Outline Introduction

By way of clarification, I posted my outline / clarified version of Romans 1-5 in separate posts. It was drawn up on a word document and looks more readable. If you prefer to have the whole word doc sent to you, I would be happy to do so. Email me: EucharistSF@gmail.com

Ouline / Clarification of Romans 5

Romans 5:1-11 – Paul briefly rephrases what he has been building up to and then expands this into implications about our confidence

• In light of all that he just said, Paul clarifies to the church in Rome that whoever has trusted in God has already had the good declaration of God pronounced in their favor…
• meaning that now we (believers) are in a state of peace with God
• achieved through Jesus the true Kingly representative of Israel and the master of the world
• through whom we have obtained access to the undeserved generosity in which we now stand
• since we have nothing of our own to celebrate, we celebrate in the hope of sharing again with God the vice-regency of earth, the stewardship of creation
• We also celebrate our suffering because
• Suffering produces endurance
• Endurance produces character
• Character produces hope
• This hope is not going to let us down… we trust this is so because God has poured His love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which we have received.
• Here is how it happened…
• While we were still weak (with nothing to offer for ourselves), and at just the right pregnant moment in history, the representative (and king) of Israel died for the ungodly (Israel & the whole world)
• It is rare that someone would die for a worthy / righteous person
• Perhaps for a really good and “worthy” person someone might sacrifice one’s self
• But God shows Himself to be far beyond any reasonable expectation… demonstrating extraordinary generosity and love for us because He sent the faithful representative (and king) of Israel and all humanity to die for us while we were in active rebellion against God and deeply caught in sin
• Since God engaged in this ridiculous act of love, we can be confident that we will be rescued from God’s final judgment since we have been declared in the present to be right / vindicated by Jesus life / death
• If while we were enemies of God we were brought back into relationship with God through the death of His Son, we can be can be fully confident that we will be rescued from judgment by His resurrection life – the ultimate vindication of Jesus which includes all of us who trust Him.
• Even more than this confident assurance, we can celebrate our relationship to God through Jesus our Master and representative – the one through whom we received this incredible gift of reconciliation

Romans 5:12-21 – Paul lays out the two representative archetypes of humanity: Adam and Jesus

• We know how this sin, hostility to God entered onto the stage of the good world God created…
• It came through the archetype of humanity: Adam
• Once Adam sinned, its power was loose in the world resulting in spiritual death
• Which spread universally because everyone who came after Adam chose to follow in his footsteps. He set the table and poured us the cup of poison, but we drank it
• Sin was in the world before the Torah made it vividly evident, but it wasn’t handled the same way by God – being charged to the account of someone who knew better all the time
• Still, because sin results in spiritual death, death exercised authority and domination from Adam to Moses in spite of the fact that these people’s sin wasn’t like Adam’s sin – Adam disregarded a very clear command of God given to him, these people didn’t have that level of clarity.
• Adam was the archetype of humanity in the same sort of way that Jesus would be
• Representative Archetypes: Adam versus Jesus
• Action: Adam’s Sin (trespass) vs. Undeserved Grace
• Result: Many died vs. Grace of God (many receive free gift)
• Verdict: Judgment (condemnation) vs. justification (vindication)
• Consequence: Death Exercises Dominion Through Adam vs. Righteousness Exercises Dominion In Humanity Through Jesus
• Summary: One man’s trespass (rebellion against a specific command of God) led (eventually) to condemnation for all… in the same way, one man’s act of faithful righteousness leads to (the possibility) of vindication and life for all. Through one man’s disobedience “the many” were made sinners… through another man’s obedience, “the many” will be made right.
• Paul: notice, the Torah is not a part of the ultimate solution… in fact, it came into the picture with the result that intentional, “fully aware” sin actually increased exponentially.
• But here is the great news regarding this issue: Where sin increased exponentially (Israel), grace erupted exponentially all the more
• The bottom line: Just as sin exercised domination and authority through death as its chief weapon, so grace exercises domination and authority through the verdict of vindication (and the resulting right-being) – which leads to life everlasting through Jesus our representative and king.

Outline / Clarification of Romans 4:1-25

Romans 4:1-25 – Paul continues his argument about the primacy of trust as the mark of God’s people by talking about Abraham – the father of the covenant people.

• If we look at Abraham, what will we find? Are we in his family due to flesh?
• What makes Abraham special to God? Was it something he did to put God under obligation?
• No, Abraham simply trusted God… he didn’t have a list of things to point at that made him worthy to be declared right
• If someone is employed, this person doesn’t get paid because the boss is giving out gifts but because he is contractually obligated
• But in this case, we are talking about people who have nothing to offer God to put God into a place of contractual obligation.
• Humanity comes to God with empty hands… but in trust that God will render a judgment in favor of those who are ungodly in spite of this
• David talked about this undeserved blessing that comes from God. He says,
• “Blessed are the people who find their sin forgiven and taken care of… blessed is the person who God will not hold accountable for his/her sin.”
• So, is this blessing only for people who are ethnically / culturally Jewish, having been circumcised? Or is it also for the non-Jew?
• The scriptures say that Abraham was declared right / “acquitted” by trusting God. Was it before or after he was circumcised?
• Aha! He only received circumcision AFTER he was already declared right as a seal of that status which he had already received while he was not circumcised
• The purpose of this was to make him the father of all who trust God without being circumcised AND the father of those who are circumcised & trust like Abraham did before he was circumcised
• Why does this all matter? Because Abraham’s family was promised the whole world as an inheritance… but that wasn’t gonna happen if this distinction between Jew and non-Jew was the dividing line of who is in the family and who isn’t. That is why the defining feature of the family is trust in God not the Torah observance demonstrated especially by circumcision
• If it is only people who adhere to the Torah, then trust is meaningless and the promise is worthless
• The Torah actually highlights and increases God’s wrath… which makes it so the promise can’t come about. (When the Torah is out of the picture, a person can’t talk about violation’s of it as a category of sinfulness)
• Thus, the promise is dependent on trust so that it can be fulfilled as an undeserved gift (good because no one deserves it) to any and all who share the faithfulness of Abraham (regardless of Torah observance or its identifying marks demonstrating such).
• Abraham is the father of anyone who trusts in God… that’s why the scriptures record God as calling him “the father of many nations”
• God can do anything… give life to the dead (Jesus resurrection) and call into existence things that don’t exist (Creation, Abraham’s descendents)
• Abraham didn’t have any physical evidence that God’s promise of a family of descendents would come true. He just had his confident hope that God would fulfill His word
• In fact Abraham had evidence to contradict God’s word – he was 100 year old and his body was as good as dead… not to mention that he and Sarah had tried for years to have children unsuccessfully
• But he chose to trust… and he grew strong in that trust and he gave glory to God through his unwavering trust that God would do what He had promised
• God rewarded his trust by declaring him right and vindicating him
• The attribution of right-standing given to Abraham based on his trust in God is exactly what God is doing with us who believe
• We will be have this good declaration credited to our account at judgment if we trust in God who raised Jesus our master from the dead… the same Jesus who was handed over to death because of our screw-ups and who is raised from the dead in order to give us confidence of right-standing / vindication before God.

Outline / Clarification of Romans 3:21-31

Romans 3:21-31 – Paul unveils the solution to this universal problem of sin / unfaithfulness in a densely packed couple of sentences using a variety of images to convey the immense importance of these ideas…

• Now, in this stage of salvation history, the righteousness / justice of God (specifically, God’s faithfulness to His covenant promise to fix the world through Abraham’s family) has been revealed from outside the system of Torah. Yet this covenant faithfulness is not unconnected to the Torah – in fact it is anticipated and described by the Torah and the prophets
• This uprightness / covenant faithfulness of God is seen through the faithfulness of Jesus the Messiah (the one true deserving heir of the covenant; the true Jew; the representative of Israel)
• This uprightness / faithfulness is good news for any / all who trust (those who with no “physical” sign to lean on but who are instead depending & trusting that God will make good on His word – making them heirs to the covenant blessings)
• There is no distinction (no barriers, no discrimination)
• because it is not contingent on any physical markers such as circumcision or the distinctively Jewish lifestyle marks)
• because nobody can stand in judgment and expect to be vindicated – all have sinned and disgraced God by bringing His name disrepute rather than glory (Jew / non-Jew alike)
• The ones who trust are declared to be in the right / justified here and now (in anticipation of the final judgment)
• This comes not as part of the covenantal obligation nor because of moral performance (neither of which have anything to say for themselves), but due to God’s generous and undeserved gift…
• …which is received on account of and through the slavery payment (redemption) made for those who participate in / belong to the Messiah (representative head of the covenant community) Jesus…
• …who is the place of mercy (mercy seat – Lev. 16), removal of sin, removal of what causes wrath that God provided
• …by Jesus’ blood (life)
• Which is effective / available for anyone who trusts God for this gift
• God put forward Jesus as the place of mercy / forgiveness / removal of sin in order to demonstrate His justice / faithfulness to the covenant…
• …because in His patience / leniency He had not dealt with the sins that were committed previously (since the entrance of sin into humanity). He had merely passed them over in anticipation of dealing with them in this climactic act
• all of this was to prove in the present, here and now the fact that He is both
• just (a trustworthy, honest judge – having rightly condemned and dealt with sin)
• and…
• justifier (the one who declares His people vindicated)
• He justifies the person who trusts in Jesus (or who has the faithful obedience of Jesus)
• Based on all of this, is there any place for celebrating / taking pride in Jewishness (claiming to be God’s “insiders”)?
• No, it doesn’t belong… it is disallowed
• According to which Torah?
• Are you talking about the Torah we have been talking about all along? – The one which if kept clearly marks out “insiders” with God based on particular Torah actions like circumcision, Sabbath, purity laws?
• No, we are talking about the “Torah of trust” that we just referenced
• As we have already said, a person is declared right / vindicated by trusting God apart from Torah actions meant to show who is “in” and who is “out”
• After all, is God the God of the ethnically Jewish people only? Isn’t God the God of non-Jews too? – Yes, of non-Jews too!
• Since God is singular (one), He has a singular people – a group that is declared such on the ground of trusting Him regardless of whether you are coming from a Jewish or non-Jewish background!
• Does this mean that since the Torah is not used as a way of determining who is “in” and who is “out” that we should just chuck it?
• Absolutely not! Rather, in a round about way we are upholding the Torah and establishing its vital place in God’s plan (see 3:20 – “through the Torah comes the knowledge of sin”)

Outline / Clarification of Romans 2:1-3:20

Romans 2:1-16 – Paul turns toward an audience that is condemning of others (probably condemning those just mentioned) and yet guilty themselves (this is most likely a Jewish oriented crowd)…

• There is no excuse for anyone (Gentiles have knowledge through nature and the Jews have the Torah)
• In passing judgment (making a moral condemnation) a person is implicitly establishing the universal claim of morality – thus indicting his or herself (Paul’s sub-point). More importantly, very often the same people condemning others are doing such things themselves (hypocrisy).
• Don’t suppose that just because you are “aware” of morality and skilled at judging that you will not be called to account
• Don’t take God’s patience with you to mean that God won’t hold you accountable (since you haven’t seen lightning bolts yet). Instead, God’s patience and kindness toward you ought to lead you to repentance.
• In reality your hard-heartedness is piling up a heap of judgment waiting for you on judgment day!
• God will judge all of humanity according to each person’s actions (works / deeds)
• To the people who patiently persist in doing good – seeking the noble life of glory and honor (a mere reflection of God’s glory and honor) that God intended for humanity with a view toward living eternally (not just for the moment or passing pleasure). To these people God will give Eternal Life
• To those who are self-seeking, who disregard truth and embrace wickedness, these people will receive the full measure of God’s wrath
• It won’t be pretty for those who do evil
• Because the Jew knows more, he will be judged harsher
• But the non-Jew will also have judgment according to what she knows
• For those who do good there will be glory, honor and peace
• Rewards according to opportunity and knowledge (Jew first, non-Jew second)
• God is not unjust (there are no favorites for God, and God takes knowledge of His will into consideration)
• People who sin without the special awareness that comes from being under the tutelage of Torah will still die from sin (because sin is toxic)
• People who sin while under the tutelage of the Torah will be condemned by that very tutor (and are thus under the same condemnation as those who don’t have Torah)
• Just possessing or hearing the Torah does not give you a special “favored nation ” / “vindicated” / “right” status with God
• You have to DO what the Torah says to be considered “right” in God’s sight. It is only those who actually DO what the Torah says who will be declared vindicated and just (in the right – justified) on the judgment day.
• When non-Jews who do not possess the Torah DO instinctively what the Torah requires (righteous requirements), they demonstrate a sense of conscience that shows they have the essence of the Torah within them on their hearts… which means they will experience a sense of accountability (their own soul on the witness stand - at various times affirming, sometimes condemning). All of this will happen on the day of judgment when God will judge all of humanity (including all their secrets) THROUGH Jesus.

Romans 2:17-29 – Paul brings the straight-talk to people who want to hide behind the covenant signs and symbols as a way of side-stepping their accountability before God… in doing so he redefines who the real covenant heirs are (the true Jews)

• So you think you’re a Jew… huh?
• You rest in the fact that you possess the Torah
• You celebrate your rich history of God’s special relationship to the family of Abraham
• You know God’s will and what is the best way to live because of the teaching of Torah
• You are confident that you can lead those poor, blind Gentiles… in fact you see yourself as a light shining in the darkness – the lighthouse on a dark seashore
• You are the world’s teacher… the corrector of the foolish – because you have the teaching of Torah – the embodiment of all worthwhile knowledge and truth
• Then why don’t you actually teach yourself a thing or two?
• You are a people railing against stealing, yet there are thieves among you
• You are a people who take marriage serious – forbidding adultery, yet your people are thick with adulterers
• You wouldn’t possibly bow down to those ridiculous pagan idols, but you are just fine with stealing from the temples of idols? (Huh? Are you a slave to greed?)
• You celebrate the possession of the Torah… but you dishonor the one who gave it to you because you don’t actually pay any attention to really living by its teaching. You have broken the covenant agreement (Torah)! In fact, there is a text about you… “God’s name is laughed at, mocked among the nations because of your tremendous hypocrisy.” There is nothing to be proud about being “marked out” as being YHWH’s (disobedient) people right now… You need the covenant curse taken away! You need a new covenant.
• You think that the covenant marker of circumcision is going to be something you can rely on? Here’s the truth: Circumcision is only of value if you actually obey the Torah’s teaching. If you don’t, your circumcision has made you like the non-Jew (marked out for God’s wrath / curse… Remember the deal? If you as a people obey…blessing! If you as a people disobey… curses!)
• If someone who is not Jewish by ethnicity / nationality (uncircumcised) does the essence, the ethical requirements of the Torah, can’t you see that God will treat them as under “blessing?”
• Actually there is a major reversal at work here:
• The non-Jew who obeys Torah will stand in judgment of you the “Jewish” possessor of the Torah who doesn’t obey.
• A person isn’t a Jew because of some snipped skin on the penis… it isn’t about outward signs. It is about an inward reality of the heart – where the spirit of Torah is being done rather than just talked about or referred to in some written document. It is the person who has the essence of Torah written on the inside that gets the approval of God and is the heir to the covenant blessings.

Romans 3:1-8 – Paul, after giving some stiff words to his ethnically / culturally Jewish audience members addresses their concern about the possible advantages of being “elected”

• What advantage is there to being ethnically / culturally Jewish?
• Much in every way
• First (with no following 2^nd, 3^rd, etc – but picked up in chapter 9), you were given the very oracles, the written documents of God (Torah)
• But is any of this any good since some have been unfaithful to actually doing Torah? Will God be unfaithful to His end of the covenant bargain because of the people’s unfaithfulness to covenant?
• Absolutely not! Even if every other mouth on the planet spews lies, God’s does not! He is faithful.
• You’ve read that text, “You know that God is truthful and honest (righteous / just) in His words because He is judging things as they really are – condemning my wrong action” (Psalm 51 is David asking God for mercy because he (David) has been unfaithful and is affirming that God’s judgment over him is correct and honest)
• If our unfaithfulness / injustice (wrong behavior), which is rightly condemned by God, actually confirms that God is truly just (because of His right judgment), can we actually say that God can really punish us since we are making Him look especially just – for judging His own people?
• Paul says, “This is ridiculous – it’s a dumb human argument”
• How could God actually judge the world within this crazy logic?
• If my dishonesty makes God look really honest and really good, shouldn’t he high-five me instead of condemn me? As some people mistakenly say that Paul says, “Let’s go sin so that God looks good”
• Paul: What the heck? This is insanity. People who say this have a depraved, twisted mind. They deserve condemnation!

Romans 3:9-20 – Paul again returns to his theme of universal culpability. All, both Jew and non-Jew are rightfully under the condemnation of God… there is no wiggle room – especially not for those who want to hide behind the possession of the Torah.

• So, is the ethnic / cultural Jew any better off? Nope.
• All (Jew and non-Jew) are under the power of sin
• To reinforce the fact that no person under the tutelage of Torah will find vindication in such, Paul assembles a litany of scriptural quotations (which should be understood as alluding to whole passages) which drive home his thesis that the Torah stands with a finger of judgment pointing at those under its tutelage… the bearers of the covenant marks are under God’s covenant curse / wrath.
• Whatever Torah teaches is addressed to those who are under its teaching
• Thus, the whole world is under curse / wrath and are thus accountable to God
• Non-Jews (the point Paul already made - see Romans 1:18-32)
• Jews, due to Torah’s condemnation of the covenant community for disobedience, violence, and vile behavior
• Nobody will be declared “right” in God’s sight by evidence of Torah observance – specifically, having the distinctive markers of the covenant people: the “works” of Torah (Circumcision, Sabbath, Purity laws)
• For through the Torah human awareness (knowledge) of sin is increased

Outline / Clarification of Romans 1

Chapter 1:1-7 – Paul introduces himself and lays out many of the important themes which he will develop in the rest of the letter…

• Paul is an apostle of (one who is sent by) Jesus the Messiah (King, representative head of Israel)
• Paul’s life is set aside for the “good news” (gospel) of God
• The good news was expected – since the scriptures anticipated it
• The good news is about God’s “son” (a title applied to Israel previously in the OT and more recently to Jesus)
• Jesus is a descendant of David (rightful heir to the throne / representative of Israel)
• Jesus is declared / recognized as God’s Son (vindicated as the true Messiah) through the resurrection (the sign of national restoration and future hope)
• Through Jesus “we” received grace and apostleship (commissioning to be sent)
• We receive these in order to bring about “the obedience of faith” of the nations which comes from belonging to Jesus the Messiah.

Chapter 1:8-15 – Paul gives thanksgiving, sets up his reason for writing and clarifies some more contextual background…

• Paul’s thanksgiving is “through” Jesus the Messiah because of his audiences’ faith (trust in God)
• He wants to come to Rome to continue his work among the Gentiles (non-Jews / nations)
• Paul also wants to share some spiritual gift with the church in Rome
• He is obligated to proclaim the good news to all people: wise and foolish

Chapter 1:16-17 – Paul launches into a dense thesis of his ideas which he goes on to develop

• He is bursting with excitement (not ashamed) about the good news
• The good news is about the power of God for salvation (rescue – from what? See below)
• Who can be saved? Anyone who trusts (note: the defining mark of those being saved = faith / trust)
• The Jew first (it is their story, their covenant, they have the knowledge to walk into this salvation with relative ease)
• Then the non-Jew (non-Jews are late to the game – getting in on Israel’s story)
• In the good news, the Covenant Faithfulness (righteousness) of God is (finally) revealed
• It is revealed through the faithfulness (of Jesus) for those who trust (trust God through Jesus)
• The same kind of trust that Habakkuk described – trusting God in spite of no visible indicators. – It is those people who are declared “in the right” (righteous)

Chapter 1:18-32 – Paul describes the context within which the saving power of God’s covenant faithfulness comes. He appears to be re-telling the story of humanity in the background (Adam)…

• The wrath of God (God’s wrath = ever-present willful stance / action against anything that would destroy his creation – pointing ultimately to a day of universal accountability. FYI: God’s wrath is an expression of His covenant faithfulness / love – standing against injustice and evil) is revealed against…
• All ungodliness (people who don’t reflect God), wickedness (evil, destructiveness), those who suppress the truth
• People are accountable because they have opportunity to know about God
• Through nature people can deduce that whatever created it is not contained within it
• God’s eternal power (bigger than the visible world)
• God’s divine nature (superior to the always dying / changing visible realm)
• Humans have no excuse
• They knew about God but did not honor Him or give Him thanks
• Due to rejecting God, people’s thinking (minds) got all screwed up
• Thinking they were wise, they became foolish
• Example: They exchanged the glory of God for idols (they didn’t worship the true God but instead demeaned their worship to mere representations of creatures within God’s own creation)
• God allowed them to do this which then meant that their desires (hearts) became impure
• The screwed up thinking and impure desires led to a degradation of their bodies
• God allowed them to degrade their bodies and to live in their destructive desires
• Example: the pattern God intended for human sexuality gets warped and exhanged
• Homosexual sexuality
• Part of the result of God “giving people over to their sin” is that they are left with natural consequences of such behavior
• People who don’t acknowledge God and His intended order for the universe end up with a very screwed up mind and God allows them freedom to practice what they desire
• People have become utterly corrupt
• “filled with every kind of wickedness” (Paul goes on to describe at length)
• The bottom line is that people who live this way know better (no excuse); they know they are rightfully under the condemnation of God… but they could care less and find ways to applaud each other for it