that rambling discourse on the importance of the Torah, maybe even a day or two, and now they come back and Paul has an entirely different tack to pursue. In his preceding thinking he goes back to the time of Moses and the Torah, now he goes back even farther, to the time of Abraham.

The name Israel is the name given to Jacob after his conversion, so as far as the name Israelite is concerned it recalls Jacob not Abraham. But even so the Israelites, now the Jews (that name comes from Judah, son of Jacob), trace their distinctive ancestry back to Abraham, Jacob's grandfather. We are children of Abraham, they affirmed at one occasion when confronting Jesus. So Paul now thinks it is important to explain the significance of Abraham in the long history of the Jewish people. "What then are we to say was gained by Abraham, our ancestor according to the flesh?"

2. The thing that Jewish people were proud of concerning Abraham was that it was with him that the sacrament of circumcision began. That ritual was now the oldest and most treasured of all the signs of the covenant. When we observe this ceremony we are guaranteeing that we are God's people; if we neglect it we are saying we don't care whether we belong to God, like Gentile people. So our distinctive position as God's chosen race depends on our keeping the covenant of circumcision.

That's the way Jewish people at the time were thinking. So when Paul came and taught that it was not necessary for Gentile Christians to be circumcised, they understandably thought he was undermining the covenant.

Paul wants his readers to think about it for a minute. Why did Abraham agree to have himself and his entire establishment circumcised? It was because he had previously come to believe in one God and one only. Everybody else in his nation believed in a whole pantheon of gods, but when Abraham came to believe there was one only God, he then agreed that circumcision was to become the outward sign of that faith. That is why Paul could write, "Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness."

Faith preceded circumcision in Abraham's life. That faith is what made him willing to obey the commands of God and therefore is also what made him right with God. The crux of the matter was that Abraham came to believe in one God only, and that faith is what has been characteristic of the Jewish race ever since.

Paul's point here in his letter is that faith is of primary importance, not the rituals that come afterward. And when he applies this to Gentiles he means that when they believe in Jesus they are by that very fact made right with God. And, Paul insists, this happens entirely apart from whether or not they observe the ceremonies of the Torah such as circumcision.

3. Paul buttresses his statement by contrasting earning something and being given something. "Now to one who works, wages are not reckoned as a gift but as something due. But to one who without works trusts him who justifies the ungodly, such faith is reckoned as righteousness." The operative word is "reckoned." It means counted as, the equivalent of, considered to be.

When Jewish people have their sons circumcised they are thinking, I'm obeying God and therefore I'm right with God. But Paul is explaining, Not so. If your heart is not right to begin with, the simple fact of agreeing to circumcision means nothing. You have to begin where Abraham began, by being sure that there is only one God and that you want to serve him with your whole heart and life. That faith is what makes you right with God, not the rituals that may come later.

4. Paul reminds his readers that God had a long-range purpose in mind when he led Abraham out of the polytheism of Babylonian culture into a monotheistic faith. Paul reminds them that Abraham believed in God long before he was circumcised. So God's purpose in working thus with Abraham was to begin a long process during which Abraham's descendants would be able to construct a nation built on the foundation of faith in one God.

This is how Paul puts it, "The purpose was to make him the ancestor of all who believe without being circumcised and who thus have righteousness reckoned to them, and likewise the ancestor of the circumcised who are not only circumcised but who also follow the example of the faith that our ancestor Abraham had before he was circumcised."

In the long run, Paul explains, God will be the God of people who are not circumcised as well as of people who are circumcised. All of them together will become people of God, not because they are circumcised but because they share the same faith as Abraham.

5. Paul is talking, Tertius is listening and writing, and Paul's active mind wants to make the point so clearly that it cannot be missed. So he puts the matter in still other words, "If it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void."

If all we have to do is obey the rules, perform the ceremonies, regardless of whether or not we really believe in God, then the whole business means nothing, it's null and void. If it doesn't really matter if we believe deep down in our soul that God is in control, then whatever religious duties we may perform are entirely useless.

6. Paul continues his discussion of the significance of Abraham by mentioning the promise that God made to him, to the effect that he would become the father of many nations. He explains that this promise included both the people of the Law as well as the people without the Law. "For this reason it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his descendants, not only to the adherents of the law but also to those who share the faith of Abraham (for he is the father of all of us, as it is written, 'I have made you the father of many nations')."

Remember that the overall pattern of Paul's letter is to explain as clearly as he can why Jews and Gentiles must get along together in the church without animosity or a sense of superiority. This was proving to be a very difficult transition especially for Jewish believers. They had indeed come to accept that Jesus was the messiah sent by God, but they were finding it exceptionally difficult to give up all their traditional Torah practices. And if they must continue to do these things, then surely incoming Gentile believers in Jesus must do so also. That was the prevalent thinking of the people we call Judaizers.

And Paul is finding numerous ways of explaining that this is not necessary. Gentile believers must not be required to obey Jewish customs.

7. Paul is a committed theist. He explains everything to the best of his ability in terms of who God is and what God is accomplishing in the world he created. In the middle of his discussion of Abraham he incidentally makes a comment about how God functions in his world. ". . . in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist." Two things: God "gives life to the dead" and he "calls into existence the things that do not exist."

The second item recalls Genesis 1 where we read about how God brought the world into existence, but the first item is not self-explanatory. Is there a pattern about how God "gives life to the dead?" More than the resurrection of Jesus? Is Paul talking about a universal resurrection at some future date in time?

There is a great deal of ambivalence about what the terms death and life mean in the gospel story. Paul will be examining this matter in great detail in the next several chapters, but we may take our basic clue from what he says in 6:11, "So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus." We should, accordingly, keep reminding ourselves that Paul is talking about the here and now, about Jews and Gentiles getting along in the churches, about what happens in our life when we believe in Jesus. Paul wants us to think of ourselves, now already, as alive to God, both Jewish believers and Gentile believers. We are alive now whereas previously we were dead.

Obviously Paul is not talking about physical death and physical life. He is talking about the change in our lives that is occasioned by repentance, faith, and obedience – what we might well call the movement out of spiritual death into spiritual life, out of the life of sin into the life of obedience.

So the meaning of his phrase, "gives life to the dead," is this transition out of spiritual death into spiritual life. God gives us the kind of life he wants for us when we believe in his son Jesus and then are imbued by his Spirit.

8. The above explanation may also serve to cast additional light on the second phrase of Paul, calling "into existence the things that do not exist." Not only that God created the world in the beginning, but also that he creates new life in us who were dead in sin. He gives us life where there was none to begin with. The kind of life God desires for us all does "not exist" so long as we live by our own insights, but God brings this "into existence" through Jesus and his Spirit.

Furthermore, it helps to explain also God's promise to Abraham that he would become the "father of many nations." How could Abraham possibly know how the monotheistic experiment that he was beginning would be used by God to bring all nations into it? But Abraham trusted God, believed his promise, and God did bring about the outcome he intended by calling Abraham out of polytheism. Paul does not intend us to think that it was Abraham who caused this to happen; it was God who was working out his eternal purpose through Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, and the whole history of Israel. God is continually bringing into existence things that do not yet exist.

9. "Now the words, 'it was reckoned to him', were written not for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be reckoned to us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was handed over to death for our trespasses and was raised for our justification."

We need to be careful not to dissociate Jesus' crucifixion from his resurrection, as if his death on the cross accomplishes our salvation all by itself. It does not.

When Paul writes that Jesus died "for our trespasses" we traditionally think that his death brings about the forgiveness of our sins. But obviously this is not what Paul is writing, since he adds immediately that he was "raised for our justification." Paul is saying merely that Jesus died _because_ of our sins, that it was our decision to crucify him. There is no inherent implication in Jesus' death that our sins are thereby forgiven, only that we are responsible for that atrocious deed. Paul explains clearly that our justification comes from Jesus' resurrection, which was God's way of overturning our decision and bringing us to repentance.

The term "justification" means more, much more, than the forgiveness of our sin, it means the removal of sin in the sense that we now obey God rather than our own selfish interests. It means salvation, redemption, regeneration, being born from above, being controlled by the Holy Spirit. In that comprehensive sense our existence becomes "justified" before God, that is, we begin to learn how to live as God's images rather than pretend to be our own gods.

10. We may take note here of the way Paul uses the death and resurrection of Jesus in his presentation of the gospel. Paul uses those two climactic events of Jesus' life to illustrate what happens to us when we believe truly in him. We die with Jesus, Paul writes in various ways, and we rise with him. Jesus' physical death and physical resurrection become the pattern by which we understand how God is bringing us out of a life dominated by selfish interests, sin, into a life dominated by the Holy Spirit, obedience.

The analogy is found in many places in Paul's other letters, but is most compellingly defined in Ephesians 1 and 2, where Paul also adds the ascension to crucifixion and resurrection as the pattern for our salvation: we sit with Jesus in the heavenly places. Now already when we believe.

Chapter 9

PEACE WITH GOD

Romans 5:1-11

Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us. Much more surely then, now that we have been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more surely, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life. But more than that, we even boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

1. "Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." Peace with God. We note again the theistic orientation of Paul. What is the benefit of believing in Jesus? Not better relations with other people. Not finding ourselves. Not anything about living a moral life or experiencing ecstatic emotions. Finding peace with God. All of these other benefits may or may not accompany this peace with God, but the first and foremost thing is becoming right with God.

God has created us in such a way that we can choose either to go our own way or to go God's way. That's what Genesis Three teaches us. And we have indeed chosen to go our own way. When God sent his son Jesus to us to open up the way into God's kingdom, we humans chose not to believe and enter. Instead we rejected Jesus, crucified him. That is the opposite of what Paul now says about having peace with God.

So how does it happen that our decision to go our own way, not the way of God as defined in Jesus, can be reversed? By the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, "at the right time Christ died for the ungodly." God raised Jesus from the dead and thereby showed us that our decision was wrong.

What must happen next is that we recognize the error of our choice, repent from it, and humbly pray for forgiveness and wisdom to deny our own decision and accept God's instructions. When we do that we do find God's forgiveness, we do find an inner strength of spirit, and we do discover that to live God's way is better, much better, than to live our way. We can move ahead in our lives in full confidence that we are now in God's path, in his kingdom, at peace with our Creator.

We cannot stress enough that this is the place it must all begin. Forget the questions you may have raised about whether or not there is a God. There is. There is a Creator and you are his creature. Acknowledge that humbly and move on from there to consider the relevance of Jesus' crucifixion (our choice) and Jesus' resurrection (God's choice). Do what you have to do then to find peace with your Creator. Repent and believe.

2. "We boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God." What does Paul mean by "sharing the glory of God?" If we go back to the ancient times of Paul we soon discover that the Jewish hope was that God would send a messiah to re-establish the throne of David in Jerusalem and bring about another golden age when the Jewish nation would achieve power and glory in the world.

This is what all the Jewish people of the time expected of a messiah, and when they became convinced that Jesus was the man God had sent they hailed him as the king of the Jews. But when Jesus failed to act as they expected, they turned against him and crucified him. They were convinced then that they would not achieve the glory and success politically that they all wanted. This, note well, was also the expectation of the disciples of Jesus, and they too had to be extracted from that false impression.

So the term "glory of God" meant one thing for unconverted Jews – a political kingdom independent and successful; but it meant something else for Paul and for Christians. What did it mean for them?

It meant achieving the lifestyle of holiness and obedience in which they would, as best they could, image the lifestyle of God. In this sense the glory that is the attribute of God is shared on a human level by those who believe in Jesus and live accordingly. The infinite goodness of God is reflected on a human level in the finite goodness of those who believe.

3. "And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings." Here again we can visualize Paul dictating, and thinking to himself while Tertius was inscribing his words, that to live as a Christian is not always all that glorious. It is glorious with respect to God, but at the same time it often results in some inglorious relations with other people. If you believe in Jesus and find peace with God and experience deeply the glory of God in your inner being you may still find that others don't like what they see in you. They may make all kinds of trouble for you. So Paul then modifies his exuberance concerning sharing God's glory by reminding his readers they may have to share also people's inglorious treatment. So he says, "We also boast in our sufferings." Suffering sometimes seems to be a concomitant of being a Christian. So Paul says we can not only boast when things go right, in the glory of God, but also when things go wrong, in our sufferings.

But does it strike you as odd that Paul says he "boasts" of his sufferings? If you find yourself expelled from your synagogue, or if you find yourself taxed unfairly, or if you are put in prison, or if your business is ruined, or if your friends start to boycott you, are things like that things to boast about?

Paul wants his readers to understand that if they prize their faith in Jesus and their justification before God they will see their persecutions in the same light. It's all worth it. If I am called upon to suffer one way or another because I am a Christian, then so be it. Jesus went to the cross for us, we can do no less for him. It's a matter of value. Paul valued his right relation to God more than any persecution or loss that might come his way. Later he would write to the church in Philippi, "I have learned to be content with whatever I have." He can "boast" about his sufferings because he knows they are coming as a result of the infinitely greater prize of being right with God.

4. Now Paul explains further why it is possible to "boast" of one's suffering. There are collateral benefits, not in terms of financial, social, or physical benefits but in terms of the inner strengthening of one's character as a human being. Suffering for Christ, he writes, produces "endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us."

While it may be possible to describe more fully what each of these benefits means, the end result is what counts. We are not disappointed. It is well possible that some of the early converts back then might have become disappointed when they were required to endure the kind of opposition that their locale forced upon them. And it would get worse in later centuries, much worse. Later there would be Roman emperors who made it their life's task to eradicate Christianity and thus force Christians into all kinds of trouble. And in short order Emperor Nero would begin that nefarious process for these good people to whom Paul is writing.

So Paul writes that when the love of God is poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit we gain the inner fortitude to be not disappointed in Jesus, but to accept trouble with confidence and even "boasting."

5. It may well prove difficult for new Christians to respond favorably to what Paul is saying, gaining moral and spiritual strength through persecutions. So Paul reminds them to be thinking about the kind of life out of which Christ has liberated them.

We may here interject a reminder also about Paul himself. He knows very well the kinds of pressures and difficulties that new believers must confront. He was himself in his younger years a fanatical opponent of Jesus, persecuting Christians and getting them thrown in prison. So he is constantly reminding himself of that.

And that bit of Paul's biography helps us understand the overtones of what he writes here, "But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us." Remember what your life was like before you became a believer. Jesus gave his life for us, knowing that none of us believed. And that, thinking theistically again, is enough proof for us that God loves us. It is God as Jesus' Father in heaven who sent him to die, to rise again, to ascend to heaven, to send his Holy Spirit, to draw us into a better life. All this is God's doing, and it should be sufficient for us to deal with whatever difficult problems life may throw at us.

6. "Much more surely then, now that we have been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more surely, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life."

It becomes a bit difficult from time to time to follow Paul's train of thought, and some of this we may well attribute to the fact that he was dictating to Tertius. It seems that his thought process went much faster than Tertius' writing process, so there may well be thought transitions in Paul's mind that did not get into print. Regardless, we note that Paul specifies that we are saved "from the wrath of God."

Earlier Paul had written at length about that wrath of God. It is what happens in our lives when we live in sin, the negative results of going our own way instead of God's way. When we become Christians, Paul explains, we no longer have those consequences in our lives. There may well be other consequences, but not those described by the term "wrath of God." We are saved from those.

And then Paul uses another phrase, "reconciled to God." A sinful lifestyle is what draws down on us the wrath of God in the form of unintended consequences, but once we are brought into the lifestyle of faith and obedience that all changes. God's wrath is transmuted into God's love, and that is what Paul means by reconciliation. We are back in God's good graces.

Note, however, that Paul adds something else to the idea of reconciliation, "we will be saved by his life." He means that our lives are changed. Our lifestyle. Our set of values. The way we go about our daily tasks. The relationships we form. The standards we set. Paul means here the radical change in the way we live when we pass out of a life of sin into a life of obedience. Not just Jesus' death as the pattern of our dying to sin, but also Jesus' life as the pattern of our coming to life as God wishes it to be. All this, note well, in the here and now.

Chapter 10

ADAM AND JESUS

Romans 5:12-21

Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death came through sin, and so death spread to all because all have sinned—sin was indeed in the world before the law, but sin is not reckoned when there is no law. Yet death exercised dominion from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sins were not like the transgression of Adam, who is a type of the one who was to come.

But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died through the one man's trespass, much more surely have the grace of God and the free gift in the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abounded for the many. And the free gift is not like the effect of the one man's sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brings justification. If, because of the one man's trespass, death exercised dominion through that one, much more surely will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness exercise dominion in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.

Therefore just as one man's trespass led to condemnation for all, so one man's act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all. For just as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous. But law came in, with the result that the trespass multiplied; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, just as sin exercised dominion in death, so grace might also exercise dominion through justification leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

1. Paul, in this letter to the church in Rome, is explaining as best he can why the gospel of Jesus Christ is equally efficient for both groups of people, Gentiles as well as Jews, and that therefore both groups must recognize each other as equal in the sight of God. He has already established a common ground by going back to the creation of the world and the relevance of that original natural law to govern all peoples. Both Jews and Gentiles, he has already explained, come under the wrath of God because of their failure to live according to the law of God; Gentiles under the created law of nature, Jews under the specifics of the Torah.

Similarly, Paul goes on to explain, the gospel of Jesus Christ comes to both groups, Gentiles with their heritage of polytheism and Jews with their heritage of covenant. Both groups are invited by the gospel to emerge out from under their sinful failure into the forgiveness and freedom of the life that God is providing through Jesus and his Spirit.

2. Having established this common ground, Paul now goes into Jewish tradition to explain how sin entered the world and how it is now being overcome. He introduces the Genesis account of Adam. He writes, "Sin came into the world through one man."

Paul means, of course, the Genesis 3 accounts which tell the story of God's prohibition of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the serpent's temptation of Adam and Eve, their decision to disobey God, the subsequent punishments meted out, all of which culminates in their expulsion from the garden of Eden.

That's the story of the first sin, and then the Genesis account goes on to show how the descendants of Adam and Eve also made the same sinful decisions until conditions became so bad that God had to step in by means of a great flood to punish the human race for its disobedience.

3. It seems clear enough that Paul, as well as other authors of the New Testament documents, understand these Genesis stories as genuine history, that they really did happen way back at the dawn of human history. And this has been the commonly accepted view in most of Christendom until very recent times.

In recent times, however, scientific discoveries have called into question the assumption that Adam was a real historical individual: discoveries, for example, concerning the age of the universe and of planet Earth, the appearance of life and its gradual diversification, the origin and development of the human race from animal ancestors. Particularly what we have been calling the theory of evolution has been slowly gaining acceptance. But if indeed the human race did evolve over thousands of years, the question of how to fit Adam into that picture becomes very difficult.

I will not be engaging in this enterprise at this point, but merely examine the way Paul thinks and dictates. In that regard it is important to note that while Paul does presuppose the historicity of Adam he does also suggest another important way to understand the connection between Adam and Jesus. He writes that Adam "is a type of the one who was to come." Adam is a type of Jesus. The connection that Paul suggests is, accordingly, the connection of typology. Along with his acceptance of the historicity of the Adam stories in Genesis, Paul wants to see the importance of Adam in terms of what these stories tell us about all humans and about Jesus and the gospel.

What Paul means, then, in terms of how to interpret Adam and Jesus, is close to what we are accustomed to do when we interpret parables. In parables we are not interested in the earthly events involved but in the "heavenly meaning" they convey. So that is what Paul will be trying to do in the section of his letter we are now studying.

4. It is important to consider how Paul uses the term "death." Here is what he writes: "death came through sin, and so death spread to all because all have sinned—sin was indeed in the world before the law, but sin is not reckoned when there is no law. Yet death exercised dominion from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sins were not like the transgression of Adam, who is a type of the one who was to come."

"Death exercised dominion from Adam to Moses." Not after Moses? People after Moses do not die? Why Moses? Why not after Abraham? Why not after Jesus? What is Paul talking about?

Moses, of course, means the giving of the Torah Law. So Paul is saying that death exercised dominion until God gave the Torah Law to Israel by means of Moses. But, even so, what could that possibly mean? Death no longer existed after Moses gave the Law? That cannot be. Everybody dies.

5. We need to take notice that Paul is talking about sin and about its effects. "Death came through sin." Paul has explained his use of the term "death" earlier. He means the choice that Adam and Eve made when they ate from the forbidden tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He means moral and spiritual death, not physical death.

Paul is explaining that there was nothing between the time of Adam and the time of Moses to overcome the decision of Adam and Eve, to reverse it, to enable humans to achieve the obedience for which they were created. Sin and the spiritual death it occasioned reigned supreme during that period of time. But then when God gave the Torah and brought the Israelites out of Egypt into the land of Canaan that supremacy ended. There was now a nation who possessed God's Law, the Torah, and who would be shaped into a holy nation by obeying it.

And that, we may recall, is Paul's continued explanation of what advantage the Jews had over the Gentiles. To possess God's Law is to be led in the paths for which God intends all people to walk. But only the Jews had it at that time. And now Paul is explaining that God is drawing all peoples into his holy nation, Gentiles and Jews on exactly the same basis of faith in the Lord Jesus.

6. In discussing the relation of Adam to Jesus, Paul explains that Adam was a "type" of Jesus. "Yet death exercised dominion from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sins were not like the transgression of Adam, who is a type of the one who was to come." This is important.

It is clear enough that the authors of the New Testament, including Paul and Luke especially, do regard Adam as an historical figure. Luke, for example, traces the genealogy of Jesus back all the way to Adam. And Paul here in Romans 5 has linked Adam and Moses in historical sequence.

Yet Paul is saying also that there is a real connection between Adam and Jesus that is not historical but typological. Traditional theology has always recognized this broader significance of Adam, for example, when we consider that all humans are created in the image of God, not just Adam. Or when we consider that all humans are tempted to disobey God, and that all of us have in fact sinned and are in need of reconciliation.

Paul does not go into detail about this relationship of typology, but in terms of what he wants the good people of the church in Rome to understand is that Jesus is just as important for Gentiles, going all the way back to Adam, as he is for Jews, going back to Moses.

7. It will be important for us in the twenty-first century to remember this connection that Paul mentions, that Adam is a type of Jesus. There is increasing doubt about whether or not it is possible for us to regard Adam as an historical figure in the light of the scientific discoveries that have been made in recent years. Even if it should be determined that Adam and Eve were not the first historical parents of the human race, and if the stories in the early chapters of Genesis are not literal history, the importance of these stories will not be diminished at all, since they will then retain the typological explanation.

8. "If, because of the one man's trespass, death exercised dominion through that one, much more surely will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness exercise dominion in life through the one man, Jesus Christ." In this paragraph Paul addresses the question of how Jesus differs from Adam. Consider the term "dominion."

Paul has explained that death "exercised dominion" from Adam to Moses. Now he continues by affirming that we humans, Jews and Gentiles alike, may "exercise dominion" when we believe in Jesus. What does Paul mean by saying we who receive the grace of God in Jesus "exercise dominion"?

He means the effect that believing in Jesus has in a person's life. Previously we were governed by our own judgments about what is right and wrong (Adam and Eve's tree of the knowledge of good and evil). Afterward we are governed by what the Spirit of Jesus enables us to see and know, in other words by God. What has "dominion," control, over our lives, our own desires or the will of our Creator? That's the basic contrast that Paul is making, and he wants both Jewish and Gentile Christians in Rome to recognize that change in themselves and in their brothers and sisters in the church.

And that is the heart of what Paul is explaining here in contrasting Adam and Jesus. Adam and Eve opted to do what their own selfish insights suggested, thus bringing sin and (spiritual) death into the world; Jesus does the opposite, reversing their decision by opting to obey God rather than yielding to the temptations of the devil, and thus bringing forgiveness, repentance, and true life into the world.

9. Paul is dictating to Tertius, and Tertius, we can well imagine, is having a hard time keeping up with Paul's volubility. Paul's mind runs over all kinds of things while he is waiting for Tertius to catch up. So he finds himself repeating much the same idea only in different words in order to make sure his readers do not misunderstand him.

So he says, and Tertius writes, "Therefore just as one man's trespass led to condemnation for all, so one man's act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all." We understand that this is a further explication of what he has been saying about the relation of Adam and Jesus. The same idea but in different terminology.

But some modern readers wonder about Paul's use of the term "all," Adam's sin brings condemnation to "all." Jesus' obedience brings justification and life to "all." Is Paul teaching universal salvation here? Everyone is lost in Adam, everyone is saved in Jesus?

Paul is best understood as including the two sets of people that he has been talking about since the very beginning of his letter: Jews and Gentiles. Substitute those two words for "all." Adam's sin brings condemnation to Jews as well as to Gentiles. Jesus' atonement brings justification to Jews as well as to Gentiles.

Paul certainly would not want us to think everybody who has ever lived is saved through Jesus. Why would he preach the gospel if he thought that? Of course one does not come to life without believing in Jesus. But Paul is merely reaffirming the point he has been making in a variety of ways, there isn't any difference between Jew and Gentile when it comes to believing in Jesus. His atonement is for all, for both parties.

10. Paul returns to his use of "dominion." "Just as sin exercised dominion in death, so grace might also exercise dominion through justification leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."

Here the contrast is between sin and grace. Sin is in control when we live by our own desires, grace is in control when we live by faith in Jesus. We sense immediately that what Paul means by "grace" is that power of God that enables us to turn away from sin, turn toward Jesus, and live by the inner guidance of the Holy Spirit. Paul wants his readers in Rome to think about who or what is in control of their lives, either themselves or God.

People in the thrall of sin find it difficult to think about themselves this way. I'm responsible for my own life, for what I say and think and do. Must I somehow abandon my sense of responsibility? Won't that make me a robot? So it isn't easy to deny one's own sense of responsibility in such a way as to allow someone else to take over control.

But that is precisely what God requires of us all. Either choose to act as if you are your own god, or recognize that you are a creature responsible for living by the standards your Creator has set. Adam and Eve chose the former, Jesus chose the latter. One choice leads to spiritual death and a variety of unintended consequences, the other choice leads to forgiveness, joy, peace, justification, holy life, and all the benefits of divine grace. Who has "dominion" over your life?

11. We should look also at that term, "eternal life," that Paul employs here, "leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." What does Paul mean by "eternal"?

The Greek word is aionion)and it means "a period of time of significant character; life; an era; an age; hence, a state of things marking an age or era." Our English cognate "eon" means much the same.

The term is sometimes understood to mean unending existence in heaven after the final resurrection. It is highly doubtful that Paul had such a meaning in mind. He has been talking for a long time about what difference it makes for a person to believe in Jesus, to transition out of Adam into Jesus. What changes are made when this happens? Paul is concerned, not about what happens after we die, but about what happens when we believe. So Paul means by "eternal life" that change, that emergence out of a life of sin into a life of obedience, out of a life of self-centeredness into a life of God-centeredness.

Chapter 11

UNION WITH JESUS

Romans 6:1-23

What then are we to say? Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin go on living in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. For whoever has died is freed from sin. But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. The death he died, he died to sin, once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Therefore, do not let sin exercise dominion in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions. No longer present your members to sin as instruments of wickedness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and present your members to God as instruments of righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

What then? Should we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that you, having once been slaves of sin, have become obedient from the heart to the form of teaching to which you were entrusted, and that you, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to greater and greater iniquity, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness for sanctification.

When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. So what advantage did you then get from the things of which you now are ashamed? The end of those things is death. But now that you have been freed from sin and enslaved to God, the advantage you get is sanctification. The end is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

1. Paul has spent a long time analyzing the way we should understand the relation between Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians. Now there is a rather major turn in his thinking. He now wants to explain what all of that has to do with our actual daily living, our morality, our ethics, the way we conduct ourselves in our daily concerns. "What then are we to say? Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin go on living in it?"

In explaining this new topic of Christian living, Paul reminds his readers in Rome that they have died to the way they used to live, both Jews and Gentiles. And further he explains that this is the meaning of being baptized. "Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?" The significance of Jesus' death is that it symbolizes for us that we too have died to our past way of life.

This symbolism may have been easier to understand for the Christians to whom Paul was writing than to those of us who have been Christians our entire lives. Many of us have never experienced an actual way of life outside of Christ Jesus, but Paul's readers in Rome did. Gentile believers are coming out of a polytheistic culture with all its depravity; Jewish believers are coming out of a legalistic culture with all its concomitant hypocrisy. Paul is reminding them that when they were baptized as Christians they were baptized into Jesus' death, meaning they must die to their former way of life.

2. But Paul does not exhaust the meaning of Christian faith in the crucifixion, he also insists that Jesus' resurrection must produce in us a new way of life. "Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life."

It is important here to recognize that Paul is here defining the meaning of Jesus' death and resurrection. And it is interesting that we do not find this clear vision in any of the other of the writers of the New Testament, not even in John.

Jesus' death is important because it shows us that we must discontinue a life of sin, and his resurrection is important because it shows us that we must begin a life of obedience. We die with Jesus and we rise with him. And this is by faith. This is what it means to have faith in Jesus, to die to sin and rise to newness of life.

Other writers of the New Testament provide additional helpful insights, of course, but they do not draw this analogy in as clear and profound way as does Paul. James insists that our faith must produce works, but he doesn't explain why with the same clarity as Paul. John stresses the giving of the Paraclete as the new guide for believers, but he too does not develop the same insight as does Paul here in Romans 6.

So it will be to our advantage to meditate long and hard on this analogy that Paul draws. What does it mean to believe in Jesus? Not merely to know our sins are forgiven but to know they are no longer in control of the way we live. We move away from the life of sin in the direction of the life of righteousness. There is a real change in the way we live. And for those of us who have been believers all our lives, we need to see that believing in Jesus has kept us on track, as we say, on the straight and narrow path, in contrast to a pattern of living that would result in self-destruction of various kinds.

There, but for the grace of God, go I. I die to that pattern of life. I have died to it my entire life. I live no longer for myself but for the God who created me. I find my peace of soul, my satisfying purpose in life, my loving relationships, my entire world and life view, imbedded in the death and resurrection of Jesus as it finds its incarnation in me. That's how every Christian should think of himself or herself.

3. We now move on to a paragraph that has almost universally been misunderstood. "For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. For whoever has died is freed from sin. But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. The death he died, he died to sin, once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus."

The customary explanation of this paragraph is that at the end of the world, when Jesus returns physically from heaven, there will be a universal resurrection of all the people who have ever lived. Some of these will go to heaven, the rest will go to hell. Both groups will live in those circumstances forever.

However, if we take this paragraph in context it cannot possibly mean that. The context is that both Jewish and Gentile believers die with Jesus when they move out of their previous lifestyles, and they rise with Jesus when they begin to live in a new lifestyle. What Paul is writing in this paragraph is further elaboration on that same theme.

Note particularly the last sentence in that paragraph, "So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus." Paul has no notion whatever here about the end of the world. He is concerned with explaining as clearly and powerfully as he can what it means for both groups of believers to be Christians in the here and now. Just as Jesus died to sin once for all, and as he lived his life to God, so too we who believe in him must die to sin and live to God. That's the point that Paul is stressing, and however we may otherwise have understood some of his phraseology we must not miss his direct intent.

4. So Paul is hammering away on that theme. Don't submit to the temptations to sin that keep coming your way. Don't let the parts of your body that seem to demand sinful activity take control. On the contrary, bring all parts of your body under the control of God such that they do not lead you to sinful behavior but to righteous behavior. "No longer present your members to sin as instruments of wickedness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and present your members to God as instruments of righteousness." Constantly keep in mind that by believing in Jesus you have been brought out of the death of sin into the life of truth and right. This is who you now are; do not compromise that new life.

5. Paul writes a rather curious sentence next, "For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace." He is clearly addressing his fellow Jews, not Gentiles. He reminds them they are no longer responsible to obey all the precepts of the Torah, the Law of God given to Moses at Mount Sinai over a thousand years earlier.

But think about what Paul is saying. Sin will no longer control you because you are no longer under the Law. Does Paul mean that people who insist on living under the Law of God are ipso facto under the control of sin? That would be extremely hard for Jewish people to take. It was precisely because their ancestors had not lived faithfully according to the precepts of the Law that they were carried off into captivity to Babylon. So how can you say, Paul, that if we live by the Law we are living under the control of sin? We're not under the control of sin, we are under control of the Torah of God.

But Paul is speaking from his own personal experience. He had lived as a youth under the control of the Law, actually being a fanatical adherent of it. It made him angry that anyone might disparage the Law, the sacred Torah. But Paul also knew that this very same fanaticism for the Torah had made him an opponent of Jesus, and thus of the messiah sent by God. And that is why he writes as he does. He confesses that sin has had control over him at the time he lived under the Law. He has now been freed from that control, and he wants all Jewish believers to understand the same about their past.

6. Paul introduces another analogy to help define his point that we die with Jesus and we rise with him to a new life: slavery. "But thanks be to God that you, having once been slaves of sin, have become obedient from the heart to the form of teaching to which you were entrusted, and that you, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness."

In their previous lives they were slaves to sin; now in Jesus they have become slaves to righteousness. This is no different from what he has been saying previously. It's the same point: who is in control? Who is our Lord? To whom are we obligated? Formerly we were obligated to sin, now we are obligated to righteousness.

We may not today appreciate the use of the term slavery. It brings up connotations of the slave trade that has ruined the lives of so many people over the years. A milder translation would be servant, but it seems clear that Paul wants us to understand simply that as human beings we are under the control of something. Either under the control of our own emotions and wishes and thoughts, or under the control of the God who created us. That would be his point in using the term slavery. Who or what controls us? To what or whom are we enslaved?

To believe in Jesus is to move out of one form of slavery into another. We may not appreciate this terminology but it is what Paul is teaching and we need to come to terms with it.

7. Paul's mind as he dictates to Tertius is delving deeper and deeper into the implications of what he is saying. And he does so, trying as best he can to address the questions and problems that his readers might be raising in their own minds. He can imagine them thinking, So what? What good is it to know these things, Paul? I must become a slave? What good will that do?

So Paul addresses this objection. "But now that you have been freed from sin and enslaved to God, the advantage you get is sanctification. The end is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." What good is it to become a slave of God? His answer is: sanctification.

But then he adds an explanatory note saying the same thing in different words, "The end is eternal life." Paul's original readers might well have understood clearly what Paul meant, reading his words in the Greek language that they all understood. But when we read it in English translation we are likely to get an entirely erroneous impression.

Paul is explaining the meaning of sanctification. It is the same as eternal life. The "end" is a translation of the Greek "telos," meaning goal or destination or the object for which we are working. The goal of being a slave of God is sanctification, possessing the life that comes from God rather than the death that comes from Satan. Note well, accordingly, that Paul is not in any way talking about what happens after we die, such that we will live forever.

He is explaining in as many ways as he can think of what happens when we believe in Jesus. We become slaves of God rather than slaves of sin. This produces sanctification in us, making us now holy people rather than sinful people. We come alive to what human beings are created to be. We gain the sort of life that only God can create in us.

8. So Paul sums up what he has been saying in a short sentence, "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." Recall again that the "death" of which Paul writes is not physical death, it is spiritual death, or moral death if you will. The death of that which makes human beings what they ought to be. Live a life of sin and you destroy that which is distinctively human about you.

But when you repent and believe in Jesus, God provides you with an inner Spirit that slowly transmutes you into a living image of God. You gradually take on the character of Jesus himself, the perfect image of God. That's the "eternal life" that Paul is talking about.

Chapter 12

THE FUNCTION OF THE LAW

Romans 7:1-25

Do you not know, brothers and sisters—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only during that person's lifetime? Thus a married woman is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives; but if her husband dies, she is discharged from the law concerning the husband. Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man, she is not an adulteress.

In the same way, my friends, you have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead in order that we may bear fruit for God. While we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. But now we are discharged from the law, dead to that which held us captive, so that we are slaves not under the old written code but in the new life of the Spirit.

What then should we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet, if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, 'You shall not covet.' But sin, seizing an opportunity in the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. Apart from the law sin lies dead. I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died, and the very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. For sin, seizing an opportunity in the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good.

Did what is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, working death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure.

For we know that the law is spiritual; but I am of the flesh, sold into slavery under sin. I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. But in fact it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me.

So I find it to be a law that when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!

So then, with my mind I am a slave to the law of God, but with my flesh I am a slave to the law of sin.

1. The scholars who divided the Bible books into chapters and verses did not always get it right, sometimes making a division in the middle of an extensive analogy; for example, Ephesians 2. But here they did get it right. Paul, it appears, had taken a break from his dictating, and was now coming back to it after what might have been a rather long break.

Paul wants to reinforce the point that it is no longer necessary for Christians, whether Jewish or Gentile, to be obligated to do the ceremonies of the Torah Law. Plus, he knows that Jewish believers are having a hard time absorbing this change. They keep going back to their history, back to Abraham and the covenant, back to Moses and the Law, back to their prophets.

So Paul gets an idea that might help these people figure it out. He senses he can make an analogy from marriage. When two people get married they are obligated to be faithful to each other. That's the law. But if the husband dies, then the widow is no longer obligated to be faithful to her dead husband; she is free from that law and free to remarry if she so wishes.

Paul wants to make that observation into an analogy of what God is doing for his people now with the coming of Jesus. "Do you not know, brothers and sisters—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only during that person's lifetime?" Paul is implying that the Law that had governed the Jews ever since Sinai was now no longer binding. Why? Because those who believe in Jesus have died to it.

So he is quick to add, "In the same way, my friends, you have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another." Paul is saying that the Torah Law was binding on the people of Israel until the coming of Jesus, but when Jesus died he freed God's people from that Law, freed them to "marry" another, to be joined to Jesus rather than to Moses and the Law. The Law was good and beneficial for as long as God determined it to be so, but now a better situation has come, a new covenant, and the people must move on to wherever the Lord Jesus now leads them. Christians are thus freed from the Torah Law.

2. Paul is not talking only in generalities, what happens on the large scale of history, but he brings it down to real life also. He wants to show how this helps us understand our own personal lives. He dictates, "While we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. But now we are discharged from the law, dead to that which held us captive, so that we are slaves not under the old written code but in the new life of the Spirit."

He explains that when the Law defines something as wrong, this stimulates us to consider it and then perhaps at a later point to actually do what it forbids. The Law, he says, arouses our sinful passions, and when we yield to them they "bear fruit for death." Spiritual death. Moral death.

So Paul puts it into unmistakable words, "But now we are discharged from the law." It's a development that Jewish unbelievers simply could not swallow, and that some Jewish believers likewise could not tolerate. They wanted both. They wanted to accept Jesus as their messiah and savior but they also wanted to maintain their traditional practices of the Law.

Actually Paul understood the mentality of these people we know as Judaizers. It wasn't as if he thought such practices were wrong. He was not overly bothered when Jewish believers did actually continue them, but he objected strenuously when these people insisted that it was necessary to do so, that even Gentile believers must accept the authority of the Torah as the unchanging and forever valid Law of God. So he puts it bluntly, "We are discharged from the law." The book of Hebrews makes the same point when it insists that the Law is obsolete. (Hebrews 8:13) The language is unmistakable.

3. Paul has had enough experience with these problems and questions that he can anticipate the objections that might be raised at this point. So, if we are discharged from the Law, if it is no longer valid, that seems to say that the giving of the Law was a mistake, that the Law is bad. If the only purpose the Law has is to stimulate our sinful passions, then the Law is a bad thing. That's how Paul's opponent might be arguing. "What then should we say? That the law is sin? By no means!"

Why is the Law not a bad thing, a mistake, sin? Paul's answer is not an example of lucidity. "Did what is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, working death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure." It's the way Paul thought, and it's what Tertius wrote down, but the end result is not all that clear.

Paul is restating things he has previously explained in a different context. The Law tells us what sin is. But we find ourselves often doing the very things the Law forbids. We lust. We covet. We steal. We do not love others as we should. And so forth. But the Law is still there, telling us that it is sin, until we come to realize that indeed we are sinners, not living as images of God should live. That's the function of the Law.

4. The rest of this sixth chapter is an explanation of what he has been defining as the way the Law works in our lives. He wants his readers to get the point, so he elaborates it again and again from different points of view. We will do well to remember that Paul knows what he is talking about, having experienced powerfully in his youth the effect of fanatical loyalty to the Torah Law. He knows full well how it works in our lives, bringing us not to loving obedience but to shamefully sinful actions.

"I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, 'You shall not covet.' But sin, seizing an opportunity in the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness." Paul is using the first person here, "I", but he means all of us. People, for example, would not recognize the presence of covetousness in themselves unless someone explained just what covetousness is. That's what the Torah Law has done for the people of Israel, stating clearly that coveting is wrong. They would not have known that but for the Law telling them so.

But the very fact of knowing it is wrong to covet, Paul is saying, means that our sinful passions are stimulated in such a way that we do covet more and more things.

5. Tertius is busy transcribing what Paul is dictating. Paul says, "Apart from the law sin lies dead." Tertius does not have time to think about what Paul is saying; he merely copies it down as fast as he can. But we can stop and think about it. What can Paul possibly mean by saying sin lies dead where there is no Law, no Torah? Sin is dead? How so?

"I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died, and the very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me." The "I" here does not mean necessarily only Paul, but people in general. "I" once lived without the Torah – for Jewish people that would mean from Abraham to Moses, or for Gentile people it would mean since the creation of the world. People once lived by the light of nature alone, apart from the Torah. God had not yet given the Torah.

But once God did give Israel the Torah at Mount Sinai it defined clearly for the first time the difference between right and wrong. But what the Law did not do, and could not do, was to provide the inner compulsion to choose the right and reject the wrong. The result, in Israel, is seen in the inability of the Jewish people to recognize what God was saying to them in Jesus. So, Paul says, sin revived and the people crucified the Son of God.

That, so far as the Jewish people are concerned. But what about Gentiles, and what is Paul saying to them in this rather confusing saying? We go all the way back to Genesis Two and Three. God provided his law to Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden in the form of a prohibition against eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If we do not take this prohibition in mind, and simply think of that pair living naturally we could think of them living in bliss and perfection. But when the prohibition came they could then weigh its importance and judge for themselves what what seemed good to them; so sin revived and they chose wrongly. The commandment became death to them.

So Paul is now generalizing on that pattern. What we see in Adam and Eve, and what we see in the history of the Jews, is what we must learn to see in ourselves as individuals. It is one thing to hear God telling us what is right and wrong; it is another thing to obey. Just having the Law of God is not sufficient. Even having the Torah for the Jewish people was insufficient.

Something has to happen to make us be honest with ourselves and with God, to recognize that when we live only by the light of nature, disregarding God's will, we choose for sin. But even then when we do accept the Law of God we tend to miss the intent of it. We devise activities that are in outward conformity to the precepts of the Law but fail to yield ourselves body and soul to God. We live outwardly in one way but inwardly in another way.

That's what has to change, Paul insists. But such change does require us first to see that merely possessing the Law without that inner commitment is insufficient. The point is made primarily for the Jewish believers who were agitated by the problem of what to think about their ancestral reliance on the Torah. But it has implications for all people as well.

6. It isn't clear whether or not Paul had encountered thoughtful people who were coming up with the kinds of questions Paul is addressing here in Romans 7. Perhaps he is dealing with the problems he himself had worked through in his early years as a Christian. In any case, here is another, "Did what is good, then, bring death to me? By no means!"

It is quite possible that some of the Judaizers (Christians who wanted to retain the customs of the Torah) were objecting. Paul, are you saying the Law of God is producing death? How can that be? The Law is good. How can it produce something bad?

Paul replies, "By no means." Certainly not. On the contrary, it isn't the fault of the Law, it's our fault, our failure to obey from the heart. "It was sin, working death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin." The function of the Law is to show me, show us, what sin is by forcing us to confront our own decision making. Just as now Jesus has forced the people to confront their own decision in crucifying him, so too the Law forces us to confront the way we live in general. It isn't the Law that forces us to sin, it is the Law that exposes the sinful way we choose to live.

7. Paul is digging deeper and deeper into the psychology of sin. "I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. But in fact it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me." There is a lot of controversy over what Paul means here.

It is possible, for example, to conclude that we are not really responsible for what we choose to do. If it is "no longer I that do it," then something else is responsible for my wrong decisions and I am not responsible. Paul says sin is responsible, "Sin that dwells within me." But if sin is responsible, not me, how can that be? Am I not responsible for my own sin, for my own bad decisions? How do we figure this out?

Sin is indeed in me but it doesn't belong there. It's not part of what I might call "the real me." The "real me" is what God created, a person who lives as an image of God. But when I do not live as an image of God, then it isn't the "real me" but an alien thing in me. Paul would never argue that we are not responsible for our sinful decisions. That would contradict Genesis. But he is saying that when we do opt for a wrong choice, then we are not functioning the way a true human being ought to function. Something has gone wrong inside us. Sin is an alien factor. It doesn't belong there in a genuine human being. It needs to be expunged in order for us to become the authentic images of God that we are created to be.

That is why Paul can say he doesn't understand his own actions. In his true character as a child of God, an image of God, he knows well enough that certain actions and attitudes are wrong. Yet he finds himself doing and thinking precisely the things he knows are wrong. There is something in him that ought not be there, namely sin. Paul does not imply he is not responsible for sin, but that he knows it ought not to be there. He should not do it for he knows better. The law of God is of course good; the way God made us, images of himself. But when we don't live that way, don't image God in our thinking, in our deeds, in our relationships, we are violating God's will.

And that is why Paul is so adamant about preaching the gospel. It is precisely believing in Jesus that enables us to grapple successfully with that fatal tendency to sin and to overcome it by the internal persuasion of the Holy Spirit of Jesus. Obeying the precepts of the Law does not do the job. Obeying the lead of the Holy Spirit does.

8. "For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members."

Two laws. "The law of my mind," and "the law of sin." Paul suggests there are two factors involved in the way a person lives, what we know is right and what we actually do. What we know, "the law of my mind," does not automatically control the decisions we make. There's many a slip twixt cup and lip. There's many a sin twixt law and deed.

Becoming a Christian and learning what is involved in faith means recognizing honestly what is happening in our lives. God has created us good and in his image, but also with a free will to choose not to live as we were created to live. Being a Christian means learning how to live, how to choose, how to manage our lives, in such a way as to image our Creator. And that means becoming aware of how the "law of sin" is functioning in us, and of relying on the grace and Spirit of the Lord Jesus to enable us to bring our decision making into line with his Law. That's the gospel as Paul presents it.

9. On the one hand, aware of the law of sin functioning in us, we cry out with Paul, "Wretched man that I am!" And on the other hand, aware of the inner power of the Spirit of Jesus, we exclaim, "Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!" The Lord Jesus Christ has set us free from that burden of indwelling sin, sending his divine Paraclete to overcome the temptations of the devil.

So Paul can conclude this intricate theological expedition with an open acknowledgment of the situation every Christian should recognize, "So then, with my mind I am a slave to the law of God, but with my flesh I am a slave to the law of sin." It is precisely that dilemma that is driving the Apostle Paul so powerfully to present the solution in the gospel of Jesus Christ, both to Jews and to Gentiles. He will go on in the next chapter to say triumphantly, "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death."

Chapter 13

THE FUNCTION OF THE SPIRIT

Romans 8:1-17

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and to deal with sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, so that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For this reason the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God's law—indeed it cannot, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you.

So then, brothers and sisters, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh—for if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, 'Abba ;) Father!' it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ—if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.

1. Paul moves ahead in his explanation of the gospel. There are two factors, two laws, at work in our lives and our responsibility is to recognize them both and choose the right. Exactly as we learn from Genesis. Paul now moves ahead by analyzing the work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of all who believe in Jesus. What does it mean to walk by the Holy Spirit?

To begin with, it means that God does not condemn us. "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death." That is important because if we concentrate on "the law of sin and death" too much, we forget that the power of the Holy Spirit is greater than the power of the devil. The devil, working with his law of sin, doesn't stand a chance when a person truly believes in Jesus and surrenders his life to him. The power of holiness is greater than the power of evil. Every Christian needs to know that, so that we need simply to remind ourselves that there is no condemnation from God. The Spirit sets us free from the power of the devil.

2. We must always be careful not to bypass God when we analyze what is going on in our lives. Whenever anything is going well and right in our lives we need to recognize that this is God at work in us. Elsewhere Paul writes that we are to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who is at work in us both to will and to work. (Philippians 2:12-13)

Here in Romans he puts it this way, "For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and to deal with sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, so that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit."

Although the Torah was given by God it was not able to do what God wished it to do, namely create a holy nation. So next God, building on that foundation, embarked on another tack to do what the first covenant couldn't quite get accomplished. He sent his Son Jesus, and Jesus, in his own flesh, did what God wished to have done, create a holy person and thus open up the way eventually to achieve the larger goal, a holy nation.

When Paul writes that Jesus "condemned sin in the flesh" he means that Jesus overcame human sin in his own life. This was a lifelong process for Jesus, but which the Gospels picture in miniature as overcoming the three demonic attempts at temptation in the desert after his baptism by John. Jesus did successfully what Genesis pictures Adam and Eve as doing unsuccessfully, simply obeying God. We need to picture Jesus as the one ideal perfect human being, the perfect individual who patterns what God wants, and what we all want, a perfect world.

So Paul is putting in other words much the same thing he has been saying in this letter right along, the Torah did not do the job, but God is doing it now by means of Jesus and the Holy Spirit. All Christians, Paul is saying again, Jews and Gentiles alike, because they all believe in Jesus as their lord and savior, now live not according to the Torah or the desires of the body, but according to the Holy Spirit of Jesus. And of course that applies to us all still today.

3. Again Paul reverts to terminology he has explained earlier, death and life. "To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace." And if Paul finds it useful to repeat himself in explaining what death is and what life is, we do well to remind ourselves as well.

Death in Paul's theology does not always mean physical death. Life in Paul's theology does not always mean physical life. Death can mean "to set the mind on the flesh." Life can mean "to set the mind on the Spirit." Adam and Eve set their minds on the flesh. Jesus set his mind on the Spirit.

It will perhaps need some difficult correction of our theological understandings to process this insight all the way, but the sooner we undertake it the better. Paul does not suggest that the purpose of the gospel is to give us unending physical life but to give us the life of the Spirit while we are alive physically.

4. Bear this point in mind as we look at this quotation from Paul, "If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you."

This passage is sometimes explained as evidence of what is called the final resurrection and the beginning of heaven and hell. At the final judgment God will raise us all up from the grave and restore our lives to us so as to enter into everlasting heaven or hell, as the case might be.

This would be to miss Paul's point entirely. Paul says that God "will give life to your mortal bodies." These are the bodies we now live in while we are alive. God will give life to us here and now.

Note well also that this life is given "through his Spirit that dwells in you." Exactly! When we believe in Jesus we receive a new spirit, a Holy Spirit. That is in this life. We do not need to wait until a final resurrection for it to happen. The Holy Spirit dwells in us now. It is the Holy Spirit in us who so works in our thinking and in our decision making that we choose to live the way God wants us to live. The Holy Spirit enables us to live a holy life and become holy persons.

5. It may be well to take note of Paul's phraseology regarding Jesus' resurrection. We may be asking ourselves from time to time, why is it important that Jesus rose from the dead? If our sins are taken care of on the cross, what difference would it have made if Jesus had stayed dead and not risen?

Paul says, "he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies." God gave life to Jesus' body, raising him from the grave. That is the paradigm of what God does when we believe in Jesus. God raised Jesus; similarly he raises us through the Holy Spirit. We sometimes call this being born again, or being regenerated, or being converted, or being delivered from the devil, but we must see what happens when we believe as patterned by what God did for Jesus.

So why is Jesus' resurrection important for us? Because of that pattern. It's a teaching tool to show us the power of God in reversing our sinful decision and enabling us to find the kind of life available through faith and the Holy Spirit.

6. Paul's theology, while often a bit baffling and repetitious, is never left in a vacuum. He always, even after lengthy and convoluted thought processing, brings matters down to earth in connection with our daily living. So what does all this theologizing have to do with the way we go about our workaday lives? "So then, brothers and sisters, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh—for if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live."

Notice how he employs the terms life and death in this exhortation. If you live according to the flesh you will die. Just as did Adam and Eve. But if you live by the Spirit you will live. Just as Jesus did. Paul is never content with leaving his theology abstract. He always goes on to explain what difference it makes.

And the way he explains it always follows directly from the way he has been explaining his theology. He has been coming back to the theme of life and death again and again, and now he shows how that insight controls the way we understand what is happening in our lives and work. We begin to live life as it ought to be lived, as God wants us to live, no longer as the devil wants us to live. That is what life is, real human life. Anything other than that is not life, it is death.

7. But as Paul is dictating to Tertius another analogy occurs to him, the contrast between being a slave and being a son. "For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, 'Abba! Father!' it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ—if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him."

It is interesting that Paul contrasts slavery with adoption rather than slavery with freedom. He has employed the concept of freedom often enough, but here he makes the contrast between slavery and adoption. In those days slaves were sometimes very important members of the household, performing sensitive and important tasks. We may call to mind, for example, Joseph in the house of Potiphar, or Eliezer in the establishment of Abraham.

Important as such a slave might be, he would never be entitled to inherit the estate when the owner died. This would always go to the eldest son, or divided between several sons. Only if there were no children might a slave be eligible to inherit. Or if a slave were to be adopted, as in the tale of Ben Hur, might he inherit.

So here Paul is saying to be a Christian is to be the heir of the estate of the Father. It is to be adopted as a child of God, and thus to inherit the blessings of the Father's estate. Paul is trying to reinforce in any way he can the understanding that even Gentiles are brought into the family of God, adopted to be fully as much heirs as are Jewish believers.

Incidentally, this idea plays around in Paul's mind and he will soon come up with another interesting analogy designed to make the same point: branches grafted into a tree.

8. When a person believes in Jesus he then recognizes God as his Father and is content to be led by the Holy Spirit in his daily life. And this in turn means he becomes a "joint heir" with Jesus of the blessings of God. Here is how Paul puts it, "When we cry, 'Abba! Father!' it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ—if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him."

As somewhat of an excursus, it is useful to note the different connotation of the term "child of God" as used in Paul's theology and as used in pagan Greek and Roman theology. Here we see Paul using the term to indicate equality with Jesus in relation to God, "joint heirs" with Jesus. But in Greco-Roman religion the term "child of God" meant another divine being in the polytheistic system of their thought. The term in pagan thought means a divine being, another god, but in Hebrew/Christian thought it does not imply divinity but equality with Jesus. Note well: when we say Jesus is the Son of God we do not mean Jesus is a second god, just as when we know ourselves to be children of God we do not thereby claim divinity.

9. There is still another point to notice in Paul's language here. He concludes this paragraph with an "if" clause. We are heirs – if. "If, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him." What is Paul getting at?

Two points: suffer and glorified. To believe in Jesus involves both of those things, suffering with Jesus and being glorified with him. Which means what?

It's the same basic two things that becoming a Christian always involves: dying to self and rising to God, turning away from a life of sin and taking on a life of obedience. To suffer with Christ, as Paul intends it here, is to endure the difficult process of rejecting one's former way of life; and to be glorified with Christ, as Paul intends it here, is to begin a genuine journey of sanctification, of learning better each day how to live by the guidance of the inner Holy Spirit.

When both of these things happen – if they happen – then we indeed are sharing the blessings of God along with Jesus, we are heirs just as Jesus was.

There is also another dimension to Paul's "if" clause. Suffering with Jesus will involve, or may involve in different circumstances, a variety of troubles caused by others for no other reason than that one is a committed believer in Jesus. The Christians in Rome may well have been experiencing the beginnings of persecution from the Roman government under emperor Nero. And this would continue sporadically for another three hundred or so years. Christians simply had to figure out a way to endure all of that, unjust though it may have been, recognizing that it was what God is requiring of them to demonstrate the integrity of their faith.

Similarly, Paul is also reminding them that there is this matter of being glorified with Jesus. Christians under persecution must learn to recognize also that when they successfully meet injustice and thus preserve their faith, they have joined Jesus in his glory. They are glorified with him, gaining the victory over the temptations and persecutions from the devil. As Paul will put it in his letter to the Ephesians later, we sit with Jesus in the heavenly places when we successfully endure the onslaughts of sin and Satan.

Chapter 14

THE BIG PICTURE

Romans 8:18-39

I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God; for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family. And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified.

What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else? Who will bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, 'For your sake we are being killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.' No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

1. What is so important about Paul's theology is that he always keeps in mind the big picture. He is a committed and dedicated theist, God-centered always, so that when he explains the significance of Jesus he always does so in connection with God's ultimate purpose. Paul is highly conversant with the Old Testament scriptures, especially Genesis but all the rest as well. So he knows all about how God created the world, what his purpose is in putting human beings on it, and how he is guiding the development of human life and civilization.

So it is in that context that we read, "I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God." The whole creation is waiting for something to happen, writes Paul. Waiting for what? For "the revealing of the children of God."

He has just written that all of us who believe in Jesus, Gentiles as well as Jews, and who live by the inner guidance of the Holy Spirit, are the children of God. That is what the world has been waiting for, affirms the apostle Paul. The whole creation has been waiting for what is happening right now, that people of any background can become children of God; not only can become, but do become. Paul hears the whole of God's creation heaving a tremendous sigh of relief, At last!

2. Well, that is something we seldom hear, is it not? The whole world is waiting for the time when people become Christian? That is what Paul is affirming. That's the big picture within which Paul sees the meaning of the coming of Jesus.

Paul explains why. "For the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God."

Subjected to futility. Paul has in mind the story of Adam and Eve's disobedience in the garden of Eden. And he understands that story to mean that the entire human race has been functioning in the same way ever since the beginning, doing what Adam and Eve did, defining for themselves what was right and wrong, setting up their own standards of behavior. Looking at the world of his day Paul sees the mass of humanity living by its own definition of good and evil rather than living by the will and law of their Creator. He describes the resulting civilization and culture as "futile." It doesn't image God. It doesn't produce the good life for all. It is based on violence, warfare, subjection of enemies, cruelty, injustice, and all kinds of evil and sin. It's what life outside of Eden looks like.

Paul does qualify his statement by saying that it was not anything inherent in creation that caused this condition. If that were the case then God would be responsible for it. But it was not God who made a mistake in creation, it was "the one who subjected it," Adam and Eve who made the disastrous decision.

So, from the very beginning of the human race the creation has been waiting for the time when humans will function the way they are intended to, as images of God. This is what is now happening, affirms Paul, so that the beginnings are now being made to free the creation from that miserable malfunctioning of the human race, and the obtaining of freedom and the glory of the children of God. Human civilization is being liberated from the malfunctioning of those who persist in a godless orientation.

3. Then Paul explains how this big picture forms the context for our own lives as Christians, giving us the divine perspective within which we may direct our lives. "We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies."

Paul makes an interesting comparison here, employing the term "groaning." The whole universe, he has said, has been groaning under the weight of a humanity gone wrong, and there is a comparable groaning in us as we strive for a better life. We see with our mind's eye what a good and holy life would look like, but when we reach for it and try hard to achieve it, we see ourselves coming short, so we too are groaning as we wait for the grace of God to do better.

Be careful here again not to take this out of the realm of the here and now. Waiting for the redemption of our bodies is often misunderstood as referring to a future time when there will be a general resurrection from the dead, the beginning of heaven and hell. Paul has not been talking in such an orientation, and we should not imagine him doing so now. Keep it all in the present tense. We know ourselves to be in need of constant correction and guidance from the word and Spirit of God, in our present bodies, and we keep waiting for betterment, groaning as it were.

4. Then Paul writes something rather odd when we think about it. "Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words." How does the Spirit help us in our weakness, and what does prayer have to do with it?

When Paul mentions that "we do not know how to pray as we ought" he means that while we sense in general how our lives could be better we don't really know exactly how to go about doing it. We don't know precisely what we should be asking for, that is, what it is that God is wanting for us. In general, yes, but in specifics, no.

But God does know the specifics, so the Spirit of God "intercedes for us." Paul wants us to understand that if we truly keep living in the spirit of holiness, that is, in the Holy Spirit, that spirit itself will guide us along the path that is right even if we do not know the destination toward which we are going. Keep doing the best you can according to the insights you have, always praying that the Spirit of Christ will guide you into the unknown paths of the future.

God is in the process of diminishing the groaning of the universe, slowly shaping a human race that is trying hard to move out of the clutches of violence and hatred and evil into the good graces of love and peace and obedient holiness. It doesn't happen overnight as we sometimes wish it would, but it is happening. If God took billions of years to bring the world as we know it into being, then we may well expect that it could take thousands of years, maybe millions, to bring the human race to the condition God has in mind.

Each of us has a small part to play in that grandiose scheme of God, one tiny section of time, but the Spirit is "interceding" for us to keep us steady and on the true path to holiness. And that is the context for prayer as Paul describes it.

5. There is something else we know, continues Paul, when we think of how the Spirit is leading our lives. "We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose."

Our first reaction when we read this sentence is to doubt whether Paul is right. Everything works out right for us when we are Christians? Doesn't seem that way. Lots of things go wrong, for Christians as well as unbelievers.

We need to recall that in this section of his letter Paul is taking the long view, describing the big picture. He is talking about God's "purpose." What is God doing as time moves along, as the gospel is being spread to all nations? Toward what goal is God guiding the progress of time and history? We should understand, accordingly, that Paul is not in the first instance meaning to say that everything will go well with us individually when we become Christians. He knows well enough that isn't the case, and he will find it out personally in just a few months when he makes a disastrous trip to Jerusalem.

So what Paul is getting at is how God is achieving his own goals by means of those "who are called according to his purpose." There may indeed be suffering and persecution coming to those who follow Jesus, but even though it produces hardship for the people, God will still be using their lives and witness to bring about the progress of the gospel.

From our vantage point in the twenty-first century we can see how this has worked out. Christians suffered sporadic persecutions for some three hundred years in the Roman empire, but by the year 390 or so the Roman emperor declared Christianity to be the only legal religion of the empire! God was achieving his purpose even through the sufferings of his people. All those things were working out for the good of the gospel and of God's purpose.

The point is that we must not expect that everything that happens in our lives will be good. Lots of bad things happen. We even do them ourselves, do we not?

Still, there is this also: if we persevere in faith, even when things go wrong, we have the assurance that God will guide us through. Many Christians can and do testify that the worst experiences in their lives did turn out in the end to be the means for growing in faith and trust. They became better Christians because of the trials and problems through which the Lord led them. So if we are careful not to misunderstand Paul we can find assurance in this passage also that even our sufferings will produce good for us if we remain faithful.

6. Paul then spells out in more detail what he has just dictated to Tertius, explaining how God makes sure that what happens on earth does produce the good things necessary to achieve his eternal purpose, the big picture. "For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family. And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified." God wants the church to become "a large family."

At first reading we might not get the point. How does this sequence – foreknowledge, predestination, calling, justification, glorification – how does all that serve to demonstrate that "all things work together for good" in achieving God's purpose of creating a large family?

For the most part our systematic theologies miss the point of this passage. They develop a doctrine known as the _ordo salutis_ , order of salvation. But they seldom explain it in such a way as to put it into a theistic setting, God achieving his purpose. Their emphasis is on us, on the way we experience becoming a Christian, as if God's purpose is fulfilled simply by getting persons to believe in Jesus.

God's purpose is much larger than individual believers; it is the direction of history toward a goal only he knows. Individual believers are indeed important for the time in which God calls them to live. But none of us knows just what God has in mind for the far distant future. Our calling is to be faithful during the time God gives us, and thus to trust that the Lord will use whatever happens in our time for the progress of his kingdom, the "large family" of which Paul speaks.

7. So let's look a bit more carefully at that sequence: foreknowledge, predestination, calling, justification, glorification. To understand what Paul is explaining here we must share the stance that Paul is taking, a theistic stance. Not a humanistic, man-centered stance. Not only how we experience the sequence of our salvation, but what God is doing in us in order to achieve what his goals are. Stand in heaven next to God and watch as he does what he is accomplishing down here on earth.

But pause a moment to ask how does Paul know all this, how does he know what goes on in the mind of God? How does he dare to explain what God is doing? Well, Paul has been trained expertly in what we call the Old Testament scriptures. He understands from those studies what God has as a matter of fact done, beginning with creation, moving on to the covenant with Abraham, then on to the Torah and Moses, and thus on through Israelite history all the way down to the present in the sending of the messiah, God's only-begotten Son Jesus.

Paul has thought deeply and sincerely about all of that history and has discerned the pattern of what God is doing in history, and he is now bringing that process up to date in what God is continuing to do in the slow spread of the gospel into the Gentile world. So Paul is not simply expressing his own opinions; he is pointing to the actualities of time and history, what God has been doing in the past and what God is doing now in the first century.

So that is why we can stand with him, so to speak, in the shoes of God, and watch as God goes about his business. The Holy Spirit has led Paul to see it first, and now Paul becomes our docent to show it to us in this letter to the church in Rome.

8. So, first: foreknowledge. Paul wants us to understand that God has in his own mind a purpose, a purpose for creating the world to begin with, for putting humans on the earth, for doing exactly what he has been doing in the development of human life and history and civilization. That's where Paul wants us to begin: God knows what he is doing, even if it is difficult for us to see any meaning in it.

Second: predestination. Paul wants us to know, further, that God not only knows what he is doing, he has it all figured out how to accomplish it. God knows how he is actually going to work it out in the ups and downs of human life and history. We can't always make sense of what is happening in our times, but God has it all planned out and he is directing all things precisely as he wants them to occur. Everything that happens is planned out to move the world step by step closer to the destiny which God has in mind. That's predestination.

Third: calling. Now Paul is getting down to our actual experience. God sends his Son into the world to summon all people back to God. The gospel comes to Jew and Gentile alike, inviting all to come and find a better life through faith in Jesus and the inner guidance of the Holy Spirit. The call of the gospel as it is brought by the messengers Christ ordains.

Fourth: justification. For those who hear the call of the gospel and respond in faith. The process of bringing sinners out of the grasp of sin and evil into the embrace of Jesus. The guilt and shame of sin is wiped away as believers emerge out of the morass of self-centeredness into the freedom of life from heaven.

Fifth: glorification. Being brought to sit with Christ in the heavenly places. Having died with Jesus to the grip of sin, having risen with Jesus to a new and glorious life, believers now see themselves as "more than conquerors" over the negatives of sin and evil, glorified along with Jesus.

These five steps are one way, Paul's way, of understanding how God works, how God is going about achieving the goal he set in the beginning of the creation.

9. Maybe Paul and Tertius paused for a while now for a coffee break or a meal. When they return to the dictating desk Paul resumes by reflecting on what he has been saying and asking what difference it all makes in the way we live, "What then are we to say about these things?"

Paul may have heard about the threat of persecution in Rome. People would be accusing Christians of doing all kinds of immoral and antisocial things, so Paul wants to make sense of what he has been saying as it applies to the circumstances in Rome. This is how he opens up that application, "If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else?"

There may be a lot of people against Christians, even perhaps the emperor already at this time. But if we remember that God is in control of events, Paul says, God will give us everything we need to weather the storm of hatred and discrimination. God gave his Son, so surely he will not withhold anything we need to survive opposition.

10. The clue, Paul is reminding them, is to be a theist, to understand everything from the point of view of God, not of our own experiences. People may accuse us of all kinds of weird and strange behavior, but so what, says Paul, "It is God who justifies." We do not have to worry overmuch about what unbelievers think about us, we need to persevere in the confidence that we are in the care of God. Who can condemn us when it is God who justifies us?

Paul reminds his readers in Rome that Jesus has not only died but he has also been raised and that he now is at the right hand of God. And what has that to do with the persecution of Christians in Rome? Jesus is at the right hand of God interceding for us. "It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us."

Jesus in heaven is the constant proof of the validity of our faith. We have not invented those ideas; we have recognized the objective reality of the great climactic events of Jesus' life, his death, his resurrection, and his ascension. It is not our faith that stabilizes us, it is the factual reality of what God has done in and through his Son Jesus. The proof of our faith is not inside us, it is in heaven at the right hand of God. Paul wants them all to be thoroughly God-centered.

11. And then Paul goes on in a remarkable pastoral homily, encouraging the Christians in Rome who may be contemplating whether or not to renounce their faith. Don't do that, Paul says, for nothing anyone can do to you is able to destroy God's love for you. Not discrimination, not imprisonment, not even the final scourge of death. "Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?"

No, he says, none of that can destroy God's love shown in Jesus. On the contrary, even if your enemies think they are gaining some victories over you by their various machinations, when we persevere in the faith "we are more than conquerors through him who loved us." We're the ones who conquer, not our enemies.

Paul concludes this segment of his dictation with his own vigorous declaration of faith in God and in what God has done in Jesus, a declaration that has resonated with millions of believers ever since. "For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Paul is not glorying in his own faith, he is glorying in the grace and power and goodness of the Lord. It is the stance all believers will wish to take.

Chapter 15

SO WHAT ABOUT JEWISH HISTORY?

Romans 9:1-33

I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience confirms it by the Holy Spirit—I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my own people, my kindred according to the flesh. They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises; to them belong the patriarchs, and from them, according to the flesh, comes the Messiah, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen.

It is not as though the word of God had failed. For not all Israelites truly belong to Israel, and not all of Abraham's children are his true descendants; but 'It is through Isaac that descendants shall be named after you.' This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as descendants. For this is what the promise said, 'About this time I will return and Sarah shall have a son.' Nor is that all; something similar happened to Rebecca when she had conceived children by one husband, our ancestor Isaac. Even before they had been born or had done anything good or bad (so that God's purpose of election might continue, not by works but by his call) she was told, 'The elder shall serve the younger.' As it is written, 'I have loved Jacob, but I have hated Esau.'

What then are we to say? Is there injustice on God's part? By no means! For he says to Moses, 'I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.' So it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who shows mercy. For the scripture says to Pharaoh, 'I have raised you up for the very purpose of showing my power in you, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.' So then he has mercy on whomsoever he chooses, and he hardens the heart of whomsoever he chooses.

You will say to me then, 'Why then does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?' But who indeed are you, a human being, to argue with God? Will what is molded say to the one who molds it, 'Why have you made me like this?' Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one object for special use and another for ordinary use? What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience the objects of wrath that are made for destruction; and what if he has done so in order to make known the riches of his glory for the objects of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory—including us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles? As indeed he says in Hosea, 'Those who were not my people I will call "my people", and her who was not beloved I will call "beloved".' 'And in the very place where it was said to them, "You are not my people", there they shall be called children of the living God.'

And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, 'Though the number of the children of Israel were like the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved; for the Lord will execute his sentence on the earth quickly and decisively.' And as Isaiah predicted, 'If the Lord of hosts had not left survivors to us, we would have fared like Sodom and been made like Gomorrah.'

What then are we to say? Gentiles, who did not strive for righteousness, have attained it, that is, righteousness through faith; but Israel, who did strive for the righteousness that is based on the law, did not succeed in fulfilling that law. Why not? Because they did not strive for it on the basis of faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling-stone, as it is written, 'See, I am laying in Zion a stone that will make people stumble, a rock that will make them fall, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.'

1. There seems to be a major break now in the development of Paul's thinking. He seems to have finished pretty well the line of reasoning he has been following, and now he returns to a theme he began much earlier: what advantage do the Jewish people have over Gentile people? Recall that he had asked this very question back in Romans 3:1.

At that point he had insisted that Jewish people had a great advantage, "much in every way," and he specified as a beginning that "the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God." Presumably he meant the national heritage of sacred writings that we now call the Old Testament. But he never did continue that listing, until now in what we call chapter nine.

Here he makes an extensive listing without going into detail on any of them, "They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises; to them belong the patriarchs, and from them, according to the flesh, comes the Messiah, who is over all, God blessed for ever."

We might wonder at this point where Paul's thinking will take him as he tries to find cogent new ways of explaining why now non-Jewish people are to be accepted as equals in the church. Granted that Jewish people have a great advantage, how then can non-Jewish people also take advantage of that history of divine guidance?

2. Paul will get to that question soon enough, but he has some other things in mind to take care of first. He is thinking that there may well be some Christians in Rome, as elsewhere, who observe that even with all that advantage, the Jewish people did after all kill Jesus. Doesn't that mean God's purpose in separating the Jewish people failed? God wanted to create a godly nation, but look at us after more than a thousand years. We rejected the very messiah God sent to us. So doesn't this mean God's purpose failed? God failed in his purpose? Our entire heritage of having the covenant has been worthless, ineffective, non-productive, a failure.

Paul replies to this unspoken objection, "It is not as though the word of God had failed." Why not? Paul does not give his answer directly, but after some preparatory explanations he makes his point.

The word of God has not failed because now through the history of the Israelites God has sent his Son Jesus, and Jesus is drawing both Jews and Gentiles into his embrace. The success of God's word is not to be seen only in the nation of the Jews, but rather in the church composed of any and all who believe in Jesus and live by his Spirit. Here is how he puts it somewhat later in this chapter, "What then are we to say? Gentiles, who did not strive for righteousness, have attained it, that is, righteousness through faith; but Israel, who did strive for the righteousness that is based on the law, did not succeed in fulfilling that law."

3. What Paul wants his readers in Rome to understand is that God's purpose, his word, does not involve simply everyone who is a descendant of Abraham, that is, physical descendants. He reminds them that this is seen already when Isaac was chosen to be the heir of Abraham, not his older brother Ishmael. Paul dictates, "It is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as descendants." And he goes on to show that the same choice was made when Jacob was chosen, not Esau.

What Paul is explaining is that a similar differentiation is taking place even now. Some Jewish people are coming to accept Jesus as the messiah sent by God, even though most of them are rejecting him. But in addition there are many non-Jewish people who are coming to Jesus, adding to the total number of those who are entering the kingdom of God through faith in Jesus. Earlier, in Galatians 6:16, Paul employed the term "Israel of God" to describe this combination of believing Jews and Gentiles. Paul is saying that God's word has not failed because its success is to be seen in the fact that many Jews and many Gentiles are now being shaped into the holy nation that God is creating. Not physical descendants of Abraham, but those who come to Jesus in faith.

4. Paul uses an expression in this section of his dictation that bothers us somewhat. He says, "I have loved Jacob, but I have hated Esau." We wonder, if God is love as the apostle John is so fond of writing, how is it possible for him to hate anyone? Does God really hate people who do not believe in Jesus? Doesn't seem to fit our idea of a loving and compassionate God who created all people in his image and declared it to be very good.

It's partly a matter of translation. Our English word "hate" might be carrying certain connotations that the Greek word does not. Let the facts of the matter decide what the terminology means. God did not choose Ishmael because Ishmael chose for his mother's pagan gods rather that his father's single God. God did not choose Esau for much the same reason; he did not come to a genuine conversion as did his twin brother Jacob. God did choose Isaac and he did choose Jacob to be the true inheritors of Abraham's faith; he did choose them and they did carry on the legacy of the covenant.

Those facts of the matter ought to tell us what Paul meant by God hating Esau. He did not necessarily hate in our modern sense, but only in the sense that he rejected Esau and chose Jacob instead. So we might understand Paul as saying, I have chosen Jacob, but I have rejected Esau.

5. Paul then goes on to discuss the question of election. He comments that God made this choice of Jacob "so that God's purpose of election might continue." God's purpose. God's intention. God's word. Paul is a dedicated theist, explaining everything from the point of view of God. God chose Jacob before he was even born to be the person through whom God's purpose would continue. Of course that had to be worked out in the actual human life of Jacob as he struggled with his own perversity and was forced to humble himself in penitence before he could rise again to a stronger faith in God.

Paul then provides another example from Israelite history, going back this time to Moses and Pharaoh. "For the scripture says to Pharaoh, 'I have raised you up for the very purpose of showing my power in you, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.'" In spite of the persistent efforts of Pharaoh to keep the Israelites in Egypt, God did in fact get them out. Pharaoh's stubbornness serves to highlight the greater power of God.

Paul wants us to understand that the all-comprehensive purpose of God, his word, is the controlling power in the development of human life and history. No matter what opposition and negativity the gospel may encounter it will be God's purpose and his will that eventually prevails. We must be so convinced of this that no doubt remains whatsoever. God's word cannot, simply cannot, fail.

6. But Paul does know well enough the kinds of problems and objections that people raise as they try to work their own way through the issues involved. Paul knows this from two sources: his own personal struggles for ten years after his conversion, and the objections raised by the Judaizers who had problems with the way Paul brought the gospel.

So he next considers one of these problems. "What then are we to say? Is there injustice on God's part?" It doesn't seem fair for God to raise up some people only to reject them. Or to use them simply to display his own superiority. What does that do to our sense of responsibility? How do we even know what side we are on in God's sight? Such seemingly arbitrary choices on God's part do not seem consistent with other things the Bible teaches us.

"By no means!" Paul exclaims. That's God's business, not ours. God knows how he needs to go about getting the human race to the destiny he has in mind. Some people simply will not pay attention to the truth and will find themselves shut out. Others will hear the gospel, respond in faith, and find themselves enfolded into the family of God. God knows this and he chooses to work through those who come to the light, who believe in Jesus and live the way the Spirit of God counsels.

So we must not allow ourselves to think ill of God if he chooses to work in some people and not in others. As time passes, we may well observe, more and more people are drawn into the kingdom, until at last we may visualize the entire human race in the loving and electing embrace of the Creator. Paul summarizes, "So then he has mercy on whomsoever he chooses, and he hardens the heart of whomsoever he chooses." That's harsh language, but if we can get into the theistic mindset of Paul we will begin to understand why he puts it that way.

In no way may we understand Paul as undermining a person's responsibility to hear the gospel of truth and surrender to the Lord Jesus. We know ourselves to be chosen by God when and only when we find ourselves listening humbly to the word of the gospel and responding in penitent faith.

7. Then there is another objection. "You will say to me then, 'Why then does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?'" It appears that Paul does not have a reasoned answer to this question. He can say only, "But who indeed are you, a human being, to argue with God?" Just face it, he seems to be saying, that's just the way things are; God knows what he is doing, we don't, so just accept it.

And maybe that is the best we can do when we ask questions like this. We can confess that God created the world and that he is directing it toward a purpose that only he knows, and thus that the methods he follows to get it done are his to understand and ours to accept. In the meantime, during the brief period of time he allots to each of us, we need simply to control our lives as best we can by what we do know and the guidance that the Spirit provides.

The Lord will do as he pleases, and we simply must accept that without in the least implying that God isn't being fair. In terms of the long history of the Israelites as depicted in the Old Testament, and the current fact that these people have rejected Jesus, Paul quotes Isaiah as follows, "Though the number of the children of Israel were like the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved; for the Lord will execute his sentence on the earth quickly and decisively." This has, as a matter of historical fact, happened.

Was it unjust on the part of God to let it happen? That he allowed the Jewish leaders and the Roman representatives to put Jesus to death? The fault would be theirs would it not, not God's? God was using even their perfidy to bring about the results that, in his judgment, could only be brought about in this way. He had given them his Torah Law but they missed the point, so now he is giving them something better.

8. It will be helpful to take a look also at one of Paul's sentences, "Only a remnant of them will be saved." This really is one of the critical points in Paul's theology. While it is true that the nation as a whole did reject Jesus, so that it might seem God's plan wasn't working, there were a significant number of Jewish people who were responding in faith. So Paul is saying that the nation as a whole has decided to opt out of God's new covenant, nevertheless this very rejection is the development that was forcing the gospel out of its Jewish origins into the broader world of Gentiles.

And that, after all, is precisely what God intended way back in the time of Abraham when he promised that Abraham would be a blessing to the whole earth. Paul will be examining this thesis in greater detail in the next two chapters, but the theme is struck here. God's purpose, his word, is indeed working, not in the nation of Israel any longer but now in the new gathering of believers, both Jewish and Gentile, the gathering we today call the church.

9. Paul now sums up what he has been trying to explain. In terms of righteousness, that is, the condition of being within the plan and purpose of God for human beings, Gentiles are making it in, Jews are being shut out. Notice again that this is the theme that Paul has been working at since the beginning of his letter: the relationship of Jews and Gentiles in the church.

"What then are we to say? Gentiles, who did not strive for righteousness, have attained it, that is, righteousness through faith; but Israel, who did strive for the righteousness that is based on the law, did not succeed in fulfilling that law. Why not? Because they did not strive for it on the basis of faith, but as if it were based on works."

Chapter 16

THE CALL OF THE GOSPEL

Romans 10:1-21

Brothers and sisters, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. I can testify that they have a zeal for God, but it is not enlightened. For, being ignorant of the righteousness that comes from God, and seeking to establish their own, they have not submitted to God's righteousness. For Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.

Moses writes concerning the righteousness that comes from the law, that 'the person who does these things will live by them.' But the righteousness that comes from faith says, 'Do not say in your heart, "Who will ascend into heaven?"' (that is, to bring Christ down) 'or "Who will descend into the abyss?"' (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? 'The word is near you, on your lips and in your heart' (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved. The scripture says, 'No one who believes in him will be put to shame.' For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and is generous to all who call on him. For, 'Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.'

But how are they to call on one in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him? And how are they to proclaim him unless they are sent? As it is written, 'How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!' But not all have obeyed the good news; for Isaiah says, 'Lord, who has believed our message?' So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the word of Christ.

But I ask, have they not heard? Indeed they have; for 'Their voice has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.' Again I ask, did Israel not understand? First Moses says, 'I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation; with a foolish nation I will make you angry.' Then Isaiah is so bold as to say, 'I have been found by those who did not seek me; I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me.' But of Israel he says, 'All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.'

1. "Brothers and sisters, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved." It would seem that Paul and Tertius took a break before resuming dictation here in what we call chapter ten. And it is apparent that Paul is thinking seriously about his Jewish brethren and their vigorous challenges to what he is teaching. Who is the "them" for whom his desire and prayers are concerned? Clearly, from what he goes on to say, it is the Jewish segment of his readers. The rest of this chapter deals with precedents quoted from the ancient holy scriptures of the Jewish people.

Tertius copies Paul's words, "I can testify that they have a zeal for God, but it is not enlightened." Paul is writing from his own experience here. As a student rabbi in his early years in Jerusalem Paul was as zealous and rabid a student of the Law as anyone could be, surpassing others in his intellectual and moral commitment to the Torah. He knows this mentality, this spirit, this commitment is in general the stance that Judaism as a whole has taken, a stance that supports the Torah over against the gospel of Jesus Christ. Paul acknowledges that they are sincere in doing this but observes that the zeal they manifest is "not enlightened."

Jesus has come as the Light of the world, casting new light on God's will and purpose. The Torah, good as it is and has been, is now being supplanted by something even better, the ministry of Jesus. The Law is now being written on hearts of flesh rather than on tables of stone or scrolls of papyrus. God is working directly in the hearts of believers, rather than indirectly by means of external regulations. The Holy Spirit is now doing effectively what the Torah had been trying to do for centuries but failed at, creating a holy nation.

2. Paul then writes something that captures succinctly the relation between Jesus and the Torah, "Christ is the end of the law." The "end" here is the Greek word ς (telos) which means destination or purpose or goal. Our English connotation might include the notion of termination or conclusion, but this is not the primary intent of Paul. Paul wants the Jewish readers to understand that God has given them the Torah for a purpose, with a goal in mind. That purpose or goal is to become a holy nation.

But the Torah, for all its benefits, did not actually result in creating a holy nation, since that nation crucified the messenger Jesus that God sent them. So now God is supplying something that will actually do what the Torah was incompetent to do, the gospel. What the Torah could not do, Jesus is doing. Jesus achieves the "end" toward which the law had been working.

In fact, Paul continues, the gospel will do even more than the Torah was intended to do. It will bring "righteousness for everyone who believes." Not only produce a holy Jewish nation as the Torah was geared to do, but bring into God's embrace people of every nation until at last the entirety of the human race will bow the knee to Jesus.

3. One suspects that Tertius could not keep up very well with the rapid pace of Paul's dictation in what we read in the next paragraph. It's very hard to get the point. We can understand well enough what he writes about Moses, "Moses writes concerning the righteousness that comes from the law, that 'the person who does these things will live by them.'" You have the Torah with all its variegated requirements and you follow them carefully simply because that's what God wants you to do. You live by them.

God really requires more than simply compliance with rules. He wants our hearts to be filled with truth and goodness and holiness, such that we live not merely by obeying rules but by following the Spirit of holiness functioning within us.

However, it is very difficult to make sense, in that context, of what we read next. "But the righteousness that comes from faith says, 'Do not say in your heart, "Who will ascend into heaven?"' (that is, to bring Christ down) 'or "Who will descend into the abyss?"' (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead)." Paul is speaking in negatives; this is not what faith does. But what does it do, positively?

4. Paul does go on to define what faith does do, what the scriptures do teach about how God wants us to respond. "The word is near you, on your lips and in your heart."

Let us take note of how Paul employs the term "word." "The word is near you." He does not mean the Bible is right there on your desk or even in your hands. He means what God is saying, particularly what God is saying in the gospel of Jesus Christ. That word of God is right there, not on tables of stone or scrolls of papyrus, but directly in your mind, "on your lips and in your heart." God is speaking directly to you by means of the gospel, speaking in such a way that you too can put it into words and embrace it in your inmost being. Do you hear? Paul is asking.

5. Paul wants them to "confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead." We will note here that the gospel asks us to do two things: confess and believe. Believe, really believe, that Jesus rose from the dead, that God caused this to happen. And also confess, acknowledge that "Jesus is Lord."

What does it involve to confess with our lips that Jesus is Lord? It means surrender, total surrender. No longer do we run our own lives according to what we want to be, but we ask what God wants us to be. We surrender our own sense of right and wrong to Jesus, and accept what he leads us to think and how to conduct our lives. Who controls your life, you yourself or the Lord Jesus? Being a Christian means that Jesus is our Lord, that we confess this openly and live accordingly.

6. Paul then employs the word "saved". If we do the two things mentioned, confess and believe, then Paul says, "you will be saved."

"Saved," we might ask, from what? What precisely does Paul mean and imply by using this word? Paul has been addressing in these sentences mainly Christians of Jewish background, but he always has in mind Gentile Christians as well. So what do Jewish believers need to be saved from, and what do Gentile believers need to be saved from? Apparently from what they used to be before they were Christians.

And again we should be careful not to think of something supposed to happen in the far-off future after we die and the world comes to an end. To be saved does not mean going to heaven when we die. Paul means being saved from a lifestyle of sin for a lifestyle of faith and obedience. For Gentiles this would mean, at a minimum, escape from the polytheistic duties of heathen religion. For Jews it would mean, at a minimum, release from the ritualistic burdens of the Torah.

Here is how he puts it, "For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved." Paul is using the present tense of the verbs, indicating that this is what happens now in this life when one believes in Jesus and confesses publicly to that faith. "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved."

7. Next Paul goes on a bit of a sidetrack, prompted by that last sentence about calling on the name of the Lord. What must happen in order for people to "call on one in whom they have not believed"? Paul means believing in Jesus, of course.

Someone has to tell them about Jesus. Such people have to be sent with the message. Paul obviously is talking about persons, apostles such as himself, who have been authorized by responsible churches to spread the gospel. But he very likely would mean also anyone God himself sends with the gospel even if not specifically ordained to preach the good news about Jesus. "How are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him? And how are they to proclaim him unless they are sent?"

We may wonder how Paul views himself in this regard. Paul did not learn his theology from any other Christian teachers, as he explains in Galatians 1:16. He figured it out entirely on his own, using his extensive knowledge of the Hebrew scriptures and what little he did know about Jesus' life. But perhaps we may regard his experience as an exception to the regular practice. People in general do not believe in Jesus unless someone comes to tell them about him.

8. We may remind ourselves that Christianity is not a religion developed purely out of natural life. It is something that God himself has injected into his creation. It does indeed enable humans to live the pure natural life that creation implies, but it comes from the man whom God sent specifically to open up the way, his Son Jesus.

Jesus opens up the way into the kingdom of God, where we humans do our best to obey the will of our Creator. This does not come by purely natural impulses but by repentance from those impulses, turning away from the practices that formerly we chose to do.

So Paul sums it up, as he often does, in a memorable quotation, "So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the word of Christ." There is no natural way for us to attain this faith, only by responding to the gospel that is brought to us by others. And let us make no mistake, there is no other way to be saved, to be liberated from the bondage of sin and evil. The way of repentance, faith, and obedience is the only way to God.

9. One can feel the sorrow of Paul as he develops this line of thought, as he agonizes about the inescapable fact that his people, the Jews, did indeed hear the voice of God but have rejected it. He quotes Moses and Isaiah to demonstrate that what he is saying is in perfect harmony with what the treasured scriptures have said all along.

"But I ask, have they not heard? Indeed they have; for 'Their voice has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.' Again I ask, did Israel not understand? First Moses says, 'I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation; with a foolish nation I will make you angry.' Then Isaiah is so bold as to say, 'I have been found by those who did not seek me; I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me.' But of Israel he says, 'All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.'"

This chapter is entitled, The Call of the Gospel. Paul has been emphasizing the necessity of listening to what God is saying by means of the gospel of Jesus Christ. He is urging the good people in Rome to keep listening to what God says and to follow up by repentance, faith in Jesus, and living in the Spirit of God, regardless of any opposition they may encounter from various sources.

And now this sad conclusion to chapter ten will lead him to another avenue to pursue in his attempt to encourage the Christians in Rome.

Chapter 17

ECCLESIASTICAL GRAFTING

Romans 11:1-36

I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel?' Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars; I alone am left, and they are seeking my life.' But what is the divine reply to him? 'I have kept for myself seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal.' So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace. But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace would no longer be grace.

What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking. The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened, as it is written, 'God gave them a sluggish spirit, eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear, down to this very day.' And David says, 'Let their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling-block and a retribution for them; let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see, and keep their backs for ever bent.'

So I ask, have they stumbled so as to fall? By no means! But through their stumbling salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel jealous. Now if their stumbling means riches for the world, and if their defeat means riches for Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean!

Now I am speaking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I glorify my ministry in order to make my own people jealous, and thus save some of them. For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead! If the part of the dough offered as first fruits is holy, then the whole batch is holy; and if the root is holy, then the branches also are holy.

But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, a wild olive shoot, were grafted in their place to share the rich root of the olive tree, do not vaunt yourselves over the branches. If you do vaunt yourselves, remember that it is not you that support the root, but the root that supports you. You will say, 'Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.' That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand only through faith. So do not become proud, but stand in awe. For if God did not spare the natural branches, perhaps he will not spare you. Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity towards those who have fallen, but God's kindness towards you, provided you continue in his kindness; otherwise you also will be cut off. And even those of Israel, if they do not persist in unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again. For if you have been cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these natural branches be grafted back into their own olive tree.

So that you may not claim to be wiser than you are, brothers and sisters, I want you to understand this mystery: a hardening has come upon part of Israel, until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved; as it is written, 'Out of Zion will come the Deliverer; he will banish ungodliness from Jacob.' 'And this is my covenant with them, when I take away their sins.' As regards the gospel they are enemies of God for your sake; but as regards election they are beloved, for the sake of their ancestors; for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. Just as you were once disobedient to God but have now received mercy because of their disobedience, so they have now been disobedient in order that, by the mercy shown to you, they too may now receive mercy. For God has imprisoned all in disobedience so that he may be merciful to all.

O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! 'For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?' 'Or who has given a gift to him, to receive a gift in return?' For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory for ever. Amen.

1. Paul can't leave the subject alone. He has to address it in every way he can think of. So another analogy occurs to him, which he gets to in the later half of this chapter, the analogy of grafting.

But first he rehashes some of the things he has just recently touched on, but in a slightly different context. Earlier he had asked if the word of God had failed because the Torah did not produce a holy nation. Now he puts much the same kind of question this way, "I ask, then, has God rejected his people?"

His answer, as we expect, is the same, "By no means." What's the proof? Why, Paul himself. "I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew." If God had rejected the Israelite nation in its entirety, then Paul himself would have been rejected also. But he isn't rejected; he is a believer and has been brought into the kingdom of God through faith in Jesus.

2. Paul then goes back to an incident in Old Testament history, the encounter between Elijah and King Ahab. After Queen Jezebel vowed to destroy him, Elijah fled in abject defeat and contemplated suicide, thinking his service to the Lord was useless. But God rebuked him and said, "I have kept for myself seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal."

From that encounter Paul derives his doctrine of the remnant. "So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace. But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace would no longer be grace." Paul has specified himself as a member of that remnant, and he is telling the people in Rome that everyone who believes in Jesus in his heart and confesses with his lips is a part also of that remnant. We might say the remnant is what we call the Christian church, the sum total of all people who believe.

Paul also at this point reaffirms a point he has made repeatedly, "chosen by grace." And he explains again that "if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works." He is saying again that God is no longer requiring his people to obey the ceremonial requirements of the old covenant of Torah. It is not simply the faithful observance of rituals and holy days and offerings and prohibitions that make up the entrance requirements, but simply the grace of God as channeled through Jesus and the Holy Spirit. God wants people who are themselves, body and soul, caught up into the glory of God, not merely people who go through the motions and retain a stubborn and impervious heart.

3. Paul returns again and again to the subject on his mind: how it is that the Jewish people, in spite of all their advantages, decided to reject Jesus, but thereby opened up the way for the gospel to be brought to the non-Jewish world. "What then?" he asks, "Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking. The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened."

Since the time of Abraham and of Moses the people of Israel were seeking to shape a culture that reflected belief in one God only, monotheism, and that by doing so would fulfill the intent of the Creator to have a human race imaging himself in its civilization. That is what God intended from the earliest appearance of humans on earth, and it is what the covenant and the Torah Law were designed to accomplish. Insofar as we can say this became the avowed goal also of the people of Israel we can say truthfully that it is what they were seeking.

But by the time Paul was writing this letter to the church in Rome it had become obvious that the nation of Israel, taken as a whole, had rejected Jesus as their messiah. Israel failed to obtain it, failed to obtain the kingdom of God that Jesus was presenting. Only some obtained it, those who believed in Jesus and received his Spirit. Paul refers to this group as "the elect." The rest, Paul affirms, "were hardened."

Note carefully what Paul means by the terminology he uses. Most Jews, in fact the nation taken as a whole, made the decision not to believe in Jesus. Some of them, however, did choose to believe; Paul calls them the remnant or "the elect." We make a sad mistake when we derive fatalistic meanings from such terminology. We must not think that God creates some people to believe in Jesus and others to not believe. Paul is simply finding terms that will describe the reality he observes. He observes that only some Jews believe but most do not. The term "elect" therefore describes what he sees, not what may or may not have existed in God's mind.

This is not, to be sure, a humanistic explanation that contradicts the theistic stance that Paul always takes. Of course, the fact that some people do believe in Jesus is at the same time evidence of the working of God in the hearts and minds of such persons. But this does not warrant us to develop a doctrine of predestination that for all intents and purposes cancels out any realistic human responsibility, such that we think our actions and decisions with respect to God and Jesus are irrelevant, that God will send us to heaven or hell merely on the basis of what he decides. That is pagan fatalism, it is not Christian faith.

4. Paul cannot leave the subject. He asks, "Have they stumbled so as to fall?" What does he mean by "stumble," or by "fall." We know what that means physically. Sometimes when we stumble we can catch ourselves before actually falling to the ground. But at other times we might stumble and find ourselves stretched out on the ground. How does Paul apply this analogy to what is happening to the Jewish people with regard to Jesus?

He exclaims, "By no means!" Israel has stumbled but has not fallen. How so? He means the same thing he explained earlier. The failure of the nation to follow Jesus does not mean God's purpose has failed, or that the whole history of Israel has been a mistake. Israel may have stumbled, but God's purpose has not fallen. God's purpose, on the contrary, the same purpose he expressed already to Abraham, is now extended to other nations, to other people who are also creatures of God capable of becoming true images of God. That is, of becoming people who do actually, in their personal and communal lives, image their Creator by living in holiness.

Paul wants all the believers in Rome, Jews especially but also Gentiles, to understand that the simple fact that Israel rejected Jesus does not prove that Jesus is an imposter, but rather that the gospel is now finding a positive response from other, non-Jewish, people. God's purpose is not destroyed, it is expanding. He says outrightly, "Through their stumbling salvation has come to the Gentiles." In fact, he adds, "Their stumbling means riches for the world."

5. At this point Paul begins to say things that have perplexed us down through the ages because it is not abundantly clear just what he means. "And if their defeat means riches for Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean!" Paul uses the adverb "their" twice. He is referring to the Jewish nation as a whole, the nation who rejected Jesus. But what specifically does Paul mean by speaking of "their full inclusion"?

He means if. If it should happen that the nation as a whole would come to faith in Jesus, accepting Jesus as their messiah, "how much more" beneficial would it be for the world as a whole and for God's purposes. How desirable would that be! But it hasn't happened; and only a remnant have come to faith.

6. Paul has had Jewish Christians in mind through all of this discussion about the failure of the nation to respond to God's grace. Now he turns to the Gentile Christians and what they should be thinking about the same matters. "Now I am speaking to you Gentiles."

What he says first to them is exactly the same as what he has just said to the Jews, "If their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead!" How wonderful it would be if they too would accept Jesus as their messiah! It would be the equivalent of "life from the dead." They have chosen the way of death by rejecting Jesus; how much better it would be if they rose out of that death into the spiritual life of Jesus!

We note that this sentence is an "if" clause, "If their rejection. . . ." We understand Paul to be saying, "If . . . their acceptance. . . ." Their rejection has brought "the world" into the kingdom of God, the Gentiles; similarly "their acceptance," should it happen, would bring life from the dead to them, the Jews. Paul would very much like to see that happen.

7. Paul introduces two analogies to bolster his point: dough and roots. "If the part of the dough offered as first fruits is holy, then the whole batch is holy; and if the root is holy, then the branches also are holy."

The two analogies are not exactly parallel. Consider the notion of the whole and the parts. You have the whole lump of dough and the part that is offered as first fruits; and you have the whole root of a tree and the parts that are branches.

Paul says if the part of the dough that is offered is holy, then the whole batch is holy. But in the next analogy he begins with the whole root being holy so that its parts are also holy. One analogy reasons from the part to the whole, the next analogy reasons from the whole to the part.

What is Paul saying to the Gentile believers in Rome? Paul is trying to explain as best he can what has been happening with regard to the Jews and Gentiles. That's the main theme he is developing in this letter. He has been explaining it over and over again with new connotations and analogies. He is addressing the question of why it is in God's plan that God's people, the Jews, have rejected God's messiah, but also now that people who were not previously in God's covenant are now being welcomed and made a constituent part of the new people of God.

The "whole" of God's people has been for more than a thousand years the Jewish nation. That "whole" has been until recently the holy core. But now the "whole" is no longer the Jewish nation, since they have rejected God's Son Jesus. The "whole" is now the body of believers, that group which we have been calling the church ever since. The "whole lump" is the church; the "whole root" is the church. Some parts of the old "whole," Jews who believe, now form the new "whole" which is the church, along with the Gentiles who now also believe in Jesus. Similarly, the "root" is now the church, begun by believing Jews, and believing Gentiles are now being grafted into it.

Those are the historical facts that Paul is doing his best to explain. There is no necessary implication that either the entirety of the Gentile population or the entirety of the Jewish population will eventually be converted and brought into the Christian church. That possibility is not in Paul's mind at all at this point. He is talking the present not the future here, and we should be careful not to read into Paul's terminology more than he intends.

8. Paul continues with a further explication of the grafting analogy. He is addressing particularly the Gentile Christians in the church at Rome. He reminds them that "some of the branches were broken off." He means the Jewish people who refuse to accept Jesus as the messiah God has sent. Then he goes on, "You, a wild olive shoot, were grafted in their place to share the rich root of the olive tree." Once they have been grafted in they are, of course, a part of the tree fully as much as the other branches which, in this case, means the Jews who do believe in Jesus.

It isn't clear whether or not Paul had ever encountered Gentile Christians who were boasting about becoming Christians whereas Jewish Christians were burdened with the guilt of their brethren who crucified Jesus. At any rate, Paul warns them not to do any such boasting, "Do not vaunt yourselves over the branches."

9. As always Paul thinks in a God-centered, theistic, way. Here too, in connection with the analogy of grafting, Paul calls their attention to what God is doing. "Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity towards those who have fallen, but God's kindness towards you." God's kindness is the source of the fact that now Gentiles are being incorporated into God's people. God's severity is the source of the fact that now unbelieving Jews are being excommunicated from God's people.

So Paul gives them a word of caution. Make sure you "continue in his kindness; otherwise you also will be cut off." It happened to others, be careful to not let it happen to you. Paul is still talking especially to Gentile Christians, but he uses the example of the Jewish nation as a warning to not let it happen to them.

10. Paul goes on to explain that even Jewish people who do not yet believe in Jesus may indeed change their minds and come to faith. If they do they too "will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again." If God can graft in Gentile believers, surely he is able also to graft in repentant Jewish believers.

11. We come now to one of the most controversial passages in any of Paul's letters, the statement that "all Israel will be saved." We will bear in mind what Paul has been doing in the preceding context, drawing the analogies of dough and olive tree. What he dictates next to Tertius is in further explication of the subject.

He employs the term "mystery" to describe what God has been doing, "I want you to understand this mystery." Our English translation may be a bit different from what the Greek term meant. When Paul uses this term he means something God has been doing that we did not perceive in the past, but which is now being made clear. This is evident from the very last sentence Paul dictates in this letter, "Now to God who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages but is now disclosed, and through the prophetic writings is made known to all the Gentiles, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith – to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever! Amen."

It was not clear to the Jewish people all during the period of the old covenant that God would be drawing Gentiles into his embrace, but now that is becoming clear. The mystery has been revealed. The gospel is going out to all nations on an equal basis. Gentile believers are being grafted into the root tree that is God's holy people.

12. "And so all Israel will be saved." This affirmation comes directly after Paul explains that the mystery of God's intention for the salvation of Gentiles has been revealed. It would be a sad mistake to lift this saying out of its context. Because Gentiles are now being grafted into the root of Israel, "all Israel will be saved." How so? What does the calling of the Gentiles have to do with the salvation of "all Israel"?

Paul acknowledges that the people of Israel, the Jews as they were then known, have become "enemies of God" by rejecting the Son of God. But he also acknowledges that with respect to the past they are the elect nation, the people chosen by God for special attention. "As regards the gospel they are enemies of God for your sake; but as regards election they are beloved, for the sake of their ancestors."

Paul then goes on to remind the Gentile believers that there is a comparison to be recognized. "Just as you were once disobedient to God but have now received mercy because of their disobedience, so they have now been disobedient in order that, by the mercy shown to you, they too may now receive mercy."

Some Jews believe in Jesus, and some Gentiles believe in Jesus; these now constitute the new people of God, what Paul calls elsewhere "the Israel of God." All Jews are welcome to believe and become part of the church, and all Gentiles are welcome to believe and become part of the church. All people, without differentiation, are welcome to move out of their sin and into the forgiving grace of God. "For God has imprisoned all in disobedience so that he may be merciful to all."

13. None of that subsequent context explains the saying, "And so all Israel will be saved." So we will have to recognize that it is the preceding context that defines Paul's meaning. The preceding context is mainly about the analogy of branches being grafted into an olive tree. Believing Gentiles are being grafted into the stock of what used to be the nation of Israel, but which is now the church of Jesus Christ. God's purpose, begun with the nation of Israel, is now being continued, not in the nation itself but in the body of those who believe, the church.

Understand, accordingly, that the little word "so" is crucial in understanding Paul. "So" is "thus", "in this way." So we may translate, "In this way all Israel will be saved." Paul is not implying that every Jew will be saved. Obviously that wasn't happening; they did not all believe in Jesus. Nor is he implying that the time will come when they all will.

What he is saying is simply that by having the Gentiles come in, God is accomplishing the purpose he had from the beginning, that Abraham would become a blessing to the whole world. That is the purpose of Israel. That purpose is coming to fulfillment now as the gospel is taking hold in the non-Jewish world as well. That's the way "all Israel" is being saved, the "new Israel of God."

14. Paul concludes this sometimes perplexing analysis with a grand hymn of praise to God. We must not overlook or minimize the profound sense of God's sovereignty that drives Paul in his mission and in his writing. Paul is not merely giving expression to how he sees things. He is explaining what God is doing, what God has shown him, what God is saying. You can't find a more God-centered man than Paul.

"O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! 'For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?' 'Or who has given a gift to him, to receive a gift in return?' For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory for ever. Amen."

He has in mind the historical view. Working with Jews mainly by means of a divine covenant, God brought the nation to this critical point in time when it was just right for God to send his Son Jesus. But all the while it was God's intent that the same blessings he was providing for the Israelites would someday be extended through them to all nations. That time has now come and it is incumbent on us to recognize it, accept it, and move on as we follow the leading of God's Spirit. That's what he wants his readers in Rome to see.

And there may well be an important thing also for us in the twenty-first century to learn. We must be careful not to make the same kind of mistake that the ancient Jews made when they rejected Jesus. They were so ingrained with what they had been doing in observance of the Torah that they were unable to move out and beyond, even when God summoned them.

It is possible to make a similar mistake in our day. We could, conceivably, become so thoroughly committed to the way we think theologically and the way we worship and the way we conduct ourselves as Christians that we obscure what God is doing in it all. God may well be summoning us now in our times to move out and beyond what we now know and have.

Moses once said to the Israelites at Mount Sinai, "The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children, that we may do all the things of the Law." (Deuteronomy 29:29) God revealed new things by sending Jesus, and God required his people to accept those new things and live by them.

He may well be doing a similar thing in our day, what with all the incredibly insightful things being revealed to us via the scientific community. He may well be summoning us to move out and beyond what has been revealed to us, following wherever the Spirit of Truth leads. Through it all it will be fundamentally important for us to retain a powerful God-centered faith, revealed in Jesus our Lord, and applied by the Holy Spirit.

Chapter 18

DUTY TO GOD

Romans 12:1-21

I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.

For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another. We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching; the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver, in generosity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness.

Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers.

Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are. Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written, 'Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.' No, 'if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads.' Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

1. Paul now turns from the theological to the ethical, from understanding to doing. May we surmise that he has had a good night's sleep before summoning Tertius again to his scribal desk? Paul does not abandon his theistic orientation, however, for he ties in the ethical with duty to God. God is our Creator and our duty is to function the way the Creator wishes; we are, as he has said earlier, slaves of God. So he writes, "I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship."

"Present your bodies." Interesting. Not present your minds. Not present your feelings. Not present your wills. But present your bodies. What does that mean? It means present yourself. Present yourself with everything you are, with your whole being, mind, will, emotions – everything. With everything you do with your body.

Paul will go on in the rest of this twelfth chapter of Romans to articulate detail after detail of how this is done, item after item of how to present our bodies to God.

2. Of special interest is the phraseology Paul uses to describe the heart of his ethical vision, "spiritual worship." (NRSV) That, of course, is our English translation, and it is one way of translating the original Greek terminology of Paul. Another significant translation is, "living sacrifices." (NIV) The Greek original is  (logiken latreian). The first term is the word from which our English "logic" is derived. The second term is the word commonly used to describe the service that a slave performs for his master.

Earlier in this letter Paul has explained that when a person becomes a follower of Jesus he exchanges slavery to sin for slavery to God. That is the connection Paul is making here also: slavery. What are the duties of a slave? How do we demonstrate in our daily living that we are slaves of God? What is it reasonable to expect from a slave?  is the logical service a slave performs for his master, the expected service.

Translators of different versions of the Bible have their own unique principles by which they translate such difficult phraseology. So the NRSV thinks Paul is talking about worship. The NIV thinks he is talking about sacrifices. But the Greek term has the connotation of service. When a person commits to believing wholeheartedly in Jesus, what does that imply as to how he shows that commitment in his daily living? That's the context of Paul.

So it appears that Paul is simply trying now to explain how everything he has been saying needs to be carried over into a person's life, whether Jew or Gentile. What latreia does faith in Jesus require? How do we serve the Lord in our various tasks and relationships? What does Christian living look like? How do Gentile Christians and Jewish Christians get along in God's church?

So in the great variety of items Paul will be mentioning in the rest of this chapter, it will be imperative for us to remember that he is still talking about how Jews and Gentiles should get along in the church community, both groups serving the same Lord.

3. "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect."

Paul begins his exposition of Christian ethics with a very basic principle in which he contrasts being conformed and being transformed. Don't be conformed to the standards of behavior evident in society at large, but rather let your thinking about how to live be transformed by what you know about God and what God is doing. Ask yourself what is "good and acceptable and perfect," not in your own opinion or in the opinion of others, but in "the will of God."

We should recognize that this principle is indeed very basic to being a Christian. What determines what we actually choose to do? If we are honest with ourselves we do need to see that, probably as often as not, what our surrounding culture accepts as right, what other people think, what society values, is what we ourselves might really want. Not what God wants. But Paul insists at the very beginning of his exhortations, "discern the will of God," and let that determine how you live.

4. So, granted now that we do try seriously to understand what God requires of us as his servant slaves, what next? What might that say about what we think of ourselves? Paul writes, "I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned."

If we understand ourselves to be slaves of God, then it would follow that what God wishes is more important than what we wish. What God is doing in the big picture is infinitely more important than what we are doing in the tiny picture. So we do need to remind ourselves constantly that our own individual career doesn't determine what is important for us. Of course that is important, but of secondary importance.

We need to understand, therefore, that the career in life that we follow is not in the first place our choice but God's gift. God has made us the persons we are, the talents and interests and potentials that each of us possess. So then, God tells us what to do, and we do that, whatever it may turn out to be. To interject a personal note here, I remember when I was a teenager there were two professions I did not want to have: teaching and ministry. But that is precisely where God sent me anyway: nine years a professional teacher in high school, seventeen years a church pastor, and then some editing work.

This is how a Christian person finds a sense of satisfaction and fulfillment, not having constantly to worry about one's own goals and hopes, but simply following the leading of the Lord, and accepting whatever circumstances that entails. A profound sense of belonging, of slavery, is what enables us to be happy and content in whatever circumstances the Lord may put us. He cares for us in all of life's concerns.

5. Paul applies this insight next to conditions within the congregation. He is fully aware that in many, if not all, Christian churches at the time, but also here in Rome, there is a certain amount of tension between believers of Jewish background and believers of non-Jewish background. So Paul reminds them, "For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another."

People are different. They have different interests, different ways of thinking, different attitudes and relationships, different personalities. These differences, understandably, sometimes erupt into bitterness and mutual criticism, producing intolerable tensions and sometimes even divisions in the churches.

Paul has already cited the solution: first, understand yourself to be a slave of God; second, don't think too highly of yourself; and now thirdly, recognize that it is God who makes us different, since he gives each of us the gifts that he determines are right for us. "We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching; the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver, in generosity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness."

6. We sometimes think of the Apostle John as being the apostle of love, since he emphasizes that virtue so strongly in his Gospel and letters. God is love. But we ought not overlook the fact that the Apostle Paul also stresses the importance of love. We think immediately of First Corinthians 15 where he insist that the greatest of all Christian virtues is love.

Actually Paul has written that letter, First Corinthians, just a few years earlier than he is now writing this letter to Rome, and he is dictating this letter while he is in Corinth, observing what effect his earlier letters may have had in the church there. So he tells the people in Rome, "Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor."

Let love be genuine. It is possible, I suppose, that love is not genuine. Perhaps some authoritarian church member chides another and says, "I say this because I love you." But the person being rebuked has no sense whatever that he is being loved; only that he is being criticized and rejected. The love being shown is not "with mutual affection."

Paul is dictating to Tertius. His mind is running ahead of Tertius' scribbling. So Paul breaks out in the burgeoning thoughts racing through his mind, the many ways in which we need to show our love for one another as reflecting God's love for us. Tertius does his best to get it all, "Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers."

7. Clever preachers could preach an entire sermon on any of these exhortations that Paul puts into this chapter twelve of Romans. How about this one, "Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them." That's hard to do. Our first temptation when insulted or criticized unfairly is to respond in kind. This, of course, creates a relationship of enmity, confrontation, opposition, adversarial. Paul does not want that to happen, for it obviates real communication and makes genuine love impossible. He explains further, "Do not repay anyone evil for evil." He says, "If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all." You can't control how other people respond to you, but you can control how you respond to them.

There is an interesting quotation that Paul makes in this connection. He quotes Proverbs 25:21-22, "If your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads." Burning coals? What's the connection?

It isn't clear what this analogy refers to. Was there in the far distant past a custom among people to put actual burning lumps of coal on certain offenders' heads? Different guesses have been made. Here is mine. I think Paul refers to a guilty conscience. When you respond in some kind and loving way to people who are severely chastising you, you create a response in them that makes them feel, even if they will not acknowledge it, that they are in the wrong in the severity of their condemnation. You arouse a vague sense of guilt in them.

Here's another possibility. Perhaps the term "coal" means what is left after a fire goes out. In that case it would be ashes; heap ashes on their heads, indicating that the fire has gone out.

But whatever Paul may actually have intended, it is clear that he is advising his readers in Rome, as well as us today, to respond to criticism with patience and love, not saying things that enflame others but in steady faith and courage to do one's best to retain a relationship of respect and love, thus following in the steps of Jesus. Let God take care of the situation. "Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written, 'Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord."

Chapter 19

DUTY TO GOVERNMENT

Romans 13:1-7

Let every person be subject to the governing authorities; for there is no authority except from God, and those authorities that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists authority resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Do you wish to have no fear of the authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive its approval; for it is God's servant for your good. But if you do what is wrong, you should be afraid, for the authority does not bear the sword in vain! It is the servant of God to execute wrath on the wrongdoer. Therefore one must be subject, not only because of wrath but also because of conscience. For the same reason you also pay taxes, for the authorities are God's servants, busy with this very thing. Pay to all what is due to them—taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due, respect to whom respect is due, honor to whom honor is due.

1. We know how much the Jews in Jerusalem hated the occupying forces of Rome, not having their own independence, and having to pay heavy tribute (taxes) every year to Caesar. But Paul is now writing to the Christian people in Rome, the home of Caesar himself. Just how much persecution was coming from political headquarters at this time is somewhat uncertain, but it would get much worse. The coming centuries would exacerbate the suffering greatly in sporadic campaigns to eradicate Christianity. So when Paul now addresses this circumstance, and asks what should be the Christian attitude toward the pagan governing authorities, he is addressing a very sensitive condition in Rome as well as elsewhere in the empire.

"Let every person be subject to the governing authorities; for there is no authority except from God, and those authorities that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists authority resists what God has appointed."

If you resist the Roman government you are resisting God. That's what Paul writes. How so?

Bear in mind something that has been emphasized repeatedly in this short pastoral commentary: Paul is a dedicated theist. He thinks not first of all about himself or his churches but about God. What is God accomplishing by what is going on here? So Paul consistently tries to explain what is happening in terms of God doing something that is necessary to get his purpose done.

In this case Paul is considering the way in which Roman hegemony over the Mediterranean world might be part of God's sovereign plan for the salvation of the world. Don't resist the Roman government because if you do you will be resisting something God has put in place.

One can hardly imagine that that piece of Pauline counsel was accepted eagerly. Don't resist Caligula, Nero, whoever might be occupying the throne at the time? Accept them as divinely ordained rulers? Wouldn't it rather be our duty as Christians to work for such wicked people to be toppled from authority? Set up a Christian government if we could? No, writes Paul, accept it as it is, cooperate and don't rebel.

But we today could well be asking similar questions about governments that seem to be functioning in illegitimate ways.

Clearly enough, we know very well that Christians must not support and encourage evil governments. God's ultimate goal is surely that all governments shall function in justice and integrity for the welfare of all its citizens, and if any given government fails in this it would seem we should seek to replace it with a better one. So how would we reconcile this duty with the duty that Paul mentions, that of being subject to the governing authorities of the day?

2. Paul would be thinking as a theist. He would be thinking that governments do have a place within God's purpose and plan. They do exist to provide something necessary for a country that is developing its civilization, providing a measure of justice and peace. So Paul is encouraging his readers in Rome to live under the conditions that do exist as faithfully as they can, recognizing that their ultimate loyalty is not to the government but to God. That may mean making the best of a bad situation. It may mean enduring obvious injustice. It may mean, as later it would, confiscation of property, imprisonment, exile, even death.

And as far as getting a better government is concerned, let God guide events in his own good time until betterment could take place. Some three hundred years after Paul dictated this to Tertius the empire had an emperor, Theodosius, who made Christianity the only legal religion throughout the empire. But hundreds and thousands of Christian people suffered horribly before that eventuality. So it seems that Paul's advice is simply, be a Christian here in this Roman empire, make the best of it, and don't rebel against it. Wait patiently for God.

Incidentally, we might note that the Jewish mentality was not that of Paul. The Jews in Jerusalem did rebel militarily against Rome just a few years later in AD 66, and then once again seventy-five years later, creating an international reputation for incalcitrance that did them no good at all, and which may have contributed to the widespread hatred of Jewish people to this day.

3. "Therefore one must be subject, not only because of wrath but also because of conscience." What Paul means here is that Christians should submit to governmental authority not merely because they would get into trouble if they did not, but that it's a matter of conscience as well. Submit because it is the right thing to do, not merely out of fear. Submit because this is what God wishes, not because of anything you may benefit from or suffer from.

This is advice that surely is still relevant today. There are well-intentioned people who have persuaded themselves that all government is wrong. It's of the devil, not of God. Nobody should have the power that governments have over people. Everyone should have personal responsibility for their own lives, without interference or dictation from governmental agencies.

So occasionally there will be persons who try to put this idea into practice, removing themselves as much as possible from ordinary society and getting back to nature as much as is possible. But Paul is saying Christians should be working hard at being Christian precisely within the culture in which they live, including government, working hard to make social structures and governmental processes better. Not because of what they may or may not get out of it, but because of "conscience," because this is what God wants them to do.

4. "For the same reason you also pay taxes, for the authorities are God's servants, busy with this very thing. Pay to all what is due to them—taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due, respect to whom respect is due, honor to whom honor is due."

It may have been difficult for the disciples of Jesus to honor Pontius Pilate. It may have been difficult for Paul himself to honor the emperor for whom he would soon be waiting to hear his case. It would be exceptionally difficult for persecuted Christians in later centuries to endure the recurrent hatred and injustice administered to them by governmental authorities.

But if they, and we today, could develop a strong sense of theism, that God is in control and that he knows what he is doing, then they, and we, can honor the office even when the person holding that office is unworthy. That's why Democrats today can pay taxes even if there is Republican control of the government, and vice-versa. That's why all parties can cooperate to the extent that they wish to minimize bad things and maximize good things. Christians respect their leaders even if they disagree with their policies. They show honor, not first of all because of the person, but because of the office. Because, after all, this is a matter of conscience under God.

Chapter 20

DUTY TO ONE ANOTHER

Romans 13:8-14

Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. The commandments, 'You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not covet'; and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.

Besides this, you know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; the night is far gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; let us live honorably as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarrelling and jealousy. Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.

1. But Paul cannot get the basic Jew/Gentile problem he is addressing out of his mind, so that when he comes back to the dictation chamber he reverts to the matter of Law, the question of what importance it still has for Christians of differing backgrounds.

"Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. The commandments, 'You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not covet'; and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law."

Paul has been talking about what a Christian owes to his government, and now he generalizes in terms of what a Christian owes to other people if he wishes to use the Law appropriately. "Love your neighbor as yourself." That's all. It's a question of doing right or doing wrong. If love of God and love of neighbor is the controlling principle of one's life, then there is no further requirement that God makes, no additional Law.

2. Paul wants his readers in Rome to understand that. Jewish people have been so accustomed to obeying the multiple requirements of the Torah Law that they are finding it difficult to think of being godly without concern for those laws. Some Jewish Christians, in fact, are of the opinion that those ceremonies and customs are permanently required by God, and therefore that Gentile converts to Jesus must also begin to obey them all.

So that, again, is the context of Paul's instruction. Forget the Torah Law. As good as it has been for our people in the past, it is no longer necessary because we have something much better. We have the Spirit of God himself to guide us, and that guide is to show us that "love is the fulfilling of the law." Of the Torah Law. You want to be obedient to God? Love God and love your neighbor, don't do harm to anyone, and that is all God requires of you.

3. From our vantage point in the twenty-first century we can sense some of the alarm that Jewish Christians felt when they read those words from Paul. That's all I have to do: love my neighbor? That's all God wants from me? No more Passover, no more circumcision, no more kosher food, no more temple sacrifices, no more rituals? How am I supposed to show my faith and my obedience to God if I don't do those things he has commanded us? Just love?

And Paul's answer to all of that is, Exactly, that's all. Just love your neighbor as yourself and God will be happy with you. If you can manage to do that, you will find that all the other things that are important in the Torah will be included. All the ten commandments. If you really do love others as God wants you to, then you will automatically be doing the things that are spelled out in those commandments.

4. What Paul writes next seems to presuppose that he and Tertius had taken a long break from the dictation room. It's difficult to follow the change in Paul's mental process, from loving one's neighbor to knowing "what time it is." "Besides this, you know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep." Time to wake up. What might the connection be?

In Paul's mind always was this basic fundamental transition from the old covenant to the new covenant, a transition from having God's law coming to us on paper to having that same law coming to us by the Holy Spirit within us. He has been saying that God's desire in both covenants can be summed up in one word: love. Already in the old covenant, with all its regulations and rituals, God's purpose was to inculcate love of God and love of neighbor. Now, in the time we are living in, Paul explains, we are experiencing the transition that God has had in mind ever since Abraham's day, when his will and desire is implanted in the very depths of our personality. So ... "you know what time it is."

Time, not on our clocks but on God's calendar. Jesus came in the fullness of the times, and Paul, together with all those early Christians, were experiencing the wonders of the transition from the old time, the old covenant, to the new time, the new covenant.

5. Then Paul dictates a sentence that is a bit, maybe more than a bit, puzzling. "For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers." Our traditional way of explaining this text quite misses the point of what Paul is teaching. We think Paul is pointing to the end of the world when we are all safely in heaven. That's what "salvation" is taken to mean, going to heaven when we die. That concept, however, is completely foreign to Paul.

Paul has earlier explained what he means by being saved. It is the transition out of a life of sin into a life of faithful obedience, the transition that comes when a person truly yields his life to Jesus as his Lord and Savior. When a person first believes in Jesus this process begins, and it continues the rest of his or her life. In the case of Jewish believers, what had to happen first was to recognize on the basis of the resurrection of Jesus that Jesus is indeed the messiah sent by God and so long anticipated by the entire Jewish nation. That's the beginning, "when we first became believers."

But the process of absorbing the implications of that faith does not come instantly. It takes time to process the change, to understand what is happening, to begin to live with a different outlook on life. That change, that process, is the salvation that Paul explains is nearer now than when we first believed.

6. "The night is far gone, the day is near." What night, what day? The night of the old covenant, the day of the new covenant. The night of the Torah, the day of the Holy Spirit. The years when Paul was living and writing were the years of transition from one covenant to the next. Paul knew that it would take time, much time, for that transition to come to fruition, so he is trying to explain this also to the good Christians in Rome. We are moving out of the dark of night into the light of day, out of the grip of Law into the freedom of the Spirit, out of slavery to sin into slavery to God.

With this introduction Paul then gets back to his train of thought, the ethical implications of what is happening in the sovereign plan of God. "Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; let us live honorably as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarrelling and jealousy."

7. Paul uses a different figure of speech as he importunes his readers in Rome to live honorably in the day. "Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires." Put on the Lord Jesus Christ. How do you "put on" Jesus?

You begin by believing. Believing that God sent Jesus to accomplish God's purpose for the human race. You continue by yielding. Yielding yourself body and soul to the guidance of the Lord Jesus. Then you persevere. Persevere in bringing your thoughts and ambitions and decisions and relationships under control. Under the control of the Spirit of Jesus.

As this process matures in your life you find yourself being shaped by the Holy Spirit in such a way as follows the pattern of Jesus himself, learning to love others honestly, to forgive, to know the difference between right and wrong, and to image your Creator in the totality of the way you live. That's how you "put on" the Lord Jesus Christ, and that's what Paul wants to see happening in the lives of all who follow the Lord.

Chapter 21

DUTY TO WEAKER BRETHREN

Romans 14:1-23 and

Romans 15:1-13

Welcome those who are weak in faith, but not for the purpose of quarrelling over opinions. Some believe in eating anything, while the weak eat only vegetables. Those who eat must not despise those who abstain, and those who abstain must not pass judgment on those who eat; for God has welcomed them. Who are you to pass judgment on servants of another? It is before their own lord that they stand or fall. And they will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make them stand.

Some judge one day to be better than another, while others judge all days to be alike. Let all be fully convinced in their own minds. Those who observe the day, observe it in honor of the Lord. Also those who eat, eat in honor of the Lord, since they give thanks to God; while those who abstain, abstain in honor of the Lord and give thanks to God.

We do not live to ourselves, and we do not die to ourselves. If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's. For to this end Christ died and lived again, so that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.

Why do you pass judgment on your brother or sister? Or you, why do you despise your brother or sister? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. For it is written, 'As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall give praise to God.' So then, each of us will be accountable to God.

Let us therefore no longer pass judgment on one another, but resolve instead never to put a stumbling-block or hindrance in the way of another. I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself; but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean. If your brother or sister is being injured by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. Do not let what you eat cause the ruin of one for whom Christ died. So do not let your good be spoken of as evil. For the kingdom of God is not food and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. The one who thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and has human approval. Let us then pursue what makes for peace and for mutual edification. Do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for you to make others fall by what you eat; it is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that makes your brother or sister stumble. The faith that you have, have as your own conviction before God. Blessed are those who have no reason to condemn themselves because of what they approve. But those who have doubts are condemned if they eat, because they do not act from faith; for whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.

We who are strong ought to put up with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Each of us must please our neighbor for the good purpose of building up the neighbor. For Christ did not please himself; but, as it is written, 'The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me.' For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, so that by steadfastness and by the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope. May the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, in accordance with Christ Jesus, so that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Welcome one another, therefore, just as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God. For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the circumcised on behalf of the truth of God in order that he might confirm the promises given to the patriarchs, and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written, 'Therefore I will confess you among the Gentiles, and sing praises to your name'; and again he says, 'Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people'; and again, 'Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles, and let all the peoples praise him'; and again Isaiah says, 'The root of Jesse shall come, the one who rises to rule the Gentiles; in him the Gentiles shall hope.' May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

1. Paul is aware that it takes time for new believers to absorb the new conditions of life that Jesus offers. He knows full well that there needs to be a considerable amount of adjusting to grow into the life of the Spirit, and that consequently there will be people who are at differing stages in their life in Christ, people who have matured more than others and who can live more consistently and freely in the new faith. Very likely he has observed in various churches the kinds of arguments that occur between these mature Christians and those who are less mature, the people he now describes as "weaker" in faith.

So he writes, "Welcome those who are weak in faith, but not for the purpose of quarrelling over opinions." He wants those who are older in faith to be patient with those who are newcomers, who are just learning some of the lineaments of Christian living. Let the Holy Spirit gradually lead them into greater understanding and maturity. Don't set up unnecessary quarrels over what you can and cannot do. Accept the condition that people must and do grow from childlike faith to more mature Christian living.

2. Paul goes on to examine some of the items that have become disputable points in the churches, the first of which is kosher food. "Some believe in eating anything, while the weak eat only vegetables." Paul is not arguing about what we today call vegetarianism or being a vegan. Paul has in mind the Torah laws about what kinds of food Jews were permitted to eat and what they are forbidden to eat. Pork, for example. Jews do not eat pork to this day. So Paul has in mind the laws that today we call kosher laws.

Paul writes that Christians who continue to observe the old covenant laws about kosher food are "the weak." Other Christians, presumably "the strong," are comfortable eating anything. So this is the first example of the items concerning which Paul advises them not to quarrel about. It isn't that important. He counsels, "Those who eat must not despise those who abstain, and those who abstain must not pass judgment on those who eat; for God has welcomed them."

It would not ordinarily be a problem for Christians of Gentile origin, except for the insistence by some that every Christian must continue to observe the kosher rules. They hear some Jewish Christians contend that God's rules are permanent and cannot be rejected. So if God requires his people to avoid pork, then Christians too must avoid it, whether one is a Jew or a Gentile in origin.

We must not miss Paul's consistent theism when he deals with this issue. He insists that no Christian must pass judgment on other Christians in this regard. Why not? Because each and every Christian is responsible to God directly. "Who are you to pass judgment on servants of another? It is before their own lord that they stand or fall. And they will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make them stand."

3. Next, Paul goes on to deal with another source of contention in the churches, the issue of sabbath observance. Strict sabbath observance had been close to the heart of Judaism for centuries, so much so that it almost seemed that to be a child of God one must keep the strict sabbath rules. To violate them was tantamount to rejecting God's Law, the Torah, completely.

Here is how he puts it, "Some judge one day to be better than another, while others judge all days to be alike." Some Christians, presumably those of Jewish descent, think the seventh day of the week is a holy day, a sabbath, while others, presumably of non-Jewish descent, do not have that heritage and consequently live each day the same way. Paul is of the opinion that it doesn't matter either way. God doesn't care, since he created every day, one day isn't any holier than any other day.

So he advises, "Let all be fully convinced in their own minds. Those who observe the day, observe it in honor of the Lord." He doesn't say so, but it seems he implies also that those who do not observe a special holy day do so in honor of the Lord. They treat every day as a holy day, living each day in faith and love for God and for Jesus. Make up your own mind as to what you think God requires of you, and be faithful to that insight. Just make sure that, either way, you yourself are doing what you do because you want to do what God asks of you.

4. Paul explains the ethical principle involved. "We do not live to ourselves, and we do not die to ourselves. If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's."

We recall what Paul wrote earlier to the effect that we are no longer slaves to sin but when we believe in Jesus we become slaves of God, meaning that we accept by faith whatever it is that God requires us to do. We belong to God as a slave belongs to his master, and we do so willingly; whatever our Master requires of us. All our life long, even into death itself.

But then Paul says something rather enigmatic, and we hope Tertius has gotten the dictation exactly right. "For to this end Christ died and lived again, so that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living." How is Jesus the Lord of the dead?

I suspect Paul means nothing other than what the previous sentence implied, that even if the Lord calls us to become a martyr, when we die we still retain our faith and in that sense we die in Christ and he is the Lord of our death. God's purposes go on even after we die, and in ways we cannot fathom God will use even our life and death to promote his kingdom.

5. Paul reminds his readers that it is God's business to direct and control what any of us think and do. It's not our business to be the judge of what another person perceives as the will of God. "Why do you pass judgment on your brother or sister? Or you, why do you despise your brother or sister? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God."

We all stand before the judgment seat of God. Paul does write in the future tense, but the effect of what he says applies to the present. It is not as if we have to wait until what we call the Final Judgment to discover whether or not we pass God's tests. We have to understand that every day we live we stand before the judgment seat of God for how we live. We are responsible every day and every moment of every day.

And since that is true for each of us as believers in Jesus, we must understand that if we persist in passing judgment on the behavior of other Christians we are trying to do what only God can do. We are usurping God's function as the arbiter of right and wrong, something we should have learned not to do from the story of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden.

It is not the business of the church or of its leaders to define what is right and wrong for church members to do. The church must be a place where the work of the Holy Spirit in guiding us into the truth is respected and followed. So Paul is saying to those Christians in Rome who might be insisting that Gentiles obey the precepts of the Torah, You mustn't do that, that's the work of God to define and judge what is right and wrong.

6. Paul puts it directly, "Let us therefore no longer pass judgment on one another, but resolve instead never to put a stumbling-block or hindrance in the way of another." This is an example of what it means to love one another as one loves oneself. You want others to come to the same maturity as you have attained, or, in the opposite case, you want more advanced persons to live faithfully even though you don't agree.

Don't do anything that will make weaker Christians do things they are unprepared to do and that they really feel are wrong. On the other hand, don't do anything that means you are trying to force other Christians to revert from the level of obedience they have attained. In other words, don't spoil another Christian's own perception of what his or her duty to God is by the way you talk or behave. Let the Spirit of Christ lead others just as you are experiencing his leadership in your own life. Let God do whatever disciplining is necessary, both in your own life and in the lives of others.

This is how Paul puts it, "If your brother or sister is being injured by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. Do not let what you eat cause the ruin of one for whom Christ died. So do not let your good be spoken of as evil."

7. At this point Paul makes a very interesting and controversial statement, "I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself; but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean." What's controversial is that Paul seems to be teaching that it is, after all, we who determine what is good or evil. If a thing is "unclean" simply because we think it is, then aren't we making that decision rather than God? Shouldn't Paul be saying instead that if God makes something "unclean" then it is "unclean" regardless of what you or I think?

We should understand here that Paul still has in mind the matter of kosher food. The Torah Law of Moses defined certain foods as "unclean," not fit for human consumption. Among those prohibitions was pork, so that no good Jewish person would eat any part of a pig, not even the delicious ham. Not even bacon!

Paul is saying that there are no such substances, foods, that are "unclean," evil, in themselves. He is being true to Genesis One where we read that God saw all that he had made and behold it was very good. That would, of course, include porkers. Nothing is evil in itself. So people should not be reasoning that they should avoid certain foods because the food itself is "unclean," or evil.

Still, Paul recognizes, Jewish Christians have been living their lives in the unbreakable tradition that since God has forbidden certain foods in the Torah Law, they would feel very uncomfortable breaking that taboo. That is what Paul is recognizing when he explains that eating certain foods may trigger a bad conscience because the person "thinks it unclean." If you think it is, then by all means, Paul would agree, don't eat it. You would be violating your conscience under God.

8. To provide more perspective, Paul explains, "For the kingdom of God is not food and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit." Paul does not intend to suggest that being a Christian has nothing to do with eating and drinking, or for that matter, with any tangible items. But he is talking especially to the Judaizers who may be there in the church in Rome and who are insisting on obeying the requirements of the Torah Law. Obeying those rules is not what makes you part of the kingdom of God. It is well possible that you obey all those rules but in your heart have no notion of what Christian love involves.

On the contrary, being in the kingdom of God, that is, being under the rule of God as a slave to a master, means living in "peace and joy in the Holy Spirit." Paul could have used additional terms to describe living in the kingdom of God, but these summarize his thinking. Live peaceably with everyone else in the church. Be happy with what you see the Holy Spirit doing in the communion of the saints. So don't be critical, faultfinding, judgmental, rejecting what the Spirit is doing in other believers. See what God is doing in them and be happy about it.

9. Paul does have in mind the genuine needs of the people who are still struggling with the question of kosher foods, however. He does not want to trample on the sincerity of their own conscientious problems. It is not as if he is merely saying that it isn't necessary to keep all those rules any more. So he addresses the more mature people by urging them to modify their own behavior to the extent of denying themselves if necessary for the time being of something they know full well is acceptable. In just a few short months Paul would find himself doing just that himself back in Jerusalem, going through the Jewish rituals of making himself "clean."

So he writes, "Do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for you to make others fall by what you eat; it is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that makes your brother or sister stumble." Paul himself was willing to subject himself to the rituals of the Torah Law even though he knew they were outdated and obsolete, because he did not want to create unneeded criticism. The point Paul is making is that stronger Christians should be strong enough to modify their own behavior if that behavior might cause weaker Christians to compromise what little faith they do have.

10. So Paul does recognize that Christian people do differ with respect to whether or not they themselves can eat food formerly thought to be "unclean," forbidden by Jewish law. That's fine if you can do it without violating your conscience, "Blessed are those who have no reason to condemn themselves because of what they approve."

On the other hand, people who cannot do it, who have serious doubts about whether a Christian should do so, must not do it, must not eat non-kosher food just because some of the church leaders do so. "But those who have doubts are condemned if they eat, because they do not act from faith; for whatever does not proceed from faith is sin."

That last clause bears examination, "whatever does not proceed from faith is sin." Paul has in mind Christian people, not unbelievers. So, even though it might be true in some sense that unbelievers, people who have no faith in Jesus, live a generally sinful life, this is not the intent of Paul here.

Paul is summing up what he has been saying all along, that a Christian person should not do anything that does not "proceed from faith." You would be going against your conscience if you do so. If you argue, If so-and-so can eat pork, so can I, you are not living by faith, you are living by what to you seems a bad example. Not only should you never do that, the person you are imitating should consider seriously not to do it either, at least not in such a way as to have other Christians use his action as a precedent for doing something they know they shouldn't.

11. At this point there is a chapter break in our English translations. It doesn't make much sense, however, since chapter 15 of Romans continues the same theme of chapter 14, how stronger Christians should treat weaker Christians. "We who are strong ought to put up with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves."

Thoroughly imbedded in this advice is Paul's consistent God-centeredness, his strong theism. He prays that it will be God who enables them to live in harmony with each other, "May the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another."

And further, he understands clearly that this grace of God comes through the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul mentions the fact that Jesus "did not please himself," but willingly suffered the rejection of his countrymen in order to fulfill his mission from God. With this example we must likewise not live merely to please ourselves, do what we want to do, but "each of us must please our neighbor for the good purpose of building up the neighbor."

When our behavior toward weaker Christians follows this pattern, when we live "in accordance with Christ Jesus," then together we "with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ."

12. It may be well at this point to remind ourselves of something Paul wrote years earlier in his letter to the Galatians, "The gospel that was proclaimed by me is not of human origin; for I did not receive it from a human source, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ." (Galatians 1:11-12) Paul is referring to his vision of Jesus at the moment of his conversion outside Damascus.

The point Paul was making then was that he never took a course of study in Christian theology from any other person, but that he figured it all out on the basis of what he already knew from the Jewish scriptures and what he learned by his vision of the resurrected Jesus. Paul had been an excellent student of those scriptures during his instruction years in Jerusalem. He knew them well and he appreciated all the instruction they gave him. Ever since then he was doing his best to understand just how Jesus fit into that picture of the ancient Jewish scriptures – and without anyone guiding him.

We may recognize, then, that Paul's theology is thoroughly in accord with those scriptures, and Paul finds constant encouragement and instruction from them. He knows the Jewish people think very highly of those scriptures, and so he regularly in his preaching and in his writing refers to what is in them. In this way he commends his teaching to his Jewish friends and insists that the newness of the gospel is really what God intended all the time, as shown in the writings. Jewish inquirers must not think the gospel of Jesus Christ is contrary to the law and the prophets. "For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, so that by steadfastness and by the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope."

13. So Paul includes in his letter some of the scriptural passages that he knows refer to the Gentiles. Paul wants Jewish believers to welcome Gentile believers, a task that was very hard for Jewish persons to do, granted that they have for their entire history learned to think of Israel as God's people, and of Gentiles as God's enemies.

This is how he puts it, "For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the circumcised on behalf of the truth of God in order that he might confirm the promises given to the patriarchs, and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy." Jesus has come as the Jewish messiah, but also for the purpose of fulfilling God's promise to Abraham that "in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." (Genesis 12:3) Paul does not quote that particular passage but he does quote from the Psalms and Isaiah with similar intent. "Isaiah says, 'The root of Jesse shall come, the one who rises to rule the Gentiles; in him the Gentiles shall hope.'"

Jewish Christians must understand that this has been the purpose of God from the beginning, and it is happening now, and it is absolutely necessary for them to put it into practice by welcoming Gentile believers with joy and acceptance.

14. Paul concludes this discussion with a benediction of hope, "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit."

Paul wants the people, as they look to the future, to embrace the hope, the vision, of a church in which all believers are welcome and in which the power of the Holy Spirit is manifestly evident in their cooperation and concern for each other's welfare.

"Joy and peace in believing." Not bitterness. Not criticism. Not judgmentalism. Not harsh rebuking. Not holier-than-thou attitudes. Not raucous arguing. But the quietness and gentleness and harmony that evidence the shalom of God.

Chapter 22

PAUL'S PLANS

Romans 15:14-33

I myself feel confident about you, my brothers and sisters, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, and able to instruct one another. Nevertheless, on some points I have written to you rather boldly by way of reminder, because of the grace given me by God to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel of God, so that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

In Christ Jesus, then, I have reason to boast of my work for God. For I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to win obedience from the Gentiles, by word and deed, by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God, so that from Jerusalem and as far around as Illyricum I have fully proclaimed the good news of Christ. Thus I make it my ambition to proclaim the good news, not where Christ has already been named, so that I do not build on someone else's foundation, but as it is written, 'Those who have never been told of him shall see, and those who have never heard of him shall understand.'

This is the reason that I have so often been hindered from coming to you. But now, with no further place for me in these regions, I desire, as I have for many years, to come to you when I go to Spain. For I do hope to see you on my journey and to be sent on by you, once I have enjoyed your company for a little while. At present, however, I am going to Jerusalem in a ministry to the saints; for Macedonia and Achaia have been pleased to share their resources with the poor among the saints at Jerusalem. They were pleased to do this, and indeed they owe it to them; for if the Gentiles have come to share in their spiritual blessings, they ought also to be of service to them in material things. So, when I have completed this, and have delivered to them what has been collected, I will set out by way of you to Spain; and I know that when I come to you, I will come in the fullness of the blessing of Christ.

I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to join me in earnest prayer to God on my behalf, that I may be rescued from the unbelievers in Judea, and that my ministry to Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints, so that by God's will I may come to you with joy and be refreshed in your company. The God of peace be with all of you. Amen.

1. Paul has pretty much finished his explanation of how Jews and Gentiles are related in the church of Jesus Christ. His treatment of the subject has been rather thorough, has it not? He now wants to explain his own personal plans. But first he reflects on what he and Tertius have written.

He is confident the people in the church at Rome will handle their relationships just fine, but he has written about these things anyway, just to make sure they understand what God wants them to do. He writes, "On some points I have written to you rather boldly by way of reminder, because of the grace given me by God to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel of God, so that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit."

"So that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable." That expresses succinctly why Paul has written this letter.

Did you notice the trinitarian orientation there? "A minister of Jesus Christ." "The gospel of God." "Sanctified by the Holy Spirit." Paul himself is totally imbued with this triple factoring of his life and work, and he is constantly finding ways of using that orientation in his sometimes rambling theology. Our understanding of what it means to be a Christian involves that same three-fold orientation: it all comes from God the Father, it is channeled through Jesus his Son, and it is activated by the Spirit who comes from God and from Jesus.

2. Paul then goes on to explain something of his missionary method. We know from the book of Acts that on his missionary trips Paul usually went first to the Jewish synagogue in a large city, where he knew he would have a hearing. But his purpose always was to move beyond the synagogue and get the gospel to people who were not of Jewish background. "For I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to win obedience from the Gentiles."

He reflects on the geographical areas he has covered in his mission trips. "From Jerusalem and as far around as Illyricum I have fully proclaimed the good news of Christ." Illyricum is the huge area across the Adriatic Sea from Italy, north of Greece. We do not have any information about his having been there, but he could very well have ventured there on his second or third missionary journey.

From Luke's account in Acts we can deduce that part of Paul's missionary method was to make a start in some large and important city, and from there branch out to the surrounding area, as for example, his long stay headquartered in Ephesus. Paul would send out his associates into those surrounding areas, so that occasionally churches would be started where Paul himself had never been – Colossae and Laodicea for example. (Colossians 2:1)

Another important element in Paul's missionary method was to go to places where the gospel had not yet penetrated. He did not regard himself as a pastor in any given congregation, because that would mean he was building on the work of previous evangelists. "Thus I make it my ambition to proclaim the good news, not where Christ has already been named, so that I do not build on someone else's foundation, but as it is written, 'Those who have never been told of him shall see, and those who have never heard of him shall understand.'" Even here he quotes from the old scriptures to explain his own ministry.

That method, Paul explains, is the reason why he has not yet visited Rome. The gospel has been brought to Rome by others, and so Paul's priorities have kept him going elsewhere. "This is the reason that I have so often been hindered from coming to you."

3. Paul says he does not have any new place to visit "in these regions," but hopes next to go as far as Spain. And on the way he promises to visit Rome as well. "But now, with no further place for me in these regions, I desire, as I have for many years, to come to you when I go to Spain. For I do hope to see you on my journey and to be sent on by you, once I have enjoyed your company for a little while."

There is no record of Paul ever making good on that hope to go to Spain. If he did go there it would have been several years later, after he was sent to Rome for trial and, presumably, released. But Luke's record of Paul's career ends abruptly during Paul's imprisonment in Rome, and scholars can only try to piece together what happened afterward from the bits of information that can be gathered elsewhere.

4. Paul is in Corinth when he writes this letter, almost on the doorstep of Rome, but he is not able to take the time for a personal visit. Why not? Because there is a more pressing need that he has to meet – a collection of money being gathered for the relief of famine in Jerusalem. Paul has to deliver that gift and feels he must do it personally. "At present, however, I am going to Jerusalem in a ministry to the saints; for Macedonia and Achaia have been pleased to share their resources with the poor among the saints at Jerusalem."

Why might Paul feel personally the need to deliver the offering? Perhaps because he knew that there was a great deal of discontent in Jerusalem about the things he was preaching out there on the mission field. Perhaps he felt he could do something to offset that feeling by demonstrating that he had their concerns also deeply in his heart.

As a matter of fact, Luke reports in Acts that when Paul did get there to Jerusalem he did everything possible to allay the negative feelings people had about him, even to the extent of going through the required Jewish rituals of cleansing after contact with Gentiles, things which Paul knew very well meant little in the sight of God.

5. "So, when I have completed this, and have delivered to them what has been collected, I will set out by way of you to Spain; and I know that when I come to you, I will come in the fullness of the blessing of Christ." Paul makes a promise that events would not allow him to fulfill. He did eventually get to Rome, but only as a prisoner awaiting the judgment seat of Caesar. This too may well have been "with the blessing of Christ," but hardly in the way Paul anticipated.

6. Paul is nearing the end of his dictation, so he asks the Christians in Rome to pray for him. It is significant that Paul does suspect the possibility of trouble in Jerusalem. "I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to join me in earnest prayer to God on my behalf, that I may be rescued from the unbelievers in Judea, and that my ministry to Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints." Luke, in Acts, also details several incidents when friends warned Paul not to go to Jerusalem, since his reputation there was so tarnished. His life would be in danger.

7. Paul may even have thought this was the end of the letter, for he concludes with what can only be a benediction, "The God of peace be with all of you. Amen."

But he does come back next day with a long list of greetings to persons, some of whom he may have met elsewhere and some of whom perhaps he only heard about. Even Tertius puts in a greeting of his own. And then after that Paul concludes again with one of the most magnificent doxologies in all literature.

Chapter 23

GREETINGS

Romans 16:1-24

I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a deacon of the church at Cenchreae, so that you may welcome her in the Lord as is fitting for the saints, and help her in whatever she may require from you, for she has been a benefactor of many and of myself as well.

Greet Prisca and Aquila, who work with me in Christ Jesus, and who risked their necks for my life, to whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles. Greet also the church in their house. Greet my beloved Epaenetus, who was the first convert in Asia for Christ. Greet Mary, who has worked very hard among you. Greet Andronicus and Junia, my relatives who were in prison with me; they are prominent among the apostles, and they were in Christ before I was. Greet Ampliatus, my beloved in the Lord. Greet Urbanus, our co-worker in Christ, and my beloved Stachys. Greet Apelles, who is approved in Christ. Greet those who belong to the family of Aristobulus. Greet my relative Herodion. Greet those in the Lord who belong to the family of Narcissus. Greet those workers in the Lord, Tryphaena and Tryphosa. Greet the beloved Persis, who has worked hard in the Lord. Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord; and greet his mother—a mother to me also. Greet Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas, and the brothers and sisters who are with them. Greet Philologus, Julia, Nereus and his sister, and Olympas, and all the saints who are with them. Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the churches of Christ greet you.

I urge you, brothers and sisters, to keep an eye on those who cause dissensions and offences, in opposition to the teaching that you have learned; avoid them. For such people do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the simple-minded. For while your obedience is known to all, so that I rejoice over you, I want you to be wise in what is good, and guileless in what is evil. The God of peace will shortly crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

Timothy, my co-worker, greets you; so do Lucius and Jason and Sosipater, my relatives.

I Tertius, the writer of this letter, greet you in the Lord.

Gaius, who is host to me and to the whole church, greets you. Erastus, the city treasurer, and our brother Quartus, greet you.

1. Phoebe. "I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a deacon of the church at Cenchreae, so that you may welcome her in the Lord as is fitting for the saints, and help her in whatever she may require from you, for she has been a benefactor of many and of myself as well."

Phoebe is described as "a deacon of the church in Cenchreae." When Paul describes Phoebe as a deacon it is a generalized term connoting service. She apparently did have some official standing in the church, even though the offices of the church were not as well defined at that time as they are today. The Greek word, diakonon, is indeed the word from which our English word deacon is derived.

Cenchreae is a seaport six miles east of Corinth and could well have been the actual location where Paul was staying at the moment. At any rate, the fact that Paul mentions Phoebe first in his list of names in this chapter suggests the likelihood that she was the person carrying Paul's letter to Rome.

2. Prisca and Aquila. "Greet Prisca and Aquila, who work with me in Christ Jesus, and who risked their necks for my life, to whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles. Greet also the church in their house."

Paul had met this Jewish couple in Corinth a few years earlier on his second missionary trip. At that time they had been forced out of Rome because Emperor Claudius had ordered all Jews to leave Rome. This edict may have come as a result of the outbreak of a rebellion of the Jews in Palestine, a rebellion that was only put down in the year AD 70 after several years of fighting, when Jerusalem and its temples were destroyed.

Paul discovered this couple, Priscilla and Aquila, to be engaged in the same trade by which he often supported his own work, tent making. Apparently they had been able to return to their home in Rome after some time away, so Paul remembers them fondly and sends his greetings.

It is worth noting also that Paul knows about "the church in their house." We should understand that in those early days of Christianity, and before there were sufficient Christians in any given neighborhood to erect their own building for worship, there were often small groups of believers meeting wherever they could find suitable space, often in the larger homes of persons of some wealth. That's what we should visualize here.

3. Epaenetus. This man is not mentioned by Luke when he tells the stories of Paul's missionary labors. One might have thought if he was indeed "the first convert in Asia for Christ" he would have been mentioned. Asia would be the province we know as Asia Minor, western Turkey. Somehow Paul knows that this man now lives in Rome not in Ephesus.

Mary. A fairly common name among Jewish women, but we know nothing specifically about this particular lady.

Andronicus and Junia. Another couple whom Paul has known for some time and who now reside in Rome. They too are missionaries, apostles as Paul calls them, and apparently at some point they had spent some time in prison with Paul, the circumstances of which are unknown. Paul does give them credit for being Christians long before he himself was converted.

4. Others. Paul greets by name every Christian he can think of who lives in Rome. Maybe some of these names are suggested by Tertius or others in the Corinth church. But if he knows something about them he will try to mention it also.

"Greet Ampliatus, my beloved in the Lord. Greet Urbanus, our co-worker in Christ, and my beloved Stachys. Greet Apelles, who is approved in Christ. Greet those who belong to the family of Aristobulus. Greet my relative Herodion. Greet those in the Lord who belong to the family of Narcissus. Greet those workers in the Lord, Tryphaena and Tryphosa. Greet the beloved Persis, who has worked hard in the Lord. Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord; and greet his mother—a mother to me also. Greet Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas, and the brothers and sisters who are with them. Greet Philologus, Julia, Nereus and his sister, and Olympas, and all the saints who are with them."

5. Paul cannot resist the urge to make one last dig at the people we have come to know as Judaizers, those church members who could not make a clean break from the sacred Torah, and who thus were trying to compel even Gentile Christians to put themselves under that Law. "I urge you, brothers and sisters, to keep an eye on those who cause dissensions and offences, in opposition to the teaching that you have learned; avoid them. For such people do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the simple-minded."

6. We might take notice also of a reference Paul makes, "The God of peace will shortly crush Satan under your feet." Paul is thoroughly versed in the old Jewish scriptures, and this reference comes from Genesis 3:15, where Adam and Eve are told that in time the serpent's descendants would be trampled underfoot. Paul sees the growing success of the gospel as evidence of the seed of the woman crushing the serpent's head.

7. Timothy. "Timothy, my co-worker, greets you; so do Lucius and Jason and Sosipater, my relatives." Timothy, as we will recall, joined the evangelistic team of Paul during the second missionary journey as Paul was passing through Lystra. He became one of Paul's most trusted and helpful associates for as long as we know anything about Paul's career.

Lucius would be Luke, the physician who accompanied Paul for years and wrote the Gospel of that name and the book of Acts. Jason and Sosipater are mentioned elsewhere (Acts 17:5; Acts 20:4) as being associated briefly with Paul in other cities.

8. "I Tertius, the writer of this letter, greet you in the Lord." Tertius, hardworking scribe that he was, gets in his two-cents' worth, and adds greetings from three of his own acquaintances, Gaius, Erastus, and Quartus.

Chapter 24

DOXOLOGY

Romans 16:25-27

Now to God who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages but is now disclosed, and through the prophetic writings is made known to all the Gentiles, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith—to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory for ever! Amen.

1. A doxology is a word of praise to God. This is one of the most profound and insightful passages in the entire Bible, largely ignored in our reading of Romans.

We notice first the prevailing theocentric stance of Paul, "Now to God . . . be the glory forever!" What God is accomplishing in the world he created is always the beginning and the end of Paul's thinking and activity.

We need to take from this theistic orientation the insight for ourselves that no matter what happens in our lives, in our churches, or in the world at large, it will all work out somehow to accomplish God's divine and sovereign will. Often this is difficult for us to discern as we try to make sense of bad things happening, but if Paul's theism really takes root in our lives as well there will be no room at all for historical pessimism or discouragement. We may not live to see how it all works out, nor did Paul himself, but genuine Christian faith will produce this optimism based on Jesus' affirmation that all authority has been given to him both in heaven and on earth.

2. Next we notice that God's work is channeled through the gospel of Jesus Christ, ". . . who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ." We will understand that Jesus, now ascended to heaven and sitting at the right hand of God, exercises the authority God gave him from heaven but on earth. He exercises this authority, this control over human life and history, by means of the preaching of the gospel. Wherever people hear the gospel and believe in Jesus their lives are improved and they begin a long and slow process of making their civilization better.

This is what God wants. Already in Genesis One God commanded humans to make a civilization that reflects the goodness of God, that images him. This, God is accomplishing by sending his Son Jesus into the world and then providing for the good news to be spread throughout the world. The process is, as we know, still continuing; slowly indeed, but still happening. It will be imperative for us to see our own history, the history of the human race, and the history of the church, in that perspective. It will keep us from concentrating on what is going wrong in the world and despairing of God's goodness. God knows what he is doing, and he also knows how he is accomplishing it.

3. ". . . according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages but is now disclosed." Here we need to pause a moment with that word revelation. In Roman Catholic theology the term revelation suggests a special communication of a doctrinal nature to the leader of the church, the Pope. In modern Neo-Orthodox theology it suggests the (supposed) breakthrough of a noumenal God into our phenomenal experience in the person of Jesus. There may well be other connotations.

But here in Paul's beautiful doxology it means an historical event that carries with it a development that was previously unknown or unexpected. Jewish people did know that God's plan was to bring the Gentiles under the umbrella of his kingdom, but they did not know how this would be done.

Paul now writes that this is now clear. We see how God is doing it from Jesus and the gospel. Only in our own times, Paul explains, has God disclosed how he is bringing in the non-Jewish nations into the kingdom of God.

The common Jewish expectation, however, was that this would be accomplished by a powerful messiah who sets up the throne of David once again in Jerusalem and subdues all the surrounding nations. Just like David and Solomon. By military and political compulsion. God is now showing, revealing, disclosing, that this expectation of the Jewish people is wrong. Not by might but by Jesus, by the gospel, by the inner power of the Spirit. That method was "kept secret for long ages, but is now disclosed." Disclosed by the process of history. And that ought also to provide for us an example of how the Bible understands the term revelation.

4. It will be useful also to consider how Paul uses the term mystery. For us the English term connotes something we cannot and do not understand. But for Paul this term acquires an additional dimension, that of history and of the developmental work of God. God's purpose for the human race only he knows fully, and he enables us to perceive his purpose only bit by bit, step by step, rung by rung. At successive turning points in history God enables us to see a bit more clearly how God is guiding the process of human history. What was once mysterious now becomes clear.

That is what is happening in the lifetime of Paul. God has had him trained thoroughly in the scriptures, and then compelled him to confront the reality of Jesus Christ, and thus transformed him from a persecutor to a promoter of the gospel of Jesus. God has raised up Paul to be the primary agent of drawing Gentiles into the body of Christ, and of then explaining by means of letters the new thing that is happening, that is being revealed.

This process is something that Moses recognized already at Mount Sinai when he said to the people of Israel, "The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children that we may do all the things of the law." (Deuteronomy 29:29) The "secret things" of Moses is the equivalent of the "mystery" of Paul. God revealed the Torah to Israel and thus required them to live by its teachings; and now God has revealed the gospel to us and thus requires us to live by it. We go by what we know, by what God reveals to us, and leave the rest, the secret things, the mystery, to God.

5. ". . . and through the prophetic writings is made known to all the Gentiles." This could be misunderstood. Paul is not saying that God is making the prophetic writings known to the Gentiles, but rather that God is doing what the prophetic writings said, bringing Gentiles into the kingdom of God. Paul himself has been thoroughly shaped by the ancient Jewish scriptures, and he knows them well, and he is now engaged in the work that those scriptures predicted, bringing the gospel to Gentiles as well as Jews.

It might be worth noticing that this final doxology also incorporates the basic theme of Paul's entire letter, the matter of Gentiles coming into the kingdom. He began by saying that he is not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation for both Jews and Gentiles; and now he concludes with the same orientation to the gospel for all, Gentiles as well as Jews, giving thanks to God for this current revelation of the mystery. Paul's entire letter has been oriented to that problem: how to incorporate Jews and Gentiles, all believers in Jesus, into one body, one congregation.

6. ". . . according to the command of the eternal God." All of the breadth and depth of Paul's theology is presupposed in this more or less incidental comment of Paul in his final doxology. "The command of God" is built upon the reality of what God is doing in the world he created, in the human race he controls, in the shaping of the people of Israel, and now in the beginning of the Christian church. What God is doing, thus, in time and in history, is the "command" he gives to the world he created, his Word, his Power.

As Isaiah writes in Isaiah 55, God's word never returns to him empty, not having accomplished that for which it was sent. That's what Paul is building on here also. God's "command" goes out through his Son Jesus and the gospel of what he has done. God's spirit then infuses the gospel with the power of God, so that many who hear about Jesus and his resurrection from the dead come to believe, repent, and thus be saved. Not just one nation but every nation, not just Jews but Gentiles as well.

We do not need to worry about the future, what might or might not happen in the long ages ahead. This is still part of God's mystery. What we do know, the gospel, is what we need to go by and leave the rest to God. The nation of Israel had to be faithful to what God gave them, the Torah. But when God revealed a new covenant they had to move on and out into a larger and more open vision of what God is doing. They had to welcome non-Jewish people into their fellowship.

In time the peoples known then as Gentiles would become the heart of the church, with the number of Jewish people diminishing almost to the vanishing point. But it is necessary for all of us, whether Gentile or Jew, to recognize and accept whatever the "command" of God is doing, what he is revealing to us, and govern our lives accordingly.

7. ". . . to bring about the obedience of faith." Not "the obedience of Torah" as practiced ever since Sinai, but the obedience that comes now from faith in Jesus. What was once written in specifics on tables of stone is now being written in the hearts and minds of people. No longer is it enough to go through the motions externally of doing the rituals. What God wants from us is not blind obedience to rules imposed from the outside, but total commitment to the service of God in all we do, think, and hope.

The Holy Spirit, working in the milieu of our faith, enables us to sense more and more clearly how a human being created by God ought to live. That's what God is now "commanding" by the gospel that Paul is bringing. Jewish people must transition out of Torah into the Spirit of Jesus, and must learn to accept Gentiles who also by faith enter the Spirit of the Lord.

8. Interesting that Paul describes God as "the only wise God." ". . . to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory for ever! Amen."

Why wise? Paul, being the committed theist he is, knows full well that God knows what he is doing in the developments taking place in time and history, especially now as this major transition out of the obsolete Torah is taking place. Wise? Of course, what is happening is a major step forward in the plan of God for the creation of a human race that functions as his image on earth. Wise? Of course, Jews must have this conviction that it is God's will and purpose that Gentiles are coming in, are being grafted into the root stock of Israel, thus forming the Israel of God.

Don't overlook that phrase, "through Jesus Christ." Not through Mohammed. Not through Buddha. Not through anyone other than Jesus. Jesus is the full expression of what God wishes humans to become. He is the only path into the future that rings true to the eternal purpose of God.

And we today need to hold on to that conviction, especially when it seems so popular to think one's religious choices are irrelevant and that all religions lead to the same place. They do not, as history itself demonstrates. Buddhist civilization, Hindu civilization, Islamic civilization – none of them compare to Christian civilization. Obviously this is not to say that Christian civilization is perfect, but it is to say that Christian civilization is on the right road into the future, and the others are not. Paul does not know just how the future will look so far as the gospel is concerned, and neither do we. But Paul knows, and he wants us to know also, that God is in charge through the gospel of Jesus Christ, and he wants us also to have the same confidence that the only wise God knows what he is doing and that whatever happens is somehow going to fit into the plan and purpose of God.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Edwin Walhout is a retired minister of the Christian Reformed Church, currently living in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He has lifetime experience in teaching, pastoral ministry, editing, and writing. If you are interested in this book you may find many other challenging items by this author at www.edwinwalhout.com.
