Be afraid, for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They need something to threaten you with to rob you and others

Speaking of the BP oil spill

"What do you get when you cross a long drug habit, a quick temper and a gun? The answer is two life terms for murder, earliest release date 2026. On the other hand, what do you get when you cross two nation states, a large corporation, three tons of poison and 8,000 dead human beings? The answer is, retirement with full pay and benefits."

Romans 13:4
⁴ For the one in authority is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are God’s servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer.

At what point does a structure of power stop being an authority and start being a gangster?

Wright summarises Romans

If you can't be bothered reading NT Wright, or if you think he is undermining the Reformation, or if you just want to understand Romans, watch this

Phoebe flutters

People are all in a flutter at what the bible actually says about women serving the church, and how the early church interpreted it

The goal of Gospel ministry part 2; Romans 12

The aim of Paul's ministry was "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." Rom 15:16.
The offering they were to make was the offering of their bodies (12:1), the offering of their entire lives (6:13). Lives, made holy by Christ's sacrifice and the sending of the Spirit, as lives of love that pointed toward the coming kingdom.
This offering is made in view of Gods mercy to them and faithfullness to Israel (11-12:1 ;15:8-9).
It is prompted and sustained by the proclamation and understanding of the will of God, that resists the thought patterns of the current age, whether they be pagan idolatry or torah keeping ignorance. This 'will of God' isn't some vague individual guidance, but the narrative of God's action to reconcile both Jew and Gentile to himself and each other under one new Adam. This is God's mercy, and as we proclaim it, Spirit sanctified love is the goal.

The Spirit of life

Paul’s teaching about the Spirit in Romans encourages the Roman believers faith and hope in the resurrected Jesus Christ. The Spirit is the Spirit of life (8:2). In Romans 1-8 death, entering the world through sin , reigns over Jew and Gentile, and subsequently over the entire creation. The Law, though intended to bring life, weakened by sin and the flesh, actually brought death.(7:10, cf Deut 30:11-20). Paul’s fresh reading of Deuteronomy 30 in 10:6-10 intimates a renewal of this promise of life, based on the Lordship of Jesus, and of faith in God’s action in raising him from the dead. This faith is the same faith as that of Abraham, who believed in the God who gives life to the dead(4:17), and is the faith for which righteousness will be credited.(4:23-25) The Roman believers however, seem to be going through some time of suffering . If Paul’s message of new covenant fulfilment and membership for Jew and Gentile is true, where then are the covenant blessings? It is at this point of the argument, in both chapter 5 and 8, that Paul introduces Spirit material. The presence of the Spirit in 5:5 confirms the hope of believers. This hope is based on the union with Christ by the Spirit in 8:9-10. This union initially brings life to the spirit of believers (9:10), but the end result repeats the outcome of union with Christ in 6:5.


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The people of God

Paul’s teaching about the Spirit in the letter to the Romans opens the boundaries of who is included in the people of God, so that Jew and Gentile might glorify God together. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of unity (15:5) and adoption (8:15) , that marks out the new covenant people of God. From chapter 1 through to the end of 16 “the burden of this letter....has to do with the Gentiles as full and equal recipients in the covenant promises made to Israel- and that without excluding Israel”(Fee, GEP). Paul opposes, on the one hand, Jews who falsely rely on the observance of Law and circumcision (2:17) , and on the other, Gentiles who boast over the Jews rejection by God.(10:18) Paul’s argues for a united people of God, Jew and Gentile, with one God(3:27-30), one Lord(10:12) , one family faith (4:11-12, 10:12-13), who “with one heart and mouth may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (15:6). In Paul’s argument, the Spirit, along with faith, replaces Law observance and circumcision(2:28-29) as the boundary markers of the new covenant people of God. The Spirit is the one who circumcises hearts to make true Jews, and it is the Spirit who empowers Paul’s gospel to sanctify the Gentiles (15:15-19). The Spirit unites believers to Christ , and those without the Spirit do not belong to Christ. In 8:12-30 Paul transfers terms of covenant status, based in the narratives of Israel’s exodus, from Israel to Jesus, and subsequently to describe those with the Spirit of Christ. The Spirit makes us share in Jesus prayer of sonship to the Father and confirms us as co-heirs with Christ sharing in his glory(8:15). “Those led by the Spirit of God are sons of God” chosen to be freed from slavery, waiting to inherit the entire world, as promised to Abraham in 4:13. While the language is from Roman adoption practices, “the idea of divine sonship links back into Israel’s sense of election as God’s son” (Dunn) The use of these terms for those with the Spirit is strong enough to generate the questions about the continuing role of Israel in chapters 9-11, to whom belong the adoption as sons, the law and the promises and the divine glory. Thompson, Tobin (and Paul ) are quick to point out that Jews are not therefore excluded, but welcomed on the same basis
“confession of God as Father highlights God’s mercy to Israel as well as to the Gentiles in adopting them into one family who, as descendants of Abraham, inherit together in Jesus Christ ”(M.M. Thompson)
Recognition of this unity in the Spirit, along with the death of Christ for both Jew and Gentile forms the basis for Paul’s exhortation to both weak and strong in chapter 14, so that each may welcome the other, to the praise of God.(15:7-9) As part of Paul’s goal of seeing Jew and Gentile united in praise of God through Jesus Christ, the Spirit replaces the Law as a boundary marker of the people of God.



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Love the Lord your God

All this activity of the Spirit fulfils the purpose of the Law in believers. This fulfilment should not be separated from Paul’s rereading of Deuteronomy 30 in 10:4-9, where Jesus and faith in him are the telos of the Law. But nor should the Law’s fulfilment be seen as somehow limited by this. It is those who have the Sprit dwelling in and interceding for them that are named ‘ lovers of God’ (8:28), fulfilling the shema of Deuteronomy 6:4. The clear parallels between 8:18-39 and 5:1-11 should then guide our understanding of 5:5 to recognise tou theou as an objective genitive( or at the very least plenary). The Spirit then, fills believers with hope as it enables believers to fulfil the shema even in suffering, rather than by providing some internal, subjective sensation of God’s love. It is believers, offering their bodies as spiritual sacrifices who are to fulfil the law and all the commandments by loving their fellowmen in 13:8-14. The central position Paul gives the commandment of Leviticus 19:18 here, echoes Jesus’ summing up of the Law( Matt 22:34-40). While the Spirit is not mentioned explicitly in Romans 13, the language of obligation and fulfilment, the eschatological context( 13:11-14) and the later references to “walking in love”(14:15) confirm that “what is said here about love “fulfilling” the Law is in Pauline understanding a direct outworking of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer”.(Fee, GEP) Paul’s use of opheilete returns the reader back to Paul's hanging half sentence of 8:12. The believers putting to death of the misdeeds of the body by the Spirit is to be done in the context of love of the other.(also 15:2) The exhortation to “clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh” in 13:14 , then refers backwards to the obvious debauchery of 13:13, but also forwards to the relationships between weak and strong in the Roman churches. Paul’s teaching about the Holy Spirit in the letter to the Romans forms a major part of his goal to bring about the obedience of faith in the new covenant people. He avoids the charge of anti-nomianism by showing how those with the Spirit, though not under the Law, fulfil the righteous requirements of the Law, love of God, and love of one another.


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