Since early February, I've been recording an expository summary of the book of Romans in the pages of one of Crossway's ESV Scripture journals. While I am by no means (!) done, being only midway through chapter 11, each post will present all that I've written as it is in the journal, which will also allow me to omit parts that have been crossed out or blurred. I debated writing all of it in one post which I could then edit as I make it through the remaining chapters, but I've decided that one chapter per post will be easier both for re-reading and for reference later. So here goes with Romans 1.
P.S. I am nothing if not obsessively detailed and repetitive so as (hopefully) not to be misunderstood.
P.P.S. These journal "entries" are meant to be read while following along with the Bible text that they summarize, particularly the English Standard Version.
Romans 1
I, Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel which God promised beforehand in the Scriptures, concerning His Son, who according to the flesh was descended from David, but was by the Spirit of holiness declared to be the Son of God the Father in power by His resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith (obey the call to repent and believe) for the sake of His name among the nations (God so loved the world), including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.
To all in Rome loved by God and called by Him to be saints: I greet you and extend grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Thanks is made to the Father through the Son because Christ has brought us near to the Father by His blood, and the Father hears us because the Son mediates between us and the Father so that the Father's disposition toward us is the same as toward the Son, because the Son has imputed to us His righteousness and has purchased by His blood the Father's forgiveness of our sins.
I long to see you, for the purpose (not just the joy of fellowship) of imparting to you spiritual strength by the mutual encouragement of each other's faith. It is also my intention in the cause of the gospel to reap a harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles. Because of my call to take the gospel to the nations, I am therefore under obligation to all Gentiles, Greek and barbarian, wise and foolish. So therefore, I am zealous to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome (even if the harvest has already been reaped in Rome, there is still more flourishing to be attained). I am eager to preach the gospel for I am not ashamed of it: it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek (Jerusalem. Judea, Samaria, ends of the earth / children first, then dogs).
For in the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, that is, sourced in faith, unto faith, because the righteousness of God as regards human beings is inextricably linked with faith, by faith. Faith justifies in that it apprehends Christ; Christ justifies, gives His righteousness to us by faith (righteousness jumps from His account to ours by the transfer of faith). The righteousness that comes to us, availing for our salvation, can only come by faith, an alien righteousness apart from any work in us. Only through faith in Christ, a faith that God plants and cultivates in us and through which we comprehend the righteousness of God; only through faith in Christ do we have access and possession of His righteousness: so is the righteousness of God revealed from faith.
The righteousness of God is also revealed for faith, because the righteous shall live by faith and the one who is righteous by faith shall live. We are declared righteous by faith because a righteousness not our own, not originating in us, is credited to us, by faith in the One from whom it comes, and we live everyday by faith in this righteousness, which is the foundation of our peace with God. Through His justifying of us by faith in Christ, not by trust in any righteousness in ourselves but by a faith resting solely on Him, we have passed from death to life. [Excursus on this new life: our life we now live, we live by faith in the Son of God who loved us and gave Himself for us, to bring us to God. To live is Christ, to be righteous is faith in Christ, Christ our righteousness; so is the righteousness of God revealed from faith, for (or unto) faith, for the righteous shall live by faith.]
The righteousness of God is revealed from faith, for faith; the wrath of God is revealed from heaven, against all the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by these things suppress the truth in unbelief and pride. The faith that saves is humble, the unbelief that damns is full of human pride and unrighteousness. The "for" in verse 17 is contrasted with the "against" in verse 18. The righteousness of God is revealed as the telos, and that which is right and good for faith (and in agreement with it). The wrath of God is revealed against (in opposition to and condemnation of) the ungodliness and unrighteousness by which men suppress the truth. The righteous live by faith. The unrighteous die by their unbelief. Those who by faith are righteous shall live. Those who by their unrighteousness suppress and seek the destruction of the truth shall reap the wrath of God.
They know God exists, it is plain to them, God has shown it to them, they clearly perceive it, and so they are without excuse. They knew God, they could not deny it, but they suppressed the truth; they tried to keep it down and keep it from rising up and prevailing over their ungodliness and unbelief. They knew that their deeds deserved death but they did not see fit to acknowledge God and so did them anyway and gave approval to others to do them as well. God, having endured their willful rejection of Him, committed no sin or injustice in removing His hand of restraint of their evil, but simply let it run its (un)natural course. Righteousness produces the blessings of God, and in natural order, flourishes in living waters of a divine quality running everywhere. The converse is true of unrighteousness. Unrighteousness begets more evil and sin, the unrighteous heart insatiable in its pursuit of that which dishonors God. God gave them up to a mind incapable of rightly discerning good from bad, incapable of spiritual suitableness or fitness, and gave them up to the ensuing flood of evil and its right consequences (the filling up of the cup of God's wrath and the well-mixing of the wine therein, Ps 75, Rev 19:15). Therefore having been filled with all unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, and maliciousness, they are gossips, slanderers ("men of low speech"), haters of God, insolent (hubristas), arrogant boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, faithless, devoid of affection, mercy-less. And they know that they deserve an eternity of death for it all, but they do it anyway and commend those who do it along with them.