Who could sit down and read through Romans and understand it?
Doesn’t that bother us? Why don’t we try more often?
But when we break up the text into sermons, we can evade the problem. Our need to jump around what is supposed to be an extended argument, as if it were a series of short topical statements, is hidden by the form.
But Romans is meant to be an argument. It ought to be better understood as a whole.
Moses confronted Israel with the basic choice at the conclusion of his lecture on the law (which we know as Deuteronomy). He told them to choose (continuing) life or death–to follow the way set forth in the Torah or to ignore it in favor of some other wisdom or god.
In Romans Paul does the same. He sees two possible responses to his message. One is the way of mockery. To claim that we must do evil that good may come, or to claim that we must remain in sin that grace may abound, and to blame god because he used Israel’s disobedience and yet still hold’s them accountable.
Paul responds to that path by appealing to the uniqueness of God (in that God may use our unfaithfulness to prove faithful) and to the uniqueness of the age of the Law (which is now over so that we are not under law but under grace).
That is the way of death.
The way of life is to learn from the cross that the Christian life is cruciform. We are to learn that just as god saved us when we were “weak” and did so through the death of His Son, so in our weakness all things work together for good.
That is the way of new life.
Thus we are to learn from how God saves us, not that we may arrange evil but that we can trust God to bring glory out of the evil that we suffer.
God’s Patience with the Vessels of Wrath :: Desiring God Christian Resource Library.
Reviewing John Piper’s argument here is really reinforcing to my mind that Paul is talking about something much different. While I have no problem with the theology, if that was Paul’s point than Romans 11 is a virtual a reversal of direction.
Piper’s appeal to intertestamental Jewish literature strikes me as ironic, given his reaction to N. T. Wright–but I’m not sure I am being entirely fair.
But his quotation from Second Maccabees reminds me of what God told Abraham in Genesis 15.16: “And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.” This used to sound to my calvinistic mind like God wanted them to sin more to punish them more.
But while God’s sovereignty cannot eliminate that perspective, the point was something with better implications:
God doesn’t simply destroy cultures because they are made up of sinners.
In fact, originally, he did not judge at all. Cain got away with murder–literally–and was permitted to create a thriving culture until all the godly one’s were seduced and only Noah was left. God intervened at the last possible moment.
After the flood, God promised to never destroy the world again. What people seem to not realize is that God was promising to judge cultures sooner than he had before. God’s justice demanded that he eventually act. By promising to not destroy the world he was promising to not let the earth get so wicked that he was obligated to do so.
Thus the contrast between Cain’s city and the Tower of Babel. Cain goes east and builds a city and increases wickedness. Nimrod goes east and builds a city and it is scattered. God will now intervene more quickly.
But it is still not random (even though we can’t know his criteria and timing). So the fact that God won’t judge the Amorites yet, when he speaks to Abraham, is because they don’t deserve it yet. We know this is the case because, in the case of the exceeding wickedness of Sodom and Gomorrah, God refuses to wait. He judges them with fire from heaven in that generation.
And so if God is enduring unbelieving Israel, he is giving people time to switch sides, just like Tamar switched sides and many others joined with Abraham’s clan as servants–becoming Israelites rather than Canaanites.
The difference is that only a minority of Canaanites did this, whereas Paul predicts that the majority of Israel will turn, that they have only received “a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And in this way all Israel will be saved”
From Romans 5:
9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. 10 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.
N. T. Wright admits the two-stage structure of Paul’s argument here, but then refers back to propitiation in Romans 3 to explain how we are saved from wrath. This essentially destroys the “much more” in Paul’s argument. Schreiner refers to the intercession of Christ mentioned in Romans 8.
Romans 8, however, mentions many things, and the distance between the mention of intercession and this passage leaves me unconvinced that Paul can only be thinking of the intercession.
(Sidenote: Many times the way I hear Protestants describe justification leaves me wondering if the fact of Christ’s ongoing intercession is a challenge rather than a blessing–much as I remember seminary students wondering why Christ needs to continue to forgive us.)
The promise that God will “much more” save us from wrath by the new life of Christ is followed immediately by a promise of abounding grace that outstrips the condemnation that results from Adam, and then a description of how the new life of Christ empower our new obedience (Romans 6). This abounding and new obedience stands in stark contrast to the description of how the world is going to Hell in a handbasket (Romans 1.18-3.20). God has responded to sin in the nations by giving over the nations to more sin. This downward spiral has now been reversed. Now that Jesus has shed his blood as a propitiation for sin, God can, through the new life of Christ, bring the nations to new obedience. The world movement from wrath to wrath has been replaced with an even more powerful dynamic from obedience to holiness.
Someone some day needs to investigate the psycho-sociological ramifications of cultures without paragraph breaks. But in the meantime, here are some from the ESV for Romans 1:
First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world. For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I mention you always in my prayers, asking that somehow by God’s will I may now at last succeed in coming to you. For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you— that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine. I want you to know, brothers, that I have often intended to come to you (but thus far have been prevented), in order that I may reap some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles. I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
But here is a counter offer:
First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world. For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I mention you always in my prayers, asking that somehow by God’s will I may now at last succeed in coming to you. For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you— that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine.
I want you to know, brothers, that I have often intended to come to you (but thus far have been prevented), in order that I may reap some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles. I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome. For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.” For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
This second structure has the advantage, I think, of preventing us from forgetting that this is a letter written to the Romans rather than a piece of theology with an personal address tacked on the front of it. It also makes us more open to considering the possibility that “the wrath of God” is not all human history in abstract, but rather the place in history that Paul and his readers have reached and which the Gospel is meant to deal with.
I mean the problems for interpreters of the book:
Some of these ideas are improbable. Others are impossible.
“So, if a man who is uncircumcised keeps the precepts of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision?”
Ruth did this and she was grafted into Israel to become an ancestor to Jesus.
Though it was pre-law (but post-circumcision), Tamar kept the precepts of some sort and was declared more righteous than a patriach of Israel. Rahab did it and was ingrafted while Achan was cut off.
Uriah the Hittite is in this class, though his faith in David was misplaced. Thankfully, one greater than David is faithful and will raise him from the dead.
Namaan did this while the king of Israel assumed that Syria was trying to start a fight.
This is not a hypothetical situation.
From Romans 9:
What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.
You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory— even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles? As indeed he says in Hosea…
Ultimately, there is great mystery and terror in contemplating the infinity and power of God. The fact that he knows and plans all things, the fact that he “works all things according to the counsel of his will,” cannot be escaped. Trying to solve the problems this seems to bring by making the ultimate plan to be what falls together from the conglomeration of human choices, simply transfers mystery and terror from God to “reality,” “the universe,” or some other title for the metaphysical crap shoot that results when we make ultimate reality impersonal rather than personal.
However, many of the problems that are perceived to follow from this passage do not actually do so. I think the issues that are raised against the “calvinism” of this passage usually relate either to the nature of human beings or to God’s character. Paul says little that helps us with the issue of human nature except in quoting God that, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” This implies that all people are in need of mercy and are not relating to God as free agents. Even though God’s plan predates their ability to do anything good or bad, these are fallen beings and God’s decision about whom to show mercy is the prerogative of a king dealing with treasonous subjects. God has not caused evil in this image, but is dealing with evil in different ways, all of which are just.
Which brings us to how this passage affects our perception of God’s character.
God is not as glorified by meting out wrath and punishment as he is by bestowing grace and reconciliation and blessing. Contra Van Til, there is no “equal ultimacy” here. The reason for “vessels of wrath prepared for destruction” is stated: “in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory— even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles”
But wait. Doesn’t the text say that God wanted “to show his wrath and to make known his power”? So he wants both justice and mercy and we are back to equal ultimacy.
But Paul doesn’t say that he punished the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction. He says that he endured them with patience. How did enduring them with patience “show his wrath and make known his power”? Paul has just quoted about Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”
This is about Jesus and the cross.
What is Romans constantly saying is now to be proclaimed in all the earth? The Gospel of Jesus’ death and resurrection.
Egypt was struck with plagues (including darkness) as a result of Pharaoh’s sin. What happened as a result of Israel’s sin? Jesus was cursed and even plunged into darkness. Pharaoh and Egypt’s firstborn sons were killed, but in Israel Jesus the firstborn was killed.
Paul goes on in his argument in Romans 9 to write about how Israel has
stumbled over the stumbling stone, as it is written,
“Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense;
and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”
The sin was rejecting and killing Jesus, which precisely showed God’s wrath and–in the wake of the resurrection, the Great Commission, and Pentecost–made God’s power known.
Whatever we can and should properly infer about God’s plan in relation to those who persist in unbelief from Romans 9, we have to realize that Paul does not know that the “vessels of wrath prepared for destruction” are necessarily going to persist in it. Having stated that God “has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills,” he goes on to argue in chapters 10 and 11 for a grand strategy in softening them up, concluding that only “a partial hardening has come upon Israel.”
And here again we see the problem of “equal ultimacy” in which numbers don’t matter as long as God saves some sinners and damns the rest to his own glory. Paul doesn’t want us to think that way. “Now if their trespass means riches for the world, and if their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean!” “For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead?”
And then, in the conclusion of this great argument that spans from chapter 9-11, we find that salvation is to spread to all:
For just as you were at one time disobedient to God but now have received mercy because of their disobedience, so they too have now been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to you they also may now receive mercy. For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all.
Of course, we know from Paul and elsewhere in Scripture that not every individual has been or will be saved from the ultimate wrath of God. In trying to figure out how this relates to God’s sovereignty, it makes sense to look at Romans 9. But we need to realize that Paul is still continuing his argument that grace is to abound all the more than sin ever did.
Postscript:
The description “prepared for destruction” does not need to be interpreted as an absolute prophecy but as a statement about what will happen if they continue–if they remain hardened rather than only partially. For example, Romans 2: “Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.”
Are these vessels prepared for destruction or vessels that might later be softened?
Here is Psalm 62:
For God alone my soul waits in silence;
from him comes my salvation.
He only is my rock and my salvation,
my fortress; I shall not be greatly shaken.How long will all of you attack a man
to batter him,
like a leaning wall, a tottering fence?
They only plan to thrust him down from his high position.
They take pleasure in falsehood.
They bless with their mouths,
but inwardly they curse. SelahFor God alone, O my soul, wait in silence,
for my hope is from him.
He only is my rock and my salvation,
my fortress; I shall not be shaken.
On God rests my salvation and my glory;
my mighty rock, my refuge is God.Trust in him at all times, O people;
pour out your heart before him;
God is a refuge for us. SelahThose of low estate are but a breath;
those of high estate are a delusion;
in the balances they go up;
they are together lighter than a breath.
Put no trust in extortion;
set no vain hopes on robbery;
if riches increase, set not your heart on them.Once God has spoken;
twice have I heard this:
that power belongs to God,
and that to you, O Lord, belongs steadfast love.
For you will render to a man
according to his work.
Is the Psalmist here teaching a congregation of believers to sing in the hope and trust that God renders to each person according to his deeds? Or is this Psalm a hypothetical system of salvation by doing enough good works?
Notice Solomon’s prayer. He begins by praying that God might justify “the righteous by rewarding him according to his righteousness,” and then moves on to pray for God to forgive sins because “there is no one who does not sin.” Is Solomon confused? Is he contradicting himself?
Rescue those who are being taken away to death;
hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter.
If you say, “Behold, we did not know this,”
does not he who weighs the heart perceive it?
Does not he who keeps watch over your soul know it,
and will he not repay man according to his work?
is this proof that he has no clear understanding of the Gospel?
Is it possible that Paul might have included this wisdom for Solomon if someone had asked him to elaborate on his defense before Felix when he said,
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 have a clear conscience toward both God and man.
Consider a prophecy God gave Jeremiah:
Cursed is the man who trusts in man
and makes flesh his strength,
whose heart turns away from the LORD.
He is like a shrub in the desert,
and shall not see any good come.
He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness,
in an uninhabited salt land.Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD,
whose trust is the LORD.
He is like a tree planted by water,
that sends out its roots by the stream,
and does not fear when heat comes,
for its leaves remain green,
and is not anxious in the year of drought,
for it does not cease to bear fruit.”The heart is deceitful above all things,
and desperately sick;
who can understand it?
I the LORD search the heart
and test the mind,
to give every man according to his ways,
according to the fruit of his deeds.
Wouldn’t the “ways” of people “according to” which the LORD gives to each person include the trust in either flesh (unbelief, idolatry) or the LORD (justifying faith)? Is “the man who trusts in the LORD” blessed because he is an exception to the rule that “I the LORD search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.” Or is he blessed because God does search his hear and test his mind to give to him according to his ways?
The word of the Lord came to me: “What do you mean by repeating this proverb concerning the land of Israel, ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge’? As I live, declares the Lord God, this proverb shall no more be used by you in Israel. Behold, all souls are mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is mine: the soul who sins shall die.
“If a man is righteous and does what is just and right— if he does not eat upon the mountains or lift up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, does not defile his neighbor’s wife or approach a woman in her time of menstrual impurity, does not oppress anyone, but restores to the debtor his pledge, commits no robbery, gives his bread to the hungry and covers the naked with a garment, does not lend at interest or take any profit, withholds his hand from injustice, executes true justice between man and man, walks in my statutes, and keeps my rules by acting faithfully—he is righteous; he shall surely live, declares the Lord God.
“If he fathers a son who is violent, a shedder of blood, who does any of these things (though he himself did none of these things), who even eats upon the mountains, defiles his neighbor’s wife, oppresses the poor and needy, commits robbery, does not restore the pledge, lifts up his eyes to the idols, commits abomination, lends at interest, and takes profit; shall he then live? He shall not live. He has done all these abominations; he shall surely die; his blood shall be upon himself.
“Now suppose this man fathers a son who sees all the sins that his father has done; he sees, and does not do likewise: he does not eat upon the mountains or lift up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, does not defile his neighbor’s wife, does not oppress anyone, exacts no pledge, commits no robbery, but gives his bread to the hungry and covers the naked with a garment, withholds his hand from iniquity, takes no interest or profit, obeys my rules, and walks in my statutes; he shall not die for his father’s iniquity; he shall surely live. As for his father, because he practiced extortion, robbed his brother, and did what is not good among his people, behold, he shall die for his iniquity.
“Yet you say, ‘Why should not the son suffer for the iniquity of the father?’ When the son has done what is just and right, and has been careful to observe all my statutes, he shall surely live. The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.
“But if a wicked person turns away from all his sins that he has committed and keeps all my statutes and does what is just and right, he shall surely live; he shall not die. None of the transgressions that he has committed shall be remembered against him; for the righteousness that he has done he shall live. Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord God, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live? But when a righteous person turns away from his righteousness and does injustice and does the same abominations that the wicked person does, shall he live? None of the righteous deeds that he has done shall be remembered; for the treachery of which he is guilty and the sin he has committed, for them he shall die.
“Yet you say, ‘The way of the Lord is not just.’ Hear now, O house of Israel: Is my way not just? Is it not your ways that are not just? When a righteous person turns away from his righteousness and does injustice, he shall die for it; for the injustice that he has done he shall die. Again, when a wicked person turns away from the wickedness he has committed and does what is just and right, he shall save his life. Because he considered and turned away from all the transgressions that he had committed, he shall surely live; he shall not die. Yet the house of Israel says, ‘The way of the Lord is not just.’ O house of Israel, are my ways not just? Is it not your ways that are not just?
“Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, declares the Lord God. Repent and turn from all your transgressions, lest iniquity be your ruin. Cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed, and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! Why will you die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord God; so turn, and live.”
So if forgiveness is being offered so ardently, how can a judgment according to works or ways be a hypothetical system in which one earns salvation by good deeds? Is this passage an alternative to the grace of God or an exhortation to embrace it?
When Paul says of different ministers in the Church, “He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor,” is that a problem?
Are these the praises of a saint justified by grace through faith or the exultations of a self-righteous man?:
The Lord dealt with me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands he rewarded me (2 Samuel 22.21).
And the Lord has rewarded me according to my righteousness, according to my cleanness in his sight (2 Samuel 22.25).
The Lord judges the peoples; judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness and according to the integrity that is in me (Psalm 7.8).
The Lord dealt with me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands he rewarded me (Psalm 18.20).
So the Lord has rewarded me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands in his sight (Psalm 18.24).
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing (2 Timothy 4.7-8).
When Jesus warns what will happen to the false teacher “Jezebel” (Revelation 2.22-23) is he being hypothetical?
Behold, I will throw her onto a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation, unless they repent of her works, and I will strike her children dead. And all the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and heart, and I will give to each of you according to your works.
The final question is my real question: Why do we claim that Romans 2 is an hypothetical works-based alternative to receiving salvation only by God’s grace?
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.
Well?
What would happen if we read Romans “backwards”? (on a paragraph level, obviously)
Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith— to the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ! Amen.
In Christ Jesus, then, I have reason to boast in my work for God. For I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience.
Blessed is the one who has no reason to pass judgment on himself for what he approves. But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.
Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. 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. The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.
Then you will say, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.” That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith. So do not become proud, but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you.
For Christ is the fulfillment/goal of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
What shall we say, then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, a righteousness that is by faith; but that Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness did not succeed in reaching that law. Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works.
For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you.
Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. [All of Romans 6 could be put here]
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because love for God [which fulfills the law] has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. 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. Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law.
Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations