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Romans 3:1-8
Sermons from Commons Church. Intellectually honest. Spiritually passionate. Jesus at the centre. Since 2014.
Welcome to the Commons cast. We're glad you're here and we hope you find something meaningful in our teaching this week. Head to commons.church for more information.
Speaker 2:Welcome to Commons this morning. My name is Scott. If I haven't had a chance to meet you, I'm one of the people that serves here on the team at Commons. Since the beginning of this year, I've had the privilege of working hard with a small group of people that are committed to the idea of our church starting another parish which is really awesome and we're looking for new neighborhoods and new location for our church to move. So I'd like to announce today that we don't have an announcement about our future location just yet which I'm sure disappoints some of you but that day is coming, we promise.
Speaker 2:We're actually working really hard to have that done this spring and I want you to know that we're starting to work now at what our volunteer teams are gonna look like in that location and we're working at the myriad of details that it will take to become an extension of Common's Church in another neighborhood. And if the notion of that sparks any interest in you, if you're curious about how a church starts, how it builds itself or perhaps you'd love to hear a little bit more about this specific part about common's growth and vision for the future then I would love to talk with you. These are exciting times for our church and I hope that you can sense God's invitation to join us in whatever way that you can. Now with that said, last week we started back into our series on Romans and I love participating in a community that not only commits to tackling a daunting theological book like this but we're committed to doing it over several years and maybe I shouldn't be surprised given that we're a community that spent eight weeks in Leviticus but for the record, this kind of commitment to seek, to know, to love God with all of our hearts, with all of our strength and with all of our mind is so life giving for me.
Speaker 2:And if you're newer to our community and you're not quite sure how you're gonna handle Romans, don't worry we're gonna move on from it before too long. But I hope that for each of us, we'll all be able to catch a glimpse of the wonder and expanse of what Paul says in this first century letter because that's just it. There's a lot of good content here. The apostle Paul is an intriguing figure to consider given just how much of our scriptures are attributed to him but he's also intriguing because he offers us an example, perhaps one that some of us might catch glimpse of for the first time, an example of what it looks like when a person encounters the story of Jesus and then has to reconcile that story with their own previous experience. Now Jeremy briefly recap for us Paul's story of moving from being a persecutor of the early church to becoming one of the early church's leading figures.
Speaker 2:And part of what's so fascinating about Paul is that he opens us up to all of the possibilities that are in Christ. That whoever you are, wherever you are, a completely new life is always just one divine encounter away. Now as different as we might sense Paul is from us as we work through Romans and as distant as we might feel from the issues that press up against us in his writing, I hope that we will take up this invitation to do the work that Paul teaches us and models for us, to take up the story of Jesus, to handle it, to tell it, to bicker, and to banter with it, finding that it has a way of working its way into the fabric of our lives as we do so. So would you join me now in a prayer of intention as we move into the text? Oh, great God of light and love, we come to these moments now from all of our varied stories gathered with all of our concerns and our distractions.
Speaker 2:We acknowledge your vibrant presence in all of creation around us, how you are the gracious author of all that is good and pure and captivating in our world. In this moment we ask you that you would open our hearts to the beauty of this text, to its provoking power, to its gentle insistence that we turn our attention to your great mercy. Help us as we do the work of declaring and examining the mystery of Christ who lived and died and was raised so that we could be caught up in your great love. We pray these things in the name of Christ and by the spirit. Amen.
Speaker 2:Last week, we recapped chapters one and two of Romans so we're going to pick up right where the new material starts. So listen now to the first eight verses of Romans chapter three. What advantage then is there in being a Jew or what value is there in circumcision? Much in every way. First of all, the Jews have been entrusted with the very words of God.
Speaker 2:Now what if some of them were unfaithful? What if they're unfaithful or will their unfaithfulness nullify God's faithfulness? Not at all. Let God be true and every human being a liar as it is written, so that you may be proved right when you speak and prevail when you judge. But if our unrighteousness brings out God's righteousness more clearly, what shall we say?
Speaker 2:Is God unjust in bringing his wrath on us? I'm using a human argument. Certainly not. If that were so, how could God judge the world? Now someone might argue, if my falsehood enhances God's truthfulness and so increases his glory, why am I condemned as a sinner?
Speaker 2:Why not say as some slanderously claim we do, let us do evil that good may result? Their condemnation is just. Right? Like what's going on here? And I know that when I read these verses about three weeks ago, I I sort of just stared at them and like, oh my goodness.
Speaker 2:Now there's a reason for this and it's that as one commentator says, these are some of the most difficult verses to interpret in the entire letter. Right? So it's all downhill from here if we can get through it. But as we start here, it's maybe not as bad as it sounds but in order to access it, think we need to spend a couple of minutes going over some things in chapter two so it doesn't feel as though we're listening to a one-sided conversation because this is the reality of reading Paul's letters. We're always listening to one side of an argument.
Speaker 2:Rarely do we ever know how Paul's readers responded, how they might have written back angrily taking exception to his instructions and to his theology. That's part of the challenge for us and it's a significant reason why we here at Commons try to frame the context for you as Jeremy did last week. We do this so that you'll hear Paul's letters not as a monologue but as a conversation where Paul's identity as a learned religious leader comes right up against the rich and the poor, the disenfranchised and the entitled alike. The implied conversation means that sometimes we should feel ourselves disagreeing with Paul because that's what their experience would have been in the first century. And if we're confused or unclear, we don't even know what he's talking about, that's okay.
Speaker 2:We should let ourselves feel that frustration and let the questions come to our minds and hold on to them for just a moment. Now last week we discussed how in his side of the conversation, Paul emphasizes God's faithfulness as central to our understanding of what it means to have faith and how we construct a theology of salvation. In other words, Paul says that God has shown his great loyalty to his ancient promises to Israel and by extension to all creation in the person of Jesus. So let's just take that, let's hold on to it because we're gonna come back to it later. But first, Paul makes it clear in the first chapters of this letter that the work of Jesus is all encompassing and at the same time he shows us that there are people who are rejecting this kindness we see in Christ.
Speaker 2:In chapter two, confronts those in his own Jewish tradition who are judging and snubbing Gentiles, anybody who's not a Jew. They're doing that while they're not responding to God's goodness themselves which Paul sees as a great hypocrisy. And then Paul goes even further by saying that people who simply hear and know the rules of God, they aren't even righteous at all. In fact, those who do good are righteous even if they don't know the rules and he claims that everybody has this capacity for goodness. The Jews when they observe the law and Gentiles when they live morally.
Speaker 2:Paul argues that when Gentiles do this, they actually show that the law of God is written on their hearts and ultimately God is the great and gracious judge of all the secrets of each of us. Now those of us who are familiar with the Hebrew Bible, with the Jewish tradition will understand that these kinds of statements that Paul was making, they're very controversial and and why? Well, because a fundamental aspect of Jewish identity was their sense of holding a special status. We are God's favorites and they thought that this exempted them from God's wrath. But guess what?
Speaker 2:Paul's not done. If he hasn't gotten everybody angry at him in this letter, he keeps going. He says, listen guys, circumcision, that part about cutting off bits, it doesn't matter. Listen, you don't get points for observing Abraham's covenant of circumcision while simultaneously being unethical and immoral. It doesn't work that way.
Speaker 2:The whole point of God's faithfulness is that he brings grace to us and then this grace changes us inwardly, not just outwardly. That's Paul's big point. God's faithful to you. And once you realize it, it changes you, and you'll begin to act in ways that look like God. Now that Paul set all of that up, he starts our text today with a rhetorical question.
Speaker 2:So why would we follow the rules if we can have the perks without them? What advantage is there to being a Jew? And from everything that Paul's been saying, it feels as though the expected answer is nothing. There's no advantage. You gotta remember that he's talking to Jews and Gentiles.
Speaker 2:Right? And the Gentiles are sitting there thinking, hey, great. No advantage. We're all equal. While the Jews simultaneously hover in the corner sulking because Paul's just taking away their special status.
Speaker 2:And Paul throws everybody for a loop here when he says something to the effect of, actually, the Jews have every advantage. What? And he keeps going. First of all, they were entrusted with the very words of God. Now a couple quick things here.
Speaker 2:First, this phrase first of all, it's a curious one because it's a common idiom in Greek similar to our English usage in which someone indicates that they're gonna give you a list in answer to a question that you've asked them. And what's curious is that Paul lists his number one and then doesn't keep going with his list. And commentators debate what's going on here. Is Paul just not a detail guy? Maybe he just only had one priority that he had or maybe he's gonna come back to it later in the letter?
Speaker 2:And isn't it true that sometimes the most profound moments in our lives, they come through a deliberate, well delivered sermon or a carefully crafted book, but that also sometimes our most significant moments come in a brief conversation over coffee or in a spontaneous choice to try something new. What this shows is Paul's forgetfulness in this passage is a reminder to not ignore the voice of God when it comes to us from unexpected places. Now secondly, this phrase very words of God. It's curious because the NIV diverges from many other English bibles which translate the Greek term logon or words as oracles. And they try to get at what Paul's hinting at here when they ascribe the descriptor very, the very words, but it appears that they are only doing this to make the phrase more accessible for us as English readers because we don't use the word oracle very often, do we?
Speaker 2:But to a first century audience, Paul's using a specific term with significant resonance. He's not just saying that the Hebrew peoples have received God's word in their scriptures. He's saying that they were entrusted with the mysteries of God as he revealed himself again and again in history. There's a deep storiedness to what Paul's saying here. He's saying that God spoke to the Jewish people, yes, but he's been doing it for a long time and through a variety of voices.
Speaker 2:And this consistent dialogue that God's having, it's a marker of relationship which means there's a weight to the word that Paul's using. And then you have the Gentile hearers of this letter. They would have identified this word oracle because the word in the ancient world was synonymous with the idea of sacred messages or holy mysteries and those who received these and delivered them to people were thought to be connected to the gods. So in the preceding chapters, Paul has told both his Jewish and his Gentile listeners that they have access to God's mercy and that they might actually work against that mercy by unconsciously or willfully drawing things to themselves that undermine God's good work. This is what we discussed last week.
Speaker 2:And now in chapter three, Paul adds a caveat for the Jews. He says, saying well, he says that there's an advantage because they've been entrusted with God's repeated and profound revelation of himself. God's self disclosure to them gave them the blessing of God's faithfulness and that blessing came with the capacity to actually reject God directly. Now I wonder if there isn't an underlying truth in this phrase for all of us where we might ask ourselves what it is that we've been entrusted with. Or put another way, when I look back at my story, where can I see God's quiet but persistent presence?
Speaker 2:Maybe in a sense of clarity I had in the Scriptures, maybe I was struck by the security and the serenity of good health or financial stability, the the beauty of a fulfilling friendship at one point in our lives or the awareness of God's affection that came to me in a moment of difficulty that I had. I know that when I discipline myself in this practice of looking back, I begin to see how expansive and how far reaching God's work in my life has been. In my life, serendipitous joys, yes, but also in my slow discernment of who I actually am, of my gradual acceptance of my limitations and my celebration of my strengths, in my weakness and in my happiness and in my acknowledgment that God's goodness shapes all of these things. And this kind of awareness has a way of correcting my tendency to bring things close to me that work against God's good purpose in my life. Things like self sufficiency or a sense of entitlement that alienate me from others.
Speaker 2:Things like pride in what I've accomplished or what I've inherited which which lead me to belittle those around me subconsciously, undermining my relationship with them or things like my sense of justification that I'm always right which leads me to be defensive with others or harsh or aloof with them. In these verses, Paul is disturbed that some Jews in the first century have taken the oracles they've received, The grace of God extended to them in the story and they've claimed special status from that. And ultimately, that special status leads them to reject Jesus. And so Paul asks, well, what if some of the Jewish people are unfaithful in their their handling of the things that they've been entrusted with? Does their faithlessness nullify God's faithfulness?
Speaker 2:Or another way of saying that is when we mess up, does that compromise God's capacity to do good in the world? And here, Paul comes to the crux of the issue for some of us. Right? Because it's easy for us to wrap our minds around the idea of God's grace being equal for all, even if that access looks different to different people in different times and places. Everyone has access?
Speaker 2:Totally. That makes sense. God wouldn't be good if it was any other way or the kingdom of God is radically egalitarian and it deconstructs the systems of control and leverage that we use to distinguish ourselves from others? For sure, that sounds right But then we live our lives and we don't get everything right. Our relationships get out of whack, our appetites lead us into addiction, our ambition drives us to success marked by loneliness and suddenly it's not so easy to conceive of God's faithfulness as central to our faith because we know how unfaithful we are.
Speaker 2:Like the time that one of our kids accidentally left the photo booth application open and recording video on our computer. Later that same night, I went to shut the computer off and I discovered to my annoyance that my kids had been messing with my stuff. And then I saw this video that had been filmed and I clicked on it out of curiosity to see what they'd captured and it seemed innocent enough. Right? Everyday life in our house just laughter, crying, food, toys, repeat.
Speaker 2:But at some point in the video, one of my children did something and I had gotten frustrated and angry and I got to listen to my own voice, void of affection, harsh, exacting in its critique of my quietly remorseful child and I was ashamed. All of my insecurity, all of my fear, all of my dislike of who I am, I could feel those things in that moment and I was convinced that I am a colossal failure as a father. And it is in moments like this that we ask ourselves, is God still able to keep this thing on track when I don't? And Paul responds to those types of questions of whether human faithlessness limits God with an emphatic not at all or what scholars call a negative oath or what I like to call a hell no. Believe it or not, scholars with actual credentials think that's what Paul's saying so don't be nervous.
Speaker 2:But with this strong response, Paul assures everyone that God's fidelity isn't measured by our standards of accounting And he exclaims, even if every human being were unfaithful, untrustworthy, and unable to follow through, God will be true to his promises, to his word. He's trustworthy. Remember from last week, this verse that says, for in the good news, the righteousness of God is revealed, a righteousness that is his faithfulness from beginning to end. That is central to Paul when it comes to the gospel. God is good, God is love, he's faithful and true and the reason we can trust him is because he doesn't give up even when we screw up.
Speaker 2:But it's curious how Paul reinforces this point for because he goes into the Hebrew prayer book and he lifts out a line from Psalm 51. Now for those of you don't know, Psalm 51 is a prominent inclusion because of its ties to the monarchy narrative in the Old Testament and specifically to the life of King David. And in the Psalm, we have a record of Paul or Paul's, David's fervent repentance in the aftermath of intimidating and manipulating another man's wife, impregnating her, and then having her husband murdered just to finish off his little domestic disaster. And in the Psalm, he's raw, he's shame filled, he's contrite and rightfully so. And he says this, he says, for I know my transgressions and my sin is always in front of me.
Speaker 2:Against you, you only have I sinned and done what's evil in your sight. So you are right in your verdict and you're justified when you judge. David recognizes in the middle of his error and his self destruction that God speaks rightly and purely and he is the faithful and gracious judge of both our internal lives and our external actions. And what's interesting is that Paul quotes David's psalm almost verbatim from the Septuagint, which was just the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible that he would have had at the time, which says this, that you God may be proved right when you speak and may prevail when you judge. But isn't it curious?
Speaker 2:Look at this. Paul alters it slightly to say this, that you may be proved right when you speak and you will prevail when you judge. That little verb change there expands the psalmist's claim from one that acknowledges God's work in the world in the middle of deep personal failure, it expands it to Paul's future hopeful perspective that God will do this great work for Israel, for all the nations, for all things. It's it's like Paul's taking the psalmist who writes that God will do right even when I mess up. And now he says, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah. That but for all of us. In this statement, Paul is specifically talking about Israel but his hope is that despite our inability to remain completely faithful and despite our widespread failure to acknowledge God in the world, God will still be true even if it means he has to step in himself which is what he shows us in Christ. Now isn't that expanding truth something that you and I need? To ground our faith in a humble trust that in our momentary lapses of judgment, in our negotiating of the relationships that we violate or break, in our perpetual struggle to do what we long to do and yet quit what we must, that God will be true.
Speaker 2:But then also to quietly affirm, maybe even hesitantly that God will prevail, that in this wondrous story of his kingdom coming to earth that he will show himself true in his promise to make all things new, that not even our deepest wrong or our deepest hurt can thwart the trueness and tenaciousness of his love. But just in case we think we can get complacent and lazy and say something like, well, God's gonna fix it all in the end anyway, I can do what I want, Paul turns his attention to an apparent accusation that some in the community may have made. Here's the basic gist. Some Jews in the church have heard what Paul said and they're like, hey, if our failure to stay true to the covenant has happened and if our inability to be Israel as God intended has happened, if that's provided this great opportunity for God in Christ to be made known, then it seems kinda unfair that God would judge us for doing him a favor. In fact, it sounds like we should do more wrong so that he could have more chances to be awesome.
Speaker 2:Now we don't know if Paul's just composed this as a straw man argument or if it's just a question that he was curious about, but we do know that he responds to this question with another emphatic oath and then a good one liner. And in this one line, Paul falls back on a core Jewish tenant. And basically what he says is, that's ridiculous. Of course, God's not unjust for judging people who hurt the world or unjust for having high standards for every person or unjust for being angry when we injure each other. The story of God is that we get to be part of his renewing all things and we're not forced into it.
Speaker 2:We're not dragged kicking and screaming. We're not threatened into it. The point is that in Christ, God is moving to fix the world. Jews can't stop it. Gentiles can't stop it, and God offers us a chance, a part in the story, and invites us to end our feudal war against the fate of all things.
Speaker 2:And in making these claims today, we stand with Paul as he writes. Paul's not a young man anymore as he writes this. He's twenty years into his attempt to reconcile who Jesus is and the fact that this good news appears to be changing the world with or without us. And it's true. In the section of verses we've looked at today, he is talking to Jewish Christians trying to work out their relationship with Jesus.
Speaker 2:But it's also an invitation to us. So as you consider all that you have been entrusted with in your story, all the ways that your story has been shaped by God's steady presence, the ways that you've grown in your understanding of the divine, as you reflect on the startling reality of God's faithfulness to you even in your darkest failure, even in your most public shame, even in your most glaring flaw, that his promises are greater than your mess ups. As you take stock of whether you're working against God's redeeming work in the world and whether you're holding on to things that he would long to remove or transform as he renews everything. May you have grace to see your life as part of God's story and may you grow in your trust that God will prevail in your concerns and in his redemption of all. And may you rest in his faithful affection that invites and transforms you day by day.
Speaker 2:Let's pray. Oh, gracious God, we feel the weight of this text and we confess and we celebrate that that weight is actually the great weight of your faithfulness to us. This great invitation to turn our hearts toward you, to not resist your patient work in us, to open our arms that cling to things that keep us from you, and to accept your embrace for us. Would you give us grace to acknowledge you today and to accept all of your great work in redeeming all things. We pray this in the name of Christ and by the spirit.
Speaker 2:Amen.