Paul completes his argument in chapter 15. He emphasizes his mission to the gentiles and describes his plan to journey to Rome. 

Romans 15:1-2
“We who are strong ought to put up with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves.  2 Each of us must please our neighbor for the good purpose of building up the neighbor.”

“What is at stake is the power [dunamis] of faithfulness, the greater of lesser degrees of such empowerment. The measure of our faithfulness is not how empowered we are but the extent to which that empowerment is placed in the service of the less empowered (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 209).”

Romans 15:3-4
“For Christ did not please himself; but, as it is written, “The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me.”  4 For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, so that by steadfastness and by the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope.”

“Thus, the written, when read within the context of endurance [that is, the context of affliction, suffering, or persecution], strengthens the reader toward hope. The function of the text is to awaken hope and thus to orient the reader toward the messianic consummation set in motion by the messianic event associated with Joshua messiah (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 210).”

Romans 15:5-6
“May the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, in accordance with Christ Jesus,  6 so that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

“It is the togetherness of what is basically different that is this glorifying. It is the bearing with one another, the welcoming of the other, and the concern for the other in and through such great differences that is the shining forth of God, of that God who is the father of the one to whom we are oriented in life and death: the messiah Joshua (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 211).”

Romans 15:7-9a
“Welcome one another, therefore, just as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.  8 For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the circumcised on behalf of the truth of God in order that he might confirm the promises given to the patriarchs,  9 and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy.”

“That the messiah becomes a servant of the circumcision thus confirms the priority of Israel as God’s chosen people while at the same time makes clear that the favoring of Israel comes to the fullest expression in the extension of the messianic effect [justice and thus salvation] to the pagan nations (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 212).”

Romans 15:9b-13
“As it is written,
    “Therefore I will confess you among the Gentiles,
        and sing praises to your name [Psalm 18:49]”;
10 and again he says,
    “Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people [Deuteronomy 32:43]”;
11 and again,
    “Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles,
        and let all the peoples praise him [Psalm 117:1]”;
12 and again Isaiah says,
    “The root of Jesse shall come,
        the one who rises to rule the Gentiles;
    in him the Gentiles shall hope [Isaiah 11:10].”
13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

“The selection of texts [Psalms, Torah, Prophets] is consistent with what Paul has done at other points in the letter when calling upon the testimony of the ‘written’ (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 213).”

“It should be clear from this perspective that there can hardly be any justification for a ‘Christian’ mission to the ‘Jews.’ Paul is a Judean with a mission to the gentiles: to proclaim the good news that Israel’s messiah is also the messiah for the gentiles and that this is precisely in conformity with God’s promise to and through God’s chosen people… God is faithful to God’s promises to Israel in such a way as to include all the nations [and, as we have heard, all of Israel as well] (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 213).”

Romans 15:14-16
“I myself feel confident about you, my brothers and sisters, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, and able to instruct one another.  15 Nevertheless on some points I have written to you rather boldly by way of reminder, because of the grace given me by God 16 to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel of God, so that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.”

“Here Paul uses cultic language to express a public and even political responsibility - his work among the nations - just as he had used similar language to speak of all offering up their bodies as a living sacrifice or a rational worship. What seems evident is that Paul makes use of familiar pagan cultic language to give expression to his mission as well as to the form of just life that he supposes characterizes the life of the messianic society (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 216).”

Romans 15:17-19
“In Christ Jesus, then, I have reason to boast of my work for God.  18 For I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to win obedience from the Gentiles, by word and deed,  19 by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God, so that from Jerusalem and as far around as Illyricum I have fully proclaimed the good news of Christ.”

“Here it is important to recall the synecdochal logic with which Paul has been operating. A part not only stands for but also entails the whole of which it is a part. The first fruits - to use a cultic reference - entail the entire harvest… Insofar as the messianic cells are sufficiently well established in manifesting the new just sociality in the midst of the towns and cities of this half of the empire, it is time for Paul to move on (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 217).”

Romans 15:20-21
“Thus I make it my ambition to proclaim the good news, not where Christ has already been named, so that I do not build on someone else’s foundation,  21 but as it is written,
    ‘Those who have never been told of him shall see,
        and those who have never heard of him shall understand [Isaiah 52:15].’”

“Of course, as we have seen here and known from the other letters, he is not interested simply in giving people the right ideas but in enabling them to become mini-societies of messianic justice. He has no particular interest in cult or even the fine points of doctrine but in forms of social life that reflect the coming justice of God (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 218).”

Romans 15:25-29
“At present, however, I am going to Jerusalem in a ministry to the saints;  26 for Macedonia and Achaia have been pleased to share their resources with the poor among the saints at Jerusalem.  27 They were pleased to do this, and indeed they owe it to them; for if the Gentiles have come to share in their spiritual blessings, they ought also to be of service to them in material things [fleshly things].  28 So, when I have completed this, and have delivered to them what has been collected, I will set out by way of you to Spain;  29 and I know that when I come to you, I will come in the fullness of the blessing of Christ.”

“We recall that the gospel is for the Judeans first and then the Greeks. This sharing from the Judeans to the pagans in the messianic proclamation now redounds to the Judeans in the form of concrete material assistance, what Paul does not hesitate to call fleshy things: things, that is, that serve or minister to the weakness of the human, the necessities of life (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 222).”

Romans 16: The Traces of the New Sociality

There is much debate over Romans 16. Some scholars think it is a fragment from another letter that gets attached to Paul's letter to Rome after Paul's life. Others argue that it is authentic and original to his letter.

Themes to notice in the final portion of this document is the inclusion of both Judean and gentile names in the list of greetings. Paul inclusion of women is also a radical aspect of his understanding of the messianic community. It appears that women had leadership roles in the communities that Paul shaped, a revolutionary moment of inclusion that gets lost in the following centuries of the church's development.

“The new sociality that Paul and his companions and collaborators are fostering, therefore, is one that cuts across preexisting cultural, linguistic, and even religious identities [as we have seen in Romans] to constitute a sociality based not on such identities but on a shared commitment to the messianic project and mission (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 225).”

Welcome: The Messianic Sociality (Romans 14:1-15:13)

“In order to be clear about this [this new politics, this new sociality, that exhibits justice beyond the law], it is helpful to recall the sociality or, rather, the antisociality that Paul had described at the beginning of his letter: they were filled with all injustice, flesh-obsessed, covetousness, evil, full of envy, murder, strive, guile, malignity, gossipers, slanderers, god haters, insult arrogant, boasters, inventors of all evils… foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. That is the social [dis]order within which the new sociality is to take shape, one constituted through a renovation of mind-set that will demonstrate or embody the aim of divine justice (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 200).”

The momentum of Paul's argument builds over the next several verses. Individual statements should not be taken out of context.

Romans 14:1
“Welcome those who are weak in faith, but not for the purpose of quarreling over opinions.”

“Here we touch upon the most basic feature of messianic politics, a polity that instead of closing itself to the other, the stranger, the different, actually welcomes the advent of the other as distinctly other (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 200).”

“The great stresses in the national political life of the so-called nation states have typically had to do with the stranger. Often the polity is one of exclusion, sometimes assimilation or integration, which demands of the newcomer to become as we are, hide the differences (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 201).”

“Thus, one who has and obeys a number of rules about how to be faithful is regarded as weak, while one who seems on principle to be more or less indiscriminate is said to be strong (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 201).”

Romans 14:2-3
“Some believe in eating anything, while the weak eat only vegetables.  3 Those who eat must not despise those who abstain, and those who abstain must not pass judgment on those who eat; for God has welcomed them.”

“Why are the former weak in faithfulness? Perhaps because they suppose that faithfulness consists in rules and regulations, so seem nearer to the compliance with the law from which the gift of the divine has set us free. Meanwhile, those who eat anything are not anxious. Above all, they do not place limits on the gifts of God, they do not regard them with suspicion, and so on (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 203).”

“Paul is by no means concerned to resolve the dispute in terms of deciding which is right… Instead, Paul will insist that these very important differences remain side by side. The eater is not to despise the noneater, and the nonvoter is not to judge the eater. Whether in despising or in judging, what each seeks is the elimination of the difference. This is precisely what Paul does not want, for in this elimination of difference, whether as despising or as judging, is found the true or greater violence (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 203).”

Romans 14:5-6
“Some judge one day to be better than another, while others judge all days to be alike. Let all be fully convinced in their own minds.  6 Those who observe the day, observe it in honor of the Lord. Also those who eat, eat in honor of the Lord, since they give thanks to God; while those who abstain, abstain in honor of the Lord and give thanks to God.”

“Here then is the basic principle: Give thanks. What matter is whether what we do or don't do is an expression not of anxiety but of thanksgiving. and so of gratitude. In this way the doing or not doing is oriented to the messianic as gratitude to God. Gratitude is what marks the orientation to the gift and produces justice as a gift or on the basis of gift (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 205).”

Romans 14:7-9
“We do not live to ourselves, and we do not die to ourselves.  8 If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.  9 For to this end Christ died and lived again, so that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.”

“Far more dramatic than the difference between eating or not eating a certain food or observing or not a particular day is the difference between life and death. But even in the difference, living or dead, we belong to one another. We live or die in the direction of, or in orientation upon, another (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 205).”

Romans 14:10-13
“Why do you pass judgment on your brother or sister? Or you, why do you despise your brother or sister? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God.  11 For it is written,
    'As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me,
        and every tongue shall give praise to God.'
12 So then, each of us will be accountable to God.
13 Let us therefore no longer pass judgment on one another, but resolve instead never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of another.”

“This is the turning point in the argument. Until now, it has been simply that there is to be an end to that judging and condemnation or even contempt that rends the fabric of sociality, especially in matters that may be termed ‘religious’ (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 207).”

Romans 14:14-15
“I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself; but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean. 15 If your brother or sister is being injured by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. Do not let what you eat cause the ruin of one for whom Christ died.”

“It should be clear that we are caught here between irreconcilable imperatives; on the one hand, the imperative of openness to all [including all foods and so on] and, on the other hand, a love for the other that sacrifices even the privilege of faithful freedom. For if I yield to the conscience of the weak, I am in danger of imposing law; but if I do not, I am in danger of violating her or his conscience. There is here a seeming aporia (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 208).”

Aporia: “an irresolvable internal contradiction or logical disjunction in a text, argument, or theory.”

Romans 14:16-19
“So do not let your good be spoken of as evil.  17 For the kingdom of God is not food and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.  18 The one who thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and has human approval.  19 Let us then pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding.”

“It can never be the case that rules about eating and drinking can become the condition of the reign of God… It is here that we become responsible, where there is a kind of aporia. But we are responsible not only for ourselves [for we must explain ourselves to God] but for our neighbor as well (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 208).”

Romans 14:20-21
“Do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for you to make others fall by what you eat;  21 it is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that makes your brother or sister stumble.”

“This is a concrete attempt on Paul’s part to show how love for the neighbor an the welcoming of the other takes shape in an emerging messianic sociality (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 208).”

Romans 14:22-23
“The faith [faithfulness] that you have, have as your own conviction before God. Blessed are those who have no reason to condemn themselves because of what they approve.  23 But those who have doubts are condemned if they eat, because they do not act from faith [confident faithfulness]; for whatever does not proceed from faith [confident faithfulness] is sin.

“This is rather difficult, but it seems to me that the test here is not a rule or law but free confidence and loyalty… This does not mean that what I do is decided for me by a programmed response dictated by rules… The messianic form of life is improvisational. This improvisation, however, is oriented not to what pleases me but toward another: to the lord, to the neighbor. And this double orientation is in fact single, for the messianic is precisely the openness to care for the other (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 209).”

We arrive at a section of Paul’s argument that has been vastly abused over the centuries. Blindly following those in power, those in authority, is not the aim of this argument.

Romans 13:1-7
“Let every person be subject to the governing authorities; for there is no authority except from God, and those authorities that exist have been instituted by God.  2 Therefore whoever resists authority resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment.  3 For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Do you wish to have no fear of the authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive its approval;  4 for it is God’s servant for your good. But if you do what is wrong, you should be afraid, for the authority does not bear the sword in vain! It is the servant of God to execute wrath on the wrongdoer.  5 Therefore one must be subject, not only because of wrath but also because of conscience.  6 For the same reason you also pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, busy with this very thing.  7 Pay to all what is due them—taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due, respect to whom respect is due, honor to whom honor is due.”

“One of the chief ways in which Paul’s perspective has been distorted in the history of theological and ecclesiastical interpretation is through the separation of segments of his argument from their context (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 189).”

These verse cannot be taken out of their context to support a secular interpretation of ruling authority. This misses Paul's point and is anti-biblical.

“For example, we would have to be clear that this should not be read as taking back Paul’s radical critique of the injustice of the imperial system in the first chapter. Recall that there he had indicted the politics of Rome as manifestly incapable of administering justice, since the Roman ruling class was characterized by a thoroughgoing opposition to divine justice (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 190).”

“The ‘authorities’ are those who act on behalf of the law and thus ‘administer’ justice as it is encoded in the law. Apart from this legal function related to the question of justice, there are not ‘authorities’ in the sense being written about here (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 191).”

“But Paul and his readers also know that authorities are not so benign. They, like the law, are corrupted by injustice (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 191).”

“There is another sense in which authorities are instituted by God or appointed by God consistent with Paul’s earlier argument. It has to do with Paul’s appropriation of the prophetic tradition’s view of the arrogant empires that threatened Israel with destruction. They are regarded as instruments of wrath not because they themselves are just but because they serve to punish the injustice of Israel itself (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 192).”

“What is invoked here is the world-historical function of ‘imperial’ authority that serves, despite its own arrogance and injustice, to awaken the sense of the awesome claim of justice. Of course, neither for the prophets nor for Paul does this mean that God favors these authorities. On the contrary, they are already consigned to destruction just when they are at the apex of their power. For the arc of history aims not at wrath and destruction but at mercy and salvation. And this messianic aim is accomplished not by unjust instruments of wrath but by the justice instruments of the messianic itself (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 192).”

Verses 6 and 7 - the issue of taxes and paying what is owed.

“Here the subversive gesture occurs in a rather different way. Paul has just said to give honor to the one due honor, but he had already said to the messianic group that they should compete to give honor to one another, thereby undermining the whole system of seeking honor. Honor is to be given away rather than claimed (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 193).”

“The messianic politics of Paul, then, does not entail a taking over of the state and its functions… For Paul, the state is essentially irrelevant to messianic politics. There is no point in an attempt to assume state power, for it belongs to an order that is no longer pertinent: it has a past, not a future… Here as elsewhere, the aim is to take the world by surprise - the messianic surprise of love. Or, as he has already said, seeking where it depends on us, to be at peace with all (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 193-94).”

Romans 13:8
“Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.”

“The entire economy of debt is here bring undercut. Of course, love is not the payment of a debt. It is the excess, the ‘how much more’ that is the very character of divine justice. The law is here relativized by being both abolished and exceeded all at once (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 194).”

Debt was another mechanism of control in the empire. It fractured the life of the community by keeping a small number of people in power. This is another instance of not being "conformed by the world."

Romans 13:9-10
“The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not covet”; and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.”

“It is characteristic of Paul that neither here nor elsewhere does he supplement his exhortation by appealing to the teachings of the messiah. Moreover, when he does cite the commandments, he refers not to the ‘religious’ of God-oriented ones [honor God alone, Sabbath, etc.] but only to what might be termed the ‘interhuman commandments,’ those that have to do with not wronging the neighbor, the other human being. This is the very heart of divine justice, the messianic justice, with which Paul is concerned (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 195).”

“From Paul we already know that this ‘love’ or concern for the well-being of the other extends also to the enemy so is without restriction. It is this unrestricted commitment to the welfare of all without exception that marks the messianic exigency of a sociality beyond or outside the law. The messianic is therefore a radical humanism that aims at a certain universalism (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 196).”

Romans 13:11-12
“Besides this, you know what time [kairos - God time] it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers;  12 the night is far gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light…”

“The now of messianic time is a moment when it is still dark, still obscure [so a time of danger and affliction], yet it is also the time when the day approaches precisely in and as this darkness (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 197).”

“As regularly happens in Paul, the indicative [the salvation is nearer, the hour of awakening] becomes the imperative to conduct oneself in accordance with the true time, the kairos of approaching light (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 198).”

“The new society that is coming into being is thus itself messianic, both in its state of affliction and in its active love of the neighbor. It so assimilates itself to the messiah as to be the body of the messiah, the way that the messiah becomes visible as well as vulnerable - and also victorious in the midst of the death-dominated present age (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 199).” 

Romans 12: How Are We to Live Now

“For now Paul turns his attention to the actualization of justice in the way of life of the messianic cells that have begun to emerge in response to the messianic message (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 177-78).”

This is the “now what” of Paul’s argument. Since God has enacted justice so decisively in human history we are able to live in a way that is free from the power of sin to demonstrate our ongoing being-made-just. This reality is lived out in our relationships with one another, even our enemies. It is this way of life that is a direct reflection on our being adopted into the messianic promise and reality.

“In fact, it would be better to regard all that we have read to this point as a prologue to Paul’s real concern: to show how justice takes shape ‘ apart from the law.’ For if it does not do so, then there is no viable alternative to law-based social orders; there is no justice based upon gift that actualizes, in this now-time of the messianic, the call and claim of justice (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 178).”

Romans 12:1-13 - The Messianic Body

Romans 12:1
“I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual [rational] worship.”

“These words may be read as the initial summary statement for that is to follow. ‘Therefore’ links it to all that has gone before. Now we come at last to the heart of messianic politics: the justice that comes otherwise than as law (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 178).”

The phrase “spiritual worship” can also be translated as “rational worship.”

“But what is rational worship? What is the way of honoring the divine that corresponds to right reason? It has to do with our bodies. The body is the way we are in and of the world, the way we are available to one another, the way we engage the world and one another. It designates what Heidegger might call our comportment: the shape of our interaction with others, all others (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 179).”

This is the sacrifice…

“What justice calls for is precisely ourselves, our way of being with one another… The call of the divine has to do not with religion but with a rational way of responding to the divine, a way that governs all our interactions with another and the world - that is, our bodies… What we shall hear is that the rational way of honoring God is doing what honors our neighbor (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 180).”

Justice begins to be present when we live beyond ourselves, leaning into the lives of those we encounter. This worship is a physical presence in this world, not a detached longing for the next.

Romans 12:2
“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect [fully realized].”

“For we live as those who have passed from death into life. Thus, we do not play by the rules of the old order: we are not conformed to it and its all too predictable regularities (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 181).”

We are too invest our lives into the present age. We are not to be conformed to the present realities of racism and privilege, but participate in bringing about God's anticipated justice.

“That which corresponds to the will of God is here called the good, the pleasing, the fully realized. These categories appear first of all as pagan or gentile terms… This means that Paul, in addressing pagan or Greek culture, has no difficulty appropriating the highest aspirations of that culture for purposes of his messianic project. The messianic takes these terms and their associated aspirations into itself, thereby indigenizing the messianic into the heart of the Greek aspiration (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 181).”

“Three centuries later in arguing for the plausibility of the Christian proclamation of the incarnation of the word, Athanasius could still point to the dramatically different forms of life that characterized  Christian communities - their fearlessness, nonviolence, generosity - as decisive evidence of the truth of the gospel (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 182).”

“In the next few sentences, Paul will offer pleas about what we might call the internal life of the community, to be followed by sentences that address the way in which this group interacts with those outside, even with those opposed to the messianic mission… It is not our life alone but our life together that concerns Paul (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 182).”

Romans 12:3
“For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgment [self-assessment], each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.”

“Faithfulness is not conformity with the world; it is also not conformity with one another. It is distributed within the group in diverse ways, and this diversity is to be affirmed and carefully nurtured (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 183).”

Romans 12:4-13
“For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function,  5 so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another.  6 We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith;  7 ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching;  8 the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver, in generosity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness. 9 Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good;  10 love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor.  11 Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord.  12 Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer.  13 Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers.”

Paul uses another familiar concept to his Roman audience, the body. To be a part of the Roman order was to be a part of the body politic. The term "political" is derived from this reality. To be political is to be invested in the life of the community, and thus the life of the other.

“It was precisely the astonishing generosity of Christian communities in the next few centuries that served to win over larger and larger elements of the general population. In his Rise of Christianity [73-94], Rodney Stark uses the example of the care of the sick in plague-ravaged cities of the empire to show how Christians’ selfless service to others accounted in no small measure for the outward movement and growth of these messianic communities (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 185).”

“…Outdo one another in showing honor.”

“Similarly for Paul, the competitive character of the the Roman social order is turned on its head: instead of competing for honor, they compete to show honor to the other, every other (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 185).”

Honor and status were the mediums of exchange in the Roman empire. It started with emperor, the father of the empire, and worked its way down into every aspect of life within the empire. It was a competitive stratification.

Romans 12:14-21 - Overcoming Evil with Good

Romans 12:14
“Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.”

“Here and a few sentences later, we have a vigorous emphasis upon the love of the enemy, even the enemy in a position of power such that they are capable of persecution of the vulnerable body taking messianic shape in their midst (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 186).”

“The community does not separate itself from the world, but the world draws the dividing line by means of persecution. The ‘body’ is separate from the ‘age’ only by the opposition of the age. As body, the messianic intends inclusion of all, but the age reacts to this inclusiveness through persecution (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 186).”

Romans 12:16
“Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are.”

“Those who are adopted heirs of God orient themselves toward the lowest in imitation of the messiah… For here, Paul is exhorting all in the community to associate themselves with the humble, the humiliated, rather than to look out for their own advantage (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 187).”

Romans 12:17-21
“Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all.  18 If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. 19 Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”  20 No, “if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads.”  21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”

“The justice that takes shape here is not retributive or distributive but creative. It seeks to bring about now the messianic goal of peace that flows from justice, a justice that flows from generosity (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 187).”

Justice does not retaliate or seek revenge. These actions only promote the cycle of violence and actually work against the justice of God.

“Indeed, it goes further than what we later find in the Sermon on the Mount, since it specifies what it means to love not only the neighbor but also the enemy: give food, give drink. The citation from Deuteronomy [32:35] is deployed to indicate that the fate of the unjust is to be left to God… Once again the idea is that the justice practiced by the community is unpredictable because it does not conform to the worldly notions of justice… What seems involved is that the surprising action of the messianic community aims at the transformation of the unjust or, perhaps failing that, leaves them without any pretext or excuse for unjust behavior (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 188).”

The argument returns to how Israel is incorporated into what God has been doing throughout history. Paul is working towards his understanding of how Israel has not been passed over, but is included in the new messianic reality.

Romans 11:1-2a
“I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin.  2 God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew.”

“Paul has maintained that foreknowing and predestining refer to Israel. This means not this or that individual [still less, individual gentiles] but precisely a people in its extension through time and history (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 162).”

The key here is that Paul is working with a corporate understanding, not individual. Paul is always working with and discussing communities of people. Any individualistic understanding, doctrine, or argument misses Paul's point completely.

“Predestination and foreknowledge here do not have to do with some abstraction that can be made into an aspect of the doctrine of the nature of God but, rather, with the history of the promise to Abraham. God’s ‘pre’-knowledge is quite simply God’s promise; the same is true of god’s ‘pre’-destination. This has to do exclusively with the character of promise as promise (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 163).”

Romans 11:2b-5
“Do you not know what the scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel?  3 “Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars; I alone am left, and they are seeking my life.”  4 But what is the divine reply to him? “I have kept for myself seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal.”  5 So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace.”

“Giorgio Agamben has shown that the idea or a remnant that arises in the prophetic literature of Israel has an eschatological or messianic character. A remnant is that which survives judgment but is also the bearer of salvation. In Pauline thought the remnant has to do with the now-time, which is for Paul the messianic time, the time in which time comes to its messianic end (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 163).”

“In the messianic time, the now-time, the remnant [not all] and the ‘all’ will enter into a sort of interchangeability with one another. The remnant will serve as a testimony to the divine commitment to justice and to the reliability of the promise but will also serve as the anticipation of a whole or all that will overflow both the remnant and the whole itself [thus, the all of Israel will come to include as well all the nations] (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 164).”

Romans 11:11
“So I ask, have they stumbled so as to fall? By no means! But through their stumbling salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel jealous.”

“Israel’s rejection of the messiah and the messianic event opens up the way to the announcement of the messianic event to [all] the nations. What does this concretely mean? We may surmise that for Paul the repudiation of the messiah [condemned according to the law by its official interpreters] places the messiah outside the people of Israel in such a way as to become the messiah of those outside, the nations or pagans (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 165).”

Romans 11:12
“Now if their stumbling means riches for the world, and if their defeat means riches for Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean!”

“The purpose of their stumbling over God, over the surprising way that God acts, is not that they might be rejected but that others might [also] be included. Thus, even the ‘hardening’ of Israel means only that redemption is now immeasurably widened in scope. Israel is an instrument of justice and mercy, whether as elect or as hardened (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 166).”

“One of the most important characteristics of messianic politics is that it is not based on the logic of scarcity, with zero-sum games abounding. Rather, the messianic entails a logic of abundance in which more for some means an exponential increase in more for all. Or in Paul’s phrase: ‘how much more’ [poso mallon]. We might call this messianic math (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 166).”

God is drawing all people together. We may not see this reality in our own time - remember, the Exodus took over 400 years - but we are called to live as if it is a reality. This is the process of being made just.

Romans 11:12-24 - Warning to the Nations

The western church ought to pay very close attention to this argument!

Romans 11:13-14
“Now I am speaking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I glorify my ministry 14 in order to make my own people jealous, and thus save some of them.”

“But what is most astonishing is that the apostleship to the gentiles is really aimed at the salvation of those who are not gentiles! The mission to the gentiles is simply a sort of detour to the true mission to Israel (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 167).”

Romans 11:15-16
“For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead!  16 If the part of the dough offered as first fruits is holy, then the whole batch is holy; and if the root is holy, then the branches also are holy.”

“What is the resurrection of the dead, after all? Is it not that all who fell by the wayside, all who were rejected, receive an unexpected future, an unanticipated life? Paul had said, while we were yet enemies (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 167-68).”

“Messianic time is the compression of times so that what is future characterizes the now-time. With respect to Israel the part that is faithful includes all, as well as the part that is characterized  as ‘trespass.’ The ‘’some’ is bigger than the whole [for some will also include the gentiles] (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 168).”

Romans 11:17-21
“But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, a wild olive shoot, were grafted in their place to share the rich root of the olive tree,  18 do not boast over the branches. If you do boast, remember that it is not you that support the root, but the root that supports you.  19 You will say, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.”  20 That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand only through faith. So do not become proud, but stand in awe.  21 For if God did not spare the natural branches, perhaps he will not spare you.”

This is a deeply rooted prophetic image. Israel, as God's chosen people, is the root. That promise and designation has not been usurped by gentiles.

“Why fear? If God did not spare the natural branches, neither will be spare you. Paul wants to awaken assurance for those who are faithful, but he is also ready to provoke fear among those who may be tempted to take divine favor for granted as something that is now a possession. If we recall that the faithfulness Paul speaks of here produces justice and that injustice is itself unfaithfulness, we may see that there is indeed reason to fear (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 169).”

Romans 11:22-24
“Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness toward you, provided you continue in his kindness; otherwise you also will be cut off.  23 And even those of Israel, if they do not persist in unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again.  24 For if you have been cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these natural branches be grafted back into their own olive tree.”

“This image of olives is addressed to the ‘nations’ whose potential arrogance Paul seeks to interdict. Centuries of Christian history show that he had good reason to worry. We may even reflect upon certain history of gentile branches being cast off (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 170).”

Here we can reflect on when Christianity has been attracted to the ways of the world - wealth, prestige, and empire. Great and powerful Christian communities and nations have left the call for justice to the poor and needy and instead sought to build their own self-absorbed power. We see this unfolding even now.

“Hence God is never predictable but always reliable. God improvises. History is the history of divine improvisation to the tune of justice and mercy (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 170).”

Romans 11:25-36 - Eucatastrophe

Romans 11:28-31
“As regards the gospel they are enemies of God for your sake; but as regards election they are beloved, for the sake of their ancestors;  29 for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.  30 Just as you were once disobedient to God but have now received mercy because of their disobedience,  31 so they have now been disobedient in order that, by the mercy shown to you, they too may now receive mercy.”

“In Paul’s vision, what we may term as ‘Christianity’ is simply a long detour to parenthesis that leads to what God had intended all along: the blessing of the whole of Israel. In order to reach this goal, however, it was necessary to also include all the nations (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 174).”

Romans 11:32
“For God has imprisoned all in disobedience so that he may be merciful to all.”

“Simply all. It is just as we heard at the end of chapter 3: all are disobedient. So now all receive mercy, favor, blessing, not because it has been deserved but because it is God who has promised. Of course, there will always be those who take offense at this ‘all.’ But Eastern theology from Origen to Gregory understood that this ‘all’ was the essence of the gospel. For Gregory it included not only all people but even Satan - just because God is God, and good news is simply and astonishingly good news (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 174).”

“Paul has earned his rapturous conclusion: O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments how inscrutable his ways [11:33]! Beyond what could be seen, understood, or known by human imagining, God has found a way to make even disaster [catastrophe] turn into radiant consummation [eucatastrophe] (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 174).”

Paul will now engage the process by which justice comes into the world.

Romans 9:30-10:4
"What then are we to say? Gentiles, who did not strive for righteousness, have attained it, that is, righteousness through faith;  31 but Israel, who did strive for the righteousness that is based on the law, did not succeed in fulfilling that law.  32 Why not? Because they did not strive for it on the basis of faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone,  33 as it is written,
    'See, I am laying in Zion a stone that will make people stumble, a rock that will         make them fall, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.'
 
10:1 Brothers and sisters, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved.  2 I can testify that they have a zeal for God, but it is not enlightened.  3 For, being ignorant of the righteousness that comes from God, and seeking to establish their own, they have not submitted to God’s righteousness.  4 For Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.”

“We are seeing set up a distinction between justice of faithfulness and justice of law. Only faithfulness will actually arrive at justice. Despite the seeking and pursuing of justice through law, the justice at which law aims is not arrived at… The point is that Israel seeks to achieve justice through what it can control - its works or compliance with legal requirements - rather than by way of faithful adherence to the claim and call of God (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 152).”

“Justice cannot be captured in a knowable system that one needs only to repeat and obey. Justice is an immeasurable claim that bends toward mercy and compassion. (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 153).”

One of the issues is control. Justice does not come through what can be controlled by humans. The law, a gift from God meant to give life, is corrupted by humans who try to control it and bend it to their will. Justice is God's action and we are invited into the process of becoming just through this messianic event.

Romans 9:32
“They have stumbled over the stumbling stone…”

“The point is that what God is doing will bring many to stumble. But not all will stumble, for some - those who rely on the promise or are faithful to it - will not be put to shame (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 153).”

“The point is that God’s unpredictable way of fulfilling God’s promise is a cause of stumbling for those who think they can go on ‘automatic pilot’ - who believe that they know how it is supposed to be or turn out that they therefore can keep going in accordance with their own understanding or knowledge (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 154).”

The "stumbling block" is another statement on control. Once we think we can control something we begin to adjust the relationship to give us all the power. The same applies to our relationship with God. We do not get to dictate how God operates. We stumble over our own judgements on how we think God should action and who with whom God should maintain relationships. These actions are a breakdown in our relationships with one another and ultimately God.

“Speaking and Hearing: How Justice Comes”

“Paul will seek to show that faithfulness is awakened or provoked through the hearing of the announcement of the gospel rather than through compliance with the [written] law. This hearing, and the speaking that awakens it, stands in contrast with what we might term the ‘distance and inaccessibility’ of the law (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 156).”

Romans 10:5-8
"Moses writes concerning the justice that comes from the law, that “the person who does these things will live by them.”  6 But the justice that comes from faith says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down)  7 “or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).  8 But what does it say?
    'The word is near you,
        on your lips and in your heart'
(that is, the word of faithfulness that we proclaim)"

"It has to do with the will [ heart] that acts not so much out of duty as out of desire. We might say that the justice of faithfulness is not heteronomous but springs from the wholehearted commitment of loyalty to another. (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 156).”

Romans 10:9-15b
“…because if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.  10 For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved.  11 The scripture says, “No one who believes in him will be put to shame.”  12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and is generous to all who call on him.  13 For, 'Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.'

10:14 But how are they to call on one in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him?  15 And how are they to proclaim him unless they are sent?”

“We have, on the one hand, the depiction of an unreserved commitment [mouth,heart], and on the other, the object of that commitment, which is the impossible. We recall that this orientation to the impossible had already characterized the faithfulness of Abraham. He adheres unwaveringly to a promise whose content is the impossible… Here the impossible has to do with the affirmation that the executed is the messiah and that the one executed through the law has been raised from among the dead (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 157).”

“Justice enters into human history, the human world, through an announcement and thus through the hearing of an announcement that awakens glad adherence or loyalty. This is to be contrasted to a dutiful compliance with a certain legality, a legality that even aims at justice or that operates in the name of justice but comes to substitute itself for the call and claim of justice (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 158-59).”

Romans 10:17
“So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the word of Christ.”

Paul continues by citing Deuteronomy 32:21 (10:19) and Isaiah 65:1-2 (10:20).

“These texts confirm the centrality of proclamation and at the same time open up a gap between announcing and hearing [and faithfulness and justice]. This gap is Paul’s chief concern, as it bears upon Israel. The texts cited by Paul already set up the basic form of the argument to follow: God did announce good news to Israel (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 160).”

“The agent of promise and of salvation is God throughout. The object of faithfulness and of obedience throughout is God, not Christ -  who is, rather, the exemplar of obedience and faithfulness. What is at stake in the resurrection of the messiah is the focalizing on the messianic proclamation of God that, for Paul, has been present in the word spoken [by God] to Abraham and the word spoken to Israel through the prophets (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 160).”

Paul shifts his discussion to the Judean reality of the messianic event. He has spent a majority of the first half of his letter to the Romans arguing for the inclusion of the gentiles into the promises of what God has done through Jesus, the Christ. But his original statement in chapter one - “For I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek (1:16)” - includes both gentile and Judean groups. Paul now turns to discussing how the Judeans fit into God’s continued saving act.

“An issue must be resolved: How is it that God’s promise to Abraham, a promise that has been the motor of Israel’s history, can be utterly relied upon if Israel itself has turned away from the promise, has rejected the messiah? If human rejection can stop or stall the divine determination to save or redeem, how can we really have confidence? How can our assurance be other than hollow (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 140)?”

Romans 9:1-3
“I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience confirms it by the Holy Spirit—  2 I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart.  3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my own people, my kindred according to the flesh.”

“Recall that it is the spirit that has been spoken of as groaning with us - as yearning with us and all creation - for redemption. Precisely this spirit of solidarity and yearning is invoked here… This is the very language of spirit, not in triumph but in sorrow and anguish. As earth groans for redemption of humanity, so Paul groans for the redemption of Israel [9:3] (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 142).”

Romans 9:3-4
“They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises;  5 to them belong the patriarchs, and from them, according to the flesh, comes the Messiah, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen.”

“They [adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises] designate the beginning [adoption] and the end [radiance] of the redemptive act. What he ascribes to those who are participants in the messianic reality belongs already to Israel! We shall see that this ‘belonging’ is inalienable (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 143).”

“It is from the patriarchs that the messiah, hence the messiah of Israel, comes. The concluding ‘promise,’ then, is what connects all of this to where we began with Abraham and where we are headed, with messiah… His assertion is not that the messiah is God ‘overall’ but rather that it is God whose ordering of all is manifest in the coming of the messiah as the fulfillment of promise, and thus as the basis of adoption and consumption in the divine radiance (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 143).”

Romans 9:6-13
“It is not as though the word of God had failed. For not all Israelites truly belong to Israel,  7 and not all of Abraham’s children are his true descendants; but “It is through Isaac that descendants shall be named for you.”  8 This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as descendants.  9 For this is what the promise said, “About this time I will return and Sarah shall have a son.”  10 Nor is that all; something similar happened to Rebecca when she had conceived children by one husband, our ancestor Isaac.  11 Even before they had been born or had done anything good or bad (so that God’s purpose of election might continue,  12 not by works but by his call) she was told, “The elder shall serve the younger.”  13 As it is written,
    ‘I have loved Jacob,
        but I have hated Esau.’”

“We should note here that the ‘children of God,’ a term applied by adoption to those who are incorporated into the messianic event, is also applied to those in the line of Isaac… One would even be led to say that the flesh of Sarah rather than that of Abraham is decisive here (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 145).”

Paul uses another analogy to explain his point using Rebecca as an example.

“Neither Isaac nor Jacob is the elder son. In each case, we could say that the elder is ‘sacrificed’  so that the younger might be the bearer of promise in opposition to the tendency of patriarchy. Thus, the promise of God is realized in such a way that it is utterly reliable yet completely unpredictable from human custom or expectation. Once again we notice that Paul has substituted matriarchal history for patriarchal history (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 145-46).”

“Thus, the choice, the decision, the action, and promise of God are not as unreliable as our response but as reliable as God’s own word (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 146).”

Romans 9:14-16
“What then are we to say? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means!  15 For he says to Moses,
    ‘I will have mercy on whom I have mercy,
        and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.’
16 So it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who shows mercy.”

“This citation stands in tension with the earlier ‘Jacob I loved but Esau I hated.’ What has changed is that Paul emphasizes mercy and compassion. Those who have used this text to support ‘double predestination’ of some to heaven and others to hell have completely missed Paul’s point. He is shaping or bending everything toward mercy rather than judgement, to compassion rather than condemnation. So it depends not on human exertion or will but on God who shows mercy (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 146-47).”

Romans 9:17-18
“For the scripture says to Pharaoh, “I have raised you up for the very purpose of showing my power in you, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.”  18 So then he has mercy on whomever he chooses, and he hardens the heart of whomever he chooses.”

“Now we enter that world-historical sphere: the arrogance of the powerful is precisely their hardness of heart, but this will nonetheless be bent to serve the purposes of mercy and compassion. We may apply this, for example, to Pontius Pilate or even the Sanhedrin. What they do may be opposed to divine justice and mercy but will in fact be made to serve that justice and mercy (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 147).”

“Their rule is ordered to their own destruction or frustration so that history may marvel at the faithfulness of God to those who are oppressed by these powers (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 147).”

Romans 9:19-21
“You will say to me then, “Why then does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?”  20 But who indeed are you, a human being, to argue with God? Will what is molded say to the one who molds it, “Why have you made me like this?”  21 Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one object for special use and another for ordinary use? “

“This question [9:19] offers Paul the chance to move forward into the history of the prophets of Israel, the ones who most clearly articulate the action of God on the stage of world history. Here he offers a number of analogies drawn from the oracles of Israel’s own prophets (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 148).”

“The notion of the molded versus the molded verses goes back to the prophetic tradition and most clearly resembles Isaiah 29:16: ‘You turn things upside down!
        Shall the potter be regarded as the clay?
    Shall the thing made say of its maker,
        “He did not make me”;
    or the thing formed say of the one who formed it,
        “He has no understanding”?’
As in the text, here also it is not the situation of the individual that is in view but that of the people and the nations. The analogy is brought forward with this contrast: from the same clay may be made something that has an honorable use and something that has a dishonorable use. From the same material may be made a bedpan or a wine goblet; either serves the intention of the maker (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 148).”

Romans 9:22-24
“What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience the objects of wrath that are made for destruction;  23 and what if he has done so in order to make known the riches of his glory for the objects of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory—  24 including us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?”

“This is an image again taken from the prophetic tradition that refers to the great empires that serve the purposes of God in punishing Israel for its injustice… They are temporary instruments of wrath, but they are themselves destined for destruction (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 149).”

“The point is that the use of the afflicting power is temporary, but the use of the instrument of mercy is from forever and to forever, that is, it is everlasting. This is what the divine ‘plan’ aims at: mercy rather than wrath (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 149).”

“There now follow three citations from Hosea and Isaiah that have the purpose of exhibiting the unpredictable but reliable way in which the divine mercy comes to be demonstrated in the history of God’s people (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 150).”

“The first, from Hosea [Those who are not my people] comes from the end of that book. What happens here is that the earlier rejection of Israel [transgendered YHWH’s faithful and promiscuous wife] is finally overturned and those who were divorced, abandoned, and rejected are now reclaimed [in contravention of the legal codes of Deuteronomy 22:21-22]. This is in anticipation of the argument that Paul will make in chapter 11. The point now is that the rejection and punishment of the faithless Israel simply aim at restoration. The judgment of Israel aims at the redemption of Israel (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 150).”

“In this argument Paul has attempted to show the complete reliability of the divine word, promise, and election. This has been maintained in at least three ways… First, Paul has demonstrated that God acts in accordance with what God has spoken… Mixed in  with this argument is another that aims to show that God’s way of acting does not conform to human expectations but is based solely on the divine good pleasure… Finally, Paul has shown that even that which opposes the divine promise and act is made to serve the divine intention (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 151).”

“In consequence, God’s word can be shown to be utterly reliable. But it is absolutely crucial to keep in mind that we have here not many words or decrees but basically one: the promise to save, the promise to take back all creation. That is the point at which Paul ended chapter 8 (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 151).”

 Romans 9-11: An Introduction

Romans chapters 9 through 11 should be read as one unit. Interrupting the flow of Paul’s argument can lead to misconceptions, and in some cases poor interpretations that are “antibiblical and antievangelical (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 141).”

In these chapters Paul continues to connect points that he has already made to his overall all argument that God’s justice is present in the messianic event and has radically altered the way we interact with one another in our communal lives.

The energy from Romans 8:31-39 carries us into this next segment. Paul’s thunderous proclamation that nothing can separate us from God’s love, or one another, brings us to a grand conclusion to Paul’s discussion of the differences between our being enslaved in the flesh (Adamic reality) and set free through our resurrection by the spirit (the messianic reality).

Romans 8:31-39
“What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us?  32 He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else?  33 Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.  34 Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us.  35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?  36 As it is written,
    “For your sake we are being killed all day long;
        we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.”
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.  38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,  39 nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

“The unshakable assurance of Romans 8:31-39 must be tested. It has so far been grounded in the experience of the faithful in two ways: their own response to the glad-making proclamation in terms of the acclamation of God as abba/Pater, and the endurance of the community and its members in the face of affliction and persecution (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 139).”

The initial statement of Paul’s argument must now be dealt with: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek (Romans 1:16).”

For the majority of the argument to this point, Paul has dealt with connecting the gentiles to the work of the good news. He will now shift focus to the Judeans and their relationship to God through the messianic reality.

“At the beginning of chapter 3 was a series of questions that seemed to be left hanging: If some were unfaithful, does their faithfulness nullify the faithfulness of God? [3:3]. If our wickedness serves to show the justice of God…is God unjust to inflict wrath on us? [3:5]. If through my falsehood God’s truthfulness abounds to his glory, why am I still condemned as a sinner? [3:7-8]. The argument of the long discourse the we will track through the next three chapters serves as a reply to these questions (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 139-40).”

“The basic issue - Will their unfaithfulness nullify the faithfulness of God? (3:3) - is now going to be addressed… If the promise of God has failed with respect to Israel, it cannot stand with respect to us. Who could then have confidence in the divine promise (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 140).”

“Christianity has often assumed it can do without a relation to the root of Israel’s history. The result has been the enablement of tacit or terrifyingly explicit anti-Judaism (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 140-41).”

Paul uses the Hebrew scriptures throughout his argument and very densely in the next three chapters. Paul does this to build his argument. It is important to remember that Paul is arguing for God’s reliability and not looking for some pattern or code that would justify human condition to achieve justice. God is the author of this story, scripture is merely a response.

“It is important to keep in mind two interrelated coordinates: history and Israel. History is crucial since God is involved in history, including some relationship to the history of the rejection and execution of the messiah (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 141).”

Chapter 9 will deal with the question “Has the promise failed [9:1-29] (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 140).”

There will be a brief interlude of the history of justice from 9:30 through 10:4.

Chapter 10 will explore “Speaking and Hearing: How Justice Comes [10:5-21] (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 155).”

Chapter 11 will discuss “The Redemption of [All] Israel [11:1-12], “Warning to the Nations [11:12-24], and “Eucatastrophe [11:25-36] (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 161-175).”

Romans 8

Paul shifts his argument from a discussion of the Adamic humanity, a humanity under the power of sin, to a vision of the messianic humanity into which we have been delivered by the power of God.

Romans 8:1
“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

“Somehow the execution of the messiah means that the power of condemnation has been broken. It has lost its power. There can no longer be condemnation for any who are taken up into the messianic event (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 122).”

“By the resurrection, the resurrection by the spirit of holiness, the spirit or power of life that overcomes death and the threat of death that is the very force of law as instrument of death. Thus, we encounter this basic opposition that Paul had signaled at the very beginning of his letter - between flesh and spirit - the flesh as the weakness that overpowers us and the spirit as the force, energy, dunamis [power] that empowers us:  ‘For the law of the spirit of life in messiah Joshua freed you from the law of sin and death’ Romans 8:2 (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 122).”

Romans 8:3-5
“For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and to deal with sin, he condemned sin in the flesh,  4 so that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”

“By coming as divine son [the one whom flesh/injustice acknowledged as the son of David], the divine enters into the lump of humanity dominated by sin and death precisely in a likeness to sin, that is, as Adamic…. This is an extreme solidarity of the divine with the Adamic, such that the divine takes place precisely within the Adamic, within and as sinful humanity, ‘who becomes sin’ [2 Corinthians 5:21], who is or becomes a curse or ‘accursed’ [Galatians 3:12] (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 123).”

Here we get into the contrast of the before of the Adamic humanity and the after of the messianic reality.

Romans 8:5-9
“For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.  6 To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.  7 For this reason the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law—indeed it cannot,  8 and those who are in the flesh cannot please God. 9 But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him."

“The ‘before’ of walking according to the flesh, that is, in accordance with that very anxiety that makes us prisoner of the self-preservation that kills. The ‘after’ of walking according to the spirit, not according to lack but abundance, not fending off death but existing after death, so in ‘newness of life.’ Walking: a mode of living, an exercise of member, a manner of being in the world (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 124).”

“That is, the aim of this event is that what was impossible before now becomes actual - the doing of what the law intended, aimed at, sought: life and justice. [Paul will still need to clarify this toward the end of the letter since this is what his letter, his argument, aims at] (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 124).”

To clarify:

Before - “To walk according to the flesh or live according to the flesh, or have a mind set on flesh - to be determined by lack, vulnerability, weakness - is death…. I simply cannot do what God requires, so I am resentful of the claim and walk in enmity or hostility. It is in this condition, remember, that Paul had already said that the messiah died for us: while we were weak, [flesh] while we were sinners, while we were enemies (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 124).”

After - “And now, the after: if we walk according to the spirit [abundance, liveliness] and live according to the spirit, and have our mind set on what pertains to the spirit, to life to abundance, then instead of experiencing death and enmity, we enjoy life and peace…. This is now: You are not in the flesh; you are in the spirit. This is the now of belonging to the messiah, of being caught up into and by the messianic event (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 124-25).”

Romans 8:10-11
“But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.  11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you.”

“Now our bodies are dead. For us as body, death still lies in the future, although not for us as spirit, where death lies in the past. Our body, our being in the world, is still dead ‘through sin,’ perhaps even now as we begin to walk, to live, to have the mind-set of life or spirit. But then that resurrection power that has already begun to invade us, to take possession of us, and will come fully into being in us so that the one [God/Spirit] who raised Joshua from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies, by that spirit which has now taken up residence in you [8:11] (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 125).”

Romans 8:12-13
“So then, brothers and sisters, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh—  13 for if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.”

“For he will not say that we are debtors to the spirit, but before we were indebted to, sold to, captured by this economy of sin, debt, and death. This is what walking in, or being indebted to, or bound by, the economy of death means: we die; we are condemned to death, death comes to all through Adamic fate… The practices here that are being put to death are of course those that arise from anxiety in the face of death, those that make us like Cain, voluntarily or involuntarily (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 126).”

“The whole business of dying to the world, or of ‘putting to death’ the ways of embodying injustice, has been connected by several contemporary thinkers with Paul’s reflections in 1 Corinthians about living in the structures of the world ‘as if not.’ This ‘as if not’ means treating these structures as if they no longer have the capacity to enforce themselves upon one, the define one’s identity and ‘comportment’ (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 126).”

“This unplugging does not mean an ascetic withdrawal from the world but a living in the world without being determined by it or its classifications and structures (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 127).”

“What seems to be at stake here, as we shall see in Paul’s development of this argument, is a corporate style of life in which we become more rather than less interconnected with one another and with the messianic reality that has dawned. Paul will speak of love, mutual care, and concern instead of detachment (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 127).”

Romans 8:14-17
“For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.  15 For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, “Abba! Father!”  16 it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God,  17 and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ—if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.”

“The acclamation of God as abba/Pater then appears for the first time in Paul’s letters, and it is here that we must discover its significance: an acclamation of God as father in two languages. Why two? Which two? The language of Judeans [Aramaic] and the language of gentiles [Greek]. Paul has said ‘to the Judeans first and then the Greeks.’ It is Paul’s concern, not only in this letter, to put together Judean and pagan believers (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 129).”

“That we have been adopted enables us to thus acclaim God as father, to know that we are not slaves [of sin or law] but adopted children (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 129).”

“As heirs of God, we are also jointly heirs with another who is called son: the messiah. Being jointly heirs will also have to do with being joined to one another in and through the messianic (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 130).”

Romans 8:18-39 - Affliction and Solidarity

Paul transitions into a discussion about being in solidarity as heirs of the messianic event, heirs with the one who is the messiah. This solitary does not come without suffering. He sets this up in verse 17 - “…if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.”

“As we said in discussing baptism, what is in view here is no virtual cultic death or virtual suffering but sharing in affliction that demonstrates or testifies to our solidarity with the executed messiah. Later Christians will call this testimony martyrdom (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 130).”

An important aspect of Paul’s upcoming argument is humanity’s intimate connection to creation, to all of creation.

“This further extension of the Pauline frame of reference follows almost naturally from the designation of Adam as humanity. In Hebrew adam speaks of the earth, the earthling made of earth, of the solidarity of earth and earthing - hence we have the extension of the good news also with respect to creation and thus to all creatures (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 131).”

Romans 8:18-25
“I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us.  19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God;  20 for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.  22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now;  23 and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.  24 For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen?  25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.”

“In the modern West we have lost track of solidarity between the human and the rest of creation. And in theology it has sometimes been forgotten that biology, including evolutionary biology, has at least retained something of the sense of our bound-up-ness with creation. Most of our DNA, for example, is the same as that of the lowliest earthworm (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 132).”

“The bondage to death [which has to do with the entry of violation and violence into the world, accelerated by law] not only concerns the human but also the whole of creation. And the promise of liberation from this law of violence pertains not only to the human but also to the earth and its denizens. Such is the amplitude of Paul’s message of the good news that stems from what the divine has done in and through the messianic event (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 133).”

Verse 23: “… and not only the creation, but we ourselves…”

“Adoption may be spoken of here both as already and as to come. For it is the redemption of the body, so of creation itself, that is the horizon of hope. What we are or have is the first fruits, the springtime promise of more to come. But we have not ceased to groan. Our adoption is behind [so we cry abba]; our adoption is yet to come [so we groan] (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 134).”

Verse 24a: “For in hope we were saved.”

“The ‘were saved’ occurs within the framework of hope. If is precisely in hope that we live. Like Abraham, who believed the promise and whose confidence in the promise was fidelity [faithfulness] and so reckoned up as, or credited toward, justice (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 134).”

Romans 8:26
“Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.”

“Likewise the spirit partakes of our weakness. The traditional translation, ‘helps us,’ is I think, flat wrong - the spirit is a sharer, a partaker, in this very weakness of groaning, of yearning (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 135).”

“The spirit itself intercedes on behalf [of us, of creation, of God] with unutterable groanings. We/creation/spirit all groan, all yearn, all beyond speech, the earth-spirit groan. Before language. Before speech. Inarticulate. Somehow in this groaning and yearning, we glimpse the awaited solidarity of earth and humanity and spirit (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 135).”

Romans 7

The Marriage Analogy

Paul has been using analogies to describe the break with sin as a ruling factor in the lives  of those who follow the risen Christ. So far, the law has been left out of the conversation. In a brief, but potent analogy, Paul will bring the law back into conversation.

Romans 7:1-3
“Do you not know, brothers and sisters—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only during that person’s lifetime?  2 Thus a married woman is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives; but if her husband dies, she is discharged from the law concerning the husband.  3 Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man, she is not an adulteress.”

“This is the general principle, and it seems straightforward: legal obligations, for example, may be canceled at death. This returns us to the discussion of the sharing in the death of the messiah at the beginning at chapter 6. It also reminds us of the function of the law, like that of sin and death, as ruling or governing, and so keeps in play the sphere of the political (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 108).”

This analogy places the men in the group into a frame of mind that opens them to think of themselves as the wife. This would have been truly shocking. Women we little more than proper in the economic exchange of the masculine-driven social structure.

“For the women the only way out of this patriarchal [or andri-archal] law is the death of the male! [There is no specific term for ‘husband’ as opposed to ‘male’ in Paul’s language] (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 109).”

“This [verse 3] indeed shows that the law of adultery is a male law. It is how the male assures himself of property rights (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 109).”

Romans 7:4-6
“In the same way, my friends, you have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead in order that we may bear fruit for God.  5 While we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death.  6 But now we are discharged from the law, dead to that which held us captive, so that we are slaves not under the old written code but in the new life of the Spirit.”

“We are discharged from the law [this is like that male law for the woman] but now not through the death of the male but through out sharing in the death of the messiah (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 110).”

Our new life in the risen Christ has delivered us from being under the power of sin, which is the power of death. We can now live freely into the new reality of God’s unfolding justice.

Death and the Law: Romans 7:7-25

Romans 7:7
“What then should we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet, if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, ‘You shall not covet.’”

Paul enters into a series of statements that explore his understanding of the law and how sin entered into the mechanics of our relationship with the law.

“First, there is a connection between the law and the knowledge of sin or violation or, as we heard before, the measuring of sin or crime. Sin was indeed in the world before the law, but sin is not measured [reckoned] where there is no law [5:13]. Earlier he had said that where there is no law, neither is the violation [4:15]. Paul has thus signaled before that this theme must be clarified or addressed. He now turns to that task (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 112).”

“What Paul says now is this: If it has not been for the law, I would have not known [about?] sin. I would not have known what it is to covet is the law had not said, ‘You shall not covet’ (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 112).”

“Here we have a summation of the law already found in emergent Judaism in Paul’s time [Kasemann, Commentary on Romans, 194] as that concerning covetousness: the desire to have something that belongs to another as the very summary of all sin. This has a certain resonance with Stoic wisdom as well, in which the good life involves staying within the limits of what is one’s own (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 112).”

“And here its seems clear that this ‘I’ can only be what we encountered earlier as Adamic humanity [in contrast to messianic humanity]. It is essential to recall that Adamic humanity is regarded in the argument of 5:12-21 as both before and [then] under the law… it seems clear that the ‘I’ is the Adamic humanity of sin and death, but it is also cognizant of the law and even [as it will be said later] loves law (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 112-13).”

To covet something that is not yours is a basic instinct. In our struggle for survival the seeking and attaining of resources is all that matters. If we do not have the resources to meet our needs, and we see that they are possessed by another, we will do anything to attain them for ourselves. We covet what we do not have and act to possess. This leads to a breakdown of relationships, to injustice, what Paul would name as sin.

Romans 7:8-11
“But sin, seizing an opportunity in the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. Apart from the law sin lies dead.  9 I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived 10 and I died, and the very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me.  11 For sin, seizing an opportunity in the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.”

“First we notice that life and death come into the picture again but in a very different way than in the previous discussion of the Adamic and the messianic. They are redeveloped now with a rather different effect:
    Before the law = I am alive; sin is dead.
    Under the law = sin is alive; I am dead.
This contacts with what was happening before in that there we were concerned with a different transition: from death to life, that is, we were focused on the transition from messiah [or messianic human] as dead, to being made alive. Now we are clarifying how it is that the human came to be ‘dead’ or one who was ruled by death. This has to do [again] with the advent of the law (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 115-16).”

“Let us begin [appropriately] with Adam. He is alive; sin is dead. Or in this case sin is not yet in existence. The commandment says, Don’t eat the fruit of the tree. This is already the prohibition of covetousness, that is, of desiring that which does not pertain to oneself. It is then ‘sin’ that takes hold of the command and turns it against Adam to deceive. That is, after all, that way the story is constructed, that the human is deceived by that which turns the commandment into provocation… Even though Adam doesn’t die at once, he is under the dominion of death - which subsequently comes to expression, as we saw, as murder (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 116).”

Romans 7:13
“Did what is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, working death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure.”

“The law is good in that it aims at life, so it does not aim at death. Rather, sin itself [personalized it would seem, almost like Satan] turns the law from being what gives life to what gives death. In this way we see how really awful sin is: it produces, procures death, and does so even through what is intended for life (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 118).”

The law was meant to protect our relationships, first with God, and then with each other. The law protected the common life of the community and extended to those who were outside of the covenant. Paul honors this with his argument. The issue at hand is our sin breaks down our relationship with God and with others, leading to injustice and sin.

“In the same way, that state that promises to restrain violence does so through giving itself a monopoly on violence and thus institutionalizes violence, thereby making violence not an individual act but the very foundation and articulation of the social order (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 118).”

Romans 7:14
“For we know that the law is spiritual; but I am of the flesh, sold into slavery under sin.”

“So far, we have seen that the law is spirited as that which aims at life, just as something like the resurrection of the messiah produces life. And chapter 5 contrasted messianic life and Adamic death. That is precisely where this argument is heading. Here the Adamic ‘I’ is what is ‘sold’ into sin, as a slave to sin and injustice, an instrument or weapon of injustice Paul has written. Wed to sin, he has also said. Owned by sin (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 119).”

Romans 7:15-20
“I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.  16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good.  17 But in fact it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me.  18 For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it.  19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do.  20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me.”

“Here it is crucial that we are not dealing with the worst of human beings but the best, which distinguishes what is going on here from the indictment that started out Paul’s letter. It is the problem of humanity that has the honor of Adam as well as the shame (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 120).”

Romans 7:21-25a
“So I find it to be a law that when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand.  22 For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self,  23 but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.  24 Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?  25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!”

“The human, the would-be good and just human, is caught in a vice, incapacitated (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 120).”

“The exclamation is inserted following the lament, preceding the summary because ‘the answer’ is what determines the diagnosis and the answer to the problem is what Paul supposes to be the glad-making proclamation, the one that incites gratitude, rejoicing (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 120).”

Romans 7:25b
“So then, with my mind I am a slave to the law of God, but with my flesh I am a slave to the law of sin.”

“This applies not just to the worst, who perhaps gladly indenture themselves in this way, but also to the best, to those who want to be good, just, holy - who want what the law ‘wants’ or intends. After all, for this reason there is law, even that law we pass in a democracy… It is precisely when we intend or want or aim at doing what is good that we find ourselves brought up against the tragedy of law… That one aims at justice only makes clear one’s immersion in injustice (Jennings, Outlaw Justice, 121).”