|
Australian Christian Resources |
|---|
2 volume set - An Interpretation of Romans
This long-awaited commentary represents the fruit of Grothe's studies in American institutions and the University of Tuebingen, where he heard Professors Otto Michel, Jonathan Grothe is a retired principal and professor emeritus of the Lutheran seminary in St Catharines, Canada. During a sabbatical in 2003 he spent several months in Adelaide, where the ALC community benefited from his expertise in the New Testament. Among the many welcome features of this commentary there may be noted:
the clear and helpful format, with the author's translation of each pericope and thorough textual notes leading the reader into the commentary itself;
the profound explication of Paul's doctrine of original sin against the background of human helplessness and the need for divine intervention set forth especially in Isaiah 59 (1:194);
the splendid exposition of God's righteousness as an attribute of God, a gift of God, and God's saving power in rescuing humanity and forgiving their sins (1:52,53). Grothe insists "justification' is a forensic term, "the declaration of a right relationship to God'. Despite Joseph Fitzmyer (Romans, 116-19) and others, it does not refer primarily "to an actual transformation" (1:54,55).
the constant theme that the forgiven child of God remains simul justus et peccator ("simultaneously both saint and sinner') " utterly dependent on God's grace to the end.
In its consistent emphasis on the persistence of sin in the life of God's children, and our complete dependence on the gospel conveyed by word and sacrament, Grothe's commentary reminds one of Bo Giertz's classic, The Hammer of God.
