{"id":217,"date":"2008-01-21T10:12:18","date_gmt":"2008-01-21T10:12:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/?p=217"},"modified":"2024-05-05T23:15:03","modified_gmt":"2024-05-06T04:15:03","slug":"january-18-ja","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/2008\/01\/21\/january-18-ja\/","title":{"rendered":"January 18 – January 25"},"content":{"rendered":"

Friday, January 18<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n

\nRomans 2:1-16: Having described the moral failings of paganism, Paul now turns to the Jews. Woe to them also if they pass judgment (verse 1), because they too have failed to measure up. Jew and Greek stand before God on level ground, in fact (verses 9-10). The Jew\u2019s possession of the Torah, in which God reveals His moral will, is no guarantee that the Jew is morally and spiritually superior to the Greek (verses 12-16).\n<\/p>\n

\nHere Paul twice addresses the Jew as "man," anthropos<\/em> (verses 1,3), indicating that he too is of the common clay, an heir of Adam, that first and fallen anthropos<\/em>. Jewish blood provides no assurance of superiority over other men (cf. Matthew 3:8; John 8:39; Galatians 2:15). The Jew too, says Paul, is called to repentance, metanoia<\/em> (verse 4; Wisdom 11:23), because his own heart is just as "impenitent" (verse 5).\n<\/p>\n

\nIn this epistle, the theme of which is justification through faith, the Apostle insists that the Lord "will render to each man according to his deeds" (literally "works," erga<\/em>\u2014verse 6; Psalms 62 [61]:13; Proverbs 24:12), and he goes on to speak of "the patience of good work" (verse 7). Even this early in the epistle, then, Paul closes the door to any antinomian interpretation of it.\n<\/p>\n

\nThose who do good works are said to be seeking (zetousin<\/em>) "glory and honor and incorruptibility" (verse 7). This incorruptibility, aphtharsia<\/em>, is to be contrasted with the corruption of death, introduced into the world by sin (5:12).\n<\/p>\n

\nThe translation of the word aphtharsia<\/em> as "immortality" (as in the KJV) is misleading, because immortality suggests something immaterial and essentially spiritual (as when we speak of "the immortality of the soul"). Aphtharsia<\/em>, in contrast, refers in this context to the spiritual transformation of matter itself, of which the formal and defining example is the resurrected body of Christ. "Incorruptibility" is a property of the risen flesh of the Christian (1 Corinthians 15:42,50,53,54). Introduced into human experience by the resurrection of Christ, this aphtharsia<\/em> reverses the power of death. Indeed, the resurrection of the body is the final act in man\u2019s salvation and the great object of his hope. (This is also the reason why, as we have seen, sentences about "salvation" normally appear in this epistle in the future tense. The fullness of salvation comes in the resurrection of our bodies.)\n<\/p>\n

\nTo those who are seeking salvation Paul contrasts those who are only seeking themselves, searching for some kind of self-fulfillment (eritheia<\/em>) outside of God\u2019s will (verse 8).\n<\/p>\n

\nIn verse 10 Paul returns to the importance of good works (literally "working the good"\u2014ergazomenos to agathon<\/em>). Salvation through faith is not for the lazy. Grace is free, but it is not cheap.\n<\/p>\n

\nIn chapter one Paul had spoken about the revelation of God\u2019s existence through nature. Now he writes of the revelation of God\u2019s moral law through nature (verses 14-15). His juxtaposition of Natural Law with the Mosaic Law does not mean that every particular of the latter can be discerned in the former; he means simply that the Natural Law can be known by man\u2019s conscience and that those who have only the Natural Law will be judged according to that law, just as the Jew will be judged according to the Mosaic Law.\n<\/p>\n

\nWith respect to this revelation of God\u2019s moral will through nature, the third-century Christian apologist Origen wrote: "There is nothing amazing about it if the same God has implanted in the souls of all men the same truths which He taught through the Prophets and the Savior. He did this in order that every man might be without excuse at the divine judgment, having the requirement of the law written in his heart" (Against Celsus<\/em> 1.4).\n<\/p>\n

\nSaturday, January 19<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n

\nRomans 2:17-29: Paul continues talking to the imaginary "man" that he earlier addressed (verses 1,3). This man calls himself a Jew (verse 17). This man, whom he had earlier reprimanded for judging others, Paul now taunts with a series of claims that were commonly made by the Jews: knowledge of the true God and His will, confidence in the Law, a superior moral insight, and the consequent right to provide guidance to the rest of the world (verses 18-20).\n<\/p>\n

\nPaul does not deny the validity of any of these claims, but they do raise in his mind a series of concomitant questions that he now puts to the Jew (verses 21-23). The latter\u2019s behavior, after all, leaves a lot to be desired. Indeed, the bad conduct of the Jew, as Isaiah had long ago remarked, has brought reproach of the God of the Jews (verse 24; Isaiah 52:5 in LXX). Their defining sign, circumcision, has been rendered morally meaningless by their insouciance to the rest of the Torah (verse 25).\n<\/p>\n

\nNow, asks Paul, how is the circumcised Jew who disobeys the Law of Moses morally superior to the uncircumcised Gentile who observes the Natural Law written in his heart (verses 26-27)?\n<\/p>\n

\nThroughout this diatribe the Apostle is continuing the very argument that the Old Testament prophets had directed to the Chosen People ever since Amos and Isaiah eight hundred years before\u2014namely, that a strict adherence to the prescribed rituals is no adequate substitute for the moral renewal of the heart and a blameless life pleasing to God. Far from rejecting the Old Testament here, Paul is appealing to one of its clearest themes (Deuteronomy 10:16; 30:6; Micah 6:6-8; Jeremiah 4:4; 9:24-25; Ezekiel 44:9).\n<\/p>\n

\nThe true circumcision is internal. This is the "secret" (krypton<\/em>) that the Lord sees (verse 16). It is the heart that must be circumcised (verses 29-30; Acts 7:51). The true moral renewal of man, then, is not the fruit of a greater and more intense moral effort. It comes from the presence of the Holy Spirit in the circumcised heart.\n<\/p>\n

\nIn his contrast of two circumcisions, Paul invokes the distinction between letter and Spirit that he had used a year earlier to describe the difference between the Old Testament dispensation and the Christian Gospel (2 Corinthians 3:6). The circumcision or pruning of the human heart places that heart under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, whose grace causes the human being to become a child of God (8:15; Galatians 4:6). The Gospel, then, is not simply a source of new moral information; it is the internal principle of a new mode of life.\n<\/p>\n

\nPaul\u2019s distinction between a Jew in the flesh and a Jew in the Spirit puts us in mind of Jesus\u2019 insistence, in the Sermon on the Mount, that a believer\u2019s existence is defined, not by his external observance of a religious code, but by his internal relationship to the heavenly Father (Matthew 6:1,4,6,8,14,18). Indeed, the same expression "secret" (krypton<\/em>) is used in both places (verses 16,29; Matthew 6:4,6).\n<\/p>\n

\nIn spite of the historical advantage that God has given the Jew over the Gentile (verses 9-10; 1:16), they are both called by the Gospel to the same repentance.\n<\/p>\n

\nSunday, January 20<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n

\nRomans 3:1-8: To say (as Paul has been saying) that both the Gentile and the Jew are called to repentance is not to deny the historical advantage of the Jews, because "to them were committed the oracles of God" (verse 2). Later in this same epistle (11:11-23) Paul will argue at greater length that God still keeps His eye on the Jews; they will still have their important role to play in the outcome of history. The Jews\u2019 current displacement from their native root (which is Christ, we perhaps need to insist, and not real estate in the land of Palestine) is only temporary, "until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in" (11:25).\n<\/p>\n

\nMeanwhile, in fact, only "some" of the Jews have failed (verse 3), only "some of the branches have been broken off" (11:17). In these assertions Paul seems to have in mind not only his contemporary situation but all of Jewish history. That is to say, the Old Testament itself testifies that there have always been both faithful and unfaithful Jews. Those very "oracles of God," which were committed to the Jews, also bear witness to the failure of some Jews to take God\u2019s word seriously. No matter, says Paul, because God Himself is faithful, even to an unfaithful people (verses 3-4).\n<\/p>\n

\nThe divine fidelity also is recorded in the "oracles of God." This expression, ta logia tou Theou<\/em> (Psalms 107 [106]:11; Numbers 24:4,16), includes the whole corpus of Sacred Scripture, not simply the prophetic utterances (Hebrews 5:12; 1 Peter 4:11). The whole Old Testament testifies to God\u2019s fidelity in the face of man\u2019s infidelity (3:26; Exodus 34:6; Numbers 23:19; Isaiah 55:11; Hosea 3:26).\n<\/p>\n

\nPaul\u2019s quotation from Psalm 51 (50):6 in verse 4 is based on the Septuagint, not the Hebrew text, and its entire context, which is one of repentance, is worth considering here. David himself, to whom this psalm is attributed, had been unfaithful to God through the sins of adultery and murder, but his own unfaithfulness did not eliminate the faithfulness of God. Indeed, with an oath God swore that He would never be false to David (Psalms 89 [88]:35). This divine "oracle" bears witness to the very point that Paul is making\u2014the fidelity of God to His pledged word.\n<\/p>\n

\nOn the other hand, when God manifests His wrath (orge<\/em>, a word that appears in Romans twelve times, more often than in any other book of the New Testament), He can hardly be called evil for doing so (verse 5). In other words, God\u2019s use of man\u2019s sin as an occasion of manifesting the divine mercy cannot be thrown back at God as an excuse for continuing to sin.\n<\/p>\n

\nIt is most instructive to observe that even during Paul\u2019s own lifetime, some Christians have already accused Paul of saying just that. In this text we learn that the Apostle\u2019s earlier statements about justification by grace through faith (especially in Galatians, it would seem) were already being misinterpreted. His affirmation of the freedom of Christians from the precepts of the Mosaic Law were already being interpreted as a declaration of freedom from all law, all moral responsibility, all personal effort. Paul here bears witness to this distortion of his teaching by those who claimed him as their authority.\n<\/p>\n

\nIt was arguably to refute this misinterpretation of Paul that James insisted, "a man is justified by works, not by faith only," and that "faith without works is dead" (James 1:22,26).\n<\/p>\n

\nPeter likewise, even as he referred to Paul\u2019s epistles as "Scriptures," remarked that in those epistles "are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction" (2 Peter 3:16).\n<\/p>\n

\nEvidently Paul himself agreed with that assessment of those who distorted his teaching to their own destruction, remarking that "though I have all faith, so that I could move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing" (1 Corinthians 13:2).\n<\/p>\n

\nMonday, January 21<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n

\nRomans 3:9-20: After the diatribe that begins this chapter (verses 3-8), Paul returns to the theme introduced in chapter two, the alleged moral advantage of the Jew over the Gentile. Even though God\u2019s fidelity to the Jews, in spite of their infidelities to Him, does ironically manifest their privileged position in salvation history, from a moral perspective this fact hardly warrants any boasting on their part. Indeed, it shows them up rather badly. In short, Paul is arguing, "we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin" (verse 9).\n<\/p>\n

\nThis is, in truth, man\u2019s concrete position before God\u2014he is "under sin" (hyph\u2019 hamartian<\/em>).Such is Paul\u2019s repeated contention in Romans (verse 23; 5:5:12). Let us note he uses the word "sin" here for the first time in this epistle.\n<\/p>\n

\nIn support of his thesis about man\u2019s subjection to sin, Paul quotes (along with other sources) the Book of Psalms 14 (13):1-3; 53 (52):1-3. These two psalms both begin with the fool\u2019s assertion that "there is no God." In citing these psalms, therefore, Paul is once again taking up, from chapter one, the denial of God by the "fools" (1:22), whose "foolish hearts were darkened" (1:21). The "fools" in these psalms, Paul is suggesting, are not simply Gentiles, because "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (verse 23).\n<\/p>\n

\nThe totality, the completeness, of man\u2019s sinful condition is indicated here by Paul\u2019s scriptural references to the various body parts that contribute to the sin: throat, tongue, lips, mouth, feet, eyes (verses 13-5). In short, man is sinful, sinful in all his parts.\n<\/p>\n

\nWhat \u201cman\u201d in this context? Well, the Old Testament passages cited by Paul seem to refer to the Jews, after all (verse 19), so the Jew can claim no moral superiority over the Gentile. In verses 19-20 the totality of man\u2019s sinful state is accented by the triple use of the word "all" or "every" (pas<\/em>).\n<\/p>\n

\nIn short, man is not justified before God by the works of the Law, because "by the Law is the knowledge of sin" (verse 20). This expression, "works of the Law," does not refer to good works generally; it refers, rather, to those commandments (including, ironically, a certain abstention from "work" on the Sabbath) laid down in the Law of Moses. Paul is not contrasting faith with works; he is contrasting the Gospel with the Law of Moses. The latter, he says, does not justify man; it gives man, rather, the knowledge or consciousness (epignosis<\/em>) of sin.\n<\/p>\n

\nHere again the apostle cites the Book of Psalms (143 [142]:1-2), where the inspired psalmist insists that "all flesh " (pasa sarxs<\/em>) fails to be justified (dikaiothesetai<\/em>) before God. How, then, is a man to be justified, to be rendered righteous? The psalmist himself answers, "In Your<\/em> faithfulness hear me, in Your<\/em> righteousness." That is to say, even according to the Old Testament, it is God who justifies; it is God who makes righteous.\n<\/p>\n

\nPaul thus introduces a theme that will be developed at greater length in chapter seven, namely, man\u2019s consciousness of sin made more manifest by the Law. The function of the Law, in this context, is to prove to man just how rebellious, how depraved, how immoral he is (4:5; 5:13). If in this sense the Law makes sinners of us all, surely this is even more the case for the Jew, after all, to whom the Law was given.\n<\/p>\n

\nTuesday, January 22<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n

\nRomans 3:21-31: The tone of this epistle has been negative hitherto, emphasizing man\u2019s weakness and fallen state, "but now" (verse 21) Paul introduces the Christian hope, rooted in God\u2019s righteousness and fidelity manifested in Jesus Christ. The "now" here is chronological and not just rhetorical, because a new era has dawned in Christ, foretold by the Law and the Prophets.\n<\/p>\n

\nThis reference to the present tense has been called the "eschatological now" (also in verse 26; 5:9,11; 6:22; 7:6; 8:1,18; 11:5,30,31; 13:11; 16:26), the era of the Gospel, which replaces the dispensation of the Law.\n<\/p>\n

\nThese verses, then, express the very essence of the Gospel: salvation through faith in the God who redeems us in Christ. The "righteousness of God," which we just saw in Psalms 143 (142), is not a quality of condemnation, of outraged divine justice, but the source, rather, of divine deliverance from sin and corruption. Paul speaks of this four times in these few verses.\n<\/p>\n

\nThe pistis Iesou Christou<\/em> (verses 22,26; Galatians 2:16,20) is literally the "faith of<\/em> Jesus Christ." It is not simply an objective genitive, "faith in Jesus." This expression means, rather, "faith in all matters that concern Jesus Christ," faith in the entire dispensation of grace through Jesus Christ, including the faith that Jesus modeled for us in the course of accomplishing our redemption (cf. Hebrews 12:2). In context it is perhaps better translated as, \u201cthe faithfulness of Jesus Christ.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\nJust as there is no distinction between Jew and Gentile in sin, so there is no distinction between Jew and Gentile in Christ. After all, we all have sinned and fallen short of God\u2019s glory (verse 23). This divine glory (doxsa<\/em>) of which we fall short (that is, "miss out on"\u2014hysterountai<\/em>), is conveyed to us as we grow in grace (2 Corinthians 3:18; 4:6).\n<\/p>\n

\nAlthough Paul uses the legal language of the Old Testament, it is inaccurate to interpret "freely justified by His grace" only in the sense of an outward, judicial, forensic pronouncement on God\u2019s part. Such a view would render divine grace just as external to man\u2019s heart as was the Law. This theory of a merely external righteousness effectively separates repentance from holiness, as though God would declare a man righteous without actually making him righteous, pronounce him to be just without causing him to be a "saint," and convert him but without giving him a new heart. God\u2019s righteous act, His deed of justification, does not remain external to the one whom He justifies. It alters him from within. Justification is not a change of attitude in God. It is a transformation that takes place in man<\/em>.\n<\/p>\n

\nIn fact, a major and essential difference between the Law and the Gospel consists in this very distinction between an external form and an internal transformation. God\u2019s grace justifies by transforming from within; it actually produces something new. By this justifying grace we are made a "new creation" in Christ; we "become the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Corinthians 5:21).\n<\/p>\n

\nGod has set forth Jesus Christ "as a propitiation by His blood" (verse 25). The Greek word translated here as "propitiation" and used as a description of Christ our Lord is hilasterion<\/em>, a word found in the New Testament only here and in Hebrews 9:5. It does not mean propitiation in the sense of placating an angry God. Indeed, both the Old and New Testaments avoid speaking about God\u2019s anger in connection with blood sacrifice. The requirement of blood sacrifice, without which there is no atonement for sin, is not related in Holy Scripture to the divine wrath.\n<\/p>\n

\nHilastrion<\/em> designates, rather, the place of divine forgiveness, the locus of the atonement. It is the word used in the Septuagint to refer to the "mercy seat" where God meets man in the sprinkling of sacrificial blood (Leviticus 16:2,11-17).\n<\/p>\n

\nAccording to biblical thought, "the life is in the blood." Therefore, the pouring out of Jesus\u2019 blood in His sacrifice on the Cross is the pouring out of His life in love for the Father and for each of us. By this pouring out of His life, Jesus cleanses away our sins. By His death He defeats sin, and by His resurrection He defeats death.\n<\/p>\n

\nThe righteousness of man, received in faith, comes from the righteousness of God manifested in the expiatory mystery of the Cross. Through the death of Jesus, God both manifests Himself as righteous and makes believers righteous "by the faith of Christ" (verse 26).\n<\/p>\n

\nPaul uses the metaphor of the Law to speak of "the law of faith" (verse 27), which is identical with "the law of the Spirit" (8:2) and "the law of Christ" (Galatians 6:2). Man may not boast, therefore, for only God can justify him (verse 28).\n<\/p>\n

\nAlthough in Christ there is an "end of the Law" (10:4), there is also a sense in which Christ establishes the Law (verse 31). The next chapter will be devoted to this theme.\n<\/p>\n

\nWednesday, January 23<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n

\nRomans 4:1-12: When St. Paul asserted, at the end of the previous chapter, that by the proclamation of the Gospel "we establish the Law," it is clear that he understood the latter term in the sense of the whole content of the Torah, including the narratives that it contains. He apparently intended to include the entire Old Testament under this heading. That is to say, the proclamation of the Gospel provides the proper hermeneutic basis for that entire body of divinely inspired literature that the Christian Church has received from the Jews. The Gospel is the key to the Law; it provides the correct understanding of that literature.\n<\/p>\n

\nIn the present chapter the apostle illustrates and demonstrates that the principle of justification through faith lies at the heart of the Old Testament. He has recourse to this Gospel principle as illustrated in the lives of Abraham and David.\n<\/p>\n

\nIn the case of David, who had violated at least two articles of the Decalogue, justification came from the forgiveness of his sins. David had not observed the Law, but God had forgiven his lawless deeds and not imputed his ions unto him (verses 7-8).\n<\/p>\n

\nIn this non-imputation of sin, the verb employed is logizesthai<\/em>, which Paul uses with respect to both David and Abraham. Such imputation is not some sort of legal fiction. This verb, in its normal and literal meaning, comes from the practice of accounting, bookkeeping, and the maintenance of ledgers. In the Greek Bible it is used metaphorically in the sense of a recorded account of man\u2019s moral conduct, as though God and the angels were "keeping tabs" on him (Deuteronomy 24:13; Psalms 106 [105]:31; Daniel 7:10; Revelation 20:12). This figurative use of the verb in a theological sense seems to be an extension of its figurative use in a legal and forensic sense, such as in court records and similar official archives (cf. Esther 6:1-3).\n<\/p>\n

\nThus, when David writes that a forgiven man\u2019s sins are not \u201cimputed\u201d to him, the meaning is that those sins are no longer kept on the ledger, so to speak. They have been erased. Our sins are removed from the divine calculation, as it were. Our sins are "covered" (verse 7), not in the sense that they still remain in the soul, but in the sense that God has put them out of His mind. They are over and done with. He remembers them no more. The blood of the Lamb has washed them away, and a man never again needs to remember things that God has forgotten.\n<\/p>\n

\nIn addition to David, Paul writes of Abraham, whom he calls "our forefather according to the flesh," an expression that means "our biological ancestor" (verse 1; Matthew 3:9; Luke 3:8). Abraham lived in a period long before the Sinai Covenant and the Mosaic Law. Yet, he was justified in God\u2019s sight, not by his observance of the Law, but through his faith in God\u2019s word, a faith manifest in his obedience to God\u2019s call (verses 2-5).\n<\/p>\n

\nWhen the Sacred Text asserts that Abraham\u2019s faith was "accounted [elogisthe<\/em>] to him for righteousness" (verse 3), it means that God was never in Abraham\u2019s debt. God did not owe Abraham anything. The initiative of salvation in the story of Abraham was entirely God\u2019s. God sought out Abraham, not the other way around. Abraham\u2019s task was to believe, to trust, to obey. In faith he left his justification in God\u2019s hands.\n<\/p>\n

\nThe biblical assertion of Abraham\u2019s righteousness in Genesis 15 not only preceded the giving of the Mosaic Law in the Book of Exodus, it also preceded Abraham\u2019s circumcision in Genesis 17. Indeed, Abraham received the circumcision as a "sign" (semeion<\/em>) and "seal" (sphragis<\/em>) of the righteousness he already had through faith. He is the father, therefore, not only of the circumcised Jew but also of the uncircumcised Gentile (verses 9-12).\n<\/p>\n

\nThursday, January 24<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n

\nRomans 4:13-25: Independent of the Mosaic Law, Abraham received in faith the promise of God (verse 13), the assurance of a great progeny. It is Paul\u2019s contention that Christians themselves pertain to that progeny if they adhere to the faith by which Moses received the promise of it. It is faith, not the Law, which determines who are the true heirs of Abraham.\n<\/p>\n

\nSuddenly, and as though by parenthesis, Paul asserts that "the Law brings about wrath" (verse 15). By adding to man\u2019s moral responsibilities, the Mosaic Law increases the opportunities for further transgressions, and these transgressions evoke the divine wrath. That is to say, the Mosaic Law actually makes man\u2019s moral situation worse! Consequently, the Law cannot be the instrument of man\u2019s salvation. Paul barely introduces the idea here; he will elaborate it at some length in chapter seven.\n<\/p>\n

\nPaul here begins to treat the theme of death, a topic he had introduced in 1:32. From this point on, the arguments of the Epistle to the Romans will be directed at death, expressed in both the noun thanatos<\/em> (in Romans twenty-two times) and the adjective nekros<\/em> (in Romans sixteen times). Paul commences his long argument that man\u2019s justification has to do with Christ\u2019s victory over death. That is to say, man is justified by the power of Christ\u2019s resurrection, unleashed into this world by the Gospel.\n<\/p>\n

\nAbraham, exemplifying salvific faith, believed in the God who could make fruitful his own "dead" flesh and the "dead" womb of Sarah (verses 17-19; Genesis 17:15-21). Paul compares this to God\u2019s calling all of Creation out of nothingness. This call is the promise of the Resurrection, as he will make clear at the end of the chapter.\n<\/p>\n

\nThis ascription of righteousness to faith pertains not only to Abraham but to us his children (verses 23-24), if we live by that same faith. Concretely, this means faith in the God who raises the dead, symbolized in the "dead" bodies of Abraham and Sarah. The God who raises Jesus from the dead is the same God who called all things from nothingness into being.\n<\/p>\n

\nFollowing Paul\u2019s lead, early Christians readily related the Resurrection to Creation. For example, slightly after the year 200, Tertullian wrote: "This is the promise He makes even to our flesh, and it has been His will to deposit within us this pledge of His own virtue and power, in order that we may believe that He has, in fact, awakened the universe out of nothing, as if it had been dead, in the obvious sense of its previous non-existence for the purpose of its coming into existence" (Against Hermogenes<\/em> 34; cf. Athenagoras of Athens, On the Resurrection<\/em> 3).\n<\/p>\n

\nThe Creator who called into being things that were not is the same God who is triumphant over death, the death that entered this world by sin. Man\u2019s justification consists, not only in the removal of man\u2019s sins but in the gift of incorruptibility, which conquers death.\n<\/p>\n

\nWe, like Abraham, place our faith in the God who brings life from death, and we are justified through this faith. Jesus Christ was raised from the dead, therefore, for our justification, to effect our righteousness (verse 25; 1 Corinthians 15:45).\n<\/p>\n

\nThe parallelism in the final verse\u2014\u201cdelivered up because of our offenses . . . raised up for the sake of our justification\u201d\u2014is not to be understood as though Paul were speaking of two different or separable things. Our justification is identical with the removal of our transgressions. There is more, however, because the death and resurrection of Christ are two phases of the same mystery of redemption.\n<\/p>\n

\nSin, removed by Christ\u2019s death on the cross, is not simply the cause of guilt; it is also the cause of death, which entered this world through sin. This legacy of death is transmitted through human generation. It is from this death that Christ came to set us free. Our full righteousness, then, has to do with victory over death, which was effected by the resurrection of Christ from the dead. Thus, Paul proclaims that Christ was raised for our justification. Christian redemption does not consist solely in the payment for the price of our sins, but in the definitive victory over the forces of death and corruption.\n<\/p>\n

\nFriday, January 25<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n

\nRomans 5:1-11: Paul now moves from the fact of justification to the actual experience of the Christian life. That is to say, he moves from proclamation (kerygma<\/em>) to theology, from the righteousness of God to the love of God (verses 5,8), from the experience of becoming a Christian to the experience of being a Christian. In these eleven verses Paul introduces in a few words the ideas that he will develop at much greater length in Romans 8:1-39.\n<\/p>\n

\nIt is instructive to observe Paul\u2019s use of verbal tenses in this chapter. He now employs the past tense to speak of reconciliation and justification. This is something that has already happened: "having been justified through faith" (verse 1), "having now been justified by His blood" (verse 9), "we have now received the reconciliation" (verse 11).\n<\/p>\n

\nIf our reconciliation, our justification, is spoken of in the past tense, however, our salvation still pertains to the future tense: "we shall be saved from wrath" (verse 9), "we shall be saved by His life" (verse 10). As we saw already in chapter one, references to salvation in the Epistle to the Romans tend to be in the future tense (9:27; 10:9,13; 11:11,26; 13:11). Paul always has in mind the return of Christ and the resurrection of our bodies in glory.\n<\/p>\n

\nThe dominant tense in Paul\u2019s description of the Christian life, nonetheless, is the present tense, the "eschatological now." In the present tense, "we have peace with God" (verse 1), "we stand and rejoice in hope" (verse 2), "we also rejoice" (verse 11). In the present tense the accent is on hope, because the final salvation of the justified Christian still lies in the future. Like faith, hope is based on the promise and fidelity of God. The grace in which we stand leads to the glory that is to come.\n<\/p>\n

\nIf, during the eschatological now, the Christian life proves to be somewhat tough, "we also glory in tribulations" (verse 3). This is why Paul insists on patience or perseverance, hypomone<\/em>. "Patience is on account of hope in the future. Now hope is synonymous with the recompense and reward of hope" (Clement of Alexandria, Stromateis<\/em> 4.22).\n<\/p>\n

\nUnlike many human hopes, this hope will not be disappointed, because God\u2019s love for us "has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us" (verse 5). The Christian life flows from the presence of the Holy Spirit in the hearts, mind, souls, and bodies of justified Christians. Hope, then, has a double meaning: It refers to the present reality of the Spirit\u2019s assurance and also to the final object of the Spirit\u2019s longing. "Regarding this hope as twofold\u2014what is anticipated and what has already been received\u2014he now teaches the goal to be the reward of hope" (Clement of Alexandria, Stromateis<\/em> 2.22).\n<\/p>\n

\nThis hope in the Christian heart, however, is sustained, not only by God\u2019s love given us in the Holy Spirit, but by the lively recollection of the price that God\u2019s Son paid for our redemption. And this He did when we ourselves were still helpless and ungodly (verse 6).\n<\/p>\n

\nOnly in Christ has dying ever been an act of redemption, a victory instead of a defeat. His death vanquished the power of death (verse 9). This knowledge of what God has already done for us in Christ will sustain our hope for the full salvation that awaits us. Reconciled by His death, we shall saved by His life (verse 10).\n<\/p>\n

\nWe observe the Trinitarian structure of the Christian life: the love of our Father has been poured out and proved in His Son and Holy Spirit (verses 8-11). This is the reconciled life of the believer in communion with God (2 Corinthians 5:18-20).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Friday, January 18 Romans 2:1-16: Having described the moral failings of paganism, Paul now turns to the Jews. Woe to them also if they pass judgment (verse 1), because they too have failed to measure up. Jew and Greek stand before God on level ground, in fact (verses 9-10). The Jew\u2019s possession of the Torah, … Continue reading January 18 – January 25<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2444,"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217\/revisions\/2444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}