The Atonement Part 6: Romans

What is Romans about? Romans is a pastoral letter that does contain theology but the purpose is not to lay out systematic theology. The theology in the letter is to service Paul's purpose in the Roman church dealing with issues between the weak and the strong.

The Gospel Romans 1:2-4 is Paul’s Gospel. Some think the gospel of which Paul is “not ashamed of” comes after Romans 1:16-17 (beginning with wrath on humanity) but it is actually what he begins his letter with, and he explicitly states it. This is shown in Paul’s quotation of Habakkuk 2:4 which states that “the righteous will live by faith (or faithfulness)”. In the Hebrew Bible’s context of Habakkuk, God’s own faithfulness to His covenant is in question by the events happening in that time. What is called for in the situation is faith and that will be the true marking of God’s covenant people in times of trials and persecution. Yet in the LXX the verse refers to God’s own faithfulness as the means of life for his covenant people. Paul’s thesis is that the righteousness of God is His own faithfulness to the covenant and that is revealed in Christ’s faithful life, death, resurrection, and exaltation. Covenant membership is available to those who are faithful, and this is made available through/by Christ’s faithfulness.

The Wrath Romans 1:18-32 talks about the wrath of God that is revealed against all unrighteousness. Coming back to our conversation of sin in the intro episode, Paul agrees here. He connects sin to idolatry, and we see that the sins (immoral behavior) are symptoms of the disease.

Justified by what? Justified by faith Alone. was one of the mantras of the Protestant Reformation and it has led to some issues… First, “alone” is not in the text. The only place where it mentions “faith alone” is in James 2 where it says we are not justified by faith alone but also by our works. If by “faith alone” you mean we are justified by grace (Rom. 3:24), by Jesus’ blood (Rom. 5:8), by Jesus’ resurrection (Rom. 4:25), by faith apart from works of the law (Rom. 3:28), and by works and not by faith alone (James 2:24), then great, you agree with the Bible. Romans 3:23-26, Romans 4:24-25

Peace with God- Romans 5:1 Ecomen here is translated “we have” in the indicative mood. But our earliest manuscripts have this word as echōmen, meaning “let us have” as a subjunctive. The subjunctive reading is preferred based on manuscript evidence for the earliest dating and based on context. The following verses go into perseverance in suffering and exhortations to be like Christ (moral influence). This is based on Jesus’ vindication from his sufferings and not based on debt repayment. Romans 5:6-19 Romans 6:3-14

Romans 8:1-4 Jesus bore our sin in that he bore our wrath and violence against Him. As Brian Zahnd says, “At the cross we violently sinned our sins into Jesus, and Jesus absorbed them, died because of them, carried them into death, and rose on the third day to speak the first words of the new world: “Peace be with you.”