Romans 7

An awful lot to say about this chapter - for now I'm just going to focus on 2 things:

1. vs 1-6 - the whole point of this section is that a death has taken place - we have died, because X has died, and we are somehow mysteriously connected to him - so the law is no longer binding (1), we are realeased from the law (5, 6).

It's interesting to note the structure of the argument here - this release of ours is because our husband (X) is the one who has died (3) - if we tried to set aside the law apart from him, we'd be called an adulterous, but because he has died, we too have died to the law (4), so that we might be given to another (the rez X), in order that we might bear fruit for God (4). The old life could be characterized as "life in the flesh" (5) - the new is characterized as nothing less than "new life of the Spirit" (6).

2. vs 7-20 - Lots of ink spilled over whether this section is hypothetical, past experience, etc. I think the biggest argument in favor of "present struggle for Paul" is that it's "present struggle for us" as well. What P seems to be saying (IMO), is this: given this amazing reality described in vs 1-6, how do we deal with our present experience which is largely characterized as "I want to do what is right, but find myself doing what is wrong instead".

Bottom line - we experience this "new life of the Spirit" not as X does (fullness), but as fallen-yet-redeemed children struggling to be sanctified in the already-not-yet. We are simultaneously saints and sinners. Both of those are true (and if you deny either one, you're going to end up in trouble).

The law is not bad here - it's good, because it reveals our sin for what it is (7).

It's amazing in Romans to follow P's 'by no means' comments, because he is constantly anticipating our attempts to blame shift, to pin the fault on someone else - ultimately, we alone are responsible for our sin, and X alone can save us - we cannot save ourselves (24). And that's precisely the point of this passage. X doesn't just save us from our past sins (and now we save ourselves from our present sin) - no X saves us from past, present, and future sins. We are sanctified in the same way we are justified - by faith union w/ the resurrected X.

Romans 6

It's interesting that while Ch 5 talks a lot about "justification" Ch 6 seems to focus much more on our "sanctification" (vs 1, 4, 6, 12, 19, 22). The flow of thought follows naturally from 5:20 "where sin increased, grace increased all the more". And this leads to a very natural question - well if more sin leads to even more grace, then why not sin? Conversely, we often tend to think that more grace will thus 'cause' more sin - that grace is essentially license.

Donald Miller, Blue Like Jazz puts it well:

I used to get really ticked about preachers who talked too much about grace, because they tempted me to not be disciplined. I figured what people needed was a kick in the butt, and if I failed at godliness it was because those around me weren't trying hard enough. I believed if word got out about grace, the whole church would turn into a brothel.

Paul of course, says, "No way!" That raises an interesting question - well why not? And the answer of course, is that grace is not some passive thing - rather its an active thing that unites us to Christ. See this clearly in vs 3-4 - our baptism unites us to Christ, and to the extent that we are united to him, we are enabled to walk in newness of life.

Union w/ X cannot help but change us, because X himself has been changed, and what's ours becomes his and what's his becomes ours. We MUST live if we are united to X because he himself MUST live - he has died and been raised imperishable - death no longer has any dominion over him (9).

What's so interesting about this is that even though this reality for him is definite and accomplished (and thus its guaranteed for us), its still not experienced as definite and complete for us - we're still in the already-not-yet. Hence the need to "consider" ourselves dead to sin (11) - we are to live in light of what X has already accomplished, which in turn is what accomplishes life in us. But this living of ours is active, not passive.

We work, because X has worked - it's his work that accomplishes change in us, but his work is always accompanied by our own working - never as a means or end in itself, but always out of gratitude at what he has done and our own emulation of his work.

vs 14 - law vs. grace - really presented here as something of two different epochs - the period of law (under the OT) vs. the newly inaugurated period of grace (under X). Actually, we know from Rom 4 that even the OT economy was one of grace individually (4:3 - "Abraham believed, and God credited it to him as righteousness"), but as a nation, Israel was charged to live up to the law, and they simply could not do it. And so now, X does this for us - we are no longer under the "law" because he was "under law" for us. This new epoch is gracious for us precisely because it was not gracious for X.

And it's this "being under X" that is so incredibly freeing - not because we no longer need to obey, but because we are in X we are now capable _of_ obeying - we are freed from sin. Important to note this - Scripture does not portray sin as "liberty" (being able to do what I want) but rather as "bondage" (not being able to not want it). This is why the latter part of this chapter (15-23) uses the metaphor of slavery - we're either slaves to sin or to righteousness, but we are never slaves to nothing. We are human, and thus we are meant to serve (even as kinds of all creation).

vs 17 - worth pointing out that real obedience is heart obedience - it's not just what you do, but why you do it (motive, goal).



asd

Romans 5

vs 1 - important to remember that "justified by faith" here is synonymous w/ "justified by Christ, to whom we are united through faith" or "justified by faith-union w/ Christ" - Christ is the one who justifies us, who does all the work - our faith in him is simply the instrument that unites us to him.

There are at least 3 distinct benefits of this "justification" mentioned here...

1. peace w/ God (1) - what does that say about our relationship apart from Christ? That it's nothing less than war with God (which fits the 'wrath' and 'enemies' language down in vs 9-10).
2. access to grace (2) - very important to recognize that while there is certainly such a thing as common grace (God's goodness to all), there is also a particular kind of grace (saving grace) which is only available to those who are in Christ Jesus (because he alone is the possessor and conveyor of that grace to us)
3. hope of glory (2) - in Christ, we actually hope of getting back to where we were meant to be - getting forward, actually - only in Christ do we have the capacity to become fully human, to flesh out what it means to be image of God, to really reflect his glory by becoming truly glorious ourselves
   
4. joy in suffering (3-4) - we don't just receive a future hope - we receive eyes to see the purpose of our present suffering - to see that it is for our good, producing something in us - just as faith is the instrument that unites us to Christ, suffering is the instrument that conforms us to Christ - it's the current of the river that wraps us around the rock in the middle of it, plastering us to it, shaping us in his image
   

vs 8 - vitally important to see how clearly Scripture states that "Christ died for us, while we were still ungodly sinners" - that statement expresses premeditation (eg. cross didn't just happen - God sent X there), and to that we must ask "why?" - Scripture consistently contends that the cross was necessary, purposeful, forordained - and that it accomplishes something.

vs 9 - also worth noting that the results of this act are not described in terms of potential benefits (eg. possiblity of salvation) but in terms of realized benefits (eg. since we have been justified... much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God).

vs 10 - interesting that reconciliation seems to come through X's death, while "salvation" comes through his life - this "salvation" here is not just "now you'll go to heaven when you die" but rather "now you'll have all the life in yourself that is also present in X" - so it's a full, robust, full-fledged salvation. What's his (life) becomes ours - he gives it to us as we are united to him.

vs 12+ - this raises a really interesting question - how on earth is it fair for God to give us all these things, when we ourselves did not earn/deserve them? (of course, most of us never bother to ask THIS question - we don't really care whether its legit for him to give us something, even though we'll protest loudly at the idea that we could be declared to be sinners on the basis of another)

This other is Adam, and Paul draws a clear connection here. Couple of basic points...

• the historicity of Jesus would seem to demand the historicity of Adam - if A is not historical (real), then how are the effects of his death real? and why would we expect X's effects to be equally real? That said, we're not saved by faith in A - we're saved by faith in X (so someone could believe that A didn't exist and still be a real Christian)
  
• whatever we think of salvation/sin, we need to be able to explain this connection between Adam and X - the connection is clearly there. So what is it?
• the thrust of the argument - sin entered the world through one man, yet all die? How come? especially in light of the fact that there was a time when there was no law (Adam to Moses)? the text seems to be suggesting that they were suffering the judgment of A's sin...
• death reigned from A to Moses - suggests that there was a law in place for A, nothing until Moses, and then another law in place w/ him ("covt of works") - so there is at very least a works principle in place w/ the Mosaic economy - I'd see it as a covt of works for Israel as a nation, Israel as God's son, but nevertheless a covt of grace for all Israelites as individuals
• so A is a type of "the one who was to come", X - at the very least, then, we have to admit that both A and X seem to occupy special positions, they are a certain special "type" of people who's actions have consequences for all their heirs

And that brings us to the differences (15) - the free gift is also DIFFERENT from the trespass

• instead of bringing death it brings life (15)
• result of one sin was judgment/condemnation (deserved) --> result of X's ultimate act of righteouseness meant that many trespasses led to judgment/justification (gift/grace)

Receiving grace does not just "wipe our slate clean" - it is a rennovating grace - it cannot help but transform us, so that we reign in life - grace does not just get us back to a state of innoncence (eg. pre-fall) - it takes us beyond that to our destiny (to what A was intended to aspire to if he had passed the test).

vs 18 - so when we read "justification" in vs 18, we need to read much more than just "acquittal" - it IS that, but it's really the whole of salvation - it's the righteousness of God, LIFE. Also important to note that the "all men" in this verse is either a) universalistic, or b) shorthand for "all who are in X, as his heirs, which we know only happens through faith". Option B seems to be intended.

vs 20 - purpose of the law is to increase the trespass - to make it more obvious. We are all sinners in A; God proves it again by giving the law, which demonstrates that we are all sinners in ourselves as well.

Romans 4

Romans 3 ends w/ a rhetorical question - does the reality (or prominence of faith) thereby overthrow the law? "By no means!" says Paul (interesting to note that this phrase occurs some 11 times in Romans - 3:4, 3:6, 3:31, 6:2, 6:15, 7:7, 7:13, 9:14, 11:1, and 11:11 - each time as Paul anticipates potential objections).

Faith does not obviate the law - it upholds it (3:31). What's interesting is that Rom 4 doesn't follow that line of argument, eg. trying to explain or illustrate HOW faith upholds the law - instead, it simply asserts that reality (for now) and skips forward to a different question - was our great forefather Abraham justified by faith or by works? (4:1-2).

Of course the classic passage for this is Gen 15:6 (3:3) - "Abraham believed God and he credited it to him as righteousness". What's interesting here, however, is that P also connects this same faith principle to David, is Psalm 32 (3:7-8). This psalm is interesting, not only because it talks about forgiveness, but because this forgiveness comes simply through heartfelt repentance (and thus through faith) - there's no "work" to earn God's favor, not even sacrifice.

The key point for P's larger argument here (that BOTH Jews and Gentiles are justified by faith) is that this blessing to Abraham on the basis of his faith comes BEFORE he has been given the "work" of circumcision (the key mark that distringuished Jews from Gentiles) (10).

Interesting that circumcision has both a "sign" function (illustrating something), as well as a "seal" function (guaranteeing something). Won't explore either of those in detail right now. Also interesting to note that the "purpose" of sign following faith here is to make him the father of all who believe, w/ or w/out circumcision (11).

vs 14 - interesting how this verse - "if it is the adherants of the law who are to be heirs, faith is null and promise is void" - seems to juxtapose strongly w/ what we saw back in 2:6 - "he will render to each according to his works"

vs 16 - "that is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring" - there can be no guarantee (no promise) unless it can be ensured for offspring - but if it depends on their works, its really a possibility at best, not a promise - this statement wouldn't seem to be possible if Paul actually was an Arminian (or Open Theist) - and grace wouldn't really be grace

vs 17 - the whole point of Abraham receiving the promise of an heir, is that at the age when he believed it he was functionally dead - so he is incapable of "responding" or "doing his part" - he's too old. That's precisely the point of course - only God can fulfill the promise, because he is the one "who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist" - faith is simply the conviction that God will do what he has promised (21).

vs 23 - this was all written, not just for his sake, but for ours - we're supposed to look at Abraham and draw conclusions about our own situation

vs 25 - passive and active obedience of Christ - he was given up for our trespasses, he was raised for our justification - seems hard to suppose that his death was simply exemplary (let alone accidental). Paul seems to see something much more concrete and significant in both his death -AND- his rez - not only does he HAVE to die, but he also HAS to be raised. I think "justification" here is much more than just "our legal standing, entry into salvation" - it's synecdotal for everything we have in Christ (our sanctification, our worship, everything).