Romans

Review: Into the Heart of Romans

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Cover image of "Into the Heart of Romans" by N.T. Wright

Into the Heart of Romans, N.T. Wright. Zondervan Academic (ISBN: 9780310157748), 2023.

Summary: A close reading of Romans 8, focusing on the purpose, presence, and profound love in Christ for all who believe meant to assure them of not only their ultimate destiny but of God’s favor even as they share in the sufferings of Christ amid a groaning creation.

N.T. Wright has been studying the book of Romans for fifty years, publishing both scholarly and popular commentaries on Paul’s masterpiece, as well as drawing extensively on Romans in his Pauline scholarship. This book reflects both the culmination of this scholarship as well as changes in his thought through discussions with his students.

The focus of the book is on the majestic culmination in Romans 8 to Paul’s arguments in Romans 1-7. Romans 8 is indeed the heart of Romans as central in the text of the letter and key as a transition from the argument of the first seven chapters to the discussions on the calling of Israel in 9-11 and the applicatory material of chapters 12-16. But what is Paul’s conclusion and how did Wright’s thinking about it change.

We have traditionally read this chapter is one of assurance of our salvation in Christ, as those not under condemnation, as those for whom God works good in all things, and for whom nothing can separate us from God’s love in Christ. Wright would not disagree with these things, but has come to see something equally rich–the presence, power, and profound approval of God in Christ for us in the present moment. For many of Paul’s readers, even as is the case for many in the present day, the present is a time of suffering. Paul’s message is that this, in fact is their vocation, and it is one of sharing in the sufferings of Christ, that the spirit (Wright uses the lower case throughout) groans, intercedes, and empowers, and that Christians can be assured of God’s approval (and not condemnation) and God’s protection in life and death.

After introductory material setting Romans 8 in its context, Wright breaks the book into eight sections. For each section, Wright asks what the opening and closing reveals about the theme. He then looks at Paul’s connecting words to unpack the logic of his argument. He then looks at the contexts in Paul’s wider world, both Jewish and Greco-Roman, that provides resonances for what Paul is saying. A few insights I appreciated out of the wealth of material here:

  • Romans 8:1-4. There is no condemnation because God condemned sin in the flesh of Jesus, fulfilling what Torah could only anticipate.
  • Romans 8:5-11. The spirit of the risen Christ enables God’s people in the present time to please God in our bodies.
  • Romans 8:12-17. Wright challenges the moralizing anthropology of our Platonic notions of heaven with the idea of our vocation in the new creation, already begun in which we are God’s spirit-empowered agents. That vocation is as fellow heirs with Christ, crying “Abba” even as we share in suffering, with the hope of resurrection.
  • Romans 8:17-21. “The primary meanings of ‘glory’ in this passage are, simultaneously, the glorious presence of God himself dwelling within us by the spirit, and the wise, healing, reconciling rule of God’s people over the whole creation. These two — God’s presence and human rule — are made for each other. They fit together” (p. 110).
  • Romans 8:22-27. We enter, perhaps most deeply into our vocation, as we enter into the world’s suffering, the groaning creation, enabled by God’s spirit to pray with lament and longing.
  • Romans 8:28-30. Wright challenges the traditional “all things work for good” translating it rather “God works all things together for good with those who love him,” particularly in calling, justifying, and glorifying us.
  • Romans 8:31-34. An interesting side note in this chapter is Wright’s questioning of the Feast of Christ the King, contending that it takes away from the idea of the Ascension as Christ’s installation as King.
  • Romans 8:34-39. The theme of our vocation makes sense of all the “bad” things of vv. 35-36 with the assurance that none of these will separate us from the love of God in Christ.

Wright’s situating of the assurance of God’s love, approval, and protection within the vocation of Christians as sharing in Christ’s sufferings in a groaning creation profoundly deepens our reading of this powerful chapter. This is not “happy-clappy” Christianity insensitive to the world’s struggles. It is not prosperous and privileged Christianity by the standards of the world. This is a profound word for Christians who have entered into the groanings of our world and for those whose faithfulness has led to suffering, that this is not their fault, that God is with them, and even praying with them in their laments. This is a profound word that there is nothing that the world or the powers can throw in their face or their lives to part them from God. Even as God said to Israel, “I will be your God” so God says to the larger human family in Christ.

Wright is not an easy read. It was a gift to read this with a local book group, particularly one with a member deeply familiar with Wright’s work (not me) who supplemented our discussions with background material from Wright. Thanks, Dan, and all my friends, who labored to dig out the wealth of insight in this book!

Review: Resurrecting Justice

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Resurrecting Justice: Reading Romans for the Life of the World, Douglas Harink. Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2020.

Summary: An invitation to read Romans as a treatise on justice in our relationship with God, in the church, and in society.

Douglas Harink contends that in Christian discussions of justice, we have overlooked Romans, turning instead to the law, the prophets, and the gospels. A key reason for this is how we typically translate dikaiosynē. Usually, in Romans, it is rendered as “righteous” or “righteousness. The same word also may be translated as “justice” and Harink offers a reading of Romans using this translation. In doing so, he moves Christian discussions of justice from culture-shaped discussions with a veneer of Christianity to a distinctive, God-shaped justice profoundly shaped by the suffering, death, and resurrection of the incarnate Son.

One feature of this reading is not only to substitute justice for instances of righteousness, but to translate reveal as “apocalypse” and instead of speaking of Christ, to use “Messiah” and to refer to followers as “messianics.” He also elaborates the cultural understanding of words often used in Romans such as “lord,” “son of God,” “gospel,” “coming,” “savior” and other terms. One particularly significant one is faith, translating pistis. Like other contemporary commentators, he uses terms like loyalty, allegiance and faithfulness. This poses a challenge because the unfamiliar or redefined terminology involves a kind of “code-switching,” being mindful of Harink’s definitions throughout. There is a glossary at the back of the book to help with this purpose.

Against the backdrop in which the “gospel” is the glorious rule of Rome, he shows how Paul’s thesis is that the gospel is God’s saving power revealed (apocalypsed) for all who believe, both Jews and Greek through the crucified one, that the just will live by faith. Harink goes on to show how both Gentile nations have been under captivity to idolatrous political and philosophic systems and Jews to the law. The justice of God is revealed not in conflict between Jew and Gentile, but through the love of God revealed in the death of the son who liberates both from captivity to the power of sin, but reveals his power to work in those who trust in him through the resurrection. This is a justice that crucifies human control for the power of the Spirit, that begins to undo the bondage of creation, and that will triumph through all adversity, inseparable from the love of God in Christ. This will ultimately be justice for all Israel, now divided.

The conclusion of Romans deals with how the people of the Messiah live as a result of the justice revealed. One of the distinctive aspects of this reading is its understand of Romans 13:1-10. Harink calls for what he calls “messianic anarchy.” By this he does not mean lawlessness, but the recognition that the archys, the powers that be are ‘over’ us and we are ‘under’ and submitting to those powers is not upholding the state but simply not resisting the “overs” but recognizing that we are ‘under.’ We are not for or against them. They exist, they may sometimes do good things, but they are not the justice of God.

He also shows how the table instructions of Romans 14 reflect the justice of God, the solidarity between Jew and Gentile. Even the concluding greetings reflect the solidarity Paul has with Jew and Gentile, women and men.

Harink’s work presses out how the saving justice of God in the work of Christ transforms personal, church, and political relationships. Along the way in his reading, he offers questions for reflection. He shows that the work of Christ not only “justices” us with God but transforms human relationships as we live in “messianic time,” the already-not yet time” where we live in love of God and neighbor. Harink writes:

“We live in an age–probably not really unlike others–in which our gaze is constantly drawn to the ruling powers; not only the political ones but also all those powers–technology, the economy, the media, the crowd–that would grab our attention and call us to celebrate their glory and greatness. It is hard not to believe that they, rather than the lowly, have inherited the earth. It seems obvious. But the whole of the letter to the Romans draws our gaze elsewhere–to the justice of God in the crucified and risen Messiah Jesus and the power of life in the Spirit.”

Harink, p. 188.

The main question I have as I read this book is to understand how Christ’s saving work is accomplished. He speaks of the obedience of Christ, human and divine as conquering the Adamic sovereignty that is at the heart of sin, revealing the justice of God. It seem that this is an act that saves by divine fiat rather than the just one standing in our place, the obedient dying for the rebellious. As compelling as this reading is, and I do believe there is much to commend it in its understanding of the justice of God revealed in Christ and how we live under this, like many contemporary works, it seems this evades the idea of substitution. I do not believe this reading must dispense with substitution, which magnifies the obedience of the Son, and the justice and love of the Father. Perhaps this reading is just reframing. The alternate language certainly offers a fresh look at Romans. But new readings deserve careful reading, and with new insights, we must be certain that we have sacrificed old truths.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.