Romans 3:31--4:1

3:31 Do we then nullify ¹  the law through faith? Absolutely not! Instead ²  we uphold the law.

The Illustration of Justification

4:1 What then shall we say that Abraham, our ancestor according to the flesh, ³  has discovered regarding this matter? ⁴ 

Romans 4:25

4:25 He ⁵  was given over ⁶  because of our transgressions and was raised for the sake of ⁷  our justification. ⁸ 

Romans 6:1-2

The Believer’s Freedom from Sin’s Domination

6:1 What shall we say then? Are we to remain in sin so that grace may increase? 6:2 Absolutely not! How can we who died to sin still live in it?

Romans 6:15

The Believer’s Enslavement to God’s Righteousness

6:15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Absolutely not!

Romans 7:24

7:24 Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?

Romans 8:16

8:16 The Spirit himself bears witness to ⁹  our spirit that we are God’s children.

Romans 8:37

8:37 No, in all these things we have complete victory ¹⁰  through him ¹¹  who loved us!

Romans 9:2

9:2 I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. ¹² 

Romans 9:13

9:13 just as it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” ¹³ 

Romans 11:27

11:27 And this is my covenant with them, ¹⁴ 

when I take away their sins.” ¹⁵ 

Romans 15:29

15:29 and I know that when I come to you I will come in the fullness of Christ’s blessing.

Romans 16:9

16:9 Greet Urbanus, our fellow worker in Christ, and my good friend Stachys.

Romans 16:22

16:22 I, Tertius, who am writing this letter, greet you in the Lord.

[3:31]  ¹ tn Grk “render inoperative.”

[3:31]  ² tn Grk “but” (Greek ἀλλά, alla).

[4:1]  ³ tn Or “according to natural descent” (BDAG 916 s.v. σάρξ 4).

[4:1]  ⁴ tn Grk “has found?”

[4:25]  ⁵ tn Grk “who,” referring to Jesus. The relative pronoun was converted to a personal pronoun and, because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

[4:25]  ⁶ tn Or “handed over.”

[4:25]  ⁷ tn Grk “because of.” However, in light of the unsatisfactory sense that a causal nuance would here suggest, it has been argued that the second διά (dia) is prospective rather than retrospective (D. Moo, Romans [NICNT], 288-89). The difficulty of this interpretation is the structural balance that both διά phrases provide (“given over because of our transgressions…raised because of our justification”). However the poetic structure of this verse strengthens the likelihood that the clauses each have a different force.

[4:25]  ⁸ sn Many scholars regard Rom 4:25 to be poetic or hymnic. These terms are used broadly to refer to the genre of writing, not to the content. There are two broad criteria for determining if a passage is poetic or hymnic: “(a) stylistic: a certain rhythmical lilt when the passages are read aloud, the presence of parallelismus membrorum (i.e., an arrangement into couplets), the semblance of some metre, and the presence of rhetorical devices such as alliteration, chiasmus, and antithesis; and (b) linguistic: an unusual vocabulary, particularly the presence of theological terms, which is different from the surrounding context” (P. T. O’Brien, Philippians [NIGTC], 188-89). Classifying a passage as hymnic or poetic is important because understanding this genre can provide keys to interpretation. However, not all scholars agree that the above criteria are present in this passage.

[8:16]  ⁷ tn Or possibly “with.” ExSyn 160-61, however, notes the following: “At issue, grammatically, is whether the Spirit testifies alongside of our spirit (dat. of association), or whether he testifies to our spirit (indirect object) that we are God’s children. If the former, the one receiving this testimony is unstated (is it God? or believers?). If the latter, the believer receives the testimony and hence is assured of salvation via the inner witness of the Spirit. The first view has the advantage of a σύν- (sun-) prefixed verb, which might be expected to take an accompanying dat. of association (and is supported by NEB, JB, etc.). But there are three reasons why πνεύματι (pneumati) should not be taken as association: (1) Grammatically, a dat. with a σύν- prefixed verb does not necessarily indicate association. This, of course, does not preclude such here, but this fact at least opens up the alternatives in this text. (2) Lexically, though συμμαρτυρέω (summarturew) originally bore an associative idea, it developed in the direction of merely intensifying μαρτυρέω (marturew). This is surely the case in the only other NT text with a dat. (Rom 9:1). (3) Contextually, a dat. of association does not seem to support Paul’s argument: ‘What standing has our spirit in this matter? Of itself it surely has no right at all to testify to our being sons of God’ [C. E. B. Cranfield, Romans [ICC], 1:403]. In sum, Rom 8:16 seems to be secure as a text in which the believer’s assurance of salvation is based on the inner witness of the Spirit. The implications of this for one’s soteriology are profound: The objective data, as helpful as they are, cannot by themselves provide assurance of salvation; the believer also needs (and receives) an existential, ongoing encounter with God’s Spirit in order to gain that familial comfort.”

[8:37]  ⁹ tn BDAG 1034 s.v. ὑπερνικάω states, “as a heightened form of νικᾶν prevail completely ὑπερνικῶμεν we are winning a most glorious victory Ro 8:37.”

[8:37]  ¹⁰ tn Here the referent could be either God or Christ, but in v. 39 it is God’s love that is mentioned.

[9:2]  ¹¹ tn Grk “my sorrow is great and the anguish in my heart is unceasing.”

[9:13]  ¹³ sn A quotation from Mal 1:2-3.

[11:27]  ¹⁵ sn A quotation from Isa 59:20-21.

[11:27]  ¹⁶ sn A quotation from Isa 27:9; Jer 31:33-34.