Romans 1:21 - Futile thinking

Atheists commonly claim to be totally ignorant of God and generally people say it is hard to know that God exists, but this isn’t true. It is hard to have a saving knowledge of God, but it is not hard to have a sense of the existence of God. In almost every culture throughout the ages people have believed in some form of a god or gods. There is an innate sense that there is something or someone greater than us, beyond this world. There is a sense that someone or something must have created this world. There is also a universal sense of right and wrong. Not that every culture has exactly the same “rules”, but there is a remarkable set of core values. Even secularists and atheists believe in practice that somethings are right and others are wrong. However, men have chosen not to live by the truth. We see this very clearly in the West. Science is sometimes seen as a means of “disproving God” (by the way I am in no way anti-science, I have a degree in mathematics, a PhD in engineering and work in a science and engineering faculty of a university). Proverbs says that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Prov 1:7, 9:10), when we abandon this our thinking becomes futile. There are several examples of this today. One is some of the absolute nonsense that is bandied about with regard to transgenderism. If anyone took a cold hard look at the matter the nonsense would be evident, but to point this out is to risk being branded a bigot or worse. This is not to say that "gender dysphoria" is not a serious condition, rather that society's current approach to it is wrong, does not help individuals, and is harmful to society. In debates about abortion the fact that it involves killing babies is just overlooked or counted as insignificant. Look at how excited some get when a distant planet is similar to our own, and all the excitement mounts about it possibly harbouring life. The truth is we have no idea how life came into existence in the first place, and so actually have no idea at all if a planet light years away had life on it or not.

Much of human wisdom is indeed foolish, but worse than that it is also very dark. Abortion is an obvious example, and some of this has being exposed by the Planned Parenthood videos. With transgenderism there is a move to promote this stuff with children, in any other context this would be considered close to child abuse.

Romans 1:19,20 - Plain to all

1:19

Now this verse is controversial, for it says that what may be known about God is plain to all, and why is it plain? Because God has made it plain. We will consider how God has done this when we consider the next verse, but the cry of many atheists is that it isn’t plain at all, it isn’t obvious that God exists. We will also consider this in the next verse. However, the truth is that man is without excuse. Now the knowledge of God here is not saving knowledge, rather it is knowledge of His existence and some things of His nature. In short it is plain that there is a God, yet despite this man chooses to live as though God does not exist. Or, with other religions, as though idols, or a multitude of gods, rule the world. We choose to live in ignorance but have to suppress the truth in order to do so.

1:20

Paul now elucidates what has been made and these are “His invisible attributes, namely His eternal power and divine nature”, and he says these have been “clearly perceived since the creation of the world”. Now this is actually historically true. Greek philosophers said that it was clear that the world was designed. In fact, throughout most of history it has seemed to be patently obvious that the universe is designed, and the design argument is a key argument for the existence of God. Nowadays many atheists would dispute this, and evolution plays a key role in this thinking. However, even Richard Dawkins says life has the appearance of being designed. A lot of modern thinking is that the world came about by pure blind chance. Such thinking leads to philosophical contradictions and seems to be very much at odds with what we observe, and I would say it is driven by a desire to “do away with God” rather than being a reasonable logical conclusion. At the same time some Christians do not help matters. Saying that God created everything does not say how He created things, and the order in the universe is wonderfully complex.

Anyway, without wishing to get sidetracked by this, the point that Paul is making here is that it is absolutely clear that the world was designed and created with a purpose. Indeed, not that long ago there was a news report that children’s inherent belief is that the “world was made”, and, of course, atheists believe that they need to be educated out of this belief.

Romans 1:18 - The wrath of God

We now come to the meat of the argument that Paul presents, and the beginning isn’t pretty. Most of the first three chapters are a depiction and demonstration of the sinfulness of all men, ie he is setting out our need for a saviour. Paul had Roman citizenship and was fully aware of the world, he had been trained in a top “Jewish seminary” and was steeped in Judaism (Phil 3:4-6). So he his thinking and use of terms is heavily based on the Old Testament, Genesis 1 and 2 in particular. There are verses in this section which are of particular poignancy today with regard to sexual morality, homosexuality in particular, and we will discuss these fully when we reach them. However, we must not let current controversies deflect us from seeing the main thrust of Paul’s argument.

If we look at the first verse in this section (v18) we see that the focus is not actually man’s sin, but the wrath of God. “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of man”. I have spoken about the wrath of God in other posts but it is worth repeating it here as wrath is central to Paul’s argument. There are two key aspects to the wrath of God. On the one hand it is a passionate hatred of sin, of the effects our sin has on us, and the effects it has on others. On the other hand it is completely rational, reasonable and just, this is where it differs from the common conception which sees wrath as an uncontrollable rage. This it is not.

The wrath of God is being revealed. Indeed this has been happening since the fall in Genesis 3. The judgement will be brought to culmination at the return of Christ, but it is ongoing, it is happening today. And it is being revealed against all the godlessness and wickedness of men. We then also see one of the effects of sin, we try to suppress the truth. At the time of writing (3rd Sept 2015) there are the various Planned Parenthood videos being released, with its exposure of the abortion industry in the US. The common presentation of abortion is a total lie, it seeks to suppress and hide the horror of what abortion actually is. Sin always leads to us trying to hide the truth.

Romans 1:17 - By faith

“Righteousness” is a key word in Romans. In this verse it could be taken either as a quality of God or the right standing with God that the gospel gives. Both meanings are true and are related, though the rest of the verse seems to favour the latter meaning being the relevant one here. However, the gospel does reveal the righteousness of God. In 1 John 1:9 it says that God is just and forgives our sins. The gospel is not that God simply overlooks our sins and says forget about them, but through the cross justice is done. The second meaning is that the way in which we are put right with God is revealed. There is a major problem, we are under a sentence of death, we are at enmity with God, and this sentence is what we fully deserve. The gospel reveals how we can be put right with God.  And the means of attaining this righteousness is by faith, from beginning to end. Under the old covenant the Law was the all pervading principle, under the new covenant faith is the all pervading principle. Paul then quotes from Habakkuk 2:4.

Romans 1:16 - Not ashamed

Verses 16 and 17 (and remember there were no chapter and verse numbers in the original) set the tone for the rest of the letter, they layout the central thesis. In this verse there is Paul’s commitment to the gospel, the effectiveness of the gospel, and the universality of the gospel (not universalism!). In Galatians and Ephesians one of the key themes is that in Christ Jews and Gentile believers alike are one. This truth is central to Romans as well.

Christians were looked down upon by society, the religion was a relatively new upstart and very much at odds with the world, yet Paul was not ashamed of the gospel. He was proud to be associated with Christ and the gospel. In the West we are in a time where the zeitgeist isn’t that different. Christians who believe the Bible are regarded with suspicion at best, sometimes with contempt and hatred. We should be proud of the gospel for the same reason that Paul was proud of the gospel, it is the power of God that brings salvation. People need saving. Some people know this, others don’t know it, but whether they know it or not, all need to be saved. And the gospel brings salvation to all who believe. Anyone can be saved.

“First to the Jew, then to the Greek”. The term Greek was often used as a synonym for Gentile, and the dominant language in Rome at the time was Greek. The gospel started in Jerusalem, bringing salvation to some Jews, then spread out to the rest of the world.

Remember also that the gospel is the power of God for salvation. There are times in our lives when we despair. We can despair at our circumstances, most of all we can despair of ourselves. The gospel is the power of God, it has the capacity to bring transformation, to change circumstances, to change us. And when God starts changing us, He starts changing the world around us through us.

Romans 1:13-15 - Eager to preach the gospel

1:13

Paul was the great apostle who had the lead role on taking the gospel to the Gentiles. Yet he had not yet visited Rome. This could have had various effects on the attitudes of the Roman Christians to Paul. Some may have resented him, with “he never bothers to come here” attitude, some may have considered him to be a remote figure, this bigwig who they don’t know at all, others may have considered him to be rather aloof. Paul is at pains to dispel any negative or wary attitudes that they might have. We need to appreciate the value of meeting face-to-face with people, especially in this age of increasing virtual communication. Paul’s not having visited Rome was not for lack of wanting to, but because circumstances had not allowed it. Paul had as much desire to reap harvest among the Romans as he had among the rest of the Gentiles.

1:14,15

The Gentile world tended to be split into Greeks and barbarians, with the term barbarian being used in a rather pejorative way, implying a lack of education and sophistication. So the “wise and the foolish” is really just saying the same thing. Now why does Paul say this here? The Romans certainly would not consider themselves as barbarians. Maybe Paul is subtly saying that the Romans should not have any pride about their position of living in the capital of the Roman Empire.

Whatever the case, Paul is keen to preach to the gospel to them. Now it would seem natural to take this as preaching to the church, so the gospel is not just for preaching to the unconverted, but to the converts as well. We all need to grow in the faith.

Receive Christ as your king

If we want to know the true joy of Christmas, the true peace that Christ brings then we need to receive Christ as our King. It says in Isaiah 9:6

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders.

And then in Isaiah 9:7

Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end.

He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom

Governments in Brunei and Somalia have banned Christmas. In the US there are the usual silly atheists who think nativity plays and the light pose an imminent danger to life as we know it. There seem to have been fewer of tales in the UK this year of councils objecting to any mention of Christmas. But in one sense the governments of Brunei and Somalia and the silly atheists have grasped more of the truth than many of us have. The true Christmas story is a power struggle, it is about the overthrow of one kingdom and replacing it with another.

Let us be ones who bow down to Jesus the king of kings, may we let His rule and peace increase without end in our own lives, and may it flow out from our lives into the world around us. Whether you have been a Christian for many years, or if you are not a Christian at all, there is an amazing transformation that can take place in our lives if only we will join the shepherds and the wise men in bowing down to the king.

Romans 1:11,12 - Mutual encouragement

1:11

Paul wanted to see them, indeed longed to see them, in order to impart some “spiritual gift”. Now in the Greek the word for gift is charisma, ie the word from which we get the term charismatic gifts, and it literally means a gift of grace. It is highly unlikely that we should think that Paul was intending to impart what we often think of as a “spiritual gift”, eg the gift of tongues, or prophesy etc. Rather we should take it in a much more general sense. He was desiring to spiritually strengthen the church. We sometimes tend to isolate the “spiritual gifts” from general church life, though I think this is less common now. All of life is meant to be infused with the power of Holy Spirit, and at times this will include what we normally think of as the spiritual gifts. Paul desires to make the Romans strong in their faith. We should all seek to be strong in faith. When we see the church weak we should seek to strengthen it.

1:12

Paul is not adopting some air of superiority. Instead his goal is that they encourage each other. It is their faith that will encourage each other. We do not encourage one another when all we do is demonstrate how good we are at something. This can easily make the other person just feel inferior and discouraged. It is our faith in Christ that counts, and anything worthwhile that we achieve is achieved by faith.

Merry Christmas!

Romans 1:8-10 - Praying

1:8

Continuing with a Christianised version of the common letter format, Paul gives thanks for the recipients of the letter. This was the case in most of Paul’s letters, Galatians being an exception. He thanks God “through Jesus Christ”. Christ is the mediator of all prayers and communication with God the Father, there is no need for any other mediator. Paul was not the founder of the church in Rome, in the churches the other letters went to Paul had been instrumental in the establishing of that church. Why was he thankful? Because their faith was being reported all over the world. We should desire to be known for our faith in Christ. As an aside, “all over the world” clearly means all over the world known to Paul.

1:9

Again it was common in letters of the day to call upon some “god” as a witness to the prayer of thanksgiving, so Paul calls upon God Himself as his witness. Remember that Paul had never been to Rome at this point, so they did not know him and may have considered him as a remote figure. Paul is keen to stress that even though he has never been to Rome he still prays for them, they are still on his heart.

1:10

Paul remembered them in his prayers at all times. This means he made mention of them in his prayers on a consistent basis.  So he prayed for them, he also prayed that God would allow him to go and actually see them. Note that while in one sense this is the most “academic” of all Paul’s letters, the most theological, it is also written out of a personal commitment to the people he is writing to. Paul was not just looking for an excuse to write down an interesting bit of work, rather he cared about the people he was writing to. Good theology comes out of an absolute commitment to God, and a love for His people. In fact, of course, these are the two greatest commandments!

Unveiled - the secret to a deeper experience of the Holy Spirit

Want a deeper experience of the Holy Spirit? Well here are four things that we should do:

1. Study the Bible more
2. Pray more
3. Spend more time worshiping the Lord with other Christians
4. Obey the Lord more

Not much of a secret? No it isn't because the way to knowing God is open to all and the best thing of all is that God Himself wants to have a deeper relationship with us. He wants it so much that He came to live among us. He wants it so much that He sent His Son to die for us. Jesus returned to the Father so the Holy Spirit could come to us.

The four "secrets" listed above have been tried and tested by saints throughout the ages. There is no secret, God revealed the extent of His love for us two thousand years ago when He sent His Son Jesus to be with us.

Romans 1:7 - Grace and Peace

We are those who are loved by God, and as such are called to be His saints. This means that we are set apart for His purposes. We need to appreciate this. If we look at our lives and try to understand them in the world’s terms we will end up confused. There will be times when it makes sense, for we will receive God’s blessing and things will be going well, but at others it will make no sense at all. For there will be times when we are hated by the world and we will suffer for Christ.

We now come to the blessing and it is similar to the blessing Paul uses in most of his letters. “Peace” was equivalent to the Jewish blessing of “shalom”. The common greetings would invoke a blessing in the name of a deity, so Paul invoking his blessing in the name of “God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ” is highly significant, for it shows that Paul considered the Father and the Son to be on equal terms. Moreover, the term “lord” as used by Paul is equivalent to saying Jesus is God. There are those who say that “lord” was just a common term of respect and does not imply deity, but such arguments ignore the context of usage of the term by Paul.

Romans 1:6 - You who are called to Christ

One of the ongoing theological debates in which Romans is central is between Calvinism and Arminianism. One stresses the sovereignty of God, the other the free will of man. More recently (though it actually has a long history) is Molinism. Calvinism gives priority to the sovereignty of God, Arminianism gives priority to human free will  (these descriptions are by necessity inadequate because of their brevity, but it stresses the main point). Molinism seeks to give equal weight to both, and this is what I like about Molinism, though I prefer the term human responsibility to human free will. This seems closest to what the Bible teaches. What I don’t like about Molinism is the way it seeks to explain how this happens, I think we need to be very careful about being dogmatic about how the sovereignty of God and human responsibility interact.

So what has all this to do with this verse? Well it could be interpreted as saying that the believers in Rome are part of the elect. Or it could be interpreted as meaning that the Gentiles in Rome are among those who are called to belong to Christ. In practical terms it doesn’t matter much, and indeed we should take it in both senses. As believers we should consider ourselves to be those called by God, there has been a sovereign call from the King that we should belong to Christ and we should seek to live our lives in the light of that call, of that sovereign decree. On the other hand, we should view all the people around us as people that God has called to believe in Christ, it is God’s command and purpose that all people believe in Christ. Not all will, but we should seek to make the gospel known to all.

Romans 1:5 - Grace and apostleship

“Through Him we received grace and apostleship ...” There are several interesting things in this verse. First of all grace. We tend to think of grace in very passive terms, ie we have been forgiven for our sins by grace. Now this is true, but there is much more to grace than this. Here Paul talks about receiving grace and apostleship to call the Gentiles to faith. Through grace Paul was appointed as an apostle. God gave him the grace to succeed in his mission. Naturally speaking there was no way that Paul should have become an apostle to the Gentiles in the first place, and no way in which he should have succeeded in establishing this weird religion throughout so much of the Roman Empire. God’s grace enables us to achieve much more than we have any right to expect. We should ask God what He wants to achieve in and through our lives, what has He given us the grace to achieve? Then it says we received apostleship, so the term is being used to apply to more than just Paul. Finally, The Gentiles are called to faith and obedience. We so often forget to associate faith with obedience. To believe the gospel is not a choice, but an act of obedience. To refuse to believe is an act of disobedience. The choice is whether to obey God or not, and the consequences are a matter of life or death. And when we do believe in Christ a lives take on a new course, we receive a new life and that life is one of increasing and deeper obedience to God.

Romans 1:4 - Son of God

Now this verse needs to be considered carefully, for to our ears it can sound as though there was a time when Jesus was not the Son of God, for it says “was appointed the Son of God”. There are various things we need to understand. First, verse 2 already says that Jesus was His Son, and a general point in understanding the Bible is never to take a verse in isolation. This is particularly relevant when considering anything relating to the trinity. Our experience is of people who are one person. God is one God, but three persons. Our thinking and language don’t naturally fit with this, so any one sentence cannot possibly adequately describe the nature of God. We also need to know that son can be used in various ways. The kings of Israel and Judah were referred to as sons of God when they became king. It is this latter sense that is inspiring Paul’s thought in this verse. When God raised Jesus from the dead He was shown to be king of kings, He was appointed as God’s king of all the earth. God declared that Christ was Israel’s true king, and indeed, our king as well. Jesus is the king through whom all the Old Testament promises are fulfilled. And all this happened through the “Spirit of holiness”. Jesus had lived a life of perfect obedience, because of His sinlessness He was worthy to pay the price for all our sins.

Romans 1:2,3 - The gospel regarding His Son

1:2

“which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy Scriptures”. Jesus did not appear out of nothing, He was not a radical new departure, rather He was and is the complete fulfilment of all that was promised in the Old Testament. Romans is the one of Paul’s letters that contains the greatest use of Scripture, and no doubt he was thinking about this, looking forward to what he was going to say later, when he wrote this bit. God promises what He is going to do before it happens. Notice also the implicit statement that the Old Testament is the word of God. Prophets here obviously does refer to the people we think of as prophets, like Isaiah, Daniel etc, but it also includes people like Abraham, Moses and David.

1:3

The good news is the good news about Jesus Christ, His Son. The Old Testament had promised that David would have a descendent on the throne forever. David’s natural descendants radically failed to fulfil this. Solomon did well for a time, then became a disaster. Most of the kings after that were just a disaster, there some good ones, but they all ultimately failed. Now for many years Israel had not had a king at all. In human terms Jesus was descended from David. Now ask yourself this “would you be bothered if Jesus was not a descendant of David?” I suspect the answer for most of us is no, it really doesn’t matter to us. Yet God had said the Messiah would be a descendant of David, and so He is. This has implications for the Old Testament prophecies concerning Israel and Israel’s current place in God’s plans. There are those who see Israel as having no place other than that of any other people group (“replacement theology”). I can see no support for this in Scripture at all, Israel still does have a place, and a special place, but their salvation will come only through faith in Christ, as it does for anyone else. Paul deals with this matter very fully in chapters 9-11.

Romans 1:1 - Set Apart

Paul’s introduction to his letters follow the standard form of letters in those days, with the name of the writer, and the recipients being mentioned. They also mentioned the purpose of the letter and include a blessing, in the pagan world this would typically be a blessing in the name of some idol or other. Naturally, Paul’s letters were a Christianised version! The introduction to Romans is longer than that to his other letters. Paul knew that this was going to be a very weighty epistle, outlining the great themes of the gospel.

First of all Paul outlines who he is. He is a servant or slave of Christ Jesus, an apostle, and one set apart for the gospel. Let’s look at each of these.

Servant or slave requires some explanation and is much richer in meaning than we commonly imagine. When we hear the word slave we tend to think of the slave trade and someone who had lost all rights. Now a slave did have to do as they were told, but slavery was different in the 1st century and was very varied. Some slaves had more power than aristocrats in Rome, and some aristocratic women even married into slavery to improve their status! There is also an additional aspect of slavery that might have been in Paul’s thinking. A slave could buy their freedom, and when they did they would become the “slave” of a god or idol. Now of course the idol was a nothing, so this “slavery” meant they were free and someone would boast of being a slave of Apollo, or whatever “god” they had sold themselves to in order to earn their freedom. So being “a slave of Christ Jesus” could also have been a declaration of Paul’s freedom.

Apostle also has a range of meanings. In general it means one who was sent, and Paul was sent by Christ to take the gospel to the Gentiles. Then there is the specific meaning that applies to the eleven disciples, they had to have been with Jesus and to be witnesses to the resurrection. Paul falls into this category as well, though he had not been a disciple. He had met Jesus on the Damascus road, and refers to himself as one “abnormally born” (1 Cor 15:8), acknowledging the difference between himself and the others. It these apostles who set up the church, and on which the church is built (Eph 20:20). The term apostle is also used to apply more widely in the New Testament as well.

So a question that arises is “are there apostles today?”. In the sense of the twelve foundational apostles the answer is a definite no. In the more general sense, I would say yes.  In the New Testament an apostle was someone who was completely sold out for the gospel, who did signs and wonders, who proclaimed the gospel and suffered for the gospel and for Christ. If someone does this then I have no objection to that person being called an apostle. However, the term apostle is bandied about much too freely in some circles and is used as a badge of honour. Rather than arguing about whether someone can be called an apostle or not, we would be better on focusing on increasing our devotion to Christ and living for Him.

Romans - Introduction (2)

Additional Background Information

(Most of the following is summarised from Keener).

Romans is the longest letter in the New Testament and we need to remember that they didn’t have word processors in those days! It was produced by Paul dictating it to a scribe, Tertius, who wrote it down on papyrus. It has been estimated that the cost in today’s terms would have been about £1500 (Keener). The average length of a letter in those days was about 87 words. The average length of Paul’s letters is about 2500 words, Romans is over 7000 words. So Romans was a significant entity. Romans is sometimes thought to be a difficult book, and does indeed deal with deep matters and is one of the most profound items of literature in existence. However, it was also written to normal people and is designed to be understood by normal people.

There were two key types of education in the Greco-Roman world: philosophy and rhetoric. Rhetoric was concerned with communication and persuasion and was the dominant form and the rhetorical form of argument was common in society. We see this in Romans where Paul addresses rhetorical questions (“someone will say ....”), and it is possible that Paul may have had some training in rhetoric. However, his main cultural background was Judaism and the Law.

A key theme of Romans, and indeed of the whole of the New Testament, is that Jesus is the fulfilment of the Old Testament. He is the Messiah prophesied in the Old Testament, and Christianity, therefore, is the natural continuation of Judaism. Judaism itself was very diverse. In the New Testament we see the distinction between the Pharisees and the Sadducees. The Pharisees believed in a resurrection, and expected a messiah. So at one level Paul could be seen as a Pharisee who realised that the Messiah had now come, whereas most Pharisees failed to see this at all.

The common Christian view of the Pharisees is that they believed in a works righteousness. While there is some truth in this, it is far from being a complete picture. They believed that they were saved by grace, and works confirmed their place in the covenant. The “new perspective” has emphasised this aspect. While the new perspective may over emphasise somethings, the “everything is works” view of Judaism is too simplistic. The truth is probably that Judaism involved both grace and works righteousness.

The fundamental point of difference between Paul (and the gospel) and Judaism was the centrality of the grace that God has shown, and exercised, in Christ, and the all encompassing effect of that grace.

At the time that Romans was written, the city of Rome had a population of between a quarter of a million and one million, and somewhere between 20 and 50 thousand Jews. Roman culture was reasonably accepting of diversity, though Jews did face some prejudice. This was partly as a result of their success in winning converts. Particular aspects which brought resentment were circumcision, the Sabbath and food customs. The Jews themselves were open to the dominant culture, this together with their Jewish roots made them a ripe target for evangelisation. The Jews had been expelled from Rome in AD 49 (Acts 18:2), this expulsion order was repealed in AD 54. One outcome of this was that Gentiles probably comprised the majority of Christians. Anyway, the church probably consisted mostly of Gentiles, but with a significant number of Jewish believers, and certainly a significant Jewish influences. So Paul could assume a reasonable knowledge of the Old Testament and its background. Paul’s letter deals with the relationship between Jewish and Gentile believers, and with how the gospel fits in with the Old Testament.

Romans and Galatians are the two letters where Paul addresses the relationship of the gospel and the Old Testament in most depth. However, the tenor of the two letters is quite different. Galatians is much more personal and polemical, whereas Romans is more “academic”.

Romans - Introduction (1)

Introduction

Well this should keep us going for a while! Romans is the most systematically theological of all of Paul’s letters, with the most complete and in-depth presentation of the gospel. These notes aren’t a commentary as such so I don’t, for the most part, give references and footnotes. However, I do want to make clear that anything useful I say either comes directly from the work, or is built upon, the work of others. So here are the main sources that I have learnt from:

The commentary that I have made most use of is Epistle to the Romans - Leon Morris. At the moment I am reading Craig Keener’s commentary on Romans. Another commentary I have is Romans - FF Bruce

Other books that have influenced me are:  

Paul, Apostle of the Free Spirit - FF Bruce

Justification: God’s Plan and Paul’s Vision - NT Wright

Paul: Fresh Perspectives - NT Wright

More general sources include my NIV study Bible, my Bible Dictionary, and Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology.

There is virtually no one who doubts that Romans was written by Paul the Apostle. The most likely date for its writing is 57 AD, and was written during Paul’s third missionary journey. He was on his way back to Jerusalem, taking with him a gift from the various Gentile churches to help the church in Jerusalem, which was undergoing hard times. Paul knew that things would be difficult in Jerusalem, and many warned him against going there. After that he wanted to visit Rome, a place he had not been to at that point, and after that to go to Spain. As we know from Acts, things were indeed difficult in Jerusalem, with attempts on his life. However, through all this he did end up going to Rome, though he never made it to Spain. Paul was probably in Corinth, or nearby in Cenchreae, when he wrote the letter.

Unlike letters like Galatians, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Philippians etc, Romans is not really dealing with a specific church situation. Rather it is a systematic presentation and explanation of the gospel. It covers:

• the universality of the gospel, ie the need of all people to be saved by Christ;
• the effect of the gospel on our lives;
• the place of Israel in the gospel;
• addressing some practical issues.

In order to understand Romans it can be useful to have the following always in mind:

• Sin is our biggest problem, indeed is the root of all our problems
• We need to be forgiven for our sins (justification)
• We need to be transformed (sanctification, renewal)

Justification and sanctification go together, the Bible knows nothing of one without the other. The notion of someone believing the gospel but not been changed is utterly alien to the Bible.

Philippians 4:18-23 - Greetings

4:18

We are taking all this a verse at a time, but we need to remember that we should really look at the whole section at once. Paul makes it clear that he now has everything he needs and is no longer in need. Moreover, the gifts were a fragrant offering, ie they were acceptable to the Lord. Paul is using language from the Law on offerings and sacrifices here. So he is mixing accounting language with religious language. We should also note that their gifts were “pleasing to God”. We rightly remember that we are sinners and are saved purely by the grace and mercy of God through Jesus Christ. However, we can do things that do actually please God. They do not earn salvation in any way, but we are in a relationship with God, and in a relationship one party can do things that please the other. We need to appreciate this, not so that we become proud, but so that our relationship with the Lord deepens.

4:19

Giving to Paul may well have been very costly for the Philippians, but after all the spiritual blessings of sharing in the work of the gospel Paul assures them that God will also meet all their needs. Note the personal “my God”. God is not an abstract concept, He is the living God who made us, who knows us, and who makes Himself known to us. The needs that God will supply will be both spiritual and material. We always want to separate the two, but in reality they go together. And God supplies these according to the “riches of His glory in Christ Jesus”. In Christ we have everything, all of God’s plans are fulfilled in and through Christ.

4:20

All this culminates in an outburst of praise, all this being everything that has gone before in the letter. God’s plans are perfect and wonderful beyond our comprehension. Men hate God, but we should love Him, for His plans are always for the best. When we put our trust in Him we find this to be true.

4:21-23

We now come to the close of the letter. “Greet all God’s people in Christ Jesus” (NIV) is actually “Greet every saint in Christ Jesus” (ESV). In the Bible “saint” does not refer to a “special” Christian, but to anyone who belongs to Christ. “those of Caesar's household” probably refers to anyone who worked in the emperor’s service, rather than implying that someone in the emperor’s family had been converted.

The letter started with grace and it finishes with grace.

Philippians 4:14-17 - Sharing troubles

4:14

In this whole section Paul seems to be walking a fine line between making sure the Philippians know that he valued and appreciated their gifts and support, and at the same time making sure they know he is confident in the Lord’s support, and is not trying to get money out of them. Here Paul expresses his appreciation of their sharing in his troubles. In giving to him they were demonstrating their support for him.

4:15,16

After reaching Philippi (Acts 16:12-40) Paul had then gone on to Corinth, which is in Macedonia (Acts 17:14-16; 18:1-4). At this point, very soon after having come to faith, the Philippians gave to Paul, and indeed were the only church to do so. In this whole section Paul uses a fair amount of commercial language. Here the “giving and receiving” is actually better translated “crediting and debiting”.

4:17

Paul continues with the financial language. He stresses that he is not after their money, but rather he seeks the fruit that comes from it, ie the spread of the gospel, and this adds to their credit. Now there are some interesting things to learn here. There is the so-called prosperity gospel, and there are those who are essentially using the gospel to make money, often taking money from the poor. This can include things like offering to pray in return for a gift. Such things are repugnant, and indeed similar stuff was around in Paul’s day and he speaks about it in other letters, especially 1 and 2 Corinthians. However, in reacting against these sort of abuses we need to be careful that we do not go to the other extreme, and do not condemn people or actions that do not merit condemnation. The church should speak about money, for the Bible certainly does. We should seek to see gifts yield a harvest, a harvest of expansion of the kingdom. And I am actually blessed if I give, the more I give the better my life is. Now this might sometimes show itself in material terms, sometimes it won’t. But our God is a giving God, so we should be a giving people.Just because a preacher speaks in financial terms does not mean they are a charlatan, for Paul spoke using financial terms.

Philippians 4:12,13 - The secret of contentment

4:12

Paul had times when he had plenty and times when he had little. We know from Acts that there were times when he was shipwrecked, beaten, imprisoned, left for dead. Paul was not speaking from a position of ease and comfort, but from a lifetime of experience of all sorts of situations. In all of them he could find peace through Christ. Note that this verse is also yet another counter to some prosperity teaching. Paul, the greatest apostle there was, had times of plenty and had times of little. Some prosperity teaching is utterly superficial and wrong. At the same time, note that he also had times of plenty.

4:13

NIV says “I can do all this ...”, ESV has the more familiar version “I can do all things ...” Now we need to note the context of this, so that we understand this properly. Paul’s focus in life was to make known the gospel of Christ (Acts 20:24). This is not a verse saying Christ gives us the strength to do anything we want, it is a verse saying that He gives us the ability to do whatever He commands us to do. When we have a God given task or mission there will be times when we feel everything is against us and we cannot go on. In such circumstances we should take heart and learn to receive more of the power of God. The “all this” in the NIV is Paul’s ability to be content in all circumstances, and his ability and motivation to preach the gospel, even when in captivity with a possible death sentence hanging over him, and to be full of joy in the midst of it!

Philippians 4:10,11 - To be content

4:10

“At last you renewed your concern for me” seems to have a note of “about time too” about it, but the second half of the verse would seem to indicate that this is not the case. It should be noted that while there are various warnings and corrections in Philippians Paul is not dealing with a deep-rooted problem, rather he is warding off potential dangers and dealing with things before they become a serious issue. He generally had a very good relationship with the Philippians.

4:11

Apparently they had sent a gift of some money. Paul appreciated the gift, but did not want them to think he was in desperate straits. In himself he was at peace because he had learnt to be content whatever the circumstances. The normal state of man is that our peace and well being is governed by our circumstances, this is the result of the fall, of rebelling against God and seeking to live independently of Him. In Christ our peace is not governed by the circumstances, but by our relationship with Him. This is a complete change in approach to life and this is why we need to learn this. We need to unlearn our old way of life and learn the new way of life. This is what Paul had done.

Philippians 4:8,9 - Noble thoughts

4:8

We now get one of the best known verses in Philippians, “Whatever is noble ...” This follows on from the previous words about anxiety and is part of the antidote for worry. If we spend our time focusing on unworthy things, on hateful or sordid things then it will have all sorts of detrimental effects on our lives. One of these will be that it provides a fertile soil for fear and anxiety to breed in. Instead we should focus on good and noble things. “Think about such things” is stronger than merely pondering them, it means taking into account, ie making them part of the basis for our world view and approach to life. Think about the good and the positive. Now this does not mean we live in some sort of pollyannaish world, totally blind to the realities of life, but if we delight in the negative, delight in gossip, delight in intrigue and conspiracies it will most definitely have a negative effect on us and will not produce the fruit of the gospel.

4:9

An important part of this focusing on whatever is noble is focusing on people of good character. We must not make idols out of people, for any person you choose will have their own collection of faults and at some point those will come to the fore and you will be disappointed if you have made an idol out of them (and that includes making idols out of husbands or wives). However, we should all seek to be examples, there should be some aspects of our lives that others can learn from positively. We should be moving in the right direction. This was true of Paul, so he urges the Philippians to imitate him, to learn from him. If we seek to live lives of integrity then peace will be part of the fruit. If we focus on the negative things then peace will not be ours, but as we walk in step with the Spirit we will find that the God of peace will be with us. Now remember that the chapter and verse numbers are a very late addition to the Bible. This is all part of Paul’s teaching on dealing with anxiety. See the emphasis on what God does. He guards our hearts and minds, and He is with us. What do we do? We do not seek to directly control our thoughts, rather we focus on doing good, focusing on the good. These are the things that will bring true peace.