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Read Romans Like a Snowball, Not a Bowling Ball
A Cumulative Reading of Romans
Romans is the longest and most imposing of Paul’s letters, with innumerable exegetical problems to solve and several libraries of long commentaries to negotiate. Therefore, we are tempted to read it in small chunks. However, such reading is unnatural for a letter like Romans. Rather than reading like a bowling ball, knocking over one text after another, we need to read Romans cumulatively like a snowball, seeing Paul’s argument build with each text. Or, using a different analogy, if exegesis takes an atomistic approach, biblical theology is a molecular discipline, considering the place of each passage in the text as a whole.1 In its first-century setting, Romans was likely read and listened to, in its entirety, in one sitting—giving readers and hearers the opportunity of “building up and establishing connections between different segments of the text.”2 Reading is a process of prospection and retrospection, where sentences act as indicators of something that is to come and later sentences take the minds of the readers back to earlier sentences.
Sometimes in Romans Paul introduces a point briefly and returns later to treat it at greater length. The way in which questions posed in Romans 3 are answered more fully later in the letter is a good example.
Strengthened by the Gospel
Brian S. Rosner
In this volume of the New Testament Theology series, Brian S. Rosner examines the central theology and themes of Paul’s gospel message in Romans to strengthen and encourage disciples of Jesus today.
Big Themes Across the Letter
Each major unit of the letter represents a step forward in the argument and focuses on key themes: universal sin, judgment, and salvation in Romans 1–4; hope, suffering, and life in Romans 5–8; and so on. However, while such big themes are treated in depth in these units, there is further teaching across the letter on such topics.
The teaching of Romans on the subject of sin, for example, is not exhausted with the condemnation of all human beings in Romans 1:18–3:20. In other parts of Romans we learn that sin entered the world through Adam’s transgression (Rom. 5:12), its effects stretch to the entire cosmos (Rom. 8:19–22), and its future, final defeat is assured (Rom. 16:20). While in Romans 1–3 human rebellion against God is described as “ungodliness” (Rom. 1:18), “unrighteousness” (Rom. 1:18, 29), “impurity” (Rom. 1:24), “evil” (Rom. 2:9), and “sin” (Rom. 3:9, 20), these terms appear in other parts of the letter, along with “lawlessness” (Rom. 6:19), “disobedience” (Rom. 5:19), “trespass” (Rom. 4:25; Rom. 5:15, 16, 17, 18; Rom. 11:11, 12), and “works of darkness” (Rom. 13:12). In addition, there are other treatments of specific sins in many parts of the letter. In Romans 1 we see the sins of ignoring God, ingratitude, idolatry, and sexual immorality (Rom. 1:18–28), as well as a lengthy vice list (Rom. 1:29–32). Later in Romans, there are treatments of coveting (Rom. 7:7–11) and judging fellow believers (Rom. 14:1–15:7). Additional subjects in Romans 1–3 are also reinforced and developed in other parts of the letter, including the universal gospel invitation,3 the death of Christ, the response of faith, the witness of the Old Testament, and the blessings of salvation.
Subthemes Across the Letter
Various subthemes also appear across the letter. Although none of them is a main subject of a section, these subthemes are, nevertheless, also critical to a full presentation of the theology of Romans. These include, for example, slavery, obedience, glory, worship, resurrection, and suffering. Such topics provide color and texture to the letter’s presentation of the gospel and its many implications. They also demonstrate the remarkable coherence of Paul’s gospel theology in Romans.
Consider, for instance, the teaching of Romans on the mind and thinking.4 The word “mind” (nous) first appears in Romans 1:28, where Paul refers to the debased pagan mind. The nous then pops up five more times in the letter: Rom. 7:23, 25; Rom. 11:34; Rom. 12:2; and Rom. 14:5. However, this data does not exhaust the topic, as concepts are bigger than terms. To trace the theme of the mind across the letter we must take into account other words, such as the verbs “consider” (logizomai)5 and “set one’s mind on something” (phroneō).6
In brief, Romans
- describes and condemns the corrupted mind of the Gentile world (Rom. 1:18–32);
- describes and condemns the knowledgeable mind of the Jewish world (Rom. 7:7–25);
- condemns those who set their minds on the things of the flesh (Rom. 8:5);
- commends a new way of thinking in Christ (Rom. 6:1–11);
- prescribes a mind empowered by God’s Spirit (Rom. 8:5–7);
- commends being of the same mind toward one another in the body of Christ and not being haughty in mind (Rom. 12:16; 15:5);7 and
- urges a renewed mind in response to the gospel that is aligned with the values of the coming age (Rom. 12:1–3).
The theme of the mind in Romans is impressively comprehensive, covering everything from the dynamics of Jewish and Gentile sin to a presentation of how the gospel transforms the behavior of those who belong to Christ. It even includes a humbling reminder that no one knows the mind (nous) of the Lord (Rom. 11:34, quoting Isa. 40:13)!
Conclusion
Biblical theology may be defined as “the theological interpretation of Scripture in and for the church. It proceeds with historical and literary sensitivity and seeks to analyze and synthesize the Bible’s teaching about God and his relations to the world on its own terms, maintaining sight of the Bible’s overarching narrative and Christocentric focus.”8 There is perhaps no book in the New Testament better suited to this task.
Notes:
- This analogy was suggested to me by Graham Cole.
- A. C. Thiselton, New Horizons in Hermeneutics (London: Marshall Pickering, 1992), 518.
- See Rom. 2:5–11; Rom. 3:9, 22–23, 29–30; Rom. 4:9–12, 16–17; Rom. 9:24; Rom. 10:11–13; Rom. 11:32; Rom. 15:8–12.
- See Craig S. Keener, The Mind of the Spirit: Paul’s Approach to Transformed Thinking (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2016).
- Cf. e.g., Rom. 6:11: “Consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to Christ Jesus.”
- Cf. e.g., Rom. 8:5: “those who . . . set their minds on the things of the Spirit.”
- While most modern versions have a variation of “live in harmony with one another,” NASB 1995 uses a more literal translation of phroneō (“to think”) in these verses: “Be of the same mind toward one another” (Rom. 12:16). May God “grant you to be of the same mind with one another” (Rom. 15:5).
- B. S. Rosner, “Biblical Theology,” in NDBT 10.
This article is adapted from Strengthened by the Gospel: A Theology of Romans by Brian S. Rosner.
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