Romans

Exegetical Study Notes on the Greek Text

These exegetical notes are available for download in the form a 535p A5 PDF eBook Commentary on the Greek text of the Epistle of Paul to the Romans. Follow the link at the bottom of the page.

Paul's letter to the Romans may be summed up with the words "Christ supplemented is Christ supplanted", Hendriksen.

In this dissertation, Paul sets out to deal with the sin problem in the Christian life - how sin seems to undermine a believer’s standing before God, undermine their holiness, setting them up for cursing, rather than blessings. His argument is set against law-bound believers who regard submission to the law (primarily the law of Moses) as the means of restraining sin and promoting holiness for the full appropriation of God's promised blessings.

For Paul, this heresy (nomism, sanctification by obedience) not only undermines the substance of the gospel, but actually undermines a believer's standing before God. As far as Paul is concerned, a believer, having been set right and holy before God (justified) on the basis of Christ's faithfulness appropriated by faith, facilitates the fullness of new life in Christ, and this apart from law obedience.

By grace through faith "there is nothing we can do to make God love us more, and there is nothing we can do to make God love us less", Phillip Yancey.

These notes proceed on the assumption that Paul's letter to the Romans adopts the rhetorical format of a diatribe. This was first suggested by Bultmann in an essay in 1910, cf., cf. Kennedy, New Testament Interpretation through Rhetorical Criticism. Romans is certainly not a full-blown diatribe, in that Paul did not personally know the recipients of his letter / lecture.

In epideictic rhetoric, where the aim is to persuade people to hold a particular point of view, the author / lecturer opens with an introduction, an exhortation, an exordium, often with a narrative piece, a narratio. Then, as in Romans, the partitio, proposition or thesis follows, 1:16-17. This is then followed by an exposition of the thesis in a series of proofs, probatio, 1:18-5:21. The author / lecturer then moves on to a refutation of objections, a refutio, 6:1-11:36. Often there are digressions when the subject matter is dealt with in more detail, a digressio, eg., 7:7-25 and 8:18-39 serve to develop a particular thought raised in the refutation of objections. The author / lecturer will then conclude with a peroratio, a recapitulation of proofs and an exhortatio. This format is observable in Romans.

God's righteous rule, his setting everything right, is made manifest / realised in the gospel. A person who is set right and holy before God (justified) on the basis of faith (Christ's faith / faithfulness [his atoning sacrifice] and the faith-response of the believer) is fully gifted with the promised blessings of God (the fullness of new life in Christ) and this apart from law-obedience. cf. 1:16-17.

The apostle proposes that a believer's reliance in faith on the faithfulness of Christ, of itself, apart from the law, facilitates their standing before God (made / accounted right and holy) for the full appropriation of the promised covenant blessing of new life. This proposition is encapsulated in Paul's key text, Habakkuk 2:4, as expounded in his general letter to the Romans.

Text: "The righteous out of faith will live", Habakkuk 2:4.

The Pauline synthesis:

FAITH = RIGHTEOUSNESS = BLESSINGS = WORKS.

FAITH = RIGHTEOUSNESS + WORKS = BLESSINGS.

James' synthesis:

FAITH = RIGHTEOUSNESS = BLESSINGS = WORKS.

FAITH = RIGHTEOUSNESS = BLESSINGS - (minus) WORKS .

Luther's synthesis:

FAITH = RIGHTEOUSNESS = BLESSINGS = WORKS.

FAITH + WORKS = RIGHTEOUSNESS = BLESSINGS.

The New Perspective synthesis:

FAITH = RIGHTEOUSNESS - LAW = GENTILE INCLUSION.

Terms defined:

Key words

For a summary of Paul's overall argument see "Context", 1:1-7

The author of the letter is Paul the apostle, and his authorship has hardly ever been disputed.

The identified recipient of the letter is the church in Rome. This church was probably founded by Jewish believers. We know that there was trouble in the Roman synagogues over a "Chrestus", obviously driven by disputes over the messiahship of Jesus. It is likely that these disturbances prompted the authorities to expel the Jews (along with the Christians - originally regarded as a sect of the Jews) from Rome in AD 49. Within ten years the church was again flourishing in Rome ("a huge multitude", Tacitus), so much so that Nero in AD 64 was able to blame the Christians for his own incompetence. As was the case of the early church, the congregation would initially be made up of converted Jews, but over time became increasingly Gentile.

Although the letter is ascribed ProV RomaiouV, “To Rome”, the likely recipients are all Paul’s mission churches, ie., Romans presents as a circular letter. Paul’s mission churches were plagued with the heresy of nomism (sanctification by obedience), and this heresy was undermining his gospel of grace. Although Paul had not founded the Roman church, it was likely infested with the same heresy, and given its political importance, and Paul’s status as apostle to the Gentiles, an ascribed copy is sent to Rome with personal notes

Paul probably composed his letter to the Roman church in 57 or 58AD, during his stay in Corinth. Paul, having been forced to leave Ephesus, was intending to visit Corinth, but due to problems in the church he delayed his visit and continued his missionary work in Macedonia. During this time he wrote the letter known as 2 Corinthians to the church in Corinth. The problems in Corinth seems to have developed around some judaizers, members of the circumcision party from the church in Jerusalem, who had set up shop in the Corinthian congregation. Paul doesn't address their theology in 2 Corinthians, but he is certainly critical of their attempt to undermine his apostolic authority.

On arriving in Corinth, Paul obviously deals with the opposition party and it is during this time that he writes his letter to the Romans, a letter which deals head-on with the heretical theology promoted by the judaizers. As already noted, it is likely that Romans is substantially a general treatise composed by Paul to confront the heresy of nomism (sanctification by obedience), and circulated throughout his mission churches. The letter, as we have it, was sent to the church in Rome in preparation for Paul's visit there before traveling to Spain. After his stay in Corinth, Paul set off for Jerusalem with his collection for the poor in Palestine, but was arrested and ended up in Rome as a prisoner

Paul's purpose in writing is that "I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong - that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith", 1:11,12. In particular, his intent is to remind the believers in Rome again of the substance of the gospel so that they "might become an offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit", 15:15,16.

Although this purpose is most often understood in evangelistic terms as an exposition of the gospel of grace against those who see salvation as a reward for obedience, these notes proceed on the basis that Romans is an exposition of the gospel as it relates to the Christian walk; Romans explains how to realise new life in Christ. Paul is not explaining how a person becomes a Christian, but how a believer goes on as a Christian, how we go forward in the Christian life.

Paul sets out to deal with the sin problem, the way sin seems to undermine a believer’s standing with God. Against those believers who think that obedience to the law controls sin and so promotes holiness for blessing (sanctification by obedience), Paul explains that a believer, who is justified by grace through faith, already possesses in Christ a state of holiness whereby they appropriate the fullness of God's promised new-life / new-creation blessings, and this apart from obedience to the law. A believer going on in the Christian life in the same way they began their journey with Jesus, by grace through faith.

The interpretation of the book of Romans is presently in a state of flux due to the work of new perspective commentators. Reformed commentators handle Romans as a treatise on how an individual is justified (declared right = acquitted / forgiven = saved) in the sight of God, whereas new perspective commentators argue that the epistle is a treatise on how both Jew and Gentile, in Christ, stand equally as members of the new covenant. This debate is far from settled.

These notes take the view that Paul’s letter to the Romans is a critique of the heresy of nomism - sanctification by obedience. This heresy is the focus of the book of Galatians and the substance of the Jerusalem conference recorded in Acts 15. The heretics are Jewish Christians, judaizers who have adopted the nomism of the circumcision party in the Jerusalem church, believers who identify themselves as members of the Nazarene sect of Jesus the Messiah within Judaism. These nomists affirm the keeping of the Law of Moses (the moral law through to its minutia - what to eat etc., identified by the sign of circumcision) as the means by which a believer restrains sin to promote holiness for the full appropriation of new life in Christ (the promised Abrahamic blessings). These law-bound believers obviously accept that they are justified (set right before God / judged covenant compliant) by faith, in the sense of forgiven, but that the sanctification / holiness / perfection required for the full appropriation of the promised Abrahamic blessings necessitates a strict application of the law of Moses.

This heresy is commonly called nomism (sanctification by obedience to the law), as opposed to legalism (salvation by obedience to the law). Against this heresy, Paul sets out to affirm that a person who is justified on the basis of faith in Christ's faithful obedience on the cross, stands right and holy before God and so fully appropriates, as a natural consequence, God's promised blessing of new life in Christ ("life"), and this apart from obedience to the law. A believer who submits themselves again to the law, as a means of restraining sin and promoting holiness (sanctification) for the appropriation of God's promised blessings (the promised blessings of the Abrahamic covenant / life / new life in Christ / the gift of the holy Spirit, etc.), serves only to trigger the curse of the law and thus the condemnation of God.

It should be noted that scholars are divided on many important issues which affect the exegesis of this letter:

Due to the influence of both Luther and Calvin, commentators have tended to treat Romans as a theological treatise on faith as the means of salvation, rather than law-obedience. The approach taken in these notes is that Paul's opponents are not legalists, in that they do understand that their salvation rests on the faithfulness of Christ, in much the same way as any faithful second-temple Jew understands that their covenant standing rests on God's grace. Paul's opponents are nomists, as were most religious Jews at this time.

Paul's opponents, the members of the circumcision party in the early church, saw obedience to the Mosaic law as a necessary requirement for the suppression of sin to promote holiness for the full appropriation of the promised blessings of the covenant. They understood that, through faith in/of Christ, they were right before God, forgiven, but holiness was another matter. Obedience to the Mosaic law was necessary to promote holiness for blessing. For Paul, a believer, by grace through faith, is both right and holy before God and so already righty able to possess the promised blessings of the covenant, of life in all its fullness (the foretaste being the gift of the Spirit). Paul argues that to move beyond the faithfulness of Christ to make more right what is already right, to make holy what is already holy, serves only to undermine a person's standing before God.

So, nomism (sanctification by obedience), the heresy promoted by the members of the circumcision party, is the belief that, although a person is justified (set right before God, judged covenant compliant) on the basis of faith in the faithfulness of Christ, law-obedience ("works of the law" - compliance with the law of Moses) is essential to restrain sin and promote holiness (sanctify) for a believer to move forward in the Christian life and so appropriate the fullness of new life in Christ (the promised Abrahamic blessings - the gift of the Spirit, etc.).

In Romans, Paul calls those members of the church who are inclined toward the heresy of nomism (due to their legalist approach to the Mosaic law), as “the weak”.

Paul promotes what we might loosely call "full justification". Often, justification is understood as a declaration of righteousness (of right-standing before God) at conversion, which must then be maintained by a faithful attention to God's law. Yet, it is likely that this is the very heresy that Paul is addressing. For Paul, justification is the divine act of rectification, the bestowal of an eternal righteousness / perfection before God, which state is a gift of divine grace appropriated through faith (Christ's faithfulness and our faith response). It is because we are in this state in Christ that we possess the fullness of God's promised new life, and this all apart from law-obedience.

So for Paul, justification is not just an accounting of righteousness, but the bestowal of righteousness. A believer, by grace through faith, is in Christ, united to Christ, standing, not just kind-of right before God, but completely right before God, eternally right and holy, perfect - it’s just if I’d never sinned. In the eye of the Ancient of Days, as even now we stand before him, he doesn’t see us the way we are, but the way Christ is.

Reformed commentators have divided on the declared, or made right issue, yet we probably need to accept that what God declares so is so. If God declares that we are covenant compliant, then we are that way. Of course, just because we stand eternally approved before God does not mean that we should lose sight of the imperatives so evident in scripture. Paul certainly doesn't, and it is particularly noticeable that he doesn't in Romans. As far as Paul is concerned, in Christ we are perfect, so let us strive to be the perfect person we are in Christ. Of course, in this life we never will; as Luther put it, "the old Adam retains his power until he is deposited in the grave". So, we press forward because God's grace impels us to be gracious. .

Neither libertarianism, nor perfectionism has any place in Paul's understanding of justification. See The key propositional terms from Galatians 2:16.

There are those who argue that faith is a gift of God. William Occum, a famous theologian, certainly pushed this point of view. It is true to say that faith is a gift in the sense that God is the author of all that makes us human. It is also true that the Holy Spirit strengthens the faith of a believer. Yet, saving faith is nothing more than a simple response of trust, a relying on, depending of God’s revelation to humanity in Jesus Christ. When I sit down on my chair, I have faith that it won't collapse. Such a belief is based on an understanding of nature. Faith in Christ is a similar sort of thing. A person, lost and broken, calls out for help to the living God; they desire the one they do not know, but sense is there. The scriptures promise that "he who seeks finds", so, as the seeker relies (believes) on this self-revelation from God, so they move from darkness to light, from death to life.

Some also believe that faith is a once-only act of dependence upon Christ at conversion. No way! Faith involves a life of dependence upon Christ; it is not a passing phase; it is a continuing attitude. From the moment we give our life to Jesus, we are to "live by faith", persevere in faith.

Calvinists and Zwinglians will never agree on this issue, and to be fair, there is truth in both sides of the argument. Yet, we do well to remember that Jesus reminds his disciples that there is an unforgivable sin, namely the rejection of his person, Matt.12:31. A believer’s salvation depends on a persevering faith in the faithfulness of Jesus Christ on our behalf. The letter to the Hebrews constantly reminds us that we must persevere in faith, even providing that most contentious of warnings that “It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age and who have fallen away, to be brought back to repentance”, Heb.6:4-6.

So, as a gift of divine grace, a person is justified by faith in the faithfulness of Jesus Christ, and this eternally so for all who persevere in faith. See Gal.2:16.

Sanctification has always been a hotbed of debate in Christian circles. Sanctification is often viewed as the process of making holy, a process advanced by a faithful attention to God's law, both to restrain sin and so promote holiness. Yet, as far as Paul is concerned, in Christ we are already holy, nothing can progress our standing further; in Christ, we are fully justified before God, perfectly right and holy. Of course, Paul then faced the obvious retort, "why not sin that grace may abound?". If we are already holy in Christ, why bother living a holy life? In fact, why not live a totally selfish life and promote God's grace in return? Of course, as Paul pointed out, a person in Christ will naturally strive to live like Christ, irrespective of the demands of the law. God's grace makes us gracious.

A popular definition is that sanctification is the progressive realisation of what we are in Christ. I like this definition, but the word "progressive" has always bothered me, even though we do generally progress in the Christian life - two steps forward, one step back! Sometimes a very big step back!! The definition leaves open the means of progress - when there is progress! Too often, believers look to moral faithfulness as the means to progress their Christian life, when perseverance in faith is the way forward.

So, I propose the following definition: sanctification, as a product of justification, is a state of holiness, which, in the renewing power of the indwelling Spirit of Christ, we seek to realise in our daily life, albeit, always imperfectly.

Central to any understanding of Romans is the identity of “the weak”. It is likely that this is the term Paul uses to identify those believers in the Roman church who, due to their strict adherence to the law, are inclined toward nomism. As already noted, nomism (sanctification by obedience) is the heresy promoted by the judaizers, the members of the circumcision party, those members of the Jerusalem church who were undermining Paul's ministry in his mission churches. Some commentators regard “the weak” simply as unconverted Jews, but it is more likely that they are mainly converted Jews committed to the Torah, and its outward expression in the sign of circumcision.

Crucial to an understanding of Romans is how both Paul, and the members of the circumcision party, the judaizers, view the law. Both do seem to be speaking about the law of Moses, the Torah, but from totally different perspectives.

For Paul, the primary role of the law is to expose sin and thus drive the sinner to seek a righteousness that is apart from law-obedience, a righteousness found in Christ's faithfulness. At a secondary level, the law does serve to guide the life of faith, but it cannot promote holiness for blessing, and this because the riches of God's grace are found in Christ alone. For a believer to use the law as a mechanism to restrain sin and promote holiness for the appropriation of the blessings of the Christian life, serves only to place themselves again under the curse of the law, and thus, under judgment.

Clearly, the judaizers saw the law in quite a different light, although, since we only have Paul's critique of their position, it is not easy to know exactly what they believed. Most commentators regard them as legalists, that is, they taught that obedience to the law earned a person their salvation, it justified them, but this seems unlikely.

It is more than likely that the judaizers were influenced by 2nd temple Judaism. A faithful Jew understood that a person's covenant status was a gift of God's grace, a gift of his covenant mercy. Yet, when it came to the maintenance of covenant standing, they mistakenly treated the regulations of the Mosaic covenant as if binding codicils which serve to restrain sin and promote holiness for blessing. So, for the judaizers, a person is right before God by grace through faith, but is holy before God by faithful obedience to the law.

As with most Israelites, the judaizers had failed to recognise that the prime function of the law is to expose sin and thus compel Israel to seek a righteousness like Abraham's, a divine approval that rests on God's covenant mercy (grace), a mercy appropriated through faith. Note how Jesus used the law in his many confrontations with law-bound Jews. He constantly pushed the law into the area of ideals such that it was impossible for them to claim that they were right and holy before God under the law. In the parables of The Rich Young Ruler and The Good Samaritan, the law is presented as an ideal for which divine mercy is the only way forward.

It is claimed by some commentators that the judaizers were simply arguing for the maintenance of Jewish traditions, in particular, circumcision, but again, this seems doubtful. It is more likely that they were nomists - Paul is confronting a heresy, not the problem of Jewish exclusivism.

The exposition of Romans is in a state of flux with some commentators adopting the Dunn-Wright synthesis of the new perspective on Paul, and others continuing to follow a traditional liberal or reformed synthesis. The issues in this debate are central to an understanding of the book of Romans. See the new perspective on Paul.

Level of complexity:

1, non-technical, to 5, requiring a knowledge of Greek.

Deceased: D. For publications no longer in print

Other identifiers:

Recommended R; Greek Technical G; Theology T

Achtemeier, Interpretation, 1986. 3

Barrett, Blacks, 2nd ed. 1991. 3

Barnett, FOB, 2003. 2R

Best, CBC, 1967. 1D

Black, NCB, 1986. 2D

Bruce, Tyndale, 2nd. ed. 1985. 2D

Byrne, Sacra Pagina, 1996. 3

Calvin, Eerdmans, 1959 (1539). 4

Cranfield, ICC, 1975. 5R

Davies, Faith and Obedience, 1:1-4:25, JNTS ss39, 1990. 3GD

Dodd, Moffatt, 1932. 2D

Dumbrell, NCC, 2005, rev. 2012. 3R

Dunn, Word, 1988. 5

Fitzmyer, Anchor, 1993. 4

Forman, Layman's, 1962. 1D

Garland, Tyndale, 2021, 2R

Godet, T & T Clark. 1888. 4D

Grayston, Epworth, 1997, 2

Harvey, EGGNT, 2017. G

Hendriksen, Banner of Truth, 1981. 4

Hunter, Torch, 1955. 1D

Jewett, Hermeneia, 2007. 5

Kasemann, Eerdmans, 1980. 3D

Kruse, Pillar, 2012. 3

Leenhardt, Lutterworth, 1961, trans. (liberal), 1957. 3D

Lenski, Wartburg Press, 1945. 3

Longenecker, NIGTC, 2016. 5

Moo, NICNT, 1996, 2nd. ed. 2018. 4R

Moo T, Encountering the Book of Romans, 2014. T

Morris, Pillar, 2018. 3D

Mounce, NAC, 1995. 3

Murray, Eerdmans, 1960. 3D

Nygren, Fortress, 1949. 4

O'Neill, Penguin, 1975. 1D

Osborne, IVP, 2004. 4

Pallis, Oxford University Press, 1920, reprinted 2009. 3G

Parry, CGTSC, 1912. G

Peterson, Proclamation Commentary, 2017. 3

Pilcher, Romans Translation in Paraphrase, 1951, rep. 1981.

P/Y. Porter and Yoon, HGT, Baylor, 2023. G

Porter, Linguistic and Literary Commentary, 2015. 3

Sandy and Headlam, ICC. 1902. 5D

Schreiner, BECNT, 2018. 4R

Steel and Thomas, Presbyterian and Reformed, 1967. 1D

Stott, BST, 1994. 2

Stuhlmacher, Westminster, 1994. 3

Talbert, Smyth & Helways Commentaries, 2002. 3

Taylor, Epworth 1955. 2D

Thompson, Clothed with Christ, 12:1-15:3, JNTS ss59, 1991. 3D

Ziesler, TPI, 1989. 2D

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Romans: Expositions

Exegetical Commentary on the Greek New Testament

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