#a corollary to the Greek gods poll

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Understanding The Bible - A Practical Guide To Each Book In The Bible - Part 32

Written by: PETER KREEFT

NINE

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The First Systematic Christian Theology: Romans

Samuel Taylor Coleridge called Romans “the most profound book in existence”. Godet called it “the cathedral of the Christian faith”. It is placed first among the epistles not only because it is the longest, but also because it is the greatest.

Romans was probably written shortly before Nero’s persecution began in A.D. 64. According to Tacitus, the Roman historian, Christians were already “an immense multitude” then.

Paul had not founded the Roman church, Peter had. But Paul came to Rome to appear before the emperor and to be martyred. Acts ends with his preaching the gospel from house arrest in Rome.

Rome was, of course, the center of the entire world, the greatest city in the world in power and population, but already decadent with slavery, political corruption, and extremes of wealth and poverty. Into this cesspool, Paul drops the seed of the gospel, which was to conquer the world.

Romans is the only systematic theology in the Bible, except for Hebrews, which is not about Christianity as such but about Christianity and Judaism, like Romans 9 to 11. But Christianity is not a theory, a philosophy, but a story, “news”. The epistles interpret this “news”. They teach timeless truths, but truths about time: (1) the significance of the temporal events in the Gospels, especially Christ’s death, the event each Gospel lingers longest over; and (2) the outworking of these events in our lifetimes.

The main point of Romans, and of Christianity, and of life itself, is Christ. Romans presents Him as the Second Adam, the new man, and humanity’s second chance. He is “the righteousness of God”. This is the phrase Paul uses to identify his main theme at the beginning (1:16-17): “For I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is the power of God for salvation to every one who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith; as it is written, ‘He who through faith is righteous shall live.’ ” This is a two-verse summary of the entire book.

Romans is the book that sparked the Protestant Reformation when Luther discovered the doctrine of justification by faith in it. The Catholic Church teaches this doctrine too, of course. The Church cannot contradict the Bible. That would be like a house contradicting its foundation. Nor is there any contradiction between Paul’s doctrine of justification by faith (in Romans and Galatians) and James’ teaching that faith without works is dead (Jas 2:14-26). Luther thought there was, and he called James “an epistle of straw”. But even Romans includes James’ point. It ends with chapters 12 to 16 about the necessity of good works.

There is no book in the Bible in which it is more necessary to look at the outline. For Romans is an extended logical argument, especially chapters 1-8. The more you read, study, and think about it, the tighter and clearer it becomes. It is much better to do the detailed outlining yourself than to let any commentator do it for you. It may sound like dull “schoolwork”, but you will find it extremely rewarding and even exciting.

The unity of the argument centers around four key concepts: righteousness, faith, law, and sin. Paul uses each term over sixty times. The main outline is as follows:

Personal Introduction: 1:1-15

Main Theme: 1:16-17

I. Doctrine

  A. Christianity

    1. The problem, the bad news, sin: 1:18-3:20

    2. The solution, the good news, salvation: 3:21-8:39

  B. Judaism: 9-11

II. Practice: 12-15

Personal postscripts: 16

At each major transition point in Paul’s argument, there is a key “therefore” or “but”.

The major transition, from sin to salvation, in the passage of 3:20-21, is this: “For no human being will be justified in his sight by works of the law. . . . But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from law” (emphasis mine).

Chapter 5 draws a corollary with another “therefore”: “Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Chapter 6 also begins with a “therefore”: “What shall we say then [therefore]? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means!”

Finally, chapter 8, Paul’s great, triumphant conclusion, begins with the final “therefore”: “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Each chapter expands upon its first verse, exploring a new step in the argument.

The first step is the problem, the “bad news” that we all have a mortal disease called sin, “the Jew first and also the Greek (Gentile)”. The good news is that all are offered salvation, “the Jew first and also the Greek. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”

Gentiles may think they have an excuse because they do not have divine revelation, so Paul first shows that Gentiles are inexcusable and responsible for their sins because they too know God, by nature and conscience. This passage (1:18-31) lays the foundation for “natural (rational) theology”.

Jews may think they need no Savior because they do have revelation and are God’s chosen people. Paul replies that the Jewish law cannot save you if you disobey it, and all do (2:1-3:8).

This demolishes the answer most Catholics give to the most important question in the world: How are you going to get to Heaven? Most Catholic students I have polled think they will be saved because their obedience to some law is good enough, whether the Ten Commandments or the principles of pop psychology.

The good news makes no sense unless you believe the bad news first. A free operation is not good news if you don’t think you have a mortal disease. In a more realistic age, the main obstacle to believing in Christianity was the good news. It seemed like a fairy tale, too good to be true. Today the main obstacle is the bad news: people just don’t believe in sin, even though that’s the only Christian doctrine that can be proven simply by reading daily newspapers. When did you last hear anyone, even your priest, use “the s-word”?

Calling a person sinful is not to deny that his being remains good, any more than calling the statue of Venus de Milo a damaged work of art means denying that its sculptor created a masterpiece. Humanity is a good thing gone bad, the image of God in rebellion against God, God’s beloved in a state of divorce.

The transition from the bad news (1:18-3:20) to the good news (3:21 ff.) is objectively Jesus’ death and subjectively our faith. More exactly, Paul mentions three aspects of justification: by grace, by blood, and by faith. Its origin is grace (3:21-24), its means is Christ’s death (3:25-26), and our reception of it is by faith (3:27-31).

Paul distinguishes three steps in God’s plan for our salvation: (1) the Father’s plan and predestination, (2) our justification by the death of the Son, and (3) our sanctification now and glorification hereafter by the Spirit. Salvation, like God, is trinitarian.

Chapter 4 proves that even Abraham was justified by faith. It incidentally demolishes the common fallacy that Judaism is only a religion of law, justice, judgment, and fear, while Christianity invented grace, mercy, forgiveness, and love.

Chapter 5 explores the consequences of justification by faith, including peace with God (5:1), joy in suffering (5:3-8), and hope rather than fear toward God’s judgment (5:9-11).

Then comes the contrast between Adam and Christ (the Second Adam), as the historical basis for the two main points, original sin and salvation.

Chapter 6 answers the natural objection: Why not go ahead and sin if we’re saved by grace, not by law? The answer is that our identity is now bound up in Christ. We are new creatures, little Christs. We hate and avoid sin now not out of fear of punishment (the former motive), nor simply out of gratitude (Luther’s answer, but not Paul’s here), but because of who we are: Christ’s. The point in Romans 6:1-3 is the same as in 1 Corinthians 6:15.

If we are alive with Christ’s life, we are dead to Adam, sin, and the law. Chapter 7 explores this death. God gave us the law not to save us but to reveal our sinfulness, not as our operation but as our X-ray. Not law but Spirit saves us—that is, God the Holy Spirit, really present in the believer’s soul.

This salvation is completed by our sanctification. Jesus is called “Savior” not because He saves us only from punishment for sin but because He saves us from sin. The three trinitarian aspects of salvation are like the root, stem, and flower of a beautiful plant. But the flower is the fairest, and the consummation. It is fitting, then, that chapter 8 is the fairest, most joyful chapter in the Bible. Our sanctification in this life (8:1-17) and our glorification in the next (8:18-39) are the point of the whole divine plot. Tolkien calls this “happy ending” the “eucatastrophe”, the good catastrophe. “There is no tale ever told that men more wish to be true”, he says. But unlike lesser fairy tales, this one is!

The next three chapters in Romans show how Christianity views Judaism: their past election by God (chap. 9), their present rejection of God (chap. 10), and their future restoration by God (chap. 11).

The concluding practical, moral chapters include the seminal passage about the Christian and politics (13:1-7), love as the fulfillment of the law (13:10), the best passage in the Bible for the aging (13:11-12), the passage that delivered Saint Augustine (13:14; see Confessions 8,12), and the meaning of “life or death” (14:7-8), among other gems. Romans, quite literally, shows us the way to Heaven, the way to receive God’s greatest gift—eternal life with Him. Who could ask for anything more or settle for anything less?