Soil from Stone: A Few Thoughts on Paul's Epistle to the Romans

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.

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.

Romans 1

V1 - "Doulos" literally means "slave". Greeks would have differentiated between a slave and a bondservant, but--except in the case of the servant and the doorpost--a Hebrew wouldn't see a difference in the context of a Hebrew enslaved to another Hebrew.

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.
Apostolos refers to an agent.
Paul never calls himself Saul in his letters.
"Set apart" could be a double-reference to being a Pharisee (separated; aphorizo, similar to perushim) and being separated out from other people for the purpose of preaching the Gospel. See Deuteronomy 10:8.
All of God's people are meant to be set apart to the Gospel. See Psalm 4 and Isaiah 40:9-11.
"Called an apostle" - Paul didn't call himself an apostle, but was called by the one who sent him.

V2 - What is the Gospel that was promised and where?

Isaiah 40:9-11
Isaiah 52:7-10
Isaiah 61:1-3
Nahum 1:15

V3 - Paul was specifically commissioned to announce the reestablishment of the throne of David in the person of Yeshua.

V4 - Paul's authority wasn't just given by a foreign king, but by God himself. "Declared to be the Son of God" is an explicit statement of Yeshua's authority even over Caesar. Especially on point for a Roman in Rome.

Yeshua's claim to the throne was backed by his pedigree in the house of David.
Yeshua's 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. Paul was called from one thing to another (v1), while Yeshua was revealed.

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.

"We have received grace and apostleship" - including the recipients of this letter. All who are called to be his (v6) are also called to be his apostles, even if they are not especially separated out for a grand purpose.
"Obedience of faith" (not "obedience to the faith") is obedience brought about by faith. See the same phrase in 16:26, where the obedience is "of faith", but to God.

V6 - We are all called to belong to Yeshua.

V7 - The letter wasn't written to just one group of believers, but all those in Rome who might come to faith.

Because God loves you, you are called to be set apart, 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.
Paul refers to "God our Father" to emphasize that God is the father of all people, especially those who believe in Yeshua.

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.
"All the world" is hyperbole. Paul didn't mean for anyone to understand it literally.
"First" = before I say anything else. Reassuring them that they are important and recognized, that his sole purpose in writing isn't to rebuke them. Like Christ, he corrects because he loves.

V9 - Only God knows what Paul prayed in private, so who else could bear witness to it? Paul frequently appeals to the witness of God to confirm a statement. In Romans 8:16, 2 Corinthians 1:23, Philippians 1:8, 1 Thessalonians 2:5, Hebrews 10:15.

"I serve with my spirit" means to serve with his deepest being, as in "worship in spirit and truth".
Paul is making an oath. This doesn't violate what Yeshua said. Yeshua, like the previous son of David, was teaching principles. Don't complicate things. Don't look for loopholes. If you say something is true, be sure that it's true.

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. He prayed specifically that he would be able to visit them.

V11 - Although he says that his reason for wanting to visit is to impart some spiritual gift to strengthen/confirm/establish them. This probably doesn't refer to an ability to work miracles, prophesy, etc., but a gift of instruction that will correct their path, bring unity to their congregation, and cohesiveness to their doctrine. In other places, Paul speaks of character traits and skills, as well as the miraculous. He also says that each person has different gifts and "gift" here is singular, so whatever gift he wants to give to a whole congregation is probably not like that, although it could be.

V12 - Paul is being somewhat modest and understated. He isn't just intending to bring them "some spiritual gift" (v11), but to correct their quickly drifting doctrine and widening divisions. He does believe they will strengthen his faith as well, but not in the same way, more by the example and spirit of their faithfulness.

V13 - The Roman believers probably felt somewhat abandoned when most or all of their leaders had to leave Rome and many of them never returned. Paul was reassuring them that they were not forgotten, that he was doing all he could to visit them personally.

Travel in the ancient world was long and hazardous. A journey across the Mediterranean would be planned years in advance for most people.

V14 - Paul has authority over the Greeks and Barbarians, but that same commission also gives him an obligation to those people. His obligation is to Yeshua who commissioned him.

V15 - The Romans are a third category. The Jews divided everyone into Jew and Gentile, mostly with clear delineation between them. The Greeks divided everyone into three fuzzy categories (Greek, Barbarian, and Roman) within a spectrum of civilization.

To the Greeks, the Jews would have been scattered across the spectrum, depending on how Jewish they were. The most Helenized Jews would have been essentially Greeks, while the Essenes would probably have been considered Barbarians.

V16 - "I am not ashamed" is probably a deliberate understatement intended to mean "I am greatly honored".

The gospel is the power of God to save all who believe, and not just the Jews to whom the promise of the gospel was 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.
"Everyone who believes" 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.
"The Greek" is a synecdoche for Greeks, Romans, and Barbarians.

V17 - "The righteousness of God" should probably be "the justice of God". God's justice is different than man's and relies primarily upon our faith in him. If you trust God, he counts you as one of his and will save you. This is the righteousness of God.

"The righteous shall live by faith" is a quote from Habakkuk 2:4 in which "righteous" is more literally translated as "just" and could be thought of as "justified". Belief in the promises of God brings life and we walk out that belief by living according to his commandments.
Even if we don't understand how God's laws or actions are righteous, our faith requires that we accept that it is.
Righteousness of God - The parallel with v18 shows that this is the righteousness that God possesses as an attribute of his character, not a righteousness that comes from God.
"From faith for faith" - Trust today leads to trust greater trust tomorrow.

V18 - God is both love and wrath. God loved the world while we were still sinners, but in his love, his wrath is revealed against our sin.

Rom 4:15 says the Law brings wrath. The written Law is the primary means by which the wrath of God is revealed in the world, and this requires that the Law be addressed to the whole world and not just Israel.
Usually the wrath of God refers to judgment, but Rom 2:5 speaks of a day when God's righteous judgment will be revealed, which means his judgment is not the wrath being spoken of here.
The key is actually in the prior verses. The Gospel reveals the power of God to save, his righteousness in the granting of life to the faithful, and his wrath against sin as described in the Law.
Unrighteousness suppresses the truth, both externally and internally, consciously and subconsciously.

V19-20 - God's existence and nature are revealed through his Creation and can only be denied through deliberate rejection and indoctrination.

One implication is that a person can know God 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. Acceptance of the concept of God is more important than an academic knowledge about God.

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.

"Invisible" (aoratos) is only used in Paul's letters and in Hebrews and always in reference to God. Although God cannot be seen, his attributes can be perceived by what he has done and continues to do.

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.

V23 - Like evolutionists, the ancients became so enamored by God's creation that they began to worship the creation itself, even attributing to it, it's own creation.

V24-25 - If you reject that which every child can discern, why should God invite you into deeper truths? Some people are determined to believe a lie, and God allows them to be who they want to be.

See Isaiah 50:20-23.
"Exchanged" means they had it in their hands and gave it away.

V26 - Marriage is a natural inclination for all people and homosexuality is universally considered deviant behavior, even in those societies in which it is accepted.

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 in favor of their own.
Dishonorable passions - pathe atimios - Shameful afflictions of the mind. Pathos refers to a disease, not a desire. This isn't talking about STDs, but a spiritual, mental, and physical addiction brought on by engaging in activities that are bad for you. Like diabetes and other lifestyle-connected illnesses, it gets worse the more you engage in the behavior.
What we think of as passion would be orexis (lust) and not pathos.
Natural = phusikos, that which is inborn. This is why it is so important to immoral people to attribute their immorality to nature.
We can't appeal to animals because we aren't animals.

V27 - "Passion for one another" is orexis, not pathos. This is more about intense desire, than sickness, but giving into the desire produces the sickness.

The "due penalty" is physical illness as well as the pathe atimios of the previous verse, an increasing propensity for wickedness. One perversity creates another, like leaven. This is why the worst male pedophiles prefer male victims.

V28-31 - Rejecting God and embracing immorality destroys the mind's ability to think rationally.

Keep your distance from people who embrace anti-Biblical morality or they will gradually corrupt your mind too. They can never be your friends.
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.
Follows the same pattern as Paul's other statements concerning categories of people. Not all of these things are explicitly sinful, but if these things become your identity, then you are surely engaging in all kinds of God-hating sin.

V32 - Everyone instinctively knows that heterosexuality and marriage are natural. They have to convince themselves otherwise through choice and practice, or else by pain and brainwashing inflicted on them.

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?

Romans 2

V1 - In 1:20, Paul wrote that "they are inexcusable". Here he says "You are inexcusable". Did the previous chapter make you feel superior to the world? Then this verse is addressed to you. If those people who don't have God's instructions instinctively know right from wrong and work to suppress the truth over time, how much less do we who have the Scriptures have any excuse for sin?

This doesn't prohibit pointing out that something is sin. It's about recognizing that you are accountable to the same standards as everyone else and about not denigrating someone else because they are a sinner for doing the very same thing that you do. We are required to make a distinction between right and wrong and to teach others to do what's right. Just be sure that you are doing so in humility and gentleness, with the full understanding that you are guilty of sin too.
Using any metric to judge other people requires that you be able to pass that metric first. So judging people according to a standard, which you can't meet, only exposes your own guilt. In judging someone else, you judge yourself.

V2 - "such things" = Specifically those sins listed in Romans 1 and related sins, but also the hypocrisy of double standards.

Judgment = decision. Whatever God decides to do is, by definition, right and just. The Judgment of God isn't necessarily good or evil, but if it "falls" on you, it is most certainly going to be evil for you.
Since God is perfect, he is able to judge all people by any standard he chooses. It is impossible for God to be a hypocrite. If you say that you can earn your way to heaven through obedience, logically you are acknowledging that God sets the standard, even if you don't live as if it is true.

V3 - The mote vs the plank. If you treat God spitefully by preaching obedience and practicing disobedience, how much more will God judge you than the unrepentant sinner?

Some people loudly condemn their own sins in others because they believe it will make them seem innocent or at least signal the right virtue to God and man so they might avoid judgment, but God doesn't care nearly so much about your words as he does about your actions.
God sees all, knows all.
Matthew 7:1-5.
John 8:7 - "Without sin" doesn't mean without any sin at all. It means not guilty of the same crime or else not guilty of a crime in bringing these charges.

V4 - God forgives us in order to give us a chance to repent, not so we can continue to sin.

Riches/ploutos = Abundance and wealth in general.
That God's forgiveness is for a purpose implies that if your refuse to use it for that purpose, he will revoke the offer, as he did with Pharaoh.
Psalm 78 illustrates how God forgave Israel continually until he stopped and drove them out of the land. He promised to restore them one day, but those individual Israelites who rejected him are lost.
See also 1 Peter 3:20 which says that God kept his patience until Noah had completed the ark. This implies that there may be events external to the sinner that put an end to God's patience. Don't put off repentance because you don't know at what point God will abandon you nor what will happen to you or in the world around you.

V5 - God's wrath doesn't dissipate while he is waiting for us to repent. If we do repent, then it is removed entirely, but if we don't, it will all be unleashed at once, like the Flood that destroyed the people of Noah's day.

2 Peter 3:7-12 seems to say that some of that wrath is stored up in the universe itself, which explains the method of the Flood.

V6 - Everyone will be judged according to his deeds, but nobody is good enough to measure up to God's standard.

See Romans 3:23 and Jeremiah 12:1-3

V7 - Rewards for those who continue to try to do good, not necessarily for those who are perfect. The key is in the persistent extirpation of sin and pursuit of righteousness.

Although Paul implies that good works can earn salvation, we know that it isn't the good works themselves, because nobody can do enough good to purge the stain of the bad that they have already done. However, repentance is a commitment ("by patience in well-doing, seek") to turn away from sin and toward good works.
This isn't about perfect obedience in all things, but a commitment to submission.

V8 - Disobedience is the mark of the unrepentant.

Even surface obedience that is motivated by self-righteousness is actually disobedience because obedience starts in the heart. Hence the gentile whose obedience is counted as circumcision.
Works matter, good and bad, but the determining factor of your eternal fate is the righteousness in your heart.

V9 - The Jews are judged first, not solely. The law came first to the Jews, so it only makes sense that judgment should come to them first.

1 Peter 4:17 - Judgment must begin with the household of God
Ezekiel 9:6 - God's wrath begins at the Temple

V10 - There is glory, honor, and peace for those who do good works. Good works matter!

With Law comes Judgment, with Judgment comes Repentance, with Repentance comes Glory and Honor and Peace.
"Seek ye first the Kingdom of God..." Matthew 6:33, which was addressed to Jews, but spoken for all, proving that Yeshua's words weren't just for the Jews.

V11 - The rules of salvation and citizenship are the same for both Jew and Gentile. Only the timing and knowledge is different. Obviously that means there is a difference and God does show partiality, but not in whether warranted wrath will be delivered or not.

Literally "there is no acceptance of faces with God".
See Acts 10:34. Clearly God showed partiality in choosing Peter as an apostle and not Cornelius, but in eternal salvation, there is no difference.
See also Malachi 1:3. God shows partiality toward Jacob over Esau.

V12 - You will be judged by your works whether you know the law or not.

Since we all have the spark of God's Law built into our DNA, we have no excuse. If you choose to pursue it and reconciliation with God, then you will grow in obedience and understanding over time. If you choose to reject God's Law in favor of your own, you will slide deeper into disobedience and depravity until you have destroyed your conscience and even your ability to reason.
First mention of law. Little l vs capital L. Nomos and anomos used 52 times in Romans, more than any other book. More than twice as many as Galatians (25). Here and the next verse show that he is talking specifically about the written Law of Moses or else how could anyone be "without it" or hear it?
- Anomos (ἀνόμως) literally means "without the law". It doesn't mean lawless, which would be anomia. A variant ἄνομος means a person without law, a wicked person.
- Nomos (νόμος) literally means "law".

V13 - "Hearers of the law" are his Jewish readers in this context. This is a deliberate dig at those who believed they were justified before God by virtue of their Jewish heritage. It's not enough to have received the Law from God, only those with sufficient faith to obey will be justified.

The point isn't that obedience itself earns justification, but that those who obey are also those who are justified by their faith.
People who have not heard the Law are still capable of following it in spirit and from the heart, even if they never know the letter. However, most of those who have heard the Law have rejected it in Spirit, even as they keep the letter.

V14 - Gentiles get the rewards of obedience even if they don't know they are obedient.

This entire passage is talking about Torah, not some other law, so Paul is saying that Gentiles obeying Torah out of self-interest or conscience without having any specific knowledge of the written Torah is a good thing.
This isn't saying that gentiles don't need the Law, but that they already know most of it instinctively and culturally.

V15 - "Work of the Law" here is in singular and used in a positive sense, where elsewhere Paul says "works of the law" in a negative sense.

"Works of the Law" (plural) is used in Romans and Galatians as that thing which cannot justify you. (See Rom 3:20, 28, Gal 2:16, 3:2,5,10) This phrase is used in one of the DSS (Miqsat Ma'ase haTorah, Selections of the Works of the Law), which is about detailed, extra-Biblical (mostly) regulations intended to preserve the sanctity of the Temple.
The most ignorant member of the most isolated tribe has a basic understanding of right and wrong from the time they begin to comprehend the independent existence of other people. Everyone's conscience urges them against sin until they silence it by suppression, misuse, or addiction.

V16 - Everyone will be judged by the same Yeshua and God's judgment is inherent in the Gospel.

"My gospel" - The good news that Paul conveyed, not a special gospel that was unique to Paul. The Gospel is the establishment of the Kingdom, which implies a King, which means a Law, which means a judge.
God's judgment will be against your actions, but more importantly against your heart, those wicked thoughts and desires that germinate in your soul and sprout into the world into sinful actions.
God judges through the person of Yeshua. He is our advocate and our judge, but he doesn't accuse us. That's the job of the Law and the Adversary.

V17 - The Law is not intended to be your advocate, so you can't depend on it to defend you in God's court. The Law is the standard by which you will be judged. It teaches you how to behave and love, but the only testimony it can offer in God's court is how you broke it.

Nobody is justified in God's sight by virtue of his ancestry. Covenants are inherited, but righteousness is not.

V18 - The Law does in fact instruct on God's will and that which is excellent, but it's not enough to hear and understand the Law. One must have sufficient faith to obey.

V19 - Too many want to be teachers when they haven't mastered the lessons themselves.

See Matthew 15:14. Knowledge without the wisdom of application often becomes a stumbling block in itself. It's often better to remain ignorant than to get so caught up in the trees of the Law that you lose sight of the forest of its intent.
See Isaiah 49:6 and Matthew 5:14-16. Israel is supposed to be a light to the nations, bringing sight to the blind, but that mission can't be accomplished merely through academic learning nor by replacing the commandments of God with traditions of men.

V20 - The Law does embody knowledge and truth. The problem with the Law isn't its contents or requirements, but its use by an unlawful heart.

Psalm 19:7-8 describes the Law as perfect, restorative, correct, pure, and a source of wisdom and joy. Psalm 119:66 uses belief in the commandments as a basis for asking God to teach discernment and knowledge. God uses the Law to teach these things, but the Law cannot teach any of these things by itself. The letter and the spirit work together to bring real wisdom.

V21 - Don't think the rules don't apply to you even if you know them all and think you understand them.

The best way to learn something is to teach it, but the best way to truly understand something is to do it and then teach it and then do it again. Pronomian orthopraxy is the forge of true, Biblical orthodoxy.
Before you begin to teach, ensure that you are prepared yourself. Teachers must be above reproach. See 1 Timothy 3.
New converts should not be placed in leadership and teaching roles. See Joshua 6:23.

V22 - Even if you don't do these things in the flesh, do you do them in your heart?

Adultery - See Matthew 5:27-28
Rob temples? Possible meanings:
- Commit sacrilege as the KJV renders it.
- Deny God what you owe him, whether tithes or things vowed or support of Apostles and ministers. I prefer this meaning and the translation "Do you temple-rob?" In other words, if you abhor idols, do you also abhor the true God? I think v23 supports this interpretation.
- Steal from pagan shrines. Even though the gods they honor aren't real, the offerings left there aren't yours to take.

V23-24 - Don’t be proud of being obedient to one commandment when you are still breaking another. Hypocrisy in the name of God brings dishonor on God himself because we are his emissaries to the world. Taking God's name in vain.

The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians: who acknowledge Jesus with their lips, walk out the door, and deny Him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable. -Brennan Manning

V25 - This isn't referring to the circumcision itself, but being "of the circumcision" or being Jew. Paul is saying that being a Jew doesn't matter if you don't actually keep the Law. In rejecting God's Law, you reject God himself and become as a non-Jew, no matter to whom you were born. The covenant does you no good if you don't keep the requirements of the covenant. In fact, it becomes a curse to you, because judgment begins with the house of God.

Galatians 5:6 says "in Christ Jesus, circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything", but this passage shows that the "In Christ Jesus" severely limits the context of that statement. Circumcision has great value, whether it refers to being a Jew or being physically circumcised according to the commandment, but circumcision itself won't gain you any favor with God. That is dependent on your faith and obedience.

V26 - If a gentile comes to faith and keeps the commandments, even though he wasn't born as a Jew, he is as a Jew (a praise) in the eyes of God, and God sees him as a party to the covenants.

Do the "righteousness of the law" (KJV) imply that there are unrighteous requirements? No! ALL requirements of the law are righteous.
The only Law Paul could be referring to here is the Law of Moses.

V27 - A gentile who keeps the Law in his heart is better than a Jew who is properly circumcised but doesn't follow the rest of the Law.

Imperfect obedience in faith is better than obedience to the letter of the law without real faith.
It is possible to be obedient without being circumcised.

V28-29 - Jew comes from Yehudah, which means "praised". He who has a circumcised heart is truly praised of God, not someone who is merely physically circumcised.

See Genesis 29:35 and Revelation 2:9.
This doesn't mean that one born a Jew isn't really a Jew. Paul was speaking metaphorically only, playing on the root meaning of Yehudah.

Romans 3

V1 - Paul is again equating "Jew" with "circumcision". He isn't speaking of the mere physical act of circumcision, because many ancient people practiced it without giving them any benefit. Rather, this is about those who are circumcised according to the commandment of God and possibly even those who have undergone ritual conversion according to what was called the "custom of Moses".

V2 - The advantage of being a Jew doesn't end with the traditions and oracles inherited from their fathers; it begins there.

The oracles are the Law and the Prophets.
The Samaritans, descendants of Israel, rejected the prophets and misunderstood much of the Law.
Most of the northern Kingdom scattered and assimilated.

V3 - The hypocrisy of some Jews does not devalue the Law and the Prophets or his promises to the patriarchs of Israel, nor does it call into question God's choice of a people.

V4 - The physical descendants of Jacob can never do anything that would cause God to utterly reject them, because God has promised that he won't.

God's faithfulness: Genesis 32:9-12, Deuteronomy 4:24-31, Isaiah 54:1-10, Jeremiah 33:25-26
If God's promises to Israel can be nullified, why do we believe he will keep his promises to us?
God's promises to preserve and restore Israel cannot refer to a generic faithful remnant from among the nations, because the people who are restored must be the same people who were rejected.

V5 - The unrighteousness of Israel shows the righteousness of God through two facts:

His faithfulness to his covenants despite Israel's failures. If YHWH has utterly rejected the descendants of Jacob, then he is a faithless and unrighteous god. 2. God's wrath against sin shows his holiness and his right to set the rules and judge rule-breakers.
God is justified in inflicting wrath on mankind because 1) he made us and he makes the rules and 2) he has promised to restore Israel despite his momentary wrath. His wrath is instructive, not capricious.

V6 - If God failed to discipline Israel, to whom he had given his Law and "oracles", on what basis could he punish the rest of the world? The Jews received explicit instruction on the Law, and so they must feel God's wrath before those who have some excuse because of their ignorance.

Romans 1:16, 2:9-10.

V7-8 - Paul is comparing the unfaithfulness of a man to the faithfulness of God and posing a hypothetical question based on that comparison. "The injustice (lie) of man--especially of Israel--makes the justice of God all the more apparent, so why is it such a bad thing that I'm a sinner? Doesn't me being a sinner make God look all the better in comparison? He ought to be glad I'm a sinner!"

"Lie" should probably be translated "duplicity" for the sake of clarity.
If lies and unfaithfulness were morally neutral, this would be a good argument. How can we know how bright a light really is until we have some darkness to compare it with?
It's very similar to the idea that God allows us to experience pain so that we will understand joy, but that's not the only reason for pain, and suffering itself isn't immoral. The one who causes the suffering of others is used by God, but will also be judged by God.

V9 - See v2, which says the Jews have an advantage in having been entrusted with the oracles. It is an advantage to know the rules, but that doesn't help you if you break them. The standards against sin are the same for Jew and Gentile, but God is more lenient with those who don't know the truth.

V10-12 - The original in Psalm 14:1-3 was an emotional outburst, intended to be understood as hyperbolic. It's not technically true that nobody is righteous, understands, or seeks God. Rather, nobody is sufficiently righteous, sufficiently understanding, or seeks God diligently enough. Everyone has gone astray, even if in some small way. Everyone is worthless and no good compared to YHWH/Yeshua.

It's more important that we learn how unrighteous we are in comparison to God's perfection than that we learn how perfect God is compared to us.
Are they all talking about wicked people only? Why do the Scriptures always talk about the righteous vs the wicked if there are no righteous? Maybe Paul is employing hyperbole. David claimed to be righteous, yet we know he wasn't perfect. Therefore, righteousness does not imply perfection.

V13 - Psalm 5:9 and Psalm 140:3

V14 - Psalm 10:7

V15-17 - Isaiah 59:7-8

V18 - Psalm 36:1po

V19 - "under the law" should be translated "within the law". This is a different Greek phrase than used in Galatians 3:23, 4:5, 4:21, and 5:18. Galatians reads “hupo nomon”. Romans 3:19 reads “en to nomo”.

How can the whole world be held accountable to God if the Law isn't speaking to them. Parallelism.

V20 - It doesn’t say “works of the Law”, but “works of law”. The definite article is assumed by the translators. "Works of law" probably means ama'asim and refers to rabbinic halachah, which is based on Torah, but isn’t the same. It does not refer to living according to the actual Law of Moses, but according to man-made rules by which men believe they can be made righteous. Either way, it amounts to the same thing: trying to earn your salvation by your own power.

There are several Hebrew words for law, and they can all be translated into Greek as nomos.
“Justified in his sight” - Bildad (Job 25:5) and Eliphaz (Job 15:14-16) say that even the heavens and heavenly bodies are impure in God’s sight. These men are not reliable witnesses in every respect, but their point here is a good one. God is so magnificent that not even the sun and moon could possibly impress him. How much less could our feeble attempts at righteousness impress him. His righteousness is infinitely perfect. The tiniest infraction makes any righteousness we might muster to be less than infinite. Mathematically speaking, anything less than infinite is infinitely less. There is no possible way for us to make up the difference on our own. We absolutely need a savior, someone who can bridge the gap.
You can’t be justified in God’s sight by trying to live according to the Law (or law), because the Law will continually expose your shortcomings. When you master one sin, you will discover another. This is the essence of Galatians 2:19. In trying to earn salvation through obedience to the Law, Paul only succeeded in revealing his hopelessness, and so his hope in the Law died, so that it might be refocused on the Law-giver.

V21-22 - Not without regard to the law or in lawlessness, but through the person of Yeshua and his faith. The Law and Prophets prophesied about Yeshua and spelled out his necessity, and his faith was demonstrated by his obedience to the Law, but it was his faith and not the Law itself that demonstrated God’s righteousness.

Faith = pistis, a reliance or trust in another. A conviction of the truth or trustworthiness of a matter. Faithfulness. Here, it is pisteos.

V23 - The quotes of David above were hyperbolic and didn’t really include all people, but Paul uses them to illustrate the point that all people really have fallen short of God’s perfect righteousness.

We are made in God’s image, like shadows, and it is impossible for the shadow to outshine the reality. See Colossians 2:16 and Hebrews 8:13.
Anything less than infinite is infinitely less than infinite.

V24 - Justification is gifted by the forbearance of God.

Redemption - Gr. Apolutrosis. He. Ga’al. - See Hebrews 11:35, Ephesians 1:14, Exodus 15:13. Refers to a ransom paid to release a prisoner or something held.

V25 - Propitiation means a cleansing or wiping away. Septuagint uses it to refer to the kiporet of the Ark of the Covenant. But his blood doesn’t just cover over sins. It removes them. See Rev 7:14.

This forgiveness shows God’s righteousness, because only one who is perfectly sinless could be qualified to completely remove all sin, unlike animal sacrifices which only temporarily covered them over.

V26 - By declining to punish sin in the here and now when he is within his rights, he demonstrates his righteousness and the ultimate justice of his judgment. When he finally judges mankind, no one will have an excuse, because he gave us ample time to repent or to prove our sinfulness.

“His righteousness” is dikaiosune, which is the same root as justify. Everywhere the English says “justify”, think “made/declared righteous”.
He is just because he establishes the Law and the guilt of lawbreakers, but he justifies those who have faith in Yeshua by setting aside their guilt.

V27-28 - There’s nothing to brag about

Law of works and law of faith are not Torah. These are principles by which some seek salvation. They are generic principles of law, not specific laws.
God alone has the power to set aside our guilt and designed a mechanism by which it could be done through his own power. The infinitely perfect God had to become an infinitely perfect man and die for the sins of the rest of us in order to deflect God’s righteous judgment onto himself.

V29 - God created the entire universe, including all mankind, therefore he is the God of everything.

See Isaiah 19:19-25. Egypt and Assyria are metonymes for the whole world.

V30 - God has a complex internal anatomy with functional divisions, but his authority is not divided. There is not a part of God that presides over the seas and another over the heavens. All of God is the Creator and all of God is the master of all mankind.

See Psalm 24:5. Righteousness comes from God to those who seek him. "Circumcision" refers to rabbinic circumcision.
Is it significant that Paul said “by faith” and “through faith”?

V31 - Through faith in God we establish the Torah and become righteous.

When we are under the Law, we are under its condemnation, but being no longer under the Law doesn’t mean that it can no longer inform our behavior and conscience. We uphold God’s Law because it is an extension and reflection of his character and we are his people.

Romans 4

V1-3 - Abraham was declared righteous because of his faith many years before he was circumcised. See Genesis 15:6. “Counted unto him” in v3 is the same as “imputed to him”. He didn’t have actual, significant righteousness of his own, but God ascribed it to him anyway.

Consider a man who adopts two sons. Both have an imputed sonship that they didn’t earn. The first is an obedient, faithful son his whole life. He is a son in name and in deed. The second son is like the Prodigal who rebels and leaves the father’s house. Maybe he repents and maybe he doesn’t. The point is that the father has the option of continuing to call him a son or to repudiate him. The father is just in either case.
This passage defines the concept of “justified by faith”. Justification is God counting us as righteous for the sake of our faith in him, not because of anything we did before.
See Matthew 11:19 - “Wisdom is justified by her deeds.” This means that wisdom is made/shown to be/declared righteous because of her deeds. Keep this in mind when you compare Romans 3-4 with James 2.
If James was written by the brother of Yeshua, then James 2:17-26 is parallel to this passage, not a refutation or counterpoint. In that case, it seems likely that there was a popular teaching that somehow connected the unity of God with a two-tiered law system, much as is taught in some branches of Christianity and Messianic Judaism today. We know logically and scripturally that there is only one creator God, but our rebellious nature wants to insert an anti-creator into the story to justify following a different law. See Marcionism and Gnostic dualities.

V4 - Consider Eliezer who worked for Abraham his whole life, who put his own life on the line, and ruled Abraham's house (including Isaac!) with the full authority of Abraham himself, yet could never be counted as the promised heir. He had every cause to be jealous of Isaac, but was grateful to be a part of Abe's house. Genesis 15:1-4.

Consider also Ishmael, who was Abraham’s legitimate son according to law and tradition, but could not be the son of promise because he was the product of Abraham’s own efforts and not God’s miraculous intervention. Genesis 17:15-21.
Both Eliezer and Ishmael could have been legitimate heirs to Abraham by the laws of men, but

V5 - Not that anyone is justified because they are ungodly, but that they are justified while they are still ungodly. Repentance doesn’t magically transform a person into a perfectly obedient son. It only sets him on a course that would be pointless without that prior justification.

His faith is counted as righteousness, because he has no righteousness to speak of. When a person first comes to faith, nothing good that he has done counts for anything because it wasn’t done in faith. So he is saved while he is still a sinner, but once God has justified him, his faith enables his righteous acts to count as actual righteousness.
The word for righteousness at the end of the verse has the same root as justify/justifies.
See the parable of the vineyard laborers in Matthew 20:1-16. God has every right to give whatever he wants to whomever he wants, so long as he does so within the bounds of what he has already promised to do.

V6 - Refers to Psalm 32 in which David talks about how one who expects forgiveness can't hide his sin or pretend it doesn't exist. It must be repented of and then one must accept God's teaching in the ways of righteousness.

V7-8 - Greek words used are interesting: “Blessed are they whose anomiai (lawlessnesses) are afetisan (left behind/abandoned) and whose amartiai (errors) are epekaluptisan (covered over; NASB translates the last word as “covered”). Blessed is the man against whom the Lord oo me (will never ever) logisitai (account) amartian (error).”

David sang of the grace of God to forgive sins a 1000 years before Paul wrote Romans.
- Psalm 32:3-5 speaks of the need to confess sins to God in order to obtain forgiveness. This is not a “work” in the sense of earning anything. It’s merely an acknowledgment of debt.
- Psalm 32:6 implies there is a time limit to repentance. Confess and repent while you still can, because eventually the flood waters come and the doors will be closed.
- Psalm 32:7 adds meaning to the idea of sins being covered. God is our hiding place and it is beneath the blood of Yeshua that our sins are permanently covered over.
God cooks the spiritual books in favor of those who believe in him.

V9 - We know that God forgives and “enrighteouses” people whether they are circumcised or not because he imputed righteousness to Abram before he was circumcised.

V10 - Circumcision came after Abraham's calling and covenant, not before. He was pronounced righteous in Genesis 15:6 and circumcised in Genesis 17:4.

V11 - The commandment to become circumcised is only given to those who are already God’s people. There is no point in someone outside the covenant being circumcised because it is a sign of having already been inducted.

“The purpose” in the ESV is misleading. It’s not the purpose of either the circumcision or the command to circumcise, but the purpose of Abraham being explicitly declared righteous before his circumcision. If God had waited until after Genesis 17:4 to call Abraham righteous, we might say that it was the circumcision that made him so. Putting that statement in 15:6 leaves no room to question.

V12 - Abraham is the father of the faithful remnant of physical Israel as well as of the faithful converts from the nations.

See Luke 3:8. Nobody can appeal to genetic descent from Abraham for justification in God’s eyes. The circumcision itself isn’t enough, but one must believe God.

V13 - God might use natural laws to accomplish his promises, but he doesn’t have to. In this case, it served his purposes to bypass all natural and manmade laws in order to create a people from what was not a people, life from death.

Eliezer and Ishmael were both legitimate heirs to Abraham, one according to the law of men and the other according to the law of nature, but God had another plan for which there was no law. He intended to make a direct intervention in the normal process of events to give Abraham an heir apart from economic and familial laws.
Per Galatians 3:21-29 explains this same concept. Eliezer and Ishmael were both enslaved according to law and the heir of Abraham by that law until the child of faith came. When Isaac came, the full promise was revealed in God creating an heir for Abraham without reference to the laws of economics or biology. We were once Eliezer and Ishmael, but now we are Isaac.

V14 - We are given the Law only after we are made heirs, not before. The covenant is established by faith and sealed by actions, not the other way around.

“Those of law” doesn’t refer to Jews, but to anyone who thinks he can earn salvation by his own efforts. It isn’t even about obedience to Torah, because it says “of law” not “of The Law”
Deuteronomy 30 and Jeremiah 31 show that the physical descendants of Jacob, as a people, can never lose their status as God’s chosen, but this doesn’t guarantee that every individual descendant will be saved. Every person must have believe as Abraham did in order to inherit eternal life and forgiveness of sins.

V15 - The law brings wrath because we can never fully live up to its demands. We will inevitably fail in some small respect and so lose all possible merit to eternal life. Wrath is the default wage for all mankind since Adam sinned. In trying to earn salvation through obedience to law, we earn only wrath. The only righteousness that can truly save us is that which is imputed to us on Yeshua’s account because of our faith in God.

“Where there is no law” is often misunderstood to mean that God’s Law doesn’t apply to some people or in some eras. That’s not the point. It’s about things that happen outside the purview of law, not to people who don’t have or know the Law. This verse could be reworded as “For the Law brings about God’s wrath because of our violations, but in a context in which no law applies, there can be no violation.”

V16 - The first phrases of this verse are evidently ambiguous and difficult to translate. ESV takes a little more liberties than the bare text seems to warrant, but it doesn’t change the fundamental meaning.

Amplified: Therefore it is by faith, so that in accordance with God’s grace, the promise might be guaranteed to all who would be Abraham’s heirs, not only to those who keep the Law, but also to those who only have the faith of Abraham, who is made to be the father of us all.
There is no hope of salvation apart from God’s grace and we receive that grace by believing in his promise to give it. His grace is only extended to those who will believe that he gives it.
One who lives according to rules (whether God’s or man’s) is not cut off from salvation nor is the one who does not live according to rules. It’s not necessarily bad to be among “those of law”. It just depends on what laws and why you keep them.
Being a child of Abraham necessarily also means being a child of Jacob. Ishmael, Esau, and Keturah’s children are all descendants of Abraham, but only according to law and not according to promise. The promise flows from Abraham to Isaac to Jacob and all of the children of Abraham’s faith must also be of that line. The natural descendants of Jacob, especially those who have kept the Law, are “those of the law”.
“Father of us all” refers to both the natural children of Abraham through Jacob and those of faith.

V17 - We were dead in our sins, with no more capacity for righteousness than stones. Yet through the divine action of God, Sarai’s dead womb was resurrected, and stones came to life.

Father of many nations. See Genesis 17:4-5. This is literal in that Abraham became the genetic father of many nations. It is figurative in that he became the father, through faith, of multitudes from among the nations. When we are added to the covenant, our parents don’t change, our DNA doesn’t change, and we don’t magically become Jews. We are Americans, Mexicans, Canadians made to be children of Abraham by faith, not by lineage.
God’s promise to Abraham in Genesis 17:4-5 is in both the present and past tense.
“Gives life to the dead” is a reference to the bodies of Abraham and Sarah as well as to the natural born Israelites, many of whom do not know they are Israelites. See Ezekiel 37.
“That which does not exist” is a reference to an heir where there couldn’t be one, to gentiles made into Israelites, stones made into children of Abraham. See Luke 3:8.

V18 - This is the heart of Abraham’s faith, the promise in which he believed, despite good reasons not to believe, that caused God to declare him righteous.

Abraham didn’t doubt God’s promise, but he doubted his own understanding of the promise. Maybe it wasn’t supposed to be through Sarah? God only clarified that after Ishmael was born.

V19-20 - Abraham could see the evidence against God’s declaration with his whole being, yet he believed. He didn’t deny that his and Sarah’s bodies were too old to conceive children, nor did he deny that God was capable of making it happen anyway.

Abraham’s faith in spite of evidence to the contrary strengthened his faith even more. Faith is like any other skill. You get better at it, the more you exercise it.

V21 - I am fully convinced that God can heal me, that God can give me the resources to accomplish whatever task he sets before me, even while I am sick and have no resources. God spoke the universe into existence, so what could possibly be too difficult for him?

V22 - God wants to see the kind of faith that believes despite any evidence that the world might present or fabricate. That doesn’t mean he wants us to believe in lies. God didn’t tell Abraham that he would be the father of nations just to see if he would believe an absurdity. He told him so because he meant to make it so. Don’t mistake your misunderstandings of God’s word for his actual word, and don’t hold too tightly to promises that he never made.

V23 - Abraham probably never saw those words in print, and maybe nobody spoke it to him at all. Like all Scripture, it was recorded for our benefit.

V24 - Our challenge to believe in Yeshua’s resurrection is similar to Abraham’s challenge to believe in his own. We have an historical record of the resurrection and those who witnessed him alive, but all that we know of the natural world says that dead people don’t come back to life.

V25 - Our sin can’t just be erased because God decided. The laws by which he exists and by which he created the universe require sin to be atoned by blood. Since any atonement made by the sinner himself is inherently imperfect, it can never erase his own sins. Only the blood of an infinitely perfect man can atone for the infinite shortcomings of man. Yeshua gave up his life to erase our sins and rose from the grave to ensure our resurrection.

Romans 5

V1 - Peace is a state of relationship between us and God. This isn’t talking about a clear conscience, but about escaping God’s wrath. Those who are not justified in God’s eyes will receive his wrath at the final judgment if not before.

Peace with God = justification.
See Isaiah 27. Repentance brings peace with God, which brings restoration and fruitfulness.

V2 - Forgiveness of sins and eternal life are gifts from God that we couldn’t possibly earn no matter what we do, and even God’s grace to grant them to us in response to our faith in him would have no effect if Yeshua had not died to enable the removal of our sins.

See John 14:6, Isaiah 53, and 2 Corinthians 4:16-5:2.

V3-4 - God allows suffering for a purpose, but suffering itself isn’t a good thing. We shouldn’t seek out suffering for ourselves or anyone else except for brief moments of discipline for those under our authority, but neither should we expend all of our energy trying to avoid it.

See 1 Peter 4:12-19.
Nothing great is easy. If you would become great or do great things, you will suffer along the way. If you haven’t suffered, then you are fooling yourself about the value of what you have accomplished.
Jacob's life was "short and evil", but he was blessed beyond measure. Hardship is often a blessing from God because it is a precursor of greater challenges and responsibilities.
Sometimes one person suffers for another's blessing. If we suffer for the sake of another, this too is a blessing for ourselves, one that we will reap 100 fold. Yeshua is the greatest example of this.
We only know good because we have known evil. This is the end result of eating the tree of knowledge of good and evil. We weren't supposed to eat it, but God has turned out sin into an opportunity to bless those who are willing to receive it.
Purposes of suffering
- Reveal your character
- Reveal God’s character
- Reveal the world’s character
- Reveal the character of false gods
- Understand God’s and Christ’s suffering
- Provoke repentance
- Deter crime
- Rescue the righteous
- Build faith
- Build character (strength, determination, etc.)
KJV says “experience” instead of “character”. The Greek word is dokimee, which means proven, much as metal is tempered. A combination of experience and character is probably a better idea.

V5 - The hope Paul wrote and spoke of is the hope of the Gospel, which encompasses the forgiveness of sins, the restoration of Israel, resurrection, and eternal life without sin and shame. See Acts 23:6, 24:15, 26:6, Acts 28:20,

See Isaiah 45:15-25. God often hides himself in the midst of our suffering, and so we ask “How can God allow this?” If he told us the purpose of every evil thing, it wouldn’t have its intended effect. If God himself appeared to every person undergoing trial, where would be the need for faith? He hides himself to empower our suffering, which leads to our reconciliation with him, our liberation, and eternal life after the resurrection without fear of shame or punishment.

V6 - “Still weak” refers to our inability to save ourselves. God requires us to confess our sinful state and repent from sin, but he doesn’t expect us to make any progress before he saves us. He forgives our sins while we are still wallowing in sin.

Christ didn’t make a mistake in dying for a people who hated him. If everyone loved him and lived a perfectly righteous life, what would be the purpose of his death? “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” If the people who crucified him had understood whom they were crucifying, they certainly wouldn’t have done it.

V6 - Almost nobody would die to save a criminal who deserves death, but that’s what Yeshua did for us. He didn’t die to save the sinless. He died for idolaters, homosexuals, and murderers because he knew that a few of them would be saved by his death.

V7 - Some people will choose to die for someone who isn’t immediate family or a very close friend. Even then, they would need assurances that their death would save the other person’s life, spare them great pain, or cause them to become a good person. Yeshua knew that nobody would become a good person by his standards.

V8 - Only the most loving person can clearly see the value in suffering for another.

How does it show God’s love for Christ to have died for us? Because Yeshua is God’s only begotten son in a way that no mortal father can have a son. He is God in the flesh. God created a father-son relationship with a part of himself and then sacrificed that son in order to save people who had no hope of saving themselves, and couldn’t even repay him by becoming remotely good. Our righteousness is not earned, but bestowed by the grace of God through the blood of Yeshua.

V9 - How does one follow from the other? Justification refers to restoring a person to the infinite righteousness required to be resurrected to eternal life in God’s direct presence. If God can make an infinitely unrighteous person infinitely righteous, how hard could it be to simply shelter that person from a tiny bit of wrath focused on a tiny little world in a corner of the universe?

This doesn’t mean that God shields redeemed people from the natural consequences of their sin. That’s not God’s wrath; it’s just nature.
Does this mean that we will never experience God’s wrath poured out on the people around us? Not necessarily. It means that we will be sheltered from the brunt of it. The Hebrews suffered at least to some degree in the first 3 plagues of Egypt. God only made a clear distinction between his people and the Egyptians in the fourth plague. See Exodus 8:22-23.

V10 - Yeshua died for all mankind before we even knew that we needed him, while many of those who knew they needed him, rejected him.

We were subjects of a sworn enemy of God, slaves to sin, and therefore enemies of God at the moment that Yeshua gave his life for our redemption.
If by his death, Yeshua can change our allegiance from Satan to him, it is a trivial thing to spare us from his wrath poured out against those who refuse to be reconciled to him.

V11 - We rejoice in our reconciliation to God, in our salvation from wrath, and we also rejoice in sufferings because of the good that they bring. God is good by definition. There is no downside to God. Through our suffering, we gain in strength, character, and perspective, but in God we gain only good with no pain.

Joy has always been a central feature of the religion of YHWH. Deuteronomy repeatedly commands us to rejoice in God’s presence as an integral part of the sacrificial system:
- ch12 - You shall eat your sacrifices before YHWH your God and rejoice before him.
- ch14 - You shall eat there before YHWH your God and rejoice.
- ch16 - You shall rejoice before YHWH your God.
- ch26 - You shall rejoice in all the good that YHWH your God has given to you and to your house.
- ch27 - You shall rejoice before YHWH your God.

Original Sin?

Four categories of Original Sin doctrine

Guilt imputed (Federal headship)
Guilt inherited (Seminal transmission)
Guilt earned
Sinful nature inherited
(Yetzer tov / yetzer hara)

Doctrines of Imputed Original Sin (Roman Catholic, Calvinist)

Augustinian Seminalism - The guilt of sin is transmitted along with semen. We actively participated in Adam’s sin by virtue of being his offspring and having been part of his body at the time he sinned.
Immediate Imputation - Adam’s guilt is inherited by all of his descendants and this creates a sinful nature within them.
Federal Headship - We are guilty of sin because Adam has authority over us and therefore represented us in the Garden. The generation of Adam is guilty of Adam’s sin, much as all of Israel is accountable for the covenant their elders made with the Gibeonites.

Doctrines of Inherited Sinful Nature (Eastern Orthodox, Arminianism, Mormonism)

Mediate Imputation - A sinful nature is inherited by all of Adam’s descendants and this causes them to sin.
Uncondemnable Vitiosity (aka New School Theory) - All men inherit an evil inclination which inevitably causes them to sin almost as soon as they are capable. I’m not sure how this is different than Mediate Imputation.

Doctrines that Deny Vitiosity

Pelagianism - There is no sin or sinful nature inherited from Adam, and men are capable of living a sinless life.
Good/Evil Inclinations - The Jewish belief that everyone has good and evil inclinations that we must nurture and control, respectively. Yetzer tov and yetzer hara.

V12 - Death is an inherited disease and Yeshua is the cure, as promised to Abraham. As leprosy was cured by baptism in the Jordan, so is death cured by baptism in the blood of Yeshua.

Death, not sin, spread to all men.
- Psalm 51:5 - Poetic exaggeration
- Psalm 14:3 - No one does good. This is talking about what each individual person does, not what Adam did.
- Deuteronomy 24:16 and Ezekiel 18:20 - Can’t punish father or son for the sins of the other.
Sin came into the world through one man, not one woman, even though the woman sinned first. This seems to prove beyond any reasonable doubt that Adam had authority over Eve before the Fall.

V13-14 - Paul presents a contradictory statement: Sin is not counted where there is no law and the law wasn’t given until Sinai, but sin was counted against all men before Sinai. He is showing that the Law existed before Sinai and applied to all men, not just Israelites. Only one law had been given before the Flood: Don’t eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. It was impossible that anyone after the Fall had eaten from that tree, so nobody violated that law (their transgression was not like Adam’s). Yet death, both spiritual and physical, still reigned from Adam to Moses over all people. This means that God’s Law did exist and did apply to all people.

Genesis 18:20-21 says that the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah was very grave, and then 19:12 says that God would destroy the city because of the outcry against it. On what basis could God destroy the city?
In Genesis 20:3, God threatened to kill Abimelech because he was planning to violate Sarah. How can that be since no explicit commands had been given concerning sexual behavior other than to reproduce?
Leviticus 18:24-30 says that the Canaanites made themselves unclean and were cut off from among their people because they practiced sexual abominations that are contrary to God’s Law. Yet the Canaanites didn’t have God’s Law. In fact, even Israel didn’t have these commandments at the time that God condemned the Canaanites for violating them. This means that the Canaanites and Israelites actually did know these laws, even though they had not yet been written down by Moses.

Parallelism in Romans 5:15-16

V15 - Free gift is not like the trespass
- Many died through one man’s trespass
  - Greater grace and gift of Jesus abound for many
V16 - Free gift is not like the result of Adam’s sin
- Judgment following one trespass brought condemnation
  - Free gift following many trespasses brought justification

V15-16 - The death brought by Adam and the life brought by Yeshua are similar in that they are both one-to-many relationships, but they are different in three very important ways:

One brings death, while the other brings life.
One impacted all, while the other only impacts those who believe.
Just as destruction is so much easier than construction, it only took one sin to separate all of mankind from infinite righteousness and unite them with death. However, Yeshua’s death restores all who believe to infinite righteousness.

Triple Parallelism in Romans 5:17-19

V17 - Because of one man’s trespass
- Death reigned through that one man
  - Much more will those who receive grace and righteousness
    - Reign in life through Jesus
V18 - As one trespass
- Led to condemnation for all men
  - One act of righteousness
    - Leads to justification and life for all men
V19 - One man’s disobedience
- Many made sinners
  - One man’s obedience
    - Many will be made righteous

V17-19 - Multiple points can be learned from this triple parallelism:

Trespass or sin is the same as disobedience. Where there is no disobedience, there is no sin.
The consequences of our sins don’t end with us. They will be passed on to our children, to the people under our authority, to all the people around us, and even to the people in authority over us.
Adam’s curse has three primary effects on mankind where it relates to our need for a savior: First, death reigns over all mankind, so everyone is condemned to die through sickness and decay. Second, the corruption in our flesh and in the world around us drives us to disobedience: the sinful nature. Third, because of our sinful nature, we inevitably sin and earn eternal condemnation.
Righteousness is the same as obedience. We are condemned because we follow in Adam's disobedient footsteps. We are redeemed because our redeemer obeyed and gave up his life so that we could choose to follow him. If he had sinned even once, he would be in the same dire situation as us, unable to save even himself.
Yeshua’s perfect obedience preserved his infinite righteousness. No matter how much righteousness is imputed to us, it can never run out. The grace and righteousness that is extended to us for his sake is as infinite as he is. Death, by its nature, is an end and has an end. The life imparted by his grace is eternal.
Just as justification and life is not automatically given to all men, but depends on our reception of it in humble repentance, so condemnation is not automatically passed to every human being only by virtue of having been conceived in the line of Adam. Each and every one of us has received condemnation because of our unwillingness to obey God’s Law in every respect. See Matthew 7:13-14 and Romans 3:23.

V20 - We could never know the value of our salvation if we weren't first condemned to die. This doesn't mean we should deliberately increase sin and suffering so that our joy will seem more profound. See Romans 7:7-13.

The Law wasn't given so that we would sin more, but so that our sin would be more apparent. Sin increases in light of the Law just as dirt increases when exposed to the light.
Alternatively: Exposure to the Law increases the desire to sin in those who are in rebellion and determined to sin.
Where sin is exposed, God’s grace is magnified. It’s not that God’s grace is actually greater because people sinned more, but because sin was exposed.

V21 - “Reigned” means that it has power over people. Because death reigned and brought sin with it, sin reigned in death in the same way that Joseph reigned in Pharaoh. When we decide to reject God’s desires in favor of our own, we are brought under the power of sin to condemn. We are put “under the Law”. God’s grace reverses this process. God’s grace made a way for Yeshua’s righteousness to be effective for us, “canceling the record of debt that stood against us” so that sin could not reign over us (Colossians 2:14-15). With the power of sin removed, we are no longer under the Law, and we can be given eternal life once we are also removed from under the power of death in the resurrection.

See Romans 6:14 regarding equating the dominion of sin with being under the Law.

Romans 6

V1-2 - Sin no longer reigns over us because Yeshua has redeemed us from that slavery, but to respond to this freedom by continuing to behave in the very same manner that caused our slavery shows extreme disrespect to our redeemer.

See 2 Peter 2:18-22
Don't remain in sin, but also break from the lifestyle and the company that is connected to it.
An activated conscience and elevated awareness of sin are symptoms of having been reborn in Christ.
Sin didn’t die to us. We died to sin. This means that sin is still out there and is still to be avoided, but it no longer holds any power over us. As far as Sin’s power to condemn is concerned, we are dead and beyond its reach.

V3 - Baptism is a symbolic death and resurrection. The Christian baptism symbolizes the death of our submission to sin and resurrection into a life of submission to Christ. It is an outward sign of an inward reality that is only made possible by his very real death and resurrection.

See Matthew 3:11 regarding baptism equated to death and resurrection into a new life of repentance from sin.

V4 - Did Christ die so that he would be free to disregard the Law? Of course not! So when Paul says that we were baptized into his death and buried with him by that baptism so that “we too may walk in newness of life”, it doesn’t follow in any way that he died so that we can disregard the Law that he upholds. He didn’t die to set us free from moral standards--and every single letter of Torah is instruction in moral standards--but to set us free from condemnation for our failures, so that we might live a new life without the stain of our prior sins, without fear that every little slip up will once again disqualify us from eternal life in the Father’s presence.

V5 - Our lives and the weight of our spirits is nothing compared to Yeshua’s. If his death had sufficient power to bring about our spiritual death with him, how much more does his resurrection resurrect us to new spiritual life now and new physical life before the final judgment?

This actually says that we have been planted together in the likeness of his death. ESV’s rendering of “we have been united with him in a death like his” is reasonable, but I don’t think it’s exactly what is intended. I think it’s more likely to mean one of the following:
- We were planted with him like seeds destined also to sprout and grow together. (credit Albert Barnes and the KJV. I agree with this interpretation. See 1 Corinthians 15:42-43.)
- We are symbiotic organisms that are grafted into him in his death and rise with him as he grows. (Adam Clarke says this is the literal meaning of the word sumphutos, but the interpretation seems stretched to me. The planting and germinating analogy seems more likely.)

V6-7 - Paul frequently doesn’t give us any warning that he is using a metaphor. We weren’t literally crucified with Yeshua, especially since we weren’t even born yet, any more than we literally sinned with Adam. Rather, our death to sin is enabled by his death from sin, so that the sinful life we once lived will have no effect on our eternal destiny. We are no longer under the bondage of sin, which made all our obedience worthless. We are covered in Yeshua’s righteousness in God’s eyes, so that we are now free to obey without fear.

V8 - Christ’s death was accomplished on our behalf. Death is the penalty for sin, a penalty which is satisfied with the death of the sinner. However, the sinner’s blood can only atone for his own sin, and only for his mortal flesh. It can’t remove sin from his spirit. The blood of Yeshua, being perfect in his sinlessness, makes a perfect atonement, not only cleansing the flesh, but also the spirit itself. His blood washes away the curses that were written against us, removing the power of our sin to deliver us to death, both physical and spiritual.

Galatians 2:20-21

V9 - Since Christ not only died on our behalf, but also rose from the grave never to die again, he freed us from sin and took authority over death itself, the thing that gives sin its power. All those under his protection are also protected from death. Our flesh will still grow old and die, but we will be resurrected, and our spirits can never be subjected to death.

V10 - Sin held no power over Yeshua at the time of his death because he had never sinned. His death made this relationship permanent, so that sin can never rule over him. In his resurrection, he never again has to worry about temptation or corruption, but can dedicate all of his power to serving God with a clear conscience. “He lives to God.”

See Hebrews 9:24-26. The power of his death is infinite, so it isn’t limited to past sins. However, don’t abuse his sacrifice just because he doesn’t have to do it again.

V11 - Because Yeshua has freed us from sin and now lives solely to God, we must also consider ourselves freed from sin and live accordingly. Although our flesh is still dying, continually drawing us into sin, we must keep our eyes and hearts focused on him and the life we are intended to live to God.

“You must consider yourself” implies that there is an active, purposeful involvement in your own rejuvenation. Your sinful nature is not immediately removed by repentance or baptism, but the forgiveness of your sins means that your efforts are now meaningful. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit gives you new strength and new tools to combat your sinful nature, gradually transforming you into a clearer image of Yeshua through faith, meditation, prayer, and obedience.
See John 20:31. The life we have in him is by his power and identity, not our own.

V12 - Essentially the same as v11. There is no way to interpret this except that Christians can continue to sin and will continue to struggle with sin after they are justified.

Sin had rule over both your flesh and spirit. Yeshua’s death freed us from it’s mastery over our spirits, but we must continue to fight it in our flesh as long as we live.
If we allow sin to have its way with our flesh, it will gain in power until it once again becomes our master. See v13. This isn't about God's sovereignty nor the power of Yeshua's blood. It’s about the spiritual laws that God created and how much rebellion he is willing to tolerate.

V13 - “Present your members” as if presenting an offering to a ruler.

Our bodies and all their parts are tools for good or evil. We can allow our flesh to dictate our actions and thereby bring more evil into the world, or we can give our whole selves to God so that we can be conduits for righteousness.
After the final Resurrection, will there be sin? Will sin even be possible? Now that Yeshua’s resurrection is counted as our own spiritually, we ought to behave in the flesh today as we will when our flesh has also been resurrected.
1 Corinthians 6:12-20. We have been raised with Christ, made part of his household and body. Don’t defile him by defiling yourself. This wouldn’t be possible if we were rejected for every sin, but I don’t think that he will tolerate it forever.

V14 - Sin has dominion over those who are under law. Being “under law” is the same as being under the dominion of sin. If you are an unrepentant sinner, then you are under law. If you have repented of sin and been forgiven, then you are set free from the dominion of sin and are no longer under law. This doesn’t mean that the Law is no longer a guide to righteous behavior as v15 states plainly, but that it no longer has authority to condemn you.

The phrase “under law” is a description of a hierarchy of authority, not of an obligation.

See Matthew 8:8-9, Romans 3:3, Galatians 3:25, 1 Timothy 6:1, etc.

Under Law	Under Grace
The Father	The Father
The Son	The Son
The Law	You
You	The Law

Since the New Covenant (Jeremiah 31:33) includes law and this verse says “under law”, not “under the law”, it can’t possibly mean that we aren’t obligated to keep a law.
All of Christianity before the 20^th century affirmed that Paul taught obedience to “the moral law” at the very least. The idea that “you are not under law” means that the Law of Moses is totally inapplicable is an historical aberration.

V15 - Our salvation is not a license to sin.

The continuity of the Law is proven in this: that it is possible to continue sinning after we are saved. Paul just argued that without Law, the concept of sin is meaningless. How can he then say that we should not continue sinning if the Law has been done away with? If the Law no longer applies, then it is impossible to sin for there is no law to transgress.
As Romans 7:7 says, the Law itself isn’t sin, but it defines sin. We are not to start breaking the Law because we are no longer under law.

V16 - Everyone is a slave to someone/something. There are no freemen; there is no such thing as freedom to do whatever you want. Your only choice concerns which master you will serve, and even that choice is limited.

If you are a slave to sin (aka disobedience), then you are under law. If you are a slave to obedience to the Law, then you are not under law.
In a sense this seems to contradict Paul’s description of sinners as “under law” since they are disobedient to the law, by definition. However, they are only disobedient to those aspects of the law over which they have a choice. The consequences of the law are beyond their control. Once the voluntary provisions of the law are violated, the involuntary engage.
Obedience leads to righteousness, which means there is a legitimate kind of righteousness acquired through one’s own efforts. Compared to the righteousness required to earn a place in eternity, it is nothing, but not everything needs to be compared to infinity. Next to God, you and I are nothing, but we still exist. See Deuteronomy 30:17-20.

V17-18 - Servants of righteousness is the opposite of servants of sin. In light of previous verses, this can only mean that “righteousness” refers to obedience to the commandments.

“That form of teaching” seems like it should be more naturally translated as “that kind of teaching”. ESV says “standard of teaching”, which isn’t entirely wrong, but is probably the wrong emphasis. It’s referring to a likeness or shape more than a level of quality. “You have become obedient, conforming your heart to the doctrines you were taught.”
When God redeemed the Hebrews from Egypt, he didn’t redeem them to set them loose to follow their hearts into whatever standard they chose, but to transfer their obligation from Pharaoh to him. Even as he spoke the commandments from Sinai he never intended that his people be “under law”, but under Him and obedient to his instructions because of their allegiance to him.
See John 8:31-36 and 2 Peter 2:19.

V19 - Paul once again equates righteousness to lawful behavior. Being a slave to lawlessness is the opposite of being a slave to righteousness.

“Human terms” refers to his use of the metaphor of slavery. It’s not the same thing as the slavery his audience knew in their lives, but it is analogous.
Outward behavior reinforces the inward state. If you want your inward state to be purer and more righteous, then conform your outward behavior to the ideal that you desire to be in your heart. Feed the wolf, as they say, which you desire to be victorious. Our flesh naturally inclines to entropy, so wicked behavior is easily amplified and overtakes a well-meaning heart. Righteousness leads to greater sanctification (being set apart from the world), but it is a more difficult task. God’s Spirit, prayer, righteous company, and studying the Scriptures will all help you, but even these things require concerted effort. Forward motion takes work, while backwards motion takes no effort at all. Merely stand still, and your morals will begin to fail you.

V20 - By “free in regard to righteousness”, Paul clearly means that the slave of sin is free from any considerations of obedience to God’s Law. If you are condemned already, what is the point of attempting to obey? It can’t gain you anything in God’s eyes. It can’t reverse your condemnation. It can only burden you with pointless obligations. See John 8:34.

A slave to sin = under law = lawless = free from righteousness = death
A slave to righteousness = under grace = obedient = free from sin = life

V21 - Corruption leads to corruption. Corrupt deeds earn corrupt rewards. Even if we think we are gaining by theft, bribery, etc., it always leads to loss in some other way, but especially in the heart and conscience.

Sin leads to death. Death is the end/telos of sin, the logical end result. See Deuteronomy 30:15-20.

V22 - Just as the fruit of sin is more sin, corruption, shame, and death, the fruit of righteousness is more righteousness, sanctification, and life.

Eternal life is not the termination of being set free from sin, but the logical conclusion of it.
The difference between being a slave to God/Righteousness and being a slave to Sin is parallel to that between a Hebrew slave and a non-Hebrew slave. The former is to be treated well and set free in the 7^th year with an education and gifts sufficient to give him a good start in the world. The latter remains property forever, along with his children, with no legal obligations on his master other than food, clothing, shelter, and not being severely beaten. A good Hebrew master will work to transform his foreign slave into a Hebrew so that he must be released.
Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. If you don’t, you’ll be cut down by Messiah. Matthew 3:5-12

V23 - Wages vs free gift parallels the relationship between under law vs under grace, a slave vs a son.

Romans 7

V1 - Paul calls on those who have a working knowledge of law in general. The Greek says “those who know law”, not “those who know The Law”. The second half does say “the” law, though: The Law is binding.... He could be referring to the Torah or he could be referring to whatever law the addressee has knowledge of.

Whatever law binds a person, it releases him when he dies. If he is under a law because he is guilty of breaking it, when he dies, his guilt is absolved, and he is no longer under that law. If he is a slave, he is no longer a slave when he dies, because a man can only be enslaved for the duration of his life.
When you physically die, sin becomes impossible. You lose all will and opportunity to commit sin. This also means that it is impossible to repent from sin in death.

V2 - So long as a woman is married, she is bound by civil and divine law to remain faithful to her husband. But if her husband dies, she is no longer married, and becomes free to marry another.

If marriage didn’t end at death, then the levirate marriage (Deuteronomy 25:5-10) would be adultery, and the high priest would be able to prepare his wife for burial (Leviticus 21:4).
This isn’t about marriage and divorce. Although it would have significant implications if Paul had written about a man being bound to his wife instead of the other way around, his intent was not to say anything at all about marriage, divorce, or remarriage. He was only making an illustration of the principle of death breaking a legal bond.
This also isn’t about the applicability of the Torah. It is about how a legal provision might bind someone to a circumstance or another person. We aren’t loosed from the Torah, but from being bound to it by our breaking of it.
This also isn’t about Israel or Judah being divorced from God or remarrying God.
The Hebrew word for husband is ba’al, which also means “lord” or “master”. The Greek word used here for “has a husband” is hupandros, which means “under a man”. Paul chose this analogy because it clearly illustrates the nature of being subjected to the authority of another.

V3 - The woman isn’t free to commit adultery if her husband dies. No, she is free to marry another man and to be faithful to him.

V4 - “Died to the law” does not mean “died to any obligation to keep the law”. It means that the law is no longer your master. You have died to the law’s hold on you. Now, instead of belonging to the law, you belong to the Lawgiver, and the Law is subject to you. You have an obligation to keep the law, not because the law has any authority, but because the Lawgiver has ultimate authority.

The Greek says “the law” because it is the Torah that has condemned you to death by your disobedience. It isn’t some other law or a general principle of law. Paul’s entire argument is predicated on the fact that the Mosaic Law applies to all people.

V5 - There are two major differences in how this verse is translated. Both versions are plausible, but the minority version seems more aligned with Paul’s reasoning in the previous chapters: Our sins bring condemnation by the Law, which brings death. V6 would seem to support this view.

Sinful passions, aroused by the Law, were at work in our members... (ESV, KJV, ASV, NASB, TLV)
Sinful passions, by means of the Law, were working in our members... (ISV, TS2009)
Rob Vanhoff prefers "For while we were in the flesh, the sinful desires (now known to us) through the Law worked in our members, to bear fruit for death." Indicating that the sinful desires are now recognized as sinful because we know the law.
Taken with v8, it seems to me that this is saying that once sin has become your master, it drives you to more and more disobedience. The more you know what God wants you to do, the more sin pushes you to do the opposite. He is treating sin as a willful creature in its own right, much as God did in Genesis 4:7.

V6 - The fruit of the law is our death. Since Yeshua died in our place and spiritually brought us with him, the law’s authority over us is broken, and we are free to serve him in the spirit of the law, not the letter of the law.

The ESV “in the old way of the of the written code” implies that the entire written code is what is old and evil, but Paul’s intent is to change our relationship to the code, not to do away with the code completely. The Greek actually says “not in oldness of letter”. In other words, we are obedient now in a fresh way in our spirit and not in the old way of simply following the written law without real understanding.

V7 - Keeping the Law isn’t sin nor does it put you under the power of sin. You cannot become “under law” be keeping law. Rather, law (the principle) defines sin (the principle). In order to avoid coming under a law, you need to avoid breaking that law.

Paul’s quote of a specific commandment within the Torah indicates that he considers the Torah his standard for righteousness and sin. It would be absurd to think Paul believes he can now covet because he died to the law. No, having died to the law, he is now free to keep it as a useful tool rather than an oppressive master.
James 2:9-13 counts Exodus 20 (the Ten Commandments) and Leviticus 19 (impartiality and loving your neighbor) as part of the same Law. Violating the command against partiality is the same as violating the command against coveting.

V8 - When sin is your master, it secures its power by driving you to ever greater sins. A greater understanding of what is sin gives it an opportunity to focus its efforts on breaking those specific commandments instead of merely rebelling against your conscience.

“Without the law, sin is dead.” This isn’t because you can’t break a law that doesn’t exist. It’s because the written law is the power of sin to condemn. In Deuteronomy 31:26-27, Moses said the Law is a witness against the Israelites when they disobey.

V9 - “Law”, not “the law”. Paul is speaking of law as a principle, not specifically of the Torah, although the Torah is the most immediately applicable example of law.

Not as if sin didn’t exist before the written law, but condemnation requires a witness. A clearly expressed commandment becomes the teeth of sin. The first part of the verse is likely from the hypothetical perspective of a man who doesn’t know the commandments. Once he learns what God expects of him, his sin becomes apparent, and he realizes his state of spiritual death. See Acts 17:30-31 and Paul’s statement to the men of Athens about times of ignorance.

V10 - The Law promises life if you obey it and death if you disobey, but the promises are complex and primarily (not totally) aimed at the nation, rather than the individual. The commandments don’t promise eternal life to anyone. That was never their purpose, even though many people mistakenly believe that perfect obedience could earn a person eternal life. From the ongoing controversy Paul had with the “party of circumcision”, it’s evident that the Pharisees really did believe that rigid obedience to a set of rules, that were loosely based on Torah, could earn a person a place in the Kingdom of Heaven, but that every belief in the ability of man to earn justification is what brought condemnation instead.

Per Ezekiel 20:18-24 (among other passages), there is life in obedience to God’s commandments and death in disobedience.

V11 - Eve was deceived (1 Timothy 2:14), but the serpent used God’s commandment to Adam to deceive her. He took an exaggerated form of the commandment, a twisted version of the penalty for disobedience, and a twisted version of the potential benefits of disobedience. Since the flesh can’t comprehend the intent of purpose of God’s commandments, it inevitably twists them around to its own destruction.

V12 - It is impossible for any of God’s commandments to be unjust or unholy because they are a reflection of a purely just and holy God. See Psalm 119:137. “You are just/righteous, O YHWH, and your mishpatim/judgments are upright.”

V13 - The Law itself is good and brings life. It is only the sinful inclination within a person that brings death through transgression of the Law. The Law itself doesn’t cause anyone’s death. It reveals the which brings death. See Romans 5:12-13. The Law...

Promises life
Is holy
Is righteous
Is good
Defines sin
Magnifies sin
Is spiritual

V14 - This is the core of why the Hebrews were unable to allow the Law to be written on their hearts in Exodus. The death and resurrection of Yeshua enables the spirit to begin understanding and living out the Law, but ultimately the flesh also must die before it can be completely written on our hearts.

See Deuteronomy 5:23-31 and Hebrews 8:7.
The corrupted, physical aspect of man is still “of the flesh, sold under sin”, even though our spirits have been reborn and are striving to exist In alignment with God. This isn’t Paul speaking of a hypothetical unsaved person because he goes on to describe how his spirit is in alignment with God, even while his flesh is still under a law of sin and death.
Obedience to the Law must begin in the spirit, not the flesh. Obedience in the flesh does nothing for your eternal state and often becomes just a burden, blinding you to the spiritual truths and warping your understanding of the commandments. Obedience in the spirit begins to tame the passions of the flesh.

V15 - The sinful inclination drives us to behave in ways that we know are wrong and even in ways that we really don’t want. No matter how spiritual, sanctified, and knowledgeable we might be, we still sin.

We all sometimes say “I don’t know what I was thinking.” Paul is making a rhetorical statement only. Clearly he does understand his own actions because he goes on to explain them.
See Luke 23:34-38.

V16 - If you know that your deeds are sin and wicked, then you are in agreement with the Law because the Law defines sin. We know Paul is talking about Torah here because he defined that in v7.

V17 - Once you have sincerely committed to obedience in your spirit, you must recognize that the sinful nature in your flesh will continually drive you to disobedience despite your wants. This doesn’t mean that you’re not saved. Salvation is not bound up in your urges and emotions, but in the promises of God. All it means is that you have not yet mastered your flesh and never will in total until the resurrection.

Some say that Paul is speaking on behalf of a hypothetical convert who is still struggling with sin, but I don’t think that’s correct. I think he is describing the ongoing struggle that all believers share, and he wants the Romans to know that they aren’t alone or especially wicked because the continue to struggle.

V18 - This is a statement concerning righteousness only. Obviously, there is much about our bodies that is good or God wouldn’t have made them. Our flesh is incapable of doing anything righteous on its own. If we allow it to be our masters, then we will be little more than animals. However, if we rule our flesh, we can direct it to much good, including through our physical passions. Our spirits and the Law of God must be the guide for our passions, not the other way around. See Proverbs 25:28 and Hebrews 4:15-16.

This war cannot be finally won while our bodies live, but we can win battles.

Chiasm on the Sinful Nature in Romans 7:19-20

The good that I want to do, I don’t
- The evil that I don’t want to do, I do
- What I don’t want to do, I do
It’s not I that does it, but the sinful nature within me

V19-20 - Because we are still attached to the flesh, we keep on doing wrong, whether we want to or not.

V20 - Almost a complete restatement of v17.

V21 - I think the ESV poorly translates kalos as “right”. Good and evil aren’t the same as righteous and wicked. Righteousness is always good and wickedness is always evil, but the real meaning of good and evil is in the experience. Good is kalos (καλός), meaning beautiful/excellent/honorable. Evil is kakos (κακός).

A mind that is dwelling on the good is in a better position to dwell on that which is righteous and to exercise spiritual power more effectively. Prayer, fasting, scripture, and fellowship with mature believers are the exercises of the spiritually strong. See Mark 9:14-29 and Philippians 4:8.
This verse could read, "So I find this principle to be true: that when I want to act in an honorable and uplifting manor, it is mixed with dishonor and degradation."

V22-23 - Three conflicting laws. These are better understood as "instructions" or even “urges”. God instructs one way, while the flesh and sin instruct in another.

The Law of God is expressed in Scripture, specifically the Law of Moses.
The Law of the Mind is what he has decided to do, the direction of his heart/mind to his rebellious flesh.
The Law of Sin is the sinful nature of our corrupted flesh, that interferes with what he knows is right and constantly feeds justifications for doing the wrong thing.

V24-25 - Who will deliver? Only Yeshua. He is the burning coal from the heavenly altar (Isaiah 6:5-7) that cleanses our minds and removes our sins.

While the inner, spiritual inclinations strive to keep God’s instructions, they are constantly at war with the passions of the flesh. The determination to be holy is an extension and evidence of our faith, and it can impose itself on the flesh given time and discipline. This is why some demons can only be exorcised through fasting and praying, as in Mark 9:14-29. Add study and meditation on the Scriptures for greater effect.

Romans 8

V1 - Condemnation is a synonym for “under law”. We are not condemned because our sins have been forgiven and removed from us. Although we still sin in the flesh, we walk with Yeshua in the spirit, and live under his protection and righteousness.

V2 - Following the metaphor that Paul established at the end of the last chapter, he introduces another law, The Law of the Spirit of Life, which is just another way to refer to the law that is at work in his mind. The law of the spirit of life isn’t a legal code, but a determination to direct one’s steps according to God’s Law and faithfulness to Yeshua.

There are 4 kinds of laws Paul talks about: Legal codes and their judgments, teaching and tradition, the natural consequences of a circumstance or choice, and a defining characteristic of something. Likewise, there are 4 kinds of spirits: the Holy Spirit, angelic spirits (whether fallen or not), the spirit of a person, and behavioral/spiritual inclinations, like the sinful nature. I believe that the law of the spirit of life is the third type of law of the fourth type of spirit. I don’t believe he is talking about the Holy Spirit of God, but the righteous tendencies of a person who lives according to the spirit, as opposed to the wicked tendencies of one who lives according to the flesh.
- For law as a defining characteristic, see Romans 7:21-23.
- For spirit as inclination, see Psalm 51:10, 12, and 17.
Prayer, fasting, study, meditation, and obedience are aids to living under the Law of the Spirit of Life. Disobedience and being ruled by your passions puts one under the Law of Sin and Death. Paul isn’t talking about earning eternal salvation here. He is talking about walking in the spirit, which is synonymous with the Law of the Spirit of Life. However, this does seem to indicate that if you surrender the fight and allow your flesh to rule you, you will come back under condemnation.

V3 - The Law is not weak in itself. As a reflection of God’s character, it is perfect. How could it condemn the entire human race if it were weak? The weakness is in the people who are unable to accept it on their hearts and keep it in their flesh. See Exodus 20:18-21.

Yeshua came in the form of sinful man so that by his example, he is a witness against us. He overcame the temptations of the flesh to live a perfect life, showing us what a life lived in agreement with the Law. Yeshua fulfilled the Law to condemn sin, not to condemn the Law. See Matthew 5:16-20.
In the likeness of Adam and all of his forebears, through whom he inherited the consequences of sin. His flesh had all of the weaknesses of humanity, but his spirit allowed him to resist those temptations and live a perfectly sinless life.

V4 - Yeshua fulfilled the Law by living it out perfectly. His sinless life condemns sinners, but his resurrection condemns the sin itself, enabling its complete removal, so that all who believe in him can begin to live righteous lives in accordance with the Law. His righteousness becomes ours, earning us eternal life as hinted at in Matthew 5:20, and enabling us to walk according to the spirit in agreement with all of the commandments of the Law without fear that any slight mistake will condemn us.

V5 - Living according to the flesh means allowing physical urges to be the dominant influence on thoughts and behavior. Living according to the spirit means subjecting physical urges to the constraints of God’s Law. Since our sinful inclinations are a powerful force over our minds, living in the spirit requires studying, meditating, and applying the Law.

The first step in living according to the spirit is acknowledging sin and determining to leave it behind.
That doesn’t mean living according to the letter of the law. If we obey the Law from a desire to make ourselves right in God’s eyes, to be superior to others, or for material gains, then we are still ruled by our passions.
Setting one’s mind on the flesh isn’t just indulging in hedonism, but also indulging fear. Am I keeping God’s holy days exactly right? Did I accidentally say the name of a pagan god? Should I change my name because I have it in common with a pagan god? What will happen if persecution comes? What if I get fired? What if a tornado hits my house? All of these might be legitimate concerns so long as they don’t become obsessions and begin to negatively impact the rest of our spiritual lives.

V6 - Being carnally minded means allowing fleshly passions and ungodly reasoning to dictate our behaviors rather than the explicit commands of Torah. Setting the mind on the flesh subjects one to the law of sin, because the flesh is weak against the spirit of sin. It easily masters the carnally minded man.

See James 1:14-15 for another illustration of the same concept.

V7 - It is useless to teach the principles of Torah to an unrepentant sinner because he is unable to comprehend it. He sees no value in it. See 2 Corinthians 2:14.

Not submitting to God's Law is equated with hostility to God, but this is a consequence of the law of the spirit of sin that inhabits our mortal bodies.
The corollary is that living according to the Spirit is the same as submitting to God's Law.
Those who are at enmity with God are driven by their flesh to defiance no matter what the cost or irrationality. See Korah’s rebellion in Numbers 16.
See Jeremiah 13:23 and Psalm 121. We can never make ourselves righteous, no matter how many good deeds we tally up. When we have submitted to God’s judgment and sovereignty, he makes us righteous (justifies us) by his divine action. Even then, we begin a lifelong struggle of conforming our flesh to the spirit, which would be impossible if not for God’s grace in giving us the Scriptures, the Messiah, and his Spirit as aids.

V8 - Flesh = not submitted to God's law/hostile to God.

It is impossible to please God if you refuse to keep his Law or to trust him. Such a person has either convinced himself that he is right in whatever he does, that the Torah no longer applies for whatever reason, or else that he can never understand, never do enough, learn enough, to please God. Either position betrays a lack of trust, and the faithless person becomes God's enemy regardless of how nice or kind he might be otherwise.

V9 - This might refer to the Holy Spirit dwelling within us, but it could also be our own spirit in alignment with his, subjected to the law of the spirit of life. A Godly inclination as opposed to a sinful inclination.

The Spirit of Christ is equated with the Spirit of God. This fits either interpretation of “the Spirit of God” because Christ is God and a God-like spirit is a Christ-like spirit.
See Ezekiel 36:25-27. Even in the Ezekiel passage, “my spirit” could refer to “my character/inclination” rather than to an actual spirit. Either interpretation seems plausible. If the Holy Spirit is intended, then the alternative is also true, as the indwelling of the Holy Spirit generates an inclination to obey.
“Does not belong to him” doesn’t mean that God (or Yeshua) is no longer sovereign over this person, but that the person is not a member of Yeshua’s chosen people. He maintains a foreign allegiance and is under eternal condemnation from God.

V10 - If a “Christ-like character” is intended here, you have been born again with a Christ-like spirit, then it will draw you toward obedience even while your flesh continues to draw you toward disobedience and death. If Christ himself is intended, then the result is the same, but it carries an additional prerequisite that the spirit of Christ is one and the same with the spirit of YHWH.

V11 - The flesh is sanctified by a reborn spirit in spite of its continued inclination toward death, and the resurrection of Yeshua is a demonstration that God is able to raise us too and will do so at the final judgment.

See Ezekiel 37:1-14. This prophecy is literally about the resurrection of Israel, but it also applies to the individual believer, and Paul was undoubtedly thinking of this passage when he wrote Romans 8.
“His spirit dwelling in you” is the same as “the Spirit of him who raised Jesus”. This is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the individual believer.

Chiasm in Romans 8:12-17

V12-13 - Suffering in the flesh according to God’s Spirit leads to life
- V14 - Spirit of God reveals sons of God
  - V15 - Spirit of slavery vs spirit of adoption as sons
- V16 - Spirit of God reveals sons of God
V17 - Suffering in the flesh according to God’s Son leads to life

V12 - We are debtors because God gave us life when we could not have given it to ourselves. We don’t owe the flesh anything in regard to our salvation, because it is unable to do anything in our favor. God enables us to live in the spirit even while our flesh continuously tries to drag us back into the grave. This is a debt that we can never repay because it is of infinite worth. The only thing we can do to repay God’s gift is to live as God instructs us to live, according to his commandments as disciples of Yeshua, and making new disciples along the way.

V13 - If, having been redeemed, you go back to living according to the flesh, rejecting the priceless gift that God has given, there is no more sacrifice to cover your sins. Nobody can take God’s mercy away from you, but you are capable of rejecting it, even after having received it. If you do so, don’t be surprised if God’s wrath against you is even greater than it would have been if you had never received the truth at all. Yeshua’s blood is the greatest atonement there can ever be, and if you reject it, you reject all hope for eternity. See Hebrews 10:26-39.

The spirit spoken of here is the spirit of Yeshua mentioned in v11.

V14-15 - When you receive God’s Spirit, you are elevated above your former status as a slave to a new status as a son. Slaves are driven only by terror and obligation, while sons are motivated to obedience by love and fearful awe.

See Isaiah 48:17 regarding being led by the spirit of God.
Every use of “sons of God” in scripture refers to a being who has been created or recreated by divine action. The unique Son of God is God, but his physical body was created by divine action in Mary.
“Spirit” should not be capitalized at any point in verse 15. The “spirit of adoption” is contrasted with the “spirit of slavery”, neither of which is preceded by a definite article in the Greek. “The” is presumed by the translators and should be rendered “a” or else omitted altogether. This isn’t talking about a spirit-being, but an attitude or inclination: an attitude of slavery vs an attitude of sonship.
Paul uses an Aramaic word instead of Greek. “Abba”. See 2 Corinthians 5:5 for another instance.

V16 - The action of God’s spirit in us has the effect of conforming us more faithfully to the image of Messiah. The actions that stem from walking according to the spirit witness to the indwelling of the Spirit of God. As James wrote, “Show me your faith without works, and I’ll show you my faith by my works.” See James 2:17-26.

The KJV says “The Spirit itself”, while other translations say “The Spirit himself.” Itself is technically more linguistically correct, but “himself” is accurate to the intent. The first Spirit is that of God, while the second is our own. See v14.

V17 - If we are fellow heirs with Messiah, what basis could we ever have for expecting that we would not suffer? If he, being perfectly obedient and God himself, suffered persecution, surely we who are imperfect reflections of him will also suffer persecution, both from man and from Satan.

See John 12:23-32. The Father is glorified through the suffering of the Son, and anyone who would be a disciple of the Son must expect to follow in all of his footsteps, even to suffering for the glory of the Father. As God said, “I will glorify my name again.” tWhen Yeshua said that he would draw all men to himself when he is lifted up, he didn’t only mean that he would draw their attention, but that he is drawing them to become like him and to follow in his footsteps, even to being lifted up on a cross as he was.

V18 - Atheists often say that any God who allows suffering isn’t worthy to be worshiped, but their logic requires that they be practically omniscient gods themselves in order to be so certain that there is insufficient good to outweigh the bad. God has a much deeper understanding of all things than we do. He knows every evil thing that happens in the world, and he also knows how every one of them will eventually work toward a greater good for those who trust in him, if not in this life, then certainly in the next.

The glory to be revealed is in the perfection of our physical bodies after the resurrection and the completion of our transformation into children of God as described in Revelation 21:6-8.

V19-21 - Not only do we look forward to our final redemption, but all of Creation does, because it too will be physically resurrected.

Creation was “subjected to vanity” because of Adam’s sin. The ground was made to rebel against man’s efforts to guide it. Like all rebellions against rightful authority, it causes more damage to both parties. The earth is made purposeless in itself by fighting against Adam, it’s only purpose now being to serve as a foil to refine mankind.
Some people will use this passage, especially v21, to support a belief that they will be reunited with their pets in heaven or the new earth (whichever view they take of post-resurrection existence). As happy as I would be for this to be true, there doesn’t seem to be any evidence for it in Scripture, and it is logically untenable. First, the definite article before “creation” means that it is very unlikely to refer to individual animals, but to the entirety of creation as a single entity. Second, since animals have no sin, it would seem unjust for only pets to be resurrected, but if all animals who have ever lived are resurrected, the entire earth would be piled 100 meters deep in animals.

V22 - The Bible often treats Creation as if it is a living, willful thing. In Deuteronomy 4:26, Moses called on heaven and earth to witness against Israel if they betray God’s covenant. In Mark 16:15, Yeshua told his disciples to preach the gospel to the whole creation, not just to Israel or the nations. In Luke 19:40, he told the Pharisees that even the rocks would cry out if the people of Jerusalem didn’t praise him. If Creation knows God’s Law, knows man’s place in God’s order, and recognizes the Messiah, then we shouldn’t be surprised to learn that Creation also longs to be free from the curse to which Adam subjected it.

V23 - Those who don’t have the firstfruits of the Spirit also groan as a part of creation, but the closer we walk in the Spirit, the greater our awareness of the effect of the curse on ourselves and on all of creation. That awareness comes with grief over the state of the world and an ever increasing longing for resolution. See Ecclesiastes 1:18.

The firstfruits of the Spirit is a reference to the earnest (bride price) of the Holy Spirit as mentioned in 2 Corinthians 5:5.
Paul implies that our adoption as sons is not complete until our bodies have been redeemed through resurrection. We are not meant to be only spirits. To be spirit only is to be dead. A living human requires both spirit and body to be complete. The spirit and flesh of an unregenerated person is aligned, but under sin and death. However, the spirit and flesh of a regenerated person is in conflict, and so we long for the day when our flesh will be destroyed and remade in a more perfect image of our Creator, aligning our whole beings under life.

V24 - Paul’s hope is in the resurrection and the restoration of all Creation. If there is no resurrection, to what are we saved? There is no ultimate purpose in worshiping and obeying our Creator, beyond the basic self-interest of a better life, but “better” is relative. Is it better to be poor and sick with good relationships or to be healthy and rich with shallower friendships? Of course, a godly man chooses righteousness, regardless of the material cost, but the hope of a resurrection into eternity clarifies the distinction between those two possible “betters”.

V25 - To the carnal mind, it makes no sense to keep waiting and hoping for something intangible, especially something that takes a long time to arrive, but the promises of God are certain. Our faith in God isn’t worth very much if we give up on him when his promises take longer to fulfill than we expected. What kind of faith would that be? We can’t see the tops of the sails yet, but we know the ship is on its way, somewhere beyond the horizon. See Hebrews 11:1-2.

V26 - “The Spirit” and not just “spirit”. It refers back to the firstfruits of the Spirit in v23, so this is the Holy Spirit and not our own spirits or an attitude. The second half of the verse literally says “the spirit itself”, not “the Spirit himself”, but the context seems to require the masculine pronoun in English.

The deep intercession isn’t referring to us speaking in tongues--since this isn’t our spirit, but God’s, and it says there are no words possible--but to actual communications between the Holy Spirit and the Father.

V27 - “He who searches hearts” is God himself. See Psalm 44:21, Proverbs 16:2, and Revelation 2:23.

The Father already knows what the Spirit is going to pray before he prays, not only because the Father and Spirit are one, but because they are always in agreement. The Spirit will never pray for something on your behalf that is not in alignment with God’s will for you.

V28 - Whatever comes, whatever we are called to endure, if we love God, we need to trust him that he will work it all out in the end, because we are called for his purpose, and how could he call us without ensuring that we are able to accomplish whatever purpose he has for us? God isn't a human employer who gambles to some extent on every new hire. He knows you, he knows himself, and he knows exactly how you fit into his plans.

How do we know that we love God? If we keep his commandments. If you don’t trust him enough to do what he said, then this verse doesn’t apply to you.

V29 - “Those whom he foreknew he also predestined” can mean several different things. No specific timeframe is given, so assuming that this is referring to divine election before creation is eisegesis.

Some possible meanings:
- “Those whom he already knows, he has set on a path...”
- “Those whom he foreknew would believe, he predestined...”
- “Those whom he knew from the very beginning, he also predestined...”
- “The category of people he foreknew would believe, he also determined...”
- “Those whom God already had a relationship with, he also determined...” - This seems the most likely meaning to me. It’s not about knowing what someone will do in advance or marking someone as “elect”, but about having an established relationship.
Foreknew doesn’t mean that God knew what was going to happen or who was going to do what or even the character of each person who didn’t exist yet. It’s talking about God’s established relationship with those whom he has determined to conform into the image of his Son. “Foreknew” should be translated as “already knows”.
- Acts 26:5 is about Paul’s history with the rest of the Jewish people.
- Romans 11:2 isn’t talking about predestination of individual believers, but about the nation of Israel, with whom God already has a relationship. “God has not rejected the people with whom he has had a longstanding relationship...”
- 1 Peter 1:20 doesn’t say that God knew Yeshua would be born even before he created the world, but that the Father had a relationship with the Son during that time.
- 2 Peter 3:17 is about the reader’s prior relationship with the writings of Paul, not about some foreknowledge of their complexity before having encountered them.
“Predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son” doesn’t refer to anything prior to conversion and especially not to anything prior to conception. It refers to the established relationship that God has with a person. “For those with whom God has established a relationship, he has also determined to mold to be like his Son.

V30 - “Predestined” doesn’t mean “predetermined to be saved”, but “predetermined to be conformed into the image of his son”, as indicated in v29. Those whom God has determined should be conformed into the image of Yeshua, are the same who have been called to a purpose, made righteous, and honored/praised.

Ephesians 1:3-14 shows that the concept of being predestined to become like Yeshua was God’s plan for believers from the beginning. This doesn’t mean that we were predestined as individuals to be the elect, but that God chose Yeshua as the pattern for believers. “In him” we were chosen, because God determined that all who would be “in him” would be counted as holy and blameless because of the imputed righteousness of Yeshua.
This verse is actually working backward from the predestination to become like Christ. When we repent of our sins and declare our allegiance to the King of Kings, God praises us for our willingness to submit, justifies us through the blood of Yeshua, calls us to a purpose, and then sets us on a course to become like Christ so that we will be able to fulfill that purpose. In the resurrection, we will be glorified in our bodies also, and not only in spirit. We have been glorified and we will be glorified.

V31 - What are "these things" but our justification, our calling in God's Kingdom, and God's determination that we should become like Christ? If God has justified us and set us on a course to become like Christ, who can say that it can’t be done? God has ultimate authority to declare what is and isn’t. The Accuser is powerless before the atoning blood of Yeshua.

This verse isn’t about any and every possible thing that someone might want to do against us. It’s about disrupting God’s plan for us. “These things” are the honor, justification, and predestinated transformation described in v30.
See 1 John 3:1-8. We are now children of God, and he will treat us as children. He won’t disown us for weakness or momentary failures, and nobody outside the family has any standing to accuse us of anything. We and God are the only ones who can remove us from his house, and in the end, it will still be God’s judgment for our rebellion. See also Micah 6:1-8.

V32 - God sent his Son to die for us. He’s not going to be talked out of our salvation.

See 2 Corinthians 5:21.
The father and son work together to ensure we have “all things”, which does not mean “whatever we want”, but whatever is necessary to accomplish God’s purposes and our calling. Specifically, this is still speaking about the glory, justification, and predestined transformation of v30.

V33 - Who can accuse God’s chosen people, whom he personally justified, of wickedness? We know that God works all our trials for the good of those who love him, which means they obey him. In Exodus 23:20-22, God promised to be an adversary to the adversaries of Israel if they obeyed him. He will be an adversary to our Adversary also. Because we listen to the Messenger who leads us into battle against his enemies, the curses of Satan will have no effect on us. Yeshua’s righteousness is ours in God’s eyes and we are eternally free of condemnation so long as we remain faithful (Loyal! Not perfect.).

See Zechariah 3:1-5 and Micah 6:1-8.

V34 - Yeshua himself intercedes for us before the Father. He stands between us and judgment because he died in perfection and rose again.

The Son and the Spirit both intercede with the Father on our behalf.

Chiasm on Love and Conquest in Yeshua

V35a - Our inseparable love for Christ.
- V35b-36 - Things that try to interfere in our love for him.
  - V37 - We are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
- V38 - 39a - Things that try to interfere in God's love for us.
V39b - God's inseparable love for us expressed through Yeshua.

V35 - Nothing outside of ourselves can separate us from our love for Christ. (Nor his love for us, for that matter, but vs 28 and 36 suggest this verse is about our love for him, not the other way around.) If your love for him is true, then you will keep his commandments no matter what the world throws at you.

V36 - This is a quote of Psalm 44:22. This is an acknowledgment that we must face hardships for the sake of our love for Yeshua--which makes me think that v35 intended that and not the other way around.

V37 - What are “all these things”? The tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, and sword of v35-36. Though we are tortured and killed, we are more than conquerors. In fact, it is through these very things that we are made victorious.

See Revelation 2:26, 7:14, 17:14, and related passages (especially Rev 21:5-8) saying that those who persevere to the end will be saved. The word for “more than conquerors” is a verb. It is literally “we more than conquer”.
This verse expresses both our love for Yeshua and his for us. It is through his love for us that we are able to withstand the onslaughts of the enemy and maintain our love for him in our obedience and faithfulness.

V38-39 - These are all the things that might accuse us or otherwise sully our souls in God’s eyes. None of them have any power to corrupt the blood of Yeshua, which is the source of our righteousness. Because God loves Yeshua and sees us in him and him in us, he will never be swayed by any circumstance or accuser. The greatest corruption of death can’t hold us in Sheol, since we are already resurrected in Yeshua.

“Nor angels, nor principalities” - Archi can refer to earthly rulers, the chief element of any set, or to spiritual powers. It’s pairing with “angels” could indicate it means demons (good vs evil) or human rulers (spiritual vs mundane)
Paul seems to be presenting things in matched sets:
- Death and life
- Angels, principalities, powers (powers is moved to the end of the verse in some translations)
- Present and future
- Height and depth

See Hosea 13:14 and 1 Corinthians 15:55-57.

Soil from Stone

A Few Thoughts on Paul's Epistle to the Romans