Passage

Romans 9

• Glossary Term

  Abba

  Aramaic term of intimacy preserved in Romans 8:15 (アバ、父よ).

  ROM.9.4

• Glossary Term

  Adoption

  Unlike some contexts where adoption customs carry a reduced-status risk, Japan's well-established practice of adult heir adoption (養子縁組, yōshi engumi — commonly adopting a son-in-law or capable outsider as full heir to continue a family name or business when no biological heir exists, still common in Japanese corporate succession today) is actually a helpful cultural bridge: it already carries full inheritance and family-name status, which maps well onto Romans 8's picture of adoption bringing complete inheritance rights.

  ROM.9.4

• Doctrine

  Adoption into God's Family

  Japan's established adult-heir adoption practice (養子縁組), still common for business succession, is a helpful cultural bridge for full inheritance rights rather than a liability, unlike in some other cultural contexts.

  ROM.9.4

• Glossary Term

  Called

  Avoid 運命づけられた (destined by impersonal fate) and use 天職 (tenshoku, 'heaven-appointed vocation,' a common secular Japanese phrase for one's calling/career passion) only with caution — it risks reducing God's specific relational summons to a generic sense of career fulfillment.

  ROM.9.11-12

• Glossary Term

  Calling

  NEVER use 運命 (unmei, impersonal fate/destiny) alone.

  ROM.9.11-12

• Glossary Term

  Covenant

  契約 is the only common Japanese word for both 'covenant' and an ordinary secular contract (employment, rental, insurance) — a fully secularized commercial term in everyday use.

  ROM.9.5

• Glossary Term

  David

  Standard Shinkaiyaku proper name form.

  ROM.9.5

• Doctrine

  Davidic Covenant

  Requires OT background explanation; 契約 (covenant) defaults to the everyday commercial-contract sense in modern Japanese, so the relational, unconditional nature of God's promise to David needs active restoration in teaching.

  ROM.9.5

• Doctrine

  Deity of Christ

  CRITICAL: co-equal, eternal divine nature — not a deified human ruler, as in the pre-1946 State Shinto arahitogami ('living god') doctrine of imperial divinity.

  ROM.9.5

• Doctrine

  Divine Calling

  Must be distinguished from impersonal fate (運命) and from the secular sense of 天職 (a fulfilling vocation/career passion).

  ROM.9.11-12

• Doctrine

  Effectual Calling

  God's sovereign call that secures the salvation of the called; not impersonal fate (運命) or a competitive-selection outcome (選抜).

  ROM.9.11-12

• Glossary Term

  Election

  Avoid framing through Japan's intensely competitive, merit-based exam and hiring 'selection' culture (受験, 選抜) — being 'selected' colloquially implies passing a competitive process through effort and ability, whereas God's election is a sovereign, gracious, unmerited choice.

  ROM.9.11-12

• Glossary Term

  Father

  God as personal, caring Father.

  ROM.9.4

• Glossary Term

  Glory

  Avoid collapsing into 名誉 (meiyo, secular honor/reputation), which reduces God's radiant divine glory to human social prestige.

  ROM.9.5

• Glossary Term

  God

  CRITICAL: this is the single highest-risk term in the Japanese package.

  ROM.9.5

• Glossary Term

  Messiah

  キリスト (transliteration of 'Christos') is the standard term — so standard that 'Christianity' itself is キリスト教.

  ROM.9.5

• Doctrine

  Messianic Promise

  CRITICAL: most secular Japanese readers know 'Kirisuto' only as a foreign cultural brand (commercialized Christmas, wedding-chapel aesthetics) with no connection to Jewish messianic-fulfillment content.

  ROM.9.5

• Glossary Term

  Seed Of David

  Romans 1:3; conveys physical lineage and OT covenant fulfillment.

  ROM.9.5