Romans has several debated passages:

• Does the slavery to sin described in Romans 7 match the experience of the believer or the unbeliever?
• Does Romans 9 describe God predestining some for salvation and the rest to damnation?
• What does it means for “all Israel” to be saved in Romans 11?
• Must we always submit to the government per Romans 13.

However, when I taught through Romans back in 2013, I personally found Romans 2 to be the most difficult to interpret in the entire book, despite often being overlooked compared to these others.

Today New Testament scholar Jarvis Williams joins me on Logos’s What in the Word? to discuss the identity of these law-abiding gentiles. Are they

1. Non-Christian pagans who, at least to some degree, abide by their morally calibrated consciences (natural law)?
2. Or regenerate gentile Christians who have God’s law written on their hearts as promised in the new covenant?

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Immediately after the flood, Noah gets drunk, and Ham sins against him by “seeing” his “nakedness.” Noah responds by cursing Ham’s son, Canaan. But what exactly did Ham do against Noah, and why does Noah curse his son instead of Ham himself?

Additionally, this passage was infamously used to justify racism against and the enslavement of black Africans. Appeal was made to the so-called “curse of Ham.”

So how should we understand this passage? Dr. Chad Bird joins me on What in the Word? to discuss.

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