What is going on here? Is this a tolerable way for Christians to behave? Should we all be doing it? And before you ask, no, it has nothing to do with helping them to keep the fire going.

The larger concern in this section of Romans is how the believers will react to persecution. At least, we have: “be patient in tribulation… Bless those who persecute you… Repay no one evil for evil….” So Paul addresses the urge to retaliate to hostility:

Romans 7:1-8:39

The argument about the status of the Law of Moses in this critical period of eschatological crisis continues. Paul speaks to “those who know the Law,” but now he seems to be addressing Jewish believers, who “have died to the Law through the body of Christ” (7:4).

I recently did a long and enjoyable interview with Sean Finnegan, talking about my book In the Form of a God: The Pre-existence of the Exalted Christ in Paul. Sean is lead pastor of Living Hope Community Church near Albany, New York, and teaches at Atlanta Bible College. He knows his stuff.

Romans 5:1-6:23

Let’s remind ourselves, first, that in these chapters Paul has been recapitulating a dialogue with the Jews of the diaspora, for the most part about the Jews of the diaspora. They have failed to provide a benchmark of piety and right behaviour among the idolatrous Greeks; therefore, they face the wrath of God because Israel’s God could not otherwise judge the Greek world without being accused of partiality.

One obvious retort to the argument that Paul allows for the existence of unbelieving righteous Gentiles who will be justified on the basis of their good deeds on the day of God’s wrath is that he goes on to state emphatically, quoting the scriptures, that “None is righteous, no, not one” (Rom. 3:9). That gives us the basic premise of Reformed theology: