DAY 216

ISN’T THIS GETTING JUST A LITTLE TOO RELIGIOUS, YEAH BUT

Psalm 63, 64 & 65 and Romans 6

Isn’t this all getting just a little too religious? What I mean by that is all this intellectual wrangling with Romans! It can feel that way, so let’s start with the Psalms. The Psalms each begin with three beautiful verses: “O God, you are my God; eagerly I seek you…” 63:1. “Hear my voice, O God, when I complain…” 64:1. “You are to be praised…” 65:1. This language is personal and relational. The Psalmist is seeking God, wants God to hear their complaint, and they offer praise to God.

So how does this personal talk all line up with Romans? It lines up because Roman’s is about the Gospel. The simple message of the Gospel, which is, at just the right time God sent His Son, born of a virgin, to live among us, to teach us, to show us the way to God the Father. He died, in fact was crucified by us, but overcame the worst of evil and rose from the dead, ascended back the Father, and then the Holy Spirit was available to be released into the hearts of those who “seek God.” That is a very personal and relational message.

Paul’s point is simple…that having faith in this Gospel lets those of us who are “seeking God” to be found by Him. He will hear us; even our complaints. His love for us shown throughout time, but fully in Jesus, will lead us to praise Him.

That is Paul’s message…just have faith in Jesus.

And then it begins, the “yeah buts’.” You know what I am talking about, the “yeah buts’” that start when something, which seems straightforward, challenges others.

Think about where we have been – chapter one of Romans deals with the “yeah but we are not sure there is a God, and some of us just do what we want and others  of us want to point out all that is wrong – we want to judge.” Chapter two deals with the “yeah but aren’t we really good people, we don’t need a “savior” do we?” Chapter three deals with the very specific “yeah but from the Jewish people, they are saying, “We have a special deal with God, we don’t need this “free grace from Jesus” we have the Law.””

This list is going on and on, and Paul is remarkable resilient and in some ways patient. It does sound overly religious, but let me just say that “religion is a system made by humans to “climb up” to God.” The Gospel describes a relationship, a relationship with a God who has “climbed down” to be with us, His creatures. All the wrangling Paul is doing is to demonstrate that this relationship comes not from our “good works” or “heritage” but from “God” and that is a free gift of Grace! Paul is in fact dismantling a religion to let a relationship find its way to us.

Paul quite frankly has been painting an idyllic picture of the people of God. They are standing in grace and rejoicing in glory. Having formerly belonged to Adam, the author of sin and death, they now belong to Christ, the author of salvation and life. At one season in history the Law was added to the people of Israel to intensify the point that humans fall short and indeed as the law showed “sin to increase,” grace increased all the more. It is a splendid vision of God’s grace. I say Amen, others say…yeah but.

The “yeah but” we are dealing with today is, “yeah it sounds all good, but Christians still sin.” Paul as he has concentrated on showing just how secure we are simply through faith, has jumped from accepting God through Jesus all the way to us being “perfect in Christ.” He has skipped what we might call “becoming disciples” or “growing/maturing in faith.” And his critics, those carrying the “yeah but” signs have jumped on it!

As early as Chapter 3 verse 8 we read: “And why not do evil that good may come? – as some people slanderously charge us with saying. Their condemnation is just.

If people are hearing, “God’s grace is free – woo-hoo let’s party” then Paul agrees they have missed the message. In chapter six, both verse 1 and verse 15 he asks “are we to continue to sin that grace may abound?” and “What then? Are we to sin because we are not under the law but under grace?” His answer to both questions is the same “By no means!”

God’s grace not only forgives sins, but delivers us from sinning. In verses 1-14 he shows how we are united with Christ and then in verses 15-23 he shows us that we become slaves to living right lives. Each of these sections could lead me to write pages and pages, but I just want to highlight one point.

People who follow Jesus struggle with the reality that we still sin. We read the phrase we have died to sin and we misunderstand it. We think that because we are still sinning that we mustn’t have “really become Christians.” That is pushing the “death metaphor” too far. The point is that there is a radical discontinuity between our old selves and our new selves. The use of the word “death” is to highlight this discontinuity and in fact it is why we are disturbed that we still sin!

We are now living in a “relationship with God” and yes we are not perfect, but…and here is the one last point I will make…death in the Bible has everything to do with it being the result of sin…you die and are eternally separated from God because you sinned. BUT we have been buried with Jesus in his death and raised to new life in him…the wages of our sin, death, has been paid…that what it means in this context. It does not mean we have somehow become perfect…it means the prices is paid, so let’s live for God!

I will leave it at this point. These chapters are like onions, we could just keep peeling the layers back, but today I pray you have seen that Paul is not interested in giving us some “human-made religion” rather he is disarming religion in order that we might plant ourselves in a relationship…and there are no “yeah buts’” about it!