Letter to the Romans -- Intro
Paul’s letter to the Romans is arguably the most important piece of the New Testament in the fact that it gives the clearest and most in-depth explanation of the entire message of the Holy Scriptures in the light of Jesus Christ. Paul, in very clear words and without any ambiguity, systematically steps thru the law, to the gospel, to our sanctification walk, to the mysteries of election and predestination, and to Christian freedom all while having Jesus Christ as the continuous bright center, key, and answer.
Sadly however the message of this letter has been darkened throughout the ages as men have veiled its plain words with many commentaries, man-made doctrines, and explanations that ultimately try to turn the letter’s own words against itself. “Our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction. Therefore, dear friends, since you already know this, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of lawless men and fall from your secure position” (2 Peter 3:15-17). Much to the delight of Satan men have successfully convinced much of the world thru carnal rationalization (the same trick used on Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden) that the clear words of this letter mean things that are the complete opposite of what the simple context and grammar expresses. It is for this reason that we need to empty ourselves of our self every time we approach the Scriptures, and look upon them relying only on the grace and work of the Holy Spirit. “We have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:2-6).
In many cases we need to “unlearn what we have learned” (as Yoda once taught) in regards to how we have come to understand the vocabulary of the text because thru our exposure to the constant bombardment of the lies of the world our foundation upon which we look at God’s Word has been perverted. The easiest way for men to pervert the Words of God is by changing the definitions of words themselves in order to make them mean what they want and desire. “To suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear” (2 Timothy 4:3). The real temptation for us is to think that we can somehow find out what the text “must have wanted to say” instead of realizing that the prophets and apostles spoke exactly how God intended. The words in Scripture, using the simple rules of grammar, express God’s truth and proclaim God’s almighty Word of Jesus Christ to us. The Holy Spirit Himself reminded the apostles of what they saw with Jesus Christ and taught them all things so that they could give clear testimony to those of us who would follow. The word of the prophets and apostles is not their “opinion” or “perspective” of what happened, but is rather the miracle of God’s Word speaking thru their human words, as they were carried along by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. “The Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you” (John 14:26). “We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, ‘This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.’ We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain. And we have the word of the prophets made more certain, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:16-21).
We therefore need to detach any personal meaning we have held to and need to hold ourselves obedient to the text and its plain words and context as we stop giving only empty lip service to the fact that the Scriptures are the very words of God and actually start holding them in the esteem they deserve. “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5). Let us pray that thru the Spirit’s guidance we can look again at the Scriptures with a fresh eye as we humbly tremble before the Word of God, realizing that we are not here to determine why God’s Word says what it does but instead to simply listen to what it is saying in all humility. “This is the one I esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word” (Isaiah 66:2).
The first term that we must understand properly in Romans is the word “law.” Our sinful human nature thinks that the law is merely an outward code that we must keep with our works in order to be “good.” The law however is far different to God. The law of God looks not to external works, but gazes deep within to the heart of man, examining its depths, core, root, motives, thoughts, urges, and desires with unnerving scrutiny. “I, Yahweh, search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve” (Jeremiah 17:10). “Man looks at the outward appearance, but Yahweh looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7). Just because we have heard the law and try to keep it does not make us righteous. We must keep the law completely in every corner of our hearts in order to be righteous before it. “For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God's sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous” (Romans 2:13). “Whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it” (James 2:10). Before the true law of God everything is laid bear and nothing can be hidden. To the world we may appear as “good people” who outwardly and externally keep the law, but God’s Word cuts deeper and lays open the hypocrisy within. “On the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness” (Matthew 23:28). “The word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account” (Hebrews 4:12-13).
It is before this real law (which Paul writes about in Romans) that we come to see the true human condition as the law peels away all the facades and lies that cover us. Underneath these coverings we find the most uncomfortable truth that we in our hearts are nothing but lawbreakers and haters of God. Though we outwardly fight to look like we are good we find that in reality our hearts despise God and His law, rebelling against it in spirit without ceasing. The truth of man comes thru: “Every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time” (Genesis 6:5). Before God’s law the truth of our hearts comes thru: “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure” (Jeremiah 17:9). “The hearts of men, moreover, are full of evil and there is madness in their hearts” (Ecclesiastes 9:3). “Out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander” (Matthew 15:19). “How can you who are evil say anything good? For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks” (Matthew 12:34). The depths of this condition are also revealed, in that this is not something that we fall into late in life, but is a condition that ravages us from birth: “Every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood” (Genesis 8:21). “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me” (Psalm 51:5). Before this law of God, which Paul preaches to the Romans, we see that we ourselves are nothing but hypocrites who have preached being good to those around us yet we ourselves have fallen prey to the very evil we claim to abhor with our lips. “You, then, who teach others, do you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal? You who say that people should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who brag about the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law? As it is written: ‘God’s name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you’” (Romans 2:21-24).
Broken before this truth of God’s law we find ourselves despairing and questioning. We begin to hate the law of God even more and wonder why God has subjected us to the unbearable burden of the law. Is He beating us down for His pleasure? Is His law, dare we say, the cause of our disobedience? Why, God, why? Thankfully God has decided to reveal to us the answer to this question. “What shall we say, then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed I would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, ‘Do not covet.’ But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire. For apart from law, sin is dead. Once I was alive apart from law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death. For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death. So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good. Did that which is good, then, become death to me? By no means! But in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it produced death in me through what was good, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful” (Romans 7:7-13). The law came from God in order to show us what we were blind to see without it: the fact that we are utterly sinful and rebellious towards God and helpless to save ourselves. Without the commandment we would never see how far we have gone astray and how utterly lost we are in our selfishness. But then we must ask: What good is this? What good is it that we are shown that we are helpless? With Paul we proclaim: “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?” (Romans 7:24). Let us not despair however for God has not left us helpless without aid. Jesus Christ came to release us from the bondage that was revealed by the first covenant of the law: “He has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant” (Hebrews 9:15). Thankfully God’s law is only the first covenant by which He points us to His second covenant of grace in Jesus Christ crucified. “So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith” (Galatians 3:24). In His great wisdom God bound us over to disobedience before His law in order that He might have mercy on us all thru His only Son’s work on the cross. If we do not see our disobedience by the light of the law we will never see the mercy of God in the cross. “God has bound all men over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all” (Romans 11:32). Let us pray that we daily thank God for the harsh revealing light of His law which brightly illuminates our sinfulness and points us unwaveringly to the mercy and grace of Jesus Christ our Lord who has saved us and redeemed us from the sins we were once dead in! “Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:25).
Because the law of God looks not at externals but to the heart and soul of man it is a spiritual law. We ourselves, however, are shown thru the law to be unspiritual in our slavery to sin. “We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin” (Romans 7:14). The Sermon on the Mount is the place where Jesus Christ taught once again the spiritual law that God had given Moses so many generations before. Thru the years Israel had become nothing but hypocrites who only worried about external goodness and obedience; Jesus Christ subsequently came to destroy all these false notions of self-righteousness in His people. “I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:18-20).
By laying down the perfection that the law demanded Jesus showed the complete difference between outwardly doing works of the law and truly fulfilling the law in its spirit and entirety. This is best illustrated in the Gospel of Mark when Jesus is approached by a man who is wondering how he can achieve eternal life. In this story we do not just see one man, but we have in a nutshell the paradigm example of how we all first come before God in our ignorance. “As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. ‘Good teacher,’ he asked, ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?’” (Mark 10:17). Certainly we ourselves are this very man who, in our sinful nature, wonders what we must do to gain the favor of God. Even as children of God who have been called God’s own in Baptism we sometimes fall back into these wonderings as we forget the grace we have been given and promised. The reply of Jesus illustrates the man’s (and our own) lack of understanding of what the term good really is and how it is far different than the word we so loosely throw about. “‘Why do you call me good?’ Jesus answered. ‘No one is good—except God alone’” (Mark 10:18). Jesus tells the man that there is only One who is good, God Himself. Right off the bat this aims to break the man of any idea that he himself might be a “good person” or the source of any good at all. Jesus then proceeds to tell the man what is demanded of us all by God: “‘You know the commandments: Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, do not defraud, honor your father and mother.’ ‘Teacher,’ he declared, ‘all these I have kept since I was a boy’” (Mark 10:19-20). Like the man we in our sinful nature pretentiously and blindly believe that we have kept and fulfilled God’s commands and are satisfactory before Him. This outward obedience however, does not make us deserving before God but only compounds our problems because of the wretched hypocrisy of our hearts.
After the man self-righteously presumed to have fulfilled the law the most profound and touching thing occurs: “Jesus looked at him and loved him” (Mark 10:21). In the midst of this situation Jesus stopped and in all compassion looked upon this helpless man and loved him. Knowing what needed to be done in order to truly love this man and look out for his best interests, Jesus proceeds: “‘One thing you lack,’ he said. ‘Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me’” (Mark 10:21). Jesus, knowing that the man had not fulfilled the spirit of the law, goes on to tell him the things that must done that would truly reveal the depths and motivations of his heart. Here Christ once again echoes the truth of what He had proclaimed in His revealing Sermon on the Mount: “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). The complete and perfect demand of the law is laid bare before us in these powerful words. We are called by the law to be perfect like God Himself, completely good thru and thru, to the depths of our very heart! These words strike us deep, to our very core. “At this the man's face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth” (Mark 10:22). The man, upon hearing the true spirit and demands of God’s law, was overwhelmed and broken. Though he outwardly kept the demands, inside he was greedy, selfish, and full of enmity towards God’s law and this was finally revealed to him in debilitating clarity.
Our first reaction is to see Jesus as a sort of mean bully towards this man, driving him to grief and sadness with His strong words. However, as we saw earlier, Jesus loved this man and was giving the man not what he wanted, but what he needed. Paul demonstrates how we often times need to bring men to sorrow with the strong Words of truth: “Even if I caused you sorrow by my letter, I do not regret it. Though I did regret it—I see that my letter hurt you, but only for a little while—yet now I am happy, not because you were made sorry, but because your sorrow led you to repentance. For you became sorrowful as God intended and so were not harmed in any way by us. Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. See what this godly sorrow has produced in you: what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done” (2 Corinthians 7:8-11). We too need the tough love that both Jesus and Paul were willing to dish out as we are faced with the staunch requirements of God’s spiritual law. We need to be brought to godly sorrow in order that thru it God may lead us to humble repentance.
Jesus then proceeded to address his disciples: “Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, ‘How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!’ The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, ‘Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God’” (Mark 10:23-25). Christ went on to tell His disciples of the infinite difficulty of fulfilling the demands of God’s spiritual law; that in fact it is easier for a camel to go thru the eye of a needle than for man to work, earn, and obey his way into the kingdom of God. In other words: It is impossible for man to save himself. “The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, ‘Who then can be saved?’” (Mark 10:26). Rightfully so the disciples were “amazed” by Christ’s words, not just once, but twice, being completely blown away by what had transpired. They realized that they were no different than this man who was outwardly very good; yet Christ boldly proclaimed that it was impossible for any of them to save themselves thru their works and obedience. Faced with the truth of the spiritual law the disciples began to truly wonder how any man could ever be saved. Thankfully Jesus did not leave them hanging: “Jesus looked at them and said, ‘With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God’” (Mark 10:27). With His disciples humbled before the law of God, Christ reveals to them the gospel news that even though no man can save himself, man can still be saved by God. In fact, man has already been saved by God thru Jesus Christ, His only Son. Christ Himself came to fulfill the spiritual law of God where we ourselves could not: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them” (Matthew 5:17). Praise be to God that thru Jesus Christ’s obedience on our behalf we have been made righteous once and for all! “Just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men. For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous. The law was added so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 5:18-21).
As we have seen, the law of God is meant to show us our sin: “Through the law we become conscious of sin” (Romans 3:20). “No one living is righteous before you” (Psalm 143:2). “You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence” (Psalm 90:8). Once we see the law of God for what it truly is, and how it is a spiritual law that demands complete and utter perfection of our entire being, then we can finally see sin for what it truly is. Sin is not just outward deeds and occasional slip ups. Sin is in fact the root and cause of those outward deeds; the mistakes we see in our life are only symptoms of what is going on deep inside of our hearts. Our sin is not simply an external problem but our sin is a deep-rooted defect that is engraved on the very face of our hearts. Our sin testifies against us, revealing what our hearts are really like. Our sin is not a smudge of dirt that can just be wiped off, our sinfulness is actually etched onto our hearts. “Judah’s sin is engraved with an iron tool, inscribed with a flint point, on the tablets of their hearts” (Jeremiah 17:1). “From their callous hearts comes iniquity; the evil conceits of their minds know no limits” (Psalm 73:7). “What is man, that he could be pure, or one born of woman, that he could be righteous?...Man, who is vile and corrupt, who drinks up evil like water!” (Job 15:14, 16). This inscribed sin on our hearts manifests itself by corrupting every single thing that our heart produces. Even what we see as a “good deed” or a “righteous act” is in reality nothing but sin before God. “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; and all of us wither like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. There is no one who calls on Your name, who arouses himself to take hold of You; for You have hidden Your face from us and have delivered us into the power of our iniquities” (Isaiah 64:6-7). How can this be true? How can what we see with our flesh as a wonderful loving act of kindness be nothing but detestable, damnable sin before God? The reason is that our pride and unbelief are the driving force behind all that our heart does. Sin at its core, in its most basic state, is nothing more than pride and unbelief, and the two walk hand-in-hand. Our pride: “In the pride of your heart you say, ‘I am a god; I sit on the throne of a god in the heart of the seas.’ But you are a man and not a god, though you think you are as wise as a god” (Ezekiel 28:2). “I will punish the world for its evil, the wicked for their sins. I will put an end to the arrogance of the haughty and will humble the pride of the ruthless” (Isaiah 13:11). “The mirth of the wicked is brief, the joy of the godless lasts but a moment. Though his pride reaches to the heavens and his head touches the clouds, he will perish forever, like his own dung” (Job 20:5-7). “He boasts of the cravings of his heart; he blesses the greedy and reviles Yahweh. In his pride the wicked does not seek him; in all his thoughts there is no room for God” (Psalm 10:3-4). Our unbelief and lack of faith: “Everything that does not come from faith is sin” (Romans 14:23). “Without faith it is impossible to please God” (Hebrews 11:6). “They kept on sinning; in spite of his wonders, they did not believe” (Psalm 78:32). “If you do not believe that I am the one I claim to be, you will indeed die in your sins” (John 8:24).
Sin is therefore not something that we can take lightly. As we have seen, God’s law despises sin (which is ultimately the pride and unbelief of our depraved hearts) and it justly must punish all sinners by penalty of death. “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). Though we easily overlook sin in our life God takes it very seriously, more seriously than we could ever imagine. “I hate pride and arrogance, evil behavior and perverse speech” (Proverbs 8:13). “All sinners will be destroyed” (Psalm 37:38). “If you, O Yahweh, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand?” (Psalm 130:3).
Sin is a powerful master of us because its first trick is blinding us to the fact that it even exists. “In his own eyes he flatters himself too much to detect or hate his sin. The words of his mouth are wicked and deceitful; he has ceased to be wise and to do good. Even on his bed he plots evil; he commits himself to a sinful course and does not reject what is wrong” (Psalm 36:2-4). Sinners cannot see they are sinners because they are sinners; they are blinded by the sin itself. This makes sin a very deadly, dangerous, and deceptive thing and it is for this reason that God’s law is so critically important. Just like an illness or disease, the first realization (before trying to fight it or cure it) is identifying the fact that there is a problem and that a disease does in fact exist. Martin Luther diagnosed the disease of sin well: “The truth is, I am all sin. My sins are not imaginary transgressions, but sins against the first table, unbelief, doubt, despair, contempt, hatred, ignorance of God, ingratitude towards Him, misuse of His name, neglect of His Word, etc.; and sins against the second table, dishonor of parents, disobedience of government, coveting of another's possessions, etc. Granted that I have not committed murder, adultery, theft, and similar sins in deed, nevertheless I have committed them in the heart, and therefore I am a transgressor of all the commandments of God.” Diagnosis must occur before a plan of attack can be formulated. “The pride of your heart has deceived you, you who live in the clefts of the rocks and make your home on the heights, you who say to yourself, ‘Who can bring me down to the ground?’ Though you soar like the eagle and make your nest among the stars, from there I will bring you down” (Obadiah 1:3-4). “They will walk like blind men, because they have sinned against Yahweh” (Zephaniah 1:17). Our pride blinds us to our wretchedness; our unbelief blinds us because in it we fail to believe that we are despicable, helpless sinners. We may try desperately with our impotent powers to see and to hear, but we are bound in our sin, trapped and enslaved in its mighty chains. “We look for light, but all is darkness; for brightness, but we walk in deep shadows. Like the blind we grope along the wall, feeling our way like men without eyes. At midday we stumble as if it were twilight; among the strong, we are like the dead…For our offenses are many in your sight, and our sins testify against us. Our offenses are ever with us, and we acknowledge our iniquities: rebellion and treachery against Yahweh, turning our backs on our God, fomenting oppression and revolt, uttering lies our hearts have conceived” (Isaiah 59:9-10, 12-13).
Seeing our blindness though God Himself graciously decided to intervene and do what we could not: “Yahweh looked and was displeased that there was no justice. He saw that there was no one, he was appalled that there was no one to intervene; so his own arm worked salvation for him” (Isaiah 59:15-16). God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, in order to lead us, who are blind and deaf, so that we may come to truly see and hear thru His love and grace. “Lead out those who have eyes but are blind, who have ears but are deaf” (Isaiah 43:8). By taking our sin and depraved hearts upon Himself and bearing the full punishment of our iniquities, Jesus Christ paid the price for our rebellion and freed us from our slavery in sin. “Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and Yahweh has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:4-6). Let us praise God that thru His law He has revealed to us our sin so that we might see that in His gospel He has rescued us thru Jesus Christ and the faith that comes in Him. “The Scripture declares that the whole world is a prisoner of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe” (Galatians 3:22).
Faith. It is such a small word yet it has such great implications in the Christian life. This small word, faith, is such a powerful theme throughout the entire letter to the Romans. But what is faith exactly? Do we even understand this word upon which so much of the Christian doctrine revolves? Let us start with what faith is not: Faith is not a human work; faith is not a human act; faith is not a human willing; faith is not simply saying “I believe”; faith is not a decision to become a Christian. What is faith then? Faith is the gift of God and the work of God in the hearts of men. Faith is the Spirit’s work in our heart that clings to the Word of Christ Jesus with immeasurable ferocity. Faith is believing with all confidence and all surety even when we have not seen and will not see. “Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1). “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20:29). Faith is a confidence in Jesus Christ so sure that we would willingly go to the fire for Him a thousand times over. “I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day” (2 Timothy 1:12).
Our father Abraham was the great example of faith in his time, as thru God’s Word he was led to be fully persuaded that God had the power to fulfill His promises even when he couldn’t see how. “By faith Abraham, even though he was past age—and Sarah herself was barren—was enabled to become a father because he considered him faithful who had made the promise. And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore…By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had received the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, ‘It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.’ Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death” (Hebrews 11:11-12, 17-19). The faith that God worked in Abraham’s heart led Abraham to live by faith. Abraham didn’t simply say “I believe,” Abraham truly trusted to the point that he was beyond giving simple lip-service to “believing” and actually acted in faith based on the sure promises of God. Faith led Abraham to good works that clung to the promises God had given him. So it is with the faith of all believers.
Peter illustrates this fact perfectly in the Gospel of Matthew: “During the fourth watch of the night Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. ‘It’s a ghost,’ they said, and cried out in fear. But Jesus immediately said to them: ‘Take courage! It is I. Don't be afraid.’ ‘Lord, if it’s you,’ Peter replied, ‘tell me to come to you on the water.’ ‘Come,’ he said” (Matthew 14:25-28). The situation has been set; Jesus is walking on the water towards the boat His disciples are in and He calls Peter to come to Him on the water. It is at this point that we see faith for what it truly is. Faith is not Peter calling back to Christ, “I believe you Lord, thank you for the invite!”; faith is not Peter just deciding that he “trusts” Christ as he sits idle in the boat. Faith is the Word of Christ working within Peter’s heart and moving him to live boldly by this faith: “Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus” (Matthew 14:29). Faith did the impossible: faith moved Peter (a fallen sinner full of doubt and mistrust) to get down out of the boat and walk on water. Faith moved Peter to live boldly and confidently in the Word of Christ. Peter didn’t say a word, and attempted to give no lip-service to faith, but simply showed his faith by stepping out of the boat. What transpired next however illustrates how weak, feeble, and shakable fallen human beings are: “But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, ‘Lord, save me!’ Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. ‘You of little faith,’ he said, ‘why did you doubt?’” (Matthew 14:30-31). When the world around Peter overwhelmed the Word of Christ in Peter’s heart and he stopped focusing on Christ before him, Peter started to sink. Faith (even the smallest faith) is a truly powerful thing and is always the gift of God, however faith is not flashy and flamboyant, it is humble and meek and must not be separated from its life source and foundation of Jesus Christ. “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24). Faith didn’t fail Peter, Peter simply failed his small faith as he lost focus of the One in whom His faith was rooted. Faith apart from the Word of Christ and apart from Jesus Christ’s cross cannot survive against the onslaught of the world around us and our fallen flesh.
It is important then that we live everyday letting the Word of Christ dwell within us. “Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17). “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God” (Colossians 3:16). Therefore we need to daily continue in “the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 3:15). If we do not know the Scriptures, the very Word of God we have been given, then our faith has no chance against the powerful enemies that are against it. “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God” (Matthew 22:29). Christ testified however that knowing the Scriptures as simple head knowledge was not enough, the Scriptures that testified about Him needed to take form in our hearts as the very Word of God upon which our faith was based. “The Father who sent me has himself testified concerning me. You have never heard his voice nor seen his form, nor does his word dwell in you, for you do not believe the one he sent. You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life” (John 5:37-40). Jesus said this to fight against the hypocritical scholars who had turned and continue to turn the Scriptures into a perverted tool for their own self-interests and man-made doctrines. Christ later reaffirmed however that the Scriptures ought to be our source of God’s Word, which daily waters our faith, sustaining it thru all the tribulations of this life. “Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him” (John 7:38). Let us pray therefore that God thru His Word continues to strengthen our faith by way of “the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures” (Romans 1:2), and that like the Bereans in the book of Acts we continue in the Scriptures in order to persevere in the faith God has worked in our hearts for the sake of Jesus Christ, His only Son. “They received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true” (Acts 17:11). In the end we must never take our eyes off of Jesus Christ who is the author, creator, foundation, root, core, heart, source, and basis of our living faith from first to last. “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2).
Sadly however the message of this letter has been darkened throughout the ages as men have veiled its plain words with many commentaries, man-made doctrines, and explanations that ultimately try to turn the letter’s own words against itself. “Our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction. Therefore, dear friends, since you already know this, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of lawless men and fall from your secure position” (2 Peter 3:15-17). Much to the delight of Satan men have successfully convinced much of the world thru carnal rationalization (the same trick used on Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden) that the clear words of this letter mean things that are the complete opposite of what the simple context and grammar expresses. It is for this reason that we need to empty ourselves of our self every time we approach the Scriptures, and look upon them relying only on the grace and work of the Holy Spirit. “We have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:2-6).
In many cases we need to “unlearn what we have learned” (as Yoda once taught) in regards to how we have come to understand the vocabulary of the text because thru our exposure to the constant bombardment of the lies of the world our foundation upon which we look at God’s Word has been perverted. The easiest way for men to pervert the Words of God is by changing the definitions of words themselves in order to make them mean what they want and desire. “To suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear” (2 Timothy 4:3). The real temptation for us is to think that we can somehow find out what the text “must have wanted to say” instead of realizing that the prophets and apostles spoke exactly how God intended. The words in Scripture, using the simple rules of grammar, express God’s truth and proclaim God’s almighty Word of Jesus Christ to us. The Holy Spirit Himself reminded the apostles of what they saw with Jesus Christ and taught them all things so that they could give clear testimony to those of us who would follow. The word of the prophets and apostles is not their “opinion” or “perspective” of what happened, but is rather the miracle of God’s Word speaking thru their human words, as they were carried along by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. “The Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you” (John 14:26). “We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, ‘This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.’ We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain. And we have the word of the prophets made more certain, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:16-21).
We therefore need to detach any personal meaning we have held to and need to hold ourselves obedient to the text and its plain words and context as we stop giving only empty lip service to the fact that the Scriptures are the very words of God and actually start holding them in the esteem they deserve. “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5). Let us pray that thru the Spirit’s guidance we can look again at the Scriptures with a fresh eye as we humbly tremble before the Word of God, realizing that we are not here to determine why God’s Word says what it does but instead to simply listen to what it is saying in all humility. “This is the one I esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word” (Isaiah 66:2).
The first term that we must understand properly in Romans is the word “law.” Our sinful human nature thinks that the law is merely an outward code that we must keep with our works in order to be “good.” The law however is far different to God. The law of God looks not to external works, but gazes deep within to the heart of man, examining its depths, core, root, motives, thoughts, urges, and desires with unnerving scrutiny. “I, Yahweh, search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve” (Jeremiah 17:10). “Man looks at the outward appearance, but Yahweh looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7). Just because we have heard the law and try to keep it does not make us righteous. We must keep the law completely in every corner of our hearts in order to be righteous before it. “For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God's sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous” (Romans 2:13). “Whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it” (James 2:10). Before the true law of God everything is laid bear and nothing can be hidden. To the world we may appear as “good people” who outwardly and externally keep the law, but God’s Word cuts deeper and lays open the hypocrisy within. “On the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness” (Matthew 23:28). “The word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account” (Hebrews 4:12-13).
It is before this real law (which Paul writes about in Romans) that we come to see the true human condition as the law peels away all the facades and lies that cover us. Underneath these coverings we find the most uncomfortable truth that we in our hearts are nothing but lawbreakers and haters of God. Though we outwardly fight to look like we are good we find that in reality our hearts despise God and His law, rebelling against it in spirit without ceasing. The truth of man comes thru: “Every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time” (Genesis 6:5). Before God’s law the truth of our hearts comes thru: “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure” (Jeremiah 17:9). “The hearts of men, moreover, are full of evil and there is madness in their hearts” (Ecclesiastes 9:3). “Out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander” (Matthew 15:19). “How can you who are evil say anything good? For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks” (Matthew 12:34). The depths of this condition are also revealed, in that this is not something that we fall into late in life, but is a condition that ravages us from birth: “Every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood” (Genesis 8:21). “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me” (Psalm 51:5). Before this law of God, which Paul preaches to the Romans, we see that we ourselves are nothing but hypocrites who have preached being good to those around us yet we ourselves have fallen prey to the very evil we claim to abhor with our lips. “You, then, who teach others, do you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal? You who say that people should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who brag about the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law? As it is written: ‘God’s name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you’” (Romans 2:21-24).
Broken before this truth of God’s law we find ourselves despairing and questioning. We begin to hate the law of God even more and wonder why God has subjected us to the unbearable burden of the law. Is He beating us down for His pleasure? Is His law, dare we say, the cause of our disobedience? Why, God, why? Thankfully God has decided to reveal to us the answer to this question. “What shall we say, then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed I would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, ‘Do not covet.’ But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire. For apart from law, sin is dead. Once I was alive apart from law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death. For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death. So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good. Did that which is good, then, become death to me? By no means! But in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it produced death in me through what was good, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful” (Romans 7:7-13). The law came from God in order to show us what we were blind to see without it: the fact that we are utterly sinful and rebellious towards God and helpless to save ourselves. Without the commandment we would never see how far we have gone astray and how utterly lost we are in our selfishness. But then we must ask: What good is this? What good is it that we are shown that we are helpless? With Paul we proclaim: “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?” (Romans 7:24). Let us not despair however for God has not left us helpless without aid. Jesus Christ came to release us from the bondage that was revealed by the first covenant of the law: “He has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant” (Hebrews 9:15). Thankfully God’s law is only the first covenant by which He points us to His second covenant of grace in Jesus Christ crucified. “So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith” (Galatians 3:24). In His great wisdom God bound us over to disobedience before His law in order that He might have mercy on us all thru His only Son’s work on the cross. If we do not see our disobedience by the light of the law we will never see the mercy of God in the cross. “God has bound all men over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all” (Romans 11:32). Let us pray that we daily thank God for the harsh revealing light of His law which brightly illuminates our sinfulness and points us unwaveringly to the mercy and grace of Jesus Christ our Lord who has saved us and redeemed us from the sins we were once dead in! “Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:25).
Because the law of God looks not at externals but to the heart and soul of man it is a spiritual law. We ourselves, however, are shown thru the law to be unspiritual in our slavery to sin. “We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin” (Romans 7:14). The Sermon on the Mount is the place where Jesus Christ taught once again the spiritual law that God had given Moses so many generations before. Thru the years Israel had become nothing but hypocrites who only worried about external goodness and obedience; Jesus Christ subsequently came to destroy all these false notions of self-righteousness in His people. “I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:18-20).
By laying down the perfection that the law demanded Jesus showed the complete difference between outwardly doing works of the law and truly fulfilling the law in its spirit and entirety. This is best illustrated in the Gospel of Mark when Jesus is approached by a man who is wondering how he can achieve eternal life. In this story we do not just see one man, but we have in a nutshell the paradigm example of how we all first come before God in our ignorance. “As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. ‘Good teacher,’ he asked, ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?’” (Mark 10:17). Certainly we ourselves are this very man who, in our sinful nature, wonders what we must do to gain the favor of God. Even as children of God who have been called God’s own in Baptism we sometimes fall back into these wonderings as we forget the grace we have been given and promised. The reply of Jesus illustrates the man’s (and our own) lack of understanding of what the term good really is and how it is far different than the word we so loosely throw about. “‘Why do you call me good?’ Jesus answered. ‘No one is good—except God alone’” (Mark 10:18). Jesus tells the man that there is only One who is good, God Himself. Right off the bat this aims to break the man of any idea that he himself might be a “good person” or the source of any good at all. Jesus then proceeds to tell the man what is demanded of us all by God: “‘You know the commandments: Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, do not defraud, honor your father and mother.’ ‘Teacher,’ he declared, ‘all these I have kept since I was a boy’” (Mark 10:19-20). Like the man we in our sinful nature pretentiously and blindly believe that we have kept and fulfilled God’s commands and are satisfactory before Him. This outward obedience however, does not make us deserving before God but only compounds our problems because of the wretched hypocrisy of our hearts.
After the man self-righteously presumed to have fulfilled the law the most profound and touching thing occurs: “Jesus looked at him and loved him” (Mark 10:21). In the midst of this situation Jesus stopped and in all compassion looked upon this helpless man and loved him. Knowing what needed to be done in order to truly love this man and look out for his best interests, Jesus proceeds: “‘One thing you lack,’ he said. ‘Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me’” (Mark 10:21). Jesus, knowing that the man had not fulfilled the spirit of the law, goes on to tell him the things that must done that would truly reveal the depths and motivations of his heart. Here Christ once again echoes the truth of what He had proclaimed in His revealing Sermon on the Mount: “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). The complete and perfect demand of the law is laid bare before us in these powerful words. We are called by the law to be perfect like God Himself, completely good thru and thru, to the depths of our very heart! These words strike us deep, to our very core. “At this the man's face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth” (Mark 10:22). The man, upon hearing the true spirit and demands of God’s law, was overwhelmed and broken. Though he outwardly kept the demands, inside he was greedy, selfish, and full of enmity towards God’s law and this was finally revealed to him in debilitating clarity.
Our first reaction is to see Jesus as a sort of mean bully towards this man, driving him to grief and sadness with His strong words. However, as we saw earlier, Jesus loved this man and was giving the man not what he wanted, but what he needed. Paul demonstrates how we often times need to bring men to sorrow with the strong Words of truth: “Even if I caused you sorrow by my letter, I do not regret it. Though I did regret it—I see that my letter hurt you, but only for a little while—yet now I am happy, not because you were made sorry, but because your sorrow led you to repentance. For you became sorrowful as God intended and so were not harmed in any way by us. Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. See what this godly sorrow has produced in you: what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done” (2 Corinthians 7:8-11). We too need the tough love that both Jesus and Paul were willing to dish out as we are faced with the staunch requirements of God’s spiritual law. We need to be brought to godly sorrow in order that thru it God may lead us to humble repentance.
Jesus then proceeded to address his disciples: “Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, ‘How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!’ The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, ‘Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God’” (Mark 10:23-25). Christ went on to tell His disciples of the infinite difficulty of fulfilling the demands of God’s spiritual law; that in fact it is easier for a camel to go thru the eye of a needle than for man to work, earn, and obey his way into the kingdom of God. In other words: It is impossible for man to save himself. “The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, ‘Who then can be saved?’” (Mark 10:26). Rightfully so the disciples were “amazed” by Christ’s words, not just once, but twice, being completely blown away by what had transpired. They realized that they were no different than this man who was outwardly very good; yet Christ boldly proclaimed that it was impossible for any of them to save themselves thru their works and obedience. Faced with the truth of the spiritual law the disciples began to truly wonder how any man could ever be saved. Thankfully Jesus did not leave them hanging: “Jesus looked at them and said, ‘With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God’” (Mark 10:27). With His disciples humbled before the law of God, Christ reveals to them the gospel news that even though no man can save himself, man can still be saved by God. In fact, man has already been saved by God thru Jesus Christ, His only Son. Christ Himself came to fulfill the spiritual law of God where we ourselves could not: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them” (Matthew 5:17). Praise be to God that thru Jesus Christ’s obedience on our behalf we have been made righteous once and for all! “Just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men. For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous. The law was added so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 5:18-21).
As we have seen, the law of God is meant to show us our sin: “Through the law we become conscious of sin” (Romans 3:20). “No one living is righteous before you” (Psalm 143:2). “You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence” (Psalm 90:8). Once we see the law of God for what it truly is, and how it is a spiritual law that demands complete and utter perfection of our entire being, then we can finally see sin for what it truly is. Sin is not just outward deeds and occasional slip ups. Sin is in fact the root and cause of those outward deeds; the mistakes we see in our life are only symptoms of what is going on deep inside of our hearts. Our sin is not simply an external problem but our sin is a deep-rooted defect that is engraved on the very face of our hearts. Our sin testifies against us, revealing what our hearts are really like. Our sin is not a smudge of dirt that can just be wiped off, our sinfulness is actually etched onto our hearts. “Judah’s sin is engraved with an iron tool, inscribed with a flint point, on the tablets of their hearts” (Jeremiah 17:1). “From their callous hearts comes iniquity; the evil conceits of their minds know no limits” (Psalm 73:7). “What is man, that he could be pure, or one born of woman, that he could be righteous?...Man, who is vile and corrupt, who drinks up evil like water!” (Job 15:14, 16). This inscribed sin on our hearts manifests itself by corrupting every single thing that our heart produces. Even what we see as a “good deed” or a “righteous act” is in reality nothing but sin before God. “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; and all of us wither like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. There is no one who calls on Your name, who arouses himself to take hold of You; for You have hidden Your face from us and have delivered us into the power of our iniquities” (Isaiah 64:6-7). How can this be true? How can what we see with our flesh as a wonderful loving act of kindness be nothing but detestable, damnable sin before God? The reason is that our pride and unbelief are the driving force behind all that our heart does. Sin at its core, in its most basic state, is nothing more than pride and unbelief, and the two walk hand-in-hand. Our pride: “In the pride of your heart you say, ‘I am a god; I sit on the throne of a god in the heart of the seas.’ But you are a man and not a god, though you think you are as wise as a god” (Ezekiel 28:2). “I will punish the world for its evil, the wicked for their sins. I will put an end to the arrogance of the haughty and will humble the pride of the ruthless” (Isaiah 13:11). “The mirth of the wicked is brief, the joy of the godless lasts but a moment. Though his pride reaches to the heavens and his head touches the clouds, he will perish forever, like his own dung” (Job 20:5-7). “He boasts of the cravings of his heart; he blesses the greedy and reviles Yahweh. In his pride the wicked does not seek him; in all his thoughts there is no room for God” (Psalm 10:3-4). Our unbelief and lack of faith: “Everything that does not come from faith is sin” (Romans 14:23). “Without faith it is impossible to please God” (Hebrews 11:6). “They kept on sinning; in spite of his wonders, they did not believe” (Psalm 78:32). “If you do not believe that I am the one I claim to be, you will indeed die in your sins” (John 8:24).
Sin is therefore not something that we can take lightly. As we have seen, God’s law despises sin (which is ultimately the pride and unbelief of our depraved hearts) and it justly must punish all sinners by penalty of death. “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). Though we easily overlook sin in our life God takes it very seriously, more seriously than we could ever imagine. “I hate pride and arrogance, evil behavior and perverse speech” (Proverbs 8:13). “All sinners will be destroyed” (Psalm 37:38). “If you, O Yahweh, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand?” (Psalm 130:3).
Sin is a powerful master of us because its first trick is blinding us to the fact that it even exists. “In his own eyes he flatters himself too much to detect or hate his sin. The words of his mouth are wicked and deceitful; he has ceased to be wise and to do good. Even on his bed he plots evil; he commits himself to a sinful course and does not reject what is wrong” (Psalm 36:2-4). Sinners cannot see they are sinners because they are sinners; they are blinded by the sin itself. This makes sin a very deadly, dangerous, and deceptive thing and it is for this reason that God’s law is so critically important. Just like an illness or disease, the first realization (before trying to fight it or cure it) is identifying the fact that there is a problem and that a disease does in fact exist. Martin Luther diagnosed the disease of sin well: “The truth is, I am all sin. My sins are not imaginary transgressions, but sins against the first table, unbelief, doubt, despair, contempt, hatred, ignorance of God, ingratitude towards Him, misuse of His name, neglect of His Word, etc.; and sins against the second table, dishonor of parents, disobedience of government, coveting of another's possessions, etc. Granted that I have not committed murder, adultery, theft, and similar sins in deed, nevertheless I have committed them in the heart, and therefore I am a transgressor of all the commandments of God.” Diagnosis must occur before a plan of attack can be formulated. “The pride of your heart has deceived you, you who live in the clefts of the rocks and make your home on the heights, you who say to yourself, ‘Who can bring me down to the ground?’ Though you soar like the eagle and make your nest among the stars, from there I will bring you down” (Obadiah 1:3-4). “They will walk like blind men, because they have sinned against Yahweh” (Zephaniah 1:17). Our pride blinds us to our wretchedness; our unbelief blinds us because in it we fail to believe that we are despicable, helpless sinners. We may try desperately with our impotent powers to see and to hear, but we are bound in our sin, trapped and enslaved in its mighty chains. “We look for light, but all is darkness; for brightness, but we walk in deep shadows. Like the blind we grope along the wall, feeling our way like men without eyes. At midday we stumble as if it were twilight; among the strong, we are like the dead…For our offenses are many in your sight, and our sins testify against us. Our offenses are ever with us, and we acknowledge our iniquities: rebellion and treachery against Yahweh, turning our backs on our God, fomenting oppression and revolt, uttering lies our hearts have conceived” (Isaiah 59:9-10, 12-13).
Seeing our blindness though God Himself graciously decided to intervene and do what we could not: “Yahweh looked and was displeased that there was no justice. He saw that there was no one, he was appalled that there was no one to intervene; so his own arm worked salvation for him” (Isaiah 59:15-16). God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, in order to lead us, who are blind and deaf, so that we may come to truly see and hear thru His love and grace. “Lead out those who have eyes but are blind, who have ears but are deaf” (Isaiah 43:8). By taking our sin and depraved hearts upon Himself and bearing the full punishment of our iniquities, Jesus Christ paid the price for our rebellion and freed us from our slavery in sin. “Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and Yahweh has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:4-6). Let us praise God that thru His law He has revealed to us our sin so that we might see that in His gospel He has rescued us thru Jesus Christ and the faith that comes in Him. “The Scripture declares that the whole world is a prisoner of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe” (Galatians 3:22).
Faith. It is such a small word yet it has such great implications in the Christian life. This small word, faith, is such a powerful theme throughout the entire letter to the Romans. But what is faith exactly? Do we even understand this word upon which so much of the Christian doctrine revolves? Let us start with what faith is not: Faith is not a human work; faith is not a human act; faith is not a human willing; faith is not simply saying “I believe”; faith is not a decision to become a Christian. What is faith then? Faith is the gift of God and the work of God in the hearts of men. Faith is the Spirit’s work in our heart that clings to the Word of Christ Jesus with immeasurable ferocity. Faith is believing with all confidence and all surety even when we have not seen and will not see. “Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1). “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20:29). Faith is a confidence in Jesus Christ so sure that we would willingly go to the fire for Him a thousand times over. “I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day” (2 Timothy 1:12).
Our father Abraham was the great example of faith in his time, as thru God’s Word he was led to be fully persuaded that God had the power to fulfill His promises even when he couldn’t see how. “By faith Abraham, even though he was past age—and Sarah herself was barren—was enabled to become a father because he considered him faithful who had made the promise. And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore…By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had received the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, ‘It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.’ Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death” (Hebrews 11:11-12, 17-19). The faith that God worked in Abraham’s heart led Abraham to live by faith. Abraham didn’t simply say “I believe,” Abraham truly trusted to the point that he was beyond giving simple lip-service to “believing” and actually acted in faith based on the sure promises of God. Faith led Abraham to good works that clung to the promises God had given him. So it is with the faith of all believers.
Peter illustrates this fact perfectly in the Gospel of Matthew: “During the fourth watch of the night Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. ‘It’s a ghost,’ they said, and cried out in fear. But Jesus immediately said to them: ‘Take courage! It is I. Don't be afraid.’ ‘Lord, if it’s you,’ Peter replied, ‘tell me to come to you on the water.’ ‘Come,’ he said” (Matthew 14:25-28). The situation has been set; Jesus is walking on the water towards the boat His disciples are in and He calls Peter to come to Him on the water. It is at this point that we see faith for what it truly is. Faith is not Peter calling back to Christ, “I believe you Lord, thank you for the invite!”; faith is not Peter just deciding that he “trusts” Christ as he sits idle in the boat. Faith is the Word of Christ working within Peter’s heart and moving him to live boldly by this faith: “Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus” (Matthew 14:29). Faith did the impossible: faith moved Peter (a fallen sinner full of doubt and mistrust) to get down out of the boat and walk on water. Faith moved Peter to live boldly and confidently in the Word of Christ. Peter didn’t say a word, and attempted to give no lip-service to faith, but simply showed his faith by stepping out of the boat. What transpired next however illustrates how weak, feeble, and shakable fallen human beings are: “But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, ‘Lord, save me!’ Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. ‘You of little faith,’ he said, ‘why did you doubt?’” (Matthew 14:30-31). When the world around Peter overwhelmed the Word of Christ in Peter’s heart and he stopped focusing on Christ before him, Peter started to sink. Faith (even the smallest faith) is a truly powerful thing and is always the gift of God, however faith is not flashy and flamboyant, it is humble and meek and must not be separated from its life source and foundation of Jesus Christ. “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24). Faith didn’t fail Peter, Peter simply failed his small faith as he lost focus of the One in whom His faith was rooted. Faith apart from the Word of Christ and apart from Jesus Christ’s cross cannot survive against the onslaught of the world around us and our fallen flesh.
It is important then that we live everyday letting the Word of Christ dwell within us. “Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17). “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God” (Colossians 3:16). Therefore we need to daily continue in “the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 3:15). If we do not know the Scriptures, the very Word of God we have been given, then our faith has no chance against the powerful enemies that are against it. “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God” (Matthew 22:29). Christ testified however that knowing the Scriptures as simple head knowledge was not enough, the Scriptures that testified about Him needed to take form in our hearts as the very Word of God upon which our faith was based. “The Father who sent me has himself testified concerning me. You have never heard his voice nor seen his form, nor does his word dwell in you, for you do not believe the one he sent. You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life” (John 5:37-40). Jesus said this to fight against the hypocritical scholars who had turned and continue to turn the Scriptures into a perverted tool for their own self-interests and man-made doctrines. Christ later reaffirmed however that the Scriptures ought to be our source of God’s Word, which daily waters our faith, sustaining it thru all the tribulations of this life. “Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him” (John 7:38). Let us pray therefore that God thru His Word continues to strengthen our faith by way of “the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures” (Romans 1:2), and that like the Bereans in the book of Acts we continue in the Scriptures in order to persevere in the faith God has worked in our hearts for the sake of Jesus Christ, His only Son. “They received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true” (Acts 17:11). In the end we must never take our eyes off of Jesus Christ who is the author, creator, foundation, root, core, heart, source, and basis of our living faith from first to last. “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2).
5 comments:
I never really thought before about our interpretations of God's Word not being the point. We try so hard to make it "mean something" to ourselves. It means everything just the way it is!
Isn't it interesting when Christ is talking to the rich young man in Mark that the commandments he mentions are those that deal with us and other men? He does not list the first 3 commandments. Why?
Yes, that is an astute observation that Jesus intentionally leaves off the "first table" of the commandments. Before I give my thoughts on it however, I would be interested to hear what your initial reaction and response was to realizing that fact...
This passage has always intrigued me. The rich young man is no different from any of us. We all completely miss the point. The point being God. We look everywhere except to Jesus. We try to be a "good person" (I am very guilty of this) instead of focusing on God. And for this poor young man, when he is asked to trust Christ, he walks away sad. Why? Because he would rather trust in the things of this world which will actually get him nowhere. And when I say "he", I actually mean me.
Yeah, the rich young man saw the commandments to be something that stood independent, some moral ideal to be attained. However the ten commandments of God must never be looked at apart from God Himself; they are NOT a moral ideal! The key to them is that GOD is God of our life from first to last, then our obedience to them will flow from that truth and relationship.
The rich young man was therefore trying to separate the commands that appeal to our dealings with our neighbor while ignoring the relationship with God the Father that must take precedence. In doing this he had already lost the true law before he had even begun!
The preface of God in the ten commandments is the heart and center we must never forget, but people always leave it out! "I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery" (Exodus 20:2). Without this intro the ten commandments cannot be understood! God is OUR God first before we can ever approach the ten commandments of God properly.
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