Review of the Biblical book of Romans
Preface
While on a long holiday in early 2011, I felt the challenge to reflect on the New Testament book of Romans. I felt a personal need to get to grips with this thoughtful book written by Paul the Apostle. My subsequent reading and reflections on the book developed into a kind of book review. At times my thoughts wandered into related ideas and I headed these parts ‘food for thought.’ I have then added a ‘challenge’ relating to each section.
In this second edition I have re-arranged the text so as to more systematically present material directly relating to Romans at the beginning of each section and to keep related ideas under the ‘food for thought’ sections. I have also included more of the NTL Romans text.
What I have written is not a scholarly study and is not a formal commentary, but may be classified as a book review. In writing this review I have encouraged myself in the Christian faith and in making the series available to anyone who cares to read it, I hope others may also be encouraged.
The Biblical version I had with me on holiday was the New Living Translation (NLT), second edition. Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved. I reference direct quotations with (NLT) and occasionally I have added minor clarifications in brackets to suit context. Quotes in italics are my own paraphrases. The word Spirit with a capital ‘S’ denotes the ‘Spirit of God’ or the person of God that the Bible may otherwise describe as ‘God the Holy Spirit’.
Mikereflects revised Sept 2012
Forward
Romans was written by Paul the Apostle to the Roman church in about AD57, prior to his intended visit to Rome for the purpose of extending his work of preaching the Gospel of Christ in (what is now) Italy and Spain (cf. ch.15 v24).
In Paul’s introduction he first spells his credentials, mentions his intention to visit Rome and then briefly outlines the Gospel he is preaching.
Chapters two and three I have titled ‘The reason for the Gospel Paul proclaims.’ (In my blog I have titled the same sections a little differently) Here Paul is addressing various themes and problems. First he addresses the problem of the self-righteousness of the Jews. He also addresses the Jewish concept of the superiority of the Mosaic Law and then he seeks to place that law in the eternal context of God’s justice. Paul is also exploring the theme of perfect justice. These three themes (self-righteousness, God’s law and God’s justice) are intertwined in these two chapters.
Chapters four to seven I have titled ‘God’s way to bring humanity to salvation’, since here Paul spells out his Gospel in greater detail, before moving on in chapter eight to explain how we need to ‘walk in the way of salvation.’
In chapters nine to eleven Paul argues for ‘the universality of salvation’ by which he means that God’s grace through Jesus Christ is available to all who respond to God’s initiative in faith. This title is not to be confused with the term ‘universal salvation,’ which has been taken by some to imply that God is going to save everyone regardless of their response, i.e., to negate the need for salvation!
Chapters twelve to fifteen I have titled ‘The fruits of Salvation’ since here Paul spells out the practical outworking of the Gospel which should be visible to all people. Finally Paul adds a conclusion by which he commends the courier of his letter to the church in Rome.
Index of Part One
1 Paul’s Introduction
Romans 1 v. 1-7 (Paul’s credentials)
Romans 1 v. 8-15 (Paul’s purpose to visit)
Romans 1 v. 16-17 (Gospel summary)
2 Reason for the Gospel of Jesus Christ
Romans 1 v. 24-32 (conscience)
3 God’s way to bring humanity to salvation
Romans 2 v. 1-13 (justice the same for everyone)
Romans 2 v. 14-16 (What kind of Judgement is Paul talking about?)
Romans 2 v. 17- 3 v 4 (Jews & Religious Laws)
Romans 3 v. 5-8 (called to perfection; not judged for being imperfect!)
Romans 3 v 9-20 (God’s faithfulness despite human sinfulness)
1 Paul’s Introduction
Paul cameos his credentials, informs the church in Rome of his intention to visit them and summaries his gospel message which the letter then expands on.
Romans 1 v.1-7 (Paul’s credentials)
‘1This letter is from Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus, chosen by God to be an apostle and sent out to preach his Good News. 2God promised this Good News through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures. 3aThe Good News is about his Son, Jesus. ..4he was shown to be the Son of God when he was raised from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit. (NLT extract, v.1-4)’
These verses are Paul's salutation to the early Roman church in which he cameos those of his credentials he considered important for his audience. To Paul his credentials are personal and largely based around his dramatic encounter with the risen Christ on the road to Damascus. Breathing threats against the first Christian believers, Paul was leading a pose of Jews intent on bringing believers bound in chains back to Jerusalem to face trial and possible death by stoning for blasphemous claims about Jesus. The Christians claimed that the Jewish authorities had crucified the Christ who was now exalted to God’s right hand.
On the road to Damascus Paul was suddenly struck to the ground from his horse and blinded by a brilliant light that temporarily damaged his sight and at the same time he heard the voice of the risen Christ Jesus. Acts (ch.9 v1-18) describes the event and that Paul (then known as Saul) was instructed to continue to Damascus and to obey the prophetic instructions he would receive. The context indicates that this prophetic instruction would come through the Christians of Damascus who Saul was intent on persecuting. When he arrived there, Ananias (a local Christian) was called by God in a vision to visit Paul and tell him that Christ was sending him to all races of people (i.e. regardless of their existing faith) to preach the message of Christ. This encounter with the risen Christ was to change and to drive Paul for the rest of his life.
The credentials Paul offers the Roman Christians are:-
1] Paul was chosen by God to proclaim the gospel (Good News) of Christ (ch.1 v1 hints at his dramatic encounter with Christ)
2] This gospel which Paul proclaimed about God's Christ is totally in line with the expectations of the Jewish scriptures (ch.1 v2) in which Paul was well schooled.
3] This gospel is for both non-Jews and Jews because it is one by which God calls everyone (regardless of any previous faith) to the obedience of faith in Christ and hence to become a brand new 'holy people' belonging to Jesus Christ (ch.1 v6-7). Paul was called to take the gospel primarily to the Gentiles, nevertheless in each town he came to, he always sought to find Jewish communities to commence his outreach and in writing to the church in Rome he was addressing both Gentile and Jewish converts and addressing them as a new creation in Jesus Christ under a new covenant. For Paul, the Jewish faith (based on obedience to the Jewish law) is now superseded!
4] By this gospel God has particularly designated Jesus of Nazareth (a full-blooded Jew) as God's unique son in the realm of God's Spirit by means of his resurrection (ch.1v3 & 4). Verse 4b can be translated either as ‘raised from the dead by the power of the Spirit (NLT)’, or ‘raised from the dead into the new realm of the Spirit (NLT note)’, or as ‘raised from the dead by the Spirit of holiness (NLT note).’ These shades of meaning are explored further in chapter 2. (The ‘Food for Thought’ below further discusses this Pauline emphasis on the resurrection).
These four basic credentials, viz., (1) Christ's direct commission to Paul; (2) his gospel being in line with Jewish Scriptural prophecy, but (3) calling out a new inclusive and spiritual holy people belonging to Christ alone; and (4) a gospel that depends on the spiritual truth of Jesus resurrection, are much related to Paul's personal experience of the risen Christ and of subsequent revelations that he received from God.
Food for Thought (Significance of the resurrection of Christ): For Paul it was Jesus resurrection that particularly proved Jesus to be God's promised Messiah linked as it was with the recorded facts of Jesus humanity and his life and death on the cross. Paul preached that Jesus died as a full and sufficient sacrifice to bring all people into a full relationship with God, but the proof of this for Paul is the resurrection. The fact of Jesus resurrection particularly resonated for Paul from his encounter with the risen Christ.
It is interesting that other apostles did not necessarily think with this Pauline emphasis. For example the author of John’s Gospel and the letters of John (assuming a single author), does not write in these terms. For John the essentials that prove Jesus to be God’s Christ are the truths that, (1) Jesus was fully human, (2) Jesus was designated God’s Spiritual son by miraculous signs, (3) Jesus as God’s sacrificial lamb died on a Roman cross to bring God’s forgiveness of sin for all humanity (John 1 v.36) and (4) those who hear the (spiritual) ‘voice of Christ’ are ‘awakened’ from spiritual death (John 5 v.25). This ‘proof’ resonated with the earliest disciples’ eye-witness experience of Jesus’ life and death. For example John (son of Zebedee) was present at Jesus baptism in the river Jordan when a supernatural sign confirmed for him John the Baptist's prophecy that Jesus would en-flesh God's sacrificial love for humanity. That experience was formative for John; he changed his allegiance and became a companion of Jesus rather than of the Baptist (John 1v29-37).
The author of John’s Gospel & letters obviously believed that God raised Jesus from the dead since he records the events, but he doesn’t give the resurrection any imperative as proof that Jesus is the Christ. John’s experience and emphasis is quite different to that of Paul’s, but just as real, true and meaningful. This is not to deny the importance of Paul’s insight into the centrality of the resurrection.
Challenge: What was formative in bringing you into God’s kingdom? Might it be a different, but no less valid experience for other believers?
Romans 1 v 8-15 (Paul’s purpose to visit)
‘11I long to visit you so I can bring you some spiritual gift...12When we get together, I want to encourage you in your faith, but I also want to be encouraged by yours.’
Paul explains his strong desire and purpose for visiting Rome. Paul’s reasons for wanting to go to Rome may be found in this passage and in more detail in Romans chapter 15. These are:-
a] To give encouragement to this strategically placed church and so to build up their faith (Ch.1 v11)
b] In so doing to be encouraged himself by the evidence of their growth in Christian love and commitment (ch.1 v12).
c] To assist them in preaching the gospel and to win more converts to Christ. Paul’s motive was he felt as a heavy debt of gratitude to the love of God in dealing with him and commissioning him to service of the gospel of God's love for all humanity (ch.1 v13-15).
d] Subsequently Paul expected the Roman church to assist him in reaching further (e.g., into Spain) with the Gospel (ch.15 v23-24).
c] Paul prays earnestly for God to lead him in this work (ch.1 v8-9 + ch.15 v30-33) and for his life to be so directed by God's Spirit.
Food for thought (Normal Christianity): Do you think Paul's attitude of ‘encouraging others’, of ‘witness’, of ‘fellowship’ and of ‘prayerfully seeking God’s leading’, should be normal for all Christians?
Challenge: Let us pray that we may daily be the means by which other people experience God's love working thorough our lives and are encouraged in their own lives!
Romans 1 v 16-17 ~ (the Gospel)
‘16I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes - the Jew first and also the Gentile. 17This Good News tells us how God makes us right in his sight. It is accomplished from start to finish by faith.’
In these verses Paul declares his confidence in the truth and power of the gospel of Christ. This gospel is about Christ and so it depends on the historical records of the life of Jesus of Nazareth that we now have in the four Gospels and that Paul received in verbal form through the Christian church.
Jesus was ‘good’ in that he accepted all people regardless of race, gender or social status. He fraternised with the despised as equally as those of good status, however he spoke stridently against all who practiced injustice or hypocrisy. He spoke gently to the repentant and healed the sick.
The Gospels tell us Jesus regularly got up early to spend time alone in prayer with God and that he also regularly attended public worship services and proclaimed to the Jews that the Kingdom of God was coming near to them.
Jesus knew himself to be the incarnated Christ and called people to follow him. He taught his disciples that he embodied the way to come into relationship with God (John chapters 14 & 15) and through his direct and indirect teachings and shared prayers, Jesus taught that by his own death and subsequent resurrection God was breaking down the spiritual barrier that we naturally experience in relationship to God.
Jesus is recorded (John ch.17) as stating that he would make it possible for anyone to be in as close a relationship with God as he himself experienced on earth. This relationship is based on the indwelling Holy Spirit of Christ.
In Romans 1 v16 &17 Paul touches on the Gospel theme that he develops in much more detail later, viz.
a] The gospel is about Christ and it is God's chosen means to deliver all people from bondage to self-centred living, i.e. by their experiencing God's love for themselves as they come to believe that love which was evidenced in Jesus Christ (ch.1 v16b).
b] God loves and is willing to forgive the sins of all humankind in Christ Jesus (ch.1 v16c).
c] God wants everyone to come into the same kind of relationship that Jesus evidenced with God, one of love and service (ch.1 v17a).
d] This gospel is about how God makes people right with himself by their faith as opposed to their own efforts to live a good life (ch.1 v17b)
Paul declares it is through faith (ch.1 v17) that a person enters a new relationship with God (In the Gospels, Jesus uses the phrase ‘kingdom of God’ to mean the same thing as relationship). This emphasis on faith may seem obvious to many, but for Paul writing against a background where Jewish tradition implied that it was by keeping all the Jewish religious regulations that people were ‘righteous’ in God’s sight, it was a revelation that needed proclaiming and formed an integral part of the Gospel Paul preached.
Leaders in many world religions today still teach their adherents that it is by keeping or obeying a set of rules and regulations that they will be saved, i.e., will be accepted into heaven or become ‘righteous’ in the creator’s sight. But as I shall show in reviewing Romans Ch.4, both Paul and Jesus clearly taught that such legalism is not the true religion that pleases God and as such is false.
Paul writes that the Gospel is God’s powerful means to save the Jew first and then everyone else (ch.1 v16c). Paul was called to take the Gospel to the non-Jewish world, but his heart still yearned that his fellow Jews should embrace it. He also seems to have made a practice of first preaching in a Jewish place of worship wherever he went, before preaching in non-Jewish places.
This may or may not explain his thinking in verse 16 (viz. ‘the Jew first’). It could be that he felt prejudiced that Jews were nearer the kingdom of God than non-Jews, certainly that view seems to come through in chapter 9 of Romans: however this is countered somewhat by Paul’s comments in chapter 2, v 9-11, where he clearly states that God has no favourites.
Food for thought (How the Gospel works for us): At its simplest the Gospel tells us that God inhabited Jesus of Nazareth for the purpose that all people might come into relationship with God through receiving God’s love shown to us in Jesus.
As we believe (/receive) this truth that God meets us eternally in Christ, God’s Spirit makes effective in us what Jesus achieved in his life and death and the Gospel begins to work for us. We know we are forgiven our sins and find that God’s Spirit of love and discipline resides in us as we trust God and experience peace of heart & mind. God’s love inspires us to love God and other people in response and so reinforces our faith based on the evidence of our own experience.
Challenge: Do we have prejudiced ways of thinking about who is or is not in God’s kingdom? Let us pray we will see Christ in others regardless of where they are spiritually.
2 Reason for the Gospel of Jesus Christ
Paul outlines the background to God’s Gospel initiative in terms of the general tendency to idolatry, wickedness and the weak role of conscience in human nature.
Romans 1 v. 18-23 (idols)
‘18But God shows his anger against all sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness. ..21they knew (about) God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks...
Paul denounces all the wicked attitudes of those who persist in self-centred living and particularly those who suppress their consciences and those who suppress or deny the truth (ch.1 v.18) about God’s love for all people and of God’s desire that we should enter God’s kingdom.
Paul sees all such attitudes and actions as people pushing away the gentle Spirit of God and wilfully rejecting all that is godly (ch.1 v21a). Such ways are the ways of spiritual death rather than of spiritual life, and such people bring on the consequences on their own heads (ch.1 v21-24).
Food for thought (Pride is seriously sinful, but ignorance is not!): In these Roman verses, Paul seems to be somewhat judgemental when he states that people who worship idols (ch.1 v23) have darkened minds because they have deliberately forsaken such knowledge as may be deduced of the eternal God in the created world (ch.1 v19,20).
Yet when he visited Athens, Paul was much more conciliatory to those who worshipped idols in ignorance. He preached (Acts 17, v22) that God overlooks people’s ignorance of God (when they worship idols), but that God now commands all peoples to turn to God’s love and receive the Gospel of Christ. So why is Paul in Romans so condemning of ignorance?
It is true that as we claim to be right in our own eyes, we become darkened to what God’s spirit wants to lead us into. This is as true for those who have experienced God’s love in Christ as for those who haven’t and may be worshiping idols. It seems that it is this sin of pride that Paul alludes to in this passage of Romans, since he goes on in chapter 2 of Romans to forcibly make the point that moralists (this can include Christians) need to note that in condemning others they also show the sin of pride.
Challenge: Those who worship idols can become darkened to the light of the Gospel, but this can also be true for Christians! For example do we take the Bible too literally and thus turn the Scriptures into an idol. We are called to worship God not the Bible! By idolising our understanding of the Scriptures in the way Paul had done before his conversion, we can become darkened to the light of the Gospel of Christ. God loves everyone and desires that all should come to know the love of Christ.
We are called into a relationship of continually looking to and trusting God’s Spirit to lead us. Do we sometimes rely on our own understanding rather than keep looking to Christ to show us the way of his love?
Romans 1 v. 24-32 (conscience)
‘24So God abandoned them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result they did vile and degrading things with each other’s bodies. 25They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen.
28Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done. 29Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarrelling, deception, malicious behaviour, and gossip.
Paul goes on to describe some of the detailed consequences of those who abandon their consciences and deliberately walk in self centred ways. He lists a catalogue of vices (verse 29) which nearly all people (inclusive of non-Christians and atheists) would whole-heartedly endorse as wrong. Scripture teaches that the consequence of continually resisting the gentle encouragement of God’s Spirit to do what is right, is that God’s Spirit leaves us to our own devices.
Food for thought: It is apparent that Paul has no knowledge or experience of homosexual orientation that is compatible with a caring unselfish attitude to others and that is capable of developing a faithful long term relationship. His only knowledge of homosexuality appears to have been totally linked to those people who eschew all virtue and prompting of their consciences; hence he lists such behaviour alongside heartlessness, murder, cruelty, idolatry, etc.
Paul (as was Jesus) was primarily concerned to teach that it is our attitudes that matter and that will be judged by God.
Most desires and addictions to desires (including those of normal sexual behaviour) have a bio-chemical component. Changed behaviour for good or bad, results from chemical changes, whether these are psychologically induced, medicated or are the result of disease.
Our consciences can advise us what is, or is not real love for others, and so those who abandon their consciences will abandon any real love for others and God. This is not quite the same thing as addiction. Those who abandon their consciences do become addicted to doing what is obviously wrong often without really knowing why they go on doing those things. Such people can experience a change of heart (mind-set) and start to live by their renewed consciences (for example when experiencing spiritual conversion), however good behaviour is not restored without psychological struggle. This is where peer encouragement can help.
However it is also the case that many people fall into obviously wrong behaviour due to the unresolved negative experiences inflicted on them by others (usually in childhood). Spiritual conversion may leave those underlying psychological problems unresolved and still damaging to the personality. This is where careful counselling is important.
Those who engage in drug abuse will become addicted for chemical reasons rather than for spiritual reasons and recovery from such addiction may require careful medical help as well as peer encouragement. Changed behaviour (e.g. extreme aggression) can also result from diseases (e.g. urinary infections, brain disorders, etc.) and the only hope in such cases is careful medical diagnosis and treatment.
Challenge: Sex is given by God for us to thoroughly enjoy in the process of maintaining a loving relationship, however we can turn sexual fulfilment into an idol when we put this pleasure and goal above real love for other people and above real love for God, and if we do so, we worship sex rather than God. This principle can be as true for our desire to earn a living or any other right desire.
Are we continually examining ourselves to assess whether we are putting otherwise good desires above our desire to love God and other people?
3 God’s way to bring humanity to salvation
In chapters two and three (up to ch.3 v.20) Paul is addressing various themes and problems in bringing people into a right relationship with God. First he addresses the problem of the self-righteousness of the Jews. He also addresses the Jewish belief in the superiority of the Mosaic Law and then he seeks to place that law in the eternal context of God’s justice. And Paul explores the theme of perfect justice. The three themes of self-righteousness, God’s law and God’s justice are intertwined in these two chapters and it may be helpful to read Romans 2 v.1-13 followed by Romans 3 v.4b-8.
These verses address issues relating to the self-righteousness of the Jews and the universality of God’s justice. Paul engages in a typical style of argument of his day called a diatribe. He puts up protagonists and then knocks them down. The potential weaknesses of this approach are that some of virtual protagonists might be straw men in that they are too easily dismissed, or that the author may fail to dismiss the arguments to everyone’s satisfaction.
Romans 2 v. 1-13 ~ (justice the same for everyone)
ch2v1You may think you can condemn such people (viz. the pagans Paul speaks of in chapter 1), but you are just as bad, and you have no excuse! When you say they are wicked and should be punished, you are condemning yourself, for you who judge others do these very same things. ...5Because you are stubborn and refuse to turn from your sin, you are storing up terrible punishment for yourself.
ch2v9There will be trouble and calamity for everyone who keeps on doing what is evil – for the Jew first and also for the Greek. 10But there will be glory honour and peace from God for all who do good – for the Jew first and also for the Greek. 11For God does not show favouritism.
At the start of chapter 2, Paul challenges those complacent moralists inclusive of Christians who are judgemental of the wicked; especially those coming from a Jewish background and still retaining a notion of righteousness due to their heritage or religious practices. It is as if Paul is saying, ‘Imagine the very worst kind of sinner. Do you think you will fare better than them when it comes to God’s judgement day? Well think again! Because God judges by all the secrets of our hearts not just by our outward practices; God’s judgement is based on our inner attitudes and self-centredness and not on outward appearances! And God’s standard is perfection! So if you, who appreciate what is right and what is wrong, fail to live up to the perfection that you know is right then you are up for the same judgement that you feel is obviously going to be meted out to the wicked.’
We think of justice as meted out on people in response to them not meeting a particular known standard, so if we fail to keep to the speed limit we are fined regardless of how much we exceeded it and can generally accept the justice of that.
However if one person drives recklessly and is meted only a small fine, whereas another marginally exceeds the limit and is then thrown into prison, we would rightly say that was unjust. So we accept that justice is final, but we also expect it to be comparable or fair.
Paul addresses the first aspect, viz. That perfect justice is final, i.e. if we fail to keep any part of God’s perfect law, then we have failed. So those who condemn others (as worse than themselves in their own eyes) will suffer the same judgement as those they condemn. ‘All have sinned and come short of God’s perfection (Rom ch.3 v23)’ and imperfection can’t reside with perfection, so it might seem logical in the absence of any salvation, that everyone will be denied eternal life with a perfect God. Thus those moralists, who try and cling to their self-appreciating righteousness compared to others, are wrong! They have failed such a criterion and so they might expect also to be condemned! There is no hope in righteousness that depends on passing human moral standards when it comes to dealing with our all perfect creator God.
Paul moves on to deal with further aspects of God’s perfect justice. Paul’s argument has been that salvation is by faith (Rom.1 v.16-17), so sinners do not earn forgiveness; it is God’s free gift. In chapter two he states that God’s justice is meted out impartially for all people regardless of their claim to being religious (especially of being Jewish). And he states bluntly that God’s justice deals with persistent sin on the one hand and rewards persistent goodness on the other.
Food for thought:
In using the phrase ‘for the Jew first and also for the non-Jew (Gentile)’ in Romans 2 (verses 9 & 10), is Paul is not implying that God is biased towards Jews even if at first glance it might seem so, since it is clear from verse 11, where Paul states bluntly, ‘God does not show favouritism (NLT)!’ So what is he saying?
Paul has in mind that Jesus was foremost the Jewish Messiah and that during his earthly life Jesus essentially reached & preached to Jews, showing them that God’s purpose for the Jewish law was fulfilled in himself. However it was clear from the Jewish Scriptures (Old Testament) that the Jewish Messiah was intended to become God’s gift to all nations. Jesus commissioned his Jewish disciples to go to all peoples to preach the gospel, because God’s salvation is for all people.
Hence Paul, who was a Jew and raised in the Jewish law and then commissioned by Christ to reach the gentiles, sees God’s order as first reaching the Jews and then through Jews taking God’s message into all the world. This order does not exist today, since Christ’s commission has now passed on to the essentially gentile worldwide Christian church.
Challenge: A modern equivalent may be thought of in terms of all the people who condemn Adolf Hitler or Joseph Stalin as obvious candidates for God’s wrath and judgement. Paul is in effect saying, ‘That will be so, but don’t think that each of you will fare any better, since you have much the same propensity to do evil given their circumstances as they had. The question for us is, given our circumstances, are we using all in our power to do every good we can, as we embrace the relationship that the living God offers us?’
Romans 2 v 14-16 (What kind of Judgement is Paul talking about?)
14Even Gentiles, who do not have God’s written law, show that they know his law when they instinctively obey it, even without having heard it. 15They demonstrate that God’s law is written in their hearts, for their own conscience and thoughts either accuse them or tell them they are doing right.
God does not judge us for not being perfect, however we do suffer the consequences of imperfection for as long as we resist God’s saving grace. So, what should we make of Paul’s declaration that ‘the day is coming when God through Jesus Christ will judge everyone’s secret life? (Rom.2 v.16)’?
I believe we need to leave behind our temporal notion of a judge dispensing justice according to some rule book, where the result is a static sentence. Paul’s statement is a picture of the undoubted fact that our physical death will bring us face to face with the spiritual reality of the lives we have lived on earth. Accordingly in God’s economy of our eternal existence, all our negative and positive attitudes and choices will be exposed and we will become acutely aware of what they have made us. It will be that awareness that will be our judgement.
However in as far as we have developed any temporal relationship with God, there can be little doubt that God will continue to offer us redemption wherever this is relevant. It would seem from the New Testament writers that God’s redemption will have the immediate effect of bringing to perfection those who though demonstrably imperfect on earth nevertheless ‘sought after the glory and honour and immortality that God offers (Rom.2 v.7).’ The extent to which God’s redemptive being can relevantly remain open to those who ‘refuse to obey the truth (ch.2 v.8)’ is presently beyond our understanding.
Challenge: As Jesus said, ‘Let us walk in the light for as long as it is daytime, because the night comes when no-one can.’ So we can ask ourselves the question, ‘Am I taking hold of God’s grace each and every day so that I live creatively in God’s presence?
Romans 2 v. 17- 3 v 4 (Jews & their Religious Laws)
Ch2v17You who call yourselves Jews are relying on God’s Law, and you boast about your special relationship with God. ..19You are convinced you are a guide for the blind and a light for people lost in darkness. ..20For you are certain God’s Law gives you complete knowledge and truth.
Paul struggles with the relative importance of his Jewish culture. He is grateful for his upbringing which like a school master, has been instrumental in leading him to faith in Christ Jesus; yet to live for Christ he had to let go of all reliance on his Jewish faith. He was not saved by the Jewish faith, but by Christ Jesus!
Some of the other Apostles were less clear on this issue, but not Paul. In Rom.2 v17-29 Paul attacks any & all Jewish hypocrisy, but he concedes some ‘value’ to Jewish culture (ch.2 v25). However he puts heathens who follow their consciences above Jews who only obey the letter of the Jewish law.
Paul then re-defines his Jewish-ness. He departs from all normal definitions by claiming that being born into a Jewish family and being circumcised a Jew, does not make you a true Jew! John the Baptist had meant much the same thing when he told a group of Pharisees that God could raise up descendants of Abraham from the stones in the river. Paul states that it is only those who are ‘circumcised of the heart’, i.e. who God’s Spirit has brought into true relationship with God (Christ) who are true Jews, but by this definition anyone in the world who has a personal ‘born again’ relationship with Christ is a true Jew (ch.2 v29)!
Food for Thought: A modern parallel to Paul’s cultural struggle may be those Muslims who convert to Christianity. To what extent should they value their Islamic cultural background?
Challenge: Do we tend to glorify our culture, or do we try and use our culture to glorify God without being exclusive?
Romans 3 v.5-8 ~ (called to perfection; not judged for being imperfect!)
5 “But,” some might say, “our sinfulness serves a good purpose, for it helps people to see how righteous God is. Isn’t it unfair, then for him to punish us?”
Paul stated in chapter 2 that God in his perfect righteousness judges all sin and here (ch.3 v.5), he brings up a possible objection to this argument. His distracters might say, ‘Since by your gospel we are forgiven when we don’t deserve to be, then we might as well sin as much as we like and keep receiving forgiveness because on this basis God will never judge us since we keep glorifying God’s grace towards us! So sinfulness serves a good purpose, for it helps people see how righteous God is; therefore it would be unjust for God to punish us!’
Paul’s answer is, ‘Of course it is just for God to punish you, because he is the judge of everyone and so he must be just.’ Paul is in effect saying that God is perfect and so he is totally just; therefore he is perfectly just in condemning you for any sin. However this is a circular argument since his virtual objector was questioning whether or not God is really just if, as it might seem, God derives some benefit when he judges sin. Paul’s answer might convince some, but might not convince a real protagonist!
Paul’s virtual objection requires further examination. The example of driving I have given (see previous section) illustrates two aspects of justice. Paul has addressed the first aspect, i.e. that we appreciate justice is served when everyone who fails a standard (however it was that they failed) is served the same sentence. The second aspect, that of comparability, Paul may be intending to address in chapter 3.
To illustrate further: if an imperfect state sets reasonable laws that people can keep, and then punishes those who refuse to keep those laws, we would accept that the state is acting justly. However if the same state was to create laws that no one could keep and then punished its citizens for failing to keep them, we would hold the state to be acting unjustly!
Generally sinfulness in people is shown up by godliness in others, and so the goodness of some people or the statement that ‘God is perfect goodness’, could expose someone’s sinfulness both to them and to others. However in my opinion there is no real link between a statement about God’s perfection and the question of whether Divine justice is served when we suffer the consequences of our sins, and for good reason.
No human being is perfect like God, but God’s moral standard for humanity is perfection! Hence if God were to judge us as we are for not being perfect, justice would not be served (because it would not be what I have termed comparable)! However this ‘standard of God perfection’ is not like a human standard set by a human executive. It is more like a universal design. God has designed us to be made like God’s perfection by means of God working in us.
So God does not punish anyone for being imperfect! Rather God offers us the grace to become perfect. However if we refuse this change, we will suffer the consequence of our own choice, viz., we will remain imperfect. Ultimately imperfection and perfection can’t reside together, imperfection can only reside in the temporal, but perfection will reside in the eternal. There is no injustice in this since God’s grace is eternally offered for as long as the temporal exists.
Food for Thought: This experience of change is more like a parent training a child how to succeed in some venture. If we refuse to allow God to assist us in the venture of life, then we will fail in God’s purpose for us, we will be like clay that refuses to be made into a pot despite all the efforts of a skilled potter.
In this case the clay is left for another purpose, and so justice is served in that all who do not eventually yield are left as they are without distinction. It is not a matter of comparability! As for the objection that God is glorified by wickedness, this is plainly not the case, since God being already perfect can’t actually benefit from any supposed highlighting that wickedness might serve!
Challenge: Are you allowing God to change you into a person who glorifies God by their life?
Romans 3 v 9-20 (God’s faithfulness despite human sinfulness)
9bAll people, whether Jews or Gentiles, are under the power of sin...10No one is righteous – not even one. ...20For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are.
Paul completes his diatribe on Jewish-ness (ch.3 v9-20) by returning to the theme that all have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory in their lives, quoting a mix of passages from the Psalms and Isaiah. Paul makes it clear that none can be made right with God by obeying religious rules and states his view that all such rules and regulations are merely intended to show people what is right and wrong in God’s sight and so to expose their sinfulness. He then goes on to share the good news of Christ Jesus.
Food for thought: We may come from a background where the emphasis was on obeying certain rules in order to please God. Jesus taught that we need to trust God and also to believe in himself as the Christ who makes a new relationship with God possible; then we will love God and with the Spirit’s help fulfil Christ’s essential requirements of loving all people with love that God gives us (refer John 14 v1-17).
Why did God allow the Jews to think that they were righteous by virtue of following the laws and ceremonies given through Moses? Clearly Paul believed that before he became a Christian, however some of the Hebrew prophets had repeatedly pointed out God is always looking for obedience of the heart rather than lip service.
May be it is inevitable that people un-enlightened by God’s Spirit will look to being righteous by obeying the rules and regulations of their religion. As Paul indicates this is not necessarily the fault of the religion. Paul states that religion is there to show us how far we fall short of perfection so that we will come to cast ourselves wholly on God’s mercy.
Challenge: Do you ever think that by following certain rules you are OK with God? He loves you too much to ever let you think that way! Do we think instead about how we can fulfil Christ’s commandment to love other people?
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