Introduction

This week I have read the final 2 chapters of the Epistle (15 and 16) and returned to the beginning and re-read chapters 1-7. For the second reading I have chosen the New Living Translation. This was published in 1996 and is the product of teachers and scholars from evangelical Bible colleges in the United States. It is translated using ‘dynamic equivalents’ which means that, instead of aiming to be as close as possible to the original Greek, the translators work on a ‘thought for thought’ basis and try to reproduce the content of the message in the natural idiom of the target or receptor language. I generally find this translation easy to read and, as whenever one uses a less familiar translation, it throws new light on the text. However, perhaps because it is in some ways more accessible, it is less conducive to a deep pondering of the words, at least for myself.

I have also been reading (outside of my main lectio time) ‘Life in the Lordship of Christ’ by Raniero Cantalamessa, who for many years was preacher to the papal household. This is a spiritual commentary on the Letter to the Romans and although I will not write about this book directly, it has influenced my thinking on about the text.

Lectio

In the last final 2 chapters of the letter, I am encouraged by the hope St Paul holds out to the Romans, and which is also for us. In these dark and dangerous times, I am glad to hear:

May the God of peace be with you all! Amen. (15:33)

and:

Glory to him who is able to give you the strength to live according to the Good News I preach. (16:25)

Although life may be difficult at times and the future look bleak, we can have the confidence that God is with us, leading us onwards. What is important to God is the state of our souls and how we respond to each situation that comes before us throughout the day. He gives us the strength to continue to act in loving obedience to his will, to act towards one another in love.

I also noticed this verse:

God has appointed me as a priest of Jesus Christ, and I am to carry out my priestly duty by bringing the Good News from God to the pagans, and so make them acceptable as an offering, mode holy by the Holy Spirit. (15:16)

I think of St Paul as a preacher, a missionary, a martyr, but haven’t really made the step of connecting him with our priests who stand at the altar every day in our church. Yet he is one of the first in a long line that leads down to them. So I remember that we, too, are part of Christ’s offering to God, and are also made holy by the Holy Spirit. Deo Gratias.

In my re-reading of the first half of the letter I am struck by the power, ubiquitousness and insidiousness of sin; how it haunts our lives, trying to draw us into its clutches. As the Lord said to Cain:

Sin is crouching at the door.  Its desire is for you, and you must rule over it. (Genesis 4:7 ESV)

This is expressed by St Paul in this much-quoted passage:

I love God’s law with all my heart. But there is another law at work within me that is at war with my mind. This law wins the fight and makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin? Thank God! The answer is Jesus Christ our Lord. (7:22-25 NLT)

Yes! Jesus has won for us and given us our salvation.

For all have sinned; all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet now God in his gracious kindness declares us not guilty. He has done this through Jesus Christ, who has freed us by taking away our sins. (3:23-24 NLT)

These verses create a kind of space for me, in which I can sit and meditate, with thankfulness to God and a longing to cleave to Jesus Christ; this kind of dwelling on the text is one of the goals of true lectio.

A final joyful quotation:

Oh, what joy for those whose disobedience is forgiven,
whose sins are put out of sight.
Yes, what joy for those
whose sin is no longer counted against them by the Lord. (4:7-8 NLT quoting Ps 30)

Prayer

Lord, God our Father, we thank you for this time of meditation and listening to your Word. Grant us the joy of the knowledge of your forgiveness of our sins and our restoration to you. We ask that we may be every faithful to the teaching of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.