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By Root 1418 0

is scarred by inner turmoil and frustration, the tension between high aspiration and low performance. It is dark with the despair of feeling fatally trapped in a no-win moral predicament and vicious cycle of self-examination, self-recrimination, self-defense, self-despair, as if he is experiencing exactly the kind of self-assessment he described in the first move (2:15), his thoughts “now accusing” and “now excusing” him. Finally, in desperation, the “I” in the story exclaims, “Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?” His answer: “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (7:24–25). From this point on, “I” quickly fades away and Paul transitions briefly through a “you all” to the unifying “we” again.

The resonances here with previous circlings are obvious and strong (especially with 5:1–11), with one new metaphor added: adoption, rendering Jews and Gentiles siblings in God’s one family as well as fellow citizens in God’s one kingdom. Once again Paul’s mind naturally follows a course from forgiveness (“justified” in 5:1, “no condemnation” in 8:1) to relationship (“peace with God” in 5:1, “children of God” in 8:14), to suffering (“boast in sufferings” in 5:3, “suffering with him” in 8:17), to victory and reward (“hope does not disappoint” and “love poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit” in 5:5, “be glorified with him” and “the Spirit bears witness with our Spirit” in 8:16–17). I find these parallels strong and moving. The points made in previous moves are truly glorious, but they shine even more brightly here, as Paul expands the scope of suffering and reward and glorification, seeing all of creation groaning in empathy and anticipation with this new humanity in Christ—one new humanity, one new kingdom, articulated in “we” and “us”:

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (8:37–39)

Once more we feel that Tertius could put down his pen. Another circling is complete. Paul has addressed and removed obstacles to unity yet again and has once more (as he did in his third move) described our shared experience in Christ in such glowing terms that one can’t imagine the point being made any more powerfully. But for some reason, Paul can’t stop, so we can imagine him motioning for Tertius to continue inscribing.

Fifth Move: Address Jewish and gentile problems, showing God as God of all (Rom. 9:1–11:36). Yes, Paul has written powerfully, but unquiet thoughts and unanswered questions still lurk in his mind. They burst out in this next move:

I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience confirms it by the Holy Spirit—I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my own people, my kindred according to the flesh. They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises; to them belong the patriarchs, and from them, according to the flesh, comes the Messiah, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen. (9:1–5)

What is Paul’s problem? This glorious new way of the Spirit that he has celebrated in the previous move is truly accessible to both Jew and Gentile. But Paul is brokenhearted because so many of his fellow Jews are not walking in the new way, not living the new life, not experiencing the “no condemnation and no separation” of the kingdom of God. In the paragraphs that follow, he goes back and scans the stories of Isaac and Ishmael, Jacob and Esau, and finally Pharaoh and a metaphorical potter for clues as to why his countrymen haven’t responded to the gospel of the kingdom of God. He brings to bear a variety of quotes from the Hebrew Scriptures, from Hosea, Isaiah, and the Psalms. But he still can’t seem to reach