PAUL'S LETTER TO THE ROMANS AND THE OLD TESTAMENT | ||||||||||||||
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If one goes through the letter to the Romans, some material appears to contradict directly with the Old Testament. However, some study will show that this is not the case. This study shows how and why the letter to the Romans agrees with the Old Testament. This study attempts to use standard terminology for the description of most doctrinal issues. However, we only use this terminology where we does not feel it interferes with clear comprehension and understanding of the issues presented. "Man," "men," and other words of similar kind, where they may apply to a specific gender but may also have a neutral gender (the species as opposed to the gender), carry with them the neutral gender. Similarly, the male pronouns "him," "his," etc. carry with them the neutral gender, out of respect for simplifying reading, comfort, and comprehension. One of the first things to note in the letter to the Romans is in the first chapter (vv. 18-32). Paul begins some explanation about righteousness and its connection to the Law. Paul essentially states that God gave man subconscious knowledge of the Law, to know what is right and what is evil. This serves as an explanation of the conscience of a man. Paul then exhorts the audience of his letter (2:1-16) to not become boastful and judge those who sin. He first rebukes the person who judges another for a sin that he himself commits.
God is the only one capable of judging all sins, for God alone is sinless. The blessings and curses in Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28 demonstrate the validity of the parenthetical comment spanning verses 13-15.How is this? Because they are dependent on whether the person obeys the law or not, not whether the person heard it or not. Paul explains in the following paragraphs (starting in v. 17 and continuing to the end of the chapter) that blasphemy of the name of God is not only by the mouth, but also by one's actions. ("One's actions speak louder than their words.") Paul illustrates with the examples of theft, adultery, and idolatry that, if you teach others that God prohibits it and then proceed to do those things which are prohibited, you put to shame the name of God. Paul then commences to make an illustration using circumcision. This illustration uses the token of the covenant with Abraham as if it were the token of one's salvation. If a circumcised man does not keep the law, will God save him? If an uncircumcised man does keep the law, will God save him? God will save the man who keeps His law, regardless of circumcision. This is what Paul calls "circumcision of the heart". Chapter 3 deals with two ideas: the salvation of the Jews and the attaining to righteousness by works. First off, the Jews are still capable of attaining to righteousness, as God gave them the law. Even through their unrighteousness are they able to demonstrate God's righteousness (much as by showing a person a stained cloth are they more capable of showing how clean another is). However, Paul quotes Scripture (Psalms 5:9, 10:7, 14:1-3, 36:1, 53:1-3, 140:3, Ecclesiastes 7:20, Isaiah 59:7-8) to indicate that all men have sinned and are held guilty by God. All men are therefore impure; how can we boast of our purity to God? There is no man on earth that can boast of his purity to God; how shall he hope God to save him because of it? Therefore, one cannot attain righteousness and salvation from God simply by works. How then will God justify a man, if not by works? Paul says that God will justify a man by faith, not only if he is a Jew, but also if he is a Gentile. Does this make void the law, because we are now under grace? Paul says instead that the law is established. How is this? (See "Grace and the Law".) One can find this discussion in the fourth chapter. Paul goes to show that God justified Abraham, an icon to the Jews and known to be justified, by his faith by quoting Genesis 15:6.
God did not save Abraham because of his works, but because of his faith. Abraham trusted God, so God justified Abraham. Paul continues by quoting Psalm 32.
Whose sin will God cover? Ezekiel 18:21-22
Paul then continues: Did God justify Abraham because he was circumcised? No! Abraham was not circumcised until he was ninety-nine years old, after Hagar bore him Ishmael. The story of Ishmael's birth is in Genesis 16, after God justified Abraham. Thus, Paul makes a case that circumcision is not a requirement for salvation. God therefore justified Abraham because of his faith and justifies his children because of their faith. Paul's argument continues. If the law makes one an heir of God, then faith is made void. We know, however, that faith is not void. Therefore, the law does not make one an heir of God. The next chapter carries on the need for reconciliation. All men have sinned; those that are to be saved must be cleansed of that sin.God will not have stained clothes in His kingdom. They must be clean. How will God clean them? Paul spends several verses (vv. 6-11) expounding on Christ's sacrifice.
If a man is righteous, who would die for him because of his righteousness? However, men would be willing to lay down their lives for a good man. Christ, a good and righteous man, died for all men, whether they were good, bad, righteous, or evil. Adam's sin brought about death. However, the death of Jesus Christ has offered eternal life. For reconciliation to God comes by the death of Jesus Christ. Jesus is the ransom that bought us from sin. Jesus did not sin, so there was no need for Him to be reconciled to God. Why does this work? Is this in keeping with the way things were? The Jews will say that no precedent exists for a man to atone for the sins of the future with an offering. After all, how can one atone for a sin that he has not yet committed? The answer is this: Jesus offered reconciliation to God through His death, yet continues to offer reconciliation to God in His duty as the high priest as He lives today and forever. His death provided the reconciliation for the sins of men at that time. God allows Jesus to apply that reconciliation for the sins of men to this present day and until sin and death are conquered. God is the ruler of the universe; "I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. Next, Paul demonstrates that the law is necessary to show that there is need for reconciliation. The law defines what sin is. Sin is what requires reconciliation to God. Therefore, the law defines what requires reconciliation. Grace now enters the equation; grace is that which frees men from making reconciliation themselves. The sixth chapter is a portion of Romans that is a matter of debate, though through study of the content the message becomes clear. When a man dies, he is no longer capable of sinning. When Christ was alive as a mortal, He was "alive to sin". However, He did not sin and therefore needed no reconciliation to God. When He died, he became "dead to sin". Not having sinned, Christ was therefore perfect, and needed no reconciliation to God. Instead, His death became the reconciliation for all men to God. The grace of God is what allowed the death of Christ to become the reconciliation for all men to God. This grace is what has freed men from having to die for their sins, instead granting them eternal life with God. Paul also compares this reconciliation to the ransom paid to set a slave free, or the price for buying a slave. Thus, with this ransom men are no longer slaves to sin ("dead to sin") and are now free from sin and slaves to God. This means that men should now serve God, not sin. What does it mean to serve God? Paul also clarifies this, using the same example. If the grace of God saves men, what defines this grace? God's grace ransoms men from sin, setting them free from sin. Thus, if a man is free from sin, he must serve another master. If the definition of sin is the transgression of the law, which is what Paul is working with, then one who is not serving sin is not transgressing the law. Thus, to serve God means to obey the law. Grace is the redemption of men from sin, both its remembrance and the punishment thereby associated with it. As sin is the transgression of the law and grace is dependent on the existence of sin, grace is therefore dependent on the existence of the law. Therefore, grace cannot exist without the law. To sum up this chapter, grace, granted by a man's faith, is what saves a man. That grace cannot exist without the law and is therefore dependent upon the law. When grace saves a man, God sets him free from sin; therefore, God requires the man to obey the law (as opposed to serving sin). Faith is the first requirement of salvation; there follows grace, the redemption from sin, and the law, the service of God (and the lack of service to sin). After reading the summary of he previous chapter, it seems that nothing has changed: a man is still required to obey the law. God does still require man to obey the law to maintain righteousness (once he obtains it through faith), however it is this grace that has been offered that allows man to be reconciled to God, where it was previously impossible. How does Paul follow this up? By his symbolic death (baptism), a man dies to the law, that he should no longer serve "in the oldness of the letter" of the law, but in the "newness of the spirit" of the law.
The law still binds the saved man, but the man serves the law in the Spirit of the law, rather than the letter of the law. Paul sums up the spirit of the law later in Romans (in similar fashion to Christ and the Talmud): "...[He] who loves another has fulfilled the law.For the commandments... are all summed up in this saying, namely, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law." (Christ stated, however, that loving God came first and loving your neighbor came next.) Therefore, a man no longer serves the law as it defines sin, but the man serves the law as it defines righteousness. The man searches the law to see how it defines the love of God and his neighbor, not how it prevents him from submitting to his carnal desires. The man serves the law because it brings him closer to God, perfecting the man, and perfecting his love, so that he may become more in love like his Father and elder Brother. This is how God cleanses a man, not simply through the sacrifice of Christ, but also through the pursuit of righteousness. For a cleansed spirit that does not strive for righteousness is still unclean, dirty, and unfit to be in God's kingdom. A man strives to put to death the carnal nature within him because he wishes to show himself a servant approved before God. The first verse of the eighth chapter has a tendency to be quoted to show that a saved man is no longer under condemnation. However, look closely at the language of the verse. This actually clarifies things, does it not? There is no condemnation for those who do not walk according to the flesh. There is no condemnation for those who walk according to the Spirit. The people that do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit, are those who are in Christ Jesus. The condemnation still exists for those who walk according to the flesh, not according to the Spirit. A man follows the law, walks according to the Spirit, in order to nurture the Spirit of Christ.
According to Paul, the only way for God to save you is to have the spirit of Christ within you. This means walking according to the Spirit, not according to the flesh. This means putting to death the servant to sin and living as a servant to the law through faith and grace. The ninth chapter shows Paul's remorse towards his own people, the Israelites. Paul wishes that his people would turn back to God, that God may save them as well. He goes back to his earlier point of the pursuit of righteousness and that such pursuit is useless without faith. Now this study will concentrate on the tenth chapter of Romans. A controversial verse appears in this chapter, though if interpreted correctly will not be much of a problem. Many people translate this to mean (out of context) that Christ abolished the law and that the law no longer holds dominion over the saved man. However, this study already showed that this is not true. How is this point reconciled? First, a look at another translation of this verse will be useful, perhaps one that agrees more closely with the information that has already been presented. This quote is from The Complete Jewish Bible by David Stern.
Now, to quote from a companion to The Complete Jewish Bible, The Jewish New Testament Commentary, also by David Stern (from the commentary for Romans 10:4, p. 395, emphasis added):
Jesus did not bring an end to the law, nor did He bring an end to the maintenance of righteousness through obedience to the law. This study already showed that. The law cannot come to an end if grace is to save men, because grace is dependent on the existence and applicability of the law. As long as men are mortal, the law is applicable. Until God conquers sin and death, the law is applicable. Paul spent chapters 9 and 10 crying for his brethren, the Israelites, that they may be saved. He has not said that the Israelites cannot be saved, nor does he. In the next chapter, the eleventh chapter, Paul compares the body of Christ (saved men) with bread and trees (the longer illustration being that to trees). Paul compares the Israelites and their righteous forefathers to a domestic olive tree, grown and tended by God. Paul compares the Gentiles to a wild olive tree, which God took branches from and grafted into the domestic tree.
This is an example of a kal v'chomer argument: "If X is true, how much more so is Y true?" If God can take a branch from a wild olive tree and graft it in with a cultivated tree, how much more so can God take a branch cut from the domesticated tree and graft it back in?Thus, the Israelites have access to the salvation that God offers through Christ, more so because God gave them the law first which, through faith, produces righteousness. The twelfth and thirteenth chapters of Romans follow very closely many of the teachings of Christ. It is easy to see how Paul reflects Christ's ministry in these chapters. They essentially encourage saved men to live peaceably with their brethren in the church and, as much as possible, with those outside of it. Paul encourages saved men to avoid coming at odds with the laws of the land where the laws of the land do not come at odds with the law of God. This portion of the study focuses on the fourteenth chapter (and the first few verses of the fifteenth). This chapter has several portions that appear to contradict the Old Testament, but on closer examination may not. Again, here is a quote from The Jewish New Testament Commentary by David Stern:
On the basis of this passage, Messianic Jews are sometimes asked by Gentile Christians to stop observing Jewish holidays or keeping kosher. Or they are criticized as having "weak faith" if they adhere to Jewish practices. But the specifics of the passage are clearly in a Gentile cultural and religious context, not a Jewish one. It does not teach that following Jewish practices is a sign of "weak faith." Rather, it exhorts believers, Jewish or Gentile, whose trust is "strong" not to look down on those whose trust they consider "weak" - precisely the opposite of the behavior described above. The passage also teaches the "weak" not to pass judgment on the "strong" for failing to observe practices the "weak" consider important, since all believers are equal before the God who has delivered them. Invidious distinctions and disputes should give way to caring for one another and mutual upbuilding, in imitation of the Messiah. The rabbis too teach that the gifted, the rich and the learned should not boast against those who have not received those blessings from God. They too teach against having a "holier-than-thou" attitude. They too teach that all in Israel should care for each other and build up the community. Stern continues with four interpretations of identifying those people that have "strong" or "weak" faith by the behaviors that Paul associated with each. His proposal which he considers correct (and with which this author agrees) is as follows:
Essentially, if God shows a man a portion of the law and compels that man to keep it in order to no longer serve sin, that man should keep it to pursue righteousness. If a man decides to add to the law in his own mind to make it easier for him to keep the law, no other Christian should judge him of that; only God should judge. A man is accountable only to God for what he keeps or does not keep.
Paul not only asks men to not judge fellow Christians, but also to prevent them from breaking their own promises to God. If a man refrains from drinking alcohol in order to prevent a relapse of alcoholism, a Christian should not require him to drink alcohol when he is a guest. In fact, Paul says it would be wise for a Christian not to drink alcohol in his presence. If a person vows to be vegetarian, make it easier for them to keep that vow, as much as it is within your ability to do so. It is the Christian's job to help fellow Christians lead their lives in righteousness. It is not the job of a Christian to provide an obstacle to test the faith of another Christian. Let God try each Christian as He will and let each Christian support their brethren as they can to conquer the obstacles that God provides. The conclusion of the letter to the Romans (starting a few verses into the fifteenth chapter) follows with more advice similar to that found in the twelfth and thirteenth chapters. Paul also takes this time to send his greetings to various recipients of the epistle, as does his scribe, Tertius. We hope that it addressed most, if not all, of the major issues in Romans that appear to contradict with the Old Testament (plus some that do not).
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