Category Archives: Romans

The propositional belief in justifying faith

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While there are qualifications for regenerate infants and other incapable of being outwardly called, for those who can deal in information, justifying faith includes propositional content.  What must a person believe in order to be justified?

Paul tells us in Romans (10.9, 10) of course:

“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.“

Believe the Gospel and you will be saved!

Dr. Leithart on Jesus and the disciples fulfilling Joseph and His Brothers

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Jesus has been lost to the grave, but three days later reappears with all authority in heaven and on earth. His brothers (28:10) follow Him to Galilee, and find Him on a mountain, where the eleven bow down and worship (28:17). Some doubt. Well they might, and not just the resurrection itself. They might be doubting Jesus’ intentions. After all, the last time He saw them, He saw their backsides as they fled from the garden. They’ve all abandoned Him. Are they about to hear a “Depart from Me, I never knew you”?

No. They are about to hear a “What you intended for evil, God intended for good, to save all these alive.” Jesus is the new Joseph, lost and found, humiliated and exalted, now surrounded by His eleven brothers, who prostrate themselves before Him (cf. Genesis 37:9). He is the new Joseph, revealed to His guilty brothers, reconciled.

via Peter J. Leithart » Blog Archive » Joseph and his brothers.

This applies in spades to my stuff on Romans.

Heinrich Bullinger on unconditional grace and conditional inheritance

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I mentioned here what I think is an implausible way to relate grace and conditions or the lack thereof.  It occurred to me that getting back to the Reformation earlier than the Westminster Standards might be helpful:

And indeed one may easily get in trouble here unless one proceeds on the royal highway. For those people who consider only the conditions of the covenant and in fact disregard the grace and promise of God exclude infants from the covenant. It is true that children not only do not observe the terms of the covenant but also do not even understand these terms. But those who view only the sacrament, ceremony, or sign of the covenant count some in the covenant who are really excluded. But if you consider each one separately, one at a time, not only according to the conditions of the covenant but also in terms of the promise or the mercy of God, and the age and reason of a person, then you will realize that all those who believe from among the Jews and the Gentiles are the descendants of Abraham with whom the Lord made the covenant. In the meantime, however, their offspring, that is, their children, have by no means been excluded from the covenant. They are excluded, however, if having reached the age of reason they neglect the conditions of the covenant.

In the same way, we consider children of parents to be children and indeed heirs even though they, in their early years, do not know that they are either children or heirs of their parents. They are, however, disowned if, after they have reached the age of reason, they neglect the commands of their parents. In that case, the parent no longer calls them children and heirs but worthless profligates. They are mistaken who boast about their prerogatives as sons of the family by virtue of birth. For he who violates the laws of piety toward parents is no different from a slave; indeed, he is lower than a slave, because even by the law of nature itself he owes more to his parents. Truly this debate about the seed of Abraham has been settled for us by the prophets and the apostles, specifically that not everyone who is born of Abraham is the seed of Abraham, but only he who is a son of the promise, that is, who is faithful, whether Jew or Gentile. For the Jews have already neglected the basic conditions of the covenant, while at the same time they glorified themselves as the people of God, relying on circumcision and the fact that they were born from the parent Abraham. Indeed, this error is denied and attacked not only by Christ along with the apostles but also by the entire body of the prophets (boldface added).

Thus wrote Heinrich Bullinger in The One and Eternal Testament or Covenant with God, which I found translated in Fountainhead of Federalism: Heinrich Bullinger and the Covenantal Tradition, Charles S. McCoy and J. Wayne Baker [Louisville, KY: W/JKP, 1991], 106).  Notice that Bullinger doesn’t say that Jews are guilty in boasting in their obedience to the Law, but only in their membership in the Abrahamic family through circumcision.  In my opinion, pursuing this as you study Romans would be very helpful to understanding what Paul is saying.

What do I have to offer on the book of Romans?

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Well, I got back from The Martin Bucer Institute for Biblical Studies and for the first time got to share some ideas with people who were familiar with where I am coming from.  This was helpful to figure out what is uniquely mine and what is not.

There are several things going on in discussions of the meaning of the book of Romans.  For starters:

  1. Is “God’s righteousness” in Romans a shorthand for “a righteousness imputed from God” or does it simply mean God’s righteousness or faithfulness? (And, related: are English translations of the Bible being faithful to their readers or to God when they switch from “the righteousness of God” to “God’s righteousness” in the same paragraph for the same exact term?)
  2. Is it “faith in Jesus Christ” or “the faithfulness of Jesus Christ.”
  3. To what extent is Romans related to theodicy?
  4. The meaning of “the works of the law,” the identity of those “of the law,” etc.
  5. Is Romans 7.6ff about a person (regenerate? unregenerate?) or about the history of Israel.

I have an opinion on these issues, but they aren’t new with me.

What I offer I think is the following:

  1. Paul’s argument in 1.18ff is not about the generic human sinfulness that is true at all times and places, but rather the apostasy that is characteristic of his own time.
  2. The timing of the life and work of Christ in history is important to Paul’s message.
  3. The way the law increases trespasses is a process in history in the nation of Israel, not an individual’s behavioral response.
  4. That God’s used the growth of sin into trespass to provoke a judgment day in which Christ could offer himself as a substitute propitiation.
  5. Postmillennialism is essential to proving God’s righteousness.

Also, I don’t think many people are acknowledging that Romans 1.18ff has nothing to do with general revelation and how pagans with no testimony about the true God respond to “the light of nature.”  Rather it is about Gentiles in the Greco-Roman world that was filled with the influence of the Jews of the diaspora.  I figured most of this out in Romans 2, but Kevin Bywater had done some stellar work on Romans 1. Also, I think I was provoked to go in this direction from conversations with Kevin many years ago.

God does all things for his own glory?

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We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves.  Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up.  For Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me.”  For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. (Romans 15.1-4)

God does all things for his own glory

Give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God,  just as I try to please everyone in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, that they may be saved. Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ (I Corinthians 10.32-11.1).

So we’re supposed to imitate God (imitate Paul imitating Christ who is God) by

  1. Bearing with the failings of the weak
  2. In so doing, not being motivated to please ourselves
  3. Pleasing our neighbors for their good
  4. Building up our neighbors
  5. Giving no offense to believers or unbelievers
  6. Seek the advantage of the many rather than that of oneself so that the many may be saved.

Following this path is the definition, according to First Corinthians 10.31, of doing “all to the glory of God.”

But is this the kind of behavior we think of when we hear people claim God does all things for his own glory?

And in fact, Reformed Theology teaches that ultimately God does all things to share and show his glory.

God hath all life, glory, goodness, blessedness, in and of himself; and is alone in and unto himself all-sufficient, not standing in need of any creatures which he hath made, nor deriving any glory from them, but only manifesting his own glory in, by, unto, and upon them (WCF 2.2)

God shares his glory with you and you reflect that glory by giving to others.

Slightly less broad outline of Romans

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Romans 1.1-7

Greeting = Paul and Ambassador/Jesus is Lord/ via 2-stage life thru resurrection (applied throughout rest of letter)/Great Commission

Romans 1.8-12
Thanksgiving and prayer for the Romans/wants to visit

Romans 1.13-17

Obligated to preach Gospel even to Barbarians in Spain (so what f llows will be an object lesson in humility and need to love and give to the nations) as well as to Romans where Paul wants to make new home. Because Paul is not ashamed of the Gospel (i.e. to be explained–not ashamed that God led Israel to break covenant in order to fulfill the covenant promise of using Israel to bring salvation to the nations), because it is the power to save because it reveals God’s faithfulness in fulfilling his promise of salvation to the benefit of those who believe.

Romans 1.18-3.20

Gospel is power to save from = God’s wrath is snowballing as the world, Jew and Gentile alike, rides straight down to hell in a handbasket/ (and Israel under God’s wrath means that there is no hope to be found in Jewish righteousness)/ In fact, if there is any hope in Israel, it is in their apostasy, but we have no right to judge God for working in this way because he is our judge.

Romans3.21-4.24

God has demonstrated his faithfulness in the faithfulness of Christ in making propitiation in the midst of this wrath and redeeming all who believe, Jew and Gentile/ Thus the law is not to be kept in perpetuity but faith is what matters, just as it did for Abraham who was right with God when he believed but before he was a Jew.

Romans 5.1-11

No more slide to hell in a handbasket. We know we have hope and glory, yet via weakness, not triumphalism.

Romans 5.12-21

So the sin and death spreading from the one trespass of Adam is now all going to be overwhelmed by the much greater righteousness and glory spreading from the one obedience of the New Adam and the many trespasses of Israel brought about through the Law.

Romans 6
But we must not infer that we are to increase sin in order to spread more salvation. Rather, being baptized into the new order, we are now to embrace weakness in the death of Christ that we might walk in the new age of obedience/ Whereas before all lives were characterized by bondage to sin in that old age (even OT believers in comparison to Christians), now we can be assured that our obedience will grow and count towards a glorious future by God’s gift.

Romans 7.1-6
The death and resurrection of Christ freed us from the age of the Law.

Romans 7.7-25
(Romans 5.12ff redux) So Israel was, while under law, always prone to be driven to greater sin by the greater grace it was shown. Thus, many realized that the promises given to Israel to be a light of the world were never going to happen because Israel constantly weakend and fell and came under judgment

Romans 8.1-39
(Romans 3.21ff + 5.1ff redux) So now all that wrath and increasing sin has been absorbed by Jesus so that sin is condemned and we can fulfill the law in the Spirit where the flesh was too weak. Our weakness, on the other hand, will only work for good as we are patterned after the death and resurrection of Christ by the Spirit.

Romans 9.1-5

What about Israel?

Romans 9.6-13

Not all Israel = true Israel

Romans 9.14-18

(Redux Romans 3.1-8 + 5.12ff +7.7ff) God is not unrighteous in using Israel because it is consistent with his electing sovereignty that just as he chose to harden Pharaoh to proclaim his power throughout the world so he hardened a controlling part of Israel to display his wrath on sin in Jesus flesh and proclaim his power of God to salvation in the Gospel.

Romans 9.19-29

Israel hardened to bring about worldwide salvation so that Gentiles are converted while, at this moment, only a remnant of Israel is saved.

Romans 9.30-10.4

The Gentiles found righteousness by believing in Jesus while Israel twisted the law so that it led them away from belief in Jesus.  They preferred their works.  So they preferred their own plan for vindication rather than God’s real plan which was Jesus Christ..

Romans 10.5-12

Faith in God’s king of the world, Jesus, is the fulfillment of the Law.

Romans 10.14-21

Despite the sending of witnesses, Israel has rejected God’s message while the Gentiles have widely accepted it.

Romans 11

A remnant in Israel was saved to lead the Gentiles to salvation to provoke the rest of Israel to jealousy so that they might be saves and bring greater blessing to the world. Don’t be arrogant toward Israel but learn from their example and witness to them.

Romans 12.1-3

Intro: Worship, learn God’s will, and serve in humility

Romans 12.4-13

Peace in the Church through Gospel living.

Romans 12.14-13.7

Peace outside the Church through Gospel living

Romans 13.8-14

Summing up Gospel living: love in Christ fulfills law.

Romans 14.1-15.13

The specific lesson: Gospel table manners in the context of the worldwide mission of God.

Romans 15.14-21

Paul’s authority and mission

Romans 15.22-33

(Back to Romans 1.13-17) Paul’s invitation to Rome to participate in Spanish mission.

Romans 16

Final greetings, exhortations, and blessing.

Telos and Law: Romans 9.30-10.4

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Paul states that the Israelites, “pursued a law that would lead to righteousness.”  Now, if he had concluded that Israel failed to reach that righteousness, we could infer that the law prevented the attainment of that status.  But that is not what he argues.  He says that Israel “did not succeed in reaching that law. Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works.”  So if they had pursued the law “by faith” they would have reached the righteousness.  The problem was not the Law, but the unbelief and accompanying idolatry of “works.”

And if the righteousness of God’s people is found in Christ, then Christ is that actual goal that Israel and the Gentiles have reached.  Interpreting telos as “end” doesn’t go with the context.  “For Christ is the goal of the law for righteousness to everyone who has faith.”

30 What shall we say, then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, a righteousness that is by faith; 31 but that Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness did not succeed in reaching that law. 32 Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone, 33 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.”

10:1 Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. 2 For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. 3 For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. 4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.