Moo on Balancing Corporate and Individual Concerns in Romans 9–11

to call Rom. 9–11 the climax or center of the letter is going too far.[16] Such an evaluation often arises from a desire to minimize the importance of the individual’s relationship to God in chaps. 1–8. But the individual’s standing before God is the center of Paul’s gospel, which offers salvation only on the basis of a personal response (1:16). If some earlier expositors of Paul were too preoccupied with his teaching about the individual’s relationship to God at the expense of his emphasis on the corporate relationship between Jews and Gentiles, many contemporary scholars are making the opposite mistake. Individual and corporate perspectives are intertwined in Paul. His claim that individual Jews are sinners, in danger of God’s wrath (2:1–3:20), requires him to deal with the status of the people Israel. — The Letter to the Romans. (2nd ed, p. 572).

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For a list of all of my posts on Douglas Moo’s commentary on Romans, see here.