Christ makes every one a debtor to all those for whom Christ died

Paul S. Minear, 1906-2007

It may be said, then, that as Paul sees it, Christ makes every man a debtor to all those for whom Christ died. He thereby creates a fabric of mutual interdependence which defies the usual method of computing obligations in proportion to tangible, direct contributions. This new interdependence is not two-sided but triangular. For example, Paul teaches that Gentiles are indebted to the Jews because Christ became a servant to the circumcised for the sake of the Gentiles (15.7-12). So, too, Paul magnifies his ministry to the Gentiles for the sake of the Jews (11.13f.). This triangular logic also lies back of his injunction to the ‘strong in faith’ (who were predominantly Gentile) that they should honour their obligation to the ‘weak in faith’ (who were predominantly Jewish, 14.1ff.). This obligation was incurred when Christ chose not to please himself but to accept as his own the reproaches which in all justice should fall on others (15.1-3). In Christ, therefore, each man becomes a debtor to every man.

Paul S. Minear, The Obedience of Faith: The Purposes of Paul in the Epistle to the Romans (Studies in Biblical Theology, Second Series 19. London: SCM, 1971), pp. 104-5.

(with apologies for the non-inclusive language)

Paul's theology in Romans

" Above all, what is noteworthy about Paul's theology in Romans is the way the pivotal significance of Jesus' death and resurrection emphasizes the character of God. The theology of Romans is theocentric because it is christomorphic. That is, the understanding of God, which Paul inherited from the Pharisaic Judaism he had once advocated assiduously (Gal 1:14), was reshaped in light of his conviction that God had resurrected the crucified Jesus. For the theology of Romans (as for Paul's theology as a whole), what matters is not what Jesus of Nazareth had done and said in his Galilean ministry, but what God had done in resurrecting him, and thus far only him. If God has done that, then what does that disclose about God that was not known before, and how is this new disclosure related to what is known through scripture, which emphasizes God's commitment to Israel? Such are the questions that propel Paul's theological thinking in this letter. "

Leander Keck, Romans (Abingdon, 2005) p. 37