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THEOLOGY & CULTURE Romans 3:21-26: the Meaning of the Gospel As the Revelation of God's Righteousness

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THEOLOGY & CULTURE Romans 3:21-26: the Meaning of the Gospel As the Revelation of God's Righteousness THEOLOGY & CULTURE Romans 3:21-26: The Meaning of the Gospel as the Revelation of God’s Righteousness Leonce F. Rambau, CSSp Department of Theology and Religious Studies Jordan University College Introduction According to his Letters and to the Acts of the Apostles, prior to his encounter with the Risen Lord, Paul was a very zealous Jewish person who observed the Torah with fervour. Out of his zeal, he persecuted the members of the fledgling Christian community, even to the point of trying to destroy it (cf. Gal 1:13; 1 Cor 15:9; Phil 3:6). Paul probably participated in the persecution of early Christians in the area of Jerusalem (cf. Acts 8:3; 9:1-2; 22:3-5, 19; 29:9-11). The First Letter to the Thessalonians 2:14 attests to Christian persecutions in Jerusalem. However, Paul’s life changed completely after he had an experience of a theophany at or near Damascus. This incident is recounted in both Paul’s Letters and Acts. In Galatians 1:13-17 and Acts 9:1-9, we read that the Risen Lord appeared to Paul (see also 1 Cor 9:1; 15:8). This incident consisted of a theophany, a visible manifestation of the Divine by means of a great light and a voice from heaven. Paul characterized this encounter as an appearance of the Risen Lord, a continuation of a whole series of Resurrection appearances (cf. 1 Cor 15:8; Gal 1:15-16). Through this encounter, Paul came to believe in Jesus as the Christ and as the Risen Lord. As Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI states, in this incident, “the Risen Christ appears as a brilliant light and speaks to Saul, transforms his 152 Africa Tomorrow 20/1-2 (June/December 2018) thinking and his entire life.” 1 Through this encounter, Paul received his mission in life, namely, a call to be an apostle to the Gentiles. Paul will ground his Christian faith, his mission and his message in this encounter. According to Pope Benedict XVI, “Saint Paul was transformed not by a thought, but by an event, by the irresistible presence of the Risen One whom subsequently he would never be able to doubt, so powerful had been the evidence of the event, of this encounter. It radically changed Paul’s life in a fundamental way; in this sense one can and must speak of a conversion.” 2 In this encounter, Paul received, by means of revelation, the Gospel he was to preach. Paul insists on several occasions that he received the Gospel he was to preach through a revelation, and not from human beings: “For I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel that was proclaimed by me is not of human origin; for I did not receive it from a human source, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ” (Gal 1:11- 12). Regarding the content of that Gospel, Paul describes it as follows: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith; as it is written, ‘The one who is righteous will live by faith’” (Rom 1:16-17). Thus, Paul characterized the Gospel that he preached as a revelation of God’s righteousness through the passion and death of Christ. This is the Gospel that Paul expounds in his Letter to the Romans. One key text that summarizes this Gospel is Romans 3:21-26. The present essay critically discusses the text of Romans 3:21- 26, which is the core of Paul’s teaching of the Gospel as the Revelation of God’s Righteousness. In the first part, this essay shall offer the background to the text. Accordingly, it shall situate the text within its broader and immediate contexts of Paul’s Letter to the Romans, as an attempt 1 BENEDICT XVI, Saint Paul: General Audiences July 2, 2008–February 4, 2009 , San Francisco: Ignatius 2009, 22. 2 BENEDICT XVI, Saint Paul, 22. Rambau, “Romans 3:21-26” 153 to show that the text under study is at the centre of Paul’s thought throughout the letter. By means of a literary analysis, the essay shall present the critical text, its stylistic characteristics, its form and its structure. Then the article shall attempt an exercise in redaction criticism to show that Paul incorporated a pre-existent formula into this text. In the second part, this work shall offer an exegesis of the text of Romans 3:21-26 in an attempt to establish the meaning of the revelation of God’s righteousness, a righteousness that carries with it the implication of salvation for all. In the third part, the work shall synthesize our findings, presenting Paul’s teaching about the triune God, about the incarnate divine person Jesus, and about human beings. 1. Background to Romans 3:21-26 Paul had been intending to visit Rome in order to get the support of the Roman Christians for his mission plans of reaching Spain (Rom 15:24). Jerome Neyrey suggests that since he had an unfavorable reputation and therefore anticipated opposition in Rome, he wrote the Letter to the Romans in order to recommend himself to the Church there. 3 In the letter, he systematically presented his “Gospel of God” in order clear all the accusations which had been circulating against him, and hence to convince the Christians in Rome of the orthodoxy and legitimacy of the Gospel he was preaching. 4 Romans 3:21-26 is the core of this message. 1.1 Remote/Broader Context of Romans 3:21-26 The text under study expounds Paul’s thesis in the Letter to the Romans, that is, that God’s righteousness has been revealed through the expiatory death of Jesus Christ. His righteousness is now accessible to all who have faith in Jesus. Paul introduces this theme in 1:16-17, i.e., at the beginning of the doctrinal section of 3 Cf. J. NEYREY , Render to God: New Testament Understandings of the Divine , Minneapolis: Fortress 2004, 107-108. 4 K.P. DONFRIED , ed., The Romans Debate , Peabody: Hendrickson 1991, 333. 154 Africa Tomorrow 20/1-2 (June/December 2018) the letter 1:16–11:36, as a propositio :5 “For I am not ashamed of the gospel: it is the power of God for salvation to every one who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith; as it is written, ‘He who through faith is righteous shall live.’” Then he develops his theme both negatively and positively as follows: In a negative way, Paul explains what happens to humanity without the Gospel (1:18–3:20). Without the Gospel, all humanity, both the Jewish people and the Gentiles, are under the influence of sin; God is just in punishing. Here is what Byrne has to say: “What will be required at the eschatological judgment is righteousness. … 1:18–3:20 has shown the complete lack of righteousness on the human side, even for those [the Jews] who possess the law. The entire world (Jewish as well as Gentiles) stands unrighteous before God, a situation which ‘establishes’ rather than derogates from God’s own righteousness.” 6 In contrast, in 3:21–11:36, Paul explains positively how in the Gospel, God’s righteousness has been manifested through Christ, a righteousness which is accessible to all, for it is no longer based on the law but on faith. Paul presents the ‘Gospel of God’, which – according to Fitzmyer – is “salvation for all human beings by grace through faith in 5 Paul organizes Romans in a logical manner, with the beginning, middle and the end. Scholars have discovered that, rhetorically, it can be divided as follows: 1. Romans 1:1-12 is exordium ( the author establishes relationship with his audience). 2. Romans 1:13-15 is narratio (background to the argument). 3. Romans 1:16-17 is propositio (short statement of the thesis. 4. Romans 1:18–11:36 (or 15:13) is probatio (the main section of the letter; the body, where the author argues his thesis, presenting proof for the thesis. This is where our text falls). 5. Romans 15:14–16:23 is peroratio (conclusion, which appeals to the audience to accept the viewpoint of the author). 6. Romans 16:25-27 is the final doxology. Cf. R. JEWETT , Romans. HCHCB, Minneapolis: Fortress 2007, 29. 6 B. BYRNE , Romans. Sacra Pagina 6, Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 1996, 122. Rambau, “Romans 3:21-26” 155 Christ Jesus and what he has achieved for humanity.” 7 Thus, the passage under study is “the key to the structure and thought of the letter.” 8 It not only repeats the theme stated at 1:16-17 in v. 21 but also expands it. It summarizes the whole of 1:18–3:20 in vv. 22d-23; and the rest of the letter grows from it. According to Neyrey, both the negative and positive expositions of the theme are based on the understanding of the two attributes of God in the Letter to the Romans: God as the Just One who punishes sinners and God as the One who is Merciful. 9 Neyrey says: ‘But’ says Paul, ‘the righteousness of God has been manifested’ (3:21). What follows stands in opposition to what preceded it: since ‘all sin and fall short of the glory of God,’ the only exit from this impasse can be a display of the attribute of mercy.
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