Romans 4:3

This is the week of the Joy Candle.

At the end of the last blog I suggested we remember with Joy that God arranges all things, He is working all things into something good. He calls us to celebrate life and have Joy in life. And most of all he calls us to celebrate with Joy the precious gift of Jesus.

WE HUMANS COMPLICATE THE SIMPLE MESSAGES OF GOD

That blog spoke of people complicating God’s simple promises by all manner of imaginings about what the promised Messiah would do.

This resulted in them not recognising the Messiah when He came.

We do this all the time. You only have to read the multitude of opinions on the meaning of Revelation to understand that!

We complicate things in other ways. 

WORKS OR FAITH?

A main way is the works versus faith argument. This was occurring even during the time immediately after Jesus ascension. 

Today’s reading is about this argument. 

ABRAHAM TRUSTED GOD AND IT WAS CREDITED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS

Paul was reminding the people that Abraham trusted God. 

He trusted God would set things right and relied on God to keep him right instead of trying to do it by his own effort.

Abraham was human, as shown by his willingness to allow Sarah to convince him to sleep with Hagar and have a child by her. This despite God’s promise that Sarah would bear a child, even though she was way past her fertile years.

There was no law for Abraham to follow. These came later.

Abraham just lived his life. He performed no rituals to give him credit before God.

What he did do was believe in God, the one who made promises to him. 

That belief was credited to him as righteousness.

Yes, flawed Abraham was still credited by God as being righteous. 

Because he trusted God. He believed God would set things and Abraham right.

A CHALLENGE TO TRUST GOD

How can you, in this time of Advent, live your life trusting God. Not trying to please Him by doing good works, but by genuinely trusting Him to set things right and to set you right too.

What if you focus on the child, the promised child, born in the manger. What if you focus on the fulfilment of God’s promise to send this child to earth.

In the fulfilment of God’s promise how can you increase your trust in God. How can you increase your faith?

When I first set these verses aside to write about today, I had horrible things going on in my life. 

I noticed a small pimple on my upper abdomen, just under my left breast. Overnight it grew larger and became very painful. Then it became dinner plate size and I realised I was going to have to see a doctor. 

Easier said than done.

I had a business breakfast, then wall to wall meetings all day. I wasn’t sure how to cancel anything or what I could do to attend to this excruciatingly painful problem.

I filled myself with painkillers and went to the breakfast, madly organising in my mind how to fit in a doctor visit.

Then one by one the appointments were cancelled or moved. 

Suddenly I had the entire day free.

And the doctor had a mid morning appointment free!

It turns out I had an abscess and it had to be surgically drained, followed by antibiotics. It took days for it to stop hurting.

Now, even the scar from the draining is reducing in size.

GOD’S WAY

This incident filled me with wonder at how God arranges things.

He knew the urgency of medical intervention and also knew I never cancel appointments.

So He arranged for them all to be cancelled for me.

He even arranged for an early doctor’s appointment so I could be attended to quickly.

He arranged things for His perfect timing.

WAITING FOR JESUS

The Jewish nation waited a long time for Jesus to come. Many spent so long waiting for His birth that they occupied themselves in reading all manner of expectations into what their Messiah would accomplish. They read so much in to it that they didn’t recognise Jesus when He arrived!

Despite their over reading into all the prophesies and inserting of their personal wishes, Jesus arrived at the perfect time, in the perfect place to the perfect family.

Everything about Jesus life, both the good and bad times, were exactly as God had intended.

The same applies to our lives.

I will never know why I needed to get that debilitating abscess, but I am grateful that God arranged things perfectly so I could get it treated promptly.

It is unlikely I will ever know why most of the horrible things that have happened to me in life have happened. But I can still be grateful at the way God redeemed the situations.

ALL WE DO IS IN GOD’S HANDS

Ecclesiastes 9 speaks of how all we do is in God’s hands. Whether we believe in God or not, everything we do is in His hands. The difference for those who believe is that they have hope. Those without faith will pass into obscurity, but those with hope will always remain with God. 

So God urges us to embrace the life He has given us. He urges us to celebrate because He takes pleasure in our pleasure.

God urges us to enjoy our lives for they are God’s gift to us.

ACCEPTING GOD’S GIFT

Staying alive is hard work, but God gives us each day as a gift. So don’t squander that gift, embrace it instead.

In Romans 8:26-28 we are reminded that the moment we are tired of waiting for things and lose hope, God is right alongside us, helping us along.

God knows us better than we know ourselves. He will always keep us present before Him.

Every detail of our lives will eventually work into something good.

THE JOY CANDLE

This week of Advent is the Joy Candle.

Let us remember with Joy that God arranges all things, He is working all things into something good. He calls us to celebrate life and have Joy in life. And most of all he calls us to celebrate with Joy the precious gift of Jesus.

We all know the story in Genesis 3 about Adam being told by God that he must not touch the tree in the centre of the Garden, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

Adam then tells Eve she is not to touch that tree in the Centre of the Garden or she will die.

Then along comes the crafty snake, with mischief on its mind. 

It questions whether Eve was given God’s message correctly. 

No she wasn’t. Adam did not tell her what the tree was called. He did not tell her everything God had told him.

We humans are sometimes not as diligent as we should be in passing on messages with the result that vital information is left out.

So Eve, ignorant to the true nature of the tree and innocent of its implications takes a piece of fruit and eats it.

She is still alive! And it tastes delicious.

So she offers it to Adam to try it. 

At this point he could have said he wouldn’t eat it. But he doesn’t. He is also curious.

He eats the fruit too.

Now both have the knowledge of Good and Evil.

As that knowledge enters them so does something else.

Shame.

They realise they are naked and they feel shame.

And that is our human condition.

We questioned God, we allowed distrust into our minds.

We did what we shouldn’t, either knowingly or unknowingly. Maybe because we lacked the patience to wait and curiosity overcame us. And probably because we lacked the faith to overwhelm our curiosity.

We replaced our innocence with a knowledge of the world and the good and evil it contains.

We realised our shameful state and we felt so bad and wrong that we felt we could no longer be in God’s presence.

If God hadn’t removed us from Eden, we would have. 

We play out these feelings in our everyday lives.

Add to that the manipulation and coercion of those who take on the role of the snake. Who don’t always know what they are doing, and sometimes know full well what they are doing.

You can see a child born like the innocent Adam and Eve. You can watch that child as it trusts implicitly in the world. And you can watch as the child gradually learns that the world is not that lovely innocent place it seemed to be. And in a way the child inherits the knowledge that the world isn’t safe. Its brain is designed to pick up cues of safety, to adapt to keep itself safe. It cries because it needs safety, not because it is bad. It has a deep, unacknowledged sense that its whole survival depends on its parents caring for it and not abandoning it. It cries to communicate its needs.

Jesus would have cried too. In the carol “Away in a Manger” there is a reference to Jesus not crying, as though good babies don’t cry. This fiction has led to great harm, even death, to many babies. Babies cry to communicate their needs that must be met to ensure their survival. A baby cries trusting that those cries will be answered. If they are not the babies distress causes harm to areas of their brain. The baby left to cry is known to acquire what is termed “learned helplessness”. It has learned very early that the world is not a good place. It learns it cannot act to help itself and that no one will act to help it either. The knowledge of good and evil has come upon it earlier than most.

Sometimes we convince ourselves that the world is a good place by justifying the “evil” actions of those around us. And the society we live in is often likely to forcefully encourage this “let it be” attitude. Sadly I have seen some of the worst of this behaviour in religious groups. You only have to look at the stories of sexually abused children whose abusers were protected by their church group to know this happens.

Jesus came into this world as a small baby, innocent and full of trust in His caregivers. God chose His parents carefully and it is unlikely they ever fell short as parents.

Jesus had one difference to other babies. He knew about good and evil and He knew He was the answer to it. Whether He knew from birth, or that knowledge came upon him as He grew up we will never know. 

Jesus came to the realisation at some stage that he was God’s plan to redeem us from the Knowledge of Good and Evil that now condemned us to separation from God and death.

He had come to pay for our sins.

Christmas is about celebrating the baby, sent to earth to save us. Our proper response to this is to sit at His feet and worship Him. To celebrate the Joy of Hope He brought to earth at His birth is a proper way to celebrate. To follow Him all the days of our lives is the proper way to respond to His call.

Romans 3:1-20

This second Sunday of Advent and I will be lighting the Peace Candle.

It reminds me of the peace we have in Jesus and the knowledge of His gift to us.

This section from Romans 3 had a big impact on me when I read it several weeks ago. I saved the information on the verse and labelled it 2nd Sunday of Advent.

I think it is apt to be reading this now and writing about it.

WHO IS JESUS’ GIFT FOR, JEWS OR GENTILES?

In the aftermath of Jesus ascending to heaven the followers argued amongst themselves. There were those who believed only Jews could accept Jesus’ gift. But Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles, had a different idea.

He reassured the Jews that God had chosen them with His very words. 

But. And this is a big but. They were not immune from being judged.

Paul taught them that there was no advantage in being a Jew when it came to God’s judgement. 

WE ARE ALL SINNERS

We are all sinners, whether we be Gentiles or Jews.

It really struck me that we so often fall into the trap of thinking that because we are Christians we are somehow less judged by God.

THE TRAP OF LEGALISM

Many fall into the trap of legalism. Some Church goers judge others for their same sex choices while committing adultery (last time I looked adultery was mentioned in the 10 Commandments whereas homosexuality was not). Some Church goers judge others for their gender dysphoria. Some Church goers judge others for their unwanted pregnancies. 

We judge others for the things they do that we feel uncomfortable about. We don’t ask God about it.

We act as though we have some special dispensation and become obsessed with legalism and the breaches we see others make.

We try to second guess God and judge others when we are told judgement is not ours to make.

THE PROFANITY OF LEGALISM

I have seen many horrible examples of this legalism over the years.

There were the young parents who decided they would circumcise their son because they had read the Old Testament and it spoke about the need to circumcise. Then they had read some book written by a legalistic Christian. Then they totally ignored what was written about circumcision in the New Testament, even that which came directly from the mouth of Jesus!

I remember having a gay couple lived near me once. My legalistic Christian friends told me I should judge them. But it didn’t feel like the right thing to do, so I asked God. His response? Love the sinner and hate their sin, because we all sin.

I have seen people judged by the people in a nice middle class church because they wore scruffy clothes and “dressed like prostitutes”. Yet Mary Magdalene was a prostitute and Jesus welcomed her into His inner circle of women who cared for His needs.

THE MESSAGE OF SALVATION

The Bible is clear in its message. We are saved because Jesus came to earth to die for us, to rise again and ascend to heaven. We need to accept that and follow Jesus. It is that simple. 

We will have many times when we “sin”. We are incapable of perfection so sin is to be expected. But we persevere, seeking to learn and follow Jesus. 

So much of what is taught to followers of Jesus is about legalism and the number of hoops you have to jump through to be saved. But you are already saved if you have accepted Jesus as your saviour and seek to follow Him.

LEGALISM CREATES A BARRIER BETWEEN US AND JESUS

Legalism blocks you from having a personal relationship with Jesus. That makes Jesus very sad.

Remember what Jesus said to the leaders of the temple in Matthew 23:13-15 and 23

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are.

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former." 

TRUE PEACE

True peace comes from your personal relationship with Jesus. 

As Paul stated in Romans 3:20 “Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.” NIV

Never forget that the law of God was founded on the tenets of justice, mercy and faithfulness, and this is what Jesus pointed out to the Jewish leaders in Matthew 23:23.

In this Advent time of Peace, what can you do to follow the way of justice, mercy and faithfulness?

Romans 2:17-24

“Now you, if you call yourself a Jew; if you rely on the law and boast in God; if you know his will and approve of what is superior because you are instructed by the law; if you are convinced that you are a guide for the blind, a light for those who are in the dark, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of little children, because you have in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth— you, then, who teach others, do you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal? You who say that people should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who boast in the law, do you dishonour God by breaking the law? As it is written: ‘God’s name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.’ ”NIV

“If you’re brought up Jewish, don’t assume that you can lean back in the arms of your religion and take it easy, feeling smug because you’re an insider to God’s revelation, a connoisseur of the best things of God, informed on the latest doctrines! I have a special word of caution for you who are sure that you have it all together yourselves and, because you know God’s revealed Word inside and out, feel qualified to guide others through their blind alleys and dark nights and confused emotions to God. While you are guiding others, who is going to guide you? I’m quite serious. While preaching “Don’t steal!” are you going to rob people blind? Who would suspect you? The same with adultery. The same with idolatry. You can get by with almost anything if you front it with eloquent talk about God and his law. The line from Scripture, “It’s because of you Jews that the outsiders frown on God,” shows it’s an old problem that isn’t going to go away.” The Message

DISCUSSION

As I collected Bible verses for Advent over the past months, this was the first verse I collected.

As I sit here, in the middle of the first week of Advent, I can feel the weight of importance in this section of Romans 2.

My Advent Readings for this year are supplied by Common Grace in Australia. The writer of the first day of December is a Kabi Kabi and Goreng Goreng man Uncle Pastor Ray Minniecon from Scarred Tree Ministries at St John’s Glebe in Sydney. Uncle Pastor Ray writes about the celebration of First Light in the Torres Strait Islands. He speaks of the recognition by them of their existing faith alongside the new faith they were being taught. 

It is a situation I often see. How first nations people of the world embraced Christianity alongside their existing faith and found a faith and relationship with God on their own terms.

Western Christianity has long believed it holds the only understanding of God. Christianity has been bleached white and planted firmly in the Western Christian traditions.

The trouble is, that is not God. God is God. He is God of all peoples and all peoples understand God from the perspective of their own culture. 

God meets us where we are.

And, God meets every one of us where we are.

This means true faith is an individual thing between each person and God.

To become addicted to a Western cultural interpretation of the Law is not faith in God. It is faith in Western culture.

The Jewish leaders of Jesus’ time became addicted to their cultural interpretation of the law, to the point of ridiculousness as Jesus frequently pointed out. (I am not supplying references here, read the gospels to see the many times Jesus challenged their interpretation of the law).

Legalism is harsh, judgemental, lacking in mercy and full of hate. These are the opposite to Jesus and all He stands for.

When followers of Western Christianity become caught up in legalism they bring God into disrepute.

God’s name is blasphemed among non-believers because of that harsh, judgemental, uncaring and hateful Western Christian legalism.

On this first day of December, as we honour the first week of Advent, take the time to consider whether the expression of your faith in God causes His name to be blasphemed among those who do not yet believe.