Sunday Hymn: Let Us Plead for Faith Alone

Let us plead for faith alone
Faith which by our works is shown;
God it is who jus­ti­fies,
Only faith the grace ap­plies.

Active faith that lives with­in,
Conquers hell and death and sin,
Hallows whom it first made whole,
Forms the Sav­ior in the soul.

Let us for this faith con­tend,
Sure sal­va­tion is the end;
Heaven al­rea­dy is be­gun,
Everlasting life is won.

Only let us per­se­vere
Till we see our Lord ap­pear,
Never from the Rock re­move,
Saved by faith which works by love.

—Charles Wesley

Romans 8:18-39: Steps 1-4

What I’m doing in this little demonstration is showing you (more or less) how I go about studying a passage of scripture if I really want to know what it means. I like to do in-depth study by writing an interpretive paraphrase. To see the general procedures I’m using to do the interpretive paraphase of this passage, go here.

Step 1 is to place the passage in the context of the book of Romans. Here’s a really rough summary of the book of Romans up through chapter 8:

• Everyone is sinful and as a consequence everyone is under the wrath of God (1:18-3:20).
• But there is a solution to the predicament we are all in: Christ saves people from the wrath of God by justifying them through faith (3:21-5:21),
• And saves them from the power of sin by the power of the Holy Spirit. (6-8)

The previous portion of chapter 8 is about life in the Spirit. Directly before this passage, Paul is writing about sonship in the Spirit. If we are sons, we’re told, we are joint-heirs with Christ, that is, if “we suffer with him so that we may be also glorified with him.”

Step 2 is to paragraph the passage. I looked at many translations and several of them paragraph it in the same way.  I’ll just copy them.

• 8:18-24
  
• 8:26-30
• 8:31-39

Steps 3 and 4 are to copy one verse in the chosen translations and underline the key words and phrases. Here are these steps done for verse 18.

• ESV: For I consider that the sufferings of this present time^(A) are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
• NASB: For I consider that the sufferings of this present time ^(A)are not worthy to be compared with the ^(B)glory that is to be revealed to us.
• NET: For I consider that our present sufferings cannot even be compared²³ to the glory that will be revealed to us.
• NLT: Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later.

You can probably see why I’ve identified these particular words and phrases as key ones, except perhaps in the case of  “to us.” I underlined that because while I was copying and pasting the verse from various translations I noticed that the NIV and NKJV both say “in us” instead of “to us,” so I thought I’d like to look into that difference a little more.

Next up I’ll move on to step 5, examining the key words in verse 18 one by one.

Any questions or comments on what I’ve done so far? 

Romans 8:18-39: General Procedure

Here’s the general procedure I’ll be using for doing an interpretive paraphrase of this passage.

• Step 1 is to place the passage in context; first, within the book of Romans, and then within the particular section of text surrounding it.
• Step 2 is to divide the passage in paragraphs.
  
• Step 3 is to copy the first verse from the four translations I’m using comparing them and using that comparison to help me decide which words and phrases might be key to understanding the meaning of the verse.
  
• Step 4 is to underline the key words and phrases in the verse. The general guideline I use is to underline all the nouns and verbs and any connecting words for which I see the possibility of different meanings reflected in the translations I’ve used.
  
• Step 5 is to consider the meaning each underlined word or phrase, using a comparison of the different translations, information on the meaning of the word gathered using my Strong’s concordance, and finally (and optionally), what I glean from the commentary.
  
• Step 6 is to write a paraphrase of this verse from what I’ve learned.

I’ll keep doing steps 3-6 until I’ve finished paraphrasing the entire passage.  Yes, it’s a lot of work, but it gets to be less work as time goes on, for at least two reasons. First, like anything, it gets easier with practice; and secondly, a word may only need to be studied thoroughly once and then that information simply reviewed every time the word is repeated in the text.