How to Rightly Read Romans - David Bercot

So if you were to summarize, what is Romans about? What if—okay. Especially the Ananiasian fathers, the early church fathers, previous to Augustine. What—what would you say? What would be the answer to—or what would have they said is Romans all about? Okay, so, yeah, wh—so why it was written, what the issue is, that if you just read the book of Acts, it's, you know, people who weren't influenced by Augustine and then later by Luther, I mean, they all read it and it was obvious what the context is, that the Jews, the Christian Jews, are telling the Gentiles, "Look, you have got to be circumcised and live by the law of Moses to be saved." You know, it's fine, okay, we baptize you, but at some point you've got to be circumcised, you've got to live by the—by the law to be a Christian.

It's not—you can't just come in, you can maybe come in as a Gentile, but you're going to have to become a Jew at some point, okay? There's no salvation outside the law of Moses. And—and that's why they had the Jerusalem Council, Acts 15, you know, the Jews are saying, you know, we've got to circumcise them and make them live by the law of Moses. And all the apostles were there, plus Paul and Barnabas, plus James, and they say, "No, the Jews, you know, the Gentiles are saved just like we by grace through faith in Christ, you know, they don't have to live by the law." They even send out a—a letter to go to all the churches.

And you'd think that would end it, but I mean, the Jews were so adamant on this. Now, to be fair to the Jews, I mean, think about it, for 1,500 years, God gave them the law. They didn't make up this law. God gave it to them. And the promises, you could easily read the Old Testament and think, "This is going to go on forever."

This law, and in—in their minds even, the law became so important, the rabbi started teaching it, you know, it was in heaven first, it came down from heaven, and like, you know, the—the Torah existed before man was even created. I mean, they really put it on a ridiculous pedestal. But the point is, it was from God. Jews had always lived this way. They were punished. They—they were sent into exile because they weren't obeying the law. So when they got back from exile, it was like, "Man, we're going to obey this from now on, and, and, you know, no more idols, no more, you know, we're going to keep the Sabbath," all of this stuff, you know.

So, yeah, this is all from God, and it's suddenly like, "Whoa, whoa, you're saying now we don't have to live this way? That you're the one who brought the Sabbath law? We didn't make it up. You're the one who said, you know, you can't eat this kind of meat and—and that kind of meat. You're the one who gave us the law of circumcision. We didn't make any of this up, and now you're just pulling the rug out from underneath us." Hmm. So you can understand why the Jews are like, "This isn't fair." You mean these Gentiles, they've been worshiping idols, they've been living in immorality, and all they have to do is just come, have faith in Jesus, repent, they're baptized, they're part of the church.

They don't have to live by the law, they can eat pork, no circumcision, the Sabbath, I mean, all of this. It's like, "Well, this isn't fair, God." You know? So they just, I mean, Paul, everywhere he goes, he's pushing against this. The Jewish Christians trying to force the Gentiles to come under the law. You see it in Acts, if you—when you read Galatians, which was written before Romans, you see it there. It was so strong that even Peter and Barnabas, it was like, "Whoa, we better just back off. These Jews are so adamant on this, it's just better not to make an issue here at—at this point in time." You know, and then Paul got real upset with them for—for doing that.

But, yeah, Peter's like, "I'm with the Jewish church in Jerusalem. I've got to worry about their reaction, and is it worth—is this the—the—the time and place to say, 'Okay, nope, this is how it is.'" Well, that led to then, "Okay, we need to have a—a—a conference of all the apostles, everybody. We need to make a definitive ruling." But like I say, even though they did that, the Jews wouldn't accept it. They keep pushing.

So Paul, in Galatians, he addressed it nicely, but in Romans, he decides, "Okay, I'm going to take everything I said in Galatians, and I'm going to expand it and really go into even more detail." So Romans is, I don't know, maybe twice as long as Galatians. I'm just guessing. I—I don't know. Um, but yeah, he really goes into detail, but that is what he is trying to once and for all, you know, destroy, this idea that Gentiles have to live by the law, or that even Jewish Christians have to live by the law. So there's six key points, and I don't know them by memory, so I'm going to just read them from here, that if you—I call it his great argument.

So it's like, in English, it's 8,000 words long. I mean, it's the longest sustained theological argument in the whole Bible. See, that—that I didn't—this just shows the ignorance, right, on my part, because I never even realized that. Like, I'm reading through—through your introduction here, and you're just saying, you know, that, "Yeah, this—this chunk text is like the longest theological argument in the Bible or—or in the New Testament." I just never thought of that as—as a chunk to—to—to untangle, if that makes sense. And it's not presented as a chunk. And that was—well, I'll go into the history of this commentary in a little bit, but okay. So his six points, you know, his—his thesis is, neither Jews nor Gentiles any longer have to live under the law of Moses.

You know, we're saved by faith, by grace, you know, through faith in Jesus Christ, through his blood, it is no longer from the law of Moses. So here's his six points that he develops. All mankind lies guilty before God and needs salvation. And by the way, I don't think there's only one of these six points that there's—that is even controversial today among Protestants, I mean, or even Catholics, okay? Number two, the law of Moses is unable to save or justify Jews, let alone Gentiles. Neither circumcision nor obedience to the law of Moses are necessary any longer, okay? Number three, all humans, Jews and Gentiles alike, are saved and justified only by God's grace through faith in Jesus Christ, okay?

The law plays no part in salvation. Number four, there is no partiality with God. Jews and Gentiles stand as equals before him. See, the Jews were having trouble. "We'll accept the Gentiles, but not as equals." And Paul is really hammering, "No, a Gentile who is uncircumcised, who does not keep the regulations of the law, but keeps the moral teaching of the law, he is a real Jew." The Jew who is outwardly a Jew and has, you know, the tassels and is circumcised and—and does all these regulations, but doesn't have faith in Christ, which means he's not really keeping the law, because here's the Messiah and you've rejected him. He's not a Jew, Paul is saying.

He is not a Jew, okay? So this is really radical. Believing Jews and believing Gentiles together make up the new Israel of God. So God is now looking not at fleshly Israel, but at an Israel that is made up of Jews and Gentiles who are grafted into the Jews, which he's always allowed Gentiles to join the Jews, but now the Jews who reject Christ are being lopped off. He goes into that in—in chapter 10 and 11. Okay.

Now, this is something that I had never caught in Romans that is all throughout it. God has not been unfair to the Jews in bestowing grace and salvation on the Gentiles. So you would ask, you know, you mentioned how complicated Romans is. Okay, one of the things that complicates is Paul starts developing these points, and he's realizing his Jewish brother, man, they're getting really, really mad. So he has to keep coming back over and over again, number one, saying, "Hey, I'm a Jew myself, and I love—I love the Jews so much. I would die for them. I would be, you know, let Christ, you know, be cut off from Christ if it would save the Jews.

That's how much I—so don't think I'm anti-Jewish." And God hasn't been unfair. You're saying God is unfair to let these Gentiles come in. He is not unfair, and—and he develops that argument. His last one, now, this is the one where Protestants, many Protestants today, would reject, but it's just as much a point as these other five. Whether we are Jews or Gentiles, after our initial salvation by grace through faith, God requires us to walk faithfully with Christ, producing godly fruit for the remainder of our lives. However, we do not do this solely on our own strength, for we have the empowerment of the Holy Spirit.

So there's one phase of salvation. You know, when you come in, you don't have to have any works. I mean, these Gentiles, I mean, think of the day of Pentecost. Well, those were Jews, okay? Think of the Philippian jailer, okay? I mean, this guy, I mean, he's just a pagan, you know, and a jailer at that. I mean, he probably beat several people up that day, was probably cursing. He may have worshiped some false god that morning. And then at midnight, you know, this earthquake happens, and, you know, he's quaking before Paul himself, and what must I do, you know, to be saved? Paul witnesses to him. He believes. He's baptized that night. No works.

I mean, this guy is just filth right out of the Gentile world, and boom. Because he believes and repents, he's baptized, he is now accepted, and he's justified by—by faith. But now he has to live by Christ's teachings. He can't go back to living the way he was. So he's saved by faith and—and grace, but yeah, now he's a branch on the vine of Christ. He has to produce godly fruit, and yet God will give him the power. He's not on his own to do this. But yeah, he doesn't go back to the sow returning to the mud or the dog to its vomit, you know, whatever. So that's a big part of Paul's argument that is just as much a part of Romans as these other teachings.