Aug 25, 2009
My Very Evangelical Meditations on Romans
Lately I’ve been realizing that I’m not comfortable describing myself as a “conservative” evangelical. Nevertheless, I’m still pretty committed to the Bible and even have many conservative traits in my reading of scripture. So while I have departed from the conservative end of evangelicals in part, I find myself trying to figure out what it means to have a high view of scripture from the evangelical left or center.
If I want to sound trendy or at least charitable, I’d describe myself as a “progressive”. 
Now doesn’t that sound catchy. I mean, who wouldn’t want to be progressive?
Here’s the thing: I’m cool with there being a broad range of evangelicals. Whether right, left, or center, our movement has thrived by focusing on the Gospel message of cross and resurrection, Christian activism (I’m going with David Bebbington’s word here for Christian service and volunteerism in ministry), conversion, and the Bible. Therefore, as an evangelical who sees himself somewhere in the middle to left of this movement, I’d like establish solid credibility for my end of things.
I’ve been trying to think of the most evangelical thing I could do—something that would demonstrate my commitment to scripture in particular. How could I show that one need not cling to the right of this movement to be a Bible-loving evangelical? The folks on the left and center still take the Bible seriously—generally adhering to the accepted evangelical methods of historical-cultural interpretations that deal with the complexity of scripture, while not disregarding biblical revelation.
What’s an evangelical to do?
The answer: Study the book of Romans!
When all else fails evangelicals traditionally dig into the good ole’ book of Romans for spiritual sustenance. If I only had a denarius for all of the Bible studies that have started with the hefty book of Romans.
And so that is exactly what I’m going to do. I’ve been reading through Romans and hope to post a series of meditations on the book. I promise an especially exciting exegetical and hermeneutical adventure for the part about homosexuality in chapter one.
Seriously, when was the last time the words exegetical and hermeneutical were linked with “adventure”? Epic this will be. And with such promises of exegetical excellence, let’s jump in…
The Introduction to the Letter (Romans 1:1-7)
Identity is a key theme right off the bat in Romans. Paul identifies himself as a servant and apostle committed to the Gospel. Jesus is identified as the Son of God through the resurrection. Lastly, the Romans are called to belong to Jesus as his own holy people.
It is on the basis of Christ’s apostolic commission that Paul takes the bold step of inviting the Gentiles of Rome into the family of God, though he ends his introduction by addressing all in Rome who are loved by God. Thus, the Jews and Gentiles of Rome are thrown together into the same Christian family on the basis of their shared Savior, empowering Spirit, and loving Father.
I’m tempted to gloss over the mention of Jesus as the Son of David and latch right on to the significance of the resurrection and the Spirit of holiness. However, if Jews and Gentiles are going to share the same Savior, then that Savior is the Jewish Messiah. It seems that while Paul goes out of his way to make sure the Gentiles reading this letter know they’re included among the fellow Jewish readers as God’s people, high priority is given to the prophetic and Davidic connection to Jesus.
And so we see Jesus as the following:
- A Davidic Messiah
- The fulfillment of the Jewish prophets
- Appointed Son of God through the Spirit by rising from the dead.
- The source of calling Gentiles to faith and obedience.
We have a very brief summary of the Gospel that will be fleshed out later in this message as Paul makes his case for one unified people of God on the basis of faithfulness: a term that captures both senses of faith and obedience from verse five. Such an interpretation of the word “Pistis” as “faithfulness” rather than simple “faith” may at times be a more accurate translation according to some scholars.
Jesus stands out as the source of salvation, the one who is making a new people, and the one who sent Paul to share this message. Throughout this letter we can expect to learn about what it’s like to belong to God’s people and how we can pursue that calling.
Ed.
It would appear that you are holding a match. As a friend, I feel like I must do the responsible thing, and pour a bucket of gasoline on it
Left, Right, and Center of what? If you’re talking politically, you probably mean left as in hippies who smoke pot, have a lot of sex, and support gay marriage. You probably mean right as in gun toting rednecks who drive big trucks and spray hair spray into the air to prove their hatred of the environment. Neither of those descriptions are in any way caricatures.
If you are talking about left and right in terms of theology, are you saying that people on the right are those who assume that every word in the Bible is to be taken literally, from Jonah being swallowed by a very real fish to the creation happening in a very real seven days to Balam really getting advice from his ass (I’ve been sarcastic enough in this comment, need I make an ass joke?)Those on the left tend to be those who think the Bible looks good on their coffee table, but does nothing to help them understand that Jesus was in fact divine, the scriptures are in fact inspired, or that there are any differences at all in the world’s religions. Again, no stretching of truth here.
I wonder if those terms work for us any more? In the preceding tangled web of extremes above, I find myself flirting with each option, depending on the issue. No one description or label involving the words left, right, liberal, or conservative accurately describe me. I doubt they accurately describe you, or any of your readers on this fine blog. So (man, that was a lot of set up to get to the point) without possessing an answer to this question myself, I wonder if there are better words to describe our belief systems? Surely there are others out there who struggle with these questions in the same way that I do. Or at least I hope so. Otherwise I feel instantly lonely.
I can’t wait to read the rest of your thoughts on Romans. It’s one of my favorite books!
Talk to you soon!
Godspeed,
Jason
[Reply]
Jason, I think you hit on it. The old labels don’t work. And so it’s frustrating when I feel sort of out of place in one camp, and so there’s this sense of, “If you’re not in camp A, then you must be in camp B”.
You’re right. The labels don’t work for many of us. Good words. Thanks for laying it out.
[Reply]