By Brian Rosner, TGC.
Critical biblical scholarship has sometimes driven a wedge between Jesus and Paul. Some claim, for example, that Paul’s version of the gospel is different from the Gospel’s presentation of Jesus.
A closer look at the gospel in Romans, though, confirms that Paul’s message of justification by grace on the basis of Christ’s work on the cross does not leave behind the life story of Jesus Christ. The work of Christ in Romans includes references to key points in Jesus’s life as they are presented in the Gospels. As it turns out, this life story is critical to understanding our own life stories as believers in Jesus.
A recent area of research on Paul’s letters focuses on the role of narrative in his theology. Whether we call this new discipline narrative dynamics or narrative theology of Paul’s letters, there is no doubt that stories underlie much of Paul’s teaching. Scholars regularly note the story of creation and humanity’s fall, the promises to Abraham, and the history of Israel as central to Paul’s teaching. Romans also insists that the gospel of God, “promised [by God] beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures” (1:2), is the life story of Jesus Christ.
The book of Romans presents a remarkably comprehensive survey of Jesus’s career, from being sent by God to work on earth to his ongoing work in heaven.
Gospel in Romans
From the very beginning of Romans, we learn that the central figure in the gospel is Jesus Christ. Paul is “set apart for the gospel of God” (v. 1), which is a message “concerning [God’s] Son” (v. 3).