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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - Romans 1:16 - 1:16
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16. ἐπαισχύνομαι. Cf. Mar 8:38; 2Ti 1:8. There is no lack of readiness, because there is no need of reserve; the Gospel is its own vindication. The tremendous opposition he had lately experienced, especially at Corinth, seems to be in his mind.
δύναμις γὰρ θεοῦ κ.τ.λ. Cf. 1Co 1:18 f. The Gospel is not a mere message whose ineffectiveness might shame the preacher: it is GOD’s power for producing salvation. It is in fact GOD’s word sent out into the world with mighty effect; cf. Act 10:36 : it reveals and provides a power for man to enable him to live the life which GOD means for him. It was a critical matter for S. Paul to show that in sweeping away law, as the condition of salvation, he was not destroying the one source of moral growth, that he was not antinomian, but setting free a new and mightier form of spiritual and moral health than any legal system did or could provide. The whole of this Epistle is directed to show that the Gospel alone provides and is such a power. This thought is developed in 1Co 1:18-31; cf. also 1Co 2:5; 1Co 4:20; 1Th 1:5; (Heb 7:16).
Tr. ‘GOD’s power for salvation’ closely together = GOD’s effective means for saving men. The insertion of the article in A.V. and R.V. only weakens the force of the expression. There are other manifestations of GOD’s power; cf. Rom 1:20.
σωτηρίαν includes deliverance from the slavery of sin and full spiritual and moral health. See S. H. for the development of meaning. “It covers the whole range of the Messianic deliverance, both in its negative aspect as a rescuing from the Wrath … and in its positive aspect as the imparting of eternal life” (Mar 10:30 |[67]; Joh 3:15-16, etc.); cf. 1Th 5:9-11; ib[68] p. 24. Cf. Psa 98:2. It is a pity that the two adequate English translations health and wealth are both spoiled by custom, and we have to fall back upon the Latin ‘salvation.’
[67] | parallel to
[68] ib. ibidem
παντὶ τῷ πιστεὑοντι. For the connexion of. Joh 1:12. The range of the power is universal, both as proceeding from GOD who is one and also as offered on the single condition of faith, a common human faculty. The condition is stated here in its most absolute form, but the context shows that it means trust in GOD who gives the power through His Son. Act 2:44; Act 4:32 et passim show that from the first this trust was the recognised distinction of Christians; from belief of the message its meaning rapidly developed into trust in the Person, who was Himself the message, and in GOD as revealed in the Person. So the aorist of the verb = to become a Christian; cf. Act 19:2 : οἱ πιστεύοντες and πεπιστευκότες name Christians. It is in fact the response of the heart to the love of GOD, the source of the power. The basis of the Gospel as active in life is thus the personal relation between GOD and man in Christ. See Introd. p. xxxviii f.
Ἰουδαίῳ τε πρῶτον καὶ Ἕλληνι. The πρῶτον marks the historical sequence of revelation, consistently recognised by S. Paul. Cf. Rom 3:1, Rom 9:1 f., Rom 11:16 f., Rom 15:8-9; Act 13:46; Joh 4:22; Mat 15:24; S. H. add Act 28:24 f. The summing up of all mankind under the two religious divisions is the natural expression for a Jewish writer.