EPHESIANS: Family Membership

The book of Ephesians is going to bring up topics that will run consistently in line with previous discussions we’ve had with Paul. The letter will open with more references to predestination, and Paul will speak in chapter three of his special revelation that he preaches in his gospel. You might remember the conversation within the book of Galatians where Paul was adamant that he did not receive his gospel from the teachings of men, but he received it directly from Jesus. Listen to his similar words to the Ephesians:

For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles—

Surely you have heard about the administration of God’s grace that was given to me for you, that is, the mystery made known to me by revelation, as I have already written briefly. In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to people in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God’s holy apostles and prophets.This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.

Paul says he has received a “mystery made known to [him] by revelation, … that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.” This not only finds itself to be completely consistent with Paul’s message, but as we’ve pointed out before, continues the main thrust behind so much of the New Testament (even outside Pauline literature).

It also serves as a good transition to talk about the unique message and flavor of the letter to the Ephesians. These Gentiles have become full members of one body and fellow heirs with Israel. This will be Paul’s primary argument through the first half of Ephesians. If we pay close attention to the pronouns of Ephesians 1–3, we’ll begin to notice what Paul is saying to the Ephesian church. Look at how Paul opens his letter:

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.

Paul starts his letter by — as usual — recognizing the origins of the story of God that lie within the Jewish people. This one narrative God has been telling began with God choosing a partner in Abraham, shaping a nation in the desert, and calling them to live at the crossroads of the earth as a kingdom of priests. As we mentioned in Romans, this is their story to tell.

This will become even more clear in the next statement:

In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory.

Who were “the first to put [their] hope in Christ”? The Jews. But after making this observation about his Jewish brethren, Paul will shift his use of pronouns. Watch:

And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.

This will become the theme of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians — a theme of family membership. His message is simple, but profound, and hard for many in his day to accept. In Christ, these Gentiles now have a place to belong — not as outsiders, but as insiders. Look at what Paul will say later at the beginning of chapter two and notice his use of pronouns and their implications:

As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

It sounds as if Paul has taken a page right out of Romans. “Where, then, is boasting?” he had asked. He also uses the same argument about all of us having given in to the “cravings of our flesh” (sarx) and, just like in Romans, if this is true for all of us, then this gift of salvation comes as a free gift of grace and no one will find themselves able to boast.

Paul continues:

Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called “uncircumcised” by those who call themselves “the circumcision” (which is done in the body by human hands)—remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.

Paul says these Gentiles used to find themselves separated from the people of God. They were excluded from citizenship in Israel and were strangers to the covenant. But Jesus has changed all that and brought them near. In Jesus, God tore down any sense of division that resided between the groups and allowed the Gentiles to enter. From this new truth, God has created a “new humanity” (which is a great translation from the Greek) that is able to put on display the reconciliation of God.

But Paul isn’t done talking about family membership:

Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.

What fantastic news for all of Paul’s Gentile readers in Ephesus!

Paul will spend the last half of the letter applying what this means to the believers in Ephesus. If this gospel is true — this announcement of a new King (Jesus) and a new Kingdom (the new humanity) — then there is a new way the believers in Ephesus should live. In chapters 4–6, you will see Paul draw this out by calling the people of God in Ephesus to walk in the light and love others in a way that the world will see this gospel displayed. He will talk about a practical and more literal family membership in the ways people treat their spouses, their children, their parents, and everyone else in their households (that is, master and slave relationships). All of this will take into account the brilliant context of Ephesus.

Speaking of context, one should keep in mind as they read the passages about husbands and wives that Ephesus served as the neochorus for Artemis — the Roman goddess of sexual fertility (and the reader might be familiar with the riot in Ephesus [Acts 19] and the people shouting, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!”). As we saw in Corinth, this is going to play into the way Paul tells the men and women of Ephesus to conduct themselves. He says they are to live counter to the culture. In a world where women like to disrespect their husbands and flaunt their mythology and goddess worship, Paul tells them to submit to each other. In the context of Ephesus, it makes sense that Paul would make special mention of the wives, not because it is the “wifely role” to submit to the husband, but because in Ephesus it’s more important than ever.

One of my favorite passages comes in the middle of this conversation and is built around the context of the annual Artemisian festival held in Ephesus. Every year, at the festival of Artemis, the people would parade the statue from the Artemisan temple (one of the ‘Eight Wonders of the World’) down to the harbor. Once at the harbor, the Artemisian priests would wash the statue with water and begin the slow ascent back to the temple of Artemis. This procession would inaugurate a festival of sexual frivolity and debauchery that was rivaled by few festivals in the empire.

Consider this context as you read Paul’s words from chapter 5:

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.

If this “family of God” in Ephesus is going to tell the world what God is like, they are going to need to love and submit to each other in a unique way. In the same way, if we wish to have anything to say to the world around us, we are going to have to find it within ourselves to pursue this “new humanity” that shows unity and love and service to those who were once far off.

It will be a battle. May Paul’s prayer be ours:

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people. Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.

ROMANS: Beautiful Feet

This message from Paul about a Potter and His clay is tough to wrestle with when you find yourself sitting on “the inside” of the conversation. But Paul also wants to be crystal clear that this is not some wholesale rejection of God’s partners who struggle with the purposes and intentions of God — far from it. Paul longs for God’s people to fully understand what God has been up to from the beginning.

Brothers and sisters, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved. For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. Since they did not know the righteousness of God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. Christ is the culmination of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.

Paul says the Jewish people have an incredible zeal for God and a tenacious commitment to follow after Him. It is actually this zeal that has the tendency to provide distraction, for while they attempt to follow God so passionately, they can find themselves trying to establish a righteousness of their own — something Paul spoke about in the opening chapters of Romans. Paul reminds the readers that Jesus is the culmination of the law — he is the very fulfillment of the law, and he shows us that this righteousness from God is for anyone who is willing to have faith.

Moses writes this about the righteousness that is by the law: “The person who does these things will live by them.” But the righteousness that is by faith says: “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ down) “or ‘Who will descend into the deep?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).

People who live by the Law (please note, not “under the law”) find life when they walk in obedience to God’s commands. (The exact same point was made by Paul in Galatians, as you might remember.) However, Paul uses Deuteronomy to remind them not to be deceived into thinking that righteousness is this complicated thing that must be parsed and explained and assisted. No, it is something we have on our lips and written in our hearts.

But what does it say? “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,” that is, the message concerning faith that we proclaim: If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.

Paul says this message is already in our mouths and hearts. Paul then rips off a first-century imperial propaganda slogan to express the message of the gospel. Rome had a saying for whenever Caesar was about to go on one of his bread and circus stunts. “Bread and circus” was a public relations effort by the Empire to build allegiance to Caesar and his throne. Caesar would go throughout the empire and with great public pomp (aka circus) and would give away bread and blessing to the people of Rome. The saying would be circulated throughout the empire: “If you proclaim with your mouth that Caesar is Lord, you will be saved.” The message was clear: If you give your allegiance to Rome, you will benefit from Caesar’s kingdom; if you do not… well, all bets are off.

Paul says we have a message we proclaim about God’s Kingdom. If we declare with our mouth that “Jesus is Lord!” and believe in our heart the truth and promises of resurrection, then we will be saved. Paul says this message is not complicated, but something we understand. Paul then makes a distinction between the heart and the mouth. While the mouth is obviously about proclamation, the “heart,” in a Jewish sense, is about our will and obedience. Paul says this message is about the union of our statements and behavior.

As Scripture says, “Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.” For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

Still working off of the remez mentioned previously, Paul says this same belief/faith/trust is available for any person — Jew or Gentile. If they have this authentic belief, they will respond with their own professions and obedience. Their salvation will not be denied them.

How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”

However, how will they ever make sense of this faith unless those who are rich in faith are sent to tell them? Paul calls on his Jewish brethren to take ownership of the story to which they are ambassadors. He calls them to take hold of God’s amazing grace and glorious plan and become heralds of this good news to the Gentiles — to go and invite them in! And just for some Textual icing on the cake, Paul then quotes Isaiah 52, a passage which speaks about Israel learning her lesson in captivity and hearing about the goodness and greatness of their God. (It’s incredibly fitting!) The Isaiah passage ends with a description of “all the nations” seeing the salvation of God and His plan being laid bare to the “ends of the earth.” Brilliant!

The takeaway is that it is crucial for God’s people to accept the story God wants to tell and not the version of the story they hope He tells. It is important that we understand God is not simply working with a chosen and redeemed group of people so they would be “more right” than everybody else. No, instead, God has put this awareness in the hearts of all of mankind and it is His people’s privilege, honor, and calling to go and spread the word — to make His mercy known to the very ends of the earth!

But sometimes it is hard to go and spread the Good News that we long to keep for ourselves.

ROMANS: According to the Spirit

“For it is not through a standard of morality or a system of rules that we will ever experience freedom from the struggle Paul describes, a struggle you and I know all too well. No, it is only through trusting in the promises of God, following in the example of the Christ, and displaying the faith of Jesus that we find a unique kind of victory and freedom — a life where this ongoing struggle does not lead to condemnation.

“Wouldn’t that be nice? Wouldn’t it be great if this struggle with our sarx didn’t always end with our own guilt and shame and the weight of the cry of rescue from our wretched selves?”

These were the closing words of our last conversation. And in fact, not only would it be nice, but according to Paul, it’s actually the way it really is. Paul tells us this struggle does not lead to condemnation, because if the promises of God — which we looked at earlier — are true, then there isn’t anything to hang over our heads.

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

This is actually the very promise we trust in when we trust the story. By witnessing the life of Jesus, we see the unadulterated love of God made flesh. His life showed us many things about the flesh: It showed us how to live with victory over the flesh; it showed us what really matters in God’s economy and what doesn’t. And his life even showed us an awful lot about God. It showed us God is not angry, full of wrath and judgment; instead, this God is full of love and recklessly pursues the outsider, the unloved, and the screwed up.

If we believe this to be true — if we have faith and trust in these promises — then we are set free from any cloud of condemnation (self-imposed or otherwise). This freedom allows us to see things and call things what they are and walk in truth.

For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

It’s what we set our minds on that seems to make all the difference in the world. If we set our minds on the things of our sarx (our animal appetites and our beast-like nature), then we reap that paycheck of death. However, if we set our minds on the things that are most true about us, it sets us free to lay down our lives for others. Our lives become a practice of self-sacrifice instead of self-preservation. It is this self-sacrifice that pleases God, not because of His system of rules, but because it’s who He is.

You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

It is this very truth of Christ that gives life to our mortal bodies, which seem to be driven by the sarx. It is the power of the resurrected Christ that takes something which seems so dead and breathes so much life into it.

So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 

Paul says that because of this truth we are debtors; by this term he speaks primarily of being bound up in relationship. In our culture, we see debt through the lens of bondage and slavery. While this was true in some ways in the world of Rome, debt created much more of a covenantal and relational connection. Paul is saying we are all bound up in a relationship as a debtor. And yet he also wants it to be clear, it is not a relationship of harsh slavery.

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

Paul says God would not have given this Spirit for the purpose of slavery, but the purpose of sonship. It is this relationship with the Father, this debtor-patriarch relationship, that paves the way for our adoption. I think of how we spoke in Galatians about being adopted into the family of God as children of Abraham. Paul says it is this Spirit of God, this way of love and forgiveness, this free gift of grace that allows us to be adopted into the family as daughters and sons. (While in Galatians we were speaking of Gentiles, here in Romans I think he speaks of Jew and Gentile alike.)

But Paul also speaks of suffering being a necessity in our walk with the LORD... 

ROMANS: the Struggle

And now we come to one of those famous passages we often use to explain some of those assumptions we’ve been questioning throughout this series. Many will go to this passage — the “struggle with sin” Paul describes in Romans 7 — and use it to argue against some of my suggestions about the essence of mankind and our “sinful nature.” But before we jump to too many conclusions, let’s take this passage chunk by chunk and see what we hear from Paul.

What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.”

We pick up in this passage with Paul talking about one of the nagging questions we’ve been dealing with in the New Testament. Isn’t Paul arguing that the Law of Moses has died, and that we have thrown it out into the refuse pile and exchanged it for a better truth? I have been arguing adamantly for a more historically appropriate understanding of the “works of the Law” or the miqsat ma’asay haTorah. And here is one place where we see Paul communicating the same concept he’s talked about in the book of Galatians and earlier in Romans. The Law is not problematic; the Law is not done away with. On the contrary, without the Law, we would never have been able to learn and appreciate an understanding of righteousness and sin — the way of life and the way of death. It is the Law which gave God’s people a place to begin the conversation of what it means to partner with God.

But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.

However, once this knowledge is possessed by the student of Torah, there is this “beast-nature” in him (that we learned about in Genesis 2–3). This part of Paul (and all of us) goes to work and begins to tempt the follower of God toward the trespass. Paul reiterates this is not the fault of the Law, for the commandment itself is holy and good. It is the part of us that needs to be mastered which begins to rear up and kick in rebellion.

But someone might say that even though the Law was good, it still brought about the sin we struggle with, so God never should have given it in the first place! Paul has anticipated our thoughts once again:

Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin.

Paul very clearly says it is not the Law and the knowledge of the Law that is the problem. It is an intruder that does not belong in us. It is the sin in us (something Paul will reiterate in just a moment). Please notice the way Paul talks about “sin.” It is in us and doing a work in us, but it is an intruder — it is not the truest true of who we are.

Paul says the Law is “of the spirit” — it is good and holy — but we are “of the flesh.” This is not some form of Gnostic dualism (something the whole book of Colossians will speak against), but a reference to two different natures that are in a struggle. While the Law is of God, we are “sold under sin” and find ourselves subject to the “flesh” (some translations will read “carnal”). The word being used in many of these conversations in the New Testament comes from the Greek root word sarx.

Sarx is a word that refers to our “beast-like nature” or our “animal appetites.” Many translations will often render the word as “sinful nature,” which is not at all what the word is trying to communicate — at least not as we understand the idea. Our “sinful nature” is not the result of original sin or the state of our depravity. Simply translated, the sarx is the animal appetites we were told about all the way back in the beginning of the story. In Genesis, we talked about what it meant to be made in the “image of God” and how the rabbis spoke of the fact that we are more than animals. What makes us different from the beasts is our ability to “know when to say enough.” Adam was warned, Eve was warned, and Cain was directly told that his task would be to master this part of himself — what we would later call in Greek, the sarx.

Listen to Paul describe this very battle:

For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

As we listen to Paul, notice that his words do not describe what we teach in the theology of depravity or original sin. Paul says he does not do what he wants to do, but he does the very thing he hates. If Paul is depraved or full of original sin, then he should NOT want to do those things. But in fact, he does. Why? Because that is his true self. He will go on to say, “if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.”

Sin is the intruder, the part of us that is not true to who we really are. We are children of God, made in His image; we are so much more than mere beasts. And we are more than just tainted pieces of filth totally given to our selfishness and sinfulness. The sin is in us, but it is not us.

And yet, the battle is so very real! This is what it means to be human, to be running after God and letting Him teach us what it means to be fully human, full image-bearers, able to join God in His redemptive work by choosing when to say enough.

So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 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.

And so again, we find Paul is not teaching some form of dualism — as if he longs to be rescued from his physical body. Again, he speaks of his sarx. He longs to be rescued from the struggle within his whole self. He serves God with his mind and will, but his “beast-nature” is still at work within him, serving the law of sin. But Paul rejoices that the life and death of Jesus has shown him a better way.

For it is not through a standard of morality or a system of rules that we will ever experience freedom from the struggle Paul describes, a struggle you and I know all too well. No, it is only through trusting in the promises of God, following in the example of the Christ, and displaying the faith of Jesus that we find a unique kind of victory and freedom — a life where this ongoing struggle does not lead to condemnation.

Wouldn’t that be nice? Wouldn’t it be great if this struggle with our sarx didn’t always end with our own guilt and shame and the weight of the cry of rescue from our wretched selves? We pick up with this very hope in Romans 8.

ROMANS: A Dead Husband

In a very similar fashion to the book of Galatians, Paul begins to explain his theological premise “in human terms” and use an experience from their everyday context:

I am using an example from everyday life because of your human limitations. Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness. When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Paul realizes the limitations of his metaphor (is slavery really the best way to understand our relationship with God?), and yet he also understands the metaphor’s ability to speak in the context of first-century Rome. We could certainly expand on this idea, but it would be beyond the scope of our work. Suffice it to say most scholars estimate that one out of every three people in the Roman empire were under some form of slavery.

Paul says when we live under fear and insecurity and the constant awareness of not “measuring up,” it is like being a slave to a horrible taskmaster. He asks, what benefit did you reap at that time…? Those things result in death! Paul continues to use this idea of working and wages, an idea started in chapter four, and it will culminate in Paul’s discussion here. It is in this very context our famous prooftext appears (“For the wages of sin is death…”). It becomes clear how often we rip that verse completely out of context and use it for purposes never intended by Paul.

Paul’s case is that when we live according to the lie of sin, the only thing we get in return is death. The paycheck earned at the end of a hard workday in the world of sin is paid from the Order of Death. But Paul has just finished saying we died to that old way of thinking! We don’t work for that old slave driver anymore! We have been raised to walk in a fresh, new light and with a new understanding — God desires to give us a gift, not a paycheck. This free gift is eternal life! This gift is accessible to all.

To make sure we understand that this slave nature — this old slave driver called Sin — has been put to death, Paul uses an additional example from their context:

Do you not know, brothers and sisters—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law has authority over someone only as long as that person lives? For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law that binds her to him. So then, if she has sexual relations with another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not an adulteress if she marries another man.

So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. For when we were in the realm of the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in us, so that we bore fruit for death. But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.

Paul says when a woman is married, she is bound to her husband legally, but when that husband dies, she is no longer legally bound. In very similar fashion to the taskmaster analogy, Paul says that old “husband” we were married to is dead. We are not bound to him anymore; we are free to marry a new husband. Of course, how silly it would be to try to be married to two husbands — one who is alive and another who is dead!

It is this old way of thinking — a way of thinking that says we have to work for our justification — which led to our sinful behavior. It’s an understanding built on fear. Whether we are a bunch of pagans who are afraid we might not experience all life has to offer, so we build ourselves up to be gods; whether we are “good people” who recognize a certain standard for morality; or whether we are deeply religious people who have been entrusted with the Law — if we think we are in need of meeting some standard of righteousness, it is this very standard that bears witness against us, reminding us we are not enough. It is this fear that drives us to a pervasive sinfulness (or at least an awareness of it).

But we have to let that way of thinking die.

Again, it will be important for us to realize that when Paul says these Jews (clearly Paul’s audience, again made obvious by the reference in the first line above) “died to the Law,” he is not saying they stopped observing the Law. What he is saying is that they stopped trying to find their justification in observing the Law, which was Paul’s argument back in chapter three. It’s the only interpretation consistent with Paul’s current argument, New Testament application, and Pauline theology as seen in the other letters.

But of course, as Paul usually does, he’s anticipated our question and is headed there next.

ROMANS: Trusting in the Promises of God

Now that Paul has suggested righteousness comes from faith, apart from observing the miqsat ma’asay haTorah, he needs to be able to make this case from the Torah and show this is the case in the Scriptures, not just a new idea. In the same fashion as Galatians, Paul turns to the the “father of faith” and where the story began, with the story of Abraham.

What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, discovered in this matter? If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about—but not before God. What does Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”

Now to the one who works, wages are not credited as a gift but as an obligation. However, to the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness.

Paul says Abraham knew this inherent truth to be true in his own walk of righteousness. Paul states that if Abraham earned his justification from his works, he would be able to boast. It is here where Paul begins using a metaphor based on labor and wage. When a person works, they get a paycheck. If Abraham was justified because of his works, then he earned the justification and he would be able to boast in his successful campaign to work for justification. Paul then says if a person simply trusts in the promises of God, that trust (faith) is “credited” to them as righteousness. The term credited can also be rendered as “reckoned” and refers to a settling of books.

Paul is working off of the same verse in Genesis 15 he used with the Galatians. Genesis told us Abraham had faith and it was reckoned to his account as righteousness. He believed he was accepted by God and was a member of God’s family by promise — that faith in the promise was just as effectual as if he had walked righteously.

Is this blessedness only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? We have been saying that Abraham’s faith was credited to him as righteousness. Under what circumstances was it credited? Was it after he was circumcised, or before? It was not after, but before! And he received circumcision as a sign, a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. So then, he is the father of all who believe but have not been circumcised, in order that righteousness might be credited to them. And he is then also the father of the circumcised who not only are circumcised but who also follow in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.

Paul keeps pushing his point to make it relevant to those Gentiles who find themselves in the church of Rome. This belief, this faith cannot be reserved only for the circumcised, for Abraham experienced all of this before he was circumcised. This justification and the crediting of righteousness has to be available independently of circumcision. In this way, Abraham becomes the father of faith for the uncircumcised.

Paul’s point is that this faith is accessible and available to all — circumcised and uncircumcised.

It’s the same God. It’s the same promise. It’s the same faith.

They receive the same justification.

If Paul started his letter by saying all of humanity struggled with the same problem, he goes on to say all of humanity enjoys the same redemption.

Paul reiterates his point:

It was not through the law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith. For if those who depend on the law are heirs, faith means nothing and the promise is worthless, because the law brings wrath. And where there is no law there is no transgression.

Abraham partnered with God before he was circumcised, before there was a Law, before there was a single command to follow. This means people cannot rely on the fact that they are obedient to God’s Law for their partnership and acceptance. As Paul stated in the first three chapters, nobody lives up to the standard, whether it’s God’s standard or their own. We all know we fall short and live under a cloud of wrath. Paul suggests we should trust the story instead.

Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring—not only to those who are of the law but also to those who have the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all. As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.” He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed—the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not.

That is one of my favorite lines in Romans 4. …the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not.

We are invited to trust the story of a God who gives life where death reigns and calls things out of what isn’t there. As we learned in Galatians, we are not righteous, but if we trust in the love and grace of God, He says we are righteous — even when we are not.

…calls into being things that were not.

Abraham understood this. Even though it goes against that which we believe to be most true about ourselves, even though it seems incredibly counterintuitive, Abraham believed that when God said it, it must be true.

Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.” The words “it was credited to him” were written not for him alone, but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.

And we too are invited into this same promise and hope. We are invited to believe God feels the same way about all of us. If we believe in this same truth and story, we find we have incredible peace and the joy of a cleansed conscience that is freed from that dark cloud of a curse we carry around.

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

It’s because of God’s love and acceptance — unmerited, unearned, undeserved, but true of God nonetheless — we can celebrate in our redemption. Not only this, but the same truth continues to overflow into other areas as well. We have a new perspective in the midst of suffering; if we are loved and valued, my suffering doesn’t raise the same set of doubts it did about God’s anger and doubts about my acceptance before Him.

In fact, our sufferings have the tendency to become teaching tools. They teach us about perseverance. Our perseverance is used by God to shape character in our lives. Our character is then used by God to bring us hope.

Ultimately, the hope is that God really is who He says He is, and that we really are who God says we are: loved, valued, accepted, redeemed.

And this hope does not disappoint, because somewhere in our bones, at our deepest level, through the work of the Holy Spirit, we know God’s love to be true.

As Jonathan Martin puts it in Prototype:

I believe there was a time in your life, sometime before you succumbed to the constant busyness, noise, and distraction of our world, when you knew something of the loving presence of God. There was a time (perhaps associated with a place) when you knew—or at least suspected—that you were infinitely loved. In other words, I believe you have heard from God, and that you probably know a lot more about hearing from God than you might realize.

ROMANS: Righteousness from God

We left off by making the observation that our cleansed conscience, our salvation, and our redemption need to come from somewhere other than our ability to hold true to a system of rules. No matter whether that system came from our own sense of morality, our own measure of reality, or the rules of God Himself, we would fall short and have a conscience testifying against us.

But Paul has good news for us and continues to this very point, moving toward the ending of the third chapter with these words:

But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith.

As we’ve seen before, an understanding of the first-century conversation surrounding justification is essential to Paul’s argument. If we are justified by performing the miqsat ma’asay haTorah, then there is a difference between the justification of the Jew and of the Gentile. However, Paul says we now understand through Christ that there is a “righteousness of God that has been made known” apart from the Law. If this is true, then this justification is available (and has always been) to both Jew and Gentile alike. We all have the same human condition and we all have access to the same “righteousness from God.” And this righteousness doesn’t come from the Law or from our works of obedience; this righteousness comes from believing in the promises of God. It comes from faith.

He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished—he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.

And God has been doing this in His story in order to demonstrate and put on display what His righteousness looks like. God did it in order to be the one who is pursuing justice and the one who brings justice about; He did it to be the judge who cares about everything being in its proper place and bringing that restoration about by pronouncing exoneration to those who trust in His love.

Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. Because of what law? The law that requires works? No, because of the law that requires faith. For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law. Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too, since there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith. Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law.

And in case we fall into the trap of typical Christian reasoning, saying the Law is then done away with and no longer a relevant part of the larger conversation, Paul makes it quite clear, just as he did in Galatians, that the Law is far from nullified or done away with. Instead, the Jews are called to uphold the Law. In fact, they are called to correct false understandings of the Law, since it is the Law itself that will bear testimony to the fact that justification has always come by faith.

And because this is the case, boasting is done away with. Since we all wrestle with the same human condition, since we are all justified by the same faith, since we are all subject to the same God and experience the same love, there is no reason or ability to boast. We are all on a level playing field; we are all children in God’s household. Group one, two, and three are all parts of the same story.

But, just as he did in Galatians, Paul now needs to make his case through the Law itself that this gospel isn’t something new at all — it’s been around since the days of Abraham.

GALATIANS: Neither

Of course, we have potentially created a couple problems for a number of readers. Some will cry that, historically speaking, this task of being one body or, as Paul will put it in Ephesians, a “new humanity,” is an unrealistic task and far too difficult. Not only will the world of archaeology uncover some startling pieces of history to prove this wrong, but Paul moves on to address this issue in the concluding chapter of the letter to the Galatians.

Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted. Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. If anyone thinks they are something when they are not, they deceive themselves. Each one should test their own actions. Then they can take pride in themselves alone, without comparing themselves to someone else, for each one should carry their own load. Nevertheless, the one who receives instruction in the word should share all good things with their instructor.

Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.

Throughout this presentation of an inclusive gospel, Paul is certainly not throwing out our ability to have objective conversations about appropriate behavior and what the way of Jesus looks like in our lives. He encourages us to hold fellow believers accountable and to restore them in gentleness. Of course, he moves on to say what sounds contradictory; he tells the Galatians to carry each other’s burdens, but also says everyone should carry his own burden. What’s up with that?

But closer inspection shows us Paul is actually making a great claim to how these relationships, whether they be with like-minded or different people (i.e., Jew or Gentile), are fostered properly. Immediately after Paul tells us we ought to restore our brothers and sisters in gentleness, he suggests we help others carry their burdens by being concerned not primarily with their behavior, but our own. “Everyone should test their own actions.” Everyone ought to take the list from Galatians 5 and ask themselves if their actions are producing the fruit of the Spirit. This will tell us if we are doing relationship correctly.

See what large letters I use as I write to you with my own hand!

Those who want to impress people by means of the flesh are trying to compel you to be circumcised. The only reason they do this is to avoid being persecuted for the cross of Christ. Not even those who are circumcised keep the law, yet they want you to be circumcised that they may boast about your circumcision in the flesh. May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is the new creation. Peace and mercy to all who follow this rule—to the Israel of God.

From now on, let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers and sisters. Amen.

But Paul’s not done taking every opportunity to remind us about fighting for the place of all people in this Kingdom narrative. He reminds us that in this new Jesus economy, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything. What matters is whether we are being made into a new creation.

Some will also cry that this inclusive gospel we’ve been talking about sounds like a soft, gutless, everything-goes kind of mentality — that there is no call in this understanding to hold people accountable and no way to establish right and wrong. They’ll say that an inclusive gospel is just another way of describing universalism. And they’ll talk a lot about slippery slopes.

But all of these accusations are based on a fallacy of logic; they create a false dichotomy and dilemmas that aren’t dependent on bifurcated choices. The ideas of inclusion and absolute truth are not mutually exclusive. Just because I believe there is a correct and an incorrect way to bring order to chaos does not mean I cannot fight for the value and place of all people. It does not mean I cannot practice humility and examine the story of people and question my understanding of the Scriptures. It could be that our situation might resemble that of the people of Galatia. It could be that our fundamental beliefs might be structured in a way that more closely resembles Shammai’s thinking than Hillel’s — let alone Jesus.

We might need a reminder that neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything.

The only thing that counts is that we are being made into a new creation.

GALATIANS: Set Free to Be Free

After four chapters of pretty direct argument for these Gentile believers, we have taken a visual look at Paul’s arguments. While the context of Galatia is incredibly foreign to us, hopefully we have a better understanding of the argument Paul is making. Whether or not the Jews should follow the law is not up for discussion. This was never a problem for the New Testament community. It was obvious to them that Jews would carry the miqsat ma’asay haTorah — that was their role in the world and had been for generations.

The fiery debate was whether or not the Gentiles were free from that calling. Paul has made it quite clear to the Gentile believers in Galatia that if they cave into the pressure of converting to Judaism, they would be destroying the gospel (particularly for that region at that point in time). They needed to be walking billboards for the good news of Jesus and the inclusion of all people into the family of God. Now that we have this understanding for the book of Galatians, listen to one of the more popular passages from the letter:

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. For through the Spirit we eagerly await by faith the righteousness for which we hope. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.

You were running a good race. Who cut in on you to keep you from obeying the truth? That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you. “A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough.” I am confident in the Lord that you will take no other view. The one who is throwing you into confusion, whoever that may be, will have to pay the penalty. Brothers and sisters, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been abolished. As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves!

Suddenly the ending of the letter swings into context and has clarity that we didn’t appreciate before. Paul’s argument through the whole letter has been that they, as Gentiles, have been called to be free from the miqsat ma’asay haTorah; it is this very freedom that shows the world what the gospel is. In the same way that the Jews have been called to be set apart for the work of God in the world, the Gentiles have been set apart in freedom to make clear to the world that everybody is invited! If they let themselves be yoked to a system of rules, the Gentiles lose the essence of their call.

For many of my readers (Gentiles), it is important to realize your freedom from the “works of the Law” is essential to the body of Christ putting the gospel on display. You must observe that freedom, celebrate that freedom, and use that freedom well — use that freedom to show the world what God is like!

But some will cry that this freedom is just a license for sin; it’s a free-for-all promoting a “nothing-really-matters-and-everybody-is-invited” universalism. But this isn’t the case and it’s where Paul turns his attention next.

You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.

So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

Paul says that in order to use your freedom to show the world the risen Christ, you cannot use it for self — you must use it for others. This, by the way, happens to be (according to Jesus) the very essence of the Law itself. This is what the “pedagogue” was supposed to teach us from the beginning. Torah showed us how to walk according to the Spirit and not our own fleshly desires.

Of course this raises a question: Fine, Paul, but how do I know if I’m doing that right? If there is no law for me to follow and I’m to walk in freedom, how do I know if I’m walking according to the flesh or the Spirit? Paul will say (sounding strangely like Jesus when he does) that the test case for your walk is the fruit it produces.

The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.

Paul says it’s obvious to know when you are walking in the Spirit. If the product of your walk is anger, rage, debauchery, division, and a lack of self-control, you are using your freedom for yourself. But if what’s coming out of your life is love and joy, peace and patience, kindness and goodness… well, those can only come from one place.

Jews, we have been called to show the world what it means to walk according to the Spirit of God; not according to the flesh and our every desire, but how to use our desires appropriately to “bless all nations.”

Gentiles, you have been called to freedom later in the story; now that we all know what faithfulness looks like, you are invited to take those principles of grace and extend them to everyone that you meet.

But in Christ, neither one of our calls is a call for self. Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male or female — we are all called to lay our lives down for the other. To pray for our persecutors. To love our enemies. The world could use a model of grace, love, forgiveness, mercy, and hospitality. 

And I think it should start with a group of people who do that — Jew and Gentile — together.