Tracing Significant Topics in Romans

Topic 1: The Gospel of the Righteousness of God

William Lasley shows the thematic development of the righteousness of God throughout Romans; “God’s righteousness is revealed (chapters 1-8), vindicated (9-11), and applied (12-16)” (Lasley, 2002, 149).

In the gospel, the righteousness of God is a revelation. It is revealed as the power of God unto salvation. This righteousness is universally revealed through a disposition of faith; for both Jew and Gentile (Romans 1:16-17).

Paul then shows that the righteousness of God is distinguished from the righteousness of the commandment; being “apart from the law”. God’s righteousness is revealed and obtained through faith in His Son (3:21-22). Though God’s righteousness is obtained apart from keeping the law it is, “witnessed by the law” (21-22). This means that the Old Testament testifies of this righteousness as belonging to God and being obtained through faith; not according to works.

God’s righteousness is imputed to all who share in Abraham’s faith (4:9-12). This imputed righteousness forms the basis of the believer’s positive standing before God. It is the grounds on which one is justified, both declaratively and actually. Believers, being united with Christ in His resurrection, are now, “slaves of God” and His righteousness (6:13, 18). This union enables the believer to perform acts of righteousness (6:10-14).

Now, having first treated the revelation of God’s righteousness, Paul defends His righteousness, upholding it through the doctrine of election (9:14, 15-24). God’s righteousness is displayed through election. No one deserves to be elected; only damned. However, through God’s sovereign grace He bestows mercy on vessels prepared beforehand for glory apart from their works (22-23).

 Moving on from this vindication, Paul then addresses the present condition of Israel and its relationship with the righteousness of God. Israel pursued the law of righteousness, yet not by faith (9:30-32). This resulted in their present condition; being unrighteous in the eyes of God. 

Through ignorance of His righteousness and the pursuit of their own, Israel rebelled against God (10:3) and rejected Christ. But, “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes” (10:4). That is, God’s imputed righteousness alone ends our pursuit of merited justification. The basis of this imputation is one’s faith in the incarnation, [death] and resurrection of Jesus Christ (10:6-13).

The righteousness of God plays an integral part of our understanding and presentation of the gospel. This foundational teaching is a pillar of the Christian faith, since it undergirds the doctrine of justification by faith alone. Imputed righteousness by faith alone distinguishes protestant doctrine from that of all other faiths. Therefore, our theology of “the gospel” must flow out of this marvelous and liberating teaching. 

Topic 2: Justification and the Work of Christ

Though justification deals first and foremost with our judicial standing before God as Judge, Paul presents this glorious teaching as having effects which extend to the whole of the believer’s experience. In a logical sense, justification lays the groundwork for one to receive the remaining outworking of the ordo salutis. Reconciliation, adoption, sanctification, perseverance, and glorification are added to the believer’s position and experience because he is justified before God in receiving these gifts.

Justification not only lays foundation for the believer’s position in Christ, but its effects reach into actual experience. The way one lives as a believer is a result of being justified. “Therefore since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1). The death of Christ secured peace for His elect, and the believer’s justification by faith makes this peace available in experience.

Justification and righteousness are reckoned to our behalf because of our faith. Faith is the means by which they become true of us. This is why Paul sets faith over and against works (Romans 4:1-3, 6-8). The teaching of justification can be divided into two major parts; that which is declarative, and that which is actual.

Declarative justification and righteousness are concerned with God’s pronouncement of the believer’s legal position. Whereas, actual justification and righteousness occur through imputation (or reckoning) to the sinner’s account via union with Christ.

It is important to understand that the declarative is based on the actual. Declarative would follow actual (in logic; not chronology). This is important, because certain circles, confused on this point, deny imputed righteousness as being unbiblical and merely legal fiction.

Regardless of their views, “God’s judgments are based on truth” (Romans 2:2). God declares believers righteous and justified, because through the work of His Son and the application of the Spirit the believer has attained that position. This being so, the justified alone have grounds for approaching God. “We have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand” (Romans 5:2).

Topic 3: The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit is a leader. He leads the sons of God who follow after him (Romans 8:4). As the Spirit leads, He “controls the mind” of the regenerate (8:6). “Controls the mind” conveys the thought of “setting the mind on the Spirit’s desires (8:5). This connotes the leadership of the Holy Spirit joined with the voluntary submission of the believer. This is not a forceful dictating which overpowers the child of God. The Spirit does not think on behalf of the believer; He leads him in his thoughts, motives and actions.

The Holy Spirit leads God’s children after His desires, which are life, peace, and submission to God (8:5). Believers obtain these qualities through submission to the Spirit in His leading (8:6). God’s Spirit directs the child’s path from glory unto glory, transforming the believer by the renewing of his mind (12:2).

The Holy Spirit liberates believers from the law of sin and death (Romans 8:2). He is thus raised up out of the death of the old order and into the glorious liberty of the sons of God.

God’s Spirit lives in those who believe (Romans 8:9). In doing so, He gives life to their mortal bodies (8:11). Whatever is to be understood of this phrase must include resurrection life. “For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom He is pleased to give it” (John 5:21). The giving of resurrected life is tripartite amongst the Godhead.

The Spirit helps God’s children in their weaknesses (Romans 8:26). He testifies with believer’s spirits of their sonship (8:16). He intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will (8:26, 27). Greatest of all, He appropriates what Christ purchased, with His blood, through an efficacious call (28-30).

B.        Today’s Application of the Spirit’s Work

Because God is immutable, the work of the Holy Spirit, recorded in Romans 8, still applies to Christians today. His character and ways are eternally consistent. Whatever is true of God is eternally true of Him.

The Holy Spirit continues to apply today what was purchased through Christ’s death 2000 years ago. The effectual purchase of His blood continues to be appropriated through the Person and work of the Spirit today. The Father decreed, the Son purchased and the Spirit applies; yesterday, today, forever.

The Son gives life to whom He wills (John 5:21). No one can come to Christ unless the Father draws that one to Him (John 6:44). This drawing of the Father is done effectually through the Holy Spirit by a special kind of grace which continues today.

“He predestined [these] to be adopted as His sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His will and pleasure.” Therefore, the Spirit continues to appropriate what was purchased on their behalf, applying the benefits to those “who have been called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28). Those “God foreknew… [and] predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son” (8:29).

Topic 4: Israel’s Place in God’s Redemptive Purpose

 Chief Subjects Addressed in Romans 9-11

Before addressing the individual subjects in Romans 9-11 we should note how wonderfully this section is constructed. These three chapters are laid out in a systematic order; each conclusion logically proceeding from the before mentioned argument. Paul’s case begins with an Israel in stark unbelief, moves on to the means of their conversion, and concludes with their age ending final restoration.

We begin with Paul’s first subject: Israel’s unbelief. The main issue Paul deals with now is this baffling enigma of how Israel, God’s chosen nation, could reject their own Messiah.

Israel had received privileges and furnishings which no other nation enjoyed. To them belonged, “the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises” (Romans 9:4). Yet they rejected Christ. How could this be possible? Was God’s original plan thwarted? Indeed this is a mystery. This phenomenon is so staggering Paul must wrestle with its outworking until chapter 12:2.

Anticipating questions that would arise from his readers, Paul addresses God’s justice in relation to election. God has a sovereign right to elect; it is His prerogative and not man’s. He will have mercy on whom He wills. His election, “[operates] antecedently to the will or the activity of those who are its objects. If God does not reveal the principles on which He makes His choice, that is no reason why His justice should be called into question” (Bruce, 1985, 188).

Also, Paul takes up a rhetorical question; “If God foreordains man’s ways in accordance with His will, how can anyone be at fault for their actions? All people are therefore acting in accordance with His will and plan” [paraphrase of Romans 9:19].  

To this we see Paul’s sharp rebuke, “O man, who are you to reply against God?” (9:20). However, Bruce rightly discerns that there is a certain type of person Paul is confronting; not the confused believer but the rebellious at heart (Bruce, 1985, 190).

Paul then proceeds to deal the present condition of Israel. Israel, because they did not pursue God’s righteousness by faith, has stumbled and missed it. This is contrasted with the Gentiles, who not even pursuing God, attained His righteousness, because they obtained it by faith (Romans 9:30-33).

This, therefore, means that Israel needs the Gospel. Because righteousness is the result of a believing heart, and there is no distinction between Jew and Gentile, Israel, of necessity, must receive the Gospel of Christ (Romans 10:10-12). Israel will believe when they hear the gospel; they will hear the gospel when it is preached; it will be preached when God sends the effectual call accompanied by anointed proclamation through the lips of Gentile believers at the “appointed time” (Romans 11:23; Isaiah 55:10-11; Psalm 102:13-17).

Israel was cast out but not away. Paul now reveals how Israel’s casting out was not of a permanent nature, but temporary. There was purpose, according to God’s wisdom and providence, behind this casting out. Through the temporary “broken branches” the Gentiles are now grafted in, making “one new man” of the two. Of this Paul says:

For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation…so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross (Paul, Ephesians 2:14-16). 

Finally, Paul describes Israel’s ultimate restoration as a revealed mystery (11:25-26). Israel’s blindness comes from a lack of faith (Romans 9:31). Their restoration occurs, “[When] the fullness of the Gentiles has come in… all Israel will be saved” (11:25-26).

Romans 10:19 introduced a theme that only the diligent would have notice; the agent of Israel’s eschatological salvation. That agent is depicted as a Gentile Church, which provokes the Jews unto jealousy.

This theme is interwoven throughout the entirety of this final subsection. It emerges three times; first, in the words of Moses: 10:19, second, exemplified in Paul’s own ministry: 11:13-14, and finally, in Paul’s “therefore” paramount exhortation to the Gentile Church: 12:1-2.

 

 

B.        Relevance for the Modern Gentile Church

The church provoking Israel unto jealousy is a point too often misunderstood. If truly grasped, it would ignite eschatology and transform the church’s paradigm of modern day Christianity.

As we have seen, it is the church, scattered throughout the nations in the last days, which will be the instrument God uses to provoke a rejected, persecuted, and hated Israel to jealousy for Jesus Christ. They will be jealous when they witness the faith, perseverance and trust that could only belong to God’s own people.

Paul saw this provoking as the means of fulfilling the Everlasting Covenant and bringing the culmination of this age. The church is not absent during this time, but is present on the earth; actively engaged in the provoking of Jacob. Prophesying, as it were, to these dry bones, that they might hear the word of the Lord and live.

Of this specific time period Jeremiah says, Then, in “the time of Jacob’s trouble…he shall be saved out of it” (Jer. 30:7). For they shall, “find grace in the wilderness” (31:2). And “at that time”, He says, “declare [the word of the Lord] in the isles afar off, and say, ‘He who scattered Israel will gather him…for the Lord has redeemed Jacob’” (31:1, 10-11).

Jeremiah saw a gentile people preaching the word of the Lord to a scattered Israel during Jacob’s trouble, resulting in their final restoration. This is the same line of thought which Paul continues on.

This bears on us now, as the ‘signs of the times’ are progressively being displayed throughout the earth. The global scene now includes the young nation state Israel, a Jerusalem which is under Jewish control and a significant Jewish presence who are the object of intensifying hatred amongst the nations. Soon enough the church will be charged with her responsibility of apocalyptic evangelism to Israel, loving not our lives, even unto death for the sake of “His brethren” (Matthew 25).

Topic 5: Weak and Strong Believers

In Romans 14-15 Paul gives instructions concerning the edification and acceptance of believers who are both weak and strong in faith. Weak believers were portrayed as having over-sensitive consciences, being uncertain about their obligations to laws and rituals. They were contrasted to the strong believers who enjoy freedom in Christ without feeling restrictions from the Mosaic Law.

“The issue here is about ‘disputable matters’” (Lasley, 2002, 335). The issues at hand were not heretical, but were debatable. Paul gives instructions to all believers. He instructs both the weak and the strong to live for the edification of another, moving in love. “Each should act in a way that builds up his neighbor” (Romans 15:2). “Accept one another” and, “Make up your mind not to put a stumbling block in your brother’s way” (15:7, 15).

Concerning the conscience, to each man Paul says, “Be fully convinced in your own mind” of your ways before God, and, “Do not allow what you consider good to be spoken of as evil” (14:5, 16). Overall Paul sought to preserve unity and prevent division. Paul’s main concern is that there would be mutual acceptance of each other in spite of dissentions over disputable matters.

To the weak, Paul specifically instructed, “Not to condemn the men of stronger faith” and, “not to pass judgment on his brother who enjoys freedom” (Romans 14:3, 13).

The strong were to “accept the weak without passing judgment on disputable matters” and “bear with the failings of the weak; not pleasing [themselves]” (Romans 14:1, 15:1). They shouldn’t look down upon the weak or by their eating destroy their brother for whom Christ died (14:3, 15).

Paul’s teaching applies to modern church life as well. Though the majority of people don’t struggle with obedience to the Mosaic Law, many do struggle with an over-sensitive conscience and can confuse it with the grounds of their justification. Paul’s principles and doctrine remind us that we are justified by the blood of Christ alone. This determines our relationship with God; not trivial things like types of food and drink, tattoos, or eating shellfish (see Leviticus 19).

 

Reference List

Bruce, F. F., 1985, Romans: An Introduction and Commentary, Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company

Holy Bible, 1960, Holy Bible: New American Standard Bible, The Zondervan Corporation

Holy Bible, 1973, Holy Bible: New International Version, International Bible Society

Holy Bible, 1994, Holy Bible: New King James Version, Thomas Nelson Publishers

Lasley, William F., 2002, Paul’s Salvation Letters: Galatians and Romans, an Independent-Study Textbook, Global University