First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world. For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I mention you always in my prayers, asking that somehow by God's will I may now at last succeed in coming to you. For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you— that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, both yours and mine. I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that I have often intended to come to you (but thus far have been prevented), in order that I may reap some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles. I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. So, I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.
We have already seen in my previous blog, (Romans Begins as Romans Ends), that Paul uses the opening paragraph in his letter to the Romans to set a course for the topic of the entire letter. In Romans 1:1-7, Paul introduces himself using clarifiers (i.e., servant of the Messiah, apostle of Jesus, one set apart for the gospel of God’s Son, one sent to preach to the Gentiles etc.) that become the core of his letter; i.e. the gospel promised beforehand through the prophets and written in scripture long ago, now being preached as the power of God who resurrected Jesus of Nazareth and through the work of the Holy Spirit, revealed him to be the Messiah to the nations/Gentiles in order to bring about their obedience of faith to the glory of God.
We saw that to be Paul’s message in the first paragraph of his letter. We saw that to be Paul’s message throughout the body of his letter. And we saw that to be Paul’s message in the last paragraph of his letter.
Now we see, following the introduction in 1:1-7, in verses 1:8-15, that Paul begins his letter proper with yet another repetition of the core ideas, in the introduction. Notice the vocabulary of this paragraph: Jesus, Christ/Messiah, faith, proclaimed, gospel, of His Son, Gentiles, preach. The core ideas of this paragraph are very similar to the core ideas of the opening paragraph. The continuity between the paragraphs should not be missed.
We will notice, in upcoming blogs, that throughout the letter, Paul answers the constant accusations that are hurled against him by explaining the gospel message, and we will see how that gospel message becomes the answer for Paul in defense of each accusation.
For now, however, we want to first notice, in this section of the letter, what Paul wants his readers to recognize as of primary importance; his eagerness to visit them in person in Rome, and preach the gospel to them. Paul begins the body of his letter with the word, “First,” as if he were beginning to make a list of the ways that demonstrate his eagerness to visit them.
However, interestingly enough, there never comes a “Second” in the rest of this letter. So, can we assume that Paul is using this “First” as a literary device (maybe especially so, as it occurs initially as the first word in the Greek sentence here) to get his readers’ attention, to mark or to highlight what he is about to say. Could it be that Paul wants his readers to know how very eager he is to preach the gospel to them?
Could Paul be here, in 1:8-15, developing a ten-tiered list of the many different motivational factors that are pressing in on him which he uses to prove to his readers his genuine eagerness to go to Rome to preach the gospel to them?
Let’s look at how Paul develops this paragraph. He provides all ten levels of evidence for his eagerness and then concludes, based on that evidence, “I am eager (to visit them) to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.
Paul says that he...
1. “is thankful for them”
2. “prays for them unceasingly.”
3. “desires God to make a way for him to come to them.”
4. “yearns to see them.”
5. “desires to “impart some spiritual gift
6. “desires to strengthen them.”
7. “desires to be mutually encouraged by each other's faith.”
8. “has often intended to come to them.”
9. “desires to reap some harvest among them.”
10. “is under obligation” to go to them.
Paul demonstrates his emotional attachment to the Roman Christians using his ten-tiered list in 1:8-14, and then concludes in 1:15 with a word, in the original language that is translated “so, or thus” and means, “in this way” (referring to what precedes or follows) or “in this manner.” So, in verse 15 Paul is referring back to the ten reasons listed in 8-14.
Basically here in 1:8-14, Paul is asking, “Do you want to know how eager I am to visit you, then refer back to verses 8-14 and count the ways.” It's like Paul is asking the question, "How Eager Am I? Let Me Count the Ways."
The example of Elizabeth Barrett Browning who first published her poem "How Do I Love Thee? Let Me Count the Ways" in 1850 is very helpful here. The poem was part of a sequence of sonnets called Sonnets from the Portuguese. The second portion of the title of the poem (“Let Me Count the Ways") begs an answer. And the poem does not disappoint.
1. “I love thee to the depth and breadth and height my soul can reach,”
2. “I love thee with the passion put to use,”
3. “I love thee in my old griefs,”
4. “I love thee with my childhoods faith,”
5. “I love thee when feeling out of sight,”
6. “I love thee with a love I seemed to lose,”
7. “I love thee with my lost saints,”
8. “I love thee with the breath, smiles, tears, of all my life,”
9. “I love you if God choose,”
10. “I shall but love thee better after death.”
I am not proposing any exegetical connection between Browning’s ten-tiered list of ways to describe "how much she loves thee" and Pauls ten-tiered list of ways to describe his eagerness to visit the Romans. Browning’s illustration only serves to show how the “so” in our English translation is used in 1:15.
“So” means “Let me count the ways.”
This “so, thus” in Romans 1:15 is the same “so, thus” that appears in John 3:16. “God so loved the world…or God thus loved the world.” If we use the base definition of the word, “thus” or “in this manner” in John 3:16, we are able to see the extent of God’s love for the world…so much so that He sent His one and only Son. We could translate as , “God loved the world thusly…or God loved the world in this manner, that He gave is one and only son.”
How does God love thee? Let us count the way…He gave His one and only son.
Just as the second portion of the title of Browning’s poem serves to highlight Browning’s "love," so too does the English “so” in Romans 1:15 serve to highlight Paul’s "eagerness." The structure in Romans 1:15 serves to say, “I am eager to visit you thusly” or “in this manner I eager to visit you,” or even “these are the number of ways that show how eager I am to visit you."
So, the “so” in English here in Romans from this perspective can provide us a more meaningful translation, i.e., “in the manner described above, I am eager to preach the gospel to you...” Paul specifically structures the paragraph in ten levels to demonstrate his eagerness, and then concludes with his eagerness statement.
These are strong and compelling arguments that demonstrate Paul’s genuine desire to travel to Rome and visit the Christians there. Although, here at the beginning of his letter, he initially does not tell the Romans the reasons why he has often been detained, he only hints that God has prevented him from coming.
However, towards the end of his letter, he does explain that it was his “ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ had already been named” that was the cause that prevented him from coming to Rome. And now “since he no longer had any room for work in those regions, and since he has longed for many years to come to them, he hopes to see them in passing as he goes to Spain, and to be helped on his journey there by them, once he has enjoyed their company for a while. (15:15ff)
Could it be that Paul’s newly found sense of obligation flows from his newly found identity as a “servant of the Messiah,” as an “apostle of Jesus” and as “one set apart for the gospel of God concerning His Son,” to “preach that gospel to the Gentiles” and this new sense of obligation not only for the Romans, but also for all the Gentiles (barbarians, wise and foolish) was also the ultimate cause of the delay in Paul coming to Rome?
So, in this ten-level section, it is important to understand the continuity between the first paragraph (1:1-7), and this paragraph (1:8-15). Paul, in this second paragraph, is still concerned with communicating the core of his letter; i.e. the gospel promised beforehand through the prophets and written in scripture long ago, now being preached as the power of God who resurrected Jesus of Nazareth and through the work of the Holy Spirit, revealed him to be the Messiah to the nations/Gentiles, in order to bring about their obedience of faith to the glory of God.
In conclusion then, we see that, as a means to launch the core of his letter, Paul most emphatically constructs a ten-level paragraph to convince his readers that he has been very eager all along to come to Rome to preach the gospel to them, and, just as emphatic, he is, in no way ashamed of that gospel, the point to which he turns in the next section of the first chapter.
In my next blog, we will discuss Paul’s idea of “Salvific Righteousness” in Romans 1:16-17.
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