Gospel Metaphors

ROMANS

MIDDENDORF

SESSION #2�

Prayer for the Conversion of St. Paul:

Almighty God, as you turned the heart of him who persecuted the Church and by his preaching caused the light of the Gospel to shine throughout the world,

• grant us ever to rejoice in the saving light of your Gospel
• and to spread it to the uttermost parts of the earth;

through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen

Excursus in Romans 1-8

• Homosexual Conduct Is Contrary to Nature (145-50)
• The Background of “Works of the Law” (263-66)
• Πιστις χριστου, “Faith of/[in] Jesus Christ” (304-12)
• Paul’s Gospel Metaphors (340-44)
• Abraham, Romans, and James 2 (370-73)

Excursus in Romans 1-8

• Baptism in Paul (475-83)
• Who is the “I” in Romans 7:7-11? The Referent Question (543-52)
• Who is the “I” in Romans 7:14-25? Christian or Non-Christian?

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A Proper Corrective from the New Perspective on Paul

• “Righteousness through faith, not works” as a forensic metaphor for the Gospel is only developed by Paul in 2 letters & Philippians 3.

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From Just Words (Preus)

“Each Gospel word, phrase, idea is necessary to the fullness of the biblical doctrine of justification. Every Gospel word contributes something distinctive, something unique … The goal is not to reduce the Gospel to one of its words, but to proclaim it in its fullness,…

Just Words (Preus)

…to use all its ways of being said. The goal is, in addition to proclaiming the Gospel as a divine powerful Word, to proclaim it as a profound and richly textured human word.”

• Preus, Just Words, 24. See also Barclay, The Mind of Paul, 75-108.

Gospel Expressions In Romans

Problem/Law TO Solution/Gospel

• LEGAL: Guilty Innocent/declared
• righteous by judge/God

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• SACRIFICED Atoned/Substitute

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• Hopeless Debtor Unlimited Credit

• Problem/Law TO Solution/Gospel
• Enemies Reconciled
• Slavery Redeemed/ Freedom
• Orphan Adopted

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• See Preus for 17 More biblical metaphors!

3:21-31 = 2 O.T. Metaphors

• Key prepositions (268-69), mostly ἐκ and διὰ faith (dative “by” ONLY 1x)
• The referents of νόμος (278-79)
• One testifies to God’s righteousness (3:21b) = the Torah does so by its use of ἀπολυτρώσεως (“redemption”) and ἱλαστήριον (“atoning sacrifice”) (3:24-25)

• The emphatic assertion is NOT so much 3:22-24, as 3:26 (p. 291,93).
• εἰς τὸ εἶναι αὐτὸν δίκαιον καὶ δικαιοῦντα τὸν ἐκ πίστεως Ἰησοῦ
• So that he be righteous even while declaring righteous the one from faith [in] and/or faithfulness of Jesus (see 3:22, pp. 304-12).

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Romans 1-3 Legal/Forensic Metaphor Dominates�

• Judge = On Trial = Prosecutor = Verdict = Sentence =
• Defender & Substitute =
• Result for him =
• Result for us =

The Torah’s Testimony in Romans 4 (pages 313-14)

• Faith in the Promise is credited into righteousness
• πιστις group (16x), ἐπαγγελία (4x = OT Gospel word), δικαιοσύνη (10x), λογίζομαι (17x) uses a financial metaphor (cf. 4:4-5; 6:23; 13:8)

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A Common Dispensationalism

Old Testament = LAW

New Testament = GOSPEL

Instead this is the same throughout

The Promise Gen. 3:15

Abraham chosen Gen. 12

The Christ—Center of Salvation History

Righteous/Saved through Faith in God’s Promise (Gen 15:6)

Righteous/Saved through Faith in God’s Promise fulfilled in Jesus Christ (Romans 4; Galatians 3, etc.)

El Shaddai, El Shaddai, [God Almighty]�El-Elyon na Adonai, [God Most High, Lord]�Age to age You're still the same,�By the power of the name.�El Shaddai, El Shaddai,�Erkahmka na Adonai, [Compassionate One, Lord]�We will praise and lift You high,�El Shaddai.��

Romans 5-8 �“Jesus/Christ Our Lord” �6 times strategically �and 48 1^st person PLURALS

^5:1“THEREFORE, AFTER BEING DECLARED RIGHTEOUS FROM FAITH, WE HAVE PEACE WITH GOD THROUGH OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST,

5:11 “…THROUGH OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST.”

5:21 “…THROUGH OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST.”

Romans 5-8

6:23 “…IN JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD.”

7:25 “…THROUGH JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD.”

8:39 “…GOD’S LOVE WHICH IS IN CHRIST JESUS OUR LORD!”

THE LIFE TOGETHER GOD GIVES US IN AND THROUGH JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD

Paul’s Christian View

• Is the age to come here? YES in Christ! See 1 Corinthians 10:11; also 2:6-10; 2 Cor. 4:3-6; Col. 2:15; Eph. 6:10-13; Pate, The End of the Age Has Come.
• Is the present age of sin, death, etc… still here?
• Already or Now/Not yet; for now an overlapping of the Present evil Age and the Age to Come

End

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This Age and the Age to Come

Jesus’ Parable of the Weeds AND the Wheat (Matt. 13:24-30, 36-43).

Romans 5-8 (pp. 379, 441)� It is all a matter of what or who lords, rules, reigns over you �

• Sin and death once reigned (5:14; 6:6, 17, 21).
• It does so no longer (6:14, 15, 18).
• You have been freed to fight it.
• So resist the reign of sin….do not present your bodily members to sin, but to God! (6:12-13)

Romans 5-8

• Is it an ongoing struggle? Yes! But the struggle against sin is a sign of spiritual life (e.g., 7:14-25)!
• Will their be defeats? Yes, but experience them as defeats, not as indulging the flesh or misunderstood as “sinning boldly”
• The both/and of 7:25; 8:10, 23….

In Romans 5-8

• The life God gives us in Jesus Christ our Lord (e.g., 5:1, 11).
• 17 first person plural forms in 1-11
• Note p. 403, objective [5:12-21] and subjective [5:1-11] distinction
• Moves from forensic to relational expressions = reconciliation/at peace in 5:1-11 (see p. 343).

Reconciliation Romans 5:10

• εἰ γὰρ ἐχθροὶ ὄντες [5:6, 5:8]
• κατηλλάγημεν τῷ θεῷ [irregular aorist divine passive indicative]
• διὰ τοῦ θανάτου τοῦ υἱοῦ αὐτοῦ,
• πολλῷ μᾶλλον [comparison]
• καταλλαγέντες [NOW]
• σωθησόμεθα ἐν τῇ ζωῇ αὐτοῦ· [NOT YET]

Reconciliation Romans 5:11

• οὐ μόνον δέ, ἀλλὰ καὶ καυχώμενοι [excluded in 3:27]
• ἐν τῷ θεῷ [basis; cf. 2:17, 23; 1 Cor. 1:31 citing Jeremiah]
• διὰ τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ
• δι᾽ οὗ νῦν τὴν καταλλαγὴν ἐλάβομεν.

Slavery Romans 6:6-8�(also 6:16, 17, 19, 20; 7:6, 25)

τοῦτο γινώσκοντες ὅτι ὁ παλαιὸς ἡμῶν ἄνθρωπος συνεσταυρώθη, ἵνα καταργηθῇ τὸ σῶμα τῆς ἁμαρτίας, τοῦ μηκέτι δουλεύειν ἡμᾶς τῇ ἁμαρτίᾳ·

⁷ ὁ γὰρ ἀποθανὼν δεδικαίωται ἀπὸ τῆς ἁμαρτίας.

⁸ εἰ δὲ ἀπεθάνομεν σὺν Χριστῷ, πιστεύομεν ὅτι καὶ συζήσομεν αὐτῷ,

Adopted Children of Abba Father 8:14-17�

• Led by the Spirit into a relationship with God as (αββα ὁ πατήρ, 8:15)
• Note all the great present, positive Gospel realities:
• “sons/children of God” (υἱοὶ θεοῦ….τέκνα θεοῦ, 8:14, 16; cf. Israel in OT)

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8:14-17 Children of Abba Father�

• “a Spirit of Adoption” (πνεῦμα υἱοθεσίας, 15)
• “heirs of God…with Christ” (κληρονόμοι, 17)
• Present sufferings, but future “glorified with him” (817). A proper theology of glory!

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Romans 8:31-39 Wraps Up� (pp. 700-702)

• Romans 8 – no condemnation (8:1) to no separation
• Romans 5-8 (life and love “in Christ Jesus Our Lord,” 8:39)
• Romans 1-4 = verses 31-34
• Romans 5-8 = verses 35-39

A final metaphor in 8:37 “overwhelmingly victorious!”

Excursus in volume 2

• 1013-16 Jesus’ Resurrection in Romans
• 1017-25 Preach, Teach, Prophesy
• 1240-45 Beyond Typology
• 1359-73 Paul and the Law
• 1486-99 Paul’s use of the OT in Romans
• 1538-44 Textual Criticism and the End of Romans

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“God Raised Him from the Dead” (10:9)

“The biblical testimony forces us to say that only Easter makes it possible for the death of Jesus to be not bad news, but good news.” Gibbs, “Filling in the Blanks on ‘Witness’: God Raised Jesus from the Dead,” Concordia Journal 38 (2012): 115

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From Dr. Jeff Gibbs

My strong impression is, however, that we have majored in proclaiming the biblical truth of the death of Jesus, especially his death as atoning sacrifice for sins (see Rom 3:21-26). If this is at all an accurate observation—that Good Friday has been primary, with Easter as Good Friday’s validation—

….then perhaps there is a place for us as Lutherans to bear witness more fully and joyfully not only to the fact of Jesus’s resurrection (on which we have not wavered), but also to the significance of Jesus’ resurrection” (Gibbs, 114).

“There is a need to reclaim the significance of Easter. There are promises here for our faith to claim, promises related to the lordship of Christ, the reign of God, the new creation, and the Holy Spirit.”

Gibbs, 113

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Two Favorite Phrases

• 1) Our “not only, but also” God (4:12, 16, 23-24; 5:3, 11; 8:23; 9:10, 24; 13:5; 16:4; cf. 1:32)
• 2) Also a “how much more” God (5:9, 10, 15, 17; also 1 Cor 12:22; 2 Cor 3:9, 11; Phil 1:23; 2:12).

Abraham’s Account

• #1) Faith/belief = receptive righteousness and relationship with God in Romans 1:17 and chapter 3 stress the first, as in 4:3, 18-20. Fides qua
• #2) Faith/beliefs as specific (fides quae; Creedal) content in…

^4:5BELIEVING ON THE ONE WHO DECLARES THE GODLESS RIGHTEOUS,

4:17 BEFORE WHOM HE BELIEVED GOD, THE ONE WHO MAKES THE DEAD ALIVE…

^4:21AND, AFTER BEING FULLY CONVINCED THAT WHAT WAS BEING PROMISED [BY GOD] AND STILL IN EFFECT, HE IS POWERFUL ALSO TO DO.