Lead up to Romans
Romans 16 -- Paul's letter to Ephesus
Romans 15:14-33 -- situation of Romans
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1. We now have a fair sense of the setting of Romans. Now let's get down to writing.
In Romans 16:22, someone named Tertius greets the audience of the chapter as the writer of the letter. I suspect many of us come to that verse and are a little puzzled. "What? Isn't this Paul's letter? I've been reading Romans for sixteen chapters thinking it was Paul writing all this time?"
Of course, Paul is the voice of Romans. Tertius was the secretary, the scribe. In more technical terms, he was the "amanuensis."
Letter writing was a bigger deal back then by far than it is now. [1] We whip off texts and emails in seconds. Before email, an ordinary person had easy access to pen, paper, envelopes, and stamps. One of the blessings of the modern world is a postal system. Want to write someone halfway around the world? No big deal.
In the ancient world, the majority of people could neither read nor write. Papyrus and ink was far more expensive and less available than letter-writing tools today. Letters of Paul's length were very unusual, and they would normally be planned rather than written in one sitting. A copy would be made to keep as well as to send. And of course someone would need to take the letter to the destination. There was no Roman postal service for ordinary people.
For those who think Romans 16 was part of the letter to Rome, it is very common to think that Phoebe was the one who not only delivered the letter of Romans to Rome but who probably read it to the congregations of Rome -- perhaps house church by house church. [2] While I find this a very attractive possibility, my sense that Romans 16 was actually for Ephesus of course precludes it.
2. So, Paul and Tertius plan out the letter. It will have two main parts. For the bulk of the letter Paul will set forth how his mission to non-Jews, to the Gentiles, powerfully demostrates the righteousness of God. He will make a fun play on the word. When they first hear the phrase, they will think of the fact that God is righteous. That is to say, it is God's character to reach out to save his people and, indeed, the whole world. He is righteous.
Paul has his thesis clearly in mind. While some Christian Jews were embarrassed that so many Gentiles were coming to faith, Paul was in no way ashamed. "I like that," Tertius says. "I am not ashamed of the gospel" (Rom. 1:16), Paul sets it down. He was not ashamed of this good news that was for everyone -- non-Jews as well as Jews.
"Why aren't you ashamed," Tertius asks.
"Why, because this good news is the power of God for salvation," Paul answers. "And it is not just for Jews but for everyone who believes."
Salvation for him is primarily something that is future. He will say it in 13:11 -- our salvation is closer now than when we first believed.
So, what was salvation for Paul? It was escaping the judgment of the world when Jesus Christ returned from heaven to establish his kingdom on earth. It was being rescued from this present evil age (Gal. 1:4). Yes, Paul believed we were delivered from the power of Sin now, but he usually did not talk of us "getting saved" now in the way we often do. [3]
Romans 5:9 puts it well: "How much more then now, since we have been justified by means of his blood, will we be saved through him from wrath." There you have it. Salvation is to escape the future, coming wrath of God when he judges the world. [4]
"The gospel is for everyone," Tertius notes to Paul. "But don't the Jews have any priority? Isn't that why you have so many opponents in Jerusalem?"
"Let's put in that it is for everyone but 'to the Jew first and also to the Greek'" (1:16), Paul says.
"Great!" Tertius says and he reads back to Paul the thesis statement of the letter so far. "I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God leading to salvation for everyone who has faith -- the Jew first but also the Greek."
"Excellent," Paul says.
It's hard for us to see it in English, but the word for faith in Greek (pistis) is closely related to the word for believing (pisteuo). It has more than one meaning, although they are related. Words normally mean one thing at a time (unless there's a double entendre). They do not mean all of their meanings at once.
I sometimes draw a stick figure on the whiteboard at this point. When pistis is focused on the "head" -- what we are thinking -- it tends to mean something like "belief." When it is focused more on the hands or feet -- what we do -- it tends to mean something like "faithfulness" (e.g., Rom. 3:3). Paul's normal usage is more heart-related and is more like "trust." And trust, in this case, probably has an overtone of allegiance. [5]
Final salvation is available to all who have faith, to all who trust in what God has done through Jesus and his blood. We will discover soon enough that Paul primarily thinks of us putting our faith in God the Father. Yes, we do trust in Christ too (e.g., Rom. 9:33). Jesus is the password. God the Father is "all in all" for Paul (1 Cor. 15:28). [6]
3. "What basis are you going to give in the letter for this bold claim," Tertius asks Paul.
"Why, it's grounded in the righteousness of God," Paul says. He begins quoting passages from the later chapters of Isaiah like 46:13 -- "I bring near my righteousness. It is not far off. And my salvation will not delay." But Paul especially was thinking of Psalm 98:2 -- "The LORD has made known his salvation. He has revealed his righteousness among the Gentiles."
So the concept of the righteousness of God was thoroughly known in Jewish circles. It was closely connected with the salvation God brought to his people from the Old Testament to the Dead Sea Scrolls of the Essenes. And Paul was now saying that God's same saving righteousness extended to non-Jews.
"I want to be clever with some of these terms we throw around," Paul says. "I want to keep them on their toes as they read."
"How so?" Tertius asked.
"For example," Paul continued. "God's faith or faithfulness leads to us responding in faith."
"Neat," Tertius responded. "So the righteousness of God is revealed 'from faith to faith'" (Rom. 1:17).
"Exactly," Paul said.
"Is there a Scripture you can use to help convince those who are resisting these new ideas?"
"Yes," Paul said confidently. "Habakkuk 2:4: 'The person who is righteous will live in faith.' But I want to move the words 'by faith' to the middle so there is a double entendre: 'The person who is righteous by faith will live.'"
"I see," Tertius said excitedly. "On the one hand, there is what Habakkuk was talking about -- living in faithfulness to God whatever happend. But there is alos the idea that when you become right with God on the basis of faith, you will live!"
"You've got it," Paul said. "I want to play again on the phrase 'righteousness of God.' There is the normal meaning that God is righteous. But I want to move them to see that he makes us right with him too -- he justifies us."
Again, it is hard for us English speakers to see, but the word for righteous (dikaios) is from the same root as the word to justify (dikaioo). To "justify" thus means to "declare right" with God. When God justifies us, Paul would say, he considers us right with him, in good legal standing. Much more of that to come.
"So here is the whole thesis statement for the letter," Tertius said. "I am not ashamed of the good news, for it is the power of salvation to everyone who has faith, the Jew first and also the Greek. For in it, God's righteousness is revealed, starting with his faithfulness and resulting in our faith response. This is what Habakkuk wrote when he said, 'The person who is right with God on the basis of faith will live.'"
"It's a great start," Paul said.
[1] Two well-known studies on ancient letter writing in relation to the New Testament are Stanley K. Stowers, Letter Writing in Greco-Roman Antiquity (Westminster, 1986) and E. Randolph Richards, Paul and First Century Letter Writing: Secretaries, Composition, and Collection (IVP Academic, 2004).
[2] E.g., Scot McKnight, Reading Romans Backwards: A Gospel of Peace in the Midst of Empire (Baylor University, 2021) and Beverly Gaventa, Romans: A Commentary (Westminster John Knox, 2024), 430. I do not yet have Susan Eastman's new Romans commentary, but I suspect she takes the same position.
[3] We should note, for example, that the past (technically perfect) tense reference in Ephesians 2:8 is highly unusual among Paul's writings -- "by grace you have been saved." Even here, it is likely proleptic -- your salvation is a "done-deal" because you have trusted in Christ. In other words, while salvation is technically future, we can speak of it as something accomplished and remaining true today even though it has not happened yet.
[4] There is nothing wrong with our theology when we say, "I got saved ten years ago." It just isn't generally the way Paul talked. Paul also speaks of "being saved" twice (1 Cor. 1:18; 2 Cor. 2:15) in the present tense. But this seems anticipatory rather than a statement of process. In other words, the meaning is something like, "those of us who are scheduled to be saved."
[5] See Matthew Bates, Salvation by Allegiance Alone: Rethinking Faith, Works and the Gospel of Jesus the King (Baker Academic, 2017).
[6] Orthodox Christianity as it developed in the 300s does not see a hierarchy in the Trinity. Sometimes Paul's language of subordination is taken in relation to Jesus' humanity rather than his divinity. In general, I believe we need to have at least a small sense of doctrinal elaboration from the New Testament to the counsels if we wish to be orthodox.
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