Christianity for Weak People: How The Holy Spirit Prays for Believers according to Romans 8:26-27

For many Christian believers, especially whose family members suffer a prolonged sickness or multiple disease complications, it is often perplexing for them that God seems delaying to answer their prayers. And in many cases, God seems to let those family members to die. How could it be understood? That is not an easy problem to digest for many believers, especially if they think they already serve God in ministry, or churches, or other occasions. Fortunately, there are also comforting words to encourage us in such a perplexing situation, such as Romans 8:26-27, which suggests that the Holy Spirit also do intercession prayers for believers. And these two verses were followed by verse 8:28, where St. Paul concluded that from the previous two verses, we know that God works through everything for good to them that love God. Probably, that is the origin of a famous phrase: “God works often in mysterious ways.” This reflective article is intended to shed light on this old question

The Spirit of Resurrection in Romans 8 and Its Jewish Correspondences

This article studies the role and identity of the Spirit of resurrection in Rom. 8. First, possible references to the Spirit of resurrection in the OT and Jewish literature of the Second Temple period are explored. Next, the argumentation of Rom. 8 is analysed, where the apostle links the Spirit of resurrection with the work of Christ (Rom. 8.1-4, 10-11), describes its function of making believers resemble the Son (Rom. 8.5-6, 9-11, 14-17) and shows it as sustaining hope for the legacy of glory with the Firstborn (Rom. 8.18-30). The Spirit of resurrection is argued to be a specifically Pauline idea which differs both from the OT and from the Jewish literature of the Second Temple period.

An Exegetico-Theological Study of Romans 8:1-8: Toward a Pneumatological-Ecclesiology

This article focuses on Paul’s teachings on how the believer’s life in the Spirit contrasts the believer’s previous life of sin, with particular reference to Romans 8:1-8. It first employed the exegetical method—comprising contextual analysis, literary analysis, detailed analysis of lexicology (the meaning of words), morphology (the form of words), grammatical function of words (parts of speech), syntax (the relationships of words) and figures of speech—to explore the text. The next step was a systematic theological formulation of pneumatological-ecclesiology based on the results from the exegetical study of the text. The main argument is that the Spirit applies Christ’s salvific work to the believer in a way that does not only put the believer right forensically but also puts him/her right behaviorally. Thus, the believer walking in the Spirit is both justified by the cross and by good deeds performed through the enabling presence of the Spirit. The article contributes to the academic disciplines of systematic theology and biblical studies by exploring what pneumatological-ecclesiology is embedded in the text and applying this formulated theology to the life of the contemporary church, drawing attention to the fact that since the Holy Spirit breathes upon and through the church, the activities of the Spirit in the church should be the plumb line for assessing the nature and conduct of the church. This contribution serves as an effective tool for enhancing ethical and religious renewals in believers in a way that eventually enhances their relationship with God, other humans and the environment. Keywords: Death, Flesh, Law, Spirit

A Critical Study of Abba Ho Patēr in Romans 8:15 in the New Revised Asante Twi Version (2018)

Bible translation is among the difficult exercises in scholarship because it demands a careful analysis of the biblical text from the source language into the target language. The religio-cultural settings and worldview of the indigenous people are also considered so that they are able to access the word of God as written and meant by the author(s). An example of Bible translation exercise is the New Revised Asante Twi Version (NRATV) 2018, which contains some translation problems. Some texts are not translated but “carried wholly” into the new or target language to make them look as if they form part of the native language. One of such is “Abba,” which is a HebraicAramaic word found in Romans 8:15. Since Abba is not an Asante (and Akan) language, it becomes difficult for the Asante reading community (and by extension all Akan languages) and users of the Asante-Twi Bible to understand and express the concept within their religio-cultural worldview because they do not understand the thought of the author in their language. Using exegetical, mother-tongue hermeneutics and the communicative method of translation as approaches, the study has found out that the translation of …Αββα ὁ πατήρ (…Abba ho Patēr) as …Abba, Agya (…Abba, Father) in the Asante-Twi Bible (2018) should be rendered as “…Agya, M’agya” (Father, My Father). The study has thus added to the interpretations of Romans 8:15 in Asante-Twi. It is being recommended that in the future revision of the Asante-Twi Bible, the Bible Society of Ghana should consider using “…Agya, M’agya” (Father, My Father) in the translation of … Αββα ὁ πατήρ (…Abba ho Patēr).

Reimagining Gospel

After using Richard Smallwood’s “It’s Working (Romans 8:28)” to reconstruct the sound world of a single gospel performance, this introductory chapter defines the broader historical, theoretical, and music-analytic contexts of the book, taking up each of its principal foci—Richard Smallwood, the vamp, and the Gospel Imagination. The first section offers a critical biographical sketch that positions Richard Smallwood in the gospel tradition. The second section outlines the centrality of the gospel choir to this musical tradition, and the particular importance of the vamp to choral expressions of contemporary gospel. The third section defines the Gospel Imagination, showing how gospel’s central conviction—that sound affords intimacy with the divine—motivates the intensive grammar of gospel songs, sermons, and prayers.

STUDI INTERTEKSTUALITAS TERHADAP ROMA 8:18-23

As an environmental mantra, Romans 8:18-23 has become one of the main pillars of the Christian ecotheology that gives mandate to Christians to take care of environment. Through this text, ecological crisis can be read not empirically but theologically. The hermeneutical issue of the text is that interpreters do not yet agree about the background of Paul’s argument. In the midst of the variety of interpreters’ suggestions of Paul’s background in Romans 8:18-23, intertextuality approach proposes Isaiah 24:1-7 as an allusion that Paul intentionally alluded to in Romans 8:18-23. Intertextuality approach proves that Isaiah 24:1-7 has some connections with Romans 8:18-23. In writing Romans 8:18-23, Paul had read Isaiah 24:1-7 figuratively in the light of Christ. Thus, restoring the context and theological message of Isaiah 24:1-7 illuminates the reading of Romans 8:18-23. Likewise, understanding why Paul used Isaiah 24:1-7 in Romans 8:18-23 helps readers read Isaiah 24:1-7. Keywords: ecotheology, intertextuality, figural reading, Romans 8 Abstrak: Roma 8:18-23 sebagai environmental mantra merupakan salah satu pilar utama ekoteologi Kristen yang memberikan mandat kepada orang Kristen untuk memperhatikan lingkungan. Melalui teks ini, krisis ekologis dapat dipahami bukan secara empiris melainkan secara teologis. Sekalipun demikian, para penafsir masih belum sependapat mengenai latar pemikiran Paulus dalam Roma 8:18-23. Di tengah beragamnya usulan para penafsir atas latar pemikiran Paulus dalam Roma 8:18-23, pendekatan intertekstualitas mengusulkan Yesaya 24:1-7 sebagai alusi yang sengaja disinggung Paulus dalam Roma 8:18-23. Pendekatan intertekstualitas membuktikan keterkaitan Yesaya 24:1-7 dengan Roma 8:18-23. Dalam menulis Roma 8:18-23, Paulus telah membaca Yesaya 24:1-7 secara figural dalam terang Kristus. Dengan demikian, pemulihan konteks dan pesan teologis Yesaya 24:1-7 menerangi pembacaan Roma 8:18-23. Demikian pula, pemahaman mengapa Paulus menggunakan Yesaya 24:1-7 dalam Roma 8:18-23 menolong pembaca memahami Yesaya 24:1-7. Kata Kunci: ekoteologi, intertekstualitas, pembacaan figural, Roma 8 .

Guds børn og Fadervor (II)

In the baptismal ritual of the Danish Church, the Lord’s Prayer has since 1912 been placed after baptism while it formerly was placed before, as in Luther’s Taufbüchlein. Two consecutive articles argue that the replacement in 1912 was influenced by Nikolai Frederik Severin Grundtvig’s theology. The present second article deals with the different translations of Biblical passages central to the baptizee as a child of God, and attempts to demonstrate that Grundtvig identified the Lord’s Prayer with the Abba-cry mentioned in Romans 8:15 and Galatians 4:6. Thus, the Lord’s Prayer had its role to play after baptism and furthermore functioned for the believer as a daily confirmation and an inner assurance of salvation.