Corinth's Communion (part 14)

Continuing in this stream of thought, Paul goes on to write “Or do you not know that anyone who is united with a prostitute is one body with her?  For it is said ‘The two will become one flesh.’” (1 Corinthians 6:16)  Paul then hammers home the communal aspect of his use of “body,” thus enabling us to read “But the one united with the Lord is one spirit with Him” (6:17).  To this is then added “Flee sexual immorality!” (6:18a)  Having made this statement, Paul goes on to quote what must have been a portion of what has been reported to him about this church, writing “Every sin a person commits is outside of the body” (6:18b). 

This seems to have unavoidable communal implications, as if Paul was being informed that practices in which some were engaging, which it could be argued did not rightly bear out the image of the Creator God as was intended for ambassadors of the kingdom of that God that had been established upon the earth, should not have a negative effect on the way that Paul views this church or the way that the church is viewed by the community in which it is present---especially if the practices would not necessarily have been considered scandalous to the observing community or if it might have been proposed that such practices were a means of outreach and inclusion of all and sundry in the mold of Jesus’ inclusion, at His tables, of those outside the boundaries of the covenant people. 

To this, Paul replies “but the immoral person sins against his own body” (6:18c).  The use of “immoral” is clearly linked with the previously referenced sexual immorality and the mention of prostitutes, while the use of “body,” taking into consideration the union and uniting aspects that Paul has already mentioned, should be taken as a reference to the church.  Therefore, Paul’s critique asks to be understood as a critique of practices that are allowed to take place within the church (and not necessarily personal practices of individuals in their “private lives”), with these practices causing the church as a body to fall short of its responsibility to bear the image of the Creator God, which it can only do as it imitates Jesus---seeing the Father in Him and in the deeds and practices of His ministry. 

Naturally, Paul is not buying their argument, so the dissertation closes with Paul writing “Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?  For you were bought at a price.  Therefore glorify God with your body” (6:19-20).  With this, there are obvious and unmistakably individual and corporate applications and implications.  Clearly, if all of this is considered within the responsibility of the church and its members to be the representatives of a kingdom (a community), one is not to be separated from the other.  

Returning to the thirteenth verse then, it is most interesting to note that talk of prostitutes and sin and the body follows immediately after “Food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food, but God will do away with both” (6:13a), which in turn follows Paul’s rejoinders of “but not everything is beneficial” and “but I will not be controlled by anything” (6:12b,d), which are his apparent responses to the statement that has come to him (again, presumably from this church) that “All things are lawful for me” (6:12a,c).  The juxtaposition of an elaboration on what is lawful, beneficial, controlling, and food, against a statement about sexual immorality and the body, cannot help but cause one to consider yet another common and accepted aspect of ancient meal practice upon which this study has yet to elaborate.  This situating of content concerning sexual morality (or immorality) in the context of food considerations and meal practice may be quite telling for an understanding of the issues at hand in the church at Corinth.

In This Is Love (part 3)

Though it is never appropriate to hunt and peck through the Scriptures for isolated proof texts to support positions, “tohu” and “bohu” stand in stark contrast to that which is insisted upon in Isaiah, which is that the Creator God “formed the earth and made it; He established it, He did not create it without order, He formed it to be inhabited” (45:18b).  Though this can have the appearance of proof-texting as part of an effort at Scriptural exegesis, it actually falls well in line with a grasp of the overall narrative-based structure of Scripture that reveals the Creator God, pointing readers to that God’s long-held plan to redeem a fallen creation into which disorder was disastrously introduced.  This seems to be well within the line of thought suggested by the covenant God’s creation becoming “without shape and empty,” which also suggests some type of catastrophic activity that produced such a state. 

Is it proper to here insert an idea of the devil sinning from the beginning?  Is it appropriate to here posit the reported fall of Lucifer and his cohorts, as they seem to have entered into a violation of their covenants with the Creator God (sin), with the result of that violation being a world subjected to tohu and bohu?  Is it possible that the author of John views the world through this type of cosmology?  One should dare not become dogmatic in this area, but this could very well account for the insistence that the devil had been sinning from the beginning. 

If this is so, then the creation account of Genesis, which reflects the ordering of the world into a cosmic temple in which the Creator God would rest (which would have fit well within ancient near east mythology and the idea that a temple was the resting place of a god), is the restoration of the world to the state which had been previously established by its Creator, as it had been marred by the first act of covenant unfaithfulness, with this marring carried out by the one now referred to as the devil. 

If this is so, then it becomes possible to gain an even better understanding of the role that is given to Adam.  Why is Adam created?  Why is the one that is called the son of God revealed?  First and foremost, it is to bear the image of the Creator God in and to and for His creation, in proper and loving stewardship of the world.  That was part and parcel of the covenant that the Creator God is said to have made with Adam, with the mark of that covenant being Adam’s obedience in regards to the trees from which he could and could not partake.  Secondly, it is to be in a position to come against and destroy the works of the devil, who, as is revealed in the Genesis account of the activities in the garden, is present in the world.

If this is a reasonable position, then one can see that the author of the letter goes on to write about an ideal situation in which “Everyone who has been fathered by God does not practice sin” (John 3:9a).  Sin, as one must remember in an effort to constantly steer away from thinking about sin as “the bad stuff that I do,” is “being unfaithful to the covenant that is designed to bring glory to the Creator God via man’s participation in his role of stewardship of the creation, and thereby falling short of the Creator God’s intention for man as His image-bearer in and to and for this world.” 

The author goes on to write that the reason those fathered by the Creator God do not practice sin is “because God’s seed resides in him, and thus he is not able to sin, because he has been fathered by God” (3:9b).  This hardly describes Adam, so it should be reiterated that this is an ideal representation, which would then appear to be hyperbolic usage that is designed to point his audience to the uniqueness of the one that is most properly looked to as the Son of God, and to His unbroken faithfulness to God’s covenant.   

Suppression Of Truth (part 3)

Building on what has been said then, not only would glorifying the Creator God have consisted of Adam and Eve (the original image and covenant bearers) following His direct command, but through disobedience they would, apparently for the first time according to the story told in Genesis, fall short of His glory as well (sin), thereby losing the ability to adequately and properly and perfectly reflect the glory of their Creator into the world. 

Though this was supposed to be rectified by the call of Abraham and Israel, this expected rectification would ultimately be left undone until Jesus placed a foot on to the stage of history.  Clearly then, Adam and Eve can be understood to have not been thankful for the responsibility with which they had been charged, nor the exalted position with which they had been blessed.  Continuing to allow an overplay between the first chapter of Romans and the beginning of the Scriptural narrative, with the influence of the serpent, their thoughts did indeed become futile.  It could certainly be said that their thoughts were turned towards themselves and away from that which was their God’s purpose for them. 

It could even be said that the inward turning of thought was the beginning of futility, along with being the beginning of idolatry, as Adam and Eve were convinced to focus on themselves and that which they could gain for themselves (becoming like God, knowing right and wrong), rather than on what their God had done for them and what it was that they were supposed to be doing in and for the world, and for His glorification. 

In consideration of the statement from the Apostle Paul that “their senseless hearts were darkened,” could it not be said that, prior to the ill-fated taking from the tree and the subsequent fall, that they had no sense of nakedness, no sense of shame, no sense of fear, no sense of the knowledge of good and evil, no sense of remorse, and no sense of guilt?  Now and quite unfortunately, following the cataclysmic act of the fall, these senses were all present, having been darkened by the presence of sin---falling short of the glory of the Creator God (bearing His image in and for the world).  The insistence of Scripture is that prior to this paradoxical livening and deadening of their senses, they lived in a conscious state that were devoid of these things, but with what had been done, that condition was darkened by an evil presence. 

Yes, they ate from the tree.  It is said to have been the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  As the story goes, the serpent told them that if they did so, they would become like divine beings.  The serpent said that their eyes would be opened.  The serpent said that they could have power.  Power?  Yes, because they understood the power of their God; and because this tree was connected with knowledge, it could be said that on display here is the first human premonition that knowledge is power, and they wanted it. 

It is said that part of the motivation for taking and eating from the tree was that not only was the fruit “attractive to the eye” (Genesis 3:6b), but that it was also “desirable for making one wise” (3:6c).  Did wisdom come?  What is to be found in the next verse here in Romans?  “Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools” (1:22).  Fools!  What is it that the Scriptures have to say about fools?  The Psalmist writes that “Fools say to themselves, ‘There is no God.’  They sin and commit evil deeds; none of them does what is right” (14:1).  So what one here observes is that Eve first, and then Adam, desiring wisdom but becoming fools.  In essence and effect, as they cast off their right bearing of the divine image, they declarie that “there is no God.”  Is this not what they were truly expressing in their desire to become like gods, beings that know good and evil? 

Suppression Of Truth (part 1)

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of people who suppress the truth by their unrighteousness – Romans 1:18  (NET)

Immediately after speaking of what he understood to be the mysterious and inherent power of the Gospel (the proclamation that Jesus is Lord of all), the Apostle Paul launches into a statement concerning the pouring out of the wrath of the Creator God, and the connection of the pouring out of that wrath to ungodliness and unrighteousness.  Following that lead-in, the remainder of the first chapter of the letter to the Romans is decidedly direct, as Paul, in his writing here, would seem to have in mind certain individuals or groups of people to which his words are directed.  Rather than analyze in an attempt to ascertain to whom or to what situation the words from verse eighteen through thirty-two are directed, it would probably be better to take into consideration the grand narrative of the Scriptures so as to make an appropriate application. 

So in looking at the eighteenth verse, and contemplating the scope of the Scriptural narrative, one could identify the verse with the presumptive parents of the human race, that being Adam and Eve.  Because human beings were made in and as the image of the Creator God, it should be understood that an aspect of godliness is rightly bearing the divine image.  Accordingly, ungodliness could be considered to be the failure to adequately and properly bear the divine image. 

Righteousness is perhaps best defined as “covenant faithfulness” (faithfulness to the covenant, whatever that covenant may be during the course of the Scriptural narrative), and that particular trait is usually and accurately ascribed to the Creator God, though when humans find themselves attaining to righteousness, it can also be said that they are in a state of faithfulness to the particular covenant that is to govern their interactions with their Creator and their fellow man. 

Unrighteousness then, conversely, is a state of not being faithful to the covenant (covenant unfaithfulness).  When Adam and Eve partook of the “forbidden fruit,” in contradiction of their Lord’s command, they were not faithful to the covenant under which they were tasked to operate.  Consequently, they found themselves in a state of unrighteousness.  This resulted in them not being able to completely fulfill the Creator God’s intention for what was understood to be the pinnacle of His creation that bore His image, and was responsible to play the role of reflecting His glory into the world, stewarding the creation, and constantly reminding the creation of the God that was responsible for its existence. 

According to the Genesis narrative, Adam and Eve, having eaten the fruit, now found themselves unable to attain to the reflection of their God’s glory for which they had been created.  Thus, entering into a condition of unrighteousness, they also succumbed to the condition of ungodliness and they fell short of the glory of God.  This is marked out as the beginning of sin.  With this, the indication is that mankind began to lose its right knowledge of the Creator God; and with this presence of the force of sin that marred and distorted the divine image that was supposed to represent and reveal the Creator, one could say, the truth of the Creator God began to be suppressed.   

Nebuchadnezzar's Fall (part 2)

Nebuchadnezzar is said to have engaged in sin, and implored by Daniel to “do right.”  He is further encouraged to break away from his iniquities by showing mercy to the poor.  Here, not only does Daniel provide a rather overt definition of sin and wrong in the eyes of the Creator God, but he is essentially informing the king that he has engaged in the exact same types of activities (calling it sin) that landed the covenant people of which Daniel is part (Judah/Israel) in the position of subservience to Babylon as part of their God’s judgment upon them.  

Nebuchadnezzar, and presumably Israel, were guilty of sin, and the nature of this sin is announced in Nebuchadnezzar being instructed to show mercy to the poor.  Essentially, he was going to experience judgment in much the same way as had Israel, and for much the same reason---failing to live up to covenant obligations, having acknowledged the Creator God of Israel, and presumably having come to an understanding of being raised up by that God for a specific purpose.

So what were the circumstances under which these things that Daniel had told the king were going to take place were brought about?  Well, “he happened to be walking around the battlements of the royal palace of Babylon” and “uttered these words: ‘Is not this the great Babylon that I have built from a royal residence by my own mighty strength and for my majestic honor?’” (4:29-30)  By the way the narrative is constructed, it appears that Nebuchadnezzar had forgotten the dream and Daniel’s warning (or perhaps come to disregard it), as well as His proclamation concerning the signs, might, wonders, kingdom, and authority of Daniel’s God. 

Consequently, the Creator God’s response to this statement is swift, as the author reports that “While these words were still on the king’s lips, a voice came down from heaven: ‘It is hereby announced to you, King Nebuchadnezzar, that your kingdom has been removed from you!  You will be driven from human society, and you will live with the wild animals.  You will be fed grass like oxen, and seven periods of time will pass by for you before you understand that the Most High is ruler over human kingdoms  and gives them to whomever He wishes’.” (4:31-32)  As the God of Israel apparently did not see fit to waste any time in executing this judgment (He was less lenient and patient towards this king than He had been toward His people), we learn that “in that very moment this pronouncement upon Nebuchadnezzar came true” (4:33), being fulfilled completely. 

What’s the point of going through this story?  What is to be learned from it?  Does it merely show forth the power of the Creator God and the effects of human pride?  Of course it does, but it goes beyond that.  This story fits within the scope of the larger and all-encompassing narrative of the Scriptures that serves to reveal the nature and character of the One about whom these Scriptures speak.  For example, there is a tremendous symmetry between this story of the king of Babylon and the that of the tower of Babel. 

Could one not look at the tower of Babel, from the book of Genesis, and see humanity---in the wake of the Creator God’s great proclamation of His own power that had presumably been demonstrated by means of the flood, building their tower and saying “is this not the great tower that we are building by our own strength and for our majestic honor,” doing so in defiance of the Creator God, as they dared Him to send another flood upon the earth?  Naturally, the correlations between this story of Nebuchadnezzar and the story of the Scriptures goes far beyond that.  In fact, it reaches back to the beginning---to the creation.   

Broken The Permanent Treaty (part 2 of 2)

Yet again, Isaiah speaks of the fact that man fades away into death, doing so through employing the imagery of the disappearance of the inhabitants of the earth.  As has been said, the impact of man’s sin (failure to rightly bear the divine image by violating the covenant requirements established by the Creator God) extends beyond himself, reaching the created order, which is why Isaiah insists that “The new wine dries up, the vines shrivel up,” and with terminology that would remind his readers or hearers of the exodus (set in motion by the groaning of Israel in its slavery), and can put readers of the post-Christ era in mind of Romans chapter eight and liberation of the creation, saying “all those who like to celebrate groan” (24:7).          

Bringing an awareness of the Adam and exodus story forward to the time in which he was writing, Isaiah could easily have looked around him, considered what it was that Israel was charged with doing and being under their God’s covenant, and determined that Israel had done the same thing as Adam.  In a sense, Israel was also recapitulating what Egypt had done to them.  Whereas Israel, now representing mankind, was supposed to be the means by which the Creator God revealed Himself, the way in which that God had chosen to deal with the problem of evil in the world, and accordingly functioned as a shining light of the Creator God’s glory to draw all men to Himself and bring them into a right standing with Him under His covenant, they were instead actively engaging in the further defiling of the earth that has begun under the influence of their purported progenitor (Adam). 

Contrary to what was occurring under the watch of His covenant people, the Creator God’s plan, beginning with Abraham, was to reverse the devastation of the curse through those covenant people, but instead they contributed to its ongoing devastation.  Israel, of course, had been given specific laws and ways of living as the covenant people so that they might rightly bear the divine image by their God, yet the recorded history of this people insists that they violated those laws almost unceasingly.  From time to time, their history suggests that Israel would recognize the violations and come to repentance, but for the most part, there was an utter disregard for the regulations that had been delivered to them, especially in the area of caring for orphans and widows. 

Yes, just like Adam, sadly, the Creator God’s people had broken their everlasting covenant, failing to uphold their covenant requirements to represent the Creator to the whole of the creation.  As a result, devastating judgment of cursing and exile would come upon them, with this cursing provided context by the promises of both Deuteronomy twenty-eight and Leviticus twenty-six.  This would occur as an outworking of their God’s faithful justice.  He had brought them into a treaty---an everlasting covenant with Him---and the execution of coming destruction, in according with the aforementioned promises, was the ongoing demonstration of their God’s righteousness (covenant faithfulness) towards His people and towards His creation. 

Ultimately, it would take a Redeemer ---a messiah, for the Creator God Himself, as it would be understood to act in the flesh, returning to His people to repair the treaty and to set His people and this world to rights, doing so through a people who organized their lives according to a new covenant, a renewed Israel, that live in a believing covenantal union with Jesus.          

Renewed (part 3 of 4)

Paul looks forward to a heavenly house, which, in his estimation (as that estimation is based upon his worldview that is now informed by the Resurrection), is a body that is suited for the kingdom of heaven that ultimately is the covenant God’s restored creation.  To that end he writes “after we have put on our heavenly house, we will not be found naked” (2 Corinthians 5:3).  Paul believes that he and other believers will not be without a body (no disembodied post-mortem experience in a faraway place as the final and ultimate hope and destination of those that believe on the Christ), but will rather have the experience of a renewed physicality, as did Christ upon His Resurrection, here in this re-constituted world where Jesus rules as Lord and where the Creator God dwells with His people.

Continuing with this theme, Paul goes on to write “For we groan while we are on this tent, since we are weighed down, because we do not want to be unclothed, but clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life” (5:4).  Once again, there is an ability to correlate the groaning of the believer with the groaning of creation (never forget the exodus undertones when Paul speaks of groaning), as well as the similar groaning that is so carefully detailed in the eighth chapter of Romans.  The believer groans in his tent--- in the perishable body that will run down and decay.  He groans because he looks forward to a body that will never run down and never decay and never die, because the power of sin and death was defeated at the cross and triumphed over in Jesus’ Resurrection.  He groans because of the anticipation of being fully clothed, of being fully human, of properly bearing the image of God as all were designed to do before the great rebellion in which man first realized that he was unclothed. 

Though man was first naked before God before the fall, he was truly clothed; but just as happened to Adam and Eve, there is eventually a realization of being unclothed, desirous of re-gaining, through God’s great victory in Christ, the good creation that existed before the fall.  Not only will that creation be re-gained, and not only will there be a re-gaining of true clothing, but that creation and clothing will be enhanced and made into something truly unknown and glorious, having been experienced by only one person in all of history, because of the awesome power of God that was put forth in the Resurrection.  The believer experiences that power through the preaching and living of the Gospel, by which it is at work in this world, though it is not yet experienced in the fullness of its power.  That day, however, will come.  In that day, what is mortal, what can and will die, will be, as Paul writes, completely “swallowed up by life.”       

     

As he continues his written contemplation of the renewal and restoration that is implied by the Gospel and the Resurrection, Paul writes, “Now the one who prepared us for this very purpose is God” (2 Corinthians 5:5a).  This purpose, by way of reiteration, is being clothed with a “heavenly dwelling,” a renewed body that is suited for an existence in the to-be-consummated kingdom of heaven on earth, not just attaining to heaven.  This purpose is to live beyond despair, and instead, living in the light of that “eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison” (4:17b). 

How has the Creator God prepared His people for this?  Paul says that those that live in allegiance to His kingdom through allegiance to the Christ are prepared because He “gave us the Spirit as a down payment” (5:5b).  That is, the activity of the Holy Spirit, apparently gifting faith and stirring belief in the Gospel and the renewed life to come, is the down payment, or guarantee, of that God accomplishing a final redemption through a thorough and complete rescue from the power of death (spiritually and physically).  In this state of belief, as one believes in the very thing that is the power of God unto salvation, one can trust and experience a foretaste of the power of the Resurrection to come.  

Set Free (part 7 of 7)

In this consideration of table fellowship and the life and freedom of the Spirit-ed people, we can see the Spirit of the Christ at work, as Paul forces us to reflect on the fact that the Spirit of the Christ was shown forth through His own breaking down of ancient barriers and boundaries, as he labored to bring diverse peoples---including people despised and looked down on by the Jews---into and under God’s covenant, based solely upon their relationship to Him (Jesus).  Understanding this then allows one to return to the subject at hand here in Romans, so as to enable a more firm grasp on what is meant when Paul writes, “Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, this person does not belong to Him” (8:9b). 

Following from that, one finds that “if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is your life because of righteousness” (8:10).  Here, Paul seems to affirm that, even though believers share in Christ’s eternal life in the here and now, their bodies will eventually deteriorate and they will die.  This is because of the sin (failure to bear the divine image, covenant violations) that was introduced into the world and still exists primarily as a failure to trust the Creator God and live up to what should attend that trust.  However, because of righteousness, that is, because of the Creator God’s covenant faithfulness, believers have the promise of life.  That Spirit of Christ that the believer has because of the Creator God’s covenant faithfulness is the guarantee that there will come a time of resurrection for each one that is in Christ (believing in Him and confessing allegiance to His claim of Lordship). 

That resurrection is not a dis-embodied existence restricted to an ethereal and heavenly realm (though heaven is one of the believer’s hopes as he or she await a final resurrection), but the resurrection that Paul has in mind is one in a world in which the kingdom of God has been set to work, and which merely awaits its final consummation at which the Creator God sets His creation to rights.  It would appear to be for that reason that Paul goes on to inform his hearers and eventual readers that “Moreover if the Spirit of the One Who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, the One Who raised Christ from the dead will also make your mortal bodies alive through His Spirit Who lives in you” (8:11).  Just as Jesus was raised from the dead so as to walk in this creation, so too will His brethren.  If one desires to be like his Lord, then this is the hope that should take pre-eminence beyond that of heaven. 

There is a great deal of freedom at work here.  Because of the freedom from the exilic failure to be properly human that comes from being outside of God’s covenant, with an escape (exodus) from such through belief in Jesus as Lord, those that are in Christ are set free to be used as agents and ambassadors of the creation-restoring kingdom of God, and are given the immense privilege of being used by God to extend His blessings of renewal, re-creation, restoration, and resurrection with Christ to all peoples.  This occurs as His Resurrection power flows to and through those that call Jesus Lord, as they are used as conduits of His gift of eternal life through the Gospel.    

Set Free (part 4)

Moving along to the fifth verse of Romans’ eighth chapter, it can be read, “For those who live according to the flesh have their outlook shaped by the things of the flesh” (8:5a).  One has to work hard to resist the temptation to turn these statements inward and begin thinking about them in personal terms, thereby turning “things of the flesh” into those things that are generally defined as “sin” based upon nothing more than personal biases, prejudices, and preferences.  Doing this would do damage to Paul’s message and to the message of Christ as a whole.  The “things of the flesh” do not take upon themselves a new constitution as one reaches this statement, but must be understood  in the context already presented. 

That context is the covenant, the law, and the works of the flesh in which a fair amount of the Creator God’s covenant people (at the time of Christ and of Paul’s writing) were engaged for the purpose of separation and the eventual elevation of national Israel over the nations as the establishment of the expected kingdom of their God.  Therefore, when one reads about those who live according to the flesh, and understand that as living according to the works of the flesh (traditions that served as national boundary markers), then it becomes quite simple to understand that their outlook is shaped by the things of the flesh.  For so many, their entire interaction with the world was based upon the specific, nationalistic construct that had been created. 

For Paul, this would appear to stand in sharp contrast with “those who live according to the Spirit,” who “have their outlook shaped by the things of the Spirit” (8:5b).  Those who live according to the Spirit are those, both Jew and Gentile, that have moved beyond the nationalistic boundaries and associated desires, doing so by and through their recognition of, and belief in Jesus as Lord and Christ (Messiah).  This position of belief, as far as Paul sees it, is the result and evidence of the activity of the Holy Spirit---the same Spirit that delivered the power that raised Jesus up from the dead. 

Paul rather often points out that it is this that becomes known as union with Christ that is all-important.  This union with Christ, which is the believing, faithful allegiance to Him because of Who He is as proved by the Resurrection, is the new boundary marker of God’s covenant peoples.  It transcends the flesh (the old boundary markers of the covenant).  Owing to that, the all-important works of the flesh to which Israel has been holding no longer has a place of service in denoting the people of the covenant-making God.  In and through the Christ, there is a worldwide unity of peoples that form the kingdom of Israel’s God, where no division is necessary or even tolerated.  This, of course, can be seen as the fulfillment of the Creator God’s covenant with Abraham to bless all peoples through his (Abraham’s) seed (the Christ, Who can be understood as the faithful Israelite). 

Because this breaking down of all divisions, which reminds the Creator God’s people of the removal of the wall of hostility that separated them from Him, in which all distinctions are erased is such a radical concept for the world of his day (and any day), the people that live inside this new construct are said to live according to the Spirit.  Indeed, Paul insists that it must be the case that their outlook is shaped by the things of the Spirit, with the main thing of the Spirit being the Resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth and His being shown forth as Messiah of Israel and therefore the ruler of the world through the now-inaugurated kingdom of the Creator God.  Since, as Paul presumes, one can only come to believe in such a ridiculous thing (a crucified man, who has been raised from the dead, is the world’s true King) through the powerful working of the Holy Spirit, via a faith that is somehow transmitted and brought about through the preaching of the Gospel, the only conclusion to be reached is that such an outlook, and therefore the responses of life that are dictated by that outlook, are shaped by the Spirit of God.

Set Free (part 2)

The Scriptures tell the story of how the Creator God of Israel wanted to free a family of people beyond national Israel from the effects of sin and death.  However, this could not be accomplished because the law that was meant to help accomplish this thing, and which would have allowed the covenant people to live as lights to the nations (blessed by their God, being a blessing to the world, and causing all peoples to glorify their God) was unable to be kept by those to whom it was given. 

Again, the Scriptural narrative points to the fall and man having lost the ability to be the creature that the Creator had created him to be.  Even when Israel may have sincerely believed that their law was being kept with a rigorous and scrupulous minutiae (or primarily the big three --- circumcision, reverence the sanctuary,  keep the Sabbaths --- were being upheld), in the years following the return from the Babylonian exile, through the time of Christ, this purpose of God for the world through His people was still left unaccomplished, because the intention of the law was being weakened through flesh.  It was not being used as a means of attracting the nations, in full display of the blessings of providence, but instead was being used to keep Israel separate from the nations. 

In that time, by and large as indicated by the historical record of that post-exilic, pre-Christ period, Israel was looking to its own house, looking for its own messiah, its own restoration, its own deliverance from exile through a new exodus, and its own new kingdom through which they would be set above all nations.  They were looking for and expecting their God to act on their behalf, and only on their behalf, so as to set the world right according to their view.  Because of that, the provisions of the law were being used as boundary markers and walls of separation.  Essentially, Israel was unwilling to carry out God’s purpose and plan for the law, which was to magnify Him before all peoples because of the blessings that He would bestow upon His people for their adherence to it.  Instead, they took that which was intended to make them a light to the world and essentially hid it under a basket.     

In Jesus’ day, and no less in Paul’s day, with the law having been turned into a boundary marker that separated Israel from the surrounding nations, Paul insists that the Creator God necessarily and effectively relieved the condemnation for sin which was death, “By sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh” (Romans 8:3b).  Here, we note Paul’s use of “Son of God” terminology, bearing in mind the introduction of his letter, in which he sets forth the Gospel message, writing about the Son “Who was a descendant of David with reference to the flesh, Who was appointed Son-of-God-in-power according to the Holy Spirit by the Resurrection from the dead” (1:3b-4a).  This descent from David, appointment to King-ship (Son of God being a royal, kingly term for Israel’s messiah, and not necessarily the second person of the Trinity), and Resurrection from the dead, therefore showed Him to be “Jesus Christ our Lord” (1:4b).  Better said, He was shown forth to be Jesus, the anointed one of God (Christ/Messiah), Who is now the Lord of all the earth, with all authorities and powers subject to Him. 

Returning to the eighth chapter of Romans, it is found that “concerning sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the righteous requirement of the law may be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit” (8:3b-4).  One must carefully work through Paul’s thought process.  To begin, one is required to get a firm grasp on “sin” as it is here presented.  Sin is that which causes one to be less than fully human.  Sin is that which defeats a human being from bearing God’s image and thus not reflecting His glory into the world.  As has been said, among other things, His own glorification was the Creator God’s intention for those that He created to bear His image, so as to steward and remind the creation of its God at all times.  The law was given to aid His covenant people in this endeavor, but when given this opportunity, Israel failed. 

Set Free (part 1)

For the law of life-giving Spirit in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death. – Romans 8:2  (NET)

The Apostle Paul pens this statement as a follow up to the statement of the first verse of the chapter, where it is read that “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (8:1).  In these two verses, he twice uses the extraordinarily important phrase “in Christ Jesus.”  It is in Christ Jesus, that is, in union with Christ Jesus, which can be summed up as a believing allegiance in Jesus the Christ as Lord of all, which has come about through the preaching of the Gospel (Jesus is Lord of all) that strangely transmits the power of God unto salvation.  That salvation (in its many facets and implications), indeed, is the setting free from the law of sin and death. 

In union with Christ, and therefore being made to share in the restorative, re-creating power of the Resurrection (the in-breaking of the kingdom of heaven), the believer, like Israel from Egypt, is dragged out of his exile from God.  The one who believes in Jesus as Lord is converted, if you will, from being outside of His covenant family, to being inside His covenant family.  This conversion and new covenant status is based on allegiance to Him that is demonstrated through the confession of Jesus the Christ as Lord and Savior.  Outside of the covenant family, one is unable to rightly bear God’s image.  Inside the covenant family, because one is in union with Christ, as demonstrated by calling Him Lord, which is the mark of the renewed covenant people of God, the believer has ultimately overcome the final exilic curse of death, because Christ overcame death. 

In the next verse, Paul goes on to write “For God achieved what the law could not do because it was weakened through the flesh” (8:3a).  Of course, it is understood it was God’s people, Israel, that were given the law.  Why were they given the law?  Ultimately, it was to bring the Creator God glory by rightly bearing His image into the world, which, according to the Scriptural narrative, was the charge laid upon Adam.  This would reflect the glory of the Creator God into the world, gathering up His praises from the whole of the creation.  Israel was given the law as a way to approach that which the Creator God had intended for humanity, but which had been rejected and lost in the fall. 

Unfortunately, at the fall, not only was mankind ejected from off of the path of God’s purpose for the beings that He created in His image, but the power necessary to adequately bear that image and properly steward the creation and shine the light of God’s glory into the world was lost as well.  Owing to their exodus and what accompanied it, Israel was in a better position to fully trust their God than was the rest of humanity, because of what they had seen and experienced at God’s hand owing to the covenant promises that had been made to Abraham, but their story is largely one of a failure to trust.  The covenant people (like Adam in a sense) failed to perform at the level of minimum expectation (no idolatry, reverence the sanctuary, keep the Sabbaths), and thus they failed to bear God’s image in the world. 

The Creator God had intended for His people to be a light to the nations, to illumine the world through the knowledge of the blessings that their God would pour out upon them simply for being people that were faithful to the their covenant responsibilities.  Owing largely to their idolatry (which resulted in their inhumane treatment of one another, according to the prophets) however, and the curses and exile that God brought upon His people---as promised if they succumbed to idolatry---Israel became a people that profaned the name of God.  The nations looked upon Israel’s experience and responded with mocking and ridicule.  Israel was to lead people to the knowledge of the providential, creative, and covenant God, and was to be a source of blessing not just for themselves, but for all the peoples of the world.  The law was to be a tool in their hands for this purpose. 

Solomon's Idolatry (part 2 of 2)

The fact that idolatry was one of the primary  the issue at hand in the tearing away of the kingdom from the line of Solomon, and its eventual division into northern (Israel) and southern (Judah) kingdoms, is reinforced by the message delivered to the man who would become the first king of the northern kingdom of Israel.  The prophet Ahijah speaks to Jeroboam, a man whom Solomon had made a leader of a work crew (11:28) and was thus one of Solomon’s servants, and says, “I am taking the kingdom from him because they have abandoned Me and worshiped the Sidonian goddess Astarte, the Moabite god Chemosh, and the Ammonite god Milcom.  They have not followed My instructions by doing what I approve and obeying My rules and regulations, like Solomon’s father David did” (11:33). 

Furthermore, Jeroboam is told, “I will select you; you will ruler over all you desire to have and you will be king over Israel.  You must obey all I command you to do, follow my instructions, do what I approve, and keep My rules and commandments, like My servant David did.  Then I will be with you and establish for you a lasting dynasty as I did for David; I will give you Israel” (11:37-38).  Naturally and not unexpectedly, following in the well-worn path of politically motivated assassinations that was (according to the Scriptural narrative) traveled heavily by his father, “Solomon tried to kill Jeroboam” (11:40a).    

So with the example of Solomon presumably fresh in his mind, and with the report of the receipt of clear instruction from the Lord through His prophet, what did Jeroboam do?  What was his first act as king of Israel?  “After the king had consulted with his advisers, he made two golden calves.  Then he said to the people, ‘It is too much trouble for you to go up to Jerusalem.  Look, Israel, here are your gods who brought you up from the land of Egypt’.” (12:28)  With this mention of Egypt, not only does he invoke memories of the disaster of the golden calf at Sinai, but couches the introduction of idolatry in the language of exodus, suggesting that Israel’s deliverance from real and potential enemies, and their deliverance from dominance by the tribe of Judah, was and will be connected with their worship of these idols, their newly minted gods. 

Thusly, it appears to be the case that the covenant people of the Creator God rarely ever learn.  With what seems like tremendous irony, it is almost immediately that Jeroboam engages in idolatry, while encouraging the people to do the same.  This is essentially the very thing that Solomon had done, and which had produced the result of Jeroboam becoming king in the first place.  We read, quite plainly, that this action by Jeroboam “caused Israel to sin” (12:30a).  That is, Israel is here reported to have traveled the same path that Solomon (and Adam) had traveled, submitting in worship to that which was created, willingly giving up their image-of-God-bearing-stewardship-over-God’s-creation.  Thereby, it would be impossible for them to fulfill their covenant responsibilities to be lights to the surrounding nations (as Solomon and Israel had been for a time) that would bring glory to their God.            

Reign Of Life (part 3 of 3)

If this is not our hope, then we should stop reading words like “For if we have been united with Him in a death like His, we shall be certainly be united with Him in a Resurrection like His” (6:5).  Will we pass from this earth?  Yes, at some point, this body of death, because of the corruption that is in this world because of sin (failure to bear the divine image and live up to covenant responsibilities), will decay and run down and pass away.  However, we are not overly concerned by this, but take it as a gracious reminder that we have a limited time to serve the Kingdom of the Christ and to effect the preaching of the Gospel.  

God gifts us with eternal life (the life of the age to come, the life of the Spirit that is evidenced by a loyalty to Jesus) that is our union with Christ, and it is this eternal life by which we serve Him as the out-raying of His Kingdom, in expectation that one day, when He finally consummates His Kingdom here on earth and restores His creation yet again, that He will raise us from the dead, just like Jesus, and we would walk in newness of life, just like Jesus, who was the firstfruits and sign of the intentions of Israel’s Creator God.  In the meantime, He uses us as agents of His renewed creation, fulfilling through us the covenant that He made with Abraham (as we are children and so covenant people of Abraham by loyalty to the claims of Jesus’ Lordship), to bless all the families of the earth through spreading the knowledge, and the blessing inherent in that knowledge (the Gospel itself as the power of God unto salvation) of our faithful, covenant God.   

“We know that our old self was crucified with Him” (6:6a), and we claim that as a promise, along with the promise that “if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him” (6:8).  Because we live with Christ, in the faith confession that has us declaring Him as Lord and living accordingly, we live with the knowledge “that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again” (6:9a).  We do not fear death, because we live with Christ, and “death no longer has dominion over Him” (6:9b).  This does not give us a license to live in any way that we please, but to live according to that confession, as “the life He lives He lives to God” (6:10b), doing so by imitation of His faithfulness.

What will this life look like as the eternal life (life as the age to come) as demonstrated by Resurrection power reigns in us?  Paul points us in that direction as he writes, “Do not present your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness” (6:13a).  In that statement, Paul assists us in understanding the true nature of sin, defined as unrighteousness, which is faithlessness to the covenant.  Sin is word and deed that is contrary to our duty to extend His covenant.  Failing to bear the divine image and therefore failing to live up to covenant responsibilities (sin) is that which defeats us from preaching the Gospel, thereby falling short of the extension of God’s glory, which is manifested in His raising another of His chosen from death (for Paul, the old age) to walking in newness of life. 

Unfortunately, we will still sin.  We do not lose heart at that, as we are reminded that we are spirit-ized with the ability to “present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments of righteousness” (6:13b).  In spite of our short-falling, because we are His covenant people, harbingers of the life of the age to come through our continued allegiance to the Christ, He uses us as instruments of righteousness, that is, as instruments by which He shows forth His covenant faithfulness (righteousness).  It is because of that, that Paul informs us that “sin,” and its power of death, “will have no dominion over you” (6:14a), as we are “under grace” (6:14c). 

Reign Of Life (part 2 of 3)

In the twenty-first verse of this chapter, we read that “as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”  Paul is quite emphatic and insistent.  He repeats himself.  He continues to point to the sin of Adam, saying that the evidence of the reign of sin, of faithlessness to God’s covenant and its associated commands, is death.  He adds that the evidence of the reign of grace, the reign of Christ, is eternal life.  That eternal life---the life of the age to come as a member of the covenant people becomes the place of the overlap of heaven and earth, bringing the life of the age to come into the present age---is manifested through the confession of Jesus as Lord and a life that conforms to that confession.

Do we believe it?  Do we truly believe that the Christ reigns in this life, in our lives, in this world?  Do we truly believe that Jesus is Lord, or is it something to which we merely pay lip service so as to avoid the punishment of hell’s fire upon our shaking off of this mortal coil?  If we believe these things, then we must confidently declare that we are being made to share in eternal life in this moment, as these words are read.  If we believe these things, then it is evidence of the Holy Spirit’s working, sharing the power of Christ’s Resurrection, to create the union with Christ that is the belief in and confession of Jesus as Lord and King and Master and Savior and Ruler.  If we believe these things, then we have, participate in, and demonstrate eternal life, and we share that eternal life with this world through our engagement in the proclamation of the Gospel, in the making of disciples, and in all that we do as we do it in the name of the King.

With no arbitrary divisions in the original text, Paul moves seamlessly from the fifth to the sixth chapters of Romans.  There we read, “We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life” (6:4).  So much hope!  So much grace!  Why do we bury that hope, and in the process of that burial, deny the great miracle of Christ’s Resurrection?  The promise is that “just as Christ was raised from the dead…we too might walk in newness of life.”  What does that mean if not what it says?  When we use terms like “just as,” what we are communicating is “in the same way” and “just like.” 

So, just like Christ, in the same way that Christ was raised from the dead, so too will we be raised from the dead.  Just as Christ was completely restored and given a Resurrection body, right here in the midst of God’s creation, so too will each one of us that finds himself or herself as a part of God’s covenant people.  How do we know if we are a part of that group of people?  If we find ourselves saying “Jesus is Lord,” and therefore believing in Christ and the Gospel about Him, then we are part of that group, being moved to that belief through the working of the Holy Spirit, and so evidencing the possession of the faith that is to be possessed by the covenant people, which also stands as evidence of our sharing in eternal life.

A new, resurrected body, in the midst of God’s creation.  That is our hope.  A restoration from the state of futility and corruption to which it was unwillingly and through no fault of its own, but through the fall of the one to whom it was given over in dominion, that is the hope for which the entire creation groans, looking forward to the enjoyment of the same freedom (re-birth, salvation) that is experienced by those who are called the children of God.  If we deny this as God’s intention for His people and His creation, and live in nothing more than an escapist dream in which we do not look forward to a new body in a renewed physicality, but simply speak only of heaven as the place where we will put on immortality and where the perishable puts on the imperishable, then we might as well deny that Christ rose bodily from the grave. 

Law & The Turn Of The Ages (part 2 of 3)

Continuing in his train of thought, and highlighting the struggle of the old age, Paul writes “For I don’t understand what I am doing.  For I do not do what I want---instead, I do what I hate.  But if I do what I don’t want, I agree that the law is good.  But now it is no longer me doing it, but sin that lives in me.  For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh.  For I want to do the good, but I cannot do it.  For I do not do the good I want, but I do the very evil I do not want.  Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer me doing it but sin that lives in me” (7:15-20). 

We must resist the temptation to reductionism, hearing this as Paul’s personal, spiritual experience.  Instead, because Paul operates within a story that shapes his theology, his soteriology, his ecclesiology, his sociology, his politics, his economics, his psychology, his philosophy, and his missiology (though we don’t pretend that these are necessarily separate categories for Paul), we must hear Paul echoing the plaintive cry of all those, prior to the cross and against the powers at work in the old age, that have been called to carry the covenant and to reflect God’s glory into the world. 

Understanding the voice by which he cries, we hear him continue on to say “So, I find the law that when I want to do good, evil is present with me.  For I delight in the law of God in my inner being.  But I see a different law in my members waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that is in my members.  Wretched man that I am!  Who will rescue me from this body of death?” (7:21-24)  The answer, not just for Paul as an individual, but for all that have been called to bear the divine image and to carry the covenant banner, comes with the Christ and the cross, as Paul (as we are continually mindful of who it was that carried the title of Lord, along with the city to which Paul sends this letter) exclaims: “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!  So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin” (7:25). 

The true self, which is the true human being of a renewed humanity animated by the Spirit of God, has come to life with Christ in the new age of the Spirit, in which the true law of God (love and sacrifice as manifested by Jesus) is served.  The flesh of the old age died with Christ on the cross.  This epic struggle, though it may not always appear to be the case, has now been set right in the new age of life in the Spirit, which, among other things, does away with the law and its covenant boundaries and creates a united humanity as a new family of God, capable of rightly bearing the divine image and of reflecting the glory of God into the world.  As we attempt to understand the various components of Paul’s thinking, picking apart various statements so as to gain an appreciation of Paul’s insights into what is accomplished by the work of God in Christ, we do not lose sight of the bigger picture that is being conveyed to the body of believers, which is the wholesale unity of those believers under one Lord as they serve as ambassadors of the kingdom of God.

This brief foray into the seventh chapter, as we have continued to find Paul encouraging a unified family of God, facilitates a more nuanced (and perhaps better appreciated) understanding of what can be found in the eighth chapter.  While we consider the over-riding corporate (people of God) application as opposed to the individual (person of God) application of Paul’s communication, along with Paul’s giving voice to the failed covenant bearers from the beginning, the contrasting presentation of the ways of the old age versus that of the new age allows us to make eminently more sense of “For those who live according to the flesh have their outlook shaped by the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit have their outlook shaped by the things of the Spirit.  For the outlook of the flesh is death, but the outlook of the Spirit is life and peace, because the outlook of the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to the law of God, nor is it able to do so.  Those who are in the flesh cannot please God” (8:5-8). 

With this being said and now better understood, we again hear Paul addressing the congregation, saying “You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you” (8:9a).  What will be the evidence that the Spirit of God is living in them corporately?  One such piece of evidence will be the lack of any division between Jew and Gentile.  Those who want to continue to maintain these divisions, continuing to insist on adherence to certain traditional provisions as marks of justification (covenant participation), rather than recognizing belief in Jesus as the sole necessity for covenant participation (justification), and thus perpetuate a divided humanity (and ultimately a fractured messianic banqueting table) are those that maintain the outlook of the flesh.  Those that rightly embrace the sole covenant provision that brings and indicates justification, are those that have the outlook of the Spirit, and are participants in the kingdom of God (life and peace).  Consequently, “if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, this person does not belong to Him” (8:9b).  Those that want to hold to old covenant markers (old age/flesh/death) do not participate in the kingdom whose head is Christ the Lord.   

Law & The Turn Of The Ages (part 1 of 2)

When we consider the opening of the eighth chapter of Romans, we are eventually and necessarily forced to make a regression into chapter seven, as the letter is a continuous narrative and flow of interconnected thoughts.  In the first verse of the eighth chapter, and in his highly important continuation of the narrative construct of the letter, Paul picks up on that which effectively closes out the movement of the fifth chapter (5:18-19), while also folding in the union with Christ theme that can be seen in the sixth chapter and writes “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (8:1).  With what comes in verses three and four, Paul emphasizes the contrast between the old age (flesh) and the new age (spirit)---the old age prior to the Christ-event in which Jew and Gentile were separated by covenant boundaries (law) and the new age after the Christ-event in which Jew and Gentile are joined together as the family of God and in union with Christ, writing “For God achieved what the law could not do” (8:3a). 

What could the law not do?  It could not generate a covenant family of divine image-bearers to represent the Creator God throughout the whole of His creation.  Why could it not do this?  Because it had enemies and adversaries.  “Because it was weakened through the flesh” (8:3b).  It was weakened by that which marked the old age, which was sin and death. 

Indeed, relying on chapter seven of Romans, it was weakened through distinctly non-divine-image-bearing characteristics such as covetousness (7:9).  Certainly, if one is consumed by covetousness, one can hardly be in a position to embody the cross of Christ in and for the world through self-sacrifice and preference of others.  The law and its commandments, which Paul believes to be “holy, righteous, and good” (7:12b), when placed in human hands, were simply overwhelmed by the powers at work in the world, that had not yet been conquered by the cross and the Resurrection.  Their application led to the division of humanity in a way that was far afield of God’s intentions for those created in His image and those that were tasked to carry His covenant.  In Jesus, and in God’s covenant faithfulness therein represented, this division is dismissed.  As a new Adam, Jesus marks a new beginning for a new type of people---those that are animated by the Spirit, which is the power of the Resurrection in the world in which the kingdom of God is a reality.    

This struggle in the old age, even with the law and its commandments as a guide to proper image-bearing, which was perhaps intended to be a sign-post (much like the ministry of Jesus and His church following Him) of the in-breaking of the always-expected age of God’s proper rule over creation, is well-articulated by Paul’s famous and much-debated words in chapter seven of Romans.  He writes “For we know that the law is spiritual” (7:14a).  That is, the law is related to the new age and expectation of God’s kingdom and God’s rule (age of the empowering Spirit), “but I am unspiritual, sold into slavery to sin” (7:14b). 

Paul, speaking on behalf of and embodying all those that had failed to rightly bear the covenant (from Adam to Israel), indicates that the law is wholly unsuited to the people of the old age (people of the flesh).  This, of course, is a component of Paul’s ongoing insistence that the law has been put aside by the grace of God, especially in light of the use of the law to create boundaries around covenant participation, in a manner that was antithetical to God’s ultimate purposes, which was the redemption of all of humanity and all of His creation, rather than just one particular group of privileged people.  Whatever stands in the way of creating a single family of God---a new humanity, must be set aside, with the life of Jesus, as He represents and acts out God’s covenant faithfulness, the new law of life.  Those who believe in Jesus are to be like Him as they take up the command to “present yourselves to God as those who are alive from the dead and your members to God as instruments to be used for righteousness” (6:13b).  As Jesus was (and is), so is His church called to be and to do.   

Table Of The Justified (part 5 of 6)

Though it is always tempting to allow a stream of thought to reach its conclusion simply because we have reached the end of a chapter, we have to continue on in to chapter fifteen of Romans in order to hear Paul continuing to work out the implications of meal table practices that were quite vital to the communities of Jesus believers (as indicated by Acts 15, Galatians 2, 1 Corinthians 11, and Romans 14, to point to a few New Testament Scriptures).  We do so in full cognition of the fact that the meal table provided a working picture of the justified community, comprised of Jewish and Gentile believers in equal standing before God because of their faith in the Gospel. 

So after Paul insists that whatever is not performed in accordance with the faith (like that of Abraham) that shows itself forth in an unswerving loyalty to the way of being human that bears out the image of the God revealed by Jesus (in imitation of Jesus as He interacts with His world) is sin (failure to bear the divine image, or to fall short of the glory of God, as God’s intent for humanity/Abraham/Israel/Jesus/Church is to reflect His glory into the world), Paul writes “But we who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak, and not just please ourselves” (15:1).  This is the epitome of self-sacrificial love.  Indeed, Paul’s call, in accordance with the Gospel is “Let each of us please his neighbor for his good to build him up” (15:2), which, though it may not be intentional in the least (and thought it may stretch the boundaries of possibility and analogy) to be a faint echo of the Jesus tradition’s parable of the “good Samaritan,” in which the question posed by Jesus, at the conclusion of the story, which comes in answer to the “who is my neighbor” posed to Him prior to His telling of the story, was “who acted as a neighbor” to the one in need.  Indeed, we can line up the parable with this verse and ask: “Who did good?  Who built up his neighbor?” 

We do not want to get pulled too far aside into speculation about the possibilities of allusions to stories from what would have then been the oral Jesus tradition, but it is interesting that verse three has Paul making reference to Jesus as he writes “For even Christ did not please Himself, but just as it is written, ‘The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me.’” (15:3)  Clearly, there is something in his thoughts, as he writes what would come to be designated as verses one and two of chapter fifteen, that has put Paul in mind of Jesus, and talk of neighborliness seems as likely as anything else.  With this mention of Christ, Paul quotes from the sixty-ninth Psalm.  With this quotation, he makes Jesus, or more specifically, the Messiah, the referent of the Psalm, and he does so in the course of instructions concerning the way that those that believe in Jesus---those that are the Temple of God, the house of God, by the Holy Spirit---are to function, as neighbors. 

More directly, this quotation comes in the course of talk about food and table fellowship, which is of vital concern to Paul (remember, controversies concerning the dietary practice of Gentile believers prompted a determinative conference in Jerusalem).  This does not surprise us at all, as we consider the words of the Psalm in their context, with Romans fourteen and the first few verse of chapter fifteen firmly in  mind: “Let none who rely on You be disgraced because of me, O sovereign Lord and King!  Let none who seek You be ashamed because of me, O God of Israel!  For I suffer humiliation for your sake and am thoroughly disgraced.  My own brothers treat me like a stranger; they act as if I was a foreigner.  Certainly zeal for your house consumes me; I endure the insults of those who insult you.  I weep and refrain from eating food, which causes others to insult me” (Psalm 69:6-10a). 

Self abnegation, suffering for the sake of others, talk of brothers, foreigners, the house of God, and food causes this Psalm to fit nicely alongside this portion of Romans, well-informing the believing community as to what is expected of its members as they endeavor to take up the cross of Christ in and for the world.  Having quoted from the Psalms, Paul punctuates his quotation with “For everything that was written in former times was written for our instruction, so that through endurance and through encouragement of the Scriptures we may have hope” (15:4).  Clearly, Paul finds confirmation of his vision of the ideals of the kingdom of God painted on page after page of Scripture.

Spirit & Flesh (part 1 of 2)

Coming alongside the Galatian congregation so as to listen in as Paul’s letter is read to them, we hear “We are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners, yet we know that no one is justified by the works of the law but by the faithfulness of Jesus Christ.  And we have come to believe in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by the faithfulness of Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.  But if while seeking to be justified in Christ we ourselves have also been found to be sinners, is Christ then one who encourages sin?  Absolutely not!  But if I build up again those things I once destroyed,” which would be the covenant markers that served as barriers between Jew and Gentile, that were used to exclude Gentiles from the covenant rather than being used to reveal the Creator God, and stood in the way of God’s people fulfilling His purposes for them and for the world, “I demonstrate that I am one who breaks God’s law” (2:15-18). 

What law does Paul here have in mind that is being flouted and broken by this separating activity and all that it implies?  Though it will not be on offer for a few more chapters, what we can confidently assert that Paul has in mind is “Carry one another’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ” (6:2).  Surely, the actions of Peter and those that were carried away by his hypocrisy does not live up to this ideal.     

Predictably, the conclusion Paul draws from this has him saying “I do not set aside God’s grace, because if righteousness,” that is, the right standing with God that results from being justified (included in the people of God based on belief in Jesus and His ultimate faithfulness to God’s purposes as He stood in for Israel and for all of humanity, experiencing the ultimate curse of death and subsequently overcoming that curse), “could come through the law,” or if the status of justified could be attained by all peoples through the adherence to the old covenant markers, “then Christ died for nothing!” (2:21) 

Clearly, Paul has reflected on the actions of Peter and other members of the church at Antioch (earlier in the letter) for a specific purpose.  The members of the congregation of Christ-followers in Galatia were behaving in similar ways (separating from Gentiles at the meal table), operating with similar thoughts, and allowing a similar message in regards to the necessity of the old covenant markers to be promulgated.  Paul cannot abide this, especially considering the fact that he firmly believes that such teaching and actions, the thinking that undergirds said teaching and actions, and what results from such teaching and actions, results in the dismissal of the death of Christ.  If the death of Christ is emptied of its value, then the Resurrection also is emptied of its value, the new creation has not begun, there is no kingdom of God in existence, Jesus is not the Lord of all to whom all must submit, there is no Gospel message, God is not faithful to His promises, the history of Israel has been nothing more than a pointless exercise in futility, all his labor has been done in vain, and death wins. 

Considering that, Paul’s response to the Galatians is quite predictable.  He writes “You foolish Galatians!  Who has cast a spell on you?  Before your eyes Jesus Christ was vividly portrayed as crucified!  The only thing I want to learn from you is this: Did you receive the Spirit by doing the works of the law or be believing what you heard?” (3:1-2)  Paul asks them if they are participating in the new creation (Spirit is often Paul’s shorthand for the age of new creation and that which attends it, just as “flesh” is often Paul’s shorthand for the old age, though Spirit can and should be here understood as the work of the Spirit of God to convince them that a crucified and resurrected Man was now Lord of all) via their belief in Jesus as Lord (the Gospel) or via their adherence to the old covenant markers?  He continues with, “Are you so foolish?  Although you began with the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by human effort?” (3:3)  This is another contrast between the new covenant marker and the old covenant markers. 

Maintaining his thoughts along the same lines, we go on to hear Paul ask “Have you suffered so many things for nothing?---if indeed it was for nothing” (3:4).  This suffering may have been the social ostracizing that they would have experienced outside the church because of the new demands placed on them by their oath of loyalty to Jesus and the new way of living that it demanded (rejection of civic activities in honor of the gods, the Caesar, or the empire, and therefore being perceived as contributors to disunity, disorder, and disharmony, which could also lead to an inability to access food and various public goods).  He also asks, “Does God then give you the Spirit and work miracles among you,” which, within the context provided, is the inclusion of Gentiles within the fold of the covenant people, with walls of separation between Jew and Gentile eliminated in a way that would see them openly and freely sharing meal tables without division---a miracle indeed, especially in a world that divided itself along a number of lines “by doing the works of the law or by your believing what you heard?” (3:4-5)