The primary theme running through
Paul’s letter to the Romans is the revelation of God’s righteousness in His
plan for salvation (faith), a/k/a the
gospel. “For 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 to faith; as it is
written, “But the righteous man shall live by faith.” (Romans 1:16–17).
Paul showed how human beings lack
God’s righteousness because of our sin (1–3), receive God’s righteousness when
God justifies us by faith (4–5), demonstrate God’s righteousness by being
transformed from rebels to followers (6–8), confirm His righteousness when God
saves the Jews (9–11), and apply His righteousness in practical ways throughout
our lives (12–16).
At the core of Romans is Paul’s basic gospel message dealing with
the misconceptions and heresies of Judaism.
Paul shows that all (Judeans and gentiles alike)
fall short of the glory of God, and that in order to be saved from their sin
and condemnation, all are in
need of a righteousness not their own.
Many of the Jews even believed they possessed salvation solely on the
basis of being Abraham’s descendant, a la “saved by association.” Beyond this, the Jews also thought they determined who was eligible for
salvation because they owned it, i.e. they shared salvation only with those
willing to become Jewish converts before the coming of Christ, and when these proselytes
converted to Judaism, they had to be circumcised and willingly put themselves
under the Law of Moses. With the coming
of Christ, Christianity was completely rejected by many of the Jews. They didn’t believe Jesus was the Messiah,
and further, they opposed the preaching of Jesus as the Messiah even to the
Gentiles. The Jews who converted to
Christianity wanted to acquire ownership and control just like they had done in
Judaism. These Jews insisted that to be
saved, Gentiles needed not only to believe in Jesus as the Messiah, but they
must be circumcised and keep the Law.
To the Jews, Abraham was their father; they were his chosen
sons. Paul is doing some serious
correcting in Romans 4 – he not only shows the Jews that they’re mistaken
concerning the righteousness of Abraham, he also shows that Abraham was
justified by faith (apart from works) and that is the “father” of all who believe, Judeans and gentile
alike. Abraham’s righteousness is the
exact same kind of righteousness that God has made available to us on the same
basis.
Abraham was justified by faith alone, apart from works (4:1-8),
and he was justified by this faith as an uncircumcised gentile (4:9-17). Finally, Abraham’s resurrection faith
(4:17-25) is just like that which is required today – the promises God makes
are unwaveringly certain. God can “give
life to the dead and call into existence the things that do not exist,” just as
he did with Abraham and Sarah who were the dead ones in the sense that they
could no produce life (4:19; Heb. 11:11-12), yet out of the deadness of Sarah’s
womb He brought forth life. Later, when
Abraham was told to kill his only son, he knew that God would bring back his
dead son to life because he knew God must keep His promise (Heb. 11:17-19; cf.
Gen. 22:5). Paul’s gospel teaches us
that true faith is always fixed upon God’s Word (Rom. 10:17), and we must have
faith…true faith in what the Word says, as Abraham certainly did.
According to Grieb, Paul wrote to the church at Rome for eight
reasons[1]
- to introduce himself and his theology (especially his controversial gospel
that excluded the law for Gentile converts); to correct false impressions about
what he taught; to reassure the Jewish Christians of Israel’s priority and
irrevocability of God’s covenant with it; to reassure the Gentile Christians of
God’s impartiality and that they were included under God’s covenant promises as
well; to urge Roman Christians to stop fighting over stupid stuff and live
together in harmony, albeit with diversity; to recommend Phoebe as a helper and
part of the important mission ahead; to start laying the foundation to build
Roman house churches so they could become the base of operations he would need
for his impending mission to Spain and…”above all, Paul wrote to proclaim the gospel of God to them.”
[1] Grieb
Katherine A. The Story of Romans. Pages
14-15.
Louisville: London:
Westminster John Knox Press, 2002
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