Romans for Today

We’ve been spending time here digging into Romans. The parallels to the church today are amazing.For instance 1:18 thru the end of the chapter echoes what I hear so often:

Homosexuality

Murder/abortion

All kinds of godlessness and evil going on in the world

God’s wrath is being revealed against all this stuff.

“Yea that’s right, they’re going to get what’s coming to them!” I can almost hear the church screaming in self-righteous approval.

It seems there is so much time spent pointing out the sins of the world and screaming for justice. Here’s a news flash: sinners sin…it’s what they do. Is it really our place to go around condemning them? This is something that Jesus said He didn’t even come to do. (John 3)

However, if you stop at the end of chapter 1 and draw conclusions more than likely you'll be off in the weeds because chapter 2 starts by saying “hey but you who pass judgment on these people don’t you do the same thing and in doing so don’t you know you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience not realizing that it is God’s kindness that leads you to repentance?"

Chapter 1 is a set up or lead in for chapter’s 2 &3. He makes this clear in 3:19. Chapter 2 is a scathing indictment of God’s chosen people, saying in affect, “If the other end of the boat is sinking don’t feel safe because your end is going up…”

So yea, homosexuality, murder, drunkenness and the like is horribly bad but what about gossip, slander, greed, ignoring the needs of the poor and oppressed? It’s all bad! And this whole pointing the finger deal it’s the worst because it has caused my name to be blasphemed among the pagans.

Brennan Manning said it this way once, “the single greatest cause of atheism in the world today is Christians. People who acknowledge God with their lips but deny him with their actions. This is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable."

The point of Paul's argument in chapter's 1 & 2 is to set up the end of chapter 3 and actually on thru the rest of the letter where he says that the real good news is that now a righteousness from God is being made known.

What Moses and the prophets witnessed to all those years has happened. The God-setting-things-right that we read about has become Jesus-setting-things-right for us. And not only for us, but for everyone who believes in him. For there is no difference between us and them in this. Since we've compiled this long and sorry record as sinners (both us and them) and proved that we are utterly incapable of living the glorious lives God wills for us, God did it for us. Out of sheer generosity he put us in right standing with himself. A pure gift. He got us out of the mess we're in and restored us to where he always wanted us to be. And he did it by means of Jesus Christ. God sacrificed Jesus on the altar of the world to clear that world of sin. Having faith in him sets us in the clear. God decided on this course of action in full view of the public--to set the world in the clear with himself through the sacrifice of Jesus, finally taking care of the sins he had so patiently endured. This is not only clear, but it's now--this is current history! God sets things right. He also makes it possible for us to live in his rightness. (3:21-26)

My hope is not that I am somehow morally superior than other people. And the race I run is not a race where I try to become more morally superior than others. My hope is that I will be found in Christ, in His righteousness and not putting on one of my own. Thanks be to God for His mercy, grace, and love found in Jesus.