Analysis of Romans 1-4
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Analysis of Romans 1:18-4:25
Submitted to Professor Polk
BIBL425_B05_202340
By
Cale Schueler
September 18th, 2023
Basis of Romans 1:18-4:25
In these chapters Paul explains and teaches about four points. First, he talks about God’s
wrath on unrighteouss peeople. How the actions and suppression of truth has led people being
given over by God to death. In the second chapter, Paul talks about the judegement of God and
how it is righteous. There is no excuse for all mankind who judge and condemn one another as
inferior. There will be no bias, no partiality in judgement from God for all have fallen short and
sin. Thirdly, Paul discusses the righteousness that God has upheld. Regardless of how unfaithful
and unrighteous we are, the character of and truth of God is unchanged. At the end of chapter
three we see Paul talk about how we as sinners can only obtain righteousness in the eyes of God
through faith in Jesus Christ alone. And this sets up for the main topic of chapter four, the story
of Abraham justified through faith and not solely by actions. Through faith Abraham would
obtain all that God promised him. Paul uses Abraham as an example of how faith will be counted
to us that we will have justification through Jesus dying on the cross for all of us. Any without
Christ is still a sinner, God shows no favortism and whoever is apart from the law will perish
meaning that God is a just judge to all.
“
The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and
wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness,
since what may be known
about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them”(Romans 1:18). Garland
explains the beginning of Romans chapter 1 as, “The opening salvo in Paul’s indictment of
humanity reveals how pagans have triggered God’s wrath through their idolatry. From a Jewish
perspective, the Gentiles’ sinful rebellion is taken as a given. ‘Gentile’ and ‘sinner’ are almost
synonymous (Gal. 2:15).”
1
This could also be viewed as a warning on how not live our lives as
Christians, Paul lists several things that we must strive to become such as full of envy,
1
Garland, David E.
Romans: An Introduction and Commentary
. Downers Grove, IL:
InterVarsity Press, 2021.
covetousness, malice, murder, strife, deceit, mailiciousness, and much more.
Before we see in
verse eighteen he mentions how as believers, the gentiles in Rome should strive to live like and
not like the unrighteouse but as those who live by faith are considered righteous.
But those who
do not await wrath and judegement from God for their unrighteouseness. But through God, Paul
makes no distinction of a particular group of people that are specifically unrighteous. Jew or
Gentile is not mentioned, all men who are unrighteous understand in some way or another there
will be wrath for their livestyles. Paul says, God has it to them, there is no excuse for their
actions. Instead, unrighteous and ungodly men suppress the truth and in doing so God gave them
up to the ways of the world. All who practice a manner of unrighteousness, no matter who you
are, will deserve death from God.
In Romans chapter two, Paul seems to direct this message to both Jews and Gentiles. But
more specifically N.T. Wright goes into more detail as to who Paul is speaking to,
“
I conclude
therefore that in 2.25-9 Paul is principally describing the contrast between the Jew who breaks
the law and the Gentile Christian who apparently ‘keeps’ or ‘fulfills’ the law. Such a person has
somehow been included in the ‘new covenant’ category, designated simply as ‘Jew’ and
‘circumcision’”.
2
God’s righteouss judgement is for all who pass judgement among others and
live in sin even if you were a Jew.
“
But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth
and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger.
There will be trouble and distress for every
human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile;
but glory, honor and peace for
everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.
For God does not show
favoritism”(Romans 2:8-11). Paul explains either if Gentiles sin without the law or Jews who
know the law and have sinned under it will both be judged. Then Paul mentions the most critical
2
The Law in Romans 2 - University of Toronto
. Accessed September 5, 2023.
http://individual.utoronto.ca/stephentu/resources/articles/ntw11.pdf.
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part of Romans 2, for us to be righteous in God’s eye it is not about just who hears the law. The
only way we are righteous before God is if we hear and most importantly we are doers of the
law, then and only then will be justified. Gentiles may not have the law but Paul says the work of
the law is written on their hearts that conflicts with our conscience and actions. Ultimately when
these gentiles make a decision on their conflicting thoughts, God will judge the secrets of men.
Which is the decision of Jew or Gentiles alike who have or have not accepted Jesus as Lord in
their hearts and minds. If you are a Jew you are neither above Gentiles or exempt from the
Lord’s judegement. Paul explains that boasting in the law was a dishonor to God. While further
explaining that circumcision, a physical separation the Jews did compared to the rest of the world
is more than physical. Their spiritual circumcision was to obey the law of God. But if you break
the law you are no better than those who do not even know they go against the law. Paul ends the
chapter talking about being a Jew is an inwardly issue of the heart, something that now involves
the Spirirt.
Mark Nanos explains what Paul means by the new meaning of becoming a Jew
inwardly versus outwardly, “ he stated that “being circumcised or foreskinned” is not to serve as
the basis for discrimination among themselves any more than should differences that remain in
terms of gender and status as slave or free . These highly contextualized arguments have often
been interpreted to mean that Paul no longer regarded circumcision, and thus covenantal identity
for Jews, to hold any significance, that he regarded these as adiaphora (indifferent things) for
Christ-followers, including himself ”.
3
When the church of Christianity began many Jews and
Gentiles were from very different backgrounds and naturally there was some tension as people
have had throughout history. But Paul wanted to make it very clear there is no significance being
3
Nanos, Mark. n.d. “Paul’s Non-Jews Do Not Become ‘Jews,’ but Do They Become ‘Jewish’?:
Reading Romans 2:25-29 within Judaism, alongside Josephus.” Accessed September 5, 2023.
http://www.jjmjs.org/uploads/1/1/9/0/11908749/nanos_pauls_non-jews.pdf
.
a Jew or Gentile anymore, everyone was now a Christian, a child of God.
Moving into the third chapter Paul moves on to the Righteosness of God upheld, that no
one person is righteous, and the only way we can obtain the righteousness of God is through faith
alone. Here again Paul is addressing issues for an audience of Jews and Gentiles. The beginning
of chapter three explains the faithfull and just character of God, our unrighteousness, our
faithlessness has no impact on God. God is unaffected by our shortcomings, He is righteous and
his infliction of wrath upon the unrighteous is warranted. Paul then begins to elaborate that we
are at the same level, Jews and Greeks under sin. That the law is the authority and it speaks to
everyone under it. By works we are never able to be justified in the sight of God. Then Paul
summarize by saying that because of our knowledge, because of our awareness of good and evil
that traces back all the way to Adam we were separated from God. The knowledge of sins is
enough to no longer be justifiable in the eyes of God. We were no longer holy, unable to ever
meet the standard of God. But now we have righteousness through faith. Faith in Jesus Christ
who died for us but are justified not by our own works but because of the gift of grace. Now Paul
says there is a new law, a law of faith. God justifies all now by and through faith and because of
faith in Jesus we are able to uphold ourselves to the law. But what then is the difference between
the old law and the new law of faith?
Carson states that, “In other words, according to Paul God
gave the law not only to regulate the conduct of his people and, more importantly, to reveal their
sin until the fulfillment of the promises in Christ,10 but also because the law has a prophetic
function, a witness function: it pointed in the right direction; it bore witness to the righteousness
that is now being revealed”.
4
4
Hay, David, E Johnson, and D Carson. 2004. “Taken from the Glory of the Atonement:
Biblical, Historical, and Practical Perspectives: Essays in Honor of Roger R. Nicole.”
http://tgc-
documents.s3.amazonaws.com/carson/2004_atonement_in_Rom_3.21-26.pdf
.
Lastly, in chapter four we get the summarization and example through the story of
Abraham. But why does Paul use Abraham as an exmple? Paul chooses Abraham according to
Kamell because, “For Paul, therefore, seeking to ground his argument of God’s faithfulness to
both Jews and Gentiles, Abraham stands as a fundamental character to draw on, anchoring his
argument for the unity of God’s purposes”.
5
And Paul starts Romans 4 with a simple question,
what was gained by their ancestor? What was gained from Abraham according to the flesh?
According to the flesh Abraham gained nothing, he received all that was promised to him
because of one thing. Abraham believed in God and that was enough. He believed that he would
receive what God said he was due to have. Just like how Paul uses the metaphor of a worker and
his wages, Abraham believed and was given the blessings of the Lord not as a gift but as wages,
a paycheck he was due to receive. What was the significance of Abraham putting his faith in the
Lord? Paul says in Romans verse eleven and twelve that “And he received circumcision as a
sign, a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. So then, he
is the father of all who believe but have not been circumcised, in order that righteousness might
be credited to them. And he is then also the father of the circumcised who not only are
circumcised but who also follow in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before
he was circumcised”(Romans 4:11-12).
In conclusion, Paul describes how both Jews, Gentiles, and any other group of people
will be judged equally by God our creator. But the hope from Romans chapters one through four
is that we are all sinners, who have a chance to get right with God. We have an opportunity
through the blood shed of Jesus Christ, his grace and mercy a gift for us to become righteous
again. A chance to be free from sin and become new creation regardless of our background like
5
Blackwell, Ben C., John K. Goodrich, Jason Maston, and Francis Watson.
Reading Romans in
Context: Paul and Second Temple Judaism
. Grand Rapids (Mich.): Zondervan, 2015.
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Abraham.
Bibliograhpy
Blackwell, Ben C., John K. Goodrich, Jason Maston, and Francis Watson.
Reading
Romans in Context: Paul and Second Temple Judaism
. Grand Rapids (Mich.): Zondervan,
2015.
Garland, David E.
Romans: An Introduction and Commentary
. Downers Grove, IL:
InterVarsity Press, 2021.
Hay, David, E Johnson, and D Carson. 2004. “Taken from the Glory of the Atonement:
Biblical, Historical, and Practical Perspectives: Essays in Honor of Roger R. Nicole.”
http://tgc-documents.s3.amazonaws.com/carson/2004_atonement_in_Rom_3.21-26.pdf
.
Nanos, Mark. n.d. “Paul’s Non-Jews Do Not Become ‘Jews,’ but Do They Become
‘Jewish’?: Reading Romans 2:25-29 within Judaism, alongside Josephus.” Accessed
September 5, 2023.
http://www.jjmjs.org/uploads/1/1/9/0/11908749/nanos_pauls_non-
jews.pdf
.
The Law in Romans 2 - University of Toronto
. Accessed September 5, 2023.
http://individual.utoronto.ca/stephentu/resources/articles/ntw11.pdf.
“Rom 3:21-26 and the Faith of Jesus on JSTOR.” n.d. Www.jstor.org. Accessed
September 5, 2023. https://www.jstor.org/stable/e884028b-2df2-3078-b7a4-
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