I'm so close. Do you know the major theme of Romans, from beginning to end, is the judgement of God.
Beware anybody who wants to soft sell the subject of divine judgement. "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth."
That's Romans 1:18.
3 comments:
It's hard to make one exact theme stretch over all of Romans but I've been convinced by Nygren it's "he who by faith is righteous." Judgement is a specific sub-topic of that statement. (Let me deploy my big guns, Carson thinks Nygren is one of the best commentators ever on Romans!)
Judgment and righteousness are inseparable, for if you remove judgment, you eviscerate righteousness.
I'm unhappy with the way modern Bible publishers put a heading and a paragraph break between Romans 1:17 and Romans 1:18. Paul saw the connection and wrote accordingly.
Hmm, he who by faith is righteous. If by 'he' Nygren means 'God', then you have no argument from me.
Hi Gordon
I'm reading Romans at the moment in my read-through of the New Jerusalem Bible. [Speaking of, did you know the word liturgy is used in Leviticus, which I finished this morning. Now this book that has been so neglected and/or maligned, in fact it appears in the AntiBook List, the book of books you hate, has lots of grace and mercy in it. Israel would have been a great place to live if they had followed God's commands.]
But I digress. There is a lot of judgment in every book of the Bible, but I haven't noticed it being THE theme, yet. Just finished Romans 8 this AM.
I was going to ask you if you know of a good short sermon series on Romans, please? I have Piper, which certainly appears comprehensive. Hope to lsiten through it, but it will be a big project. Bigger than Mark Dever on the entire Bible!
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