Lately I have been digging into Paul's Epistle to the Romans like never before. This daunting masterpiece, this theological colossus, has often scared me to death in the past. How am I ever to understand the whole of what Paul is saying here? What do chs.9-11 have to do with the rest of the letter? What exactly is justification? righteousness? Flesh and Spirit? These are some of the questions that I have been staggered by in the past, and I'm sure that those who have seriously wrestled with this letter will understand.
Nevertheless, I've found myself drawn to it over the past few weeks. I'm not taking a class on it. It's not directly related to the thesis I'm writing this semester. And yet, I could hardly tear myself away from it last night after nearly 5 hours of wrestling with the letter in the Greek text. I've moved very slowly through the letter. And I think this is the key to reading Paul: You cannot move onto the next verse until you have understood the preceding one. This would seem like a very basic reading strategy, but I think most find this more difficult--especially with Paul--than it would at first appear. That is to say, for example, that you're not going to understand the "Therefores" (i.e. Rom 2:1; 5:1, 12, 16; 6:12; 8:1; 12:1; 14:13; 15:7) or the "What then?s" (i.e. Rom 3:1, 9, 27; 4:1; 6:1, 15; 7:7; 8:31; 9:30; 11:7) in the letter unless you understand the preceding statements that prompt Paul to write the "therefores" and the "what then?s". You have to track with the argument, and realize that the issues Paul is addressing may not be the issues you're bringing to the text. You must be willing to realize that not only your answers might be corrected by the Scriptures, but even your questions may be undone or redone. Paul may not be addressing what you hope to hear addressed. Will you listen anyway? Let me offer some insight into part of the main line of the argument in Rom 1-4 as I now more clearly see it:
ROMANS 1
Paul begins with an introduction that previews his main themes (1:1-7), a prayer of thanksgiving for the church he's addressing in Rome (1:8-15, a church, by the way, that he has never met!), and gives a summary of the basic argument of his letter (1:16-17)--namely that the righteousness of God is now revealed "through faith for faith." He then jumps into the main body of his argument.
Paul begins at the grand, cosmic scale (1:18-32), diagnosing the human condition as one fundamentally shaped by idolatry: we "serve the creature rather than the Creator." (1:25) Because of this fundamental idolatry, God's wrath is poured out on us. But what is this wrath? God's wrath is precisely his "giving [us] up" to our own idolatrous ways. (v. 24, 26, 28) The result of us having been "given up" to our own idolatry is the multiple collection of sins listen through the latter half of this section. (Which is actually quite the reverse of how this passage [1:18-32] is popularly preached. It is not that God's wrath is the consequence of these multiple sins, so much as it is that these sins are the result of God's wrath--that is God's "giving us up" to our own idolatry.)
ROMANS 2
Just in case any Jews (or perhaps Torah-abiding Gentiles) in Paul's Roman audience think they are exempt from this universal declaration of human idolatry, Paul begins chapter two by saying that "whoever you are who judge others . . . you yourselves do these very same things!" (v.1) Nobody is exempt from the description of chapter 1: We are all of us idolaters, Jew and Gentile alike. Then Paul jumps into a discussion about the final judgment (2:5-16)--a discussion that is apparently important enough for Paul to put toward the very beginning of his letter, but often very unimportant to those of us modern Christian readers who like to skip over chapter two to get to chapter three where we find that "all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." (3:23) Hear the radical (perhaps radically un-Pauline?) message of Paul chapter 2, though: There is a day coming in the future "when God's righteous judgment will be revealed." (v.5) The final judgment scene! And what will count on that day of final judgment? "For he [God] will repay according to each one's deeds." (v.6) Some, who seek good, will receive life; for those who don't, there will be "wrath and fury." (vv.7-8) Final judgment is coming, and on that day "God will repay according to each one's deeds." I make no attempt to paraphrase or interpret that because I want you to hear the full brunt of Paul's own words. "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." (vv.9-10) There is a verdict coming that will be passed on that last day upon each and every person--guilty or "righteous/justified" (which in Greek are one and the same word--dikaios). And the verdict will be passed whether you know the Jewish Torah or not: those who know it will be judged by it, those who don't will be judged by that "law" which is revealed in their very hearts. (vv.12-16). How is it that you can attain to the verdict "righteous/justified" on that day? "According to each one's deeds" is Paul's answer. "That doesn't sound like Paul!" someone objects. "Paul says that justification is by faith not deeds!" True, but maybe there's more to justification in Paul than we have yet recognized.
Since this post is already becoming quite longer than I intended, I leave you hanging here and hope that you'll return in the near future to read the conclusion to this little discussion of Romans 1-4. (Better yet, READ ROMANS FOR YOURSELF!) God bless.
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