The faith is the only hope of life: Romans part 4

What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision? Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God.  For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect?

 God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged. But if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance? (I speak as a man) God forbid: for then how shall God judge the world?  For if the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie unto his glory; why yet am I also judged as a sinner?  And not rather, (as we be slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say,) Let us do evil, that good may come? whose damnation is just. What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin;

  As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.  They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips:  Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness:  Their feet are swift to shed blood:  Destruction and misery are in their ways: And the way of peace have they not known:  There is no fear of God before their eyes.

  Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.  Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

 But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;  Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:  Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;

 To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.  Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.

 Is he the God of the Jews only? is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also: seeing it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith. Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.

 Romans 3

In the previous thought Paul has established both Jews and gentiles as equally sinful.  The learning of what was right did not change the nature of sinfulness in the Jews. Then Paul continues to say that God does not favor any man over another.

The natural question comes forth; what benefit is it to be called the elect and the people of God. In many ways they are blessed; yet the greatest is they have been the mouthpiece and womb of God to all mankind. It is through this people that God has given both the written witness of His word and the living word; His son Yeshua the Messiah.

The fact that some did not place their trust in that word cannot disempower the trusting of God to have its promised effect.

A man may ask “if my nature of sinfulness proves Gods declarations to be true then why does God judge me for being what He has declared I am.” The Father has placed a stop to sin in the death of His Son. We who believe cannot expect God to judge the world for continuing in sin in a different manner than He will judge us if we continue in the same way.

So it is the Father judges sin without respect of persons. The law,

which is a description of His nature and the life it brings forth, shows every man born from Adam that his own nature is against righteousness and only brings forth death.  The act of learning and by force of will doing those things the law teaches cannot make us innocent of the sin in our nature. The very fact that we must will to act in a way described by the law is evidence that we are only imitating a possession of life. The law by showing us a witness of life testifies of the death in us.

The life and being of the Father shared with and living in and through us by its nature is righteous. This righteousness is manifested in our living. The law and prophets become witnesses of the righteous life now living within us.

This righteousness does not come by our will or work; for we are crucified in Messiah. It is by the trust, dependence, and expectation of the promised life of the Father that this righteousness is manifested. The righteousness that we could not attain to by our nature and being becomes our nature as we trust in the shared life of the Father in us.

For by our death in Messiah sin is judged in us; so by His life in us His righteousness is manifested in us; showing Him to be just in justifying us.  

Man’s way of thinking is that the deeds determine the life in a man. The Father’s truth is that the life in a man determines his deeds. Justification is not a result of our deeds but by trusting in the new nature, heart, and mind that is the promise and gift of the Father to all who trust Him. God’s grace is His life shared in us and as we trust that life in us it is manifested.

The Jews who had been given the token of circumcision and the covenant are saved by their trust in the promise of God. In the exact same way those who never knew the covenant and teachings are saved by their trust in the manifestation of those promises the living Messiah.

So do we do away with the law. No but rather we establish the life described within its witness.

No respect of persons: Romans part 3

 

Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judges: for wherein thou judges another, thou condemns thyself; for thou that judges does the same things.

 But we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things. And thinkest thou this, O man, that judges them which do such things, and does the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God?

 Or despise thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leads thee to repentance? But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasures up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God;

 Who will render to every man according to his deeds: to them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life: But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile; but glory, honor, and peace, to every man that works good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile:

  There is no respect of persons with God. For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law: and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law; (For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves:  which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;) in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.

 Behold, thou art called a Jew, and rests in the law, and makes thy boast of God, And knows his will, and approves the things that are more excellent, being instructed out of the law; and art confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind, a light of them which are in darkness, An instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, which hast the form of knowledge and of the truth in the law.

Thou therefore which teaches another, teach thou not thyself? Thou that preaches a man should not steal, dost thou steal? Thou that says a man should not commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery? Thou that abhorres idols, dost thou commit sacrilege? Thou that make thy boast of the law, through breaking the law dishonors thou God? The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you, as it is written.

For circumcision verily profits, if thou keep the law: but if thou be a breaker of the law, thy circumcision is made uncircumcision. Therefore if the uncircumcision keep the righteousness of the law, shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision?  And shall not uncircumcision which is by nature, if it fulfil the law, judge thee, who by the letter and circumcision dost transgress the law?

For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God. ROMANS 2

To have a clear picture of what Paul is saying it is necessary to have a general understanding of who he is addressing. The church at Rome was not like the churches that received Paul’s other epistles in that it was not a congregation that had been the result of the apostles own ministries.

The church at Rome in its early inception would have been decidedly Jewish and it is likely that gentile’s where welcome but expected to become proselytes to Judaism. However the expulsion of the Jews from Rome would have left the church with a new gentile leadership. When the Jews were allowed to return a few years’ later conflicts arose between those who thought that life in Messiah was still only within Judaism and those who felt that conversion to Messiah did not mean conversion to Judaism.

The common result of any disagreement is separation. To what degree this problem was evident in the church at Rome we are not told; yet Paul with vigor comes against both Greek thought and Jewish thought. Paul’s conclusion is that neither way of thinking will fall out to unity with Messiah and the Father but will drive the one who trust in it into wickedness that will surpass the pagans of this world.

The Greek thinking, which the romans had long ago assimilated, was that the physical life is flawed but the thought or spirit is perfect. This thought that would later become a foundation of the church’s apostasy.  In stark contrast the thinking that what a man did regulated his relationship with God permeated Jewish thought.

Paul concludes both groups to suffer from the same delusion. Whether the Greek idea that only ignorant people live by the base means of the physical or the Jewish belief that the knowing of what is contained in scripture and forcing the body into obedience makes one favored of God; both thinking’s make one to judge others as somehow secondary or less than oneself. Paul points out that despite their thinking of being above another they have the exact same passions and weaknesses as those they judge.

These believers, both Greek and Hebrew, had allowed themselves to settle into man made thinking. Paul attempts to shake them awake.

The life of a believer is different from that of an unbeliever. The unbeliever depends on himself to generate that which he has judged as good. The believer instead depends on Gods life in him to generate the life that God has judged as good.

The things performed in the body show what is truly done in the heart. It is for this reason that as a judge of our hearts our Father approves or disapproves of the actions we carry out.

Paul will turn his focus to the Jews and the law. Paul’s argument is not against the law but instead against the idea that because one has learned what is right and holy that such learning makes one righteous. Paul shows that it is not learning what is right but being what is right that is evidence of being in a covenant and oneness with God.

An earthly judge may show a respect for a rich man or an educated man or even a charismatic man, but the heavenly judge of the living and the dead shows no respect of persons. He judges one thing alone who you are. If His life is living in you then you are His. If you are your own maker then you are dead. For it is not about what we have learned or what we have accomplished but who we are.

Paul spoke in another place of those who were always learning but never coming to a knowing of God. Jesus himself spoke of those who would come to him in the last days and proclaim all they had done in His name; His answer was depart I never knew you.

We are the bride of Messiah and as such we have been made one with Him. This oneness is not an ideal or a teaching but a trust, dependence and expectation of living a shared life. It is only as we trust Him to generate His life in us that we truly can come to know Him. It is this generation of true life in us that reveals the self-generated life from Adam as a way which can never be approved by a holy God.

The way of life:Romans part 2

 

For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.  For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, the just shall live by faith.

  For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves: who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.

 For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: and likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet.

 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.

Adam became a living soul because God breathed His own life into him. So it was that Adam was one with God; Gods life was his life. Yet God is not without the ability to choose and in a similar way if Adam was to be in His likeness as a son then Adam also had to have the ability to choose. For this reason Adam was placed in the garden with the choice between the knowledge of good and evil or life.

We are all aware of Adams choice and the blindness it caused. The result of this “fall” from oneness with Gods life left Adam and therefor his progenitors on a course to attempt to generate life by their own ability. The blindness caused men to equate doing good with producing life; however to do good is not the same as being good for it is still fruit from a tree that does not recognize that life can only come from God.

In short life is about whom we are not what we do. Our actions come from who we are in opposition to the way of man that believes that what we do determines who we are. If we can produce wickedness then it is because we are wicked.

The teachings given to Moses are a description of life but the veil of man’s ways saw them as things to be done to attain to life. So while Moses tells the congregation of Israel YHWH is our creator, that He is one, that if we love Him with all our heart, all our soul, and all our might (to surrender and entrust all we are to Him) then the life given shall be found in our heart. DEUT 6:4-9 The blindness of man’s way caused the children of Israel to instead proclaim “All that the Lord hath spoken we will do.” EXODUS 19: 8

The response shows that their thinking was to act in a certain way making witness of themselves as actors; acting as if they had life in them. Jesus called the Pharisees hypocrites (actors) for this very same reason.

Moses concludes these things by saying “I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:” Take notice that Moses did not say good and evil or right and wrong but the foundational source of life and death.

Moses gives this foundational understanding at the close of his earthly ministry. We see Jesus giving the same teaching at the beginning of His ministry when He says “think not that I come to destroy the law, I come not to destroy but to fulfill the law.” MATTHEW 5. Jesus then goes on to teach that sin is not originated in the action but instead in the heart which comes out in our actions.

Expanding on the fact that Jesus came to fulfill the law in us He also says that He came that we might have life and life more abundantly (JOHN 10:10) and be one with the Father (JOHN 17: 6-19). When these things are seen clearly seen the necessity of the cross becomes plain. Jesus died that we being one with Him could die in Him. The natural man and his sinful rebellion of trying to generate life by the lie of acting good must die in the cross that the life of God generated by His spirit in us may become our life. It is this to which Jesus said that if a man tries to find (make) his life he will lose his life but if he will lose his life (in Messiah) he will find his life (YHWH’s shared life in us).MATTHEW 10:39

Paul was and is accused by many to be in opposition to Moses and even Messiah. However with clear understanding we see that the grace of Gods life in us that Paul speaks of is in complete agreement with both.

Paul first tells us that the message of Messiah giving us life is the generating power of YHWH’s being in us to save us. The result of our complete trust, dependence, and expectation of God living in us has the unavoidable result of the righteousness of Messiah showing in those who have no ability to create that righteousness. This right way is shown in us more and more as we learn to trust Him alone more and more.

However if we refuse to trust God as our maker and set forth to be our own maker God will submit us to our own blinded mind. The result of such is that every type of wickedness grows and expands in those who are separated from Gods holy life by their refusal to come to His life.

So it is that Paul, as Moses had centuries before, sets before us the way of life and death, of blessings and cursing’s. Paul declares a solid assurance that Jesus is the way the truth and the life and also a warning that if we refuse to trust in Him we will find ourselves given over to the darkest condition of the soul.

The greatest letter ever written: Romans part 1

 

Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, (which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures,) concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh; and declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead: by whom we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among all nations, for his name: Among whom are ye also the called of Jesus Christ: To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.

First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world. For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers; making request, if by any means now at length I might have a prosperous journey by the will of God to come unto you. For I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift, to the end ye may be established; That is, that I may be comforted together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me.

Now I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that oftentimes I purposed to come unto you, (but was let hitherto,) that I might have some fruit among you also, even as among other Gentiles. I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise. So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also.

For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. ROMANS 1: 1-17a

Moses, at the end of his earthly ministry, wrote one of the greatest books that a believer might ever have the privilege to read; named Deuteronomy. It transcends a prophet speaking that which God has revealed to him. The intimacy of its writing makes the outward acts of the man become translucent and the inner workings of his relationship with YHWH, as his being, is made plain.

Paul also has written such a book titled Romans. However though these books stand as two of the most pivotal in scripture much of their truths are not seen without first understanding what came before them. So though I can understand the political reasons the church at Rome placed this epistle at the forefront; the understanding of first the general epistles and then Paul’s other writings are needed if we would take all that this epistle offers us.

This post and those that will follow in this series will attempt to show the majesty of that which was given to Paul. The gospel that The Father has given to His children is like a painting that at its revelation was more vibrant and beautiful than words can express. However over time as men battled to possess it for their own purposes the grime and sweat and bloodshed of the human condition has faded its glory. The gospel we see now while still recognizable as a master piece is not the clear, vibrant, living work it once was.

While comparing myself to these two men of faith seems to me a foolish thought at the same time I cannot avoid that which my Lord has shown me. Moses felt the desire to deliver God’s people from Egypt long before God had formed the humble servant who could see it done. Paul had a passion to see God worshiped in purity long before Our Lord opened his eyes to see the purity which can only come by grace. For myself, I have had a desire for all believers to live the life that is described by the witness of scripture and be free of every trace of the life of this world.

This call has been in me since I came to the Lord as a teenager. It remained when my way of trying to obtain to it drove me deep into failure. When I told God I could not serve Him; that it was not in me to be His son, it remained as an unrelenting blazing fire that would not allow me to lie down and die. When I surrendered my life to him completely without a definition of what that meant it remained.

When we are young and immature in the Lord we take our call as a proof of our own importance and approval from God. However our Father by longsuffering and patience brings us to a place where we are called for His glory alone. This is a place where we see His goodness and grace working through us instead of our consecration and position.

So it is with a humble heart that Paul proclaims his call and apostleship as a proof of God’s grace instead of, as some did in Paul’s time and continue in our own, a claim of position and authority. It is Paul’s desire to give blessing and establishment to the brethren; not to receive from them for him. Paul rather feels he is in debt to those to whom he preaches; for without them the life of God would not be working through and within him.

It is the good news of what Christ has done that receives all credit from Paul for it is not about the man speaking it but the man who is spoken of. This man’s life is the power of salvation to all men.