10.12.19

THE BOOK OF ROMANS 1. “Greetings, Grace and Gentiles”


The Book of Acts tells us of the journeys of Paul. We are told that whilst in Corinth Paul made plans to voyage to Jerusalem, then onto Rome and eventually reach Spain. It is thought that whilst in Corinth he also wrote to the Roman Church. This enables us to date the letter with some precision. Tom Wright in the ‘New Interpreters Bible’ writes “Nobody doubts Paul wrote it in the middle to late 50s of the first century”.

Romans’ is Paul’s magnificent opus on salvation. It has been one of the most influential books ever written, particularly for those of the Protestant Christian tradition. A central theme of the letter is that whether one is a Jew or a Gentile the way to God is through justification by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.

Before considering the first chapter take a look at this brief outline of the letter.
 


Chapter One: GREETINGS!

1:1 Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, 2 which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy Scriptures, 3 concerning His Son, who was born aof a descendant of David according to the flesh, 4 who was declared he Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord, 5 through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles, for His name's sake,  among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ; 7 to all who are  beloved of God in Rome, called as saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

If anyone of us gets a letter from some body we don’t know that well we are anxious to check them out and are concerned about what they want from us. At the very start of his letter Paul tries to make it quite clear that he was writing to them as a servant of God with a desire to be of service to them.

His particular area of service is that of being an apostle, a person called and equipped by God to bring the Good News of Jesus Christ to others. He outlines what he understands the gospel to be about. That Jesus was the Son of God, promised by the prophets of old. In human terms He was of the royal line of Israel’s King David, in spiritual terms He had been powerfully revealed as God’s chosen one through His resurrection from the dead.

It was through the grace of Jesus that Paul had received his calling and it was through the grace of Jesus that the people of the church in Rome had also been called. Paul describes them as ‘saints’, not using that term in the way we might do today, but meaning that they were people who were having their lives transformed by the action of Jesus at work in them.  As such he offers a salutation with the words “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” He continues;

8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, because your faith is being proclaimed throughout the whole world. 9 For God, whom I  serve in my spirit in the preaching of the gospel of His Son, is my witness as to how unceasingly  I make mention of you, 10 always in my prayers making request, if perhaps now at last by  the will of God I may succeed in coming to you. 11 For I long to see you in order that I may impart some spiritual gift to you, that you may be established; 12 that is, that I may be encouraged together with you while among you, each of us by the other's faith, both yours and mine. 13 And I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that often I have planned to come to you (and have been prevented thus far) in order that I might obtain some fruit among you also, even as among the rest of the Gentiles. 14 I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. 15 Thus, for my part, I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.

He shares with them how he heard about the growth of their church and how the exciting news had encouraged him to pray for them and increased his desire to be with them; something that he had not yet been able to do. He wants to be with them so as he can share with them and receive from them… that they may build each other up in their faith.

In the first section Paul reveals he has a pastor’s heart. He is sure in his calling. He desires to serve. And he is willing to learn. What is true about pastors also applies to all church members… all ‘saints’. Part of belonging to any church community is having the sense that ‘this is the place God wants me to be’. There are members in our own congregation who describe their relationship with the church that way.

Somebody has said that the church is the only organization that exists mostly for the benefit for those who aren’t its members. At the core of our belief is that we are all called to be servants, both of each other and the communities to which we minister. And a vital part of being a disciple is having a teachable heart. We can only lead others to Christ to the extent that we ourselves are prepared to be led by Him!

Before focusing on specific things, Paul gives us a brief paragraph that reflects on what turn out to be some major themes in the letter.

16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, "But the righteous man shall live by faith."

1)    Paul is not ashamed… he’s proud to make a stand for what he believes! A constant theme in Romans is that our profession of faith should be one that is clear and bold.
2)    Why is he proud? Because this gospel, this awesome message that has taken his heart has the power to change people’s lives for the better, to take what is all but ruined and create something beautiful out of it.
3)    He also wants to point out how the religion of the Jews relates to the religion of Jesus Christ. There were real tensions between Christians from a Jewish background and those from amongst the Gentiles. He is anxious to clear away any misunderstandings by affirming that who ever lives in a right relationship with God has discovered how to really live. And all it takes is faith!

Having given his introductions and hinted at some of the themes to come we move into our first main block of teaching: WHO NEEDS THE GOSPEL? . In this first chapter, Paul tells us that the Gentiles do.

NAS Romans 1:18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth n unrighteousness, 19 because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. 20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. 21 For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God, or give thanks; but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 22Professing to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.

In addressing the Gentile world Paul begins by speaking of the wrath of God. Wrath is an interesting concept. It is associated with anger, but not in the sense that we may get angry with one another when we are hurt or offended. It’s not an outburst of rage or a sudden uncontrolled reaction. It is more like a grinding, ongoing disconnectedness that creates in those subject to it a feeling of desperation and a blindness to the truth.

I don’t know if any of you are familiar with a children’s fantasy movie called “The Never Ending Story”.  Without going into detail the plot of the movie is that the hero, a little boy called Bastian, has to save the world by reaching the Empress. The baddy in the story though isn’t a particular person, but a dark force called ‘The Nothing’.

‘The Nothing’ is a relentless pursuing destroying darkness that drives Bastian near the beginning of the tale into a ‘swamp of sadness’. This swamp has the effect of inflicting upon all who travel through it intense feelings of hopelessness and despair that pull both Bastian and those traveling with him further and further down into it’s depressing depths.

In the New Testament Paul speaks of “The Wrath” in a similar way to “The Nothing” and of its effect being like that of a swamp of sadness. The picture that is given is not of God sitting in heaven getting angry at every little sin that people fall into, but rather of humanity, by persisting in ungodliness and unrighteousness placing themselves under the force of this ‘nothingness’… ‘ the wrath’ and every step of the way becoming deeper and deeper entwined in darkness and disbelief and distanced from God’s purposes… deeper and deeper descending into a swamp of despair.

I’m sure you have at some time rolled a snowball down a hill and watched how it gathers snow around itself and grows larger with every turn. So humankind, under ‘the wrath’ becomes like some dark, evil, snowball whom with every roll away from God finds them self further and further away from discovering the ‘Way, Truth and Life’ that God offers.

Paul uses the word ‘wrath’ in a similar way to the Psalmist, who when aware of the way that living out of God’s will has impacted their lives use expressions such as those in Psalm 88:7: “Thy wrath lies heavy upon me, and thou dost overwhelm me with all thy waves.” and verse 16 “Thy wrath has swept over me; thy dread assaults destroy me” or Psalm 90:9 “For all our days pass away under thy wrath, our years come to an end like a sigh.

Wrath is what happens to people who act against God’s will just as getting burnt is the result of putting a hand into the fire. It’s not that the fire burns because the fire has some kind of grudge against having hands put into it, rather that burning is what placing hands into flames creates. Eugene Petersen’s “The Message” captures the force of this verse well as he transliterates it; “God's angry displeasure erupts as acts of human mistrust and wrongdoing and lying accumulate, as people try to put a shroud over truth.

The sad thing is, Paul explains, is that there’s no need to be under God’s wrath, because God has given to all people revelations of God’s presence and God’s concern. “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen”. Paul insists that even amongst the cultures of the Gentiles there was enough in the creation around them to prevent them saying, “Well we never thought there might be a God”.

He suggests that in all that God has created, including humanity itself, some hint of divine origin is retained. That the existence of conscience, that sense of right and wrong, those moments when people look out a sunset and say “Wow”, the smell of a flower or a gaze between two lovers, should be enough to let people know that there was more to this earth and this life than just an accident. That behind it all lay God’s wonderful creative work.

But the heart of humankind is dark and proud. Rather than seek to give God honor and praise something in us seeks a way around God’s requirements. We would rather come up with our own game plan than live by God’s playbook.  

Again “The Message” captures this so well. “People knew God perfectly well, but when they didn't treat him like God, refusing to worship him, they trivialized themselves into stupidity and confusion so that there was neither sense nor direction left in their lives.”

This idiotic way of looking at life ultimately led people to worship what they had created, rather than the Creator, leading to the creation of idols and stories that people venerated as being the real truth or representing the gods that ruled their lives. I wonder if Paul here had in mind the history of his own people - the Jews. My mind goes to that whole story of Moses receiving the commandments of God and coming down the mountain only to discover that in his absence the people have made a golden calf to worship. Or maybe it was the many myths and legends of the Greeks and Romans that he was thinking of!

What was the result of this idolatry? It led to immorality.

24 Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, that their bodies might be dishonored among them. 25 For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. 26 For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, 27 and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error.

One way that Paul suggests that the willful ignorance of God that led to idolatry expressed itself was through sexual promiscuity. Paul suggests that sexual dysfunctions are a result of being out of touch with the Creator. Staying with that picture of “The Wrath” of God, people involving themselves in such acts led themselves not towards freedom but deeper and deeper into despair and disconnectedness. Such is the sense of the last part of verse 27 “receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error.”

The thrust of these verses is that Paul suggests that the sexual confusion he saw around him in Roman society was related to their lack of knowledge of God’s will and God’s ways. Nothing less and nothing more than that. I’m sure he would say a similar thing about today’s society. But he was not writing a text book on Christian ethics. We do well to remember that. Neither was he singling out sexual sins as being particularly those that led people to experience the wrath of God. For he continues…

28 And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, 29 being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; 32 and, although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.

Sinful actions have their root in sin filled thoughts. Because people thought they could live without God, it led to them thinking they could live however they liked. And what the sinful mind thinks is best is doing whatever takes its fancy.

G. K. Chesterton once said that when a person stopped believing in God they didn’t believe in nothing, they believed in anything . You remember the song? “Anything goes.” You’ve seen the ads. “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas”. Attractive thought. Do what you like. With who you like. When you like. And nobody will ever know.

The truth is that history is strewn with the wreckage of those who have swallowed such a lie. It is interesting to read through that catalog of sins. Gossip is seen as being just as bad as sexual perversion. Hating God equated with murder.  Greed along with untrustworthiness. And Paul does not mince his words. Verse 32 “Those who practice such things are worthy of death”

Bear in mind that ‘death’ for Paul was a little like ‘wrath’. It was a condition that you lived with in the present. We are either passing through life ‘dead in our sins’ or ‘Alive in Christ’.

In this first chapter Paul has been addressing the Gentiles. He suggests that ‘pleading ignorance of God’s ways’ was a futile argument. That deep within themselves they knew the difference between right and wrong. That they had the God given capacity to give thanks and live in a way that was respectful of their Creator.

But they had fallen short. They had gone their own way and the society that surrounded them, with all it’s excesses in religion, in morality, and in hurtful attitudes, plainly revealed that they fell well short of living in a way that God required. In fact they felt the wrath of God in their being. The unfulfilled lives. The confusion. The desire that nothing could quench.

He needn’t have been writing to Rome. Surely he could be addressing our contemporary world. People still seek for any solution other than God. They still worship the creation whilst neglecting the Creator. They still create all sorts of stories to believe and idols to worship.

It is our task as those Paul calls ‘saints’ to engage our world with the message that we still desperately need the Savior we proclaim as, King of Kings, Redeemer and Healer, Our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for our sins and was raised to give power to live.

Having spoken mostly about Gentiles, in our next chapter Paul moves on to consider those of his own nation, the 'chosen people', and reflects on the obligations laid upon the Jews of his day. This will lead him into asking the question, “What is true religion?”

9.12.19

THE BOOK OF ROMANS 2. “Judgment, Jews and True Religion”


In our first chapter, following brief introductions Paul writes about the Gentiles, how God had not left Himself without a witness amongst them, how people made in God’s image could be open to God… yet people preferred to go on their own way which led them down a slippery slope towards idolatry and immorality. As they slid away from God, increasingly they placed themselves under ‘the Wrath’… the experience of being under God’s judgment rather than enjoying God’s favor.

The earliest church struggled with tensions between those who were of a Jewish background and those who had come to the faith as Gentiles. The Jews were God’s chosen people. Didn’t they therefore have a head start on the Gentiles? Shouldn’t they expect to enjoy a more favorable place in God’s plans than the Gentiles?

In Chapter 2 Paul reminds those who may be thinking along those lines that all peoples hope of salvation lay in God’s grace, not their background. He saw how there were those amongst the chosen who had judgmental attitudes towards those outside of their circle and begins by challenging them.

Romans 2:1 Therefore you are without excuse, every man of you who passes judgment, for in that cyou judge another, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things. 2 And we know that the judgment of God 1rightly falls upon those who practice such things. 3 And do you suppose this, O man, when you pass judgment upon those who practice such things and do the same yourself, that you will escape the judgment of God? 4 Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?

One of the complaints of Jesus against the Pharisees (and their like) was that they kept making laws that they couldn’t even keep to themselves! He taught that before we try and take the speck of dust out of another person's eye we should remove the plank that is in our own.  That we should not judge others lest we find ourselves judged.

‘Don’t think’, Paul is telling them, ‘That by pointing the finger at another person's sins that it gets you off the hook in the matter of your own shortcomings’. He invites them to think it through one more time, from the beginning. They, as God’s chosen, had known how rich the kindness and patience of God had been with them. That patience, that kindness, was not given so that they could lord it over others, but that they may have time to turn from the error of their ways, to repent and change their way of thinking.

Have you ever come across people with a really critical spirit? People who no matter what or who it is always find fault? Do you know where that critical spirit comes from?  A sense of insecurity and unworthiness in themselves. The only way they think they can make them selves look better is by pointing out what’s wrong with somebody else. The only security they know is of saying, “Hey, I may be bad, but look at them before you ask me to change my behavior. If anybody needs to repent, it’s them, not me!”

Critical people are often those who have not allowed themselves to be fully embraced by the grace of God, who are still clinging to the idea that somehow, because they can point out the faults in others, that makes them one step further up the ladder to heaven, and God is sure to smile on them rather than the other person.

Last time we were speaking of “The Wrath” of God. How as we flee from God’s love so we delve deeper and deeper into entanglement with sin and so place ourselves in a position where we are not experiencing God’s blessing, but experiencing 'The wrath’. Once a person develops a critical spirit it just keeps growing. They can’t stop themselves. Often they are so hardened to it they don’t even know they are doing it!

That’s what had happened with some of those Jewish believers. They had become so accommodating to the thought that Gentiles were second class citizens, whom they had a God-given right to look down there noses at… so much so that even when those Gentiles had become their brothers and sisters in Christ, they didn’t even consider they needed to change their attitude.

Let’s continue as Paul tries to pull them out of themselves.

5 But 1because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, 6 who will render to every man according to his deeds: 7 to those who by perseverance in doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life; 8 but to those who areselfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, wrath and indignation. 9 There will be tribulation and distress for every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek, 10 but glory and honor and peace to every man who does good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 11 For there is no partiality with God.

Paul offers here a picture about final judgment. He writes of those who are ‘storing up wrath’ for themselves. The word used for ‘storing’ is the Greek word ‘thesaurizo’ translated in some versions as ‘treasuring’.

Jesus spoke about how where our treasure is our heart will also be. He encouraged us to lay up treasures for ourselves in heaven. Paul is saying, “Every thing that day by day you are building your life out of is an investment. Every investment you make produces a corresponding reward. If day by day you are welcoming things that pull you away from God, that place you under ‘the wrath’, then think about where that leads to. There is going to be a pay off.'

And that pay off is something they need to be concerned about. Because on that day everything is going to be revealed. All our motives, all our short cuts, all our game playing and finger pointing won’t help us one bit. It will be our lives being evaluated in the light of what we have filled them with, by what we have treasured and welcomed.

This kind of judgment completely levels the field. Those who insist on getting their own way and taking the path of least resistance will be judged, not by the standards of others, not by how well they fared in comparison to others, but on their personal worth.

I know some people struggle trying to balance the idea of a God of love and forgiveness, with that of a God of judgment. Personally the tension doesn’t trouble me as much as it assures me. For when I read or hear of the terrible things some people do and how sometimes they seem to get away with it, either because of their social standings or their connections or whatever it may be, it puts a smile on my face to know that in the kingdom of God, it isn’t like that. That there will be a pay off for all the things we have invested our lives with.

The Message Bible transliterates the next two verses, 9 and 10 like this “If you go against the grain, you get splinters, regardless of which neighborhood you're from, what your parents taught you, what schools you attended. But if you embrace the way God does things, there are wonderful payoffs, again without regard to where you are from or how you were brought up.

As we heard in verse 11; “For there is no partiality with God”. God doesn’t play favorites. God won’t be swayed by what we or others may think. The only judgment that ultimately counts for anything is the one that God makes upon our lives. Some people go through their whole lives worrying about what other people think of them and never consider how their lives may seem in God’s eyes.

They worry about what their families think, what their friends think, what their boss thinks, what their colleagues think, what the neighbors think, what a person they’ve never seen before nor may never see again whom they meet briefly while shopping thinks… but they never sit down and soberly consider “I wonder how my life looks in God’s eyes? I wonder how.. .in the light of the things that God’s Word says are important... I wonder how I shape up?” Yet the only judgment that ultimately counts for anything is the one that God makes upon our lives.

And the way God judges us will not be in the way we judge each other. Only God knows what is truly in our hearts and what we have in reality built our lives out of… what treasures we have stored up.

In the next section Paul makes a contrast between ‘those without the law’ and ‘those with the law’. When he uses those terms he is meaning two specific groups of people. By 'Those without the law' he means Gentiles (for it was not to the Gentiles that Moses bought the 10 commandments). By those ‘under the law’ he is referring to his fellow Jewish believers. He speaks first of the Gentiles.

12 For all who have sinned 1awithout the Law will also perish without the Law; and all who have sinned under the Law will be judged by the Law; 13 for not the hearers of the Law are just before God, but the doers of the Law will be justified. 14 For when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves, 15 in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness, and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them, 16 on the day when, according to my gospel, God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus.

Here Paul is returning to his argument in chapter One. That although the Gentiles had never been given the law in the way that the Jews had, by virtue of the fact that every one on the planet has been made in the image of God, all people had been born with a capacity for reasoning and some ability to know the difference between good and bad, right and wrong.

The first human beings in the bible, Adam and Eve, were not Christians, nor where they Jews nor were they Gentiles. They were simply humans. And as humans in the image of God they struggled with making choices and knew the difference between right and wrong, knew shame when found guilty and blessing when God covenanted with them to begin a new life outside of Eden.

Noah and his family were not Christians, nor were they Jews nor were they Gentiles. They were simply humans. But in the midst of an idolatrous and disbelieving culture Noah was able to discern the guidance of the One true God for he was a person of faith who sought to live a decent life and through doing so was saved by God from the flood of judgment.

So Paul tells us of ‘humans’ verse 15 “they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness, and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them”… or to put it another way… ‘they show that God’s law is not something alien… but woven into the very fabric of creation.’ (The Message)

I was following a discussion thread the other day on a web site that featured debates between atheists and those of faith. One person arguing for the existence of God, speaking of intelligent design, used as the basis for his argument the genetic coding that exists within D.N.A… the basic building block of all life on the planet.

‘Coding’ he maintained is not something that in the realm of mathematical possibility can just happen. It’s not a snow flake, which though can be infinite in variety of form, always makes a similar pattern, coding always produces a particular intended result. Coding is something that is written in. It’s not like putting monkeys around typewriters and expecting that sometime over a span of millions of years one of them will accidentally produce a work of Shakespeare, coding shows evidence of a design outside of its self.

‘Woven into the fabric of creation’ are things whose best explanation is that they are produced by something other than blind chance or accident. Now, to an atheist, such will never prove the existence of God, but it sure makes for some interesting conversation. Is morality just a self-protection mechanism that has evolved or is there built into human life discernment of good and bad? Is ‘the conscious mind’… this sense that we are here for some reason or purpose beyond ourselves something that logically serves for the protection of the species? And why is it humans are the only creatures who ask ‘Why?”

Paul maintains that all humanity bears God’s creative mark and therefore has the capacity to make right choices and relate to God. He argues therefore that judgment, for the Gentile, will be on that basis. That’s it’s what people do with what they know that counts. That doing not hearing is what makes the difference. So much for the Gentiles. What of his own people - the Jews.

17 But if you bear the name "Jew," and rely 1upon the Law, and boast in God, 18 and know His will, and approve the things that are essential, being instructed out of the Law, 19 and are confident that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, 20 a 1corrector of the foolish, a teacher of 2the immature, having in the Law the embodiment of knowledge and of the truth, 21 you, therefore, who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that one should not steal, do you steal? 22 You who say that one should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? 23 You who boast in the Law, through your breaking the Law, do you dishonor God? 24 For "the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you," just as it is written.

Again Paul is insisting that as it was for the Gentiles so it was for the Jew. That doing not hearing is what made the difference. Okay, they had been given the law and a greater revelation of God’s will, but what had they done with it? Again… as I will continue to do… I’m enlisting 'The Message'. (21-24)

“While you are guiding others, who is going to guide you? I'm quite serious. While preaching "Don't steal!" are you going to rob people blind? Who would suspect you? The same with adultery. The same with idolatry. You can get by with almost anything if you front it with eloquent talk about God and his law.”

You see what he’s getting at? He’s saying that just because somebody claims to be the religious sort, (and he could be just as well writing to a Presbyterian as a Jew) that doesn’t mean you can get away with sins that you wouldn’t tolerate in other people.  It doesn’t give you any kind of moral superiority.

Then the sting in the tail comes. He tells them that it’s because of their holier than thou  attitude and hypocrisy, that other people wanted nothing to do with God.  How many times have you and I heard that? 'I would go to church but I’ve tangled with those people and what they say and what they do are two different things.'

He quotes a scripture based on Ezekiel 36:22 "Therefore, say to the house of Israel, 'Thus says the Lord God, "It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for My holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you went.” This he paraphrases as “the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you”.

And as if all this wasn’t enough to set their heckles rising he finishes the chapter hitting out at one of their most sacred institutions; circumcision. We know from the Book of Acts that arguments as to whether new converts should or should not be circumcised threatened to rip the early church apart.

25 For indeed circumcision is of value, if you practice 1the Law; but if you are a transgressor of the Law, by our circumcision has become uncircumcision. 26 If therefore the uncircumcised man keeps the requirements of the Law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? 27 And will nothe who is physically uncircumcised, if he keeps the Law, will he not judge you who though having the letter of the Law and circumcision are a transgressor of the Law? 28 For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly; neither is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. 29 But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter;and his praise is not from men, but from God.

For Paul true religion is not just about what we do, but why we do what we do. ‘Circumcision’ says Paul 'Great thing. Marks you out as the people of God. But what’s the point if you then don’t live like people of God. Uncircumcised Gentiles who do what God wants are more use than those who are circumcised and ignore everything God says!'

It seems to be all about where our hearts are. If our hearts are in touch with God and being molded by the work of God’s Spirit, if we are more concerned about our relationship with God than we are about how we seem to each other, if we are students of God’s Word in order that we can be doers of God’s Word… then we are doing something right!

However if our religion is just an act… a feeble attempt to try and impress God or others by paying lip service to God’s requirements… if we are constantly asking how much we can get away with or seeing how little we have to give to impress people… then we may fool others, may even fool ourselves, but God sees right through us.

Where’s Paul going with all of this? I suspect in coming weeks we’ll see that it’s not about being Jews or being Gentiles, it’s about all of us falling short of being the people God wants us to be and all of us needing to be put right with God through our faith… faith not in what we can do… but in what God can do in Jesus Christ and through the working of His Holy Spirit.

But for more of that we’ll have to wait till next time!

8.12.19

THE BOOK OF ROMANS 3. “How do people get the Gospel?”

In Chapter One, after introducing himself Paul speaks about the need for Gentiles to know the Gospel. In chapter two he speaks about the Jews needing the gospel. So was there a difference between the Jews and Gentiles? He begins chapter 3 by thinking about at least one difference.

Romans 3:1 Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision? 2 Much, in every way. For in the first place the Jews1 were entrusted with the oracles of God. 3 What if some were unfaithful? Will their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? 4 By no means! Although everyone is a liar, let God be proved true, as it is written, "So that you may be justified in your words, and prevail in your judging."


Paul begins chapter three pointing out one significant advantage that the Jew had in their past over the Gentile; ‘they were entrusted with the oracles of God’. It was to those God had chosen that God revealed His Word; the Word that foretold the coming of Jesus, ‘THE WORD’ into the world. It was they who had over the centuries carefully preserved it and passed that message from generation to generation as a sacred trust.

I think we forget sometimes what a treasure our Bibles are. For most of Christian history the majority of people have not had access to God’s Word. Bibles used to be kept chained to the reading desks in churches. When efforts were first made to translate the scriptures people lost their lives. I was privileged one time to visit Trinity College in Dublin and see some of the manuscripts of the Book of Kells. The painstaking attention to detail and desire to glorify God that seems to shine from such works takes your breath away. To be ‘entrusted with the oracles of God’ is no small thing.

Yet there were many occasions in Jewish history when they neglected God’s Word. It’s no different today. It is ironic that at a time when for us bibles are so readily available that so few pay attention to what is in them.

Does the fact of lack of attention and unbelief make God’s Word any less valid? ‘No way’ says Paul, “faithlessness will not nullify the faithfulness of God”. The fact that people behaved unfaithfully didn’t make God unfaithful. His Word stands the test of time. It is still the Word that we need to take notice of.

Of course the human mind can twist anything. There were those who figured that, “Well, if God’s Word is so great and it remains great even when people don’t obey it, why don’t we just go ahead and live how we like because it doesn’t make any difference. In fact the worse we behave the more opportunities we make for God to show just how forgiving and graceful God can be! This is how Paul puts it:

 5 But if our injustice serves to confirm the justice of God, what should we say? That God is unjust to inflict wrath on us? (I speak in a human way.) 6 By no means! For then how could God judge the world? 7 But if through my falsehood God's truthfulness abounds to his glory, why am I still being condemned as a sinner? 8 And why not say (as some people slander us by saying that we say), "Let us do evil so that good may come"? Their condemnation is deserved!

‘The Message’ transliteration puts this paragraph in a far more understandable fashion.

    “But if our wrongdoing only underlines and confirms God's right-doing, shouldn't we be commended for helping out? Since our bad words don't even make a dent in His good words, isn't it wrong of God to back us to the wall and hold us to our word? These questions come up. The answer to such questions is no, a most emphatic No! How else would things ever get straightened out if God didn't do the straightening?  It's simply perverse to say, "If my lies serve to show off God's truth all the more gloriously, why blame me? I'm doing God a favor." Some people are actually trying to put such words in our mouths, claiming that we go around saying, "The more evil we do, the more good God does, so let's just do it!" That's pure slander, as I'm sure you'll agree.”

Again Paul is pointing out the warp of human nature… if there is any way to twist things, to take something clear and make it muddy, to find something positive and make a negative out of it… then somebody will find a way. That kind of attitude infected not only Jews, but also Gentiles. So the Jewish believer had no grounds for claiming any kind of superiority because of their background. Neither had anybody else.

Paul  plainly paints us all with the same sin tarnished brush, as he now strings together a series of Old Testament verses that emphasize how deeply fallen both Jews and Gentiles are.
 
9 What then? Are we any better off?1 No, not at all; for we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under the power of sin, 10 as it is written: "There is no one who is righteous, not even one; 11 there is no one who has understanding, there is no one who seeks God. 12 All have turned aside, together they have become worthless; there is no one who shows kindness, there is not even one." 13 "Their throats are opened graves; they use their tongues to deceive." "The venom of vipers is under their lips." 14 "Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness." 15 "Their feet are swift to shed blood; 16 ruin and misery are in their paths, 17 and the way of peace they have not known." 18 "There is no fear of God before their eyes."

Who needs the Gospel? We all do. We are all messed up. Whilst each of us is made in the image of God in each of us that image has become distorted and defaced. Only One ever came into the world who didn’t allow the deceptive ways of the world to deface Him and that was Jesus Christ. Everybody else, without exception, has lost their innocence, fallen far from paradise and wanders through life wallowing around in the wrath of God.

This is not a message that resonates strongly in today’s world, in which often we perceive that people are generally good and kind and most folk just want to live a quiet life and live as hassle free as possible. It goes against the grain for us to consider the average person in the street as ‘having the venom of vipers under their lips’ and bringing ‘ruin and misery’ wherever they go.

We may be prepared to admit that even the best of us have faults, but what Paul is trying to do is take us a step further. He is suggesting that there is a ‘fault-line’ that runs through all humanity.  He is not suggesting that all sins are manifested in all people, but that even in those we think of the most highly there is that which is out of shape with God’s requirements. And he has a special word to say to the religious folk, his own people the Jews.

19 Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. 20 For "no human being will be justified in his sight" by deeds prescribed by the law, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin.

You may recall that when Paul uses the phrase ‘those who are under the law’ it means he is speaking about the Jewish believers. Backing up to the start of the chapter he has been talking about them in a positive way as those ‘entrusted with the oracles of God.’

But that position of privilege bought with it a condition of responsibility. A responsibility to live in a way that was shaped by the laws of God in such a way as others could get a picture of what being a person of God was all about. Simply having the law wasn’t enough if they didn’t live by it!

It’s kind of like a person today may say, “I go to church. I’m a good person. I try and live a decent life. Isn’t that enough?” Claiming to be religious isn’t going to help us unless we live out every demand of our religious calling perfectly and totally. Claiming to be good is no help because we fool nobody but our self if we think we are ‘good enough’.

 In Matthew 19:17 Jesus challenged a man who was trying to use the ‘good enough’ argument for their justification: "Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments." He then tells him to sell all he has and give it to the poor. At that point the man’s notion of ‘good’ is severely challenged! And trying without succeeding is usually described as failing. If you take your driving test, receive a really low mark and then complain to the examiner, “But I tried real hard!” it is not going to get you your license!

So who is the gospel for? For every one who realizes that they are lost without God’s help, everyone who is ready to stop justifying themselves, everyone who is ready to see that their sins put them in just as much need of God’s forgiveness as the next person.

But now to the important bit; How do people get the gospel?

(A theologically correct answer might be to say ‘Through the Righteousness of God, In Christ’ but let us unpack that!)

The gospel comes through Faith

21 But now, apart from law, the righteousness of God has been disclosed, and is attested by the law and the prophets, 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ1 for all who believe. 23 since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God;

Let’s work our way backwards through this verse! Verse 23 reminds us of what the previous passage has been telling us, “that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God”. In that sense we are all in the same boat. We’ve all messed up. We all need help!

Now jump up to verse 21. “But now, apart from law, the righteousness of God has been disclosed, and is attested by the law and the prophets.”  ‘Apart from law’ means that God has revealed a new way of doing things that is different to the way of the Old Testament. The old way was “Do this, get blessed; don’t do it… you’re in a mess”

This new way is ‘attested by the law and the prophets’, meaning that, whilst different to the way of the Old Testament, it is still very much the way that Moses and all the prophets following him had said would eventually come around

What is that way? Verse 22 tells us. It is the way of the “the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ1 for all who believe”.

You may recall from our first chapter that we spoke about ‘the wrath’ of God, how our lives are all alike impacted by the fact that living in a way that isn’t right with God’s design drags us down and makes life a wearisome experience. The technical term for not living right is “un-right” or rather ‘unrighteousness’.

Rather like an inoculation, the only solution for ‘unrighteousness’ is an injection of ‘righteousness’. The only solution for the ‘unrighteousness’ of our lives is that they become infused with the ‘righteousness’ of God. But how can that happen? In the Old Testament it came about through going along to the temple, making the necessary sacrifices for sins, and pledging once more to try and live by the laws God had made.

But the New Testament way in verse 22 is that it happens “through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe”

“FAITH” in Paul’s writing in Romans is a BIG word. We will be returning to it again and again. At this stage in the argument, faith means believing that in the person of Jesus Christ… through what He did as He walked amongst people, through what happened when He was crucified and was raised from death… believing that God was at work to bring people back into the sort of relationship with God that God had always intended.

Romans 3:21-22 in ‘The Message’ transliteration puts it like this:
 “In our time something new has been added. What Moses and the prophets witnessed to all those years has happened. The God-setting-things-right that we read about has become Jesus-setting-things-right for us. And not only for us, but for everyone who believes in Him.

The Gospel comes to peoples lives through faith. Part of that faith is believing that when Jesus died, He was acting against human sin… in a similar way that the sacrificial animals of the Old Testament were an offering to ensure a persons forgiveness. Which brings us to a second thing.
    
The Gospel comes through the blood Jesus Christ shed on the Cross

24 they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement1 by his blood, effective through faith. He did this to show his righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over the sins previously committed;

Two significant words in this passage are ‘justification’ (in v24) and ‘atonement’ (in v25). We’ll look at each in turn.

a)    Justification. William Barclay comments “If an innocent man appears before a judge then to treat him as innocent is to aquit him. But the point about a man’s relationship to God is that he is utterly guilty, and yet God, in God’s amazing mercy, treats him, reckons him, accounts him as if he were innocent. That is what justification means.” (Barclay; Letter to the Romans. P57).
b)    Atonement. This word has to do with making a blood sacrifice. Different translations use the word ‘expiation’, ‘reconciliation’, sacrifice of atonement’'propitiation’ and ‘mercy seat’. The complication is that the Greek word can refer to both the place where a sacrifice is made and the sacrifice itself. Paul is telling us that Jesus is both. He is ‘the sacrifice’ and ‘the place where mercy is found’. The ‘Mercy Seat’ was the altar in the most holy place (the holy of holies) of the Temple. Paul is saying that God made Jesus the "mercy seat," the place where propitiation, atonement and reconciliation to God were accomplished through the shedding of blood.

Romans 3:25  “The Message”
    “God sacrificed Jesus on the altar of the world to clear that world of sin. Having faith in Him sets us in the clear. God decided on this course of action in full view of the public—to set the world in the clear with Himself through the sacrifice of Jesus, finally taking care of the sins He had so patiently endured.

And all of this is, as we are reminded in v24 “his grace as a gift,”. How do we experience that grace?

The Gospel comes through the Forgiveness of God

26 it was to prove at the present time that he himself is righteous and that he justifies the one who has faith in Jesus.1 27 Then what becomes of boasting? It is excluded. By what law? By that of works? No, but by the law of faith. 28 For we hold that a person is justified by faith apart from works prescribed by the law.

These few verses contrast the system of ‘law and works’ with that of ‘grace and faith’. It is God who sets things right and at the same time enables us to live in God’s righteousness. God does not respond to what we do… does not seek to punish us and condemn us… but calls us to make a response to what Christ has done. The Message transliterates verse 28 “We've finally figured it out. Our lives get in step with God and all others by letting God set the pace, not by proudly or anxiously trying to run the parade.

‘Letting God set the pace instead of trying to run the parade’ is a great way of saying that our lives need to be shaped not by trying to live up to God’s law, (a futile task because we never quite make the grade), but shaped by reaching out in faith to God to renew us forgive us, empower us and re-direct our lives.

We are saved by grace through faith, saved ‘through the Righteousness of God, In Christ’, righteousness revealed in the life of Jesus Christ who died upon the cross that we may be forgiven and was raised from death that we may live in the light of God’s love.

That’s a whole lot of theological language in there… and as I said at the start, this is not the easiest book of the New Testament. It’s deep, but by mining it’s depth we can discover great truths. Reminds me of the great theologian Karl Barth, a giant of a theologian who was asked to put in a few words the Christian message. His reply… and I think this reply lies behind this whole 3rd chapter, “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so!” But now back to Paul…

As the Jewish believers were hearing this Paul anticipates that some would be thinking, “So what’s the deal with the laws that God gave us?” Chapter 3 concludes with a reflection in that very question.   

29 Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, 30 since God is one; and he will justify the circumcised on the ground of faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith. 31 Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law.

By focusing on the message of grace… far from canceling out the need for the laws of God, it puts the laws in the right place. They were not designed to be a way of justifying our lives before God… only Jesus can do that… but meant as a source of guidance as to how we should live as children of God.

So we conclude Chapter 3! A difficult yet essential chapter for Christian faith that not only points out our need for salvation but also answers the question “How do we get the gospel?” and is ultimately the great news that we express every time we focus on the Apostles Creed and say “I believe in… the forgiveness of sins”.


7.12.19

THE BOOK OF ROMANS 4. “The Example of Abraham”

Paul continues to present his argument that the way to truly know the love of God is through faith in Jesus Christ. From chapter 1 through the first half of chapter 3 he paints a picture of all people, both Jew and Gentile as being under the wrath of God with no hope of getting out of that sticky, downward spiraling situation other than God’s intervention.

Then in the latter part of Chapter Three he has speaks of how though the righteousness of Jesus Christ, God has made a way to be restored to the relationship with God that God had always intended, and some translations use the word ‘atonement’… which if you break it down means our at-one-ment with God. How? Well through the gospel which Paul suggests comes to us through faith, faith that focuses upon Jesus Christ, and trusts in Him for forgiveness.
 
In Romans, Paul has all sorts of discussions going on at the same time. Like a good book or drama there are themes interwoven within themes. It may be helpful as we go through this chapter that we draw out those themes.

Firstly there is the discussion about how can we be right with God.  Is it based on what we can do or is it about what can God can do? (or to rephrase that… is it by our works that God accepts us… or are we accepted by God only through God’s Grace). So there is the works/grace argument.

Secondly there is a related discussion taking place about righteousness and unrighteousness. Paul is arguing that no matter how ‘right’ we try and make ourselves before God it is never ‘right’ enough. That the only was for us to be truly right with God is for God to make it right! And that says Paul, is exactly what God had done through Jesus Christ and in particular through two things; Jesus sacrificial offering of Himself for the sins of the world upon the Cross and His resurrection from the dead.

Thirdly an argument that’s rumbling along that is best described as ‘bragging rights’. There were those amongst the Jewish contingent who felt that being Jewish had to count for something significant. What was the point in God choosing people and giving them laws about sacrifice and circumcision, if at the end of the day all those laws counted for nothing?

Paul now launches into a discussion about Abraham in which these three themes are explored.

NRS Romans 4:1 What then are we to say was gained by Abraham, our ancestor according to the flesh? 2 For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. 3 For what does the scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness." 4 Now to one who works, wages are not reckoned as a gift but as something due. 5 But to one who without works trusts him who justifies the ungodly, such faith is reckoned as righteousness.

Paul begins chapter 4 by addressing the ‘bragging rights’ argument. The Jews were proud of their physical heritage. That’s why in the Old and the New Testament you have all those genealogies. It mattered who your family were! Matthew’s gospel, the one most directed towards a Jewish audience begins with what to the Jewish mind was so important… who were this guys descendants? The ancestor of every Jew, according to the flesh, (including of course Paul himself), was Abraham. Did that give him an advantage over the Gentile?

Now the next argument… the one about works and grace… is bought in.  What was it that marked Abraham as the one chosen by God to be their ancestor in the flesh? Was it the fact that Abraham lived a more moral, exemplary life than anybody else on the planet? Was it Abraham’s works that made God take notice of him and say, “Well let’s start a nation through that man?”

If that were the case then Abraham, and all those after him, would have something to brag about. But the story that we are given isn’t an Abraham story, it’s a God story. And to prove his point Paul quotes Genesis 15:6 "Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness." Grace, not works, was the basis of Abraham’s acceptance by God.

That scripture leads into the third argument; the one about righteousness and unrighteousness. If people could not ‘work’ their way righteous then how did people become righteous? Paul’s answer is ‘Through believing’.

William Barclay comments, “God had come to Abraham and bid him leave home and friends and family and kindred and livelihood, and had said, “If you make this great venture of faith, you will become the father of a great nation”. Thereupon Abraham had taken God at God’s word. He had not argued; he had not hesitated; he went out not knowing where he was to go. It was not the fact that Abraham had meticulously performed the demands of the law that put him into his special relationship with God; it was his complete trust in God and his complete willingness to abandon his life to God. That for Paul was faith, and it was Abraham’s faith which made God regard him as a good man” (Barclay; Letter to the Romans P63)

The righteousness of Abraham was a righteousness bestowed upon him by God as he acted upon his faith in God.  To underline how this notion was quite in line with Jewish teaching Paul goes on to share words from Israel’s greatest King, ‘King David’ in verses 6 and 7.

6 So also David speaks of the blessedness of those to whom God reckons righteousness apart from works: 7 "Blessed are those whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; 8 blessed is the one against whom the Lord will not reckon sin."

David, though a great King was also one in whom the fault line of sin ran deep. Last study we saw how Paul’s view of humanity was that even in the best of us the fault line of sin still ran through (just like geographic fault lines run through continents) and that sooner or later the cracks begin to appear. Nowhere did that show clearer than in David’s unlawful taking of Bathsheba for his wife and the arranged murder of her husband. It is in the context of David’s undeserved forgiveness that these words are from Psalm 32 are quoted “Blessed is the one against whom the Lord will not reckon sin."  

So far so good, but one of the thorniest issues between Jewish and Gentile Christians was that of circumcision. There were Jewish believers who felt that for Gentiles to be true Christians then they needed to be circumcised. Paul strongly opposes that viewpoint. Let’s read how he deals with it!

9 Is this blessedness, then, pronounced only on the circumcised, or also on the uncircumcised? We say, "Faith was reckoned to Abraham as righteousness." 10 How then was it reckoned to him? Was it before or after he had been circumcised? It was not after, but before he was circumcised. 11 He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. The purpose was to make him the ancestor of all who believe without being circumcised and who thus have righteousness reckoned to them, 12 and likewise the ancestor of the circumcised who are not only circumcised but who also follow the example of the faith that our ancestor Abraham had before he was circumcised.

Paul poses a question. At what point in Abraham’s experience did he receive acceptance by God, was it a) the moment he trusted in God or b) the moment he was circumcised? Obviously faith came first! Circumcision for Abraham was a sign that he had believed, (V11 a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised) not something that caused him to be a believer.

Because the faith came first Abraham is the Father of all who have the kind of faith that he had, be they circumcised or uncircumcised, Jew or Gentile.

13 For the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the law but through the righteousness of faith. 14 If it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. 15 For the law brings wrath; but where there is no law, neither is there violation. 16 For this reason it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his descendants, not only to the adherents of the law but also to those who share the faith of Abraham (for he is the father of all of us, 17 as it is written, "I have made you the father of many nations") -- in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.

Let me read for you that passage as it appears in the Message Bible:

Romans 4:13-17
    That famous promise God gave Abraham—that he and his children would possess the earth—was not given because of something Abraham did or would do. It was based on God's decision to put everything together for him, which Abraham then entered when he believed. If those who get what God gives them only get it by doing everything they are told to do and filling out all the right forms properly signed, that eliminates personal trust completely and turns the promise into an ironclad contract! That's not a holy promise; that's a business deal. A contract drawn up by a hard-nosed lawyer and with plenty of fine print only makes sure that you will never be able to collect. But if there is no contract in the first place, simply a promise—and God's promise at that—you can't break it. 

     This is why the fulfillment of God's promise depends entirely on trusting God and his way, and then simply embracing him and what he does. God's promise arrives as pure gift. That's the only way everyone can be sure to get in on it, those who keep the religious traditions and those who have never heard of them. For Abraham is father of us all. He is not our racial father—that's reading the story backwards. He is our faith father. 

    We call Abraham "father" not because he got God's attention by living like a saint, but because God made something out of Abraham when he was a nobody. Isn't that what we've always read in Scripture, God saying to Abraham, "I set you up as father of many peoples"? Abraham was first named "father" and then became a father because he dared to trust God to do what only God could do: raise the dead to life, with a word make something out of nothing.

 I really like the way verse 13 is phrased. “That famous promise God gave Abraham – was not given because of something Abraham did or would do. It was based upon God’s decision to put everything together for him… which Abraham then entered when he believed

Based on this verse, faith (…faith being one of Paul’s real important words and ideas…) is believing that God is ‘capable of putting everything together for us’.

In that sense we are not called to having a blind faith, a faith in something that we can’t define or explain, but a faith that rests upon trust that when we surrender our lives to the higher power of God something tangible will happen. Things will come together. Circumstances will work out. We will be assured that God truly is at work for good in and around those whom hear and respond to God’s call to discipleship.

Now for me that’s a more helpful way of thinking about faith than it being some kind of ‘magic’ that enables things to happen that wouldn’t otherwise be possible. Faith is more about moving into those things that God has already prepared for us. Faith doesn’t mean we will be protected and shielded from all that is out there, rather that whilst we are traveling through those things, God will stand with us.

When you consider some of the trials that Paul faced it is clear that faith is not a guarantee for a trouble free existence! Neither was it that way for Abraham. It had everything to do with trusting in what God promised and believing that God would hold true to His promises. This is just what Paul goes on to tell us!

18 Hoping against hope, he believed that he would become "the father of many nations," according to what was said, "So numerous shall your descendants be." 19 He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was already1 as good as dead (for he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb. 20 No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, 21 being fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.

Abraham had things the right way around. He didn’t think up one day, “Hey… wouldn’t it be great if I could have a big family and be the Father of many nations”. That was something he never imagined or dreamed. The whole notion seemed a little absurd.

But then God spoke into his situation and told him that against the odds things were going to happen that were out of the ordinary and invited Abraham to trust and obey, to align himself with what God had said God would do. It was that action of bringing himself under the agenda of God rather than living by his own agenda that Paul describes as being faith. And that ‘faith’ brought Abraham into the center of God’s hopes and desires. Abraham ‘does the right thing’. Paul continues:-

22 Therefore his faith"was reckoned to him as righteousness." 23 Now the words, "it was reckoned to him," were written not for his sake alone, 24 but for ours also. It will be reckoned to us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, 25 who was handed over to death for our trespasses and was raised for our justification.


How do we ‘do the right thing’? How can we be people of faith like Abraham? This is a theme Paul will continue to build upon. At this stage of the argument he is just opening things up.

God has not promised to make us parents of great nations but God has acted in a decisive way to change the world through His Son Jesus Christ. His death was an act of redemption. His resurrection released a tidal wave of hope into the world.

These are the things we are called to place our trust in… that God has acted in Christ against all that would cause us to despair. That God still has a plan, still has an agenda that is not the agenda of this world and invites us to be part of the solution rather than part of the problem.

And all this is a matter of grace. Nothing we deserve. Nothing we can earn. Nothing that we can claim the credit for. Nothing that we could ever dream up.  Our call is simply to be people who ‘believe’ in Jesus Christ.

6.12.19

THE BOOK OF ROMANS 5. "What are the results of receiving the Gospel?"


Let us review our progress so far as we are journeying through this great work of Paul. After preliminary introductions Paul began asking the question, “Who needs the gospel?” He points out how the Gentiles needed it. He follows up by telling us that the Jews needed it. In fact we all need it, because we are all living out our lives the wrath of God… the wrath of God being the condition we place ourselves through rejecting to live in the way God would have us live.

So how do we get the gospel? Good news and bad. The bad news is that we can’t get it though our good works no matter how hard we try. The Good news is that through the grace of God it can get us! The Gospel comes to us as we put our faith in what God has done in Jesus Christ. It comes as we recognize that in Christ we are put right, ‘justified’ by God, that God chooses to clothe our ‘not right’ (or unrighteous lives) with the ‘right-ness” (or righteousness) of Christ’s love… something that is gloriously possible because God raised Christ from death.

To illustrate his point Paul talks about the faith of Abraham, who was accepted by God not because he was a particularly good person, or because he went through some rituals like that of circumcision, but accepted by God because he trusted in God. Everything else that happened to Abraham was a response to God’s love, not a reason for his acceptance by God.

That is an all to brief summary but it leads us into what comes next… if we know who needs the gospel and we know how people get it, the next question Paul addresses is “What are the results of it?” or “How should receiving the gospel in faith be affecting our lives?”

So let us begin…  

NRS Romans 5:1 Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we1 have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have obtained access1 to this grace in which we stand; and we2 boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. 3 And not only that, but we1 also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 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.

Briefly stated… faith in Christ brings peace in changing circumstances. The kind of peace that is elsewhere expressed as a ‘peace which passes all understanding’. Paul speaks about peace as though it is a place we are led into, using in verse 2 the phrase ‘we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand’

When I was a kid growing up in Liverpool I used to spend a whole lot of time going to rock concerts to see the stars of the day. I always used to dream of not just having a ticket, but ‘an all access pass’… y’know the kind that you could hold up and which would let you go backstage and hang out with the band as if  you were a personal friend. Of course I never got one.

Paul tells us though that in Christ we are ‘given a free backstage pass’;  taken by the hand and led into the very presence of God, the holy of holies, that His redeeming love and grace admit us to a place of peace with God. For Paul that peace was such a reality, such a tangible thing that it even changed the way he looked at the troubles that came his way. Suffering became something positive that he saw as capable of deepening his faith and his hope and his trust.

Paul was not a person given to boasting about things but he was prepared to boast about the fact of God’s grace being so great it had led him to that place of peace and security in God. Why did he feel comfortable with such boasting? Well there it is… in verse 5… he boasts ‘because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit’. He was at peace because he believed that whatever came his way God would use it for some good purpose. It was all a result of the gospel coming into his life.

Let’s continue to follow his argument.

6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person -- though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. 8 But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us. 9 Much more surely then, now that we have been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath of God.1 10 For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more surely, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life. 11 But more than that, we even boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

Paul begins by enforcing the notion that salvation is something that we cannot do for ourselves… we don’t have the strength, morally, physically, righteously or in any other way. He describes the human condition as one of ‘weakness’. This of course grates on our pride. In a culture like ours where we are told that all we have to do to succeed is try hard enough and where weakness is seen as a sign of incompetence or inability to profess our weakness goes against the grain.

But it is entirely consistent with Christ’s teaching of how to find ourselves we must lose ourselves, how before there can really be life there has to be death. How to receive the gospel and know the power of God enabling us we have to have faith as of a little child, a child of course in society at that time is one who had no power, no rights and was extremely venerable and dependent on their parents. So to receive the gospel we have to be dependent upon God. But let’s look at the whole verse… For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.

The phrase ‘At the right time’ is also significant. The historical facts behind the spread of Christianity are remarkable. As Christ’s coming relates to Jewish history, there was never such a time as their overthrow by the Romans that had unleashed in the Jewish spirit so much in the way of Messianic expectations. They were desperate for a Savior! Indeed their were many who laid claim to be that savior, either individuals or corporate movements, some violent like the zealots, some peaceful like the Essenes. Both shared a common concern… to usher in a new Messianic age. Christ came at the right time in religious history.

The growth of Christianity would not have been possible if there had not been an empire through which to spread. Christianity arrived during one of history’s greatest periods of unity. The Roman Empire was all embracing and created avenues through which the Christian faith spread throughout much of the then known world. This is the letter to the ‘Romans’… the Roman Christian Church being at the center of the power of the Empire. It was ‘the right time’

Philosophically also the development of Christian thought was not independent of the cultures in which it grew. This was a period of a tremendous blossoming of consciousness, an age in which reasoning and debate flourished… stoicism, platonism, you name it ‘isms’ provided an intellectual climate that engaged the greatest minds of the day. Again it was ‘the right time’.

And the gospel comes at the right time in a particular way. ‘Christ died for the ungodly.’ This is Paul’s great remedy for the human condition of sin that he reinforces in verse 8; ‘God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.’

He points out how this is an exceptional event that takes place not ‘because of who we are’ but ‘in spite of who we are’. He talks of how acts of heroism are not unknown. People give their lives to defend their families, defend their friends, defend even their nation, all of which is admirable and a great expression of love, but this death… the death of Christ… is one in which His life is given for those who are enemies.

It is this self-giving, this undeserved act that can be for us a path out from under the wrath of God. Do you remember how we earlier described wrath? Not as the thought that God sits in heaven constantly angry at the world… but wrath as the feeling that our lives are just dragging along through some dismal, pointless swamp, that we just exist without purpose or meaning. The heaviness of pointlessness. Living under the shadow of death.

Verse 9 ‘Much more surely then, now that we have been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath of God.” The reference to blood there throws us back to the previous chapter where Paul talks of the Jewish concept of sacrifice. Of how Christ had become both the sacrificial animal and the place of sacrifice uniting those two concepts in Himself.

The force of what Christ had done through His death upon the Cross  is captured in a word used at the end of verse 11 ‘reconciliation’ (in Greek katallagh,, katallago) meaning both ‘being put into friendship with God’ and ‘leading others to be put into friendship with God’.

The implication is plain. It is through Christ that our relationship with God can be restored, that life can take on an eternal dimension, that we are free from the sense of living only to die, that we can ‘be-right’ with God in the sense that our lives are on the right track, despite the changing circumstances that come at us. So again we are back with this thought, “What difference does the gospel make?” It brings peace to our hearts, a new center for our existence and being.

But more than just peace… it also brings forgiveness. In our next passage Paul contrasts the sin of Adam (humankind) with the grace of Jesus Christ.

12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death came through sin, and so death spread to all because all have sinned -- 13 sin was indeed in the world before the law, but sin is not reckoned when there is no law. 14 Yet death exercised dominion from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sins were not like the transgression of Adam, who is a type of the one who was to come. 15 But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died through the one man's trespass, much more surely have the grace of God and the free gift in the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abounded for the many. 16 And the free gift is not like the effect of the one man's sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brings justification.

Let’s follow this argument verse by verse.

1. Genesis gives us the account of Adam, the prototype human, who falls from God, loses his innocence and blessedness and is thrown out of the garden to live under the shadow of death. We are all ‘Adam’. We all have lost our innocence, lost our relationship with God and live under deaths shadow because we all have sinned.

2. Though we have all sinned we may not have always considered what we did as sin, because we didn’t know any better. It took the law to do that. Kind of like if you get a speeding ticket for going 50 in a 30 mile limit, it’s no good saying “Well, I didn’t see the sign”… when the cop stops you that’s irrelevant… you still did the crime and so you’ll still get a ticket.

3. So regardless if we consider ourselves a child of Adam or a child of Moses, we’re still separated from God and the huge abyss of death dominates the landscape of our lives. “Death exercises dominion’ as it reads in verse 14. Yet, Adam, the one who got us into this, the prototype sinner, points us ahead to the One who can get us out of the situation. Adam is described at the end of verse 14 as ‘a type of the one who was to come.’ (A type being not the same thing but something like it).

4. Staying with that idea of ‘being not the same thing but something like it’ the free gift of God is not like the wrong-doing of humankind. God offers not condemnation for sin, but forgiveness through grace.

Let’s hear William Barclay on this (Commentary on Romans P81).
“Paul’s triumphant argument is that, as mankind was solid with Adam and was therefore condemned to death, so mankind is solid with Christ and is therefore acquitted to life. Even although the law has come and made sin much more terrible, the grace of Christ overcomes the condemnation which the law must bring”

Such is the argument that concludes our final verses:

17 If, because of the one man's trespass, death exercised dominion through that one, much more surely will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness exercise dominion in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. 18 Therefore just as one man's trespass led to condemnation for all, so one man's act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all. 19 For just as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous.
20 But law came in, with the result that the trespass multiplied; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, 21 so that, just as sin exercised dominion in death, so grace might also exercise dominion through justification1 leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

As always I’m indebted to Eugene Peterson’s transliteration “The Message” for shedding further light on this passage. Here is how he puts Romans 5:18-19
    
Here it is in a nutshell: Just as one person did it wrong and got us in all this trouble with sin and death, another person did it right and got us out of it. But more than just getting us out of trouble, he got us into life! One man said no to God and put many people in the wrong; one man said yes to God and put many in the right.”

And of course by ‘that one man who got it right’ Paul means Jesus Christ.

So in this chapter we see the results of receiving the gospel by placing our faith in the gospel message.

It firstly offers us peace. Peace in changing circumstances. That means that whatever we go though we can know that God is with us, not against us!

It secondly offers us forgiveness. The cycle of sin and death from Adam onward is one that has involved all humankind. In that sense we are all ‘solid’ with Adam in that we have all lost our innocence and are far from paradise. But the coming of another ‘One’… the Christ, the Messiah who came ‘at the right time’ who died and was raised again from the dead has broken that cycle of sin and death. His strength triumphs over our weakness.

One of the Easter hymns in our blue hymnbook “Christ is Risen, Christ is living” (109 second verse) expresses the latter half of Romans 5 in this way and serves as an adequate conclusion to our study.

 “If the Lord had never risen,
We'd have nothing to believe.
But His promise can be trusted:
"You will live, because I live."
As we share the death of Adam,
So in Christ we live again.
Death has lost its sting and terror.
Christ the Lord has come to reign.”


(Text from Cantico Nuevo, , Translation by Fred Kaan copyright © 1974 by Hope Publishing Company)
 



5.12.19

THE BOOK OF ROMANS 6. "How Does the Gospel work (PART ONE)"


The Book of Romans continues to unfold as Paul weaves together a picture to explain “Everything we wanted to know about the Gospel but were afraid to ask.” He has told us who needs the gospel… all of us whether Jew or Gentile. He’s outlined how the gospel comes to us, through faith in Jesus Christ, in His death, His resurrection and the forgiveness that comes as God makes us right with Himself.

He gives the example of Abraham as a man justified by his faith, not by his works. He tells us that the results of faith are inward peace and a sense of reconciliation with God.  Now in Chapters 6 and 7 he seeks to explain how it works, how to apply the gospel to our lives. First he gives us an example of how not to do it followed by his view of what our relation to sin should be.

Romans 6:1 What then are we to say? Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound?  2 By no means! How can we who died to sin go on living in it?  3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

There were those who had accused Paul of making too much of grace… as though because God could forgive us whatever we do it made it all right to do whatever we want.  Paul begins by kicking that one out the window by pointing out that when we commit our lives to God we are not saying “O.K. that is so nice I’m forgiven and I’ll try hard never to sin again”. Rather he explains that Christian conversion was far deeper, far more radical. He paints it this way: “We have died to sin.”

For Paul the person who seeks to be a disciple is one committed not just to a change in habits but to a different kind of life. He has died to one kind of life and has been born to another. Receiving the gospel should be a totally transforming experience. Matthew Henry, the great commentator of old, describes it this way:-

“Thus must we be dead to sin, obey it, observe it, regard it, fulfill its will no more … be as indifference to the pleasures and delights of sin as a man that is dying is to his former life. He that is dead is separated from his former company, converse, business, enjoyments, employments, is not what he was, does not what he did, has not what he had. Death makes a mighty change; such a change doth sanctification make in the soul, it cuts off all correspondence with sin.”

To illustrate how Christ’s death relates to our dying to sin Paul uses the sacrament of adult baptism… and in particular baptism by full immersion, a practice that was familiar to the Roman church as a sign of being received into the household of faith. He speaks of how at baptism we are “baptized into Christ Jesus”.

That little word “into” is important here. It indicates identification with Jesus and in particular in the acts of Jesus life… His sinless life, His atoning death, His resurrection from the dead. Paul has been posing the question “How can we be right with God?” and has given us the answer, “Well… we can’t be right, God has to make us right by putting the rightness of Christ over our lives”.

So we may ask “How can we die to sin?” or even “How can we be raised to life?” and again the answer is  “Well… we can’t die to sin or raise ourselves to new life, God has to make these things happen by applying to our life, (if you like over-shadowing our life) with the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Paul explains that this overshadowing of our lives with the life of Christ is exactly what baptism communicates to us.

 4 Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.  5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.  6 We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin.  7 For whoever has died is freed from sin.  8 But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.  9 We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him.  10 The death he died, he died to sin, once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.  11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.  

Listen to how Eugene Petersen transliterates this in “The Message”

[4] When we are lowered into the water, it is like the burial of Jesus; when we are raised up out of the water, it is like the resurrection of Jesus. [5] Each of us is raised into a light-filled world by our Father so that we can see where we're going in our new grace-sovereign country. [6] Could it be any clearer? Our old way of life was nailed to the Cross with Christ, a decisive end to that sin-miserable life—no longer at sin's every beck and call! What we believe is this: [7]  [8] If we get included in Christ's sin-conquering death, we also get included in his life-saving resurrection. [9] We know that when Jesus was raised from the dead it was a signal of the end of death-as-the-end. Never again will death have the last word. [10] When Jesus died, he took sin down with him, but alive he brings God down to us. [11] From now on, think of it this way: Sin speaks a dead language that means nothing to you; God speaks your mother tongue, and you hang on every word. You are dead to sin and alive to God. That's what Jesus did. “

I particularly like the way Eugene puts verse 10: “When Jesus died, he took sin down with him, but alive he brings God down to us.” All of this is pointing us back to Paul’s over-riding argument, that salvation is not something we can earn for our self through our works or deeds, but something we have to receive through faith in Jesus Christ. What we cannot do for ourselves, through Grace, God offers to achieve for us.

That places an obligation upon our lives. That we respond in thankfulness and actively seek to live a renewed life, not because such will earn us a better place in God’s affections, but because as children of God that’s how we should live. Let us look at the next verses 12 -14:

12 Therefore, do not let sin exercise dominion in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions.  13 No longer present your members to sin as instruments of wickedness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and present your members to God as instruments of righteousness.  14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

To apply the life of Christ to the life that we live we are urged to ‘present’ ourselves to God. The Greek word Paul uses for ‘present’ is pari,sthmi (paristemi) which means “to ‘place beside’, to ‘stand by or to appear before” or to ‘place oneself at another’s disposal.’

Rather like a soldier will report for duty or a volunteer to lend a hand to a new venture we are urged to voluntarily come before God in the manner of the hymn we often sing saying “Here I am Lord”… to present ourselves as wholly available for service, body, soul and spirit. Verse 13 “Present your members to God as instruments of righteousness.”

There was a prayer song that I used to hear sung in worship over in Great Britain that said;
 “Lord make me an instrument, An instrument of worship.I ‘ll lift up my hands in Your name”

That’s a great image of how to present ourselves before God that God may use us and bless others through our lives. That we consider our lives as a fine tuned instrument that can be played by the Holy Spirit in order to bring Kingdom music to the world! It places on us a responsibility to both care for ourselves (so as we can sound as tuneful as possible) and open our hearts (so God can use us as God chooses).

Paul now returns again to his thought that grace was not an excuse for sin but an imperative to live in a right way before God.  He remains concerned that there were those who abused the gift of grace by surrendering themselves to whatever whim or fancy came their way, rather than taking on the mantle of being a disciple.  Christ has set us free. But that doesn’t mean all the boundaries have disappeared. On the contrary true freedom can only be exercised where there are boundaries in place.

15 What then? Should we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!  16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?  17 But thanks be to God that you, having once been slaves of sin, have become obedient from the heart to the form of teaching to which you were entrusted,  18 and that you, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.  

Whatever or whom so ever we give our allegiance to has a direct influence on how we make decisions.  Here in the United States at many public functions an oath of allegiance is taken, folk stand together, usually with the stars and stripes flying high and commit themselves to something that is larger than themselves, to being active upholders and observers of the constitution of the United States of America. Such is an act of presenting yourself as a citizen.

Of course if you had been born and raised Chinese and spent your whole life in China then your pledge of allegiance would be to the Chinese nation and the Chinese flag and the Chinese government. If when everybody else in China was pledging their allegiance and suddenly you said… “No, hold on a minute… I’d like to pledge my  allegiance to the USA instead of my own country…” then you could be pretty darn sure that you’d be in big trouble!

What we pledge our allegiance to determines how we act. If we pledge our allegiance to our human nature, to our desire to doing whatever, with whomsoever, whenever, however, where ever, then that’s the kind of reckless lifestyle we may end up living and it will inevitably bring trouble. If we on the other hand pledge allegiance to Jesus Christ, then we will seek to live in a way that brings glory to God.

The Christians in Rome had once been those who had an allegiance to living how they pleased. And it had led them towards death, and to becoming deeper and more entangled with the wrath of God. But now they had been ‘entrusted’ with the gospel and were seeking to be obedient to the form of teaching that Jesus Christ had bought to our world.

 I think it’s at this point Paul realizes that he is struggling to put into words the thoughts that were racing through his mind. Look at verse 19.

19 I am speaking in human terms because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to greater and greater iniquity, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness for sanctification.  

Again he is hitting his point home…. There was a time when your lives were in gear with the ways of this world, but now you are in gear with God and that experience of seeking and believing and trusting is changing your lives. Sanctifying them. Making them easier for God to use and mold. He continues:-

20 When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.  21 So what advantage did you then get from the things of which you now are ashamed? The end of those things is death.  22 But now that you have been freed from sin and enslaved to God, the advantage you get is sanctification. The end is eternal life.  23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

At the end of the chapter it as though he wants to say, “Think back on how you used to be. Reflect on how you used to live. Where were you headed? Nowhere, except the grave! You look back at some of the things you did and you feel ashamed… you wonder how you could live like that and think it was O.K’

“But now look at your lives! You have a purpose. You are filled with hope! And God is doing so much in your lives. Sanctifying them. Cleaning them up. Reshaping your priorities. And what’s more you are no longer living just to die. Your destiny is eternal life.”

Then he gives us one of those verses that kind of summarize all his thoughts in a few words: “23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

We forget so easily that everything has a price on it. What we invest our lives in brings a payback. Invest them in sin and the payback is death. And the problem with sin is that we are all sinners and we have all invested our lives in other ways then God would have us live. Even worse we are so invested in sin that there’s nothing we can do to pay the price for our sins.

But Jesus Christ died that we may be forgiven. “The free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Such is the core of Paul’s message as he seeks to explain how the gospel works.  It works because it is God’s initiative, God’s way of sorting out our lives and our world. As we put our faith in what God can do and is doing in Jesus Christ it transforms us, sanctifies, and takes us places we never even had contemplated before.

That’s Paul’s testimony and I have to say it’s kind of mine as well. As I look back over my life the things I once counted as so important seem to have faded and living my life in the way God requires seems more important than ever it was. And it didn’t just happen over night. It’s been a process and will continue to be a process. And I know that it’s God working that process and that the more I seek to co-operate the better that process goes!

We’ll continue in our next chapter to explore the theme of “How the Gospel works”  as in Chapter 7 Paul continues to wrestle with the concepts of law and grace and then at the end of the chapter speaks of how whilst we never quite get past that inner conflict of our will hitting up against God’s will… thankfully Jesus is greater than us all! But that’s next time.