When we look for freedom — from the consequences of past sin and from the moral struggles that still bind us — we are led beyond the ethical teachings of Christ we have already briefly examined. We now turn to another set of ideas found in Christ’s message and in the New Testament. These ideas are closely connected to moral teaching, yet clearly distinct from it. They are also strikingly unique within the broader history of religious thought, belonging in a special way to Christ and to those who followed Him.
Because we have no writings directly from Jesus Himself, the most reliable way to understand His teaching is to look at the letters written by the earliest Christian leaders. Among these, we can say with confidence which letters come from the hand of the most prominent early preacher of the Gospel. These writings place us face to face with a remarkable Christian who lived in the same generation as Christ. By studying them, we can attempt to reconstruct Paul’s understanding of both the Gospel and of Christ Himself.
This kind of investigation clearly requires a continuous and careful study of Paul’s letters. I have already attempted such a study in my earlier commentaries. I will therefore take those results for granted here, noting that the justification for many details in this lecture must be sought in those earlier works.
If we are looking for a guide to Paul’s theology, the Epistle to the Romans stands above all the rest. Unlike the letters to the Corinthians or the Galatians, it does not address specific local problems. Instead, it offers a systematic presentation of the Gospel Paul regularly preached. Writing to people he had never met, and having no immediate issue to address, Paul writes about what lay closest to his heart and mind. He organizes his thoughts carefully and logically. As a result, this letter gives us a clearer and more complete picture than any other of Paul’s understanding of Christ and of the salvation he proclaimed everywhere.
Romans 1:1-16 NRSV.
1 Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, 2 which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures, 3 the gospel concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh 4 and was declared to be Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, 5 through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for the sake of his name, 6 including yourselves who are called to belong to Jesus Christ,
7 To all God’s beloved in Rome, who are called to be saints:Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed throughout the world. 9 For God, whom I serve with my spirit by announcing the gospel of his Son, is my witness that without ceasing I remember you always in my prayers, 10 asking that by God’s will I may somehow at last succeed in coming to you. 11 For I am longing to see you so that I may share with you some spiritual gift to strengthen you— 12 or rather so that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine. 13 I want you to know, brothers and sisters, 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 I have among the rest of the Gentiles. 14 I am a debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish 15 —hence my eagerness to proclaim the gospel to you also who are in Rome.
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith; as it is written, “The one who is righteous will live by faith.”
The opening seven verses of the Epistle form a formal greeting. Even here, however, we notice a strong emphasis on Christ as both the Son of David and the Son of God. Paul also explains what he means by this latter title: Christ is designated Son of God through the resurrection from the dead. Verses 8 through 15 then move into more personal matters, showing Paul’s deep and ongoing concern for his readers and his strong desire to visit them. He sees himself as indebted to all people alike, and he is eager to repay that debt by preaching the Gospel to the people of Rome.
This leads directly, in verse 16, to a crucial description of the Gospel itself. Paul calls it the power of God for salvation, available to everyone who believes — first to the Jew, and then to the Greek. He explains this statement further in verse 17, supporting it with a quotation from the prophet Habakkuk: “For a righteousness of God is revealed in it, from faith for faith; as it is written, ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’”
Several key terms immediately stand out here: salvation; the related words righteousness and righteous; and believe and faith, the last of which appears three times in quick succession. These words form a tightly connected group, and we will see that they are central to Paul’s theology.
In verse 18, Paul uses the word revealed as a pivot and abruptly shifts to a new line of thought. After verses 16 and 17, the terms faith and believe disappear almost entirely, not reappearing in their original sense until chapter 3, verse 21, where they again stand alongside righteousness. This makes it clear that Romans 1:18 through 3:20 interrupts Paul’s description of the Gospel. The purpose of this interruption is to demonstrate humanity’s deep and universal need for the salvation he has announced.
Romans 3:21-26 NRSV.
21 But now, apart from law, the righteousness of God has been disclosed, and is attested by the law and the prophets, 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction, 23 since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; 24 they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement by his blood, effective through faith. He did this to show his righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over the sins previously committed; 26 it was to prove at the present time that he himself is righteous and that he justifies the one who has faith in Jesus.
When we reach chapter 3, verse 21, we emerge from this dark section just as suddenly as we entered it in chapter 1, verse 18. We find ourselves back at the same point as before, but now with a much deeper awareness of spiritual need. In Romans 3:21–22, Paul restates — at greater length — the claim he made earlier in 1:17: “For in it the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith; as it is written, 'The one who is righteous will live by faith.'”
The deliberate repetition of this idea strongly suggests that it expresses a foundational principle of Paul’s theology. This impression is confirmed beyond doubt by the argument that follows, which develops these words both logically and spiritually.
Our next task, then, is to determine as carefully and completely as possible what Paul means by the key terms we have traced directly to his pen and to the very center of his thought.
This post is based upon Lecture VIII from J. A. Beet's book Through Christ to God: A Study in Scientific Theology (1893), written with the assistance of Microslop CoPilot. The original text may be found at the Internet Archive here: Through Christ to God.
No comments:
Post a Comment