Week 14 Study Page - Romans & 1st & 2nd Thessalonians

Week #14 Study Page

Romans (1-16)
1st Thessalonians (1-5)
2nd Thessalonians (1-3)

About the Book(s)

Romans

Date of Authorship: ~57 AD. Romans is written during Paul's 3rd missionary journey (more on that when we get to Acts) durring a 3-month stay in Greece. That same year, Paul would be arrested in Jerusalem and imprisoned in Caesarea before being taken to Rome as a prisoner to have his trial heard before Caesar.

Author: Paul is the Author of Romans (more on him below). You'll notice, when we get to other books (letters) written by Paul in the New Testament, that Paul often lists other contributing authors in the introduction to his letters. This is not the case in Romans, likely because this letter itself was Paul's introduction to the Church in Rome; most of whom, he had never met.

Occasion: Paul needed to introduce himself to the Church in Rome. His missionary journeys had not taken him that far west, but he had ambitions of a future campaign which would take him through Rome on into Spain. in that sense, the book of Romans is unique in Pauline literature - the only letter written to a Church which he had not visited. The Church in Rome was likely founded by ethnically Jewish believers present for the "Feast of Weeks" on the day of Pentecost as told in Acts 2. For this reason it is likely that the first ~16 years, the Church in Rome was primarily comprised of ethnically Jewish believers. In fact, there is evidence that this arrival of the Christian faith within the Jewish community in Rome was causing quite a stir. The Roman historian Seutonius records that the emperor Claudius "expelled the Jews from Rome because they were constantly rioting at the instigation of 'Chrestus'" "Chrestus" is either an unidentified instigator lost to history, or Seutonius' misspelling of our Savior's title "Christ" which, in Greek, would be pronounced "Christos/Kristos," i find the latter scenario to be much more likely. This expulsion of the Jews from Rome in 49 AD (see Acts 18:2) would have left the church in Rome in the hands of the Gentile believers. 8 years later, when Paul is writing Romans, many Jews had begun returning to the city and the Church (Claudius died in 54 AD, allowing Jews to return). It appears that this reintegration was causing some conflict, or at least tension.

Purpose: Paul writes Romans, in part, as an introduction to the Church there, but that is an ancillary to his main goal. His primary purpose in this letter is to teach its readers how the Gospel of Jesus affects their ethnic identity for the purpose of unifying the Roman Church, both Gentiles and Jews in the new people of God. To do so, he tells the story of the Gospel, beginning with the root-problem of Sin, touching on Adam - the first man, and at the same time, retelling the role of Abraham and Israel in this grand explanation of what God has worked through history to accomplish salvation for all believers (regardless of ethnicity) through Jesus. After he has thoroughly worked through that story line, and explored its implications for ethnic-Israel he erupts in a doxology 11:33-36 which is the climax of the book, and moves on to give the Roman Church practical instructions for how to live out this teaching.

1st & 2nd Thessalonians

Date of Authorship. 50 AD, during Paul's second missionary journey. These two letters were probably written within the same year. There is even some debate as to whether or not they are in the right chronological order in the Bible, as some argue that 2nd Thessalonians was written first. The order of the epistles in the canon is not determined by chronological provenance, as the modern reader might assume, but by length (you learn something new every day). The majority opinion of Biblical scholars is that that 1st Thessalonians was in fact written first. it is likely that the letter of 1st Thessalonians is referenced in 2nd Thessalonians 2:15. However, it seems like the interval of time between these two letters was only a matter of months.

Author: Paul is the author of both of these letters. He is writing with companions whom he names as co-authors, Silas and Timothy. These letters are especially important to those who focus their attention on the Pauline writings of the New Testament, because they are two of the first three canonical letters that Paul wrote, Only Galatians was written earlier than these two. As best we understand the dates of authorship of each New Testament letter, 1st and 2nd Thessalonians are the 2nd, and 3rd earliest-written books of the New Testament respectively; written before any of the four Gospels!

Occasion: You can read the account of Paul's visit to the city of Thessalonica in Acts 17:1-10. the writing of 1st Thessalonians happened soon after, likely during Paul's stay in Corinth (Acts 18). Paul was chased out of that city by Jews who were resisting his message of salvation for the Gentiles, and the church there began to suffer persecution from both Jews and their pagan authorities. At the time that they received these letters, the believers in Thessalonica were being persecuted for their faith.

Purpose: Paul left Thessalonica in haste, chased by persecution, it becomes clear that Paul is writing to establish solidarity and fellowship with these believers. He wants them to know that, though he had to flee, he has not abandoned them and cares for them deeply. Chapters 4 and 5 of 1st Thessalonians tell the believers how to live in the midst of persecution, and offers hope for persecuted believers by telling them the truth about Christ's future, triumphant return. Many have speculated that the content of both of these letters related to the return of Christ and the apparent confusion of the Thessalonian believers on the subject, could indicate that Paul was forced to leave the city before he was able to complete his teaching to them concerning the end times and the return of Christ. 2nd Thessalonians is clearly written to confront false teaching which had arisen concerning Christ's return. Paul corrects the record while continuing to encourage the Thessalonian believers to remain faithful through their persecution.

What we skipped:

The Expanding Church

We have Jumped about 24 years, from the resurrection of Jesus in 33 AD to the Epistle to the Romans, written in 57 AD (actually 1st and 2nd Thessalonians predate Romans by 7 years, but you get what i mean). Jesus, resurrected, appears to his disciples a handful of times, not just to the 11 (12 minus Judas) but to more than 500 of his followers (see 1st Corinthians 15:6). His disciples were instructed to wait in Jerusalem for the Holy Spirit. The waiting was over on the day of Pentecost, the 50th day from Jesus' resurrection. The Holy Spirit descended on the disciples, they begin to speak to the crowd, and Peter tells them that they too can receive the Holy Spirit if they are baptized for the forgiveness of their sins (Acts 2:38). That day 3,000 people are baptized and the Church begins. The believers begin meeting in the temple courts in Jerusalem, but the movement soon breaks out. Propelled both by the mission of the great commission, and the persecution they were encountering in Jerusalem, the believers begin to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ outward. The book of Acts is a record of this break out. Acts 13-28 is the record of one particular apostle, Paul, and his mission to spread the good news to the Jews and Gentiles throughout the Roman world.

Paul: The apostle Paul is a huge part of the New Testament. Paul is a Jew from Tarsus in Cilicia, a Roman citizen by birth, and trained to be a Pharisee. His name was Saul, and when the Church begins in 33 AD he is persecuting the Christians. He makes his first appearance in Acts 7:58, where is present for the stoning of Stephen. However, when Saul is on the road to Damascus, intending to persecute the believers there, he is confronted by a vision and the voice of Jesus. He is directed to continue on to Damascus where he is baptized and became a member of the group that he was previously intent on extinguishing. An Apostle is someone who was a present witness to the earthly ministry of Jesus. We have no indication, and Paul makes no claims of having met Jesus before His crucifixion. However, this appearance of Jesus to Paul on the road to Damascus makes Paul an Apostle, because he, in that moment, witnessed and spoke with Jesus.

Paul was instructed by the disciples and apostles, and was a part of the Church for fourteen years before he begins his ministry to the Gentiles. He was set apart by the Holy Spirit for that very purpose as accounted in Acts 13:1-3. Paul begins a series of missionary journeys into Crete, Asia Minor, and Greece, declaring the Gospel and planting churches as he goes. Paul is a huge part of the New Testament because, through him, the Holy Spirit inspired 13 book of our New Testament. Every book in your Bible from Romans though Philemon is written by Paul. All 13 of Paul's books are letters written to churches or certain people in the Mediterranean world; three of which we are reading this week. Interestingly, Paul is writing before any of the 4 gospels are put on parchment (Mark - the first Gospel written is authored in 60-66 AD. The story of Jesus, at this point in history, is being proclaimed verbally by the apostles to the Church.

As you Read Notes

Romans 1: The Gospel

Paul begins his letter to the Romans by talking about the "Gospel." before the first chapter is over Paul will tell us that this thing* (The Gospel) is:

the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. For 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" (Romans 1:16-17)

The Greek word translated "gospel" in your English bible is a compound word meaning "good-news" or "good-message." Paul uses this word in the New Testament to refer to the event of Christ's incarnation, death, and resurrection. When you read the word "gospel" i suggest you think "the good news that Jesus died and rose from the dead" all the ways that Paul uses this word are inextricably tied to this core meaning.

Romans: Jews and Gentiles

In introducing the book above, we discussed the central role that the ethnic divide between Jews and Gentiles will play in this book and why it was such a pressing issue for the Church at Rome. In this letter, Paul will teach that there is a special role for ethnic Jews in God's kingdom. They have both a privilege (actually a number of them) and a special responsibility as a part of God's new people. Paul shows us both sides of that coin early in the letter with the passages below

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. (Romans 1:16)

But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. 9 There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile (Romans 2:8-9)

Romans 2:29: Circumcision of the Heart

This is just a brief note, but i will never skip an opportunity to show a reader another passage to read in connection to Romans 2:29. How can we have our hearts circumcised by the spirit? what would that look like? Thankfully Paul returns to this issue in another letter

No, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a person’s praise is not from other people, but from God. (Romans 2:29)

In him[Christ] you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead. (Colossians 2:11-12)

New Perspective: A Challenge to the Reformation's Reading of Paul

Here I'll just briefly introduce a recent development in New Testament theological studies that particularly concerns the reading of Romans. the New Perspective on Paul is a move to challenge the way that the protestant reformation has read and understood Paul's teaching about justification (how we are saved) and the work of Christ. Their claim is that the traditional / reformation perspective on these topics is imposing 16th century questions and frameworks on the 1st century teaching of the Bible. The New Perspective emphasizes Paul's Jewish roots and attempts to see his writing through 1st century lenses. Whether or not they are successful in doing so is a current matter of intense debate in New Testament studies. Proponents of the New Perspective include James Dunn, E.P. Sanders, and its most popular advocate, N.T. Wright. I've included a video (you'll have to pull up the study notes online to see it) of NT Wright introducing the book of Romans here.

here are some of the major claims of the New Perspective summarized:

the works of the law condemned by Paul in Galatians, Romans, and elsewhere are to be understood as ethnic Jewish identity markers. Where the inheritants of the reformation (us) are used to thinking of Paul confronting the idea that one could achieve salvation by obeying the law, the New Perspective proponents ague that such a notion was never in the mind of any 1st century people, especially 1st century Jews. Instead Paul is confronting the way that some Jews were holding up the Law (especially circumcision, eating restrictions, and festivals) as required ethnic markers of God's people, when in fact, Jesus has welcomed the gentiles to the people of God through faith, without requiring them to comply to the ethnic identity markers of the Mosaic Law.
Believers are justified by their becoming one of the people of God - essentially through allegiance. All peoples can join this family through faith because God was faithful to his covenant by sending Jesus Christ to die onto the cross, fulfilling his promise to Abraham to make him a blessing to all nations. Salvation is not just a gift to God's people, it is a gift through God's people. This invitation to be a part of God's people is a rescue from sin and death.
The "righteousness of God" in scripture primarily describes God's faithfulness to the covenant, a faithfulness surprisingly but definitively confirmed through Christ's death and resurrection. The covenant which promised Abraham would be a blessing to all nations was fulfilled by the Gospel (Jesus's death and resurrection) which opened to the door for people of all nations to become children of God
Righteousness is not a quality we are given, but a declaration that we receive (we are declared righteous) both now and at judgment day, because we belong to the people of God.

I am really interested in the claims of the New Perspective, and could not pass up the opportunity to tell you about it as we read through Romans.

Romans 13:1: Rulers

Romans 13:1B says "There is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God." The following is an excerpt from a commentary on Romans (477-478) by Jack Cottrell, a professor at Cincinnati Bible Seminary.

"If we take Paul to be referring here to individual governments and rulers, then we have no choice but to say that God has hand picked and personally put into office every blood-thirsty tyrant, every genocidal dictator, every anti-Christian regime, every crooked politician and judge, every sadistic sheriff and police officer, and every immoral and bribe-taking public official who now exists, has ever existed, and every will exist. It is easy to see how such an understanding can be used to justify every form of tyranny and to coerce citizens into blind obedience to the most degrading and anti biblical commands...
Paul is referring here not to individual governments and rulers at all, but rather to the various forms or spheres of authority which God has established, including governmental authority along with all the others... verses 1b-2 are a perenthesis in which Paul is asserting the general truth that all forms of authority have been established by God, and that rebellion against any of them is rebellion against God himself and deserves his condemnation." (emphasis mine)

1st Thessalonians 4:13-18: The Rapture and the Return of Christ

Thessalonians delves into the fantastically exciting topic of the "end times." Paul address this topic in his letter because the some of the Thessalonian believers had died (presumably from the persecution they were facing which caused Paul to flee) and they were concerned about what their passing meant about their participation in the return of Christ. Would they miss it? do they not get to witness the victorious arrival of king Jesus on the last day? Will they be a part of His eternal kingdom?

Paul, in this passage, assures them that they (the deceased) will in fact be present for the return of Christ. Not only will Jesus be accompanied by those "who have fallen asleep in him" (v. 14) when he returns, but, before the living are caught up to meet Jesus in the sky, we are told that the dead in Christ "will rise first" (v.16). How could the dead both be brought with Jesus when he returns and be risen when he returns? I believe that scripture teaches us that those of us who pass away before the return of Christ experience an "intermediate state" Where our soul is present with Christ in paradise awaiting the victorious return of Christ when we will experience our promised bodily resurrection, just as Christ himself possessed a physical body when he rose.

This occasion, after the dead in Christ are raised, where "we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air" has been deemed the "rapture" in modern eschatological discourse. This moment is alluded to elsewhere in scripture (see Matthew 24:30-31, 1st Corinthians 15:51-53) but never as clearly as here in 1st Thessalonians. You may have seen depictions of the rapture in which a number of people disappear from the earth (usually, in popular portrayals, they leave their clothes behind - weird) and leave everyone who is 'left behind' wondering where they all went. However, I think that the Bible's description of the rapture is quite different. First, it will be immediately proceeded by the physical resurrection of the dead in Christ. Second, we will not so much be 'whisked away" as drawn out to meet our victorious Lord as he arrives upon the earth in power and victory to judge the living and the dead and to reign in the new heaven and earth together with his children forever. There will be nobody wondering "where did all those people go without their clothes?" because, at that moment, Christ will be returning in power. As Paul tells the Thessalonians, it will be loud and glorious.

2nd Thessalonians 2:1-12: The Man of Lawlessness

Very soon after Paul wrote his first letter to the Thessalonians, he received a concerning report about the Thessalonian church. Reading Paul's second letter to the Thessalonian church, it appears that the report indicated that some false teachers were claiming that Christ's return had already happened - that they had missed it - and possibly that they were so fixated on the return of Christ that they had quit working and become idle. Paul reassures them that this is not the case by reminding them of something he had taught them in person. Summarized this teaching indicates that the return of Christ will be proceeded by a rebellion of evil championed by a certain "man of lawlessness" who will be defeated upon Christ's return, but not before many join his (the man of lawlessness') cause. for a correlating passage about this "man of lawlessness" see 1st John 2:18-27; I think it is correct to correlate the "man of lawlessness" mentioned here, with the "antichrist" mentioned in the 1st John passage. While 1st John indicates that there are many anti-christs and even some living at the time he was writing, these passages seem to indicate that there will be 1 particularly evil character leading a rebellion against God just before the return of Jesus Christ.

Volumes and volumes of scholarship are dedicated to understanding and debating what the Bible says about the end-times. There are so many different interpretations about what the Bible says concerning this topic that it can be a very challenging issue to approach. I will attempt to not prejudice your opinion on the matter until* we are done reading the Bible together. I invite you to try to clear your mind of what you have heard and thought about the end times and take a good, thorough look at what the Bible has to say on the topic this year. 1st and 2nd Thessalonians are really important pieces of that puzzle. What i will provide is a rough chart of what i understand the Biblical teaching on the end times to look like so you can have a suggested reference point for the sequence of events being mentioned, and the link below to an article that does a fairly good job of introducing to topic of the end times according to the Scriptures, without prejudicing one particular perspective - I think the most helpful part of this page is the index of relative passages by topic at the bottom.

https://www.tvcresources.net/resource-library/articles/what-is-eschatology

(note that at one point the author of this article breaks protocol and calls one millennial perspective "the most chronological and literal interpretation" which is a fairly transparent violation of the thesis of his article. I think he is wrong about this particular judgment, but that's all i'll say about it for now) -Joel

Study Questions:

Romans 1:20 tells us that nature displays the truth about God. Have you ever learned something about God by observing his creations? Why is it that so many fail to see what God's creation shows us about Him?
In Romans 7:7-25, Paul explores why he, though he is saved by Christ, continues to struggle with sin. what explanation doe he give for this phenomenon? Why is it wrong for Christians to sin?
In Romans 11:20-21, We're told how we (gentiles) are to feel about the fact that unbelieving Jews have been cut off from God's people. how should this truth make us feel? how do we avoid their fate?
Romans 13:11-14 is a teaching about our coming salvation. how should the approaching day of our salvation affect how we behave in the present?
Romans 14 deals with the tension caused by those who are 'weak' in their faith being troubled by the dietary practice of other believers, how were the 'strong' in their faith told to react to this? are there any present-day issues (like the eating of certain meat here in Romans) that might need to be treated the same way today?
What reason does Paul give for Christ's death in 1st Thessalonians 5:10? are you doing that now? if so, how can you accomplish the task of verse 11?
How does the Paul's teaching about idleness in 2nd Thessalonians 3:6-13 relate to our lives today?

Joel NielsenMarch 28, 2018Madison Church of Christ