Into the Heart of Romans by N. T. Wright

Author:N. T. Wright [Wright, N. T.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Zondervan Academic
Published: 2023-08-02T00:00:00+00:00

We ended our previous chapter with Romans 8.17. As we saw, verse 17 functions as a kind of bridge, drawing together the line of thought in verses 12 to 16 and forming the foundation for what is to come. Paul has declared that we suffer with the Messiah so that we may also be glorified in him. But what does ‘glory’ actually mean? Today’s passage will tell us; but the church has been surprisingly slow to pay heed.

The deliberately slow pace at which we are moving through the chapter gives us the chance to look simply at this short passage, verses 17–21, rather than dashing on at once to the remarkable material that follows. Verses 22–30 are indeed fascinating, but they mean what they mean because of what we find here in 17–21. Paul has announced, in verse 17, the theme of suffering and glory. He will come to the suffering presently. These verses, through to 21, are simply about the glory, what it means and how it is to be attained.

Glory, of course, is where verses 18–30 are going, all the way to the climactic last clause of verse 30: those he justified, them he also glorified. So what does that mean? The church has usually understood Paul to be affirming that those who come to faith in Jesus, and so are ‘justified’, are assured of going to heaven. But if our present passage, verses 17–21, shows us what Paul means by ‘glory’ and ‘being glorified’, then we have to revise that view quite radically. Verse 30 is the conclusion to this passage, and to this point, not to something else. To say it again, Romans 8 is simply not about ‘going to heaven’. Heaven is never mentioned in this chapter; indeed, ‘heaven’ in the sense of ‘where Christians will go after death’ is missing from this whole letter and indeed Paul’s whole correspondence. The common contemporary Christian usage of the word ‘glory’ to mean ‘heaven’ as normally conceived (as when someone who has died is spoken of as having ‘gone to glory’) misses Paul’s point. So what is he saying?

The primary meanings of ‘glory’ in this passage are, simultaneously, the glorious presence of God himself dwelling within us by the spirit, and the wise, healing, reconciling rule of God’s people over the whole creation. These two – God’s presence and human rule – are made for each other. They fit together.

We have already seen, in verses 9–11 and then in verses 12–17, that Paul is retrieving the exodus-story at the point where God comes in person to dwell in the Tabernacle. That is the implication of all that Paul says about God’s spirit dwelling within believers to lead them to the ‘inheritance’. Those ‘in the Messiah’ are ‘new-Temple’ people. Paul insists in 2 Corinthians 3 and 4 that the divine glory really does dwell within Jesus’ people, even though, as cracked clay jars, they know themselves to be deeply unworthy. That is the first meaning of ‘glory’, and it suffuses this whole passage.

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