“...the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth.”
– 1 Timothy 3:15

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>> Archive >> The Romans Series

1. BEING THE COMMUNITY OF GOD’S PEOPLE:
THE ORGANISING PRINCIPLE IN ROMANS

Paul is, without question, the author of the epistle to the Romans. He is believed to have written the epistle between the years of A.D. 54-58 while he was at Corinth making preparations to deliver a mercy contribution collected from the churches in Macedonia and Achaia for distribution to the Christian poor who were affected by a recent famine in Jerusalem (the Claudian edict in A.D. 49 driving out the Jews from Rome aided the dating). But Paul had plans beyond Jerusalem. Having extensively covered the grounds of Judea, Syria, Galatia, Asia Minor, Macedonia and Achaia, he was looking for new territories to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ (he told the Romans: ‘It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known’); and for this, he looked westward to Europe. After delivering the contribution to the church in Jerusalem, he wanted to go to Spain and on the way he planned to stop over at Rome to visit with the church there; and thus, the letter to the Romans (see Rom. 15:17-29; cf. Acts 18-21).

But Romans is more than just a note from an apostle to say, ‘I plan to drop by. Get ready for my visit.’ It is, in fact, a most majestic treatise on the gospel, sin and sinners, justification, God’s righteousness, the Spirit and the flesh, the body (i.e., the church) and its intra- and extra-relationships, the weak and the strong. That Paul should cover so much theological and doctrinal ground in this particular letter is rather surprising considering that he is generally believed to have not founded the church in Rome. Prior to the letter, Paul is not known to have visited the city. The church is believed to have begun on its own without a so-called missionary founder. Some in the Jewish Christian diaspora or itinerant Jewish Christian traders could have brought the faith there and helped to establish the Christian church. Yet, on second thought, this could precisely be the reason why Paul wrote what he wrote in Romans: its lack of an inspired missionary teacher and therefore lacking in a proper grounding and understanding of the theological doctrines relating to justification, salvation, and ethical living as a commonwealth of God. This lack is evidenced in the division and conflict that was on-going in the church at the time of Paul’s writing. The church was split down the middle between Jews and Gentiles. Thus, Paul, in his letter, made it known to the divided church that he wished to ‘impart some spiritual gift’ to them to make them ‘strong’ and that he was ‘eager to preach the gospel‘ to them personally (Rom. 1:11, 15).

Scholars in reading this epistle to the Romans have sought to find an organising theme or principle in it - a kind of a central plank on which the apostle constructed his epistolary ship. Most have thought it to be that of justification by faith (a theme prompted by Martin Luther). Others beg to differ and have offered various ones: the Spirit-aided life, divine election, Christology and/or God’s salvation-history. However, all of these suffer from one common defect: they are unable to ‘tie the whole of the epistle together’ (Grant R. Osborne, Romans, 2004:21). As significant as they are as themes in and of themselves within Romans they can hardly arch over the whole epistle.

We do not know whether Paul had any organising principle in his mind when he set out to write Romans. But if shove turns to push, I will put it as ‘being the community of God’s people’. It is true that almost every epistle has something to say about being community within the church. However, Romans (together with 1 Corinthians) has a particularly strong flavour of Christian community formation to it.

The pivotal chapter is chapter 12 in which the apostle discusses the ‘one body with many members’ and ‘each member belongs to all the others’ (vv. 3-8) and how each ought to ‘be devoted to one another in brotherly love’ (v. 10). This chaper, in essence, is about community living in unity and harmony, not in spite of, but precisely because of the differences among each component member in the community. The differences should not be seen and used as dividing lines. Instead, they should be viewed as ‘different gifts’ and ‘functions’ to complement and augment each other’s gifts and ‘contributing to the needs of others’. Each component member in the community should offer his/her body as ‘living sacrifices’ to God, ‘holy and pleasing’ (v. 1) in the larger interest of the church.

Prior to chapter 12, the apostle brings the quarrelling parties back to the times when they were objects of ‘God’s wrath’ (2:5). They were committing all kinds of wickedness (see 1:18-32) as in the Gentiles. And as for the Jews, they were no better. Though they had God and the law, they were bringing dishonour to God by ‘breaking the law’ (2:17-29). In both instances, none is more righteous than the other: ‘Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin’ (3:9). This is the premise with which the apostle Paul begins his development on community formation. He wants to tear down any false sense of superiority harboured by either party in the Roman church. Each stands condemned before God. Each is a ‘raw material’ for God’s righteousness to do its salvific work. Each needs the justification that is through faith in Jesus Christ (chapters 4 & 5). And having been thus justified, each ought not to take advantage of God’s grace by continuing to live in sin. All have ‘died to sin’ when all ‘died with Christ’ in baptism (chapter 6). All may continue to struggle with sin (chapter 7), but all have a helper - the Spirit of God or the Spirit of Christ who lives in all of them. They are all conquerors; if only they will yield themselves to the control of the Spirit instead of to their sinful nature (chapter 8). All have become the people of God - children of God - not through natural or blood descent, but through the promise of God bestowed according to his sovereign right. (chapter 9). ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved’ (chapter 10). Yet in a concession to the Jews, Paul makes recognition that they are the olive root on which the Gentile branches have been grafted upon. It is the root which supports the branches and not vice versa (chapter 11). Having thus dealt with the theological processes that led to both the Jews and the Gentiles into becoming a common people of God, Paul makes his point in chapter 12: that they are in reality one body with one common destiny. They, therefore, ought to ‘live in harmony with one another’ (v. 16). Chapters 13, 14 & 15 then take the Romans through a series of ethical living teachings; pertinently, how the ‘strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak’; and everyone is to ‘accept one another, just as Christ accepted you’ (15:1, 7).

Archive
Homecoming ‘05

The Romans Series
1. Being the Community of God’s People
2. Ethno-Religious Tensions
3. The Power and the Wrath of God
4. Justification by Faith
5. Justification Brings Blessings
6. While We Were Still Sinners
7. Died to Sin
8. Slaves to Righteousness
9. The Difference of the Spirit
10. The Israel Problem
11. The Gentile Problem
12. Community Living
13. Community Unity
14. Community Ethics
15. Loving the Enemy Ethic
16. Extra-Community Ethics
17. The Weak and the Strong
18. Community Formation
19. Paul, the Minister
20. Gems in Greetings

Articles on The Da Vinci Code, Gnosticism and
the Gospel of Judas
1. The Da Vinci Code: A Christian Response
2. The Nag Hammadi Documents and Gnosticism
3. The Gospel of Judas
4. The Gospel of Judas - A Retake
5. Teachings in the Gospel of Judas Compared (Part 1)
6. Teachings in the Gospel of Judas Compared (Part 2)
7. Teachings in the Gospel of Judas Compared (Part 3)
8. Canonicity and the Gospel of Judas

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