Grace levels
the playing field. Whether you are
religious or not, you have no advantage with God. “…since all have sinned and fall short of the
glory of God; they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the
redemption that is in Christ Jesus…” (3:24)
Grace has leveled the playing field so that whether you are a very
talented player in this game of life, or whether you aren’t, God is just as available
to you.
We must
resist the temptation to make this about our talent. Believe me, it will keep coming up in your
discipleship. “Sure, I’m saved by grace,
but let’s face it…I’m working a lot harder than some of the people around
here.” Remember the level playing
field. Remember what Paul said when he
spoke of sinners, “of whom I am the worst.”
Didn’t
Abraham have to earn the right to be the father of the whole nation of
Israel? Wasn’t that righteousness and
obedience his own? Paul says no. It came because he believed God. He trusted God. Of course, we are talking about faith
now. And both grace and faith are
necessary for salvation. Paul describes
Abraham this way: “But to one who without works trusts him who justifies the
ungodly, such faith is reckoned as righteousness.” Abraham has faith – faith that God justifies,
that God forgives, that God will keep his word, that God will bless his
offspring, that God is his redeemer. His
faith is never in himself, but always in God.
He trusts that God will do the gracious things he says he will do.
Paul’s point
is this: the really good life – the blessed, joyous, godly, loving life – comes
not through scrupulous law-keeping, but through trusting in God’s
promises. These would be the promises given
to Abraham in Genesis 15. The law was
given later to Moses. But the law
doesn’t signal a new rule or measuring stick for what is a good life. We know that Abraham’s righteousness came
from only this: he believed God was gracious and would do what he said. This is consistent throughout the Bible.
Chapter 5-7
provide us with a number of illustrations for how different things are now that
we have been shown grace through Christ’s sacrifice. The first illustration is that we were
enemies. Knowing that this is true shows
how admirable and unique Christ’s love is.
There is no love to compare to this.
Next, Paul describes our condition as being a part of Adam’s lineage and
transgression. It has spread to us. Having made this point, Paul says that Christ’s
faithfulness has spread to us much more thoroughly than Adam’s sin spread to
us. It is strong and comprehensively
saves us. Knowing this is true shows how
powerful Christ’s love is. Next, Paul
uses another illustration. We are dead. “Therefore we have been buried with him by
baptism into death…” Christ’s death has
become ours through faith. We also live
with him by faith since he is risen.
Knowing this is true shows how completely God has put the old life
behind us. That one word says it all: dead.
It is gone. Finally, he uses the
illustration of a slave. “…you, having
been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.” We were slaves to sin, doing whatever it
commanded. Now however, we do what God
commands. Knowing this is true shows
that 100% of our life’s resources are to be committed in this new direction.
In all these
illustrations, Paul has shown that God’s grace is admirable and unique because
of what we are - enemies. It is powerful
because it covers every part of us. It
has comprehensively dealt with the full ramifications of our old life. And, finally, it moves us powerfully to live
full throttle in a new way.
Words really
fail to describe it. Really, at this
moment, the best thing I can do is stop writing and ask for the grace to feel what I’m describing.
But that’s
not all. Not even close. Now that this is true for us, where do we get
the power to live this life? Paul in
chapter 8 tells us that this is what the Spirit of God does. The life of obedience, submission,
righteousness, and perfection is fully available to us. It comes through living life in the
Spirit. “If the Spirit of him who raised
Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give
life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you.” (8:11)
Even though
you are saved, you still don’t live by your own strength. God actually lives inside of you through the
Holy Spirit, who ministers the life of Christ to your life. He reminds you of your new family. Of course, I’m referring to the church. But I’m also referring to God himself –
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This is
your family. You are encouraged to call
on God as your own Father, just as Jesus did.
And it turns
out as we continue through chapter 8 that this will be the truth you hang on to
in your hour of need. We all know what
Paul is talking about in the rest of chapter 8 – groaning, hardship, distress,
persecution, nakedness, peril. He’s
talking about the worst things that have ever happened. In hope we are saved. We don’t see the glory where we are
going. But in our faithfulness and
obedience, our destination is assured.
And it’s all
by grace.
Do chapters
9-11 change the subject? Not at
all. Although many find the content
perplexing, we can worship God along with Paul.
Paul is living out the grace he’s been talking about. He is bringing his concerns about his own
people. He models a life of discipleship
for us. He clings to what he finds in
the Scriptures. And he trusts that God
will move and bring his own people, the Jews, into a recognition of the
Lordship of Jesus, and into the glorious salvation and worship of the people of
God.
Grace levels
the playing field for Gentiles in the first century. Ironically, we need to have the playing field
leveled again, only for the Jews. We
Gentiles find it easy to live without gratefulness for the faithful witness of
the Jews. We find it easy to forget
about them. What can we do? We can cling to God’s grace yet again so that
we can live by grace.
This is important for our Old Testament
reading. When it talks about obedience
and commandments, being faithful or unfaithful, don’t think, “Oh, this was
before God was gracious.” Paul’s point
here is that all of God’s word, his promise, his law, his abiding with Israel
through all those years – this was all faithfulness to the covenant he made
with Israel. It’s all grace. Jesus himself is the full presence of the
gracious God. How do we deal with that,
since Jesus doesn’t show up until the New Testament? St. Augustine’s word about the Bible can help
us: “The New in the Old concealed; the Old in the New revealed.” Jesus is on every page of the Bible and on
every day of human history. His activity
is concealed in the Old Testament, but fully there. His human life in the New Testament clarifies
what the Old Testament had been saying all along.
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