Walking The Roman Road – Lenten Season 2019

“You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things.

Now, we know that God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth.

So, when you, a mere man, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment?  Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness leads you toward repentance?

But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed” (Romans 2:1-5 NIV).

The Sin of Jonah

Imagine, for a moment, that you are Jonah, a prophet from Isreal, who has been given the unpleasant task of preaching repentance in the capital city of the sworn enemies of your people.  That wouldn’t be so bad if you were supposed to announce judgment and maybe even be allowed to bring fire and brimestone down upon your enemies and destroy them completely before they have an opportunity to invade your country and destroy your people.  How sweet would that be?

But, no.  God told you to preach repentance to your enemies and to add insult to injury, He let you know beforehand that they would repent and would be spared.  What’s the point?  Why would God be so patient with people who were so evil?  I thought He was on our side.  What’s going on here?

So there you sit, outside of the city walls (just in case) under a small tree trying to stay out of the heat of the midday sun.  You did your job.  Maybe without a lot of enthusiasm but what did you expect?  You tried to run away in the opposite direction but that was futile.  God sent a storm.  You were thrown overboard at your own request knowing that God was after you and it wasn’t fair to condemn innocent men because of your sin.  And then there was the whale.  What an terrible, distasteful journey that was.  But you deserved no less.  God would not be denied.  But that didn’t mean you had to like it.

So you did your job.  You preached repentance.  You let the people of Nineveh know that if they didn’t repent, God would destroy them.  You didn’t try to persuade them.  Your oratory wasn’t exemplary nor inspired.  You simply told them the truth.  You did your job.

Maybe because they knew you were Jewish and that you more than hoped they wouldn’t repent, they took you more seriously.  Maybe it was the fact that you were their enemy but still preached repentance and not just judgment.  Whatever the case, the city repented and God’s judgment did not come upon them.  Darn.

And then there was this darned fig tree that withered away right during the hottest part of the day.  Nothing was going right.  You complain to God bitterly about your own comfort but God wasn’t playing ball.  Instead of making you more comfortable, God rebukes you for your hard heart, because you made your comfort and a stupid fig tree more important than a city full of people who were in danger of the righteous judgment of God.

That is the sin of Jonah.  A hard-hearted, judgmental attitude toward others who were not like you while, at the same time, thinking you had some sort of special dispensation from God that allowed you to act with arrogance towards everybody else.

Sorry.  That isn’t going to wash with God.  The sin of Jonah is a serious problem among the Jews especially in Jesus’ day.  Don’t forget what we said about the context for Paul’s letter.  Between the Judaizers on the one hand (Jewish Christians who insisted every Gentile had to become a Jew first to become a Christian) and non-believing Jews who wanted to eradicate this new sect, things were not easy for the Gentile Christians in Rome.  Paul wasn’t just trying to make peace.  He was setting the record straight and calling sin what it was and the Sin of Jonah was a big problem in the early church (and to some degree in every church).

If you are one of those judgmental types of Christians who still don’t understand that we live by faith and are under no condemnation and you still think that walking in the Spirit is all about morality instead of relationship, then you are commiting the Sin of Jonah and these words of Paul are for you as well.  Take note.  It is an easy sin to fall into for all of us at one point or another.  More often than not we are willing to throw our brother or sister “under the bus” at the first sign of a problem or moral sin instead of valuing the relationship more than the sin and finding a way to forgive and reconcile.  After all, “love covers a multitude of sins” (I Peter 4:8 NIV).

The Desert Warrior

P.S.  Let’s talk to God….

Lord, I find it easy to focus on the sin and the morality even though I know that I have the same weakness in me.  Maybe it’s a different type of sin but it comes from the same source and condemns me the same as everyone else.  Teach me humility and teach me to value the spiritual unity with my brother and sister above all.  After all, you have already given us the solution to the problem of sin and evil within and we only need to apply it in each situation.  But often, we don’t.  We hold grudges.  We gossip and slander and talk down the other person when they aren’t around.  Forgive us, Lord, for the sin of Jonah and for our hard hearts.  In your name I pray.  Amen.

 

 

Walking The Roman Road – Lenten Season 2019

“I am not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes; first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.  For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.” (Romans 1:16)

I’m a Good Guy

“I’m just having a hard time with all of this evil and wickedness stuff,” John said, his eyes fixed on mine.  “I just don’t believe it’s true.  I’m a good guy.”

We were having our weekly chat after the Alpha Course and John was also following my blog on the book of Romans.  He always had a lot of questions and I enjoyed the honesty.  He was becoming a good friend.

“I have no doubt that you are a good guy,”  I said.  “In fact, if getting into heaven was about being a good guy, you would be at the front of the line.”  John looked at me as if I was joshing him, but I was serious.

“I didn’t say I was all that good,” he countered.

“No, I’m serious,” I said.  “I’m not giving you a hard time.  Lots of people are good people.  And it is hard for us to connect with this list of evil that Paul gives us.  But I think you are missing something.”

“What am I missing?”

“You told me when we were first talking about things that you didn’t have a relationship with God, right?”

“Right.”

“So, you were godless.”

“Well, godless is a strong word.”

“Is it true or not?” I asked.  “Did you have a relationship with God?  Did you consider what He wanted?  Did you let Him have authority over your life or did you do pretty well whatever you wanted?”

“Well, within limits.”

“God’s limits?”

“Maybe.  But I wasn’t thinking so much about Him as about my family, and society and the law.  Things like that.”

“So you were more or less a moral person but you were still godless.”

“Ok, sure.  If you put it that way.”

“That’s the way Paul puts it.  And if you are godless, it leads to wickedness.  Wickedness is defined as selfishness, anything that isn’t based on love, really.”

“I’m a pretty loving guy.”

“I’m sure Sofi would agree,” I said with a smile.  “But if I asked you to be honest and make a list of everything you’ve done wrong in your life, every time you didn’t show much love, or enough love, or any love, would there be anything on your list?”

“Well, sure.  But that’s true for all of us.”

“Of course.  I never said it wasn’t.  My own personal list is very long.  One of the problems with becoming a Christian is that you become even more aware of your sin than you did before.  It can drive you nuts.”

“If we are all in the same boat, then we are all more or less good.”

“Or, if we are honest, and use God’s standard of love and respect and care for everybody, we are more or less evil.”

“I would rather be positive and look at the glass half full.”

“God would rather be honest and look at things the way they are,” I said.  “It isn’t about how much sin or how much we lack love for our neighbor but rather why we are the way we are.”

“What do you mean?”

“Evil isn’t just about morality but about relationships, remember?”

“Sort of.”

“Let me give you an example.  Have you ever fought with Sofi?”

“Yeah.  Remember?  We had a bad fight just a couple of weeks ago.  I almost left her and she almost got an abortion.”  John’s face looked a bit haunted.  “Are you going to tell me that all of that is an example of evil?”

“What do you think?”

“Probably.”

I waited for him to continue but he didn’t say anything.

“Well, I wasn’t really trying to bring up those bad memories.  I was just talking about a normal fight you might have had.  Lots of couples fight over money, over which movie to see, over their in-laws.  You know….”

“Yeah, ok.  Sofi and I fight like that sometimes.”

“Well, have you ever noticed that sometimes the fight is over something really important and sometimes it’s over something really not important at all?”

“Yeah, like what movie to watch on TV.  We do that all the time…..”  Now John was smiling again.

“Exactly,”  I said.  “The thing you need to realize is that it isn’t about the “thing” you’re fighting about, it’s about the relationship.  It’s not the what but the why.”

“I hadn’t thought about it that way before.”

“Women are especially sensitive to that kind of thing.  And everybody has their own standards of what love looks like.  God too.  Although God has the right standards and He includes everybody.  We love each other in a messy, half-hearted way and are pretty exclusive with our love.”

“Ok, I can see that.”

“So, the issue isn’t morality but rather what the lack of morality says about our relationship with God.  The fact that we are willing to hurt him just to get our own way, says something.  The fact that we don’t even consult him when we should, says something.  Try doing that with Sofi and see what happens.”  I was looking hard at John, willing him to understand.

John was thoughtful for a moment.  “So it isn’t that much different from our human relationships, you’re saying.”

“In some ways yes and in some ways no.  But you get the point.  If you ignore Sofi and you live your life as if she doesn’t exist, or worse, doesn’t matter, what do you expect.  She isn’t going to like it.”

“Especially if I’m married to her,” John said.  “I would never treat her that way.  I love her.”

“Exactly,” I agreed.  “Marriage makes it a “necessary” relationship which you can’t ignore and you treat your wife badly at your own peril.”  I paused.  “But I know a lot of guys who do exactly that.  They treat their wives badly.  They ignore them.  They don’t ask for their opinions.  They treat them like trash.  Sometimes they are even abused by their husbands.”

“They should all be shot.”

“I agree,” I said.  “But the truth is that we all do it sooner or later, once in a while, when we aren’t paying attention like we should.”

“So you are saying that God is also a necessary relationship and that we don’t have a right to ignore Him either?”

“Exactly.  Because if we do, there are consequences.  Just like in marriage.  But because it is God we are talking about, the consequences are eternal and are a matter of life and death.”

“So, you are saying there is nothing God can do to stop these consequences from happening to me?”

“No, what I am saying is that there are natural consequences for ignoring God and if you continue to do so until your death, then there is nothing anyone can do to save you, even God.  You won’t be able to stand being with Him in heaven so you will end up in hell, and you won’t like it, not one bit.”

“So what if I don’t continue to ignore God?”

I got up from my chair and walked over to the fridge.  I needed to think for a moment.  John seemed very open and I wanted to say the right thing.

“Look, John,” I said.  “If you ignore Sofi and treat her badly for a long time, would you be surprised that there are consequences?  Maybe she leaves you or you get a divorce or something?”

“That makes sense.”

“Well, with God it is the same thing.  But if you came to me in the middle of the process and asked me for help, could I potentially get you and Sofi back together?”

“Maybe.  Depends if Sofi wanted to get back together.”

“Right.  In this case, God is saying that He wants to get back together with you but it has to be done in the right way and for the right reasons and your heart has to be in it.  Does that make sense?”

“Is that what God is saying?”

“Yes.  That’s why it is called good news.  God wants to get back together with us.  He loves us and he wants to forgive us and start fresh again.  But it has to be done his way.”

John was nodding his head.  It looked like he was finally getting it.  The conviction of the Holy Spirit was doing its work in his heart and he had fresh eyes to see what was really going on.  I was excited and relieved at the same time.

The Desert Warrior

P.S.  Let’s talk to God….

Lord, I also think that I’m a good guy.  When I look at all of the moral lists, I can see that I fail at some of them but not the worst ones.  I generally try to do the right things and care for the people around me.  But it is true that I ignore you a lot and that is not right.  It isn’t just about the morality, or how good or how bad I am but rather about the relationship.  Forgive me, Lord.  I want to reconcile with you and become your child once again.  Please show me how.  In your name I pray.  Amen.

 

 

Walking The Roman Road – Lenten Season 2019

“The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men” (Romans 1:18 NIV)

“Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.  They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator – who is forever praised.  Amen” (Romans 1:24,25 NIV)

“Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts” (Romans 1:26 NIV).

“Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.  They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity” (Romans 1:28,29a NIV).

“They invent ways of doing evil” (Romans 1:30b NIV)

“Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them” (Romans 1:32 NIV).

But for the Grace of God

Evil is relational, progressive and has eternal consequences.  We don’t take sin seriously enough (even in the church).  We justify ourselves when we have no excuse.  We rationalize our mistakes (and call them mistakes instead of sin).  We acknowledge that the world has problems but believe the fantasy that science and technology (our modern gods) can solve the problem because we refuse to recognize that the problem is within.

If we are religious, we look for ways to please God in order to get benefits from him.  Offensive to say the least.  Even my wife would never put up with that.

If we are not religious, we simply ignore God and do what we please.  Perhaps we have some moral limits instilled into us by our parents or society at large, but the truth is, that if there were no consequences (or if our justification was strong enough) who knows where we would end up?

There, but for the grace of God, go I.

Do we really believe that?  Are we really aware of the fact that, left to our own resources, we are capable of horrendous things?

I remember watching the TV Series called CRIMINAL MINDS.  The head of the team often has to remind the others that “all of us are capable of horrible things under the right circumstances.”

And it’s true isn’t it?  There are restraints on us instilled by our parents and society and the law and the threat of punishment.  We like to think that we are good people and not capable of great evil (only small evil).  But that is not so.

On the one hand, all evil is unlove and comes from a broken relationship with God (and therefore with our fellow man).  Therefore all evil (big or small) has the same nature and comes from the same source.

But, in addition, in humility, we need to recognize that it isn’t ourselves and our sterling character that keeps us from committing greater evil.  We can’t take the credit.  Some people would at least credit their upbringing to some extent, which is a start.  Others would credit their education, their religious training, their family context.

But the disturbing thing about the evil within, is that it needs to be restrained at all.  Whatever the source of that restraint.  Left on our own, we are all capable of great evil.  That is the truth.   It is common to see the story of evil as a consequence of great trauma or rejection or mental illness or injustice or a bad upbringing but those are all excuses (even if true).  We are responsible for our actions.  Evil in the human heart is not something to be trifled with.

The fact that there are reasons for our evil behaviour does not excuse us.  Others who have gone through similiar situations, made different decisions not to do evil.  Our decisions define us.  Too often those decisions are selfish and dangerous to those around us.

So with that in mind, that we are all capable of great evil and prove it with the evil we already are committing, let us take a closer look at these verses from Paul where he describes “wickedness” in more detail.

There are a number of passages in the Bible, especially in Paul’s letters, that give a list of evils for us to consider.  The amazing thing is that Paul includes homosexuality together with gossip, murder with boasting, depravity with disobeying your parents.  What is going on?  Apparently, Paul is putting them all in the same boat.  It isn’t just that the consequences of each action is different but rather that the evil is the same.  It comes from the same place of brokenness and is a example of “unlove.”

The point is that you and I cannot escape.  It is easy to think that the “bigger” sins do not apply to us, but then Paul also includes the “smaller” sins.  Then we realize that Paul never classified them as “bigger” or “smaller” but lumps them all together into one list.  He does that consistently in all of his letters.  Certainly some things you and I may not participate in but we would be hard pressed, if we were honest, not to find ourselves in this list somewhere.  Certainly when we were not yet saved (but still struggling with some of them).

Did you notice that Paul also returns to the two types of people that he had been talking to in the previous section?  The non-relgious types and the relgious types.

In vs. 25 he is talking to the religious types.  “They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator…”

In vs. 28 he is talking to the non-religious types.  “since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God….”

Paul lumps them together as well.  Did you notice that for the religious types, the issue is truth (or belief)?  And for the non-religious types, the issue is value?  Interesting.  It pretty well covers everybody, doesn’t it?

So when you are talking to people about the gospel, you need to recognize where they are coming from.  Are they religious types that simply believe a lie rather than the truth?  That is the focus of your efforts when you explain the gospel.  Truth corresponds to reality.  Reality is full of evidence for the existence of God and the presence of evil.  Start there.

When you are talking to the non-religious types, you need to focus on value.  They simply don’t care if God exists or not.  They live their own lives on their own terms.  In their case, you need to warn them that their godlessness will have consequences if God actually exists.  In this case, some discussion of the existence of God and the evidence for that truth may be helpful.

Paul will go into a deeper discussion of the religious types when he talks about the Jews but for now, there are plenty of relgious types also among the gentiles.

Two other things we need to take note of about the nature of evil.  Not only is evil in all of us to one degree or another.  Not only are we all incurably godless (without Christ).  Not only is evil relational and progressive.  Evil is on purpose.  Maybe not at first and maybe not in all things.  But you and I have all had the experience of doing what was wrong, knowing it was wrong, and stubbornly doing it anyway.  That stubborness, that willfullness is in all of us to one degree or another.  If we let it continue, it will only get worse.

So, yes, some of what Paul talks about is where evil ends up and maybe we aren’t there yet (or have been saved from continuing down that road) but it is still illustrative of the nature of evil.

In vs. 30b, Paul says “they invent ways of doing evil…”  The thing about evil is that it is often disguised as “good” or as “freedom” or as “my right to live life on my terms.”  Hitler, I am sure, believed that what he was doing was for the good of Germany.  He had no moral restraint other than his own sense of what was right for Germany.  The rest of us may not agree but most people don’t do evil knowing that it is evil.  They call it good.  Or they justify it as their right to live the way they want to.

In that context, we often invent new evils, new ways to fulfill our own desires without thought of others (or our own) good.  The world has so much of it now-a-days that our entire economic system is based on self-interest, our media entertainment has been given the freedom to explore the dark recesses of evil in the human psyche.  And on and on it goes…..we are almost immune to it.

Secondly, Paul says in vs. 32, “although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.”

There are two things to comment on here.  The first is whether or not people really know that the consequences of their actions deserves death.  And the answer is obviously yes and no.  In addition, they may not think of death as “God’s righteous decree.”  Perhaps Paul was only talking about the Jews or those who may know something about the Jewish religion.  Perhaps.

But I think that it has to do with Paul’s earlier statement that “the eternal power and divine nature” of God is visible to everyone in creation, even if our senses have been dulled because we suppress that truth through our wickedness.  An obvious connection exists between acknowledging that God is there and that we have a moral duty to him, that we are accountable to him.  If that is true, then it is also obvious that God is good and that morality means that we must also be good and if we are not, there are consequences.

The moral nature of man may be dulled and even redirected somewhat, but if we take Paul’s words in chapter 2: 14,15 about the gentiles not even keeping the law within their own hearts, breaking their own integrity, their own moral code, much less the code of God, that seems to be a context that suggests that they know better.  They may not think of it as “God’s righteous decree” but they know evil has consequences and that the road of evil leads to death.

Later on, Paul will point out that “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23) but here he is saying that we already know that.

The other thing to take note of in this last verse is again about the nature of evil. Paul says in vs. 32b that “they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.”

Evil not only commits evil but also encourages evil in others.  It doesn’t matter if you call it good.  It doesn’t matter that you think homosexuality is fine and is a personal choice.  Evil and good are not determined by you (or them).  It is determined by God.  God says that it is sin which means that it isn’t love which means that it isn’t good for them.  But that goes the same for gossip, slander, boasting and a host of other sins as well.

Be careful what you approve of, even as Christians.  The standard isn’t the political atmosphere of the day, or the popular opinion of the masses.  That doesn’t mean that we should be judgmental or treat people badly.  After all, we are on the list too.  In humility, we need to let God be God and accept that what he says is true.  Period.  He is good and we are evil.  We are not good and He is evil.  Getting this fundamental truth straight is the first step in the Roman Road.  After all, there but for the grace of God, go I.

The Desert Warrior

P.S.  Let’s talk to God….

Lord, if it wasn’t for your grace, I would definitely be worse off than I am today.  Evil is scary business.  It is insiduous and it creeps in when you least expect it.  Help me to recognize it, confess it and help me to repent of it.  Thank you for your forgiveness and grace which I need every day.  Help me to treat others with that same grace and humility.  In your name I pray.  Amen.

 

 

Walking The Roman Road – Lenten Season 2019

“The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men” (Romans 1:18 NIV)

“Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.  They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator – who is forever praised.  Amen” (Romans 1:24,25 NIV)

“Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts” (Romans 1:26 NIV).

“Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.  They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity” (Romans 1:28,29a NIV).

“They invent ways of doing evil” (Romans 1:30b NIV)

“Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them” (Romans 1:32 NIV).

The Revelation of Wrath

I want to go back to verse 18 that tells us that the wrath of God “is being revealed against” the godlessness and wickedness of men.  That particular verb is very interesting.  Obviously, it gives us the idea of a continuous reavealing over time so we can assume that whenever we see the godlessness and wickedness of men, we can reset assured that the very fact that they are getting away with it and it is going unchecked, is a sure sign of the wrath of God against them.

It should sadden us and move us to tears.  They will live with their own wickedness and its consequences for all eternity but without dulled minds, without believable justifications, without insipid rationalizations.  They will clearly see the truth and there will be nothing that they can do about it.  They will “gnash their teeth” in regret and frustration because now the existence and authority of God will not be in doubt and their wickedness and evil will be their eternal bedfellow.

The wickedness of man is a revelation of the wrath and justice of God.

The Bible is obviously a revelation of God’s intervention in this world and his plan to save mankind from their broken relationship with Him.  Nature is considered a revelation of the “eternal power and divine nature” (vs. 20b) of God, as Paul said earlier.  But have you ever thought of the evil and wickedness of man as a revelation of the wrath and justice of God?  No.  Not normally.  Paul says that it is.  Learn to read that revelation properly and you will learn a lot about how this world really works and what God is really up to.

But there is another way to look at this verse.  Very often we replace (in our minds) the word “revealed” with the words “poured out.”  We read the verse (almost without thinking) as “The wrath of God is being poured out on the…..”  That is why we are confused when we read in vs. 24 that God’s wrath on the wicked is just God letting the wicked be wicked.  Basically letting them (for now) get away with their wickedness.  That’s God’s punishment?  Doesn’t seem so bad.  People get to do what they want in this life.  That’s what they wanted in the first place.  They wanted to cut God out of their lives, and so God punishes them by leaving (sort of).  God can’t leave, of course.  And you can’t completely cut God out of your life.  It doesn’t work that way.  He is God after all.  He isn’t going anywhere.  But He can simply let you wallow in your pig pen until you come to your senses or until you die in your misery.

But here’s the thing.  We tend to always think like humans, not God.  The saying goes, Satan thinks like man, but God thinks of eternity.  Not only does Satan think like man, only about this earth and what happens now, we think like Satan.  We forget (or ignore) the eternal consequences of our actions.  God does not.  They are the most important part of the equation.

God is love and He knows that it is folly not to think of the eternal consequences of our actions.  He is willing to sacrifice to make sure we are saved for eternity, not just have some relief in this life.  Sad to say, most of us when things are comfortable, find it easy to ignore God but when the pressure is on, we run to Him quickly enough.  That is part of our condition and God has to take that into account.

So when God reveals his wrath against the godlessness and wickedness of men by giving them over to their wickedness and no longer restraining them or stopping them, it is an act of wrath and justice when you look at it from the point of view of eternity.  Obviously, individual people can still be saved.  As any pastor will tell you, most people first start to take the gospel seriously in the context of sin and hurt and suffering and general wickedness.  They don’t come to God because of the cookies and donuts or for the warm fuzzies of hearing a lovely sermon about God’s love.  There is a real world need that drives them.  That is the truth.  God must use the presence of evil to drive people into the arms of Christ so that they can be saved.

But let me suggest another, complimentary, way of looking at this revelation of the wrath of God against the godlessness and wickedness of man.  The context of Paul’s remarks is the solution that he starts to present in Romans 3:21.  “But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify.  This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.  There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.  God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood.  He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished – he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus” (Romans 3:21-26 NIV).

Twice Paul says that God presented Jesus as an atoning sacrifice for our sins “to demonstrate his justice.”  Another way to put it would be to reveal his wrath against the godlessness and wickedness of men.  Wrath comes from justice (which is rooted in love).

Therefore another way to understand vs. 18 is to realize that the wrath of God is revealed to us when we see the Son of God in his hour of passion and his sacrifice on the cross.

You see, the big problem we all have in our godlessness and wickedness is that we suppress the truth of God’s existence and his nature as God and as the one to whom we have to give account.  He is our moral compass, our standard that shows our wickedness and rebellion against him.  It is not a sustainable position to maintain in this world.  We are short sighted and we are dull minded.  Everything we do is futile and without meaning.  We are subject to death and time is our master.  We are stupid fools living in a world that constantly tells us that there is an intelligent design which suggests an intelligent creator, a person like us, a sentient being, like us.   But the truth is we don’t trust him enough to do what we want even though we try to ignore him or control him with our religious activities.  Either way we are doomed.

The biggest problem with humans is that they don’t realize the danger they are in.  They don’t look at the world from God’s point of view.  Paul preaches the gospel from God’s perspective.  He tells us the story from the point of view of the writer of the story.  The creator of the world is a force to be reckoned with, a person to whom we have to give account, the one entity we cannot ignore, any more than we can ignore death or our own humanity.  The gospel starts with an evaluation of our true situation before God and how hopeless it is if He doesn’t intervene.

And if the wickedness and godlessness of the world with all of its evil and hurt and pain and suffering isn’t a sufficient revelation of the problem, then perhaps the cross of Christ is.

The thing about the cross is that it is an instrument of torture.  Probably still one of the worst ways to die ever invented by man.  As a symbol of Christianity, it is a strange pick.  The cross, for many people, represents the grim realities of a godless and wicked world in which the innocent die at the hands of the mighty and uncaring.  It is a symbol of the reality of sin and injustice and discrimination and corruption and pain.  It is a symbol of everything that is wrong with this world.

But for Christians, it is all of that and more.  Yes, it is a symbol of wickedness and evil but it is also a symbol of resurrection.  It isn’t only about friday but also about sunday.  It is a symbol of God’s willingness to look at the harsh realities of our godlessness and wickedness and rebellion and transform it into the resurrection power of new life because of Christ and his work on the cross.  Therefore the cross stands for reality transformed by love through Christ.  Reality transformed by love.  That is the message of the gospel of Paul.  But if you don’t want to look reality square in the face and call evil what it is and acknowledge godlessness and wickedness for what it is, what hope is there for transformation.  It starts with confession and repentance before you can gain access to forgiveness and reconciliation.

So, yes, for those of us who refuse to recognize the danger we are in, the wrath of God is one form of revelation.  You can see it partially in the general godlessness and wickedness of man but you can see it most clearly in the cross of Christ where the wrath of God is not only revealed, but poured out on the Son of God.

Jesus said in the garden that he did not want to drink the cup of the wrath of God.  Obviously not.  Who would?  But Jesus most of all.  His love for his father was so complete, so perfect, that even a drop of God’s anger much less his wrath was too much to bear.  The depth of Jesus’ love for his father was what threw him into the depths of his temptation not to drink the cup of wrath and become sin for us, the one thing he abhorred with all his being.  But in the end, he chose to obey.  He chose obedience over fellowship, trusting his father to make all things right in the end.

That is the true test of love.  Loving obedience that trusts the Father to always do the right thing especially when we don’t understand everything that is going on.  To trust the Father with our very lives, with our suffering, with our pain, with discrimination, with injustice, with our reputations, with our social standing, with our integrity, with our blood, sweat and tears.

If we were ever in doubt about how serious our sin was, we need only to look at the cross and see there the wrath of God poured out upon his innocent son to realize that things are that serious, that dangerous that only the Son of God dying a horrible death, with the wrath of God poured out on him could save us.

Sin is not something to be ignored.  You cannot skip this step in the Roman Road.  You should not take a person any further until they recognize that their sin caused Christ to die on the cross and that it is that serious and cannot be side stepped or ignored.  There is no gospel of salvation without the message of hell and damnation because of our sin.  There is no shortcut to sunday without going through friday and its pain and suffering because of our sin.  That is the true revelation of God’s wrath against our sin.

The Desert Warrior

P.S.  Let’s talk to God….

Lord, every time I think about your death on the cross I want to cringe.  I know that if I was the only person in the world who needed it, you would die for me.  But like Peter, when you wanted to wash his feet and told him that it was a service you needed to perform for him, at first I want to refuse because I don’t really think that things are that bad.  I can change.  I can do it myself.  It fills me with shame to think that you have to reduce yourself to a common servant and wash my feet, or die on the cross.  I have to accept that I cannot do it for myself.  So, like Peter, I ask you to wash all of me, cleanse me from my sin and transform me with the presence of your Holy Spirit.  In your name I pray.  Amen.

 

 

Walking The Roman Road – Lenten Season 2019

“The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men” (Romans 1:18 NIV)

“Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.  They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator – who is forever praised.  Amen” (Romans 1:24,25 NIV)

“Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts” (Romans 1:26 NIV).

“Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.  They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity” (Romans 1:28,29a NIV).

“They invent ways of doing evil” (Romans 1:30b NIV)

“Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them” (Romans 1:32 NIV).

Evil is it’s Own Punishment

You might have noticed that I omitted the list of sins in the verses above, especially the talk about homosexuality as a depravity in the eyes of God.  That was on purpose.  Not that I don’t believe it to be true.  I most certainly do.  But, rather, because people nowadays are distracted from the main message by the discussion about homosexuality.  We will address that wickedness later on, but for now, we want to focus on the main teaching that Paul is giving here without going into specifics.

(I may have already lost some of you with the comment that homosexuality is wickedness, but the truth is that the list of evil Paul gives is very long and it covers all of us.  So don’t fret.  Whether you are homosexual or straight, Paul considers us all to be “wicked” and deserving of the wrath of God.  That is the lesson that must be learnt.  We are all without excuse.)

Most people who try to explain what Paul is saying in this first chapter of Romans usually connect vs. 18 with this whole section.

It starts with the word “therefore” which connects it to the previous section on godlessness.  That is why we say that godlessness results in wickedness.  Hold on a minute, you say.  It sounds here like God is responsible for this wickedness.  People are godless.  I accept that.  It is pretty obvious but here it is saying that God’s punishment is that he makes people wicked.

Well, no.  That’s not what it says.  It says that God “gave them over” to their wickedness.  In fact, Paul repeats that phrase three times in vs. 24,26 and 28 so it is a key idea.  What in the world does that mean?  Something like “God let them be wicked because they wanted to be wicked.”  Remember that this is from the point of view of God, or at least from the point of view of someone who believes that God exists.  That is true of everything that Paul is saying here about humanity.

Earlier, Paul said that people who were not religious at all were “stupid” (my word) because they wanted to be a god (or an authority or a law) unto themselves.  If God exists, they are competing with God.  A fundamental reality of life, like the immutable law of gravity, is that if God exists, then he is in charge and we are accountable to Him.  Humans are not a law unto themselves whether they like it or not (if God exists).

Earlier, Paul said that religious people who worshiped idols were “fools” (Paul’s word) because although they acknowledged the divine, they wanted to control the curses and blessings of life through religious or moral activities in order to get the benefits that they wanted (a good harvest, health, money and resources etc).  We do the same thing today.  We are all “fools” because we do not let God be God.  We may acknowledge that he is there, but we want to control Him rather than let Him control us.  We still want to be in charge.  We still want to be gods unto ourselves.  If God exists, then this isn’t going to work either.

Now, Paul says that in both cases, for the religious and the non-religious alike, God gives people what they want.  Wow.  That is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard.  Can you imagine?  Because a thief is wicked, God’s answer is let the thief be a thief.  Give him what he wants.  Let the murderer continue to murder.  Let the child molester continue to molest children.  What of the innocent victims in all of this?  Well, apparently, there are no innocent victims (which we still have a hard time accepting).  But still, what is God up to?

When we talk about the secular problem of evil, we acknowledge that there is something fundamentally wrong with humans and we try to manage it as best we can.  But it is our problem.  As soon as we talk about the relgious problem of evil and bring God into the picture, everything changes.  Now there is someone who has the power and authority to do something about this general wickedness that we all experience every day.  Therefore, we cry out to God to DO SOMETHING about evil.  We might even want to blame him for being so passive about our hurt and pain and circumstances.  But we would be missing the bigger picture.

We need to remember another truth from scripture which theolgians call the providence of God (and common grace).

The idea is that God keeps the world going even though we have rebelled against Him.  After all, God promised Adam and Eve that they would die if they cut themselves off from their creator by disobeying Him by eating of the forbidden fruit.  They did it anyway.  And they did die but not right away.  We talked about God’s dilemma of love.  How does he save his children while still maintaining his justice.  He put a plan in motion which required that the world would continue (even in their wickedness) until the Saviour could come and solve the problem once and for all.

I call it an “uneasy truce” between God and man.  That truce of love gave the devil power to accuse us in the court of justice of God (see Job) and it wasn’t until Jesus completed his mission that the devil was thrown out of heaven once and for all.  It was an uneasy truce of love which cost God a lot since he has to put up with sin and evil and rebellion and general wickedness each and every day.  But his wrath and his justice, both rooted in love, were fulfilled in anticipation (in the OT) and in completion (in the NT) of the work of Christ on the cross.

The thing that we all forget is that the nature of evil is progressive.  There is no easy way to control it.  It gets worse every day until it self-destructs in death and eternal damnation.

We think we are controlling it with police and laws and the justice system and prisons and punishments.  Maybe.  A little bit.  But we all know that it can get out of hand pretty quick.  The truth is, says the Bible, is that God has to put some controls in place.  Yes, he uses human means to get the job done.  He did it in Israel and he does it in the rest of the world as well.  But it goes far beyond that.

The providence of God (and common grace) have to do with the fact that God has to control evil and modify it and even stop it at times.  He has to keep it in check.  Not only does God give us all good things but he also keeps evil in check.  That is what the providence of God is all about.  We think we are the ones who love our families, our children, our friends, our neighbors.  But the truth is that whatever love we have comes from God.  A little stress, a little trouble and we all become quite selfish quite quickly.  That’s the truth.  How many times has God saved you from yourself?  How many times has God kept you from harm?  How many times have you almost gotten killed, almost gotten hurt, almost committed a major mistake, almost got into a bad relationship?  We probably don’t even know how many times we have been saved from our own folly.

On the other hand, we remember the times when God didn’t save us and we got hurt, we hurt ourselves, we got into trouble, we ended up in a mess.  Why didn’t God save us from that?  The short answer is because He loves you.  That is always the answer to the problem of evil.  It seems counter-intuitive but it is true.  If you want to know the truth, the reason that God does not always interfere, does not always protect you from your own folly, or from the folly of others, is because he loves you (and the other person).

God has to use evil in order to bring about good.  You and I cannot do that.  By no means.  But we cannot judge God by human standards.  Let God be God.  He has the knowledge, the power and the goodness to handle being the judge of all mankind.

And one thing we know, since the world continues on with its evil, is that He has a plan.  And we know that plan includes all of us (not just me) and that none of us are innocent (including me) and that God’s plan is to save as many as possible through the work of Christ on the cross.  All evil, all wickedness, all problems and hurt and suffering is subject to that great design of God.  And if we truly understood the eternal life and death nature of the battle we face, we would agree with God that it is worth it.

I, for one, pray all the time that God would use my life, the good and the bad and the ugly, to show my children and my family that He is real and that He transforms lives.  I am willing to let God use evil to bring good into the lives of the people I love.  The thing is that God is willing to use hurt and pain and suffering in my life also for the lives of people I don’t love.  You get the point.  From His perspective, it is worth it because God is love and His love is much more powerful than mine.  That is why He has the power to save and I don’t.

So evil has a purpose.  It isn’t always clear in the details but we are dealing with the idea in general.  Why does God not just get rid of evil?  Because if he does, it is called the Final Judgment and we will all be found guilty and we will all be lost.  There is a reason why God is patient, not wanting anyone to perish but all come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ (2 Peter 3:9).  So the short answer to the religious problem of evil is still the best.  Why doesn’t God do something about evil?  Because he loves you.  He is willing to put up with sin and evil in his efforts to save as many as possible because the alternative is final judgment (and nobody wants to go there without the protection of the blood of Jesus).

Now, here is the point.  If that is the normal way that God deals with the world, with the evil and wickedness of men, by limiting it, by using it to get people’s attention, by changing it into good, by allowing some love, some goodness, some hope to continue on so that people will have a chance to be saved, then what is Paul saying here in this passage.  It doesn’t sound the same at all.  God is “giving them over” to their wickedness.  Do you see how horrible that is?

When God gives up on you, you need to start worrying?  We talked about Pharoah during the ten plagues in the OT a couple of days ago.  He hardened his own heart the first couple of times and then God hardened his heart towards the end.  If God exists, if He is trying to save this world from the consequences of their rebellion, then it is significant to hear that God has decided to harden your heart, to give you over to your wickedness, to the consequences of your sin, both in this life and in the next.  That is the saddest thing that I could imagine and should bring us all to tears.  Love may be it’s own reward but sin is also it’s own punishment.

The Desert Warrior

P.S.  Let’s talk to God….

Lord, do not give me over to my own sins.  Do not let me harden my heart.  I need your mercy every day to stay in the right way.  I need your help to love my neighbor as myself.  I belong to you.  But I see now why this is such a terrible punishment to just allow people to go to hell in their own way, to destroy themselves in their folly, to let people rebel and die and face eternal punishment.  May it not be so for me and my loved ones, Lord.  In your name I pray.  Amen.

 

 

Walking The Roman Road – Lenten Season 2019

“The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.  For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.  For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.  Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles”  (Romans 1: 18-23 NIV).

Intelligent Design for Stupid Fools

No.  I am not trying to be rude.  I’m trying to reflect what the passage above says about humans from God’s perspective.  Twice we are called fools and, at least once, it is the opposite of being wise.  Therefore, we are considered to be “stupid fools” especially in light of the ongoing revelation of God in creation whom we replace with “images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles” (vs. 23).

Paul is not trying to be demeaning here, just accurate.  His argument is quite lucid actually.  He tells us that the wrath of God is because of our “godlessness” and our “wickedness” as we were discussing in earlier blogs.  Now he will spend the next verses explaining what he means by “godlessness” (vs. 18b-23) and then talk about the consequences of “wickedness” (vs. 24-32) with some overlap between the two.  He has already made the claim that we suppress our moral accountability to a God we deny even exists and that every conscience is a mute, but powerful, witness to the fact that we don’t even keep our own “law” much less the law of God.  No one has an excuse.

What then can we say in defence of humanity?  Can we retreat into the murky waters of “not knowing” or “not realizing” the truth?  In a world that is incurably relgious?  Now-a-days, of course, in the last one hundred and fifty years or so it has become quite popular to believe in a naturalistic, mechanistic secular humanism which dismisses all religion out of hand.

But that is not the way it was for thousands of years.  Paul says that “God has made it plain to them” meaning “what may be known about God.”  Meaning his “eternal power and divine nature.”  In other words, it is as clear as the nose on your face that God exists and that He is obviously your Creator and that we are all accountable to him for our godlessness and wickedness.  God has made his presence clear in creation “being understood from what has been made.”  And therefore “men are without excuse.”

Now, is that really true?  People who have never heard of the Jewish God or the Christian Jesus and who have never read the Bible are without excuse?  Does that sound fair?  Paul says that they have no excuse because creation clearly shows the “eternal power and divine nature” of God.  Some of you may not yet be convinced.

It seems to me that there are generally two groups of people among the Gentiles (those with no access to the Bible or direct knowledge of God in the history of their people).  The first group would be the people who may give lip service to religion but really had no religion except themselves.  They would be the stoics in the Roman times or the secular humanists now-a-days.  Of course, there were lots of people throughout history that didn’t really believe in the various religions that constantly sprouted up and they would also be part of this first group.

The second group would be the religious types who worshipped other gods  from the Greek and Roman pantheon to the animistic gods in the rocks and trees of nature.  Paul addresses both groups and calls them both “godless.”  He does so in two “although” statements in vs. 21-23.

“For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened” (vs. 21).

What does that mean that they “knew” God?  Apparently, Paul is building on the previous verses to say that they “knew” God was there because God shows himself in creation.  But rather than getting the correct response from people in terms of being thankful and worshipping him, God is cut off from their lives and things just get worse.  Their thinking becomes “futile” or meaningless (see Ecclesiastes) and their hearts are “darkened.”  Exactly what we were saying earlier.  Wickedness resulting from godlessness results in a meaningless life of strife and trouble where the heart and the mind become increasingly more distant from God.  It is a downward, slippery slope right into hell.

What does that mean that they neither “glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him” (vs. 21a).  This is the natural order of things.  God shows himself to be there in his “eternal power and divine nature” but those who deny the validity of religion live godless lives by not letting God be God.  What we glorify, we worship, we value, we emulate, we imitate, we strive to become like.  God becomes our moral compass (at least in terms of our own integrity which we will discuss further later).  But we also do not thank God for his daily involvement in our lives.  We don’t recognize that all good things come from him (James 1:17).  We don’t treat him as our provider, our caretaker, our father.  In both cases, as our provider and as our moral compass, God is worthy of a relationship with us in which we acknowledge him as God and we are his children.  This is for all those Gentiles who are godless because they don’t believe in religion.  The same is true for many people today.

We cannot use the excuse that we are wiser and more scientific today as if that somehow demonstrates that God doesn’t exist.  There are more people with PhD’s alive today then at any other time in history and yet the average person is still under the impression that science has somehow proven that God doesn’t exist.  It’s time to catch up.  With the advent of the Big Bang and the scientific studies on Intelligent Design, there is more evidence than ever that there is a presence in this universe that is powerful, creative and intelligent.  The only things in our experience that have those three characteristics are people.  God created us in his image and we are sentient beings because he is a sentient being.  Today, more than ever, the “eternal power and divine nature” of God is seen in creation.

What about the other group?  The religious types?  Do they have an excuse?  Not at all.  Paul talks to them in the second “although” statement.

“Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles” (vs. 22-23 NIV).

This group is not saying that they don’t believe that God exists or that we are expected to have a relationship with Him by the very fact that he is our creator.  This second group is claiming to be “wise,” to be religous, to know something more than the first group.  They claim to know who is behind this “eternal power and divine nature” they see everywhere they look.  But Paul calls them “fools.”  The first group was just stupid in their meaningless thinking and darkened hearts but this second group, Paul calls “fools.”  One can’t help but go back to Psalm 14:1 where David tells us that “The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”

It is foolish after all to fight against God, to deny that he exists and that he has a claim on your life.  It is foolish to “exchange the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles” (vs. 23 NIV).  Not foolish as if it was an honest mistake but rather the kind of foolishness that refuses to allow God be God.  After all, to recognize, on the one hand, that in creation we can see “the eternal power and divine nature” of God and then decide to try and control that diety by turning it into something we can see and touch and get benefits from with our religious rituals, is pure foolishness.  To exchange an “immortal God” whom we cannot control for “images of mortal man” such as Zeus, Apollos, Athena or Jupiter is just plain foolish.  What is going on here?

Nobody wants to let God be God.  Mostly because it is too scary, I would think.  Thanking God for his provision when we live in a world where the good are often killed or controlled and the wicked use force get what they want from life?  It isn’t very safe to say the least.  Glorifying God as our moral compass whom we should emulate when his expectations are too much for us to follow?  Worshipping Him as an immortal being who cannot be controlled or manipulated for our own best interests?  Isn’t that all a bit too much to expect?  Maybe so.  But God expects it nonetheless.

Certainly it would have been easier for Adam and Eve in a perfect world to accomplish and even they failed.  It is certainly more difficult to do in a world that is dangerous and evil and where “might makes right” and God seems to be hidden.  But that is the point.  Whether we live or die is not the issue.  A relationship with God is what matters.  That takes faith.  You have to trust God whether you live or die.  That is the right response to this divine diety but nobody does it.  Nobody is willing to take a risk on that relationship without some assurances that it will all turn out in the end.  Can you blame them?  Maybe not.  But you also can’t excuse them.

In Psalm 14, David goes on to say, “The LORD looks down from heaven on the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God.  All have turned aside, they have together become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one” (Psalm 14:2,3 NIV).

Paul echoes that same sentiment a little later on in Romans 3:10-12.  No one has an excuse, secular or religious alike.  Gentile or Jew alike.  It doesn’t matter that they realize it or not.  God has always been there and his presence has always been clearly seen.  Today more than ever.  Reducing him to a religion that allows you to try and control the blessings and curses of life is just an insult.

Let God be God.  Treat him as your creator, your father, your provider, your moral compass.  Follow him, glorify him, worship him as is his due.  Otherwise your godlessness will lead you into a pit of wickedness from which there is no escape.  No one is exempt and no one has an excuse.  That is a truth that we would do well to pay attention to.  All of this is a life and death matter with eternal consequences.

The Desert Warrior

P.S.  Let’s talk to God….

Lord, I want to treat you as my Father and my Creator.  I want you to be God and I will be your child, your people.  I want to follow you and glorify you and worship you and become like you.  I recognize that I don’t have enough love to solve the problems of my life much less the world.  I know that my godlessness has always led to broken relationships and difficult situations.  Forgive me and teach me to live in your world as your child.  In your name I pray.  Amen.

 

 

Walking The Roman Road – Lenten Season 2019

“When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong.  Before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles.  But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group.  The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray.  When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter in front of them all, “You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew.  How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?…. if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing.” (Galatians 2:11-14, 21 NIV).

The Fight with Peter

Peter was embarassed.  No doubt about it.  He had screwed things up again.  Eating with Gentiles and breaking bread with them as if they were equals, friends, brothers was not kosher with this group.  These men came from James and apparently James was getting tougher on the Gentile Christians, requiring them to follow Jewish ways.

Peter remembered the discussions years ago when they had all gotten together to discuss the problem in the first Jerusalem Council (Acts 15).  Many of his Jewish brothers believed that a Christian needed to be a Jew first and therefore be circumcised to be part of the covenant of God with the Jewish people under Moses, under the Law.  At that time, James had made a decision without making a decision.

“It is my judgment,” James had said, “that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God.  Instead we should write to them, telling them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood.  For Moses has been preached in every city from the earliest times and is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath” (Acts 15: 19-21 NIV).

From his discussions with Paul, Peter knew that he disagreed with almost everything that James had said except for the comment about sexual immorality.  But what was Peter to do?  James had left the door open for Jewish Christians to insist that circumcision was necessary to become part of the church.  And now the circumcision group was here in Galatia in strength seemingly representing James, the head of the church.

“Excuse me, uh, I’m just, um…..” Peter mumbled as he picked up his food and utensils and started to move away.

“Where are you going?” Paul asked.

“I’m just…….uh….I can’t stay….ah ..I mean….” Then Peter just shut up and moved over towards the other group in an alcove apart from the rest.  He looked hard at Barnabas and indicated with his head that he should join him.  The people around him, Gentile brothers, and friends all, lowered their heads in shame and averted their eyes, some moist, some angry.  But Peter hardened his face and did what he had to do.

But even Peter was shocked at what happened next.

Paul had been watching and now he stood up and all the eyes in the room turned to him, Jews and Gentiles alike.  Paul always had a commanding presence and it served him well.

“Peter,” he said in a loud voice.  “You are a hypocrite and you are trying to make hypocrites out of all of us.”  The room was completely silent as Paul glared at him.  Peter was caught off guard and now was at the mercy of Paul’s righteous anger.  Clearly Paul was not going to let this go.

“You act like a Gentile when these men are not around,” Paul said sternly.  “But when they show up, you reject your Gentile brothers and want to pretend that you are a Jew again.  Whose side are you on?”

Peter could not say a word.  It felt like he was back in that courtyard so many years ago and he was denying his Lord all over again.  Paul was right and he knew it.

“If we are going to live under the law and try to be righteous that way, then Christ died for nothing …..and you know it.”

Peter sat down right where he was, and Barnabas as well.  But Paul wasn’t done.

“I don’t care who you are,” Paul was talking to everyone now, especially the Judaizers who came from James.  “If even an angel comes down from heaven and preaches any other gospel than the gospel of righteousness by faith, it does not come from God.  Did you receive the Spirit by observing the Law or by believing what you heard?  Are the miracles that God has done among you the result of following the Law?  By no means!  It is by faith that we are made righteous and it is by faith that we receive the Spirit and the right to become Sons of God.”

Peter sat there in stunned silence.  His mind was back in the house of Cornelius when God had first taught him the lesson that what He has declared clean, no man may declare it unclean (Acts 10).  Jesus, himself, had said that he had fulfilled the law.  He remembered it clearly.

Now he was truly ashamed.  It was time to make things right.  Peter stood up and went back to his place and Barnabas followed suit.  Within a few minutes, the room was abuzz with the sounds of clinking forks and subtle laughter as the group got back to the business of living in the richness of the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ.

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Admittedly, this story is a piece of fiction but it gives some life and imagination to what might have happened.  The story in Galatians 2 is enticing and I always wondered what actually happened after Paul confronted Peter in front of everyone.  One thing I know for sure, Paul believed that this was an issue of immense importance and that it was a denial of the gospel itself.  I wonder if we are so fervent about the gospel or whether we even understand the gospel enough to recognize it when it is being denied.  A good question.

Now let’s go back to the Book of Romans and pick up where we left off.  Paul was introducing himself to the Romans and also saying something to them about his ministry.  In fact, the next few words are considered by many to be an accurate summary of what the entire book of Romans is all about.

“I am not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew then for the Gentile.  For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written:  “The righteous will live by faith” (Romans 1:16,17 NIV).

Why would Paul talk about being “ashamed” of the gospel (or not)?  What does that have to do with anything?  Well, in the context of the “outward” battle with traditional Jews, these Christians (Jews and Gentiles alike) stood firm in their faith that Jesus is the Messiah and that they had received the Holy Spirit and now lived in a righteousness that comes by faith.

But what Paul is saying is that there is also an “inside” battle within the church against a more subtle heresy coming from the circumcision group that seems to have gained power at least in the church in Jerusalem.  Paul is saying that he is not ashamed of standing up to Peter.  He is not ashamed of taking Timothy to Jerusalem during the Passover.  He is not ashamed of consorting with Gentiles and abandoning his Jewish culture.  He is not ashamed of becoming a prisoner and being taken in front of kings and emperors to give a defense of his actions and beliefs.  He is not ashamed of the gospel for it is the POWER of God to save everyone – Jews and Gentiles alike.

Perhaps we can’t relate to Paul’s context for standing up for the gospel but that doesn’t change the fact that we still need to do so even today.  Sometimes we need to stand up for the gospel “within” the church and sometimes “outside” the church.  Let me give you an example.

The very next words that Paul writes are a source of great shame and embarassement to many Christians today.  Most people just skip over these words like they don’t exist.  “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness…” (Romans 1:18 NIV).  The wrath of God?  Who talks about the wrath of God anymore?  It’s all about the love of God.  “For God so love the world….” (John 3:16 NIV).

Whatever happened to sin?  If you talk about sin in most churches they would consider you one of those “hellfire and brimstone” types and ignore you (or perhaps throw you out).  But the concept of sin is essential to the gospel according to Paul.  What are you going to do about it?  Are you ashamed of the gospel?  Do you understand what is essential to the gospel and what is not?  If you don’t understand the heart of the gospel, how can you accurately discern the truth from falsehood, especially in the church.  And that difference makes all the difference in the world.  The power of God is not in a false gospel only in the truth of righteousness by faith in Christ.  It is the difference that either transforms lives or leaves people in the misery of their sins.

I once decided to stand up against an abusive preaching elder in our church and do it in public.  He was clearly in the wrong and was denying the gospel but I was thrown out anyway (and my family).  Some reconciliation was attempted later on, but this elder would not confess that his actions were not biblical and that he was clearly denying the gospel.  He remained an elder.  I had to go.  But I am not ashamed of standing up for the gospel of Christ, even publicly when necessary, even if it didn’t work out the way I wanted it to.

And, more importantly, God is not ashamed of me, whether I handled it the right way or not.

The Desert Warrior

P.S.  Let’s talk to God….

Lord, I want to stand up for your gospel, warts and all.  I am not ashamed to be called a Christian even when my classmates think I’m crazy for not believing in evolution.  I am not ashamed to pray in restaurants and I am certainly not ashamed to call myself a believer even on a first date with a great looking guy.  You are first in my life, now and always.  I want to understand your gospel better.  Help me to know your heart so that I am always aware of the spiritual battles around me.  Don’t let me lead any Barnabas, any fellow church member, any collegue, any friend or family astray.  Let me be an influence that brings people to the gospel not keeps it from them.  In your name I pray.  Amen.

 

 

Walking The Roman Road – Lenten Season 2019

“The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.  For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.  For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.  Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles”  (Romans 1: 18-23 NIV).

A Law Unto Themselves

In the very act of wickedness, we are suppressing the moral authority that the existence of God demands of us, according to Paul.  We may not be aware of it always, but it is still true.  At least in terms of our relationship with God.  That is a horrible thought, isn’t it?  That we are so dulled in our thinking that we aren’t even aware of the effect of our actions on ourselves or our future?  It reminds me of addiction behavior.  People are so addicted to certain behavior and find it so enticing that they give no thought to the future.

In Romans 2:14, Paul has a little side thought that is worth bringing up right now.  He says, “Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law, since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them.”

What an interesting passage!  So, even if a godless person does not know God or anything about God’s law in the OT, he is still a law unto himself.  He still has a conscience and, sometimes at least, that conscience will reflect some of the law of God in some instances.  Certainly a conscience is influenced by the society and the parents you grew up with and, to a degree, the education you received.  But there is still some sort of witness of what is right and what is wrong in every society.  Perhaps there is no such thing as a universal moral code in all of the details, but the general idea of what is love, what is good and what is bad is mostly there.

But I think this passage goes deeper than that.  I think that what Paul is saying is that it isn’t only about individual, specific laws that a person breaks but rather about the whole concept of law in a person’s life.  Let’s call it INTEGRITY.  When your actions match your words, you have integrity.  When you live out what you believe to be right and good, you have integrity.  What Paul is saying is that the human soul is always in rebellion against any outward authority that tries to be limits on it.  Any moral code is a limit to our will.  It says do this and don’t do that whether or not we like it.  And that is exactly the problem with the human condition.

We want to do what we want to do when we want to do it even if it isn’t good for us or the people around us.  That is the truth.  Sometimes we can control that impulse but sometimes we can’t.  And the very fact that nobody, not even one person, can claim to have his integrity intact is a silent but powerful witness to the fact that we are all guilty of breaking our own laws, our own moral code, much less the moral code of God.

The problem is that we are godless and we are wicked and that one flows from the other and that everyone on earth suppresses the truth that we are lawbreakers from the getgo.  That we do not love, care for or respect the other people around us and that that is the heart of the problem.  This affects those who know about God, the Bible and Jesus Christ as well as those who do not.  Our natures as human beings have been affected.  We are broken.  We are not whole.

This is the message of the gospel.  We have a choice to believe it or not.  Are we broken?  Or is this world normal the way it is?  Is each person valuable?  Or are we all dust in the wind?  Is our wickedness really just a lack of love, care and respect for the other taking on a multitude of forms, or do we only consider extreme acts of violence or genecide to be acts of wickedness?  Will we agree with Paul (and God) or will we insist on our view of the world?  Which worldview best fits the facts as we experience them each day?  These are the questions that the gospel makes us ask.  Paul has answers for us if we care to listen.

The Desert Warrior

P.S.  Let’s talk to God….

Lord, I don’t want to be a godless person who leaves a wake of dead bodies and broken relationships behind me.  I want to be whole.  Your view of the world seems to fit the facts much better than mine.  I believe your truth and I will not suppress it any longer with my rebellion and wickedness.  I know that my relationship with you is the first thing that must be fixed.  Thank you for your solution in Jesus Christ.    In your name I pray.  Amen.

 

 

Walking The Roman Road – Lenten Season 2019

“The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.  For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.  For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.  Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles”  (Romans 1: 18-23 NIV).

Suppressing the Truth

The first element that Paul talks about is the realization that people “suppress the truth by their wickedness” (vs. 18b).  What an interesting line.  Do you think it is true?  Let’s explore it a bit further.  After all, the concept of “suppressing” things isn’t too foreign to us, is it?  People suppress their emotions.  People suppress their memories, especially if there is trauma involved.  And we all know that people suppress things without realizing that they are doing so.

So, let’s get rid of that first doubt right off the bat.  When we hear that people “suppress the truth by their wickedness,” we can’t dismiss this diagnosis from the Great Physician just because we all know that a lot of people are not aware of what they are doing.  That shouldn’t suprise us but it doesn’t mean that it isn’t true.

And if you think about it, suppression of our morality and sensitivity to loving others is very real as well.  A soldier is trained to suppress his emotions and his morality and become entirely obedient to the commands he is given.  He is told not to think but to obey.  He is trained to become cold and uncaring.  He is treated badly in order to toughen him up.

Love recieved makes you more willing to give love.  It’s called Attachment Theory.  The more love you recieve as a child during your formative years, the more love you are able to show in adulthood.  Soldiers are not shown a lot of love.  But they are expected to show loyalty and a commitment to their unit, thier brothers-in-arms which can lead to incredible acts of bravery.  It’s hard to get rid of completely, isn’t it?

The point being that suppression of love and morality from within or from circumstances through traumatic experiences is a well-documented reality.  Why would it not be true that the more wickedness you commit (acts of unlove), the more you are suppressing your ability to love and protect and care for others.

But this passage is saying even more than that.  We are taking it in steps.  Being aware of it or not doesn’t change the fact that we are doing it.  Wickedness in the context of a godless life will suppress our moral sensitivity.  But we must go a step further.  It not only suppresses our moral sensitivity but also our awareness of and submission to God.  The passage says that we “suppress the truth.”  What truth?  The truth of the existence of God and His moral claim on us.  Paul explains himself by saying “since what may be known about God is plain to them” (vs. 19a).

Apparently this is part of the connection between godlessness and wickedness.  The more godless we are, the more wicked we become but it is also true that the more wicked we become, the more godless we are.  The more we suppress the truth of the existence of God.  The more we believe our own justifications that there is no God that we must be accountable to.  The more we can pretend to be God’s to ourselves.

I always remember the story of the Pharoah at the time when God brought the people out of Egypt by the hand of Moses.  As each of the ten plagues occurred, the Bible showed the progression of the wickedness of Pharoah.  You might think he was just a victim of the circumstances but that is not so.  He considered himself to be a god and a rival to the one true God.  He was a wicked dictator whose forefathers had been saved from a terrible famine by God through his servant Jacob.  The Pharoah’s had been given absolute power in Egypt in the process.  The people of Israel were treated as revered guests at the time and given the best land the country had to offer to settle in.

Now, this new Pharaoh had enslaved them and was killing their baby boys in order to control his slaves.  God was upset and would intervene by bringing ten plagues on the Egyptians.

When Moses came to announce the plagues, one by one, the Bible tells us that Pharoah’s  “heart was unyielding and he would not let the people go” (Exodus 9:7b NIV).  But as things progressed and he continued his stubborn rebellion, there came a time when all of this suppression of the truth as to who was God in heaven and who was not, turned into judgment.  There comes a time when our sin and rebellion will no longer be tolerated.  The Bible says that “the LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart and he would not listen to Moses and Aaron” (Exodus 9:12 NIV).

People who are godless, who cut God out of their lives as if He doesn’t matter, “suppress the truth by their wickedness.”  What is that truth?  That there is only one God in heaven and it is not us.  That we are accountable to him sooner or later whether we like it or not.  That if we harden our hearts towards him, there will come a time when He will harden our hearts and there will be no recourse to forgiveness or salvation.  Suppressing the truth that a godless life leads to wickedness is a dangerous endeavor and will end in disaster.

The Desert Warrior

P.S.  Let’s talk to God….

Lord, I am beginning to see things more clearly from your point of view.  It is so easy for us to just assume that this world is godless and that our wickedness is just the way things are.  But if you exist, then all the rules of the game are changed.  All of our assumptions are now in question and we need to think about things from a different point of view.  Teach us how to see things with fresh eyes so that we no longer suppress the truth of your existence and our moral and relational responsibility to you.  In your name I pray.  Amen.

 

 

 

 

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