Romans 2, Summary
Jun 9th, 2009 by Micah Tillman | Start the Discussion |
[ Romans 1 | 2: Intro, 1-16, 17-29, Summary | 3 | 4 | 5 ]
Okay, back to Romans.
To wrap up Romans 2, I should note once again that the point of the passage is to help the Jewish members of the Roman church to be able to accept their Gentile brethren.
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Paul does this in three ways:
First, he tells his Jewish listeners that they (like everyone) are essentially no better than their Evil Oppressors, in that they (like everyone) have committed sins that deserve the same punishment as the sins the Evil Oppressors commit.
Second, he tells his Jewish listeners that they are no better than their Gentile brethren, because the Gentiles had the Law too (it was just written on their hearts).
In fact, the fact that the Gentiles had the Law written on their hearts, when God had promised to later give the Jewish people this same gift as part of a future, new covenant, might make Paul’s Jewish listeners actually feel inferior. (I really do not envy Paul’s fellow Jews in Rome, having to sit through this chapter!)
Third, Paul tells his Jewish brethren that what matters is who a person is, not what a person is, and therefore what matters is the things that come from and express who a person is, not the things that are done to that person (like circumcision).
And, Paul tells his Jewish brethren, their Gentile brethren actually have been able to keep the Law, at least occasionally (and that’s better than being circumcised, because your actions are an expression of who you are, while circumcision isn’t).
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I find it extremely difficult to reconcile the Doctrine of Total Depravity with Paul’s characterization of Gentiles as people who at least occasionally keep the Law, and thus give witness to the fact that they (all) have the Law written on their hearts.
The Doctrine of Total Depravity would say that no one can keep any part of the Law, since our wills are depraved (i.e., our wills cannot fulfill their highest and most proper function: choosing God as the Highest Good), and thus we always do everything for the wrong reasons.
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So, Romans 1 tells us that even the worst of the Gentiles still have minds that know the most important things, and Romans 2 tells us that Gentiles in general have hearts that carry the Law — hearts that lead them to express the Law through their actions.
Thus, even the worst people have minds that can still fulfill the mind’s highest function (i.e., minds that are not depraved), and in general people have hearts that can still fulfill their highest function (i.e., hearts that are not depraved).
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If the heart and mind aren’t depraved, then the Doctrine of Total Depravity is wrong. At most it could be the Doctrine of the Depravity of Everything Beside the Heart and Mind.
However, I have heard more than one professor from Reformed Theological Seminary insist that “the heart” is, for Jewish thinkers like Paul, the “center of the person.” It is the metaphor for the organic unity of all the person’s faculties.
So if the heart isn’t depraved — if it can still lead us to fulfill the Law, even occasionally — then our “center” or “whole self” is not depraved.
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