Paul's Letter to the Romans

by Colin G. Kruse

The Edition

Series editor: D. A. Carson

Publication

Publisher: Apollos
Co-publisher: Inter-Varsity Press
Series: The Pillar New Testament Commentary (PNTC)
Date published: 2012

The Physical Book

Binding: Hardcover
Dust jacket: Yes
Total pages: 627 pages
ISBN-13: 9780802837431
ISBN-10: 0802837433
LCCN: 2012006677

Reference

Notes: Paginated xlii + 627. Reads Romans against God's action as creator, judge and redeemer, and carries a set of additional notes on the passages that draw the most argument — Paul on same-sex relations, the salvation of all Israel, and whether Junia was an apostle. The catalogue holds a second Pillar Romans, Leon Morris's from 1987, which this one succeeded rather than replaced.

Editor's Preface
Author's Preface
Abbreviations
Bibliography
Introduction
- I. Rome and Its Population
- II. Christians in Rome
- III. Paul's Situation: A Scenario
- IV. Romans: A Summary of the Content
- V. The Purpose of Romans
- VI. Rhetorical Matters
- VII. Authorship, Place, and Date of Writing
- VIII. The Integrity of Romans
- IX. The Influence of ‘the New Perspective’
- X. Theological Themes
Commentary
- I. Letter Introduction, 1:1-17
  - A. Greetings, 1:1-7
    Additional Note: Paul's Use of Credal Material in 1:3-4
    Additional Note: Paul's Apostleship
  - B. Paul's Prayer and Purpose for Writing, 1:8-17
    Additional Note: From Faith to Faith
    Additional Note: The Righteousness of God
- II. Exposition and Defense of the Gospel, 1:18–11:36
  - A. Humanity under the Power of Sin and Exposed to Wrath, 1:18–3:20
    1. Primary Focus on the Sins of the Gentile World, 1:18-32
    a. Humanity's Rejection of the Revelation of God in Nature, 1:18-23
    Additional Note: The Wrath of God
    Additional Note: Natural Theology
    b. The Divine Reaction to Human Rejection, 1:24-32
    Additional Note: The Nature of the Homosexual Practice Condemned by Paul
    Additional Note: Paul's Depiction of the Gentile World
    2. Primary Focus on the Sins of the Jewish World, 2:1–3:20
    a. God Shows No Favoritism, 2:1-16
    Additional Note: The Use of Physei in 2:14
    Additional Note: Gentiles Who Do the Things Required by the Law
    Additional Note: Conscience
    Additional Note: Justification for the Doers
    b. Having the Law and Circumcision Provides No Immunity, 2:17-29
    (i) Bragging about the law while failing to obey it, 2:17-24
    (ii) True circumcision, 2:25-29
    c. God's Faithfulness Is Not Nullified by Jewish Unbelief, 3:1-20
    (i) Five rhetorical questions, 3:1-9
    Additional Note: Life under Sin
    (ii) Scriptural support, 3:10-18
    Additional Note: Paul's Use of Scripture in the Catena
    (iii) Concluding statement, 3:19-20
    Additional Note: The Works of the Law
  - B. God's Saving Righteousness Revealed, 3:21–4:25
    1. The Righteousness of God Revealed, 3:21-31
    a. The Heart of the Gospel, 3:21-26
    Additional Note: Grace (Charis)
    Additional Note: Hilastērion
    b. Jewish Boasting Is Excluded, 3:27-31
    Additional Note: Nomos in 3:27
    Additional Note: Justification
    2. God's Dealings with Abraham, 4:1-25
    a. God Justifies Abraham apart from Works, 4:1-8
    b. God Credits Righteousness to Abraham without Circumcision, 4:9-12
    c. God Makes Abraham the Inheritor of the World without the Law, 4:13-17a
    d. The Essential Nature of Abraham's Faith, 4:17b-22
    e. The Relevance of God's Dealings with Abraham for All Believers, 4:23-25
  - C. Justification Brings Freedom and Hope, 5:1–8:39
    1. Justified by Faith, 5:1-11
    a. The Benefits of Justification, 5:1-2
    Additional Note: The Glory in Store for Believers
    b. Rejoicing Even in Suffering, 5:3-5
    c. God's Love Demonstrated in Christ's Death for Us, 5:6-11
    2. The Humanity-Wide Effects of the Actions of Adam and Christ, 5:12-21
    Additional Note: The Nature of Death That Entered the World through Sin
    Additional Note: Adam's Sin in Jewish Literature
    3. Freedom from Sin's Dominion, 6:1-23
    a. Dying and Rising with Christ, 6:1-14
    Additional Note: Baptism in the Pauline Corpus
    Additional Note: Dying and Rising with Christ
    b. Slaves of Christ, 6:15-23
    Additional Note: Eternal Life in the Pauline Corpus
    4. Freedom from the Law, 7:1-25
    a. Freed from the Law to Bear Fruit for God, 7:1-6
    b. Sin, Not the Law, Is to Blame for the Human Predicament, 7:7-25
    (i) Israel's historical encounter with the law, 7:7-13
    (ii) Israel's ongoing experience of living under the law, 7:14-20
    (iii) Paul's conclusions about Israel, sin, and the law, 7:21-25
    Additional Note: Classical Parallels regarding Moral Weakness
    Additional Note: The Identity of the ‘I’ in 7:7-25
    5. Life in the Spirit, 8:1-13
    6. The Spirit of Adoption, 8:14-17
    7. Present Suffering and Future Glory, 8:18-30
    a. The Groaning and Renewal of Creation, 8:19-22
    Additional Note: Creation's Bondage to Corruption and Liberation
    b. The Groaning and Redemption of Believers, 8:23-25
    c. The Groaning of the Holy Spirit as He Intercedes for Believers, 8:26-27
    d. God Works All Things Together for Good for Those Who Love Him, 8:28-30
    8. The Emotive Climax — If God Be for Us, Who Can Be against Us? 8:31-39
    Additional Note: Hope in the Pauline Corpus
  - D. Israel and the Purposes of God, 9:1–11:36
    1. Paul's Concern for Israel and Her Privileges, 9:1-5
    2. Israel and God's Election, 9:6-29
    a. God's Word Has Not Failed, 9:6-13
    b. Is God Unjust? 9:14-18
    c. Why Does God Still Blame Us? 9:19-21
    d. God Has the Right to Exercise His Prerogative, 9:22-29
    Additional Note: Predestination in Romans — Corporate or Individual?
    3. Jewish Responsibility for Failure to Embrace the Gospel, 9:30–10:21
    a. Why Israel Did Not Attain the Righteousness She Pursued, 9:30–10:4
    Additional Note: Zeal in Israel and in Paul
    Additional Note: Telos Nomou
    b. The Testimony of the Law to Faith, 10:5-13
    Additional Note: Paul's Use of the Old Testament in 10:6-8
    Additional Note: The Meaning of Salvation in Romans
    c. Has Israel Not Heard? 10:14-21
    4. Has God Rejected Israel? 11:1-36
    a. The Significance of the Remnant, 11:1-10
    b. Israel Stumbled, but Her Fall Is Not Irrevocable, 11:11-36
    (i) Israel's transgression means salvation for the Gentiles, 11:11-15
    Additional Note: Israel's Jealousy
    (ii) The lump of dough and the olive tree, 11:16-24
    Additional Note: Paul's Olive Tree Analogy
    (iii) The mystery: The final salvation of ‘all Israel’, 11:25-32
    Additional Note: ‘All Israel Will Be Saved’
    Additional Note: A Contradiction between 9:6-13 and 11:25-32?
    Additional Note: A Special Way of Salvation for Israel (11:1-32)?
    (iv) Doxology, 11:33-36
- III. The Ethical Outworking of the Gospel, 12:1–15:13
  - A. The Basis of Paul's Ethical Appeal, 12:1-2
  - B. The Believers' Relationships with Others, 12:3-21
    1. Using Different Gifts for the Benefit of the Christian Community, 12:3-8
    2. Enhancing Relationships within the Christian Community, 12:9-13
    Additional Note: Hospitality
    3. Relationships without and within the Christian Community, 12:14-16
    4. Responding to Hostile People and Their Hostile Acts, 12:17-21
    Additional Note: The Relationship between Pauline Ethics and Stoic Teaching
  - C. Christians and the Roman Authorities, 13:1-7
  - D. Love Fulfills the Law, 13:8-10
  - E. Living in the Light of the Coming of the Day, 13:11-14
    Additional Note: Paul's Uses of the Clothing Metaphor
  - F. Instructions for the ‘Weak’ and the ‘Strong’: Accept One Another, 14:1–15:13
    Additional Note: The ‘Weak’ and the ‘Strong’
    1. Accept Those Who Are Weak in Faith, 14:1-12
    a. The Matter of Eating All Foods, 14:1-4
    Additional Note: Faith and Conscience
    b. The Matter of Observing Special Days, 14:5-8
    c. We Will All Stand before God's Judgment Seat, 14:9-12
    2. No Passing Judgment and No Placing Stumbling Blocks, 14:13-23
    3. The ‘Strong’ to Bear the Failings of the ‘Weak’, 15:1-6
    4. Accept One Another, 15:7-13
- IV. Paul's Ministry and Future Plans, 15:14-33
  - A. Paul Affirms the Roman Believers and Explains the Nature of His Ministry, 15:14-16
  - B. Paul's Pride in What Christ Has Wrought through Him, 15:17-21
  - C. Paul's Long-Held Desire and Present Plan to Visit Rome en Route to Spain, 15:22-33
    1. Paul's Plan to Visit Rome en Route to Spain, 15:22-24
    2. Paul's Collection Visit to Jerusalem prior to His Trip to Rome, 15:25-29
    3. Paul's Appeal for the Roman Believers' Support in Prayer, 15:30-33
- V. Conclusion, 16:1-27
  - A. Commendation of Phoebe, 16:1-2
  - B. Greetings for Twenty-Six Named Individuals, 16:3-16
    Additional Note: Junia or Junias?
    Additional Note: ‘Well Known among’, or ‘Well Known to’, the Apostles?
    Additional Note: Kissing
    Additional Note: The Twenty-Six Named Individuals in Romans 16:3-15
  - C. Warning, Exhortation, and Affirmation, 16:17-20
  - D. Greetings from Eight of Paul's Associates, 16:21-23
    Additional Note: The Erastus of 16:23 and the Erastus of the Inscription
  - E. Concluding Doxology, 16:25-27
Indexes
- I. Subjects
- II. Modern Authors
- III. Scripture References
- IV. Extrabiblical Literature

The Edition

Publication

The Physical Book

Reference

Contents