Working to correctly handle God’s Word, per 2 Timothy 2:15. These might also be interpretive issues that didn’t make it into a sermon.
I’m sharing my work a little differently this time. Instead of making the Greek line diagram prominent, you can view it for Romans 5:1-2 here. For the main action, here’s a block outline in English.
Though the paragraph probably includes the first five verses of the chapter, I’m finding plenty about peace to keep me occupied.
I didn’t get an actual line diagram done this week for Romans 4:18-25, but it’s the English block diagram/outline that most probably care about anyway. So, here it is.
It seemed like I was drowning at the time, but perhaps the single course that has had the deepest influence on me was a Greek class at Liberty University. It was my third year of college and my fourth semester of Greek. Dr. Paul Fink not only took us verse-by-verse through 1 Peter, he introduced us to Diagrammatical Analysis. Diagramming paragraphs is still my favorite method for studying and meditating on the Word.
The final project for that class required that we put together all the work we’d done into a completed commentary, along with our diagrams and outline of the book.
I happen to be taking my current class of Comeford College students, who happen to be in their fourth semester of Greek, through 1 Peter as well (though I have not assigned them any diagramming).
Our elders are teaching through 1 Peter during our evening services, and I’m up next this coming Sunday night. I assigned myself 1 Peter 3:18-22, and we just talked about it at our last Greek class. It is regularly regarded as the most difficult passage in the New Testament to interpret. While the main point is unmistakably clear and comforting, a lot of the details are debated.
It brought to mind the only comment written by a teacher/professor on any of my tests or papers that I remember. In 1995 I took a position in my commentary that (I think) I no longer hold. Dr. Fink wrote: “You can be wrong if you want to.” Ha!
Of course, that doesn’t apply to the nature of Christ or the way of salvation; some truths must be defended not disputed. When it comes to 1 Peter 3:19, well, there are reasonable disagreements. Take heart, you too can be wrong if you want to.
Here’s my diagram for Romans 3:27-31. The words in grey are grammatically assumed, meaning that they are not actually in the Greek text, and most English translations also reflect the sentence fragments. But when all the expected words are included, especially in verse 27, it really seems to be making a point about boasting (spoiler: boasting is right out).
And the English block/outline (also with grey as inserted for sake of complete sentences):
This is it.
If you had to pick just one paragraph from the New Testament, it would be hard to do better than Romans 3:21-26. Here is the righteousness of God manifested, not by works but by faith (alone), as God justifies sinners through the redemption and propitiation of Jesus Christ.
And for the ones who prefer da English:
I’m here for your grammatical-meditation-edification again with a block diagram in English as well as a line-diagram in Greek for Romans 2:5-11. This is another one of those not whether but which issues, and the storehouses are eternal.
I really do get that not only does not everyone judge line-diagramming to be as fun and fruitful as I do, most grok even less with the Greek. So last week I went back and added a block diagram in English, and this week I’m leading with it. There’s even some overlap with colors, which, might help show the connections, but you can judge for yourself.
I haven’t posted any of my line diagramming in a while. In fact, since the previous one, I’ve finished studying/preaching through Revelation and am now into Romans. But this is still more unveiling, not of God’s eschatological/telos wrath, but of abandoning/trajectory wrath.
Here is the final paragraph of Romans 1, showing not only the cognitive bias men have against acknowledging God, but also the cultural disobedience that He gives them over to.
Here is a block diagram in English that attempts to show some of the same dependencies and relationships.
The obedience of faith may be one of the most underrated and underused expressions in the Scriptures. It’s only used twice, once in Paul’s greeting to the Romans (Romans 1:5) and again in the benediction of Romans (Romans 16:26), but we should use it more often.
There are a couple proposed interpretations for the phrase.
One possibility is that πίστεως (“of faith”) is a genitive of apposition, where the genitive restates the same idea as in the main noun, or what’s sometimes called an epexegetical genitive, where the genitive clarifies the meaning of the head noun. If that’s the case, the Paul’s mission was to bring about “obedience, that is, faith,” so that obedience is a larger category of which faith is a more specific kind. That interpretation could work. It’s at least theologically correct, and could be compared to John 6:29 where Jesus called faith a work of God (to be done). And since “believe” is an imperative (Mark 1:15), faith would be obedience to the command.
But πίστεως seems to me to better fit the pattern of the genitive of source (or genitive of production). Pauls’ mission was to bring about “obedience derived from or sourced in faith,” or even with the gloss, “obedience produced by faith.”
When I think about the flow of the letter, with the emphasis on justification by faith followed by Paul’s immediate response to anticipated arguments about faith and grace denying the obligations of obedience, especially in chapters 5 and 6, it causes me to lean toward the interpretation of the (necessary) obedience that comes from faith.
I also take Paul’s quote from Habakkuk about the righteous living by faith (Habakkuk 2:4 in Romans 1:17) to refer to faith-driven righteous behavior, not just faith-received justification, though it has to start there.
The Great Commission requires that disciples be taught to “observe all that (Jesus) commanded” (Matthew 28:19). This means that complete obedience to the Lord is the mission, though we understand such a life starts with faith in Him.
We are forgiven by grace alone through faith alone, and then re-formed, still by grace through faith. But this re-formed obedience is a post-requisite. We are being transformed (Romans 12:1), we are being conformed to the image of His Son (Romans 8:29). This is sanctification. Our resurrection in Christ causes us to “walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4), and sometimes we need to have the feet of our hearts washed again (see John 13:10). The whole thing is from faith to faith (Romans 1:17), and obedience is the fruit of healthy faith.
Faith is no more an enemy of works than the sun is an enemy to flowers. Obedience is the bloom, the color, the fragrance of salvation in the flesh. It is the obedience of faith.
The last time I shared a diagram was at the end of February, which was right before all the COVID-19 lockdown-pandemonium broke loose. Does this post mean things are back to normal? Well, is the dragon, that ancient serpent, any more happy?
So as we wait for the return of the King and His rewarding of the small and great saints who fear His name (Revelation 11:17-18), here’s my diagram for Revelation 12:13-18 (note: most English translations include verse 18 as part of verse 17).
