Transformation

God’s grace is displayed in the midst of human unrighteousness, not because God is morally indifferent (that would undermine his capacity to judge the world, [Rom] 3:6), but because he intends to transform the human condition. As apostle to the Gentiles, Paul is perpetually conscious of the incongruity of grace as gift to the ungodly and disobedient; but his goal is not their continuing disobedience, but “the obedience of faith” (1:5). Deriving from faith, this obedience is the product of a life created through God’s incongruous gift; as obedience, it is committed to patterns of behavior that befit its new allegiance. That the life of a believer thus remains an incongruous gift at the same time as it conforms to the holiness of God is a paradox we shall carry into the study of Romans 5-8.—J. M. G. Barclay, Paul and the Gift, 492