Comments on Romans1:7-12

Paulos to Timotheos, my patient understudy, blessings to you for your long-suffering with my absence.

Concerning the use of 'son of God,' it may be advisable only to mention the Israel and Adam typology by way of anticipation in connection with the opening verses rather than develop it at all. Then, when you come to the connections of Israel and Adam to David in the text, you can expand upon them.

I think that you can handle the above in the manner you do with the the reference to Romans 8, with the connections between resurrection, Spirit and son and the believer. Mention it with some brevity, and pass on.

Now I turn to you translation and commentary on 1:7-12. I think your translation looks good. I see nothing that I would want to see expressed differently. There is nothing particularly complex or difficult about this portion of the text. There may be one or two things in what the passage says and means, but nothing in the straightforward manner of your translation.

You properly state, "We are not, though, to see that the faith is over and against obedience, rather since Paul has already made the link between faith leading to obedience, we should see that Paul's mention of faith intimates obedience as well." It may be useful to mention at this point the inclusio that we find in 16:15. As there is an inclusio in 1:5 and 16:26, so there is an inclusio between 1:8 and 16:19, where the text says, "For your obedience having arrived unto all, I therefore rejoice over you. . . ." The significant thing, here, is that faith and obedience are truly interchangeable, not that they are identical, but that to mention the one is necessarily to imply the other, for the two are entirely indivisible.

Your comments on 1:11 are of interest to me. You state, "What is this spiritual gift? It seems like it is defined in verse 12, which is the mutually encouragement that comes through faith, that is the faith of both Paul and the church. Paul was seeking fellowship, and with this fellowship he would be encouraged, and the church would be encouraged, and the church specifically would be established by this encouragement which comes through faith."

I would like to suggest that there is something else going on in Paul's desire to impart some spiritual gift to the Romans. I wonder if verse 12 stands appositionally to the whole of verse 11. I think it stands appositionally only to the latter portion of verse 11, "that you may be strengthened." Nowhere else, at least that I know of, does Paul ever use charisma pneumatikon in such an intangible manner as your comments seem to suggest. I will be as brief as possible, for what I believe Paul has in view really would take a considerable amount of space to explain adequately.

It seems to me that the apostles, including and especially Paul, wherever they brought the gospel they also brought the charismata, doing two things: (1) By conveying actual spiritual gifts to others, they authenticated their ministry as truly God-authorized, or better, Christ-authorized. In other words, Paul and the other apostles were Christ's vicars upon the earth. They had the authority to convey to other believers the charismata (cf. Acts 8:14-20). (2) By conveying actual spiritual gifts to others, the apostles strengthened the congregations by equipping them with gifts for the edification of the body.

Remember what Paul says to the Corinthians? In 1:6-7 he says, "just as the testimony of Christ has been confirmed among you, so that you do not lack in any gift as you away the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ." What does Paul mean? It seems to me that he means nothing less than this, that the Corinthian believers became well-endowed with gifts precisely because Paul laid his hands upon them and conveyed to them a variety of spiritual gifts which some of them seemed to have abused and twisted into badges of spirituality rather than for the edification of the body.

So, it seems to me that when Paul expresses a desire to visit the Roman church to give them some spiritual gift for the establishment of the church, he is speaking of the same thing he already practiced wherever he went. So, as he had done in Corinth (from which he was writing as he penned Romans), so he wanted to do in Rome. Remember that the church in Rome had not been established by an apostle. So, his visit to the church would have been significant in that regard. His desire to bring some spiritual gift to them was his way of confirming them as truly an apostolic church and to strengthen the church with an enrichment of spiritual gifts for the edification of the body.

I will be back as soon as possible to offer comments upon your next installment that awaits me.