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Paul’s Most Thorough Gospel Exposition | James Hastings et al. · Reformed Thinking

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  Welcome to Reformed thinking. I'm glad you were here with us.
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  Today. We are opening a file that is
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  arguably the heavyweight champion of the New Testament.
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  We are looking at the Epistle to the Romans.
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  It is good to be here, and you are so right about the weight of
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  this letter. I mean, if you ask any student
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  of the Reformation or really any historian of the Western Church,
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  they will point to this document as the match that, you know,
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  that lit the powder keg. It's the most systematic
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  presentation of the gospel we have from the Apostle Paul.
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  Absolutely. And usually when we talk about
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  Romans, we have this tendency to just jump straight into the
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  theology. We want to get into
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  predestination or justification or the law right away, and we
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  were going to do that today. But we're taking a specific
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  angle. We're looking at the source
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  material from James Hastings Dictionary of the Bible.
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  We want to understand the historical context, the man, the
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  moment and the argument as Hastings lays it all out.
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  And that's the mission. We need to understand the why
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  behind the letter. Why did Paul write it?
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  Where was he standing when he dictated it?
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  And specifically, what is the theological argument regarding
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  justification and sanctification that, you know, that defines our
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  Reformed faith? Hastings gives us a fantastic
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  framework for this. He even points out things like
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  undesigned coincidences that help confirm the history, which
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  I think you will find fascinating.
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  I love a good historical mystery, so let's unpack this.
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  Set the scene for us when we open the Epistle to the Romans.
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  Where is Paul? What is happening in his life?
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  OK, so to answer that we have to look at the timeline.
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  This letter belongs to what scholars call the central group
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  of Paul's writings. That includes Galatians and the
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  2 letters to the Corinthians. And Hastings suggests there's a
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  specific order to them. He does.
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  He suggests that Marcians order Galatians first, then
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  Corinthians, then Romans is likely the chronological order.
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  So he has already dealt with the Galatian heresy and he's dealt
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  with all the mess in Corinth. Correct.
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  He's been through the ringer, so to speak.
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  Hastings places the writing of Romans at the close of the
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  so-called third missionary activity.
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  OK, so if you are following along in the book of Acts, this
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  is the period described in Acts 18 through 21.
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  Paul had just been through the riots in Ephesus, which was, you
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  know, a completely chaotic time. And then he spent three months
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  in Greece. And that three month period
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  lines up with Acts 20, verse 3. It does.
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  It fits perfectly. And Hastings is pretty confident
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  that Greece here specifically means Corinth.
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  Oh, he is, and the evidence for that is internal to the letter
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  itself. It is really quite clever how we
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  can piece all this together. OK, So what are the clues?
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  For one, Paul mentions in Romans 16 that he is staying with a man
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  named Gaius. Which is a common Roman name
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  I'd. Imagine it is yeah who is
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  mentioned in First Corinthians one verse 14 who is a member of
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  the Corinthian church. So there's a direct link back to
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  Corinth. There is, and then you have the
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  bearer of the letter Phoebe. She is described as a servant of
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  the church at Sencre. And Sencre is the port city of
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  Corinth. Precisely.
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  It's the harbor. So you have the host, you have
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  the Courier, and you have the timeline.
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  Acts 20 says Paul spent three months in Greece before heading
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  back toward Jerusalem, Hastings argues.
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  And I think the evidence is solid that Romans was written
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  during that three month window. That makes a lot of sense.
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  It puts Paul in a major city, probably during the winter
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  months when travel was harder, which would give him the time to
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  sit down and dictate such a massive work.
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  But tell us about his plans. Because he is writing to Rome,
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  but he is not in Rome. No, he's not.
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  And his immediate travel plans were actually in the opposite
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  direction. Acts 19 tells us Paul intended
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  to go to Jerusalem first. Right for the collection.
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  The collection for the poor Saints there, Yes.
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  After that, he planned to turn his steps toward Rome.
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  And this is where that term you mentioned earlier comes in, the
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  undesigned coincidences. Yes, this is a concept from the
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  scholar Paley. It is when two different
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  historical accounts, in this case the Book of Acts and the
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  Epistles to the Romans, match up in these small, subtle ways that
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  a forger would, you know, never think to invent.
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  Give us an example of 1. Well, you can compare Romans 15
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  with Acts 19 and 20. In Romans, Paul writes about his
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  hesitation and the danger he faces from unbelievers in Judea.
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  He's anxious about it. Then you turn to Acts and what
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  do we see? We see the actual plots by the
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  Jews that forced him to change his travel route.
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  The internal anxiety in the letter perfectly matches the
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  external history in Acts. That's fascinating, really
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  confirms the authenticity of the timeline.
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  It does. It grounds the text in real
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  history. This isn't just a theological
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  treatise dropped from heaven. It is a letter from a real man
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  who is very aware of the dangers ahead.
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  But that does raise a question. I mean, if he is going to
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  Jerusalem and he just wants to let the Romans know, hey, I will
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  see you soon, Why 16 chapters of dense theology?
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  Why not just send a postcard? That is the big question, isn't
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  it? Hastings calls the prospective
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  visit the immediate occasion. He's preparing the way for his
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  visit. But you are right, a short note
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  would have been enough for that. So the length implies something
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  else is going. On a much stronger motivation,
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  yes. And that motivation is the
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  significance of Rome itself. Remember, Paul was a Roman
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  citizen. Hastings points out that Paul
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  was perhaps the first to grasp the magnitude of the empire for
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  the expansion of the church. He had this, this kind of
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  missionary statesmanship. He targeted the big cities.
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  He targeted trade centers like Ephesus and Corinth, but Rome?
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  Rome was the center of the world.
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  So he wanted the capital of the empire to understand the full
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  worth of the gospel. Correct.
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  If the Gospel could conquer Rome, it could reach the ends of
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  the earth. And there is another factor
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  here. The Church in Rome was not an
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  Apostolic foundation. Meaning neither Peter nor Paul
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  started it. Right.
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  It likely started through travelers, perhaps Jews, who
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  were present at Pentecost and then went back home.
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  So Paul is not writing to his own children in the faith like
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  he was with the Corinthians. He is writing to a church he's
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  never even visited. And that explains the different
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  tone. It does.
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  Hastings makes a distinction about what the letter is not,
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  and he says it is not primarily controversial, unlike Galatians.
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  Very much unlike Galatians. Galatians is a fight.
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  Paul is fighting for the very life of the gospel against the
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  legalist. He is angry.
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  In Romans, the tone is calm. It is conciliatory.
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  Hastings notes that while he does warn them against false
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  teachers in Chapter 16, it feels more like a warning against a
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  possible danger, not a fire that is currently burning down the
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  house. So he's not shouting at them,
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  he's reasoning with them. No, no shouting.
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  He is setting out his gospel. But Hastings also says it is not
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  a full dogmatic treatise. We often treat Romans like a
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  systematic theology textbook, but Hastings points out it is
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  incomplete in that regard. Incomplete.
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  That sounds almost heretical to say about Romans.
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  Well, I mean, consider what is missing.
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  Hastings notes that it omits key doctrines Paul held dear, like a
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  specific eschatology. You know the details of the end
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  times or the high Christology we see later in Colossians or
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  Ephesians. I see your point.
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  It is a true letter addressed to a specific situation, not a
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  comprehensive encyclopedia of everything Paul knew.
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  It is a reflection on the universality of the Gospel,
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  which matches the universality of the Empire.
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  That is the key theme. The Empire is 1, The Gospel is
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  1. The empire includes all nations.
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  The gospel is for all nations. So let's move into the text
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  itself, the first 3 chapters. This is where Paul really lays
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  out the universal need for that gospel.
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  And he starts with that famous thesis in chapter 1, verses 16
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  and 17. The gospel is the force of God
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  unto salvation for all men. For the Jew 1st and also for the
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  Greek. Yes, but to prove that it is for
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  everyone, he first has to prove that everyone needs it.
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  And this is where we get the the dark side of the opening
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  chapters. It is a courtroom scene and the
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  prosecutor is just relentless. He starts with the Gentile
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  world, and Hastings describes this as an indictment of willful
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  ignorance. It is not that they did not know
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  God, it is that they suppressed that knowledge.
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  They denied the Creator. And Hastings notes the sequence
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  here, Willful ignorance leads to moral decay.
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  When you disconnect from the source of holiness.
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  Your own holiness Withers. Yes, and the description in
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  chapter 1 is brutal. I mean it lists all manner of
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  vices. Hastings notes that their
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  conscience is defiled. They don't just commit sins,
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  they applaud those who do them. And that is the final stage of
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  corruption celebrating vice. But then in Chapter 2, Paul just
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  spins around and points the finger at the Jewish world.
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  And this is masterful. He anticipates the Jewish
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  listener nodding along, saying, yes, those pagans are terrible.
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  And then Paul says you do the same things.
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  Right. The possession of the law does
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  not excuse sin. That is the whole argument.
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  Hastings highlights the principle that God judges
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  without distinction of persons. He judges based on deeds.
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  He says something really shocking to a 1st century Jewish
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  mindset. He does.
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  He says a Gentile obeying the moral law is better than a Jew
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  disobeying the written law. That is the Tukwoka argument.
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  Hastings mentions you also, yes. Paul just turns the table on
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  them. The verdict in Chapter 3 is
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  total. The whole world stands guilty.
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  Hastings sums it up well. The law acts to intensify the
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  conviction of sin, not to remove it.
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  Its purpose is to close every mouth.
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  So the courtroom falls silent. Everyone is guilty.
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  And that brings us to the solution.
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  Justification by faith. This is the heart of the
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  Reformation. It is the new way Hastings
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  describes it as righteousness apart from the law through faith
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  in Jesus. And we need to be clear about
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  the method Hastings uses the term propitiatory sacrifice.
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  Let's unpack that word propitiation.
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  It's a big theological word, It is.
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  But it basically means a sacrifice that turns away wrath.
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  It satisfies the demands of justice.
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  And the incredible thing is God provides the sacrifice that he
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  himself and. The response from humanity is
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  faith. Yes, and Hastings defines faith
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  here so nicely. Not as a work we do, but as
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  humble trust in a loving God. It excludes any claim of merit
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  on our part. And Paul doesn't just leave this
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  as a theory. He brings in a witness.
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  He calls Abraham to the stand. The case of Abraham in chapter 4
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  is the historical proof. I mean, if anyone had grounds to
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  boast, it was Abraham, the father of the Jewish nation.
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  But Paul points out a chronological fact that Hastings
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  highlights as crucial, which is Abraham was justified before he
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  was circumcised. That is a crucial timeline
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  detail. It is everything because if he
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  was declared righteous before the ritual of circumcision, then
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  righteousness cannot possibly depend on the ritual.
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  It depends on the promise. It depends on the promise
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  exactly. Hastings mentions the Beatitude
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  here. Yes, Paul quotes Psalm 32.
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  Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not count against him.
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  It is the blessing of the man whose sins are hidden.
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  The implication is massive. The promise comes apart from the
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  law. We are the spiritual seed of
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  Abraham if we share his faith. Which Hastings describes as
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  believing God, even against nature.
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  Yeah, Abraham believed he would have a son when his body was as
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  good as dead. We believe God raises the dead.
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  Precisely. It is trusting the God who calls
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  things that are not as though they were.
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  So we are justified. The judges banged the gavel and
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  said not guilty, but we still have to live our lives.
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  This moves us into sanctification.
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  Chapters 5 through 8. Hastings calls this the life
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  built on the foundation. And here we shift from a
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  courtroom to a comparison of two representatives, the two atoms.
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  The first Adam and the second Adam.
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  Right. And Hastings outlines what he
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  calls the much more argument. The first Adam brought death.
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  He failed the second Adam. Christ is the creator of a new
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  humanity. And Christ's strength is
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  greater. Paul argues that Christ's
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  strength to save is much more than Adam's strength to destroy.
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  That is a comforting thought. Grace is stronger than gravity.
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  But this leads to the inevitable question, doesn't it?
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  If grace abounds where sin abounds, why not just sin a lot
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  so we can get more grace? The question of license.
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  Every critic of the Gospel of Grace asks this very question.
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  Hastings explains Paul's logic in chapter 6.
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  It is not about rules, it is about status and union.
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  He talks about baptism. Right.
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  Baptism symbolizes dying to sin and rising to new life.
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  Hastings puts it this way. It is a vital union with Christ.
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  If you died to sin, how can you live in it?
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  It is a logical impossibility for the new creature.
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  He uses the analogy of marriage, too.
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  Yes, we are free from the law like a wife is free after her
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  husband dies. The old bond is broken.
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  The old master is gone. But then we hit Chapter 7, and
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  this is where things get really personal.
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  The struggle. This is one of the most debated
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  chapters in all of Scripture. Hastings describes it as an
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  intense personal section regarding flesh versus spirit.
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  The law is holy, but sin uses the law to deceive us.
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  Does Hastings take a side on whether this is Paul the
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  Pharisee or Paul the Apostle struggling?
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  He notes that Paul describes A torturing consciousness of
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  needing to do good but failing. I mean whether it is his pre
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  Christian experience or his ongoing battle as a believer,
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  the realization is the same. The weakness of the flesh is
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  sold under sin. It paints a really bleak picture
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  of human willpower. Which makes the transition to
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  Chapter 8 so powerful. There is therefore now no
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  condemnation. The life and the spirit.
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  Hastings calls it a triumph. We have the spirit of adoption.
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  We don't cry out as slaves. We cry out ABBA Father.
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  And Hastings mentions the Golden Chain.
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  Yes, the chain of salvation in Romans 8, verses 29 and 30.
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  Foreknowledge, predestination, calling, justification,
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  glorification. This is where the Reformed
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  emphasis on election finds its bedrock.
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  It is God's work from start to finish.
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  And it ends with that hymn of victory.
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  If God be for us, who can be against us?
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  Hastings notes that nothing, absolutely nothing, can separate
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  the believer from the love of God.
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  It is absolute security. So we have this High Peak of
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  assurance, but then almost abruptly, the mood shifts.
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  In Chapter 9, Paul is grieving. This is the problem of Israel.
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  If the gospel is the force of God, why are God's chosen
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  people, the Jews, rejecting it? This is the next section of our
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  discussion, and it's a difficult one.
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  Hastings points out that this section deals with divine
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  sovereignty. It does.
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  Paul tackles the hard doctrine here head on.
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  He looks at history. God chose Isaac, not Ishmael.
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  He chose Jacob, not Esau. Hastings notes the illustration
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  of the Potter and the clay. God has the right to make one
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  vessel for honor and another for dishonor.
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  That is a hard pill to swallow for modern listeners.
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  It is. Hastings calls God's mercy
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  inscrutable, which means we cannot fully scan it or track
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  it. He has the right to choose
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  individuals. It's his prerogative.
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  But Hastings also balances this. He talks about human
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  responsibility. Yes, and this is so key.
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  The text asserts Jewish responsibility.
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  They were not rejected without 'cause they sought their own
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  righteousness. They heard the message and they
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  disobeyed. So you had this tension, divine
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  sovereignty and human responsibility held together in
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  the text. Well, do they exist side by
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  side? And what is the future hope?
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  Yeah. Is God done with Israel?
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  Hastings explains the remnant concept.
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  God always keeps a remnant, and then He uses that beautiful
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  illustration of the wild olive branch, the Gentiles, or the
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  wild branch grafted into the ancient root.
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  So we shouldn't get arrogant. Correct.
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  The mystery Paul reveals is that the hardening of Israel is
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  temporary. It created a space for the
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  Gentiles to come in. But the hope is that God has not
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  deserted his people. His mercy will restore them,
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  Hastings says. This reveals that God's mercy is
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  the final word. So we have covered all of that
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  doctrine, chapters one through 11.
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  Now we hit the word therefore in chapter 12.
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  The shift to application. Practical Christianity.
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  Hastings summarizes this as total surrender, living
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  sacrifice. Which is the only logical
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  response to the mercies of God described in the 1st 11
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  chapters. And this plays out in duties,
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  humility, diversity of gifts within the church.
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  And in Chapter 13, Response to governing powers.
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  Paying debts, obeying authority, Hastings reminds us.
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  This was written to Christians living in the capital of the
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  empire under Nero, of all people.
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  It was not some theoretical instruction.
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  It was vital for their survival and their witness.
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  Then we have the issue of the strong and the weak in Chapter
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  14. What is the specific problem
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  Hastings identifies here? It's disputes over food and
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  days, probably Jewish dietary laws versus Gentile liberty.
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  Some are eating meat, some are only eating vegetables, some are
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  observing special days and. What's the principle?
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  Individual responsibility. Hastings outlines it well.
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  He stands or falls to his own master.
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  We don't judge our brother in these matters of conscience.
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  But there is also the law of love.
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  Yes, and this is the check on our liberty.
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  The strong must bear with the weak.
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  We are not to please ourselves. The goal is to imitate Christ.
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  If my liberty destroys my brother, then it is not liberty,
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  it is selfishness. Now we're coming to the end of
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  the letter. The final section deals with
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  some textual issues that Hastings brings up, and this is
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  a bit of a detective story. Again, the Chapter 16 mystery.
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  This is a fascinating debate among scholars.
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  Some argue that chapter 16 was actually a separate letter sent
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  to Ephesus, not to Rome. Why would they think that?
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  What's the evidence? Well, you look at the names.
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  Paul sends greetings to Priscilla and Akila, and in Acts
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  18 they are primarily associated with Ephesus.
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  And then there's just the sheer number of people he greets, over
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  20 specific individuals. The argument is how could Paul
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  possibly know so many people in Rome, a city he had never
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  visited? It seems more likely he is
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  greeting his friends back in Ephesus, where he had spent so
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  much time. That does sound pretty
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  convincing, but Hastings presents the other side of the
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  coin. He does.
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  He mentioned scholars like Sande and Headlum who actually found
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  archaeological evidence of these specific names in Rome,
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  inscriptions and such. Yeah, and it turns out there is
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  a lot of travel between the colonies and the capital.
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  People were always moving back and forth.
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  It is entirely plausible Paul knew many expats living in Rome.
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  So Hastings leans toward it being genuine to the Roman
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  letter. He thinks the question is open,
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  but he believes the evidence for Rome is strong.
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  It just shows Paul's incredible networking.
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  Ability Hastings also takes a moment to refute the critics.
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  He mentions the Dutch school and a man named Van Manen.
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  What was their deal? Yes, this was a group of critics
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  who doubted Pauline Awkership entirely.
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  They just couldn't believe it. They thought the theology was
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  too developed, too advanced for the 1st century.
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  They argued that a man does not become the adherent of a
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  religion and its reformer at the same moment.
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  So their argument was basically this is too good.
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  A normal person couldn't have written this.
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  That's the gist of it. And how does Hastings, or rather
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  the source he quotes, respond to that?
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  With a wonderful bit of understatement.
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  He quotes a Professor Schmeidel who said perhaps Saint Paul was
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  not an ordinary man. I love that the argument against
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  it is basically no one is that smart, and the answer is simply,
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  well, Paul was. Right.
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  The assertion is that the letter is genuine.
• 19:07
  It fits the man. So as we wrap up, let's
• 19:10
  summarize the character of this letter.
• 19:12
  Hastings says something striking here.
• 19:15
  He says Romans is not just theology, it is religious
• 19:18
  vitality. That is the spirit of the
• 19:20
  letter. It binds the believer to the
• 19:22
  mercy of God. It is not just an intellectual
• 19:25
  exercise. Hastings writes that it reveals
• 19:27
  a heart where the love of God is shed abroad.
• 19:30
  He connects it back to the personal experience of Paul.
• 19:33
  Yes, Paul did not just sit in a library and deduce these things.
• 19:37
  He arrived at the mind of Christ through the gospel of grace.
• 19:40
  He found that in God's grace there was strength to arrest the
• 19:43
  decay of the world. He found the secret of
• 19:46
  overcoming. It is the passionate outpouring
• 19:49
  of one who has come into living touch with his Heavenly Father.
• 19:52
  That is the best way to describe it, yes.
• 19:54
  So what does this all mean for us?
• 19:56
  We have walked through the history, the argument, the
• 20:00
  struggle and the victory. I think it means we need to read
• 20:02
  Romans differently. We need to see it not just as a
• 20:05
  source of proof text for our theological debates, but as a
• 20:08
  missionary document. That is a great point and here
• 20:11
  is a thought. I want to leave our listeners
• 20:12
  with something for you to chew on.
• 20:14
  Hastings mentions that Paul wanted to go to Spain.
• 20:17
  He says it in chapter 15. He wanted to take the gospel to
• 20:20
  the Wild West of the Empire. Yes, he did.
• 20:22
  That was his next big project. So consider this, the Epistle to
• 20:26
  the Romans. This magnum opus, this cathedral
• 20:29
  theology that we've been discussing was in a very
• 20:32
  practical sense a support raising letter.
• 20:34
  He was explaining his message to the Roman Church in detail so
• 20:38
  they would understand his Gospel and then support his mission to
• 20:41
  Spain. That's a provocative thought.
• 20:43
  And The thing is, we aren't even sure he ever made it to Spain.
• 20:47
  But in trying to get there, he gave us Romans.
• 20:50
  It suggests that the greatest theological work in history was
• 20:54
  a byproduct of a missionary heart.
• 20:56
  Theology exists to aid the mission.
• 20:58
  That puts it all in perspective. The theology wasn't the end in
• 21:01
  itself. The glory of God among the
• 21:04
  nations was the end. Thank you for taking this deep
• 21:06
  dive with us. It's been a real pleasure to
• 21:09
  look at this text through the lens of James Hastings.
• 21:11
  It has been a joy. For our listeners, we hope this
• 21:13
  renews your interest in reading Romans not just as a study, but
• 21:17
  as an encounter with the strength of God.
• 21:19
  Until next time, Kee thinking.