Appeal

 

Hey, Cobblestone,

     Few books of the Bible are so neatly categorized as Paul’s letter to the Roman Christians. And in the interest of keeping it simple, God gave the book just two categories. If you’re tracking the reading plan, or have some familiarity with Romans already, you might say it’s anything but simple! But give me a minute, please, to make a case for the letter’s elegant construction.

     At times I try to imagine what it was like for Paul to receive the breathed-out words of God. I picture him pacing, pausing, then launching into the next divine thought. My mind’s eye sees his arms flung wide in praise, then brought close in contrition. My mind’s ear hears his voice rise and fall. I picture his secretary, Tertius (see Romans 16:22), faithfully recording the words of God as the apostle faithfully delivers them – quill and ink opening a window into the mind and heart of the Eternal One. I suppose the letter had an utterly ordinary beginning – hmm, we haven’t written to the Christians in Rome yet… probably ought to get that done – and along the way becoming the juggernaut of theology that it is. Paul and Tertius, in simple faith, were only cooperating with the Almighty.

     God gave the letter a pivot point, located at the break between chapters eleven and twelve. The original letter, and the manual copies of it for many hundreds of years afterward, didn’t have chapter and verse divisions, but the essential shift would have been no less recognizable. The break is a doxology, a smelling-salts moment for the reader – stop what you’re doing, right now, and give praise to God:

    Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!

    “For who has known the mind of the Lord,
        or who has been his counselor?”
    “Or who has given a gift to him
        that he might be repaid?”

    For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen (Romans 11:33-36).

     The idea, we may suppose, was to give the brain a chance to cool off and the soul to be refreshed. Even Paul, who is generally given credit for being a really smart guy, seems to have come to the point where he turns his hands palm-upward and is left with little more than “wow.” The old-old-timers, the Israelites on the verge of entering the Promised Land, got a similar reprieve:

    “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law” (Deuteronomy 29:29).

    It’s so much bigger than we had imagined… and that’s OK.

     There’s only so much doctrine and theology a person can handle. Besides, there has to be a point at which we put theory into practice. The break in Romans is exactly the point. Take a deep breath, use it to express praise to the Lord, and then roll up the sleeves. And our Father, knowing precisely our limitations, puts the rest of the letter in terms we can understand completely – do this with your body; do this with your mind:

    I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect (Romans 12:1-2).

     Walking out the life of Christian faith, those two verses give us two simple questions – better yet, two simple prayers: “Father, I’m doing this with my body – is it holy and acceptable to you?” “Father, my mind is running in this direction – am I conforming to the world, or being transformed?” Throughout the ages, when the Father’s children have asked in sincerity, the Father has answered in faithfulness.

     The first 10.9 chapters of Romans describe what God has done in salvation, with the doxology rounding out the eleventh chapter. The remaining five chapters describe what we can do because of what God has done.

     Along with wondering what it was like for Paul to receive the breathed-out words of God, I also wonder what it was like for those first recipients of the letter. Rome was still on the western outskirts of the territories reached by the gospel; the doctrine and theology section must have done a lot of clarifying. But I’m imagining them very grateful for the doxology, the chance to say, “God’s got this, and even though I don’t exactly know how he’s got this, my soul is satisfied!” And I’m imagining them especially grateful that, after the doxology, Paul moved with fresh vigor into the practice of the faith, making his appeal by the mercies of God.

     In my journaling Bible, I had to draw a small diagram of Romans 11:36. It has three phrases spaced at equal intervals in a circle: from him at the top, with an arrow running 120 degrees clockwise to through him; the next arrow runs to him, with a final segment returning to the top… on repeat. That language circle encompasses everything everyone will ever know: For from him and through him and to him are all things…

     To him be glory forever. Amen.

 

Grace and Peace (forever, amen),

John