Only the Remnant

What, if any, is the problem with believing that God is arbitrary?

Some of us object to the idea that God “uses” some people to be the “bad guy” and seemingly forces them to fill the role of being the counterpart to make Him look good. But do we have the same problem when it comes to the next part where it appears that He arbitrarily accepts people to be His children who were not considered the “favored ones” by His “chosen people” on earth?

Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, "THOUGH THE NUMBER OF THE SONS OF ISRAEL BE LIKE THE SAND OF THE SEA, IT IS THE REMNANT THAT WILL BE SAVED; FOR THE LORD WILL EXECUTE HIS WORD ON THE EARTH, THOROUGHLY AND QUICKLY." (Romans 9:27-28)

The Bible explicitly states repeatedly that only a remnant will be saved. This idea of a remnant is very appealing to many small groups of people who wish to style themselves as the remnant and arrange any number of proof texts to support that claim, some more convincingly than others. How can we know if our claims of being the true remnant are any more valid than the next group? How can we be so certain that we are not victims of our own intense desire to the favored ones of God while deceiving ourselves into believing that very thing in the process?

Self-deception is so insidious because it is so imperceptible. When a I am self-deceived I will have an extremely hard time coming to realize it because all my lines of reasoning and thinking is geared toward defending my position. So if most of the information coming into my mind is employed in defending my claim that my select group is the remnant and all conflicting data is filtered out or rationalized away, it becomes nearly impossible for me to ever admit that maybe I am not all that I claim to be.

I believe that this is where the real problem becomes exposed, where I am not learning to live from my heart but am only living an intellectual religion, thriving on ever-increasing knowledge about God and the Bible but failing to engage my heart and emotions and passionately seeking for a deeper intimacy in a dynamic love affair with Jesus.

For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God. (Romans 2:28, 29 NAS95)

Not as if we were able by ourselves to do anything for which we might take the credit; but our power comes from God; Who has made us able to be servants of a new agreement; not of the letter, but of the Spirit: for the letter gives death, but the Spirit gives life. (2 Corinthians 3:5-6 BBE)

It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh is useless. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. (John 6:63 NRSV)

The concept of remnant is in contrast to the idea of strength by numbers. As humans we naturally gravitate toward the idea that when an increasing number of us agree about something or some system of belief then we must be right. Even when we claim to not go agree with that mentality it still infects our thinking anyway. We feel more and more confident as our church swells in numbers while at the same time criticizing other churches that grow faster than ours. We want to believe that we are right, that God is on our side and that our beliefs are correct in contrast to everyone else who disagrees with us.

God reveals that only a small number of people will make up the group that will be “the chosen”, receive salvation and live in harmony with His requirements. But it seems that the majority of religious people believe that they are included in that number and this thinking often causes them to look upon those outside their select group with some degree of contempt. How can we feel so smug that our spin on Scripture is the right one and that our claim to being the chosen remnant is the one that is described in the Bible? What is the real basis for our assurance that we need not question our identity as the remnant? Are we willing to challenge our assumptions and examine our motives and take another closer look at what the Bible is really saying about this “remnant”?

I believe that one thing we need to do is to be careful to look at the context in which references to the remnant are placed in the Bible. It is far too easy to lift select verses and fit them together to produce convincing “proofs” that we fit the description and that everyone should agree with us. I am not saying that every claim of being the true remnant is false, but truth is not afraid of intense examination and healthy, critical evaluation. Truth is consistent and only becomes more appealing and settled when looked at from many angles under close scrutiny. I would like to see why Paul used this reference to “the remnant” in the context of my study of this chapter and the context of the whole book of Romans. It may reveal some important insights that I need to understand in relation to my desire to be a part of the true “remnant that will be saved.”

First of all I notice that he talks about the remnant in direct contrast to numbers like the sand of the sea. This is in reference to the thinking of Israelites and whatever that reasoning involved in this respect.

I also notice that the context touches strongly on the religious prejudice of Israelites and their exclusive mentality as being the only chosen ones of God. In relation to that the repeated emphasis throughout this whole book is the need to understand and live the life of faith in relation to God in contrast with a religious life of focus on the Law and performance and rules.

The following verse brings up a very interesting reference to Sodom and Gomorrah that I am learning may be a source of misunderstanding by most people. I have been learning quite recently that the assumptions we have about Sodom and Gomorrah may completely miss the truth about the true sin of those people and therefore miss the application that needs to be learned for ourselves. Quite possibly our false assumptions about the real problems exhibited in those cities has become a blind spot so that we miss the real message God desires us to understand when we are warned about not repeating their sins.

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Pride and Prejudice

Root causes produce symptoms which in turn become cause for more symptoms which in turn become cause for...

This is one reason it is often difficult to identify a real root cause in our heart. It is not too hard sometimes to look back a little bit to see that there is something deeper behind our current problems or driving our present emotions, but then we often settle for that first discovery being the original underlying issue instead of continuing to question and allow the Spirit to extend the trail back even further to unmask the real root cause. Maybe that is some of what I am starting to see here in Romans 9.

It seems to me that the end of this chapter is getting down to the deeper roots of the problems of religious addiction and prejudice. We should not think for a moment that this was a problem unique to the Jews of Jesus' day and we don't have much of that problem ourselves. Just because our symptoms are different because of our culture and lifestyle, does not in any way detract from the seriousness of our sickness. Anyone who finds themselves depending on any kind of performance whatsoever to impress or influence God's actions or feelings toward them without a growing abiding trust in His consistent love and passion for them is suffering under the illusions of this addiction. Romans was written to help us see our real problems so that we too can become free and get our priorities corrected, so we can learn to live the real life of joy and peace that we were designed to enjoy in the presence of God.

Here is what I am seeing expressed in the span of this chapter.

First, Paul identifies his kinsmen, the Israelites, whom he has great desire for to see change and let go of their prejudices that are keeping them from experiencing the goodness of God. He reminds them that their religion and people-group was the one that God had selected to be the channel for revealing Himself to humanity and they were gifted with all the “good stuff”.

Next he begins to make the bold assertion that in fact, the only real Israelites are those who are living a life of faith. And faith is believing the real truth about God and responding to His goodness and cooperating with His way of doing things (I'm not talking about religious works). Even though the Jews thought they were doing what God wanted they had failed to allow their hearts to connect with Him but only offered Him their externals. They were trying to make their outside look good while clinging to their independence and selfishness and control on the inside. So Paul claims here that not all Jews are true Israelites and the composition of the real Israel is based on a different criteria than what the Jews were used to using.

It is from this point that Paul launches into the stories that create so much confusion in our minds about how God relates to us and that make Him appear arbitrary. But we must remember the point that Paul is trying to enforce here and not lurch into making opposite assumptions about God due to our own misconceptions and bad previous experiences that we bring to the table. Otherwise we will miss the incredible blessing and insights that lay just beneath the surface waiting to shock us with the truth that God is much better than we ever suspected. I have been unpacking some of these discoveries over the past few days in my digging through this chapter and now I am starting to see this even bigger picture.

It is also helpful to remember the context of Paul's own life and experience in helping us to understand some of the things he mentions here. When Paul talks about vessels in this chapter he remembers God's specific reference to himself as a “chosen vessel” during his own conversion in Damascus. When he talks about Jewish obsessions with keeping the rules to become righteous he is speaking from years of personal experience in doing that very thing himself. When talking about making a gigantic paradigm shift from living an external-oriented religious life to being transformed on the inside into a compulsive love-slave of his Savior, he is a living demonstration of what he is talking about.

Toward the end of chapter 9 he moves even deeper to expose the underlying roots that powered much of the Jewish performance system. He begins to talk about an area of their thinking that was sure to inflame the outrage of most Jews and has similar effects on religious people today if they begin to understand what he is really saying. It is the idea that somehow God favors religious people – our group in particular – and has less love or favor for those who are outside that favored group.

Every time the Jews were confronted about this prejudice by any of God's messengers including the Son of God Himself they reacted with outrage and blindly succumbed to their feelings of resentment. When we find ourselves reacting to something with immediate and intense anger it is very often because we are unwilling to face the fact that our beliefs are not defensible by real truth. So we use anger and rage, force and intimidation to cover up the fact that our prejudices are really just a sham that we are unwilling to face and confess.

Paul puts his finger on this most sensitive issue when he explicitly talks about the various references from the Word of God that show God's real disposition toward humanity and the role of the Jewish people. The prophecies had declared centuries before that God fully intended to embrace all kinds of people Jews and non-Jews alike as His children. The things Paul writes in these last few verses are nothing short of extreme blasphemy in the minds of most Jews but will also have the same effect on us today when it exposes our own religious bigotry. We may have changed the words and labels but we still indulge in the same sorts of bigoted thinking and exclusive behavior in the way we treat people who are not part of our church or our club or our country.

Paul identifies this as a stumbling block for anyone who trips over being religious instead of believing in the real God of compassion, love and truth. All we have to do to apply this to our own situation is to substitute the name of our clique in place of Jews or similar references in this passage, and the name of those outside our clique in place of Gentiles. Then we will begin to feel the squirm inside us as our discomfort begins to reveal our own narrow, selfish beliefs and our notions of the exclusiveness of God. Even his references to the idea of “remnant” in these verses has given us another title to parade as a means of thinking that God favors our group over everyone else.

It is very true that only a remnant will be saved just as God told the Jews of old. But for us to simply assume that we are that remnant and are favored above all others by God is to blindly place ourselves in the very position and attitude that the Jews in Jesus' day held and that Paul is exposing here. Indeed, a remnant will be saved. But we must look carefully to see what the real identifying marks of the remnant are instead of just assuming that our simplistic spin on prophecies give us the inside scoop on the favor of God. We have focused for too long on the external symptoms of the remnant and have largely overlooked the fact that the remnant are a people who are primarily those connected at the heart level to the heart of God and are living a life of faith even when they didn't realize they were doing so – who did not pursue righteousness. (9:30)

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Random Thoughts on Force and Maturity

Here's a thought that condensed in my mind the other day while I was driving.

Force is the lethal ingredient that poisons otherwise life-giving formulas/principles of God's creation and design.

For instance, when any amount of force is used to coerce someone to trust you, the eventual result may be anger. In my experience this led me to become easily angered if someone does not trust me. In looking back wondering where this illogical anger comes from I realize that authority figures in my life have used force to try to get me to trust them. In modeling this to me I became wired in some way to do the same to others.

Over the past few days I have been collecting various ideas that mesh together from what I am learning from various sources. It may not be well polished but is simply and expression of what I am currently learning.

Force and anger usually go hand in hand.

Mixing force with otherwise benign elements contaminates them and distorts our picture of God.

I think that somewhere in the mix here there is also shame involved, but I don't know how much. It probably varies depending on the person and the circumstance. But part of force is the use of shame if someone does not do what we want them to do and then some people react to shame with anger.

Anger is a symptom that things are not as we want them to be. What we want may or may not be legitimate, but nevertheless we are out of balance and the resulting tension is described as anger.

Anger is experienced and expressed in many different ways and often goes unnoticed for a long time even by the person experiencing it. But anger that is left unresolved creates a lot of resistors in our soul and those resistors produce heat that creates more and more problems in our life.

Lies are like resistors. They act as distorting lenses that mess up our vision both of ourselves and of others. Lies very often lie at the root of anger and usually we blame others for our anger instead of looking inside and taking responsibility for what is causing the heat inside of us that we call anger. But as long as we look outside of ourselves for the cause of anger we cannot take ownership and responsibility for the resistors inside of us that need to be exposed and expelled so that we can experience true peace and rest.

Immaturity plays a big part in all of this. The more anger, force, shame etc. that we employ and indulge in the more immature we find ourselves to be. Unfortunately an immature person seldom can see their own immaturity and so they fail to see their need to change. They typically point to those around them as the cause of the issues in their life instead of recognizing that it is really themselves that need to grow up more and perceive things differently. It is almost like a catch 22 – the immature do not have enough perspective to see immaturity and so they feel no need to change. They can only see immaturity in those less mature than themselves which often is not very much because they are so far down in maturity already there is not much below them.

The more mature a person becomes the easier it becomes for them to recognize and acknowledge immaturity and the need to grow and change. They get an expanded picture of reality and they can see that they have a lot of weak areas that need to be challenged and developed. They also become more and more tolerant of others and more patient with those who are less mature because they see how difficult it is for one to see their own blind spots. Duh!

Seeing immaturity in others is often a good way to begin to see it in ourselves if we are willing to shine the light back into our own thinking and logic. When we see others demonstrating immature behavior that really irritates us quite likely there is a similar area of immaturity within our own lives or it would not be so irritating to us. But if we understand this principle and are willing to apply it to our lives instead of focusing on the problems of others it can become an opportunity to begin to see our blind spots and they are not so hidden anymore. Maybe that is one form of accountability when you don't have anyone else who you can relate to that will hold you accountable in a positive way.

That sort of leads me back to the original issue of force. Accountability is another example of something that can be very easily poisoned by the use of force in even small doses. Force against someone else's will can very quickly destroy trust which is the crucial ingredient for a successful accountability relationship. But it is also true that one could be accused of using force when a person being held accountable does not like what they are hearing and wants to deny or reject it instead of growing through it. When we resist the process of maturing we often blame it on others using force against us when it is actually us using force to resist their efforts to help us grow up more.

The healthy process of maturing requires trust in another person's perspective and experience even when it does not feel good to us. If we rebel against everything that makes us uncomfortable what we are really doing is insisting on remaining immature. Then we have to justify our immaturity with all sorts of explanations and convoluted reasoning that is really a means of self-deception which is very eagerly assisted by the agents of evil who are very skilled at helping us along this path. But the results are that our relationships with others remained strained and we fail to grow along with those around us who do not want to remain at lower levels of maturity. Often it forces a wedge between friendships which ultimately result in fractures and breakdowns altogether if we insist on remaining in our self-justifying immaturity. Of course we will likely blame others for not relating properly to us but the real fact is that we are still refusing to face our own inner issues and grow through them because we are afraid of the pain of growth. Ultimately we are responsible for our own issues first.

It has been said that the only thing we are afraid of is how we are going to feel. Maybe what we need is a larger vision of reality so that we can become more attracted to how good we will feel after we grow through the pain and live more fulfilled lives in a higher stage of maturity.

A very common problem is that we try to focus attention of other people's problems while not facing our own. While it is true that God may use us to help others deal with their issues many times, we will be incapable and not credible if we are stonewalling on the same issues in our own life. We need the community of faith and others who are more mature to help us see the areas where we are failing to grow or recognize and face our own blind spots.

Maturity in many respects is learning to see life from a larger perspective while at the same time discovering our true identity and then learning how to act like ourselves (our true identity) under all circumstances and in all emotions. Learning how to act like yourself means that you do not act any differently when you are in any emotion than you would if you were not in that emotion. Which also means that you are not living in reaction to your emotions or to what others do or say to you but you respond from the context of your true identity no matter how you feel.

A person who reacts all the time is often manipulated by others even though they may not believe that or may resent the notion. They are also people who generally seek to control others using similar methods but again are unaware that they are doing this and often strongly deny it. But a person who lives under the slavery of emotions and reactions is not living in freedom and cannot experience true peace. They are infected with the poison of force. There is a lot of resistance in their life and consequently a lot of heat is often generated as well.

A person who is growing and maturing is learning the difference between reacting and responding. To respond to a circumstance or tense situation that ignites our emotions is to exercise our power of higher thinking and utilize our kingly power of choice to override our impulses to react. This requires the context of more settled thinking, a reasonable good realization of who we really are – our design for which we were created – and a confidence and assurance of our value and worth, especially in the eyes of God. It does not mean living a left-brained oriented life based on rules and facts. We must develop a healthy balance of use of both sides our our being with our heart in its proper place of leadership. But we learn to separate or de-link emotions in such a way that they do not dictate what we choose. That is definitely not to say that we suppress or deny that we have emotions. In fact, it often means that we acknowledge them immediately and recognize them for what they are but also choose to remember who we really are outside of the influence of that emotion.

A person who depends on using force to get what they desire is an immature person who is acting like a spoiled child. They may conceal and use very polite and polished ways of forcing their own desires on others but their dependence on force is still a sign of weakness, fear and insecurity. This condition is not helped by imposing shame or heaping blame on the person – even if the person is ourself. It is healthy, however, to recognize the reality of our situation so that we can begin to seek help and deal with the roots of our insecurity and fears so that this symptom of trying to control behavior can begin to subside and we can begin to experience real peace, both within ourselves and in our relationships with others.

(for another post I just finished on similar ideas see November 2)

Passion from God's View

As I traveled last night I listened to a sermon that talked about the story of Saul on the road to Damascus and how Jesus introduced Himself to Saul. It really stimulated my mind and heart about many new things I had not thought of before and as I continued to ruminate about it this morning I realized how much it related to what I am studying in Romans 9. Interestingly that story is found in Acts 9, maybe not totally a coincidence.

Saul's passion was of great interest to the heart of God even though it was seriously misdirected. Because God looks on the heart much more than the outward appearance, even when the outward appearances included killing and terrorizing God's children, God saw tremendous potential in Saul that was revealing his true heart of passion for God.

When Jesus spoke to Saul on the road, He did not enforce the guilt and shame that Saul naturally felt when he realized that he had been fighting against the very God he thought he had been honoring. We might naturally think that God needed to make sure that Saul realized the extent of his rebellion before “letting him off the hook”. But God does not treat people that way. Guilt and shame and blame are all part of the kingdom of darkness and tools of the enemy that God does not employ against us. No, instead Jesus simply told him the next step to take in preparation for his inauguration.

After spending three days like Jesus in the heart of the earth in blindness and allowed to review his life and beliefs in light of his immense storehouse of intellectual knowledge of the Scriptures, Saul was sent a messenger, a brother from the very people he had been trying to persecute and kill to relay to him the vision, the true identity of Saul's heart to him. God “resurrected” Saul from his three days of darkness by casting for him a glorious vision of who he really was inside despite all the external activities that seemed to contradict those characteristics.

God cared deeply about Saul and had implanted the gift of passion into his heart before he was even born. God had put that there for him to use in the service of God and just because Satan had twisted the outlet of that passion to be used against the people of God did not thwart God's plans for Saul but actually brought even more glory to His reputation. Along with unusual intensity of passion Saul also had clear, sharp mental abilities and had filled his memory with enormous amounts of the Word of God. That too was in God's plans for him even though Satan had used that intellect through deception to be distorted and twisted in its applications.

When Paul later wrote that all things work together for good he was speaking from experience. And he was also speaking first hand when he talked about vessels of wrath and vessels of mercy in Romans 9. For part of the vision that Jesus related to Ananias for brother Saul was that he had been chosen to be a chosen vessel for Him. Up to that point in time Saul had been a vessel of wrath and had been hardening his heart like Pharaoh and suffering the increasing pain of doing so. He had been filled with the spirit like that of Ishmael, the first-born son of Abraham born of the flesh and full of pride and independence. Like Jacob he had been loved of God but instead of responding to and receiving that love he had been trying to earn it through works of the Law all of his life and methods of his own devising.

But God, who is full of mercy and because of His own passion for the heart of Saul allowed Saul to mature his evil plans only up to a certain point and when the time was right, when his heart was ripe, he revealed Himself to the amazement of Saul, He introduced Himself to the heart of Saul and, as they say, the rest is history. God had endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction – prepared by Saul himself. But now Saul, through the mercy of God, became Paul, a vessel of mercy. And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory. (Romans 9:23)

What can I say – what an incredible, awesome God we have! And if He is that kind and patient and persistent in His pursuit of the heart of one of the most ferocious persecutors of His church, surely He has something planted in my heart waiting to be exposed and used to make known the riches of His glory as well.

This causes me to think about something that right now is extremely politically unpopular. But I believe that we should pray for the eyes of heaven to see even religious fanatics from even such sources as Muslim cultures that the world considers terrorists. God sees things very differently than we do and if we insist on judging people using the world's paradigms we will end up protesting against God's apparent nonsense when He invites us to participate in capturing them for His service at most surprising times and in ways that may frighten us.

But if we are to be true followers of the radical God of love and patience and kindness that we learn about from the life of Saul/Paul, then we are going to have to look at others with radically different paradigms and begin to view others through the eyes of the Spirit of God instead of our fears and prejudices. The passion of those who claim to believe in God may just be the tip of the iceburg of something God intends to amaze the world with in the life of someone just like Saul, the terrorist of the early Christian church.

If you look further in the story of Saul you will notice the great reluctance and fear in the answer that Ananias gave to God when he was called to go lay his hands on Saul and heal him of his blindness. Ananias apparently thought Jesus had forgotten what Saul was like or maybe had confused his identity with someone else. It may appear almost ludicrous to us how Ananias was willing to argue with God about His plans for Saul, but are we not even more devoid of faith and hope and love in our unwillingness to view others in the light of heaven?

In the story of Saul it is seen later that when he tried to join himself with the leaders of the Christian church that their fears will still so intense that none of them were willing to trust the work of transformation in his heart that God had effected. It was only due to the bold faith of Barnabas and his courage to believe in the goodness and power of God that enabled him to come alongside of Saul and embrace his former enemy as a brother even when it was most unpopular. It was the open-minded spirit of this “son of encouragement”, which is what the name Barnabas means, that brought encouragement to the heart of Saul and opened the door for him to become accepted and received by the rest of the less-believing leaders. In fact, I personally believe that quite possible Barnabas had been praying for Saul for some time for God to intervene in the life the this archenemy of the church. Barnabas was willing to view Saul through the eyes of heaven instead of through the eyes of fearfulness and so God was able to use him to bring reconciliation and glory to the name of God.

I find it quite interesting that even though all of these men (and women) had been baptized with the Holy Ghost not that long before and had been speaking with boldness the truth about God and His amazing power to change lives, when faced with putting their own lives on display in this situation where their mouths were, so to speak, at least to this extent they were suddenly very reluctant to trust in God's unusual ways but instead still demonstrated the symptoms of fear. Fear is maybe the single most powerful element of the enemy that he uses against us to keep us away from experiencing the full life of faith, joy, love and fellowship that God wants for us.

These disciples were still growing in grace and still had a certain amount of fear that they needed to let go. I find it encouraging that even though they displayed such apparent lack of faith in His work in Saul's life that God was still in their lives and was using them in the power of His Spirit. But I find it even more encouraging to see the example of Ananias, the reluctant but willing messenger to embrace Saul in his darkness to bring him into fellowship with the people of God. And I am encouraged to see the example of the high-risk taker Barnabas who had a bigger picture of God who he believed to be well able to turn around a hard-nosed terrorist into a passionate worshiper of the One who is the essence of passion, Jesus Christ Himself.

As I think about these example of people that God delighted in and saw hidden potential in I am inspired with hope for myself. When I look inside there are times when I sense an immense reservoir of passion that has very strong barriers built around it. But every once in awhile some of that passion leaks out and sometimes it even feels confusing because it is so inconsistent with what I have been trained to be. But I believe that all passion originated with the God of passion and when the time is right and the heart is ripe God will step in and surprise everyone with His amazing grace and His unusual ways. For He does so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory, even us, whom He also called.

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Exclusiveness Theology Intro

As Gentile Christians we generally like to focus on the idea that God has embraced us as being part of His chosen people to replace the “chosen” status that the Jews formerly held. Depending on the theology you subscribe to, many still believe that the Jews are going to once again become “more chosen” than the rest of the Christians and they have built very elaborate scenarios around this kind of thinking, not the least of what is popularly known as “The Left Behind” series.

I do not wish to tackle these scenarios right now, but the issue of “chosenness” is one that has created a great deal of confusion and even intense persecution because of misunderstandings about what God is really like and how He relates to us. The last part of Romans 9 addresses this issue a great deal and there is much to learn here. It also sheds a useful light on the surrounding passages that I have been moving through over the past few days and weeks that I want to take time to explore further.

I think it is well known that Jews in the times of Jesus were very hung up on the idea of their supposed exclusive advantage with the emphasis on “exclusive”. They firmly believed that only the biological descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were of any notable consideration by God. With very few, and very carefully filtered exceptions (see Matt. 23:15) the Jews considered themselves to be the only breed on earth from which God would chose the saved. Therefore, in their minds the rest of the pagans and mixed breeds were considered to be hopeless and unsaveable and therefore objects of their scorn and, of course, the wrath of the Almighty.

But even within the Jewish community there was marked separation and distinctions in classes and factions of people who were considered to be more “holy” than others. This struggle to define one's self as being worthy of God's favor was a constant and public issue especially among the Pharisee's, Sadducee's and other teachers of the Law. Not unlike today, the “chosen” people of God were fracturing themselves into divisions that argued and split hairs over details of the righteousness of the Law that caused them to reject and revile anyone who did not agree with them. While they went to enormous lengths to be obedient to every rule in the Law and many more that they came up with themselves to protect the Law, the spirit that they possessed was the very opposite of the spirit of the Lawgiver Himself who showed up in their midst in human form to demonstrate to them the way God feels and acts when He comes into the arena of humanness.

In Romans, one of the groups that Paul is addressing and is identified in chapter 2 is the Jewish converts to Christianity who still carried some baggage from their past about righteousness by rule-keeping. We have developed our own version of this kind of thinking today that is nearly identical but without the biological ingredient. While righteousness is not the absence of obedience to God's laws, the tendency to think that keeping rules makes a person righteous is one of the lies of Satan that has to be exposed and corrected if we are to grow in grace and the true knowledge of God and the principles of life. Paul is also directly addressing the prejudice of the “exclusiveness mentality” that was not only still very prevalent in the minds of Jews back then but is also seen in many Christians today.

When we begin to think that we are quite sure we know who God is saving and who is going to be lost we are becoming deeply infected with this same poison that caused God to become divorced from His “marriage” to the Jews as a chosen nation. This was due to their rejection of His last attempt to reconcile the marriage in the person of Jesus His Son. When they killed off this last offer of mercy and subsequently began killing off His Spirit-empowered followers, God was forced to accept their final decision and the divorce became final. That does not mean that Jewish individuals cannot be part of the redeemed through faith, but they must now enter into that intimate relationship with God apart from any advantage formerly enjoyed as God's “chosen nation”. Under the new covenant (new marriage), those who make up the bride of Christ are from every class and people on the earth who accept the invitation of God to become intimate with Him and submit to being led by His Spirit.

How Paul explains this and the illustrations he uses in this chapter I believe will be very instructive as I further examine them. But due to lack of time again I will leave that for another day.

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