The Atonement Part 6: Romans

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


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


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


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


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


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