Friday, June 20, 2014

Friday, 20 June, 2014

Romans 2:25 – 3:8 

The Letter of Paul to the Romans contains some of the most profound theology in the whole Bible.  Scholars who spend their whole lives studying it realize they can never plumb its depths.  N. T. Wright, former Bishop of Durham in the Church of England and now Research Professor of New Testament at the University of St. Andrew’s, is one such scholar.  He is perhaps the most prolific New Testament scholar of our time, and he is certainly one of the most influential experts on Paul.  Last year, Wright published Volume 4 of his magnum opus on the New Testament.  This Volume 4, Paul and the Faithfulness of God, is in fact two books, 1700 pages long, with a bibliography listing  about 2000 scholarly books and other sources on Paul.  Much of this is concerned with Paul’s Letter to the Romans and comparing old and new perspectives on its interpretation.  Wright says in summary (from his book Justification), “Never mind the old and the new: how do we keep Romans in any kind of perspective?  It bestrides the narrow worlds of scholarship and church like a colossus, and we petty exegetes [interpreters of the Bible] walk under its huge legs and peep about ….”  “All roads led to Rome in the ancient world, and all roads in biblical exegesis lead to Romans sooner or later.”  

[http://store.fortresspress.com/store/productgroup/634/Paul-and-the-Faithfulness-of-God]

Yes, studying Romans is quite a challenge, but necessary if we are to start understanding the basis of our faith.  Picking out a few verses here or there (such as our passage for today) doesn’t even touch the scope of Romans and may be misleading by its failure to engage with the full text.  So let’s try for some context instead.

In the first few decades of the Church (when Romans was written), one of the most important questions was to decide, when Gentiles (non-Jews) became believers in Christ, whether they also needed to convert to Judaism.  Did they need to adopt Jewish customs and religious practices in order to be saved, or could they be Christian believers without becoming Jewish?  For Paul, there was no doubt as to the answer, and establishing this answer is one of the most important objectives in Romans.  As Paul writes at the end of his introduction (Rom 1:16-17), “I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.  For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, The righteous shall live by faith.”  Paul insists that salvation is by faith – not by becoming Jewish – through the good news (gospel), God’s power for salvation.  It is faith in Christ, not adherence to Jewish customs, by which all are saved, whether Jew or Gentile.

Paul has a huge and comprehensive vision as he writes about God’s one and unchanged plan of salvation – all the way from the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden falling into sin, through God’s gracious promises to Abraham, God’s deliverance of his people in the Exodus and provision of the Torah (law, celebrated so wonderfully in Psalm 119), through the captivity to the coming of Christ, his redemptive death and glorious resurrection, through the work of the Holy Spirit both in the believer and in the Church, all the way to the majestic return of Christ, who will judge all people and establish his reign of righteousness and justice for all eternity.

Paul presents this in Romans in a grand sweep, from the sinfulness of all humanity, under God’s righteous judgement and wrath (ch. 1, to God’s great mercy leading us to repentance and to doing (not just teaching) God’s righteous requirements (ch. 2), to the position of Jews who were entrusted with God’s law but are sinners like the rest of humanity (ch. 3), to faithful Abraham who received God’s promise by faith (ch. 4), so all of us (Jews or not) can share by faith in Abraham’s promise, fully realized by the coming of Christ and his death for us sinners.  In Christ is life and righteousness for all (ch. 5).  We must not continue in sin but become obedient to righteousness (ch. 6).  It is by God’s righteous law that we know what sin is and probe the depths of our sinful nature, which brings death, but God through Christ our Lord brings life (ch. 7).  Thus we come to the great climax of salvation, Romans chapter 8:  “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”  Read all of Romans 8, read it again and again, go on and read the rest of Romans, which is just as wonderful in its way, and teaches much about the people of God and the Church. 

Learn and experience the wonderful work of God’s Holy Spirit from Romans 8:  “He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.”  “The Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.”  The Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.”  And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”  “If God is for us, who can be against us?  He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?  Who shall bring any charge against God's elect?  It is God who justifies.  Who is to condemn?  Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?  Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? … No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.  For I am sure 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.”

Keep on praising God always!

-- Robert Kruse