The Gospel According to Saint Paul – Romans

A précis of a sermon prepared by the Rev Dr Barry Brown at Saint Margaret’s Uniting Church, Mooroolbark, 30 July 2023, Pentecost 9.

Introduction.

I’ve recently re-named one of the buttons on our TV remote.  I now call the [Last View] button my [Flip Button]. This feature is very useful when watching football and cricket when they are on TV at the same time. I’ve noticed lately that the term, ‘flip’ has become popular in a number of ways, including politics.

I was born at the end of WW2 and this era had its own language. As a teenager and an army cadet I discovered that to ‘about face’ was a term used in military drill and meant to turn around on command and face in a different direction.

Saint Paul’s story includes a major ‘flip’ or ‘about face’. His ‘Damascus Road experience’ (Acts 9) has entered the language of many countries and has become iconic as a means of describing a significant change in a person’s life, sometimes even a paradigm shift in human history. It is important, however, to note that for Paul, his ‘flip’ was not a change he decided upon for himself. It was a ‘conversion’ brought about by God – by an encounter on the Damascus Road with the Risen Jesus, the very one whose memory and influence he had recently devoted his life to eliminate. Saul (his Hebrew name) was a zealous Torah observant Jew committed to destroying the people of ‘The Way’ – the lingering and ever- expanding group of followers of the recently crucified Jesus.

Saul’s ‘conversion’ resulted in him becoming a leading follower of Jesus, the Risen Lord; and he became his missionary to the Gentiles – extending the Christian message further and further to the west. However, Paul (his Greek name) remained a Jew – now a Jewish Christian. He had been brought up within the Jewish diaspora, in Tarsus, in a family that was strictly ‘Torah observant.’ His family was of the Pharisaic branch of Judaism; and as a young man (probably around the time of his Bar Mitzvah), he spent time in Jerusalem studying ‘Torah’ under one of the great rabbinical teachers. At the same time, he also learned a trade, that of a tent-maker.  Paul never abandoned his Jewishness. Rather, he changed from being solely ‘Torah observant’ to becoming what some scholars refer to as a New Covenant Jew, and believing that Jesus was indeed the Christ (Messiah) whom God had promised both to the Jews and the ‘Nations’.

I now turn to some of the key notions of Paul in Romans; and you may at first be surprised that I will commence this by referring to another New Testament Letter sometimes attributed to Paul, but probably not written by Paul himself.

Ephesians 2:8 – 10 [NRSV] is a useful summary of a key theme of Romans:–

“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God – not the result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life”.

New Testament scholars are divided concerning the authorship of Ephesians – as to whether it was written by Paul, or by a loyal follower. However, Ephesians is clearly ‘Pauline’.  This key passage clearly stresses that salvation is received by grace through faith – as a gift, and not as a reward for works (or obedience to Law). This is the central Pauline emphasis that has been at the heart of the great reformations and revivals of the Christian Church over the centuries – and in the heart of countless individuals who have come to faith in Christ. This is well summed up in John Newton’s memorable words: Amazing grace (how sweet the sound) that saved a wretch like me!

However, the primacy of Grace through Faith does not cancel out good works. This quotation first stresses that God’s salvation (God’s righteousness) does not depend upon good works. Nor is it a reward achieved by good works, nor by ‘Torah observance’. Yet, Christians are made – created in Christ for good work, to be our way of life. At first this may seem to be a contradiction. But, in essence, it means that ‘good works’ (and even Torah observance) is flipped – from being the means of gaining God’s salvation (God’s righteousness), to being the outworking of the Spirit-led, new life in Christ.

In today’s reading of Romans 8 :26 – 39 we have the echo of another ‘flip’ that emerges from Paul’s conversion perspective. To understand this ‘flip’ it is useful to have in mind a law court – with a Judge, a Prosecutor (who brings the charge against the person before the court), and a Defence lawyer. In this image God is the Judge, and Christ is the only one qualified to bring a charge of guilt. But Christ Jesus ‘flips’ the process and turns Advocate, interceding on behalf of the person(s) charged.  This is an echo of Paul’s own conversion experience; and it is foundational to a key tenet of Paul’s theology of grace.

 “What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else?  Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.

Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us.  Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? ….

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.  For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:31 – 39 NRSV).

A wise and much respected New Testament teacher once gave his student a very useful question to ask when studying Paul’s letters, especially Romans:  What is this ‘therefore’ there for?

The Letter to the Romans, in English, uses the word ‘therefore’ at least 18 times (18 in the NRSV, 20 in the NRSVue). The Greek word can be translated a number of ways. Sometimes it simply indicates a transition in the writing process (eg.: For… So… Still… Then…). However, sometimes Paul uses ‘therefore’ more intentionally – meaning something like: ‘as a direct consequence’. It is instructive to cite some of these more intentional ‘therefores’. In doing so it is important to note that initially these refer to our relationship to God. However, then there is an intentional movement to our relationship with others, and then to our wider world and our relationships:

Romans 5:1  Results of Justification

Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace ….

Romans 6:4  Dying and Rising with Christ (Baptism)

Therefore we were buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life.

Romans 8:1  Life in the Spirit

Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.

Romans 12:1  The New Life in Christ

I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, on the basis of God’s mercy, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable act of worship.

Romans 14:13  Do Not Make Another Stumble

Let us therefore no longer pass judgment on one another, but resolve instead never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother or sister.

Romans 15:7  The Gospel for Jews and Gentiles Alike

Welcome one another, therefore, just as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.

CLOSE.

I close with an image I hope you can identify with and take to heart. Imagine for a moment a group of ministry candidates who have recently graduated from theological college and are in a retreat in preparation for their ordination. They are instructed by the person who is to preside at their ordination to make sure they wear their new, colourful academic graduation hoods to the service. However, on the day of their ordination they are surprised to find that someone has been assigned to publically remove their academic hoods and to place, instead, a simple stole over their neck. They hear the word: Receive the yoke of Christ! And they are reminded that the ministry to which they are called is not primarily based upon what they have learned, what they have been trained in, nor what they have been awarded for their years of study. It is based upon the yoke, the burded that rest upon them as both a gracious gift and holy responsibility.

And so it is, therefore, for all Christ’s followers, both lay and ordained, who live in the grace of Christ Jesus and enter into the Spirit-led life of the children of God. Amen.