A Feast for All Nations

A few Sundays ago, I preached on the equality that the Lord's Supper brings to those who are baptized into Christ. We spent some time considering how eating stratifies society both in Bible times and now. We considered how God enacted and emphasized the exclusivity of Israel by giving them a "kosher" diet, which illustrated the uncleanness of the Gentile nations in a daily and practical way, and how that the cleansing of food in the ministry of Jesus, Peter and Paul shows that the uncleanness of the nations has been purged in the baptism of the cosmos in Christ, and that now all nations eat together at the Lord's Table.

The communion that God has inaugurated among the nations is demonstrated in the ministry of Jesus, as He ate with sinners; of Peter, as he preached to Cornelius; and of Paul, as he preached the equality of slaves and free, men and women, Jews and Gentiles. Thus, when the church at Corinth observed Communion in a way that divided the body of Christ, Paul rebuked them for failing to "discern the Lord's body." The entire point of Communion is that God is forming a new creation community where all walls are broken down.

Also, we considered the correlation between circumcision and baptism as the initiatory rite of Judaism and Christianity, respectively, while highlighting the very dramatic difference: circumcision was designed to set Israel apart from all nations as a covenant people while baptism was ordained to bring all nations together as a new creation in Christ. There were three principle markers of Jewish exclusivity: circumcision, Sabbath observance, and food laws. Paul specifically shows that these markers have been fulfilled in the New Covenant as baptism, the Lord's Day and the Lord's Supper, and each of these now function as instruments of unity within the Christian community, which presages the final reconciliation of all things in heaven and earth into one, unified creation in the resurrection of all things at the last day.

A Feast for All Nations

Isaiah declared that all nations would come to eat on the mountain of the Lord (Isaiah 25). Jesus declared that His Father's house, which is the Temple of the Lord upon the mount of the Lord, should be a house of prayer "for all nations." Thus, Communion is no longer a feast of exclusion where only ethnic Jews may feast at the table of the Lord, but now all nations are called to come and eat at the table of the Lord. God once used food laws to demonstrate Israel's exclusive covenant identity, but now He uses the table of communion to show that all people have been made one in Christ—which means, of course, that they must be in Christ through baptism before they can eat at the table. But if they will be made one body in Christ, then all may eat together with all boundaries broken down. Jews and Gentiles, slaves and free, men and women, Greek and barbarian—all may eat together, as Peter learned on the housetop.

The Lord's Supper is a feast for all nations that signals the unity of all nations in Christ as the head of the new creation. Meals have spiritual significance. We have largely lost the meanings of meals in our fast food age, but remnants of the deep, primal idea remain. We all know on some level that eating together signifies communion. We include and exclude people from fellowship by the means of meals. We refuse to eat with those we exclude, and we are eager to eat with those we include. This is universal.

There is a long history of eating together in Scripture from the ministry of Christ and His conflict with the Pharisees to the ministry of Peter and his experience with Cornelius to, finally, the ministry of Paul and his conflict with the Judaizers. The Lord's Supper is a meal where Christ invites all nations to eat together in anticipation of the resurrection when all things shall be made new. Everywhere the church goes, we eat a meal together as we gather together for worship. Indeed, this is one of the fundamental reasons why we gather, to eat together. Eating together is listed in Acts 2:42 as a fundamental ritual of corporate worship (along with doctrine, fellowship and prayer). Paul makes it plain by the implicit assumption in I Corinthians 11 that the church gathered for the purpose of eating the Lord's Supper. Thus, the meal that we eat together is a proclamation of new creation: by eating, we "proclaim the Lord's death until He comes." And by eating together with all nations—as Gentiles—we proclaim the power of the Lord's death and resurrection for a new creation extended into every corner of the world. This meal, then, signifies the invitation for fellowship and oneness of all people in every nation.

This may seem insignificant to us at first glance because we have been inured to the spiritual significance of table fellowship, but if we can see by the Word of God what the meal means, then we shall regain its power in the present, fast food age. "Come, whoever you are! Come to the table! You all, every one of you, are invited to eat at the table of the King!" This is what we proclaim when we eat the Lord's Supper. Jew and Gentile, slave and free, male and female, Greek and barbarian—all are invited to come and eat at the table of the Lord, to enjoy "A Feast for All Nations."

Unity, Community and the Lordship of Christ against Idols

There is something tugging at the back of my mind here. I know that Paul referred to the oneness of God when speaking about the oneness of Jews and Gentiles among the people of God, which implies the oneness of all nations—the Gentiles—in the new creation. In other words, the oneness of God casts down the pluralistic worship of false gods throughout the nations. The proclamation of God's oneness as the basis for the oneness of the people of God says this: God is one—thus, His creation is one—and the pluralism of false worship is a lie that is exposed by the oneness of God. If there is only one God, then all of the gods of the nations are frauds. They are not gods at all. To tolerate and perpetuate the ongoing division of the nations—as Judaistic-Christian exclusivism did—is to abandon the nations to a damnable fate, to miss the point of Israel's mission in the first place, and to deny the basic message of the Shema: God is one, thus all creation must be made one in Him.

We must grasp this. The Lord's Supper is the supper of the Lord. We eat at the table of the Lord. We are celebrating the death and resurrection of Christ, which leads inexorably to His ascension and exaltation as Lord over all the cosmos. When we eat, we are declaring that Jesus is King of all kings, and we are His people. Thus, Communion celebrates that the one God rules over all as the one true God and that all other gods are frauds. All nations are called, then, to worship this one true God. And as we worship Him, we are all called to feast at the table of the King.

Remember, there were three things that marked the Jews off as separated people from the nations: circumcision, Sabbath observance and food laws. These things were given by God as temporary measures to ensure the distinction and preservation of Israel from among the nations of the world. This is why Paul asserts that the Law was "added" until the time of Christ. The Law was given to mark Israel off as separate from the nations. But now that the faith of Jesus Christ has been proclaimed to all nations, the marks of distinction are no longer needed. In fact, they must be removed, though it is acknowledged that this is a process that will take time and growth from the initial unity of the Spirit into the full-fledged unity of the faith (Ephesians 4). The marks of distinction have become a hindrance to the universal vision of God. If the Jewish contingent of the church insists that Gentiles are not fully Christian unless they become Jewish proselytes, then the church can never attain perfect unity, which means that the nations, indeed, all creation, will never attain the fullness of perfect unity for which it was created. The only way all things can be reconciled into one is if the one true God is worshipped properly by the one true people of God, made up of Jews and Gentiles, bond and free, male and female, Greek and barbarian. When the one true people of God worship the one true God in unity, then all nations will be brought to worship Him (John 17), and the idols of the nations will be exposed as the frauds that they are. All of this, however, is based on the oneness of God being lived in oneness by the people of God. A divided church perpetuates a divided world.

This is why the Lord's Supper is so important. The most practical sense in which the church was divided was played out at Antioch when the Jewish Christians refused to eat with the Gentile Christians. People who can eat together can grow together in perfect unity and fellowship. Thus, Paul was absolutely insistent that the church must not be divided at the Table. He raised this point again to the church at Corinth. The church cannot be divided in its observance of the Lord's Supper. The church must be brought together into one body by the indwelling Spirit, and one of the primary ways this is done is at the Lord's Table. The Spirit makes us one as we eat together. And as we are made one, as the church is brought into eschatological unity, the entire world is brought into one reality together, fully consummated in the resurrection when Jesus comes again.

Thus, we must go into the world eating together at the Lord's Table and inviting all nations to be baptized and join us. Now, certainly we do require that pagans leave the table of demons before they come to the Table of the Lord, and this decision is made in baptism; but we must not forget the significance of the "Feast for All Nations" when we eat together.

In the gospel something new and wonderful has happened. The Old Covenant marks of separation made Israel an exclusive people until God would safely bring Messiah into the world through Israel. The feasts of Israel shut out the world. God wanted His people to have no fellowship with pagans. But when the Spirit came at Pentecost, a new reality broke in upon the world that resounded from Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria to the uttermost parts of the earth. This reality has new signs: baptism, Lord's Day and Lord's Supper. Moreover, these new signs are spiritual signs of a new universal mission, a new cosmic reality that has broken in upon the world. Now, all nations are called to be baptized confessing that Jesus is Lord, to be filled with the Spirit and to feast at the Lord's Table. "Come all who hunger; come and be filled!"

The Tapestry of Creation

In Romans 1, Paul speaks about the fragmentation of humanity, and in Romans 12-16, he speaks about the re-integration of humanity in the body of Christ. The thing that Paul is showing is that humanity has fallen apart in the fall through sin and death and that the only way to be brought back into one whole human family is through the work of Christ through the Spirit. This means, as Paul is careful to show, that this wholeness cannot come through the law. The only way the righteousness of God in Christ can come to mankind and re-integrate the human race is in the new humanity that is formed from the glorified humanity of Jesus Christ that is poured out and shared in fullness through the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Lawless humanity seeks to re-create the human race through their own law. This is humanism. Utopians are obsessed with creating their own rules and regulations that impose their own self-centered version of righteousness on the world around them, upon those over whom they gain dominion. But this experiment is doomed to failure. They seek to be righteous apart from the indwelling power of God in Christ, and they cannot attain it. The only way that the tragic fragmentation of humanity can be transformed into the re-formed oneness of Romans 12-16 is through the spirit/Spirit indwelling of Romans 8.

The law cannot produce righteousness, whether it is the self-centered, godless "righteousness" of Romans 1 or the religious, ritualistic "righteousness" of Romans 2. All the law can produce is the fragmented humanity of Romans 1. The only answer is to be filled with the Spirit per Romans 8. This is the answer. We must pray in this way to be filled with the Spirit so that we may become the whole, complete new humanity that finds its reality in Christ.

The one thing that we must understand and communicate to our children is that a godless, self-centered reality falls away from what it means to be truly human. Humanists will try to tell us that we can only be truly human if we flee from the image and likeness of God revealed in His Word, if we rebel against the purpose of God for which we were created. But they are wrong, flat wrong. When we flee the image and glory of God and seek our own righteousness, we end up becoming less human, less the person we were created to be. If we desire to be all that we were meant to be, we must discover the humanness revealed in the one perfect human, Christ Jesus. He alone can shape us into the destiny we were intended to become by pouring His Spirit out into us as we pray in the Spirit and are filled with Him in the depths of prayer where we cry, "Abba, Father!" and the Spirit brings us into oneness with Christ through faith.

The fragmentation of humanity is due to sin. All creation was formed around Christ as the center of all reality (Colossians 1). God created everything to be the outworking expression of the image and glory of God. Remember, God made all things to make His invisible attributes visible. All creation was formed, the very DNA of the universe was "written," to reveal the image and glory of God. Thus, when man sinned, he chose to repudiate the knowledge of God and "create" a distorted reality, a "vain" existence conformed to the idols of the world, which are simply expressions of man's own proud, self-loving heart. This means, because human existence must conform to its original reality, the reality created in the image of God, that humanity is dehumanized when it falls away from the image and glory of God. When man chooses to seek his own righteousness, he cannot help but fragment into a dehumanized creature.

Man was created as a part of a larger whole. God created a world that cannot express His glory apart from the countless multitudes of creatures bearing His image and sharing His glory. God created a world where countless creatures share in relationship with Him and with one another, and this complex reality of relationships become the mosaic of relational revelation that truly "images" the glory of God. Or, to use another example, God created a world where His glory could only be truly revealed through the countless threads that are woven together into one tapestry revealing the glory of God. When man sinned and created his own fallen reality, the fabric of that tapestry began to be ripped apart. The individual threads of the tapestry began to unravel until the picture of God, the invisible things of Him clearly seen, was distorted, and the image of God was defaced into a lying image of God in the leering faces of a thousand idols.

God's world was created to be an image of God revealed in the manifold and multiple relationships of individual people brought together by the Spirit into one living expression and manifestation of the glory of God. God's glory cannot be fully revealed apart from "the number that no man can number," and this glory was refracted when the tapestry of human relations bearing the image of God was ripped in the fall and the threads of human relations began to be pulled apart. Redemption repairs the tapestry by reweaving the threads back into the beautiful picture of God that the Creator first intended. Romans 1 describes what the unraveled tapestry looks like as the human race begins to become more bestial than human, as it falls from man made in the image of God to fowls, to beasts, to reptiles. Romans 12-16 describes what the repaired tapestry looks like as all humanity is woven back together again into one, God-revealing, God-manifesting human race.

The fall of man had a dreadful effect on man, on nature, on relationships, on health and prosperity, and on all of life. The fall of man yanked man away from God in Christ as the center of creation. Thus, all of creation began to spin wildly out of control, and the threads of the tapestry of creation began to unravel and come unwound from the original picture that God intended. But in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the threads are being re-sewn and re-wound. This does not happen all at once, just as the unraveling did not happen all at once. But the re-sewing of the threads of the tapestry is being done one thread at a time. The key here is that each thread cannot exist within the tapestry apart from the other threads. Every thread exists in relationship with the others. And this relationship begins and ends in Christ.

Daniel: Praying the Purpose of God

I began preaching again a few weeks ago on "Praying the Purpose of God." I am preaching this series from the book of Daniel. My principal text is Daniel 9 where the prophet prayed the prayer of confession after he discerned by reading Jeremiah 29 that time had come for Israel's exile to end and the desolations of Jerusalem to be finished. Daniel realized that the time for fulfillment had come, but he also understood that God works through the prayers of His people. So, Daniel began to pray the purpose of God into existence. However, another thing happened. The angel came and showed Daniel that Seventy Weeks had been determined upon his people, and that the exile would not end for another 490 years. Of course, Paul then tells us that this fulfillment has one more stage of fulfillment in the fullness of the Gentiles being gathered in unto the resurrection of the dead and the Second Coming (Romans 11; I Corinthians 15). So, I have been preaching about the role that prayer plays in the realization of the purpose of God.

The main thing I have been trying to communicate is that prayer should flow out of a passion for purpose rather than an obligation or duty that we must discharge to be faithful as Christians. And as I go back to the matter of praying the purpose of God, I must spend some time talking about destiny and purpose. I must talk about how Daniel understood as well as anyone how to live out the purpose of God buy allowing the glory of God to rest upon us as we live in everyday life.

The point that I feel to emphasize is how Daniel acted while waiting for the fulfillment of God's promises concerning the end of exile. Daniel did not retreat into a cave somewhere while he awaited the end of exile. No, Daniel went to work in the world he in which lived as a faithful child of God while praying for the purpose of God to be fulfilled. We must do the same while waiting for the end of exile in the Second Coming.

The point that I feel to emphasize tonight is that Daniel thought he was living in the last days until he received the vision of the Seventy Weeks. So, the point is this: what did Daniel do while he thought he was living in the last days? He entered into the world and rose to prominence through excellence—and he prayed!

Daniel learned how to "excel" in the world without becoming a part of the world. He had an excellent spirit; he went to the king's university while refusing to eat the king's meat. He worked in the government while refusing to allow anyone to stop his prayers. He was willing to go to the lion's den, but he would not stop praying. He was willing rather to die than to stop praying! Why? Because he understood the role that his prayers were playing in the fulfillment of the purpose of God! If he had seen prayer only as a matter of indulging his private desires, he could have been persuaded to go a day without prayer. But Daniel saw prayer as the means of fulfilling the purpose of God.

We must do the same. I am persuaded that too many of us fail to pray because we do not understand the role that prayer plays in the fulfillment of God's purpose in our lives, and thus, through us, in the entire earth. If we can see prayer as the means for the fulfillment of our own destiny, then we will pray! We must first of all be caught up in a passion for the purpose of God. Then, we must allow that purpose to be realized through our prayers.

We must be willing to go into all the world, into all the cosmos without allowing the world to go all the way into us. We must be willing to serve the kings of the earth, but we must know where to draw the line. We must refuse to eat the king's meat. We must refuse to worship idols. And we must refuse to stop praying. We must "understand by books" the vision that God has for us and His purpose for us and His church. Then, we must pray this purpose into existence as we work out the will of God and the glory of God settles down upon us as we live out the anointed, glorified destiny of the church. It is our destiny to be glorified. So, we must anticipate that destiny now, as we work, live and play in the world around us. We must share in the glory of God in everything we do so that we may bear the image and share the glory of God before the world. We must, as Daniel, pray the purpose of God into existence.

The one thing that stands out to me was the fact that the passage from Jeremiah that Daniel was reading in Daniel 9 was the passage where God tells Israel that He knows the plans He has for them, plans for good and not for evil, plans for a future and a hope. When Daniel read these words, he knew that he must pray them into existence. God knows the plans that He has for you; but you must pray them in! We cannot simply sit idly by while we wait for the purpose of God to be fulfilled. We must pray it in.

Daniel and his friends passed three tests: they refused to assimilate by eating the king's meat; they refused to worship idols; they refused to stop praying to their God. They were willing to serve in the world and excel in their roles, but they were not willing to compromise their commitment as Christians. The thing I feel to drive home to our church is that God has a purpose for every one of us. And this purpose can only come to pass in our life as we imitate Daniel and seek to excel so that the glory of God may rest upon us. Moreover, we must seek the purpose of God "by the book" so we can develop a passion for purpose that drives us to prayer as Daniel prayed. Christians are called to preach the gospel in all the world, which is all the cosmos. We must take the gospel into every strata of society. We must not hesitate to excel in everything. We must not allow our attitudes toward the Second Coming to paralyze us as we await His coming. If we are living in the end, then we must live as Daniel lived, and we must pray as Daniel prayed.

The God That Keeps Covenant

I have been thinking and praying today about "The God That Keeps Covenant." I am considering the idea of covenant, especially the idea of the covenant of grace, the idea that God keeps both sides of the covenant. The covenant is simply God's promise, God's formal declaration that He will perform what He said He would do. God enters into an agreement with Abraham that He will make him a mighty nation and bless all nations through him (Genesis 12). In an ordinary covenant, both parties would be equally obligated to keep the terms of the covenant, and this is also true of the covenant that God makes with Abraham. However, God does something different here. God puts Abraham to sleep and keeps both sides of the covenant. In other words, God declares that He will make sure that His will cannot be frustrated by man's failure to keep the covenant: God will keep the covenant for him! And how will He do this? As it turns out, by keeping covenant in Christ. In other words, Christ Jesus keeps the covenant on our behalf. Through His death, burial and resurrection, Christ Jesus perfectly performs the terms of the covenant, and God keeps His agreement with Abraham and the children of Abraham in Christ. In Christ, all nations of the earth shall be blessed. In Christ, all things shall be made new. Of course, there is one more step in this process: the mediated presence of Christ through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit enacts and performs the terms of the covenant (obedience) within us. God keeps covenant in Christ through the Holy Spirit within us.

This is such an incredible idea! God ensures that His faithfulness cannot be frustrated by perfectly fulfilling the terms of the covenant in Christ and filling us with His Spirit so that Christ may live out the terms of the covenant (perfect obedience) in us. So, then we must simply place our trust in Christ and be filled with His righteousness, with His perfect obedience. This perfect righteousness is manifest in Christ and exemplified in Communion. Communion is a matter of renewing covenant with God, but it is not a matter of us renewing a vow that we have made with God in ourselves—no, it is a matter of the covenant in Christ's blood, the covenant that God has made with us, that He will save His people from their sins and make all things new in the resurrection. When we receive communion, we are celebrating the covenant that God has made with us in Christ. We have been baptized into this covenant. We are plunged into the faithfulness of Christ. We are submerged in the perfect obedience of Christ. God keeps the covenant within us. He is the God that keeps covenant.

A Living Sacrifice: Studies in Romans (3:21-26)

Romans 3:21-26

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

Justice and Justification

Paul has taught us so far that no man can be declared righteous (vindicated by acquittal before the law-court of God) by the law of God. The law of God does not dismiss the charges; it presses them. And the law finds all men guilty before God's divine tribunal. And, more to the point, this is exactly what the law has done to Israel: Israel is found guilty before God. But, if this is so, then how shall the promises of God come to pass? How shall God "bless all nations" through Abraham if the seed of Abraham lives under the curse of exile because they broke the law? If "salvation is from the Jews" (John 4:22), and the Jews are proved by the law to be as guilty as the rest of mankind—indeed, more so—then how can God's promises come to pass? Is Israel's failure God's failure? This is the question that Paul must address.

So, address it he does. Paul declares that God has demonstrated His righteousness "apart from the law." However, Paul is quick to add that this "righteousness-apart-from the-law" does not mean that God has done an end run around the law, for "the law and the prophets bear witness" to this "righteousness-apart-from the-law." The law and prophets bear witness to what? The law and the prophets bear witness to the covenant faithfulness of God, that God shall keep His promises to Abraham in spite of the failure of Abraham's children to keep their promises to God. Moreover, Paul will argue that the law and the prophets themselves bear witness, not only to the fact that God will be faithful, but that His faithfulness will be realized apart from circumcision and law keeping, which were the marks of Israel's election. This means, as the argument develops, that the righteousness of God transcends the limits of particular election and manifests the grace of God to all nations.

Paul will show that the law and the prophets expect that the salvation of the world must come apart from the faithfulness of Israel. In fact, the law and prophets boldly proclaim that God Himself will save His people though His people are unfaithful. All of this comes into clearer focus as Paul unfolds his argument throughout Romans. The vindication of God through the resurrection of Jesus apart from the law was not a frantic stopgap measure by which God patched up His badly broken purpose with a desperate Plan B. God's manifest "righteousness-apart-from-the-law" proves exactly what God intended to prove from the beginning: The just shall live by faith, and this faith shall be manifest in and imputed by the faithfulness of God.

This "bearing witness of the law and the prophets" is very important to Paul's theology. He is very careful to show that his teaching is not at odds with the Old Testament scriptures. Paul is very much aware that his opponents accuse him of breaking the Scriptures, and he is determined to prove them wrong. Paul will argue forcefully and at length throughout the rest of Romans that the fulfillment of the law and the prophets in Christ through the Holy Spirit is indicated within the law and the prophets. God is fulfilling His purpose in the New Covenant through the death and resurrection of Christ and through the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit. This should not surprise us—at least, it should not surprise us if we read the law and the prophets with a Christ-centered, Spirit-led understanding. The law and the prophets foretold this day.

After Paul makes clear that the law and the prophets bear witness to this "righteousness-apart-from-the-law" idea, he sets out to describe what this righteousness apart from the law looks like. The righteousness of God that has been manifest apart from the law is "the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe." Or, as the KJV renders it, "The righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ." Many scholars argue that this is the better rendering, which has Paul saying that the righteousness of God is manifest by the faith of Jesus Christ rather than faith in Jesus Christ. Of course, no one doubts that we must have faith in Jesus Christ to be saved, but that is not what Paul is saying here. He means to say that the righteousness of God—or, God's covenant faithfulness—is manifest through the faith of Jesus Christ.

Moreover, the faith of Jesus Christ here entails the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. This means that the righteousness of God is manifest through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ, the fact that Jesus was obedient unto death, even the death of the cross (Philippians 2:8). Though Israel was unfaithful, God demonstrated His covenant faithfulness through the obedience of Jesus Christ. Where Israel failed, Jesus succeeded.

Jesus' faithfulness is the manifest faithfulness of God Himself. Because Jesus is the very embodiment of Yahweh, the faithfulness of Jesus is the incarnated faithfulness of God. So, God is vindicated in the obedience of Christ. God proves He is faithful by living out His faithfulness in the faithfulness of Christ. And this faith of Jesus Christ has been manifested "for all who believe." This means that God has given us access to the righteousness of God in Christ when we believe the gospel, the good news, about what God has done in Christ. It all comes back to believing the promises of God. God declared that He would bless all nations through the children of Abraham, and the ultimate child of Abraham is Jesus Christ. Therefore, those who believe in the righteousness of God revealed in the ministry and mission of Christ become partakers of that righteousness.

So, this is how the righteousness of God is manifested apart from the law: God's faithfulness is manifest through the faithful obedience of Jesus, and the faithful obedience of Jesus is imputed and imparted to those who are faithfully obedient (faith entails faithfulness). The faithfulness of God is manifest through the faithfulness of Jesus, which is manifest through the faithfulness of those who believe. Now, as we shall see, we cannot construe this to say that we are saved by our own faithfulness, as if we can be faithful in the flesh, for that is the very point that Paul has taken such pains to refute. No flesh can be faithful before God, which is why the righteousness of God must be manifest apart from the law. Fallen man cannot be faithful.

So then, follow this closely: if the faithfulness of God is manifest through the faithfulness of Jesus to all who are faithful—to "all who believe"—and if no man can be faithful—no man can truly believe in a saving way—then how in the world will all this work its way to a happy conclusion? How then can we be saved? It sounds like an impasse! Paul is very well aware of the difficulty, which is exactly why wrote this epic epistle. However, Paul is not worried about the happy ending. He knows that God has made a way to save His people from their sins and redeem all creation. As Paul will lay out in the remainder of Romans, God has overcome the impasse and guaranteed the happy ending by sending the Spirit to impart the indwelling righteousness of God in Christ to those who believe. In other words, as we shall see, God has sent forth the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, so that the necessary faithfulness that fallen man cannot muster will be imparted to him by the Spirit as a free gift. The Spirit of Christ descends to dwell within us, and we are filled with the Spirit of Christ so that the faith of Christ wells up within us like a spring of living water and provides to our faithless heart the faithful obedience of Christ Himself. To put it plainly, God is raising up a faithful people by indwelling them with His own faithful Spirit. The just shall live by faith.

Then, Paul brings the question of justification back to the matter of Jew-Gentile distinction. "For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith." There is no distinction between Jews and Gentiles, for the righteousness of God is not restricted to those who have been given the law. It has been manifest apart from the law. Both Jews and Gentiles have been unfaithful to the law of God and have fallen short of God's glory; thus, both are equally condemned. However, in Christ, the righteousness of God is freely manifest to all. This means that both Jews and Gentiles can be saved by faith in Christ. Both Jews and Gentiles are acquitted before the judgment of God. Both are found guilty under the law, and both are declared righteous by grace as a free gift in Christ.

Therefore, God is found to be righteous. His promise of universal salvation is found to be true. God keeps His Word. In spite of Israel's failure, God is vindicated through the free gift of redemption in Christ. The death of Jesus serves as the propitiation for sins to all who receive it by faith. Salvation by grace through faith shows "God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus." By presenting Jesus as the propitiation for sins, God is able to declare His righteousness in spite of His forbearance and tolerance of sins in the past. How can a holy God be just while justifying the ungodly? Through the perfect faithfulness of Jesus lived out on our behalf and imputed to us by grace through faith. This is the power of God to salvation to all who believe, to the Jews first and also to the Greeks.

A Living Sacrifice: Studies in Romans (3:9-20)

Romans 3:9-20

What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, as it is written: "None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one." "Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive." "The venom of asps is under their lips." "Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness." "Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known.", "There is no fear of God before their eyes." Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

There is No One Righteous

So, what now? The Jews were given a tremendous advantage over all other nations when God entrusted her with the oracles of God. Does this mean, then, that Israel is "better off" than other nations (in the sense of "justified")? "No, not at all." Paul knows very well that Israel was chosen freely by the grace of God apart from any merit, as the Lord made abundantly clear. For example, consider Deuteronomy 7:6-8:

For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the LORD set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the LORD loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

Consider also Deuteronomy 9:3-7:

Know therefore today that he who goes over before you as a consuming fire is the LORD your God. He will destroy them and subdue them before you. So you shall drive them out and make them perish quickly, as the LORD has promised you. Do not say in your heart, after the LORD your God has thrust them out before you, "It is because of my righteousness that the LORD has brought me in to possess this land," whereas it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the LORD is driving them out before you. Not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart are you going in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations the LORD your God is driving them out from before you, and that he may confirm the word that the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. Know, therefore, that the LORD your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stubborn people. Remember and do not forget how you provoked the LORD your God to wrath in the wilderness. From the day you came out of the land of Egypt until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against the LORD.

The Lord makes it clear here that the only reason He is still keeping His Word to Israel is because He, the Lord, is faithful—not because Israel is faithful. God is righteous, and God will vindicate His own Word. These passages must have been banging around in Paul's mind as he carefully arranges his thoughts and presents his theology of the "righteousness of God" to the Romans.

Paul knows very well that Israel has no right to boast of moral superiority over Gentiles, and he knows this from the oracles that were entrusted to Israel. Israel's scriptures plainly show from the beginning that the Jews were not "better off" than the Gentiles. Israel's scriptures preserved the record of her own sins. Indeed, Israel's stewardship of the oracles meant that she carried her indictment in her own bosom. Israel's condemnation flowed out of her advantage. To whom much is given much is required. This means that Israel actually stood more condemned that the Gentiles because knowing to do good and failing to do it is a sin in itself. The fact that Israel was given the Law at Sinai only intensified her condemnation. So, are the Jews better off because of their advantage? In the final analysis, "No, not at all!"

Of course, we must observe that Paul's comments about the condemnation of Israel are not a matter of "us vs. them." Rather, Paul includes himself with the Jews (seeing that he is a Jew!) in his comments on Israel and her guilt: "What then? Are we Jews any better off?" Paul may see himself as Nathan the prophet in one sense, standing boldly in the face of hypocritical Israel when they call for judgment upon the Gentiles; but in another sense Paul clearly stands and falls with Israel in her sin.

In the next few verses Paul brings his argument in chapters 1-3 to a crescendo. He reminds us that he has already "charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin." The principal point to be made here is that all humanity stands condemned under the law. No one will be justified by the works of the law. As Paul brings this point into closer focus, he recites a catena of scripture passages to support his argument. As a faithful Jew, Paul believed that his doctrine must be biblical if it is to be considered at all. So, he quotes:

"None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one." "Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive." "The venom of asps is under their lips." "Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness." "Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known.", "There is no fear of God before their eyes."

"These are the things that the Law said, not me!" Paul seems to be saying. And "whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law," which would be the Jews, the same Jews that are attempting to disqualify Paul's Gentile converts from full inclusion in the New Covenant community because they—the Gentiles—do not keep the law. What an irony! The very ones who have set themselves up as the gatekeepers to the house of God are themselves more condemned by the law than anyone else. If the Gentiles are refused admittance to the house of God because they do not keep the law, then what should be said about the Jews who have broken the law more than anyone? It should be said that they are no "better off," that they have no more right to the promises of God than anyone else. If legitimate claim to the promises of God can only be made by faithful law-keepers, then no one can make that claim. No one has kept—no can keep—the law! But this is where grace comes in. Paul will show us how God has justified both Jews and Gentiles by grace through faith in the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ.

This means, then, that Israel—indeed, all humanity—has no right to boast. As Paul says, "Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped." Boasting figures prominently in Paul's thought, here and elsewhere. In fact, it is striking how much scripture addresses the idea of man's boasting. It seems that boasting is one particular sin for which God has little tolerance. The boasts of the wicked provoke God to quick anger.

Here, the boasting Paul condemns is the boasting of Israel that they are "Jews," that they "rely on the law and boast in God" (2:17; see also 2:23; 3:27). It is somewhat ironic that those who are called by the name of "praise" (the name "Jew" is derived from "Judah," which means "praise") are condemned as boasters. They, who should be praising God for His salvation to the ends of the world, are occupied rather with idle boasts about their exclusive privilege and doing everything in their power to preserve it. The Jews were called to manifest the praises of God to the world so that the entire world might believe and be saved, but Israel had forsaken this calling and was occupied rather with hopes that the pagan nations would be destroyed. Israel's exile had hardened her heart toward the nations so that her mission was compromised through pride and unbelief. Israel no longer understood her mission and destiny within the universal purpose of God. Thus, the people who should have been lifting praises to the glory of God were heaving up pretentious boasts.

Think about this. Let's say you rise early on a Saturday morning and prepare to leave the house for several hours to run a few errands. You wake your eldest son and give him instructions about watching his younger siblings while you are gone. You give him a crisp, new twenty-dollar bill and tell him to use this money to purchase lunch for himself and the rest of the children. You return home later in the afternoon, and hear a ruckus going on in the back room. You pause at the door to hear what is being said, and you are amazed to hear your eldest bragging to the other children about how he was given twenty dollars for lunch, and no one else was given anything. He laughs and pokes fun at the other kids who are hungry and starting to get rather cranky by now. He boasts that he is favored by the father, the rest of the kids are despised and rejected, and the money is his to use as he pleases. There is no doubt that you, too, would become somewhat cranky. In fact, your wrath would probably be revealed from the doorway against the unrighteousness of eldest sons who hold twenty dollar bills in unrighteousness!

This is a crude illustration of what had happened to Israel. They had been given a mission to the world, and they had been given circumcision and the Law of Moses to set them apart for this task. The entire point of the law was to separate Israel out for her specific mission. Her food laws, her unique calendar, her Sabbaths, etc, were all given to set Israel apart from the world so Israel might minister to the world. (This is why Paul asserts that these Jewish distinctive are no longer useful in the New Covenant age when the gospel is preached to all nations.) And now, she is using the very thing she was given to serve the nations—circumcision and the Law of Moses—to boast about her exclusive rights to the glory of God. Israel's boasting became a mockery of her mission.

The law declares the guilt of all men so that boasting may be stopped and that "the whole world may be held accountable to God." The law is the formal indictment of all mankind. Israel bears the weight of this indictment as the priestly representative of all nations before God, but the whole world shares in Israel's condemnation. As we shall see later, God has placed the entire world under condemnation so that He may place the condemnation of the world upon Christ as the atonement for the world. God condemned the whole world that He might save the whole world.

Finally, Paul declares, "For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin." The law given to Israel is the indictment upon every "human being." In the reading of the law, the charges against man are unsealed and read in an open court. The law brings knowledge of sin. The law reveals man's weakness. However, the law of itself cannot save, which is the point that Paul has already introduced and will develop more fully later on. Therefore, if the law cannot justify us before God, then how shall we be vindicated—acquitted of all charges—before God? That is what we shall find out.

A Living Sacrifice: Studies in Romans (3:1-8)

Romans 3:1-8

Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision? Much in every way. To begin with, the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God. What if some were unfaithful? Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? By no means! Let God be true though everyone were a liar, as it is written, "That you may be justified in your words, and prevail when you are judged." But if our unrighteousness serves to show the righteousness of God, what shall we say? That God is unrighteous to inflict wrath on us? (I speak in a human way.) By no means! For then how could God judge the world? But if through my lie God's truth abounds to his glory, why am I still being condemned as a sinner? And why not do evil that good may come?--as some people slanderously charge us with saying. Their condemnation is just.

The Advantage of Israel

So, then. If faithful Gentiles are as justified as faithful Jews and if law-breaking Jews are no better than Gentiles, then what is the value of being God's chosen people? If the New Covenant wipes out the distinction between Jews and Gentiles, then what is the point of all the history contained in the pages of the Old Testament? This really is the heart of the matter in Romans: Does the Christian faith invalidate the promises of God to Israel? Can the Gentiles be included in the New Covenant apart from circumcision and law-keeping without canceling the exclusive destiny of Israel? Can Gentiles share in the promises God made to Israel without becoming Jews? This is the nettle to be grasped, as some like to say.

So, Paul grasps it. He does so by asking two questions: (1) What advantage has the Jew? and (2) what is the value of circumcision? There is no doubt that God entered into a law-treaty covenant with Israel at Sinai and gave them circumcision as the sign of this covenant as He had done with Abraham. There is also no doubt that the Old Testament is filled to its bindings with statements about Israel's exclusive destiny before God in and for the world. Israel was called to be God's chosen people. Paul cannot—and would not—deny the advantage of being Israel or the value of circumcision. Indeed, he is determined to refute this charge before it is leveled by his opponents. No, Paul will not deny the advantage of Israel or the value of circumcision. Rather, he simply intends to show that the advantage of Israel and the value of circumcision are fulfilled in Christ.

Paul answers the two questions with one statement, "Much in every way." There is much advantage in being a Jew and much value in circumcision—yes, much in every way. Then, Paul gives only one very important reason—you might say the reason—for the advantage of Israel and the value of circumcision: Israel was entrusted with the oracles of God, the words that God spoke to His people to stand as a witness to and for the nations. The oracles of God are preserved as the Old Testament Scriptures, the Law and the Prophets and all the writings bound together with them. Israel was expected to preserve the oracles of God and transfer them to future generations. Israel did this faithfully, and we now have a faithful record of God's words to His people.

However, when Paul speaks of Israel being entrusted with the oracles of God, he means much more than merely preserving and propagating the words of God to future generations. To Paul, the oracles of God are God's plan for the redemption of the world, and Israel was called to be the means of this redemption, the agent and executor of the plan. To be entrusted with the oracles of God is like a messenger being trusted with a top secret dispatch that must be delivered through enemy lines to a beleaguered garrison. The messenger must do more than merely hold on to the message and keep its contents safe. He must preserve the contents of the message, deliver it safely to its intended recipient and interpret the message to those who cannot read its words. Israel was called to all of this when she was "entrusted with the oracles of God."

Israel was called to be a light to nations by being "the people of the Book," the people that possessed the greatest law ever given. God expected Israel to hear the law and take it into her heart. Israel was called to live out the implications of the law and manifest the holiness of God to the world. Israel was commanded to internalize the law and become living expressions of its righteous commands. Israel was called to become "Word made flesh" in a sense. Of course, Israel could not do this because of the weakness of the flesh, as Paul will discuss in chapters 6-8. Incarnational living was not fully possible until the incarnation of God in Christ and the outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost. But just because Israel could not did not mean that Israel should not. Ponder that for a moment.

However, Paul cannot speak about Israel being entrusted with the oracles of God without immediately recalling Israel's failure to keep this trust. "What if some were unfaithful?" Paul remembers Israel's perennial backsliding, her repeated prostration before pagan idols during the time of the judges and kings. Paul remembers the Exile when God judged Israel and cast her out into the earth under the oppressive rule of Gentile principalities and powers. Paul remembers Israel's continued faithlessness after the remnant returned from Babylon to rebuild Jerusalem, the shame of Ezra as he beheld the corruption of Israel through intermarriage with the pagan nations around them. Paul remembers the four hundred "silent years" between Malachi and John the Baptist, and most of all, he remembers the continuing Jewish rejection of Jesus as Israel's Lord and Christ. Paul's recollection cannot help but stagger beneath the overwhelming weight of Israel's unbelief. "What if some were unfaithful?" Some certainly were!

And yet, Paul refuses to believe that Israel's story is over. He cannot fathom the idea that Israel's unfaithfulness will induce God to betray His own Word. Paul believes, and the rest of Romans will bring this quiet note of faith to a resounding crescendo, that God will be true to His Word in spite of—indeed, because of—Israel's unbelief. In Romans 9-11 Paul will present the astounding claim that Israel's backsliding was a part of God's plan all along to demonstrate man's inability to save himself apart from the indwelling life of God. God will save Israel, and God will save the world! Moreover, Paul will show that Israel's "falling away" has occurred so the sins of all nations could be gathered together and piled in a heap upon Israel as a priestly nation representing the world and thus narrowed and focused in atonement upon Israel's scapegoat, Jesus Christ. Israel was called to be a living sacrifice for the life of the world.

Paul refuses to believe that Israel's story is over because Paul trusts in the faithfulness of God. "Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? By no means! Let God be true though everyone were a liar." God is faithful no matter how much the people of God are not. Israel may have lived a lie and violated the terms of the covenant, but God cannot lie. He will do what He said He would do. His promises to Abraham, Isaac and Israel will surely come to pass—not because Israel is faithful, but because God is faithful. And this faithfulness, the trustworthiness of God, is the basis of salvation by grace. God will freely save whom He will because He is faithful, not because those whom He saves are. God will keep His promises and vindicate His Word for the sake of His own glory.

As noted above, the righteousness of God speaks of the "rightness" of God, the fact that God cannot lie, that His Word is right. It is God's own faithfulness and righteousness that is vindicated, or justified, in the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. This is the justification of God. The justification of God may seem like odd language to our ears, but Paul is very concerned to show that his gospel does not make a liar out of God. Paul does not propose some sort of "replacement theology" where Israel forfeits her promises through unbelief and is replaced in the salvific economy of God by some sort of Hellenized Christian church. Not at all. Paul strongly believes that the ultimate salvation of Israel will be the salvation of the world.

In order to drive the point home, Paul quotes from Psalm 51. Consider the quote in its context: "What if some were unfaithful? Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? By no means! Let God be true though everyone were a liar, as it is written, 'That you may be justified in your words, and prevail when you are judged.'" Paul is referring to the unfaithfulness of Israel. What if some within Israel were unfaithful? Does the faithlessness of Israel nullify the faithfulness of God? By no means! Let God be true though everyone within Israel were liars. Then the quote: "That you may be justified in your words, and prevail when you are judged."

David wrote these words after he was confronted by Nathan the prophet over his sin with Bathsheba. David had committed adultery with Bathsheba and then murdered her husband, Uriah the Hittite, to hide Bathsheba's pregnancy and conceal their sin. Nathan exposed David's sin in the dramatic telling of the story of stolen ewe lamb. David, missing the point of the story, was indignant against the man who stole his poor neighbor's sheep only to discover in dismay that he was the man Nathan had in mind! David fell on his face in repentance, but God refused to defer His anger against David's sin, and the illegitimate infant died in just a few days.

However, the story does not end there. "Then David comforted his wife, Bathsheba, and went in to her and lay with her, and she bore a son, and he called his name Solomon. And the LORD loved him." (II Samuel 12:24) The Lord loved Solomon and later chose him to be David's heir. Moreover, God anointed Solomon to build His temple, one of the great wonders of the ancient world, and gave to the young king unprecedented wisdom to lead the people of God. As a further example of amazing grace, this son of Bathsheba the adulteress wrote much of the Wisdom literature we have in our Bible. What an incredible story of redemption! (We could also speak of how the temple site was selected as a result of another of David's spectacular sins, but space does not permit us to draw in this additional example of redemptive grace.)

Paul sees the story of David's unfaithfulness as a model of Israel's larger unfaithfulness. David sins. He conceals his sin with an even greater sin. He lives for at least nine months as if he had done nothing wrong, worshipping God with his lips but not his heart. Nathan the prophet confronts his sin in a parable, but David cannot see himself in the story. He indignantly pronounces the sentence of death upon the perpetrator, quick to judge evil in others, not realizing that he was pronouncing judgment upon himself. David repents, and God forgives his iniquity but refuses to defer judgment. The child dies. Then, God blesses David and Bathsheba with a another child, Solomon, and God loves the child, raises him up to be king, builder of the House of the Lord and writer of wise sayings and countless songs. This, in short form, is the larger story of Israel.

The central feature of this story is God's promise to David that He would build his dynasty and there would never fail to be a son of David upon the throne of Israel. This great promise, described as "the sure mercies of David" (Isaiah 55:3; see also Acts 13:4 where Paul quotes this statement from Isaiah) is ultimately fulfilled in Jesus Christ, which Paul referred to in Romans 1:3. This is why Paul insists that the faithlessness of Israel cannot overthrow the faithfulness of God. God is "justified" in His words and "prevails" when He is judged. God is right when He judges David for his sin, but God is also right when He chooses out of His own grace to redeem David from his sins and keep covenant with him forever. All that God has done in David He will do in Israel. This is the message of Romans.

This leads us to consider an amazing idea: "Our unrighteousness serves to show the righteousness of God." God displays His own holiness against the ever-darkening backdrop of man's sin. God permits man's unfaithfulness so that the faithfulness of God made be clearer in contrast. As stated later, where sin abounds, grace abounds even more. Paul frames this idea within a question rather than a positive statement, so he must assume that our train of thought is running on his track.

Of course, this leads to the question: "What shall we say? That God is unrighteous to inflict wrath on us?" If God permits unrighteousness in order to highlight His righteousness, then how can God justify His wrath upon us? More specifically, if God has allowed Israel's faithlessness in order to demonstrate His own faithfulness to the world, then how in the world can God judge Israel for her unfaithfulness? If Israel is only playing a part in the drama that God wrote, then why should she be judged for playing that part particularly well? Paul is keenly aware of the impending wrath that is about to crash down upon Israel. He knows that Jesus prophesied the destruction of Jerusalem within a generation. As Paul says elsewhere, the wrath of God has come upon Israel "to the uttermost" (I Thessalonians 2:16). All of this forces Paul consider the divine rationale behind it all. Paul will consider all of this in breathtaking detail in Romans 9-11. But the idea begins bubbling up to the surface now like the first sputtering bursts of an erupting geyser.

If Israel's unrighteousness serves to show the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous to inflict wrath on Israel? We must admire Paul's willingness to address the hard questions head on. We should learn from his example. But even in his willingness to address the hard questions, he quickly makes clear that he intends no irreverence toward God: "I speak in a human way." This humility is striking. Is God unrighteous? Paul asks. "By no means!" comes the swift reply. "For then how could God judge the world?" It is not only Israel that faces the wrath of God for her sins so that "the righteousness of God [may be] revealed from faith to faith" and that "the wrath of God [may be] revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men" (Romans 1:17, 18); the entire world faces the righteous judgment of God. In other words, God is not being unjust to Israel when He judges her for her sins. He will judge the entire world by the same standard: the law of God. All shall stand condemned before that great tribunal. All shall find that their unrighteousness shows the righteousness of God. This, too, is the message of Romans. Paul will develop this further momentarily.

Then Paul frames the same question in a more personal way. Again, Paul is surely thinking of David. David's lie ultimately ended up demonstrating the truthfulness of God in the wrath that fell upon him and his house and the mercy that extended to him and his family forever. God was demonstrated to be faithful in contrast to the faithlessness of man so that God alone would receive glory. So, Paul wonders aloud, "But if through my lie God's truth abounds to his glory, why am I still being condemned as a sinner?" Why should I be condemned for lying to the glory of God? That is quite a question! Moreover, "And why not do evil that good may come?" If sin reveals the holiness of God, then let us sin as much as we can so God may appear that much more holy! It is obvious that Paul does not think this way, for he refers rather angrily to those who level this slanderous charge against him. But he is willing to confront the question. He does not think this way, but he realizes that some may—indeed, some have—misunderstood his argument in just this way. So, he raises the question to knock it down again.

One final comment. Israel was entrusted with the oracles of God. In Paul's world, pagan oracles were often consulted to learn about the future. Certainly Paul is no fortune teller and the Scriptures are not tea leaves, but Paul does firmly believe that the destiny of Israel is written in the pages of the Word of God. The "fortunes" of Israel were written in the divine dispatch carried within her own scrolls, if only we can crack the code with the cipher of the Spirit. Paul will show that the surprising twist of destiny that Israel encountered in Christ is not really a surprise at all when the oracles of God are understood in light of Christ revealed by the Spirit.

The oracles of God predict Israel's failure and redemption, and the Gentiles' conversion to faith in the one true God. In other words, Paul insists that Israel was entrusted with preserving and presenting a story that contains the plot he is now rehearsing. Paul will show, by quoting the oracles of God, that Israel's unbelief is not surprising to those who read the text of the Old Testament with a Spirit-led understanding. The story of Israel is all about the vindication of God in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. God is faithful and His Word is true.

A Living Sacrifice: Studies in Romans (2:25-29)

Romans 2:25-29

For circumcision indeed is of value if you obey the law, but if you break the law, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision. So, if a man who is uncircumcised keeps the precepts of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? Then he who is physically uncircumcised but keeps the law will condemn you who have the written code and circumcision but break the law. For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God.

Many Jewish Christians of Paul's day insisted that Gentile converts must be circumcised and keep the law in order to enjoy full fellowship within the Christian church. It is Paul's task in Romans to debunk this idea. The unity of believers in Christ is Paul's main agenda. Paul insists that his Gentile converts have as much right to full fellowship in the church as Jewish Christians. There are two barriers that the Judaizers have erected between Jewish and Gentile Christians: circumcision and law-keeping. Paul is getting ready to knock both of them down.

Here is Paul's argument: Circumcision is worth something if you keep the law. In other words, the Judaizers are right in asserting that circumcision and law-keeping go together. But they have missed the startling implications of this fact: their circumcision is meaningless because they have not kept the law. If a Jew breaks the law, Paul says, he is no different than a Gentile. In fact, he is worse than a Gentile because he knows the truth and suppresses it. Moreover—and this is where it gets really controversial—if a Gentile keeps the law he is no different from a Jew. He should be regarded as circumcised. This is because circumcision is "a matter of the heart" (v. 29). And, as we shall see, Paul understands "keeping the law" in terms of fulfilling the law in the Spirit by grace through faith. In this sense, the Gentile Christians are keeping the law while the Jewish Christians are breaking it by refusing to see its fulfillment in Christ.

So, those who break the law should be considered uncircumcised even if they are circumcised physically, and those who fulfill the law should be considered circumcised even if they are not circumcised physically. In one deft stroke Paul has turned Jews into Gentiles and Gentiles into Jews! This must have left their heads spinning. Paul yanked the rug of superiority from under their feet and left the Jewish Christians no basis for their proud condescension toward Gentile Christians. Indeed, Paul insists that the faithfulness of the Gentiles in Christ will condemn the faithlessness of Israel. Even though Israel has the gramma of the law, the "written code," only those who fulfill "the Spirit of the law" truly keep the law.

Paul's radical theology is built upon a simple idea: "For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter" (v. 28, 29). However, this simple idea is not original with Paul. Moses made it clear that circumcision of the heart is the reality that physical circumcision signifies (Deuteronomy 10:16; 30:6). The prophets echoed this theme, particularly Jeremiah (Jeremiah 4:4; 9:26). Paul is simply extrapolating what Scripture says in light of the new reality inaugurated in the death and resurrection of Christ. This is Paul's theology of the Spirit that undergirds everything he will say throughout the rest of Romans.

A Living Sacrifice: Studies in Romans (2:17-24)

Romans 2:17-24

But if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the law and boast in God and know his will and approve what is excellent, because you are instructed from the law; and if you are sure that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth—you then who teach others, do you not teach yourself? While you preach against stealing, do you steal? You who say that one must not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who boast in the law dishonor God by breaking the law. For, as it is written, "The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you."

Now Paul pulls out his trusty sharpened stick of sarcasm to puncture the pride of the Judaizers. You call yourself a Jew. You rely on the law. You boast in God and claim to know His will. You, the judge of all that is right and wrong, approve what is excellent and claim you are qualified to disqualify others because you are instructed from the law. You are quite sure that you are a benevolent guide to those poor, poor blind folks, "a light to those who are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth." This is strong stuff! Paul knows this sort of pride so well because he once lived it to its fullest. He was the epitome of this proud persona. And now, he is using his familiarity with it to ridicule its rank hypocrisy.

Paul goes on: "You then who teach others, do you not teach yourself? While you preach against stealing, do you steal? You who say that one must not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?" One wonders if Paul had specific names and instances in mind. Inquiring minds would like to know! Regardless, he seems to know very well that those who preach the law the hardest are usually trying desperately to conceal the fact that they measure up to it the least. Remember, Paul himself was "blameless" in law-keeping—at least, he thought so until he found out on the road to Damascus that he was the chiefest of sinners. He knows this self-righteous crew very well, and he will not tolerate for a moment their blatant attempt to sequester the gospel and shut the Gentiles out. No, not for a moment!

Furthermore, Paul does not merely use his own personal experience to drive home the point. He quotes Scripture: "The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you." It is not enough to remind the Judaizers that he personally knows of their perfidy, but Paul is careful to show that their condemnation is from the Judge of all living and dead. Paul quotes loosely from the Septuagint's rendering of Isaiah 52:5 (and possibly with Ezekiel 36:20-23 in mind), but he also seems to have in mind the story of David's sin with Bathsheba and his murder of Uriah the Hittite. This will come into clearer focus in Romans 3 when Paul quotes directly from Psalm 51, David's famous prayer of repentance. But even now we can hear echoes of Nathan's rebuke to David: "Howbeit, because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the LORD to blaspheme, the child also that is born unto thee shall surely die" (II Samuel 12:14 KJV). Moreover, we cannot escape the comparison of Paul to Nathan, the Judaizers to David, and Paul's Gentile converts standing in a direct line with righteous Uriah, the Hittite, a Gentile, who was more righteous than the Jew who had him killed. What a powerful parallel!

A Living Sacrifice: Studies in Romans (2:12-16)

Romans 2:12-16

For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified. For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.

God is impartial in His judgment. He holds everyone to the same standard: if you keep the law, you will be justified; if you break the law, you will be condemned. Simple as that. Except it is not that simple. If it was that simple, Romans would be a very short book. But Paul goes on to show that everyone, Jew and Gentile, breaks the law, and that the only way to keep the law is by grace through faith in the perfect obedience of Jesus Christ. This is fulfilling the law by the Spirit and not by the works of the flesh. Of course, this anticipates Paul's argument a bit, but it is certainly where the argument is going.

Those who sin without the law are the Gentiles. The Gentiles were not given the written code of the law, so they are "without law." Those who sin "under the law" are the Jews. They were given the law written upon tables of stone. The law was to be read in its entirety every seven years and portions read by Levites each Sabbath in the villages and cities of Israel at their local holy convocation, which was the forerunner of the synagogue. Israel was given many opportunities to hear the law. However, Paul reminds his audience that simply hearing the law was never enough. Israel was commanded to do the law. James addresses this same idea in his epistle: "But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves" (James 1:22). Both Paul and James are alluding to Moses' warning to Israel that they must keep the law by doing what is commanded (Deuteronomy 4:1; 5:1; 6:3; 30:12-14; cf. also Ezekiel 20:11). And both Paul and James quote Moses' warning that if a man breaks one point of the law he is guilty of the entire law (Galatians 3:10; James 2:10; alluding to Deuteronomy 27:26).

Moses emphasized that the man who keeps the law by doing the commandments shall live in it. Of course, this is exactly the point that Paul makes. Only those who keep the law perfectly can live by the law. And here is the catch: no one can keep the law! Thus, no one can live by the law. All who attempt to keep the law in the flesh will die. Paul will show us later that this is why God gave the law to Israel "according to the flesh." God gave them the law to demonstrate that fallen man cannot keep the law without the indwelling power of the Spirit, and no man can be righteous apart from the righteousness of Christ.

Yet, the larger point that Paul is making here is that Gentile Christians are keeping the law, in the sense that they are fulfilling the law by faith through the Spirit. Paul argues that his Gentile converts "who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires" and "they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law." Further, "they show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness." The deep irony of this passage is that Israel, who was given the written code of the law, failed to keep the law, while the Gentiles, who were not given the written code of the law, were now fulfilling it! And they were doing so without circumcision and the ceremonial observance of temple rituals. Paul contrasts the hearers (Israel) with the doers (Gentiles).

Paul turns the argument of the Judaizers on its head. He uses the momentum of their argument against them. The Judaizers seek to disqualify the Gentiles from the New Covenant because they are not circumcised and do not keep the law. But Paul will show that those who are truly circumcised and really keep the law are the Gentiles. He will reverse the argument here and show that the Judaizers are the ones who are disqualified because they are uncircumcised in heart and do not truly fulfill the law by the Spirit. This is theological jujitsu at its best!