Romans. Craig S. Keener
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news. God had revealed this purpose for Paul at his calling, when he was converted (cf. Gal 1:16; Acts 26:16).
Paul cannot introduce himself and his mission without talking about the God he serves. Sophisticated Greek writers sometimes circled back to their point, as Paul does here:7 he returns to his apostleship as a mission to the Gentiles in 1:5, but first he explicates the content of the good news he mentioned in 1:1. The good news Paul proclaims is just what the prophets announced (1:2; cf. 3:21; 16:26), hence Paul’s heavy use of Scripture in this letter focused on his gospel. (Roughly half of Paul’s extant quotations of Scripture appear in this letter.) In the Prophets proper, the “good news” is especially the promise that God would establish peace and blessing for his people (Isa 40:9; 52:7; 60:6; 61:1), and Paul proclaims that this ancient promise is now being fulfilled in Jesus (see comment on 1:16), a theme to which he will often return (see “promise” in 4:13, 14, 16, 20, 21; 9:4, 8, 9; 15:8).
What is the content of the good news foretold by the prophets? The prophets associated their good news of Israel’s restoration with the coming of the promised Davidic king and the hope of resurrection. In 1:3–4 Paul declares that his good news concerns God’s “Son.”8 As a descendant of David (1:3; cf. 15:12), Jesus could be rightful heir to Israel’s throne; but once a king was enthroned, he was adopted by God (2 Sam 7:14–16; Pss 2:6–7; 89:26–33). Jesus was not only descended from David (as some other people were), but attested as God’s Son by the Spirit, who raised him from the dead and hence exalted him as Lord.9 Of course, Jesus is not God’s “Son” only in the ordinary royal sense (cf. Rom 8:3, 29; Isa 9:6–7), but the good news that God has established10 a king, and hence his kingdom, sets Paul’s preaching of Jesus squarely in the context of the ot promises.11
Many Judeans regularly praised God for his power that would one day be expressed in raising the dead;12 Paul likewise treats resurrection as the ultimate display of God’s power (Rom 1:4; 1 Cor 6:14; 15:43; Eph 1:19–20; Phil 3:10, 21). Jesus’s followers, however, recognize this resurrection as not merely a theoretical hope for the future, but a future reality already initiated in history: Paul speaks literally here of Jesus’s resurrection “from among the dead ones,” implying that Jesus’s resurrection is the first installment of the future promise of resurrection for the righteous (cf. Acts 4:2). Paul elsewhere associates God’s Holy Spirit13 with power (Rom 15:13, 19; 1 Cor 2:4; Eph 3:16; 1 Thess 1:5; cf. also Mic 3:8; Zech 4:6; Luke 1:35; 4:14; Acts 1:8; 10:38), and affirms that the same Spirit who raised Jesus will also raise all believers (Rom 8:11).14 Paul stresses Jesus’s resurrection as a prominent element of the good news (4:24–25; 6:4–5, 9; 7:4; 8:11, 34; 10:9).
Through Jesus Paul has received “grace” for his apostolic mission (1:5). Each believer received God’s generous, unmerited gifting or “grace,” empowering them for their own special role or purpose in serving his people (Rom 12:6; cf. 1 Cor 1:7; 12:4, 9, 28–31; Eph 4:7); Paul’s grace is expressed in this letter by serving them (12:3; 15:15). Paul’s mission is to bring Gentiles to the obedience of faith, hence his desire to share his message with Christ’s followers in Rome, who are among the Gentiles (1:5; cf. 1:13–15).15 What does Paul mean by “obedience of faith”? The Greek phrase could be understood in several ways, but Paul is concerned that believers obey God rather than sin (6:12, 16–17; cf. 5:19), and elsewhere speaks of their obedience (16:19) and his mission to bring Gentiles to obedience (15:18). Paul also emphasizes “faith” often in Romans (some forty times, plus twenty-one uses of the cognate verb). He is clear from the beginning that genuine faith in Christ (itself obedience to the gospel; cf. 6:17) should, if carried out, produce a righteous lifestyle (see ch. 6).16 Paul probably returns to this crucial point in 16:26. Disobedience brings reproach on Christ (cf. 2:24); God saves a people for his “name,” that is, for his glory or honor.17 (Roman society had a keen sense of honor and shame, and would appreciate the importance of God’s honor.)
“Saints” (in some translations of 1:7) means “those who have been set apart” (cf. 1:1). Scripture portrayed Israel as “beloved” (cf. 11:28), “called” (cf. 11:29), and as “set apart” for God (cf. 11:16).18 Paul readily applies all these titles to a majority Gentile congregation (cf. 1:13), since all who serve Israel’s rightful king (1:3–4) are grafted into Israel’s heritage (cf. 11:16–17). They, too, are special objects of God’s love (5:5, 8; 8:35, 39; and probably 15:30).19 It was customary to build rapport with one’s audience toward the beginning of one’s work, when possible,20 and clearly Paul shares this sensitivity.
Significantly, in 1:7 Paul adapts the conventional greeting of his day (as elsewhere in his and some other early Christian letters). Greek greetings were normally simply chairein (“greetings”);21 Paul and some other early Christian writers adapt this to charis (“grace”; divine “generosity”) and include the typical Judean (and Eastern) greeting “peace” (reflecting Hebrew shalom, which is analogous to the contemporary English greeting “God bless you”).22 Paul’s major adaptation, however, is more significant. Letters typically included prayers or wishes invoking deities on behalf of the recipients’ health or welfare. Paul here blesses the believers by invoking not only God the Father, but also the Lord Jesus Christ. Although post-Nicene readers might suppose that Paul envisions Jesus’s deity only where he uses the explicit title “God” (cf. perhaps 9:5), he actually assumes Jesus’s deity fairly often. In fact, for Paul, “Lord” can be a divine title no less than “God” is (cf. 1 Cor 8:5–6); Paul employs this title for Jesus, and sometimes the Father, roughly thirty-seven times in Romans.
Thanksgiving (1:8–15)
In what constitutes a single long sentence in Greek, Paul emphasizes his appreciation for the Roman believers. He explains that he would have eagerly visited them to serve them with his apostolic ministry, as he has been gifted to serve all the Gentiles, but that he has been detained so far (1:8–15). Toward the end of his letter he will indicate that he has been detained by spiritually needier destinations (15:19–22).
Paul starts by thanking God for them (1:8). Thanksgivings were common (though by no means pervasive) in ancient letters, and Paul nearly always thanks God for the churches to whom he writes (though this feature is conspicuously omitted in his opening rebuke to the Galatians).23 Paul not only thanks God for them, but regularly prays for them (1:9);24 calling a deity to “witness” underlined the veracity of one’s claim, since deities were expected to avenge false claims about them.25 Paul prays especially that he might visit them (1:10) so he can serve them the way God has gifted him to do (1:11).26 “In God’s will” (1:10) does not absolutely promise his coming, but acknowledges that, while he plans to come, only God knows whether future circumstances will fully permit it. This was a common enough caveat (cf. 1 Cor 4:19; 16:7),27