Romans 20: Recapitulation

[Rebbe]

PAUL'S LETTER TO THE ROMAN CHRISTIANS [20]

Analytical Commentary on Romans

RECAPITULATION

Copyright © BRI 2017 All Rights Reserved Worldwide by Les Aron Gosling,
Messianic Lecturer (BRI/IMCF)

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God "reckons righteousness to them, not because he accounts them to have kept his law personally (which would be a false judgment), but because he accounts them to be united to one who kept it representatively (and that is a true judgment)" ,  J. I. Packer, "Justification," in Walter A. Elwell [ed]., Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, 1984, 596

"My soul is my counsel and has taught me to give ear to the voices which are created neither by tongues nor uttered by throats. Before my soul became my counsel, I was dull, and weak of hearing, reflecting only upon the tumult and the cry. But, now, I can listen to silence with serenity and can hear in the silence the hymns of ages chanting exaltation to the sky and revealing the secrets of humanity" , Kahlil Gibran in Mirrors of the Soul, 1965

The story so far...

God's "Emissary" or "Ambassador" to the Gentiles, the apostle Paul, desires greatly to travel to Rome the capitol of the world. He has, in fact, manipulated his election and calling in order to do so. Told by the Lord Yeshua that he would eventually witness to Caesar, Paul has done all in his power to bring about events that would usher him into the presence of "the Beast," the mad ruler of millions. Instead of flowing with the Spirit in order for this prophetic word to be fulfilled, the headstrong self-willed rabbi attempts in his flesh to bring about fulfillment in the Spirit. This is the testimony of his personal doctor, the proselyte Luke, in his Acts. God, however, responds by overriding the force of self-will and, in this case, free will. Trials and tribulations follow Paul in all his decisions and fill his life with plagues of mental anxiety and melancholic negativity.

The Jewish apostle has even demonstrated his zeal to the whole world repeatedly by going against the holy Spirit's repeated warnings in relation to God's timing ,excelling himself to obtain "the prize" by attempting to force the hand of God in respect of the heavenly timetable God had set out before him. If anyone came to know human nature it was the Jewish rabbi and in his later letters he spoke a great deal on the necessity of surrendering the inclination to control life.

The rabbi is a very well-educated individual , an academic intellectual , and has close family ties with his relatives: the family of Herod (Romans 16.11 , NOTE! As an interesting exercise, and as an important aside, check out all your books on Paul, if you possess any, and if not visit your local library and access them there. In the back of your books locate the Scripture Index if one is available and check out Romans 16.11. I am of the opinion that almost invariably you will locate EVERY SINGLE VERSE in Romans and you will be given EVERY SINGLE PAGE where each verse has been mentioned in passing. But it will be no surprise to me if the ONE SINGLE TEXT THAT IS IGNORED in your volumes on Paul will be Romans 16.11. It's as if biblical expositors, and other scholars including notable theologians, have shaken hands to create a virtual conspiracy of silence on the contents of this text, and I will attend to an explanation when we reach that final section of Paul's Letter to the Roman Christians. Of course, "conspiracy" may well be a stretch of my own imagination but I really do wonder why it is that almost nobody wants to touch on the admission of Paul in relation to "his kinsman" Herodion.)

As a relative of King Herod he is viewed with the utmost mistrust by the early Messianic Movement in Jerusalem and surrounding areas and that deep suspicion by the Christians is not without due reason. Nevertheless, God used Rav Sha'ul to further His purposes and intentions for the primitive Messianic party and even as late as the 19th century the School of Higher Biblical criticism , I mean the German scholastics , treated the apostle with immense contempt casting upon him the most indignant and ignoble of motives and intentions. Today, Paul is treated with disdain and imputed carnal clandestine agendas by not only Christ-rejecting rabbis but by many Christian sectarians (Messianic) as well.

Paul's Letter to the Roman Christians is the first well-thought out theological treatise in the NT corpus. Paul happens to be the first Christian theologian who looked at the cross and asked "Why?"

Again, Paul is well-versed in pagan as well as Jewish literature, and has no peer when it comes to his expounding of the Sinai laws of God , and, intriguingly, he is the ONLY Pharisee to have left us ANY written material from the Second Temple Period. Rabbis ought to be united, not in contemptuous hostility toward Paul, but rather in their collective appreciation of this one fact alone!

Josephus, despite Jewish rabbinic claims, cannot be accepted as a staunch Pharisee and a number of Jewish scholars can agree with my assessment. But Paul's scholarly biblical and theological grasp and understanding of the Hebrew Scriptures is considered admirable even by the vilest of skeptics , either Jewish, Gentile Christian or secular. Add to this fact the undeniable truth that Paul created a new inventive literary form , the epistle.

In any event, his Letter to the Roman Christians outlines in a deep and thorough way the Jewish Christian Gospel , and he takes pains to contrast self-righteousness with that of God's righteousness. Indeed, the first few chapters of his epistle make it patently clear that God in His righteousness has condemned the entirety of the world to utter destruction BUT Paul knows that God has effected this before and realised after the Noachian Deluge that such a planned destruction of humankind in heavenly wrath and fury (and in the wholesale oblivion of all other forms of life for that matter) in the event accomplished absolutely nothing. God "repented" (Hebrew) of this violent and tragic act (Genesis 6.6,7 cf 8.21; See also 1 Samuel 15.11,35; 2 Samuel 24.16; 1 Chronicles 21.15; Psalm 106.45; Joel 2.13; Jeremiah 15.5,6; 26.19; Amos 7.3-6; Jonah 3.10; 4.2; Hosea 11.8; Exodus 32.14; Judges 2.18).

Paul comprehends that God is unlimited, free, and at liberty to do anything He wishes , and God DOES! ,  and this freedom is not limited in any way or manner. God, Paul realises, is entirely free to alter and change even His own decreed administrations (see the texts listed in the paragraph above for evidence of this assessment) and this view is substantiated in God's reversal of administrative functions in relation to what were considered "abominations" under Sinai. I will not list these again at this place as they are treated delicately in my lectures on the Covenants, but suffice to say Paul overturns yet another consideration relating to an all-encompassing "abomination." Grasp it now:

As Paul comes to grips with the implications of the NEW WORLD ORDER of Messiah he does (almost) the unthinkable as a rabbi. Paul in a sweeping and pointed argument demolishes God's previous administrative position concerning a legal justification.

In the Sinai Torah it is written: "If there be a dispute between men, and they enter into litigation, and the judges decide between them; then they shall justify the righteous and condemn the wicked" (Deuteronomy 25.1).

This is virtually repeated in the Solomonic Proverbs. "He that justifies the wicked, and he that condemns the just, even they both are ABOMINATION to Yehovah" (Proverbs 17.15).

Paul's new found revelation , which turns the entirety of the Second Temple Jewish religious worldview on its head , is that God justifies the ungodly. Yes, God could have destroyed the world a second time , but God has decided a better course of action was to reverse an administrative procedure: instead of oblivion God chose to JUSTIFY a hostile godless world of humankind and to seek PEACE with those who would destroy Him had they the chance and opportunity to do so. After all, that's precisely what God's enemies actually did in 30 CE at Golgoleth.

In the death of His Son, God declared all of humankind RIGHTEOUS! To "justify" is a legal courtroom term that actually means to declare "righteous" a guilty man or woman. That's DECLARE, and not MAKE. Inwardly, nothing has changed. We remain sinners, but God considers/determines/pronounces us "righteous." We remain morally corrupt, dominated by the yetzer ha'ra , the inclination to be and to do evil.

JUSTIFICATION , A "LEGAL FICTION"?
At this juncture, we all ought to acknowledge the fact that Roman Catholics hate the Protestant view of justification: they call it "a legal fiction." Even though I am not personally a Protestant or a Catholic, in a way I understand how they see this picture that Paul has painted. I can both understand and grasp why they feel this way. Rabbis are no different to their Catholic counterparts when it comes to "Justification by Faith." But "Let God be TRUE and EVERY MAN" , Christian or Jew or otherwise , "a LIAR" (Romans 3.4; Psalm 116.11).

Basically, the Roman Catholic (or, simply "Catholic" as they prefer now to view themselves) need to learn to differentiate between "justification" and "sanctification" because JUSTIFICATION was brought about by Christ's extrinsic act on the bloodied tree of Golgoleth while SANCTIFICATION occurs by the inward (intrinsic) act of the working of the Ruach HaKodesh within the heart of the Christian convert. First comes the activity of the Son of God in his sacrificial death accomplished on behalf of all humanity. So, justification , a legal declaration relating to GOD'S RIGHTEOUSNESS. Justification is a "one-off" event. Secondly, the holy Spirit begets us in our own spirit intrinsically. And so, sanctification , an ongoing principle of spiritual growth as Yeshua the Messiah outworks his life again and anew through the lives of his converted brothers and sisters. It is not a "one-off" event, but is an ongoing procedure involving the building of spiritual character: the CHARACTER OF ANOCHI I-SOURCE.  This growth relates to GOD'S HOLINESS.

Our begettal period of conception will culminate in being actually BORN AGAIN (in real terms) by the "first resurrection" of the RIGHTEOUS dead at Mashiach's second Advent. If Messiah Yeshua was the "FIRSTborn from the dead" by a resurrection to SPIRIT BEING as in Colossians 1.18 then we are guaranteed to follow by virtue of his being the "first." In the meantime, we are known by God as His "sperma" , located throughout the epistles , in connection with our conception ("concept of Zion") and growth in the Womb of Mother God. The Greek sperma is the SEED that creates always NEW LIFE and by extension a NEW AND CREATIVE AND DISTINCTIVE NATURE in the Christian. This nature does not desire SIN , albeit the old nature often experiences a form of resurrection! (Romans 7) , but is in perpetual pursuit of God's HOLINESS accompanied with a driving desire to eagerly merge that inward growth in holiness with God's already declared STATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS appropriated by the believer.

This platform Paul has labored to build and upon which he stands , and on which platform Luther also stood: "Here I stand, I can do no other!" --  is the launching pad for the remainder of this apostolic epistle.

And Paul does not, for this important section of his letter, start with Moses. Oh no, in no way. He forgoes Moses and extends his argument way back to the "Father of the Faithful" -- to Abraham!

THE TEXT
"What then are we to say was gained by Abraham, our ancestor according to the flesh? For assuming that Abraham was justified by legalistic observances, he has something to boast about, but not when facing God. For what does the scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness." [Genesis 15.6] Now to one who works, wages are not reckoned as an undeserved gift but as a legally contracted debt. But to one who without works trusts him who justifies the ungodly, such faith is reckoned as righteousness. So also David speaks of the spiritual prosperity of those to whom God reckons righteousness irrespective of legalistic observances: "Spiritually prosperous are those whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; spiritually prosperous is the one against whom the Lord will not reckon sin." [Psalm 32.1,2]

"Is this spiritual prosperity, then, pronounced only on the circumcised, or also on the uncircumcised? We say, "Faith was reckoned to Abraham as righteousness." How then was it reckoned to him? Was it before or after he had been circumcised? It was not after, but before he was circumcised. He received the attesting sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by trusting while he was still uncircumcised. The purpose was to make him the ancestor of all who believe without being circumcised and who thus have righteousness reckoned to them, and likewise the ancestor of the circumcised who are not only circumcised but who also follow the example of the trust that our ancestor Abraham had before he was circumcised.

"For the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants [Genesis 15.3,5] through the law but through the righteousness of trusting. If it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. For the law brings divine wrath; but where there is no law, neither is there violation. For this reason it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on Grace and be guaranteed to all his descendants, not only to the adherents of the law but also to those who share the faith of Abraham (for he is the father of all of us, as it is written, "I have appointed you as the father of many nations" [Genesis 17.5]), in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls the things that are not in existence as being in existence. Being beyond hope, on the basis of hope believed that he would become "the father of many nations", according to what was said, "So numerous shall your descendants be." [Genesis 15.5] He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was already as good as dead (for he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the deadness of Sarah's womb. No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, being fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. Therefore his faith "was reckoned to him as righteousness." [Genesis 15.6] Now the words, "it was reckoned to him", were written not for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be reckoned to us who believe in him who raised Yeshua our Lord from the dead, who was handed over to death for our trespasses and was raised because of our justification" (Romans 4.1-25).

FATHER ABRAHAM AND RIGHTEOUSNESS
Abraham is pivotal to Paul's argument about humankind being "righteoused" -- if there be such a word. In my view to be "righteoused" is what "justification" really means. I make no apology for creating such a word as this.

God justified us, according to Paul, "Freely!" He did this by His Grace. Grace is the unmerited and undeserved favour of God. Whereas an act of mercy can be repaid in like manner by us, God's Grace can never be repaid. Grace is an English word which is translated from the equivalent Greek word charis. Paul chose a Greek word , for there were no words in Hebrew that could reveal the depth of the heart of God in this matter of God's Nature, in His dealings with sinners, believe it or not , to demonstrate the deep inner character and Salvific RIGHTEOUSNESS [justice] of God toward His beloved creations.

Intriguingly, Charis was the personal name of a minor goddess in Greek mythology -- one of the Charites, charis basically means "grace, kindness, beauty, creativity, fertility and life" -- ALL in ONE. The educated Paul is always full of surprises. Here he does not hesitate to borrow from the Greeks a personal proper noun and applies it to the essential Salvific feature of God the FatherMother of us all in whom dwells grace, kindness, beauty, creativity, fertility and Life.

God freely declares us righteous. "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Being justified freely by his Grace through the redemption that is in Messiah Yeshua" (Romans 3.23,24).

Even though humanity has done absolutely nothing to gain justification, and it is given freely, it was extremely costly. Justification cost us nothing, but it cost God everything , even the sacrifice of the Logos in whom all creation had its origin, the Logos who was God's own dear Son Yeshua.

"Redemption" like "redeem" is a "slave-market" word. We have no choice in the matter of salvation. Salvation involves redemption. No slave chooses to be purchased by his buyer! Not only is this the case, but Paul elsewhere informs us that we were all rotting corpses, dead in our sins, when we were purchased (saved) by the Lord Yeshua. We were all cadavers before our spiritual resurrection. We had to be made alive in Mashiach's resurrection life. God rescued us in His SALVIFIC WILL. Instead of destroying us God justified the entire world. This was the diametric opposite action taken during the days of Noah! We are all RIGHT NOW legally RIGHTEOUS in His sight. Those who are now "Firstfruits" have activated that justification and made it intimately their own. God liberated us by the paying of a HUGE price. God set us free from our sins because of the price He paid. As it is written that price was through Yeshua the Messiah for redemption was "through him" (Romans 3.24) Paul said.

I have talked in past lectures about the English poet William Cowper (refer to Gospel of John Lecture 5 in which I speak of his various attempts to end his life). Lecturer Alva McClain has written, "Cowper, the poet, was a lost man. He began to realise that he was a sinner and came to the point where he was ready to take his life. He was in despair because he knew he had no righteousness of his own. He said, "One day when I was walking the floor, I decided to pick up the Bible and see if there was anything to help me. Me eye fell on Romans 3:25. I saw the light in that verse and it saved me" (Alva McClain, Romans, 1973, 108).

There are three words for "redeem" in Greek.

(1) agorazo "to buy or purchase in the slave market" (1 Corinthians 6.20; 7.23; 2 Peter 2.1).We have been purchased by Messiah from the slave-market of sin by his own blood. Those who believe in Yeshua have become his "bond-slaves."

(2) exagorazo meaning "to buy out of the slave-market" (Galatians 3.13; 4.5). The redeemed are never to put up for sale in any slave-market again.

(3) lutroo carries the meaning "to set free by paying a price" (Titus 2.14; 1 Peter 1.18). Comments Wuest, "The believer is set free from sin and free to live a life pleasing to God in the power of the Holy Spirit. The redemption price, the precious blood of Jesus, makes it possible for a righteous God to justify a... sinner on the basis of justice satisfied" (Kenneth Wuest, Romans in the Greek New Testament (1955) in Vol.1., Wuest's Word Studies from the Greek New Testament, 60).

BE CAREFUL OF 'PROPITIATION'
Tertullian gave us a number of new words which were useful (or otherwise) in New Testament studies. One of these was the Latin word "justice" which meant "payback." This was the diabolic opposite of the Hebrew word for justice which was the equivalent of God's salvation. But another addition was "propitiation." This word was carried over into the English versions of the New Testament but it carried a meaning alien to what Paul was suggesting. As a Jew Paul would have penned kapparah , the "mercy seat" which formed the cover over the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies in the Temple.

Again, Kenneth Wuest explains the importance of jettisoning Tertullian's Latinised "propitiation" from Romans 3.25. He writes,

"The word translated 'propitiation' is exceedingly important, and demands a careful treatment. It is hilasterion. The word in its classical form was used of the act of appeasing the Greek gods by a sacrifice, of rendering them favorable toward the worshipper. In other words, the sacrifice was offered to buy off the anger of the god and buy his love. Such a use is not brought over into the New Testament, for our God does not need to be appeased nor is His love for sale. The English word 'propitiate' has the meaning of the Greek word as used in classical Greek, namely, to appease and rendered favorable. It is therefore not the correct word to use when translating the New Testament meaning of this word which it has accrued by its usage in the contexts in which it is found.

"The word is used in the Greek... Septuagint (LXX), in the sense of an atonement or reconciliation. It refers to the act of getting rid of sin which has come between God and man. Canon Westcott says, "The scripture conception of this word is not that of appeasing one who is angry with a personal feeling against an offender, but of altering the character of that which, from without, occasions a necessary alienation, and interposes an inevitable obstacle to fellowship." The word hilasterion is used in Leviticus 16:14 (LXX) to refer to the golden cover on the Ark of the Covenant. In the Ark, below this cover, were the tablets of stone upon which were written the ten commandments which Israel had violated. Before the Ark stood the High Priest representing the people. When the sacrificial blood is sprinkled on this cover, it ceases to be a place of judgment and becomes a place of mercy. The blood comes between the violated law and the violaters, the people. The blood of Jesus satisfies the just requirements of God's holy law which mankind broke, pays the penalty for man, and thus removes that which had separated between a holy God and sinful man, sin, its guilt and penalty. The is a far cry from the pagan idea of propitiation which appeased the anger of the god and purchased his love. The words, "an expiatory satisfaction" seem to be the words rather than "propitiation" to adequately translate hilasterion" (Kenneth Wuest, Romans in the Greek New Testament (1955) in Vol.1., Wuest's Word Studies from the Greek New Testament, 61).

Yeshua the Messiah "whom God has set forth to be an expiatory satisfaction, [NOT a propitiation] through faith, in his blood to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God" (Romans 3.25).

Here Alva McClain and I differ in relation to the idea of propitiation. So I am substituting the Latinised "propitiation" with the phrase "expiatory satisfaction" and "kapparah" -- where necessary -- in his otherwise excellent grasp of what Christ actually accomplished. I believe if McClain were still living today he would be in agreement entirely with my adjustment of his writings. With this in mind, he writes:

"But there are two other things there: "Through faith" and "in his blood." There ought to be commas after "an expiatory satisfaction" and after "faith" because the expiatory satisfaction is in His blood and not through faith in his blood. An expiatory satisfaction cannot be had without blood, yet an expiatory satisfaction is not operative without faith. An expiatory satisfaction may be made, but it avails me nothing until I believe, and so the two elements must be present to have an expiatory satisfaction and to have it operative. First, the kapparah, Jesus Christ; He must be slain, His blood be shed. Then there must be faith in Him.

"Why did God make Christ an expiatory satisfaction? Why was it necessary for there to be a cross? Why did Christ die on the cross? A quick answer might be that He died to show God's love. Thank God, He did die to show God's love, but that is not the primary purpose. "To declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God" (v.25). To declare His righteousness, not His love. But why did God's righteousness need to be declared? Doesn't everybody know that God is righteous? "For the remission of sins that are past." That is a poor translation for the Greek word rendered remission. The sins of the Old Testament were never taken away until the cross of Christ. This word remission means that His judgment was suspended. God "winked" at sin, as the word is translated in Acts 17:30. In the Old Testament God's character was under a shadow. Psalm 50:16-23 explains the situation: "These things hast thou done," and God says, "I kept silence." God did not do anything about it. Then what happened? "Thou thoughtest that I (God) was altogether such an one as thyself!" Man went on and sinned, and because God did not do anything, man said, in his estimate of God, "God is just like I am. He does not punish sin: He is indifferent." And God says, "I will reprove thee and set them in order before thine eyes."

"In order therefore to show that He is righteous, He set forth the cross of Christ, and there, in Christ, He punished every last sin that man has committed. God's righteousness in this way is cleared and vindicated.

"That is the first reason for the cross. It was a moral reason. God cannot forgive sin apart from the cross. If Christ had not died on the cross, the Old Testament saints would be compelled to come back from heaven. As someone has said, "Elijah and Moses were only there on credit." They could not have stayed there. God sets forth Christ as an expiatory satisfaction to show that He is righteous. "To declare... at this time His righteousness" (v.26). It is important when He says it twice. "That He might be just."

"There was another way that God could have been just. He could have punished sin on the spot. When a man sinned, He could have destroyed him. That would have proved that He was just. But think for a moment of the alternative. Not a soul in the world could have been saved that way. Never! But God did not show Himself to be righteous in that way. He wanted to do something else, namely, "That He might be just, and the justifier of him that that believeth in Jesus."....

"God could be just, holy, and righteous on His throne, punishing sin, upholding His law; and yet at the same time He can take a sinner like me, pronounce me righteous, and treat me like a righteous man! There is not a man in all the universe that can find fault with God for doing it. God, in Christ, came down and suffered for our sins, and He is righteous because of that. "Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other" (Ps 85:10). Mercy has all that is coming to her, and the law has all that is coming to it... we establish the law. It is done by God in satisfying holy demands of the law in the infinite penalty inflicted on His son, therefore making possible for any man, Jew or Gentile, to appropriate the benefits of the cross by faith" (McClain, ibid, 108-111).

Adds McClain, Paul "asks in the thirty-first verse: "Do we then make void the law through faith?" Paul answers again: "God forbid!" We do not make it void but we establish the law. It is done by God in satisfying holy demands of the law in the infinite penalty inflicted on His son, thereby making possible for any man, Jew or Gentile, to appropriate the benefits of the cross by faith.

"There is only one religion in all the world that can save men and still establish, exalt and honour the law: Christianity. All other systems that are based on legality, on salvation by works, dishonour the law, because nobody ever kept it. The inevitable result is that they pull the law down a little bit so that man can win his salvation by keeping it. But God punished Christ, His Son, for our transgression, and in so doing, He not only saves us, but at the same time He also establishes His throne in the heavens as a throne of justice and mercy" (ibid, 111).

Paul has a great deal to share with us in the matter of justification and he does so as he leads us into a deeper appreciation of the ongoing progressive sanctification to which we are called, and which ultimate sanctification we must all grow into.

After all, we are not so much saved from sin, as saved from ourselves. Only as we enter INTO Christ can we experience that which is TRUE FREEDOM and AUTHENTIC LIBERTY. "We are called to liberty" writes Paul (Galatians 5.1,13). He did not write "We are called to licentiousness."

Paul had reason to pen his Letter to the Roman Christians to outline his profound understanding of the Gospel of Yeshua the Messiah. Most have not read it properly. Had they done so we would not have had to experience the Protestant Reformation and the terrible fourth century apostasy would never have occurred.

But Rome's "Babylonian Captivity of the Church" is a fact of history admitted these days by all knowledgeable Catholics. The tragedy is that the global Messianic Movement is, because of its ignorance of the authentic message of Paul, tottering on the very precipice of its own devolution and rejection of biblical knowledge. The Messianic Movement is facing the same issues that so troubled early Catholicism and which are recorded in the primitive chronicles of ecclesiastical history.

As we progress we shall consider some of the facts of church history. In the meantime, in our next lecture, we shall tackle what Paul had to say about Father Abraham. We shall see that modern Judaism has not progressed any further than the Second Temple Period in its total ignorance of God Almighty's intention and purposes in salvation.

THIS CONCLUDES LECTURE 20

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