9. Concentrated Romans (9:1-11:36)

See the bottom for the whole series.

II.3 What about Israel?
Romans 9-11
A. Paul's love for his people (9:1-5)

• This is the third and final section of the first half of Romans. The first section addressed the question of "Who will be justified before God and how?" (1:18-5:11). The second addressed the follow-up question of "What about sin and the law, then?" (5:12-8:39). Now we get the big picture question, "What about Israel?"
• When Protestant interpreters read Romans 1-8 in universal, individual terms, Romans 9-11 seemed out of place. But in truth, the question of the inclusion of the Gentiles into the people of God has been the underlying question of Romans from the very beginning. Paul declares in the first section that not only Gentiles but Jews themselves come into right status with God by faith. The question of sin and the Law is a question of the Jewish Law and its purpose if Jews and Gentiles are justified by faith.
• So now we arrive at the elephant in the room. Has God just abandoned his special relationship with Israel then? If Jesus is the Jewish Messiah, why is it that more Gentiles than Jews have believed? What's going on?!
• 9:1-5. Paul makes it clear in these verses that he cares about his own people. No doubt some had accused him of hating his own people. By contrast, he says he would willingly become accursed if it would save his own people. Their lack of faith in Christ is a matter of great sorrow and anguish for him.
• He speaks of the great honors that are Israel's. God first chose them to be his "son" among the nations of the world. Now the rest of the world is becoming his sons and daughters. They were given great honor in the Old Testament (cf. Rom. 3:1-2).
• Israel was given the Law, which shows us God's righteous expectation, especially to love our neighbor. Theirs were the covenants--with Abraham, with Moses. Theirs were the fathers.
• Theirs was the temple. Paul gives not a hint that the temple is obsolete in its functions, nor does he foresee the temple's destruction in any of his writings.
• To Israel belonged the Messiah, Jesus. There is a grammatical question in 9:5. The original manuscripts did not have punctuation. In fact they were written in continuous letters without many spaces. Does Paul mean to say, "the Christ according to the flesh, who is God over all, blessed forever" or "the Christ according to the flesh. God who is over all be blessed forever"?
• The theology of the first is of course what we believe as Christians, but it is not a statement Paul makes anywhere in his writings other than Titus 2:13. It does not deny the theology of the first to conclude that it would be more typical of Paul to say the second.

B. God can do what he wants (9:6-29)

• These verses are the central passage on predestination in the Bible. Several things should be kept in mind as we read them. First, Paul still has the Jew-Gentile question in view. That is to say, he is not really talking about individual predestination but God's plan with regard to Israel and the Gentiles. Paul's fundamental point is that if God wants to harden Israel for a season to save the Gentiles, he can do whatever he wants for he is God.
• A second thing to remember is that the hardened of Romans 9 can still be saved in Romans 11. Paul does not see predestination as something that is unalterable.
• Paul does not harmonize his language of predestination with his language of free choice. This fits with some cultural dimensions from his day. In the Oedipus cycle, Oedipus has a fate that works its way out, but he acts freely throughout the story. Paul does not explain how these two conflicting notions fit together. That is why we have Calvinists, Arminians, Molinists, and others today.
• Central to Paul is that God is not to blame. God's word to Israel has not failed. Why? Because this is part of God's sovereign plan. This is also the key biblical passage for God's sovereignty, his absolute authority over his creation.
• 9:6. "Not all Israel is Israel." Here is an important theological point for all time. Those who visibly seem to be part of the people of God are never exactly the people of God. Even in ancient Israel, not all Israel was Israel. In the church, not everyone in the church is truly in the church. But see 11:26
• The passage certainly sounds like double predestination, but we have to keep in mind the rest of the New Testament as well, which does not sound that way. Among all of the New Testament, this is the unusual passage. Paul makes his point well enough. God can do whatever God wants to do because he is God.
• "The clay would not say to the potter, would it, 'Why have you made me thus?'" (9:20). Again, Paul makes the point clearly enough. God can do whatever God wants to do because he is God. We know of course from elsewhere (e.g., 1 Tim. 2:4) that God wants everyone to be saved. That is what he ultimately wants to do.
• 9:23-29. God's will is to save the Gentiles. That is what this passage is really about. Paul uses a string of verses from the Old Testament to substantiate his point.

C. Justification by Faith (9:30-10:21)

• 9:30-33. We revisit some of the material from the first part of Romans but now with the underlying issue fully in view. The Jews have not been seeking justification in the right way, but many Gentiles now have.
• Gentiles have attained righteousness, justification, by faith. But Israel, pursuing justification by the Jewish Law, "works of Law," have not. They have tripped over Jesus, God's fore-ordained path to justification.
• Again, Paul reiterates that his hope for Israel is salvation. They have a zeal (like he once did), but it is a zeal without knowledge. They do not recognize their own Messiah.
• Christ is the goal, the telos, the "end" of the Law. Christ is the one to whom the Law pointed (cf. Gal. 4:1-2).
• 10:5-13. Justification, a right standing with God, is not a matter of great effort, of "works of Law." You do not need to climb to heaven or descend to the underworld to get it. The word of faith which puts you in right standing with God is in your mouth.
• "If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved" (10:9). That is, you will escape the wrath of God on the day of judgment. "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved" (10:13), whether you are a Jew or a Gentile.
• The Lordship of Jesus, here as elsewhere, is intrinsically connected to Jesus' resurrection. It is when Jesus sits at God's right hand that he is "enthroned" as Messiah, Lord, and Son of God.
• As simple as it is to do so, it is not simply putting down true on a quiz. It is a life commitment. It will lead to a life of works, and we will each give an account for the deeds done in the body (2 Cor. 5:10). We are committing our allegiance to Jesus as our king.
• 10:14-21. Paul now moves toward one of his purposes for writing Romans. He is hoping that the churches of Rome will support him on a mission to Spain. If the Gentiles can be saved, then missionaries are needed to go tell them. Paul is just such a missionary. How can they call on Christ if they have not had faith yet? How will they have faith if they do not hear? How will they hear unless someone goes?
• Paul is not dealing with a separate question. How does God deal with those who have never heard. We looked at this question briefly in relation to Romans 1:19-20.
• Israel, however, has not believed even though they have heard. Paul gives several Scriptures to support this claim.

D. Israel will be saved (11:1-32)

• 11:1-32. There is still hope for Israel. A key indication that predestination language in Romans 9 does not function in the way Augustine, Wycliffe, and Calvin thought it did is the fact that those whom God has hardened in Romans 9 can still be saved in Romans 11.
• 11:1-10. God has not rejected his people. Indeed, 11:29 will tell us soon that God's calling on Israel is irrevocable.
• 11:2-5. There is a remnant who believes, the true Israel within the ethnic people of Israel, as in the days of Elijah.
• 11:6-10. In the mystery of God's will, Israel is currently experiencing a "stupor" in relation to its own messiah.
• 11:11-24. But they have not stumbled beyond recovery. In this section Paul develops the branch metaphor. God has broken off many natural branches to the tree so that he can graft in the wild Gentile branches. Clearly, then, Paul still considers ethnic Israel in the Old Testament the trunk of the tree.
• But this is not a fixed situation. The natural branches (ethnic Israel) can be grafted back in. God would be delighted to do so. Similarly, if the grafted branches (Gentile believers) turn away, they can be cut back out again. 
• God is using the in-grafting of the Gentiles into the people of God to provoke the natural Israelite branches to jealousy.
• 11:25-32. Here are highly debated verses, but the train of thought is clear. Part of Israel is currently experiencing a hardening until the full number of the Gentiles come in. Then all Israel will be saved. Paul looks to the eventual faith of ethnic Israel. The Messiah will turn godlessness away from Jacob. That is, he will bring faith to unbelieving Israel.
• This of course did not happen in Paul's lifetime and has not happened since. In their enthusiasm for the re-establishment of the state of Israel in 1948 and their horror for the Holocaust, many Christians have forgotten that nothing has changed with unbelieving Israel from Paul's point of view. In fact, there are far more Palestinian believers in Palestine than there are Israeli believers today. 
• 11:32. All are in a state of disobedience, both Jew and Gentile, but God's plan is to have mercy on both.

E. Doxology (11:33-36)

• Paul ends the first half of Romans with a doxology of praise to God. Who can understand the plans of God? We cannot think his thoughts after him. He is sovereign and in control. He is the source of all things ("from whom"), the means of all things ("through whom"), and the purpose of all things ("for whom").
• Praise be to God!

_______________________
I. Introduction
1. Romans 1:1-15

II.1 Who is Justified?
II.1.1 Humanity's Problem
2. Romans 1:16-17
3. Romans 1:18-32
4. Romans 2:1-3:20

II.1.2 God's Solution
5. Romans 3:21-31
6. Romans 4:1-5:11

II.2 What about Sin?
7. Romans 5:12-6:23
8. Romans 7:1-8:39

11. Concentrated Romans (14:1-15:13)

See the bottom for the whole series.

Romans 14:1-15:13

• This section finishes showing the Romans what a transformed mind looks like. It also finishes the main body of Romans. In particular, these two chapters deal with Christian disagreements.
• Paul postures the discussion between the "strong" and the "weak." We should not, however, miss the rhetorical strategy here. In 1 Corinthians 8-10, Paul's intention is to move the Corinthians more toward the behaviors of the "weak." Positioning himself with the strong makes them more sympathetic to the course of action he suggests.
• 14:2-6. Paul mentions some issues that Christians disagreed about. Some apparently only ate vegetables in their avoidance of meat that had been sacrificed to an idol. Jews and presumably some conservative Gentiles kept the Jewish Sabbath on Saturday. Those who have such convictions often believe everyone should have their convictions.
• Paul tells the "strong," those who do not have those convictions, not to look down on those who have them. Other Christians are God's servants, not ours. They report to him.
• 14:7-12. Here is one of the key principles of this unit. We all stand or fall before God. I do not stand or fall before you or even my church. I stand or fall before God. I live for the Lord. I die for the Lord. 
• Each of us will give an account to God. We will all stand before the judgment seat of God (cf. 2 Cor. 5:10). As 14:5 says, "Let each person be fully convinced in his/her own mind."
• 14:13-18. What is the logical consequence of of this principle ("therefore")? It is that believers should stop judging each other for their personal convictions. In the flow, his focus is not on the weak judging the strong--those with convictions judging those without them. He is especially telling those without convictions not to judge those who have them!
• "I have been persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself, but if someone thinks something is unclean it is unclean" (14:14). Paul probably does not entirely mean this. It is doubtful that he would say that murder is a matter of personal conscience or the man sleeping with his father's wife in 1 Corinthians 5. This is a discussion that relates to those "in the Lord" and Paul might not consider those who would do such things to be in the Lord.
• However, Paul does take a relativist position on the disputable issues in question. He is not a "realist" when it comes to such moral issues. When it comes to the Jewish Sabbath or meat offered to idols, it is a matter of personal conviction. There is no universal or absolutist position on these. 
• So if you think the meat is unclean, it is unclean to you. If you think God requires you to observe the Jewish Sabbath, then you must observe it.
• Paul's view, as in 1 Corinthians 8-10, is toward those who might stumble because of someone else's freedom. It is interesting that Paul writes this chapter from Corinth to Rome and a copy of the letter would have perhaps been made to stay with him. Is it not likely that the Corinthians would have heard Romans read to them?
• Our rights and freedoms are not the final issue. More important than whether my conscience is clear is the effect my actions have on others. I may feel free to do all sorts of things. But if my freedom causes another Christian to stumble, I have failed.
• This is the second principle of the chapter. The first was, "Be fully convinced in your own mind" (14:5). The second is, "Do not put an obstacle or stumbling block before a brother or sister" (14:13).
• 14:19-23. We reach the conclusion. There should be peace between believers. We should build each other up. "It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that will cause your brother or sister to stumble" (14:21).
• A third principle is in 14:22--you can be wrongly convinced.
• So these are the three take aways: 1) be fully convinced of your own convictions, 2) make choices on how to act on your convictions with others in mind, and 3) remember you can be wrongly convinced.
• 14:23 gives us perhaps the most revealing description of sin in the New Testament: "Whatever is not of faith is sin. In other words, sin is overwhelmingly a matter of intention. If you knowingly do something that conflicts with your allegiance to Christ, you have sinned. It is not the act that is really the sin. It is not the food, because all food is clean (14:20). Sin lies is in the intention in relation to your faith.
• 15:1-2. So the "strong" should not bully the "weak." They should want to build them up.
• 15:3-6. Jesus didn't use his strength to overpower his persecutors.
• Interesting statement on a purpose of Scripture in 15:4. Scripture gives us examples of endurance and encouragement that gives us hope. This seems to be the primary purpose of its teaching for Paul.
• The church should live with that endurance and encouragement in mind. It glorifies God for us to embody this focus of the teaching of Scripture.
• 15:7-13. Therefore, believers should consider each other legitimate, even when they disagree on various convictions. Jesus came as a Jew to fulfill God's promises to the fathers, but also that the good news might reach the Gentiles. There's perhaps some hint here that the Jew/Gentile divide relates in a broad way to the divide over convictions.
• These verses end with an almost hymnic chain of verses from the Old Testament in which Paul saw an indication that the Gentiles would eventually come to faith (Ps. 18:49; Deut. 32:43; Ps. 117:1; Isa. 11:10). 
• 15:13 is a doxology that concluded the letter body of Romans. 

____________________________________
I. Introduction
1. Romans 1:1-15

II.1 Who is Justified?
II.1.1 Humanity's Problem
2. Romans 1:16-17
3. Romans 1:18-32
4. Romans 2:1-3:20

II.1.2 God's Solution
5. Romans 3:21-31
6. Romans 4:1-5:11

II.2 What about Sin?
7. Romans 5:12-6:23
8. Romans 7:1-8:39

II.3 What about Israel?
9. Romans 9-11

III. Transformed Minds
10. Romans 12-13

7. Concentrated Romans (5:12-6:23)

Previous posts at bottom

II.2 What about Sin?
Romans 5:12-6:23
A. Structure

• So the first half of Romans is the teaching, doctrinal, or expositional part of Romans (1:16-11:36). Within that first half we have three sections, which address three questions a Jew or conservative Gentile believer might have in relation to Paul's understanding of the gospel. The first is, "Who is justified?" (1:18-5:11).
• 5:12 arguably begins Paul's answer to the question, "What then about sin?" He has indicated that both Jew and Gentile are deemed right with God on the basis of faith because of the offering of Christ. This leads to the objection, what then does sin matter? Why did God even come up with the Jewish Law if it plays no role in having a right standing before God?
• This is the tightrope Paul also walks in Galatians. We are not deemed right with God by the Law but that is no excuse to sin. So you might say that the first sub-section of this half of Romans is on justification (1:18-5:11) and the second sub-section is on sanctification (5:12-8:39). 
• If we walk in the Spirit, we will not fulfill the desires of the flesh, even though we are not under the Law.

B. Origins of Sin (5:12-21)

• 5:12 is the sole basis it would seem for the idea of original guilt or original sin. Of course we can refer to the sin of Adam as the original sin. And sometimes people confuse our "sinful nature" with original sin. Rather our propensity to sin is a result of Adam's original sin. We are under the power of Sin because of Adam's original sin.
• But the idea that we have guilt because of Adam's sin, sometimes thought to be taken away in baptism, seems solely based on Augustine's misinterpretation of Romans 5:12. Augustine took this verse to say, "Death passed on to all people in whom all sinned." Because he could not read Greek, Augustine misread this verse to say that we all sinned "in Adam" and therefore we all bare original guilt from that sin.
• It is now generally recognized that Paul is saying death passed on to everyone "in that" all have sinned or "because" all sin. We all sin like Adam and therefore we have individual guilt for our own sins, not for Adam's.
• The question of how death passed is a broader theological question. In the Garden, death results because Adam and Eve are not able to eat from the Tree of Life. That suggests that, from the standpoint of Genesis, Adam and Even would have died by nature but life would have come through the tree.
• Paul never finishes the sentence begun in 5:12. He interrupts his train of thought in 5:13 to explain the origins of the power of Sin.
• 5:13-14. After Adam, people die. From Adam to Moses, people die. Paul somewhat ambiguously says that people died even though the Law was not around to charge them for it. We at least see one function of the Law hinted at here--the Law tells us we have sinned. The power of Sin was in the world. They sinned like Adam. They died.
• 5:15-19. Now Paul has a series of contrasts of Adam with Christ (cf. 1 Cor. 15). Many died because of Adam's sin. Grace abounds through Christ.
• Grace is "unmerited favor." It is the givingness of God even though we cannot pay for what he gives. Grace is undeserved and unmerited giving. The ancients would have expected that we give back to God in return, even though nothing we could give would be sufficient. We give God honor. We give God our faith and allegiance. We walk in the Spirit rather than the flesh.
• Judgment and condemnation follow the one man's sin. Righteousness, acquittal, and life follow the other. 
• In 5:19 we have a statement (cf. Luke Timothy Johnson) that effectively states the "faithfulness of Jesus Christ" interpretation of 3:22. "through the obedience of one man, many will be confirmed righteous."
• 5:20. The Law increased the trespass. Two possible senses. One that the Law informed us so that we saw how many trespasses we have. Another possibility will suggest itself in the following chapters. The second is that in some way, the power of Sin makes me sin even more when I know what is wrong.

C. No Excuse to Sin (6:1-23)

• So we get to one of the chief accusations against Paul--that he promotes sin. "What shall we say? Should we continue in sin that grace may abound?" This is the accusation Paul's enemies have made of him (cf. 3:8). His answer, "of course not."
• 6:1-14. Paul continues the diatribe, question-answer style.
• It is important to recognize that Paul's purpose in this unit 6:1-8:17 is to argue that God's grace is no excuse to sin. Many Christians get off track because they read 7:7-26 out of context. They ignore the whole train of thought in this section. 
• Paul's answer is an emphatic NO. We have died to sin. We should not sin.
• We were buried with Christ in baptism. We need to rise to a new way of life, to new living. Ironically, although we are no longer under the Law, we should now be able to keep it through the power of the Spirit.
• There may be an allusion to how the early church baptized. "We were buried." This phrasing may suggest immersion. Of course the New Testament makes no command about how to baptize.
• The train of thought is not about legal justification now. It is about empowerment to righteous living. It is no longer about "imputed righteousness" but now about "imparted righteousness."
• We have joined with Christ We have some sort of mystic participation in Christ. "I have been crucified with Christ," Galatians 2:20 says. We became united in the likeness of his death, now we live a different life as we participate in his resurrection.
• Our "body of sin" has been destroyed, that is, our flesh, our skin under the power of Sin. We should remember this verse when we get to 7:24 and Paul dramatically pleads, "Who will free me from the body of this death?" For the Christian, this has already happened or at least should have happened.
• 6:12. Therefore, Sin--the power of Sin--must not reign in our mortal bodies. It is not that our bodies are intrinsically sinful (as the Gnostics believed). It is that our skin is weak. In our natural state, we have no power against the power of Sin. But as believers with the Spirit, we must not let Sin reign over our bodies. Paul does not support a "sinning religion."
• We not to give the instruments of our bodies to the power of Sin. We should yield our bodies as instruments of righteousness.
• 6:15-23. Here is the second question of the chapter. It is similar to the first. Should we sin because we are not under Law but under grace? Again, an emphatic NO.
• Either one is a slave to Sin or a slave to righteousness. The first results in death. The second results in righteousness. The first leads to impurity and wickedness. The second leads to holiness and eternal life.
• Holiness, whose core idea is to belong to God, here has the sense of purity of living.
• It is essential to recognize that Paul does not teach that Christians are slaves to Sin. His point is exactly the opposite. Believers are slaves to righteousness, not slaves to Sin. They "used to be" slaves to Sin (6:19). They "were" (6:20) but are no longer. So Paul is dramatizing a person who has not yet reached that point in 7:14.
• 6:23. A verse on the Roman Road. The first verse on this explanation of how to become a Christian was 3:23, "all have sinned." 6:23 tells the implication of that fact: "The wages of sin is death." It also gives hope: "The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."

_________________________
I. Introduction
1. Romans 1:1-15

II.1 Who is Justified?
II.1.1 Humanity's Problem
2. Romans 1:16-17
3. Romans 1:18-32
4. Romans 2:1-3:20

II.1.2 God's Solution
5. Romans 3:21-31
6. Romans 4:1-5:11

10. Concentrated Romans (12:1-13:14)

See bottom for the entire series.
__________
Romans 12:1-13:14
I. The General Statement (12:1-2)

• Romans 12 begins the second major section of Romans. If 1:16-11:36 was the expositional, theological, "teaching" section, 12:1-15:33 is the exhortation, "practical," "preaching" section. It is the application to the truths of the first part. The "therefore" indicates that the application that follows is the logical consequence of the arguments in the preceding chapters.
• Additionally, 12:1-2 are a general statement that plays itself out in the specifics of the rest of 12:1-15:22.
• 12:1. Paul urges the audience to "present your bodies as a living sacrifice." This evokes the language of Romans 6 where Paul said that they should present their bodies as instruments of righteousness leading to holiness (6:19). The four chapters that follow tell us what that looks like.
• For Wesleyans, 12:1-2 are a classic preaching text on entire sanctification. The living sacrifice is "holy" belongs it belongs to God and is thus sanctified when God accepts the sacrifice. The body is presented in 12:1, the mind in 12:2.
• Our living bodies on the altar is a pleasing sacrifice to God. It is "appropriate worship" (logike latreia).
• 12.2 Accordingly, our minds are not conformed to worldly ways of thinking but are transformed and renewed. Now we understand the will of God and live it. His will is "good and pleasing and perfect."
• We should not think of the mind here in academic terms. This is not about ideas. This is about life-wisdom. What is a transformed mind? It is a mind that thinks in the terms of Romans 12-15. It is, more than anything else, a love-mindedness. 
• Romans 13:8-10 generalizes this whole section as well. Love toward one's neighbor is the heart of what it means to have a transformed mind. We see this played out throughout this section.

B. Transformed Relationships (12:3-13:14)
1. ... with one another (12:3-21)

• 12:3-8 gives us the first set of attitudes in transformed thinking. This is one of the three key passages on spiritual gifts/spiritual roles in the church (along with 1 Cor. 12 and Eph. 4).
• We should not think more highly of ourselves than others. This statement reminds us of Philippians 2:1-4.
• 12:4-5. We think especially of 1 Corinthians 12 in this verse. A local church--or perhaps a collection of house churches in the case of Rome--is one body with several members.
• 12:6-8. Paul mentions several types of functions in the church: prophecy, serving (diakonia), teaching, exhorting, giving, leading, and showing mercy. Notice that he does not mention tongues, which might suggest that it was an issue particular to the Corinthian church.
• It is not a complete list, nor are the other lists complete or the collection all three complete. Each serves a purpose for its particular audience. Paul may not mention apostles because there were no witnesses of Christ's resurrection at Rome at this time (however, see chapter 16 discussion).
• 12:9-21. This collection of individual exhortations is reminiscent of the Sermon on the Mount at some points. Is Paul showing an awareness of Jesus tradition here?
• Again, believers are to put others above themselves (12:10). They are to show hospitality, a key virtue in an ancient world where traveling was often dangerous (12:13). 
• Christians are not to be conceited or proud (12:16). We are to rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn with those who mourn (12:15), which avoids the evil eye of envy.
• Leave justice to God. He will repay the wicked, so we do not have to worry about it (12:19). By contrast, we are to bless those who persecute us (12:14). We are not to repay evil with evil (12:17). This will "heap coals of fire on their heads" (12:20). This quote from Proverbs 25:22 (cf. also Ps. 140:10) is hard to figure out. Some have suggested it evokes the flush face of embarrassment. Psalm 140 might suggest it is leaving room for God himself to bring fire down on them.

2. ... with authorities (13:1-7)

• 13:1-7. This is a classic set of verses that deal with the way we behave in relation to those in authority over us, in particular "political" authorities. The Romans would have obviously thought of the Roman empire and the emperor Nero in particular.
• There is a sense in which this is a posturing statement. Paul knows that the Romans are often not just in their judgments. Indeed the Romans were far less just than any given Western judicial system today. The Christian Jews of the late 40s had been expelled from Rome. These words surely function in part to let anyone who might read this letter or hear about Paul that Christians are respectable members of the empire.
• The Old Testament makes it clear that not every leader of a people is just or appointed by God without condition. There are times when God directs the removal of leaders. Certainly that was not an option for anyone to whom Paul might write and, in any case, the Lord would be returning soon, making such thoughts moot.
• The idea of authority does seem to be intrinsic to human society. In the kingdom, there will be a hierarchy between God and everyone else. At the moment, it would seem that human society functions best with at least some hierarchy of function, although not of individual value.
• Certainly these verses suggest that believers should be especially circumspect about their attitudes toward those in authority over them.
• 13:3-4 give some functions of authority, although nothing suggests that these are all such functions. Authorities punish wrongdoing. Yet it is also said that authorities exist "for our good." There is a massive amount of good that governments can do for their people that go beyond punishment. Therefore, it is simply bad interpretation to use these verses to argue against government administered health care or welfare. See Psalm 72.
• 13:4 implies that Paul accepts capital punishment as a valid punishment for wrongdoing. This does not mean that the church of today cannot contextualize the good news in different ways.
• 13:6-7. The attempt of some Christians to get out of paying taxes is wholly without biblical support. We also should not think that our taxes today are more of a burden than they were in the ancient world. The Western world is a world of excess revenue. Theirs was a world of subsistence living, like the two-thirds world today.

3. ... in general (13:8-10)

• As mentioned above, these verses give us the essence of a transformed and renewed mind. Paul sums up all Christian ethics under the principle of loving one's neighbor as oneself.
• We can thus look back to other statements in Romans and infer this paragraph. The Gentiles who demonstrate the Law written on their hearts (2:14-15) are Gentiles who, because of the Holy Spirit, love their neighbor as themselves. The Law that we affirm even though we are justified by faith (3:31)--it is the law of love. And the righteous requirement of the Law that is fulfilled in us who walk in the Spirit (8:4), it is because we love our neighbor.
• Paul omits the other part of the great commandment, loving God (Matt. 2:37-38). No doubt he assumes it. Surely he believes that loving your neighbor is a key part of loving God--loving our neighbor is loving God.
• From Matthew 5:43-48 we round out a biblical ethic by including our enemies as our neighbors. All of God's ethical expectation is found in this principles--love God and love neighbor, which includes one's enemies, and "as yourself" implies a healthy sense of yourself as someone created in God's image.
• This is a consistent theme of the New Testament. Here, Matthew 22, Mark 12, Galatians 5:14; James 2:8; 1 John 4:7-8.

4. bottom line (13:11-14)

• "Our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed" (13:11). Again, Paul's understanding of salvation is primarily future oriented. There will be a Day when God's wrath comes and salvation is escaping it.
• Paul continues to believe that the return of Jesus is imminent.
• The Romans need to be ready for that return. They need to be living appropriately when Jesus returns. He anticipates a theme in Colossians and Ephesians--clothe yourself with Christ. Do not allow the desires of the flesh to play a role.
• Augustine was especially convicted by 13:13 because of "sexual immorality." He was living with a mistress and the ethics of his Christian mother convicted him about it. 
• Other examples of "making provision for the flesh" include drunkenness and carousing, strife and jealousy.

____________________________________
I. Introduction
1. Romans 1:1-15

II.1 Who is Justified?
II.1.1 Humanity's Problem
2. Romans 1:16-17
3. Romans 1:18-32
4. Romans 2:1-3:20

II.1.2 God's Solution
5. Romans 3:21-31
6. Romans 4:1-5:11

II.2 What about Sin?
7. Romans 5:12-6:23
8. Romans 7:1-8:39

II.3 What about Israel?
9. Romans 9-11

3. Concentrated Romans (1:18-32)

Previously
1. Romans 1:1-15
2. Romans 1:16-17

Romans 1:18-32
A. Structure of Romans

• The book of Romans has two major halves. There is a logical cause-effect relationship between them signaled by the word "therefore" in 12:1. If the first half is true (1:16-11:36), then live the second half way (12:1-15:33).
• So to be overly simplistic, the first half is the theological half; the second is the practical half. The first half is teaching; the second half is preaching. The first half is doctrine; the second half is application. Probably more accurate to say, the first half is more exposition, the second more exhortation.
• In the first half, 1:16-17 are the key verses. They are a general statement that plays itself out in specifics in 1:18-11:36.
• Now with 1:18 we begin in earnest this first half of Romans (1:16-11:36).
• This first half of Romans consists of three sections. The first asks, "Who is justified?" (1:18-5:11). The second asks, "What about the Jewish Law?" (5:12-8:39). The third asks, "What about Israel?" (9:1-11:36).
• So 1:18-5:11 deals primarily with the subject of justification. Who is right with God? To be justified is to be declared in right standing with God. You are declared "not guilty." You are declared innocent in the divine court.
• This first section, "Who is justified?" also consists of three parts. The first establishes the universal problem that both Jew and Gentile have--both have sinned (1:18-3:20). The second reveals the universal solution--the offering of Christ and the possibility of justification by faith (3:21-4:25). The third is a swing section that at least in part concludes this first section (5:1-11).

B. Gentiles have sinned (1:18-32)

• The general lay out of the first section of Romans is: 1) Gentiles are going to fry (1:18-32), 2) Jews are going to fry too (2:1-29), and 3) all have sinned and are going to fry (3:1-20).
• It is easy to wonder if the first chapter of Romans is a kind of "sting" operation. He does not mention the Gentiles, but a self-righteous Jew (of course not all Jews were such) would probably enjoy Romans 1 just a little too much. While Paul is saying, "these foolish people did x, y, and z," a particular hypocritical Jew would be saying, "YES! Amen! Those Gentiles are going to fry! Preach it Paul!" But he is reeling such a person in so he can smack them with some bad news in chapter 2.
• So the sins that Paul selects in Romans 1 are stereotypical Gentile sins--idolatry and sexual immorality. The overlap in content and order between Paul's comments here and the book of Wisdom 13-14 is extensive enough that we probably have to conclude that Paul is drawing from that book. He doesn't mention it or call it scripture, of course. Wisdom is a book in the Apocrypha, in the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Old Testament but not the Protestant one.
• The flow of Romans 1 is: 1) Gentiles turned away from the true God and became idolaters, 2) therefore God abandoned them and they became sexually immoral, 3) this spiraling out of control ended in all sorts of wickedness.
• 1:18-23. Everyone should know what God is like. "The invisible aspects of God are clearly seen since the creation of the world--his power and divinity--so that they are without excuse" (1:20).
• This verse is one of the key bases for what is called, "natural revelation." It is the idea that "the heavens declare the glory of God" (Ps. 19:1). One should be able to apprehend some things by observing God's creation (Acts 17:26-27). Paul thus indicates that every person is without excuse--everyone should know that God exists.
• We thus get into some thorny theological questions. Can we come to God without the assistance of the Holy Spirit (Pelagianism)? What about those who have never heard or live in a place where Christ is the enemy--are they without excuse? Different traditions answer these questions differently, gluing passages together in different ways, supposing a different looking iceberg below the surface of the waters.
• Not all Wesleyans glue the same either. Given the nature of God as love, many Wesleyans want to believe that God "lightens everyone who comes into the world" (John 1:9). By God's "prevenient grace," he turns up the light for everyone at some point to see if they will want more grace. Christ is still the only basis for atonement and reconciliation, but God looks for heart movement, not head movement. Hearing the gospel and prayer increase exponentially the spiritual grace that moves toward God but, because of free will, cannot force a person to be saved. This scenario, while speculative, makes better sense of the love of God than, say, the Calvinist scenario, which supposes that we are all damned already and so God is not unjust to let the majority of the world go to hell without ever having any chance whatsoever.
• Idolatry is thus the reduction of God to something as ridiculous as an idol shaped like a reptile. Gentiles who thought themselves wise thus turned out to be fools to minimize God in this way. Of course there are many subtle ways to minimize God (e.g., American fundamentalism).
• 1:24-27. "God handed them over." There is a significant strand of Romans interpretation that highlights the connection between God's wrath and him letting humanity spiral out of control. That is to say, part of God's wrath is him simply letting us experience the consequences of our own turning from him. We see a hint of this idea in 1:27 where homosexual acts are said to contain within themselves their own punishment. It would be highly anachronistic to say this is AIDS or some sexually transmitted disease. Paul seems to be saying that the shame of the act itself is a punishment. However, it would seem that Paul's sense of God's wrath is bigger than merely experiencing the consequences of our rebellion.
• This passage is the central biblical text in relation to homosexual acts. There are at least six others. The Sodom and Gomorrah story in Genesis 19 proposed the rape of male angels by men (see also Judges 19). Jude 7 refers to this as a "going after different flesh." Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13 prohibit a male-male sex act as part of the holiness codes of Israel. 1 Corinthians 6:9 and 1 Timothy 1:10 include active and passive homosexual acts in a list of either sinful individuals or practices.
• Paul does not give any context for such acts. We do not know for certain, for example, if the malakoi of 1 Corinthians 6:9 are male prostitutes (passive side of the act). We do not know if he pictures an activity done at a pagan temple (which would fit the flow of thought from idolatry to sexual immorality). His audiences presumably knew exactly what he was talking about.
• All these passages focus on sexual acts. The idea of a fixed sexual orientation that is not heterosexual is a modern concept. The Bible only discusses people who engage in an activity and thus these passages do not condemn individuals who have a particular temptation that is not acted upon mentally or physically. This is the only biblical passage that mentions female homosexual acts.
• Paul's broader point is that the Gentiles stand under God's judgment because they have not recognized God for who he truly is, thus they have devolved into idolatry and sexual immorality. This is his sting operation. A hypocritical Jew or conservative Gentile believer who is taking pleasure in this recounting of the wickedness of the Gentile is about to have the tables turned on him or her.
• 1:28-32. This is the climax of the chapter. As the Gentiles spiral out of control for not glorifying God as God, Paul goes on to list more behaviors on which God's wrath falls: envy, murder, strife, gossip, slanderers, disobedience to parents, a lack of love and mercy. 
• So Gentiles have sinned and are going to fry.

1. Concentrated Romans (1:1-15)

Romans in bullet points.

Romans 1:1-15
A. The Prescript (1:1-7)

• 1:1. Romans 1:1-7 is the prescript of Romans, part of the traditional letter greeting of the ancient world. We know this especially from the Oxyrhynchus papyri, ordinary Greco-Roman documents discovered in a mount in the late 1800s in Egypt.
• The standard prescript told who the letter sender was (Paul) who the audience was (to those at Rome) and said "greeting" (chairein), which relates to one of Paul's standard words, "grace" (charis).
• Paul is the author of this letter. No one questions that this was literally Paul.
• Paul is an apostle, someone to whom the risen Jesus had appeared (cf. 1 Cor. 9:1) and set apart to be a witness to his resurrection. This is at the heart of the good news, the gospel, Jesus is risen from the dead and is Lord and king.
• 1:2. This is all part of God's plan, promised beforehand.
• 1:3. This verse confirms that Jesus himself is the center of the good news, not me and not my salvation, which are entailed in his lordship. The good news at its heart is that Jesus is king. Jesus is Lord.
• To say that Jesus is God's Son is to say that he is king. Sonship is royal language, as we see in the Old Testament background (Psalm 2:4 is in a royal psalm; 2 Sam. 7:14 is about Solomon as God's son as king).
• Jesus has the human qualifications of a king. He is a descendant of David.
• 1:4 Now we get the other side of Jesus' kingship. He was appointed Son of God in power on the basis of his resurrection from the dead. This is his enthronement as king. 
• If the parallel holds, the "Spirit of holiness" is Jesus' own Spirit. The Dead Sea Scrolls refer to God's Holy Spirit with this expression, but it is only used here in the New Testament.
• 1:5. Paul indicates again that Jesus is the one who has graced him and sent him as an apostle, an apostle to the Gentiles no less.
• "Obedience of faith" suggests that true faith leads to obedience.
• 1:6. "among whom you are also the called." Among whom means among the Gentiles. The audience of Romans, it would seem, was primarily Gentile.
• I believe the rest of Romans bears this out. It also makes sense historically since the Jewish Christians at Rome, people like Priscilla and Aquila, would have been forced to leave Rome by Claudius in AD49.
• It also makes sense that the audience would be of a more Petrine flavor. After all, this church was founded before the Pauline mission. It thus was probably more "conservative" than Paul.
• 1:7. The rest of the prescript. To expand the prescript the way Paul has is typical of him, but very unusual for an ancient letter.
• "Grace and peace" is standard Paul. It seems to bring together the Greek (grace) with the Jewish (shalom - peace).

B. The Thanksgiving (1:8-15)

• 1:8. It was customary for an ancient letter at this point to wish a blessing from the gods on the reader. Paul typically gives thanks to God at this point of his letters. He is sincere even though this is standard form.
• He indicates that the faith of the Roman church is well known in the world of Jesus followers.
• 1:10-11. Paul wants to come to them. He has never visited Rome. He wants to impart a spiritual gift to them.
• 1:12. Paul also wants to be encouraged by their faith.
• 1:13. Paul wants to have a harvest among them as among other Gentiles. Again, the implication that the audience is primarily Gentile.
• 1:14. Paul now indicates the way he categorizes the Gentile world. He divides it into Greeks and Barbarians. That is his mission domain, all Gentiles.

5. Concentrated Romans (3:21-31)

Doing a little summary work on Romans.

1. Romans 1:1-15
2. Romans 1:16-17
3. Romans 1:18-32
4. Romans 2:1-3:20
______________
Romans 3:21-31

• 3:21. Given the Jewish background in Psalms, Isaiah, and the Dead Sea Scrolls, the first thing someone like Paul would mean when using the phrase, "the righteousness of God" is God's propensity to save Israel and the world.
• However, is there a double entendre in 3:21? Yes, God has shown his righteousness in a way that is different from the Jewish Law. But does Paul also play on the words? Now God has shown a way to be righteous apart from Law. "Now apart from Law the righteousness of God has been revealed."
• This righteousness was witnessed by the Law and the Prophets. That is, in Scripture. As Paul often does, he glides from one use of "law" to another. He now refers to the Pentateuch, the Law as the first five books of the Scriptures.
• 3:22. It is God's righteousness, "through faith of Jesus Christ." Paul uses a form of this turn of phrase three prominent times in his letters: here, Galatians 2:16, and Philippians 3:9. You wonder if Paul is starting with a known phrase within early Christianity.
• The phrase can either mean, "the faithfulness of Jesus Christ" or "faith in Jesus Christ." I suspect it is the former in this verse because 1) otherwise the verse is redundant here and elsewhere, 2) such a concept would be parallel to passages like Romans 5:19; 3) it fits with Paul's theocentric sense of faith in Romans 4; 4) this train of thought seems manifested in 2 Corinthians 4:13.
• 3:23. "All have sinned." That is, both Jew and Gentile. Although Paul believes all individuals have sinned, his point here is that being a Jew does not get you off the hook. Both Jew and Gentile have sin.
• "and lack the glory of God." This is arguably an allusion to Psalm 8, especially as used in the train of thought of Hebrews 2. Humanity was created for glory. But all have sinned and lack it. Therefore Jesus became human to lead many sons (and daughters) to glory. We hope for the glory of God (5:2). We will be glorified in the end (8:21, 30).
• 3:24. "justified freely." Justification is legal, law court language. We will be declared in right standing with God (cf. 4:6-8). We will be "right-ified," deemed right with God.
• "by grace." It is a gift from God that we have not earned. "unmerited favor"
• "through redemption." Bought with a price. Freed from bondage of sin.
•  "in Christ Jesus." A far more common expression in Paul than justification by faith. Our participation in Christ is the means of our life in Christ.
• 3:25. God offered him as a "hilasterion." Translated variously. Is it "propitiation" as in KJV, NKJV, ESV (satisfaction of God's justice or anger)? Is it "expiation" as in RSV (cleansing, this would follow the use of the word in 4 Maccabees)? Is it "place of atonement" or "mercy seat" as in CEB and Philips translation (following the use in the LXX)? The NIV plays it safe with "sacrifice of atonement." It does seem to allude to the Day of Atonement sacrifice and thus anticipates some of the imagery of Hebrews that compares Jesus' death to the Day of Atonement sacrifice.
• "through faithfulness." Probably refers to God's faithfulness rather than our faith, given what the rest of the verse, the next verse, and the previous verses say.
• "by means of his blood." The life of Jesus' blood provides life for us from the death caused by our sins.
• This demonstrates God's righteousness. The rest of the verse clearly shows that Paul thinks of God's righteousness when he refers to the righteousness of God. By offering Jesus as a sacrifice, God is showing that he is just and righteous even though he is passing over previous sins. 
• 3:26. God is righteous (dikaios) and the one who "right-ifies" or "justifies" (dikaioo) the person who is "from the faith of Jesus." This is an ambiguous phrase. Does he mean "the one who is [justified] through the faithfulness of Jesus" or "the one who is [justified] through faith in Jesus"? Perhaps he means both.
• 3:27. No room for boasting because it is God's grace that has effected this. Here we see a hint of the honor-shame background in relation to the gods. Humans should not boast because it tempts the gods to put them in their place.
• Paul slides to another use of "law" (nomos). Here it seems to mean something like a "rule."
• 3:28. "A person is justified by faith apart from works of Law." This is Paul's principle of justification, the crispest statement of justification by faith in Paul's writings. I believe he refers to human faith here.
• "works of Law" is a phrase with a history. In Galatians, it seems to refer primarily to those aspects of the Jewish Law that most separated Jew from Gentile (e.g., circumcision, purity laws, etc). In the Dead Sea Scrolls (4QMMT), the phrase is used of debates between Jewish groups over the specifics of how to keep the Jewish Law.
• 3:29-30. God is one God, and he is God of both Jew and Gentile. He has one path of justification for both and that is by faith. Jews are not justified by their works of Law. They are justified by faith just as Gentiles are.
• 3:31 But this does not eliminate the need for "law." Paul walked this tight rope in Galatians. Justification by faith is no excuse to give licence to the flesh. Paul does not advocate sin even though he is teaching that a right standing comes apart from Law. We will hear more about this in Romans 6-8. 

2. Concentrated Romans (1:16-17)

I've taught two classes this semester that go through Romans. A couple times I've thought, "I should take all the talking points and put them in a long bulleted list." Here are my main talking points on the key verses of Romans, 1:16-17

1. Romans 1:1-15

Romans 1:16-17

• Arguably the beginning of the letter body of Romans, a section that goes to 15:33
• Key verses of Romans, a general statement that plays itself out in the verses that follow, especially 1:16-11:36.
• "I am not ashamed." Honor-shame language, a reminder that the Mediterranean and biblical worlds were honor-shame rather that guilt oriented worlds. See Bruce Malina, New Testament World.
• "of the gospel." Debate over what the primary referent of the gospel was. N. T. Wright, Scot McKnight argue that the focal good news is that Jesus is Lord, as we see implied in Romans 1:3-4. I would say that all that it entails is also good news, which includes salvation. So our salvation is part of the good news, but not the heart of the good news, which is the fact that Jesus is king. See Scot McKnight, King Jesus Gospel.
• "It is the power of God leading to salvation." I think salvation for Paul is primarily future focused. 5:9 - "we will be saved from wrath." When? On the Day of Judgment. What would it even mean to be saved today or in the past? Saved as in healed? That's Luke's use of the word. Saved as in from the power of Sin? Fits with Paul's theology but not how he uses the word. Paul uses it with a future orientation. Ephesians 2:8 is atypical and may be proleptic even then.
• "to everyone who has faith." Faith for Paul is not primarily used of belief or faithfulness (although see Rom. 3:3). It is about a trust or confidence, perhaps even an allegiance.
• "to the Jew first and also to the Greek." A reminder that the inclusion of the Gentiles stands in the background of all of Romans. Yes, there are implications for individual salvation that Augustine would later focus on. But reading Romans it is significant to remember that Paul's world is a group, collectivist culture (see Malina above). He is discussing the justification of the Gentiles and Jews far more than the justification of individuals.
• "In the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed." Long history of debate over the phrase, "the righteousness of God." The older Roman Catholic view saw it as the "justice of God," God's dispensing of justice. Luther recognized that this was hardly good news. Luther suggested Paul was talking about our legal righteousness--the good news is a righteousness God ascribes to us legally, justification by faith and a righteousness from God. Fine theology, but not the view that comes from our knowledge of the Jewish background in the Psalms and Isaiah, as well as the Dead Sea Scrolls. N. T. Wright suggests, "covenant faithfulness" or "covenant justice." I would define the righteousness of God here as the "propensity of God to save Israel and the world."
• "from faith for faith." Two basic interpretations--"by faith from first to last" or "from God's faithfulness resulting in our faith response." The latter certainly fits Paul's theology and the idea that God's righteousness is in play in this verse.
• "As it is written, 'The person who is righteous by faith will live.'" This seems to anticipate justification by faith, a focus of chapters 3 and 4. "Righteous by faith" means deemed in right standing with God because of our faith in him. Richard Hays' suggestion that Paul read this verse as a prophecy of Jesus is interesting but not compelling.

Shakespeare Quotes

Here are my favorite quotes from Shakespeare:
__________________________
Richard III
"Now is the winter of our discontent, made glorious summer by this sun of York."

Richard II
"This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England."

Romeo and Juliet
"Parting is such sweet sorrow."

"What's in a name. That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet."

"But soft, what light from yonder window breaks! It is the east, and Juliet is the sun."

"Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?"

The Merchant of Venice
"All that glitters is not gold."

"Love is blind."

Julius Caesar
"There is a tide in the affairs of men which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune."

"Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once."

"Men freely believe that which they desire."

"The die is cast."

"Yond Cassius hath a lean and hungry look; he thinks too much; such men are dangerous."

"He is a man fit for running errands."

"It was Greek to me."

"Why, man, he doth bestride the world like a colossus... the fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars but in ourselves."

"Et tu Brute?"

"Veni, vidi, vici."

"Beware the Ides of March."

"Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears... the evil that men do lives after them. The good is oft interred with their bones--so let it be with Caesar."

As You Like It
"All the world's a stage and all its men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances, and one man in his time plays many parts."

Hamlet
"This above all: to thine own self be true and it must follow as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man."

"To be or not to be: that is the question: whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune or to take arms against a sea of troubles. And by opposing end them. To die. To sleep. No more... to die. to sleep, perchance to dream. Ay, there's the rub.

"There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy, Horatio."

"Brevity is the soul of wit."

"Though this be madness, yet there is method in't."

"Sweets to the sweets."

"The lady doth protest too much methinks."

"This goodly frame, the earth, seems to me a sterile promontory, this most excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave o'erhanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted with golden fire, why, it appears no other thing to me than a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours."

"What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason! how infinite in faculty! in form, in moving, how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals! And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust?"

"Something is rotten in the state of Denmark."

"I must be cruel only to be kind."

"Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio: a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy"

"Get thee to a nunnery."

Twelfth Night
"Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and others have greatness thrust upon them."

Othello
"O beware, my lord, of jealousy; it is the green-ey'd monster."

All's Well That End's Well
"All's well that ends well."

King Lear
"Many a true word hath been spoken in jest."

MacBeth
"To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day, To the last syllable of recorded time; And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player, That struts and frets his hour upon the stage, And then is heard no more. It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing."

"Double, double, toil and trouble; Fire burn, and cauldron bubble!"

"Fair is foul, and foul is fair, hover through fog and filthy air."

"Out, damned spot! out, I say!"

The Tempest
"We are such stuff as dreams are made of."

Position in New Testament

The School of Theology and Ministry, where I am currently Dean (not the seminary) has an open position in New Testament. Here is the advertisement:
_____________________________________
The School of Theology and Ministry on the residential campus of Indiana Wesleyan University invites applications for a full-time faculty position in New Testament to begin in August 2018. The preferred candidate will have a PhD in New Testament, and those who actively pursue New Testament scholarship from diverse ethnic, racial, and class perspectives are especially encouraged to apply. The successful candidate will have a positive view of the local church and embrace the Wesleyan tradition of which the university is a part. In addition to the normal expectations of a professor listed below, responsibilities especially include teaching introductory and upper level Bible courses, with the possibility of some teaching on the graduate level.
_____________________________________

Here are some of our goals and flavor:

1. IWU is a Wesleyan institution. That means professors not only need to be people of faith, but one's faith needs to be personal and a matter of life (not just intellectual). We agree to certain lifestyle commitments and respect the theology of our host denomination.

2. We are on a journey toward kingdom diversity. Diversity is the number one goal of STM right now. We would be excited if individuals of color might feel called to come and help us. We want to become the church of Revelation 7:9 around the throne. Our students need role models of color. We need leaders of color. Our spirits are willing to learn.

3. We believe in both truth and biblical justice. Some say you have to choose today. We bind ourselves both to the pursuit of objective truth and the values of social justice. In keeping with the Wesleyan Quadrilateral, truth is both revealed and discovered.

4. Mentoring and teaching are job #1. Scholarship is of course part of being on faculty at a university, but the first order of business is the students. We have coffee with them. We come alongside them. We keep at least 10 office hours a week. Only then do we hide in our offices to write. :-)

5. Influencing the church and culture. We want to influence the direction of the church and the world. We want to play a prophetic role. We do this first of all through our students as they go out into the world. We also do it through our scholarship and service. Some of our key initiatives at the moment include:

• The KERN program - I believe it is the leading ministerial training program in the Wesleyan Church for 18-22 year olds, directed by Eddy Shigley. Students get a master's degree in five years, cover all the content of an MDIV degree, get the best of a residential cohort experience, and get some of the best internships in cutting edge churches like 12Stone or Cypress Wesleyan.
• Examen - This high school program brings a diverse group of students to campus in the summer or summers before they go to college. Amanda Drury heads the program. These students have a spectacular time together while getting college credit and creating community, a taste of college life.
• Youth Ministry Events - Headed by Charlie Alcock, we not only bring thousands of middle school and high school students to campus but Charlie takes his equipment on the road every year to youth events and even supports events like the Gathering of the Wesleyan Church.
• High School Dual Credit - We will increasingly be offering online courses to students who are not enrolled in the university. These courses are philosophy, NT, OT, and theology.

This is just a small taste of who we are, who we are becoming, and who we want to be. If this world sounds like you, I will be at SBL if you want to have coffee.

Sermon Starters: No Fear in Love

I gave a very brief wedding charge yesterday. The couple was already married legally so the service was really a community commitment and celebration of what was already the case in the eyes of the law.

But since my brief talk could be made into a fuller sermon, here is the basic flow:

Text: 1 John 4:7-8, 16, 18
Key Verse: "There is no fear in love because perfect love casts out fear.
Key Idea: There is no need for fear in truly loving relationships

Our relationships with each other:

• Not just new or old marriages but all truly loving relationships
• The fear here is not fear of sickness, financial trouble, or nuclear war.
• It is about security in relationship and safety in commitment.
• We all mess up in relationships (give personal example or example you have heard of).
• Love means there's no need to fear when you forget to take out the trash or pick up toilet paper.
• People are quirky. We're strange. Some people are strange because they're just a little too normal.
• Of course there are times when we intentionally do wrong to those we love. This is intrinsically contrary to love and implies a lack of "perfection" in our love.
• True love can withstand even these storms. 1 Corinthians 13:7: "Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things." Love is a commitment in addition to being a glue.
• Some of our habits can reflect a lack of attention to actions we could stop if we tried. We may forget certain things and thus not intentionally wrong on a specific occasion, but why haven't we been working to address our forgetfulness prior to that moment?
• Love covers a multitude of sins.

Our relationship with God

• These aspects of loving relationships also apply to our relationship with God.
• The context of 1 John 4 is actually about God rather than marriage.
• Before Christ, sin may be a matter of legality. After Christ, sin is a matter of relationship.
• We can wrong God unintentionally. But we have no reason to fear.
• Un-intention, however, can speak to something we should have been working on, if we fully loved God.
• Intentional sin against God is of course highly inappropriate. If we truly run back, however, like the Prodigal Son, we need have no fear that God will take us back.

Sermon Starters: Dual Citizenship

Preached in chapel at IWU Monday. My assigned text was Philippians 3:17-21.

I. Recap of Philippians

• Because this is in a series of Monday sermons this semester over Philippians, I decided to start with a recap of the book up to this point.
• Philippians is a thank you letter. They have sent Paul a care package while he's in jail waiting an appearance before some Roman official. 
• This is perhaps Paul's dearest church. Galatians gave him problems. Corinthians really gave him problems. Philippians repeatedly sent him help (Paul didn't take aid from a church while he was there).
• Two chief themes of Philippians: rejoicing in suffering and unity amid squabbling.
• Rejoice while in jail??? "I have learned to be content whatever my circumstances" (4:12). "Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say..." (4:4).
• Chapter 1: "For me to live is Christ, to die is gain" (1:22). Victor Frankl: "A person can live with any how if they have a why."
• Chapter 2: heavy on the unity. Have the mind of Christ. Be "one-souled."
• Chapter 3. Paul digresses into those who might try the congregation to get circumcised and convert to Judaism. He has a good Jewish resume--it's nothing, dung, next to the surpassing greatness of Christ. 

II. The verses of the morning

• Follow his example.
• There are enemies of Christ out there: Romans like those who have him in jail, Jews who do not believe Jesus is the Messiah, Christians who believe you have to convert fully to Judaism.
• Their god is their belly--focus on pleasure? Judaizers and food laws?
• "But our citizenship is in heaven."

III. Our citizenship is in heaven.
What was in the "bubble" above Paul's head?
A. Jerusalem?

• fits the theme of Philippians 3
• Today, we might relate it to visible Christian groups like denominations, local churches, Christian colleges, etc.
• No visible group equates to the invisible church.
• Not all Wesleyans are citizens of heaven. Not all IWU students are likely to be citizens of heaven. Not all who attend or are members of College Wesleyan Church are likely to be citizens of heaven.
• Matthew 13--the wheat and the weeds

B. Roman citizenship?

• Particularly relevant is the fact that Philippi was a Roman colony. If you were a citizen of the city of Philippi, you were a citizen of Rome, a great honor and privilege.
• But that's nothin. That's dung next to the surpassing greatness of Christ. Like a drop of water next to the ocean of the greatness of God's kingdom.
• No earthly group is holy enough to compare to the kingdom of God. No human citizenship is anything but dung next to the surpassing greatness of Christ and his kingdom.
• On the one hand, there's nothing wrong with being excited about your heritage. I'm a mixture of English, Scottish, Dutch, and German.  I'm an American. My Dad was in WW2. I'm proud to be an American.
• But we must never come anywhere close to equating such things, such groups--my family, my ethnicity, my country--with the kingdom of God. That's blasphemy.
• All groups have shame in their story too. "All [groups] have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God."
• I'm proud that so far in American history, "The arch of justice is long but it bends toward justice" (MLK). But it took eighty years and a horrible, horrible war to end race slavery. That's shame in the American story. It took a hundred more to allow African-Americans to use the same bathroom and drink from the same water fountain as others There is plenty of shame in the American story, in addition to the things we might boast about. 
• There is no country, ethnicity, or family that is holy enough to be equated with the kingdom of heaven... not even close.

IV. Dual citizenship

• How do we live as both citizens of heaven and earth?
• Never confuse any visible, earthly group with the kingdom based in the heavens.
• Remember that the kingdom of God is always contextualized. There is no earthly embodiment of the kingdom that is not enculturated (this includes the people of God in Scripture). Love God, love neighbor are principles, but how that looks in a specific context is enculturated.
• Some guidelines. The kingdom of God is more redemptive than punitive.
• The kingdom of God is more unifying than dividing.
• The kingdom of God is more about mutual submission and yielding to others than forcing others.
• We have to work out these things with prayer and fasting, in community, working out our salvation with fear and trembling.

95 Theses for the Church Today

Today is the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther nailing his famed 95 theses on the door of the Wittenberg Cathedral, the spark of the Reformation. He had no thought of splitting the church, only of reforming it. He had no idea of the impact. Small events often have wildly disproportional consequences.

Here are 95 theses from me for the church today.
_____________________
1. Rightly did the Old Testament teach Israel that there was only one God.

2. Rightly did the early church come to understand that the one God exists in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

3. Rightly did the early church discern two testaments to go along with two covenants, the old and the new.

4. Rightly did the early church come to affirm the Apostle's Creed and the Nicene Creed.

5. Rightly did the early church come to discern the canon of the New Testament, consisting of 27 books.

6. Rightly did the church recognize with certainly the canonicity of 39 books of the Old Testament.

7. Seven more, along with additions to Daniel and Esther, are in a sort of middle status, a "deutero" canon.

8. Luther demoted them entirely out of the canon. In response, the Council of Trent (1545) promoted them to full status. Both moves changed their status.

9. The doctrine of purgatory, while logical, has no clear basis in Scripture, not even in 2 Maccabees.

10. The doctrine of hell is biblical, but Scripture uses figurative language to point to something we probably cannot understand.

11. The Old Testament does not engage the question of the afterlife much, chiefly in Daniel 12:2-3.

12. Paul never engages the question of hell, but clearly indicates a resurrected body on the Day of the Lord for those who are in Christ.

13. Revelation speaks of a lake of fire, originally prepared for the Devil and his angels.

14. Matthew speaks of weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth.

15. Scripture does not teach that ministers must be celibate.

16. Nor does Scripture teach that ministers must be male.

17. In Christ there is not "male and female," therefore, there is no function in life or the church in which a qualified woman or man cannot serve.

18. The laying on of hands is attested in Scripture as a means of grace whereby individuals are sent with ministry purpose.

19. Scripture also attests to the importance of study for the minister.

20. Therefore, it is appropriate for groups of believers to provide means of education and commissioning for the work of the ministry, known as ordination.

21. The doctrine of justification by faith is well attested in Romans and Galatians, and indicates that, when we first enter the people of God, a right status with God is only attained by putting our trust in him and in his king Jesus.

22. We put our "faith" in Jesus by confessing allegiance to him as our Lord.

23. The writings of Paul in Romans 2, 2 Corinthians 5, and James 2 also indicate that our works as a believer will be recognized on the Day of the Lord.

24. Works follow naturally as a result of having the Holy Spirit.

25. The Holy Spirit inside us empowers the image of God within us to love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control.

26. We can be in Christ, have received the Holy Spirit, have left Egypt, and still not make it to the Promised Land. We can be disqualified for the prize despite having once been justified by faith.

27. Depravity in Paul is a thorough depravity rather than an absolute depravity. Every aspect of our selves is marred by the power of Sin over this world.

28. But the image of God is not destroyed. Thus while we do not have the power to be righteous for justification on our own, the goodness of God is present in us because we remain in the image of God.

29. All the world is under the power of Sin. Augustine called this dynamic a "sin nature."

30. For Paul, human flesh is under the power of Sin in this world unless the power of the Spirit takes over. Paul does not speak of this dynamic as a nature.

31. Temptation is not sin. It is when temptation has conceived by intention that it is sin.

32. There is such a thing as unintentional sin. Christ has atoned for all the unintentional sin of the believer.

33. Paul never says that we sinned "in Adam," as Augustine indicated. Rather, because of the power of Sin we sin like Adam.

34. Therefore, no individual is condemned because of the sin of Adam.

35. Original sin only has validity as a reference to Adam's original sin. I have no guilt because of Adam's sin, only its consequences.

36. The power of the Spirit makes it possible to love God and neighbor and thus to fulfill the righteous requirement of the Law.

37. Paul rejects any theology that considers sin the default life of the believer. We are not to let sin reign in our mortal bodies.

38. The basis of justification is the faithfulness of Jesus Christ.

39. The faithfulness of Jesus Christ is his obedience unto death.

40. Paul likens Christ's death to an atoning sacrifice that God offered or displayed.

41. The doctrine of penal substitution goes beyond the scope of what is claimed in Scripture.

42. We find in Scripture the sense that Jesus satisfied God's justice and that Christ died "for us."

43. But Scripture does not develop a doctrine whereby Christ mathematically satisfied a quantitative justice that was the sum of all sins past, present, and future.

44. "Sola fide," faith alone, thus must take into account the full biblical picture. Our act of faith is the trigger of justification.

45. Our faith is more than an intellectual assent but an act of allegiance that involves a life of faithfulness.

46. If our faith allegiance departs from Christ, then those acts can disqualify our justification. Any version of sola fide that does not take these truths into account is not biblical.

47. Being in Christ is a relationship. Relationships are seldom broken by a single moment or act, but they can be broken.

48. In the working out of Christian theology, both Calvin and Wesley suggested that God's grace empowers us to make the choice of faith. These are logical extensions of broader theology.

49. Wesley believed that this "prevenient grace" was a grace that empowered a free choice. This "theology of the iceberg under the surface" fits best with the appearance of a free choice in Scripture.

50. "Sola gratia," grace alone, needs to recognize that grace in the biblical texts derives from the world of patron-client relationships. In this world, grace could be solicited and could come with informal expectations.

51. Biblical grace thus can be solicited by our prayer of repentance, and our faith in God and his Christ can solicit forgiveness and justification.

52. Grace thus also comes with the expectation of commitment to Jesus as Lord. Such grace can be trampled on and insulted. One should not think such grace would then continue.

53. "Sola Christi," Christ alone is the effective basis for justification. God has chosen of his own free will the offering of Christ as the sole basis of justification.

54. Abraham was justified by faith in God when he was still uncircumcised, that is, a Gentile. He is thus the model of those who are justified by faith in God who are not Jews, as well as the model of faith for those Jews who are justified by faith.

55. He is at least possibly a model of those who have faith in God even though they have not yet heard of Christ. Such individuals would still be justified by faith on the basis of the offering of Christ.

56. When Augustine, Wycliffe, and Calvin read the predestination language of the New Testament in absolute terms, they did injustice to half of the biblical language.

57. Predestination is primarily about the plan of salvation rather than the individuals who are saved, and God's plan involves the participation of human wills.

58. When the Reformers invoked "sola scriptura," they had a pre-modern hermeneutic that was unaware of the extent to which their reading of Scripture was still guided by the rule of faith God developed in the church.

59. The Reformers only eliminated extraneous aspects of catholic tradition that were obvious to them but retained many appropriate core features of tradition, like the Trinity.

60. Because individual interpretation of Scripture uses the individual to provide the "glue" that joins the different teachings of the Bible together and serves as the basis for determining the continuity and discontinuity between that time and our time, the Protestant principle arises. The Protestant principle, set forth by Paul Tillich, is that Protestant churches will continue to split and re-split, to multiply without end, because there is no common basis to join scriptures together or determine the connection between that time and today.

61. Today there are over 30,000 Protestant churches who think they are just following scripture alone. In short, history has shown Luther the loser of his debate with Erasmus.

62. Interpretation and exegesis only tell us what it meant. They do not tell us how God wants us to appropriate it.

63. The Bible should thus be appropriated in communities of faith.

64. The appropriation of Scripture not only requires contextualization by communities of faith.

65. The appropriation of Scripture to individual situations requires improvisation. There is no Pharisaic list of application that can account for every possible situation.

66. Communion was originally a meal that remembered the Last Supper of Christ and looked forward to another meal with him in the eschaton.

67. God has used communion throughout the centuries as a means of grace, whereby the partaker with faith is spiritually empowered to love of God and neighbor.

68. Baptism was a Jewish rite that the early Christians used to signify the washing of sins and incorporation into the people of God.

69. As children were born to these first believers, it is at least possible they were baptized as well. Certainly this became the tradition of the church.

70. Infant baptism indicates that the child is in the people of God, a partaker of its faith, until the child reaches a point when he or she could make that faith his or her own.

71. The child receives a grace mediated through the community in which he or she is baptized. It is a protecting grace.

72. The adult in baptism receives a means of grace as well through the community. It is an including grace. The adult is now reckoned fully in the people of God.

73. The legalization of Christianity was not evil.

74. The organization of Christianity is not intrinsically evil.

75. Nevertheless, power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. When the church and state coincide, oppression eventually happens.

76. Therefore, the church should be very cautious about its involvement with the state.

77. In keeping with the way God governs the world, the church should not try to force the world to believe as it believes.

78. The church should not try to force the world to pass laws that fit with its particular theological understanding--especially the understanding of one specific Christian group.

79. The church should focus its involvement with the state on supporting laws of general morality--those which prevent harm to others.

80. In keeping with the prophets, its activism should focus on protecting those who cannot protect themselves and empowering all the members of society.

81. The social gospel was not wrong because of its focus on helping the needy and marginalized--this is what Jesus did on earth.

82. The social gospel was wrong because it left out other essential parts of Christian faith--Jesus as Lord, not least.

83. Fundamentalism is a reduction of the Christian faith to a visceral reaction against changes in modern culture.

84. All truth is God's truth, no matter where he reveals it or we discover it by his grace.

85. The New Testament says "Love God and love neighbor" is the fulfillment of the whole law. There is no commandment of God for our lives that is left out (Matt. 22:37-40; Rom. 13:8-10).

86. The love of neighbor includes the love of enemy. God himself loves Satan still and grieves at his perdition.

87. The love of neighbor and enemy never contradicts the love of God, for God never asks us to do or be anything for him that is unloving toward our neighbor.

88. God's justice fits within the context of his love. He is not a slave to justice.

89. God has the authority to forgive without payment. This would be no problem for him but less helpful for us.

90. Our love of God and Christ consists in our submission to his will as our Lord, and his will is that we love one another. God's will is that we love what he loves, and he loves not just the individual but the whole of humanity, groups within humanity, and indeed his creation.

91. There are many points on which Christians disagree. Paul gives guidelines for such situations.

92. On matters of personal conviction, each person should be fully convinced of what God expects of him or her.

93. Despite individual freedom, Christians should behave in a way that is loving toward others. Despite individual freedom, Christians should behave in a way that builds up the faith of others.

94. Paul affirms that no object is intrinsically unclean. It is a matter of personal understanding and conviction. Many actions are not intrinsically unclean. It is a matter of your intention as you act.

95. Christ has died. Christ has risen. Christ will come again. Everything else is mostly ice cream on the cake.

Happy Birthday Dad!

Dad in middle, Eugene on left
(just passed), Maurice on right

My Dad would be 93 if he were still with us. I find myself quoting him often to my children. Here are some sayings and things that have come to mind this past year.

1. "Anything worth doing is worth doing right."

2. Also, "Good enough for who it's for" (I don't remember this one until after he retired).

3. "The squeaky wheel gets the grease." I remember him saying that my uncle Paul Myers helped him see that if you don't speak up, you shouldn't expect anything to change and you certainly won't get what you really wanted at a restaurant.

4. "Anything but instant obedience is disobedience." :-)

5. "A man convinced against his will is of the same mind still." That one came from a Dale Carnegie course that he took.

6. "More accidents happen in parking lots than anywhere else." He was an insurance adjuster for years. :-)

7. "There's no time better than the present." "Why put off to tomorrow what you can do today?"

8. "I don't understand how a guy as educated as you are doesn't carry a pen around." I have now for about 10 years, along with a Moleskin. He always had a "pocket secretary," which was too bulky for me. A student laughed at me a couple weeks ago when I pulled the Moleskin out of my pocket (instead of taking notes on my phone). :-)

9. Dad used to add up the individual receipts at certain restaurants to see if he could predict the bill. When I was old enough I would do it too. Come to find out, Uncle Eugene who just passed did that too. Dad was really good at adding numbers. I was thinking it probably came from their Dad's store. He had a slide rule too, although I'm not sure he ever used it in my lifetime.

10. Dad liked liver. No one else did. I did like baloney and Braunschweiger, two meats he would eat. He used to deep fry tacos sometimes on Sunday nights when I was a boy.

11. I heard someone say Saturday that you have to drink coffee if you're in the army. Certainly my Dad did... very much. Uncle Eugene did too. My wife Angie says I slurp coffee like he did.

12. Dad would give off a little growl when he was frustrated. I do it too sometimes. "Shoot" was about as wordy he got.

13. I was also remembering recently an incident that happened when he was working out of an MIC office on US1 getting down toward the Ft. Lauderdale airport in the 70s, south of Sears. A drunk man came in and asked him for some money. His snap response was, "What you need is to sober up." The man responded haltingly, "Thank you for those kind words." Dad felt bad and bought him a meal.

There's a few memories. Happy Birthday, Dad!

Another seminary curriculum

I've been thinking off and on lately, what would have been the ideal seminary curriculum for me. It would probably look much like the traditional curriculum I had in seminary, except it might be more integrated within each course.

Almost impossible to do it. There's just too much. Here's a shot if we could still do 90 hour MDIV curricula (15 hours per semester). For maximum benefit and coverage, every course should have a view to 1) spiritual formation, 2) connecting to other disciplines and subject matter, 3) appropriation.

Year 1
Fall 

• The Life of a Minister (1 hour)
• Greek for Ministry
• IBS: The Gospel of Matthew
• History: The First Christian Centuries (2 hours)
• Christian Theology 1
• The Mission of the Church

Spring

• Intro to Spiritual Formation (1 hour)
• Greek for Study
• IBS: Romans
• History: Catholics and Protestants (2 hours)
• Christian Theology 2
• The Pastor as Leader

Year 2
Fall

• Supervised Ministry 1 (1 hour)
• Greek Exegesis: Philippians
• The Pentateuch 
• History: American Christianity (2 hours)
• Race, Class, and Gender
• The Pastor and Congregational Care

Spring

• Personal Spiritual Formation
• Greek Exegesis: Gospel of John
• Hebrew for Ministry
• Historical and Poetic Books
• The Pastor as Priest

Year 3
Fall

• Supervised Ministry 2 (1 hour)
• Hebrew for Study
• Luke-Acts
• Philosophy and Christian Faith (2 hours)
• Great Theologians of the Centuries
• The Pastor and Discipleship

Spring

• The Integrated Pastor
• Hebrew Exegesis: The Prophets
• Contemporary Theologians
• The Letters of the New Testament
• The Pastor as Prophet

Life Check-In

There was almost a month without a blog post, something unheard of. Somehow I feel I will be blogging less. I was on Facebook daily of course. Those posts no doubt reveal how troubled I am by the state of America right now and by the state of the church world of which I am a part. The past year has seriously undermined a kind of optimism I used to have about the arch of history.

I wanted to jot down some brief notes to catalog my own story these past three years. Otherwise perhaps I'll forget. I cataloged my time as Dean of Wesley Seminary.

So let me label my last two years and this one.

2015-16
This was the year of return. This was the year that I returned to the undergraduate School of Theology and Ministry to teaching. The first semester was quite a shock. Students are different. I no longer had a fan base. I did way too much.

I taught two sections of Honor's College. I really enjoyed the students but the response to me was more mixed. Nevertheless, I think I have a good relationship with these students still today.

I taught a "First Year Experience" New Testament Survey. This program is really good. I think it went really well and, again, have a good relationship with these students even today.

I taught for the KERN masters' students in the first year of the graduate program. These were some really high powered students who are already showing signs of future leadership. Eddy Shigley, Dave Ward, and Brian Bernius did a great job of setting up this program, which gets a student from high school to MDIV equivalency in 5 years.


2016-17
This was the year of sorting out. In the spring of my first year of return I was tapped to be interim Dean of the undergraduate School of Theology and Ministry. I remarked several times that Dave Ward had done such a good job of structuring the School that it was hard to go wrong. Brian Bernius handles curriculum. David Vardaman handles course assignments and student issues. The Dean goes to broader meetings and facilitates vision and strategy. Brilliant set up!

With Eddy Shigley pumping the KERN, Amanda Drury generating all sorts of innovation, and Charlie Alcock pulling together Youth Ministry Events, this is a powerful line up. Youth Ministry Events was pulled fully into STM during this year. Amanda's Examen is doing great things. And Eddy is a machine.

The most significant events of the year were the sorting out of who does what between the Seminary, adult programs, and STM. The results did redirect the planned trajectory of STM, and other plans faced resistance in various bodies. Some initiatives ended up relocated.

On the innovative side, however, Scott Burson did teach an online philosophy class in the spring for undergrad students. There are courses of this sort, especially in the summer, but this was a potential turning point for the undergraduate campus.

2017-18
I commenced as full Dean July 1, 2017. We are only a couple months into this academic year. So far, it may prove to be the year of waking up. Issues of diversity have been at the forefront so far. This is a difficult and uncomfortable topic. It is however a strategic goal for STM. I convened an ad hoc group at the beginning of the year and momentum seems to be toward the hard process of becoming more like the kingdom of God as a campus. This is tough work with frequent set backs.

We've lost Abson Joseph to the Seminary. He will become Dean January 1. The Seminary has become a model of diversity, thanks in large part to the trajectory first set by Wayne Schmidt.

The most exciting innovation is the possibility that the undergraduate campus will launch into a major dual credit initiative with high school students, perhaps especially the home school domain. Mike Egenreider, the new VP for enrollment management on the residential campus, gets the credit for catalyzing this exciting new development. I of course have been talking about this sort of idea for a couple years, but he is the man to make it happen.

STM hopes to offer four online courses a semester to mostly high school students next fall. Scott Burson is piloting one such course this fall (see, I was already doing it), and I hope to offer NT Survey online in the spring.

It helps to write this out. I feel like the most important voice the church needs right now is to help it sort out where it should stand in relation to current events in nation, culture, and church. Yet what I really feel is lament.

Hebrews and New Perspectives

Forty years ago now, New Testament studies reached a certain tipping point on the question of how the books of the New Testament might have related to the Judaism from which they emerged. Prior to this moment, numerous unexamined assumptions had prevailed about the earliest church in relation to Judaism. Suddenly, a paradigm shift took place. To those participating in this shift, this "new perspective on Paul" seemed obvious. Predictably, those invested in the traditional paradigm strongly resisted.

However, the blind spots of the traditional paradigm seemed obvious to many. The earliest Christians did not think they were part of a new religion. They saw their faith in Jesus as Messiah as nothing but the truest faith of Israel. They saw themselves participating in the fulfillment of Israel's story, not in the beginning of a new story or a new religion. The spread of the Jesus-movement to Gentiles was surely unanticipated by many of the earliest believers. The Christian story was a Jewish story in its very essence.

The bias against Judaism by many Christians was also laid bare. Judaism affirmed the grace of God. Jews by and large did not believe that they could merit God's favor apart from God's grace, of which the sacrificial system was a part. Protestants in particular were wont to read into the theology of the New Testament the theology of the Reformation, another anachronism exposed by the new perspective. The New Testament itself had far more room for works than would make Martin Luther comfortable.

The first chapter discusses these developments in greater detail. A significant amount of literature arose in the 1980s and 90s re-examining Paul's letters and Judaism from this new perspective, which claimed to be the original perspective itself, not truly a new perspective at all. Then it is no surprise that this re-examination of the relationship between Paul and Judaism soon led to another look at Jesus in relationship to Judaism, a movement sometimes called the "third quest for the historical Jesus."

Finally, again predictably, the question shifted to exactly when Christianity and Judaism actually parted ways. For years many had simply read back the situation today into the early church. Christianity and Judaism are different religions today. It was perhaps natural to assume that they had always been different religions. Now the question needed to be asked, "When did they actually become distinct religions?" When did they truly part ways? The question has proved far more complex and variegated than we might have imagined forty years ago.

Although the study of books like Hebrews has continued to swim in the altered waters of these debates, no one to date has actually done a holistic re-examination of Hebrews in the light of these revised perspectives. The interpretation of a verse might change here and there. Perhaps a scholar might soften his or her sense of the tone with which Hebrews viewed the Levitical system as no longer needed. However, it is my contention that the unexamined assumptions go much deeper.

Why is it that so much study of Hebrews thinks it obvious that the audience must have been Jewish? Could it be a serious underestimation of the degree to which Gentile converts saw themselves joining a Jewish movement and embracing the story, symbols, and institutions of Israel? Why does it seem obvious that an audience invested in the temple would have to be a Jewish group tempted to return to mainstream Judaism? Could it be still more unexamined assumptions? We know that the temple was destroyed and never returned. Today it is obvious to Christians that Christ made the temple obsolete. Why is this obvious to Christians today? It is obvious because of the book of Hebrews itself! Prior to the book of Hebrews, it is not at all clear that Christ's supercession of the temple would have been obvious to Jesus followers.

It seems far more likely that it took some time for the earliest Christians to reach this conclusion. I would argue that it did not likely become a prevailing understanding among Jesus-followers until after the temple was destroyed. The earliest Christians were not likely at all to conclude instantly that Christ's offering had replaced the temple. Over time it is likely that a spectrum of positions developed on this question within the movement, just as took place earlier on the question of the Jewish Law. Accordingly, the earliest Gentile converts to the Jesus movement would have owned the Jerusalem temple as part of their new faith just like other Christian Jews likely did.

Forty years after the tipping point, scholarship on the book of Hebrews is still largely operating within a pre-new perspective paradigm. The intuitions of American scholars in particular still find it difficult to move beyond the glasses of the Protestant Reformation and Nicaea to hear this sermon in its original Jewish and Gentile Christian context. We do not need to abandon our personal faith to read Hebrews in context. A mature hermeneutic will recognize the difference between fuller theological readings and appropriations of scriptural texts and historical-cultural interpretations which attempt to examine moments on the way to the later formulations. We can distinguish historical tasks from confessional ones without sacrificing either.

The pages that follow are one attempt to look at Hebrews in this light. As with any scholarly construct, it is a probing of the possibilities. It is an attempt to play out one possible scenario in the light of the evidence we have and the conversation of interpreters as it stands. Time will tell whether it manages to convince others or if it stands alone as just one possibility to check off the list. I offer it to the great, never-ending conversation that is biblical scholarship.