Romans Notes

I have a rough draft of a paper due for Steven Rowe in 1983. I should collect these things and try to write. The essay is interesting for the attempt to connect and integrate Romans with the theoretical studies of man in philosophy and psychology- attempting to understand scripture in light of psychology, and psychology in light of scripture- what scripture teaches about the soul. If Paul is correct, this would be the true first principle of psychology-the death and rebirth of the soul.

From the notebook Red GVSC # 2:

[page 1, pgph 1] I could not write these things today, and so print this despite defects, in fulfillment of my Incomplete. There is a benefit, in college papers, of being compelled to speak, as in an exam. Today, in 2026, I might open with "Who are the Romans" to whom Paul is writing. Here I open with the first principle, and stick to higher things, if these cannot be said as well.

The central concern of Paul in Romans is to show the passage of man from being in the fallen Adam, through death, to being in Christ. The passage is by way of the story and teachings of Christ, as Paul states:

For I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith, as it is written, "He who through faith is righteous shall live."

(Romans 1:16-17; Oxford ed. note: Hab 2:4. Cp. Gal 3:11; Phil. 3:9, Heb. 10:3=)

Adam of Eden and the risen Christ present the temporal beginning and the eternal end of the fulfilled human life. In them are two ways of man in harmony with reality, in grace. Man in the original Adam is in the state of the womb or a childhood Eden. Herein man is one, without inner division and conflict. But human life holds the sublime possibility and the equally momentous responsibility of becoming reflectively one. Because of this, there is the fall from the original state of grace, and all the complications of the human organism in comparison to animals, children or the lillies of the field We cannot simply trust the desires of our bodies, the passions of our hearts or the thoughts of our minds. As our soul's urge to life unfolds, we fall into this great chaotic state from which our higher simplicity seeks to emerge. In the nature man inhabits, the bridge through the chaotic state of disharmony to the higher harmony is called faith in Christ.

Man in the fallen Adam is in sin, under law, and a slave to forces he does not know. To be under law is to wear an (external yoke because without it one is ruled by sin. Sin is that in us which hinders rather than assists the emergence of the higher unity. [*Sin because of that which needs to emerge and be in Christ, that in man which is in Adam is disharmony- it is that in us which has no light of truth cast on it, it is the __ing of what is human and need be divine in us to serve the earthly simple ends man shares with the other animals. The ordering of the soul is originally upside down, the part that ought rule is a slave, what ought serve it is its ruler] . To be under law is simultaneously to be ruled by the "elemental spirits of the universe (Galatians 4:3-4) [The spirits of the Creation are more akin to law than to sin]. These are best described in modern terms as deep unconscious psychic dominants [ ] which rule human life. These include the ancestral spirits, and all that which originally binds man to things temporal. The gods of polytheism may represent such spirits. Between man and God, then there is law and the elemental forces. These are the ruling forces of the Creation. They can function as mediators between man and God, in which case they are helpful, or they can be barriers between man and God, in which case they are harmful. In Romans, Galatians and Ephesians, Paul is concerned to show that through Christ, man receives or becomes of something beyond being of the Creation, and that beyond law, Jewish or otherwise), and beyond the elemental spirits, which are of the Creation. This is by dying to the creation with Christ, and being born to the divine.

Then I try again:

Adam and Christ present the temporal beginning and the eternal end or goal of the Christian story of salvation. These are two ways of being in harmony with reality, at the origin and end. Man in Adam is the harmony of a childhood Eden, an innocence which all humans lose in gaining reflection. An ambiguous, difficult and dangerous state of inner division is then entered as the urge to life seeks the sublime possibility of the good. Here-[in this in-between state] the only solid ground is the law, as Moses gave to the Jews. Away from, beneath and behind the law is a dark ambivalence in all human matters. The emerging man and the old man co-exist in the same soul, as its drive toward life brings it into contact and confrontation with the depths of a psychic [psychoid] realm called [by Paul] the elemental spirits. Weak and fragile man, battered by the tempests of a sea which threatens to engulf him at every turn, Here can, by faith, attach himself to the way, the truth and life. By that which overcomes death, man can then be caught up in the overcoming. Man can come into Christ, and be filled with light and life.

In his letter to the Corinthians, (1 Cor. 15) Paul states,

"As by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive...What you sow does not come to life unless it dies...what is sown is perishable, what is raised, imperishable...thus it is written, "The first man Adam became a living being; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit...the first man was from earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so are those who are of the dust; and as is the man of heaven, so are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven and as is the man of heaven.

Through this death, that in man which is an image of the man of heaven emerges. Upon its emergence, man enters into harmony with the divine and the creation. The divine in us emerged, the soul of man is rightly ordered, turned right side-up. Because of its being in harmony both within itself and with reality, beyond it, the soul is in touch with something beyond law. The soul comes into direct contact with that harmony which man in the fallen Adam must refer to laws to find.

The Adam of Genesis, then, was not simply our ancestor, but a being of the same size as Christ, in that man can be in him. He was a living being, having been inspired by the spirit of life. Although human, Adam knew harmony in nature, as does man in Adam. This harmony, destroyed by the fall, is the same as that known by other living beings. But the life given by Christ (in the sense of "life giving spirit) is superimposed onto the death which is the natural course of life in the first sense. [This new life ]comes in when one, having fallen from harmony, need go through the death to regain it.. Man before the reception of this life is in the image of the old man, Adam, who, as dust, will die But after the reception of the life in Christ, man will be no longer in the image of Adam, but in the image of Christ. The old man has gone through death to emerge a new man.

[Top margin: Because man is not by nature in harmony with nature as the animals are, [but] man needs law and must for a time be under law. Here law is always conflicting with desire, which law is incapable of transforming into love.]

In the first section of the letter to the Romans, Paul discusses two kinds of sin, sins of the body (Chapter 1) and then what can be called by contrast a sin of thought or of the mind (Chapter 2). He then addresses the unity of mankind in that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory (3); The promise of Abraham as fulfilled by faith (4); and then the reconciliation of man through the blood of Christ (5:1-11).

The original innocence is the reason that humans are responsible for their fall into evil, and why man is under God's wrath:

For what can be known of God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. Ever since the creation of the world his invisible nature, namely his eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things made.

Man is responsible for the evil in which he is submerged because the [original] vision of is by us suppressed and forgotten. "For although they know, they did not honor God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking and their senseless minds were darkened" (1:21-22). The charge against man is essentially idolatry, giving too much significance to created things, which ought be like a vehicle through which one can perceive the invisible eternal Creator. "Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impiety, to dishonoring their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator.

The problem involves the human heart. The heart has more love than can be healthily given to objects of the creation. This excess passion goes into the appetites, enflaming these, or into the mind, inflating it, if it does not seek God. Children are most like the state of original innocence in that their hearts have yet to awaken Children are never "consumed by the lusts of their heart," nor do they claim to be wise and thus become fools. Their minds are not darkened, but see the things they see in their right significance- so they are humble. But in order to reflectively find God through Christ, the heart will awaken, and if it does not come into a way prepared by a healthy, finding love as a mediator through the eyes of the beloved, tradition, and law or knowledge as a guardian, the awakened heart will not be raised up and out of the animal state, but with the sprouting wings and being light, but it will be stuck in the selfish appetites, distorting the soul within its lust and arrogance Thus, Paul tells us, do men and women exchange natural relations with one another for unnatural receiving in their own persons the due penalty for their error. (I: 27). Notice that wrath is not measured out by God like Zeus throwing lightening bolts,but rather, the soul is directly [page 3] harmed by the evil it does. It is distorted and kept in disunity, as its love is kept from God.

Romans 2

Paul's second chapter of the Letter to the Romans is centrally concerned to redirect the relation of man to law from using it as a measure of judging others and supporting their own pride to the right purpose of the law, which is self-knowledge and repentance. Paul states that in passing judgement one condemns oneself (Romans 2:1) , and that God's kindness will not save judges from wrath (2:4-5). For it is not the hearers of the law who are justified, but the doers of the law (2:14). The Gentiles who act according to the law by their conscience show that the law is "written on their hearts," (Rom. 2:15). Paul states:

You then who teach others, will you not teach yourselves? ...You who boast in the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law? For it is written,- the name of God is blasphemed among the gentiles because of you (Romans 2:21-24).

A paradox is set up as Paul appears to judge human wickedness in chapter 1, then condemn judgement in chapter 2. Further, he states that the doers of the law (as opposed to the hearers) of the law are justified, which apparently conflicts with his basic stance that acts of law will not justify, but man is reconciled to God by grace. Paul then reveals the right, as opposed to idolatrous, regard for law, as a means to self-knowledge, the idolatrous regard, and its source in the praise of men (2:17-29). Romans 2 deals with a worse kind of human evil than the lust and arrogance which keep men from worshiping God. This is the evil of using religion as a means to ends other than God, for the appearance rather than the reality of holiness, as a wolf in sheep's clothing.

Paul's message about judgement is clarified by the scene with Christ and the adulteress in John 8:3-11. The Jewish law said that an adulteress should be public;ly stoned. The people bring a woman caught in the act to Christ to see if he will uphold the law But Christ says" Let him who is without sin cast the first stone at her." One by one the people left, convicted by their own conscience, leaving the Christ alone standing there without sin.. Christ then does not say, "you have not sinned," but "neither do I condemn you, go and do not sin again."In Christ, judgement and forgiveness, justice and mercy, are united. For we must see moral health and unhealth for what it is, first in ourselves but also in others, but our purpose must be only love, [page 4] which does not strike out in condemnation, throwing stones made of precepts of the law, but seeks only to make things better. For nature condemns, as evil is always punished because doing evil harms our souls, and therefore is to be pitied, not despised., in our fellow humans and ourselves. Our purpose must then be to help, as a " a light to those who are in darkness (Rom. 2:19), guide to the blind, or, to teach in love. To judge in the sense of condemnation is the opposite of forgiveness, and cuts us off from our fellow humans. When we hate or are angry at people for sin, it is from a lack of self-knowledge in ourselves, as the notion of projection in modern psychology shows. To be in conflict with others for their immorality (including judgement is due to our fear and ignorance of the very same darkness in ourselves. (Thus by our indignations, we can know our shortcomings If we hate others for the darkness they are in,, we ourselves are in darkness and disunity. From this it can be seen why it is said that God will not forgive us if we do not forgive others. Love heals us while hatred splits us. Christ cannot save us if we do not bring to light and repent, but hide our sin. Forgiveness, like wrath, is not a matter of God's whim, but the will of God is a reality in nature. That is why Paul states that God's kindness, rather than to poof forgiveness around, is meant to lead us to repentance not out of fear for ourselves, but out of love for God, and the fear of making the reality of which we are a part a worse place. Because God loves the world the harm we do to ourselves can be healed

When Paul states that it is not the hearers but the doers of the law who will be justified, and "for he will render to every man according to his works," he does not contradict his position that acts of law cannot bring salvation. First, his point is to contrast knowledge which is not brought to fruition from that which is.. But he does say that the doers of the law will be justified. But Paul holds also that no one without grace can fulfill the law ( ). And this makes sense because the law is founded on the way of being that is necessary for man to live in harmony with in the creation and among themselves. This foundation of law is separated from the particular law of the Jews when Paul speaks of the Gentiles who do what the law requires as showing that the law is written on their hearts while their conscience also bears witness...(Rom. 2:15}. The conscience of man is his wholeness, through which all humans are in touch with rightness. This is the eye of the soul, the unity of the soul, whether latent (unconscious) or drawn out (unified with the conscious mind, as a crown or halo). In order for men to live this unity, , man must not be of the creation,, under law and the spirits, but must go through death, leave the creation, to be in Christ. As nothing in the creation can fulfill the heart of man to b in harmony with the creation, man must be in Christ. And so it is the doers of the law who are justified, because the requirement of the the law, which is this harmony, cannot be fulfilled by man unless he finds that which is beyond the creation, and the spirit of God dwells within him, and he in it

Man must come to dwell in the harmony between God and the creation, God's love of the world, in order to fulfill it. Therefore the law is fulfilled in Christ whose life and death opened the way for harmony or grace to come to man.

From 2:21-2:24, Paul asks the Jews if they, the Chosen People, who hear the law and judge others, do what the law requires:

But if you call yourself a Jew and rely upon the law and boast of your relation to God and know his will and approve what ias excellent, because you are instructed in the law, and if you are sure that you are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, a corrector iof the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth- you who teach others, will you not teach yourself?

This core of Paul's teaching regarding the law becomes more explicit in Chapter 7. It is a turning of the soul to face itself, from abeing at war with things outside itself to the inner conflict that begins penance. An opposition within is created between the spark of the divine in us and our own darkness, from which the higher latent unity can emerge. The law accepted and used for self- knowledge awakens the conscience, which assents to its verdicts, and the law and tradition begin to fill their purpose of repentance toward death of the old man, that in us which is in the fallen Adam. Once the soul, by the lamplight of the law, turns on itself, the reign of darkness is over.

Paul states that the Jews who boast in having the law and yet dishonor God by breaking the law, are the cause of the name of God being blasphemed among the Gentiles. The whole relationship of the people to the law is somewhere false. The law is an embodiment of knowledge and truth, and not knowledge and truth itself (Romans 2:20). Thus the worship of law is idolatry. It is thinking that one knows the will of God (Romans 2:19 because one has the written word, while one then does not know. Something of the complicated statement of Christ to the Pharisees- "If you were blind, you would have no guilt, but now you say we see, your guilt remains-" is involved (John 9:41) Here the law acts as a barrier and not a mediator between man and God, because we cannot seek for that which we think we have. When we take pride in or judge others by laws of the mind, this can prove to us that we think we know when we do not know, and have taken a created thing to be uncreated. It may not be possible to have knowledge when one's purpose is other than to serve God. Having the law from Moses as a people does not reconcile the Jews to God, but only following and living the law, even as dead mechanical ritual is but the fossil of religion.

In concluding Chapter 2, Paul addresses the issue of circumcision. He begins by stating that the ritual of circumcision is of valueif the law is lived, but if the law is broken, the circumcision becomes uncircumcision.

For he is not a real Jew who is one outwardly, nor is the true circumcision something external and physical. He is a Jew who is one inwardly, and real circumcision is a matter of the heart, spiritual and not literal. His praise is not from men, but from God" Romans 2: 28-29).

Or, as Jeremiah said, "remove the foreskins of your heart" (4:4). All religious ritual is a symbol for spiritual realities, images, mediators or barriers. Acts of law, like ritual or following the written word as a blueprint for action, can be done whether or not the foreskin of the heart is removed. Ritual and tradition are of great value if the reality of which it is an image is not lacking, but found useless if the reality behind the image is not there.

When Paul states, "His praise is not from God but from men," he gets at one source of this idolatry. The greatest respect for appearances goes to to the appearance of wisdom or holiness. We are very often tricked into using religion and knowledge for selfish purposes other than the service of God. We must retain the ability to question what it all means, wherein we are reconciled to God and where we are not. We are insecure and want to know that we are reconciled to God, as we fear death. And who's heart can stand to be hated by our fellow man? But the need for certainty blocks grace. If we have faith in God as distinct from belief in law, we do not need the certainty which law claims for itself, and if we had certainty, we would not need faith. The word of God is not "in" the Bible, but it is as the Bible says, that it was "in the beginning," it is always. The Bible is an image of it which can be a mediator or a barrier. The written gospel differs from the written law only in that it demands that our relationship to it lead us through it, by faith, to God. It demands that it point beyond itself, and by its very nature shows us the way to the word that was in the beginning, the truth that is older than all traditions (Leo Strauss, Natural Right and History, p. ).

Chapter 3

The problem of works of law, and works in general, in relation to Grace, presents us with a confusing paradox. Does it mean we need not or ought not actively seek, with great effort, our salvation? Does it contradict the teaching that we must bear fruit? It seems not, but it seems we must do all we can, though our own action will help, it will not be essentially what saves us. Paul states of the gospel:" For in it the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith; as it is written, "He who through faith is righteous shall live (1:17). The purpose of law is not to bring salvation, but "so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God." The Jews who have the law and the Greeks who do not have the law are all equal in that both are under the power of sin. Man is more fundamentally on common ground than we are by race or creed distinct.Because all mankind is under the power of sin, our acts thus tainted in comparison to God, cannot save us, or, we, no matter what beliefs we possess, cannot save ourselves. "Since all men have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, they are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ, whom God put forward as an expiation by his blood, to be received by faith (3:23-25). Therefore the most important act a human can do is to receive, by faith, this grace.

The law, then is that which by making men aware of the darkness and sin within himself, brings about or manifests inner division. The stage is set for repentance. For he who is under law is also under sin. His spontaneous action, without the law, would not be good, but dark [note to Shakespeare's Angelo in Measure], and so we need the law when grace is not with us, in order to keep from doing harm. We cannot even receive grace unless we attach ourselves by grace to Christ. For to receive grace we must sacrifice ourselves. We must somehow will to sacrifice, but our will- without the sacrifice and grace is insufficient.So we must by faith attach ourselves to the savior and by the sacrifice be carried through death. Paul, in response to the charge that the Christian notion of transcending law implies that we should "continue in sin that grace may abound" responds by showing us how it is tthat, in the transcendence of law, man dies to sin:

How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the sinful body might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. For we know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him...

Man in Christ dies and is raised with Christ. What it is that man was , when death had dominion over him, he, by Christ is no longer in, and so he need be no longer a slave to sin. Yet it is not that sin is no longer a danger, but Paul says, "Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies to make you obey their passions..."for sin will have no dominion over you since you are not under law but under grace." Therefore we ought not or need not sin just because we are no longer under law, and we are then under and in the truth of which the law was an embodiment of knowledge. (3:20). And what is the point, anyway, of passions for that which does not last? In our love of what does not last, we are united to what does not last and that is death. But if we love what is always, this we become like. "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."

pp. 1-4 of (14?)

End of notes from GVSC 1983

II. Chuck Missler suggests that according to many, Romans is one of the most profound books of the Bible, possibly the best at theology, along with the gospel of John. The attempt to comment on this would then fit with our rough project to comment on or have something to say about the ten greatest of all books. Throughout the study of Greek philosophy on law, the teaching of Romans gave me my fundamental understanding of law in the relation to the highest natural things in the soul. It is one of the books that transcend psychology, but must be a part of the essential background of the understanding of the soul.

2026: In the gospel of John, from John the Baptist: For the law was given through Moses; Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ." John 1:17.

Law and Sin, the Adamic man and grace: how does the Pauline account fit with the Greek account of the soul? The cav'ed man, one could say, is man in Adam and under law. Paul did not read Plato or Aristotle.

I don't get the central focus on "justification." Nous is the light that enlightens men. Republic 493- begotten. Neither is it opinion or belief done as an act of law that saves us! But the child begotten in the soul through baptism is able to fulfill the law. "If your eye is sound, your whole body will be full of light."

Because how to fit together Athens and Jerusalem- these are the common terms. Is there not only one nature of man? The law-formed man is artificial- but at least upright. Law is a trellis.

IF the Christ were true, the nature of man would be this way, to be found in Athens and even Egypt in a way- what would we expect? So Athens and Jerusalem are mutually confirming, at their peak.

As in Jung, it goes with persona and shadow- law in the soul casts a shadow. We say then what if we make a law of the light? One might get twentieth century totalitarianism! Jesus is not a legislator, but savior.

Law is a trellis, and so the man in grace fulfills and does not violate the law, though he is not under law. So law is not to make us righteous, or justified, but to guide penance. In temperance, the soul desires what is right, so there is no division.

That he is not under law- as the Greeks too teach regarding the king or best souls, this may mean that rights are higher than duties.

The imago Dei sleeps in man, and is born or awakened- the veil is removed from the law (2 Cor. 3).

The Christ in us would be what each most is.

So law-formed righteousness or justice would correspond to "vulgar "virtue.

The original nature un-transformed remains under the law, unconscious as it were, symbolized as an ape- this is sacrificed within in baptism, so that grace might enter. The law-formed soul is dissolved.

The knowledge of these things is in the soul of each- or would be in the soul of each. I'd tell Irv, we think philosophy and faith are as the upper lines of a triangle- closer together the higher one goes.

Although this in man is in conflict with the "city" and political convention, they also go together or agree, the law in polities and the truth in grace- if one is a murderer, he will be both damned and imprisoned or executed, thieves arrested and in Purgatory, etc.

In the best regime, the lawformed character is turned over to nature for completion- as music matters end in love matters that concern ta kalon- the noble and beautiful. This is different from the grace that Paul says completes the highest human natures and from the completion of the philosopher's education.

II. "Works" and grace or "faith," "justification," What WE CAN DO is turn, turn toward God, and pray that the Spirit intercede, since we do not know how to pray. The Angel of Peace at Fatima teaches a prayer:

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"My God, I believe, I adore, I hope, and I love Thee! I beg pardon for those who do not believe, do not adore, do not hope and do not love Thee". Everything Catholic +2. And is the Orthodox Eucharist NOT done in remembrance of Him? No good?

No other teacher teaches "Love one another-" "love your enemies," if you would be perfect. Some Greeks taught that love is a god- John teaches that God is Love. So if the Hindu loves his neighbor, where is the Christ? If the Christian persecutes the Muslim?

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The truth of the teachings of Jesus is the evidence that he is who he says he is. The metaphysics we cannot apprehend, but seek lifelong in wonder and marvel. What if the Shroud of Turin is real? NO ONE can say how it COULD have been forged!