Sometimes the dregs of a wrong reading of something can set a course for how that thing is read and interpreted for many generations such that, somewhere down the line, to question problems in the wrong reading is to commit the unthinkable.
Such a thing happened to the general reception of St. Augustine until recent thinkers, like James Cavadini or Rowan Williams, helped recover a renewed and holistic understanding of the saint’s work.
Such a thing happened to St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans and I think we still have not fully recovered. The confusing debate that occurred, for instance, between John Piper and N.T. Wright, is one such example of the trouble we have with reading Romans in a way that is both faithful and glorious. To suggest that Paul’s letter is not primarily a lengthy scholastic treatise anticipating the Lutheran dogma of “salvation by faith alone” is to many people equivalent with suggesting that one does not believe in “salvation by faith alone” or Justification.
In the interest of some small recovery of what I think the Holy Spirit is saying through Paul in Romans I offer this general thesis: the Letter to the Romans is primarily about Glory, glory and worship. The brief notes which follow flesh this out a little.
The structure of Romans generally, and I think plainly, follows 4 divisions: chapters 1-4, chapters 5-8, chapters 9-11, and chapters 12-16.
Those sections tell a general story around which and inside of which Paul gives his lessons: God, the glorious creator created all things and made mankind for Himself to share in his glory, to worship Him. But instead of honoring God, we fell from glory and into shame worshiping other things including and especially our own image sundered from the God who is its Origin and Fount. God graciously and faithfully worked to redeem the race of Adam, working in real history with real people, Abraham, Isaac, Israel, etc. Even when Israel, God’s people selected for partnership in the redemption of the world, those who had the glorious grace of the Law, were unfaithful, God remained faithful both to us, to his Word, and to his vision for the redemption of Creation. God has now brought both the Jewish and Gentile stories together in one final Person, Jesus the Annointed who is Yawheh incarnate. Now in Jesus God is working towards the redemption of all things for which the world creation groans. The Gentile story ends in Jesus and the Jewish story ends in Jesus. We have become heirs with Him in glory, and in that glory are called to give our bodies as living sacrifices by living in holiness and love. We began Romans as glory-trading idolaters and conclude finding ourselves glory-partaking worship leaders.
The first part of Romans 1 and the concluding section of Romans 16 are not mere introductory or concluding salutations, added merely because the form of the book is a letter. No. They frame the whole book as being to those glorious saints who worship the God of glory, and delivering a benediction to those glorious saints who have not only been partners with Paul but have thus become partners together in the glorious Gospel of Jesus.
This helps us understand that the last section (Rom. 12-16) is something more than a mere application of the theological principles expounded in the first 3/4 of the book. If the whole book so far (Rom 1-11) has been a midrash on God redeeming us and bringing us into his glory as worshipers, as those whose job it is to bring all of creation with us into the worship of God, then Romans 12-16 is far closer to a kind of new Leviticus —the life of worship those who are called by God into the glory of the Gospel must live. The opening language of chapter 12 makes this clear unless we choose to be willfully blind to it: “offering our bodies as living sacrifices” means something Pentateuchal before it means anything Graeco-Roman.
Far from dispensing with concepts of “faithfulness” or “grace” or “(s)election” what this does is anchor any discussion of those terms within the far larger and far more expansive theme of God’s glory and our worship. This is, after all, what Paul himself does constantly throughout the book (e.g. Rom 11:33-36). The election of Israel is all about the glory of God, the faithfulness of Christ is all about the God’s glory, the salvation of the Gentiles is all about the glory of God, etc.
Far from dispensing with the good gifts of the Reformation, this reading only strengthens its more glorious parts, as with the Westminster Catechism: What is the chief end of man? To glorify God and enjoy Him forever.
Far from dispensing with mission in favor of worship, such a reading puts mission in its proper place: Why does mission exist? Mission exists where worship does not, to cite John Piper himself.
Romans is all about God’s glory and us being invited into it as worship leaders. O come let us adore Him.