Archive for the 'Romans' Category

Does Paul sound like someone who could be accused of antinomianism?

Wednesday, March 10th, 2010

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us [...]

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Revisiting Abraham’s Character

Sunday, February 28th, 2010

Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, who was faithful to him who appointed him, just as Moses also was faithful in all God’s house. For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses—as much more glory as the builder [...]

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The 5 paragraphs of Romans 2 in the ESV

Thursday, February 25th, 2010

Romans 2
+ Romans 2.1-5 Jews are just as much provoking wrath as Gentiles are, so Jews have no reason to believe they are better. JEWS ARE IN NO POSITION TO JUDGE THE NATIONS
= Romans 2.6-11 God judges both Jews and Gentiles impartially so Jews don’t get special favors.
= Romans 2.12-16 Jesus will judge both Jews [...]

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Not just the hearers of the law, the merely circumcised.

Thursday, February 25th, 2010

He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised, so that righteousness would be counted to them as well, and to make him the father of the [...]

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Israel’s failure to keep the law

Wednesday, February 24th, 2010

Paul’s argument that Israel has not kept the Law does not begin in Romans 2.17 or even in Romans 2.1.  Romans 1.18ff has Scriptural allusions that show that Israel’s sin is involved in the sin of the Greeks.  The Gentiles are not off, “by themselves,” going off on their own way.  They are going off [...]

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Page 170 of Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot

Wednesday, February 24th, 2010

Continuing
A clear Romans-like trajectory has been revealed (from the secret thoughts of a priest, no less).  The banality and universality of small evil will be “solved” by the appearance of Real and Pure Evil which can be dealt with in a final confrontation (I hope).

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Was Solomon prophesying when he wrote Job?

Monday, February 22nd, 2010

For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all.
Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!

“For who has known the mind of the Lord,
or who has been his counselor?”
“Or who has given a gift to him
that [...]

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My blog posts on Romans and Wright’s perspective on it

Monday, February 22nd, 2010

I still haven’t figured out if I am plagiarizing N. T. Wright or if I am improving him.

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The difference death and resurrection make: boasting in God as a teacher of the nations

Saturday, February 20th, 2010

BEFORE:
But if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the law and boast in God and know his will and approve what is excellent, because you are instructed from the law; and if you are sure that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, an [...]

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Romans, Righteousness, and Psalm 98

Thursday, February 18th, 2010

I suggest that the content of Ps 98:1-3 was clearly in Paul’s mind when he dictated Rom 1:16-17 to Tertius. Paul mentions power in Rom 1:16 under the influence of the phrase his right hand in Ps 98:1b. God’s right hand is a classic Old Testament symbol of God's power (e.g., Exod 15:6; Ps 20:6; [...]

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What is metaphor and what is reality in Romans?

Tuesday, February 16th, 2010

Romans 3.7a is a metaphor: “if through my lie God’s truth abounds to his glory…”  It is a metaphor because the unfaithfulness of Israel (which Paul personifies ahead of Romans 7) was not simply a literal lie.
The reality is found in Romans 11: “For just as you were at one time disobedient to God but [...]

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Answering the two objections to God’s righteousness in Romans

Tuesday, February 16th, 2010

There are actually three of objections, but only two are explicitly named, and they are related:

[1st objection] But if our unrighteousness serves to show the righteousness of God, what shall we say? That God is unrighteous to inflict wrath on us? (I speak in a human way.) By no means! For then how could God [...]

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Habakkuk and Romans: Both spell out post-millennialism as God’s justification for evil

Tuesday, February 16th, 2010

Awhile back I pointed out that both Habakkuk and Romans show God responding to sin with worse sin and providing as his justification that this would bring about a “righteous result.”
It is worth also pointing out that in both cases that result is worldwide salvation.  First from Habakkuk:
Woe to him who builds a town with [...]

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Do the works of Abraham the ungodly?

Monday, February 15th, 2010

They answered him, “Abraham is our father.” Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would be doing the works Abraham did, but now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. This is not what Abraham did.
via Passage: John 8.39-40 (ESV Bible [...]

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Do I really need to spell out the application?

Monday, February 15th, 2010

I realize I posted this with the promise to not only discuss legalism in the first century but now as well.  But it is obvious that the worst legalism is being encouraged in the name of “grace,” “sola gratia” and “defending the gospel of grace.”  There is no need to argue it.  If you don’t [...]

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“We have one father, even God.”

Monday, February 15th, 2010

Some more analysis on these thoughts.  I argued that the “Law-Gospel” hermeneutic, as applied to Luke 10.25-37; 18.18-30, resulted in a fundamental misreading of the text. Thinking of the context of those passages in Luke’s Gospel has given me some further reflections on how that Gospel portrays the situation in first-century Palestine. Specifically, I think [...]

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2 Mistakes in the Law/Gospel Interpretation

Monday, February 15th, 2010

Some more analysis related to these thoughts:
When Christ enjoins upon the young man the duty of following him (Mt. 19:23), he does not give a counsel, but a command to all in common because no one can have a hope of salvation unless he follows Christ (2 Pet. 2:21), although from a particular cause it [...]

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Some thoughts on legalism in the 1st century and now

Monday, February 15th, 2010

Legalism means “law-ism.”  From the term itself it simply means that the law is exalted.  It does not say how or why one does so.
A person who believed that his devouring of widow’s houses was OK with God because he tithed everything he bought as well as earned as a sign of God’s grace on [...]

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Given access by faith

Friday, February 12th, 2010

Passage: Romans 14 (ESV Bible Online).
Romans 14 shows that the doctrine of justification has immediate social consequences and demands.  If God has judge people righteous we may not find them unacceptable at the table especially.
It also ties in justification to the entire Levitical system of access and cleanliness.  God had a home and a table [...]

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Shoveling diamonds out of the way to dig up a concret block

Thursday, February 11th, 2010

Passage: Romans 5.12-21 (ESV Bible Online).
Is there anything more frustrating than watching Amillennialists make this passage about imputation while ignoring the glorious promise of the triumph of grace in world history?
(This is not to say that we can’t learn anything about imputation from the things that Paul mentions incidentally along the way.)

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