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Romans 3-4 (ESV) by Wordle*

Today’s reading is Romans 3:1-4:25.

“For if it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law there is no transgression. That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring–not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all” (Romans 4:14-16).

For too long, I have tried to gain the promise of God by adhering to His law. My problem has been I continually fall short. It is not that I don’t like the law or don’t want to follow God’s law. I do. But I have repeatedly fallen. What hope do I have?

Great in every respect. I have hope because I have discovered it is not the adherents of God’s law that receive the promise. In fact, so long as I’m trying to receive the promise by keeping God’s law, I won’t receive it. Rather, I make it void. How great is God!? It is not those who keep the law that receive the promise. It is those who share the faith of Abraham.

Why was Abraham righteous? Not because he kept the law. He lied and tried to get around God’s plan and who knows what else (God knows). He was righteous because he came to believe God and live by that belief. I don’t have to live in fear today because I’ve violated God’s law. I can live in faith today that He sent His Son to wipe my sins away. I can rely on His grace and know that I’m guaranteed His promise. I believe and therefore have access to His grace. I am free today to simply serve God as best I know how, turning to Him when I mess up because He is my gracious and loving Father.

Praise God!

Keep the faith and keep reading,

ELC

PS. What struck you in today’s reading? You can add your input by clicking here.

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*Today’s illustration was generated by the creative tool at Wordle.net. You can find all my wordles here.

Today’s reading is Romans 9:1-10:21.

“What shall we say, then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is a righteousness that is by faith; but that Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness did not succeed in reaching that law” (Romans 9:30-31).

Does that passage really say that? does it really say that the ones who did not pursue righteousness attained righteousness and the ones who did pursue righteousness did not attain it? That is exactly what it says. How many times have I stumbled over this very stone?

But here it is, plain for all to see. As long as I’m trying to pursue a law to lead to righteousness, I’ll fall short. I won’t succeed in reaching the law. In fact, I’ve already botched the law. However, if I quit my personal pursuit of my own righteousness, filled with struggling and white-knuckling my way through each day, but instead pursue faith in Jesus, then I’ll actually get the righteousness I’m so hungry for. That doesn’t seem quite right in my mind, but perhaps that is why God has told me to trust Him instead of leaning on my own understanding.

Today, then, I’ll focus on building my faith in Jesus. If I pursue that faith, then I’ll attain the righteousness I want.

Keep the faith and keep reading,

ELC

PS. What struck you in today’s reading?

Today’s reading is Romans 1:1-2:29.

“You who boast in the law dishonor God by breaking the law” (Romans 2:23).

I believe I’ve misread this verse. I usually read it to be an accusation of hypocrisy against the Jews. But I’m not sure that flies. Did Paul really believe all the Jews were hypocrites? They all taught the law but disregarded it? I don’t think he would have seen himself that way. This was not an accusation of hypocrisy, necessarily, though I’m sure that fit some folks. This was just a matter of the way life was. These guys were putting all their hope in the law. The problem was, every single one of them, no matter their intention, no matter their sincerity or hypocrisy had violated the law. What good was hoping in the law or boasting in the law when they had all violated the law.

Now this hits me. What am I doing with the New Law. Certainly I believe there is one. But what good does boasting in Christ’s law do me. I have violated it. To boast that I know it better, that I teach it better, that I keep it better does me little good because I haven’t kept it perfectly. I dishonor God by breaking the very law I want to boast in. What am I to do? That goes back to Romans 1:17. I need to live by faith. That is, instead of putting my hope and boast in my ability to keep Christ’s law. I need to put my hope and boast in Christ, increase my faith in Him and His way and just do what He says.

If I’m not careful, I’ll end up being just like those Jews who boasted in a law they didn’t keep. Instead, I need to boast in Christ today.

Keep the faith and keep reading,

ELC

PS. What struck you in today’s reading?

Today’s reading is Galatians 1:1-2:21.

These chapters, or rather the end of these chapters, brings up a question for me. Galatians 2:15-21 says no man is justified by works of law. I’m no Greek scholar, but what little I know demonstrates that the article “the” is not in the original text. It doesn’t actually read “by works of the law no one will be justified” but “by works of law no one will be justified” (Galatians 2:16).

My common approach to this passage has been to say that no one will be justified by works of the Old Law. However, now we have a new law that does justify us. I do know there is a law of Christ, to which I must submit myself. Paul wrote about it in I Corinthians 9:21. But what is its place in my justification?

As I read these verses in Galatians 2:15-21 again, I have a really hard time seeing this passage as saying, “by works of the Old Law no one will be justified, but by works of the New Law will everyone be justified.” Instead, it seems to be saying, “we won’t be justified by works of law, old or new, but by faith in Jesus.” Don’t misunderstand, this faith is not merely a mental assent to some facts. Galatians 2:20 says, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” This faith is an increasing surrender to Christ and His will. Yet, when it is done is this just semantics? “No we aren’t save by keeping the new law, we are saved by faith, but by faith we really mean keeping the new law”? I can’t see this as just a semantic wordplay. Paul is saying we aren’t justified by keeping the law. We are justified by faith in Jesus.

What exactly is the point? What does it really say about law? What does it say about the place of the New Law in my justification?

Right now, I think Paul’s point is the same here as it was in Romans 9:30-10:4. Yes, there is a New Law. Yes, Christians submit to the New Law. However, the law’s purpose is not to justify us. Because of our weakness, God cannot provide a law that can justify us. If He could, then law would have done it (Galatians 3:21). All law does is demonstrate how we violate law and therefore are not justified (Romans 3:20). Thus, the more we focus on the law aspect of the New Testament, the more likely we are to sin, rebuilding what we have torn down and proving ourselves transgressors (Galatians 2:18). The problem with the Old Law was it had nothing that justified. Under the New Law, we still see God’s laws, but we have Jesus’ whose death justifies us and sets us free to live God’s will. But how do we attain that? Do we attain that by trying harder to simply keep the legalities of the New Testament? No. We accomplish that by increasing our faith in Jesus. The more we increase our faith in Jesus, the more God will work in our lives, the more God will strengthen us according to the gospel and preaching of Jesus, the more we will actually submit to God’s will.

This seems counterintuitive to me. What Paul seems to be saying is the more we focus on keeping God’s law, the less we will do so. However, the more we focus on believing Jesus and relying on His death, the more we will actually follow God’s law. Keeping God’s law doesn’t justify us, after all, we are sinners and not sinning today doesn’t take away our sins of yesterday. However, Jesus’ death does take away our sin and increased faith in Jesus as Lord and Savior gives us the strength to do God’s will.

What do you think?

Keep the faith and keep reading,

ELC

P.S. What struck you in today’s reading?

Today’s reading is Romans 5:1-6:23.

What a great reminder I received today:

“Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace” (Romans 6:12-14). 

Paul goes on to ask if we should sin because we are under grace and the answer is “By no means.” 

Paul gives a great reminder. I’m under grace now, but that doesn’t mean I can keep submitting myself to sin. Sadly, some become Christians and act as if that means any sins we commit are just wiped clean. They forget the power of sin. Sin destroys and dominates. If we have been set free from sin by Jesus Christ, let us not willingly surrender ourselves to sin again. If we think we can control and enjoy sin now that we are Christians, we are very much mistaken.

Today, instead of presenting my members to sin to obey its lead, I must submit myself to righteousness to obey its command. Since I am under God’s grace, I can actually accomplish this. Apparently, if I’m just under law, presenting myself to righteousness doesn’t work quite as well. However, since I am under grace I can live in such a way that sin won’t have dominion over me. Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ who delivers me from the enslavement to sin that I so willingly walked into throughout my life.

But again, that freedom doesn’t mean sitting on my thumbs and just waiting for God to take my sins away. It means surrendering to His righteousness (that comes by faith in Jesus Christ). That’s what I’ll be working on today–surrendering to Jesus’ righteousness.

Keep the faith and keep reading,

ELC

P.S. What did you get from today’s reading?

Today’s reading is Galatians 5:1-6:18.

I don’t want to keep pounding this law stuff, but here in Galatians it just keeps coming. First, I find it interesting that in Galatians 5:18, it says “But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.” Once again, the article is missing in the Greek, so it essentially says we are not under law. However, Galatians 6:2 says, “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” Somewhere this discussion is speaking accommodatingly. We are not totally free from law but yet need to fulfill a law at the same time. That bears some thinking about.

However, what really caught my attention in light of yesterday’s discussion is Paul’s discussion about the works of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit. I’ve thought a bit about this before, but it really hit me today. Notice those two different nouns. Paul talked about the works of the flesh. Not the fruit of the flesh, but the works of the flesh. That is, these are the things the flesh does. These are the actions of the flesh. When we do these things we are pursuing the flesh. On the other hand, he didn’t talk about the works of the Spirit, he talked about the fruit of the Spirit. That is, he didn’t say here are the things we need to work on in order to follow the Spirit. Rather, when we follow the Spirit’s lead, these are the things that will be produced.

In other words, Paul didn’t say, “Go work on love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Then you’ll be following the Spirit.” Rather, he is saying if we follow the lead of the Spirit, this is what we’ll find in our lives. This is the fruit the Spirit will produce in us as we follow Him. 

Once again, we get that kind of counterintuitive point. If we establish these virtues as the law we are to pursue, we won’t make it. We will find that we always fall short. However, if we simply surrender ourselves to faith in Christ and His Word (the revelation of the Spirit), these fruit will start to develop. 

We also need to make a rigorously honest point here. We need to do some real soul searching and heart digging. If these qualities are not ours, we need to honestly recognize we are not following the lead of the Spirit. These are not simply things Christians should work on. They are what will be in the Christian’s life when submitting to the Spirit. If they’re not in our lives, we are not surrendering to the Spirit. No doubt, it’s a growth process. But we’ll only grow if we are honest about this.

Keep the faith and keep reading,

ELC

P.S. What did you get out of today’s reading?

Today’s reading is Galatians 3:1-4:31.

The Set-up

As in Romans, Paul takes up the discourse of faith versus law. I’m beginning to pick up something as I’m reading the New Testament this time. For me, there has always been this kind of struggle in understanding. I know the New Testament continually says law won’t save. Yet, we’re clearly under a law (cf. I Corinthians 9:21; Hebrews 7:12). Certainly we are not under Moses’ law, but we are under a law. Yet, in tomorrow’s reading Paul will say, “But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law” (Galatians 5:18). In today’s reading, he says we are not saved by law, but by faith.

This, of course, causes the great debate about the position of works and obedience in our salvation. On the one side, some suggest as long as we believe, we’ll be saved separate and apart from any works we perform. On the other side, some suggest we can believe all day long but if we don’t obey God’s law, we’ll be lost. Therefore, our obedience saves us. The two sides find passages that seem to support their position and lob them at each other.

What if the Bible answer is in the middle of those two extremes? What if the reason both sides seem to find support is because neither side is actually right and the truth is between them as we consider all those verses together?

Not Justified by Law

Here’s what I saw in today’s reading.

“For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, ‘Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.’ Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for ‘The righteous shall live by faith’” (Galatians 3:10-11).

In the context, some of the Galatian Christians were bringing aspects of the Old Law into their Christianity. We’re not speaking here of Jews merely following their heritage and customs. No, they were following aspects of the Law as if doing those things were the requirements for salvation. 

Paul said they could not be justified by the Law. In fact, anyone who went back to the Law and pulled parts out, obligated themselves to everything in the law. If they missed even one, they would be cursed. Of course, that was the problem. They had already disobeyed and were, therefore, cursed. Going back to the Old Law brings nothing but curses for people who have already sinned.

However, Paul did not merely say “the Old Law” doesn’t justify. The Greek does not contain the article (that is, the word “the”). He said, no one is justified by law, not just the Old Law, any law. That means, under the New Covenant, we can establish some kind of law-keeping code, but it will not justify us. We will not be justified by keeping it for the very reason the Jews were not.  We won’t be able to keep it. The fact is, if any law could have justified people, that Old Law would have done it. But it couldn’t, not because of God or weakness with His law, but because of our weakness. Why would we want to replace one law that doesn’t work with another code of law that won’t work? Will our law justify us where God’s law could not?

Thus, if we approach the New Testament as a set of laws and rules we must follow in order to be good enough to go to heaven, we’re going to be in trouble. Law has never been able to justify and it won’t be able to now either. 

Justified by Faith

We can, however, be justified by faith. When we truly believe in Jesus and truly believe Jesus, we can be justified. That is, we can be declared innocent. 

Jesus Christ became a curse for us who are cursed so our curse might be lifted and we might have life through the Spirit of God. The Scripture (in this context the writings of the Old Covenant) didn’t justify, they simply imprisoned everyone under sin. Any system of law we develop will only do the same. Any system of trying to gain God’s favor by keeping a law will only ever remind us we are sinners because we won’t keep it anymore than the Jews kept the Old Law. Law doesn’t justify. Law condemns.

Faith in Jesus justifies. 

Why Does Faith Justify?

Sadly, some folks stopped reading above. They either said, “See, I’ve always said faith justifies and we don’t need obedience” or they said, “That Edwin has gone off the deep end. He’s starting to teach justification by faith alone.” I’m glad you kept reading.

The question we need to ask is why and how does this faith justify? Is it simply having a mental assent to some facts about Jesus and now we are justified no matter what we do? Absolutely not. Faith justifies because as I grow in faith, I grow in submission to Jesus. Let’s face it, if I’m not doing what Jesus says, I don’t really believe Him, do I? As I grow in submission, I follow Jesus’ way. I’m not justified because I’ve obeyed a series of rules. I’m justified because Jesus’ way works. Do you see the difference? That first statement focused on me and my obedience. The second focused on Jesus and His way that works. 

Notice Galatians 3:25-27. This faith didn’t end with mental assent. It went on to do what Jesus said. Jesus said, “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved” (Mark 16:16). If I have faith in Jesus and His word, I’ll be baptized for the remission of my sins in order to be saved. Did I get baptized because it was the law by which I could justify myself through obedience? No. I was baptized because I believed Jesus and I believed His way works. If I make baptism nothing more than the first law I obey in a series of laws I must follow in order to be good enough to go to heaven, I’ll never make it. However, if I submit to baptism because I believe Jesus and it is merely my first step of surrender to Him, I’ll be justified because by faith I’m surrendering my life to His. Baptism brings us into Christ, but not because we’ve done some great work to bring us into Christ by our power. We just couldn’t do that. Baptism brings us into Christ because we are beginning to live in Christ. We are beginning to live in submission to Him when we are baptized based on our faith. Until we surrender at that point, we are not in Christ, no matter how religious we are. Remember, no code of religious law can get us into Christ. Only surrendering to Him by faith will do that.

I Know It Seems Counterintuitive

This whole thing is a bit counterintuitive. If we really want to obey God’s law, we have to quit striving to obey God’s law. I can hear the screams of frustration right now. “WHAT?!” If we keep trying to make ourselves and everyone else good enough by developing a system of law, we will only succeed in doing what the Old Law accomplished. We will only succeed in condemning ourselves because we haven’t kept this law. However, if instead we build our faith in Jesus and His Word, guess what will start happening? As we believe Jesus more and more, we’ll submit to Him more and more. As we submit to Him more and more, we’ll be justified. 

Of course, if we don’t submit to Him more and more, we won’t be justified? Why? Because we didn’t obey enough? No. None of us can obey enough. Rather, because Jesus’ way works and no other way does. If we don’t have faith enough to surrender our lives to Jesus, anything else we do, no matter how religious it seems, will not justify or deliver us.

So, are we saved by faith? Absolutely. Do we have to submit? Well, if we have faith, it’s not a have to situation is it? If we have faith, we will increasingly submit. Are we justified because we did enough good stuff? No. We can’t ever do enough good stuff. Instead, God justifies us when we have faith enough to surrender to Him.

Are you surrendering to Him? Or are you holding out, thinking you can do enough religious stuff to be good enough to go to heaven?

Keep the faith and keep reading,

ELC