Posts tagged with "Book of Romans"

Crying Abba – Inspired by Romans 8.15 (Part 3)

Update – For a note from an academic perspective from James McGrath see below.  But, please enjoy the cute videos anyway.

Today’s New Testament lectionary reading is from Romans 8 including Romans 8.15, which reads “For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received a spirit of adoption, through which we cry, “Abba, Father!””  I’m going to post some YouTube videos today to give some perspective on crying “Abba, Father!”

Crying Abba – Inspired by Romans 8.15 (Part 2)

Update – I am adding a note from an academic perspective from James McGrath “‘Abba’ is the ordinary Aramaic word for father in the absolute state, and not child-talk or “daddy” as some have at times wrongly claimed.”  But, please enjoy the cute videos anyway.

Today’s New Testament lectionary reading is from Romans 8 including Romans 8.15, which reads “For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received a spirit of adoption, through which we cry, “Abba, Father!””  I’m going to post some YouTube videos today to give some perspective on crying “Abba, Father!”

Crying Abba – Inspired by Romans 8.15 (Part 1)

Update – I am adding a note from an academic perspective from James McGrath “‘Abba’ is the ordinary Aramaic word for father in the absolute state, and not child-talk or “daddy” as some have at times wrongly claimed.”  But, please enjoy the cute videos anyway.

Today’s New Testament lectionary reading is from Romans 8 including Romans 8.15, which reads “For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received a spirit of adoption, through which we cry, “Abba, Father!””  I’m going to post some YouTube videos today to give some perspective on crying “Abba, Father!”

Reiterating a Point about Faith and Works

The other day I posted a thought about the relationship between faith and works.  I’ll repeat it again here:

It is one thing to say that the Bible teaches that justification is by faith alone or begins with faith and continues through works.  And, it is quite another thing to say that a person must understand the relationship between faith and works in order to be justified.  It seems that part of the reason the New Testament authors had to write to Christians about this relationship is that they didn’t all understand it.

This thought I think is fairly clear in today’s reading, which is from Romans 4.1-8:

Brothers and sisters***: What can we say that Abraham found, our ancestor according to the flesh? Indeed, if Abraham was justified on the basis of his works, he has reason to boast; but this was not so in the sight of God. For what does the Scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. A worker’s wage is credited not as a gift, but as something due. But when one does not work, yet believes in the one who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness.  So also David declares the blessedness of the person to whom God credits righteousness apart from works:

Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven
and whose sins are covered.
Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord does not record. (NAB)

The point should be clear here: Paul calls his audience “brothers and sisters” and then he proceeds to teach them about the relationship between faith and works.  In other words, these people were brothers and sisters before they understood this relationship if they even came to understand it at all.  One might forgive people for misunderstanding in our day and time granted how nuanced discussion of these matters are …  This Greek word means this or that.  This verb has such and such a tense (which is foreign to the native language of most readers).  Yet God is going to judge people on whether or not people have a “proper” understanding of this?  I think not.

*** Update – Actually, looked only at the lectionary and not at the text.  The use of brothers and sisters actually is traced back to Romans 1.13.  The lectionary includes at the beginning of each reading.

Faith and Works – A Thought

Here is a thought that occurred to me today when reading the lectionary reading from Romans 2.1-11, which I know I inherited from elsewhere (perhaps the article a link to at the bottom, though I read it a very long time ago):

It is one thing to say that the Bible teaches that justification is by faith alone or begins with faith and continues through works.  And, it is quite another thing to say that a person must understand the relationship between faith and works in order to be justified.  It seems that part of the reason the New Testament authors had to write to Christians about this relationship is that they didn’t all understand it.

Thus, I think NT Wright is absolutely correct to call this a second-order doctrine. Thoughts?

Romans 1.17 – As it is Written Where?

Today’s first reading is Romans 1.16-25.  Verse 17 of this chapter is one of the most significant verses in the history of Christian theology.  It reads as follows:

For in it (the gospel) the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith; as it is written, “The one who is righteous will live by faith” (NRSV).

I am not going to say a whole lot about the verse in general except that in the context of a site focused on the Old Testament or Hebrew Bible, the question emerges: “As it is written” where?  Many people are familiar with the saying the “The righteous one/the just one will live by faith”; however, many people do not know where the statement originates.  It originates in Habakkuk 2.4, which reads as follows:

Look at the proud!
Their spirit is not right in them,
but the righteous live by their faith (NRSV).

Anyone who wants to properly understand Romans 1.17 should first begin by trying to understand Habakkuk 2.4, though the original context of Old Testament passages does not always play very clearly into the thought of New Testament authors (e.g. Matthew 2.23).

Let me just venture a few thoughts from the context of Habakkuk 2.4.  In this text, “the righteous person” is placed in antithetical parallelism, or direct contrast, with the proud person.  The proud person is further described in verse 5 as being deceived by wealth and never being satisfied.  Being righteous in this context then would mean something along the lines of being humble and content.  Regardless of how one understands the term often phrase “live by their faith,” we do get a picture of what someone who is doing this should look like.

Replaced by Romans

Well, the daily Old Testament lectionary readings have been replaced by Romans.  As if someone can understand Romans without having an understanding of the Old Testament.  Oh well, back to randomness for a little while.