Wednesday Class Notes on romans 2:17-4

1) 2:17-3:20 Reflections on being chosen Ok Paul tells Jewish Christians not to brag as they cannot fulfill all moral obligations. further, it is less an identity marker and more a matter of spiritual disposition in intention and action, so gentiles would be OK with God if they act like Jews. Does Paul also here undercut our preference for religion of the heart?
Justification here means that god demonstrates fidelity and right in relationship consistently.
should Paul give a better answer to the second objection here than mere dismissal?
Do you agree that ‘all the law tells us is what is sinful?”
As a Reformed christian, od you agree that the law is exclusively negative?
Do you agree with Paul to the level of his attack on human depravity?


2) Faith 3:21-31-Paul strings together citations to demonstrate human incapacity. All live under judgment, period. The turn has come in that god has shown right relationship is possible by moving past the requirements of Judaism to a different orientation through Christ.Paul uses the word expiate, Greek for Hebrew- kippur, to mean covering, removal, forgiveness, reconciliation, atonement, mercy, removal.
Meyer sees redemption less in its financial sense but more in its result of release. do you agree?
Notice that Jesus lives and dies for us, not for god. He sees it as a gift.
Do you go with Paul that we worship an impartial god?

Notice after the talk of us being left to our own devices, God will not permit that. God’s intergrity won;t let that happen, so god’s faithfulness tries another way in Jesus.
Notice faith is not an action but is more a relationship of trust and reliance.



3) Abraham, Father of Faith First notice what a bold move this is as Abraham is the acknowledged father of Judaism, but he is making him father of many as a sort of father of the faith. Paul is putting a lot of stock behind Abraham being a sort of pre-Judaism figure to open the door for gentiles.. For Paul -Abraham lived in a state of trust in god’s righteous attitude and actions, that is the start of a new relationship.
v.16 is critical on the notion of grace as gift.At the end of the chapter, he makes the bold move of applying words to Abraham to all children of Abraham, children of trust in that gift of god.
v. 17 moves us to a great new space god is the god of the living and the dead, so justification, made right with god, is a life-giving experience. Salvation is about getting things back into some decent shape and order
Here at the end Paul links cross and resurrection, almost as if they are a unit in god’s economy.