There can be no doubt that Romans 8 represents one of the high points not only in Romans, but also of the whole New Testament. So far, we’ve seen how Paul shifts the focus away from what the rule of sin and death look like to what the rule of the Spirit looks like, and … Continue reading The Glory to Be Revealed: Romans 8.18-30, Part 1
Last time we saw how Paul pivoted from focusing on the ‘before’ picture of humanity, to the ‘after’, by talking about the role of the Holy Spirit in freeing us from the way of sin to live out God’s holy way of love. Today we’ll turn to a short passage in which he introduces a … Continue reading A Spirit of Adoption: Romans 8.14-17
Since chapter 5, Paul has been exploring the implications of his participationist take on the ancient ‘two way’ ideology. It isn't that we can follow one of two ways, as Paul understands the world, but that there are two humanities in which we can participate: the old humanity of Adam that is bondage to sin … Continue reading The Flesh and the Spirit: Romans 8.1-13
In Romans 6-7, Paul works through a series of rhetorical questions, preemptively heading off objections to his teaching that marginalizes the role of the Law of Moses for followers of Jesus. Here in 7.7-25, in two closely related paragraphs, he asks whether, because he’s said that there is no accounting of sin where there is … Continue reading The Law and Sin: Romans 7.7-25
In Romans 6-7 Paul addresses a series of concerns about his message being a license to sin. In chapter 6, he argued that marginalizing the role of the law doesn’t promote sin, because the law was part of the old order of sin, to which we died at our baptism into the new order of … Continue reading Freedom from the Law: Romans 7.1-6
Matthew Root 