Reading Romans with Eastern Eyes: Honor and Shame in Paul's Message and Mission PDF
Preview Reading Romans with Eastern Eyes: Honor and Shame in Paul's Message and Mission
JACKSON W. R E A D I N G R O M A N S with E A S T E R N E Y E S H O N O R and S H A M E in PAU L’ S M E S S A G E and M I S S I O N Foreword by E. Randolph Richards InterVarsity Press P.O. Box 1400, Downers Grove, IL 60515‑1426 ivpress.com [email protected] ©2019 by Jackson W. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from InterVarsity Press. InterVarsity Press® is the book‑publishing division of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA®, a movement of students and faculty active on campus at hundreds of universities, colleges, and schools of nursing in the United States of America, and a member movement of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students. For information about local and regional activities, visit intervarsity.org. Scripture quotations, unless otherwise noted, are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Figure 1 used courtesy of Werner Mischke, The Global Gospel: Achieving Missional Impact in Our Multicultural World (Scottsdale, AZ: Mission One, 2015). Cover design and image composite: David Fassett Interior design: Daniel van Loon Images: grained paper: © GOLDsquirrel / iStock / Getty Images Plus Pantheon ceiling in Rome: © Sasaki Makoto / Moment / Getty Images Flowers of the Four Seasons: © Flowers of the Four Seasons by Shiko Wantanabe at Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford, UK / Purchased with the aid of the National Art Collections Fund / Bridgeman Images ISBN 978‑0‑8308‑7361‑6 (digital) ISBN 978‑0‑8308‑5223‑9 (print) This book is dedicated to two men whose encouragement and vision spurred the creation of this book. To Dr. Scott Hafemann, my former professor at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, who never tired of teaching me and others to think rigorously about the Bible and follow the text wherever it leads. To Jayson Georges, a dear friend and collaborator, who exemplifies humility in dialogue, passion for sound exegesis, and a longing to make everything practical so that everyone can apply God’s word wherever they serve. CONTENTS Foreword by E. Randolph Richards ix Editor’s Note xiii Acknowledgments xv Introduction 1 1. How to Read with Eastern Eyes 7 2. Paul’s Mission Frames His Message (Romans 1, 15) 26 3. Dishonoring God and Ourselves (Romans 1–3) 39 4. Distinguishing “Us” and “Them” (Romans 2–3) 52 5. Christ Saves God’s Face (Romans 3) 68 6. Who Is Worthy of Honor? (Romans 4) 83 7. Faith in the Filial Christ (Romans 5–6) 100 8. The Hope of Glory Through Shame (Romans 5–8) 108 9. Shamed from Birth? (Romans 7) 128 10. They Will Not Be Put to Shame (Romans 9–11) 142 11. Honor One Another (Romans 12–13) 160 12. The Church as “Harmonious Society” (Romans 14–16) 175 Discussion Guide 193 Bibliography 197 Author Index 218 Subject Index 220 Scripture Index 224 Praise for Reading Romans with Eastern Eyes 232 About the Author 235 More Titles from InterVarsity Press 236 FOREWORD E. Randolph Richards If you are looking for an exegetical book on Romans, you have come to the right place. Did that comment surprise you? Lots of books on Eastern and Western readings of Scripture talk from the ten-thousand-foot level, trying to give us a big picture of how our worldview can color the way we read God’s Word. I think those books can be very helpful; I’ve written a couple of them myself. Describing in sweeping terms how an ancient Mediterranean person looked at the world—his worldview— can be very enlightening. Broad overviews, though, are only so that we can later find insights to read specific Bible passages better. We aren’t supposed to stay at ten thousand feet. In the end I want to know, So what? I want to know how as a Westerner I can read Romans better. I have been looking forward to this book for two reasons. First, Jackson is an expert. He was born and raised a Westerner but has spent most of his adult life in the East. He is fluent in an Eastern language, is deeply immersed in an Eastern culture, has been studying Eastern worldviews for decades, and has a keen interest in how modern Eastern Christians interpret the Bible. This makes him the ideal person to help me. He understands the kinds of questions Westerners have, the ways that Westerners misread Scripture, and importantly, when and how a more Eastern perspective can help me. Second, before opening the book, I knew Reading Romans with Eastern Eyes would upset my twentieth-century Western method of reading Romans. The “Roman Road” makes perfectly logical sense to me. All the dots in Romans connected com- fortably for me. Romans was neat, simple and clean. The problem is that Paul ended up looking a lot—a whole lot—like me. Instead of me imitating Paul, as I am supposed to (1 Corinthians 4:16), Paul imitated me. I suspect I had created a Paul in my own image. No wonder I liked and understood Romans so well! Rather, Jackson is helping Westerners like me (and perhaps you) see how we might misread Romans because of our own cultural lenses. I don’t intend to read my modern, Western biases into Romans. It is subconscious, unintentional, but pervasive and se- rious. For example, we Westerners don’t usually sit around talking about the impor- tance of individualism or how guilt is used to motivate us. Yet somehow Romans seems (to me) to be a book about my individual guilt before God. The fact that the x Foreword word guilt doesn’t occur even once in Romans seems irrelevant. Even though Paul only refers to “guilty” once in all his letters (1 Corinthians 11:27), I am still convinced that individual guilt is the most important theme in Paul. Well, is it vitally important to Paul or to me? Has my Western worldview colored how I read Paul? What really are the major themes in Paul? Are there other ways in which my Western worldview has colored how I read Romans? Romans talks a lot about grace. We often define grace as undeserved kindness: getting what we don’t deserve. Paul would like that definition. He says, “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). We don’t deserve the gift of Christ, but we got it anyway. Great. So, why do Americans struggle with this? Why do we keep trying to earn grace? As modern Americans, we don’t usually talk about how folktales help us organize our world. Yet, how I interpret the teachings of Jesus about giving to the poor is heavily influenced by the children’s story of the Little Red Hen. Those we help need to be trying to help themselves; they need to be deserving; they need to be grateful. Other- wise, they are not worthy of help. When someone stops me on the sidewalk asking for a handout, up pops a little Jesus on my right shoulder telling me to give to those in need (Matthew 5:42), but the Little Red Hen pops up on my left shoulder, telling me that I should only help those who are worthy (and grateful). Suddenly I’m conflicted, even though the very definition of grace is helping those who aren’t worthy. (If you are a Westerner, you may at this very moment be coming up with reasons to defend the viewpoint of the Little Red Hen!) More importantly, I find myself thinking that God is like the Little Red Hen and really only wants to help those who are worthy. My head knows otherwise. I know I can’t earn grace. Christian songs on the radio remind me that I can’t earn grace. Yet, my worldview, in a powerful undercurrent, keeps telling me that only the worthy should be helped, and I need to be worthy in order to be given grace. My American culture is a lens that influences what I notice in the biblical stories I read (and what I don’t notice). The story of the patriarch Joseph with his coat of many colors is reinterpreted in my mind to look like the American success story of the boy who leaves his home, overcomes adversity, and ends up striking it big. This is why for me the story really ends with Joseph becoming Pharaoh’s right-hand man. I dismiss the remainder of the story as epilogue, even though it is more than half the story. Recently, some Eastern friends got to the first scene of Joseph having conflict with his brothers. One stood up, waving his arms and in a raised voice exclaimed, “Where is the father?” I wasn’t even thinking about Jacob. “Fathers are supposed to resolve conflict between sons,” he insists. “He is neglecting his fatherly duties. Jacob is failing!” When we got to the second half of the Joseph story, the part I found confusing (and
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