Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person–though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.
Romans 5:1-8 NRSV
In the Barnard Center’s video The Modern Roots of Transformative Justice, Shira Hassan talks about the realization that they could build a context for accountability through developing relationships with people who harmed others. She says, “building relationships with people was the most TJ thing we could do.”1 This enabled them to enact strategies, like encouraging drug dealers to distribute narcan, that would reduce harm. She reminds us that, though our impulse is to push people away who are doing things that harm others, finding ways to increase relational and communal connections is ultimately the only way to create a context where people are able to take accountability for, repair, and prevent harm.
The first half of Paul’s letter to the Romans, which culminates in chapter 5, is best understood through that lens. Paul describes the way death and wrath2 as a response to sin only increases sin in the world. They will never produce justice. Furthermore, he reminds us that no one is simply an offender or a victim, we are all caught up in a system in which sin increases through retributive logic. The only way out of this system is through faith in a life-giving relationship that offers grace. Romans 5:1-8 summarizes Paul’s argument in chapters 1-4. He reminds us that this kind of relationship does not offer life without struggle or grace without the building of character. And in chapter 6 he assures us this kind of gracious relation is not an excuse for sin, it is the context for justification. Our suffering can be transformed when it is toward and in commitment to take accountability, repair, and prevent harm.
Preachers should be careful to note that we “boast” in suffering not to apologize for remain in harmful, abusive contexts. No. We boast in the struggle, in the midst of great adversity, to communally maintain boundaries that protect ourselves without anathematizing or punishing another person. We boast in the suffering and struggle that comes from confronting the systems that harm our community. The work isn’t easy, but when we put our faith in the power of Christ’s TJ, the hard work produces endurance, character, and hope rather than despair.
On the other hand, we also can boast about the suffering that comes from taking accountability for the harm we have done to others. We can boast in the “clean pain” (to use Resmaa Menakem’s term) that comes from working to repair harm we’ve done and prevent ourselves from harming others again. This is also a painful struggle, but it is work we can be proud of.
We do this because God demonstrates to us through Christ that this is the path of salvation: of real, transformative healing and justification. God does this with us through Christ, who embodies God’s commitment to remain in loving relationship with God’s people and whose own struggle and suffering resulted from opposing systems of death and wrath.
1 https://youtu.be/ZqMxNiKQLHc?t=224
2 Though you will read “God’s wrath” or “the wrath of God” in English translations. Paul always just says “wrath” in Romans, excepting Romans 1:18, where NT scholar Douglas Campbell argues that Paul is using speech-in-character. This is a rhetorical technique like satire, and Paul goes on to refute the claims made in that section. I tend to think Paul does not explicitly attribute wrath to God in latter sections because he is criticizing the use of “wrath” as a response to sin.
Sarah Lynne Gershon (she/her) is an MDiv/MTS student, DOC pastor, and lives at the Bloomington Catholic Worker.