Episode Transcript
[00:00:17] Speaker A: So the good news is that we have finally arrived in the actual book of Romans, chapter one. I'll make a couple of promises to you. I don't usually do bible book studies. I do, sort of generally. So I'm not going to go through line by line in Romans with you. I would not be good at that. I don't think you'd stay awake. We're going to cover big concepts, or maybe a concept from the chapters as we go along.
I want to give you the big picture, the perspective. I want to leave room for you to think, to study, to question, to draw conclusions, and most of all, be challenged. I want you to be challenged. That's a big part of what we do. Is that fair?
Excellent. Romans one, Paul. That was a very boring introduction, by the way. That's supposed to be like. That's supposed to draw you in and you're supposed. Oh, what's he gonna say next? I failed on that, but I'm gonna go up from here. You ready?
Romans one, Paul, a slave of Messiah, Yeshua, called to be an emissary and set apart for the good news of God, which he announced beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures concerning his son. He came into being from the seat of David, according to the flesh. He was appointed Ben Elohim, in power, according to the ruach of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead. He is Messiah, Yeshua, our Lord. That's the start.
That's from the tree of life version of the Bible. So it's very jewish, it's very messianic, which should not come as a surprise or sound odd to you. Why? Because the book is very jewish, written by a very jewish guy named Shaul.
Okay, announced. Listen.
But with that said, he's saying this to a group of gentiles well acquainted with Judaism. They're living and worshiping within jewish space, familiar with many of the terms from hebrew scriptures and concepts, the theological and spiritual constructions from within the synagogue. His audience knows, even though they're not jewish. Listen. Announced by the prophets in the Hebrew Bible, the seed of David, the son of God, the resurrection. What good would it do to say those things to a bunch of pagans who have no familiarity? If Paul is writing this letter to separate everybody from Judaism, that's not a very good start, because he's thrown in all these concepts from the Hebrew Bible. What he's doing here in chapter one is he's sending a greeting to an audience that he has not yet met. Okay, Paul doesn't know these people. He didn't start this community. And I've already covered that with you. He's familiar with them. He wants to visit them. He says, first, I thank my God through Messiah Yeshua, for all of you, because your faithfulness is made known throughout the whole world. For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit. And the good news? How unceasingly I make mention of you. These guys were famous in the world of disciples. Chapter 16 indicates that Paul had relationships here, some of them jewish, but he'd never been. He didn't start it. So for one thing, he's politely introducing himself here in these beginning sections of chapter one.
He's encouraging them. He's edifying them.
He's saying, I'm your good buddy, but he's also doing something else.
He is saying and establishing his authority, because he's getting ready to talk to them very sternly.
Paul is establishing his authority. Through him, we have received grace in the office of emissary to bring about obedience of faith among the nations. That's the Ethna, the Gentiles, on behalf of his name. And you are called by Yeshua the Messiah. Okay, note this. We have received grace in the office of emissary. We. We have received. Now, when you read that slowly and properly, we means us, Paul and my friends who are working with me, not you.
There's a tendency so often when you read the Bible to overlay your personal story into everything that's being said and to universalize it and say, paul's talking to us. We. Look at us. We. No, you're not in it.
You're not in it. We, we.
This. We is not us. Paul and whoever his colleagues are, this is very important because he's making a distinction between himself and the audience.
Why something like this is what's being said. Yeshua made me apostle to the Gentiles. I'm acting like Paul. Yeshua made me apostle to the Gentiles. You are gentiles, and you are disciples of Yeshua. Therefore, Yeshua made you my responsibility.
You are my task, my flock, my responsibility. And that distinction is very important for a reason. Also in our letter, as Paul, I've repeatedly told you, who is explicit? Audiences, gentiles, Jews, would have been in the crowd, but Paul wasn't talking to them. He's the well established apostle to the Gentiles. In another book, outside of Romans, in the book of acts, we see that. In the book of Galatians, we see it. Paul is appointed. We should go to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcised Paul and his dudes are going and chicks. Dudes and chicks. Paul had chicks that did work along with him and his dudes. They're going to the gentiles. Peter and those guys are going to the circumcised. That's what Galatians says. Okay. And all that to say, he has Yeshua's calling, but also the leadership in Jerusalem has made him apostle to the Gentiles. Right? We've already established this. My gentile brothers and sisters, listen up. What I'm about to say, I'm saying with authority to you, to you. And then he moves to the big news for this section. I'm not ashamed of the good news, for it's the power of God for salvation to everyone who trusts, to the Jew first and also to the Greek in it, the righteousness of God is revealed from trust to trust as it is written. But the righteous shall live by Imuna in Hebrew, Pistis in Greek, faith in English, and there it is right. The righteous shall live by faith. The Martin Luther bedrock statement of Protestant Christianity, the righteous shall live by faith. Drawn from Habakkuk, this is presumed to be the doctrinal universal takeaway from the book of Romans. This is Paul's raison de Trois.
His reason to be is to get this idea out there. The righteous shall live by faith. Right now it is also presumed that in that process, he's trying to get away from all things jewish. This is the traditional perspective. Stay far away from works, from law, from Judaism, all that. Stay away from it. Judaism, eh? Bad.
What a horrible way to start the letter, by saying to the jew first to a bunch of gentiles. That doesn't make any sense. If he were actually trying to depart from all things jewish. I'll show you this later when we get to Romans 911 right here in chapter one, he is setting the stage for the actual climax of this book. You know where it's found, Romans 911, when he starts talking about Jews.
But right here in chapter one, he wants to make sure to the jew first. We'll come back to that. But let's go back to the Martin Luther bedrock statement.
Assuming that let's make this false assumption that Paul is working to separate everybody from what had been and to establish this new way of thinking, it is logical to assume that at this point, having set up this little section of nice stuff and then ending it with the righteous shall live by faith. What's Paul about to do? He's about to tell you what a despicably foul horrendous creation you are.
Do you want him to do that?
He's going to do that. This is the presumption. This is the suggested purpose from the traditional perspective of what is coming in romans 118 and following your bibles, if you look at your headings, I warned you about the headings in your bibles.
The Niv reads God's wrath against humanity, section 118. And then it goes on many other headings about the universal sinfulness of man and all kinds of things that are starting here.
In essence, you're a dreadful and hopeless lot.
Now, this is a long section, but I just. I need to read it. I encouraged you to read this before today. I want you to read the book of Romans. I want you to ask questions, write them down, but I just want you to listen to this language. Okay?
This is the Niv beginning in 118. I'm going to read fast. The wrath of God is being revealed. The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world, God's invisible qualities, his eternal power and divine nation, divine nature, have been clearly seen being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him. But their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore, God gave them over, in the sinful desires of their hearts, to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served, created things rather than the creator who is forever praised. Amen. Because of this, God gave them over to their shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. The same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men and received in themselves the due penalty for their error. Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. They become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed, depravity. They're full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice. They're gossips, slanderers, God haters, insolent, arrogant, boastful. They invent ways of doing evil. They disobey their parents. They have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. Although they know God's righteous decrees that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things, but also approve of those who practice them.
Ouch.
Man.
The human race is truly depraved.
What a description. Man.
That's what happened to us.
According to. To the traditional perspective, that is the umbrella over all mankind that Paul is putting us under.
That's the perspective. Now, there are three things that are drawn from this. First of all, the big one is original sin. This is traditional protestant theology. Original sin, especially in the reformed tradition, holds that all humans have. What kind of nature? A sinful nature due to the fall of who?
Adam and Eve. That's the original sin. Romans 118 32 is seen as illuminating that this inherent sinfulness in humanity's actions and attitudes, number two, and this one's pretty obvious, drawn from this section of scripture, total depravity.
You are. You are utterly and absolutely depraved and hopeless. It supports this doctrine, posits that sin affects all aspects of a person, mind, will, emotions, body, which is pretty much all of you, total depravity.
And the last one, of course. Well, there's an important part of that, though, because you are. That you are incapable of choosing good.
You can't.
You're incapable of doing good, apart from divine grace, which leads us to the big one that's drawn from there, the need for salvation. This depiction of humanity's sinful state. It underscores the necessity of salvation through Jesus Christ. It sets the tone according to this interpretation, for all the subsequent chapters which discuss this justification by faith and faith alone, sola fide, Martin Luther, and all of it.
Has anyone ever heard this?
Of course you have.
It's supposed to be your story.
Of course you've heard it. If you've ever heard the Romans road, this is the beginning of it. This is it. This is the foundation supported by other texts drawn. The big one. The big one, where this gets its full fury, is from romans three. We haven't even gotten there yet. Says there's no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. The traditional conclusion, we are all guilty and deserving of the thing that Paul opened this section 118 with God's wrath damned by default.
And here it comes, brothers and sisters. I learned that from an Amway speaker one time that meant sent on the edge of your seat.
That is not true.
That is not what's being said.
That is not what it's about.
Paul is not speaking to all mankind in this chapter of Romans.
This is not a universal condemnation of humanity. Again, that phrase, damned by default, born despicable, and most especially, most especially Paul, the jewish disciple of Jesus, the Pharisee, present tense Pharisee, did not subscribe to or have even any familiarity, most likely with a concept called original sin.
Okay, this is not about original sin. Human depravity. The only thing original about the idea of original sin is Paul would have probably thought, wow, that's original. I've never heard of it.
It's an idea that, well, first off, let's. Let's go back to Adam.
Let's put Adam on the table real quick. An original sin, or let's take Adam off the table. How about that for better language?
The doctrine is understood particularly within the framework of Augustine, who we talked about in the introduction. It is not a concept that was prevalent, or we might even say present, before 70 AD.
Was Paul writing in 70 Ad? No, he's writing in the fifties.
Okay.
Jewish thought traditionally emphasized human free will and the capacity for you as a human to choose between good and evil.
Each person was seen as capable of righteousness or sin through their actions and decisions. And, oh, Adam. Poor old Adam.
First of all, when I read you Romans 118 32, did you hear Adam's name mentioned once?
Paul will talk about Adam, and so will we, just a few chapters down the road. But he didn't do it right there.
And I want to just point this out. If he meant to point to it, he surely would have needed to explain it, because no one knew about it and he doesn't even mention it. Or Adam.
The story of Adam and Eve is acknowledged in jewish thought, but it is focused more on the immediate consequences of their disobedience, expulsion from Eden, mortality and toil, rather than this hereditary transmission of all of sin to all humanity. That wasn't around. Adam's fall was not recognized as affecting all of humanity outside of bringing death. And we know this because we've studied from a jewish perspective. What kind of inclinations do you have? You have the yatzer ha ra, which means evil. You have the yetzer ha tov, which means good. The Torah is supposed to incline you toward leaning on your yachtser hatov. Okay, this is jewish thinking. Was Adam punished?
Absolutely, Adam was punished. He certainly was. Do some post 70 writings in Judaism. Mention the idea of Adam and the inherent sin. Yes. You will find those after Paul, after the book of Romans, jewish sources like fourth Ezra, second Baruch. They put more emphasis on Adam's transgression. Do you know why? Because they're looking for some kind of explanation as to why God would allow the temple to be destroyed.
That's the idea behind what they're searching for. How could this happen? Oh, gosh. It must go back to the beginning. But that's after Paul. Way after Paul.
To be very clear on this. Did sin enter the world through Adam?
Yes, he sinned. He made a bad choice, and that is acknowledged in Pauline, in jewish writings. Was he punished? Yes, absolutely. But conclusively, the adamic fall does not serve as the explanation for the human predicament.
I know that is a bedrock theological consideration, but it is not true in his reckoning. And that's who we're studying right now.
And he's worth studying. Paul, he's got pretty good authority. He already told you that. When I introduced this week's teaching, I said that Paul makes some clear distinctions about his authority between Jews and Gentiles. And here it becomes extremely important for us to note this. Up until Paul started this condemnation, okay? Which begins in 118, all the nice parts, all the introduction up until this. He's using pronouns like you and I and we.
And all of a sudden, now in 118, and following, the pronouns change, they, them, first person to third person who remembers and loves english grammar.
Paul does not include himself in this list.
Do you understand that? How clear that is from the pronouns? Paul does not include himself in this list. He doesn't include all jews in this list. He doesn't even include all gentiles in this list.
Takeaway one, he's not talking about all of humanity. He's not including jews, not including all the gentiles. He is specifically speaking about something related to gentiles. It's a word. It starts with I, it ends with y, and it's a bad, bad thing.
Gentile idolatry is what Paul is talking about here.
I just want to. I want to take this last bit and just make this extremely clear. They, them are the ones who practice gentile idolatry.
An idolatry in jewish thought is the chief among sins. Okay. Three times a day. I noticed this morning I hadn't seen it before, but three times a day we sang the shema.
You know what one of the things that said in the lengthiest part of the shema is? Don't take your eyes off me. Or you'll worship other gods. You'll become idolaters, chief among sins. It is the source of all evil. And as far as Paul is concerned, it was a avoidable for the nations to have not subscribed to this false worship. You guys still with me?
His famous argument here is that they should have just looked at the created world and seen the creator, right?
You've heard that before. No one's got any excuse. All they have to do is look up at the sun and they know there's a God.
I don't know that it's really that easy.
I have a little bit of a difference of opinion with Paul on that, and it's challenging that because you see the sun or the moon or the stars or the mountains, and you've never, ever heard of the God of Israel, that all of a sudden you're going to say, wow, the God of Israel.
Okay, I don't necessarily think it's that easy, but that's Paul's opinion.
I'm allowed to disagree with Paul, or am I not?
Scary looks I got right there.
He brings that point around, though, in verse 22 when he says, claiming to be wise, they became fools, and they exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible mankind, of birds, four footed animals, and crawling creatures. And here you can clearly see his logic. Listen, they at least when they looked at the moon and the sun and the stars and the skies and the weather and the ocean, they should have at least had the sense to know that that was not created by some man who they would create a statue of and worship, or a bird in the air or a crawling creature. They should have at least had the knowledge to know that that couldn't be it. But that's exactly what they did. They created images and worshiped them as gods.
That's what Paul says. Men as gods, that is. There's a name for that, starts with I, ends with y, and idolatry is the fundamental cause of corruption for Paul and the jewish understanding.
But the golden calf, the Jews are idolatry. He's got them in mind here.
There has been idolatry in the history of the jewish people. The golden calf, still, it was a horrendous event. It still represents the lesson we use in Judaism to talk about not subscribing to idolatry. And Israel had its weak moments going forward, where we still had that there were other bad times, but the golden calf could never support a claim, claim that jews have consistently failed to or acknowledge God, which is what Paul says in romans one, that they did.
The pagans have done that. And Paul hits them hard in verse 20. All those idols they created so that they are anapologitas. How's your Greek?
Without excuse.
They are without excuse. Ana pelagatas.
Therefore, something happened. Because they did those things.
Something happened. And you know how we know that? Because he uses this word Dio. Dio in Greek, not Ronnie James. Dio. Dio.
It means therefore, because this happened, therefore, Dio. Here's what Paul says. God gave them over in the evil desires of their hearts, to impurity, to dishonor their bodies with one another.
It's called cause and effect.
You familiar with the concept? This happened, therefore this is going to happen because of these choices. Therefore God gave them over. He says it three times in this very small section, in their evil desires, again gave them up to shameful passions, again gave them over to a depraved mind, handed them over to themselves. Basically, Paul is describing not some ontological truth from before the foundations of the earth, that you're damned by default, desperately wicked. He's saying, they had a chance and they screwed it up, so God let them go, and the sins heaped up on them. That's the language. Heaped up toward God's wrath, therefore that happened. Paul's presentation of the gentiles caught in idolatry is a very familiar jewish framework and a distinction between the nations and Israel. I want you to. I want to just listen to this again.
Just as they did not see fit to recognize God, God gave them over to a depraved mind to what is not fitting. They became filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil, envy, full of it. Murder, strife, deceit, malice, gossip, slanderers. God haters. Insolent, haughty, boastful inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.
Does Paul have jews in mind here?
Many, many scholars say yes.
But I want to ask you, God haters, does this sound like a sin that's common among biblical Israel?
God haters, inventors of evil, faithless. They encourage other people to do it. Does that sound like Israel? I don't care what you say. The answer is no.
That's just not. You can't get there from here. Jews are not in mind. That kind of idolatry mentioned here is virtually non existent among the Jews of Paul's day. But it was almost routine among the pagans.
Almost routine. Paul's chapter one sounds a lot like another. Book. It's called the wisdom of Solomon. You won't find it in your bibles. You'll find it in the apocrypha. It didn't make the Hebrew and protestant canon, but it is in the Roman Catholic Bible. The wisdom of Solomon. It was written sometime the last part of the first century BCE or maybe early into the first century, when Paul is writing wisdom of Solomon apocryphal work. It's in the Septuagint. So Paul was certainly familiar with the book. Not that he needed the Septuagint for that, but it's widely accepted that Paul drew on wisdom of Solomon, or that the author of Wisdom in Solomon and Paul shared a source. Let me read you a little bit of wisdom of Solomon. Okay. And I want you to see if any of this sounds familiar with what we've been talking about so far.
Like Paul, wisdom of Solomon does not blame Adam for the depravity of men. I want you to see, as I read, if you can pick out what the wisdom of Solomon blames.
Sinon, for all people who are. Now listen. Just listen to all the things. Remember everything I just said. Put 118 up there, or that section, last bit that I read, Darren, about all the sins for all people who are ignorant of God were foolish. This is wisdom of Solomon. They were foolish by nature, and they were unable, from the good things that are seen, to know the one who exists. Nor did they recognize the artisan while paying heed to his works. But they suppose that either fire or wind or swift air, or the circle of the stars or turbulent water, or the luminaries of heaven were the gods that rule the world. Yet again, not even they are to be excused.
They are without excuse. The author of wisdom, Solomon, says, for if they had the power to know so much that they could investigate the world, how did they fail to find sooner the Lord of all these things?
The idea of making idols was the beginning of fornication, and the invention of them was the corruption of life.
For the worship of idols not to be named is the beginning and cause of every evil. For their worshipers either rave in exaltation or prophecy lies, or live unrighteously or readily commit perjury. For because they trust in lifeless idols, they swear wicked oaths and expect to suffer no harm. But just penalties were overtake them on two counts, because they thought wrongly about God and devoting themselves to idols, and because in deceit, they swore unrighteously through contempt for holiness.
Does that sound familiar?
That's a jewish text.
And Paul's writing a jewish text in the book of Romans about idolatry and about gentiles. Do you see the clear connection? Gosh, I hope so, because if you didn't, we got to go back to week one.
Listen, who is missing from that book? That reading?
That guy and his wife. It was her fault. She made him do it. Adam's not in there, or, you know. So listen, here's my simple point.
Chapter one is presumed in the Romans road way of thinking, of describing all humanity. Depraved, hopeless, desperately wicked, or somehow getting Adam on the hook for it, even though he's not mentioned. But you see, for the traditional interpretation of Romans to hold up, it has to be that way. It has to be that way. Paul has to be grouping everyone in. If we're going to throw everything that was before out and simply live with the idea of, well, let's just have some faith and see what happens, you have to throw it all out. All of humanity needs to be seen as hopeless, faithless, godless, destined, do not pass go, do not collect $200 for this interpretation to stand. You can't have anything to do with it. You can't be capable of anything good, just trash on the pile.
And in some way suggesting that Paul has even, especially the monotheistic jewish people in mind when he uses pronouns like they and them. Next week, we'll tackle chapter two and we'll see this. But here's the practicality I want to ask you. Just thinking about universal sin, and I'll talk a lot about that, but yes, we all sin, we all fall short. But what I just read you from a casual view, does that describe you?
Unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice. Even before Yeshua, did that describe you? Maybe. Maybe you're a terrible human being.
They are gossip, slanderers, God haters, insolent, haughty, boastful inventors of evil, disobedient to parents. Don't say anything.
They are foolish, faithless, fruitless, heartless, ruthless.
Was that you? Does that describe you?
Maybe, but I don't think so.
That doesn't even describe most of the unbelievers I know.
Have you ever worshiped idols?
And I mean literally. I don't mean the pastor's message about how your phone and your tv are an idol. I'm talking about seriously, have you ever knelt down before Baal or Zeus and brought an offering?
No, probably not. Has anyone? I'm curious. I want to know, anyone ever done that? No judgment. I just want to learn about it?
Literally? No. No one.
Why? Why is this even in here? Paul is talking to a very, very specific letter in a specific audience, specific problems in a specific place. And this chapter, which opens the book has a very particular issue in mind, and it sets the stage for everything that's coming. Original sin.
Like I said, maybe it's original if we understand what original sin actually was from today. What is original sin? What is the origin of, of all sin?
It starts with an I and ends with y and has idol in it, the basis, the source of all evil. For jews like Paul, Wisdom of Solomon, so many other sources I haven't even touched. Idolatry is the worst, the root of all evil. Will all problems start creating them, worshiping the created versus the creator and encouraging other people to do it? This is not actually the story of humanity.
You must see this if we hope to set the stage. So listen, chapter two is one of the more difficult chapters to discuss. Well, because of the interpretations from chapter one that lead into chapter two.
But we've cleared up chapter one, right? No one has even one thought of dissent with anything I said, right? Good, good. We're doing well.
It's also difficult in chapter two as we move there, because we're also going to tackle it from a very non traditional perspective. Now, does that surprise you? I hope so. Paul is seen in chapter two as now there are scholars and opinions that recognize. Fine. Chapter one, he's talking to, talking to the Gentiles. He's talking to the idolaters. But chapter two coming after the Jews.
And I want to talk to you about the Jews in chapter two's next week.
Romans chapter two, the so called jew.
Read it. Shabbat Shalom.
[00:39:58] Speaker B: Please visit our website, shalommakin.org, to learn more about us. Join our live services access other teachings sign up for our newsletter. Join our private network that will connect you with our greater community from around the world or contribute to the work of. Shalom, Macon. Thank you for watching and we look forward to connecting with you.
