In my last blog, we began a look into Romans 1:16-17. We noticed Paul's triple use of the connector-word 'for" in those two sentences and how they helped us perhaps understand why he was unashamed of the gospel. We learned that Paul used the third "for" to grammatically highlight the Salvific Righteousness that God planned from the beginning of time for both believing Jews and Gentiles. This grammatical feature helped us see the focus of his gospel and his letter to the Romans.
Let's now move past the grammar and now look at another possible reason why Paul might let his readers know that he is unashamed of the gospel.
Perhaps as we read further in Romans, we find answers in texts that some have called Paul’s diatribe style of writing? What if Paul is not using a diatribe style of writing at all? What if Paul were not using straw arguments against imaginary counterparts and imaginary accusations?
What if he is responding to real-life attacks on his gospel and on his character and position as an apostle and servant of Jesus? What if Paul were writing in response to genuine questions lofted his way with intent to hurt and maim his character and credibility and the credibility of the gospel? What if Paul is not using a literary device such as diatribe to communicate in these situations? What if he is speaking directly to real life situations?
If we can assume, for the moment, that these diatribe style texts are actual responses to actual accusations, then how would they apply to Pauls emphatic outburst that he IS IN NO WAY ashamed of the gospel?
Let’s take a look.
What if we begin reading Romans with this question in mind over the course of all 16 chapters of Romans? What if Paul is responding to real-life attacks on his character and position as an apostle and servant of Jesus and what if he is addressing actual accusations directed at defacing his character and misrepresenting the gospel message?
With those questions in mind, Paul provides plenty of causes for which his readers believe he should be ashamed of the gospel.
There is no question that Paul was facing personal attacks from people who were trying to destroy his character at the least, and end his life at the worst. In 3:8, Paul tells us that “people slanderously charged” him with false accusations or at least misleading accusations. Also, 8:31-33 clearly indicates that Paul had his enemies who were bringing charges against him in an attempt to condemn him.
And it appears that in the letter to the Romans, there is an undercurrent of community thought that the Jewish nation has come into disrepute at the rise of the Gentiles on the historical scene, causing a somewhat embarrassing situation for all things Jewish everywhere. There is the accusation that God has rejected his people (11:1). There is also ample evidence to support the prevailing unfounded community-notion that the Jewish nation has been dis-graced by God and abandoned in the eyes of the religious community in favor of the now accepted Gentiles.
It also appears that the Jewish population had to endure claims that the word of God has failed (9:6) and that they could find no answer to the injustice that God had thrown their way by allowing the Gentiles access to salvation (9:14) but denied access to the Jews. Ridicule prevailed in the community at God still finding fault with the Jews at their inability to find Him, but yet the Gentiles had. What’s more, the community-thought that the Jews’ behavior was an embarrassment to God and blasphemy among the Gentiles (2:24).
Paul’s response to such accusations usually takes the form of using his accusers’ own words to underscore the depth of the gospel message. In Romans 5:6, 8, 10, he returns the used-fodder thrown at him “that Israel and all people are weak, ungodly sinners who are enemies of God” in order to proclaim the gospel message that through the death of Jesus, we have been reconciled to God. Not to downplay the grace of God displayed in Paul’s response, but the immediate point to be made here is the perception that the Jews are the “weak, ungodly sinners who are enemies of God,” a viewpoint the community held of the Jewish nation at that point in time, and one of which they thought Paul ought to be ashamed.
This tension was exacerbated all the more by the community throwing OT verses (10:19) into the faces of the Jewish community increasing the level of antagonism in the form of more anger and jealousy.
It is evident that there is great tension in the community now at the relevance or should I say the apparent irrelevance of the Jewish faith in light of the salvific emergence of the Gentiles.
Paul points out this tension again saying that “Israel, who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness did not succeed in reaching that law, but those not seeking it, the Gentiles, did” (9:31). Paul also mentions the tension in the fact that the Gentiles found God without even seeking Him, yet the Jew who through centuries had ages of time to find Him but did not (10:20-21). The thought that God was no longer the God of Jews only; and that He was the God of Gentiles also was being waved around and used as a means of embarrassment to the Jews as their exclusivity had apparently come to an end. These are all reasons the community though Paul ought to be ashamed of his Jewish heritage.
On the one hand, Jewish revelation of these facts was difficult to take if you were a Jew and on the other hand, ecstatic news if you were a Gentile.
In either case, these apparent miscalculations in the Jewish understanding of scripture not only became the Jewish stumbling block (9:32), but was also the cornerstone of conflict between the Jews and Gentiles in Rome. And it was the non-Jewish community who used these misunderstandings against the Jews as a shameful thing, and who thought Paul also ought to be embarrassed about them all, rather than confidently promoting them as the core of his gospel message.
Because the Jews thought they were better than any other nation on earth (3:9) they had plenty to boast about (3:27) and for good reason: “They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs…(9:4-5). They thought circumcision indeed was of value (2:25), they had the promise of Abraham (4:13), and they had the blessing (4:9), all of which are very good reasons they felt entitled to exclusivity in their relationship to God, and because of which, now in light of the acceptance of the Gentiles, all are now reasons to be embarrassed about as all seemed to have disappeared.
Paul’s question in (3:1) is very much relevant? "What advantage does the Jew" now then have since the Gentiles are included in the gospel? Also, Paul’s question in 4:1 is just as pertinent. “What then shall we say was gained by Abraham?“
Of course, it is that question that underlies not only Romans 1:16-17, but all of his discussion in the book of Romans. From the community's perspective, is there really any value any more in being a Jew now that the Gentiles are included in God's salvific righteousness??
So, Paul begins here, in 1:16-17, by letting his readers know that what they see in his gospel and what they think they see in the deprivation of the nation of Israel is not a shameful thing at all. The inclusion of the Gentiles is, as we will see in chapters 9-11, the original plan of God’s gospel in all God’s glory, and Paul is eager to preach it. Paul has previously told us, in the introduction, that the gospel is something that God planned long ago, concerning his Son.
It is His plan, that mystery plan of salvific righteousness that had been hidden for ages, that is now unveiled to the Jews first and then now to the Gentiles.
The gospel has always been planned for both by faith, for the Jews first, then Gentiles.
Paul is letting his readers know, that from the very beginning of time, God’s plan has always included the Gentiles gaining access to a righteousness by faith, but first, (as we will come to see in later chapters), through the Jewish nation gaining righteousness as well by faith.
In the “gospel of God, promised beforehand through his prophets and written in the holy Scriptures, concerning his Son,” the salvific righteousness of God is revealed from the time of faith required of Jews under Abraham, to the time of faith required of the Gentiles under Jesus, “from faith to faith.”
So, Paul immediately sets out, in 1:16-17, a corrective statement at the beginning of his letter saying this is what the gospel is about and this is what the gospel has always been about... "What God had planned before time began for Jesus to accomplish, I am IN NO WAY ashamed of that plan."
Paul was eager to preach this gospel because he knew that to be part of God's plan of salvific righteousness for everyone who believes was IN NO WAY a shameful thing.
But there are other acts, “shameless acts,” of which people ought to be ashamed, but are not; and it is those shameless acts to which Paul turns his attention in the next section.
In my next blog, we will move to the next section in Romans (1:18-32) in which Paul specifically mentions “shameless acts” which result in “God’s Name Blasphemed Among the Gentiles”.
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