Installment Two: Romans 3:21 through 11:36
Throw those old knickers (or tunic) in the trash! (Romans 3:21-5:21)
“But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the law and the prophets testify. This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”
“But now” changes the whole universe— we should be saying those two words every day when we wake up! Paul isn’t saying not to follow the law or remove yourself from scripture, he is saying that there is a means for righteousness that is apart from law-keeping.
I’m moved to define righteousness, as it is central to these passages, so that we can all be in accord with its meaning. We often mistake the word to mean, simple adherence to following moral rules or the law and to enforce them upon others. Under mosaic law (the “Old Covenant”), righteousness was an obligation to follow the rituals as written by Moses. They were practices intended to bring forth the true righteousness defined below. The only problem is the “law” itself became God for them and so it does for many of us today— and it distracts followers from true righteousness.
The Hebrew and the Greek words for righteousness both mean Justice, virtue, and morality, free from sin— it doesn’t have anything to do “works” or “works righteousness”, law, or practice. After 2000 years both Christians and Jews struggle with this one!
Deuteronomy defines God t
his way, “He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he.” That is the purest definition of “righteousness” ever spoken. Are we not made in His image?
To be clear, righteousness, at its core is not observing sabbath, removing your sins by observing Tashlikh for the Jews (among many other observances). In Christian churches It is not being compelled by authority in getting christened or baptized. Giving penance is a good example of often compelled atonement of your sins. those are really great things but should be done voluntarily through reverence rather than obligation.
Righteousness is being upright in morality, following Gods commandments which are all rooted in love, forgiveness, and grace, a spiritual quality that brings you into the fold of that understanding of God— conscience, character, loving one another, not judging. Finally, justice and integrity. It’s about truth, wisdom, virtue and fulfillment of God’s will which, again, is rooted in love. It’s not carrying a lucky rabbit’s foot around or avoiding stepping on cracks in the sidewalk— fun but those things should not be man inscribed law.
So basically, Paul says that we are all sinners and God, in order to form the “New Covenant”, sent Jesus to resolve sin—this act allows us to seek God not out of obligation, but out of grace. Following the “Law” no longer means absolution, instead it is a tool to reveal sin or guide gratitude, but the deed alone NEVER grants you the VIP badge at the Big Banquet…
…Faith, rather, grants you the VIP badge— and no doubt some among Paul’s audience protested which was easily retorted against— Abraham was righteous before circumcision, before mount Sinai, before Isreal, before the Sabbath, before Yom Kippur, Sukkot, and before Mosaic Law. Jesus followed many Jewish traditions but didn’t panic when he had bigger God stuff to do even if the Pharisees lost their minds over him doing so.
To put it in absolute terms, you are not saved because you changed. You change because you are saved and that’s already happened!!
Released from Law, Bound to Christ (Romans 6:1-8:39)
“What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means… for if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his."
You are in luck. These verses are pretty easy to understand. Here Paul goes on to say, “You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to [the proper definition] of righteousness.” For many of us, we are slave to the practice of trying to be free of sin. You already have been set free from sin— now go be righteous without fear. How awesome!
Ever start a spiritual practice and eventually realize you are a slave to the practice itself? It started off getting you on base with God, but now it is bland. The “law” you created around your practice, or created by your Rabbi, or chaplain’s hand, has enslaved you— we could be blind to God’s Gift in in that practice.
Evaluate— does your daily practice bring you closer to God, or righteousness, or does it separate you from Him? If ritual decays or is corrupted, move into another ritual if it serves God and you!
As for sin, guess what, you will always have contradictory thoughts, one for what the flesh desires, and its challenger, the one the Spirit desires. The more time we spend on one or the other, the more it gets what it desires. The first lacks wisdom and has random bad outcomes, the second lives in Grace and always has good outcomes— even when we see the initial outcome as bad.
I lost an entire writing this weekend— at first, I was devastated. I wanted to kick the cat; I said a more colorful word than “golly”! Eventually I spoke a little prayer and felt at ease. After rewriting the paper I was 1000% happier with the outcome from the lost version!! That moment of disaster had a purpose and an extraordinary outcome— it would NOT have happened without the pain of loss!
Cosmically speaking, the flesh is early death, the Spirit is eternal life. The desires of the flesh come from the outside and find a way into us. Spirit is grace from within that sets out beyond us. So, shall we be inside-out, or outside-in? Most of us live outside-in and complain when we wear our shirt inside-out. Maybe we should wear our shirt inside-out more often!!
Finally, we recognize that in our life we witness creation complaining, believers faltering, and Spirit being put in a shoe box with the old Polaroids. We have to recognize this isn’t the Flesh winning— or darkness taking over. These are growing pains. They are signs that we should open up that shoebox again.
In the section being discussed we find the famous, misused verse of “if God is for us who can be against us.”. It ends with the verse from the title of this email. It’s worth reacquainting yourself with the whole verse if it’s been a while but the essence of the verse (8-31 through 8:39) is NOT who is against us, it’s what is done to us by those that are against us and how we pull through it.
The verse means that nothing can separate us from the love of God and Christ Jesus despite all the bad that comes to us by our own hand, or another’s. Not crushing circumstances, not persecution, failure, death, your bad day, or your weakest moment. Your faith in God and Jesus during those times defeats all of them!
Romans 8 began with “no condemnation” and ended with “no separation”.
“Whataboutism” Diffused (Romans 9:1-11:36)
“One of you will say to me: ‘Then why does God still blame us? For who is able to resist his will?’ … Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’”
Paul is diffusing the obvious retort that will be spoken by his Jewish brothers. Why has Isreal, the very people who laid out the red carpet for God, been so utterly cursed? Side note, why are they still cursed so often? Is God unjust?
Paul starts by sincerely showing empathy for the plight of Isreal. Paul makes some examples of why bad actors do bad things to Isreal. He cautions that God’s mercy should be considered undeserved and should not be claimed by anyone as a right.
He speaks of why Pharaoh persecuted the Jews saying God does not create Pharoah’s evil, instead he uses Pharaoh’s bad character which hurt the Jews in order to reveal his true power to the Jews. Had not Pharaoh been a total tyrant, the Jews may not have ever found trust in God.
Then Paul, addresses the next question on why the Gentiles have favor. The response speaks for itself, “That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith; but the people of Israel, who pursued the law as the way of righteousness, have not attained their goal. Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone.”
Paul reminds these Messianic Jews that Christ exposed the Pharisees during his ministry and made it clear that the gifts from God are not performance based or have anything to do with ethnicity, or religious pride. Could this same thinking today corrupt Judaism and Christianity? It does and has throughout history so be careful.
The point being made is ultimately Israel hasn’t failed and have been unknowingly serving a greater purpose that shows the true depth of God’s Wisdom. Wisdom, in our arrogance, we think we can understand. Were it not for the Jewish hardships, brought on by their own conceitedness, the Gentiles might never have found the spark of Christ.
Paul leaves us with this: “Just as you who were at one time disobedient to God have now received mercy as a result of their disobedience [speaking of Rome, Egypt, etc.], so they too have now become disobedient in order that they too may now receive mercy as a result of God’s mercy to you. For God has bound everyone over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all.”
In summary, God never lost control and never will. God is writing a story that we mortals believe we can understand, and if or when we do, God then is able to get a little deeper in writing the story going forward. Without the Old Covenant to teach the 1st graders, there would never have been the New Covenant to teach the High School students. A 1st grader can’t fathom 12th grade until he gets there.
Let’s assume the reader, or his students, at the time, were able to pass the quiz because Paul is ready to get to the fun stuff.
Maybe the kids are ready to graduate 12th grade.
The only way to find out is to get on to the next chapter.
Romans 12 starts off with:
“Therefore…”
