https://youtu.be/sbHABzcSX64
We are in a verse-by-verse study of the book of Romans and got through verse 1 with the expanded translation: "Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus, called an apostle, through having been appointed because of the Gospel from God."
In the verse we found 3 doctrines to explore: the doctrine of adjustment to God's justice that Paul had done, the doctrine of apostle that was Paul's office, and the doctrine of the Gospel that was Paul's message.
We are presently in a study of the doctrine of the Gospel and before we stopped last time we had noted that the Greek verb "homologeo" is always used in a non-meritorious way. It is used for salvation and for confession of sins to God. It is used for the mechanics of salvation in Rom 10:9-10, where you acknowledge that you have believed in Christ to God the Father.
Homologeo is also used in 1 John 1:9 for acknowledging your sins to God. "Confession" (Homologeo) is always directed toward God. It is God the Father who actually imputed our sins to Jesus Christ on the cross and judged them.
So when we believe in Jesus Christ, we express that faith to God the Father who judged our sins. When we commit sins after salvation, we simply acknowledge those sins to God the Father who already judged them.
That's why He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. We confess our sins to God because He is the one who already judged them, and therefore He forgives us. For the same reason, we confess our faith in Jesus Christ to God the Father.
Paul's point in context is that the Jews cannot be saved by keeping the Law, but only by faith in Jesus Christ. Salvation is not in heaven; therefore, it is not unattainable. Salvation is not across the sea or in Hades; therefore, it is not unavailable. Salvation is not by keeping the Mosaic Law, but by personal faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Salvation is closer to the Jews than the Mosaic Law. This is because the body of the Jew, represented by his mouth, and the mentality of the Jew, represented by his heart, are closer to him than the Law.
Therefore, the Jew does not have to go to the Law for salvation, but to something much closer: his heart where he can think in terms of faith, and express that faith to God the Father.
Rom 10:11-13; "For the Scripture says (Isa 28:16;), `Everyone who believes in Him will not be disappointed (ashamed).' For there is no distinction between Jew and Gentile; for He, the Lord of all, abounds in wealth for all who will call upon Him; for (Joel 2:32;) `
"Everyone who will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved." "Calling upon Him" is a metaphor for faith. All metaphors for faith are non-meritorious. Other metaphors for faith include eating, drinking, walking through a door, or following as sheep.
Rom 3:27; "Where then is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By the law of works? No, but by the law of faith."
Boasting would be making Christ Lord of your life, or making some kind of commitment, or inviting Christ into your heart, or raising your hand, or walking an aisle, or being baptized for salvation, or joining a church for salvation.
Rom 3:28-30; "For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the Law. Or is God the God of the Jews only? Is He not the God of the Gentiles also? Yes, of the Gentiles also, since God is unique, who will justify the circumcision (Jews) because of their faith, and the uncircumcision (Gentiles) through that (same) faith."
In other words, because the Jews believe in Jesus Christ they will be saved. Verse 30 tells us that Jews in the Old Testament were saved because they believed in Jesus Christ, and that today we Gentiles are also saved through that same faith.
Rom 3:20; "Therefore, by the works of the Law no flesh shall be justified; for by the Law is the knowledge of sin."
Gal 2:16, "Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law, but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by the works of the Law, for by the works of the Law no human being will be justified."
Salvation by keeping the Law represents all systems of salvation by works. No system of salvation by works is acceptable to God; only the efficacious saving work of Jesus Christ on the cross is.
Either excluding faith in Christ or adding to faith in Christ becomes a system of blasphemy known as salvation by works. That's why Eph 2:8-9 says, "For by grace you have been saved (in the past with the result that you are saved forever) through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast."
God gives us salvation! We do not work for it, commit for it, make Christ Lord of all for it, raise our hand for it, walk down an aisle for it, be baptized for it, invite Christ into our heart for it; we believe in Christ for salvation.
The Jews must look back to the dispensation of the Hypostatic Union rather than to the dispensation of Israel for salvation. As unbelievers, they confess to God ADONAI ELOHENU, ADONAI ECHAD.
But as unbelievers, they do not understand that ADONAI (the Lord in Deut 6:4) is the Lord Jesus Christ. Until they have faith in Jesus Christ, their confession is ritual without reality. It is worship without doctrine aka ritual without reality that is one of the greatest disasters of all.
As believers, the Jews will fulfill Rom 10:9-10. Salvation is closer to the Jew than the Mosaic Law. Salvation is closer to you than any system of works that you have tried to gain eternal life.
This brings us back to Romans 1:2; Net note 6
Verse 2 introduces the gospel in the Old Testament. The gospel was taught in the Old Testament just as it is in the New, with some differences because the cross had not yet historically occurred at the time of the writing of the Old Testament.
The Greek pronoun "hos" translated "which" refers to the gospel "He promised beforehand" aorist middle indicative of proepaggellomai (pro = before) (epaggellomai = promise).
It means to promise or to announce in advance. The aorist tense is a constantive aorist; it takes the writing of the Old Testament canon and gathers it up into a single entirety, from when Moses wrote Genesis all the way to 2Chronicles that is the last book in the TNACH. (Malachi is in the middle of the TNACH not the end).
The word "which" refers to the gospel that is found in every book of the Old Testament. So it represents the entire Old Testament canon. The middle voice emphasizes the agent while the active voice emphasizes action.
The middle voice is the subject or agent acting with a view toward participating in the results it is a direct middle that reflects the action back to God as the agent.
That means that every man who wrote an Old Testament book was a believer who knew the gospel very well. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of historical reality" that (the gospel) God had previously promised." "through the prophets." is "dia" plus the genitive of prophethes. "in the holy scriptures" "en" plus the locative of "graphe" and "hagios", "in the holy scriptures (writings)."
Rom 1:2; Which (This Gospel) He (God) promised in advance through His prophets in the holy Scriptures or writings"
This brings us to a brief discussion of the doctrine of Old Testament Scripture.
The Old Testament is called the TNAKH that is an acrostic from Torah, Nevi'im, and Ketuv'im. The original Hebrew Canon had twenty-two books corresponding to the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet.
There are three categories of Old Testament prophets who wrote the TNAKH. The first was Moses. Whose brother Aaron was the first high priest in Israel so there was a prophet and priest in the same family.
After Moses others had the office and the gift of prophesy such as Jeremiah; and others had the gift of prophesy but not the office such as King David.
Some prophets including Elijah and Elisha did not write but they functioned in the gift and office of prophet as they communicated God's message to their generation.
Moses wrote the first section of the Hebrew Old Testament that is called the Torah that includes the first five books of the Old Testament; It is also possible that Moses wrote Job.
The second section of the Hebrew Old Testament is called the Nevi'im, that means "the prophets." The human authors who wrote this section held the prophetic office. They are divided into two groups: the former prophets Joshua, whoever wrote Judges, Samuel, Kings, the latter prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the twelve (so-called minor prophets).
The third section of the Hebrew canon is called Ketuv'im, meaning "writings." The human authors of this section had the gift of prophecy but not the office except for Moses if he wrote Job. There are three sections: first the prophetical books, Psalms, Proverbs and Job.
The second section is called the Megilloth that means the five rolls: Song of Solomon, that was read at the Passover, the book of Ruth, read at Pentecost, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, read during Tabernacles, and Esther, read during the feast of Purim.
The third and last section has three historical books. Daniel was not regarded as a prophecy but rather as a historical book, Ezra and Nehemiah was one book, and Chronicles was one book. So the last section of the TNAKH contains Daniel, Nehemiah, and Chronicles.
Technically our Lord Jesus Christ is also an Old Testament prophet because He lived on the earth during the dispensation of the Hypostatic Union that was superjacent with the dispensation of Israel but his prophecies are contained in the New Testament Gospels because they were written down in the Church Age.