Focus on God - Romans 3

I am seeing another major paradigm or theme emerging from Romans 3 that is obvious once it is noticed. The whole chapter revolves around a tension between righteousness, credit, justification, worthiness of people vs. that of God. Chapter 2 through the middle of chapter 3 deals a lot with religious people looking for recognition, credit, merit of some kind based on something they do. Ironically when the “good” things they do are all discredited as being of no real value – their lawkeeping, their circumcision, their superior knowledge – they even begin grasping at their sinfulness in comparison with God desperately trying to somehow leverage it in hopes of generating some kind of “credit” for bring glory to God (3:5-8).

This universal insistence on trying to draw attention to anything that makes us look better, a focus on our righteousness, our goodness no matter what path we follow in doing so, is the root problem of sin-infected religion in all ages and in all places. It is inherent in our upside-down view of what salvation, sin and the underlying real issues are all about. It comes in the context of a very egocentric view of our relationship to God and lies at the root of all false religion (which is always considered to be the other ones from ours). It is very tenacious in our thinking and deceives all of us to some extent or another as to what true spirituality is all about. It prevents, or at least taints, our understanding of the bigger picture, the context of the realities of the real Controversy that is actually going on in the universe that we are inescapably caught up in.

The whole book of Romans deals with this problem of a skewed perspective and tries to draw our attention to the real issues that need to be seen and the real context in which we live. The gospel is not a formula figured out by Jesus to get people off the hook, legally creating a loophole whereby they can escape punishment by an offended, angry God. True religion does not revolve around analyzing the comparative value of people, weighing their moral worth to see if they are heavy or light enough to allow into paradise (where they can more fully satisfy their selfishness). It is true that most religion has degenerated into some form of this kind of thinking, but true religion, true spirituality, a true view of the real issues at stake, reality itself is radically different from all this.

I was taken by surprise today when I began to notice how often in chapter 3 Paul emphasizes God's character. That alerted me that this was likely the major issue he was trying to convey in this chapter drawing attention away from any supposed righteousness or merit that we think has to be noticed in our life. What he is saying is that the real focus needs to be on God's faith, on God being justified or vindicated, on God's righteousness, on God's reputation. In fact, Paul declares that the very thing we have tried to use to make ourselves look good enough to convince others and God that we are worth saving was intended to expose how really bad and helpless and sinful we are – the Law. “By the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” Romans 3:20.

Even today things are not much different. We claim that we believe in grace, we often say and think we are trusting in Christ for salvation. Many of us convince ourselves that we are not trying to generate merit by law-keeping, but instead we mistakenly substitute our own faith as the focal point of our trust instead of works of the law and think that our faith will save us. This is so subtle that it is difficult to expose until we come to view things through the framework of the bigger picture. Then we begin to discover to our chagrin that we are no different than the legalists and the Jews, that we are still trusting in something we can do to leverage or influence God to “save” us. We end up working very hard to have more faith so that we will be found to have enough to get God to give us what we want. By doing so we encourage a hidden pride that we don't even realize is lurking in the shadows of our heart, a pride in our humility, our faith, our knowledge of the Word, our piety or whatever is our religious preference. But the attention is still on us and how our beliefs or knowledge or faith empowers God to save us. It is a mingling of truth and error so subtle that it is very difficult to untangle in our minds, especially when variations of it are so widely taught and accepted in every religion on earth.

The primary symptom of the particular brand of this false idea that Paul was exposing seemed to involve boasting (2:23 & 3:27). Boasting may be obvious or it may be so hidden and subtle as to make us think we are free from it. But boasting is just another face of pride and pride is the very root symptom of selfishness – the essence of sin. Whether we boast openly about our righteousness in whatever form that takes, or whether we boast inwardly in our self-generated humility and feel satisfied with our chosen brand of religion, the problem still remains. Any religion or belief, even if not overtly religious, that focuses on our character, our fitness, our faith, our lack of hypocrisy, our... misses the real perception of reality. The Great War that we are inescapably embroiled in is not about us but about God, His reputation and His character. The Gospel is not a formula primarily for our benefit, though it does greatly benefit us, but is first and foremost the good news of the truth about what God is really like. Notice how many times in this chapter (3) Paul tries to draw our attention to this fact.

(2) The Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God. This reveals the faith that God had in them, how much He trusted them even though they proved not worthy of trust.

(3) Their unbelief did not nullify the faithfulness of God.

(4) God is truthful, even though every other person is found to be lying.

(4) God is willing to be judged (that is amazing in itself), and His words will be justified when they are ultimately found to be always truthful.

(5) Our unrighteousness ends up demonstrating the righteousness of God even though our unrighteousness causes us to perceive His passionate love as wrath when it exposes our selfishness.

(7) Through our lies the truth of God abounds to His glory. Verses 10-18 quoted from the Old Testament contrast various aspects of our sinfulness with the opposite, positive, implied attributes of God.

(19) The correct orientation of true religion is accountability to God.

(21) The righteousness of God has been manifested – which was one of the main reasons for the Law and the Prophets.

(22) The righteousness of God is revealed again by the faith that Jesus had in us when He chose to die for us while we were still sinners, just like God had faith in the Jews in the Old Testament (2).

(22) His righteousness and faith are both available to be reproduced (inspired) inside of all those, without any artificial distinctions, who believe in the truth about God.

(24) Being justified – being released from condemnation, guilt and the death that sin always produces – is given to us by God as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.

(25) God displayed Jesus publicly as the real Mercy Seat. The mercy seat in the Old Testament sanctuary was hidden from the public just as it was more difficult to see the mercy of God in the Old Covenant arrangement. But it was still there! But now God has put it out in the open so that we can know, can see and can believe in His unfathomable mercy and love.

(25) The original symbolic mercy seat was sprinkled with blood during special sanctuary services symbolic of the plan of salvation. Jesus, as the fulfillment of the symbolic mercy seat, poured out His own blood and life in a demonstration of God's willingness to take on all of our pain caused by our sins so that in Christ we could free from those curses and enjoy the benefits of His perfection. He did this in faith that we would respond to God's overwhelming revelation of love toward us. This is what it means to demonstrate the righteousness of God.

(25) In the forbearance of God, He passed over the sins previously committed. He did not allow the rejection of the Jews to the offer of God in good faith in the Old Testament to prevent Him from again making another offer in good faith, but this time to the whole world.

(26) God's righteousness is again demonstrated at the present time so that He would be seen and realized to be just and fair as well as enabled before the watching universe to justify anyone who accepts and responds to the faith of Jesus.

(29) God is the God of everyone, Jews, Gentiles, Christians, any religious professions, no religious professions.

(30) God will justify (bring into right standing and relationship with Himself) anyone through the gift of faith – faith ignited in us, inspired by His faithfulness, His faith and trust in us.

(31) This ingredient of faith (that originates with God) reveals the true nature and purpose and integrity of the Law.

(next in series)

Romans 3 Paraphrased

Romans 3:1-8 paraphrased.

What advantage has the Jew (or enlightened Christian)? Or what benefit is there in being circumcised (or baptized)?

The advantages are great in every respect. First and most of all, these people have been entrusted by God with insights and revelations about Himself and His ways of dealing in the Law, the Bible and the Testimonies of prophets.

If that is true but the result is that some (many) have not believed with their heart the real message of love and the truth about God intended to be communicated to them in these revelations, does that mean that God made a mistake in trusting them and having faith in them?

Absolutely not! Rather, you must realize that God will ultimately be found to be right in His choice to trust them, even though the majority – even everyone – might be discovered to be lying. Because the Word of God (which is always true) declares in Psalm 5,1:4, “so that You are justified when You speak and will be found innocent of all blame when You judge and bring everything into the full light of reality.”

But you might object that if our being exposed as wrong accentuates the rightness of God, you might be led to think that it is unfair for God to expose sinners to the painful consequences of their sins in the Day of Judgment casting doubt on His integrity. But this is a problem only because you are thinking about God from a sinful human standpoint thinking that He thinks like you do.

This is absolutely false also! If it was true God would not be qualified to judge the whole world.

But you still may insist that if the exposure of our deceptions only exposes the integrity and truth about God causing everyone to honor Him and bring Him glory, it is somehow not fair that the very ones bringing all that glory to Him should experience condemnation as sinners. You may even carry this silly argument even further by reasoning that since our sins end up ultimately bringing glory to God that we should sin even more so that He will be honored even more.

When you indulge in that kind of twisted reasoning, the condemnation that you will end up experiencing will be only fair and right, for you have created it within and for yourself – God is not really the one condemning you.

(Romans 3:9-18) What then? Are we (converted Christians) any better off? No, not at all; for we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under the power of sin, as it is written: "There is no one who is righteous, not even one; there is no one who has understanding, there is no one who seeks God. All have turned aside, together they have become worthless; there is no one who shows kindness, there is not even one." "Their throats are opened graves; they use their tongues to deceive." "The venom of vipers is under their lips." "Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness." "Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery are in their paths, and the way of peace they have not known." "There is no fear of God before their eyes." (NRSV)

Romans 3:19-26 paraphrased.

These statements come from the Law, the Old Testament, and we know that whatever the Law says, it addresses those who are trusting in the Law, so that no one can argue with it and everyone in the world will be accountable to God; because by working to keep the inflexible requirements found in the Law (which is simply a limited description of God's character) it is impossible for anyone to be found to be just and perfect in the exposing light of God's presence; for the only thing accomplished by knowing all about the Law and what it takes to be perfect is the realization of our helpless condition of sinfulness. (And that is the problem with your previously discussed faulty reasoning.)

But what I am talking about now does not operate inside the mentality of achieving perfection through a keeping of all the rules. What the gospel does is to reveal the truth about God's goodness and the real truth about His character that the Law and the Prophets were actually testifying about originally. This truth about what God is really like – what is called the righteousness of God – is brought to light where it can be seen by the faith that Jesus has in all those who believe – who believe the truth about God and believe in the redemption that Jesus has accomplished for everyone; for in reality there is no longer any artificial distinctions. Those distinctions have been rendered mute by the Law revealing that everyone, without distinction, are sinners and fall short of the glory and perfection of God's character. In the gospel everyone has been made right with God as a free gift by His grace through the redemption which is found by being in Christ Jesus.

God publicly displayed Jesus as the real counterpart and fulfillment of the symbol of the Mercy Seat that covered the Law in the Ark of the Covenant in the Sanctuary. This was accomplished when Jesus, in faith, gave His life-blood to demonstrate what God was really like – full of redeeming love, compassion and forgiveness, because in the forbearance and tolerance of God He passed over all the sins previously committed. He did all this to demonstrate His righteousness – to again entrust His children – at the present time, so that He would be not only just and fair but could also bring into right relationship to Him everyone who accepts the faith of Jesus in them.

Romans 3:27-31 paraphrased.

Now you who have been boasting in the Law (2:23), when you understand this reality do you any longer have reason to boast? That is now excluded from reason. But by what kind of “law” or rule is your boasting disallowed? By the method and Law that you have been using to try to attain righteousness and perfect character to qualify yourself for heaven? No, but by a law, a principle, called faith. For in our teaching of the good news about God and salvation we maintain that a man is made right in God's estimation (justified) by faith completely apart from performance of rule-keeping and working to conform the the Law.

Do you really think that the God of the universe is the exclusive God who only relates to Jews and not to anyone else? Get real! He is the God of everyone, Jews, non-Jews and even non-Christians alike. It is the very same God who has redeemed and will justify the circumcised in their grudging faith and the uncircumcised through their faith – He is the One and same God.

So are all the things the Law teaches about God and truth neutralized or nullified through this act of faith? Absolutely, positively not!. The exact opposite is accomplished, we actually establish and vindicate the teachings and revelations in the Law.

(next in series)

What is the Advantage?

Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the benefit of circumcision? Great in every respect. First of all, that they were entrusted with the oracles of God. (Romans 3:1-2 NAS95)

I have been searching around in the context trying to find the answer to this question. It does not seem clear at first just what the real advantages are other than being entrusted with the oracles of God. And even then, why is that an advantage? And then there is that word “first” which doesn't seem to ever have a “second” afterwards. It seems that Paul gets sidetracked permanently and goes off on other subjects without finishing what he started here. But I'm not sure that is the case necessarily. It is more likely that I am not scrutinizing the text carefully enough and thinking broadly enough to capture a clear picture of what he is trying to get across.

So I scanned over the following verses and chapters with the question in mind, “what advantage has the Jew?” I do remember that quite often Paul will mention the sequence “to the Jew first and also to the Greek”. That too has always raised a question in my mind.

I am sure I do not have the complete answer right now but I am starting to see some possibilities. Chapter 3 seems to be a warning that the “advantages” that the Jews thought they had are in fact not the true advantages that God really gave them. They were very much into boasting about their exclusiveness, their ancestry and their supposed “corner on God” mentality. They had become very dependent on their knowledge of religion, the Law and God's requirements while ignoring issues of their heart. They believed, as many of us still do without realizing it, that at least to some extent their salvation depended on some level of performance to leverage God to save them, whatever “save” meant in their minds. So the “advantage” that they thought they had over the rest of the non-Jewish world was that they had the right information as well as the right ancestors and consequently believed that God considered them more valuable than any other people.

The whole book of Romans works to disassemble these assumptions and uncover God's true reasons for using the Jews as His chosen people. The same principles apply to anyone today who mistakenly believes that their church affiliation, their religious upbringing or their extensive knowledge of what they believe to be irrefutable truth from the Bible gives them an advantage over others by impressing God and influencing His view of their value. Of course this is often done at the subconscious level until it becomes so pervasive that it spills into the open as boasting and bigotry toward others.

These are the things that Paul is trying to undo in their minds as “advantages”. But what are the true advantages that the Jews had? We have already seen that the first advantage he lists is the fact that God entrusted them with His oracles. Even here we must be careful to pay attention to what the advantage really is. It is not so much the oracles that are the advantage, though that is part of it, but it is the fact that God entrusted them, that He showed faith in them, that was the real blessing and advantage.

According to verse 4 God is going to be judged as to the wisdom of trusting people, having faith in people who end up not believing the very things that He revealed to them about Himself and responding positively to them. Evidently God's faithfulness is His choice to trust that people He entrusts will respond to His faith in them by believing Him. And when they fail to believe or respond as He had hoped His own credibility is then called into question. His credibility is really what is termed His “righteousness” or His being correct in the choices He makes.

So if their first advantage is that God had faith in them, whether or not they responded positively to His faith by believing and having faith in Him, what else could be seen as an advantage? The “first of all” phrase implies that there is more here than just being entrusted as an advantage.

As I scan over the surrounding passages I think I might be starting to perceive what the real advantage might be. In chapter 4 Paul presents the story of Abraham as a person who understood his advantages correctly and was not sidetracked by the delusions of the current Jews about the nature of their advantages. Abraham also received “oracles” from God, promises and insights and communications directly from God that were not given to others in his day. But Abraham did not respond by boasting in his superior knowledge or his apparent favored position with God by trusting in those things for his inner value or his standing with God. Abraham responded from his heart by acting in faith in response to God's faith in him. Abraham did not believe that the works he did, the obedience that he displayed to do what God asked him to do was the reason for God to bless him. He simply believed in the true character of Who God really is and what He is like and responded by reflecting God's faith and love back to Him. In so doing He received even more blessings and revelations and advantages and his belief in God's goodness, apart from his actions, was declared by God to be “righteousness” in God's eyes.

This is where things can get real tricky. It is very easy to slip into the idea that this “righteousness” of Abraham became the reason God valued him or somehow changed God's view of him. It is very easy to assume that this righteousness somehow contained merit that gave Abraham an advantage over other people. In fact that is the very issue that the Jews were so hung up on because they believed that by merit of genealogy their connection to Abraham gave them an inside track on God's favor. But isn't that true in all ages? We often seem to have this penchant for depending on supposed merit that is somehow transferable through associations or relationships with others that we believe have achieved an inside advantage with God. It is the way we operate in politics and so we assume that it works with God too.

Paul makes a strong case that the advantages of the Jew is not in their connection with Abraham or any other “saint” and their advantage is not because of their ability to perform the requirements of the Law. But again, what is the advantage? What, besides the fact that they were “entrusted”, gave them advantages over the rest of the world? Why did Paul say in 1:16 that the gospel is the power of God for salvation to...the Jew first?

Though I do not see it spelled out explicitly in this passage, I think I may be beginning to perceive what the real advantage might be. It has to do with the primary instruction Jesus gave to His disciples when He commissioned them to take the good news about God to the whole world. Their number one job description and identity was to be witnesses. A witness is a person who reports first-hand information about something or someone that they know and have experienced personally. Since the whole Great Controversy revolves around false charges against God and the eventual vindication of His choices and His character, He has asked His disciples to be witnesses for Him to testify on His behalf as to what they know and have personally experienced in their relationship with Him.

Given that context, who would have the greater advantage and carry more weight as an effective witness, someone who had just come to know about God, about His ways and wisdom and how He relates to His children, or someone who had received extensive knowledge and insights and was much more familiar over a longer period of time with God's dealings with men? Even in our corrupt judicial system we realize that a person who knows very little about someone else and has only recently come to know them personally does not carry nearly as much credibility with a jury as one who is intimately acquainted with the accused and has had a long and close connection with them.

And speaking of advantages, who is the advantage really benefiting anyway? Are our advantages given to us to make us boast about our superior knowledge and our “inside connections” with the God of the universe, or are our advantages really given to us for God's benefit that He may be justified in His words and prevail when He is judged (3:4)?

Thus said Jehovah: Let not the wise boast himself in his wisdom, nor let the mighty boast himself in his might, let not the rich boast himself in his riches, but – in this let the boaster boast himself, in understanding and knowing Me, for I am Jehovah, doing kindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth, for in these I have delighted, an affirmation of Jehovah. (Jeremiah 9:23-24 YLT)

(next in series)

Advantages Don't Create Value

Romans 3. What is the advantage of the Jew?

Of the Christian?

Paul says it is because they have been trusted by God, entrusted with knowing the truth about Him.

God's faithfulness is God being full of faith. He has faith in those He entrusts with truth to accept the truth into their hearts and be transformed by Him.

Does God only trust those who are worthy of being trusted?

Obviously not.

What criteria does He use for who He selects to trust?

I'm not sure.

Do some people fail His trust and make Him look bad, like He made a mistake in trusting them?

Yes.

Have I trusted people been taken advantage of and made out to be a fool?

Yes.

Apparently God will be judged on this very issue. We along with the whole universe will hold Him accountable for all of His decisions and look to see if the outcome of those decisions to have faith in sinful people was a good choice or not. God will not tamper with the evidence or try to intimidate the jury. He has nothing to hide. And He continues to invest faith, lots of it, into the lives of unworthy people.

Paul follows the line of thought that through this choice it becomes evident that both those who have been entrusted by God and those who have not are all exposed to be sinners and all fall short of His glory, of being worthy of His trust and faith. He declares that the advantages He has given them do not make some people better than others.

This goes back to the issue of value and challenging the world's value system. Value or worth in the thinking of humans in general is based on performance, external impressions, and usefulness. If a person contributes more for the benefit of others or manages to leverage the world's system for their own enrichment then they are often considered more valuable than those around them. If they appear weak and unsure of themselves or less productive they are considered less valuable. There are all sorts of criteria for determining value depending on the culture and time, but there is always the underlying assumption of differences of value. This is the kingship model the world has developed and operates fully within a system of hierarchy that is imposed on everyone where some are always considered better than others, more valuable and more important.

One of the most important criteria is ancestry. Look at the blood-line mentality that has been around nearly since creation. People assume that blood relationship to famous ancestors somehow imparts intrinsic value to all the descendants. This is what the Jewish thinking is to this day and is also seen in the royalty mentality of the kings of Europe (blue-blooded) and other places in the world.

In Romans 3 Paul is debunking that belief by taking us higher in perspective to the big picture of the Great Controversy. He declares that even though the Jews were indeed chosen by God as a special group of people all from one family and entrusted with more explicit revelations about God in the Law than were other peoples, that did not make them any better or more valuable than others (3:9), contrary to their assumptions. In fact, the very thing entrusted to them – the Law – was the very thing designed to show the whole world that everyone was equally caught in the trap of sin (v. 9,19). Trying to achieve righteousness by trying to be righteous and keeping the law will not justify anyone, Jew, Christian or unbeliever alike (v. 20). It is almost like the Jews were handed a hot potato and didn't realize that it would burn them if they tried to hoard it to themselves. The law simply exposes how out of sync all of us are with God but it cannot help us do anything about that problem. It simply sets us up to be more hungry for the real gospel.

One question I have this morning is, Why is it OK for God to trust people who are not trustworthy but it is not right for us to do that? If we are to become more God-like and reflect His image and character why is it so dangerous to trust anyone but God when God seems to be trusting all sorts of untrustable characters? The Bible teaches that we should not trust anyone, not even ourselves, but God alone. That somewhat makes sense to me, though I have not learned that lesson very well in my practical life. But the Bible also teaches that God has faith, or trust, in sinners and believes in them to respond to His faith in them and His love for them. This is an area I am not very familiar with and is a new field of thought for me. I suspect it probably has a lot to do both with a better understanding of what the word trust means and also the possibility that there are several different original concepts that have gotten translated into only one or two words in English. This is a subject I have a lot of exploring to do yet but I feel is very important.

I am beginning to realize though, that the faith of Jesus referred tam seeing more clearly that we are really not much more than mirrors with a power of choice to determine what direction to face and focus on which in turn determines what we see and reflect in our lives. As we fill our mirrors with the amazing love, grace and faith of God by seeking His face we more and more begin to reflect and look like what we fill our imagination with.

I realized this a little more last night when I sat down and began to read about the life of Oswald Chambers. I did not get too far into the book but I found myself inspired and encouraged by all sorts of truths about how God uses people and how important family influences are in our life. I very quickly began to see that his mother was probably one of the most shaping influences in his life making him very open to God with a strong, positive child-like faith that become the trademark of his whole life. I am eager to read more and be influenced by the story of his life.

But I also realized that I could have just as easily sat down and filled my mind with shallow TV viewing and never realized what I was missing by not investing in better mind-food. All too often I do that very thing and do not give myself the advantages of choosing something better. That is one reason my own experience is still so shallow, because I too often take the easier path to satisfy an empty feeling inside of me instead of investing in more substantial and life-producing activities and relationships that will bring deeper satisfaction than the momentary pleasures offered by shallow activities.

God, give me more understanding of Your Word that I am pondering here. I want to not just understand the truth about You but I want to reflect much more of Your beauty and grace. But to do that I need to see You more clearly myself, especially with my heart and emotions and feel the inward transformation of Your presence and sweetness and peace. I am Your problem, God – I can't fix myself. I give You unlimited permission to do whatever it takes to capture my heart, my affections, and my loyalty for Your heart. Thank-you for having so much faith in me, for being full of faith – that just boggles my mind. I give myself to You today to be shaped and molded more into the person You created me to be in Your image and likeness.

(next in series)

Examining the Heart of a Legalist

Romans 2:17-29. I keep reading this every day asking God to show me more of how this applies to me personally. It is so much easier to see how it applies to others in my family or church, but then I remind myself that what I see in others that needs urgent correcting is almost always my own issues that I am blind to seeing in myself very easily. I need the Holy Spirit to open my mind and heart with humility to receive the Word and the Spirit in the process of transformation. One thing I noticed this morning in this description is the fact that all of the activity described here about these good, religious people (17-21) is outbound. I have seen this symptom in my own family generationally and have to deduce that I am very susceptible to it myself even though I have tried to avoid it for many years. I have noticed a pattern in some people that it seems they come to a point where subconsciously they believe there is nothing more for them to learn except for maybe more proof formulas to beef up their defenses of “the truth”. I have heard the comment more than once in the back of a church where someone will say, “well, I don't need to hear these sermons anymore because I already know all the doctrines.” The point is that once a person thinks they have learned all the “facts” and learned to repeat the right answers that there is no more learning to do. I believe this assumption is far more widespread and pervasive than most us realize. It also seems that when this conclusion is arrived at that some people feel under strong obligation to continue to “serve God” and they subtly arrive at the idea that now their primary focus is on teaching others “the truth” and convincing others to conform to their view of doctrines and their spin on the Bible, life, God, etc. Oftentimes this also leads over time to a fixation on one point of doctrine that becomes an obsession for them that they feel compelled to convict everyone else over. Some even develop a very unique focal issue not found in general Christianity or at least out of proportion and become fanatical over that one point, finally believing that if others do not agree with them on this one point they cannot be saved in heaven. When this paradigm is boiled down to its core it appears to be based on the assumption that being saved is primarily a matter of the facts one believes and any “relationship” that might be involved is necessarily contingent on believing the “fact” that this person promotes as the critical one for salvation. These people, I have noticed, are no longer open to really learning anything new unless it supports and reinforces their established and entrenched arguments arranged around them like soldiers protecting their one core favorite “doctrine”. They seem to believe, but not openly, that they somehow have transitioned from learning about God to compelling others to view God and religion exactly in agreement with them or they cannot be open to having much of a relationship with them. They will seem to listen to other views for a time but then you come to realize that they were not listening with an open mind willing to learn or examine their previous assumptions but were only listening with attention to formulating how to present an even stronger argument to convince others that they are already right. The words here in Romans 2 are a very good description of what I have observed over the years. It becomes very frustrating to try to relate to this kind of person for sooner or later you realize that they are unwilling to really listen to anything you have to say if it is not already part of their entrenched “catechism” that they have produced in their own study. Conversation with them becomes only a one-way street at the deeper level and there is no easy entrance to enter into their hearts. They claim a name (just like the Jews), their rely on their knowledge of the Bible and either openly or subtly boast in their superior knowledge of God. They are sure they know what His will is and they are very diligent to assemble many texts, authoritative quotations and “foolproof” arguments to establish their position. They are very confident in their intellectual ability to guide those who can't see the doctrines the way they see them and they are sure they have a corner on “the light of truth”. They believe it is their responsibility to correct those who are so foolish as to not agree with their interpretations and that immaturity simply describes those who don't yet see their truth. They have now arrived at the point in their life where teaching is mainly a one-way street and they don't allow themselves to be taught if something goes against what they have already concluded. As I review all these things I am constantly reminded that though this is a major obstacle for this kind of person to accept anything that they disagree with, it is also a counterfeit for a condition which is very important not to avoid – being settled in the truth. If I am always in doubt as to the validity of everything I believe and in my attempt to avoid the condition described in these verses I am afraid to allow myself to be confident about anything, I will end up being tossed about without root or anchor by every wave of doctrine that comes along (James 1:6). These are the two opposites that tend to enforce each other's positions. So how do I find the real way to live in right relationship to God? How do I avoid becoming unidirectional and isolated from new revelations of truth and corrections by God of false underlying assumptions that I have built my religious thinking on all of my life and assume to be truth? If I see this as a major problem in those around me, I have to assume that I may have at least a strong tendency to do the same thing myself. And if so, how could I even address it myself if it involves a blind spot in my own experience? As I mentioned in my last post on Romans, this kind of person will not easily accept the charge that they are doing the very things they condemn in others. Just because Paul says they are doing those things is not enough to sway them to believe they really have the problems that they point out in others. What kind of “proof” is Paul going to produce to enforce his charges? They want facts, events, dates etc. to be able to examine and refute if possible. He claims that they steal, they commit adultery, they rob temples and that they break the Law. Those are strong words and what does Paul expect to base these charges on? What I believe I see here is that Paul is basing it on the fact that the Bible is true and that if it says the name of God is blasphemed because of us then there are reasons behind that declaration. He may have been able to point out specific facts and events, but that would not make his assertions defendable or even effective. God's word applies universally to every generation alive at the time they read it. It is the work of the gentle Spirit of God to bring specific convictions about events and circumstances and conditions of the heart. What Paul is saying in these first 2 chapters is that every one of us sooner or later will discover ourself under the guilt of sin and disobedience and are all equally in need of God's grace and forgiveness. The condition he is unmasking here is that of those of us who don't realize we are actually hiding our true problems under our attempts to be right with God by performance. The harder we try to look good externally and by intellectual religious knowledge, the more neglected our hearts become and it is in our hurting and empty hearts that sin finds fertile ground for hidden growth. So what is Paul's basis for claiming that those who look very good on the outside are actually guilty of all the things they accuse others of doing? (2:1) It is the Word of God and the principles under which we were created that it is unavoidable. When we focus on our religious advantages and give preference to our externals over the condition of our heart; when we tend toward the condition of believing we are a good source of teaching and instruction for others while failing to equally apply it to ourselves, then we can be certain that the sins we see so clearly in others has some kind of deep roots in our own soul even if the outward manifestations may look different than in those we point the finger at. At first this makes one wonder if it might be better not to have any religious advantages, that maybe it would be just better to live sinfully with abandon so that we could better appreciate and respond to grace. I certainly have had this temptation very strongly sometimes especially when I was a teenager. I thought that it might be much easier to understand the gospel if I had a lot more open sins to be forgiven of and regret. But a fear inside of me prevented me from plunging down that path. I was afraid that if I decided to just throw everything overboard and go out and sin hard and fast and loose that before I might have a chance to repent and be converted that Satan would get me killed and I would be lost before I had a chance to return to God. I also was not too keen on all the consequences that would be unavoidable and the negative long-term effects from making all those bad choices in my detoured attempt to find God. So I chose to take what seemed to be the much harder route of trying to slowly unmask the lies about God in my life while staying in the environment of formal religion even though I sensed that it was the source for most of my problems. In essence, I was trying to throw out the dirty bath water without throwing out the baby if you understand that analogy. What I do see Paul trying to bring out here is the dramatic difference between a head religion that is very convincing, especially to the person performing in it, and a heart religion, or spirituality as I prefer to call it (2:25-29). From my own experience through a lifetime of rule-based religion and compulsive conformity to social expectations in a church atmosphere I have come to believe that most of us don't really know the true definition of the word heart. We think we know and we use the term very easily, but when it comes right down to everyday life, we show in our relationships that we are unaware and out of touch with the part of us that is identified as our heart. I say this because it has been a relatively short time since I started getting in touch and getting familiar with that part of me myself, and I don't think I am unique in this problem. This condition of heart-unawareness is inherent and systemic in performance-based religion. So what is the use for having a religious upbringing if it creates such great liabilities to overcome? That question was inherent in my temptations I have had to throw it all away in favor of enjoying the pleasures of sin and coming back in through a different door if possible. In chapter 3 Paul explores the reasons that we should not thumb our nose at our spiritual advantages even though they often come with a lot of baggage that needs to be unpacked and discarded. And those are ponderings for another post. God, make me a Christian from the inside out. Make my heart Your dwelling place, a comfortable place where You can be at home and express Yourself freely. (next in series)