Romans

Michael F. Bird, Scot McKnight

• Publisher: Zondervan Academic
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9780310599067
• Topic: Theologie & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblische Studien

A new commentary for today's world, The Story of God Bible Commentary explains and illuminates each passage of Scripture in light of the Bible's grand story.

The first commentary series to do so, SGBC offers a clear and compelling exposition of biblical texts, guiding everyday readers in how to creatively and faithfully live out the Bible in their own contexts. Its story-centric approach is ideal for pastors, students, Sunday school teachers, and laypeople alike.

Each volume employs three main, easy-to-use sections designed to help readers live out God's story:

• LISTEN to the Story: Includes complete NIV text with references to other texts at work in each passage, encouraging the reader to hear it within the Bible's grand story.
• EXPLAIN the Story: Explores and illuminates each text as embedded in its canonical and historical setting.
• LIVE the Story: Reflects on how each text can be lived today and includes contemporary stories and illustrations to aid preachers, teachers, and students.

—Romans—

Romans is a letter that has had monumental impact in the history of Christian thought. Delving into Romans helps us see more clearly the biblical story of how God reveals his salvation to both Israel and the nations and compels us to read the Old Testament with a hermeneutical lens which identifies Jesus as the centerpiece of Israel's redemptive history.

Edited by Scot McKnight and Tremper Longman III, and written by a number of top-notch theologians, The Story of God Bible Commentary series will bring relevant, balanced, and clear-minded theological insight to any biblical education or ministry.

Chapter 1

Chapter 1 ,Romans 1:1 – 7

LISTEN to the Story

1Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God — 2the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures 3regarding his Son, who as to his earthly life was a descendant of David, 4and who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord. 5Through him we received grace and apostleship to call all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith for his name’s sake. 6And you also are among those Gentiles who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.

7To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be his holy people:

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

Listening to the texts in the story: Isaiah 52:1 – 10; Mark 1:1 – 15; 1 Corinthians 15:1 – 8.

In the opening of the “citadel” of Romans 1 – 4, Paul introduces himself to the Roman churches. Paul wastes no time and hits the ground running in this letter by bringing up that which matters most: the gospel and the cause of the gospel, which he endeavours to promote as an apostle. Ultimately, Paul wants to make sure that he and the Roman Gentile Christians are singing off the same sheet of gospel music. Since Paul cannot be in Rome in person, he wants to embed the gospel in their community, to defend himself against any rumor of antinomianism or anti-Israelite sentiment, and to prevent a diverse and potentially fractious Christian community from fragmenting along ethnic lines of Jew versus Gentile. In other words, Paul wants to gospelize the Romans, that is, to conform them to the pattern of teaching that the gospel imparts. Paul pursues this for the sake of unity with the Roman churches and for the promotion of the gospel in a wider pan-Roman theater that reaches from Jerusalem all the way around to Spain.

This densely packed beginning to the letter touches on the biblical story in many ways. First, it calls to mind the Isaianic “glad tidings” or “gospel” about the end of Israel’s exile and the launching of the new exodus found in Isaiah 52:1 – 10. The big rescue that Isaiah looked forward to began with the return of the Babylonian exiles under the Persian king Cyrus, but it was properly fulfilled only in the salvation wrought by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, which is why there are so many new exodus allusions across the letter. Second, the messianic hope of many Jews in antiquity was based on the word of the prophets that God would one day send a new David to deliver Israel (see Isa 11:1; Jer 23:5; Ezek 34:23 – 24; 37:24 – 25; Mic 5:2). For Paul, the resurrection is paramount proof that Jesus is the Messiah who is Israel’s deliverer and Lord of the nations. So when Paul says that his gospel is “promised beforehand” in Scripture, he means it is the final act to the story of Isaiah’s gospel and Israel’s messianic hopes.

The opening verses break down with (1) Paul’s self-introduction (v. 1); (2) a description of the gospel (vv. 2 – 4); (3) a description of his apostolic ministry (v. 5); and (4) a greeting to the Roman churches (vv. 6 – 7).

EXPLAIN the Story

Paul the Apostle (1:1)

The name “Paul” (Paulus in Latin, Paulos in Greek) was a relatively common name in the ancient world. “Paul” is either a cognomen or a nickname used because the Hebrew “Saul” (šāʾûl) was foreign to Greek speakers. In the prescript of the letter Paul immediately sets out his credentials to the Romans in three quick-fire descriptions of himself as “servant [slave],” “apostle,” and “set apart.”

Paul first describes himself as a “servant of Jesus Christ” (see “servants of the Lord” in 2 Kgs 18:12 [Moses]; Judg 2:8 [Joshua]; 2 Sam 7:5 [David]; Amos 3:7; Zech 1:6 [the prophets]). The word doulos has the nuance of “slave” and denotes one subject to the authority of another. Paul uses this expression of himself elsewhere in his letter openings (Phil 1:1; Titus 1:1; cf. Gal 1:10). As a “slave of Christ” Paul is expressing his solemn devotion to Jesus in terms analogous to the master-slave relationship with connotations of absolute belongingness and total submission. While all Christians are slaves of Christ (see 1 Cor 7:22 – 23; Eph 6:6), Paul is a special slave with a special office. The title “Jesus Christ” probably first emerged as a shorthand way of saying Jesus is the Christ or Jesus is the Messiah. In fact, “Jesus Christ” is probably an encoded reference to the status and story of Jesus as the Messiah of Israel and Lord of the cosmos.1

A second element that Paul introduces about himself is that he was “called to be an apostle.” The call was not an invitation; instead, it was a radical summons. In the Septuagint “call” (klētos) is equivalent to “choose” (e.g., Isa 41:9; 42:6; 48:12). Paul did not volunteer for service, but he was chosen to be an apostle by a sovereign action of God (see Gal 1:1; 1 Cor 15:10). This arresting sense of divine call is reminiscent of the commissioning of prophets in the Old Testament like Amos, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. Paul stands in a line of great prophetic figures whom God chose and utilized for his own redemptive purposes.

An “apostle” means literally “one who is sent.” It is most likely indebted to the Jewish concept of a šāliaḥ — the sending of an envoy who represents the sender as if himself in person. In Hebrews, Jesus is called an “apostle” in the sense that he is sent from God (Heb 3:1). Titus and Epaphroditus are each designated as an apostolos (“messenger”) of certain churches (2 Cor 8:23; Phil 2:25). At the end of Romans, Andronicus and Junia are known as “outstanding among the apostles,” which probably indicates their role as missionaries sent out from a Christian community (Rom 16:7). Although Paul was not one of the twelve disciples, he encountered the risen Jesus on the road to Damascus and was called to his apostolic work to proclaim the gospel among the nations (see Acts 22:21; 26:16 – 18; 1 Cor 9:1; 15:8 – 9; Gal 1:15 – 16).2

The third aspect of Paul’s self-description is that he was “set apart” for an evangelistic task. Ironically, the former Pharisee who gloried in his set-apartness from sinners is now set apart as God’s messenger to the quintessential sinners, the Gentiles. A similar testimony is given by Paul in Gal 1:15, where he described how God “set me apart from my mother’s womb and called me by his grace.”

In the church at Antioch, the Holy Spirit led the community to “set apart” Paul and Barnabas for the work which God had called them to undertake (Acts 13:1 – 3). This set-apartness is also related to the priestly service of carrying the gospel to the nations that Paul undertakes (Rom 15:16).

Paul was called to be a servant and an apostle, set apart for a priestly work. These are not merely descriptions, they are tasks; Paul serves, was sent, and was consecrated for the sake of the “gospel of God” (see Rom 15:16; 2 Cor 11:7; 1 Thess 2:2, 8 – 9; 1 Tim 1:11).3 What Paul says about himself is geared toward explaining his role as a herald of the “gospel of God.” No sooner has Paul mentioned the “gospel of God” than he proceeds to describe the “gospel concerning his Son” in 1:3 and the “gospel of his Son” in 1:9. Elsewhere when Paul mentions the gospel, it is usually in association with Jesus Christ as its main subject (see 1 Cor 9:12; 15:1 – 5; 2 Cor 2:12; 4:4; 9:13; 10:14; Phil 1:17; 1 Thess 3:2; 2 Thess 1:8; 2 Tim 2:8). The interchangeability of “Son,” “Jesus,” and “God” as subjects of the gospel is possible because the identity of God is bound up with the “one God” and “one Lord” who are both revealed in the gospel (see 1 Cor 8:6). That means to tell the gospel of God is to tell the story of Jesus. The gospel narrates how God breaks into the world through his Son and the Spirit in order to fulfill the promises that he made to his people.

None of this should surprise us because Romans is the most theocentric letter of the Pauline corpus, with the word theos (“God”) occurring 153 times! Paul is the quintessential Jesus freak, but he is not a mono-Jesus adherent. In fact, God, Son, and Spirit all figure prominently in his opening narration of the gospel story in Romans 1:1 – 4. Theologically speaking, Romans is a discourse about God as he is known through the gospel. As the apostle called, sent, and set apart by God, Paul sets out before the Roman Christians the story of how God’s plan to repossess the world for himself has now been executed in his own Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Before we expound Paul’s gospel further, it is important to establish the background story of “gospel” in its various contexts. From Isaiah 40:9 and 52:7 we learn that the “good news” (the meaning of the two components of eu-angelion, “gospel”) is the announcement that God’s reign is coming because God himself is coming; he will at last redeem his people from exile and slavery and shepherd them; then the ends of the earth will see his salvation.4 Also, when Jesus began his ministry in proclaiming the gospel, he did not go around simply announcing that he was about to die for the sins of the world and thereafter people will be able to get into heaven. He was picking up this prophetic story line of national sin-exile-redemption-new creation. When Jesus preached the “gospel of God” (Mark 1:14) and the “gospel of the kingdom” (Matt 24:14), he was saying that these prophetic promises were coming to fruition. The shot clock had counted down to zero, the new exodus was here, God’s reign was at last breaking in, and the proof of this was the healings and exorcisms he was performing (e.g., Luke 11:20).

Furthermore, we should note the usage of “gospel” (euangelion) in the context of the political propaganda and religion of the Roman Empire. The Romans had their own “gospel” about the accession of new emperors to the throne. In AD 69, while laying siege to Jerusalem, the Roman general Vespasian decided to press his claim to imperial power after the deaths of three emperors in a three-year span. Listen to what Josephus says about him: “When news spread of Vespasian’s accession to the throne every city celebrated the good news and offered sacrifices on his behalf” (Josephus, War 4.618), and “On reaching Alexandria Vespasian was greeted by the good news from Rome and by embassies of congratulations from every quarter of the world, now his own … the whole empire being now secured and the Roman state saved beyond expectation” (ibid., 4.656 – 57).

Giv...