Navigating Tough Texts, Volume 2 (eBook)

PART 2

EPISTLES AND REVELATION

ROMANS

1: HOMOSEXUALITY (ROMANS 1:27)

In Romans 1:18–3:20, Paul is demonstrating the universal sinfulness of the human race, Gentile and Jew alike, that explains their need for salvation. God’s wrath is prompted by human godlessness and wickedness (1:18) such as human sexual depravity (1:24–27). Both women (1:26) and men (1:27) have departed from divine norms, from what is “natural” or intended by God. Same-sex erotic relations fell within this category of being unnatural and were an instance of worshiping the creature rather than the Creator (1:25), of elevating perverse sexual pleasure over God and his standards. “Men abandoned natural sexual relations with women and were inflamed with passionate lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men and received in their own persons the due penalty for their perversity” (Rom 1:27). It is unclear whether this “due penalty” is spiritual and physical death (1:32), God’s wrath (1:18), or physical disease. Nor is it clear when the penalty is imposed or experienced.

Paul is more specific about the nature of the “perversity” in two other places. In 1 Corinthians 6:9 and 1 Timothy 1:10, he uses a term not found in the LXX or in Greek writers before the Christian era. On the basis of two separate words (arsēn, “male,” and koitē, “bed”) found in the LXX version of Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13, Paul has coined the single word arsenokoitēs, which means (literally), “a male who lies with [= has sex with] another male,” that is, male homosexual. When the term follows the word malakos (“soft,” “effeminate”), as in 1 Corinthians 6:9, the reference is to the passive and active partners in a homosexual relationship (C. K. Barrett), catamite and sodomite (respectively). Such persons, says Paul, are disqualified from inheriting the kingdom of God.

This whole matter of same-sex erotic relationships is a contentious issue within Christendom. Societal norms have in recent decades moved from tolerance to empathy to celebration of homosexuality. Efforts have been made to dismiss Paul’s teaching as being culturally conditioned or as applying only to pederasts or heterosexuals engaged in homosexual activity. But Paul’s stance is unambiguous and reflects the uniform OT position.

Within evangelical Christianity, some well-known leaders such as John Stott, Billy Graham, and Francis Schaeffer have distinguished homosexual orientation or inclination from homosexual practice, “being” from “doing,” constitution from conduct, with only the activity falling under the divine wrath. This distinction is legitimate and important. The practical implication is that homosexuals, male or female, whatever their current situation, should find a ready welcome within the church and be given the needed pastoral care, either as they turn from an active homosexual lifestyle and become celibate, or as they seek to please God by exhibiting disciplined sexual abstinence.

See also 2.1, ch. 6, “Choosing Celibacy,” above; and vol. 1:121–22, “Sexual Sin Is Unique.”

2: TWO WAYS TO SALVATION? (ROM 3:30)

A few scholars argue strongly that in Paul’s view there were two different but complementary ways by which salvation is gained. For Jews, it is by continued adherence to Jewish faith, rites, and customs along with belief in Jesus as Messiah. But for Gentiles, salvation comes through faith in Jesus Christ and his redemptive work, apart from reliance on good works. Accordingly, evangelism among Jews is unnecessary. The proof text for this view is Romans 3:30, understood in the sense “there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised on the basis of their [ancestral] faith [ek pisteōs] and the uncircumcised through their [distinctive] faith [dia tēs pisteōs].”

There could hardly be a more important issue to resolve—but in part the solution relates to technical issues in Greek grammar! As always, the wider context deserves attention first of all.

In Romans 3:21–31, Paul is arguing that God has generously made provision for a right standing before himself by means of the redemption accomplished by Christ. This right standing is available “to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile” (3:22). Just as all people—both Jews and Gentiles—have sinned, so too all without distinction of race are justified by one and the same redemption (3:23–24). Moreover, one and the same God is God of Jew and Gentile alike (3:29).

With regard to the two key prepositional phrases ek pisteōs and dia tēs pisteōs, several crucial observations are in order (drawn from Harris, Prepositions, 112).

First, both ek and dia may express effective means (“through faith”) or efficient cause (“by faith” BDAG 224c–d; 296d–297b), so no distinction between the two prepositions can be insisted on.

Second, elsewhere Paul uses both ek and dia to denote the means or cause of justification or salvation: ek in Romans 1:17; 3:26; 5:1; 9:30, 32; Galatians 2:16; and dia in Romans 3:22, 25; Galatians 2:16; 3:26; Ephesians 2:8.

Third, in Galatians 3:8 Gentiles are said to be justified ek pisteōs (“by faith”).

Fourth, Galatians 3:26 affirms that in Christ the Jews and Gentiles of the Galatian churches (= “you all”; cf. Gal 3:28) are the children of God dia tēs pisteōs (“by faith”).

So, far from proposing a dual pathway to salvation depending on whether one is a Jew or a Gentile, Paul argues for and celebrates a single path—faith in the Jewish Messiah, Jesus the exalted Lord, irrespective of nationality or pedigree and apart from dependence on law-keeping. In fact, Christ demolished the “hostile dividing wall” that separated Jew from Gentile and in his own person created one new humanity out of the two (Eph 2:14–15).

3: NO IMPEACHMENT! (ROM 8:33)

In recent American history, strongly emotive political feelings have come to be attached to the term “impeachment,” so that its basic legal sense may easily be overlooked: to “impeach” is to “bring charges against (someone).”

Paul has just reviewed in Romans 8:28–30 the five actions (“the good”) God has taken for the benefit of those who love him: foreknowledge, predestination, calling, justification, glorification. He then poses a basic question: “If God is on our side, who can stand against us?” (implied answer, “No one!”). This prompts a further three questions, each beginning with “Who [tis]?,” where Paul supplies or implies the answer:

•“Who will impeach (egkalesei) those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies.” (8:33)

•“Who then is the one who condemns? No one” (8:34 NIV).

•“Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will trouble …?” (8:35).

There are two reasons why no one can successfully bring impeachment proceedings against God’s chosen ones in the court of heaven. First, it is God’s Supreme Court. He is the one against whom humans have sinned and so deserve divine punishment. Second, this supreme judge has already pronounced his verdict. We are guilty as charged (Rom 3:10), but declared to be in a new and permanent right standing before the judge, to be “justified” (8:33).

The Greek verb dikaioō (“justify”) means “declare righteous,” not “make righteous” (for the technical reason behind this distinction, see Harris, Paul, 74). That is, justification involves a status before God, not a character realignment. It is not, as is sometimes affirmed, a decree of acquittal, for that implies nonguilt, whereas the judge has declared that “there is no one righteous, not even one” (Eccl 7:20, cited in Rom 3:10). Rather, when God justifies guilty sinners on the basis of Christ’s propitiatory sacrifice, they acquire a new and right relationship with God; they have been absolved from the just consequences of their sin.

In four consecutive verses in Romans 3, Paul identifies the basic characteristics of justification.

This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. (Rom 3:22–25 NIV)

According to these verses, justification (1) is available to all who believe (both Jew and Gentile); (2) arises from human need (universal sin); (3) is granted freely by God’s unmerited kindness (charis); (4) is brought about through Christ’s redemption (as a sacrifice of atonement); and (5) is received by faith (“apart from law-keeping,” 3:21). All this gave rise to the classic formulation,...