Tuesday, April 28, 2009

The Romance of Romans-Part 62

Romans Chapter 9 cont'd

Again, I can anticipate what you may be tempted to think- "God is unjust for saving people on the basis of his choice to show mercy rather than on the basis of their own efforts." Right? Wrong! God made this point clear even in Moses' day when he said, "I will have mercy and compassion on whom I choose to show mercy and compassion." Our salvation therefore does not depend on our will power or our frantic efforts to earn it, but on God's willingness to show mercy. This truth is again reinforced in scripture when God said to Egypt's Pharaoh, "I have raised you up to your office of power to reveal my superior power. This will be showdown that will make me famous among all the nations of all ages." God has the power at his command to soften or harden people's hearts for his own righteous and higher purposes.
Now your natural mind will react by suggesting, "If no one can resist God's will, then how can he justly find fault with us weak human beings?" Here's my response- It's an illegal question for any of us to ask! We must refuse to attempt to explain the mystery of the interplay between the sovereignty of God and human responsibility in a way that is totally satisfying to us. God has intentionally left this philosophical "stumbling block" in our path to keep us mindful that we are his creation, not vice-versa. We're dealing with the all-knowing, all-powerful, and infinite Creator of all things here! How could we, or why should we, expect to fully comprehend his infinite mysteries with our finite minds? Doesn't he have the right to withhold some secrets from us to keep us humble and worshipful? A world full of morally fallen people is bad enough, what if we all possessed omniscience too?! As part of his "job description" as God, can't he do with mankind what he thinks best for the universe?

Comments:

We long to personally connect with Someone who is greater, better, more powerful, wiser, more loving, more just and more intelligent than we are. God has "put eternity in our hearts". And knowing him is the essence of life. Though we can truly come to know him through Jesus Christ and the scriptures and the Holy Spirit's work within us, truly, we do not know everything about him. That will be the "stuff" of infinite ages to come. The mystery of God messes with our minds, but it fuels our hearts. This is why Father has left us truths about him and his eternal kingdom that hold great mystery and tension at their center.

For too long the Church, under the cultural pressure of modernism, has been progressively embarrassed and almost ashamed about the great mysteries of our faith. Ironically, now the Western cultural winds have shifted and people are starving to touch and be touched by...mystery. So much so...that they often open their minds so widely that their brains fall out! We owe an apology to our secularized culture for caving to the pressure in decades past to denude our faith from the greatest mysteries the world has ever known.

To bring it down to the personal level...I like to say to myself and others..."Is it alright with you if God is and does certain things that I can't fully explain in a philosophically pleasing way?" Indeed, if I (or we) could, I would be highly suspicious that I had made a god after my own image, rather than finding myself in a love relationship with the living God. So it is with this great mystery Paul touches on in Romans 9...the interplay between the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of human beings before him. Great theologians have disagreed on the details of explaining this biblical truth in tension...they always will. As best I can, I choose to take to heart in the present moment the various passages that emphasize...one side here and another there...like a little child who doesn't need to understand and explain as much as she/he needs to connect and relate. God is sovereign and we are responsible...go and deal with it. Or better said, let it deal with you!

Sunday, April 26, 2009

The Romance of Romans-Part 61

Romans Chapter 9 Cont'd

But just because the Jews, generally speaking, are not presently right with God, it does not mean that God's word has somehow failed. For not all ethnic Jews are the true "Israelites," neither are they automatically the children of God simply because they are the natural descendants of Abraham. Ishmael was Abraham's natural born son too, but the promise of salvation wasn't to him, it was to the "supernatural born son" Isaac and his descendants. This is a historic scenario with spiritually symbolic meaning, namely, the true children of God who are the heirs of the promise of salvation are not qualified to be so through their natural birth, but through the divine promise of a supernatural birth.
For this is the nature of God's saving promise: "At this time I will come, and Sarah (not Hagar) will have a son." This same spiritual principle was repeated in the next generation as a confirmation. God's promise was not even given to all the natural born children of Isaac, but only through his son Jacob. This was to prove the point that salvation never was, and can never be, dependent on ethnic origins or human religious performance, but on God himself and his sovereign purposes and choices. For before Isaac's twins were even born and able to perform any "works"- good or bad, God said to their mother Rebecca, "The elder shall be subservient to the younger". This fulfilled the scripture, "I have chosen Jacob and not Esau."

Comments:

Here Paul is expanding on the primary foundational point of his revelation regarding the Big God-Story of the scriptures and how the New Covenant in Jesus is a logical, though admittedly surprising, extension and fulfillment of God's promise to father Abraham. It was a new "old thought". The apostle John said it this way in 1 Jn 2:7-8, " Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have had since the beginning. This old command is the message you have heard. Yet I am writing you a new command; its truth is seen in him and you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining." The adding of the Law through Moses, with all its regulations and cultural distinctives, that kept the nation cemented together through the centuries and prepared her as a "womb" for the personal coming of the Messiah, did not negate the essential nature of God's election and choice of human beings for the experience of his salvation.

In chapter 2:28-29, Paul said it this way, "A man is not a Jew if he is only one outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a man's praise is not from men, but from God." This circumcision of heart found/finds its ultimate expression by what Jesus and the New Covenant are all about. Being, or becoming, a true "Israelite" was never about race or human blood lines...it is, and has always been, about personal and living faith in God and his word. This was, first of all proclaimed to the Jews and...then also to the gentiles...because of God's intent to spread the good news of Jesus, his Son, to the whole world and every people group within it. Abraham was called to be a "father of many nations"...and this has now become a reality by the grace of God in Christ.

Monday, April 13, 2009

The Romance of Romans-Part 60

Romans Chapter 9 cont'd

They are the Israelites- God's historic "chosen people"; who were entrusted with the message of salvation, the manifest presence of God, the divine covenantal agreements, the written law, the awesome prophetic promises of God and with being God's true priests in the earth. The great spiritual patriarchs are their ancestors and, in his humanity, Jesus the Messiah (who is also fully divine), came from their lineage. He has authority over all things. He really does!

Comments:

So...we need to connect the dots between chapter 3 and chapter 9 in order to regain Paul's train of thought. Many of Paul's first century Jewish kinsmen were of the persuasion that if the message he was preaching were true, then God was, at best, unfaithful to his covenant with Abraham...and, at worst, an outright deceiver. However, Paul (and Jesus himself) challenged the traditional presuppositions beneath the popular theological paradigms of understanding the applications of God's covenantal promises to Israel and revealed (unveiled) their true essence and administration...things that had been shrouded in divine mystery throughout the centuries until the appointed time...the time of Christ's appearing. So...a refresher from two earlier blogs:

From The Romance of Romans-part 9:

Now I know that you're tempted to think: "If what he's saying is
true, then there has been no meaning to all it has cost the Jews for
being God's 'chosen people'. What's the advantage of being a Jew in
the first place?" Actually, there are many privileges- especially
that God gave them the stewardship over his message to humanity
through the prophetic scriptures. So if some Jews have been
unfaithful to their divine calling, does this negate the faithfulness
of God himself? No way! God is, and will always be, true even if all
people were to contradict him. The scripture says of him, "You are
always right in all that you say and you always prove your critics
wrong."

Comments:

In my view, this first question is the most profound and fundamental
one of them all. Yet, it is one whose profundity can easily escape
us. Let me put it in other words...If a law-keeping and God-honoring
Jewish person is not right with God and...in the larger context...if
the Jewish people are not "saved" or "safe" by being associated with
their historic/national/ethnic faith community and its beliefs,
rituals and customs...then God has lied because he has broken his part
of the ancient bargain he made with Abraham, Moses, David and the
like...since he absolutely promised that he would "save" their
children/followers throughout the generations to come. So...God is
not "righteous" if what Paul says is true.

I believe how Paul addresses this question is the main theme of the book of
Romans as it posits a new and different paradigm of how to understand and interpret the metanarrative...the overarching story...of the Bible from Genesis forward. This new and authoritative framework for understanding the "kingdom of God" and the OT prophecies was initiated by Jesus in the Gospels. And...it was the primary reason, humanly speaking, why Jesus and Paul both were executed. As followers of Jesus in our day, we need to let this sobering philosophical/doctrinal foundation of the first part of Romans sink in to our hearts and minds. It's truly radical and upsets the status quo of our spiritually complacent cultures--religious and otherwise.

And then also..."Comments" from The Romance of Romans-Part 12:

And...far from being "anti-Jewish"...for people of every race and nation
to be invited to "receive" Jesus as the promised Messiah...the
Father's free gift to all humanity...is the fulfillment of what the
Hebrew prophets heard from God, anticipated and foretold. God's
promise to Abraham that he would be the father of many nations and a
blessing to every family on the earth finds its consummation in all
that Jesus was and is about...God isn't only the God of the Jews, but
also of the gentiles. And if he is the same and only true God for all,
then he must save all by the same means- believing. So do we nullify
the value of the Mosaic law because of this? No way! In fact, its very focus
is confirmed.

Saturday, April 11, 2009

The Romance of Romans-Part 59

Romans Chapter 9 cont'd

I tell you as sincerely before God as I can, and the Holy Spirit moving within my conscience affirms the truth of this, that I am carrying a continual and heavy burden in my heart for my own Jewish people. I would even accept eternal rejection from Christ if somehow I could change places with them.

They are the Israelites- God's historic "chosen people"; who were entrusted with the message of salvation, the manifest presence of God, the divine covenantal agreements, the written law, the awesome prophetic promises of God and with being God's true priests in the earth. The great spiritual patriarchs are their ancestors and, in his humanity, Jesus the Messiah (who is also fully divine), came from their lineage. He has authority over all things. He really does!

Comments:

In order to reset the context for Romans chapters 9-11, around the details of which there is considerable honest debate (and, not a few, irrational and fear-based reactions) in the body of Christ, we really should digress and look again at what Paul briefly spoke about in chapter 3 and some of the selected comments I made about the passages--which we will do in the next blog.

Keep in mind that Paul viewed himself, and the other apostles, as standing in the same Spirit and...because of the "event" of Jesus Christ in their day...standing in the "bulls eye" of the trajectory line of the Hebrew prophets of previous generations. The apostles of Jesus were the new Jewish prophets on the scene of human history, chosen and sent by God, who had the distinct honor of authoritatively proclaiming the central focus and fulfillment of the ancient words of their predecessors. As you think back on the lives and ministries of the ancient Hebrew prophets...they were very often, like the apostles...resisted and persecuted by the religious and political authorities of their day for their witness and message. The irony is that Jesus pointed out on more than one occasion is that, generally speaking, the Jewish people came to venerate their own prophets only after their initial rejection of them. So...the apostles of Jesus were standing in good company and were similarly treated.

And please never forget the "tears of the heart" that continually fell within Paul's being over the tragedy of any people group or person rejecting Jesus as the Messiah and their personal Lord and Master. Hating or resenting our fellow humans (including those who may choose to reject our Lord and the gospel) in any way, is never an option for one whose heart has been captured by Jesus...who was a "friend of sinners" and laid his life down for us all. May we too embody this apostolic heart of love and mercy and patient hope of redemption.

The Romance of Romans-Part 58

Romans Chapter 9

I tell you as sincerely before God as I can, and the Holy Spirit moving within my conscience affirms the truth of this, that I am carrying a continual and heavy burden in my heart for my own Jewish people. I would even accept eternal rejection from Christ if somehow I could change places with them.

Comments:

Generally speaking, Jesus and his apostles deeply upset the spiritual/political status quo of both the Jews and the Gentiles of their day...of this, there is no doubt. They both gave up their lives in violent deaths because of this fact. Paul would say in another place that the gospel is a "stumbling block" to Jewish people and "foolishness" to the Greeks. But in reality, the coming of Messiah Jesus into this world was, of course, the greatest and climactic act of divine love, mercy, reconciliation and justice the world would ever witness or come to know. Beautiful and terrible irony has always been at the dramatic heart of God's big God-Story.

Jesus and his apostles claimed to understand and were sent to "reveal" a new and divinely inspired viewpoint on the history of God with his creation, with Israel and with all the nations...through the spiritual authority entrusted to them by the Father and with the added benefit of clear prophetic hindsight. They would labor to show and teach how the groundwork for this new view was clearly established by God in the scriptures and that the gospel and the New Covenant were and are a logical extension built upon that foundation. In fact, Jesus was actually "present" in that history and was, himself, the chief cornerstone of the foundation of the "house of God" and the grand drama related to this divine family heritage that would play out in human history and destiny through his gospel.

Beginning in chapter 9, Paul elaborates on a theme that he began to speak of in chapter 3. This theme, far from being a "parenthesis" in Romans, is at the heart of this amazing epistle and we will pick this up in the next installments. But before we go there, we must pause profoundly to catch the breaking heart of the dear apostle of Christ that undergirded the strong words and challenging worldview he laid out to both the Jews and Gentiles of his day...and ours.

He states, "I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh...." This speaks for itself (if we dare to even speak it)...especially knowing how deeply Paul knew and loved Jesus from the first day he met him on the Damascus road. In our zeal to share the good news of our Lord with the people the Father puts in our lives, may his Spirit capture our hearts with the same depth of compassion, humility and self-sacrifice. It is this kind of love that will give weight to our words and claim of personally knowing God through Christ Jesus the Lord.

He is Risen!

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

The Romance of Romans-Part 57

Romans Chapter 8 cont'd.

What can separate us from the reality of the love of Jesus? Can pressure or troubles, persecution or rejection? Can natural disasters or loss of possessions? How about dangers or even physical death? No, these are the very kinds of experiences that scripture teaches children of God to expect in this fallen world- "For your sake we are constantly handed over to death, we are like sheep headed for the slaughter house." Indeed, these are the kinds of evil events we encounter, but prevail over, because of our confidence in the goodness and love of God toward us- no matter what things look like. I am convinced that neither death or life; angels, authorities, or demons; the present or the future; life's peaks or valleys; or any created being, can isolate us from God's love which flows down richly to us through Christ Jesus our Lord.

Comments:

A final thought on this eloquent and inspiring end of the eighth chapter. I think it is very important for us to broaden our understanding of suffering for Christ in this world. There are many passages in the NT that speak of the comfort and reward and the transcendent meaning of suffering nobly and well as a follower of Jesus. Many believers tend to think that only being ridiculed or persecuted for our faith rates as a true and/or legitimate suffering for Jesus. As a counselor, I have discovered that people often do not categorize their trials in life as legitimate sufferings...and this tends to cut them off from vital biblical truths that speak profound comfort and grace to their pain.

However, this passage truly broadens the playing field of what Paul considered as legitimate sufferings for Christ...disasters, troubles, loss, dangers, setbacks, disappointments, rejections, demonic assault, approaching death...all these common experiences of life can "rate" as legitimate sufferings "for the sake of Christ"...if we will simply count them as such and continue to grow in love despite them. We can "sanctify" and "redeem" our sufferings and the brokenness that attends them if we commit our souls to our faithful heavenly Father in the midst of them and endure them for his honor. This does not mean that we should not pray fervently to him to change these situations...Jesus prayed this way in the garden of Gethsemane...and he is our model.

If we do not recognize the pains of living in a fallen world as legitimate sufferings, then we will tend to deny them in unhealthy ways and develop strange ways of coping with them. My good friend, Bob Edwards, has said that if we don't process our pain in fellowship with God, it will come out "sideways". I have learned a lot from Bob about sufferings...and joy and life and the love of God and the love of people.

Sunday, April 5, 2009

The Romance of Romans-Part 56

Romans Chapter 8 cont'd.

Who can now bring an accusation against those whom God has chosen to be his? He has already declared them "not guilty, but righteous". Who can now condemn them? Jesus Christ died and rose again for their sake- he is their advocate before God, and God has agreed with him up front! What can separate us from the reality of the love of Jesus? Can pressure or troubles, persecution or rejection? Can natural disasters or loss of possessions? How about dangers or even physical death? No, these are the very kinds of experiences that scripture teaches children of God to expect in this fallen world- "For your sake we are constantly handed over to death, we are like sheep headed for the slaughter house." Indeed, these are the kinds of evil events we encounter, but prevail over, because of our confidence in the goodness and love of God toward us- no matter what things look like. I am convinced that neither death nor life; angels, authorities, nor demons; the present or the future; life's peaks or valleys; nor any created being, can isolate us from God's love which flows down richly to us through Christ Jesus our Lord.

Comments:

The answers to the question, though meant to be rhetorical, about who can accuse or condemn us are...1. the devil and 2. ourselves and 3. the fallen authorities of our earthly cultures. But, then again, who really are any of these beings compared to Jesus and our heavenly Father? All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Jesus by the Father...and he is the true Judge of all. And, it just so happens that the Judge...is in love with us! The Judge took upon himself our sin and guilt and shame and resolved it forever through his death, resurrection and ascension. Case closed.

And what then can separate us from the love of Jesus? Nothing actually now...which is the apostle's point. But our doubt about his love for us...with the crap, and its stench, of living in this fallen age in our faces...can definitely do a number on our enjoyment of it. Our doubts and fears can cloud our sense of our Father's love. Paul is jealous for us to overcome this doubt and fear.

When things do not go well in this life for me, I am tempted to immediately imagine that God has changed his attitude toward me and has now decided to punish me for my failures after all. As though the gospel was some kind of a "bait and switch" political deal. This is because I know that God is all-powerful and that he intervenes, even miraculously, in this world to bless his children, answer our prayers and accomplish his will. So...when (not if!) something "bad" happens to me or mine...God must surely now be upset or angry with me. When I first came to faith, I sub-consciously imagined (and hoped) that "accepting Jesus" meant that nothing "bad" would or could happen to me.

However, these imaginations are overly-simplistic equations of spirituality and life that I worked out in my own head. And life's violation of these equations is at the root of my doubts about the goodness and love of God toward me. I crave a iron-clad code to live by as a basis for my spiritual security. I secretly and silently demand that God follow this code that I have scripted for him. (This is the subterranean fountainhead of all legalism--it is a "control issue".) A part of me does not like the fact that he is a "living" God...and that a personal relationship with him is at the heart of the faith that Jesus Christ has come to bring to the world...not a predictable and static religion. I do not like living in the tension of having a relationship with an all-powerful and loving God who does indeed care for me, hear my prayers...and who does, at times, even miraculously intervene to undo evil situations...but who also continues to allow evil events to happen all around me. I tend to equate "God" and "God's love for me" with "life in a fallen age". I do not like the basic paradox of my faith.

It is this temptation to doubt the goodness and love of God that Paul indirectly addresses in this grand passage above. I believe that overcoming the doubt of our Father's love for us...in the midst of a life in which not everything is going well and nothing is going perfectly...is the essence of "the good fight of faith". We are called to take a bold, and sometimes lonely, stand...with the adverse winds of this age blowing in our faces...and lean into it while we declare to the whole cosmos our unyielding belief in...the truth of the last paragraph of Romans 8..."God is good. God is good. God is good. God is good. Life can be hard...but God is good. And...absolutely nothing can separate me from his love for me through Jesus Christ my Lord!"

Thursday, April 2, 2009

The Romance of Romans-Part 55

Romans Chapter 8 cont'd

We are confident that God is weaving all things in life together, both the good and the bad, into a beautiful whole on behalf of those who love and trust him- for they have been apprehended for his transcendent purposes.

Comments:

No doubt, the first part of this paragraph of Romans 8...verse 28...is the most famous verse from the chapter...at least in our generation. "And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose." This verse is so full of comforting reality that it simply leads me to childlike prayer.

Heavenly Father, you are truly amazing. You are so great and good and powerful. Were you really there peering in on my life before I knew you; already purposing to redeem both the providential gifts you gave me from my mother's womb and also my foolish choices along the way? Thank you for not being intimidated by my sins. Thank you for pursuing me and seeing beyond my resistance toward you. Thank you for being so creative and resourceful. Thank you for your love and ability to "cause" good to trump evil...you make light to shine out of the darkness. Thank you for your powerful hands that work and shape the clay of this earth into vessels that you can use for your noble purposes. Allow me to be one such instrument and do my part in your grand drama.

I do love you, Father...and your Son...and your Holy Spirit. Help me to love you more and more as the years progress.