Rowan Williams and others have attempted to blunt the force of Paul’s condemnation of homosexual relations in Romans 1 by working backward through the passage. It becomes clear at the end of the passage that the disorder that Paul condemns is a failure to pursue the love and righteousness . . . . Continue Reading »
Romans 2:5 warns the wicked that by their stubbornness and impenitence, they are treasuring up wrath for the day of wrath and apocalypse of God’s judgment. That “apocalypse” is important. An apocalypse is an advent, but more importantly an unveiling. It discloses what has been the . . . . Continue Reading »
Paul quotes, alludes to, or echoes Isaiah 40-66 over twenty times in the letter to the Romans. Many of the major moves of the letter are linked with references to Isaiah, argues J. Edward Walters. The thesis that God reveals His righteousness to the Jew first and also to the Greek is similar . . . . Continue Reading »
Where does Paul get the notion that Abraham is “heir of the world”? Mark Forman argues in a 2009 JSNT article that it arises from Paul’s seeing the story of Abraham through the lends of Isaiah 54. Applying Richard Hays’s criteria for identifying echoes, Forman . . . . Continue Reading »
In a 1962 article, one Leslie Allen connections Paul’s discussion of the work of the Last Adam in Romans 5 with the work of the Servant of Isaiah: ”In Paul’s great formulation of the origin and effect of sin and its redemptive counteraction in Christ (Romans v. 12 ff.) it . . . . Continue Reading »
How is circumcision a seal of the righteousness of faith (Romans 4:11). Augustine ( Contra Faustum ) says this: Circumcision was performed on the eighth day. The eighth day is the day of Jesus’ resurrection. Jesus resurrection is for our justification (Romans 4:25). Hence, . . . . Continue Reading »
INTRODUCTION No family exists in isolation from the rest of the world. Our children have friends, many go to school; eventually they will leave home for good. We should train them so that when they leave, they are led out by the Spirit. THE TEXT “There is therefore now no . . . . Continue Reading »
Romans 7 is about the law, and the effects that the law has on someone (Paul) who is living in the flesh. When the law comes, it divided Paul into two, like a sacrifice, killing him and leaving him desperate for new life, which he found in Christ and His Spirit (8:1-4). If Paul is talking about the . . . . Continue Reading »
Morna Hooker’s classic article “Adam in Romans 1” gets a basic point right: Adam is a model of fall into idolatry that Paul outlines. She also gets some things wrong. First, strangely, though she acknowledges the link between Romans 1 and Psalm 106, she never develops the point by . . . . Continue Reading »
Romans 2:27-29 is frequently brought into discussions of sacramental efficacy: There’s a difference between the physical rite of circumcision and the spiritual reality to which the rite points. I’m not so sure that’s what Paul is talking about. The terminology of the passage is . . . . Continue Reading »
Subscribe
Latest Issue
Support First Things
