Understanding Paul's Call to Holiness and Faith

To refer to Christians as those called to be Saints is not unique to Paul here um but once again I wonder if he is subtly making the point that he is well aware that these Romans who are so concerned about Holiness are called to be holy and uh you know it's a little confusing in English because Saints uh and holy are the same idea but aren't always so obviously linguistically connected but in Greek it's very obvious they're called to be holy ones. [00:28:40]

The gospel is all about the blessings of Grace and peace brought to the people of God by Apostolic teaching and um Paul will elaborate each of these things in wonderful ways uh as his letter goes along um for example in chapter three of Romans at verse 23 we read for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift so uh Grace is at the very heart of how Paul understands justification. [01:42:52]

Therefore since we have been justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ and what a what a blessed promise that is that we have peace with God and I think there Paul means it both objectively and subjectively objectively we have peace with God he's no longer angry with us because of the offering of Christ on the cross in our place but subjectively we experience that peace uh we are at peace with God uh knowing that he is no longer angry with us. [02:31:19]

Paul is able to commend them uh for things he has heard about them and you notice what he particularly commends them for verse eight first I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you because your faith is proclaimed in all the world again I wonder if Paul Smiles just a little when he writes that uh these people who uh maybe are concerned he's pushing Faith too hard uh he wants them to know that they are known for their faith. [03:33:48]

I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians um again I'm I'm not sure enough about linguistic usage there I think when he says Greeks the Romans would include themselves amongst the Greeks uh because um the Romans saw themselves as a civilized people whereas The Barbarians by contrast are an uncivilized people but I wonder again this is just kind of speculation I wonder if Paul kind of secretly to himself thinks you Romans who think you amount to so much you really belong from a Greek point of view with the barbarians uh not with the civilized. [05:48:08]

For I am not ashamed of the Gospel it is the power of God for the Salvation to everyone who believes to the Jew first and also to the Greek um what is the gospel well first of all it's the power of God God exercises his power through the preaching of the Gospel he'll say that a number of times in this letter um there are those of course who have always thought the preaching of the Gospel is foolishness is powerless is is vain and Paul is utterly rejecting that. [06:52:08]

It's the way God works and it's when the gospel is Faithfully preached um that people are brought to believe and the proper response to the gospel is Faith and that's true for Jews and for Greeks it's not just for the Gentiles it's not that there are two ways of salvation one way for the Jew one way for the Greek it's that everyone and Paul would add it's not what he stresses here but he would add always it's always been true that the way to Salvation is by faith for the Jew and for the Gentile. [07:37:44]

The righteous shall live by faith and and you see what he's really saying implicitly this isn't some crazy Pauline notion this is not something I just came up with Paul says this is what the Old Testament says this is what the prophet says this is written in scripture in habach Chapter 2 at verse four now um what's intriguing is to me um to look at some of the modern commentators uh and what they've done with this quotation because it has become um I suppose one could say fashionable with some commentators to suggest the apostles are not reliable in their quotations from the Old Testament. [09:05:45]

I think that is profoundly untrue and I think when you really look at the context of the quotation that Paul and the other Apostles used from the Old Testament they are always using them exactly correctly and if there's a problem it's our problem in uh seeing what they've done and seeing the real context of of the Old Testament we can see that with a particular Clarity here um the suggestion is that when habach wrote those words what he really meant was that the righteous would live by their faithfulness. [10:23:26]

The irony is um the modern critics are reading habach almost exactly the way Paul's critics in the first century read habc um it's the way the new perspective on Paul wants to read habach uh Paul doesn't really say we're saved by faith alone the way Luther understood it what Paul really says is we're saved by faithfulness well faithfulness is important to Paul will see that as we go along but faithfulness is Faith plus obedience and so is Paul really saying we're Saved By Faith plus obedience is habach saying that we're Saved By Faith plus obedience if that is what's being said it kind of overturns uh the whole traditional way of reading the book of Romans. [11:36:93]

The righteous shall live by his faith now what's the immediate context there the right are living by faith in the promise yet to be fulfilled there's no faithfulness involved there there's no obedience involved there there's a promise that the righteous Rest In by faith it's exactly what Paul is using this verse to substantiate in uh in Romans so as we go along we'll be encouraged to see uh that the apostolic reading of the Old Testament is the right reading of the Old Testament whether um that meting is challenged by rabbis in the first century or it's challenged by liberal critics in the um uh 21st century uh the apostolic reading of the scripture is the true and reliable one. [15:23:00]

Where is Peter when Paul writes this letter uh Paul is writing most Scholars think at about 57 ad and um there is no mention of Peter in this letter even though Paul clearly knows some of the people in the Roman Church and mentions them by name in Romans 16 uh even though the church is clearly a sizable church he can talk about their Fame having gone out to all the world world where is Peter doesn't it seem likely that if Peter were in Rome in 57 Paul would have mentioned him Paul would have said um to all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be Saints especially to Peter but there's no mention of Peter in Romans. [18:05:75]