The Astonishing Source of Good News

Most of us, given only one attribute of God to bank on would choose…..righteousness? Probably not, but

19Now we know that whatever the Law says,
it speaks to those who are under the Law, that every mouth may be closed, and all the world may become accountable to God;20because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight;
for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.
21But now apart from the Law
the righteousness of God has been manifested,
being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets,
22even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe;
for there is no distinction;
23for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
24being justified
as a gift
by His grace
through the redemption
which is in Christ Jesus;
25whom God displayed publicly
as a propitiation in His blood
through faith.
This was to demonstrate His righteousness,
because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed;
26for the demonstration, I say,
of His righteousness at the present time,
that He might be just and the justifier
of the one who has faith in Jesus. Romans 3:19-26

This passage takes two studies.  These verses launched Augustine’s and Luther’s reforms.  Its impact on Christians through the centuries fills hundreds of books. 

Germans invent handy words like “salvation history” and Paul scrutinizes our salvation history here. 

First, the God of Heaven demanded righteousness by His Law revealed by Moses.  But God knew the Law could, at best, only show us our bent to sinning.  So God held His judgement against us for all our sin until we saw His righteousness in Jesus.  God proved He always does what is right from His end.  He is just, always, but He also, in Jesus, became our Justifier.  How?  Look at Jesus.

This huge thought requires two Bible studies.  Augustine’s rich life was ripped asunder by these words.  Martin Luther felt a burning coal burn him clean for the first time ever.  Leon Morris thinks it’s the most important paragraph in print. 

Remember, verses 1:16-17 frame Paul’s theme: “…the gospel …is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then the Gentile.  For in the gospel a righteousness from God is being revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: ‘The righteous will live by faith.’” 

Learn from the grammar.  Paul in verse 1:17 wrote “God’s righteousness is being revealed.”  He then sketched four conversations whereby God speaks to us: creation, and then a sense of law, (for Jews through Ten Commandments).  God speaks in morality, and lastly He speaks in our conscience!  Paul now sums their worth in verse 20 of this chapter. 

²⁰because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight;

for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.

The best the law gives is a certainty: we are failing.  The law says we all break God’s precepts.  The Old Testament makes a ringing point: we all fail the covenant or the Law, our end of the bargain with God!

To which Paul yells, “Hallelujah.  By God’s grace I see it!”  Odd ‘til we see why.

If you are honest, the best you can hope to accomplish by being moral, law-abiding, ethical, religious, and fearing God is to know all of those are not enough.  None changes me.  None give me an ounce of strength.  Paul insists that beginning in Christ starts only if we admit we came to the end of ourselves.  Rebirth only happens if I am honest about my death stench.  Coming alive only happens if I say, “I fail on my own.  I fail at being a husband, student, father, pastor, son, teacher — whatever — on my own. 

You may have a problem with this passage, which is why a drunk in AA is ahead of us when she admits she reached the end of herself.  Evangelicals sit at the end of services to see who needs to profess Christ.  They all came to the end of themselves, once and “got baptized” or “joined a church”.  But they then wonder where is the adventure promised in scripture?  We forget.  We must return to the power in these words, over and over.  Once is not enough.  New failings find us.  Each self-effort without Christ is still refuse. 

Robert Markus in The End of Ancient Christianity pushes me to see a difference in life in Christ and cultural religion.  His Spanish priests working with Native Americans in the sixteenth century, saw a difference between adhesion and conversion.  They saw Native Americans come to a mission, take communion, wear a cross, and even confess sins, but these things made no difference in their lives.  They adhered to Christianity for a while, then returned to their culture.  Others converted to Christ.  They wrestled with each part of life.  “Lord, what must die in this part of my life, and how can it come alive in Jesus?  Not “How do I convert this?”  But, “How will YOU, God, convert this?”

If verse 20 is not real in you— 

If you do not reach the end of yourself — 

If 3:23 is not working in areas of your life like finances, friends, fun-when-no-one’s-looking, then how can we believe conversion got started in you?  As Spanish priests noted: are you adhering only?  Did you adhere by adopting catch phrases, Sunday attendance, but no difference in business?  Are you like this student?

A prep school teacher asked, “Who is the most influential important person who ever lived?  Make your case and I pay $20!  A French student said: “Napoleon” and built his case.  A Russian: “Alexander the Great”.  A Brit: “Queen Elizabeth I!”  Then a Jew said, “Jesus”.  Startled, everyone asked, “Why not Moses?”  The student replied, “Moses is Moses.  Business is business.”  Adhesion, is more like a post-it than sutures you can’t pull out!  Are you adhering, or are you being converted, piece by friendship, area by tenet by hour, by day?

May I point to two words in verse 21? “But Now.”

Paul reached the end of himself.  He knew he was a gonner, hopelessly stuck, and hideous in self-righteousness.  Less than the end of you is adhering to Jesus and falling short of converting.  Some focus on a moment, the manner, or the words to profess Christ, when we should be caught up in continual conversion.  “But now” I move to see what Christ is converting in me today!  But now, what area of me is God pointing to for conversion: my waistline, intake, checkbook, plastic, cellular, junk accrual, lack of relationships that are healing anyone else?  Paul shouts, “But NOW!”

Paul points out his areas of failure to shout “But NOW!”  He beckons us if we substituted church-bound adhesion for conversion to reach the end of ourselves (again) to shout “But NOW!”

Can you conceive how radical this passage is?  It makes me dizzy. 

²¹But now apart from the Law

the righteousness of God has been manifested,

being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets,

²²even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe;

To grasp this fully we need more grammar.  We studied 1:17: “For in the gospel a righteousness from God is being revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last?” 

A “righteousness is being revealed” says God does a new thing in Christ.  How wonderful, and world changing, but unfinished!  In 3:21 Paul takes an astounding leap.  He completes God’s grammar of grace.  “BUT NOW, apart from the Law, God’s righteousness has been manifested.”  

Both 1:17 and 3:21 say this “righteousness from God” is in Christ.  Both say God’s Good News fulfills the Old Testament.  It’s not God’s afterthought.  The two verses differ in their tenses.  1:17 is present tense.  Verse 3:21 is perfect tense.  1:17 says as we share Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection; God opens a new frontier where we got it right.  3:21 says God’s righteousness was in place, it was already being manifested as far back as the Law and prophets.

Do you sense what it means?  Has the Gospel’s power stung you awake?  While Israelites partied and cast a golden calf, God revealed His Law to Moses up in a cloud on the mountain — ANYWAY!  God was keeping His end of the bargain.  As ten spies said “We are grasshoppers in their eyes!” God was raising Joshua and Caleb to take the land ANYWAY.  God’s righteousness was already in place.  Not our righteousness.  His righteousness from His end of the bargain. 

Perfect tense.  Perfect tense means God’s long time actions came complete in Jesus.  God did not become gracious after the Old Testament.  Perfect tense means His rightness was being completed long before He put Jesus in a manger.  “God has manifested” says that from first to last, God’s righteousness drove Him.  God always did what He knew was right.  He did all that was right by His own perfect standard. 

The perfect (completed) tense says before everyone gave King Saul high approval ratings, God was already raising up a shepherd boy anyway, to create the nation.  God’s righteousness was already in place.  Not ours.  His. 

God’s perfect or completed action says as kings made sick decisions, and stupid alliances, God kept sending prophets to explain coming trials, and raising Babylonian and Persian kings, to care for His remnant anyway!

How radical is this?  As (they were) and we are failing— While we set ourselves up to sin God is not only not abandoning us, but is prepping us to have a fighting chance, so when we reach to Jesus, we make it. 

Again: His rightness has always reached to us.  As Jews refused to obey, He nurtured a remnant.  As Jews rebelled, He parked prophets to continue conversing.  God’s rightness makes Him consistent.  As He reaches to us, and we drop our end of the relationship, He must deal righteously with us.  God cannot NOT do the right thing.  So physical laws are consistent, moral truths are consistent, and God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow.  So God continually loves, SO He continually offers us grace: as it is right for HIM to do so.  Righteousness is the well spring of grace, not the other way around.

²²even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe;

for there is no distinction;

Why does righteousness come to us through faith, and not through what we do?  Think.  Imagine you are married and your spouse lies dying. A doctor says you must ascend a volcano to bring back a liquid found in a vent.  No one has ever scaled the volcano to return alive.  The whole time you are to climb the volcano, your situation’s hopelessness will hobble your every step.  Your husband receives nothing unless you complete the trip, and bring back the liquid.  No one, some stronger than you, has ascended to return alive. 

But say your doctor has made this trip many times.  What if she goes with you?  What if she brings energy bars, and carries your breathing apparatus for in the caldera?  What if friends await up in a hut with clothes to protect you from the cold and then the heat?  Do you have a better chance?  Do you trust her?  This is righteousness by faith.  When you trust God has gone ahead of you, goes with you, carries you, clothes you, energizes you, and comforts you: then your faith in Him for these provisions is your righteousness. 

So righteousness is through faith, by means of faith.  God’s rightness comes off a cross and into me. God knows I cannot complete a righteous act.  SO God does the only Right thing.  Like our doctor, He says, “Yes, you must walk this road for saving.  But I’ve gone ahead of you.  I’ve provisioned your way.  I have others waiting to help you.  And yes, God says, “I’ve provided the faith you need to make this trip!  I forgave you, justified you, and make you righteous when you believe I can.”

Now, do you have all the righteousness possible by faith in Christ?  Yes, you have all of it before you take that first step up the volcano.  How radical is this picture?

How much do we need this righteousness by faith?  Read, 3:23 ²³for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

Paul tells us no one enters heaven on good deeds. He makes his point from rabbinic tradition.  Two things made Adam beautiful according to rabbis.  He had God’s image inside, and on his face, since he walked daily in the garden with God.  Adam lost both when kicked from the garden. 

Rabbis point to God’s glory coming down at more times: in a pillar of fire and cloud, and on Moses’ face after receiving the commandments!  Moses saw only God’s trailing glory, and still no one could stand to look at his face.  They begged him to wear a veil.  The glory on his face faded in time, but oh, how glorious it was, to tell by someone’s face that he had been with God!

Paul tells rabbis (and us) Jesus, as the second Adam, restores us to an impossible possibility, (Barth).  We, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into His likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit 2 Corinthians 3:18.  I’ve seen His glory on faces. 

I can hardly watch the faces of some couples as they marry.  If they waited for each other in Christ, as God comes over them and they finally belong to each other…it is too much.  I see glory on their faces.   Some who come to Christ, especially those for whom it costs so much to come, it is hard to look on the glory on their faces.  When Christ shines through your face and words, you are hard to watch.  You are too beautiful.  Remember Stephen?  Paul saw him die.  He told Luke Stephen looked into heaven and saw Christ!”  Stephen’s face, Acts 7:55 haunted Paul all the days of his life.  Glory on it. 

Paul saw it.  Paul loved it and lived for it.  God says “I put it back right for you.  I breathe My Glory into you so others can see.  Why? 

“Just to see you run.” 

In the movie, Chariots of Fire, Eric Lydell tries doing the right thing and makes a huge mess.  His final is scheduled on a Sunday, and his faith keeps him from racing on a Sunday.  Everyone is angry with him. Lord Lindsey enters the meeting to offer Lydell his place in the 400 meters final.  All are shocked, but want to take the offer and escape the imbroglio.  Lydell rises to ask “Why”, but Lindsey keeps him from rising and says, “Just to see you run!”

God’s righteousness has come to you, so that unencumbered by your past, He sees you run!

The wellspring of God’s grace is His righteousness, not vice versa!

Ephemeral Concrete

Jon texted me in response to my birthday greeting to ask, “Did you ever think we would reach 68?”

I responded, “No.  I thought I would be gone by 55.” 

And I was reminded.  I’ve sensed this before.  Somehow life is too fragile, too unexpected, and too impossibly improbable: a gauze. 

You experience a slow-moving auto accident.  A Highway Patrolman races to your overturned car, to pull you out before it catches fire.  You and a hundred cars on black ice dance death’s minuet in a black night.  Your flight won’t descend the last fifteen feet as storm blasted rains are too risky so you pull up into night. 

You hold your freshly born child.  He responds to your voice.  You build what you only dared hope.  A friend is healed.  Your doc reveals he never thought you would survive that first night in the hospital. 

You shiver in a sunset at how miraculous is an earth that supports life: so hopelessly beautiful. 

You sense “this is beyond belief”, the miraculous is working again, and your fragile bubble of hopes will see another hour. 

I wonder if these moments prepare us to open our eyes on death’s other side to find Jesus was nurturing hope in us.

The universally tough news

Before the Good News, comes the stark reality. We all need saving.

Romans 3:1-20: All are Equal.  We All Fall Short.

Paul writes almost a word-for-word commentary on “lostness” from his scriptures, our Old Testament. 

Romans 3:10 There is no one righteous, not even one;	Psalm 14:1 The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” He is corrupt, his deeds are vile.  No one does good.
11 No one who understands, no one seeks God.	Psalm 14:2 The Lord looks down from heaven on [us] to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God.
12 All have turned away, they have become worthless;	Psalm 14:3 All have turned aside, they have together become corrupt.
Romans 3:12.b There is no one who does good, not even one.	Psalm 14:3b There is no one who does good, not even one.
13 Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit.	Psalm 5:9 Not a word from their mouth can be trusted; their heart is filled with destruction.  Their throat is an open grave; with their tongue they speak deceit.
Viper’s poison is on their lips. Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.	Psalm 10:7  His mouth is full of curses and lies and threats; trouble and evil are under his tongue.
15 Their feet are swift to shed blood;	Isaiah 59:7-8 Their feet rush into sin; they are swift to shed innocent blood.
16 ruin and misery mark their ways,	Isaiah 59:7b Their thoughts are evil thoughts; ruin and destruction mark their ways.
17 and the way of peace they do not know.	Isaiah 59:8  The way of peace they do not know; they have no justice.
18 There is no fear of God before their eyes.	Psalm 36:1 An oracle is in my heart concerning the wicked’s sinfulness: There is no fear of God before his eyes.

“No one is righteous”.  Paul yells, “Wake up!  Do you not see a world without Christ for what it is?”

We have ways to try to appear good in limited ways.  They fail. 

Maybe, I show my goodness by comparing me to others.  I choose those “below” me, but we all live on a level field.  By comparing myself to those I see as worse than me; I think I escape the truth of this. 

People fill churches but fail to understand these verses.  The rest of his letter forms a tour de force for reaching the world for Christ.  Paul itches to reach God’s World.  While realizing my goodness is filthy rags, I sense the wonder of Christ’s call on my hours, my weeks, and my years.  Get beyond the “good person” lie to come to God’s call on you.

People who miss these verses fill churches.  Paul aches to reach God’s World with Christ.  He moved beyond God saving him because God loved Paul.  Salvation was far larger than Paul’s life.  The Jews missed that.  Salvation is for me, but it must go beyond me as God pours through me to reach others.  God pours through me to touch others, even as my unrighteousness is real to me.  We say, “God’s reasons to save me are about me!”  No.  God’s reasons to save me never stop with me.  His reasons go beyond me to save a hellish world needing Him. 

Ask yourself.  How many hymns we sing sound like “Jesus loves me, this I know?”  “Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me.”  How many worship songs call us beyond praise to bring the world a Savior?  Do you settle for: “I just want to praise gawd.”  Really?  Did you touch God’s heart?  Good!  He and all creation groans for the adoption of the sons and daughters of God!  Did His love stun you to pass through you into others who need Him?  We fill churches and spend our resources on ourselves.  Get to the end of yourself.  Play on a level field marked: “no one is righteous.” 

Pilate gave us a clear proofs of unrighteousness.  In Jerusalem, in his palace, Pilate sits in the presence of a broken man: Christ.  Jesus is enduring His last hours on earth as a mortal.  He is tried by this reptilian politico whose wife warned him about Jesus.  Pilate looks at Jesus to ask, “What is truth?”

To his credit, he return to a riotous mob to say, “I find no fault in this man” John 18:38.  To his fault, Pilate did nothing to protect the Truth. 

Pilate amassed power through his wife to serve in a Roman backwater.  He held more power than anyone in Jerusalem, except Herod.  He had money.  He had villas.  He held the power of life and death, and now, here with Jesus he falls on a nagging question, “What is truth?”  Why ask a ravaged rabbi?

Are you as smart as Pilate?  Or do you charge Jesus as an imperialist, anti-feminist, or inclusivity sans righteousness?  Do you call Him a simpleton on whom we project religious hopes?  Are you without ultimate Truth whose Name is Jesus ben Yahweh, the First Born From Among the Dead?  Do you, “What is truth?”  Forget, and re-submerge into selfishness?  Blind and lost, we fall to lies, marketing, polls, commentators, and spin artists, and none are righteous.  We push Him out if He makes us uncomfortable. 

“There is no one righteous.”  No one.  In Spirit of the Rainforest, Shoefoot, a shaman gives up his spirits for the Great Spirit Yai Pada: Jesus. 

Another shaman later approaches Shoefoot, recoils and points at his chest to say, “All the paths to your house (shabano, soul) are vacant!  Your spirits left you!  You’re dead, yet you still walk!”  The shaman didn’t ask.  He saw Shoefoot’s new spiritual truth: something had vanquished the spirits ruling Shoefoot.  The other shaman knew something else.  Spirits do not leave you unless you die.  Only a shaman who dies to his old life; comes alive in Christ to live free of the spirits that ruled him, like Mary Magdalene.  Shoefoot’s playing field is radically new. 

If we fail to believe, then blind we cannot see what a shaman on the upper Orinoco rainforest sees.  Maybe being “scientific” blinds us to spiritual truths.  As hyper-naturalists, we “medicalize” sin.  The DMS spawns new diagnoses so all sin is chemical or behavioral.  We shun responsibility for our actions.  The result?  We miss when the spiritual dimension over-rides the physical.  We fail to use spiritual eyes, and blinded to the spiritual realm, and bereft of Christ’s light we lose touch with the fact: we all fall short. 

Again, “No one is righteous, no one.”  It is a clear temptation to Christians.  Please think of me as a good person.  But I am a sinner.  Always was.  Worse, I enjoy the parts that should scare me silly. 

My freshman year in Vanderbilt, people sought out my advice.  I resisted pulling out a Bible to say, “This is what God’s Word says ¾ it’s more important than what I think.”  I didn’t say what they admired in me was Christ in me.  I wanted them to like me, to look up to me.  I kept them from seeing through me to Jesus who they needed.  The truth is that if there is anything you like about me that is Christ in me.  Everything else puts me on even ground: sinner, failer.  I wear a mask.  Hide my sin and want your respect.  We are happy they come to us, and silent about “only Christ in me gives you hope!”

Another way we see “No one is righteous.”  Hear your humor.  Racism’s last hiding place is in your humor.  In seminary I was proud of my lack or racism, until a cold, rainy February morning. 

On a rainy-sleety February morning, JD and I were commuting late to campus.  We fought as JD drove fast.  We roared off the loop and crashed in access road pot-holes slowing at the light at McCart.  Domestic work women stood in white uniforms under thin coats and umbrellas at a bus stop.  Icy slush filled those pot holes as we slowed to [35] to turn through the light.  We hit two potholes whose slush cascaded on the women, deluging them with sleet, and mud.  They jumped, yelped, and sputtered!

Stunned, we silently drove by as if in slow motion.  Then we howled and rushed to learn how to be Christ’s servants.  If any woman returned home to change, she was two hours late for work.  If she did not, she arrived covered in road slush.  She would work, humiliated to never hear an apology from us.  We chauffeured no one to work, after they went home to change. 

Kids laugh at mean things, and so do we.  There is no one righteous.  No one.  We love and laugh about our unrighteousness. 

We say God’s highest creation is us.  Yet we act as though we are self-made!  In prayers and worship we sing that we are self-made and self-determining, “free”.  What if God’s act of judgment when we stand before Him is that He hands us the compounds comprising us, and bids us make ourselves again? 

We act as if salvation stops with us as we avoid sharing Christ with those around us or around the world.  We compare ourselves to whoever makes us look better.  We fail to see truth.  We bind ourselves to chemicals, sex, and addictions.  We miss the spiritual realm surrounding us.  We put our faith in meds and psychiatrists.  We laugh at ugly things.  We act as though we made ourselves.  Paul adds we know no peace.  We are corrupt.  Deceived, we deceive.  We would rather be deceived.  No one is righteous. 

Missing Paul’s truth, we descend to hell.  And yet, and yet, God’s righteousness never quits reaching.  How strangely attractive is this righteousness, the stuff in Christ.  Rebecca Manley Pippert in Out of the Saltshaker and into the World writes,

“I often hear [God’s] call to be holy and [His] call to show love to sinners are mutually exclusive.  Jesus welcomed and loved sinners; He did not drive them away by too much affectation of righteousness.  He showed people genuine compassion, but Jesus was also direct and uncompromising in denouncing sin.  He had compassion, but there was a toughness in this love.  He won them without sacrificing the purity of His life.”

The paradox of agape love is accepting my neighbor unconditionally and simultaneously desiring moral purity.  If Jesus is Lord, moral absolutes shape my compassion.  Christ was merciful and made judgments.  Some things, He said, were immoral and destructive, but He never ceased to love. 

One Christian woman cares deeply for a non-Christian woman losing herself in every variety of sexual experience.  One day the non-Christian woman told her friend, “It’s funny.  My non-Christian friends accept me¾ say it doesn’t matter what I do.  I’m free.  But it’s only with you that I feel loved, and know I can always come to you.  But also only with you do I feel shame and remorse for what I do.”

That is holiness loving someone.  It never abandons; it identifies deeply with others.  But it also really brings God’s presence, the purity of His holiness ¾ righteousness never quits reaching.

What happens when the righteousness by faith in Christ Jesus over-rides all else?  Consider Little Wang.  [Eric Bridges]

Little Wang, himself a new believer, traveled ten hours with two other Christians to preach to a people group different from his own living in a dark Asian region.  A village mob met them shouting, “The spirits of the mountains rule our land!  You dogs have only been here 500 years! You know nothing!  You’ve stolen our land and now you wish to steal our gods as well.  Now you will pay!”

So little Wang paid ¾ with his life. The mob beat the three Christians with sticks and farm tools.  Two escaped with broken bones, but one enraged man beat Little Wang to death.  His two brethren limped home to tell their church and Little Wang’s wife and ten-year-old son.

Church members met to decide the two survivors would return to preach again.  Righteousness never quits reaching.  Little Wang’s widow, Liang, slowly rose.  “I will go too,” she said.  The church grew silent.  She might never return. 

The trio slipped into the village by night, sleeping fitfully by a pigpen.  Day came.  Word spread of their presence.  Another mob formed.  Liang boldly stepped forward to say:  “I’m the widow of the man you killed.  My husband is not dead, however.  He lives in paradise with God!  If he were here, he would forgive you.  I forgive you as well, because God has forgiven me.  If you want to hear more about this God, meet us under the big tree outside town this evening.”

That night most of the village heard of Liang’s forgiving God.  Many gave their lives to Jesus that night, to grow in the following days.  Months later three of the new believers visited Liang’s church, bringing a love offering ¾ from a brand-new church in the once hostile village.  One stepped up. 

“I’m the one who murdered Little Wang.  The Lord forgave me, now I ask your forgiveness!  I, and our church, owe an eternal debt of gratitude to Little Wang and Liang for bringing us the message of Life.  We give this offering to help support Liang and wish to pledge monthly support.”

Liang did the righteous thing in a world where no one is righteous.  Period.  Beginning of story. 

On the cross, Christ, as God’s righteousness, never quit reaching for us, even though He needed nails in His hands at the last to help hold them open for Him. 

No one needs remain unrighteous.

God talks to us in religion(s)?

Paul observed God conversing with everyone, really anyone through 1) nature and the orderliness of creation.  2) Law in general and Jewish Law for his people.  3) Conscience.  4) and Religion. 

The Fourth Conversation God Uses: Religion

Romans 008 2#17-29  The Fourth Conversation: Being Religious

Anmol, Ishan, Roberto, and Co. filled the back row of my small class.  All were from different countries and only agreed on one point: religion is the source of all evil in the world. 

Paul discusses how God talks to us in religion.  My brand is Baptist & Christian and we have public relations problems.  This is from The Richmond Register; “Overweight OK but no slobs, smokers, drinkers, convicts, or Baptists.”   

Bold below is my “updated translation”. 

Now you,
If you call yourself a Jew;
If I call myself a Christian, Baptist, or Methopalean.
If you rely on the law
If I brag on my relationship to God;
If you know His will and approve of what is superior because you are instructed by the law;
If I am convinced I’m a guide for the blind,
If you are a light for those who are in the dark,
If I am an instructor of the foolish,
If you are a teacher of infants, because you have in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth—
You, then, who teach others, do I not teach myself?
|You who preach against stealing, do I steal?
You who say people should not commit adultery, do I commit adultery?
You who abhor idols, do I rob temples?
You who brag about the law, do I dishonor God by breaking the law?
As it is written: “God’s name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.”
No one is a Jew if he or she is only one outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical.  No, one is a Jew if he or she is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code.  Such a man’s praise is not from men, but from God.  Romans 2:17-29

Paul focuses on his religion, “If you call yourself a Jew.”  Being a Jew means many things.  1) You have a great heritage including Abraham, Moses, Ruth, David, Isaiah, Esther, Golda Meier, Rabin, Israel, and Malachi.  2) You descend from a lineage of fantastic artists, pianists, cellists, violinists, dramatists, composers and singers, chemists, physicists, prime ministers, and diplomats.  3) You may be very religious.  Paul struggled here.  His Gospel now excluded Jews who did not profess Christ as Messiah from God.

Similarly, being a Christian means many things.  1) You may have a great heritage: Christ, Augustine, Francis, Luther, Calvin, Corrie Ten Boom and Billy Graham were all used of God.  2) Your lineage may include a preacher, teacher, missionary, or deacons.  3) You may be very religious… in church every time a door is open.  None of these save us.  No heritage, no lineage, no amount of religiosity saves anyone.

“If you rely on the Law,” Paul begins.  “Law” is Jewish dogma.  It held stories of Adam, Eve, Noah, and Moses.  It framed their religion and laws; and it was impossible to keep.  The Law is meant to bring us to our knees — to Jehovah to circumcise our hearts — and write His Law there.  But leaders chose parts of the Law to make rules they could keep.  Jesus despised religious rules-keepers.  He hated us thinking our religious rules make us righteous.  Baptists kept new versions of this: “We don’t smoke.  We don’t chew.  We don’t date the girls who do!”  Paul screams, “There were never any rules you could keep without abject dependence on God!”  Don’t think you check off God with church attendance, a few bucks in the plate, or a Hail Mary.

“If I brag on my relationship to God,” Paul says.  For Jews this was religiosity, their giving, and their visions.  Baptists, pride themselves similarly.  Here is one.  People “brag”, “The Lord said to me.”  Don’t trumpet what He says in your secret closet. 

If say God talked to you, and you still have no job: you did not dodge where God said, “no work, no eat.”[1]  I question if God told you to serve in this primo place.  David spent fourteen years as king everywhere BUT in a palace.  Jeremiah vanished in Egypt.  Jesus’ disciples died all over the known world.  If God calls, then respond as other saints did.  Anywhere He says.  If God gave you a vision, then treat your family at least as well as Christ indicated.  Baptists claim, “We’re democratic!”  Really?  If Christ is Head of the Church, and not subject to a vote of confidence, isn’t that Autocratic?  Religiously we call “reverence” what is simply less and less demonstrative.

Paul: “If you know His will and approve of what is superior because you are instructed by the Law.”  Hmm.  Baptists claim God’s Word is supreme.  Oh, then you’ve read it?  Once a year? And it is marked?  Does His Word instruct how you think, give, live?  Actually, we hide His Word so deep in us, we can’t find them.  We say, “I know what I should do…”

Paul continues, “If I’m convinced ‘I’m a guide for the blind’.”  Many Christians love this Bible study!  As Christian groupies, one person feeds off the adulation of the others.  “Where is the fruit?” God asks.  Jesus did not guide the blind, He healed them.  Who has witnessed, given, gone on mission? Who was healed? James warns, “Do not aspire to be teachers…”[2]

“If you are a light for those in the dark,” Paul continues.  God sternly judged Jews here.  Four times, He pronounces coming judgments in Isaiah and says, “I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness; [to be] a light for the Gentiles ¾  Isaiah 42:6; 49:6; 51:4.

Jesus came as “a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel” Luke 2:32.  Twice in Acts God reminds us, “‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth’”.[3]  You have light to take it to others.  Period.  Always.  People see Christ in you, and are drawn to Him.  You are God’s “light in the darkness”.

If I am an instructor of the foolish, and if I am a teacher of infants, because you have in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth¾” Now we know.  Paul set us up.  See the images to describe us: Guide!  Light!  Instructor!  Teacher!  See those outside my religion: blind, dark, foolish, infants.  Did you see it coming?  We richly receive God’s blessings!  Are we better, then?  Did God want a Georgia Baptist church to not bury a mixed-blood girl in its cemetery?  Did He call a New York church to suspect all breeders, all heterosexuals?  We guiltily use our veneer of religion to seem better at someone else’s expense.

You may still think you are superior, after all, you do not look down your nose at anyone.  Good.  Did you love him enough to give him Life in Christ?  No?  Guilty.  You judged them as not worth your embarrassment.  God help us, we even claim “theological” reasons to extinguish our lights: “sharing is not my gift, or my calling.”

Again: If I am convinced I am a guide for the blind.  If I am a light for those in the dark.  If I am an instructor of the foolish.  If I am a teacher of infants, because I have in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth—

Paul is a mongoose, knowing as long as a cobra can breathe, it will steal a baby’s life.  He is a drone giving its life to kill a wasp threatening the life of the hive.  He intensifies the attack.  He knows that hiding in the name of God from God is our most insidious trick.  He knows framing Christianity to be comfortable, when it is radical is hellish.  He knows half lies kill the Spirit in millions of breasts.  He stomps our most cherished illusions here.

You, then, who teach others, do you not teach yourself?  Paul whittles away my religiosity.  If I teach anything, I still have much to learn in that thing.  Examine my speech patterns.  I say “I ‘learned’ about patience, last week.  Bull.  I began to learn patience.  I initiated a life-long process to learn patience, but I did NOT complete my learning.   I speak as though a learning process is complete.   That is false.  Anything on which I teach, I have much more to learn and apply. 

That is only half the hypocrisy.  Anything I teach you — may be dead in me.  I may teach well-formed words and be as dead as a lounge lizard splattered in a wrecked car.  Do you get it?  If this lesson is not fresh, if it is not new by God’s grace to me then it is a dead gig. 

You who preach against stealing, do you steal?  If I don’t tithe, God says I steal from Him.[4] 

“You who say people should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery?”  Jesus said this was as easy as a look. 

You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?  Hear God: “Don’t you know you yourselves are God’s temple and God’s Spirit lives in you?  If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is sacred, and you are that temple”.[5]  If you rob God’s temple by excess, alcohol, abuse, or refuse His visitation rights to His temple in daily prayer, you rob Him.

You who brag on the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law?  Here a translation is not so evident.  Baptists use no Law to form our core beliefs.  But we have religious sources of pride.  A program called the Cooperative Program was genius 100 years ago to build hospitals, mission programs, seminaries, Disaster Relief, Camp Grounds etc.  But we ceased cooperating.  We fight, snipe, and grieve God’s Spirit. 

Baptists tout using Missions to give the world the Gospel.  Claiming 14.8+ million Southern Baptists, it takes 3,000 to send a full time missionary.  At 90K to keep a missionary in the field, then each Baptist gives $30.00 a year, less than the cost of athletic shoes on clearance. 

We cannot brag.  We don’t cooperate.  We hardly participate in missions. 

Baptists also claim we’re evangelistic.  The number of Baptists to bring one person to Christ keeps growing.  Now more people quit as Baptists than came to Christ.  We’re shrinking. 

Now hear this.  If you stand before God to say you were a religious, church-going, Baptist, He will question you.  “How exactly did you cooperate with people different from you?  How did you personally reach the nations for my Son’ sake?”  As it is written: “God’s name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.”  Blasphemy (in Isaiah) is when we lie about who we are by not living up to God’s hope. 

Paul finally gets to the principle. 

No one is a Jew if he or she is only one outwardly…. No, one is a Jew if he or she is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code.  Such a man’s praise is not from men, but from God.

This is no doubt-your-salvation-sermon.  It is a check-your-foundation-and-gear-sermon.  If we plan to climb a cliff, we check our ropes, carabineers, ascenders, helmets, etc.  We don’t check to spook each other, we check as if our lives depend on them.  Ever watch a flight officer inspect a plane before take off?  She is not walking, checking landing gear, leading edges to panic you.  She checks those because everyone is about to entrust their lives to those wings and parts. 

So here.  Paul says we trust Christ to deliver us from whatever religiosity we clung to.  We trust Christ to do what no religion can do.  Christ comes off icons, out of sermons, and into your heart to save you, to give you new life. 

Again! No, one is a Jew if he or she is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code.  Such a man’s praise is not from men, but from God.

It happens.  A preacher invites people to come to Chris.  He then answers his own invitation by professing Christ.  Being religious, he knew he missed Christ in his heart.  He had men and women’s praise, but not God.  He professed Christ. 

Jill and I lived in Enid, where three staff wives professed Christ.  Each was raised in church.  All were religious.  But when they checked their relationship to Christ, they were Baptists but not daughters.  They had outward trappings, but nothing new from Christ in them. 

I love being Baptist.  It won’t get me an air conditioner in hell.  Assembling with Baptists no more makes me a Christian than going to a hospital makes me a doctor.  No religion substitutes for asking Christ to be my Lord, to save me from myself. 

Chief Shoefoot, a Venezuelan rain forest Shaman knew of the Great Spirit, who had a Son, and they were beneficent.  But Shoefoot’s “spirits” told him his people had no access to the Great Spirit.  Missionaries lanced that lie to bring Christ to Shoefoot.  His transformation astounds me.

Do you need to come the first time to Christ?  Do you need to come back to Christ as your inward foundation, rather than your religiosity?  Paul bets you may need to do that often. 

If I give up all my religiosity, I have nothing, except grace from One I put on a cross.

Paul knows that whatever form(s) of religiosity you hold dear, Christ can unencumber you, enter you, and justify you, save you, grace you. 

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[1] 2 Thess. 3:10
[2] James 3:1
[3] Acts 13:47; 26:23
[4] Malachi 3:10
[5] 1 Cor. 3:16-17

Love and Fasting

When I fell in love with Jill, and I fell hard, I sometimes forgot to eat.  No kidding. 

I did not have to be near her.  She lived 740 miles away.  SO I was composing letters to her in my head.  Thinking of what to share with her when I first saw her again.  Imagining how conversations of our future, if we had one together, would play out.  I thought about her while I worked, which may explain getting electrocuted once.  The second time really does not count. 

I thought about her while I was in class.  I thought about her while I was really late to class.  I thought about her instead of being in class. 

I thought about her while running, studying, doing chores, enjoying friends, and occasionally instead of eating.  This was simple.  I only had to miss a meal by an hour or so, and then it was late enough to skip entirely.  I liked what C.S. Lewis said of God honoring all our fasts, the intentional ones and the unintentional. 

That brings me to fasting as a Christian discipline.  Here, I love Calvin Miller’s thoughts on discipline.  Calvin pastored a huge church, painted, wrote and published, spoke often at conventions, and raised a family.  Calvin said, “Your disciplines buy you your freedoms.”  He disciplined time at 5 a.m., to write and paint.  That discipline freed him to do what others wish, but don’t do because they “don’t have time.”

So we can fast.  (Take medical issues into account, please.)  But fasting out of duty, what’s it worth?  Fasting was best explained to me as purchasing time with God.  If I skipped lunch, then I had time to read scripture, write God letters, pray, or just get quiet.  Hard, I know.  To just shut up and listen for God to speak from His end. 

Again, if I only fast out of duty, and I have done it plenty from duty, I end up no closer to God, not fulfilled in Him, and usually grumpy because of hunger and a headache. 

But occasionally, I imagine all I hoped to say and forgot, I read His letters (Psalms), remember what I wrote Him back in the day, and relive favorite moments in worship and … forget about eating!

Or I choose a time to fast, (When and where is none of your business.  He says it’s a big secret for just us two!), and I stumble into His presence, and for maybe minutes my thoughts cease flying to every other area and concern in my life. 

It is a lot like a date, not the sex, but the aching to share your heart, or hear what breaks and gladdens His heart, or discovering treasure He set aside for you. 

Lots of writers have means, steps, and ways to fast.  Read them.  Put it into practice, but remember the ultimate point of fasting and prayer is far, far beyond what most people know in religion: it is oneness, a blurring into the Person of God. 

Moses and Jesus forgot about food for days and days in that place.