Tag Archives: Romans 11:22-24

Saving Demons, Part 2

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While studying the different gifts of the Spirit I came across the following (2 Corinthians 3:7-9 NET):

But if the ministry (διακονία)[1] that produced death – carved in letters on stone tablets – came with glory, so that the Israelites could not keep their eyes fixed on the face of Moses because of the glory of his face (a glory which was made ineffective), how much more glorious will the ministry (διακονία) of the Spirit be?  For if there was glory in the ministry (διακονίᾳ) that produced condemnation, how much more does the ministry (διακονία) that produces righteousness excel in glory!

I can’t help but ask, what if the glory of the ministry (διακονίᾳ) that produces righteousness is made ineffective (καταργουμένην, a form of καταργέω)[2] by the religious mind?  The note on made ineffective in the NET reads: “Or ‘which was transitory.’ Traditionally this phrase is translated as ‘which was fading away.’ The verb καταργέω in the corpus Paulinum uniformly has the meaning ‘to render inoperative, ineffective’; the same nuance is appropriate here. The glory of Moses’ face was rendered ineffective by the veil Moses wore. For discussion of the meaning of this verb in this context, see S. J. Hafemann, Paul, Moses, and the History of Israel (WUNT 81), 301-13. A similar translation has been adopted in the two other occurrences of the verb in this paragraph in vv. 11 and 13.”

So, if verse 7 means that the “glory of Moses’ face was rendered ineffective by the veil Moses wore,” Paul expanded that meaning in verse 10: For indeed, what had been glorious [the ministry that produced condemnation] now has no glory because of the tremendously greater glory of what replaced it[3] [the ministry that produces righteousness].  Paul continued (2 Corinthians 3:11, 12 NET):

For if what was made ineffective (καταργούμενον, another form of καταργέω) came with glory, how much more has what remains (μένον, a form of μένω)[4] come in glory!  Therefore, since we have such a hope, we behave with great boldness, and not like Moses who used to put a veil over his face to keep the Israelites from staring at the result of the glory that was made ineffective (καταργουμένου, another form of καταργέω).

The Greek word translated remains is μένον a form of μένω, as is μένει in, And now these three remain (μένει, another form of μένω): faith, hope, and love.  But the greatest of these is love.[5]  It is easy to see why some translators related the forms of καταργέω in 2 Corinthians 3 to those in 1 Corinthians 13 (vv. 8, 10, 11; set aside, NET) and rendered them as passing away.  But the word μένον is also found in, The one on whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining (μένον) – this is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.[6]

So it is also easy to see why other translators related what Paul said about the law, the ministry that produced condemnation, and the ministry of the Spirit, the ministry that produces righteousness, to Romans:  For God achieved what the law could not do because it was weakened (ἠσθένει, a form of ἀσθενέω)[7] through the flesh.  By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and concerning sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, so that the righteous requirement of the law may be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.[8]

It also makes sense then to relate this weakness through the flesh to the forms of καταργέω in 2 Corinthians 3 and render them as made ineffective (the law was weakened through the flesh to the point that it was made ineffective as far as righteousness is concerned).  This makes even more sense if the writing of 2 Corinthians followed the writing of Romans sequentially rather than directly after 1 Corinthians.

Moses…put a veil over his face to keep the Israelites from staring at the result (τέλος)[9] of the glory that was made ineffective,[10] Paul wrote.  In one sense he referred to the basic facts of Exodus 34:29-33 (NET):

Now when Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand – when he came down from the mountain, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone while he talked with him.  When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, the skin of his face shone; and they were afraid to approach him.  But Moses called to them, so Aaron and all the leaders of the community came back to him, and Moses spoke to them.  After this all the Israelites approached, and he commanded them all that the Lord had spoken to him on Mount Sinai.  When Moses finished speaking with them, he would put a veil on his face.

So the result that the Israelites were kept from staring at was the glowing skin of Moses’ face.  There was another meaning to Paul’s metaphor as well.  But their minds were closed, He continued.  For to this very day, the same veil remains when they hear the old covenant read.[11] Here, the result or end that the veil keeps people from staring intently at is the fact that the law is the ministry that produced condemnation.  For the law brings wrath…[12]  For no one is declared righteous before him by the works of the law, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin.[13]  [The veil] has not been removed because only in Christ is it taken away (καταργεῖται, another form of καταργέω).[14]  My mind was also closed when I tried to pass myself off as in Christ (ἐν Χριστῷ) while striving to make myself righteous by keeping the law.

But until this very day, Paul continued, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their minds, but when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.  Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is present, there is freedom.  And we all, with unveiled faces reflecting the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another, which is from the Lord, who is the Spirit.[15]

In my case the Lord was faithful even when I was not; If we are unfaithful, he remains faithful, since he cannot deny himself.[16]  And perhaps I should let it go at that.  But I still wonder, if I had remained faithless, or while I persisted in my faithlessness, did I give Him cause to show mercy to demons or fallen angels, since He was and remains faithful to me?

Notice therefore the kindness and harshness of God – harshness toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness toward you, provided you continue in his kindness; otherwise you also will be cut off.  And even they – if they do not continue in their unbelief – will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again.  For if you were cut off from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these natural branches be grafted back into their own olive tree?[17]

For the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable.  Just as you were formerly disobedient to God, but have now received mercy due to their disobedience, so they too have now been disobedient in order that, by the mercy shown to you, they too may now receive mercy.  For God has consigned all people [the qualifier “people” is not literally in the text though “these” (τοὺς) is] to disobedience so that he may show mercy to them all.[18]

Back to Fear – Exodus, Part 7

[3] 2 Corinthians 3:10 (NET)

[5] 1 Corinthians 13:13 (NET)

[6] John 1:33b (NET)

[8] Romans 8:3, 4 (NET)

[10] 2 Corinthians 3:13 (NET)

[11] 2 Corinthians 3:14a (NET)

[12] Romans 4:15 (NET)

[13] Romans 3:20 (NET)

[14] 2 Corinthians 3:14b (NET)

[15] 2 Corinthians 3:15-18 (NET)

[16] 2 Timothy 2:13 (NET)

[17] Romans 11:22-24 (NET)

[18] Romans 11:29-32 (NET)

Romans, Part 41

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Now I am speaking to you Gentiles, Paul continued.  Seeing that I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, if somehow I could provoke my people to jealousy (παραζηλώσω, a form of παραζηλόω)[1] and save some of them.[2]  Here Paul referred back to the Lord’s prophesy through Moses, I will make you jealous (παραζηλώσω, a form of παραζηλόω) by those who are not a nation; with a senseless nation I will provoke you to anger.[3]

The complete verse reads, They have made me jealous (Septuagint: παρεζήλωσάν, another form of παραζηλόω) with false gods, enraging me with their worthless gods; so I will make them jealous (Septuagint: παραζηλώσω, a form of παραζηλόω) with a people they do not recognize, with a nation slow to learn I will enrage them.[4]  And so I have the karmic reason: Israel made God jealous with false gods, so He made them jealous with senseless, slow to learn or foolish people.  But Paul alluded to a grace reason as well: I ask then, [Israel] did not stumble into an irrevocable fall, did they?  Absolutely not!  But by their transgression [e.g., making God jealous with false gods] salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make Israel jealous (παραζηλῶσαι, another form of παραζηλόω).[5]  And so Paul hoped to provoke [his] people to jealousy (παραζηλώσω, a form of παραζηλόω) and save some of them.

For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, Paul continued, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?[6]  Then he said something odd: If the first portion of the dough offered is holy, then the whole batch is holy…[7]  The phrase the first portion of the dough offered is one word in Greek, ἀπαρχὴ,[8] firstfruits.  At first I thought Paul was referencing the firstfruits offering from the law.

You must offer up a cake of the first (rêʼshı̂yth)[9] of your finely ground flour as a raised offering; as you offer the raised offering of the threshing floor, so you must offer it up.  You must give to the Lord some of the first (rêʼshı̂yth) of your finely ground flour as a raised offering in your future generations.[10]  But the firstfruits belonged to the priests and their immediate families:  All the best of the olive oil and all the best of the wine and of the wheat, the first fruits (rêʼshı̂yth) of these things that they give to the Lord, I have given to you.  And whatever first ripe fruit in their land they bring to the Lord will be yours; everyone who is ceremonially clean in your household may eat of it.[11]

So if the whole batch became holy because of the offering of the firstfruits, the people would have starved, because the whole batch would have belonged to the priests and their immediate families.  Paul used the word ἀπαρχὴ in another context in 1 Corinthians.  But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits (ἀπαρχὴ)[12] of those who have fallen asleep.  For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead also came through a man.  For just as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.  But each in his own order: Christ, the firstfruits (ἀπαρχὴ); then when Christ comes, those who belong to him.[13]

So I think Christ was the fristfruits (ἀπαρχὴ) Paul wrote about, and making the whole batch… holy was not something true of, or done by, the law.  It is accomplished through Christ.  Later in Romans Paul wrote that the people of Israel are dearly loved for the sake of the fathers.[14]  I don’t think he meant that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were of such special merit that their merit would be extended to their descendants.  I think he referenced the promises the Lord Jesus made to them, about their descendents, as Yahweh.  As Paul wrote earlier, Let God be proven true, and every human being shown up as a liar, just as it is written: “so that you will be justified in your words and will prevail when you are judged.”[15]

And Paul continued, if the root is holy, so too are the branches.[16]  Here again the Lord Jesus is the root:  At that time a root from Jesse will stand like a signal flag for the nations.  Nations will look to him for guidance, and his residence will be majestic.  At that time the sovereign master will again lift his hand to reclaim the remnant of his people…[17]  The Lord Jesus is holy and all who spring forth from him are holy, too.

Then Paul began to describe the attitude Gentile believers should have toward the people of Israel.  Now if some of the branches were broken off, and you, a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among them and participated in the richness of the olive root, do not boast over the branches.[18]  “I am part of a senseless nation grafted in to make Israel jealous!” is not much to brag about anyway.  But if you boast, Paul continued, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you.  Then you will say, “The branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in.”[19]  Here is a good place to review why the branches were broken off (Jeremiah 11:15-17 NET).

The Lord says to the people of Judah, “What right do you have to be in my temple, my beloved people?  Many of you have done wicked things.  Can your acts of treachery be so easily canceled by sacred offerings that you take joy in doing evil even while you make them?  I, the Lord, once called you a thriving olive tree, one that produced beautiful fruit.  But I will set you on fire, fire that will blaze with a mighty roar.  Then all your branches will be good for nothing.  For though I, the Lord who rules over all, planted you in the land, I now decree that disaster will come on you because the nations of Israel and Judah have done evil and have made me angry by offering sacrifices to the god Baal.”

Granted! Paul continued.  They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand by faith.  Do not be arrogant, but fear (φοβοῦ, a form of φοβέω)![20]  This word φοβοῦ in this form occurs most often in the New Testament as the divine greeting to the fearful flesh of Adam: Do not be afraid (φοβοῦ)![21]  Do not be afraid (φοβοῦ), Zechariah…[22]  Do not be afraid (φοβοῦ), Mary…[23]  Then Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid (φοβοῦ)…”[24]  Do not be afraid (φοβοῦ), little flock…[25]  Do not be afraid (φοβοῦ), people of Zion…[26]  The Lord said to Paul by a vision in the night, “Do not be afraid (φοβοῦ)…”[27]  Do not be afraid (φοβοῦ), Paul![28]  Do not be afraid (φοβοῦ) of the things you are about to suffer.[29]  But Paul used it twice in Romans to say, But if you do wrong, be in fear (φοβοῦ)…[30]  For if God did not spare the natural branches, perhaps he will not spare you.[31]

I must be an adulteress[32] at heart.  I can’t count how many times I came to this place in Paul’s letter to the Romans, ignored everything I had heard thus far, and ran back to the law.  It was like an all-consuming lust that blinded me and made me deaf to everything Paul had said about the law:  For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous before God, but those who do the law will be declared righteous.[33]

Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world may be held accountable to God.  For no one is declared righteous before him by the works of the law, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin.  But now apart from the law the righteousness of God (which is attested by the law and the prophets) has been disclosed – namely, the righteousness of God through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ for all who believe.[34]

For we consider that a person is declared righteous by faith apart from the works of the law.[35]  Do we then nullify the law through faith?  Absolutely not!  Instead we uphold the law.[36]  For the law brings wrath…[37]  Now the law came in so that the transgression may increase…[38]  For sin will have no mastery over you, because you are not under law but under grace.  What then?  Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace?  Absolutely not![39]

Or do you not know, brothers and sisters (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law is lord over a person as long as he lives?  For a married woman is bound by law to her husband as long as he lives, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law of the marriage.  So then, if she is joined to another man while her husband is alive, she will be called an adulteress.  But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she is joined to another man, she is not an adulteress.  So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you could be joined to another, to the one who was raised from the dead, to bear fruit to God.  For when we were in the flesh, the sinful desires, aroused by the law, were active in the members of our body to bear fruit for death.  But now we have been released from the law, because we have died to what controlled us, so that we may serve in the new life of the Spirit and not under the old written code.[40]

Despite all this when Paul said, Do not be arrogant, but fear (φοβοῦ), I fled in terror from Jesus my Savior back to the law.  A Baal worshiper may have thought that he was worshipping the true God.  I’m sure I did at the time.  A Baal worshiper may have thought that he had found a better god.  But I was worshiping myself and my own ability to keep the law, even after years of practical experience and empirical proofs that I could not keep it.  Do not be afraid (φοβοῦ); just believe.[41]  Do not be afraid (φοβοῦ); just believe…[42]

Notice therefore the kindness and harshness of God, Paul continued, harshness toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness toward you, provided you continue in his kindness; otherwise you also will be cut off.  And even they – if they do not continue in their unbelief – will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again.  For if you were cut off from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these natural branches be grafted back into their own olive tree?[43]

Romans, Part 42

[2] Romans 11:13, 14 (NET)

[3] Romans 10:19 (NET) Table

[4] Deuteronomy 32:21 (NET) Table

[5] Romans 11:11 (NET)

[6] Romans 11:15 (NET)

[7] Romans 11:16a (NET)

[10] Numbers 15:20, 21 (NET)

[11] Numbers 18:12, 13 (NET)

[13] 1 Corinthians 15:20-23 (NET)

[14] Romans 11:28b (NET)

[15] Romans 3:4 (NET)

[16] Romans 11:16b (NET)

[17] Isaiah 11:10, 11a (NET)

[18] Romans 11:17, 18a (NET)

[19] Romans 11:18b, 19 (NET)

[20] Romans 11:20 (NET)

[21] Revelation 1:17 (NET)

[22] Luke 1:13 (NET)

[23] Luke 1:30 (NET)

[24] Luke 5:10 (NET)

[25] Luke 12:32 (NET)

[26] John 12:15 (NET)

[27] Acts 18:9 (NET)

[28] Acts 27:24 (NET)

[29] Revelation 2:10 (NET)

[30] Romans 13:4 (NET)

[31] Romans 11:21 (NET)

[33] Romans 2:13 (NET)

[34] Romans 3:19-22a (NET)

[35] Romans 3:28 (NET) Table

[36] Romans 3:31 (NET)

[37] Romans 4:15a (NET)

[38] Romans 5:20a (NET)

[39] Romans 6:14, 15 (NET)

[40] Romans 7:1-6 (NET)

[43] Romans 11:22-24 (NET)