Another Romans commentary?
This article first appeared in the Spring/Summer 2007 edition of In Touch Magazine. For reprint permission contact the Director of Public Relations at 1-800-251-6227.
By Jon Isaak
What’s that you say? Another commentary on Romans? Why bother? Isn’t Paul’s letter to the Romans basically summed up by four verses: “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (3:23), “since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (5:1), “the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (6:23), and “there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (8:1)?
Certainly these affirmations of personal salvation are part of Paul’s argument in Romans. But there is so much more! I believe Paul’s larger concern is to demonstrate that God can be trusted to keep the ancient promise to creation, in spite of appearances to the contrary. Plus, Paul wants the world to know that all people groups are invited, expected and empowered to join God in together moving the creation enterprise, begun so long ago, forward toward its completion.
Before saying more about this paradigm shift, I want to frame my response to the question of “why another Romans commentary?” with some metaphors of an autobiographical nature. The basic reason that drives me to write, and to teach Bible for that matter, is that I see myself as a blend between a mechanic, a dreamer, and a missionary.
I’m a mechanic; I love to fix things and make them hum along in a good way. I’ve rebuilt two VW Beetle engines and hope to do the same with a VW diesel Rabbit this year. My aim is to convert it to run also on used vegetable oil. There are good theological, economic, and ecological reasons for such a venture. What can I say? I love to tinker, to fix, and to make things work better. And here is the analogy; I honestly think there is much in our understanding of early Christianity and of contemporary Christianity that needs tinkering, and even fixing!
I’m also a dreamer who is optimistic that people can change, that growing and learning are part of what makes us special as human beings, that God has not given up on creation, and that God delights in our participation in making things right. While the task of interpreting Paul’s gospel in today’s language may be difficult – he isn’t easy to follow – this is just the kind of challenge that dreamers like me thrive on!
In addition, I’m a missionary with a vision to come alongside people engaged in theological reflection so that together we can create lives worth living, which reflect more authentically God’s character and invite others to join in God’s transformational mission. So, another book on Romans flows out of my missionary passion to engage contemporary culture with the gospel of Jesus in order to call society to be shaped God’s way.
Going against the grain
Now you might be wondering about the “repairs” that I’m talking about. Well, how about a little quiz? What do you think is the popular answer to the following questions? 1) Does the church see the Gospel as a solution to Judaism’s impossible quest to earn God’s favor? 2) Do Christians see the Jewish law as opposed to grace? 3) Does Christianity replace/displace Israel and take over its promises? 4) Does the Gospel aim to alleviate personal feelings of guilt?
What is the popular answer to all four questions? If you think the answer is “yes,” you would be right. But that is precisely the problem! I believe this is a flawed picture and not really representative of Paul’s argument in Romans. The mechanic, dreamer, and missionary in me wants to fix this problem, because I believe it impacts how we view God and represent God to the watching world.
From my reading of Romans, I believe the pressing questions to which Paul is responding are rather the following: 1) Can God be trusted, if God can’t even save God’s own children? 2) Can God be trusted, if gifts like the law prove to be unable to deliver--essentially impotent? What does that say about the giver of the gift? 3) Can God be trusted, if God must quietly put away Plan A, the Jews, and take up Plan B, the Gentiles? Who is to say God won’t tire of the Gentiles? 4) Can God be trusted to complete creation, if the Gospel doesn’t have social and political outcomes? These concerns are quite different from those heard in popular Christian discourse. I say an overhaul is needed!
Another way
This “new” way of reading Paul, which emerged in the 1970s, is called the “New Perspective.” However, it is still not generally part of the church’s popular discourse. You continue to hear lines like these: 1) The Gospel saves us from the demands of the law. 2) Christianity is good news because it frees us from the “works righteousness” of Judaism. 3) Justification by faith is Christianity’s answer to Judaism. 4) The Gospel is about personal salvation and should not get mixed up in social and political causes.
Such popular assertions about Romans are not only flawed, they are also distortions of Paul. Instead, on each of these four points, Paul argues for something quite different. 1) Jesus fulfils the goal of the law. 2) Judaism never was a “works righteousness” religion. 3) Jews also believe they are saved by God’s grace. 4) There are political and social implications that are integral to the Gospel.
So, how did such distortions emerge? In my book I outline some of the reasons for the drift from the theological vision that Paul first set out. Briefly put, during the 1970s a handful of scholars (like Krister Stendahl and E.P. Sanders) showed that many of our popular notions of first-century Judaism were seriously flawed and owed more to the Reformation battle with Catholicism in the sixteenth century. The world of Jesus, Paul, and the early Christians was quite different from the sixteenth century. In other words, we may think that we are hearing the voice of Paul when we read Romans, but in most cases, we are hearing the voices of Luther, Calvin, and the other Reformers debating their Catholic counterparts on the meaning and means of salvation.
My goal in this commentary is to bring to the level of popular discourse a reading of Romans that gives access to Paul on his own terms in order to hear a ringing testimony to a very simple but profound argument—God is one and God is fair. In other words, God can be trusted to shepherd this enterprise called creation to its goal, in spite of appearances to the contrary. So, why not come along and join in? Romans is Paul’s testimony to God’s faithfulness.
I am convinced that Paul’s affirmation of God’s trustworthiness is a powerful word of hope even today. We have similar questions before us when we face the messy realities of life. Can God be trusted? There is much that is not right, much that begs the question of whether God is faithful. At times we may wonder if there really is a story of God’s people arching through time and calling for our participation or if perhaps the story is more one where each person makes meaning for themselves. In other words, we may feel that we are being forced to choose between our embrace of the ancient story of God’s people or our contemporary experience of meaning making.
No simple answers
Must we choose one or the other? I don’t think so. Paul refused this overly simplistic option. He refused to abandon his experience of the crucified and risen Lord in order to salvage his affirmation of God’s promises to Israel, which seemed to contradict his experience (Deuteronomy 21:22-23). At the same time, he refused to abandon his affirmation of God’s promises to Israel in order to salvage his experience of the risen Lord as Messiah (Romans 10:4). Somehow he was able to negotiate the tension of holding both his experience and his confession in the midst of pressing realities like rejection, confusion, ambiguity, and apparent contradiction.
Romans is the story of Paul doing the work of living with the tension of experience and confession—continually deferring the resolution in the confidence that God can indeed be trusted to accomplish the ancient promise, even if the evidence appears to point in the opposite direction. This is good news! But then again, this is not really new. People of faith have from the beginning of time had to take hold of the same tension in order to move forward through the messiness of life. No wonder Paul’s letter to the Romans was copied and circulated so rapidly around the Mediterranean world--it has an enduring quality of offering a ringing testimony to God’s faithfulness, to God’s invitation, and to God’s empowerment.
I join a small, but vocal group of interpreters, like James Dunn, Richard Hays, Luke Johnson, John Toews, and Tom Wright who feel compelled to challenge some 400 years of reading Paul. It might seem audacious, but the stakes are high. There is just too much to lose and so much to gain. My desire is that Paul’s gospel message will be heard by contemporary readers in the same provocative, revolutionary, and liberating way that it was heard when it was first read so long ago. Thanks be to God who is both one and fair!