Romans and Paul's Confrontation With Disunity (Part 1)

In the last blog, it was claimed that Romans is NOT a theological treatise and that Paul's purpose for writing is very practical: He is setting out to confront disunity within the church at Rome. However, there is no doubt that Paul clearly lays out the theological message of the gospel in the first half of his letter to the Romans. So how does Paul use the gospel message (in a practical, non-academic way) to confront the disunity within the church at Rome? Let's find out...

POINT #1: THE GOSPEL MESSAGE DOES NOT ALLOW FOR BOASTING [Romans 1-11]
Romans 1:18-3:20
From the get-go, Paul makes it clear that he is going to lay out the gospel message when he says, "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." And then in Romans 1:18-3:20, Paul makes the case that ALL of mankind (both Jew and Gentile) has SINNED against God and will be judged accordingly (see especially 2:9-11).

Now, many Jews assumed that they had acquired God's favor simply because they were circumcised according to the LAW, but Paul dispels this Jewish myth by making it clear that ALL Jews are GUILTY because they have broken the LAW (2:17-29). They are not as LAW-abiding as they think. In a similar vein, non-Jewish people might argue that they are not GUILTY of sin because they were not given the LAW and therefore are ignorant of God's requirements. But Paul reveals to them that God still has grounds to find them GUILTY of sin: a person's God-given conscience (2:12-16). And therefore, ALL non-Jews are GUILTY of breaking the LAW. What is Paul's point?

ALL humanity has SINNED against God and is in need of forgiveness. And so the gospel message doesn't allow for BOASTING!

Romans 3:21-5:21
After establishing the fact that ALL of mankind is guilty of rebellion against God, Paul makes the case that ALL of mankind can receive RIGHTEOUSNESS through faith in Jesus alone. What is RIGHTEOUSNESS? It is a legal term that means to declare someone NOT guilty of an offense or sin. And so people are found to be RIGHTEOUS when the courts rule in their favor and exonerate them.

But according to Romans 3:27-31, God doesn't declare us RIGHTEOUS based on our good religious works (especially works of the law like circumcision). God's RIGHTEOUSNESS is a gift (3:21-25) that we receive by demonstrating Abraham-like faith toward God (4:1-3)! But Abraham was very much law-abiding. So how do we know that he was saved by faith and not by his law-abiding works? Well, Paul points out that he was declared RIGHTEOUS through his faith before he was circumcised (4:9-25). And so circumcision [and by extension being a law-abiding Jew] does not make someone RIGHTEOUS in God's eyes. What is Paul's point?

RIGHTEOUSNESS is a FREE gift from God that declares a person forgiven (5:15). And so the gospel message doesn't allow for BOASTING!

Romans 6:1-8:39
But righteousness (a.k.a. justification) is only half of the gospel message! The other half of the gospel message is that "the law of the SPIRIT of life has set us free in Christ Jesus" (8:2). Sure we receive forgiveness from our sin through God's righteousness but the gospel also promises to produce life transformation (a.k.a. sanctification) in us through God's grace of the HOLY SPIRIT (that is, God's presence in our lives). According to Paul, we can consider ourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus (6:11) because we are no longer "under the law" but rather "under grace" (6:14).

But what does it mean to be "under grace"? Romans 7:6 gives us some insight when it says, "But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the SPIRIT and not in the old way of the written code." Being "under grace" means living under the power and influence of the SPIRIT (not under the old way of the written code)! Paul proves to us in Romans 7 that life under the LAW is self-defeating. But now God offers us a new way to live, under the grace of His SPIRIT (Romans 8)! And so the SPIRIT is a manifestation of God's grace just as much as Jesus' death on the cross. One brings forgiveness and the other brings life transformation. And both are undeserved gifts (that is, graces) from God. So what is Paul's point?

The SPIRIT is a FREE gift from God that produces life transformation. And so the gospel message doesn't allow for BOASTING!

Romans 9:1-11:36
Paul then concludes [the indicative section] by reinforcing the fact that BOTH Jews and Gentiles have equal access to God's Old Testament promises (which all culminated in the person of Jesus; 10:4). In Romans 11:13-24, Paul makes his point by using the illustration of an olive tree:

A wild olive shoot (that is, the Gentile people) has been grafted into the olive tree (the Jewish people) and now is able to share in its nourishing root (the promises made to the Old Testament patriarchs) of the olive tree. At the same time, some of the branches (Jewish people) have been broken off of the olive tree because of their unbelief (11:19-22) but can be grafted back in if they do not continue in their rebellion (11:23). And so both Jew and Gentile have access to the 'root' BUT access is only available through belief in Jesus.

So what does this illustration tell us? The Jewish people have not been completely replaced by the church (as many Covenantal theologians teach) but neither are Gentiles seen as completely distinct from the Jewish people (as Classic Dispensationalists in the spirit of Charles Ryrie teach). NO. Both Jews and Gentiles have been UNIFIED under God's Old Testament promises (which culminated in the person of Jesus). So what is Paul's point?

God's promises and salvation are available to BOTH Jews and non-Jews. And so the gospel message doesn't allow for BOASTING!

So how does Paul apply the theological message of the gospel to the situation in the church at Rome? We'll find out in the next blog...