Introduction to Romans
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
The more that I study, and the longer that I live the more that I realize that the purpose of this life, the purpose of my life is to know Yeshua. Rav. Sha’ul (the apostle Paul) would write to the believers in Phillipi the following: Phil. 3:10-11
My aim is to know Him and the power of His resurrection and the sharing of His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death— if somehow I might arrive at the resurrection from among the dead.
We are heading into the High Holy Days of Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Sukkot as well as celebrating a B’nei Mitzvah next week. So the next month will primarily focus on on all of these things. Today, however, we are going to begin a study of the book of Romans.
As we study through Paul’s letter to the Roman believers, I am looking forward to covering: the Good News (or Gospel), salvation, trust in God, the righteousness of God, and the dynamic of Jews and Gentiles living together as one new man in Messiah Yeshua. Personally, I am wanting to know Yeshua better and learn more what it means to live by emunah (faith).
Authorship
Authorship
As we start into a new book, we should always ask “Who wrote this?” Almost without exception this letter to the Romans is attributed to Rav. Sha’ul, a.k.a. the Apostle Paul. This is confirmed by both internally in Rom. 1:1
Paul, a slave of Messiah Yeshua, called to be an emissary and set apart for the Good News of God,
Now we know that Paul always used a scribe, and in this case Paul dictated his letter to a man called Tertius. Rom. 16:22
I, Tertius, who wrote this letter, greet you in the Lord.
James D.G. Dunn writes in the Word Biblical Commentary that,
“Paul was a Jew. He was born and brought up a Jew. He never ceased to be a Jew.”
James D. G. Dunn, Romans 1–8 (vol. 38A; Word Biblical Commentary; Dallas: Word, Incorporated, 1988), xxxix.
We see that this is confirmed by Paul’s own writings in Phil. 3:5-6 . Speaking of himself, he writes that he was:
circumcised the eighth day; of the nation of Israel; from the tribe of Benjamin; a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the Torah, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting Messiah’s community; as for Torah righteousness, found blameless.
Paul sees his Jewish and Pharisaic heritage as an integral part of who he is. He is also a man who has met the risen Messiah, Yeshua. Paul’s life was dramatically changed by his encounter with Yeshua on the road to Damascus in Acts 9:3-6
As he was traveling, approaching Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. Falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” “Who are You, Lord?” Saul said. “I am Yeshua—whom you are persecuting. But get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”
Date
Date
Since we hold that Paul the Emissary is the author, the next question is when did he write it? Well the simple answer is sometime early in 57 A.D. But how do we come to this conclusion? When we studied the book of 1 Corinthians, we pointed out that the writing of that letter is used to calculate the most exact timing of the rest of Paul’s letters. We learned then that Gallio served a proconsul of Achaia in Corinth in the summer of 51 A.D. Then in Acts 18:18 we see that:
Paul, having stayed many more days, said farewell to the brothers and set sail to Syria, and with him were Priscilla and Aquila. At Cenchrea Paul had his hair cut off, for he was keeping a vow.
Some time in the Spring of 52 A.D Paul traveled to Caesarea and Jerusalem, stopping at Antioch along the way. Then Paul travels back to Ephesus in Acts 19 and begins three years of ministry as we see in Acts 20:31
Therefore be alert, remembering that night and day for three years I did not stop warning you with tears.
This would bring us to the end of 56 A.D. after which Paul would travel to Corinth for 3 months, as we see in Acts 20:3. Paul would then head back to begin his trip back to Jerusalem for the feast of Shavuot (Acts 20:16). Now the reason we believe that Paul wrote the letter to the Romans during this 3 month stay in Corinth, is because Paul had been collecting an offering from all the congregations of Asia Minor to take back to the Jewish believers in Israel, and in Rom. 15:26-28 we see that the collection is mostly complete.
For Macedonia and Achaia were pleased to make some contribution for the poor among the believers in Jerusalem. Yes, they were pleased to do so, and they are under obligation to them. For if the Gentiles have shared in their spiritual blessings, they also ought to serve them in material blessings. So when I have finished delivering the collection safely to them, I will head for Spain by way of you.
Therefore the beginning of 57 A.D. is the most likely time for Paul to be composing this letter to the believers in Rome.
Genre & Structure
Genre & Structure
As we have mentioned before, the book of Romans, is a letter. As a letter it follows the typical Greco-Roman format, which was how Paul wrote all his letters. There is a greeting that includes the author and the recipients followed by a berakah or blessing (which Paul used to replace the standard wish for good health). Then we have the body of the letter. At the end we have a conclusion with some final greetings and a final blessing.
So here is a basic outline:
Outline of Romans
Introduction & theme (1:1-17)
1:1-7 Introduction
1:8-15 Desire to visit
1:16-17 Theme of the letter
Salvation, we all need it (1:18 - 3:20)
1:18-32 The Pagan World is unrighteous
2:1-16 Adonai judges unrighteousness
2:17-29 Jewish people are also unrighteous
3:1-20 Everyone is unrighteous
Justification, we all need it (3:21-5:21)
3:21-31 How does God makes us righteous?
4:1-12 How was Abraham made righteous?
4:13-25 Trusting the promise of God
5:1-11 Benefits of trusting God
5:12-21 Problems of not trusting God
Sanctification, we all need it (6:1 - 8:39)
6:1-14 Union with Messiah’s Death and Resurrection
6:15-23 Slaves of Messiah
7:1-13 Law of Messiah
7:14-25 Law of sin & death
8:1-17 Life in the Ruach
8:18-39 Glory to come
Purpose for Israel (9:1 - 11:36)
9:1-5 Sorrow for present Israel
9:6-13 God’s choice of Israel
9:14-32 God’s working through Israel
10:1-21 Israel’s misdirected zeal
11:1-10 Remnant of Israel
11:11-24 Israel’s partial rejection = Gentile’s salvation
11:24-32 Israel’s ultimate salvation
Purpose for believers (12:1 - 15:13)
12:1-8 Ministries of the Congregation
12:9-21 Principles governing the Congregation
13:1-7 Respect authority
13:8-14 Call to love and hope
14:1-12 Respect others
14:13-23 Pursue shalom
15:1-13 Strengthen others
Conclusion (15:14 - 16:27)
15:14-33 Paul’s future plans
16:1-23 Personal greetings
16:24-27 Closing blessing
Audience
Audience
Understanding that the audience are believes in Rome is easy, but there are some specific points that I would like to highlight.
There is no specific documentation that points to who started the congregation of followers of Yeshua in Rome, so we need to piece together a few historical facts to get a general idea of who Paul is writing to. We know that Paul did not start the congregation, because as we will see, he acknowledges that later in the letter. The earliest passage that we can look at for where and when this congregation may have started is in Acts 2:5-11
Now Jewish people were staying in Jerusalem, devout men from every nation under heaven. And when this sound came, the crowd gathered. They were bewildered, because each was hearing them speaking in his own language. And they were amazed and astonished, saying, “All these who are speaking—aren’t they Galileans? How is it that we each hear our own birth language? Parthians and Medes and Elamites and those living in Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and parts of Libya toward Cyrene, and visitors from Rome (both Jewish people and proselytes), Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring in our own tongues the mighty deeds of God!”
So we see that there were Jewish believers who were in Jerusalem on the day of Shavuot when the Ruach HaKodesh came and filled the followers of Yeshua.
We also know from Josephus, Philo and other sources that the:
Word Biblical Commentary, Volume 38A: Romans 1–8 §2. The Recipients: The Origin and Character of the Christian Community in Rome
best estimate of the number of Jews in Rome in the middle of the first century A.D. is about 40,000–50,000
So when the Jewish visitors from Rome returned, they established several congregations of followers of Yeshua within the Jewish community in Rome.
In AD 49, the emperor Claudius expelled both Christian and non-Christian Jews from Rome as a result of what the historian Suetonius describes as “disturbances at the instigation of Chrestus.” Since the confusion of “i” and “e” was not unknown in Latin renditions of Greek, it is possible to conclude from the statement that the Roman Jews hand become unusually agitated and disorderly over the proclamation in their midst of Jesus the Christ (Christus), provoking the emperor to take action against them.
It was this expulsion from Rome, that caused Aquila and Priscilla to leave Rome in Acts 18:2
There he found a Jewish man named Aquila—a native of Pontus having recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all Jewish people to leave Rome. Paul went to see them;
However, after emperor Claudius’s death in 54 A.D. we see that the Jewish people were invited back into Rome by emperor Nero. At first Nero was good, but about 10 years later we see that he blames the followers of Yeshua for burning down Rome and executes them en-mass.
So, what we see in the Congregation of Rome, is a fellowship that was started by Jewish believers in Yeshua as Messiah. Then all the Jewish people are expelled, and the Gentile believers need to keep running the congregation, and then the Jewish believers come back. We therefore have a mixed congregation of Jewish and Gentile believers trying to work out what it means to follow Yeshua as a corporate group (or a single olive tree, if you like).
Purpose & Message
Purpose & Message
According to David Pawson, there are 2 main purposes that Sha’ul is writing this letter.
He wants to come and visit and thereby help this congregation, and
He wants this congregation to become his new base of operations for outreach to the west of the Roman Empire.
In the first instance, Paul has never met these people, and he was currently uncertain of what would happen to him when he would visit Jerusalem, therefore Paul decided to put his sermon in writing. In a sense, he was telling the leadership of the congregation, what he would be preaching when he came to visit. This is why we have such an incredible summary of the Good News articulated by Paul.
Secondly, he wanted them to be willing to support him as a missionary all the way west to Spain. In fact that is one of the reasons that he sent the letter by the hand of Phoebe. Phoebe was a Deaconess at the messianic community in Cenchrea, near Corinth, and she was already a financial supporter of Paul as we will see in Rom 16: 1-2
Now I recommend to you our sister Phoebe—who is a servant-leader of Messiah’s community at Cenchrea— so you may receive her in the Lord, in a way worthy of kedoshim, and help her in whatever matter she may need from you. For she herself has become a patroness of many, including me as well.
Therefore, Paul is also detailing the message that he has been declaring for the past 20 years of his ministry all over the east of the Roman Empire, and now he wants to go west.
And what is the summary of the Good News? Well let us read it in Rom. 1:16-17
For I am not ashamed of the Good News, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who trusts—to the Jew first and also to the Greek. In it the righteousness of God is revealed, from trust to trust. As it is written, “But the righteous shall live by emunah.”
Paul is going to use his own life as an example and show that there are two ways to get right with God, but one of those ways doesn’t work. There is a way of faith and a way of works, one that is life and one that is death, one that is by the Spirit and one that is by the flesh, one that is reliant on us being perfect, and the other that is reliant on the atonement of the Messiah, Yeshua.
What we will see as we study Romans, is that we are made right before God by trusting in in Messiah, and by living in Messiah, we in turn confirm the reality of having been made right before God.
One Final Note
One Final Note
Over the last 40 years there has been a major shift in how the writings of Paul should be understood. For the longest time, probably since Luther, Paul was seen as completely cut off from anything that would have been considered Jewish. But now, not only is the Judaism of the first century recognized to be as much a “religion of grace as is Christianity”, but Paul’s teachings have been recognized as being inherently Jewish.
There is little to quarrel with the contention that Judaism ideally conceived - i.e. in its best representatives - was a religion of grace and not works-righteousness. At the same time, however, there is also little reason to doubt that there were probably many de facto legalists - persons who lived daily life as though their salvation depended on observance of the law. … There is, moreover, a human tendency to believe that on must earn one’s way with God. Paul’s language about the law is much easier to understand if he is arguing against such a mistaken perspective.
So, as we go through this letter to the believers in Rome, I am hoping that we can all see that we are saved by the mercy of Adonai, that we are made right by the death of Messiah, Yeshua, and we are made holy by the in-working of the Ruach HaKodesh. And personally I am hoping that we can all get to know Yeshua better in the process.