Romans pt 1

I have been spending some time reading through Romans. I thought I would thus write out a few of the thoughts I'm having. So to begin, I'll give a quick introduction overview of the book.

When we start in chapter 1, Paul is setting the stage for these believers in Rome that are asking a specific question: since the Jews crucified Jesus, does that mean we are the new Israel? Now, I'll admit that this is mere speculation. However, the more I read Romans the more I find that this is the central topic. Is God done with Israel? Are we the new Israel? What are God's purposes for Israel?

This might be why Paul starts by saying, "the Gospel he promised before hand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures, regarding his Son, who as to his earthly life was a descendant of David, and who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power by the resurrection from the dead," Romans 1:2-4.

What is this Gospel that was given by the prophets? The Gospel is the whole spectrum from the beginning of time to the end when Jesus returns to this Earth and establishes His Kingdom. The scenario is apocalyptic. God must sift Israel through all nations and redeem them. They will be brought back to the Land with everlasting joy upon their heads - they will be God's people and God will be their God. They will no longer need to teach one another "know the Lord," because they will all know Him. It is the return of Israel to their Land in the last days that brings forth the Messiah. Their return will mean redemption for the nations. All Israel shall be saved. None shall transgress against the Lord their God anymore.

The question now becomes for us: has this happened? Was the establishment of Israel in 1948 the fulfillment of these prophecies or is there something else we need to look for?

The prophets spoke of an end time calamity that would come upon the People Israel from the "northern nation" (cannot be Germany) and that this final calamity would bring the people face-to-face with their God. He would provide for them miraculously. In fact, it will be such an event that they will no longer look back to God bringing them out of Egypt. The new exodus would eclipse the old. In the same way, this end time calamity will eclipse all previous catastrophes that God's people have suffered.

Well this is nice and all, but what in the world are we really talking about?

Paul uses the Gospel spoken of by the prophets to claim that salvation has come to the Gentiles. Romans 1 isn't so much about expressing what this Gospel is and what it encompasses as much as it is to help answer that nagging question: has God forsaken Israel? He makes the statement multiple times in Romans, "to the Jew first, and then to the Greek."

Paul then establishes the first part of the Gospel which we find at the end of the first chapter through chapter 3. All have fallen short of the glory of God. Paul puts all men, whether Jew or Gentile, in the same category: evil. There is no one good, no not even one. I love how Paul seems to major on the minors when it comes to calling people out. "You who say it is unlawful to steal, do you steal?"Do you say with your mouth that it is against the Law to steal while oppressing the poor?

It all comes to the pinnacle at Romans 3:23-26. Why do we need a Messiah? Why does God need a redemption plan for humanity? We have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. God's first installment of this redemption plan was His own Son dying upon the cross and resurrecting from the dead. Because He has taken up our infirmities (Isaiah 53), we have been healed of our sins. We have justification before God. This is our redemption.

However, Paul then takes this up again later to show that God isn't finished with His plan of redemption. He shows later that this is just a part of a bigger story and plan.

In Romans 4-5 Paul stresses what it means to be the people of God. In one sense it is Paul speaking about the two Judaisms - real and false. In another sense it is beyond Judaism. Paul is pointing to what it means to be Hebrew. What does it mean to be the people of God? It takes faith. But faith of what kind?

We must do more than believe. Abraham had a faith that God would give all that He had promised. Abraham died without receiving the fulfillment of those promises. He looked forward to the fulfillment eternally. Abraham's faith is no one of simple belief. It isn't one that says that you trust God. It looks beyond time and into eternity. This kind of faith is what it takes to be truly Hebraic.

And so Paul contrasts the Jews and their traditions without conviction and the faith of Abraham. It all leads up to chapters 6-8, which are about the resurrection. The true faith - what it means to be the people of God - is to be resurrected from the dead. We are no longer subject the the Law of sin. We are now subjected to life. We have been freed from the bounds of death. This is what chapter 7 is all about. When we are still subjecting ourselves to the Law, and we are striving out of human ability to be holy and righteous, we continuously fall. Who can save us from such repeat transgression?

This is why Romans 8 starts the way it does. There is no condemnation. Yes it is a struggle. Yes I have my shortcomings. However, I am not bound by those shortcomings. I am no subject to sin. I am free from sin. I have been resurrected by the same power that resurrected Jesus from the grave. This is what it means to be the sons of God. We are no longer enslaved, but free. God is free, therefore His children must also be free.

When we reach Romans 9-11, Paul starts to express this mystery of Israel's final redemption and what it means for us to now be a part of it. He expresses how we aren't raised from the dead to continue living for same things we've always lived for. We are a part of something much bigger now. We are a part of God's plan to redeem Israel, which is the conclusion of the age. It is the redemption of Israel that means the return of Christ. They won't be redeemed if we are raptured out of the world.

It mentions in Romans 11 that Scripture that says God will take a people that are not His people to drive the Jew to jealousy. What is he talking about? He is talking about you and me. He is talking about those who are not Jewish by descent have been brought into the House of Israel to display the resurrection reality (the true Judaism) and drive Israel to jealousy. They are to actually be envious of what we have. This was promised to them. And yet they don't experience it. It is by this that they will be driven to jealousy - when we can display to them a mode of life that exposes their shallow religion and puts on view the resurrection reality of Christ.

That is why Romans 11 starts with, "I beseech you, therefore brethren by the mercies of God to lay down your life. It will cost you everything. If you have not truly died to self in order to be raised with Christ, then you cannot fulfill God's purposes for you. It takes nothing less than life from the dead. Romans 12-14 is thus a statement of what it looks like to live out of the resurrection.

We reach Romans 15 where Paul starts to express how we are one in Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile. Why? We have been grafted into their root. There isn't a separation. It isn't the Church over here and Israel over there. We are both Israel. We are both the people of God. The only distinction is that of election. Paul says that not all Israel are Israel. In the same way, Zechariah talks about how only a remnant will be saved.

Those who are God's chosen people are God's chosen people. It doesn't matter whether you are Jewish, English, Arab, male, female, black, white, or burgundy. If you are a child of God, then you are a child of God. There isn't any of this "I'm a part of the Church, but they are Jewish..." We're all part of the Church. We're all Jewish. We're all part of Israel. God has grafted us in, and when He regrafts them in, they are no less God's people than you are. The problem comes when we have a Western societal Christianity trying to force the Eastern culture to change their views. The Hebraic faith is Hebraic, not Greek. We can't take our Japheth ideologies and force them upon Shem, whose tent we are entering.

This is probably why Paul goes back into detailed account of the resurrection in the latter part of chapter 15. People have taken that faith that God established at the first and converted it into their personal lifestyle and their mode of being. Instead of being brought out of their lifestyle and mode of being and brought into the "Land that I will show you," we try to force the square peg into the round hole. I think this might be the biggest reason why there are so many stupid small debates about free-will or sovereignty, evolution or creation, eternal security, etc.

In chapter 16, we have Paul's final greetings. This concludes Romans. I'll try to go back in and reexamine each section piece by piece to help better further our understanding. For now, this is a good framework to get you rethinking about how to read and interpret Romans.