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Paul's faith and the Power of the Gospel:
A Structural Introduction to the Pauline Letters
by Daniel Patte
Copyright @ 1983 by Fortress Press
ISBN: 0-8006-1682-0
Romans: The Gospel as Power of God for
Salvation
An Overall Presentation of Paul's Faith
THROUGH A SERIES of readings of Galatians, 1 Thessalonians,
Philemon Philippians, and other texts, we have elucidated many
elements of Paul's system of convictions and several characteristics
of his convictional pattern. We can now gather together these partial
results in order to obtain an overall picture of the convictional
pattern which characterizes Paul's faith as system of convictions.
This is another stage of the structural approach, which involves
formulating, on the basis of partial results, a hypothesis concerning
the overall organization of a system. In our case, we shall formulate
a hypothesis concerning the organization of Paul's system of
convictions. Keeping in mind the rules which govern the organization
of any system of convictions--the oppositions by pairs, the
correlations and homologations of these pairs--we can now show how
these various partial results are interrelated. This tentative
overall picture of Paul's system of convictions will also point out
that we still do not know anything about important aspects of it. In
fact, we still do not understand the meaning of such central
statements as "[the gospel] is the power of God for salvation
to every one who has faith" (Rom. 1:16). After formulating this
overall hypothesis, we will be in a position to proceed to a new kind
of structural reading which begins with this tentative overall
picture. In other words, our systematic presentation of the results
reached so far will allow us to make proposals about elements of
Paul's system of convictions which we have not yet encountered in our
readings of his letters. Of course, we will need to verify these
proposals, and we will do so by considering how Paul deals with these
elements in the letter which is the most systematic presentation of
his faith: the letter to the Romans.
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When looking for ways to express what is most characteristic of
Paul's faith, the three qualifications "charismatic,"
"eschatological," and "typological" seem most appropriate.
By the term "charismatic" I want to say that, according to this
system of convictions, the revelation (the fundamental convictions)
which establishes the believers' true identity as "chosen by God" and
as "in the right relationship with God" is discovered primarily in
the present experience of the believers and is not found in a
tradition (it is not a past revelation that one appropriates). I also
want to articulate that this revelation is discovered directly by the
believers themselves and not through the intermediary of an
institution (e.g., the institution of the Temple as the place where
the believers can be in the presence of God through the intermediary
of priests). In other words, the believers' faith is established
through and because of God's interventions in their experience: God's
gifts (charismata), grace (charts), and revelation.
Yet, we need to remember that what we call "the believer's
experience" is not limited to the private experience of an
individual. It includes all that is related to this believer in the
daily life, and thus also other people who are parts of his or her
life experience.
This charismatic faith is of a very peculiar kind. Usually,
charismatic believers view themselves and are viewed by their
followers as having a religious authority over others. Indeed, Paul
has authority over the believers, and so he does not hesitate to
designate himself as their "father" (cf., e.g., 1 Thess. 2:11;
Philem. 10), a term which presupposes an authority comparable to God
the Father, and claims for himself the title "apostle," a term which
presupposes an authority comparable to the Lord (see Chapter 4). He
mentions this authority to insure that the churches he founded will
listen to his exhortations. At the same time, he constantly refuses
to use this authority over his followers. Yes, he would have
the authority to give them orders: he is an apostle (1 Thess. 2:6),
he is an ambassador (of Christ) and a prisoner for Christ (Philem.
9), he is not inferior to "these superlative apostles" who, because
of their spiritual gifts, are viewed by the Corinthians as having
authority (2 Cor. 12:11) He can boast of such spiritual experiences,
but as far as he is concerned, he is making a fool out of himself
when he does so. No, he
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did not demand that the Thessalonians recognize his authority as
apostle (and give him "glory"; 1 Thess. 2:6); he is rather a baby
among then Yes, he is their father, but not as one who demands
something from his children but as the one who gives of himself (a
nursing mother) to his children. Or, as he puts it in 2 Cor. 12:14,
"children ought not to lay up [reserve their belongings] for
their parents, but parents for their children." No, he does not use
the title "ambassador of Christ" or ''prisoner for Christ" to command
Philemon. No, he does not want to boast of his personal spiritual
experience to impose his authority upon the Corinthians. Rather, he
boasts of his weaknesses because, in them, the power of Christ is
manifested (2 Cor. 12:9-10).
Thus while Paul does not see himself as a charismatic leader who
because of special gifts from God, can use his authority over his
followers, he is not denying the charismatic character of his faith.
In other words, he is not denying that the revelations he has
discovered in his own experience are central for him. Indeed, they
are the very basis of his faith, as he emphatically expresses in Gal.
1:11-17. His faith, which he aims at transmitting to others, is so
fundamentally charismatic that he cannot conceive that the believers,
in the churches he founded, could merely be followers who would be
dependent upon his own charismatic faith (upon the revelations he
received). In such a case the believers would have a different kind
of faith as compared with the faith Paul has.
Paul's faith is a radical charismatic faith. Yes, Paul is a
charismatic. He was directly chosen by God, from whom he received a
revelation and the vocation of Apostle to the Gentiles without the
intermediary of any human being and without recourse to a tradition
(Gal. 1:11-17). But his preaching to the Gentiles is aimed not at
transmitting to them a fixed system of convictions (the one which was
revealed to him) but at helping them to have the same faith as he
has, a faith through which they will themselves discover God at work
in their present experiences and receive direct revelations from God.
His aim is to allow them to discover the power of Christ, that is,
Christ-like manifestations of God in their own experience. These
direct revelations to the believers "supersede' those of Paul, not in
quality (indeed, they are the same type) but in newness. These
revelations to the-believers concern what God is doing in new
situations.
An analogy might be helpful here: mountain climbing. A charismatic
leader who demands that the revelations which he or she has
received
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be viewed as authoritative by his or her followers can be compared
to the leader of an expedition who has reached the top of a mountain
peak by using only his own strength and skills (which could be
comparable to the charismatic leader's "superior insight, strength,
goodness"). From the top, he guides the other members of the
expedition in their climb by showing them where he has set pitons in
the rock and helping them to climb with the rope that he has secured
for them. In such a case, the followers do not have the same faith as
the leader. They do not have a charismatic faith. By contrast, Paul
can be compared to a member of a group of free climbers, that is,
climbers who each climb as the leader of the expedition did in the
preceding example. On this particular trip he climbs first, up to a
ledge. Other members of the group, seeing that he was able to do it,
feel challenged. They are confident that they can do as well as this
first climber, who actually encourages them by suggesting how he
overcame difficulties similar to those they are encountering, and he
continues to do so even when they have passed him and climb higher
than the ledge where he is. And all the while he applauds their
accomplishments.
This analogy, despite its limitations, helps us understand how
Paul can both claim that he has authority over the believers in the
churches which he founded and at the same time see himself as having
the same status as they. Because he preceded them in the faith, he is
indeed a type for them, and thus he is in a position to exhort and to
encourage the younger believers. Looking at him and at his experience
in which through faith he discovered God at work, they can in turn
make sense, through faith, of their own experience and discover in it
God at work and thus revelations from God to them. Indeed, insofar as
Paul is part of their experience, he might be (and often was) God's
manifestation among them. Because his experience is a type for the
new believers (and eventually a manifestation of God for them), he
cannot tolerate his experience being distorted or belittled, because
this would mean distorting and belittling the Gospel itself. But Paul
is not the only type. Anyone who precedes the believers in the faith
has a similar role and authority over them. Such is the case of
Paul's companions, of the churches in Judea, of the other apostles
and disciples mentioned in 1 Cor. 15:5-7, as well as of those Paul
calls the "first fruits," the first converts in a region (cf. Rom.
16:5; 1 Cor. 16:15), who can also be God's manifestation in the
experience of later converts. While this chronological priority gives
a
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certain authority to some believers over others, it does not give
them different talus. Everybody who shares this faith with Paul is a
brother a sister, Co-worker, or a co-soldier. Through faith, they are
in the same relation to God. They discover God at work in their
present, as does Paul. In his way, they receive revelations
(elections, vocations) which supersede/hose received by Paul.
From the perspective of Paul's radical charismatic faith, the new
believers themselves can be perceived only as having such a
charismatic faith characterized by the same specific convictional
pattern. Consequently, Saul cannot and should not impose a specific
set of convictions upon other believers. Neither should the believers
do this among themselves. They should look at others as better than
themselves, because in others they can discover Christ-like
manifestations (Phil. 2:3) as Paul can also see God's interventions
in others (as he expresses in his thanksgivings to God about various
believers). Since all have the same status they should comfort one
another, encourage one another, exhort one another (cf., e.g., 1
Thess. 4:18; 5:11, 14).
Paul expresses this part of his system of convictions again and
again and in various ways. For the Corinthians, who are very much
concerned about spiritual experiences (ecstatic experiences,
prophecies, speaking in tongues, he expresses it in terms of the
gifts of the Spirit. Against those who claim that they are superior
to other believers because they have great r spiritual gifts (and
thus should be viewed as charismatic leaders), hi affirms that "all
[the believers] were made to drink of one Spirit' (1 Cor.
12:13). He also writes, "Now there are varieties of gifts but the
sane Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord;
and there are varieties of working, but it is the same God who
inspires them all in every one" (1 Cor. 12:4-6). All the believers
share in this charismatic faith through which they discover
interventions of God in their present and receive revelations and
gifts of his Spirit. There are different offices and functions in the
community, but these offices and functions d, not establish certain
believers above others in the faith. All of them are fulfillments of
the type Christ, and therefore all of them are Christ-like, and all
together form the body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:27).
Paul can hold this radical charismatic faith which demands that
one see others is equal to oneself, because this faith is also
eschatological.
Romans: The Gospel as Power of God f Salvation
237
Paul's faith can be called "eschatological" for reasons which
differ according to the system of convictions and the theologian
explanations.
According to Paul's system of convictions--a System of
convictions--the only absolute and permanent convictions e the ones
which will be established for the believers at the end of tin
(at the eschaton, at the Parousia). As Paul expresses
it, "Now we seer a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in
part; then I she understand fully, even as I have been fully
understood" (1 Cor. 13: l2). Since the eschatological revelation
alone is absolute, all other revelations are relative, partial,
incomplete; they are "seeing dimly in a mirror" This is also true for
the revelations that Paul or any other believer ha,, received through
their charismatic faith. But then, if true believers do not view
their system of convictions as absolute, it also means that they can
perceive other believers' systems of convictions as being, at jest
potentially, as valid as, and possibly better than, their own system
of convictions (yet it does not mean that all the systems of
convictions al valid). Thus, because the absolute, complete, and
final revelation is Elected only in the eschatological future, each
believer (and not merely ~leader) can have a charismatic faith, that
is, each believer can be expend to discover new revelations in his or
her experience.
Paul's charismatic faith also is properly designed
"eschatological" because the manifestations of God discovered by
disbelievers are prefigurations of the manifestations of God at the
end Of me (the Parousia). In other words, this charismatic faith is
characterized hope' eschatological hope. As Paul expresses it in 1
Cor. 15:12-19, "faith is null and void" (au.trans.) if it does not
allow for such a hope this is one of the criteria which permit Paul
to distinguish between true and false charismatic faiths. The
manifestations of God, which are discovered as revelatory by the
believers, also have to be promises of the eschatological salvation,
otherwise they cannot be true revelations. If for this life only we
have hoped in Christ, we are of all men most tube pitied (1 Cor.
15:19).
In summary, Paul's faith, as system of convictions can be
designated as charismatic and eschatological because it involves he
convictions that the believers discover in their present:
1. Interventions of God which are revelations of heir revealed
identity as chosen by God and as "in the right relationship with
God," and which also establish for them a specific vocation defined,
for
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instance, by the "gifts" received by the believers (cf. 1
Corinthians 12).
2. Revelations which are promises or types for future
manifestations of God and especially for those at the Parousia.
Such a system of convictions is thus intrinsically dynamic, and
involves a meta-system of convictions as its basis or framework. It
is not a complete and final revelation. It is promise, and as such it
points beyond itself toward other revelations, the eschatological
revelations at the Parousia.
From the perspective of theological explanations, this
faith can also be designated as eschatological, but for different
reasons. To begin with, the conviction that God intervenes in the
present experience of the believers is explained by Paul in terms of
the unfolding of sacred history. The believers live in the last
period of history, in the beginning of the eschatological period.
This period has been inaugurated by Christ's death and resurrection
through which the world was reconciled to God, and God can (and does)
intervene in the affairs of humankind in the present, as the
believers discover through faith. In this theological perspective,
Paul's faith is eschatological because the present already belongs to
the eschatological period which will culminate in the Parousia.
Similarly, the conviction that the present interventions of God are
promises, prefigurations, or even preliminary manifestations of what
will be fully manifested at the Parousia is explained theologically
by emphasizing the imminence of the Parousia. But as with any
theological explanation, this one can be changed to take into account
concrete or cultural situations. Thus, while in 1 Thessalonians Paul
expected the Parousia to occur in such a near future that most of his
readers and himself would be alive at that time, later (e.g., when
writing 1 and 2 Corinthians), he no longer has such an expectation,
although he still conceives of the Parousia as occurring in a
relatively near future.
This eschatological charismatic faith also needs to be designated
as topological. The present interventions of God and the revelations
they involve are true and valid only insofar as they can be viewed as
fulfillments of the types which are the experiences of former
believers, of Christ and of biblical personages, and/or as
fulfillments of former promises (the verbal promises and prophecies
contained in Scripture, especially). The believers' faith is "null
and void" if it does not bring them to
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see their experience as fulfillment of Christ's death and
resurrection (cf. 1 Cor. 15:12-19).
In fact, for Paul, these types are the very conditions for the
possibility of charismatic faith. In order to understand this
statement, we must first note that Paul has the conviction that God
is at work in the present experience of every human being.
This conviction is repeatedly expressed in (or, more exactly,
presupposed by) his theological statements about reconciliation and
justification (in the sense of reconciliation). "In Christ God was
reconciling the world to himself" (2 Cor. 5:19). "One man's
act of righteousness leads to acquittal and life for all men"
(Rom. 5:18). This is true even of the pagans who rejected God:
"For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has
shown it to them.... Although they knew God they did not honor him as
God or give thanks to him" (Rom. 1:19, 21). In the pagans'
experience, there are revelations/manifestations of God. And, of
course, this is also true of the Jews. The painful fact that they do
not have faith (the charismatic faith) should not be interpreted to
mean that God has rejected them. "By no means!" (Rom. 11:1). When
reconciling the world to himself, God also reconciled the Jews to
himself. But the Jews (or most of them) "were hardened." In sum, Paul
has the conviction that God is at work and reveals himself in the
experience of all human beings, including that of the Jews.
But the manifestations of God in the present of the believers are
not in and of themselves sufficient to bring about faith. These
manifestations of God are not such that they impose themselves upon
all human beings so that the only possible response would be the
amazed recognition that God is at work in their present. In other
words, God's manifestations are "ambiguous" (we shall see below why
this is so). The cross is indeed God's intervention (cf. 1 Cor.
15:3-4, pp. 224-26). It is an event which belongs to the experience
of many people in Jerusalem at that time. But most of them did not
see in this event God's intervention. The cross can be discovered as
God's intervention in human affairs only with the help of Scripture,
that is, with the help of the types and promises contained in
Scripture and fulfilled by it. Similarly, without the help of
Scripture, the appearances of Jesus after his death cannot be
recognized as appearances of the resurrected Christ and thus as
resulting from an intervention of God. We can add that the believers
cannot recognize God's work in their experience without the help of
these other types, which are expressed in the proclamation about
Christ and the witness of Paul and
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other believers who precede them. The charismatic faith, which
recognizes new revelatory manifestations of God, cannot exist as long
as Scripture, the kerygma about Christ, and the testimony of earlier
believers are not recognized as trustworthy types. Trust in the
promises contained in former manifestations of God (the types) is a
necessary part of Paul's charismatic faith.
Yet we can be more specific and say that it is trust or belief
in Christ which is a necessary part of Paul's charismatic faith,
for it is obvious that, among these types, Christ's death and
resurrection have a preeminent place. In fact, it can be said that,
for Paul, Christ is the normative type. Scripture, because
of its association with the "dispensation of condemnation," is by
itself unclear, tarnished, without splendor by comparison with "the
splendor that surpasses it" (cf. 2 Cor. 3:7-11). Scripture and its
types are veiled "to this day" for the Jews, but through Christ, and
only through him, the veil which covers Scripture is taken away (cf.
2 Cor. 3:14-16). When this veil which hides the glory of God is
removed, the believers can "behold the glory of the Lord," that is,
perceive directly the manifestation of the Lord. Thus they "are being
changed into his likeness," they become Christ-like (cf. 2 Cor.
3:18). We can therefore say that the types of Scripture become
available for the believers as types only because they are first
fulfilled in Christ. Similarly, Paul and earlier believers are types
for later believers only insofar as they themselves are Christ-like,
in his likeness. The validity of all the other types depends
therefore upon their conformity with Christ, the normative type.
Thus, from this perspective, any manifestation of God is
Christ-like. Consequently, the theological (sacred historical)
expression of this conviction can say that before "taking the form of
a servant" he was "in the form of God" (Phil. 2:6-7). Furthermore,
what is said in Scripture about the Lord God can be viewed as
applying to the Lord Christ. In other words, God's interventions in
the biblical time are themselves Christlike. Similarly, God's
intervention or the manifestation of God's Spirit after Christ's
resurrection can also be said to be intervention of the resurrected
Christ by following the logic of the sacred historical development.
Since Christ is resurrected and brought back to life as the Lord, he
intervenes in the believers' experience and will intervene at the end
of time. These observations help us understand why Paul so easily
attributes the same role to God, to his Spirit, and to Christ the
Lord. This is the same phenomenon we have discussed several
times.
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On the basis of Paul's system of convictions, it is possible to
speak of any stage of the typological chain in terms of the others,
to speak of a Christian of Jewish origin as if he were a Christian of
pagan origin, of Abraham as if he were Christ, and so on. Thus, even
though Christ plays a predominant and indeed a normative role in the
typology, he remains a type, a promise pointing toward new
interventions and revelations of God which are Christ-like. And thus
the charismatic faith which discovers these new revelations needs to
involve trust in the promises contained in Christ, in other words,
belief or faith in Christ, in the sense of trust in the promises
contained in Christ as type.
In his discussion of the situation of the Jews, Paul makes clear
the conditions of the possibility of faith. We can now understand
this statement in Romans:
But how are men to call upon him in whom they have not believed? And
how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how
are they to hear without a preacher? . . . So faith comes from what is heard,
and what is heard comes by the preaching of Christ. (Rom. 10:14,
17)
Faith, the charismatic faith which allows the believers to call
upon the Lord, cannot exist as long as they do not believe in Christ,
that is, trust that in him, and especially in his death and
resurrection, God was at work and that these are promises that God
fulfills in their experience. Without this trust in God's promises in
Christ, the believers cannot discover what God (or Christ or the
Spirit) is doing in the present. But in order to believe in Christ as
type they must hear about Christ, and thus Christ must be
preached.
Yet as we saw in several texts, Paul considers that the
proclamation of his own experience and of that of other believers is
just as necessary and effective for establishing the faith of his
readers (cf. our discussion of 1 Thessalonians, Philippians, 1
Corinthians 15, and also that of Galatians). What then is the
uniqueness of the type Jesus Christ? Before addressing this question
we need to consider other aspects of Paul's System of
convictions.
of Convictions
Our description of Paul's faith is still incomplete. One essential
dimension is missing. As we have emphasized in Chapters 1 and 2, a
system of convictions also involves a series of "negative
convictions." So
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far our discussion has focused upon positive convictions: upon
revelations, upon interventions of God, upon salvation, upon freedom,
and so on. But in a system of convictions all these have negative
counterparts: the absence of revelations (the hardening of the heart,
the spirit of stupor, the not-seeing, the not-hearing: cf. Rom.
11:7-8); the interventions of evil powers, the wrath of God and
destruction; slavery; and so on. We cannot pretend to understand
Paul's system of convictions as long as we have not elucidated this
"dark side" of his faith. For instance, we do not understand why it
is still necessary for God to intervene in the present of the
believers, after the reconciliation operated once and for all by
Christ's death and resurrection. Consequently, we do not truly
understand the nature of these interventions of God, because we do
not know what they are achieving. Yet after having elucidated, at
least partially, the positive side of Paul's system of convictions,
it will be easier to study its negative dimensions. Indeed, we know
that the negative convictions are the counterparts of positive
convictions.
Our study of Galatians has already shown that the negative
counterpart of"being in the right relationship with God" is "being
under a curse," or "being slave" to Torah, idols, and/or the
elemental spirits of the universe, in other words, "being in the
right relationship with beings which by nature are not gods." From
this starting point, and on the basis of what we know about the
positive dimensions of Paul's system of convictions, we can formulate
hypotheses concerning other aspects of its negative dimensions.
Since the believers are established in the right relationship with
God through God's interventions, we can expect that the nonbelievers
are under a curse or slaves because of interventions of a
god-like negative power. At first glance, this hypothesis is
strange, because it almost says that Paul held the conviction that
there is an evil god (or evil gods), while he affirms that he makes
his own the Jewish belief that "God is One," for instance in Gal.
3:20. But, as this text also shows, he had to struggle with this
issue. His view could easily be (mis)understood as a claim that there
are gods other than the true God. Thus we can expect to find that
Paul expressed this same negative conviction in different ways,
namely, as the negative interventions of God, as the
manifestations of the "wrath of God," a concept that we encountered
several times.
We also know that God's interventions in the believers' experience
are comparable to God's interventions in Jesus' experience. God
inter-
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vened to raise Christ from the dead. His death is clearly both a
positive type (as in Gal. 2:20 and other passages, where Paul can say
that he was crucified with Christ) and a negative type (as in Romans
4, where it is a hopeless situation). In this latter case, it means
that before God's interventions the believers are in a death-like
situation. As in Romans 4, this death-like situation is a hopeless
situation out of which there is apparently no escape, as there is
apparently no escape from death. There we noted that Paul speaks of
death as a power comparable to other powers. Thus Christ's work at
the end of time will be to destroy "every rule and every authority
and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under
his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death" (1 Cor. 15:24-26).
The technical terms "rule," "authority," and "power" clearly
designate "enemies," which keep human beings under their power, as
death also does. But then, according to the typological pattern, if
the ultimate intervention of Christ (or God) at the Parousia consists
in fully destroying these powers, it means that Christ's resurrection
from the dead as prefiguration, or preliminary manifestation, of the
Parousia is also the overcoming of death viewed as a power. Thus, the
Christ-like interventions of God in the believers' experience are
also the overcoming of powers which, from a human perspective, cannot
be overcome. But what are these "powers" which are death-like and
deadly? To say that the terms Paul uses to refer to them are the
Jewish designations of demons or spirits (good or evil) does not
truly answer this question. What are these demons or spirits? Or, to
use the vocabulary we find in 1 Thessalonians, who is Satan or the
Tempter? How do they manifest themselves in the experience of the
believers?
One thing we can already say is that these powers constantly
intervene in the believers' experience, that is, also after their
conversion. Indeed, we have shown that God's interventions in the
believers' experience are far from being limited to their conversion
experience. To put it in another way, none of God's interventions in
the believers' experience is the complete destruction of these evil
powers. This will only take place at the Parousia. God's
interventions are only punctual and partial overcomings of these
powers in specific situations. From the perspective of the believers,
this means that they are constantly in danger of being overcome by
the evil powers, and thus need again and again to be delivered from
them. There is always the possibility that they might have run in
vain (cf. Phil. 3:11, where Paul speaks of his
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salvation as a mere possibility; he is still in the race toward
that goal) and that Paul would have labored in vain (cf., e.g., 1
Thess. 3:5; Phil. 2:16). Persecutions as well as the killing of Jesus
(cf. 1 Cor. 2:8) are manifestations of the evil powers. But so is
being bewitched by a false gospel (Gal. 3:1). This is to say that
these powers have both "concrete" and "spiritual" manifestations.
Furthermore, these powers are clearly not manifested merely in the
private spiritual experience of the individual person; they have a
social dimension (persecutions, the separation of the Jews from the
Gentiles, the separation of the slaves from their masters, the
separation of the sexes, which are overcome through faith and thus
through interventions of God; cf. Gal. 3:28) and even a cosmological
dimension (the creation as a whole is in bondage; cf. Rom. 8:20-22).
It is these evil powers which necessitate God's (or Christ's)
continuing interventions.
The formulation of these hypotheses about the negative dimensions
of Paul's system of convictions suggests that sin is somehow related
to these evil powers. Therefore it is not surprising that sin is
viewed by Paul as a power. The question is then, What kind of power
is it? How is it related to these evil powers?
Such are the questions we will raise and the hypotheses we will
test through our reading of Romans. Together with the positive
dimensions of Paul's system of convictions that we have already
tentatively elucidated, these questions and hypotheses will be the
"model" (in the scientific sense of the term) which will guide our
reading of Romans. Through this reading we shall verify this "model,"
complement it, and eventually modify it. Thus our reading of Romans
will be devoted to the elucidation of the negative dimensions of
Paul's charismatic, eschatological, and typological faith.
ITS HISTORICAL CONTEXT
The Nature of This Text
Paul's letter to the Romans is the most systematic presentation of
his faith. But what kind of text is it? Is it a systematic doctrinal
presentation of the Christian faith? In such a case, this
letter--which could then be called an "epistle"--would be comparable
to a doctrinal encyclical. It
Romans: The Gospel as Power of God for Salvation
245
could be termed "Paul's testament," the mature statement of his
faith. As such, this text would be quite different from the other
letters, which were written in order to address the specific
situations in which his readers were involved. If this text were a
systematic doctrinal presentation, its historical reading would not
need to take into consideration the specific situation in Rome.
Indeed, it could be sent to any church. This epistle would then refer
to, and thus should be understood in terms of, the general situation
of the Pauline churches. It would be a statement made on the basis of
Paul's overall experience as Apostle to the Gentiles and thus should
be interpreted in this light. Therefore we must first consider the
literary character of this text by asking, Why did Paul write it?
A first reason is given in Rom. 1:13 and 15:22-29. Paul plans to
go to Rome and to visit the church in that city, as he has wanted to
do for a long time (1:13). On the basis of Acts 20:3-6 and some
indirect indications in Romans, scholars generally agree that Paul
wrote this letter from Corinth around the year 57 (see Appendix:
Chronologies of Paul). Indeed, he is ready to leave on a long journey
which will first take him to Jerusalem and from there to Rome and
Spain (15:24-29). As far as he is concerned, he has completed his
missionary activity in Asia Minor and Greece. The churches he has
established in these regions can continue the work by themselves,
which means that the problems which developed in these churches
(especially in Corinth; see Chapter 8) have been satisfactorily
resolved. He is now free to go and proclaim the Gospel to countries
in which it has not yet been proclaimed, and especially in Spain,
which is the western end of the "inhabited world." On his way to this
new missionary field he will stop in Rome. It is possible that he
viewed the church in Rome as the base from which he would launch this
new missionary activity.
Paul might have written this letter to the church in Rome in order
to introduce himself and his teaching to that church which he had not
founded, which did not know him, and which he did not know. This
turning point in his ministry was the occasion for reflecting upon
and presenting systematically the Gospel he preached in Asia Minor
and Greece. If that were the case, Romans would be written without
any reference to the situation in Rome. Then this text should be read
as his "confession of faith" that he formulates on the basis of his
preceding missionary activity and in light of the conflicts described
in Galatians
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and 1 and 2 Corinthians. But this understanding of the letter to
the Romans has to be rejected. This is not denying that Paul
apparently thought his letter to the Romans could be useful for at
least one other church, because of the comprehensive presentation of
the Gospel which it involves. But it remains a letter written with
specific addressees in mind.
Paul also might have written to the church of Rome because he
thought that they had heard negative reports about him concerning his
radical position in favor of Gentile Christianity and against Jewish
Christianity, as well as about his tense relationship with Judaism.
He alludes to such negative reports when he writes, "And why not do
evil that good may come?--as some people slanderously charge us with
saying" (Rom. 3:8). In that case, this text would be an apologetic
letter demonstrating the well-balanced character of his proclamation,
according to which the truth of the Gospel confronts both Judaism and
paganism. Then Romans should be read and interpreted primarily in
terms of Galatians and the situation described therein. We cannot
deny that one of the goals of this letter is to make an apology for
Paul's view of the Gospel; a part of this letter does aim at
establishing the validity of Paul's teaching. But this is not merely
in order that he and his teaching might be welcomed when he arrives
at Rome. In fact, chapters 12-15 contain specific exhortations to his
readers. The "apologetic" part of the letter (chaps. 1-11) prepares
the way for these exhortations, which are the actual goal of the
letter.
Therefore Paul could also have written because he had some
knowledge of the situation in the Roman church and wanted to address
specific problems of that community. But since he did not found that
church, he proceeds with great caution, taking the time to present at
length his view of the Gospel before formulating exhortations
addressing the concrete situation of the church in Rome. This view,
advocated by Ernst Kasemann and Willi Marxsen, among others, is from
our perspective the correct one.
Gentile Christians
A full analysis of Romans aimed at elucidating the dialogic and
warranting levels of this discourse could show in great detail how
the argument unfolds so as to bring about the exhortations of Romans
12-15, but a few general observations will suffice to help us
understand that this is indeed the purpose of the letter.
Romans: The Gospel as Power of God for Salvation
247
In the first verses of the letter, which belong to the dialogic
level, we find a long description of Paul's apostolate and a brief
description of the addressees: "to all God's beloved in Rome, who are
called to be saints" (Rom. 1:7a). In other words, they are elected,
chosen by God, and their vocation is to be "saints," thus "holy,"
because of their close relationship (right relationship) with God. As
Israel was a "people of priests," a holy people which is the
intermediary between God and the nations, so they are. Beginning with
a thanksgiving, Paul expresses his wish to preach the Gospel to the
Romans (1:8-15). Then through a long and involved development
(1:16--11:36), he establishes the warrants for his wish and the
exhortations addressed to these saints in chapters 12-15. These
exhortations, which generally speaking belong to the dialogic level,
are introduced with the following words:
I appeal to you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to
present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to
God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this
world.... (Rom. 12:1-2a)
This is what is demanded of"saints": to be "priests" offering
sacrifices, and in light of the Gospel offering themselves as
sacrifice; and to be separated from the world. This is followed,
first, by general exhortations (chaps. 12 and 13) and then by more
specific exhortations (chaps. 14 and 15). In these chapters the goal
of the discourse is expressed. The material in the main body of the
letter needs to be understood in terms of these exhortations that it
warrants.
In Romans 14 and 15, Paul expresses his concern for the relations among two groups: those that he calls "the strong" and those that he calls "the weak." What are these two groups? Paul knows enough about the situation in the Roman church to say that they are divided over the question of food (some eat meat, the others only vegetables; Rom. 14:2), and drink (some drink wine, others do not; 14:21), and over the question of a special day that some observe while the others esteem all days alike (14:5). Thus there are, on the one hand, the strong who think that "nothing is unclean in itself" (14:14) and feel free to eat meat, to drink wine, and to esteem all days alike and, on the other hand, the weak, who are rigorists and follow certain practices. They judge and despise each other. In Romans 15 Paul comes back to the distinction between the strong and the weak and goes on to speak of the circumcised, that is, the Jews, and the Gentiles (15:1, 8-9). From this and the preceding chapters, one can conclude that this dispute is between Gentile Chris-
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tians (the strong) and Jewish Christians (the weak). Paul does
exhort the weak not to pass judgment on the strong (14:3, 10), yet it
is clear that he addresses primarily the strong, exhorting them not
to think of themselves as better than others (12:3), not to despise
the weak (14:3, 10), but rather, out of love, to avoid "putting a
stumbling block . . . in the way of a brother" (14:13). Here we
simply note that these chapters seem to refer to a dispute between
Gentile Christians and Jewish Christians in the church of Rome. Paul
aims, through his letter, to exhort the Gentile Christians to "pursue
what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding" (14: 19).
This is confirmed by the small but significant information we have
about the historical situation of the church in Rome." From the
writings of Suetonius, a Roman historian, we know that the Emperor
Claudius expelled the Jews from Rome because of disturbances caused
by "Chrestos." This name certainly refers to Christ (the word
"Chrestos," and "Christos" would have been pronounced almost exactly
in the same way). And thus Claudius's edict was certainly the result
of disturbances in the Jewish community caused by the development of
the church. Acts 18:1-2 also mentions this edict in relation to
Aquila and Priscilla, who were Jewish and had to depart from Rome.
This means that, at first, the church in Rome included Jewish
Christians. But these were expelled from Rome together with the rest
of the Jews. Thus, only Gentile Christians remained in the church of
Rome, which certainly went on growing.
At the time when Paul writes the letter, it seems that there is
still a majority of Gentile Christians, but there are also Jewish
Christians in the church at Rome. We know this because Claudius died
in the year 54 and his successor Nero was favorably inclined toward
the Jews. Thus the letter was written at the time when Jewish
Christians were coming back to Rome. The church now had a majority of
Gentile Christians and a sizable minority of returning Jewish
Christians.
This would explain the conflict reflected in Romans 12-15. During
the period following the expulsion of the Jews (and Jewish
Christians), the remaining Gentile church developed along the lines
of other Gentile churches. In other words, they followed a Gospel
without the Law. As the Jewish Christians come back, they try to
reinstitute the church as it was before their departure, a church
following a Gospel with the Law. They "pass judgment" on the
developments which took place in their absence. But the Gentile
Christians consider them weak and despise them.
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Paul, through his letter, intervenes in this delicate situation.
For him this is not a new problem. He was confronted with a similar
situation in Jerusalem (at the apostolic assembly). But here,
addressing a church made up of Jewish and Gentile Christians, he has
to be cautious. His readers will assume that he is on the side of the
Gentile Christians, so his exhortations are primarily directed to the
Gentile Christians. They should be the peacemakers. He does not
demand that the Jewish Christians live like the Gentile Christians,
therefore the latter should avoid being a stumbling block for them.
Yet this is not a mere tactic, but rather what is demanded by his
system of convictions, as we shall see. He also addresses
exhortations to the Jewish Christians (the weak).
The main body of the letter (which warrants these exhortations)
attempts, among other things, to establish that Jews and Gentiles are
believers of equal status. Thus, sometimes he addresses the Jewish
Christians (e.g., Rom. 7:1: "for I am speaking to those who know the
law"), and at other times he addresses the Gentile Christians (e.g.,
11:13: "Now I am speaking to you Gentiles"). There was no difference
between them before the coming of Christ. Yes, the Jews had an
advantage as compared with the Gentiles, but all had revelations from
God and all are sinners (1:18--3:20). Similarly, after the coming of
Christ, there is no difference between them with respect to
righteousness (3:21--4:25). The righteousness of God through faith in
Jesus Christ is for all who believe, both the Jews and the Gentiles
(3:22). "Is God the God of the Jews only? Is he not the God of the
Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, since God is one" (3:29-30).
Then in chapters S-8 he presents the results of justification by
faith for all the believers. They are reconciled to God, freed from
the condemnation (chap. 5). They have died to sin by being baptized
into Christ's death (chap. 6). They are freed from the Law, in which
sin found opportunity (chap. 7). They have a life in the Spirit
(8:1-17) and they live in hope (8:13-39). Thus neither the Jews nor
the Jewish Christians can make a special claim for themselves (3:9).
All of them share this righteousness through faith. But at the same
time Paul is careful to avoid giving the Gentile Christians an
occasion for making a special claim for themselves, even though they
are the strong. Romans 9-11 is in part devoted to making this point
(see esp. 11:17-24, where Paul exhorts the Gentile Christians not to
claim superiority over Israel by means of the parable of the olive
tree).
In sum, Paul's text is indeed a letter addressing first of all the situation in the church of Rome. Because he has had very little contact with
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that church, he must develop at length the warranting level of his
discourse, so that his exhortations might be accepted as valid. He
therefore needs to provide a comprehensive explanation of his message
which could be accepted by both Jewish and Gentile Christians, even
if his exhortations will be aimed primarily at the latter. In fact,
the discourse is organized in such a way as to have different effects
upon the two groups he addresses.
Paul assumes that the Gentile Christians who form the majority of
the community are in agreement with him concerning the understanding
of the Gospel. The overall content of chapters 1-11 is therefore not
new to them. It is basically a reminder of what they already believe,
even if it includes new dimensions, so it can be used for
establishing the legitimacy of the exhortations through which he
rebukes them. Consequently, Paul can criticize quite strongly the
attitude of the Gentile Christians who call themselves the strong by
comparison with the Jewish Christians that they call the weak. For
Paul, the Jewish Christians who have such a lack of freedom can
indeed be viewed as "weak in faith," but they do have faith, and it
is important not to make them stumble upon unimportant matters. The
strong have to adopt the way of life of the weak. As Christ became a
servant to the circumcised (the Jews) (15:8), they must become
servants of the weak.
By contrast, Paul assumes that the Jewish Christians are
suspicious of his teaching. They might well remain unconvinced by the
arguments of Romans 1-11, and thus Paul cannot really use these
developments as a basis for strongly exhorting and rebuking the
Jewish Christians. He does not do so. Yet his rebuke of the Gentile
Christians' attitude toward them is something they can view
favorably. But if Paul's message is the basis upon which such "good"
exhortations can be made, it means that this message and its view of
the Gospel can itself be viewed as "good." Thus Paul's overall
discourse would have the effect of convincing the Jewish Christians
of the validity of this Gospel which gives equal status to the
Gentile Christians (cf. 15:15-21).
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A Letter Sent Also to Ephesus?
Because this letter addresses equally Gentile Christians who can
readily identify themselves to Paul, and Jewish Christians and others
who might be suspicious of Paul's teaching, it can apply to different
situations in other churches as well. Indeed, it is possible that
Paul felt this letter
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could be useful elsewhere. It appears that he sent a copy of it
together with a short letter of introduction and of greetings to
Ephesus. Such is the conclusion reached by many scholars (following
T. W. Manson).
There are two problems regarding Romans 16. First, in the various
manuscripts the doxology (Rom. 16:25-27) is found at different
places: at the end of chapter 14, at the end of chapter 15, and at
the end of chapter 16. It is known that the heretic Marcion had, for
doctrinal reasons, cut off Paul's letter at the end of chapter 14,
which explains the presence of the doxology at the end of that
chapter. But why is it found at the end of chapter 15 in one
manuscript? Could it be that the letter originally ended here? The
use of a concluding formula at the end of chapter 15 suggests that
this could be the case. This is confirmed by the content of chapter
16, which contains greetings to twenty-six people. Does Paul know
that many people in Rome? He mentions Aquila and Priscilla (16:3),
who we know were in Ephesus when Paul wrote 1 Corinthians (1 Cor.
16:19); of course, they were from Rome and might have returned there.
He also mentions Epacnetus, "who was the first convert [the first
fruits] in Asia" (i.e., from the region of Ephesus; 16:5).
Furthermore, the sharp warning against false teachers (16:17-20) is
in a polemical style which he carefully avoids in the rest of the
letter.
Thus it is possible that Paul also sent a copy of this letter to
Ephesus together with a short letter, Romans 16, involving a
commendation for Phoebe (who might have carried the letter),
greetings to the members of the church of Ephesus that he knew so
well for having spent a long period with them, as well as a warning
addressing a specific situation at Ephesus.
Our second reading of Romans aims to elucidate the negative
dimensions of Paul's system of convictions: his view of the wrath of
God, God's judgment, death, evil powers, sin, and unbelief. For this
purpose we will examine successively the role and place of evil in
the sacred historical perspective of Paul's theological argument and
in the perspective of Paul's typological system of convictions.
From what we know about the positive dimensions of Paul's system
of convictions, we can expect to find that various manifestations of
evil are comparable to each other. The manifestations of evil in the
biblical time,
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in Jesus' experience, in the Judean churches' experience, in
Paul's and other believers' experience, are typical of the present
manifestations o evil in the believers' experience, which are
themselves typical of the manifestations of evil at the end of time
(the Parousia). According to the convictional pattern, what is
essential is that these various manifestations are comparable and
indeed homologable to each other. So Paul can speak of one specific
manifestation of evil in terms of any one of the others, or even in
terms of all the others. Such is the case, for instance, in Rom.
7:7-24, as Franz J. Leenhardt has pointed outfit.
In the perspective of the typological system of convictions, the
sequence of these manifestations of evil is important insofar as it
determines what/who is "type" and what/who is "imitator"; sequence
also plays a significant role in the theological argument. From our
discussion of the concept of reconciliation, we can expect that
various manifestations of evil are expressed in the theological
explanations in terms of the unfolding of sacred history. This
distinction between the theological and convictional dimensions of
Paul's discourse will help us understand what appear, at first, to be
contradictory statements about evil.
and under the Power of Sin
A first cursory reading of Romans aimed at identifying what Paul
says about evil in its various manifestations reveals two apparently
contradictory kinds of affirmations. On the one hand, Paul emphasizes
that human beings are responsible for evil, or at least for some of
its manifestations. The pagans are responsible for being idolatrous
and sinners, so "they are without excuse" (Rom. 1:20b). Similarly,
those who pass judgment upon the pagans, the Jews, have no excuse
themselves (2:1). The: Jews are responsible for breaking the Law
(2:17-24), so God is not unjust when punishing both the Jews and the
Gentiles (2:9; 3:5, 8). Yes, God does find fault in the Jews and is
in the right when condemning them, even if this appears to be unjust
(9:14, 19). In brief, humans are responsible for their idolatry and
sin. Thus, they bring upon themselves this other evil which is the
condemnation of God, his wrath, his destruction.
On the other hand, humans are under the power of evil. If the Jews
do not believe, it is because they have hardened hearts, and this
because God hardened their hearts (Rom. 11:7-8). That is why one
could
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say that God is unjust when punishing them (9:14-24). God also
gave the pagans up to sinful conduct (1:24, 26, 28). In other words,
"all men, both Jews and Greeks, are under the power of sin" (3:9).
They are "slaves of sin" (6:17). And this power of sin is such that
there is no way to escape from it (7:7-24) without an intervention of
God. Humans are under the power of evil, be it in the form of
hardened hearts, of the power of sin, or of "tribulation, or
distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or
sword" (8:35) or of death (5:12-14). Even the creation is under this
power of evil (8:20).
How can humans be at once under the power of evil and responsible
for evil? We have to let ourselves be puzzled by this question which
Paul himself raises (cf. Rom. 3:5; 9:14, 19). Furthermore, what is
God's relationship to evil? We might be able to understand God's
condemnation and punishment of sinners, although this seems to
contradict statements describing God as the God of grace and of
mercy. It is even more puzzling to find that God causes people to
sin, as we can read in the passages mentioned above. We should not
avoid this problem by saying that Paul could not have meant this and
thus that these passages should be interpreted to mean that God
tolerated sin. God "handed over" the pagans to sinful conduct even as
the Jews "handed Jesus over" to Pilate (the same verb is used). And
yet sin appears as a power independent from God (although God's Law
is the occasion for sin).
These problems and apparent contradictions suggest that Paul's
convictional logic is at work here. Elucidating how the various
manifestations of evil are organized, according to both his
theological/sacred historical way of thinking and his convictional
pattern, will allow us to understand how Paul can make such
statements without contradicting himself.
This letter is, for Paul, the occasion for reflecting upon the
message he proclaims and for explaining it at length to a twofold
audience made up of Jewish and Gentile Christians. Since it is not a
passionate plea (as Galatians is), but rather a calm and carefully
balanced argument, the warranting part of the letter is often
presented in the form of theological explanations using the classical
form of argumentation in Paul's time: the diatribe. In contrast with
Galatians, in which the convictional logic often commands the
development of the argument (with many breaks in the
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argumentative logic), here Paul's argument unfolds more smoothly.
In other words, the convictional pattern more consistently plays its
usual role of undergirding a (theo)logical argument, although in
certain passages this convictional logic has a significant part.
This predominant place of the theological explanations is
manifested by the fact that the argument is based upon reflections
concerning the unfolding of sacred history. Before considering how
evil is viewed by Paul in this context, we shall emphasize some
aspects of Paul's theological presentation of positive
convictions.
In Rom. 5:1-11, Christ is presented in terms of his place in the
unfolding of sacred history, that is, as accomplishing the
reconciliation of humankind to God. Christ is presented as
accomplishing a redemption and even "an expiation by his blood." Thus
Jesus' death is described as an expiatory sacrifice (3:24-25). For
Paul, this is an unusual way of speaking about the cross.
Nonetheless, such statements can easily be understood as a
theological/sacred historical explanation of his convictions which
emphasize the correlation of the believers' experience with Christ's
death. In the same theological/sacred historical perspective,
justification is understood as the result of this reconciliation,
that is, of forgiveness. Justification is thus often presented in a
legal terminology. For instance, Paul says that God "had passed over
former sins" (3:25) and that Abraham's faith "was reckoned to him as
righteousness" (4:3-8 using biblical texts with such a legal
terminology), as is also the believers' faith (4:24). But once again
this theological argumentation should not be opposed to the
convictional view of Christ (as type fulfilled in the believers'
experience) and of justification (as being in the right relationship
with God because of the manifestation of God's power in the
believers' experience). This theological presentation is, so to
speak, establishing the logical possibility for the convictions which
are also expressed in these texts. Therefore, justification through
faith is, in the perspective of the unfolding of sacred history, a
"reckoning as righteousness," that is the forgiveness of former sins,
and faith is trusting in certain promises (faith thus has a content).
But at the same time, as Ernst Kasemann has shown, faith is also used
as an absolute, as referring to a relationship with God.
Consequently, "justification through faith" is also "being in the
right relationship with God through faith" and not merely being
forgiven.
Similarly, from the perspective of the unfolding of sacred
history,
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Paul's presentation of evil is not to be opposed to Paul's
convictions about evil. It expresses in terms of chronological
sequences and cause-and-effect relations what is perceived in the
convictional system in terms of homologation and correlation of
comparable manifestations of evil. Keeping these observations in
mind, note what is, in Paul's view, the place and role of evil in the
unfolding of sacred history. We can discern four steps in Paul s
reasoning.
1. Paul places sin at the beginning of sacred history after the
creation: "sin came into the world through one man" (Rom. 5:12), who
is identified as Adam (5:14). Therefore, from the beginning all
humans are sinners and under the condemnation. As a consequence of
sin, death came into the world also at that time (5:12). Sin and
death reigned before as well as after the giving of the Law to Moses
(5:13-14), but before the Law sin was not counted (5:13), as in the
case of Abraham (4:1-8). This is the time of faith.
2. What is the effect of the Law? On the positive side, the
Israelites received "the sonship, the glory, the covenants, the
giving of the law, the worship, and the promises" (Rom. 9:4). This
election of Israel is irrevocable: "For the gifts and the call of God
are irrevocable" (11:29). But the giving of the Law also has negative
effects. The Law was for them a stumbling block (9:31-33), and thus
"the law came in, to increase the trespass" (5:20). So that trespass
might increase, the Law is necessary, because "where there is no law
there is no transgression" (4:15) and thus "sin is not counted"
(5:13). Without the Law there would be no need for a reconciliation
of humankind to God. But because of the Jews' trespasses, salvation
has come to the Gentiles (11:11). The Jews' trespasses constitute a
necessary stage of sacred history demonstrating that "God has
consigned all men to disobedience" (11:32). Not only the Gentiles but
also the Jews need to be reconciled to God. Because of the Jews'
disobedience, Jesus Christ could, through his death, accomplish the
reconciliation of all human beings (be they Jews or
Gentiles) to God (5: 18).
3. So that this reconciliation might be extended to the Gentiles,
God had to make the Jews stumble. They had to be made into "vessels
of wrath" (Rom. 9:19-23). In other words, in order that the election
might be extended by God to the Gentiles, the Jews had to be
temporarily rejected by God. They had to be "predestined" to fail,
that is, they had to be made to fail (9:6-18). For this, God hardened
their hearts (9:18;
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11:7-10), so that even though they hear (10:18) and have the
promises (9:4), they cannot truly hear them and appropriate them
(11.8). They have eyes, but do not see (11:8) the fulfillments of the
promises. The promises are also theirs. They too have been reconciled
to God. Indeed God is at work in their experience. They could have
faith. But they do not hear, they do not see. They have been given a
"spirit of stupor" and have been hardened. Blindly they pursue "the
righteousness which is based on the law" and do "not succeed in
fulfilling that law" (9:31).
4. Yet the Jews are not rejected permanently (Rom. 11:1-2).
Because of their trespasses, which have shown that all humans are
sinners, God has reconciled the world to himself, and thus the
Gentiles can be reconciled to God and have faith. But as the Gentiles
convert, they will "make Israel jealous" (11:11). Then Israel will
also convert at the end of time, "for if their rejection means the
reconciliation of the world what will their acceptance mean but life
from the dead?" (11:15). This time of the general resurrection will
also be the time of God's judgment and of the manifestation of God's
wrath upon the wicked.
There will be wrath and fury. There will be tribulation and
distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also
the Greek, but glory and honor and peace for every one who does good,
the Jew first and also the Greek. (2:8-10)
Such are the main elements of Paul's view of the place and role of
evil in the unfolding of sacred history. Through this theological
explanation, Paul aims at demonstrating that Jews and Gentiles are in
the same position ("under the power of sin") and that righteousness
through faith without the Law is indeed valid, and this without
denying the irrevocable election of Israel. But this theological
explanation also expresses and presupposes Paul's convictions about
the reality of evil in human experience.
From what we know of the positive side of Paul's system of
convictions, we can infer that the various manifestations of evil in
the different, stages of sacred history are in a typological
relationship with each other as are also the various manifestations
of God. A study of Paul's texts about evil will allow us to verify
that this is indeed the case and to
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elucidate the features of evil which are typical, that is, what
Paul views as the recurrent characteristics of the manifestations of
evil which are the common lot of sinners of any period in sacred
history.
Several passages of the letter to the Romans speak of evil without
reference to the sacred historical perspective discussed above. They
are like snapshots showing manifestations of evil in various
situations. This is the case in Rom. 1:18-32, which presents the
manifestations of evil in the pagans' experience.
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all
ungodliness and wickedness of men who by their wickedness suppress
the truth. (1:18)
To whom is God's wrath revealed? Obviously not to people who are
ungodly and wicked. They do not believe in God, and thus they cannot
perceive what happens to them as manifestation of the wrath of God.
The manifestation of God's wrath against these people is revealed to
those to whom is also revealed the righteousness of God (Rom. 1:17).
In other words, there is a twofold revelation to the
believers:
1. Through faith, the believers discover manifestations of the
righteousness of God, manifestations of God's power for the salvation
of the believers (Rom. 1:16). This revelation of God's righteousness
is through faith (discovered and actualized through faith) and for
faith (for those who have faith), as is expressed in 1:17a. This is
the positive intervention of God in the believers' experience
(involving other people) which is discovered and actualized in a life
in the right relationship with God (1:17b).
2. Through faith, the believers also discover other manifestations
of God in their experience, manifestations of the wrath of God. In
their experience, they encounter people who are ungodly and wicked,
that is, people who are in the wrong relationship with God. In these
people they can perceive, through faith, the manifestation of the
"wrath of God coming from heaven." This phrase is often used by Paul
to describe the last judgment and destruction of evil people at the
end of time (cf. Rom. 2:5, 7-9). Thus, according to his convictional
pattern, Paul describes the negative interventions of God in the
present of the believers, in terms of the negative interventions of
God at the end of time. For Paul, these are
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equivalent, the one being the preliminary manifestation (or
prefiguration) of the other. We can note with Kasemann" that "wrath"
is the power of curse, that is, of condemnation which effectively
brings destruction In the same way that the righteousness of God is
actualized as power of salvation (establishing the believers in a
constructive relationship with God) by means of faith, so the wrath
of God is actualized as power of curse (establishing the ungodly in a
destructive relationship with God) by means of the wickedness which
"suppresses the truth."
In summary, beside the positive interventions of God, there are
negative interventions of God. Both can be recognized through faith
by the believers. Both are actualized by human beings. The positive
interventions of God offer salvation (the right relationship with
God), which is actualized if, through faith, these interventions are
recognized for what they are. But the negative interventions of God
offer curse and destruction, which are actualized if truth is
suppressed, that is, if the interventions of God are not recognized
for what they are, the manifestations of God, the God from
heaven.
For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has
shown it to them. Ever since the creation of the world his invisible
nature, namely, his eternal power and deity, has been clearly
perceived in the things that have been made. so they are without
excuse.... (Rom. 1:19-20)
Human beings, whoever they may be, cannot use the excuse that God
does not manifest himself to them. Indeed, "ever since the creation
of the world," God has shown himself to them. Despite the vocabulary
borrowed from Hellenistic philosophy and from Hellenistic Judaism,
this passage should not be understood as embodying a natural
theology. Paul speaks of the present experience of the believers and
unbelievers in terms of the type "humankind after the creation and
before other revelations," as he spoke of it in terms of the
eschatological judgment in the preceding verse. So these verses
express what is, for Paul, the way in which God reveals himself at
any stage of the sacred history before the Parousia, when he will be
seen face to face.
To begin with, God is not hidden in such a way that humans would
have to seek him in a philosophical or religious quest which can
either be successful or not, according to the quality of this human
quest. What is knowable about God is manifest (or "plain").
Furthermore, God is not passive. He makes himself known. He shows
himself. He intervenes to
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show himself to everybody (and not merely to the believers). In
anybody's experience, God manifests himself.
What is the nature of this manifestation of God? It is not a
face-to-face encounter with God, for his nature is "invisible." In
other words, as we noted about the cross and the resurrection, a
manifestation of God is not such that, when one is confronted with
it, the only possible response is "This is God." For Paul, this kind
of manifestation of God will take place only at the Parousia. A
manifestation of God in the present needs to be apprehended by means
of human intelligence. It must be "known," perceived, as is expressed
in Rom. 1:20 (although the RSV does not express this clearly enough).
In the present human experience, only certain aspects of God are
knowable (1:19), namely, "his eternal power and deity" (1:20), God's
divine power. This aspect of God's invisible nature is
manifested in visible things. It is "clearly perceived"
(Paul's play on the words visible/invisible is difficult to render in
English). It is manifested in visible works. As is clear
from the preceding mention that God actively shows himself, God
manifests himself not merely in his creative act but "since the
creation exists." He manifests himself in the creative act and in the
creation which he sustains and in which he intervenes. In sum, God
manifests himself in the world in such a way that any human being can
clearly perceive and know him.
So they are without excuse; for although they knew God they did
not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in
their thinking and their senseless minds were darkened. (Rom.
1:20b-21)
Human beings know God. They can see his manifestations and they
can interpret them correctly. They have the intellectual capacity to
do so (as is indicated in the preceding verse), but they do not honor
him as God should be honored. They do not give thanks to God, even
though it is the only appropriate response to the discovery of God's
interventions.
Why did they fail to recognize and/or acknowledge God's
manifestation in the creation? Paul does not explain it here, but he
will do so in Rom. 7:7-13 when speaking of the role of sin in the
Jews' experience. At any rate, because they failed to give honor and
thanks to God, "they were made futile or vain in their thinking and
their senseless minds were darkened." As the two passive verbs
indicate, this does not mean that these people themselves made their
thinking futile and their senseless minds (or hearts) darkened. This
is something which happened to
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them. Who or what made their thinking vain and darkened their
minds? From the perspective of Paul's system of convictions, this is
already a manifestation of God's wrath, which these people experience
as a curse. God's interventions and revelations are a blessing for
those who recognize them for what they are and who therefore give
honor and thanks to God. But for those who do not recognize these
interventions and revelations of God for what they are, they are a
curse which traps them in a futile way of thinking and in a darkened
heart.
This is true of all God's interventions and revelations and not
merely of those in the creation. This is true of the cross. "For the
word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who
are being saved it is the power of God" (1 Cor. 1:18). For those who
recognize the cross as God's intervention, and who give honor and
thanks to God for it, it is a blessing. It is the manifestation of
God's power, which is also manifested in the experience of the
believers who, consequently, "are being saved." For those who do not
recognize the cross as God's intervention, it is a curse, as Paul
makes clear by quoting Isa. 29:14 and Ps. 33:10: "For it is written,
'I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the cleverness of the
clever I will thwart'" (1 Cor. 1:19). God has made their wisdom
foolish (1 Cor. 1:20). God's intervention in the cross, instead of
being power of salvation, is a power which makes their thinking
futile and darkens their minds. Thus their futile and darkened
"wisdom" sees the cross as a folly, because according to their
wisdom, "God" cannot manifest himself in such a way. Their wisdom has
established for them an image of "God" (a perception of God which is,
in fact, an idol) which is such that it is impossible for him to
manifest himself in a cross. And thus they cannot see the cross as
wisdom of God and power of God (cf. 1 Cor. 1:20-25). For them, the
cross, instead of being a blessing, is a curse:
block to Jews and folly to Gentiles" (1 Cor. 1:23).
Similarly, God's Law, Torah--which is "holy and just and good"
(Rom. 7: 12), revelation from God, promise of God, and thus power of
salvation (by analogy with the cross)--is a stumbling block for those
who do not have faith. Israel, "who pursued the righteousness which
is based on law," failed to attain righteousness (the right
relationship with God) "because they did not pursue it through faith"
(9:31-32). The Jews failed to see in Torah the manifestation of the
power of God. They failed to recognize it for what it is:
the promises of new acts and revelations of God which would establish
them in the right relationship with God.
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Consequently, Torah became for them a stumbling block: "They have
stumbled over the stumbling stone, as it is written, 'Behold, I am
laying in Zion a stone that will make men stumble, a rock that will
make them fall; and he who believes in him will not be put to shame'"
(Rom. 9:32-33, quoting Isa. 28:16; see also Isa. 8:14).
Everybody can know or see (or hear about) manifestations of God's
power and deity in the creation, in Torah, or in the cross. Everybody
has the opportunity to give honor and thanks to God. Those who do not
do so are then made vain in their way of thinking. They are made
foolish, senseless. Their minds are darkened. God hardens them. "God
gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that should not see and ears that
should not hear" (Rom. 11:8). And thus because of their senseless
minds which they call wisdom (1 Cor. 1:20), they can no longer know
God. In the case of the Jews, because they stumbled on Torah, not
taking the opportunity to give honor and thanks to God for the
promises contained in Torah, they are now unable "to see and hear"
that God was at work in Jesus and is at work in their present.
The following verses describe in three parallel statements (Rom.
1:22-24; 1:25-27; 1:28-31) how this curse on the unbelievers takes
effect in their lives.
Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of
the immortal God for images resembling mortal man or birds or animals
or reptiles. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts
to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves.
(Rom. 1:22-24)
In the case of the unbelievers who only benefitted from God's
manifestations and revelations in the creation, the outcome of this
curse is idolatry. God had manifested himself to them in the
creation, that is, in "mortal man," in "birds," in "reptiles." But
instead of perceiving manifestations of God in these, they
see absolutes. They worship the creatures instead of the Creator, as
is expressed in Rom. 1:25. Instead of worshiping the glory of the
immortal God, whose power and deity was manifested in the creation,
they worship idealized and glorified images of the creatures. But
their very idolatry is also the manifestation of God's wrath. God
enslaved them to their idolatry. They are made slaves of their
''selfish desires" (the term rendered by "lusts" in the above
translation), which are not merely sexual desires but all kinds of
selfish desires. And thus they dishonor their bodies. They corrupt
the human body and
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the human relations which were supposed to be manifestations of
God's power and deity.
In these verses, as well as in the following (Rom. 1:25-32), we
find a list of vices. Paul's description of these vices reflects the
traditional Jewish abhorrence of idolatry and is expressed with the
help of Hellenistic categories. Here we simply note that in
conclusion Paul emphasizes the responsibility of the pagans: "They
know God's decree that those who do such things deserve to die"
(1:32a). Indeed, they have all they need to know God and his will;
they do not need Torah. As Paul puts it in 2:15: "They show that what
the law requires is written on their hearts while their conscience
also bears witness and their conflicting thoughts accuse or perhaps
excuse them." For instance, the Hellenistic tradition itself
recognizes these things as vices, and the pagans also correctly
identify virtues. But in their idolatry "they not only do them
[these vices] but approve those who practice them" (1:32b).
They are sinners. And so those who have sinned without the Law will
also perish without the Law when the wrath of God will be fully
manifested at the end of time, although this wrath of God is already
manifested in their present corruption.
The Jews without faith are in the same situation. They have sinned
under the Law, and thus they will be judged by the Law and will
suffer the destruction and fury of God's wrath at the end of time
(Rom. 2:12 cf. also 2:8-9). According to Paul's system of
convictions, their situation is homologable to that of the pagans.
And thus we can expect that they also perverted what was given to
them as the manifestation of God's power and deity, namely, the Law,
and that they were given up by God to their selfish desires so as to
corrupt and destruct themselves. Their conduct is also a
manifestation of God's wrath. This is what Paul expresses in 2:1-24,
which he introduces by these words: "Therefore you have no excuse, O
man, whoever you are, . . . because you . . . are doing the very same
things." The Jews will object to such a description of their life.
They do not have such depraved behavior. And to Paul's accusations
that they are stealing, committing adultery, robbing temples, and
dishonoring God (cf. 2:17-24), the Jews could object: "You Paul, the
former Pharisee, should know better. Of course, there are always evil
people in a community. But as you know, many of us are 'as to the
righteousness under the law blameless' [Phil. 3:6] as you
were. And we are striving to sanctify the Name and to keep the Name
of God
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from being blasphemed among the Gentiles because of us [cf.
Rom. 2:24]. This is a defamation of the Jews."
But Paul is not concerned with providing an accurate description
of the Jewish way of life. He is merely pointing out that, according
to his system of convictions, the Jews' situation is equivalent to
that of the pagans, whom they so readily judge and condemn in the
very terms used in the preceding passage. Whatever might be the
concrete expression of their sinfulness, they are just as sinful as
the pagans are. Indeed, their sin is the same. This is what we found
expressed in Galatians, where Paul identifies his own experience as a
Jew with the Galatians' experience as pagans are enslaved to the
idols that they have made out of the creatures which manifested God
to them, so the Jews are enslaved to the Law given to them by God and
out of which they made an absolute means of salvation by viewing it
as the complete and final revelation (see above, Chapter 3).
Power of Sin (Rom. 7:7-25)
This enslavement to the Law has the same effect upon the Jews'
life that the enslavement to idolatry has on the pagans. The pagans
follow the demands of their bodies--this part of the creation out of
which they made an absolute--because they believe that in so doing
they do good (and thus they approve those who do such things; Rom.
1:32). Similarly, the Jews follow the demands of the Law--this
revelation that they received from God and out of which they made an
absolute--because they believe that in so doing they do good. By
seeking to fulfill the Law, by doing works of the Law in order to
attain righteousness, they fail to attain righteousness. Why? Because
they do not succeed in fulfilling the Law (9:31). And how could they?
By the very fact that they seek to establish their own righteousness
instead of submitting to God's righteousness (10:3), they are
transgressing the Law, or better, transgressing its very essence.
They are corrupting the Law. Furthermore, the pagans "know God's
decree that those who do such things deserve to die" (1:32), as their
own lists of vices and virtues show. Nevertheless, they do these evil
things. Similarly, the Jews know what sin is. The Law showed them
what it is (7:7). They know also that sin brings death (5:12). And
yet they do these very things that the Law condemns.
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The Jews do have an advantage over the pagans: "The Jews are
entrusted with the oracles of God" (Rom. 3:1-2). The pagans had only
the revealed knowledge of God's decrees, concerning what is good and
evil. By being given the Law, Torah, the Jews had not only a revealed
knowledge of what is good and evil as expressed in the various laws,
that is, a knowledge of the various sins as transgressions of these
laws. They also had God's oracles, God's words, that is, his promises
and verbal revelations. Among these is the revelation of the nature
of sin. The pagans know God and know his decrees. They know that the
way of life they follow because of their enslavement to idolatry is
evil. Yet they do not know that the evil in which they are enslaved
is a manifestation of God's wrath because they did not honor and give
thanks to him. Furthermore, they do not know why they refused to give
honor and thanks to God and why they became idolatrous. According to
Paul, the Jews knew why. God's oracles reveal why people do not honor
and give thanks to God. It is because of a power: the power of
sin.
Yes, the pagans have no excuse. They know God and his decrees.
Therefore they are under the wrath of God and will perish at the end
of time. But the Jews will perish first (Rom. 2:9), because they have
even less of an excuse since, in addition, they also knew the nature
of sin (3:20). This additional revelation did not help them. They
stumbled over it. They hear it. They know it. But they do not truly
hear it. They have ears which do not hear.
In Rom. 7:7-25 Paul describes this situation of the Jews, which is
also the situation of all sinners whatever their origin and the time
in which they live. This passage first addresses the heart of the
problem of evil, which is sin, and then moves on to describe the
concrete experience of the sinners.
SIN AND ITS POWER (ROM. 7:7-13)
What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet, if
it had not been for the law, I should not have known sin. I should
not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, "You
shall not covet." But sin, finding opportunity in the commandment,
wrought in me all kinds of covetousness. Apart from the law sin lies
dead. I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment
came, sin revived and I died; the very commandment which promised
life proved to be death to me. For sin, finding opportunity in the
commandment, deceived me and by it killed me. So the law is holy, and
the commandment is holy and just and good.
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Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It
was sin, working death in me through what is good, in order that sin
might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become
sinful beyond measure. (Rom. 7:7-13)
In the context of a discussion about the Christians' freedom from
the Law (Rom. 7:1-6), Paul had stated, "While we were living in the
flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our
members to bear fruit for death" (7:5). From this the reader could
conclude that the Law is sin. Thus one of the purposes of this
passage is to show that it is not sin, but revelation from God. We
have already discussed how, for Paul, any revelation is both a
potential blessing (for the believers) and a potential curse (for the
unbelievers). Here he describes in greater detail why this is so.
To begin with, here the Law is described as the revelation of sin.
Without the Law, one does not know sin, as Paul repeatedly affirms:
"through the law comes knowledge of sin" (Rom. 3:20). Of course, the
Law gives a knowledge of the transgressions of God's will, for "where
there is no law there is no transgression" (4:15; cf. 5:13). Because
of the Law (or, better, the laws), we can know our standing before
God and be aware that we are sinners. But this is not what Paul means
here. In fact, in these verses the Law conveys knowledge of sin in
two ways:
First, "our sinful passions [are] aroused by the law"
(Rom. 7:5). In other words, we "know" sin because we are sinners. It
is the Law as curse which makes sinners out of us. We shall come back
to this.
Second, the Law gives a knowledge of what sin is. The commandment
"You shall not covet" is not given as an example (as would be the
case if Paul had written, "for instance, I should not have known what
it is to covet . . ."). This commandment is for Paul a summary of the
whole Law. Paul follows a Jewish tradition which saw in this
commandment the core of the Law.2' In other words, the Law reveals
that sin is primarily "coveting' or "desire," as the Greek word can
also be translated. Furthermore, by quoting only the first words of
this commandment, Paul makes it clear that this coveting is most
general. It is the selfish desire to which the pagans were themselves
enslaved (Rom. 1:24). Indeed, all the transgressions of the Law can
be viewed as having their root in such a selfish desire. Any
transgression is wanting and pursuing something for oneself
rather than serving God. This selfish desire can take crude
forms, such as stealing (taking for oneself what is not one's
266
own), committing adultery (taking for oneself the spouse of
someone else), or not honoring one's parents (by keeping things for
oneself). But it can take more subtle forms. Seeking to establish
one's own righteousness rather than submitting to God's righteousness
(10:3) is a form of coveting. Serving God for oneself is also a form
of coveting. It is sin. It is idolatry, as Paul suggested in
Galatians. Any kind of idolatry has its roots in coveting.
Here and in the following verses Paul expresses the dramatic and
tragic effect and power of sin upon any human being by speaking in
the first person. Sin is not merely a problem for those infamous
pagans about whom he spoke in Romans 1, or for those hardened Jews
who reject the good news of Jesus Christ. It is also a problem for
him, as well as for any human being. Sin as selfish desire is the
source of all idolatries, including the idolatries which involve
making idols out of the true God and out of Christ (see below,
Chapter 8). In other words, it is because of sin that we view our
systems of convictions as absolute and that they have power over us
as self-evident truths, instead of viewing them as provisional views
of life and of the world constantly pointing beyond themselves, as
Paul's faith demands. Indeed, this view of sin-- together with the
complementary conviction about God's activity in the believers'
experience--is the basis upon which Paul's entire meta-system of
convictions stands.
SIN AS SELF-ASSERTING DESIRE
We need to circumscribe Paul's use of the term sin/desire. First,
it should not be limited to sexual desire. Paul refers to "desire" in
the most general sense. It can take the forms of "all kinds of
covetousness" (or desire) (Rom. 7:8). Thus sexual desire is only one
form of sin/desire.
Second, for Paul, sin/desire is closely associated with death and
life. "Sin revived and I died" (Rom. 7:9). The Law which reveals
sin/desire is supposed to bring life: "The very commandment which
promised life proved to be death to me" (7:10). Thus sin/desire
tricks me into pursuing death instead of pursuing life (cf. 7:11).
This implies that sin/desire deceived me into thinking that, by
following it, I should have life although it was leading me to
death.
Third, Paul notes that sin is "finding opportunity in the
commandment" (Rom. 7:11). In other words, sin existed before the Law,
as Paul says explicitly in 5:13, "Sin indeed was in the world before
the law was
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given"--in the world since the beginning of humankind. Indeed,
sin/desire is a characteristic of humankind. It pervades humankind:
"All have sinned" (3:23). Sin/desire is a part of the human
condition.
Thus, for Paul, sin/desire, which is related to idolatry, appears
to be an integral part of the human condition. As such it is closely
related to two other characteristics of the human condition: life and
death. This suggests that Paul's convictions about sin/desire are,
together with convictions about life and death, a part of the
fundamental cluster of convictions which characterizes his faith. We
know that Paul's cluster of fundamental convictions also includes
convictions about the right relationship with God, that is, true
faith which is opposed to idolatry (i.e., false faith). Before
dealing with any specific manifestation of sin/desire, we must
therefore raise a question: for Paul, how is sin/desire related to
life, death, true faith, and idolatry?
There are a limited number of ways in which these five convictions
can be interrelated. We already know that true faith and idolatry are
opposed as life and death also are. It appears, therefore, that
sin/desire brings about idolatry, which in turn brings about death
(or destruction; Rom. 2:12). In contrast, it is freedom from idolatry
which brings about true faith (the right relationship with God) and
life (true life, honor, glory; 2:10). Yet it remains for us to
understand what this means. How does sin/desire bring about
idolatry?
It might be useful to describe this process with the help of
concepts borrowed from a few contemporary thinkers who, like Paul,
closely interrelate sin/desire, idolatry (false faith), and death. Of
course, their vocabulary is different from Paul's; for instance, they
do not speak about sin but merely about desire. In the following
comments, I intend to borrow from these thinkers some concepts which
will allow us to construct a kind of philosophical parable.
When reflecting on the characteristics of the human condition,
social scientists often compare and contrast human beings and
animals. The instincts of animals are sometimes seen as the major
difference between humans and animals, because humans have little or
no instinctive behavior.- In effect, instincts have the same function
for the animals as a system of convictions has for human beings.
1. Instincts have power over the animals.
2. Instincts define for animals their "world," the relations that they must have with the world. Thus instincts dictate the habitat, the eco-
268
logical milieu, in which a given species must live and outside of
which it would become extinct. For example, a certain species of
wasps cannot reproduce itself without a certain species of
caterpillars which they paralyze and in which they lay their eggs.
Without such an instinct this wasp species would. not survive, but it
also could not survive in a world where there are no such
caterpillars.
3. Instincts define for the animals their "identity" and the
"purpose of their lives." There is no quest for identity and no real
freedom for these animals. From birth a bird is a bird and has in its
body complex instincts which allow it to migrate and to build a nest
at the proper season. This is not to say that they do not learn
anything, but what they learn is how to implement their instincts in
specific situations. They can also lose their instincts, but in the
process they lose their "identity"--for instance, when they are
domesticated and become dependent upon people for their survival--for
these instincts which determine the animals' identities, their
destinies, their fates, are also what allow them to survive.
By contrast, human beings are born with almost no instincts and
therefore without a predetermined identity. Therefore they have
fantastic freedom. They can choose whom they shall be. Their society
gives them a first identity, but they can choose to transform this
society or to have a life different from the one imposed upon them by
their society. Collectively they construct "semantic
universes," and in this way they establish what is a good
world and a good life. As individuals they can modify this semantic
universe and "reconstruct" it to establish their own individual
identities and thus the purposes of their lives.
Even though this view of the human condition does not include any
thought about the divine, it is consistent with Paul's own view. As
we saw, Paul presupposes that human beings are fundamentally free to
choose their identity. Humans are able to view themselves in
relationship with God or to view themselves in other ways, as the
pagans chose to do. God does not impose upon them an identity, a
destiny, a fate. But the identity they choose becomes their fate. For
instance, they aye enslaved to their idolatry. This is where desire
intervenes.
Human beings are free to establish their own identity and their
own semantic universe, but there are limitations to their freedom.
People cannot fly like birds. They have to use aircraft. Sigmund
Freud called this limitation the reality principle. People
have to accept certain limitations, but within the framework of these
limitations they can follow their
Romans: The Gospel as Power of God for Salvation
269
own "drives," their own desire to be what they want to be. What is
this drive or desire? Freud said it is the pleasure principle.
People choose what will give them the most "pleasure," in the
broadest sense of the term. As far as possible I will strive to be in
a warm and dry place rather than in the cold and the rain. It is
clear that this drive or desire, led by the pleasure principle, is
not what Paul views as sin, as evil desire.
Herbert Marcuse and Norman O. Brown appropriated Freud's insight
and developed it further. Human beings follow the pleasure principle,
but there is another important drive which explains people's
behavior. Marcuse calls it the performance principle, a
concept which could be related to Paul's concept of the "works of the
law," the drive or desire to do good works. Brown describes it as a
drive to do death-defying works, a concept we could relate
to fulfilling the Law because the Law "promised life" (Rom. 7:10).
Although in a different vocabulary, the philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre
describes the same drive when, in the context of his discussion of
"bad faith," he speaks of a drive to become a being as things
are.24
For each of these authors this drive, this basic desire, has its
origin in human freedom and insecurity. Humans cannot live in
insecurity. They cannot be without an identity. They cannot stand the
idea of not-being (nothingness), and therefore death is a constant
source of anxiety. Humans want to live, to survive like the stones
and the mountains which appear to be eternal. For this purpose humans
struggle to overcome this insecurity, to find an identity, to make
out of themselves something they feel will be worthwhile. For this
reason, both collectively and individually, they "perform" all kinds
of things which will give value to their lives. In this way they
overcome the fear of death. They will survive in their works. On
their tombstone will be written what they were, indeed, what they
are: a hero who died for his country; a woman who dedicated herself
to the betterment of society; a great philosopher; and so on.
This fundamental self-asserting desire, this performing principle,
this drive to do death-defying works and to be "something" leads
humans to create idols and absolute systems of convictions. Sartre
illustrates this subtle process by taking the example of love. Our
parable of the lovers and more precisely its very beginning--a man
and a woman in love--has already described the result of
this process. Their love is an absolute system of convictions, an
idolatry. What we now need to understand is
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how they constructed this absolute system of convictions, how they
became idolatrous. In other words, how did they fall in love? In
brief, it is because of sin, that is, because of desire (coveting),
or again because of the performance principle.
We are discussing the courting process. The man charms the woman
and the woman charms the man. Let us take the case of the man, with
the understanding that the same things could be said about the woman.
Why does he charm the woman? Why does he do everything to cast a
spell on her? Is it because of his sexual drive (or desire)? This
might play a role, but it is not the actual reason. There are ways of
satisfying sexual drive without falling in love. In fact, he is
charming the woman in order to satisfy his performance principle. He
wants somebody--in this instance, the woman--who will recognize some
kind of value in him. He wants somebody he will be able to trust,
somebody who will always recognize value in him, in the better as
well as in the worst of circumstances. He wants her to see in him a
hero when he succeeds and a martyr when he fails. He wants somebody
who will always be on his side, whatever may happen, somebody who
will constantly affirm and confirm his worthiness, somebody who will
always understand him. For this purpose he charms the woman. He casts
a spell on her in subtle ways. He manipulates her in such a way that
she owes so much to him that she cannot but play her role. In other
words, she will now satisfy his performance principle, his
self-asserting desire, by constantly confirming his identity and the
value of his life.
Of course, the woman charms the man in the same ways and for the
same reasons. They allow themselves to be manipulated by each other
and accept the role of asserting the value of each other's identity,
because in this way they make themselves indispensable to the other,
who therefore cannot but assert the value of their own identity. Thus
they establish between them a network of relations which will govern
their mutual assertion. In other words, they establish their love as
a system of convictions which establishes their identities.
But consider the result of this process. The man loves the woman
and asserts the value of her identity and of her life: she is a
unique, exceptional person. The woman does the same things for the
man. They are no longer affirming the value of their own life. There
is no longer a need for self-assertion. The man is asserting the
value of the life of the woman. Now she is what she desired to be.
This value of her life is an objective
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reality, since it is no longer she who claims it but the man who
recognizes it and alarms it. And the same is true for the man when
the value of his life is affirmed by the woman. His life has value.
He is a "good man" or a "great man," whatever the appearances and the
circumstances. This is objective. He is a "good man" as the stones
are stones. The performance principle, the self-asserting desire,
fades into the background. He can and must deny this self-asserting
desire and the performance principle which led to the establishment
of their love as an absolute system of convictions. Acknowledging the
origin of their love in this mutual manipulation would be
acknowledging that his identity and its value are nothing but his
self-assertion and therefore that he has no actual reality. Overt
manipulation (i.e., charming) is no longer necessary. Expressing
their love to each other (i.e., asserting that the other is a very
special person) is enough of a manipulation to force the partner to
remain in his or her role of asserting the value of the other's
identity. Not remaining in this role would be running the risk of
losing one's identity as an objective reality. Thus love as system of
convictions is self-reinforcing.
Then we find this apparent paradox. The lovers can fully reveal
themselves to each other. They do not need to hide anything from each
other. They can be confident that even their weaknesses will be
viewed positively by their partner. Loving is allowing oneself to be
fully known. Love is not blushing when showing oneself to the other.
Even one's self-asserting desire is unveiled and thus can be seen.
For instance, the man will speak to the woman of his ambitions. But
because of love this self-asserting desire is not seen for what it
is. Thus love, which is by definition unselfish, has become the ally
of selfish desire. The woman interprets the manifestation of
self-asserting desire in the man's life as a noble, altruistic desire
and asserts it in this way to the man who himself sees it as an
altruistic desire, even though he "knows" that it is a selfasserting
desire. This is what Sartre calls "bad faith." I know that I am not
this person described by the other, but I nevertheless believe the
other whom I have manipulated so that he/she will send me this image
of myself. I need to be somebody, something. This is what Paul
expresses by such statements as "they became futile in their thinking
and their senseless minds were darkened" (Rom. 1:21); they "were
hardened" (11:7); they have "a spirit of stupor, eyes that should not
see and ears that should not hear" (11:8).
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What should we say? That love is self-asserting desire and
manipulation? By no means! Yet if it had not been for love I would
not have known self-asserting desire. Indeed, I would not have known
desire if love had not said, "Love does not insist on its own right"
(cf. 1 Cor. 13:5). But self-asserting desire, finding opportunity in
love, wrought in me all kinds of selfishness (cf. Rom. 7:7-8). Love
multiplied the manifestations of self-asserting desire (cf. 5:20) by
making believe that they are not selfish because "love bears all
things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things" (1
Cor. 13:7).
This is the story of any idolatry, according to Paul. It involves
three steps.
1. In our quest for identity, in our craving for identity, for
meaning and purpose in our lives, for being something which has an
objective reality, through our self-asserting desire we take hold of
something which is good and/or has a real existence. This is to say
that we take hold of something which is self-evidently real and good,
that is, of a revelation: God's revelatory manifestations in the
creation (Rom. 1:18-32); God's revelation in Torah (7:7-12); love as
fruit of the Spirit; Christ as manifestation of God (cf. 1 and 2
Corinthians); the political authorities which "have been instituted
by God" (Rom. 13:1); and so on. Each of them is "holy and just and
good" (Rom. 7:12). Each of them reveals our true condition: that we
are creatures whose meaning and purpose can be established only in
relationship to our Creator; that we are people constantly desiring
identity and whose identity can be established only by an election
from God, who chooses us as his people; that we are people who cannot
but be in relationship with other people because in them God
manifests himself and thus they are better than ourselves (Phil.
2:3); that we are people who cannot have a true identity if it were
not for Christ-like manifestations of God in our experience; that we
are people who cannot live without order provided by political and
cultural institutions, because without them we would not have any
guideline for discerning useful from harmful conduct.
2. Our holding on to something which is good and/or which has a
real existence demonstrates that "what can be known about God is
plain to [us], because God has shown it to [us]"
(Rom. 1:19). Furthermore, we know about our human condition because
we know God's decree (1:32) and the nature of sin (7:7), and thus we
"know that nothing good dwells in [us], that is, in
[our] flesh" (7:18).
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3. But our self-asserting desire (our performance principle) leads
us to absolutize our relationship to one or the other of God's
manifestations. In this way we will have an identity, an objective,
permanent identity. It does not matter what this identity is. What we
dread is not having an identity. If our identity, our fate,
is to be a slave to the "weak and beggarly elemental spirits" of the
cosmos (Gal. 4:9), this satisfies our self-asserting desire. We
are something. This is what is essential for us. It does not
matter if this something is a cog in a machine-like universe, a slob
whose fate is to wiggle in the mud, a prostitute subjected to the
most abject treatment (in sacred prostitution possibly alluded to in
Rom. 1:24, or in secular prostitution as discussed by Sartre) or a
member of the holy Chosen People, which is "little less than God" and
whom God "crowns with glory and honor" (Ps. 8:5).
In order to absolutize our relationship to one of God's
manifestations, we need to transform it so that it might be a fixed
mirror which always gives us the same image of ourselves. We need to
manipulate this manifestation of God, to charm it, to fossilize it.
The lovers of our parable make "idols" out of each other, that is,
they reduce each other to fixed images with immutable qualities and
roles. The pagans make out of this or that part of the creation an
idealized and fixed image: a golden calf (to which Paul alludes in
Rom. 1:23 by using the vocabulary of Ps. 106:20); stone or wood
"images resembling mortal man or birds or animals or reptiles"
(1:23). The Jews make out of the Law (i.e., out of Torah, as promises
of God) the complete and final revelation. The Christians make out of
Christ an absolute spiritual reality (which, as we shall see, some of
the Corinthians did). Certain people make out of the state or of the
Roman emperor, a god. And so on.
Once they are transformed into idols, these manifestations of God
satisfy our self-asserting desire. They establish for us a permanent,
objective identity. We no longer have to fear "nothingness." We no
longer have to be anxious about death. In other words, our idols
promise life to us. Such is the case for the Jews and their idol,
Torah. They view Torah as promising life to them (see above, Chapter
3). Paul writes: "The very commandment which promised life" (Rom.
7:10). But despite our "bad faith," according to which we profess to
believe this, we know and should be aware (although we are not aware
of it because of our "bad faith") that this is not in fact true,
since it is we who constructed this idol. This is nothing else than a
death-defying attitude.
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What is the result of this attitude? Yes, we have an objective,
permanent identity. We have made it. We are lovers in love. We are
forever the Chosen People. We are attuned to the universe (the
cosmos) and participate in its eternity. We are spiritual beings
saved from this world (I allude, once more, to the heretics in
Corinth). We are a celebrity. We are rich. We are really something.
But this also means that we are trapped in a role. We are condemned
to play our role. When you are a celebrity, you cannot but behave
accordingly. When you are a lover, you cannot but behave accordingly.
We are "something" as the stones are. We are no longer truly alive.
We are living dead. We are in hell where everything is fixed for all
eternity. We are under the wrath of God. We have lost what makes us
alive: our freedom. We are fossilized as much as our idols are.
We are nothing else than this something we desired to be. We are
this something that our idols tell us we are. We are enslaved,
bewitched, under the power of a curse. We are no longer truly
persons. We have lost any authentic existence. We are "as good as
dead."
Paul, speaking of the Jews and the Law (as well as of human beings
under the power of any kind of idols), writes: "I was once alive
apart from the law"--that is, as long as I did not "appropriate" the
Law--"but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died" (Rom.
7:9). Taking advantage of this revelation of God, desire,
self-asserting desire, which was dormant, became alive and active.
And I died.
"The very commandment which promised life"--that is, which truly
promised life as revelation of God and which deceitfully promised
life as idol--"proved to be death to me" (Rom. 7:10). "For sin
[desire], finding opportunity in the commandment, deceived
me"--by causing me to see in it an absolute, the complete and final
revelation--"and by it killed me (7: 11).
Despite my "bad faith" brought about by sin (self-asserting
desire), I know that the Law is truly revelation from God. Paul can
then affirm that this proves what is evil is not the Law itself but
sin and what sin has made out of the Law: "So the law is holy, and
the commandment is holy and just and good" (7:12). Therefore it is
not the- Law which brought death to me. "It was sin, working death in
me through what is good" (7:13). In this way, since there is no doubt
that the Law is good and from God, one can clearly see what the
nature of sin is and what its role in human experience is. The Law
magnifies sin and thus makes it clearly apparent (7:13).
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LIFE UNDER SIN (ROM. 7:14-24)
Paul describes the life under sin as the life according to the
flesh (7:14). This is a life governed by the idol which we have made
for ourselves and which enslaves us. Paul is not describing
the common experience of interior ethical conflict, according to
which, while our conscience tells us that we should not do something,
we nevertheless go and do it. These are minor struggles which occur
when we are caught between conflicting systems of convictions. But in
Romans 7 Paul speaks about the situation of people who are totally
committed to a system of convictions, in this case the Jewish system
of convictions viewed as complete and final revelation.
"I do not understand my own actions" (Rom. 7:15a) or, more
literally, "I do not know what I am doing." I "know that the law is
spiritual" (7:14). "I agree that the law is good" (7:16). "I delight
in the law of God, in my inmost self" (7:22). I know that it is the
Law of God, revelation from God. And I want to serve God. Indeed, I
strive to serve God. But by doing so I serve sin (my self-asserting
desire), and thus my actions are against God. "I do not do what I
want" (serving God), "but I do the very thing I hate" (acting against
God and his will) (7:15). In fact, I practice the idolatry that I
abhor (cf. 2:1).
So I am enslaved to sin. "It is no longer I that do it, but sin
which dwells within me" (Rom. 7:17, 20, 23). "I can will what is
right, but I cannot do it" (7:18; cf. 7:19). As soon as I undertake
to do the good that I want, I end up doing evil.
This becomes clear when we put these comments in the context of
what Paul says about the Jews. The more the Jews strive to do good
works, that is, the more the Jews strive to "fulfill" the Law in
order to sanctify God's Name, to be a faithful people, the less they
"fulfill" the Law (9:31). I purposely used the phrase "fulfill the
Law" twice but with different meanings, in the same way Paul does. In
the context of Judaism as a system of convictions which sees Torah as
the complete and final revelation, fulfilling the Law means carrying
out the laws. It means striving to be the Chosen People, and to carry
out one's vocation of sanctifying the Name. The Jews are aware that
they do not totally fulfill the Law, that they transgress the laws
and that as a result "the name of God is blasphemed among the
Gentiles" instead of being sanctified (Rom. 2:24; cf. 2:17-29). But
this is a "minor" problem. In Torah, as perceived in Judaism, there
are means of atonement if they repent and thus if they commit
themselves to striving even harder to fulfill the Law.
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From Paul's perspective, however, the more they strive to fulfill
the laws, the more they make Torah the complete and final revelation,
the idol Torah. The more they do good, the more impossible it becomes
to see in Torah the promises of new interventions and revelations of
God. The more they strive to sanctify the Name of God, the less he is
sanctified, that is, the less he can be recognized and thus honored
and given thanks in his interventions in the present. The more they
do works of the Law and the more they are striving to be in the right
relationship with God, the less they are in the right relationship
with God, for fulfilling Torah, from the Gospel perspective, is
discovering in one's experience the fulfillment of the promises
contained in Torah, and giving thanks and honoring God as revealed in
these fulfillments. The true fulfillment of Torah is through faith
and not through works.
When Paul attacks the Jews for seeking to establish their own
righteousness, he does not want to say that they are consciously
selfish, that they have selfish or greedy motives. No. They truly
want to serve God. "I bear them witness that they have a zeal for
God" (Rom. 10:2). But they are under the power of sin, which made
them transform Torah into the complete and final revelation and thus
darkened and hardened their hearts, eyes, and ears. And thus their
zeal is "not enlightened" (10:2), not governed by a true
understanding freed from the power of sin.
The more I want to do good, the deeper I find myself involved in
evil. "So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil
lies close at hand" (Rom. 7:21). "So then, I of myself serve the law
of God with my mind"--that is, "with my mind" I recognize that the
Law is from God, as the pagans recognize "with their mind" the works
of God in the creation (1:20), and thus I want to serve God, I am
devoted to God --"but with my flesh I serve the law of sin" (7:25b)
as the pagans "serve" the "creation," once submitted to their futile
way of thinking and their senseless and darkened minds (1:21). This
is true for every human being. Sin is an integral part of living in
the flesh, of being human. How could I not have self-asserting
desire? How could I not seek to find an identity for myself? How
could I not have a will to live and thus a will to overcome all kinds
of death threats? How could I survive without such a death-defying
attitude? As is well known, many patients survive terminal disease
for unexpectedly long periods, when they have such a will to live,
while people in good clinical health without such a will to live let
themselves die. Is it not our nature to have such a self-asserting
desire?
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And thus how could we not make idols out of any revelation from
God? How could we not get hold, grasp, and hang on to anything which
would give us a clue about who we are and what is the purpose and
meaning of our life? But then, how could we not destroy ourselves by
becoming "something" as things are, living dead? And how could we not
do evil, and bring death to ourselves, each time we strive to do
good?
"Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of
death?" (Rom. 7:24). "No Exit," concludes Sartre in his well-known
player Paul concludes, "Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our
Lord" (7:25a). "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has
set me free from the law of sin and death" (8:2).
FOR SALVATION
Freed from the Law of Sin and Death
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free frown the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened bathe flesh, could not do: sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for [or in reference to] sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to tile flesh but according to the Spirit. (Rom. 8:1-4)
"Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord." We begin to understand why God's intervention is needed in the believers' experience. Without it any human being is irremediably caught under the power of sin and condemned to death as his or her life--a living death--already manifests.
From a theological/sacred historical perspective, the need and
role of the reconciliation performed by Jesus' death appears. On the
one hand, all humans, including the Jews, are under the wrath of God.
All are alienated from God. And thus, without reconciliation, there
is no possible answer to the desperate cry of the sinner. On the
other hand, this reconciling act of God needs to be extraordinary as
compared with the previous interventions of God which were
ineffective. The previous revelations were manifested in direct and
positive interventions of God in his creation (in which God's eternal
power and deity are clearly perceived [Rom. 1:20]) or in the
giving of Torah to Israel (which was di-
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rectly manifested as "holy and just and good" [7:12]). Another revelation of this kind for instance the revelation of a glorious and spiritual Christ would not overcome the separation of human beings from God. On the contrary as the Law did it would increase trespasses giving another opportunity for sin idolatry. This is exactly what happens when some of the Corinthians want to proclaim a spiritual Christ rather than a crucified Christ. And thus God in his wisdom chose to manifest himself in sinful flesh by "sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh" (8:3).
This verse is usually interpreted from the theological perspective to mean that Christ was sent "for sin " as a sacrifice for the expiation of sin (as in Rom. 3:25) so that sin might be forgiven and that the reconciliation of humankind to God might take place. "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus" (~:1). But here this expiation of sin is not "passing over former sins" (pretending that sin does not exist). It is a judgment and a punishment of sin which so radically separates human beings from God and for which they have no excuse. This condemnation of sin in the flesh is accomplished by Christ who is "in the likeness of sinful flesh." And this takes place so that what was the true purpose of the Law (its righteous effect) might be fulfilled in us that is so that we might walk according to the Spirit and not according to the flesh (8:4b). But from this theological perspective we cannot fully understand this "condemnation of sin in the flesh " a phrase with which commentators struggle.
This passage expresses important aspects of Paul's system of
convictions and especially how God's interventions are related to the
manifestations of evil. Paul does not say that Christ has
set us free from sin or that sin in itself is condemned. He
writes in 8:2: "Christ Jesus has set [us] free from the
law of sin and death." Thus Paul says that Christ set us free
from the law that "I see in my members" (7:23a) "the law of sin which
dwells in my members" (7:23b) that is in "this body of death" (7:24).
Similarly it is "sin in the flesh" which is condemned (8:3). And in
8:3b Paul speaks of the flesh as "the flesh of sin" ("sinful
flesh").
These statements can be understood when one notes that for Paul
there are three basic manifestations of evil: sin the Law as idol (or
the creation as idol) and death. Furthermore let us keep in mind that
by itself sin is powerless. It is dormant (it needs to be "revived";
Rom. 7:9)
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as long as it is not joined with the Law (or God's revelation in the creation). The power of sin is the Law as idol. Yes, it is sin which brings death, and death would not exist if it were not for sin (5:12). But sin would be inoffensive without an idol, be it the Law or any other kind of idol. Thus Paul, in a passage where he does not mention the Law, exclaims in a formula he used many times, "The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law" (1 Cor. 15:56).
It is clear, after our reading of Romans 1 and 7, that the Law and the creation are by themselves holy, just, and good. But sin, the self-asserting desire, establishes human beings in a perverted relation to them. They are manipulated and absolutized, instead of being taken for what they are, manifestations of God's popover which are promises (or types) of new acts of God and thus occasions to honor and thank God. These perverted perceptions of God's interventions are the manifestations of sin. God's wrath is then manifested in that they are enslaved to these perverted perceptions of God's interventions, which then become fully idols which have power over sinners. This is the present situation of the sinners. They are enslaved to these idols and misled by them, so much so that the more they strive to do good the more they do evil. They have senseless and darkened minds, a spirit of stupor, hardened hearts, eyes that do not see, ears that do not hear. They are "in the flesh," "given up to the flesh," in other words, "given up in the desires of their hearts to impurity" (Rom. 1:24, au. trans.; cf. 1:26, 28).
Thus Paul distinguished two evil powers. First, the power (or stingy of death which is sin. This is the deeply rooted self-asserting desire. Even after Christ this power remains. It will be destroyed only at the very end of time: "The last enemy to be destroyed is death" (1 Cor. 15:26). In addition, Paul believes that the Christian believers are still under the power of death-bringing sin. They are not immune to death, and he constantly exhorts his readers to avoid selfish and self-asserting attitudes. Furthermore, Paul emphasizes, against the enthusiast Christians, that the believers are not purely spiritual beings but rather very human beings with all the limitations and weaknesses of this condition. Sin, the self-asserting desire which leads one to perform death-defying works and to make idols, is still present in the Christian believers. Although it is dormant (because its power is being destroyed), it can revive at any time if it is given the opportunity.
The second evil power that Paul distinguished is the power of
sin
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which is the Law or any other idol. This is the power which enslaves the sinners. It is experienced by the sinners as the power of their idols. As a Christian, Paul can affirm that the idols have no real existence since there is only one God. But he acknowledges their power upon the pagans and even upon "weak brethren" (1 Cor. 8:4-13). In fact, Paul underscores the reality of this power by pointing out that it is a power given by God to the idols. It is the manifestation of the wrath of God. It is the power of a curse. From this power the Christian believers have been freed and are being freed. This is what Christ has done and what the resurrected Christ, in Christ-like interventions of God, is doing in the present (Rom. 8:2) and until the end of time. He is and will be "destroying every rule and every authority and Dower. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his teeth (1 Cor. 15:24b, 25).
The Law as idol is singled out by Paul as the most typical manifestation of the power of sin because it is the perversion of the most significant revelations of God before Christ. Torah is not merely the manifestation of the interventions of God, as the creation was, but also and primarily the words of God (Rom. 3:2), his verbal promises, as well as his covenants, his law, and his instructions about worship (9:4).
Under the power of the Law or of any other idol, human beings are helpless. They are dead (7:9). They are as good as dead, like Abraham's and Sarah's bodies (4:19). They are under a curse. We can understand this situation in terms of our reading of Galatians (above, Chapter 2) and of our discussion of the power of systems of convictions (Chapter 1). Such persons are fully under the power of a closed and static system of convictions which is centered upon that idol and which is therefore an idolatrous system of convictions, a curse. This system of convictions provides the idolaters with identity, meaning, and purpose. It provides them with what they view as the "only possible and true" life and with the only "true" perception of the reality of the world. As such, their idolatrous system of convictions gives them security, peace, and happiness, a feeling of wholeness in a secure identity, as lovers have during their honeymoon. They do not feel guilty about this idolatry. On the contrary, they have a guilty conscience when they step out of their idolatrous system of convictions. When they repent, it is in order to become once more faithful to their idolatry.
Anything which does not fit into their idolatrous system of
convictions is therefore rejected by the idolaters as non-real,
illusion, and/or evil. It does not belong to the "real world" formed
by their semantic universe.
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Thus they see it, but they do not see it as real. They hear it,
but they do not perceive it as a meaningful thing. They know it, but
they cannot even imagine that it could be good. And if there are any
threats against their system of convictions, the idolaters will do
everything in their power to protect it. They will vengefully attack
those who constitute a threat, even at the risk of their own lives.
If their idolatrous system of convictions was-destroyed, they would
lose their "true life" anyway. Such is the power of an idolatrous
system of convictions which Paul describes in his own vocabulary in
Romans 1 and 7 and elsewhere.
System of Convictions
From Paul's perspective, that is, from the perspective of his own faith which is a meta-system of convictions characterized by freedom from any given system of convictions (from any idolatry), there are only two ways in- which the power of a given idolatrous system of convictions can be destroyed.
It can be radically destroyed "from the outside," by destroying all the idolaters who sustain it and give it power and at the same time are under its power. For Paul, this radical destruction will be the transcendent and vengeful manifestation of the wrath of God at the last judgment. It will bring to its ultimate end the self-destruction that the idolaters are pursuing following their senseless minds. The other possibility is for God to destroy the power of the idolatrous system of convictions from the inside. This is a gracious alternative which spares the idolaters while delivering them from the power of their idolatrous system of convictions. How is this a theoretical possibility according to Paul's system of convictions?
The idolaters, who have eyes but do not see anything foreign to
their system of convictions, can perceive and acknowledge as real an
intervention of God only if it fits into their system of convictions.
Thus God's manifestation has to be conformed to, in the
likeness of (Rom. 8:3; Phil. 2:7), this idolatrous system of
convictions. Because of the way any system of convictions is
organized, however, this "conformity" of God's manifestation to the
idolatrous system needs to be twofold. Thus the destruction of the
power of the idolatrous system of convictions needs to be a two-stage
process. The order of these stages does not really matter, at least
theoretically. Yet in most instances Paul seems to prefer one order
to the other.
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In the first place, an idolatrous system of convictions, as any system of convictions, is twofold. On the one hand, parts of reality are viewed as good and/or as attuned to the "divine." These include "wisdom" and/or positive manifestations of the "divine" (as defined lay this idolatrous system) in situations viewed as blessings and interventions of a positive power. On the other hand, parts of reality are viewed as evil, folly, and perceived as "weakness," "sinful," "blasphemous," and/or"curse."
Consequently, if the purpose of God's intervention is to destroy the power of an idolatrous system of convictions, this intervention should not merely be, and cannot merely be, conformed to the positive parts of reality as defined by this system of convictions. In such a case it would reinforce its power; it would confirm-the validity of the idolatrous system of convictions. As such, God's intervention would have the opposite effect from the one at which it aimed.
So there is only one possibility. In order to destroy the power of an idolatrous system of convictions, God's intervention must be conformed to the negative parts of reality as defined by this system. God must manifest himself in what will appear, from the standpoint of this system of convictions, to be evil, weakness, sinful, blasphemous, and/or curse. In this case, the idolaters will perceive this "manifestation of God" as real. It is part of the reality that they can see, hear, and know, despite and because of their senseless and perverted minds. But they will not and cannot recognize the "manifestation of God" as a manifestation of the divine. For them it is part of this dimension of reality that they must strive to avoid, strive to reject so as to lie "good" and to lie attuned to the "divine" and to have "real" meaning and purpose in their lives (according to their idolatrous system of convictions). And thus they reject this scandalous manifestation of"evil."
Up to this point the idolatrous system of convictions and its power are intact. Indeed, the power of the idolatrous system of convictions is manifested most clearly in the violent rejection of this scandalous manifestation of "evil." In this way the idolatrous system of convictions condemns itself. It demonstrates unambiguously on which side it is, namely, against the true God.
In a second stage of this destruction of the power of the
idolatrous system of convictions, God's intervention, this scandalous
manifestation of"evil," is also conformed to (made in the
likeness of) the positive parts of reality according to the
idolatrous system of convictions. This happens when this scandalous
intervention is such that it has also to be perceived
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manifestation of the "divine" according to the idolatrous system of convictions, that is, as manifestation of goodness, of wisdom, of positive power, or in other words, as a blessing. At this point the idolaters perceive this manifestation for what it is, a manifestation of God.
But from the perspective of the idolatrous system of convictions, this same manifestation of God is simultaneously viewed, on the one hand, as "evil" and thus as nondivine or even antidivine and, on the other hand, as divine, good, blessing. As a consequence, the inner logic, that is, the very systemic organization, of the idolatrous system of convictions is shattered. Nothing makes sense any longer. What the idolatrous system of convictions led fine to perceive as "evil" and to reject in the name of the "good" is shown to be good, to be divine or attuned to the divine. Thus some of what I took to be good is evil and vice versa. But some of what I took to be good (according to the idolatrous system of convictions) is good and some of what I took to be evil is still evil. What confusion! But one thing is clear. This well-ordered view of the world, of reality, of life's meaning and purpose that the idolatrous system of convictions was providing for me cannot be absolutely true. The power of this idolatrous system of convictions, this particular manifestation of the power of sin, has been destroyed. I am freed from it.
Before discussing how Paul describes this destruction of the power of sin in concrete instances, note what this process entails for Paul's system of convictions.
It involves the conviction that the power of sin (the power of an idolatrous system of convictions) is real. It is so real for him that he can speak of it in a personified way, or as a series of"personages" that he calls "rulers of this age," "powers," "authorities" (which are kinds of demons manifesting themselves in what has power over human beings).
Paul's view of the destruction of the power of sin also entails
the conviction that any idolatrous system of convictions is the
perversion of true and valid revelations. In other words, the
idolaters, although in a confused way, still consider as good, as
real, as divine what is truly good, real, and divine. Theoretically
speaking, if this were not the case, the intervention of God could
not be conformed to (or made in the likeness of) the "divine," and
"good" (according to the idolatrous system of convictions), and thus
could not be recognized (as real) by the idolaters. This is why Paul
emphasizes not only that the Law is a true revelation of God, but
also that "what can be known about God is plain" to the pagans (loom.
1:19) and that they know God's decree (1:32; 2:15).
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As far as Paul is concerned, these two kinds of revelations--through the creation for the pagans, through Torah for the Jews--are holy, just, and good. They do not contradict each other (2:14), and they are not nullified by Christ or any other revelation from God. Because none of these revelations is absolute, none is complete. All of them are promises pointing to new interventions and revelations of God and ultimately to those at the time of the Parousia which alone will be absolute and complete.
The process through which an idolatrous system of convictions is
established and destroyed by the power of the Gospel can be
represented graphically by stages as follows:

First stage: God reveals something (his power, deity, or "oracles") to people (Gentiles or Jews). This revelation is a partial system of convictions according to which parts of human experience are viewed as positive (+), that is, as real, good, and as attuned to the divine, while other parts of human experience are viewed as negative (-), that is, as illusory and/or evil, folly, sinful, blasphemous. We represent this revelation in Figure 4 as a partial circle to show that it is not a complete revelation (a complete system of convictions).
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Second stage: This revelation is absolutized and
transformed into an idolatrous system of convictions. We represent
this process in Figure 5 by completing the circle. Idolatry amounts
to deriving from the partial revelation (partial system of
convictions) other positive and negative dimensions so as to have a
complete system of convictions.
Third stage: Somebody (e.g., Jesus) performs certain
actions which are sinful, blasphemous, evil, ungodly, according
to the definition of sin given by the idolatrous system of
convictions. This person is thus rejected and persecuted as a
scandalous manifestation of evil (e.g., Jesus is crucified). But note
that this person is not sinful according to the true
revelation (against the true God).

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At this point the logic of the idolatrous system of convictions is
broken up and the power of the idolatry is destroyed, because what
was rejected as being against "God" is also shown to be manifestation
of"God." Thus, in our example, the event "Jesus crucified and raised"
contradicts the logic of the idolatrous system. If the "reality" of
this twofold event is acknowledged, the idolatry (the power of sin)
is destroyed.
of Divine Intervention
Such a view of the destruction of the power of sin involves the conviction that with Christ a new type of interventions of God begins. The previous revelations were primarily constructive. To the pagans is revealed God's "invisible nature, namely, his eternal power and deity" (Rom. 1:20). To the Jews are revealed God's covenant, Torah, the worship, the promises (9:4) and the nature of sin (7:7). But neither one of these revelations can set human beings free from the power of sin. Even the Law, Torah, could not do it (8:3). Rather, they have been "weakened by flesh," that is, by sin as manifested in the self-asserting desire of the flesh (8:3). Once weakened and perverted they became the ally of sin, which took advantage of them.
By contrast, with Christ a new type of divine revelations appears.
These revelations are manifested in destructive
interventions, which are aimed at destroying the power of sin
or, better, all the powers of sin, "every rule and every authority
and power" (1 Cor. 15;24). The destruction of these powers is a
prelude to the destruction Of the power of death at the very end.
This is the uniqueness of God's manifestation in Jesus, according to
Paul's system of convictions. Beyond its theological formulation in
terms of reconciliation, God's manifestation in Jesus is
eschatological in that it opens this last period of history, the end
time, during which God will destroy all the powers of evil. And thus
the only fitting titles for him are that of Christ, the Messiah king
of the end time, the Son of God (who shares in God's power and
destroys all powers; Ps. 2:7-9), the Lord who puts "all his enemies
under-his feet" (1 Cor. 15:25; Ps. 110:1). In Jesus Christ, the time
of salvation from these powers is open.
Yet the revelation in- Christ has many things in common with other
revelations. First, the revelation in Christ can become an
opportunity for sin as any other revelation. It is a scandal and a
folly for those who
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are still lost in their sins (Rom. 9:32-33; 1 Cor. 1:18-25; l5:17), that is, for those who are still under the power of their idolatrous system of convictions and thus refuse to acknowledge his resurrection. It is also a new idol for those who ignore the cross and worship only the spiritual Christ as absolute revelation (see below, Chapter 8). Thus, for the unbelievers the Gospel of Christ is the manifestation of the wrath of God (Rom. 1:18). But the Gospel of Christ "is the power of God for salvation to every one who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek" (1:16).
Second, despite the fact that the Gospel of Christ proclaims a new type of divine interventions, it is the fulfillment of the promises contained in previous interventions of God. For instance, as we saw when discussing Romans 4, the deliverance from the power of sin that it achieves for the believers~is a fulfillment of the types "creation out of nothing" and "overcoming of the hopeless situation" such as Abraham's and Sarah's death-like bodies.
Third, the revelation in Christ is not a complete and final
revelation. As with any revelation, it is the promise of new
interventions of God (cf. Gal; 3:22). This means that according to
Paul's system of convictions what is manifested in the believers'
experience is homologable to what was manifested in Jesus Christ. In
the same way that in Christ's experience a power of sin (the Law as
power of sin) was shattered, so in the believers' experience other
powers of sin are shattered.
God's Power for the Salvation of
the Jews (Rom. 8:1-4)
First and foremost, for Paul, Christ is a Jew among Jews: "of their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ" (Rom. 9:5). For the Jews, the power of sin is the Law transformed into an idol (Torah as complete and final revelation). According to this idolatrous system of convictions, "sin" and "blasphemy" are transgressions of the laws.
Now--and this is the first step toward the destruction of this
idolatrous system of convictions--Christ, as the manifestation of God
(as God's Son), was made "in the likeness of sinful flesh in
reference to sin' (8:3, au. trans.). In other words, he was in
the likeness of sinful flesh according to the definition of
sinfulness given by the Law as manifestation of sin.29 Christ
commits transgressions of the laws. This is how Paul presents the
cross in Gal. 3:13, where he interprets it in terms of Deut.
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27:26: "Cursed be every one who hangs on a tree." The crucifixion is perceived as a punishment for transgressions, and Christ has "become a curse." The crucifixion is also the proof that Christ has been rejected by the Jews. According to their idolatrous system of convictions, such a transgressor, such a blasphemer, must be cursed and indeed is cursed by their "god," that is, by the idol god they have made out of God by viewing his revelation in Torah as the complete and final revelation. For Paul one can say that the Jews killed Jesus (1 Thess. 2:18), but according to his system of convictions it would be better to say that it was "the Jews under the power of sin," the Jews who do not understand what they do (Rom. 7:15). It would even be more exact to say that it was "the power of sin" which crucified Christ. This is precisely what Paul writes in 1 Cor. 2:8: "None of the rulers of this age understood this [the secret and hidden wisdom of God]; for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory." The power of sin (i.e., the perverted Law) is here personified and called the "rulers of this age."
In Rom. 8:1--4 Paul does not describe the process of deliverance
from the power of sin. but emphasizes its results. He does not speak
of the resurrection or of the exaltation of Jesus in order to
demonstrate that he is indeed the Son of God, the Lord. Yet he
assumes that it is made manifest that this Jesus who is "in the
sinful flesh in reference to sin" is the Son of God. According to
Rom. 1:4, it is by means of the resurrection that Jesus is manifested
as Son of God; he was "designated Son of God in power according to
the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead." The
resurrection, as demonstration that Jesus is God's manifestation, is
something that the Jews can recognize as a divine manifestation. The
Pharisees were expecting the resurrection from the dead as the
supreme manifestation of God's power.
By being a sinner according to the idolatrous system of convictions of the Jews, Christ as manifestation of God, as his Son, condemns this idolatrous system, this sin as power. He demonstrates that its view of evil is wrong and not from God, as it blasphemously claims. This condemnation is in itself the shattering of the Law as an enslaving power of sin. So Paul writes, "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us" (Gal. 3:13a); "Christ Jesus has set us free from the law of sin and death" (Rome 8:2).
But what is the result? Sin is condemned and destroyed "in order
that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us" (Rom.
8:4a). The
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Law is not in itself rejected. It is holy, Just, and good. The aim of God's revelation in Torah as promises (and not as complete and final revelation) was to provide the possibility of being in the right relationship with God. Thus Christ reveals the end (the purpose) of the Law: "For Christ is the end of the law, that every one who has faith may be justified" (10:4).3° The purpose of the Law was to establish in the right relationship with God not merely the Jews but also the Gentiles.
God has achieved in Jesus all that is necessary for the salvation of the Jews from the power of sin, the Law. All the conditions of possibility for faith are established. Faith is offered as a gift, but in order to benefit from this salvation and be established in the right relationship with God, one needs to accept and to appropriate this gift of faith. The Jews need to respond to God's intervention in their own experience. Faith involves trust in God's promises, ~ hope which is the confident expectation that God will intervene despite the apparently hopeless situation which "being under the power of sin" is. But faith is also seeing and appropriating God's intervention in the present. The Jews need to recognize this intervention of God. They know that Jesus has been crucified. But through faith the Jews also need to acknowledge that this Jesus crucified is indeed the Christ, the Lord, the Son of God. Or--and this amounts to the same thing--they need to acknowledge that the crucified Jesus has been raised from the dead. "If you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved" (Rom. 10:9).
But most of the Jews do not do so, and so they are still under the power of sin, which is for them the Law. Yet some of the Jews--Jesus' disciples, Paul, and the Jewish Christians--had faith and have been freed from the power of sin and thus from the Law as curse.
Such was God's intervention in Jesus Christ. This took place in
the past and was only the deliverance from the Law as power of sin.
Yet it was the first intervention of God of this type: an
intervention through which a power of sin was destroyed. As such it
is the type, the promise, of comparable interventions of God aimed at
destroying all the powers of sin. The power of sin is manifested in
different ways for different persons and groups. It is manifested in
the various "good things," various revelations or gifts from God
whatever they might be, which sin (the self-asserting desire) has
transformed into an absolute. As such these revelations or gifts from
God have become an enslaving power. Torah
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was the gift of God and the manifestation of God's power through
which the Israelites were elected and through which they receive a
meaningful, although not absolute, order for their lives (the
convenantal laws). Similarly, the creation was a manifestation of
God's power for the Gentiles and provided a meaningful although not
absolute context for their lives. And there are many other"good
gifts" from God through which God's power is manifested and provides
a meaningful, although not absolute, order for life.
of God (Ram. 13:1 - 7)
In Rom. 13:1-7 Paul deals with the question of the attitude of the believers toward Roman political power. Of course, political power in the Roman Empire is far from being perfect; it is not characterized by love (discussed in 12:9-21). Yet it is a manifestation of the power of God, "for there is no authority except from God" (13:1). It has been given to human beings for their good: "he [the political ruler who embodies such an authority] is God's servant for your good" (13:4). Political authority provides a meaningful order for life in society and for its economic well-being (13:6-7), and so human beings should accept these gifts of God and the order they provide for life. They should submit to this order and to political authority, and even honor it. This is honoring God (1:21). This is seeing the political and economic order as a promise, a type, of the perfect life "in harmony with one another" (12:16). One must be thankful for this prefiguration even if it is not perfect. But as any intervention of God, it is a two-edged sword. It is a power unto salvation, and promise of ultimate salvation for those who acknowledge it. But it can also be a power of destruction for those who do not acknowledge it for what it is. As in the case of any manifestation of God, it can become a form of the wrath of God, if it is not acknowledged or if it is absolutized and thus transformed into an idol.
We can understand this by comparison with God's manifestation in Christ, which according to Paul's system of convictions is homologous to God's manifestations in the political authorities.
God's intervention in Christ became a "stumbling block to Jews and
folly to Gentiles" (1 Cor. 1:23), who do not recognize it for what it
is. Because of the Gospel, they are even more enclosed under the
power of sin, under a manifestation of the wrath of God which makes
them adopt
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self-destructive attitudes. Similarly, the political authorities, if they are not acknowledged for what they are--as legitimate authorities or, better, as a manifestation of God's power and thus as an occasion to honor and give thanks to God by submitting to them--become the manifestation of God's wrath. "He [the political ruler] is the servant of God to execute his wrath on the wrongdoer" (Rom. 13:4b). This is the warning we find in this text addressed to Christians who have no inclination to see an absolute (an idol) in political power.
The other possibility, which Paul does not mention, is that this
political power might itself become a power of sin by being
absolutized because of the self-asserting desire. Such was the case
when the Romans viewed the emperor, who represented the Roman
political order, as a god. Such is the case when a people perceives
its political authority (or order) as an absolute (the only true and
good political order). Elsewhere Paul uses the very terms by which he
designates the political powers ("authorities," "rulers") to refer to
powers of sin which "persecute" the Christians who challenge these
idolatries, as the Law as power of sin crucified Christ. To repeat,
in this text Paul, who addresses Christians, does not speak of
political powers as idols, as power of sin. Yet according to the
logic of Paul's system of convictions, sin can and does find
opportunity in any good manifestation of God's power.
God's Power for the Salvation
of the Jews (Rom. 11:13-14)
There are as many forms of the power of sin as there are
revelations of God and manifestations of his gracious power.
Consequently, according to Paul's system of convictions, the
destruction of each of these powers of sin demands a specific
intervention from God. God's manifestation must be conformed to (made
in the likeness of) the "sinful flesh," as viewed by this specific
idolatrous system of convictions, so that the latter's power might be
destroyed from the inside. Of course, these new interventions of God
are of the same type as the one in Christ concerning the Law
as power of sin. They are the fulfillment of the promises contained
in Christ. These interventions of God against other powers of sin are
Christ-like and can also be called manifestations of the resurrected
Christ as well as of God's or Christ's Spirit. Because of their
typological homologation, one can speak of one in terms of
another.
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Here we briefly comment on the cases of two interventions of God through which people are (or will be) saved from the power of sin beyond the time of God's intervention in Christ.
Paul still has hope for the Jews who did not convert. They did not recognize God's manifestation in Jesus Christ. But he is confident that they will recognize another intervention of God in their experience and thus be freed from the power of sin through faith. This is what Paul says in Rom. 11:13-14: "Inasmuch then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry in order to make my fellow Jews jealous, and thus save some of them." This passage must be read in light of what Paul says about salvation in the passage we have discussed. For the Jews, the Gentile Christians are blasphemous, evil, sinful. They do not follow the laws; they do not have a Jewish way of life. Thus they are "in the likeness of sinful flesh" from the perspective of the Law as idolatrous system of convictions. But if it is made clear that God is at work in them, for instance, if it is shown that they have been freed from idolatry (which is also abhorred by the Jews), the Jews' idolatrous system of convictions, centered on the Law as an absolute, will be shattered. They will be made jealous. And thus some of them will be saved. This is why Paul "magnifies" his ministry, by "showing off" the Gentile Christians to Jews.
As a consequence, the Gentile Christians and their apostle are violently rejected by the Jews. They are persecuted because they do not carry out the Law (Gal. 5:11), while "blasphemously" pretending to serve "God." In two ways they are Christ-like, fulfillments of the cross, as type. On the one hand, as Christ, the Son of God, was in sinful flesh, they are sons of God, because of God's intervention which freed them from their pagan idols, and "sinful" because they are "uncircumcised," people following a Gentile way of life rather than carrying out all the laws. On the other hand, as Christ was crucified, they are rejected and persecuted. But they are also Christ-like, fulfillments of his resurrection, in that they are in the right relationship with God, freed from the power of sin. They "are in the Spirit" (Rom. 8:9a). This is so because "the Spirit of God really dwells in [them]" (8:9b), and this Spirit is indeed the fulfillment of the resurrection in their lives. "The Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you" (8.11).
In summary, Paul's ministry and the Gentile Christians are indeed,
in the present experience of the unconverted Jews, a salving
intervention
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of God, through which Paul hopes some of the Jews will be saved.
Once freed from the power of sin, which for them is the Raw, the Jews
will then be in the right relationship with God and will confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord, that in him God intervened to defeat the power
of sin, and that Christ is a promise which has been fulfilled in
their own experience in the form of Gentile Christians.
the Salvation of the Gentiles Similarly, Paul was a manifestation of God for the salvation of the Gentiles from the power of sin, which for them is their idolatrous Hellenistic system of convictions which keeps them in bondage. To begin with, he appears to them as "crucified" (Gal. 2:20; 3:1). Consider the case of Paul's ministry among the Corinthians. For them, according to their idolatrous Hellenistic system of convictions, a good person, a person attuned to the divine, is a wise person and a great rhetorician who speaks eloquently (1 Cor. 1:20). A fool (1 Cor. 4:10) and a poor debater can only be despised and rejected. This is what people who are not attuned to the divine are, even more so if they are not of"noble birth," that is, if they do not belong to the educated, rich, and influential social group; for belonging to such a group demonstrates in another way that one is blessed and attuned to the divine. Similarly, people who are "weak," that is, without power and the confidence given by power (cf. 1 Cor. 1:26), cannot be "good."
Now Paul is among them as a "fool," speaking folly rather than
wisdom, speaking about implausible things. His speech is far from
being eloquent (cf. 1 Cor. 1:17), a rambling of unconvincing words.
Furthermore, he is a weakling, lacking confidence and in fear and
trembling. Thus he writes, "I was with you in weakness and in much
fear and trembling; and my speech and my message were not in
plausible words of wisdom" (1 Cor. 2:3- 4). He does not appear to
them as of "noble birth" bout rather as a member of the lower social
strata who has to work with his hands. "We hunger and thirst, we are
ill-clad and buffeted and homeless, and we labor, working with our
own hands" (1 Cor. 4:11-12, in contrast to the false apostles). Thus
he is "reviled," "persecuted," "slandered." "We have become, and are
now, as the refuse of the world, the scum of all things" (1 Cor.
4:13, au. trans.). As such, from the perspective of the idolatrous
Hellenistic system of convictions, Paul
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"in the likeness of sinful flesh" (although "sin'; is not a Hellenistic concept) or, better, he is cursed and rejected: he is crucified.
At one and the same time, Paul is as an apostle of Christ, a son who can say to God, "Abbe! Father!" (Rom.8:15). This relation of Paul to God is also manifested in such a way that it might be recognized according to the idolatrous Hellenistic system of convictions. For the Gentiles, ecstatic and spiritual experiences (such as in the mystery cults) and miracles were manifestations of the divine. Such manifestations of the divine are found in Paul's life. God intervenes in his ministry"in demonstration of the Spirit and of power" (1 Cor. 2:4). In his ministry there are manifestations of God's power (and not of human power which could result from human wisdom; 1 Cor. 2:5) which Hellenistic people can recognize through their system of convictions. These manifestations of the Spirit are not the complete and final revelation (as heretic Corinthians view them), but rather resurrection-like manifestations for Hellenistic people. According to their idolatrous system of convictions, a resurrection in itself would have been meaningless; they were expecting not resurrection of the body but immortality of the soul. But they can recognize as divine these demonstrations of the Spirit and of power in the ministry of this "good for nothing" Paul.
In this way Paul's ministry is a salvific intervention of God for Hellenistic people. Once freed from the power of sin, they will recognize that this manifestation of God in their experience is the fulfillment of the type "Jesus crucified and raised," and they will confess that he is the Lord and that he is resurrected.
Christ, the Gentile believers, and Paul are typical salvific interventions of God aimed at destroying various powers of sin. Those who believe and agree to come out of their shattered idolatrous systems of convictions live in "the glorious liberty of the children of God" (Rom. 8:21), in the freedom of faith which is also the insecurity of hope (rather than holding to a complete and final revelation and identity). But what will their life be?
This life in faith does not involve the rejection of everything
which constituted one's idolatrous system of convictions. Each
idolatrous system of convictions is a perverted revelation of God,
but when the idolaters are freed from it as power of sin, this
revelation is also "freed." It appears for what it really is a
manifestation of God's power providing a
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provisional (and not absolute) order for lily. The believers must give honor and thanks to God for it, otherwise they will be once again, although for a different reason, under the wrath of God, which will be manifested for them in this power and this order offered by God as a gift. Yet they must not make an absolute out of it again.
This difficult balancing act would be impossible to maintain if it were not for another characteristic of the believers' life or, better, if it were not for another demand placed upon the believers which insures that they do not consider anything as absolute. The believers themselves have to become the instruments that God uses for other salvific interventions. Their salvation from a power of sin is also an election; they are chosen and beloved by God (1 Thess. 1:4). Together with this election there is a vocation. They have to join God in his actions. This will often require abandoning one's way of life, for it involves becoming Jew with the Jews, Greek with the Greeks, and so on. This is what participating in God's salvific work entails (cf. 1 Cor. 9:19-23). "We are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us" (2 Cor. 5:20). We have been saved so that "we might become the righteousness of God" (2 Cor. 5:21). How are they to become ambassadors for Christ? How are they to join God in his actions? First, they need to allow God to use them as he used Christ, to allow God to send them "in the likeness of sinful flesh" into the world of various idolatrous systems of convictions. So Paul exhorted the Christians to "do evil that good may come" (Rom. 3:8). The charge against Paul on this issue is from people who slanderously interpreted this to mean "do evil against God," while Paul meant "do evil according to the definition of evil given by a sinful system of convictions." In fact, this exhortation to "do evil that good may come" means almost the same thing as the exhortation we find in Rom. 12:2a, "Do not be conformed to this world." In other words, do not adopt for yourself the definition of good given by the world. By agreeing to become "in the likeness of sinful flesh," they also agree to be persecuted, slandered, humiliated, sacrificed. If they can accept all this, it is because they can be confident that just as they are in the likeness of the crucified Christ, so God will manifest in them his resurrection-like power.
I appeal to you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. (Rom. 12:1)