For Paul, life in the Kingdom is inseparable from following the Torah, and therefore in his...
For Paul, life in the Kingdom is inseparable from following the Torah, and therefore in his letters, like the Old Testament authors, he often sets two ways against each other: the way of righteousness and the way of ungodliness (vv. 16-18). Of course, Paul's witness was addressed not only to Jews but also to those who had recently been pagans. It implied a certain universalism, and therefore the apostle had to answer, for himself and for others, the question of how far the Torah extends to those who may well have known nothing about it.
Naturally, for the first generation of Christians, all of whom were connected with the Synagogue to one degree or another, knowledge of the Torah was taken for granted. But the apostle addressed everyone who was ready to hear his witness, and in that case the question of those who knew nothing about the Torah and the commandments ceased to be purely theoretical.
Indeed, if without knowledge of the Torah it is impossible to follow Christ and enter the Kingdom, what is to be done with those who, for objective reasons, like many pagans, may have known nothing about the Torah and may not even have heard of it? In answering this question, Paul turns to the image of the inner Torah, interpreting it in relation to pagans as something that, by analogy with natural knowledge of God, could be called the "natural Torah." He says that to those who did not know revelation, God revealed Himself through His creation, so that they have no excuse for ignorance (vv. 19-20). At first glance, there is nothing in this statement of the apostle that goes beyond the idea of natural knowledge of God. But Paul does not consider it from a purely natural or psychological point of view. Speaking of the limits of natural knowledge of God, the apostle connects them not with the limits proper to the human mind, but first of all with the choice made by those who came to know Him at the moment when the presence of the Creator was revealed to them behind the beauty and majesty of creation. Instead of holy awe and gratitude, the response to such natural revelation often turned out to be theories and concepts produced not so much by a desire to know the truth as by a thirst for self-assertion (vv. 21-22).
This is precisely how Paul explains the emergence of paganism as a religion and as a way of perceiving the world, which for him is inseparable from violation of the Torah, in this case the second commandment (vv. 23-25). The Torah is an objective reality. It has existed as long as God's relationship with the human being has existed, and therefore as long as the human being himself has existed. And violation of the Torah is not simply a crime against the moral law given by God, but the destruction of the very relationship that binds God and the human being. It is no surprise that the result of such destruction is the spiritual and moral degradation of which the apostle speaks (vv. 26-32).
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1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel - To the world, indeed, it is folly and weakness, Co1 1:18; therefore, in the judgment of the world, he ought to be ashamed of it; especially at Rome, the head and theatre of the world. But Paul is not ashamed, knowing it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth - The great and gloriously powerful means of saving all who accept salvation in God's own way. As St. Paul comprises the sum of the gospel in this epistle, so he does the sum of the epistle in this and the following verse. Both to the Jew, and to the gentile - There is a noble frankness, as well as a comprehensive sense, in these words, by which he, on the one hand, shows the Jews their absolute need of the gospel; and, on the other, tells the politest and greatest nation in the world both that their salvation depended on receiving it, and that the first offers of it were in every place to be made to the despised Jews.
1:17 The righteousness of God - This expression sometimes means God's eternal, essential righteousness, which includes both justice and mercy, and is eminently shown in condemning sin, and yet justifying the sinner. Sometimes it means that righteousness by which a man, through the gift of God, is made and is righteous; and that, both by receiving Christ through faith, and by a conformity to the essential righteousness of God. St. Paul, when treating of justification, means hereby the righteousness of faith; therefore called the righteousness of God, because God found out and prepared, reveals and gives, approves and crowns it. In this verse the expression means, the whole benefit of God through Christ for the salvation of a sinner. Is revealed - Mention is made here, and Rom 1:18, of a twofold revelation, - of wrath and of righteousness: the former, little known to nature, is revealed by the law; the latter, wholly unknown to nature, by the gospel.That goes before, and prepares the way; this follows. Each, the apostle says, is revealed at the present time, in opposition to the times of ignorance. From faith to faith - By a gradual series of still clearer and clearer promises. As it is written - St. Paul had just laid down three propositions:
- Righteousness is by faith, Rom 1:17:
- Salvation is by righteousness, Rom 1:16:
- Both to the Jews and to the gentiles, Rom 1:16.
Now all these are confirmed by that single sentence, The just shall live by faith - Which was primarily spoken of those who preserved their lives, when the Chaldeans besieged Jerusalem, by believing the declarations of God, and acting according to them. Here it means, He shall obtain the favour of God, and continue therein by believing. Hab 2:4