Thesis Paper on the meaning of
“God’s Righteousness” in Romans.
By Hugh O’Donnell, ND Theo Course 60141, July 1, 2007
The following paper was prepared for a
course on Romans. The paper was to address
the term “God’s Righteousness”.
However the paper also supports a thesis I have been thinking about on “The
New Creation”. Contained within the text
of this paper are thoughts on the origin of the universe.
These thoughts are “Could it be” thoughts along the lines of an Essay I
wrote in 2001 called “The Mystical Body of the Dark Side” http://www.nd.edu/~hodonne1/DarkSide.htm
. Paul’s letter to the Romans mentions
an old creation and a new creation. Could it
be that…. the old creation was “The Mystical body of the Dark side” and the
new creation is “The Mystical Body of Christ”?
The term “God’s righteousness” or “righteousness of God” appears at least 3 times in the NAB translation of Romans (3:5, 3:21, 3:22). Two[1]-[2] Romans commentaries were required reading for Theo 60141 to help the class understand Paul’s meaning of Romans and terms like God’s righteousness, Christ’s righteousness, and our righteousness as adopted children of God. The two commentaries help 21st century Christians understand terms and metaphors contained in Paul’s message that was intended for Gentiles and Jews living in first century Rome.
The purpose of this paper is to touch on the exegesis of Johnson and Grieb around two metaphors used by Paul in Romans 8:14-22, adoption and creation. I will then offer a thesis on how science can help expand on Paul’s same two metaphors.
So, what modern metaphors from the 21st century, metaphors Paul did not have access to, might further add clarification beyond those provided by Johnson and Grieb’s exegesis? If Scriptures are “living” documents that evolve in relevance with time, what metaphors from modern science, similar to those used by Paul, would have helped him describe the mystery of “God’s righteousness" today like he struggled to describe in 1st century Rome.
In Professor Johnson’s exegesis of 3:5, human failure works to show God’s righteousness (page 44). Romans 3:21-26 gets to the thesis of Paul’s message that the righteousness of God is revealed in the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. Jesus was a model of obedience. He did the will of the Father even unto death on a cross. For Johnson, Romans 8:14-22 tells us that through our participation in the death and new life of Jesus, through our participation in Jesus’ righteousness or Jesus’ faithfulness, we become adopted children of God and part of God’s “new creation” (page 134, 137).
Katherine Grieb’s book is subtitled A Narrative Defense of God’s Righteousness. She contends Romans is a sustained argument that the righteousness of God is identified and demonstrated by the faithfulness of Jesus Christ (page ix). Furthermore, Grieb tells us we can better understand Romans and “God’s righteousness” if we focus on the personal stories of Paul, Adam, Abraham, Jesus, and her own story. She says the story of Genesis helps us understand Paul’s message; that creation waits to be freed from the bondage of Adam’s fall; our bodies groan for redemption in Christ the new Adam (page80).
From my life story, as a scientist and science teacher, I have also come to understand, as Paul did, that God’s righteousness comes to us through God’s seed (Jesus) and the faithful example of Jesus Christ. By allowing our self to be grafted to God’s “seed crystal”, we indeed become adopted children of God’s righteousness. This paper will explore Paul’s metaphors of “new creation” and “adoption” as they have progressed within the context of 21st century science. The evolved science metaphors I offer come by way of my story; a story best explained using scientific concepts and terminology.
For me, God’s righteousness is negative entropy. In very simple terms, entropy is a measure of creation disorder. The universe by nature tends to disorder and disorder is mathematically positive. Human unrighteousness is positive entropy if disorder is equated with Paul’s term disobedience. At the beginning of time, when Big Bang #1 occurred, energy (spirit) was expelled from God’s righteousness (order, dependence) and then condensed by gravity (sin, disobedience) into matter (flesh). Science tells us the universe (for Paul creation before Christ) is a system of net positive entropy - meaning that the universe is expanding in ever-greater disorder compared with any order that is occurring as well. After Big Bang #1, matter ordered itself into galaxies (negative entropy) as well as separating and diverging itself into space. Science contends the diverging universe’s disorder trumps any emerging order.
The trouble with science is that it cannot yet measure the negative entropy of human love or human life. If we could measure the entropy of collective consciousness and human existence, we might find the universe is net negative entropy. We might see, as Paul did, that the old creation of separating, diverging, and disobedient matter is being transformed into a new creation sparked by the obedience and love of Jesus toward His Father.
Let us look at a scientific metaphor from chemistry. When a crystal is dissolved in water (creations Fall), the system goes from order (negative entropy) to disorder (positive entropy). Once the solution becomes completely disordered, it can no longer become ordered again without a seed crystal. The solution has become hopelessly disobedient to its original obedience as a highly ordered crystal in community.
The entire physical universe is a collection of disobedient particles that once were spirit. Gravity keeps matter (flesh) from returning to spirit unless a force opposite to gravity releases it from the slavery of disorder back to it’s original form of slavery called obedience to God’s righteousness (perfect order, perfect obedience). Paul believed we are either a slave to sin or a slave to righteousness and science would agree.
Paul would see Jesus Christ like God’s seed “crystal” in chemical metaphor. Jesus is matter sent from God’s righteousness, but not subject to gravity (sin, disobedience), not fallen or dissolved in a physical milieu, not disobedient to its original order. As Paul preached in Romans, once God sent his Jesus (seed crystal) into the disordered creation, the disordered flesh could now choose to graft themselves back to the highly ordered flesh of God’s righteousness, God’s only begotten seed crystal.
We can relate the sending of God’s seed crystal to an event I call “Big Bang #2” which I believe occurred on Easter Sunday two thousand years ago. Big Bang #2 reversed the disorder of the old creation. As Paul might say, the way back to spirit was now open to those disobedient particles choosing to participate in Jesus’ death and resurrection as adopted children of God’s righteousness.
Jesus, as God’s seed crystal, was the perfect example of love, the perfect example of faithfulness, the perfect example of God’s righteousness. As Paul would go on to say, Jesus was the promised Messiah. Jesus’ model of love within a community of collective interdependent particles, who were once independent particles, opened the way to redemption. And now for me, like Paul, all creation now has access to the transforming power of Jesus’ love and life-giving example “seed”. We have what we need in Jesus to overcome the gravity of sin and the habit patterns of disobedience and disorder.
Another example in science of how matter is transformed back to spirit comes from our Sun. Shortly after creation began, the first atoms, hydrogen atoms, fused into helium atoms. The mass of a resulting helium atom was a bit less than the mass of 4 fused hydrogen atoms liberating light and energy according to Einstein’s famous equation E= mC2. The energy and light produced by fusion in our Sun is like the love that comes from Jesus, God’s Son. The negative entropy of fusion helps create human life and love that science is at a lost to measure. For a more detailed explanation of Sun science compared with the theology of God’s Son, see http://www.nd.edu/~hodonne1/emc.htm . The next web site elaborates the idea that Adam’s or Lucifer's fall can be likened to "Big Bang #1" or the start of the “old creation” and that the Resurretion or “Big Bang#2” is like the start of the “new creation” http://www.nd.edu/~hodonne1/DarkSide.htm .
In conclusion, the powerful message of Paul’s letter to the Romans continues to live into 21st century evolution, as we better understand the new creation precipitated by Big Bang #2. In the first century, Paul helped both Gentiles and Jews understand the Good News through metaphors of adoption and creation. Today, as Johnson and Grieb use modern exegesis to make Paul’s message clear, science as well helps us understand the mystery of God’s righteousness, a mystery Paul struggled to explain using non-science metaphors.