Based upon Romans generally and Chapters 3, 11 and 12 specifically, Belonging Precedes Faith; The Radical Edge of the Early Christian Faith, being rediscovered in this Post-Modern age.
In Romans, chapters 3 , 11 and 12 we are at the very heart of Paul's thesis: 'All are and ever were inside God's salvation.' A question or invitation surrounds each section of his magnificent theological treatise addressed to believers in the seat of Romes's power. They are:
1st—Roman's 1-8 - "Is God the God of the Jews only?" 1
2nd—Romans 9-11 - "I ask then: Did God reject his people (The Jews)? 2
3rd—Romans 12-16 - "Faith as Response to God's Choice" 3
We are told by Protestant theologians that Paul's central thesis is "Faith" saves, while "Works" have no saving merit. After all does not Paul declare that "we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law. Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too, since there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith" (Romans 3:28-30 NIV).
It appears to me Paul is not actually contrasting "faith" or "works" but "faith in works apart from grace". In Romans the larger dilemma with which Paul is wrestling is the relationship "we" all enjoy "in Christ;" wherein both Jew and Gentile live in a political, social, cultural and spiritual tension deeply unaware of our "In Christ" inter-connectedness.
Paul is a free citizen of Rome and of Judaism's highest spiritual order, ”circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless" (Philippians 3:5-6 NIV). Writing to the Church at the very heart of the empire forces Paul to "to work out (his) ..salvation with fear and trembling," (Philippians 2:12b), as the universal implications of The Gospel for both his Jewish brothers and sisters and the children of the Empire itself are made self evident. And what is that, you ask? It's the deep mercy of God who "has bound everyone over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all" (Romans 11:32 NIV). Indeed, Paul's ALL in this text is inclusive of everyone!
Paul's heart and mind have been wrestling with The Biblical faith and Rome since he is first introduced by Luke into a Story which transcends both Rome and Jerusalem; Beginning in Jerusalem at Stephen's stoning, wherein "the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul“ (Acts 7:58 NIV). At the writing of this theological letter a lifetime has passed. Rome is at last his anticipated destination. He has completed his compelled sense of mission to “Jerusalem to bring my people gifts for the poor and to present offerings" (Acts 24:17 NIV). It is Rome who escorts him beyond the reach of a threatening mob and to whom he appeals for a just trial.
Paul has already moved from a strict Pharisaical world view, now seeing in pagan rituals and philosophies the desire of God to enfold all into God's human family. To the Athenians, while debating their scholars within their own body-soul gymnasiums or colleges he references their poets as correctly seeing The Creator as One in whom ”‘we live and move and have our being'" (Acts 17:28 a NIV). Using a common Roman and pagan ritual of pouring a little wine out in honor of the gods as a sign of thanksgiving before eating, Paul describes his own imprisonment as "being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith." Thus making his sacrificial life, theirs, he concludes, "I am glad and rejoice with all of you. So you too should be glad and rejoice with me" (Philippians 2:17-18 NIV); adding, "for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose" (Philippians 2:12-13 NIV). That is the truth upon which Paul now invites Romans and Jews to place their faith, identities and works. This is the God in whom we are all connected; In whom ”there is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise“ (Galatians 3:28-29 NIV). This is the matured and living faith Paul takes with him to the heart of Rome. He is ready to introduce a uniquely Pauline phrase to capture their union.
Thus, Paul's larger purpose in writing to the Romans is to reconcile Jerusalem to Rome and Rome to Jerusalem. In order to do that Paul introduces a phrase that unites Roman citizens to Jewish inhabitants of the realm. It is not "faith" that makes one a Jesus Story Teller any more than the "law" could, of itself, save Jews. Rather it is "faith IN Christ"—who is the Law personified and the Emperor of the universe and who has come and is coming like an Emperor to his city—a word picture he makes clear to the Thessalonians. ”For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first." The purpose of this resurrection is to meet Christ (in the air) like the citizens of any city would do at some strategic place, so that together they may make their way into the city. Hence, Paul concludes: "After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever“ (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 NIV). Jesus is the Sovereign who will fill the earth with his love and justice.
Let us then break out Paul's threefold revelations that form this radical gospel with the power to bring both Rome and Jerusalem to its knees.
Judaism: The Revealed Truth
1st—Romans 1-8 - The question surrounding Judaism's claim as God's uniquely Revealed Faith is framed: Is God the God of the Jews only? His answer. Unique? Revealed? Yes! "Theirs is the adoption to sonship; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of the Messiah, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen" (Romans 9:4-5 NIV).
So is this God revealed redemption for Jews alone? No! In fact throughout these first 8 chapters Paul has one thesis. It is one thing to be entrusted with the absolute truth that changes everything. It is quite another to live into the truth and so make what is true, real. That takes a profound trust in The One who alone can turn our inability to either want what God wants or do what God wants, a reality (Romans 7 & 8).
In fact, Paul's universalism is first rooted in our common inability to do just that; Want what God wants and do what God wants. Paul will argue that the very first purpose of Judaism is to reveal the impossibility of making it's claims real in our lives. ”It is not as though God’s word had failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: “Though the number of the Israelites be like the sand by the sea, only the remnant will be saved. It is just as Isaiah said previously: “Unless the Lord Almighty had left us descendants, we would have become like Sodom, we would have been like Gomorrah"" (Romans 9:6, 27, 29 NIV). And so, given the reality of the human condition, Paul asks: ”What shall we conclude then? Do we have any advantage? Not at all! For we have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under the power of sin. As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one”“ (Romans 3:9-12 NIV).
In chapter five Paul turns from our Oneness in need to our Oneness in God's election of all humanity "in Christ". ”Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned— But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! ..Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people" (Romans 5: 12, 15, 18 NIV).
Again in chapter eight Paul expressly affirms the intimate work of The Spirit, in experiencing every human spirit through the birth, life, teachings, passion, death, resurrection and the ascended Human One's continual prayers on our behalf—in The Eternal Son and and according to The Father's will. ”In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God. And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified“ (Romans 8:26-28, 30 NIV).
The "In Christ" Provision Includes ALL
2nd—It is in chapters 9-11 that Paul makes a series of arguments that only a Jewish Pharisee could follow. In short he answers the inference inside his first question: For Jews alone? Hardly. Indeed, only "In Christ" is our universal and natural birth-right made real. ”Christ is the culmination of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes. For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved"“ (Romans 10:4, 12-13 NIV).
It is in these chapters that Paul clearly identifies the only hope that every son of Adam and every daughter of Eve enjoy. It is God who chooses and God who saves!
Paul reveals the inter-connected relation of Jerusalem and Rome inside what appears to 20th century Modernity believers as sheer non-sense. Paul affirms, ”It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy. For Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden“ (Romans 9:16-18 NIV).
Don't ask me to defend Paul here, much less God. I'm 70 and that puts me squarely inside modernity and the enlightenment. I can't help it if Paul's God was never familiar with the Renaissance re-imagination of our world. For devotions tonight I just read in James that "God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone" (James 1:13 NIV). I guess The Spirit never clued James in. James the brother of our Lord, didn't like Paul very much anyway. No surprise here.
Yet, like the Beattle's groupie I am, I get that this world is just a vulnerable Yellow Submarine; a universe that bends to human and Divine Presence. Paul's twisting logic makes sense to Post-moderns, as Paul argues for sentient beings (God and humanity) shaping a universe to our perception. In Romans 11: 1, Paul 's anguish for his own people forms the question which bends the universe toward a redemptive faith; "faith IN Christ". Paul cry's out: ”I ask then: Did God reject his people?" (Romans 11:1a).
His answer is unequivocal. ”Again I ask: Did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all! Rather, because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious“ (Romans 11:11 NIV). There it is! A statement as radical as combining Johns Wesley's Prevenient Grace with his understanding that "in Christ" the inter-connecting original sin and the culturally, socially, bio-chemically inclinations and wounds that follow are all freely forgiven—universally atoned for; hence no culpability or condemnation. (Only our self-chosen sins are provisionally forgiven, needing an inter-active relational context for God's kind heart to find reality in us!)
So Paul pushes through the ill-logic (for 20th century persons and James) of God having mercy on whomever The Trinity of God wishes, by declaring that only God could turn Israel's rejection of God's Son into the world's inclusion into God's kind heart. WOW! And if that were not enough, Paul declares that the world's positive response to the God/man will complete the salvational picture. ”I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in, and in this way all Israel will be saved. As it is written: “The deliverer will come from Zion; he will turn godlessness away from Jacob. And this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins.” As far as the gospel is concerned, they are enemies for your sake; but as far as election is concerned, they are loved on account of the patriarchs, for God’s gifts and his call are irrevocable" (Romans 11:25-29 NIV).
So we come to where we began. "Just as you who were at one time disobedient to God have now received mercy as a result of their disobedience, so they too have now become disobedient in order that they too may now receive mercy as a result of God’s mercy to you. For God has bound everyone over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all"
(Romans 11:30-32 NIV). Paul is reaching back and echoing Ezekiel's promise in Ezekiel 16, that Israel and its enemies, Samaria and Sodom will all find their way to a living faith "in Christ," making real in time what God has chosen and is therefore true from ancient times. ”“ ‘However, I will restore the fortunes of Sodom and her daughters and of Samaria and her daughters, and your fortunes along with them, Then you will remember your ways and be ashamed when you receive your sisters, both those who are older (Sodom) than you and those who are younger (Samaria). I will give them to you as daughters, but not on the basis of my covenant with you. Then, when I make atonement for you for all you have done, you will remember and be ashamed and never again open your mouth because of your humiliation, declares the Sovereign Lord''“ (Ezekiel 16:53, 61, 63 NIV).
Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!
“Who has known the mind of the Lord?
Or who has been his counselor?
”Who has ever given to God, that God should repay them?”
For from him and through him and for him are all things.
To him be the glory forever! Amen.“
(Romans 11:25-26, 33-36 NIV)
The Invitation to Make Real what is already True
3rd—Romans 12-16 - "Faith as Response to God's Choice"
There is no response more appropriate in light of such a hopeful picture than what Paul now turns his attention to; the framing of the real nature of the invitation to believe: It is to actively live a sacramental life, wherein our works are connected directly to our faith as a response to absolute, unconditional grace. This is the only Yellow Submarine worthy of any of us; Works of blessing given as the very Presence of Jesus, through our faith
God has chosen to create from before time an "In Christ" world. We are all saved in terms of God's kindly heart. The only question is whether we will live into or away from God's choice of us.
Blessings! Terry
1 Romans 39a
2 Romans 11: Ia
3 Romans 12: 1
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