Reading Jesus's Bible by Goldingay John;

Author:Goldingay, John;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company

4.4 Romans: The Theological Resource

The principle that the First Testament provides the theological framework for understanding Christian faith emerges clearly in Paul’s systematic account of his revolutionary gospel in Romans. After laying out the basics of it in 3:21–26 (itself thought out in fundamentally First Testament terms), he has to face overtly the question whether this gospel is acceptable—that is, whether it is biblical enough. He approaches this question in Romans 4 by considering the key case of Abraham and maintaining that Abraham’s relationship with God had a similar basis to the one he speaks of. It too involved a righteousness based on trust. First Testament theology thus supports and illumines the nature of faith in Jesus. Romans 3 alludes also to the question of what effect this understanding of God’s ways has on the position of the Jews, and Paul takes up this question systematically in Romans 9–11, where the theological argument is conducted entirely in terms of the exposition of First Testament Scriptures.3

Faith and Judgment

Paul outlines his gospel with great succinctness immediately after the opening greetings in the letter.

In the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.” (Rom 1:17)

Or as I might prefer to translate it,

God’s doing the right thing is revealed in it [the gospel] through faith for faith, as it stands written: “The one who is right through faith will live.”

Paul is quoting Habakkuk 2:4. Habakkuk ministered in Judah about the same time as Jeremiah. Like Jeremiah, he had to confront Judah about its unfaithfulness and also to deal with the depressing experience of living under the domination of a superpower. In relation to both issues, Habakkuk makes this key comment,

The faithful person will live by his truthfulness. (Hab 2:4)

Habakkuk is talking about the righteous person, the person who does what is right, the person who lives faithfully with God and with other people. And he is talking about the key to being able to carry on living. Further, he is talking about faithfulness or truthfulness or steadfastness as that key.

So what Paul says has little to do with what Habakkuk says. Indeed, Paul risks someone responding that Habakkuk says the opposite to Paul. Habakkuk is not talking about empty-handed trust in God’s promise and God’s grace but about active faithfulness. Paul does not see our faithfulness as key to our being right with God. Oddly enough, Hebrews quotes the same line from Habakkuk with an understanding that is much closer to Habakkuk’s own:

You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. For,

“In just a little while,

he who is coming will come

and will not delay.

But my righteous one will live by faith,

and I take no pleasure

in the one who shrinks back.” (Heb 10:36–38)4

The celebration of First Testament saints that follows in Hebrews 11 spells out the point.

Now Paul does believe in active faithfulness as

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