Category Archives: Bible & Theology

Romans: Why don’t the works of the law justify?

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In Romans (Galatians agrees but has additional arguments because it is addressing people in the Church trying to go back in time in order to go forward), the works of the law do not justify because it is not the hearers of the law who will be justified but the doers of the law. The works of the law mark one out as a hearer of the law, a Jew who is entrusted with the oracles of God. But if one does not keep the law, one’s circumcision will become uncircumcision and, thus, the works of the law do nothing for you.

The law, rather than stopping the spiral of sin to more sin, actually increased the trespass. Those who are designated hearers of the Word who are entrusted with the oracles of God are, if they are unfaithful, worse off than they would have been if they had never received the Law.  Israel as a nation has been unfaithful to the Law as a whole and thus has increased the trespass and increased the wrath of God.

This, Paul argues, was God’s plan all along to save both Jew and Gentile by condemning sin in the flesh of Jesus and putting him forward as a propitiation of God’s wrath.

Therefore, you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things…

For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified…

You who boast in the law dishonor God by breaking the law. For, as it is written, “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.” For circumcision indeed is of value if you obey the law, but if you break the law, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision…

Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision? Much in every way. To begin with, the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God…

Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin…

Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin…

Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin….

Is this blessing then only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? We say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness. How then was it counted to him? Was it before or after he had been circumcised? It was not after, but before he was circumcised. He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised, so that righteousness would be counted to them as well, and to make him the father of the circumcised who are not merely circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.

 

Why sanctification is an execution, not a murder

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Paul doesn’t say to “kill” the old Adam in you. He says rather to “put to death” the earthly members, the deeds of the body.

This language refers to execution by an authorized agent (even if that authority is being misused in some cases). You carry out a death sentence on your sinful habits and desires.

And you carry out that sentence first and foremost by understanding that the death of Jesus was the death sentence against your sin. You are free from sin definitively by God’s judicial action in history so that you might behave free from sin in your life.

That’s Romans 6 as I understand it.

Stuff Paul didn’t say

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Knowing that for many years you have been a judge over this nation, I cheerfully make my defense. You can verify that it is not more than twelve days since I went up to worship in Jerusalem, and they did not find me disputing with anyone or stirring up a crowd, either in the temple or in the synagogues or in the city. Neither can they prove to you what they now bring up against me. But this I confess to you, that according to the Way, which they call a sect, I worship the God of our fathers, believing everything laid down by the Law and written in the Prophets, having a hope in God, which these men themselves accept, that there will be a resurrection of both the just and the unjust. So I always take pains to make clear to everyone that I am the chief of sinners in all my present conduct.

Surfing on your body parts and passions

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When you surf, sometimes you have to paddle out against the tides and sometimes you get the joy of riding the wave. Good surfers develop skill both in going against and with the current.

Likewise in Proverbs. Sometimes your passions and parts won’t lead you anywhere you want to go.

A fool’s lips walk into a fight,
and his mouth invites a beating (Proverbs 18.6)

So you must restrain them and yourself.

When words are many, transgression is not lacking,
but whoever restrains his lips is prudent (Proverbs 10.19).

Whoever is slow to anger is better than the mighty,
and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city (Proverbs 16.32).

Whoever restrains his words has knowledge,
and he who has a cool spirit is a man of understanding (Proverbs 17.27).

A fool gives full vent to his spirit,
but a wise man quietly holds it back (Proverbs 29.11).

“Restrains,” “rules,” “quietly holds it back” One might think that emotion and impulse and appetite are your sworn enemy.

But you would be wrong. They are the horses that move you. You just need to point them in the right direction before allowing them to go.

A worker’s appetite works for him;
his mouth urges him on (Proverbs 16.26).

Thus, Solomon’s marital counseling:

Drink water from your own cistern,
flowing water from your own well.
Should your springs be scattered abroad,
streams of water in the streets?
Let them be for yourself alone,
and not for strangers with you.
Let your fountain be blessed,
and rejoice in the wife of your youth,
a lovely deer, a graceful doe.
Let her breasts fill you at all times with delight;
be intoxicated always in her love.
Why should you be intoxicated, my son, with a forbidden woman
and embrace the bosom of an adulteress?
For a man’s ways are before the eyes of the Lord,
and he ponders all his paths (Proverbs 5.15-21).

 

Future Salvation in Romans

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While it is common to talk about the tenses of salvaiton, the already/not-yet of salvation, in Paul’s letters, it strikes me as odd how obviously Paul tends to view salvation as a future hope in Romans. That is, it strikes me as odd how people seem to ignore this:

  • Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God (Romans 5.9).
  • For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life (Romans 5.10).
  • Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed (Romans 13.11).

Then there is Romans 8.24 which uses “saved” as a past event or present status and yet…

And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

So we are “saved” when we have reason to hope for salvation. Kind of like God handing us a check.

Now consider Romans 10.8-13:

But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

Here we have statements that could be interpreted as immediate or future, with one possible exception. But I wonder. When someone calls on the name of the Lord is that only effective if God answers immediately? Romans 5.9, 10 would indicate that one believes in Jesus and is justified and then is promised salvation. One calls on the name of the Lord and then one is saved. In the meantime we experience the frustration Paul describes in Romans 8 but with the confidence and hope that we will see what we were promised.

There are some other uses of “saved” and “salvation” in Israel which work well with the conventional understanding, but I don’t think they contradict the above.

Doug Wilson on casting off in order to press onward

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This is why our time of confession ought not to be about a list of items, kept or broken. We are in the process of becoming a certain kind of person. Everything we confess is that which interfered with that process. If it did not interfere with it, then there is nothing to confess. But the rules are not floating above our heads, independently autonomous. No, God’s rules are simply a description of what He is like, and what we would like to become like.

The new covenant is all about two things—forgiveness of sin, and the internalization of the law. When you are forgiven, you can deal with sin in your life, and the gospel does what the gospel of grace always does—changes you. When you are forgiven, the law of God is internalized, meaning that you are becoming a walking incarnation of God’s words.

Read the whole post: Becoming a Certain Kind of Person.

RePost from 2003: A Chiasm on Jew, Gentile, and Gospel in Ephesians 1

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I was once trying to get a sermon out of Ephesians 1.12-14 and it seemed obvious that I should look for two parallel statements both ending with the phrase, “to the praise of his glory.” Paul here begins talking about two groups of people (“you” and “we”), and he later reveals that these two groups are (from his perspective) we Jews and you Gentiles. The text read in the New American Standard:

to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ should be to the praise of His glory. In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation–having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.

After wrestling with this and coming up with nothing. I glanced at the Greek. I realized the first verse had been altered in form. It was not, “to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ should be to the praise of His glory” but rather “to the end that we should be to the praise of his glory, we who had before hoped in Christ” as the old original American Standard Bible translated correctly.

This meant my quest for two parrallel statements, each ending with “to the praise of his glory” was not going to meet with success. Once properly translated, there was less in common between verse 12 and 14 than I had originally thought.

But then I noticed that we had an AB-BA pattern between the two verses:

to the end that we should be to the praise of his glory,

we who had before hoped in Christ…you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, which is an earnest of our inheritance,

to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of his glory.

This seemed interesting. Paul spoke of the Jews who had hoped in Christ first and then of the Gentiles who had become heirs of the promise. Both seemed like future-oriented ways to describe conversion to Christianity. But it seemed awfully uncertain that Paul was intentionally writing to make that specific point.

But then I noticed something else. Paul had chosen to repeat the same thing in two different ways, describing the Christian message as “the word of truth, the Gospel of your salvation.”

I went through two iterations before everything suddenly fell into place. Here’s the structure of Ephesians 1.12-14 with some Greek words transliterated in brackets:

A. to [eis] the end that we should be to [eis] the praise of his glory,

B. we who had before hoped in Christ:

C. in whom you also [en ho kai], having heard

D. the word of the truth,D’. the gospel of your salvation,

C’.in whom you also [en ho kai], having believed,

B’. you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, which is an earnest of our inheritance,

A’. to [eis] the redemption of God’s own possession, to [eis] the praise of his glory.

This pattern is called a “chiasm” by Bible scholars, from the Greek letter chi which looks like our “X” (thus the lame title for this column). It means the passage has an inverse parallelism to teach the careful reader something. In this case, the centrality of the Gospel is literally demonstrated (D.D’) and the future nature of Christian salvation is brought out as we see that we are trusting Christ because we are hoping for a future glory and we have a basis for such hope because we have been made heirs (B.B’).

Furthermore, this analysis brings out more clearly what Paul seems to be saying by speaking of “the Gospel of your salvation.” He will later write that the Gospel-mystery, for which he is an ambassador in chains (6.19, 20) that was especially made known to him by revelation is that “the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel” (3.6). The Gospel message can be narrowed down to the declaration of the resurrection and exaltation of Jesus, but Paul sees Christ’s resurrection as the reconciliation both of man to God and man to man:

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit (2.13-22).

Though Paul undoubtedly believes that the Gospel is also good news for Israelites, in Ephesians he is stressing its reference to the Gentiles. By calling it “the Gospel of your salvation” in a context which implies that “we” seems to mean “us Jews” and “you” refers to “you Gentiles,” Paul is already hinting at where he is going in the letter.

See also: What is Paul’s Gospel? All nations are in!

Denying self to pursue real glory

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In Romans 2, Paul writes:

He will render to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. For God shows no partiality.

How can it not be “self-seeking” to “seek for glory and honor and immortality.” Of course the word for “seek” is not actually used the second time. The NASB’s “those who are selfishly ambitious” is better.

Still, how can it be virtuous to pursue glory, honor, and immortality? How is that not selfish?

In the Bible, being “selfish” as we would call it, is actually self-destructive. One is mastered by parts of oneself that one is unable to restrain or control. Thus, selfishness leads to irrational, idiotic behavior that cannot possibly serve one’s best interests.

So God told Cain:

“Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.”

To restrain such influences and impulses in order to pursue a specific goal with endurance and integrity is not selfish because “you” master your “self” rather than the other way around. Cain was mastered by “sin” and thus was one of those who “obey unrighteousness” as a slave to sin.

Romans 6 says that we have died so that we can be free from sin and thus offer our body parts as slaves to righteousness:

For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.

For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Notice that this framework is already being set up in Romans 2 with the contrast between those who pursue immortality and glory and those who submit to unrighteousness.

By faith and through faithfulness?

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Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, since God is one—who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith.

via Passage: Romans 3 (ESV Bible Online).

Jews and Gentiles are both justified by faith, yet Paul deliberately uses two different prepositions. Why?

My guess would be that this is a wordplay using two different meanings. “who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faithfulness.”

Again, both Jews and Gentiles are justified through God’s faithfulness. But Paul has been arguing that the Bible promised righteousness for all nations and that the Gospel reveals that God has delivered on this promise.

On the other hand, Israel has been prone to believe that justification is by works rather than by faith.

Thus, Paul here reiterates that it is not by works and that God’s faithfulness has brought about justification for the nations.