Latest / Reformed Thinking / The Gospel and the Downward Spiral of Humanity (Romans 1) | Steven E. Runge

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The Gospel and the Downward Spiral of Humanity (Romans 1) | Steven E. Runge · Reformed Thinking

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You know, it is, it's so easy to just read a 2000 year old letter
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and we'll kind of shut your brain up.
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Like you sit down with it and your brain automatically kicks
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into this very specific year. We tend to expect ancient
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historical documents to function like a grocery receipt or, I
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don't know, a dusty legal contract.
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Right. Just this basic transfer of raw
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data, yeah. You scan the page, you assume
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the words are just moving fax from the sender to the receiver,
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and you take the whole thing at face value.
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Which is a huge mistake. It really is, but welcome to
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reform thinking. By the way, I'm so glad you are
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joining us for this deep dive because our mission today is to
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completely shatter that expectation.
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It is a massive misconception. When you open the letters of the
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Apostle Paul, particularly his letter to the Romans, you are
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not reading some dry theological datadump.
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No, not at all. You are walking to a masterfully
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calculated rhetorical trap. A trap.
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I love that framing. Yeah.
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So today for you listening, we are looking at STI and E Runge's
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commentary on Romans 1. And for those who might not be
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familiar, a commentary is basically a line by line
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scholarly analysis of a biblical text.
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Right, But Runge approaches this as a linguist.
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He applies modern discourse analysis to the text.
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Which means he is not just asking what Paul is saying, but
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he is asking why Paul is structuring his sentences the
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way he does. Right, he is looking at the
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actual mechanics of persuasion. So if you have ever read a dense
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theological text and felt completely lost in the academic
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jargon, this is for you. Or if you've just glossed over
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the 1st chapter of Romans because it, well, it feels like
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a standard boring greeting. Yes, you are the precise person
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we are doing this deep dive for. We're going to uncover the
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brilliant strategies Paul uses to lay out the gospel, human
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rebellion and the design of creation.
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We're going to look at how he anticipates objections, how he
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sets linguistic traps, and really how he psychologically
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maneuvers his audience. So let's just jump right into
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the very first sentence, Romans chapter 1 verses one through 7.
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To appreciate what Paul is doing here, you have to understand the
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standard format of a 1st century Roman letter.
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OK, set the scene for us. The standard expected opening in
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that culture was incredibly brief.
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It was usually just, you know, send her to recipient greetings.
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So if you were writing to the Church in Rome, you would just
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write from Paul to the Romans. Grace and peace.
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Spot on, but Paul completely blows up this convention.
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He interrupts his own greeting to insert this massive block of
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texts. He immediately mentions the
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gospel. Right, yes, and he describes
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himself as a servant set apart for this specific message.
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Renge points out that out of all of Paul's letters, Romans is the
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only one where his opening specifically outlines the gospel
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in this way. I always think of it like
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someone handing you a highly customized business card.
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Oh, that's a great analogy. Right, because imagine you were
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sitting in a Roman house church. You have heard rumors about this
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guy Paul. Some people say he's a
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controversial figure. Some say he is a brilliant
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teacher. They definitely had mixed
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opinions on him. So if he just sends a letter
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saying from Paul, you are going to project all of your own
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assumptions onto him, but instead he hands you this
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business card that lists very specific credentials.
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Right, he curates his own introduction.
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Exactly. I mean precisely.
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He calls himself a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an
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apostle set apart for the gospel of God.
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He is forcing you to view him through a very specific lens.
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He is establishing undeniable authority before he even
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finishes saying hello. Because the word apostle carried
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a lot of weight back then. Didn't.
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It massive weight in that 1st century context.
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An apostle was a sent one, an emissary who carried the full
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authority of the one who sent them.
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So by putting that title front and center, he is letting the
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Roman believers know that he is not just writing to offer a
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friendly opinion. Right, he's speaking on behalf
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of the Divine King, but what is truly brilliant is how he
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introduces that king. Yes, the 20 questions approach.
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Runge highlights this and it is so fascinating it.
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Is Paul strings together this incredibly long list of
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descriptions about Jesus before he ever actually uses his proper
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name? He builds this towering mental
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image first. He writes that the gospel was
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promised beforehand through the prophets concerning his Son, who
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was descended from David according to the flesh.
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Right, He keeps going. He says He was declared to be
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the Son of God in might according to the spirit of
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holiness, by his resurrection from the dead.
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It's this massive detailed picture, and only after painting
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that entire intricate framework does he attach the specific
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label to it. Jesus Christ our Lord.
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The psychology behind in this delay is just staggering.
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I mean, if Paul had simply started the letter by saying I'm
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an apostle of Jesus, what would happen?
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Well, the Roman readers would have immediately attached their
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own preconceived notions to that.
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Name 100%. Rome was a melting pot.
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The believers there came from Jewish backgrounds and Gentile
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backgrounds. So they all had different, maybe
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partial, understandings of who Jesus was.
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Right. And if you drop the name too
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early, whatever partial knowledge they possess becomes
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the lens through which they read the rest of your letter.
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So by delaying the specific reference, he controls the
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definition. He forces the reader to
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conceptualize the person based on a historically grounded,
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prophetically anticipated reality first.
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He's basically saying, before you think about whatever version
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of Jesus you have in your head, I need you to understand that
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the person I represent is the fulfillment of ancient Jewish
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prophecy. The biological heir to the
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throne of David. And the divine conqueror of
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death. Precisely.
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You have to accept the definition before you even hear
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the name. Because if he starts with the
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name, a Roman citizen might just think of a mortal moral teacher
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or maybe a political rebel who was crucified.
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But by starting with the credentials, he leaves zero room
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for misunderstanding. He links his own authority
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directly to this fully defined, historical and divine Christ.
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And once he has established this towering authority, you would
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expect him to just start handing down commands from on high.
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You would. But the moment we move into
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verses 8 through 17, his strategy completely shifts.
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And this is where I want to push back a little bit on how we
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normally read the text, because what Paul does next looks, well,
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it looks like a mistake. It really does at first glance.
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In verse 8, he begins a sentence with the word First.
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He says first. I thank my God through Jesus
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Christ for all of you. But if you keep reading, he
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never gives a second point, right?
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There is no second, no third. He just starts a numbered list
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and abandons it. And then in verse 9 he does
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something similar. Yeah, he says.
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God is my witness, But instead of finishing the thought, he
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interrupts himself to insert a bunch of extra descriptive
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information about God before finally getting to the point of
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what God is actually witnessing. So it looks chaotic.
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It does. Are we supposed to believe this
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is a brilliant strategy? It looks like he was just
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dictating too fast to his scribe and lost his train of thought.
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It is so easy to assume that, especially since human speech is
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full of dropped thoughts and misstatements.
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But writing in the ancient world was not a casual endeavor.
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Right, parchment was expensive. Incredibly expensive and the
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process of dictating to ascribe and manuensis was very slow.
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It was deliberate. So they weren't just speed
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talking. No, they had time to think, to
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correct, to refine. We should view these not as
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typos or memory lapses, but as calculated rhetorical devices.
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OK, so how does starting a list and abandoning it function as a
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rhetorical device? Think of a point guard in
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basketball faking a pass to the left to get the defender off
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balance before driving to the right.
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OK, I see where you're going. He fakes the pass.
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Yes, the word first creates A structural expectation in your
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mind. It makes you lean in
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anticipating A structured list. It grabs your attention.
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But then he pivots. Right.
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The digression allows Paul to maneuver smoothly to his actual
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main point, his desperate desire to visit them in Rome.
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He fakes the list to get their attention, then pivots to his
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personal longing to see them. And that delay tactic in verse 9
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functions similarly. He says God is my witness and
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then forces you to pause. He adds, Whom I minister to with
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my spirit in the gospel of his Son.
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Which is extra thematic information.
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It delays the revelation of what God is witnessing, which is that
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Paul prays for them constantly. So by delaying the conclusion of
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the sentence, he builds suspense.
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He draws extra attention to the fact that he is praying for
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them. It amplifies the weight of the
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statement. It does, but honestly, the most
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surprising maneuver in this section has to be the calculated
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retraction in verses 11 and 12. Oh.
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This is a phenomenal piece of relational engineering.
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Set the context for us on this. Well, remember, Paul did not
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plant the church in Rome. He does not have a prior
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relationship with them yet he needs them.
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Right. He hopes they will financially
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support his upcoming missionary trip to Spain.
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So in verse 11, he takes a very authoritative top down stance.
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He says, I long to see you so that I may impart to you some
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spiritual gift to make you strong.
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If I'm a Roman believer reading that, my defenses might go up
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immediately. Oh, absolutely, I'm thinking,
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who does this guy think he is? We are doing just fine over here
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and he wants to show up and fix us.
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And Paul anticipates that exact reaction.
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So almost immediately in the very next breath in verse 12, he
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softens it. He.
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Restates his motivation. Yes, he says.
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That is that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each
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other's faith. It is the courtroom tactic.
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How do you mean? Like when a lawyer asks a
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leading question they know the judge will object to.
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The judge yells. Strike that from the record, but
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the jury already heard it. The idea is planted.
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That is a brilliant way to look at it.
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Paul establishes the hierarchy. He reminds them that he is an
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apostle who imparts spiritual gifts.
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But then he intentionally steps down from that pedestal to sit
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right beside them as a brother. The retraction mitigates his
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directness. It shows humility.
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He builds relational capital by placing himself on their level.
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He secures their respect with his authority, and then he
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secures their affection with his humility.
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He needs them on his side, nodding in agreement.
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Right, because the reality is about to drop in the next few
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verses is a massive, unavoidable, heavy truth.
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And this brings us to verses 16 and 17, which most people treat
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as the thesis statement of the entire letter.
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For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is God's saving
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force to everyone who believes, for in it the righteousness of
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God is revealed. We memorize those verses in
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isolation, but Runge points out that structurally, these verses
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are the end of a massive chain of digressions.
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If you track the grammar, Paul's main sentence in this whole
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section is simply about wanting to visit Rome.
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The travel plans. Right.
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The verses about the Gospel provide the supporting
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motivation for that desire. Each chunk of motivating
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material looks backward, offering support for the
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preceding point. He wants to visit Rome.
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Why? Why?
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Because he is eager to preach the gospel.
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Why? Because he's not ashamed of it.
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Why? Because it is the saving force
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of God. It is a chain of logic moving
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backward to justify his travel plans, but in doing so he
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launches into this embedded theme line that takes over the
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entire letter. He introduces the dual
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revelation. This is the hinge of everything
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Paul is trying to say. Let's break that down.
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In verses 16 through 18, Paul reveals that the gospel uncovers
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2 distinct parallel realities. The first is positive, the
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righteousness of God. And when we talk about God's
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righteousness in our theological framework, you know, we are
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talking about his perfect justice, his moral purity, and
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his provision of a way for sinners to be declared just.
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This revelation is meant to be a draw.
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It is meant to lead creation to a humble, obedient response.
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But this positive revelation sets the stage for the second,
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much more daunting revelation in verse 18, the wrath of God.
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The wrath of God, which makes modern readers incredibly
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uncomfortable. People try to explain it away
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all the time. We prefer to focus exclusively
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on love and grace. But Paul places wrath right next
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to righteousness. He does, and Runge clarifies
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this beautifully. The wrath Paul's talking about
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is not some arbitrary emotional outburst.
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We tend to picture the Greek gods on Mount Olympus, right?
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Throwing lightning bolts whenever they get cranky.
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Right, but that is not the biblical concept of wrath at
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all. I always think of it like a
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hazardous warning label on a massive high voltage electrical
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box. Oh, I like that I'm packed.
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Step for us. The label says danger high
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voltage will cause severe injury or death.
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That label is not a scare tactic.
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The electrical box is not having an emotional outburst.
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It is not angry at you. No.
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The label is simply stating an objective reality of what
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happens when you mishandle the elements.
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God's wrath functions the same way in Paul's argument.
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It is the objective, inevitable consequence of an unholy
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humanity colliding with a holy God.
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And Paul specifies precisely what triggers this consequence.
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It is not aimed generally at humans, just for existing.
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Right verse 18 says it is aimed at all ungodliness and
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wickedness of men who suppress the truth.
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It is provoked by humanity's active, willful, negative
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response to the positive revelation of God's
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righteousness. Which means we have to define
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behind the crime. If wrath is the consequence,
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what is the specific mechanic of this human rebellion?
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How exactly are we suppressing the truth?
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Right. Paul details this in verses 18
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through 25 in what we often call the Great Exchange.
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The Great Exchange is the tragedy of human history,
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summarized in a few sentences. Paul.
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Argues that humanity completely rejected the design of the
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creator. They traded the glory of the
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immortal God for the likeness of mortal beings, and they
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exchanged the truth of God for a lie.
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I'm. Going to look closely at verse
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20 here because Paul removes every single excuse a person
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could possibly have. He really does.
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He argues that the problem is not a lack of evidence.
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People love to say if God would just show himself, if he would
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just write his name in the stars, then I would believe.
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And Paul basically says, no, you wouldn't, because his invisible
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attributes, his eternal might and divine nature have been
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clearly perceived in the things that have been made.
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The evidence is overwhelming. The core issue is not ignorance.
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The core issue is the response to that undeniable knowledge.
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Paul says for although they knew God, they did not honor him as
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God or give thanks to him. They saw the high voltage
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warning label, they understood what it meant, and they
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intentionally touched the wires anyway.
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It is an active, willful suppression of the truth, and
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Runge points out that this choice leads to immediate,
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devastating cognitive consequences.
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The refusal to honor God actively degrades a person's
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cognitive function. Paul says it leads to futile
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thinking and a darkened heart. By rejecting the Creator,
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humanity empties out the center of its own existence.
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You create a void. But that void that God shapes
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space in the human soul demands to be filled.
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You cannot just stop worshipping.
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The existential questions about origins and meaning do not
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vanish just because you reject the true answer.
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You are wired to worship something.
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So humans are forced to find substitute gods.
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They have to fill the void. But here is the logical dilemma.
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How do you take something that is clearly not God, like a
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carved piece of wood, a statue of a bird, or a crawling
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reptile, and convince your own brain to worship it?
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How do you bow down to something you just carved out of a stump?
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You have to use spin. You have to market it to
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yourself. Runge uses this analogy of a
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used car salesman, which I think is so brilliant.
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It's the perfect illustration. Right.
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If a salesman is trying to get you to buy a terrible broken
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down rusting vehicle, he is not going to point out the oil leaks
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or the shattered transmission. He is going to talk about the
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vintage appeal. Exactly.
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Yes. He talks about the character of
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the car, the custom paint job. He uses every linguistic trick
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possible to make a bad deal sound attractive.
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Idolatry requires that same kind of internal marketing.
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The human mind, having become futile, has to market the idol
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to itself. It has to assign God like
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characteristics to a mortal object.
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The Romans were surrounded by this.
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They had temples dedicated to emperors, to war, to
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agriculture. They took created things and
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spun them into divine figures. Paul counters this human
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marketing campaign by launching his own rhetorical counter
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offensive. He strips away the salesman
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spin. He doesn't just say you stopped
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worshipping God and started worshipping animals.
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That sounds way too neutral. Instead, he uses brutal, stark
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antonyms to expose the absolute lunacy of the transaction.
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He says you traded the immortal for the mortal.
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You traded the creator for the creation.
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You traded the truth for a lie. He frames it as the worst
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possible business deal in the history of the universe.
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No matter how appealing the idol might seem to a darkened heart,
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Paul's vocabulary exposes it as a horrific downright.
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He uses thematically loaded modifiers to create sharply
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contrasting realities, and this internal choice, this feudal
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thinking and darkened heart, cannot stay contained in the
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mind. Right.
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The internal theological collapse inevitably leaks
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outward into physical behavior. Which brings us to the natural
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consequences outlined in verses 26 and 27.
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Because humanity rejected God as the object of worship, God does
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something terrifying. He gives them over to their
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passion. He essentially says you want to
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live in a universe without my design, Go ahead, see where it
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leads. And the primary example Paul
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uses to illustrate this outward physical manifestation of inward
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rebellion revolves around human sexuality.
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Now when we talk about this, I want to be super clear to you
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listening. We are simply reporting what
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Paul is arguing here in the text and what Runge's commentary
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points out. Right.
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We're not throwing around endorsements or taking political
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sides. We're just unpacking the ideas
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contained in the original source material.
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Exactly, and looking at the source, we have to pay very
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close attention to Paul's specific vocabulary choices here
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because they are incredibly revealing about his overall
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stratagel. When Paul describes the exchange
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of natural relations for unnatural ones, he actively
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avoids the terminology you might expect a religious leader to
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use. Right.
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If you were writing a condemnation of behavior, you
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would probably use words like moral and immoral or righteous
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and unrighteous. But Paul shifts the vocabulary
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entirely. He uses the words natural and
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unnatural. He leans heavily on shame and
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honor language. Why does he make that specific
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linguistic shift? Because he is tying the physical
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behavior directly back to the overarching theme of the Great
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Exchange. The core crime, remember, was
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rejecting the creator's design in favor of the creation.
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In the 1st century Greco Roman world, honor and shame were the
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primary social currencies. It was an honor shame culture,
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not a guilt innocence culture like we have in the modern West.
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You're standing in the community.
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Your adherence to the natural order of things dictated your
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value. So by using natural and
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unnatural language, Paul frames the specific behavior not simply
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as breaking an arbitrary religious rule, but as a
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physical acting out of that initial theological rebellion.
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You abandon the creator, so you abandon the created order.
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It is the ultimate physical illustration of overturning how
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God structured the universe to function.
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He is leveling what we might call the acceptability scale for
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sin. Oh, that's a huge point.
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Take that down. Well, in the modern church and
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even in ancient Rome, people tend to categorize some
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behaviors as respectable sins and others as grotesque sins.
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We all have our mental lists of what's not that bad.
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Right. But Paul destroys that scale.
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He uses this specific behavioral exchange to illustrate a much
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broader universal human tendency to rebel against divine design.
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His approach relies on the observation of natural
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consequences resulting from human decisions.
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He is basically saying look at the created order.
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When you abandoned the designer, you abandoned the design and you
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were left with practices that inherently contradict how the
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physical world was structured to operate.
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It is a staggering demonstration of the mind being given over to
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its own disjointed desires. And frankly, framing the
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discussion around natural design and inherent consequences is
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often a much more compelling approach today than leaning
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solely on moral indignation. It grounds the discussion in
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objective reality rather than subjective feelings.
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But this physical rebellion, as intense as it is, is really just
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one symptom of a much larger systemic collapse.
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Paul does not stop there. The giving over continues into
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the final section of chapter 1, verses 28 through 32.
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Because they threw out the knowledge of God, God gives them
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over to a debased mind. Based mind.
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A mind that literally cannot function properly to discern
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truth from error. And this debased mind leads to a
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sprawling, grueling catalog of societal chaos.
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Paul is doing what ought not be done, followed by an inventory
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of societal ills that sounds like he's reading the Daily
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News. Envy, murder, strife, deceit,
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maliciousness, gossip, slander, insolence, haughtiness, and
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pride. It describes a society that is
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tearing itself apart at the seams because the ground level
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understanding of the Creator has been completely abandoned.
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Once you lose the vertical relationship with God, the
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horizontal relationships between humans instantly disintegrate.
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But Runge points out something vital about the very last verse
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of the chapter, verse 32. Yes, Paul identifies the
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absolute peak of human hubris, the climax of this downward
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spiral. He writes, Though they know
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God's righteous decree that those who practice such things
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deserve to die, they not only do them, but give approval to those
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who practice them. The climax of sin is not just
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committing the acts themselves in secret.
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No, the height of sinful hubris is recognizing the divine
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penalty, knowing deep down that God's justice demands A
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consequence, and yet actively throwing a parade for the crime.
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It is collective, systemic rebellion.
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It is society banding together to cheer on the suppression of
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the truth. It is a shared madness.
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OK, so let's pause and put ourselves in the shoes of the
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original reader. The 1st century audience.
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Right. If I am a 1st century Roman
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believer, especially a Jewish believer who grew up with the
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law, or even a morally upright Roman citizen who values civic
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duty and Stoic philosophy, I am reading this intense catalog of
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sins. You are reading about the
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idolatry, the unnatural relations, the envy, the deceit,
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the collective rebellion. And honestly, yeah, I am
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probably nodding my head. I am cheering Paul on.
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You are thinking, yes, Paul, you tell them those pagans down the
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street are terrible. They absolutely deserve the
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wrath of God. And that is precisely where we
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uncover the trap. It is a spectacular piece of
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rhetorical engineering. Paul spends his entire chapter
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cataloging this horrible behavior, building this massive
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crescendo of righteous indignation in the reader.
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He gets the morally upstanding reader pointing fingers at those
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hebens. He elicits A visceral emotional
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agreement with God's wrath. He reminds me of the disciples
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and the gospels asking Jesus if they should call down fire from
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heaven to destroy a village that rejected them.
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It is that self-righteous eagerness to see them punished.
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You get so caught up in the condemnation of the culture that
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you feel morally superior just by agreeing that it is bad.
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Paul relies on that self righteousness.
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He builds this ironclad argument to perfectly set the stage for a
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dramatic table turn in Chapter 2.
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The trap? Snap shut.
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The very moment the reader is aggressively nodding an
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agreement, saying yes, they deserve judgement, Paul springs
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the trap. Chapter 2 verse one hits like a
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freight train. Therefore you have no excuse.
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O man, everyone of you who judges for in passing judgement
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on another, you condemn yourself, because you, the
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judge, practice the very same things.
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It is devastating. He uses their own moral outrage
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to secure their conviction. By getting them to agree with
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the premise of God's wrath against the suppression of
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truth, He leaves them with absolutely no defense when He
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turns the spotlight onto their own subtle suppressions of that
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same truth. He gets them to sign the arrest
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warrant and then writes their name on it.
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It forces you to realize that the message of Romans is not
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just a detached set of theological positions, it is a
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calculated intervention. Paul wants to completely
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dismantle the human inclination to justify herself and condemn
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others. He needs the reader, whether
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Jewish or Gentile, moralist or Pagan, to feel the crushing
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weight of a universal problem so that they are desperate for the
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universal solution he is going to present later in the letter.
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It really changes how you view the whole text.
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It does. Let's briefly recap the
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staggering scope of what we have covered today, because Romans 1
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is just an absolute marvel when you see the machinery operating
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underneath it. We started with Paul handing
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over his customized divine business card, establishing his
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authority, and defining Jesus on strict historical terms through
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the 20 Questions strategy. We looked at his faith passes
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and calculated retractions, watching how he builds crucial
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relational capital, stepping down from his Apostolic
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authority to sit beside them as a peer.
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All while weaving his common thesis about his eagerness to
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visit them. We unpack the dual revelation,
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the righteousness that draws us in, and the wrath that
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naturally, inevitably follows our rebellion.
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We walked through the tragic Great Exchange, seeing how
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humanity uses spin to market its own idolatry, trying to fill the
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void left by rejecting the Creator.
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We observed how Paul shifts his vocabulary, using the language
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of natural design and honor and shame to explain the physical
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consequences of that theological rejection.
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And finally, we track the descent into a debased mind,
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culminating in a collective societal hubris that Paul uses
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as the ultimate psychological trap for the self-righteous
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reader. Which leaves us with a final
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thought for you to carry with you.
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If Paul's entire first chapter is a carefully laid rhetorical
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trap designed to catch the self-righteous reader nodding
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along in judgment, how often do you fall into that exact that
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same trap today? When you read about the Great
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Exchange, or when you look at the news and see the debased
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mind on full display in our culture, are you too busy
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cheering for wrath against them? Are you so focused on pointing
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the finger at society's collective rebellion that you
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completely miss the quiet, subtle ways you trade the truth
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for a lie in your own daily life?
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It is a heavy question. It is, but it's one this text
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absolutely demands you answer. Thank you so much for joining us
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for this deep dive on reformed thinking.