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<\/a><\/p>\nThe modus operandi of Tom Wright in this book is absolutely commendable, and worth repeating by others.\u00a0 He divides his discussions into three parts: 1) after a fresh translation (including a parallel transliteration of the Greek) there is a looking at the overall structure of a passage, especially including the beginning and end to see where the discussion is going; 2) looking at the connective tissue in the arguments\u2013 the conjunctions, or other connections such as gar, de, oti, kai\u00a0<\/em>etc. and then finally 3) a verse by verse walking through the passage.\u00a0 This is a good way of avoiding missing something important.\u00a0 But of course Rom. 8.1.1-4 is a response to the dilemma and the cry for help at the end of Rom. 7\u2013 namely there is help to be found in Christ, for in Him there is now no condemnation for sin, because the ruling principle of the Spirit, has set you free from the ruling principle of sin and death.\u00a0 It is again important to remember that Paul is not just addressing Jews, but in fact the majority of his audience seems to have been Gentiles, to judge from Rom. 10, and it is right to doubt that they had studied the OT in any detail at all, unlike Paul.\u00a0 So, while Paul certainly draws on the OT, both with a few quotes, and more allusions and echoes, he also writes in a way that shows he is cognizant of his audience and their limitations, and this is all the more the case if the Gentile Christians were not meeting at all, or at least not regularly with the Jewish ones, some of whom would have known Torah pretty well, but not at Paul\u2019s level.<\/p>\nIn this paragraph, Paul makes clear that the objective means of being set free from condemnation is Christ\u2019s death on the cross which seen as a sin offering, and then the subjective means is by the Spirit working in the believer. that set them from the ruling principle of sin and death.\u00a0 In the case of the Gentiles in the audience, who had never been part of Israel, or under the Mosaic covenant, the language here is deliberately more broad.\u00a0 As Paul says earlier in Romans, all have sinned and lack God\u2019s glory.\u00a0 The death of Christ is said to be a sin offering, which interestingly, in Leviticus refers to sins or ignorance or unintentional sins, which could apply either to Jews, or to Gentiles.\u00a0 It is well to remember that Christ\u2019s death also covered deliberate sin, even sin with a high hand, which Paul calls trespasses.<\/p>\n
One jarring note in this section is here Tom calls Satan a \u2018sub-personal force\u2019. (pp. 55-56).\u00a0 I have to disagree with him on this one. Satan is depicted as a being with intentions and schemes, which makes him personal for sure.\u00a0 Whether we see him as a fallen angel or a demon, in either case those are not \u2018sub-personal\u2019 forces.<\/p>\n
There is much more ground to cover, and we will do so shortly in further blog posts.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The modus operandi of Tom Wright in this book is absolutely commendable, and worth repeating by others.\u00a0 He divides his discussions into three parts: 1) after a fresh translation (including a parallel transliteration of the Greek) there is a looking at the overall structure of a passage, especially including the beginning and end to see […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":91,"featured_media":69245,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[15245],"class_list":["post-69260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-christ-as-sin-offering"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a><\/p>\n