The Bible contains a lot of questions, and it doesn’t always provide satisfactory answers. So I’ve been answering some of the Bible’s questions myself. This time, I’m looking at questions from Paul’s letter to the Romans.
Paul asks: When you pass judgment on anyone for anything and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment? (Implied answer: You won’t.) Real answer: Yes, but why would you assume I do those things? Not everyone’s as hypocritical as you, Paul.
He asks: You who preach against stealing, do you steal? You who say that people should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who boast in the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law? (Implied answer: Yes.) Real answer: I wouldn’t think so. What kind of person would assume that everyone does all that?
Paul asks: If those who are not circumcised keep the law’s requirements, will they not be regarded as though they were circumcised? Answer: No, circumcision is part of the law, so it’s impossible to keep the law’s requirements without being circumcised.
He asks: What advantage, then, is there in being a Jew, or what value is there in circumcision? Answer: Probably not enough to outweigh the harms of circumcision.
Paul asks: Why not say “Let us do evil that good may result”? Answer: Because if the result of what you were doing was good, then you wouldn’t actually be doing evil.
After asserting that “a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law”, Paul asks: Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? (Paul’s answer: Not at all!) Real answer: You never explain how that’s not the case, so I’m gonna say yeah, you are trying to nullify the law.
Paul asks: We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Answer: Because Jesus failed to actually put an end to it.
He asks: Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey? Answer: Offer yourselves? I don’t think that’s usually how slavery works.
Paul asks: Do you not know that the law has authority over someone only as long as that person lives? Answer: Yeah, that goes without saying. It’s impossible to break the law when you’re dead. But that doesn’t follow from the “example” you give, nor does it actually support the point you’re trying to make.
He asks: What shall we say, then? Is the law sinful? (Paul’s answer: Certainly not!) Real answer: You say the law caused sin that never would have existed without the law, so yeah, that sounds right. God’s law is sinful.
And he asks: Did that which is good, then, become death to me? (Paul’s answer: By no means!) Real answer: Yes, according to what you just said, it did. (I mean, if you want to call it “good”.)
Paul asks: Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? Answer: I’ll do it, if no one else wants to.
He asks: Who then is the one who condemns? (Paul’s answer: No one.) Alternative biblical answer: God, Moses, Jesus, his disciples, Christians, thousands of “holy ones“, and whoever else has been given authority to judge.
After saying what something says, Paul asks: But what does it say? Answer: It says what you just said it says, doesn’t it? Or were you lying?
Paul asks: How can they call on the one they have not believed in? Answer: Lip service?
He asks: And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? Answer: Sensus divinitatis?
Then he asks: And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? Answer: By hearing something that isn’t someone preaching to them? Or by overhearing preachers who aren’t talking to them?
And he asks: And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? Answer: By making their own decisions?
Paul asks: Why do you judge your brother or sister? Answer: What do you expect me to do, leave that to God? He’s obviously completely unqualified as a judge of morality.