Romans 15 & 16: Dinner Time

Paul summarizes his letter this way:

I have written to you rather boldly by way of reminder, because of the grace given me by God to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel of God, so that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. (Rom 15:15-16)

In short, Paul wants the Gentiles to be part of the family of God. Jesus has “confirmed the promises given to the patriarchs” and those promises are extended to the Gentiles who believe. Paul wants the family to get bigger and better. The Good News isn’t just for a few, but for all. We are all outsiders, but because of Jesus Christ we belong to God and sit with him.

It is so easy to stake over this profound truth, so take a moment and breathe in that reality. You belong to God. Once you were an outsider, abandoned and forgotten, but God has called you to the table. Its dinner time, the meal is ready. You thought the party was for someone else, but listen and you’ll hear your name. Look at that the last chapter of Romans. Paul ends with a list of greetings. Some are Jews, but many are Gentiles. Ten are women, twelve are men. The Kingdom of God expands. It cannot be contained by our limitations and categories. Jesus has come for the unrighteous, the Jew and the Gentile. All who believe are saved. Amen

Romans 14: Living Like a Christian

In the last post I noted that the defining characteristic between Christians (and their neighbors) ought to be love. This is the posture we need to take to one another. When we talk about this very important idea, we usually end the discussion with love. We don’t want to get into the gritty details, because, well, the details are gritty and messy and someone may get offended so let’s just keep it all nice and abstract and talk about God’s love and leave it at that. Whew.

Paul doesn’t take that approach. He says, “love another,” and this is what that means. It means, don’t judge each other because God is judge. Some Christians are weak and can’t understand the grace of God, but “God has welcomed them.” Paul’s vision is that each Christian lives in honor of Jesus and in that honor seeks to lift up her brother or sister. If what I do, though not a sin, causes my fellow Christian to stumble, than I shouldn’t do it. Our goal as Christians is to live in love, which means according to Paul to, “pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding.” That means we will need to deny ourselves at times, because it ain’t about me. It’s about Jesus. Sometimes we use God’s grace as a hammer to those who are still learning. Paul reminds us that is a selfish way to live in faith. We are to live in God’s Kingdom, which “is not food or drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”

Romans 13: Love your Neighbor

“Love your neighbor as yourself,” says Paul in Romans 13, echoing the words of Jesus Christ. Why? Because, “love is the fulfilling of the law.” You will not murder, you will not steal, nor shall you covet or commit adultery if you love one another. Paul is laying down a marker for the Christian life. It is a life based on love, from which flows all the blessings of the law.

Now this is commonly received wisdom in the church. Really no matter your denomination or whether you’d classify yourself as a liberal or conservative, mainstream or evangelical, you’ve heard a sermon about loving your neighbor. It is a common trope in any church. And because it is so common we forget how astounding it is to hear the statement, “love your neighbor.”

Paul writes this after spending chapters talking about division between Jews and Gentiles. He has seen firsthand the pain that comes from divisions in the church. He understands how living hard it can be to break old habits of division and attitudes of disdain. He wants the Jews and Gentiles to be a church, living in relationship with God and with each other.

But loving your neighbor is even more radical than that. The Roman world was intensely socially stratified. First you had Roman citizens and then everybody else. You had freemen and slaves with no rights but what their master gave them. You had the super-rich with hundreds of slaves. Women where the under the firm hand of their father or husband. Loving your neighbor wasn’t socially responsible in the Roman world, because you neighbor could be some lowly scum. And as Jesus makes clear in the story of the Good Samaritan, your neighbor is your enemy—he is the lowly scum. So “love your neighbor as yourself,” says Paul. Show her respect. Treat her as a friend. Understand that she is part of God’s story. Be a follower of Christ.

Romans 12: Bridging the Divide

Paul has spent the last eleven chapters explaining why and how both Jews and Gentiles are part of God’s family. He wanted the church in Rome to understand that both belonged and neither could claim superiority over the other. The Jews could not say they have God’s special favor and the Gentiles could not say that God has rejected the Jews. Paul wanted them to get along and understand that they were a family. But this isn’t your, “you guys are brothers, so stop fighting” type of family. Paul lays out clearly what is a desired, a family based on God’s love.

First, remember it’s not about you or what you have done, it’s about what God has done and is doing. Second, we all have different gifts, but we are all one body. Third, love each other and hate evil. Fourth, love your neighbor, even if he hates you. Feed him, clothe him, bless him.

Paul is saying what Jesus said, you gotta die to self. It ain’t about you, but about God. Fortunately, God love you and sent his son to rescue you. By dying to self you find your true self in God. Paul wants the church to live in harmony and peace (shalom) with themselves and with others. God leads, you follow.

Romans 11: Branches and Trees, What?

The Bible is full of metaphors and analogies and similes. Many of them are agricultural in nature—chaff and wheat, shepherds and sheep, branches and vines. If you grow up in the church this really isn’t a problem, because you are taught the meaning at such a young age. But if you didn’t grow up in the church (or weren’t paying attention) and weren’t a farmer and shepherd from the Mediterranean Sea than much of what the analogies will go right over your head.

We see this in Romans 11 where Paul is finalizing his “God is for Jews and Gentiles” argument. The first twelve verses reiterate the point that Jews, Paul’s people, still belong to God by his Grace. Then Paul launches into metaphor of branches and olive trees. He compares the Gentiles to wild olive branches that are grafted onto the olive tree. He reminds the Gentiles not to boast or lord it over Jews who do not follow Jesus, because it is only in faith that they are grafted on. And heck, he says, God may graft them back on before the end.

This is a relatively common metaphor in the Bible and in the modern church. Even though so few of us know what grafting a branch on really entails, we employ the metaphor all the time, because, well, it’s in the Bible. I think a different (not necessarily better) way is to imagine a prestigious university. Let’s pretend that this university is in South Dakota and you are from India. Growing up you had no connection to that university, because you lived so far away (physically and culturally). You may have heard about it because it really is the best university in the world, but you didn’t know anything. Then out of the blue one day you get an invitation to attend this school in South Dakota. Your wildest dreams, which you didn’t even you were your dreams, are being fulfilled. You go to that university and the first day you step on campus you are now part of a great history. Even though you just joined and knew nothing about the school, now you can take pride in what happened 50 years ago or in the Nobel Prizes won 10 years ago. The university’s history is now part of your history, even though you had nothing to do with it. You are still Indian, but you also are part of this university.

So it is with Paul and Gentiles the branches and the olive tree.

Romans 10: All are Welcome

As we’ve seen in the last nine chapters, Paul has a problem. He is a Jew and as such believes in the covenant (read unique, special, one of a kind) relationship that God established with Israel. However, Jesus has come, died, and was resurrected, fulfilling long standing messianic prophecies and bringing salvation to the Jews. Thing is Jesus didn’t fulfill the expectations of the Jews. The Romans still had the upper hand. Israel, the nation, was just a pipe dream. The Kingdom of God had come, but the oppressor still lord it over the Temple. To further complicate matters, through the movement of the Holy Spirit, the early church soon understands that Jesus didn’t come just for the Jews, but also for the Gentiles. To a dedicated Jew all this makes no sense. How can God have a covenant relationship with Jews, yet say that all can belong in His Kingdom? And if Gentiles are part of the family do they need to follow the law? And if they don’t need to follow the law, then are these Christians saying the law (and therefore God’s word) is worthless?

These are difficult questions that to the modern ear seem irrelevant. Yet the answers to these questions are central in understanding our relationship to God. Paul wants us to understand two things:

1. Everyone and anyone can now be part of God’s story. Even if you are a Greek from Attica, your story and identity includes what God did with Abraham and Moses and David. Gentiles are grafted to the tree. 
2. The central character in that story is Jesus, who has come for the Jew and the Gentile. 

Paul continues to address these questions in following chapters, but he makes clear in chapter ten that it is Jesus who brings us hope and that with Jesus comes our salvation. As Paul says in verse twelve, “For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and is generous to all who call on him.”

Amen.

Romans 9: No Satisfaction

I like to think that I’m now a more nuanced reader of the Bible. I understand that it’s historical roots and the different genres. I know that it isn’t a guidebook, but 66 separate books, united in Spirit, yet separated by time, place, audience, and author. I recognize that it’s not an answer book for my problems and questions.

Nevertheless, I like it when the Bible makes sense. Often it doesn’t. I don’t know why the characters act the way they do. I’m baffled by God’s response and the actions of His people. Usually that’s fine, because all this confusion happens in the Old Testaments, really really long ago. Sure, I’m going to understand the reasoning of a pastoral people surrounded by enemies. Yes, Elisha is a bit odd, but he’s a prophet and prophets don’t need to make sense. Plus it happened before the Romulus and Remus built Rome, so just read it and move on. This befuddlement, however, does not stay in the Old Testament. In Romans, chapter 9, I’m frustrated by Paul.

In this chapter Paul is answering a charge against his understanding of faith in Jesus. Namely, what do you do about God’s covenant relationship with Israel? Do the Israelites still belong to God?

Paul’s answer is, in a nutshell, God is God and God can do what God wants. This does not satisfy. I appreciate Paul’s insistence on faith for salvation, rather than work for salvation, and his emphasis that Gentiles can belong to God. Still, even though I don’t know what response I want, this definitely was not it. Yes, God is God and I cannot fathom his ways, but that cannot be a go to answer.

Romans 8: God's Children

Paul is building an argument in Romans. Up to chapter 8 he wants the people of Rome to understand two points; first, we are all caught in the web of sin; second, that it doesn’t matter if we are Jewish or Gentile but we are all saved by faith. And, as Paul notes in chapter 8, it is faith in Jesus Christ that sets us free from the “law of sin and death.”

Paul wants his readers to understand this freedom. This letter comes later in his life. He has ministered all over the eastern Mediterranean and has seen people caught in the web and mindset of sin. Folks have faith, but forget that they live in this new reality of freedom in Christ. And this freedom means that we are children of God and His heirs. It is easy to skate over this idea because saying someone is a child of God has become a cliché. But it has deep meaning. As children of God we belong to God’s house. And in his house we have access to all that God provides and we share in his blessings. This does not mean we won’t suffer here, but it means that we cannot be separated from Jesus and the love of God.

Romans 7: Will vs Reality

The problem, Paul says, is that you forget you are free. The law exists, which is good because it shows us our sin. Paul is explicit that the law does not cause sin, but the sin in us reveals itself through the law. The law shows us what is right, but we cannot do right.

This distinction between knowing what is right, but doing wrong is an essential reality for Paul. Knowledge is not enough. We know, but we sin. As Paul now famously says in verse 15: 

I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.

This understanding of sin and will resonates with our modern sensibility. In our minds we know what is right, but we fail to act. As I kid in middle school one of my classmates of was being made fun of. I knew this was wrong, but I did not say a thing. To my shame I kept quiet and my nose clean. I was a slave to sin. The will is not enough. I see this in the mundane, finishing off those brownies even though my mind says, you’re full. You see this in the paternalistic projects of today, if only people know that “smoking is bad for them,” “that junk food isn’t healthy,” “that bullying is mean.” We equate knowledge with action, even though knowledge often does not lead to action.

Paul’s solution, not surprisingly is Jesus Christ. We’ll talk about that in chapter 8.

Romans 6: Living in God's Reality

Programming Note: since this has become a series I'm actually adding titles to the posts. The plan is to do three to four of these a week, though I'm not sure what I should do after Romans. Suggestions welcomed.
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Much of the Bible is about defining God’s reality (or universe as it really is). In a fallen and broken world we say up is down and yellow is brown. When you read the prophets of the Old Testament you see them disgusted with Israel’s behavior. Israel, the chosen nation to be God’s people on earth, ignores its duty and behaves poorly. The funny thing about this behavior isn’t that God isn’t being worshipped (though that happens at times) but that God’s order for the world is not being followed. Israel breaks God’s heart by oppressing the poor, forgetting the widow, and showing injustice to the alien. God’s reality as found in creation, the law, and history is ignored and the people of Israel play by the world’s rules, not God’s.

The reality that you see in the Old Testament gets radically reworked and fulfilled in the New Testament through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Jesus broke all expectations: forgiving sins when sins weren’t supposed to be forgiven; inaugurating a kingdom not based on power. The reality of God now includes the resurrection of the dead and the salvation of humanity.

In chapter 6 of Romans, Paul is trying to make the same point. He is telling the Romans that the world isn’t as it seems. That because of our faith in a resurrected Jesus we are no longer in bondage to sin. God’s reality has broken through in our lives and we are now alive with true, eternal life.

Some Thoughts on Romans 5

I like to think that Romans is popular among the theological minded because it full of therefore’s. Paul is attempting to lay out a logical argument, with different sections building on each other, and at times circling back. Unlike his other letters, Paul isn’t dealing with problems in that specific church or addressing specific needs. He addresses the problem facing all churches—that is what to do about the Jew and Gentile divide. Instead this letter is telling the Romans what he believes and what is central to the Christian faith. Chapter 5 hits a home run with three “therefore’s.”

But let me only highlight the first therefore, which is in the first verse, “We are justified by faith (what Paul has been talking about in chapters 3 and 4), THERFORE, we have peace with God through Jesus Christ.” It is easy to skip over this line and focus on the thought provoking stuff right after it. But this idea that we have peace with God because of Jesus Christ is absolutely central to the story of Christianity. When the Apostle Peter is shown by God that Jesus is also for the Gentiles he goes and tells a Roman Centurion and his family that God sent to Israel “peace by Jesus Christ” (Acts 10.36). The world, ourselves, and our relationship with God is not right. It is broken and un-whole. Jesus Christ makes us whole and gives us peace with God. We can be in right relationship with God, the world, and others because we have shalom/peace.

Some Thoughts on Romans 4

Much of Paul’s ministry was about extending the family of God. In his youth, only Jews could belong to God. They were God’s covenant people, burdened and blessed by this special relationship. The family was small and tight knitted. Paul wants his fellow Jews and Gentile neighbors to understand that through Jesus God is expanding this family. His covenant is not just for the Jews, but for anyone who believes in Jesus. Time and time again Paul fights against this natural division in the church, reminding them that they all belong in God’s family.

Central to that reality of unity is faith. Faith is more than just assenting to propositions about the nature of reality. Faith is more than believing what you are told to believe. Faith is accepting God’s reality. Faith is attempting to live in that reality of a Kingdom come, where Jesus was raised from the dead and made us right with God.

Paul tells the people of Rome (and us) that we are like the great patriarch Abraham. Abraham was made righteous because of his faith, not because he was circumcised or because he was a good person (go read Genesis 12 and following and you’ll see what mean). For Paul, and for us, this is wonderful news. Essentially it means that it doesn’t matter who you are. If you have faith, but are a Goth from the north, you are saved. If you have faith, but are a slave in a senator’s house, you are saved. If you are a Jew from Alexandria and have faith, you are saved because of that faith.

Paul wants us to know that God is not limiting his blessing anymore. We, the Gentiles, the forgotten, the broken, are now part of God’s story. Because of Jesus we have the joy that David spoke about 3000 years ago:

Oh, what joy for those whose disobedience is forgiven, whose sins are put out of sight.
Yes, what joy for those whose record the LORD has cleared of sin.

Some Thoughts on Romans 3

In Romans, chapter 3, Paul continues walking a fine line. He wants to establish that all have sinned and that no one is saved because of he was circumcised or goes to the Temple. Yet, he doesn’t want to say that God’s covenant with Israel was and is worthless. Paul recognizes the law exists, but it brings only knowledge of sin, for no one can follow the law be saved. Adding another wrinkle Paul wants to extend God’s covenant to the Gentiles while still maintaining God’s special relationship with the Jews. This line of reasoning can make for difficult reading, but is essential for Paul.

At the end of the chapter (still in the beginning of the letter) Paul dances this little two-step. He wants the Jews and Gentiles living in Rome to understand that faith is the basis of their relationship with God and each other. The Jew, though aware of the law, is incapable of following the law. And so she must turn to faith. The Gentile, through foreign to the law, is condemned by the law. And so she must turn to faith. We come from different places, Paul says, but we must come to the same point of faith. No barrier is too great, for God is one and He is the God of us all who sent his only son to bring redemption to you and me alike.

Some Thoughts on Romans 2

In the second chapter of Romans Paul lays out the simple fact that we’ll be judged by God. His judgment is righteous and just, and nothing can supposedly save you from that judgment. Being circumcised won’t save you. Even pleading ignorance won’t save you, for you will be judged by your own conscience. Paul understands human nature and is trying to make sure the Romans know that they don’t have a “get of jail free” card. Even those who know the law and teach the law do not follow the law.

Oddly, perhaps, this reminds me of a common complaint of God and His judgment. People will say, “yeah, God’s fine, but what do you about those people who don’t hear about Jesus. Do they go to hell? Are they saved?” The legitimate question is not an easy one to answer. We really don’t know and can only throw ourselves on the mercy of Jesus Christ. Nevertheless, this question is usually asked to deflect the real question, “Do you believe and follow Jesus?” You may be troubled by the fate others, but your fate is here and now.