Over the last 18 months, I have been studying (meditating upon; praying over; etc.) the book of Romans. (I have made it into chapter 10 now.) It has been a delightful exploration of the riches of the gospel. It has not changed my views of the gospel, though it has significantly deepened my understanding of it. Even more important it has changed me, as I have dug deeper and deeper into the profound truths encapsulated in this marvelous letter of the Apostle Paul.
Over the last few days, I have discovered another (previously un-mined by me) aspect of Paul’s writing—his use of the Old Testament. One can’t help but noting how often he quotes OT writers throughout the book. But I hadn’t stopped and focused on this aspect until now.
What have I discovered? Depending on how you count verses and occurrences, the OT is clearing quoted or referenced about 87 times in the letter. Given that there are 433 verses in Romans, that means 20% is OT. Think about it—Paul’s most complete articulation of gospel theology is one-fifth Old Testament.
Imagine sitting down for hours with someone explaining Jesus Christ as Lord, what he has done for us in salvation and why, and one fifth of all you say is drawn from the OT. What a profound understanding of the Law, prophets and Psalms that would require.
A couple of other observations to note: Twenty-four quotations are from Isaiah (the most of any OT book). That is a quarter of all Paul’s numerous references. More than half of those (15) are found in Romans 9-11 where Paul unpacks the implications of God’s sovereign grace and plan for the people of Israel and the Gentile nations. Implication: If you want to understand Romans (and the gospel) more fully, you must understand Isaiah more completely.
The second most quoted book is the Psalms. I count 19 quotations from the Psalms. While I have now examined each of the Isaiah quotes in context, I have yet to do the same for the Psalms. That is next (I assume.) Genesis and Deuteronomy are the next most frequent with (about) nine each.
Given Genesis, Deuteronomy, Psalms and Isaiah, how well (i.e. how complete and clearly) could you communicate the gospel?
Challenging thoughts. Rich reflections. Hope it spurs your thinking, as well.
2 comments:
Thanks for sharing the insights God is giving you from your study and medetation on the book of Romans. Your thoughts on Isaiah are especially significant to me as I'm studying the gospel of Jesus according to John through Bible Study Fellowship and will be going through Isaiah next year. Your thoughts are making me excited to study Isaiah! Thanks, Keith!
--Kevin Kneeshaw
Thanks for the encouragement, Kevin. Here are the Isaiah passages: Isa. 1:9; 5:21; 8:14; 10:22–23; 11:10; 27:9; 28:16 (2); 29:10; 29:16; 40:13; 45:9; 45:23; 49:18; 50:8–9; 52:5; 52:7; 52:15; 53:1; 53:6, 12; 59:7–8; 59:20–21; 65:1–2
Now you have to find how Paul used them in Romans. ;-)
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