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Unlocking Romans: Resurrection and the Justification of God
If the God of Israel has acted to save his people through Christ, but Israel is not participating in that salvation, how then can this God be considered righteous? Unlocking Romans is directed in large extent toward answering this question in order to illuminate the righteousness of God as revealed in the book of Romans.
The answer here, J. R. Daniel Kirk claims, comes mainly in terms of resurrection. Even if only the most obvious references in Romans are considered -- and Kirk certainly delves more deeply than that -- the theme of resurrection appears not only in every section of the letter but also at climactic moments of Paul's argument. The network of connections among Jesus' resurrection, Israel's Scriptures, and redefining the people of God serves to affirm God's fidelity to Israel. This, in turn, demonstrates Paul's gospel message to be a witness to the revelation of the righteousness of God.
The answer here, J. R. Daniel Kirk claims, comes mainly in terms of resurrection. Even if only the most obvious references in Romans are considered -- and Kirk certainly delves more deeply than that -- the theme of resurrection appears not only in every section of the letter but also at climactic moments of Paul's argument. The network of connections among Jesus' resurrection, Israel's Scriptures, and redefining the people of God serves to affirm God's fidelity to Israel. This, in turn, demonstrates Paul's gospel message to be a witness to the revelation of the righteousness of God.
259 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 2008
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63 people want to read
About the author
J.R. Daniel Kirk
7 books19 followersJ. R. Daniel Kirk (PhD, Duke University) is assistant professor of New Testament at Fuller Theological Seminary’s Northern California campus in Menlo Park, California. He is the author of Unlocking Romans: Resurrection and the Justification of God as well as numerous articles.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 5, 2020
Daniel Kirk's 'unlocking Romans' dovetails well with a new understanding of Paul after Ed Sanders' insight that Judaism was a grace-based faith and not a works -righteousness religion as popularly conceived.
He picks up 'the resurrection of Christ' from the introductory (1:1-7) and concluding words (15:4) of Romans as the key to tracing out the message of Paul here, which was laid out as a defense of the faithfulness of God in the face of what appears to be a failed salvation project through Israel.
Jesus basically is God's answer to that charge. Jesus' resurrection is a cosmic game changer that unleashes several seismic shifts all at once : 1) the old dominion of sin and death is broken off and the new life under the lordship of Christ is now in force. 2) The Spirit empowers obedience to God that was never possible before for sin-infected humanity. 2) A new people of God emerges through their faith and union/participation in the death and resurrection of Christ, rendering all former dividing lines (old temporary protective/identity markers such as Torah observance) obsolete.
The author builds up his case by first touching on several OT and apocryphal texts that highlight the concern for theodicy in the face of Israel's long exile and defeat and the allusions to a resurrected people by way of vindication.
Jesus' resurrection is therefore understood by Paul as a powerful fulfillment of these prophetic texts. Seen in this historical light (taking the trajectory of Israel's story seriously), Kirk hopes to open up the pages of Romans afresh, showing how the various threads in the letter are held together by the resurrection theme - from the universal problem of sin and death, the call of Abraham to form one family, the solution in the new Adam and our incorporation in him through death and resurrection, the Spirit and the new creation, the election of Israel as an instrument of salvation for the world, Christ as the end of the Torah, the outworking of our obedience of faith (to the law of Christ) to the unity of the church amidst the generous realm of adiaphora/Christian liberty.
Kirk then concludes with a personal reflection of what this resurrection-based reading of Romans means for the church today. He holds out a grander, far more expansive view of salvation as encompassing not only the individual and his soul but the whole humanity - body and spirit - as well as the whole creation. He also shows how a fresh look at the Jew-Gentile integration through faith in Jesus can provide the framework for healing the historic and modern fragmentations of the church. This insight is utterly refreshing and a gift that Kirk and other 'new perspectivers' like Tom Wright and Richard Hays following Ed Sanders' lead have brought to Pauline studies.
As it turns out, Romans is not so much about the *justification of man* by his faith in Christ but the *justification of God* through the faithfulness of Christ. This is going to excite some readers (positively or negatively) as it appears to supplant or overturn an established hermeneutic key to Paul's letters since Luther or even Augustine and many have hailed this as a Copernician revolution in Pauline scholarship.
Kirk makes a good case for reading Romans through the resurrection key. But because I find the Romans letter to be such a rich tapestry and layered with meanings, I am doubtful if we can do justice to it with any single key or schema. In any case, readers will have to decide for themselves what to make of this new perspective.
This is a scholarly book and those who love the work of biblical exegesis will enjoy and stand to gain much from it.
He picks up 'the resurrection of Christ' from the introductory (1:1-7) and concluding words (15:4) of Romans as the key to tracing out the message of Paul here, which was laid out as a defense of the faithfulness of God in the face of what appears to be a failed salvation project through Israel.
Jesus basically is God's answer to that charge. Jesus' resurrection is a cosmic game changer that unleashes several seismic shifts all at once : 1) the old dominion of sin and death is broken off and the new life under the lordship of Christ is now in force. 2) The Spirit empowers obedience to God that was never possible before for sin-infected humanity. 2) A new people of God emerges through their faith and union/participation in the death and resurrection of Christ, rendering all former dividing lines (old temporary protective/identity markers such as Torah observance) obsolete.
The author builds up his case by first touching on several OT and apocryphal texts that highlight the concern for theodicy in the face of Israel's long exile and defeat and the allusions to a resurrected people by way of vindication.
Jesus' resurrection is therefore understood by Paul as a powerful fulfillment of these prophetic texts. Seen in this historical light (taking the trajectory of Israel's story seriously), Kirk hopes to open up the pages of Romans afresh, showing how the various threads in the letter are held together by the resurrection theme - from the universal problem of sin and death, the call of Abraham to form one family, the solution in the new Adam and our incorporation in him through death and resurrection, the Spirit and the new creation, the election of Israel as an instrument of salvation for the world, Christ as the end of the Torah, the outworking of our obedience of faith (to the law of Christ) to the unity of the church amidst the generous realm of adiaphora/Christian liberty.
Kirk then concludes with a personal reflection of what this resurrection-based reading of Romans means for the church today. He holds out a grander, far more expansive view of salvation as encompassing not only the individual and his soul but the whole humanity - body and spirit - as well as the whole creation. He also shows how a fresh look at the Jew-Gentile integration through faith in Jesus can provide the framework for healing the historic and modern fragmentations of the church. This insight is utterly refreshing and a gift that Kirk and other 'new perspectivers' like Tom Wright and Richard Hays following Ed Sanders' lead have brought to Pauline studies.
As it turns out, Romans is not so much about the *justification of man* by his faith in Christ but the *justification of God* through the faithfulness of Christ. This is going to excite some readers (positively or negatively) as it appears to supplant or overturn an established hermeneutic key to Paul's letters since Luther or even Augustine and many have hailed this as a Copernician revolution in Pauline scholarship.
Kirk makes a good case for reading Romans through the resurrection key. But because I find the Romans letter to be such a rich tapestry and layered with meanings, I am doubtful if we can do justice to it with any single key or schema. In any case, readers will have to decide for themselves what to make of this new perspective.
This is a scholarly book and those who love the work of biblical exegesis will enjoy and stand to gain much from it.
Want to read
December 30, 2008Friend from WTS just published this book based on his phd dissertation. Looks like it will be good. It's a reading of Romans considering the centrality of the theme of the resurrection of Christ.
July 11, 2015
Like a bolt of lighting, this book by Daniel Kirk illuminates Romans. I highly recommend it.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews