I hope you've been here for the last few weeks as we've been going through Paul's letter to the Romans. If you were here for the last couple of messages you know that we ended last week on a pretty low note. By the time we got to the end of last week's scripture, the whole world stood condemned as a result of sin. The whole world was under the weight of God's wrath.
To summarize the progress of Paul's letter to the Romans so far, in the first chapter Paul addressed the Gentile Christians in Rome and pointed out that they were condemned because even though God had not explicitly given them the law as he had the Israelites, he had written his law on their hearts and they had ignored that law. Of course, that was true for the Christians in Rome, but Paul was really thinking about all of the non-Jewish people of the world. That would have been in line with the thinking of the Jewish Christians, because they thought of themselves as superior to the Gentiles because their ancestors had been given the law, and they thought of themselves as the inheritors of that promise. Paul agreed with them that they had been chosen by God with the covenant of the law for the purpose of expressing the characteristics of God in their lives, righteousness, justice, and love, and by doing that attracting all nations to God's promise.
But then, in the passage we read last week, he made it very clear that the Jews were not at any advantage because they had never kept the law. So in effect they were no different from the Gentiles. I don't think it would be possible to express how devastating an indictment this would have been to the Jewish Christians. Listen to how Paul summarizes, drawing on the Old Testament scriptures:
10 As it is written:
“There is no one righteous, not even one;
11 there is no one who understands;
there is no one who seeks God.
12 All have turned away,
they have together become worthless;
there is no one who does good,
not even one.” (Romans 3:10-12 NIV)
Now I shared with you last week how preparing that message had been very difficult for me because I want us never to forget that the gospel is "good news." It's more than just good news, it's a joyous proclamation of a great victory. When we got to the end of last week's reading, we didn't see very much to be joyful about. We may rightly ask what is so good about the news Paul has been delivering up to this point in the scripture.
You will recall that the way I found that I could frame the message in a positive light was by pointing out that we had to recognize our complete powerlessness against sin before we could recognize our need for a savior. And, even though that is a true statement, it's not very comforting. It doesn't sound like very good news.
Well you will be happy to learn that today we are going to finally get to the good stuff. We all love to watch a story where the good guys get rescued at the last minute, right? It's even better if the bad guys get it in the end. I'm going to do something a little different today and show you a video clip that expresses how great it feels when at the last minute, when all seems lost, there is a last minute miracle, and after that everything is fine. We all feel better.
How many of you guys have seen that before? It's probably one of the most famous scenes in all of the movies. And even though I've seen it literally dozens of times, it's still gripping. And I can remember how awesome it felt the first time I saw the Dark Lord defeated by this band of intrepid heroes. I know the clip I showed is a little long but I wanted to show it so that I could set the mood for how dramatic this next part of Paul's letter is.
When you are reading scripture I think it is easy to kind of sterilize what we're reading, draining it of any kind of emotion and wrapping it up in a kind of bland "haze of holiness." But we shouldn't do that because when we realize what's at stake with the things we are reading about in the scriptures we ought to realize that there isn't anything more serious, more dramatic, more important. So if I just read these couple of paragraphs we might not have even realized that Paul is indicating something at least as dramatic as the destruction of the ring. So with this dramatic feeling in our minds, let's read what Paul has to say to the Romans next:
21 But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22 This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25 God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, m through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished—26 he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.
27 Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. Because of what law? The law that requires works? No, because of the law that requires faith. 28 For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law. 29 Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too, 30 since there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith. 31 Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law. (Romans 3:21-31 NIV)
You probably recognize verse 23 as one of the most famous verses in the Bible. I wonder if you noticed that if you take verse 23 by itself it says something slightly different than what Paul intends here. It basically continues the focus on the sinfulness of man. The famous evangelist D.L. Moody once wrote, “"Looking at the wound of sin will never save anyone. What you must do is look at the remedy." And this is what Paul is doing here.Verse 23 is just one phrase in a sentence that includes verses 22 and 24. So when we read it all at once Paul writes, “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 the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” (Romans 3:22-24 NIV). That’s quite a different message isn’t it? Rather than being a condemnation, it is a message of great hope for everyone.
We should probably think a little bit here about what is meant in verse 25 by “God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement.” Let’s start with where Paul starts. He begins this section by stating “But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify.” One thing Paul is indicating here is that there has been a great change in mankind’s status before God. From almost the beginning of history according to the Jewish scriptures all of humanity had stood condemned before God because of the sin of Adam and Eve. But now, Paul tells us, that condemnation has been lifted.
When Paul writes “to which the Law and the Prophets testify” he is saying that this event, the atoning sacrifice of Jesus, really is the main topic of the Bible. God planned to save man all along. It was written in the script.
It is always important, I think, to keep in mind the historical context of the Christian faith. It makes no sense unless we consider it in light of the Jewish scriptures: the Old Testament. So it doesn’t hurt to rehearse the story again.
God began his plan of salvation with Abraham. We will be looking more at Abraham in the upcoming weeks but for now we can recall that Abraham was a wealthy man who lived in what we call today Iraq. God came to him and told him to just go; and the astonishing thing is that he went. He didn’t ask where, or why, he just went. And God made a promise to Abraham that he would have a son, and that through his son all of the nations of the earth would be blessed. God instituted the covenant of circumcision with Abraham as a seal to this promise.
Eventually Abraham did have a son, who in turn had a son named he named Jacob, whose name was later changed to Israel. Israel had twelve sons, from which we derive the twelve tribes of Israel. One of the sons was named Joseph. We can recall in the story of Joseph that Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery in Egypt out of jealousy. Yet years later, when there was famine in the land, Joseph’s family could find rescue in Egypt because of the fact that Joseph had found favor with the Pharaoh. When Joseph’s brothers many years later feared their brother’s vengeance, Joseph was able to say to them“You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” (Gen. 50:20 NIV) And so the children of Israel went into Egypt to escape hardship in the so-called “Promise Land” of Canaan.
Now it is really important to know about the story of the Israelites in Egypt because this becomes the model for God’s salvation of the whole world. The book of Genesis ends with the Israelites happily having found rescue in Egypt, but the next book in the Hebrew Scriptures, that we call Exodus, opens upon a very different scene.
We don’t know exactly how long the Israelites were in Egypt but it was probably several centuries. And over those years the Israelites had grown numerous and were seen as a threat by the new Pharaoh. So he oppressed them and they cried out to God for rescue.
We must always keep in mind how seriously God takes his promise to Abraham. He must listen to the cries of the Israelites because he has promised that they, the offspring of Abraham through Isaac the child of promise, must inherit the “Promised Land” of Canaan and become a blessing for all of the nations of the earth. So he sets in motion a plan to free the Israelites from Egypt.
The book of Exodus is really a fascinating story all by itself without even considering its theological significance and I urge you all to read it. But there is much symbolic significance here for us as Christians, that we really ought to know about in order to understand what Paul writes, not just to the Romans but in all of his letters. Because he was an expert in the Hebrew Scriptures. You might say he had a Ph.D. in the Hebrew Bible.
Kind of “the big story” in the historical memory of the Israelites all the way up to today is what is called the Exodus and also the Passover. The Israelites have been made slaves in Egypt and have cried out to God in their anguish. God raises up a leader, Moses, to deliver the Israelites from Egypt. Moses contends with Pharaoh, who blows hot and cold, and in the process God sends plague after plague to Egypt to punish Pharaoh.
Finally God’s plan to rescue the Israelites from Egypt includes one last plague being what we call the “plague of the firstborn.” In this part of the story God is ready to punish the Egyptians one last time by killing every first born creature, animal and human, in the land of Egypt. At the same time he tells the Israelites through Moses that they must take an unblemished lamb, slaughter and eat it, and spread the blood of the lamb on their doorposts. When the angel of death goes through Egypt taking every firstborn creature – animal and human – it will “pass over” the houses with the blood of the lamb on the doorposts. Thus the Jewish Passover celebration became a reenactment of that night and that event as we read about in chapter 12 of the book of Exodus.
So we get a foreshadowing here of the deliverance of mankind from the bondage of sin. By the blood of the lamb the people were delivered from death, and it was on that night that they escaped from Egypt. The escape from Egypt becomes a symbol for the rescue of the people in the minds of all generations of Israelites who follow all the way down to today. At the time of Jesus they didn’t think of it as a deliverance from sin, but as a national historical deliverance from the oppression of the Romans much like the original Exodus.
In the book of Leviticus chapter 16 we see a description of what God prescribes as a ceremony of atonement. Other parts of the book of Leviticus, which lays out the stipulations of “The Law,” describe ways of making atonement for individual sins but in Chapter 16 it talks about the Day of Atonement where the High Priest will make atonement for all of the sins of the people. Interestingly, the center of this ceremony is the sacrifice of an unblemished lamb and the atonement comes through the blood of the lamb.
Going into the time when Jesus walked on earth and in the story of his crucifixion, we are all familiar with the Last Supper. The Last Supper was a celebration of the feast of Passover, commemorating the deliverance of Israel from Egypt. It’s not accidental that it was on this night that Jesus was sacrificed by his betrayal, arrest, and ultimate execution. Jesus is the unblemished lamb, who is sacrificed to atone for the sins of the people and rescue them from bondage. What Paul is telling us in these verses is that the bondage God is rescuing the people from is the bondage to sin he has described in such a devastating way in the preceding parts of the letter. The astonishing thing is that this atonement includes “all who believe,” both Jew and Gentile.
We need to mention a couple of significant things about Jesus’ sacrifice. From the time of the building of the Tabernacle in the desert to the time when Paul wrote to the Roman Christians for as long as there was a place to worship the Jewish High Priests had offered sacrifices over and over for their own sins and for the sins of the people. But in the New Testament, Christian view of things, there is no longer a need to continue the sacrifices over and over. It has all been accomplished by Jesus. The author of Hebrews writes:
1 The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. 2 Otherwise, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. 3 But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins. 4 It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
5 Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said… 8 “Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them”—though they were offered in accordance with the law. 9 Then he said, “Here I am, I have come to do your will.” He sets aside the first to establish the second. 10 And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
11 Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12 But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, 13 and since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool. 14 For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. (Hebrews 10:1-5a, 8-14 NIV)
Do you see how revolutionary this is? Do you see the amazing significance of what Jesus did on the cross? Because not only did he make a perfect sacrifice, because he was morally unblemished he was able to do it once and for all, and thereby set the whole world free from slavery to sin, once and for all.
And then, because that was accomplished, the law has fulfilled its purpose.The purpose of the law was to provide a means for release from slavery to sin but now, with Jesus’ atoning sacrifice, the requirements of God’s wrath have been met. Paul writes that no one can gain righteousness through the law because no one can keep it, but he also writes, in Romans Chapter 3 verse 31, “Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law.” (Romans 3:31 NIV)
Now, I don’t know if you guys know this but J.R.R. Tolkien, the author of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, was a Christian and wrote from a Christian worldview. You may know that he was friends with C.S. Lewis, the author of the Chronicles of Narnia series that has recently been made into a movie. But he criticized Lewis for writing the Narnia series because he felt that Lewis used too much analogy. For example, Aslan obviously represents Christ, and the lion has often been used as a symbol for Jesus. The White Witch is Satan tempting Edmund, who is Judas. Peter, one of the children, represents the wise Christian. Father Christmas represents the Holy Spirit, who comes and bring gifts to true believers so that they can fight evil, etc.
The Lord of the Rings also uses Christian symbols but much more subtly. There isn’t always a one for one correspondence between the individual characters in the story and Christian characters or Biblical concepts. But overall it still expresses the Christian worldview and the ultimate battle between light and darkness, good and evil, and sin. I’m going to talk a little bit about the movie and the books now so if you’re not familiar with them try to hang in there and I’ll do my best to be clear.
The One Ring is, in my mind, obviously sin. It seems to be beautiful, but it traps and ruins everyone who tries to use it. And even though you know you’re being ruined, you still desire it madly; you can’t give it up. And indeed that is its function in the story, to ensnare all creatures into subjugation to the Dark Lord Sauron. I don’t think it takes a lot of imagination to see that Sauron represents Satan. And, as we saw in the movie, Sauron’s Kingdom is black, ugly, and ruined, just like the creation after the Fall.
And I think the end of the story lands us in the present theological age because even though the power of sin (the ring) has been destroyed and Satan’s kingdom defeated, everything has not yet been made right. There is still struggle, sadness, and sorrow. There is still work to be done. The age we live in has been described by some theologians as the “already and the not yet.” Jesus has already overcome Satan and sin, but his kingdom has not yet been fully restored. Theologically the Bible finishes the story by promising that Jesus will come again and finish the job of making all things right. Indeed, we are called as Christians to devote our efforts to the final triumph of Jesus’ kingdom.
But anyway, that’s what Paul is telling us in the part of his letter that we read today. When Paul writes but now he is signaling a change in the world that makes the destruction of the ring and the fall of Sauron’s kingdom in this scene from one of the most epic movies ever created look like a cartoon.
So what kind of a difference does this make in our lives? Obviously, we ought to take seriously the importance of what Jesus has done for us on the cross. We no longer have to live our lives under the weight of guilt, wondering whether we have been “good enough” to somehow hold back God’s anger. We can never be “good enough,” but it doesn’t matter, because the price for every sin has already and finally been paid for by Jesus on the cross.
But that doesn’t leave us off the hook to do whatever we want. Paul writes, “all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” (Romans 3:24 NIV). But he also writes, “22 This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.” (Romans 3:22 NIV). “all who believe.” This is the key. To believe doesn’t mean just to give intellectual assent. It means to trust completely. Here is one definition of the Greek word Paul is using here, “to believe to the extent of complete trust and reliance—‘to believe in, to have confidence in, to have faith in, to trust...’”[1]
I’ve heard it said that the difference between belief and faith can be demonstrated this way. If you are at the circus and you watch a man push a wheelbarrow across a tight rope you might sit in the audience and say, “I believe he can do it.” But faith would be to get in the wheelbarrow.Here is another way of thinking about our lives after out deliverance from Thomas Merton, using the symbols of the Passover and the escape from Egypt:
It took me time to find out: but I write down what I have found out at last, so that anyone who is now in the position that I was in then may read it and know what to do to save himself from great peril and unhappiness. And to such a one I would say: Whoever you are, the land to which God has brought you is not like the land of Egypt from which you came out. You can no longer live here as you lived there. Your old life and your former ways are crucified now, and you must not seek to live anymore for your own gratification, but give up your own judgment into the hands of a wise director, and sacrifice your pleasures and comforts for the love of God and give the money you no longer spend on those things to the poor.
So there’s something for you to think about and try to put into practice this week.
[1] Louw, J. P., & Nida, E. A. (1996). Vol. 1: Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament: Based on semantic domains (electronic ed. of the 2nd edition.) (375). New York: United Bible Societies.
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