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Romans 3:27-31
Sermons from Commons Church. Intellectually honest. Spiritually passionate. Jesus at the centre. Since 2014.
Because in my life, the people who have brought the best out in me are the people who see the best in me because they help me see that version of myself. Welcome to the comments cast. We're glad you're here and we hope you find something meaningful in our teaching this week. Hit the commons.church for more information. My name is Jeremy.
Speaker 1:I'm part of the team here and we are in the middle actually, we're near the end of an extended series in the book of Romans right now. Last year, we took some time to look at chapters one and two. This year, we're looking at chapters three and four. And our long term plan is just to take chunks of this letter each year for however long it takes us just to work our way through this book until we get to the end. But for this year, we actually have tonight and then we have next week and that's it because then we'll be moving on to something else.
Speaker 1:But I do wanna mention a couple things here. First of all, our journal project is created every year and it lays out our teaching schedule for the entire year. We want sermons to flow into series. We want series to flow into seasons. We want seasons to create our year for us, and we wanna have a meaningful direction that extends into the long term health and development of our community.
Speaker 1:So if you are newer to commons and you haven't picked up a journal yet, then drop by the connection center before you leave. We do have some print copies left. But if you are a digital person and that works better for you, you can also go to commons.church/journal, and you can download a version for iPhone or iPad or whatever tablet you have to take notes that way. But I mention that because I know Romans can be a heavy book. Last week, we plowed through some heavy theological content.
Speaker 1:Today, we have more work to do as well, and that's a good and healthy practice for us at church. We need to have that kind of discipline and exercise as a community, But at the same time, there needs to be rhythm to our year. And so I understand that some of you are absolutely loving this series. You enjoy diving into the technical stuff, and that is great. But I also understand that some of you are, let's be honest here, enduring this for the greater good.
Speaker 1:But having a plan like this and having it laid out in the journal, that can help us to see what's coming and to make sense of where we are in the year. So today and next week, we're still in Romans. But after that, we're gonna spend three weeks looking at the temptations of Christ from the gospels. And then after that, we're gonna be spending the entire summer in the stories of David, which I think is gonna be a lot of fun and a definite change of pace as we get into some more narrative based teaching over the summer. So before we recap last week, though, I do wanna mention one more thing.
Speaker 1:Baptisms are coming up in two weeks. And baptisms are hands down one of my favorite moments to witness as a pastor, to see people choose to say that this story and this Jesus, this incredibly gracious God that we see revealed in the Christ, that this is the story they want to identify their story with, that is about as good as it gets as a pastor for me. Now we are still working out the details about which services those baptisms will be held at, but we would be honored to participate alongside you if this is something that needs to happen in your journey, in your story. And remember that baptism is not about saying you have everything figured out or that you have all of your questions about Christianity answered. Baptism is about saying that Jesus is the relationship you want to throw yourself into.
Speaker 1:And if that's you, then please come and talk to us. You can also go to commons.life and click on the baptism image there because we would love to sit down, have a conversation, and see if this isn't your next step. We'd be honored to participate in that way. K. Last week, we got close to the end of chapter three, and we covered two of the big verses that have a lot of theological significance for interpreters of Paul.
Speaker 1:Romans three twenty three, which says, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And then Romans three twenty five, which talks about the sacrifice of atonement that Christ made to bring us back to God. So let's look at those ideas quickly here, and then we'll move forward today. Romans three twenty three. People pull this verse out all the time and say, see, Paul thinks that we are all just wicked dirty little monkeys who can do nothing good.
Speaker 1:God is right to want to roast us. Except that in the context here, that's not really his point at all. Starting a verse earlier, Paul says, God's righteousness is given through the faithfulness of Jesus to all who believe. There is no difference then between Jew and Gentile for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified to the grace that comes through Jesus. So, yes, absolutely, Paul is acknowledging that we all mess up.
Speaker 1:And, honestly, I don't think anyone here would argue with him on that point. But his larger point is that because of that, knowing that we are all broken in some way, we shouldn't think that our group, in Paul's terms, Jews and Gentiles, are fundamentally different from each other. We're all in the same boat needing the same rescue from the same god. That's his central thesis. And this is why it's really important that we don't read single verses in isolation.
Speaker 1:There's always a larger context, and there's a bigger argument that's being made, and that's gonna help to inform what we hear and give nuance to how we interpret what we read. Actually posted a video this week on social media looking at another verse like this because someone came up to me after the message last Sunday and said, okay. I get it. I see what Paul is doing there, but what about other verses? What about where the Bible says that God is too holy to look at sin?
Speaker 1:He cannot even tolerate our wickedness. That actually comes from a passage in Habakkuk. It's chapter one verse 13. And there the prophet says, your eyes are too pure to look on evil. You cannot tolerate wrongdoing.
Speaker 1:People often grab that and they say, see, God is separated from us. He will have nothing to do with us because of our sinfulness. Except that if you read the second half of that same verse, Habakkuk one thirteen says, why then do you tolerate the treacherous? Why are you silent while the wicked are swallowed up by those more righteous than themselves? And so the point of those verse is actually that God does tolerate wrongdoing, and he is graceful when we don't deserve it, that he is far more patient than we often expect him to be.
Speaker 1:That's what's going on there. In fact, the passage in Habakkuk is all about the prophet struggling to make sense of the God who is more gracious than he thinks he should be. But the problem is, if you only read the first half of that verse, you come away with completely the wrong idea about God. And that's sort of what happens to Paul a lot. People pull something out of context, and they think that he's so pessimistic that it's not really his intention here.
Speaker 1:And that's why we're trying to take our time and be thorough in a series like this. We wanna take our time to understand not just what Paul says, but the context in which he says it because that's really important. Okay. So that took us to Romans three twenty five where Paul writes that God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement or a in Greek. And we spent a lot of our time last week talking about the translation of this one specific word, the difference between propitiation, expiation, and atonement here.
Speaker 1:And now if you missed last week, you go, like, boy, I really messed up, but on that one, I should have been here. Well, propitiation is the idea that God needs to be appeased or placated. Expiation is the idea that a break in relationship needs to be healed or mended, and atonement is the overriding principle that in Christ we are made at one with God. And I suggested that God does not need to be appeased or placated or mollified. That propitiation is not a good translation here because it comes from the Greco Roman world of religious ideas.
Speaker 1:You know, the gods were placated and the gods were bribed with gifts, but that doesn't have a place in Christian thought. Expiation is a better translation because it recognizes that God isn't the one needing to be fixed. We are. But, ultimately, I think the NIV actually gets it right here when they talk about atonement because I think that Paul is using this word hilasterion in the Hebrew sense. See, the Hebrew or hilasterion is used to translate the Hebrew scriptures into Greek, and there it's used to describe the place where at onement happened in the temple.
Speaker 1:And Paul is saying that all of the sacrifices, the systems, and the rituals, all of the Roman gifts and bribes have now been replaced in Jesus because Christ is now the location where God and his world are brought together as one. And that's really Paul's story, that Christ has come to find him, and now that is our story, that God has come to find us, to fix and repair and heal each of us through Jesus to make us at one with our creator. K? So that was through to Romans three twenty six last week. But there is still a bit left here in chapter three that we need to pick up, and that is going to lead us through to chapter four next week.
Speaker 1:And, yes, we are gonna cover all of chapter four in one week. I promise. But chapter four is just one big case study or an example of all of these ideas that Paul has been working out in chapter three here, we'll so be able to do it in one week, I promise. First, let's pray. God, thank you for all the ways that you continue to be gracious to us, inviting us forward, welcoming us home, helping us to see ourselves in the light of your grace and peace.
Speaker 1:And for those times where we have only had part of your story in view, and we have seen ourselves as fundamentally disconnected from you or separated from your love, would you speak your healing and your acceptance to us? Remind us that you are always more gracious than we expect you to be, and that you would go to any lengths to close the gap and heal the hurt so that we could feel your divine embrace. God, as we continue to move together through these ancient words, would you help them to speak not only of theological significance, but of this relationship that we are invited to enter in you. Might we come before you this day, confident of your faithfulness to save us and learning to trust in that righteousness above all else. In the strong name of the risen Christ, we pray.
Speaker 1:Amen. Okay. We are moving towards chapter four today. But first, we have to pick up a couple ideas at the end of chapter three, and that's gonna lead us into where Paul goes next week. So he says in Romans three twenty seven, where then is boasting?
Speaker 1:It is excluded. Because of what law? The law that requires works? No. Because of the law that requires faith.
Speaker 1:Now Paul does this all throughout Romans where it seems like he's kind of having a conversation with someone who's not there. And to be honest, if you were ever to come by the office and listen outside my door while I'm writing a sermon, or if you were to ever see me in a coffee shop when I'm writing a sermon, you would see me doing exactly this. Sometimes my wife will come with me, will go to a coffee shop, I'll bring my computer and work, and she's like, Jeremy, it's weird. Stop doing that. It's disconcerting because I'm talking to my computer screen, and I'm gesticulating as if there's someone there to respond.
Speaker 1:Basically, she's across the table from me, but I'm fully engrossed in my own little internal conversation that's happening. And by the way, is it just me, or is that what we all do every day in the morning when we're in the shower? Just practice conversations that might possibly come up during the day. Right? No?
Speaker 1:That's just me? Fine. Well, I like to be prepared, so I wanna rehearse. Regardless, that's what Paul is doing here. And in technical commentaries, we call this the Jewish interlocutor.
Speaker 1:And that is just a fancy way of saying that he's imagining himself speaking with a pious Jew who's arguing with him about theology. And Paul is saying that because the gospel is that God's righteousness has been shown to us in Christ's faithfulness, and our salvation is learning to trust in that, well, there's really no reason for us to be going around bragging about how great we are. That's pretty straightforward. Except that there's something really interesting here. Paul says that boasting is excluded because of the law that requires faith.
Speaker 1:And law is sometimes a short form way of talking about the entirety of the Old Testament. So the Hebrew scriptures or Torah. But notice here that Paul is not actually making a contrast between faith and law or faith in the Old Testament. He's making a contrast between an interpretation of the Old Testament that leads to rules and rule following and an interpretation of the Old Testament that leads to faith and trust in Jesus. And this is really important because Jesus or Paul does not see Jesus as a break with the Hebrew story.
Speaker 1:He sees Jesus as the culmination of that story, the completion of that story. He sees Jesus as the fulfillment of where that story was always meant to go. But it's almost like for Paul, Jesus is the twist ending at the end that makes you look back and notice things you never noticed before. So that moment in the sixth sense when Bruce Willis finally actually realizes that he was a ghost all along. Spoiler alert.
Speaker 1:I feel like it's been long enough. I can talk about that movie at this point. But he finds that he's a ghost, and then the movie flashes all these scenes from earlier in the film, and you realize, yeah, he actually was. It all makes sense. That's what Jesus is for Paul.
Speaker 1:He's that sixth sense moment where he looks back and realizes that everything needs to be reinterpreted and rethought and reimagined because of Jesus, but actually it all makes sense. And this is why as Christians, it's so important that we maintain a Christ centered hermeneutic when we read our bible. Or as we say it here at Commons, that we keep Jesus at the center. Because whenever you are reading a passage and it doesn't look or feel or smell or impact you like Jesus, the goal is not to try to even things out. The goal is to come to understand how this points you and moves you towards Jesus, even if that means you need to reinterpret everything you thought you knew about God.
Speaker 1:That's how far Paul is willing to go because of this encounter he's had with the risen Christ. Jesus is the only exact representation of the divine. So verse 28, for we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law. So law has been completely reinterpreted by Paul, and he says it was always about pointing us and preparing us for faith in Jesus. Verse 29, or is God the God of the Jews only?
Speaker 1:Is he not the God of the Gentiles too? Remember, Gentiles is just an ancient way of talking about anyone who wasn't Jewish. Now Paul answers his own question. He says, yes of the Gentiles too since there is only one God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith. So, again, Paul is talking to his imaginary friend here, but this time, he's kind of setting him up.
Speaker 1:Because when he says, is God only the God of the Jews or is he the God of the Gentiles as well? Any religious pious Jew would have had to answer yes to this question. Remember, the Jews are monotheists at this point. So they believe that there is only one God that exists. And that God is therefore by default, the God of all peoples regardless of whether they want to acknowledge him or not.
Speaker 1:And so when Paul uses the phrase one God, he is very intentionally echoing the central prayer of the Jewish faith. A prayer that's called the Shema, a prayer which comes from Deuteronomy six four, a prayer which says, hear o Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And so Paul knows that his imaginary friend has no choice but to agree with him so far. God is obviously the God of the Jews. God is obviously the God of the Gentiles.
Speaker 1:God is obviously willing and just to save all peoples. But this is where things get dicey. Because next Paul says that this one God will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith. Now I recognize that whenever I start talking about circumcision up here, at least half of us start squirming in our seats, maybe more. But that is nothing compared to what our imaginary Jewish interlocutor is feeling at this moment.
Speaker 1:Because even if he is willing to go along with Paul and entertain the idea that Jesus was the completion of the Hebrew story, and even if he is compelled to agree that God is the God of all peoples everywhere, This is probably where Paul pushes things a little bit too far for his imaginary Jewish friend. Because it's one thing to say that salvation relies on trusting God, And it's another thing to say that trust is available to all people, but is a very different thing to say to a first century Jew, imaginary or otherwise, that circumcision doesn't matter. And I like what James Dunn says here. He writes and I'll quote, Paul sounds quite pleased with himself in this verse. In fact, I think the fact that he could use Israel's own basic credo to undermine Jewish claims to exclusive rights before God pleased him greatly.
Speaker 1:And that just sounds like Paul to me, so I think Jimmy Dunn has got it right here. But notice something. Paul does say that the circumcised are saved by this same faith. And so in the next verse, in the last of this chapter, he concludes this section by saying, do we then nullify the law by this faith? Not at all.
Speaker 1:Rather, we uphold the law. Now, wait a minute. Now we're upholding the law. Just a minute ago, Paul told us that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law. And, yes, it's true that unless you have been following his argument very closely all the way along, this is a somewhat confusing statement to end a section on.
Speaker 1:And people have debated this for hundreds of years. But the reason for that confusion is that people have often come with the assumption that Paul thinks law and faith are at odds with each other. He doesn't. Now, later in chapter 13, where we'll get in like six, seven, eight years from now, Paul will argue that because Jesus has completed the law and because Jesus summed up the law with the command to love God and neighbor, we can conclude that love is the fulfillment of law. That's chapter 13 verse 10.
Speaker 1:But here, he wants to argue that even as Christians who enter the story through faith, we are still obligated to uphold this fulfilled law of love. And so his point is not that law and faith are at odds with each other. His point is that the relationship between law and faith has been fundamentally reinterpreted because of Jesus. So when you read Romans, please do not think of Paul as anti law or anti works or certainly not anti Jewish. He is a Jew after all.
Speaker 1:And in fact, when he says, do we then nullify the law? Not at all. That not at all is the Greek, that is that, oh, hell no that we talked about earlier in this series. So Paul is fired up here again, and he wants to make a big point here. And that point is so important to Paul that all of chapter four is going to be one big case study about this point.
Speaker 1:And that point is you don't do good things to earn God's love. You do good things because you come to realize that you are loved. And Paul has touched on this already in this letter, but now he wants to make the point and drive it home. He wants to tell us what Jesus has shown him at this was always the case all along even if he didn't fully recognize it before. And the thing is, this is actually a very Jewish way of thinking about faith.
Speaker 1:You see, one of the ways that Christians often caricature first century Judaism is that we sometimes have this idea that they were incredibly legalistic, and that they believed that they could win God's favor by following the rules, by getting circumcised and eating the right foods that would force God to love them. But that's not really how ancient Jews thought about God. You see, the ancient Hebrews believed that they were the chosen people. But if you go back in the Hebrew scriptures and you look at the Hebrew story and you search out why God chose these Hebrew peoples, you get passages like Deuteronomy seven, where God says, I did not set my affection on you and choose you because you were great. In fact, I chose you because you were the least.
Speaker 1:Or Exodus where the people cry out, not in their righteousness and piety, but from their oppression, and God hears them. You see, the whole Jewish story is not that God gave them some rules and they followed them really well and God loved them because of it. In fact, most of the Jewish story is all about how terrible they were at following the rules. They kept getting themselves in trouble, and they kept crying out, and God still kept rescuing them anyway. In fact, the entire national story of Israel was God loved us first.
Speaker 1:That's why we follow him. Paul is now saying that because Jesus has come and finally being faithful to the story of God in a way that no Israelite was ever able to do before him, even to the point of giving his life for others. That Old Testament story has now been brought to its completion and expanded to all peoples the way it was always meant to be. And you and I, we now enter that story simply through our trust, not through our ethnicity, and that is a radical reinterpretation. But for Paul, the fundamental principle still remains the same.
Speaker 1:You do good not to get in. You do good because you have been welcomed in. And that's why Paul can say, no one is saved by works. But then at the same time, in the very next breath, he can say, you better work hard to uphold the heart of the law. Because for Paul, the idea of a Christian who doesn't live out of the grace of God is as absurd as the idea of a Jew who wasn't circumcised would have been to a religious Pharisee.
Speaker 1:God has loved you. How could you not respond to that with everything that you have? This is why James talks about faith without works being dead. This is why second Peter talks about confirming our election by adding goodness to our faith. This is why Jesus himself says that at the end of the day, the sheep will be separated from the goats based on who loved well.
Speaker 1:But there's no crisis of faith here. This is just simply how healthy relationships work. You are accepted and welcomed and loved, and then you slowly learn how to act accordingly. Now in technical terms, this is what we call covenantal nomism. Nomism comes from the Greek nomos, which meant law.
Speaker 1:Covenant is that familiar Hebrew idea of relationship and trust. And so when we say covenantal nomism, what we're saying is that relationship and trust come first. That's the foundation. And then law and obedience and lifestyle come second because that's the natural normal response to grace. And the truth is, I have been told my entire career that unless I do a better job of browbeating people with how they should live, they will never change.
Speaker 1:And yet, everything in my experience of humanity tells me that is simply not true. That when I treat people with dignity, they rise to meet me. And when I offer people acceptance, they return it to me. That when I have the chance to welcome people into the idea that they are loved and accepted, not just by me, but by their creator. I can see that transformation begin to happen in front of my eyes.
Speaker 1:Now I'm not naive about that and neither is God. And there are times when you will extend yourself in love and grace to someone, and they will not respond in kind. And it hurts. And God knows that far better than any of us. And yet, was God who decided that the most effective way to transform the world would be to come and to offer himself first with no strings attached.
Speaker 1:Because once you truly believe that the force that sits behind everything will do good for you, well then it's hard for you not to do good in return. And if you wanna see this at work on a small scale, then simply start to assume the best about your partner in every situation and watch how that impacts them. Or treat your kids with unexpected respect and see how they respond to it. Give your employees more responsibility than you hired them for and encourage them to lean into it. Because in my life, the people who have brought the best out in me are the people who see the best in me because they help me see that version of myself.
Speaker 1:And that's what God's love in Christ was designed to do for you. It's not something that you were meant to live up to, and it's certainly not something that was meant to shame you. It's love that was meant to help you see who you were created to be and then to remove the fear and the insecurity that stop you from living into identity. That is the heart of the gospel that Paul wants to invite you into, that you will never be able to earn your place at God's table. But once you realize that you are welcome anyway, you will never be able to live like you aren't.
Speaker 1:And so if you find yourself struggling with old patterns and habits that you know are destructive and unhealthy, and you know that that was part of an old life that you don't want to go back to, but you're not sure how to make changes, Or maybe you find yourself frustrated with the fact that change is hard and you keep seeing that old you pop up in the mirror from time to time. Here's what I think Paul would say to you. Work hard and don't give up, but put your trust in the fact that you are already loved far more deeply than you can possibly imagine. Because once you can allow that to sink somewhere deep into your bones and live from that acceptance, it will inevitably find its way out through your life given enough time. Because that's the law that requires faith.
Speaker 1:Let's pray. Go on. Would you be present by your spirit in this moment, speaking to us in whatever way we need to hear you right now, that we are loved and accepted and welcomed in your divine embrace, that that realization is the kernel of the kingdom that if we can accept it, sink down somewhere deep inside of us and take root. And then it will grow and expand and build until it begins to bleed out through our pores. And the way that we speak and act, the way that we relate to the people around us, the way that we purchase, the way that we use our resources, the way we enter into relationships with people, the way that we live and move throughout this world.
Speaker 1:God, that your love and grace is what changes us, is the fundamental principle that you invite us to in the Christian story. And so for those of us who feel like we have been beaten down with the bible so long that there are bruises all over us, and we're not sure if we have the strength to continue forward. Then gone. Would you help us to stand to our feet and heal those bruises and help us to move forward knowing that we are moving into the path that you welcome us to? Thank God for those of us who recognize that there is change that still needs to happen within us and that there are pieces of us that you are still working on.
Speaker 1:God, would we find the courage and the energy to work hard and be diligent in becoming the person that you've created us to be, but at the same time, would we recognize that more effort isn't the answer? It is learning to rest in the acceptance and love that you offer to us that will ultimately transform us into the likeness of your son. And so, God, today, may we experience your love, and may that then empower us to uphold this law of love you commend us to. In the strong name of the risen Christ, we pray. Amen.