These are my ongoing study notes on the book of Romans. I might change my mind about some things and will likely edit these notes extensively through the course of this study. Consider it a rough draft.
The Common Sense Bible Study online community is going through the book of Romans on Thursday nights. Join the conversation
here.
Initial Thoughts
- Paul was a Jewish lawyer (rabbi is a later term created in Babylon) and a Pharisee all his life. A student of Gamaliel.
- Paul can't create new laws. He cannot speak contrary to Yeshua or Moses.
- Written before he went to Rome. The congregation there was established by someone else. 55-56 AD?
- What is Systematic Theology? Not Romans!
- Writing to explain the theology of adoption into Israel.
- Paul as the thirteenth Apostle fits the pattern of Israel as 11, 12, and 13 tribes.
The Literary Chiastic Structure of Romans
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Romans 1
V1 -
Doulos (δουλος) literally means "slave".
Greeks might have differentiated between a slave and a bondservant,
but a Jew wouldn't see a difference in the context of a Hebrew
enslaved to another Hebrew. Except, that is, for the case of the
slave in Exodus 21:5-6 who devotes his life to his master for the
sake of his family, and that is how Paul seems to be identifying
himself. This is underscored by his willingness, expressed later in
the letter, to give up his own salvation for the sake of his fellow
Jews.
It's notable that
he never refers to himself as Saul in his letters, perhaps
emphasizing his new identity in Christ, as opposed to his old
identity as an enforcer for the Jewish religious authorities. Paul's
apostleship was not self-assumed; it was a divine calling, rooted in
his obedience to the One who sent him. He says that he was "called
an apostle", because his commission was not of his own choice.
He was on a mission for another master when Yeshua intercepted him.
Paul was saying
that he was a personal possession and emissary of Yeshua due to one
of three reasons: 1) He was in debt to Yeshua beyond hope of paying
it back, 2) He sold himself to Yeshua to pay a debt to someone else,
or 3) He was a slave for one of the two prior reasons, but
voluntarily submitted to his master for life out of love.
As an
apostolos
(αποστολος), Paul is not merely a disciple but an agent sent
with the authority of the one who sent him. His being "set
apart" (
aforismenos, αφωρισμενος) likely
alludes both to his religious identity as a Pharisee, a group whose
name means "separated," and his current role, distinct from
the world, to preach the Gospel of the risen Messiah. This setting
apart reflects the broader call of God’s people to be separate from
the world for God's purposes, as seen in Psalm 4 and Isaiah 40:9-11.
V2 - What
is the Gospel that was promised and where?
- Isaiah
40:9-11 - Jerusalem is summoned to proclaim the Good News of the
arrival of the Almighty with great power, rescuing his people from
their oppressors and gently gathering them together.
- Isaiah
52:7-10 - The Good News is a proclamation of peace, salvation, and
God's reign. The messenger of good news declares that God's
redemption of his people has cone in a manner that no one from the
nations can deny.
- Isaiah
61:1-3 - The Prophet proclaims the Good News of redemption, healing,
and full restoration of the people of Israel.
- Nahum 1:15 -
The Good News is the celebration of God's appointed times without
interference form the nations, the people of Israel keeping God's
covenants, and the wicked being completely removed from their midst.
V3 - Paul
was specifically commissioned to announce the reestablishment of the
throne of David in the person of Yeshua, no matter what the cost
might be to himself. See Acts 9:15-16.
Yeshua must be an
heir of David in order to be Israel’s king according to the Davidic
covenant described in 2 Samuel 23:1-7, 2 Chronicles 21:7, and Psalm
89:2-4, and he must have a king’s authority over Israel in order to
be her Messiah. God counted tribal membership in Israel patrilineally
(from father to son), so Yeshua could not have been a son of David by
the most strict, traditional reckoning. However, two factors
alleviate this problem.
- First,
Yeshua was Joseph’s adopted son, and throughout the Scriptures,
God recognizes adoption for the purposes of tribal membership and
inheritance. See the Millennial prophecy of land division in Ezekiel
47:21-23 and consider the mixed multitude that came out of Egypt
with the native Israelites and were given an inheritance alongside
the native born at that time also. It seems that the only exception
to that rule concerns the Levitical priesthood.
- Second,
Yeshua’s mother Mary was also of the house of David. Many scholars
believe that the genealogy in Luke 3:23-38 is Mary’s and not
Joseph’s. When it says “being the son (as was supposed) of
Joseph, of Heli”, it means that he was adopted by Joseph who was
the son-in-law of Heli. (Note that the Greek text doesn’t say “son
of Heli”, but only “of Heli”. “Son” is inserted by most
translators, but should not be, in my opinion.) Although this is a
matrilineal connection, it reinforces Yeshua’s adoption into the
house of David by Joseph.
“According to
the flesh” refers to Yeshua’s genetic descent from Mary as well
as his legal adoption by Joseph, since it is still a matter of
physical tribal identity, not a spiritual matter. Adoption would
probably be even more significant to Paul’s Roman audience than to
the Roman Jews. Recall that Augustus was actually the grandson of
Julius Caesar’s sister, but was made to be Julius’ heir by
adoption.
V4 -
Paul's authority wasn't just given by a foreign king, but by God
himself. By whom was Yeshua declared to be the Son of God? By God
himself in Matthew 17:5, Mark 9:7, and Luke 9:35. "Declared to
be the Son of God" is an explicit statement of Yeshua's
authority even over Caesar, an especially relevant point for a Roman
in Rome.
Not only was
Yeshua's claim to the throne backed by the Gospel accounts and by the
Apostles, most of whom were still alive at the time Paul wrote
Romans, but it was backed by his pedigree in the house of David,
which would have been common knowledge to the residents of Nazareth
and Bethlehem, although certainly maligned by his enemies. His claim
to divinity was backed by displays of power in a spirit of holiness,
not violence or showmanship, and by his resurrection from the dead.
These things didn't make him the Son of God, but declared him so in
the sight of all the nations as hinted at in the Gospel prophecies of
Isaiah. Paul was called from one thing to another (v1), while Yeshua
was revealed to be who he had always been.
V5 - "For
the sake of his name" because the inclusion of the nations in
the New Covenant was promised to Abraham and through the Prophets, so
God sent Paul in order to fulfill that promise. See Zechariah 8:23.
Paul is not
writing this letter in cooperation with anyone besides his scribe
Tertius (see 16:22), so it's possible that the "we" in "We
have received grace and apostleship" includes the believers in
Rome, however the "including you" in the beginning of the
next verse probably indicates that he means his fellow Apostles.
Although all people who are called to be Yeshua's are also called to
be his apostles, even if they are not especially separated out for a
grand purpose, but those specifically called by Yeshua himself are
unique in their Apostolic calling. See Acts 2:42-43, for example,
where the believers in Jerusalem "devoted themselves to the
teachings of the Apostles", which would make little sense if all
believers were regularly called "apostles".
"Grace and
apostleship" are always given to enable the Apostle to bring
about repentance and faithfulness among those to whom he is sent.
Such repentance doesn't refer to merely changing one's mind, but to
changing one's heart, leading to a total transformation of the
person, including his outward behavior.
"Obedience
of faith" (not "obedience to the faith") is that
obedience brought about by faith. See the same phrase in 16:26, where
the obedience is "of faith", but to God. This obedience was
prophesied in Psalm 67 in which the nations of the earth learn God's
ways (read: commandments), yielding a great harvest from all over the
world. The Psalmist explains, as Paul hints in Romans 1:16 and 3:2,
that the blessings of God's election, Law, and covenants came first
to Israel so that, through them, all the world might be blessed by
learning God's ways in accordance with his promise to Abraham in
Genesis 12. This obedience was also prophesied more explicitly in
Isaiah 2:2-4.
"Obedience
of faith" also refers to the obedience that is promised by
faith. When we first commit our souls to Yeshua, we don't immediately
become perfectly obedient to all of his commandments. Our sins are
forgiven, and we become his, but the perfection of our walk is a long
process that we see in the present only through eyes of faith that
trust in his ongoing grace and the synergy of the written word, the
Holy Spirit, and our determination to remain faithful. In this sense,
our obedience is like the Kingdom of Heaven and eternal life: already
and not yet. It is already ours, but not yet fully in our possession.
V6 - Paul
is not addressing a select group of Romans who have been called as if
there are some in Rome who are not called. Rather, he assures the
believers in Rome that they have also been called, just as all those
in Jerusalem and Antioch have been called. We are all called to
belong to Yeshua, but only those among the nations who respond to the
call with the obedience of faith will be counted among the people of
Israel.
V7 -
Although this letter was written to address specific problems within
the Roman assembly (hence “to all those in Rome”), Paul also
intended for it to be general enough to address all Jews and Gentiles
who might find themselves in similar circumstances or with similar
questions.
Because God loves
you, whether Jew or Gentile, Roman or American, you are called to be
set apart (saints), which never refers to an inward state that has no
outward effect. Holiness is an inward state that has profound effect
on your speech, behavior, and viewpoint. We are called to be holy in
every respect.
“Grace to you”
in the second half of the verse is probably not meant to be separate
from “peace” as if the grace was from Paul and the peace from
God. That sentence could probably have been written as “Grace and
peace to you from God...” instead of “Grace to you and peace from
God...” without changing the meaning. The grace that enables
forgiveness can only come from God, because he is the only one
capable or authorized to forgive. He is the ultimate aggrieved party
in our sins, and only he can remove our guilt and restore peace in
our relationship with him.
Paul refers to
"God our Father" to emphasize that God is the father of all
disciples of Yeshua, as we all are through the spiritual rebirth
enabled by his death and resurrection. The separation of “God our
Father” and “The Lord Jesus Christ” might lead some to believe
that Paul did not believe in Yeshua’s divinity, but that is only
because we are so prone to taking snippets of Paul’s writings out
of context, as if he were writing a collection of one-line proverbs
for modern Americans. Paul’s separation of these terms no more
implies that Yeshua is not God, than Galatians 6:11 implies that
Paul’s hand is not Paul. Elsewhere, Paul clearly speaks of Yeshua
as God. See Colossians 2:9 and Titus 2:13, for example. When he seems
to speak of them as separate entities, "God" always refers
to "God the Father" as in this verse, as distinct from "God
the Son", who is our firstborn, elder brother in relation to the
Father.
V8 -
"Through Jesus Christ" - Yeshua is the mediator of the New
Covenant and the only way to the Father. Our prayers are directed to
the Father, but through the mediation, righteousness, and authority
of Yeshua. Paul thanks God because ultimately our faith grows through
the power and influence of God, not merely through our own effort. He
does not thank the Son, but God through the Son. That doesn't mean
that the Son isn't God, but that he is the conduit through which we
connect to the Father.
Proton
(πρωτον) at the beginning of the verse should be understood to
mean "firstly" as in "before I say anything else"
and not “first” as in the first of a series. Paul is reassuring
his readers that they are important and recognized, that his sole
purpose in writing isn't to rebuke them. Like Christ, he corrects
because he loves. Good teachers and leaders often precede correction
with encouragement.
"All the
world" at the end of the verse is hyperbole. Obviously, the
faith of the Roman disciples had not been proclaimed in the Americas
or Australia and probably not even so far as Crimea or Britain. Luke
2:1 uses a similar phrase in describing the extent of the Augustan
registration. Although the Romans traded with peoples as far away as
China, nobody would have thought Luke meant Augustus decreed that the
Chinese people should be registered. Paul means “all the world”
in the same general sense as we might say, "Everyone knows that
Jerry is amazing," although we are perfectly aware that the vast
majority of people in the world have never even heard of Jerry, let
alone of his character. All of Paul’s letters must be read as they
were written: in a conversational tone full of idioms, hyperbole, and
ambiguity.
V9 - “For
God is my witness” indicates the making of an oath. Paul isn’t
contradicting what Yeshua said in Matthew 5:37. Yeshua, like Solomon,
was teaching principles, not technical details of how to keep the
Law. In other words, he was saying, "Don't complicate things.
Don't look for loopholes. If you say something is true, be sure that
it's true," and not necessarily that one should never take an
oath. Sometimes a solemn or forceful oath is appropriate if it helps
your listeners to accept the truth of what you are saying.
Only God knows
what Paul prayed in private, so who else could bear witness to what
he prayed? Paul frequently appeals to the witness of God to confirm a
statement. See Romans 8:16, 2 Corinthians 1:23, Philippians 1:8, and
1 Thessalonians 2:5 for examples.
"I serve
with my spirit" means to serve with his deepest being. It has
the same meaning as "worship in spirit and truth". Paul
serves the purpose of his commission, the spreading of the Gospel of
the Kingdom of Yeshua, with his whole being.
V10 - Why
did Paul pray so much for the Roman believers? Probably because he
knew they had been leaderless for years, especially since Aquila and
Priscilla had left. Paul’s primary mission was to bring the Gospel
to places that had not yet heard it, fulfilling the prophecy of
Isaiah 52:15 as he discusses in the corresponding element on the
other end of the Romans Chiasm in 15:20-22. Since Rome already had an
established congregation, visiting them was necessarily a lower
priority, but they were still on his mind, so he prayed for them
continually instead.
V11 - Paul
says that his reason for wanting to visit is to impart some spiritual
gift to strengthen (
stirikhthenai, στηριχθηναι,
could also mean to confirm or establish) them. Elsewhere in his
writings, Paul speaks of character traits, skills, and miracles as
spiritual gifts, but these are gifts of the Holy Spirit to
individuals, not to entire congregations. In this case, he probably
isn’t referring to an ability to work miracles, prophesy, etc., but
to a gift of instruction that will correct their path, bring unity to
their congregation, and cohesiveness to their doctrine. This
corporate strengthening is the purpose of the gifts and commissions
given to individual believers as described in 1 Corinthians 12:4-11
and Ephesians 4:11-13.
V12 - The
KJV translates
simparahklithenai (συμπαρακληθηναι)
as “to be comforted together”, and that might have been a good
translation in the 17
th century, and it isn’t entirely
wrong for today, but it isn’t quite right either. Paul isn’t
talking about alleviating someone’s mourning or suffering, but
about exhortation or imparting confidence.
The encouragement
that Paul speaks of for himself is the assurance that the Roman
assembly has been returned to a healthier, more edifying path. He
isn't just intending to bring them "some spiritual gift"
(v11), but to correct their quickly drifting doctrine and widening
divisions. In this way, they will both be strengthened in their
faith.
V13 - The
Roman believers probably felt somewhat abandoned when most or all of
their leaders had to leave Rome and some of them never returned. Paul
was reassuring them that they were not forgotten, that he had every
intention to visit them personally when circumstances allowed.
Paul gives three
reasons for wanting to visit the Roman assembly: First, to strengthen
the Romans in their faith and maturity. Second, to assure himself
that they are on a good spiritual path. Third, to show a return on
his own balance sheet for his investment in their spiritual growth.
That third reason might seem prideful, but consider the parable of
the talents. God rewards those who use his resources for the
expansion of his Kingdom, and we should all work toward such rewards.
V14 -
Paul’s obligation was created by his commission to be Yeshua’s
apostle to the nations. His first obligation is to Yeshua, of course,
but God promised to bring the Gospel to the nations (Isaiah 52:15 and
other passages), and he delegated that responsibility, in part, to
Paul, who once tried to stop the Gospel from spreading.
The Jews divided
the world’s population into two categories: Jew (wise because they
had God’s Law) and Gentile (foolish because they worshiped lesser
pagan gods). The Greeks did much the same with the category of Greeks
and barbarians. They were wise because they had their gods,
philosophies, and sciences. The barbarians were foolish because they
did not “understand” that their tribal deities were only
provincial manifestations of the universal gods worshiped--with
greater understanding--by the Greeks.
V15 - Paul
is addressing Romans who thought of themselves as yet a third
category from those discussed in v14. When he says “you also who
are in Rome”, he obliquely acknowledges that they are neither Greek
nor barbarian. The Romans admired Greek, but considered themselves to
have taken up the culture and learning of the Greeks and improved on
it in ways that the Greeks could not. They seemed to have had a more
nuanced view of the nations than did the Greeks and Jews, but not
dramatically so. Instead of two categories, they had four: Roman,
Greek, Barbarian, and the Jews, who stubbornly refused to fit into
anyone else’s system.
V16 - "I
am not ashamed" is probably a deliberate understatement intended
to mean "I am greatly honored". This is connected to Romans
15:17 on the opposite side of the Romans Chiasm.
The Gospel is the
power of God to save all who believe, and not just the Jews to whom
the messianic promises were first given. It is his power because
there is power in his word. If he says something is true, then it is
true. If he says that you will be saved, then you will be. Since God
promised in Isaiah 2 and 11 (and other passages, especially in
Isaiah) that the nations have an opportunity to join the Messiah’s
people as a result of the sins of the native born Israelites, we can
be absolutely certain that we have that opportunity.
"Everyone
who believes" underscores that the offer of salvation has been
extended to all peoples, but it also means that you must believe that
God has come to set up his Kingdom and wants you to be restored to
relationship with him in that Kingdom in order to take advantage of
that offer. Paul says “to the Jew first and also to the Greek,
because, as indicated in the Isaiah passages mentioned above, this
offer is made as a result of the native Israelites having first
rejected it, which logically requires that it must be offered to the
Jew before it can be offered to the Greek.
Although Paul
mentions five classifications of people in this passage (Jew,
Gentile, Greek, Barbarian, and Roman), but with “the Greek” at
the end of this verse he combines all but the Jew into a synecdoche
for “Gentiles”. Ancient Jewish literature clearly shows a great
admiration for the Greek people despite considering them to be in
spiritual darkness. As a Jew, it’s possible that Paul believed his
Roman audience might take “gentile” (Greek
ethnos) as
vaguely insulting. They certainly would have thought so if he had
called them “barbarians” (Greek
barbaros), whereas “Greek”
(
Hellen) would be a more acceptable term that they could
interpret as referring to themselves as well as to the Greeks and
barbarian peoples. He uses this same phrase, “to the Jew first and
also the Greek”, twice more in Romans 2:9-10, and each time, it’s
clear by the context that he means all non-Jews.
V17 -
"Righteousness" might better be read as "justice".
Both English words can be used to translate
dikaisoune
(δικαιοσυνη), but modern readers tend to associate
“righteousness” with a personal characteristic of goodness and
lawfulness, whereas “justice” is more about the standard of
goodness and lawfulness, which is what Paul really means here.
The justice of
God is revealed in the Gospel because the establishment of his Law
(Jeremiah 31:33 and Micah 4:2) and the judgment of the wicked (Isaiah
13:11 and Micah 4:11-13) are inherent parts of the Gospel, which is
the inauguration of the Kingdom of Heaven and all that comes with it
(Matthew 4:17).
The meaning of
the phrase “from faith for faith” or, as some versions translate
it, “from faith to faith”, could be interpreted in any number of
ways, but two interpretations seem most plausible to me: First, we
can be assured that God’s justice and wrath are certain because God
is always faithful to his word. By his faithfulness demonstrated over
time, our faith is strengthened and manifested in our own
faithfulness toward him. Second, faith is like any muscle or skill,
in that it is increased by being put to use. The more we trust in
God, the more faithful we are to him, the more we learn to trust, and
the more we are able to remain faithful to him. The discussion of the
wrath of God in the following verses would seem to support the first
interpretation over the second.
"The
righteous shall live by faith" is a quote from Habakkuk 2:4 in
which "righteous" is again more literally translated as
"just" and could be thought of as "justified". By
our trust in him and our surrender to his merciful judgment, we are
justified or decreed to be righteous, regardless of past sins. Once
forgiven, we walk out our belief in the promises and commandments of
God by faithfully living accordingly. Even if we don't understand how
God's laws or actions are righteous, our faith requires that we
accept that it is.
God's justice is
different than man's, though, and doesn’t rely on rote obedience to
rules. Although we will be judged by what we do, God sees beyond the
deed into the heart and mind. We are judged by what we do only
because our outward faithfulness is inevitably informed by our inward
faith and faithfulness. If you trust God with all your being, he
counts you as one of his and will save you, even if your obedience is
flawed. This is the righteousness of God.
V18 - The
wrath of God is revealed from heaven in three ways:
- The
destruction brought by God or by his natural laws in response to
wickedness.
- Prophetic
warnings and pronouncements given through prophets and the
Scriptures.
- The
conscience of each individual, reflected from the primordial image
of God within them.
All people
instinctively know something about God’s standards of
righteousness, but that knowledge is necessarily subjective,
dependent on the individual’s conscience and experiences. The
written Law is the primary means by which his standard of
righteousness--and therefore man’s unrighteousness--is objectively
revealed in the world. This requires that the Law be addressed to the
whole world and not just Israel or there would be no objective
standard by which to judge the world and subject it to his wrath.
God is both love
and wrath. He loved the world while we were still sinners, but
because our sin brings death and suffering, his love requires wrath.
No loving parent allows his child to go on behaving in ways that will
only bring him pain? If he loves us, he must be violently opposed to
sin. “So you will know in your heart that YHWH your God was
disciplining you as a man disciplines his son. Therefore, you will
keep the commandments of YHWH your God, to walk in his ways and to
fear him.” (Deuteronomy 8:5-6)
In order to go on
being unrighteous, a person must suppress the truth of God’s Law,
both externally and internally, the objective written Law and the
subjective inner law of the conscience. God often responds to such
willful disobedience by giving us more of what we want. Remember how
Pharaoh determined to refuse God’s command to let his people go, so
God hardened his heart until the full measure of his wrath had been
poured out on Egypt. Paul addresses this dynamic in more detail in
the following passage through 2:16.
V19-20 -
Aoratos (αορατος, invisible) is only
used by Paul and the author of Hebrews and is always in reference to
God. The apparent contradiction between God’s attributes being
simultaneously invisible and visible is to say that God himself
cannot be seen, but his attributes can be deduced by what he has done
and continues to do. Nobody can look at the natural world without
thinking that there must be a Creator. As Hebrews 3:4 says, “Every
house is built by someone.” Numerous aspects of the palace of the
natural world strongly imply the existence of a Creator a purpose:
- Individual
Complexity - The internal complexity of living things and the
intricate balance of systems within systems requires a designer of
extraordinary intelligence and foresight. Every lifeform is a
self-repairing, self-replicating machine that becomes more complex,
the closer you examine it, from the outer defenses of skin and bark
all the way down to molecular factories beyond anything man has been
able to copy with all of our technology. Individual organisms are so
complex, even at the molecular level, that removing any one of
thousands of different components or sub-systems will destroy the
entire organism, yet those systems themselves are self-policing,
removing, replacing, or repairing damaged components before they can
cause significant harm. See Psalm 139:14.
- Biome
Complexity - The interplay between organisms, even across species,
also testifies to the existence of an intelligent, deliberate
creator. Trees warn each other of danger. Viruses, bacteria, fungi,
grasses, herbivores, and the most complex predators all cooperate,
without any apparent conscious intention, to feed each other and
keep ecosystems healthy. As local conditions change, local lifeforms
adjust populations, habitats, and even genetic expression to
compensate. See Job 38:39-41.
- Universal
Fine Tuning - Physics demonstrates that our entire universe seems
designed at every level to support life. A slight change in any
number of values--some of which I could name, but won’t pretend to
understand--would change the universe in such a way that life would
become impossible. Stars and planets would cease to exist, let alone
the minerals, seas, and atmosphere required by living organisms.
See Psalm 19:1.
In the face of
the overwhelming evidence for a Creator, his existence can only be
denied by deliberate, continuous rejection and indoctrination. A
child, left to himself, would assume that everything was created, and
he must be trained to think otherwise.
One implication
of this truth is that a person can attain a very basic knowledge of
God’s identity without ever hearing the words YHWH, Jesus, Yeshua,
Gospel, etc. All of those things are knowable, at least in
conception, through the honest observation of Creation. If there is a
Creator, then he has a purpose in creating. If he has a purpose for
Creation, then he has a purpose for individual creatures. If he has a
purpose for individual creatures, then he desires them to behave
according to his plan. If his creatures will not behave according to
his plan, then they should expect to be corrected, destroyed, or
isolated so that they can’t interfere with the correct operation of
the rest of Creation. Creatures who choose to act according to the
Creator’s purposes can reasonably expect to be rewarded, although
the Creator is under no obligation to do so. All of Creation,
including every individual creature, belongs to the Creator and is
dependent on him for its continued existence, and he is fully within
his rights to use it however he wills, including destroying it.
Acceptance of the
inevitability of God is in some ways more important than an academic
knowledge about God, because a great deal can be learned of God’s
character from the nature of what he has already done, apart from any
special revelation or divinely inspired writings. As Job 12:7-9 says,
“ask the beasts, and they will teach you; the birds of the heavens,
and they will tell you; or the bushes of the earth, and they will
teach you; and the fish of the sea will declare to you. Who among all
these does not know that the hand of YHWH has done this?”
V21 -
Everyone, at some point, has a true epiphany of God. Everyone is
presented with a window to the divine, but most people choose to turn
away and suppress the truth in favor of a familiar, self-soothing
lie. If you are determined to reject the truth, eventually you
condition yourself to believe falsehoods and cripple your ability to
evaluate and interpret the universe. The most intelligent people in
the world have convinced themselves to believe the most absurd,
anti-God fantasies because they decided to interpret the world
through faulty premises. As Yeshua said in John 3:19, “they loved
the darkness more than the light” because the darkness allows them
to pretend that they are their own gods, defining their own standard
of righteousness.
V22 - The
philosophers and wise men of the ancient civilizations poured their
energy into learning about God and then explaining away what they
learned by attributing it to something else. They had wisdom in the
grasp and threw it away like rebellious children. The Jewish people
weren’t much better than the Greeks, as Jeremiah 10:14 attests. See
also Isaiah 5:21.
V23 - All
people have an innate drive to worship something, to align and ally
with something greater than ourselves, but a being that created the
universe must be effectively infinite in power and in his right to
demand compliance with his standards. A smaller god comes with
smaller standards. The sun may be intimidating in its power and
ability to give life or take it away, but its existence doesn’t
necessarily imply any demands on our behavior. Elevating an animal to
the status of a god enables one to indulge his most animalistic urges
and call it a virtue. It’s easy to worship heavenly bodies,
earth-bound creatures, and inanimate objects because they make no
real demands other than what we choose for ourselves.
Paul wrote this
letter from one capital city of idolatry, Corinth, to residents of
another, Rome. To many Christians in the West today, this kind of
idol worship with festivals, incense, and sacrifice, is a
hypothetical problem with little connection to their daily lives.
That wasn’t the case for Paul and his Roman audience. Idolatry was
everywhere. Human sacrifice was still common in most of the world,
and hundreds of animals were sacrificed to the gods of Greece, Rome,
and a dozen other pagan cultures in both cities every day.
Like the
ancients, today’s Darwinists have become so enamored by God's
creation and so desperate to deny God’s authority to make laws and
punish disobedience that, in some ways, they worship the creation
rather than the Creator, even making nature out to be its own
creator. This isn’t so far from confused ancient pagan genealogies
in which the convoluted relationships of air, light, land, sky, and
sea (represented by deities such as Gaia, Uranus, and Oceanus) give
rise to spirits which represent streams, trees, animals, and
eventually mankind.
V24-25 -
If you reject that which every child can discern, why should God
invite you into deeper truths? Some people are intent on believing a
lie. God didn’t create any specific individuals with the intent of
forcing them to commit depravity and therefore to be objects of his
wrath, but he does allow them to be who they want to be. He allows
time for their depravity to consume them so that their guilt and
God’s justice in punishing them becomes clear to everyone.
If they
“exchanged the truth about God for a lie”, then they necessarily
possessed that truth at one time. This reinforces what I said
concerning vs 19-21. Everyone has access to the truth about God, and
everyone had that truth within them at some point before exchanging
it for something easier today, even though it will cost them
everything at the final Judgment.
See Isaiah
40:18-24, 44:9-20.
V26 -
“Dishonorable passions” in this verse is
pathe atimios
(παθη ατιμιας), shameful passions of the mind. Pathos
refers to sickness, not just deviant desires. What we think of as
passions would be
orexis as in v27, not
pathos. When
Paul speaks of dishonorable passions, he's addressing a profound
spiritual and moral sickness where individuals forsake God's clear
design for human relationships. I’m not saying that we must deny
all personal desires but that recognizing that some desires, when
they lead away from God's design, are afflictions of the spirit,
paths leading away from the healthy spiritual integrity he intends
for us. In this light, homosexuality, as addressed in this verse,
isn’t just a personal choice but a symptom of a deeper rejection of
the Creator's right to assign purpose and function to his creation.
“Natural” is
the Greek
phusikos (φυσικην),
which refers to that which is in accordance with the essence of
something. Homosexuality is almost universally considered deviant
behavior, contrary to the essence of mankind. Even in societies where
homosexual practices are accepted or even celebrated, there remains
an underlying acknowledgment, often unspoken, of its departure from
the norm. This isn't about legal or social acceptance but about an
inherent recognition of what all humans perceive as contrary to the
natural order.
To argue in favor
of homosexual behavior, as many do, by citing animal behavior in
abnormal circumstances misses the point entirely. People are not
animals. We are created in God's image and commissioned to rule over
the animal kingdom (Genesis 1:26-28). To lower ourselves to mimic
animal behavior is to reject that divine calling, to forsake the
stewardship and dominion we were given. Human behavior should not be
judged by animalistic standards but by divine revelation and by the
natural law that was once written on our hearts and can be again.
In Genesis 1:28,
God commanded mankind to multiply and fill the earth. This is both
prescriptive and descriptive. Throughout Scripture and even in the
natural inclinations God built into us, marriage is intended as a
union between man and woman for the purposes of procreation and
companionship. This is a divine mandate, transcending mutable
cultural norms.
Verse 26
addresses female homosexuality, while v27 addresses male. Paul might
have chosen to mention them separately because they have different
roots and they violate God’s Law in different ways. There is no
specific commandment against female-female intimacy, but there is a
command and an established norm that women should marry and have
children. Lesbianism rejects God's design and command in favor of a
woman’s own, sometimes as a reaction against abuse by men and
sometimes as simple rebellion against God.
V27 -
"Passion for one another" is
orexis (
ορεξει, orexei), not
pathos.
This is more about indulging physical desires, than about spiritual
sickness, although the indulgence produces the sickness in time. The
"due penalty" mentioned at the end of the verse is
threefold: spiritual condemnation, the
pathe atimios of the
previous verse (an increasing propensity for wickedness), and
physical illness in the form of sexually transmitted disease as well
as hormonal dysregulation and epigenetic effects that might aggravate
the feminine propensities that are often consciously adopted by
people engaged in such behavior. One perversity breeds another and
another, like leaven. This is one reason why the worst male
pedophiles usually prefer male victims. “Victimless” wickedness
often leads to the creation of victims who go on to repeat the
behaviors of the original perpetrators.
V28-31 -
Rejecting God and embracing immorality destroys the mind's ability to
think rationally. When you know the truth and deliberately practice a
lie, you drive a wedge between yourself and God that may prove
impossible to remove. Once you have made yourself unreachable, there
is no limit to the depravity that your heart and mind is capable of.
A person who
indulges in such behaviors, knowing full well that they are wholly
contrary to God's laws, has deliberately chosen to spit in God's
face. Having driven that wedge between him and the truly divine, he
will begin to believe his own lies, and his thoughts will cease to be
rational, if they ever were. His reasoning will be warped because his
mind has shut off an entire part of his being and a huge aspect of
reality for which he can no longer account, and so he will fall
further into sickness. Although Deuteronomy 28:28 is talking about
the national consequences of national rebellion against God, the
nation can’t suffer madness and “confusion of mind” unless
individual members of the nation succumb first.
Paul described
the behavior of those who are beyond hope (i.e. of "a reprobate
mind") as a parade of horrors worthy of death, but he singled
out homosexuality for special treatment. He called it dishonorable,
against nature, shameful, and erroneous. It isn't the practice of
such things that cause a person to be beyond hope, but the love of
them is evidence of their hopelessness. In other words, not all who
do these things are reprobate, but the reprobate love to do these
things.
This is not to
say there is no hope for the homosexual and other dedicated sinners,
but that hope is fleeting. If they do not repent when the Spirit
gives them the chance, they may render themselves incapable of
repentance. Such is the blasphemy of the Spirit, the unforgivable
sin. It is not that God cannot forgive nor that he is unwilling to
forgive, but that the 'reprobate mind' can no longer repent.
Hatred for God
drives people to twist everything good into evil, even when it
destroys themselves, because doing so allows them to show their spite
for God. Keep your distance from people who embrace anti-Biblical
morality or they will gradually corrupt your mind too. They can never
be your friends.
This passage
follows the same pattern as Paul's other statements concerning
categories of people. Not all of these behaviors are explicitly
sinful (e.g. foolishness here and drunkenness, anger, and rivalry in
Galatians 5:19-21), but if these things become your identity, then
you are surely also engaging in all kinds of God-hating sin.
V32 -
Since we were created by God for God's purposes, those who reject
what they know to be true and reject God's plan for them have no
reason to complain about their condemnation. They are useless tools,
so why should the toolmaker allow them to take up space in his
workshop?
Everyone
instinctively knows that heterosexuality and marriage are natural.
People who want to reject God’s design in order to indulge their
perverse passions convince themselves through choice and practice or
by redefining words like “love” to justify their actions.
Sometimes they are convinced by incessant brainwashing imposed by
others, such as the public shaming and “training” imposed by
entertainment, education, and journalism industries, or by pain and
abuse inflicted on them.
