Worksheets for Week 3 of the Study
22 September 2021
Lesson 3: The Letter to the Romans – by Ben Witherington III
Class is held in the education building on Wednesdays 10-11am.
Reading for this week Romans 5
My favorite verse of the reading this week is Romans 5:21, “so that, just as sin exercised dominion in death, so grace might also exercise dominion through justification leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Additional Readings:
1 Corinthians 13:12
Matthew 18:21-35
Luke 8:42-48
Day 1: Romans 5:1-5
Notice the list of the things are produced in us:
Endurance
Character (tested character)
Hope in receiving God’s love
We are reset from being enemies to being in peace with God.
Witherington says the following about the hope we have produce in us:
The Christian faith has always been intended to be forward-looking in nature. This is why the author of Hebrews says in Hebrews 11:1, “now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (NRSV). In both cases, the author is talking about eschatological things God had promised—the return of Christ, the resurrection of the dead, the life everlasting, the new heavens, and the new earth.
Question:
How do you understand the statement that faith is being the assurance of things hoped for?
Notes on Romans 5:1-5:
Day 2: Romans 5:6-11
Witherington points out that:
(1) in verse 10, Paul begins to use another term for salvation—“reconciliation.” The word implies that the two parties were previously estranged and needed to be reconciled.
(2) Timing is right for God’s salvation plan. Of course, God’s sense of time and timing may be very different from our own. We are all familiar with the biblical saying, “With the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day” (2 Peter 3:8 RSV). The Greek term kairos means something more than just clock time (for which we have chronos). Especially in a context in which it is believed that the eschatological age has already been inaugurated (which Paul does believe), a phrase like “the appointed time” or “the exact right time” means, of course, the propitious moment.
(3) That being set right with God is not the sole purpose of salvation. It is only the first act of the three-part act of salvation—we have been saved, we are being saved, we shall be saved. And one of the things believers are saved from is the future coming wrath or judgment of God on a fallen world.
What is still yet to come Paul calls being “saved through his life,” in this case presumably saved from the wrath to come. Reconciliation we already have. Right standing and the beginnings of righteousness we already have. We do not yet have full conformity to the image of Christ by resurrection. It is by resurrection that we shall fully experience everlasting life and dodge the maelstrom that is yet to come.
Notice Paul’s comparison to a good person giving their life for someone to what Jesus did for the world.
Questions:
- How does salvation fit into the discussion about God being a just?
- Look how Jesus’ parable we see in Matthew 18:21-35 help us to understand this idea about what we see in Romans 5:6?
Notes on Romans 5:6-11:
Day 3 – Romans 5:12-14
Witherington describes how Paul is using the discussion on the impacts Adam and Jesus have on the humankind:
(1) Both cases one man’s actions affected a whole group of people
(2) God was starting a whole new race or beginning of humanity with each of these men
(3) Third, to use Pauline terminology, one is either in Adam or in Christ
(4) Adam is a “type” ( tupos ), or the pattern of the one to come. Adam is a prefigurement of the Christ.
Witherington points Paul is suggesting that each person is their own Adam, though he also believes that fallenness and sinful tendencies affect and infect us all because of Adam. We are dealing here with a concept of headship. A good analogy would be the concept of federal headship. If the president of the United States declares war on a foreign country, then American citizens are at war with that country, quite apart from our own personal choices. The decision of one person has affected us all. So it was with Adam, and so it is with Christ for those who are in Christ.
Questions:
- How do you understand the idea about Adam being a prefigurement of the one to come?
- Does the concept of the headship help you understand how sin entered humanity?
Notes on Romans 5:12-14
Day 4 – Romans 5:15-17
Witherington provides the following discussion on the concept of grace:
“Sometimes it is difficult to understand what Paul means by grace. If sin is negative influence, then presumably grace is positive divine influence, which changes things and people. Clearly the term “grace” implies unmerited favor or undeserved benefit, but there is more to it than that. Grace is not some sort of magical substance found in sacraments. It is, as we have said, some kind of divine influence. Notice that grace is connected to a person, not a thing—the grace of the one man Jesus.”
The effect of Christ’s redeeming grace is both timely and everlasting!
Questions:
- Contrast trespass and grace? How does do you see the comparison of the influences?
- How does the story about Jesus relayed in Luke 8:42-48 help us with that concept of the grace not being a substance but from a person or entity?
Notes on Romans 5:15-17:
Day 5 – Romans 5:18-21
Witherington now shifts from the effects of trespass and grace to the lasting results. Witherington explains that “Paul focuses on results. The result of the trespass of Adam, violating exactly one commandment involving a tree, was condemnation for all those who are “in Adam,” so, for the whole human race. By contrast, the result of the one righteous act of the last Adam, dying on a cross, a very different tree, was righteousness and life for all people. Of course, that does not happen automatically. It has to be received through faith in Christ. But the more important point is that God’s intent and purpose was equally universal to the effects of Adam’s sin. God desires that none should perish, but all should have everlasting life.”
Questions:
Witherington’s question – You just read “many will be made righteous,” and this is not just changing our position with relation to God, but it is changing our condition. Considering this, as you look back over your life, can you perceive ways you are being made righteous? In what ways are you praying to be made righteous in the coming season?
Notes on Romans 5:18-21
KEY OBSERVATION: Paul doesn’t depict human history like the ancient Greeks where humans are mere pawns of the gods, mere chessmen on the chessboard of rival deities. On the contrary, human actions and human behaviors matter, and indeed can change history. DISCUSSION QUESTION: Why does human choice, and freely chosen human trust in God and obedience to God, matter so much to a righteous God?