I have to admit that I had a difficult time putting together this message today. If you have been with us from the beginning of this little series on Romans that we started a few weeks ago, you know that the author of the letter the Apostle Paul has been making a case for what is probably the defining verse of Romans: “the Righteous shall live by faith.” That sounds like a kind of a hopeful start but right after he wrote that Paul launched into a long section considering man's sinfulness and God's wrath. You should probably know that when Paul wrote this letter it was just a letter. It wasn't divided into chapters and verses. It probably didn't even have any punctuation, which is one of the reasons why Biblical scholars have a difficult time figuring out exactly what Paul was trying to communicate. But most of what we know of as Chapter 1 deals with the universal sinfulness of man and God's response to man's rebellion: his wrath as manifested in his turning away from humans and leaving them to their own devices. You may remember that when Jesus cried out from the cross “My God why have you forsaken me” he was experiencing the wrath of God to atone for our sinfulness.
Then in Chapter 2 we saw how Paul turned his attention to the community of Jewish Christians. There was a question in the early church about the relationship of Christianity to the Jewish faith. Christianity arose out of Judaism and was seen by its original adherents, particularly in Israel, as the fulfillment of the hopes of the Jewish people. In the beginning everyone in the original church, all Jews, was surprised that God seemed to have made the salvation brought on by the atoning sacrifice of Jesus freely available to Gentiles. Even though there is scriptural evidence that it was through the Jewish people that the salvation of the whole world would come, by the time Jesus lived the Jewish people had defined themselves as completely separate from and superior to everyone. Judaism was defined ethnically, by blood lines, but also by the practices of the Jews that set them apart from everyone else. These practices came to be represented by the ritual of circumcision and strict adherence to the ceremonial calendar and food laws.
The Jewish people had what they thought were good reason for setting themselves apart from everyone else. Every Jew was acutely aware that they had received the law from God through Moses, that the law included covenant obligations that they had failed to fulfill. In the minds of these people God had commanded them not to mix with the people of the Promised Land. The reason for this was because God wanted the Israelites to demonstrate his characteristics by adhering to the law given on Mt. Sinai, and that meant rejecting all other practices of all other ethnic groups. But the Jews had ended up mixing right in with the rest of the people. Instead of being shining lights drawing people to God, you couldn't tell the difference between the Hebrews and the pagans. God sent Prophets to warn them, but the people ignored them. Some of them they even killed. In the end, God punished the Israelites for not keeping their part of the bargain. First, the Kingdom of Israel was destroyed by the Assyrians. Then, a few years later, the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem and dragged what was left of the Jewish nation into exile.
When they were able to return to Israel the remnants of the Jewish nation started to take the law very seriously. It was then that a group of people called Pharisees came on the scene. The Pharisees recognized that the cause of their exile had been the Israelites ignoring the law, so they were very meticulous about considering what it might mean to really keep the law, in order to prevent another failure. So, the Pharisees were actually thought of as good guys in Israel. They were the ones good people looked up to, because of the seriousness with which they took the law.
And, at least in the beginning, their hearts were in the right place. They were trying to avoid the errors of their ancestors. But as time passed the Pharisees lost their focus. They made obeying the details of the law more important than obeying for the reason for the law. The reason for the law was, as we have said over and over, to demonstrate God's loving character; to set people free in God's love. The details of the law were burdensome and difficult. This is why in the gospel stories Jesus is so critical of the Pharisees. He never chastises them for their piety; only for their hypocrisy. Because while they claimed to uphold the law, they missed the point of it. In the end Jesus pointed out the heart of their error when he told them “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Mt. 22:37-40).
So going back to the question of the beginnings of the Christian faith, many Jewish Christians believed that Christianity was in fact Judaism, and that Christians were Jews, and many people believed in order to be a Christian you had to adopt all of the Jewish customs, and that meant circumcision, the ceremonial calendar, and the food laws. Many of them, like Paul, were Pharisees, or at least admired the Pharisees, and as such put a lot of store in the necessity of their religious observances. Paul was very much opposed to this. He didn't say that following the Jewish customs was wrong; he just said that they were not necessary. That was the decision of the Church Leaders as we read about in Acts 15, but there were still a lot of Jewish Christians who continued to insist that the only way to really be a Christian was to adopt the Jewish customs.
There is some evidence of this controversy in the Roman church. I think this is why Paul addresses the gentile Christians and the Jewish Christians separately, kind of demonstrating their place in the new Christian church. His argument essentially runs that even though the two groups came from separate backgrounds: pagan and Jewish, they were both confronted by the same dilemma, the reality of sin. But in some ways it was worse for the Jewish Christians because they were taught from birth that they were God's chosen people. The fact that they did, more or less, abide by the traditions, gave them a sense they already had it made. If you feel you are doing all right, why would you need to surrender to Jesus?
I think the best illustration of this attitude in the gospels comes from Luke 18:9-14:
To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable:
“Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.' I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” (Luke 18:9-14 NIV)
So the text we will read today in Romans is Paul's attempt to get those who may have believed like the Pharisee in the story that they were no different from the tax collector. Let's read it.
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.
3 What if some were unfaithful? Will their unfaithfulness nullify God’s faithfulness? 4 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.”
5 But if our unrighteousness brings out God’s righteousness more clearly, what shall we say? That God is unjust in bringing his wrath on us? (I am using a human argument.) 6 Certainly not! If that were so, how could God judge the world? 7 Someone might argue, “If my falsehood enhances God’s truthfulness and so increases his glory, why am I still condemned as a sinner?” 8 Why not say—as some slanderously claim that we say—“Let us do evil that good may result”? Their condemnation is just!
9 What shall we conclude then? Do we have any advantage? Not at all! For we have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under the power of sin. 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.”
13 “Their throats are open graves;
their tongues practice deceit.”
“The poison of vipers is on their lips.”
14 “Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.”
15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood;
16 ruin and misery mark their ways,
17 and the way of peace they do not know.”
18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
19 Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. 20 Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin. (Romans 3:1-20 NIV)
Well, maybe you can see why I had such a hard time with this text. At first glance it's hard to see how you can pull a positive message out of this. And the last thing I want to do is to be the kind of preacher who stands up here trying to make you feel bad about all of your sins. That would not be in keeping, in my mind, with the idea that the gospel is “good news.” This passage by Paul doesn't sound like very good news.
Paul begins the passage with a question. He’s been addressing the Jewish Christians and chipping away at their sense of superiority. This section of the letter is like a dialog between Paul and an imaginary third party. After Paul pointed out that the Jews were the same as the Gentiles in God’s plan of salvation in the previous section, the imaginary debater asks, “Is there any advantage, then, in being a Jew?” Paul’s answer is yes and no.
This section starts out with Paul’s yes. What is the advantage of being a Jew? It is that the plan of salvation for the whole world comes out of the Jewish nation. Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham that all nations will be blessed through him. I think a good analogy for this idea would be to think in terms of the Fourth of July holiday we just celebrated. What were we celebrating? We were celebrating American independence from Britain, but at the same time we were celebrating the historical reality of ideas of liberty and democracy that inspired the world and still inspire the world today. If we love the liberty that came out of the American Revolution, we have to celebrate America. Paul’s argument is similar: if we love the salvation we have freely received from God through Jesus, we must love the Jewish nation, because the plan of salvation originated there.
But Paul doesn’t give the Jewish Christians a lot of room for pride or celebration, because he points out that the Jewish people had been unfaithful to their covenant obligation to bring salvation to the world. Paul is being kind when he implies that just “some” had been unfaithful. In the next section we see that he really means “all” had been unfaithful.
At this point Paul sets aside a rather silly point brought up by his imaginary partner: if unfaithfulness serves to highlight God’s faithfulness, and that benefits God, doesn’t that mean that their sin has a positive outcome? If so, why should God punish the sinner? This silly question really requires a rather complex answer, even though straight up, Paul declares the answer is “no.”
The first thing we must consider, something we don’t want to lose sight of, is that God’s punishment, his wrath as we discussed a few weeks ago, doesn’t consist of God acting in a way to harm the sinner. He doesn’t throw rocks at them or make them sick or “send them to hell.” Rather, God allows them to sin. He does allow his children to choose hell, but everything we know about him demonstrates that he does this reluctantly; that he grieves when he loses one of his beloved children, just as we grieve when one of our children struggles. And just like us, God does everything he can to try to help. We can see with the cross that, just like us, God will go to ridiculous extremes and suffer enormous agony to try to save his children. But at some point the rebellion is such that God simply allows the child to choose their own destiny, just as we sometimes must with our children. And then he must watch with sorrow as the child destroys himself. But God is not in the business of sending people to hell. He is in the business of rescuing people from hell.
The second thing to consider here is that even though God detests sin, he can still use it to accomplish a greater good. So, for example, 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) In the same way we know that Judas’ betrayal of Jesus was a sin, but that Jesus had to be betrayed so that he could accomplish his greater mission of salvation. In both cases God was able to turn sin into a greater good. But that doesn’t excuse the sin. God can redeem the sin and turn it to good purpose, but the sin must still be punished.
Because of what we know about sin and salvation, we know that the ultimate penalty for our sin is not paid by us, but by Jesus on the cross. And when we see it in this light, we see that asking if our sins are actually good because they highlight God’s ability to turn them to good is like us pounding nails into Jesus’ hands and feet on the cross and explaining to him that we’re actually doing a good thing for him. You can see why Paul thinks this argument is so ridiculous.
So in this first part of today’s passage we see Paul acknowledge that there is advantage in being Jewish in that salvation comes from the Jews, but that the Jews have never been able to live up to their obligations as the purveyors of God’s salvation to the world. And as we go into the next section we will see that this applies not just to the Jewish nation as a whole but to each individual. So in this case when Paul says that there is advantage in being Jewish, it would be like someone today saying there is advantage in being American because the ideas of liberty and freedom originated in America, but if we as Americans do not practice and allow liberty and freedom then the advantage is moot. That’s why Paul begins the next section with his no answer, “What shall we conclude then? Do we have any advantage? Not at all!” (Ro. 3:9 NIV).
The next section of the reading is what’s called a “catena.” It is from the Latin word for “chain,” and it is a collection of verses strung together in a chain to make a point. When we look at verses 10-18 we see Paul quote a number of different passages, mostly from the Psalms but one from Isaiah, the point of which collectively is to demonstrate to Jewish Christians from the Jewish scriptures that they have no cause for boasting. Going back to the story I read from Luke earlier, this would be Paul talking to the Pharisee, who is so sure of his standing with God because of his strict religious observances, and who is looking down on the tax collector, and pointing out that the very thing he relies on for his justification condemns him. The Jews point to being the receivers of the law as their ticket to God, but Paul shows them that because they don’t keep it the law condemns them. In verse 20 Paul goes so far as to say that rather than being saved by the law, the lack of ability to follow the law only highlights their sin.
By the time we get to verse 20, we have to agree that Paul has made his case that all mankind stands condemned by God. And that’s where I found myself discouraged when I was preparing this message because I kept asking myself, where’s the “good news?” I prayed earnestly about it, and praise God I found it. And here it is, Paul at his most profound, and most baffling. He writes to the Corinthian church:
[I]n order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Cor. 12:7-10 NIV)
I could do a whole sermon on this passage from 2 Corinthians but let me just brush over it lightly here. Paul suffered from some kind of affliction; we don’t know what it was. Some people believe that he suffered from some kind of eye trouble; others suggest other forms of physical and emotional illness. I personally believe that Paul didn’t reveal the details about his weakness because he wanted to make a universal point: that we are all weak; all at God’s mercy. If Paul had said, “I asked God to remove my eye trouble and he didn’t,” some of us would say, “Well I don’t have eye trouble so this doesn’t apply to me.” But while we may not have whatever affliction Paul had, we all have some affliction, and one in particular: slavery to sin. That’s the point that Paul makes so devastatingly clear in today’s scripture.
What Paul is pointing out here is that it is the nature of people that until they experience broken-ness, they won’t reach out for God. God always stands ready to embrace us, to lift us up and shower his affection on us. But like rebellious children we spurn this help until we are faced with the limitations of our humanity. I think we have all experienced this at some point and to some extent. Did you ever when you were a kid set out to prove how mature and independent you were only to find yourself in trouble and calling on your parents?
Or how about when we hear of someone close to us dying? We might be going about our business consumed by the details of life and then be faced with the fact of our mortality. And at that point, all of the things we thought were so important, or little plans and designs, suddenly don’t seem so significant, and we get a brief glimpse of life from the point of view of eternity.
This is what is necessary to recognize our need for God’s grace, that fact of our brokenness. We have to be convinced that we are powerless ourselves before we will surrender to God’s power.
In my office above my desk I have a print of this painting that I purchased when I visited Appomattox Courthouse in Virginia a number of years ago. You may or may not know but I will tell you that it was at the home of Wilmer Mclean in Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia, where Robert E. Lee surrendered to General Grant, effectively bringing the Civil War to an end. The reason why this picture is so significant to me is because as a historian I know the story behind it. I know that on the night before many of Lee’s officers urged him to surrender to Grant but that he resisted, placing his hopes in one last ditch cavalry charge to try to break out of the trap Grant had set. When the Confederate cavalry charged over the hill they were met by what seemed an endless sea of blue, and the realized the plan was hopeless.
It was at that point that Lee sent word to General Grant that he was ready to surrender. He was completely broken, completely without resource. He put on his last good uniform because he thought he would be taken prisoner and told his staff "There is nothing left for me to do but to go and see General Grant, and I would rather die a thousand deaths." Isn’t that the way we give up our will? Isn’t that the way we surrender to God? And yet, without that surrender, there can be no salvation. And that is the point that Paul is making up to this point in his letter to the Romans. “There is no one righteous, not even one.” (Ro. 3:10 NIV)
That’s the bad news. But it’s also the “good news” because of the cross. Jesus paid the penalty for our sins, and when we surrender to him we gain his righteousness. That surrender, as we see demonstrated in the painting, might be the most terrible and difficult thing to do, but it is the right thing to do. And it leads to real peace and freedom. And that is actually pretty good news, I think you’ll agree.
There is one last thing I want to bring up in regard to this passage that has to do with the way we relate to our brothers and sisters. Going back to our original illustration of the Pharisee and the tax collector, one of the traps that religious people can fall into is the misplaced notion that because we think we live closer to God’s will for us, because we do the right religious things, that we are somehow better than our fellows who are not religious, and we might even stand in judgment of them, just like the Pharisee in the parable. Well, we don’t want to be Pharisees ourselves and say, “Thank God I’m not like this Pharisee!” Because the lesson we can take away from this section of Paul’s letter to the Romans is that we are the Pharisee, and that we are also the tax collector. We are all wounded; broken in every way.
That wounded-ness can and must also be turned to God’s advantage. It is so because the recognition of our own weakness and sin ought to help us to see our brothers and sisters in the same way Jesus sees us. We ought not to look down on our brothers and sisters unless we are reaching down to help them up. The writer of Hebrews tells us about Jesus, “…we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. (He. 4:15 NIV). Jesus does not condemn us; he knows our struggles and gave himself up to free us from them. We do sin, and we cannot give ourselves perfectly as Jesus did, but we can look upon our brothers and sisters with compassion as Jesus does, knowing that we are as broken as they are without Jesus.
Let us then look upon our weakness as the key to freedom from sin, both for ourselves and for our brothers and sisters. Let our lives truly demonstrate to the world that when God is all we have, God is all we need. Amen.
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