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).
The work of Christ in Romans includes references to key points in Jesus’s life as they are presented in the Gospels.
Romans fills this out with a lot of material about the person and work of Jesus Christ. Jesus is the long-awaited Messiah (christos; 65 times), the Lord (kyrios; ca. 33 times), the Son of God (7 times), the Deliverer (11:26–27), the stone of stumbling (9:33), the last Adam (5:12–21), the servant to the circumcised (15:8), even God over all (9:5). And in terms of his salvific work, Jesus was “delivered up [to death] for our trespasses and raised [to life] for our justification” (4:25).
What is often overlooked is that Romans chronologically narrates the major events of Christ’s earthly ministry. We get a glimpse of this narrative perspective in the opening of the letter (1:3–4), where Paul presents “a brief summary of the gospel.” The gospel contains “two important claims about the Son, leading to the climactic declaration that the Son is “Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Concerning God’s Son:
[1] who was descended from David
according to the flesh
[2] was appointed the powerful Son of God
according to the Spirit of holiness
by the resurrection of the dead
Jesus Christ our Lord.” (1:3–4; CSB)
The two claims speak of Jesus both in terms of his human nature (he is the messianic Son of God in the line of King David) and in terms of his risen life (he is the exalted and ruling Son of God).
As Peter Stuhlmacher notes, verses 3–4 “contain the history of Christ told in the Gospels in short form, and emphasise that the entire way of Jesus, from his birth to his exaltation, stands under the sign of the promises of God”—that is, “promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures” (v. 2).
Outline of the Story of Jesus Christ
Romans includes an outline of Jesus’s story that spans his preexistence to his glorious return, wherein the work of salvation takes place. Intriguingly, many of the main points of the Apostles’ Creed concerning God’s Son are affirmed in Romans:
Preexistence: God “[sent] his own Son” (8:3), implying Christ’s existence before the incarnation (see Gal. 4:4).
Earthly Life: The “man Jesus Christ” (5:15) was “descended from David” (1:3) and “the patriarchs” (9:5), came “in the likeness of sinful flesh” (8:3), suffered (8:17), and was insulted by men (15:3).
Death: Jesus was “delivered up” (4:25), was “crucified” (6:6), shed his blood (3:25), and “died to sin” (6:10), “for the ungodly” (5:6) and “for us” (5:8; see 8:33). In Romans, Jesus dies as our substitute (bearing God’s judgment against our sin, 3:25; 8:3), as our representative (6:1–11), to reveal God’s righteousness (3:25–26) and love (5:8), and as an example of sacrificial love (15:2–3).
Burial: Jesus was buried (6:4), confirming he really was dead.
Resurrection: “Jesus our Lord” was “raised from the dead” by God (4:24; see 1:4; 6:4; 8:34), so that “he might be Lord of both the dead and the living” (14:9). His resurrection reveals his true identity as the powerful Son of God and Lord (1:4). It also confirms our justification (4:25), inaugurates the new creation (8:29), conquers evil (8:37), and give us new life (6:4).
Ascension and Exaltation: Paul connects Jesus’s death, resurrection, exaltation, and intercession, listing them in chronological order: “Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us” (8:34; see Ps. 110:1).
Return: “The day is at hand” (13:12) when “the Deliverer will come from Zion” (11:26), and “on that day . . . God [will judge] the secrets of men by Christ Jesus” (2:16). Romans uses several terms and images to bring home the message that “salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed” (13:11). These include the themes of judgment and condemnation (2:4–5; 5:9) and the imagery of day/night and darkness/light (13:11–14), creation and new creation (8:19–23), divine glory (8:18–19), and the crushing of Satan (16:20).
Story of Every Believer in Jesus Christ
Remarkably, key moments in this narrative are true not only of Jesus Christ but also of those in union with him. A comparison of Romans 6 and 1 Corinthians 15 demonstrates that when we trust in Christ, his story becomes our story, and our story is enfolded into his.
In Romans 6, we are baptized into Christ’s death (6:3), buried with him (v. 4), united with him in a death like his (v. 5; see vv. 6, 8, 11), and raised from the dead in a resurrection like his (vv. 4–5; see vv. 8,11), and we are to present [paristēmi] ourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life (v. 13).
Remarkably, key moments in this narrative are true not only of Jesus Christ but also of those in union with him.
Each of these identity-defining moments mirrors what happens to Christ in Paul’s summary of the gospel in 1 Corinthians 15: Christ died (v. 3), was buried (v. 4), was raised by God to life on the third day (v. 4), and appeared to Peter, the Twelve, and others (vv. 5–8); in Acts 1:3, Jesus “presented [paristēmi] himself alive.”
A big part of what it means to be in union with Christ is that our lives follow the same script as his in dying to sin and rising to new life. As Paul says in Colossians 3:3–4, “You have died and your true identity is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life story appears, then you also will appear with him in glory” (author’s translation). Remembering that our life stories mirror that of Jesus Christ is a necessary and empowering step in enabling us to deal with sin in our lives and walk in newness of life (Rom. 6:4).