Romans Study!

Romans 2 v 1 – 6

My way of looking at this passage is going to be a bit different than usual. This is going to be more topical.

By way of introduction I want to say that it is important that we read scripture in its context. If we make a doctrine out of the first verse of this chapter, then it appears (on the surface) to say that judging, per se, is wrong. In fact the word it uses here is “inexcusable”! However, when read in its proper context, the ext speaks differently. I believe there are 3 main parts to the issue of “judging” taught here. These are:

A Crooked Judge (verse 1)
A Truth Judgement (verse 2)
A Responsive judgement (verses 3-6)


A Crooked Judge

The first verse here states that the reason why the person judging is “inexcusable” is because “you who pass judgment do the same things”. In Matthew chapter 7 ad the first 5 verses there is amazing metaphor for judgement. We are given the picture of someone with a huge plank in their eye trying to remove the tiny little speck of sawdust from another. Jesus called such people “hypocrites”. The point here is the same as that of Romans 2 – that those who are guilty if something shouldn’t judge someone else for being guilty of the same thing!
An important point however, is that this does not permit judging point blank. This is not a command not to judge – it is rather a guideline of how to judge correctly and what constitutes correct judgement.
In this passage of Romans 2 the apostle is talking to who practice the works listed in the previous chapter and the last four verses. Lest we forget – here it is again in the modern vernacular of “the message”:


28Since they didn't bother to acknowledge God, God quit bothering them and let them run loose. 29And then all hell broke loose: rampant evil, grabbing and grasping, vicious backstabbing. They made life hell on earth with their envy, wanton killing, bickering, and cheating. Look at them: mean-spirited, venomous, 30fork-tongued God-bashers. Bullies, swaggerers, insufferable windbags! They keep inventing new ways of wrecking lives. They ditch their parents when they get in the way. 31Stupid, slimy, cruel, cold-blooded. 32And it's not as if they don't know better. They know perfectly well they're spitting in God's face. And they don't care--worse, they hand out prizes to those who do the worst things best!


These are the people who Paul calls “inexcusable” for judging.


1Those people are on a dark spiral downward. But if you think that leaves you on the high ground where you can point your finger at others, think again. Every time you criticize someone, you condemn yourself. It takes one to know one. Judgmental criticism of others is a well-known way of escaping detection in your own crimes and misdemeanours

It is this judgemental criticism, this harsh, hard-hearted, evil judgement that God hates.

What I want us to see here however that is if we are Godly we must judge!


A Truth judgement

In verse 2 we are opened to the fact that God’s judgement is based on truth and integrity. God is not easily swayed like those who are judgemental and critical – God is the righteous and perfect judge! If we leave as much of the judgement to Him as we can – then He will righteously judge and we all will be the better for it!


Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord
Romans 12 verse 19



A Responsive Judgement

The first point made here is that the unrighteous, crooked judge will not escape the judgement of God. The verdict on these people rests solely with the Lord.
This is only aimed at those who judge people for committing the same sins that they are practicing themselves.
The second point is that the very fact that these people are hearing what Paul has to say, illustrates the mercy of God – the goodness of God that leads us to repentance. The people who practice the variety of crooked judgement that we have seen are those, who after a time given to them to repent, if still unrepentant will be judged of God!
The third point is that it seems from verse 5 here that with every unrighteous judgement, these people are heaping more and more judgement upon themselves, a bit like a saving account in a bank, they are “investing” with their judgements the wrath that will come upon them. The Message puts it this way:

“You're not getting by with anything. Every refusal and avoidance of God adds fuel to the fire. The day is coming when it's going to blaze hot and high, God's fiery and righteous judgment.”

The final point is that God will render to each one according to their deeds. This is a quotation from Psalm 62:12 and Proverbs 24:12.
In general – it is true what is often said in gospel meetings and that is that there are only two kinds of people in this world – those who know Jesus and those who don’t know Jesus. This is what Paul will go on to elaborate in great detail and He will explain how people can go from the latter to the former. This is the main concern of the bulk of this book.

It may be interesting at this point to look at some of the other verses that are relevant to us when we consider the topic of judging and judgement.

As we have already mentioned Matthew 7 verses 1 – 5 is the perennial favourite!

1"Don't pick on people, jump on their failures, and criticize their faults--unless, of course, you want the same treatment. 2That critical spirit has a way of boomeranging. 3It's easy to see a smudge on your neighbour’s face and be oblivious to the ugly sneer on your own. 4Do you have the nerve to say, "Let me wash your face for you,' when your own face is distorted by contempt? 5It's this whole travelling road-show mentality all over again, playing a holier-than-thou part instead of just living your part. Wipe that ugly sneer off your own face, and you might be fit to offer a washcloth to your neighbour

This is particularly relevant to the passage we have been studying.

1 Corinthian 2:15 sums it all up for us in a sentence:

he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man

This verse speaks of:
A spiritually wise Judge
A completely free Judge
An un-condemned Judge

Let us therefore take a constructive and balanced – biblical – attitude to the concept of judging.

A few other verses that will hopefully tie this together:

Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment – John 7v24

These things also belong to the wise. It is not good to have respect of persons in judgment. He that saith unto the wicked, Thou are righteous; him shall the people curse, nations shall abhor him: But to them that rebuke him shall be delight, and a good blessing shall come upon them. Every man shall kiss his lips that giveth a right answer. - Proverbs 24 v 23-26

Obviously, this is only scratching the surface of the meaning of judgement from a biblical point of view – we will never really understand fully this side of eternity – all we can ask is to grow in the knowledge of God and in His word.

Romans 2 Verse 6 – 16 – Introduction

Setting the Chapter in its Context

In Romans chapter 2 there is a “big picture” structure in which the book of Romans can be viewed. This isn’t strictly the study of the present section but gives us some context in which we can view this chapter. I see it like this:

The Judgement (v 1-16)
The Jews (v17-24)
The Circumcision (v25-29)

This chapter is aimed at the most refined people – the most refined and choice people – stating that they (these philosophers) are not exempt from God’s judgement.

There is a sweeping argument through the opening chapters of the book by Paul that climaxes in chapter 3 verse 10. This begins at the beginning of the book and goes from the works of evil “brute beast” people; through the judgemental, conceptually righteous philosophers, through to sin in general. Paul shifts his focus from time to time until he reaches the summit of his argument.

It is worthwhile noting that in this chapter there is a large section where Paul goes off on a tangent and created this conceptual framework of things whereby we have good and evil; righteous and unrighteousness – verses 7 – 15 in parenthesis (not just 13-15) – this is a parenthetical digression. We will look at this more later.

In the last study we looked at the first 6 verses and of course verse 5 was a strange idea – “treasure up wrath” – accumulate wrath – meaning that there are different measures of judgement for the sinner. Luke 12:42 – 48 – parable highlights the fact that judgement will be meted out according to the light that the person has. This therefore leads us on to the next section

The reason for such a long introduction is an explanation for the fact that this study of thee 11 verses won’t be very long because most of the verses we are concerned with here are a tangent – a digression.

This section in itself opens out, I believe, 3 points:

Paul’s Digression (verses 7 – 15)
Paul’s Conceptualisation (verses 7-15)
Paul’s Conclusion (verse 16)


Paul’s Digression

As I have said already – Paul interrupts his structured thought flow and goes on a tangent in these verses. Most bible versions will have parenthesis (brackets) around verses 13-15 but scholars say that it is more likely that Paul’s tangent started at verse 7 and ended in verse 15.
Paul, between verses 7 – 15 sets up a concept – a kind of fairy tale, idealistic way of thinking of life paths. Verse 7 talks about those who continue in good works; verse 8 talks about those who do not obey the truth. Verses 9-11 talk about how these people will be rewarded for how they live. Verses 12-15 set up the idea that if we abide by the law then we are unimpeachable in God’s sight.

This is a hypothetical model, because Jesus, of course is the only one who lived a righteous life – so no one will be righteous in the law. This is what Paul goes on to say – but here in this digression he is setting up the hypothetical good/bad = heaven/hell model – he will break this down in due course!



Paul’s Conceptualisation

Paul here is suggesting an ideal model – it has been called “conceptual well doing” – he has a concept of Jews verses Greeks as equivalent in his economy as Jews versus Gentiles. This is also (in this digression) equivalent to righteous versus unrighteous.

It must be stressed that this is theory – it is not true in practice. Basically, at this stage all Paul is saying is that if there was to be a person or a people who would completely obey the law of the Lord, then that person would be justified. This is where this section ends. It will start up later and say that no one however has lived this righteous life – and therefore the Gospel is required.


Paul’s Conclusion

Paul concludes in verse 16 that although those who are righteous will not be judged righteous because they lived righteous, the unholy, ungodly unrighteous will be judged according to the way that they chose to live their lives.

This is – in a way – still quite an introductory passage in the book – here Paul is still formulating the argument that he completes and consummates in chapter 3.

These themes will be explored and expanded more as we go through this book.

Romans 3 v 1-8

In Romans 3 I notice 5 topics in Paul’s thought flow here. It can be summed up like this:

1)The Circumcision (v1-3)
2)The Righteous Judge (v4-8)
3)The Sinful Creation (v9-20)
4)The Justifying righteousness (v21-26)
5)The Law of Faith (v27-31)

In this study we will look at the first two – the circumcision; and the Righteous Judge.


The Circumcision

The first three verses in this chapter have to do with the Law of Moses and the Old Testament and their legitimacy to the lives of new covenant believers. In the first verse Paul asks the question – what does the Jew have that other races and religions don’t? At this Point the Jews are expecting him to say “nothing” – given what he said towards the end of the previous chapter we looked at last time.

Most bible versions here only have Paul asking the questions

a)What is the value of Judaism over other religious tradition?
b)What is the value of circumcision?

There is however a much overlooked element that most translations fail to pick up on. Let’s read how the Message translation renders the first verse

“So what difference does it make who's a Jew and who isn't, who has been trained in God's ways and who hasn't?”

Paul’s question here isn’t so much about tradition as it is about training.

We know that there is much value in training – without training a doctor would not be able to do his or her job or a policeman or a post-woman or a fireman or any other profession. In the “secular world” we know the value of training and Paul here is asking the question - if secular training proves to be valuable and it is completely necessary - is training in the ways of God the same?

This sets him up for talking about the Jews and the concept of righteousness.

In verse two Paul shocks his readers by telling them that the Jews have much advantage in every way. This seems to contradict the second half of chapter two but them he tells us what he means – these people have the advantage because they were given the oracles of God – or to put it clearly:




“As it turns out, it makes a lot of difference--but not the difference so many have assumed.
First, there's the matter of being put in charge of writing down and caring for God's revelation, these Holy Scriptures” (verse 2 – the Message)


This may be different from what they expected Paul to say but the reason why thought they were at an advantage as Jews was also different from what Paul had to say.
They thought they were different because of their perceived righteousness – they were trusting in:

Their cultural identity
Their religious rituals
Their intellects
Their perceived superiority
Their works-based holiness

Paul challenges this by telling them that the reason why they were at an advantage is simply this: because of what God did! Here he introduces his concept of grace.

Aren’t we like those Jews from time to time? We rest on who we think we are to feel good about ourselves and to bolster our self esteem?
Don’t we sometimes (or often) need a wake up call to take our minds off ourselves and focus our attentions on God?
Wouldn’t it change how we live for the better if we were challenged like this at the right time?

I know that I can be a self-righteous prig from time to time – I can be the worst Pharisee of them all. It comes really forcefully to me when I hear the truth that God doesn’t love me because of anything I’ve done or because of anything of any worth within me. God loves me because of who He is; because of His character; His glory; His love. God sees me as righteous but only because Christ lives on the inside of me. God took the initiative – He saw me in my sinful mess and He saw me for what I was – a vile, sinful, dirty wretch, but it was He who pulled me out of the mud and the mire and it was He who saved me, sealed me and daily forgives me. It is He who is worthy to be praised and is worthy of all honour and admiration – and fear and awe! This is why Paul said in chapter 7 and verse 18:

For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing


This is the concept that Paul here is beginning to develop in verses 2 and 3 where he talks about the fact that God’s graces is unbounded and unlimited by what we do. We cannot alter God’s grace, God’s mercy or God’s character – that is why God through the apostle says:





1What advantage, then, is there in being a Jew, or what value is there in circumcision? 2Much in every way! First of all, they have been entrusted with the very words of God.
3What if some did not have faith? Will their lack of faith nullify God's faithfulness? (NIV)


In verse 4 Paul answers this question by talking about the righteous judge.



The Righteous Judge

This is how the text flows:

3What if some did not have faith? Will their lack of faith nullify God's faithfulness? 4Not at all! Let God be true, and every man a liar. As it is written: "So that you may be proved right when you speak and prevail when you judge." (NIV)


The point here is this – God is true and faithful no matter what we say or do or think to the contrary at any given moment of time. How small minded it is to think that because we can make our own decisions and we can decide to be evil and rebel against God that it makes Him any less worthy of praise and reverential fear and awe!

It’s very easy to think like that isn’t it? To think that we can pull the wool over God’s eyes.
It’s very easy to make God small in our minds and something else big, isn’t it?

We find though – first in the word of God and secondly in experience that any time we lack the fear of God in our words, thoughts or deeds we will not prosper. God designed us to fear Him and to trust in His righteousness and saving power – or as the apostle puts it; to drink of the Spiritual Rock – Christ Jesus.

God’s grace and wrath

Verses 5-8

5But if our unrighteousness brings out God's righteousness more clearly, what shall we say? That God is unjust in bringing his wrath on us? (I am using a human argument.) 6Certainly not! If that were so, how could God judge the world? 7Someone might argue, "If my falsehood enhances God's truthfulness and so increases his glory, why am I still condemned as a sinner?" 8Why not say--as we are being slanderously reported as saying and as some claim that we say--"Let us do evil that good may result"? Their condemnation is deserved.





Our righteousness brings out God’s righteousness – therefore God exercises grace
This does not mean that we spit in God’s face just to receive the forgiveness.

I had the unfortunate experience of reading the following piece of graffiti

“Gay sex is evil
Evil is sin
Sin can be forgiven
So get stuck in”

This is how the natural mind untouched by the spirit of God views God’s grace, but if we see grace for what it is it will be truly amazing.

We deserve hell for our sins
Jesus died in our place
We can therefore receive forgiveness because this death appeased the Father (theologians call it propitiation).

Grace and forgiveness is not cheap – it’s free. Its free for us but it cost Jesus everything. Let us meditate on that the next time we want to magnify the Lord. This alone should be enough to wow us and prompt us to marvel at God’s amazing grace.





Romans chapter 3 verses 2-31

In this chapter I see 4 different elements which are listed here:

God’s Righteousness
Man’s Unrighteousness
God’s Character
Faith’s Law

However, we can further simplify this to mean that there are only 2 elements involved:

1.God’s Righteous Character
2.Man’s sinful nature and redemption

I will be working from the four point format but keeping in mind that the substance and message of this passage concerns God’s righteous character as the justifier and redeemer alongside man’s sinfulness and the redemption that is offered to him.

It would be good – in order to understand this passage better to first look at some introductory verses that give us a background.

Ephesians 2:8-9(NIV) 8For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith–and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God– 9not by works, so that no one can boast.
This gives us our basis for salvation – which is that it is all of grace, and nothing to do with our righteous deeds. This is the principle that in this book Paul very clearly and pointedly articulates.

In fact Paul is very good at pointing out that his gospel is not only about grace, it not only works by grace, but his Gospel, his message and the purpose of his life IS grace:


Ephesians 3:2 (NIV) 2Surely you have heard about the administration of God's grace that was given to me for you

This is what Paul is trying to argue in our passage in Romans and this is the point that he wants us to hear.

So let us then consider the passage at hand:








21But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, 23for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished– 26he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.
27Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. On what principle? On that of observing the law? No, but on that of faith. 28For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law. 29Is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too, 30since there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith. 31Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law.


God’s Righteousness:

Witnessed

The first point is here in verse 1 – this righteousness that the apostle is talking about was revealed in the old testament to the prophets and even in the law and it was revealed to those who went before. In the law there was a foreshadowing of God’s righteousness – in the regulations that were kept that testified to God’s moral purity and absolute sinless-ness and holiness – not only this but also His holy hatred for sin.

The law foreshadowed God’s righteousness in Christ and the prophets foretold the righteousness of God in Christ. Here is an example:

10 "And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son.


Revealed

The second element of God’s righteousness in the early part of this passage is that God’s righteousness is said to be revealed to all through the prophets – for example consider Jonah – the people would not listen to his message and he had this to say:




Jonah 2:8
8 "Those who cling to worthless idols
Forfeit the grace that could be theirs.
Jonah is telling people – turn to the real God – the one true Living God and receive grace – turn away from Him, despise Him, hate Him, ignore Him or any such thing and what happens? You forfeit the grace that God would otherwise have lavished out. When the city of Nineveh did repent – this message of grace was preached and spread abroad – and it is all because God used His man, in His time to proclaim His message of grace. God wants His people to cling to this grace.

This grace is the very thing that reveals the righteousness of God – because God is so holy, so spotless, so righteous and so brilliant that scripture tells us that He dwells in “unapproachable light” and we see that everywhere in the old testament that God has dealings with man that He needs to hide His face yet – we see Him here revealing His grace, throughout the saga of the history of the world right to the place where He truly became the servant of all and went even to death on a cross.


Man’s Unrighteousness

Justification

All have sinned and come short of the glory of God – this is a popular verse that is heard at Gospel rallies and other evangelistic events. The crux of the gospel rests on the premise that man has sinned – he has separated himself from God and that that sin will ultimately lead him hell-ward. The gospel does not stop there – there is the coming of Jesus with His death, burial and resurrection and that brings redemption and forgiveness of sins to all those who accept it. However at the moment – in the 23rd verse here we are concerned with the first premise here

Man is a sinful being

The next premise is this:

This sin separates man from God.

Here is where justification comes in because with the death of Jesus on the cross – the intrinsic benefit is that there is justification offered to those who have sinned – they do not deserve it – it is offered by grace. Justification has been helpfully defined as:

Just as if I’d never sinned

This is the basis of the righteous standing that we have in God through Jesus – we are therefore accepted:

Having all this in mind we can receive what Paul tells us in his opening remarks to the Ephesians:

Ephesians 1 v 3-6
3Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, 5having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, 6to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.

This is the basis for acceptance – the forgiveness of sin – being made right with God through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. This is

Not Psychology
Popular psychology doesn’t recognise sinning and sinners – just “issues” and “problems”!

Not Popular
In a world where there are no moral guidelines and everything is morally permissible – how can we tell someone that they are wrong?

Not Pleasant
I say it is not pleasant – because to the ears of those who aren’t Christians it is nicer and more pleasant to hear that we are nice, beautiful, lovely, inherently wonderful people – but the Bible challenges this notion by telling us that we are evil by nature and our evil practices are a reflection and an outworking of that inner corruption!


God’s Character

In this passage it is boldly proclaimed that God is the Justifier!

We have been justified freely through His grace!

This can be read devotionally and is one of those phrases that can be read over and over and will have a new shade of meaning each time it is read. It can be read with the emphasis on the word “justified”! We can think of what that means in the sense that we are totally without excuse before God – we can say nothing in our defence and we are totally guilty and beaten – and this is where Jesus steps in!

We could read this with the emphasis on the word “freely”! With this we meditate and reflect on the fact that Jesus actually chose to go to the cross for us – He decided to do this for us!

We could read this with the emphasis on His grace – his grace being the free gift that saved us and His grace being the thing that empowers us to live holy and righteous lives!

Or – in a moment of introspection we can read this with the emphasis on the first word – “we” and we realise – He did it all for me! This is the heart of worship.

This redemption is in Christ Jesus

Redemption is to buy back – He created us but we stole ourselves away – we left Him; we disregarded Him and by choice we became enemies of God – but God – in Christ Jesus – bought us back. This is the redemption in Christ Jesus!

There is a propitiation here – and it’s through the blood of Jesus

A propitiation is an appeasement – if we think of the wrath of God that He has for the sinful and we think of Jesus’ death as being the only satisfactory way of atoning for us (making us “at one” with God) – then we will have a pretty good idea of the idea here of propitiation!

This is how the Amplified Bible has it:

25Whom God put forward [before the eyes of all] as a mercy seat and propitiation by His blood [the cleansing and life-giving sacrifice of atonement and reconciliation, to be received] through faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in His divine forbearance He had passed over and ignored former sins without punishment.
This demonstrates and distributes His righteousness

It is therefore through this substitutionary death that God the Father – in Jesus – shows His perfect righteousness and distributes it to us!

This passes over sins

This is the picture parallel of the Old Testament mode of justification – Passover – where the lamb was slain – and we realise in the book of Revelation that Jesus for us was the Lamb who was slain. In Corinthians Paul calls Him the “Passover lamb”!

1 Corinthians 5:7
7Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast–as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.
Revelation 5:12
12In a loud voice they sang: “Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!”

This makes Him the Justifier
All of this is the basis of justification in Christ!

Chapter 3 v 9 – 20

In the general scheme of chapter 3, I consider this section to fall under the category of “The Sinful Creation”. The idea of this section is to basically say that if anyone is trusting in works for their salvation or righteousness or anything meritorious – without first having a relationship with God – had better think again. In this section takes a fairly “long and hard look” at many Old Testament scripture passage that indeed teach this thing – keeping in mind his target audience (the Jews), yet quoting verses that are so widely applicable that they even hit the gentile.

In terms of where this book has went since its beginning up to the present stage – Paul first started talking about the manifest evils done by the gentiles; then he launches into a tirade against the self-professed “righteousness” of the Pharisees – exposing the hypocrisy within – and now Paul heaps them all together in one large category in verse 9 when he says:

“9What shall we conclude then? Are we any better? Not at all! We have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin.”

This section cannot be neatly divided into sections, but in verse 10 – verse 18 where Paul is quoting from other texts in the Old Testament, Paul gives people the most basic of all lessons in human nature. He asks people questions (by implication) that each of us must ask ourselves - deep, searching questions that probe down into the deepest parts of our souls.

Isn’t it easy to become complacent and lethargic – to say “I’ve done my good deed for the day”? Isn’t it so easy to forget God in the grind of daily life? Isn’t it so easy to get beaten down by the forces that war against our souls?

It would be easy to criticise the Pharisees for being a self-righteous lot – with all of their pious displays and holier-than-thou (and in some cases supposedly “holier-than-God) acts. In fact it is very easy – just about every preacher or teacher in churches that I have listened to have taken pot-shots at the Pharisees. Yet – we fail to see the anger, bitterness, resentment, pride and self righteousness in our own hearts. Instead of repenting and being purified by God we comfort ourselves that we re fine, that we are not as bad as others and even sometimes we deceive ourselves into thinking that we are doing God’s will!

Such a spirit of self-righteousness causes us to be proud – and this is an abomination to God. This is the thing – the sin – that Paul in these verses is passionately lambasting. Paul so desires in these verses (and we can see the heart of God in it) that we see in how much of a mess we are.

This is the predicament of the unbeliever.

These people are lost, yet in all of their charitable deeds and good works and nice actions they believe that they are safe. Yet the word of God says that “whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe” (Proverbs 29:25).

In this series of quotations Paul says the ultimate in condemnation – he says that such people have no fear of God before their eyes (verse 18).

The fear of God is the key to intimately knowing Him. It says in the word that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of 2 things. Firstly it is the beginning of knowledge of God – this is about knowing Him intimately. Second, it is the beginning of wisdom. Any wisdom that does not have as its foundation the fear of the Lord is no wisdom at all.

Let us remember that in this book of Romans that we are on a journey and that even though this bit is very downcast and bleak that Paul is going to – in the next few chapters – unveil something that is amazing – so amazing that it is life changing. Paul is about to reveal the secret of life and living God’s way and he is getting ready to excite us and blow our minds with who we as Christians are in God and what we have and very importantly – where we stand. Paul starts here talking about our lack of righteousness – showing us how empty we are so that in due time we can and will be filled. Let us get excited about this.

So in verse 20 Paul wraps up the predicament of the unbeliever by saying this:

20God doesn't accept people simply because they obey the Law. No, indeed! All the Law does is to point out our sin.

Paul has got his audience’s attention; he has laid his foundation – NOW . . . he can preach!

Righteous Romans!

How cool is this?

The Book of Romans is an amazing journey that goes through highs and lows, ups and downs, good and evil, Jew and Gentile, and a whole host of other things before coming to the central issue which is: we can be righteous before God and Christians are!
In fact, I think that for me, the most amazing thing is that we are not only righteous before God in some anonymous way – but we are in fact His righteousness! Surely this is an amazing thing!
Often people talk about being clothed in the righteousness of God and having an element of the righteousness of God or being involved with it – but the Bible actually teaches something more radically complete than that and it is that we are His righteousness – all the righteousness that God has!
Please don’t get me wrong here, I’m not saying that we, as stinking as we can sometimes be are on Gods level per se, put I have come to believe that God somehow chose us to be the righteousness of God! I’m not speculating here and I’m not reading more into biblical passages than they actually say – all I am doing is stating what is written in 2 Corinthians 5v21 which says:

“God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (NIV)


Now I know that it is a real and true danger to formulate a doctrine based on isolated passages of scripture! I can highlight and explain this by using the old faithful trusty illustration – but it’s worth repeating here.
A man, desperate to please God and know what His will is, fetches his bible, opens it at random and lands on a passage “and Judas hanged himself”! Somewhat shocked at these strange commands from the Almighty the man turns undeterred to another page looking for a verse – he closes his eyes and plonks his finger onto something that reads “go and do thou likewise”! At this point the man is starting to doubt, but being a “diligent” bible student he returns to the book and finds “what you do – do soon”!
This man was obviously sincere in wanting to know the bible and its message – God’s guidance, but he went about it totally the wrong way!
This however is not how I’m approaching this doctrine of righteousness – or as the theologians call “imputed righteousness”. What I am doing is looking at a verse that – in a nutshell – gives us the gist of what Romans is all about – the central message of Paul’s letter. This – as we shall see in some depth – is a great cause of rejoicing – not only when we see the benefit that is ours but also when we see more of the character of God revealed in His will for His righteousness to be revealed to us.
This imputed righteousness is what we are discussing when we say that God has no other righteousness than us – but we are intrinsically His righteousness, because it was He who initiated it, who bought it and delivered it! It is God alone who is and was ever fundamentally righteous, and because He is righteous He has declared that we can be righteous too! In fact, even better – He has declared us righteous!

Romans 1 verses 1-7.

I love Romans – it is my favourite book in the Bible – and the reason for this is because it represents the pinnacle of Paul’s thought and theology. The introduction to the book in my big bible says that Romans is “Paul’s greatest work”. These 7 verses represent the start of the amazing ride that is Romans.

What I see in these 7 introductory verses can be summed up something like this:

The nature of Paul (v1)
The nature of Christ (v2-4)
The nature of believers (v5-6)


The nature of Paul

In the first verse Paul talks about his calling and the One who called him. Paul calls himself a bondservant. Notice he didn’t call himself a slave, but a servant. The reason for this is because a slave can be held against their will and serve because they have to – but a servant serves because that is what he or she wants to do. That is what he or she does! It is important here to note that Paul was a great leader and the reason why he was is not because he held some executive title – but it is because he was a servant. That word servant comes from the Greek diakonos which means to go through the mud for someone else.

He is referred to as an apostle. In fact he refers to himself in this way and let’s notice how he says it here: “called to be an apostle”. That word “called” represents humility and the word “apostle” represents dignity. The calling requires humility because it requires us to shut up about our own plans, agendas and purposes and requires us to listen to God’s still small voice. Apostleship indicates dignity because God said that the church was built on their foundation (Ephesians 2 verses 19-20)!

He tells us that he was separated. This separation is not being part of some kind of Christian ghetto where only Christians are allowed – a kind of bless me club, but rather separated from the life of sin and carnality and separated unto God!
All of us who are Christians who have the hope of eternal life with God are to purify ourselves to be holy just as He is holy (as it says in 1 John chapter 3 and the first 3 verses). It is not enough to ask God to cleanse us – it takes us to proactively pursue holiness; after all it was God who said in 2 Corinthians chapter 7 and verse 1 that we are to cleanse ourselves of all filthiness of the flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God. God also, in Hebrews – the last two verses of chapter 12 that grace gives us the empowerment to serve God acceptably with reverence and Godly fear. God is worthy of this level of service and commitment.

Paul was absolutely given over to the work of the Lord and was sanctified (set apart) unto the Lord’s work.




The nature of Christ (v2-4)

In this passage we can tell that Christ is true to His promises. What the Lord promises He can and will perform as God cannot lie. Peter says that God is not slack concerning His promises. It is all too easy to take God’s promises with a pinch of salt, but God is true always – anything that is truly prophesied of God will come to pass. God’s reputation is built on his faithfulness to His promises, but more than that His covenants are built on His promises. God is a covenant God and right throughout scriptures He reveals how true to His covenant He is. When God comes into a covenant relationship with a person or people He proves Himself over and over again to be the one in whom there is no shadow of turning (James 1 verse 17), and to be the Friend who sticks closer than a brother (Proverbs 18 v 24). This is the covenanting promise keeping Jesus whom we serve!

We also see the title “Jesus Christ our Lord” used here. It is very biblical to use this term but how many of us really mean that? Sometimes Jesus is the one who freaks us out or the one who frustrates us – but calling Him “the Lord” means that we are in submission to Him – like Jesus Himself – our ultimate example – said “not my will but thine be done”. The meaning of Lordship is that we are submitted to God as the supreme ruler and King in our lives.

Descended of David – Jesus was descended of royalty – but let’s not forget that He was also descended of a harlot (Rahab). Jesus – as to His human nature was descended both of royalty and shame. This is a metaphor for who Jesus is. The man who was God – fully God and fully man – the God man. How amazing!

Jesus proved that He is and was and always will be the Son of God through power and holiness and in His resurrection. This is the pivotal moment in scripture – when the Messiah comes – lives perfectly; dies, is buried and on the third day He overcomes the power of Hell by rising again. In this He truly proved once and for all that He is God.



The nature of believers (v5-7)

We have received grace. Grace is the power to do that which truth demands. Grace is also God’s unmerited favour. Grace is central in the Christian life. Grace is the thing that sets Christianity apart from any other religion. Grace saves us and grace carries us on. In this passage the grace theme is introduced as early as the 5th verse and mentioned again in the 7th verse.
It is evident that God gives us great grace and peace through the storms and tough times and He gives us an encouraging word in the Lord. Like the one in verse 7!

We have received a calling. In verse 5 Paul talks about His own (that of being an apostle), and that of all believers in verse 7 – called to be saints. All of us have a calling from God. We are called to belong to God; we are called to be gospel people (as we shall see from verse 16). We are called to be God’s representatives on earth!

We have received the Father – in receiving Christ we receive the Father and we receive the Holy Spirit. How amazing, if we let this totally wow us – we will be changed radically forever – I believe!






Romans Chapter 1 verses 8-17


In the first seven verses we saw the nature of Paul; we saw the nature of Christ and we looked at the introduction to the letter. We thought about grace and how it figures heavily in those seven verses. We looked at Jesus as fully God; fully man and how that relates to His having been descended of David (his royalty). Now moving on to verse 8 onwards Paul’s thought flow starts to form – we go from introductory greetings to the main body of the letter.

In this section I see that there are 4 parts. It could be structured something like this:

The People’s Reputation (v8)
Paul’s Intercession (v9-12)
Paul’s Purpose (v13-15)
Paul’s Proclamation (v16-17)



The People’s Reputation.

In verse 8 Paul says something rather strange. He commends the company of believers in Rome for their faith, but it is interesting how he said it. He said that their faith was famed the world over – not just in their country or in those countries directly adjoining them, but rather the whole world. We would be wise to ask what it was about their faith that produced this fame! The only way we can answer this question is by looking into the Bible at the concept of faith and studying how faith is revealed and taught in the Bible – and then practice it. Clearly these people had worked on their faith; clearly they had developed their faith and clearly they had spent time on their faith.

What is the relevance of Paul mentioning faith at the start of the chapter – or book? Why not talk about something else near the start of the book? I believe the reason why Paul chooses faith to commend these people for instead of anything else that may be amazing about them, is because that is part of the primary reason the book was written.

If we can see the letter to the Romans in a “big picture” perspective, then we will see that the book in general is written about the significance of the death of Jesus and our faith response to that. Indeed, the most amazing discussion in the book (and probably in the Bible) about us is about the righteousness that God grants through faith (and later in the book Paul uses Abraham – the father of faith as the example of this).

This therefore frames what we are about to read.






Paul’s intercession

Paul is always praying:
He says that he always making mention of them in his prayers – never ceasing. Paul was a man of huge responsibility – Paul was an apostle – part of the foundation of the church – yet he remembered to make mention of them always in his prayers.
I believe that the question for today as we go at this passage is: how many of us would make mention of someone every day – the same person? Who amongst those of us who are modern Christians will actually have the unceasing-ness of spirit that Paul did? Do we even want to develop this? Often we want to have the results that Paul did, we want to have the blessings that Paul did, but we are unwilling to be the person Paul was. We must go through those things we need to go through if we are to get the things we want to get!
There is a consistency about Paul’s payers for Rome. He mentions them always – not sometimes, not occasionally – but always. There is a lot to learn from this.

Paul is planning to go to them
Paul was not “all talk” – Paul actually had plans to go and see these people – Paul wasn’t satisfied just chatting to these people – Paul wasn’t even satisfied in hearing about the reputation for having a huge amount if faith - Paul desired to reach out and be a blessing to as many people as he could!

Paul is planning a trip to see them.
Paul’s faith has feet. Paul is willing to “get out of the comfort zone” in order to go to these people – Paul is a planner – Paul is pro-active!


Paul provides them with pastoral edification
That word edification just means “building up through teaching” – and here Paul says that he wants to impart some spiritual gift – and his purpose in bringing this to them is that they may be established. It wasn’t enough that they had a reputation – Paul wanted them to be established. It is entirely possible to have a reputation for doing great things for God and still have no roots and no foundation whatsoever! This too can be a lesson to us – flashy appearances are one thing – but we cannot pull the wool over God’s eyes – He sees who we really are!!



Paul’s Purpose

Purpose – to bear fruit.
God doesn’t call us only to be faithful –

John 15 verse 16:
You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit--fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.

John 15 verse 8:
This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

Colossians 1 verse 10:

And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God


Some people believe that all God expects of us is faithfulness, but here in these verses we are confronted with the concept that God also wants fruitfulness! Paul’s purpose in these verses and his reason in planning to go to the church at Rome is so that he could bear fruit.

Paul didn’t want to go for a little holiday in Rome but to be a blessing to this church.

His purpose also – in verse 15 – is to preach – not only that – but to preach with all that is within him! Concerning preaching Paul gives his all – his all in terms of zeal; enthusiasm; wisdom; love; sincerity and prayer! How much effort do we put into the things that we do for God – according to the Bible those things that we do every day in the real world are “acts of worship” to God. How much time do we put into developing our relationship with God? How much of our life would still remain intact if God’s Spirit was to leave us? Of course, His Spirit never will – but for some Christians – we would never know if He did.


Paul’s Proclamation


Paul is not ashamed of the Gospel – Paul is a gospel person; NOT JUST A Gospel preacher – not just a gospel teacher, but a Gospel person. Paul lives the Gospel! Paul here provides proof that he understands what the Gospel is all about – the power of God unto salvation. This is the Gospel that in later chapters of the book Paul is at great pains to exposit, defend and preach – as we shall see!

It is at this point that Paul starts what is a recurring theme here in Romans the idea of faith and righteousness and how they are linked. This is one strand that runs right through Romans and is one of the most significant theological concepts that Paul intends to uphold in this book – intellectually; verbally; emotionally – and in other parts of the bible – he upheld it physically also! With someone this passionate about what they write it may be wise to take it seriously and perhaps get passionate about it too.

It is my prayer that as we read further into this great book and that the themes begun here begin to get expanded and unravelled that we will be swept into a place in God that was unknown to us before.

Get A Theology Degree

I have this thing where i think that Christians are so un-clued up about theology and the stuff of doctrine and are unable to engage with their faith in any deep way. I want to present you with an option - the option is distance learning in theology. It is so worthwhile, to really think about your faith. Go ahead and have a look!


Click Here!


happy studying! Tom

Amazing New Internet "mirror" technology!

The Love Of A Christian!

I thought it would be nice to post this, it is part of a thesis that i have been doing ... it is a devotional element to a work i have done! I hope you enjoy it!!!!!

1 John 31How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!
Here, quite a few practical tenets of the Christian worship experience are mentioned. The great love of the Father is lavished upon the saints and these saints are called the children of God, because of this great condescension that the Father is lavished upon the saints they begin to worship Him as the great Lover.
The love of the Father here is said to be great. This greatness is revealed in its magnitude. It is revealed in its scope. It is revealed in its depth.
The attributes of Christian love and as such the love of Christ (from whom it flows) are hard to describe because of their nature and because of their depth.
The important thing to know is that when approaching any doctrine of love in the Bible is that the Bible speaks of different kinds of love. Often these kinds of love are very different.
It has become quite popular in recent times –in popular evangelical teaching culture – to draw sharp distinctions between the four main “types” of love. Although the distinction in the autographs is not quite as “clean-cut” as it has been proposed to be, the distinction between the four Greek words for love does give us a guide as to what they mean. The four main words used to convey love in Greek are:
Ø Eros (Greek erasthai)
Ø Philia
Ø Agape
Ø Storge
The Eros form of love is used to refer to that part of love constituting a passionate, intense desire for something, it is often referred to as a sexual desire, hence the modern notion of 'erotic' (Greek erotikos)[1].
The philia form of love in contrast to the desiring and passionate yearning of eros, philia entails a fondness and appreciation of the other. For the Greeks, the term philia incorporated not just friendship, but also loyalties to family and polis-one's political community, job, or discipline. Philia for another may be motivated, as Aristotle explains in the Nicomachean Ethics, Book VIII, for the agent's sake or for the other's own sake. However, in our modern usage of the Greek philea concept, it simply means friendship love or “brotherly love”. Indeed, the City of Philadelphia in USA is called “the city of brotherly love”[2]
The storge love is not very commonly used – a very quick definition would be “familial love” as used in Ulysses[3].
There is a comparison which is often drawn between agape and phileo coming from the following exchange between Jesus and Peter:
“Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon son of John, do you truly love (agape) me more

than these?"
"Yes, Lord," he said, "you know that I love (phileo)you."
Jesus said, "Feed my lambs."
Again Jesus said, "Simon son of John, do you truly love (agape) me?"
He answered, "Yes, Lord, you know that I love (phileo) you."
Jesus said, "Take care of my sheep."
The third time he said to him, "Simon son of John, do you love (phileo) me?"
Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, "Do you love (phileo) me?"
He said, "Lord, you know all things; you know that I love (phileo)you."
Jesus said, "Feed my sheep."”


However, aside from all of this, the way to get the spirit of the love talked about here is to look at 1 Corinthians 13 – the ubiquitous devotional chapter on Christian love:

1If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love, I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate.
2If I speak God's Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, "Jump," and it jumps, but I don't love, I'm nothing.
3If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love.

4Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn't want what it doesn't have.
Love doesn't strut,
Doesn't have a swelled head,
5Doesn't force itself on others,
Isn't always "me first,"
Doesn't fly off the handle,
Doesn't keep score of the sins of others,
6Doesn't revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
7Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.

8Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. 9We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. 10But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled.
11When I was an infant at my mother's breast, I gurgled and cooed like any infant. When I grew up, I left those infant ways for good.
12We don't yet see things clearly. We're squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won't be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We'll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!
13But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.
This is the spirit of love. This is the attributes of God’s love.
Pastor David Legge of Iron Hall Assembly in Belfast goes on to say this:
“I want you to do something for me: let's read that again and substitute the word 'love' for 'Jesus'.’Jesus suffers long, Jesus is kind; Jesus does not envy; the Lord Jesus does not vaunt himself, is not puffed up, He does not behave Himself unseemly, He does not seek His own, He is not easily provoked, He thinks no evil; He rejoices not in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; He bears all things, He believes all things, He hopes all things, He endures all things. Jesus never fails'. Is this not the character of Christ?[4]”

And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known.
This is the identity of the believer. The Christian is no longer the person he or che once was, the Christian has come into something bigger, the Christian has been made part of the “family of God” and is now regarded as a Child of His!
[1] http://www.iep.utm.edu/l/love.htm
[2] http://www.phila.gov/katrina/
[3] http://www.io.com/~jlockett/Grist/English/ulysses.html
[4] http://www.preachtheword.com/sermon.asp?sid=b2b05.html

Britblog!

A short personal note

The doctor today gave me some anti-depressants, so i hope that things will be a bit better in 2 -3 weeks, and we shall see where we go from here!
Thanks for your prayers everyone, it is much appreciated!

Kindly Affectionate

i wrote this post 2 years ago ... so a lot of my opionions may have changed, but the point it makes ... about being "kindly affectionate to one another" never gets old!


BELIEFS

A few days ago I had an experience that was humbling, exciting, enthralling, unnerving, and certainly very very weird! No – it wasn’t scuba diving or bungee jumping – it was an apology. I know what you’re thinking – you’re thinking that apologies are commonplace, an everyday thing and a duty for Christians – and you would be very correct. What made this particular apology so special is the fact that it was belated by about 7 years. Seven years ago, I was a strange legalistic 15-year-old boy with more brains than sense. Here is the story (in its shortened form). I went to this monthly Christian festival in my city where I became very concerned about the amount of “worldliness” that had been creeping into these gatherings. The straw that broke the camel’s back was when the leader lady had everyone up dancing to a spice girls’ song – in order to get into the “mood for worship”. Now as an older and wiser chap I still find this distasteful, however this is not the point. The point is that I took the nearest opportunity to severely reprimand this leader-lady for her “doctrinally unsound and heretical decision” of allowing such “carnal and worldly leaven” into the place where God’s people meet (not bad for a 15-year-old)! As time went on I have mellowed and become (hopefully) a much wiser person for God. At last – after seven long years of growing and growth, I saw this girl in a coffee shop and apologised to her! She remembered the incident like it was yesterday, but freely forgave me (as Christians should).

As I remember this, I am brought back to all the hobbyhorses that I have had in the past. The way I used to insist that the King James Version of the bible is the only valid translation of the bible in English and that Christian rock is “file swill” from the “pit of hell” and so on and so forth – not to mention all the times I have played records backwards in an attempt to find all those “demonic and evil messages” that Satan apparently enjoys leaving on them when he’s not particularly busy. I have been a Calvinist and an Arminian and just about every peg in-between. I think it was the book I was reading each particular week that dictated what my worldview was. Along the way I have picked up some things, dropped others and have realised that the heart of the matter is the matter of the heart.

I sincerely worry about Christians a lot these days! Some people don’t believe anything and others believe everything – and I’m finding it difficult to locate people who are “balanced” and in-between. I suppose I have never been the most balanced person in the world, I naturally gravitate towards what the theologians call “the polemic”. I prefer to say I enjoy being controversial. There’s nothing wrong with a ritual goat sacrifice is there (OK, that was a joke)?
I have always had a vision or a burden to see a church that is scripturally literate, yet who are passionate about God in a way that it is almost tangible. I have spent time around bible teachers who can tell you theologically and theoretically how to worship God but when it comes to observing their own “worship time” they sing a few hymns, but there is no passion, no real joy. I do genuinely worry about Christians who can easily preach a 3-point sermon but who can’t worship God in spirit and in truth. These people are more often found in strongly “traditional” and “evangelical” settings.

However, I have reservations with those people for whom “doctrine” and “theology” are swearwords. These people don’t want to follow in truth – it takes too much effort to study truth. God will reveal it all to us in heaven anyway – so why worry. These people are more into getting their next spiritual high and being ecstatic and experiencing God. I have a question for these hyper-Charismatics (or “charismaniacs” as they have been called). My question is “can we not experience God in a bible study?”

I am not getting at Charismatics or evangelicals – I am both! I am however, calling for balance. We need to worship in “spirit” and in “truth” God said in John 4:24. My ambition is to know the word but to have the grace and humility to be teachable; and to worship in a way that is in line with God’s principles and thoughts. I want to walk in revelation, and there is no greater revelation than what’s written on those thousand or two pages between the covers of your bible. I long to see things as God sees them and to get answers to the most pressing questions I have in life. I long to be deep – and not “deep = I can’t understand a word of what he’s saying”, but I want to be beep in knowledge about God and knowledge of God. I want to understand His word but I also want to know His character.

There is a part in your brain called the reticular activation system. It is the part that will govern all your staunch beliefs. It is kind of the filter between your mind and your heart. This is why people will staunchly argue a point even when they know it is wrong, but they’ll believe it because that’s what they’ve always believed.
Let’s get a bit sharper and have victory over our reticular activation systems for God! If what you believe is true, then it will stand scrutiny and all the tough questions will be answered honestly. If it is not true then it is better to know that than to wait seven years for your big apology!

I know people who will argue over issues such as tongues, “head coverings” for women, the aforementioned issues e.g. Christian Rock, and bible translations. The thing that worries me is that these people will spend more time meditating and ruminating on the things that they perceive to be evil than the things we all can agree are true.

Paul said to the Roman Church in chapter 12 and verse 10 that they are to be “kindly affectionate to one another”. This is how God wants us to treat each other. I have heard of seminarians who in their zeal to defend “sound doctrine” have ended up in punch-ups! I believe that the heart of the matter is a matter of the heart. Maybe the reason why these doctrinaire believers are so out of control sometimes is because their motivation is based upon being right, looking big, being popular or traditionalistic religious bias – but it is not kindly affectionate behaviour.

For our behaviour to be “kindly affectionate” it must resonate with something deeper than a handshake and a smile. Last night I visited a church where two very senior members had accused me of having demons (because I enjoy modern Christian music and I have my reasons very clear in my mind), and they both greeted me with warmth and friendliness. To be “kindly affectionate” to someone, the behaviour needs to be motivated by a kind and affectionate heart. Psalms tells us that our Lord is “gracious and compassionate”. Let each of us deepen our relationships with Christ, then we will be able to be kind and affectionate to one another.

Spiritual Abuse Defined

This is the first installment of what will be quite a few on this subject of spiritual abuse.

Spiritual Abuse


DEFINITIONS

Within an area that is largely kept surreptitiously “under wraps”, it can be quite difficult to define terms. Spiritual abuse is one of those areas. It is not something which is spoken a lot about – possibly because of the potential affect it could have on the witness of the church when its consequences are revealed. However, drawing on a few sources here I shall progress towards a “working definition” which is sufficient for the purposes of this work (from a “goodness of fit” perspective).

The Christian Depression page has some helpful insights into this issue. This website draws heavily upon a book which is one of the few popular works on this issue: "The Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse" . The book contains the following simple definition of abuse:
“Spiritual abuse is the mistreatment of a person who is in need of help, support or greater spiritual empowerment, with the result of weakening, undermining or decreasing that person's spiritual empowerment.”
This attempt at a definition is necessarily broad to encapsulate all of the varying forms of spiritual abuse. The authors continue with a list of attributes which conceptualise the idea of spiritual abuse. Before looking at these I shall look at some other basic definitions of “spiritual abuse”, and indeed, “abuse”. The Wikipedia reference renders it as follows:

“Spiritual abuse is the name given to what many critics consider abusive practices in churches, and spiritual and religious organizations and groups. The term tends to be used in Christian circles, where secular critics usually use more generic terms such as psychological or emotional abuse.”

However, it must be noted that the article from which this excerpt has been drawn is flagged: “the neutrality of this article is disputed”. The suggestion in this article that “spiritual abuse” is limited to churches and Christian groups is questionable, as such abuse exists in other religions (although the only spiritual abuse looked at in this work is indeed as narrow as “Christian spiritual abuse” or “church spiritual abuse”, so this lack of neutrality does not perforce negate its strength in this work).

This short encyclopedic article also informs us that:

It usually involves control, manipulation and deception by leaders and pastors, but is often supported by members. Spiritual abuse is not necessarily deliberate, but may be the outcome of a particular doctrine (e.g. the teaching that everyone outside the group will go to hell) or the genuine belief that the will of God is being followed. In Christianity, spiritual abuse is most prevalent in some but not all churches related to fundamentalism, very conservative evangelicalism and the charismatic movement or Pentecostalism, possibly due to the authoritarian nature of their belief in the Bible.


This, in a sense, would give the idea that evangelicalism in general is particularly prone to these abusive tendencies. Most of the issues mentioned in this segment of the essay will be covered in future chapters of this work.

The issue of a dominant leadership and control, along with manipulation are all issues that are raised time and again when we are concerned with the issue of spiritual abuse; therefore, returning to "The Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse", the authors neatly draw seven distinct characteristics of an abusive church system. They are these:

• Power-posturing
• Performance preoccupation
• Unspoken rules
• Lack of balance
• Paranoia
• Misplaced loyalty
• Secrecy

These areas will be expanded on in time to come! So keep your eyes open!! Tom

Spiritual Abuse

I am working on a little project - something that is not very widely discussed in the church but is most certainly there. It's on the topic of spiritual abuse. I will show you the contents here. I will probably post bits and pieces here from time to time, so do keep up to date :) !!


Becoming an Agent of Healing: Towards a Coherent Recovery Strategy from Spiritual abuse – Important Pastoral Insights.

Introduction

Chapter 1: Spiritual Abuse

Definitions

Affects

The Abusive Relationship

Chapter 2: Types

Homophobia and the abuse of gays

Pentecostal/Charismatic forms of spiritual abuse

Cult/Cultic (including “bible based cults”) behaviours

Chapter 3: Pertinent Issues

Leadership, Authority and Authoritarianism

What is a Pastor?

Doctrines and Error

Perceived Psychological needs and Mind control

Chapter 4: Surveying the Damage

Psychological Affects of Abuse

Spiritual Affects of Abuse

Chapter 5: Issues of recovery

Programmes dealing with recovery

Where the Present Programmes Lack

Limits of what can be done to help the Abused

Chapter 6: The present and Future Need:

The need for more understanding

The need for more and better programmes

The need for recognition of abuse in educational institutions (seminaries and bible colleges)

The need for adequate pastoral counselling

Christian Abuse Recovery groups

Crisis Of Doctrine!

Over the last few months I have wondered if i have anything to offer to anyone. I have wondered that because of my questions, am I equipped to help anyone? Particularly as a counsellor! I have went through something of a crisis of doctrine (or maybe "crisis of faith") for the last while - and i have deconstructed a lot of things which were the backbone of everything i have believed throughout my life. I have always been brought up to think that to be of use to anyone i must be "together". Like i must look just right, that i must talk just right, that if i am different in any way then that signifies the sort of weakness that instantly disqualifies one from being useful in any way.

I think it may be that some of the presuppositions that my christian upbringing led me and many others to believe was wrong. The idea that if at any point you were unsuccessful in fully compartmentalising your theology you were some sort of under-priveleged Christian and not worthy to breathe the same air as the rest of the real christians!

It may be something to do with the idea that the leaders i have had in churches before (not my present one thank God) have been ultra-controlling and not gracious to say the least!

It may be because i have been terrified to speak out about my doubts

. . .

Whatever . . .

all i know is that over the last 3 months or so, i have been going through this really excruciating battle over the things i have been brought up to believe and what i believe now - and i don't know how to express the fact that I feel lost sometimes! I'm really not sure what i believe! I would love to have a chance to sit down with someone who understands me and where i am, and gives me enough credit for knowing what i know, and takes me seriously enough, and i would love that person to really help me engage with the faith and beliefs, not in some dry dull way, but like an adventure! I need something! Only one problem, most people like that are ultra busy, and getting 10 minutes of their time is so difficult and i always feel like i am an imposition, and ... well, you know!

I would love someone to sit me down and give me perspective, to argue with me about what's true and WHY specifically! BUT it seems that people who will invest in me in this way are ... well ... scarce.

I know that I still love God and I know that He still loves me. I know that I want to be gracious and love people. I know that i would really like to have more good friends than i have now, i know that the truth is there in the bible, but i'm not sure that it's quite as propositional as it has been pitched.

I mean, if God communicates to us in stories and some myths, and poetry as well as letters to churches (in the bible), etc then surely propositional truth is not always what the bible is getting at. Sometimes we have to read between the lines, sometimes we need to get some cultural perspectives on things, and sometimes we really need to pursue the bible in more of a scholarly way than most regular "God-Said-It;-I-Believe-It;-That-Settles-It" sloppy, lazy way of reading it.

This is where my problem lies, because this causes problems. It means that its not as easy to have all your ducks in a row, theologically speaking. It's not so easy to compartmentalise God and i suppose you can say that my theology is evolving.

Please go easy on me, I'm vulnerable now and i may just break!!

Signing out for now, tom.

Reconstructing my Faith - one piece at a time!

I am trying to re-construct my ideas of the bible and God. Not in some mystical post-modern kind of way, but in a very elementary way. Im trying to get past all the stuff i was forced to believe as a child and young adult, and move on to what is actually true. I guess im looking for a "rebirth" of some sort. I know I am a Christian, I know i am "born-again", but I guess Im looking for some sort of new perspective. I know that the fundamentalist background i grew up with has always coloured my religion, probably to the point that it'll always be scarred and marred; but I guess Im not even so worried about that, Im more interested in figuring out where i stand in the Christian "spectrum".

I guess i have had something of a crisis of doctrine, and I am a bit wary of just believing something because "pastor rev Dr Jim Bob" said it is there, you know? I know that most people don't engage with the bible in a scholarly way, and so there is a lot of mess that needs to be cleaned up. People read the bible as if it's a "love letter from God", i know i used to say that . . . but i'm not sure how i can figure all the curses and damnations, and genocides and rapes and slaveries into this model.

I think as well, it's a temptation for me to go to extremes (such is my personality), but umm ... i don't want to do that! I'm looking for truth, but not the silly toothless-hairbrained truth that teh looney church down the road presents me with; nor do i want the dead; dry; academic impersonal kind of truth that is offered to me by the academicians!

Arrrgh! I'm getting there though. I think I'll keep this blog posted, and it'll help me to keep my sanity!

What is Wrong With Homosexuality?

What is wrong with homosexuality? With My Responses!
This is my rebuttal of an article found here:
http://www.raptureready.com/faq/faq11.html
A whole lot of things, but mostly this: It's an abomination to God.

This is certainly a good way to begin answering this question – by assuming that homosexuality is an abomination to God. Many thinking people, after hearing this sentence, would simply switch off because this bland and futile statement proves precisely nothing apart from the fact that fundamentalists argue from a conclusion (I would argue that its an unfounded one).

He said this not once, not twice, but several times...and it wasn't all in one breath, but was spread out over 1,500 years.


It is at this point that I begin to switch on to see which biblical passages are going to be pulled out here – and my Romans 1 alert comes on!

In the beginning, God created man and then He created a woman to be man's helpmate. I imagine that if God had thought homosexuality was okay, then he would have created another man...or just two women.


Not necessarily! God thinks childhood as a concept is good, but He didn’t create two children! However, more to the point, I want to know what God thinks about incest because that’s where we all came from. Adam had sexual relations with Eve, producing many offspring who copulated with each other to populate the earth. Now, I want to ask, was this God’s plan? Or was it utilitarian for populating the earth? If it was for the purpose of populating the earth, then maybe that’s why He created a man and a woman rather than two men or two women! This old “Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve” Dichotomy is simply meaningless bluster!

But He didn't, so that's the beginning. When God gave the Law to Moses, He was very clear about the fact that if two (of the same sex) lie together, or "know" each other as man knows a woman, then those two were to be put to death, because "it is an abomination to God."


Yes indeed. In Leviticus 18 we do in fact have the following verse . . .
22 " 'Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable.
So, we are told that this verse apparently outlaws homosexuality, in fact, it is detestable or an “abomination” in the KJV.
Let’s look at Leviticus 18 for a while shall we?

v6 - have you ever seen any relative of yours, say a sister or a brother or a parent accidentally in a state of undress? If so - SINNER (None of you shall approach anyone who is near of kin to him, to uncover his nakedness: I am the LORD)

Any man who has sexual relations with his wife in ANY shape or form when she is menstruating - (in fact he can't even see her naked) - is a DIRTY, VILE, CONVICTED SINNER - v19 ("Also you shall not approach a woman to uncover her nakedness as long as she is in her customary impurity)

Now - in those few sections we have almost everyone - but - hey why dont we also look at the next chapter to see who else are vile abominations shall we?? OK . . .

Lev 19v3 - cease from ALL secular activities on a saturday - NO QUESTIONS
Lev 19v20 - Any engaged couples who are unfaithful MUST be whipped - NO QUESTIONS
Lev 19v23-25 - a farmer can't eat any fruit from his trees for 5 years - IT'S THE LAW!
Lev 19v26 NO MEAT!
Lev 19v27 - Men can't shave their beards - they also cannot cut their hair at any point - its abominable to do so

v28 - no tattoos ... oh and no cuts or contusions either
v30 - SATURDAY again - pretty important - gets a second mention!
v32 - if you ever see an old man with grey hair you must get up. IF YOU FEAR THE LORD. IT IS THE LAW - IF YOU FAIL TO DO THIS YOU ARE A FILTHY SINNER!

And so on and so forth!

THE PURPOSE OF THIS LAW WAS TO SHOW US OUR SINFUL CONDITION! KEEP THIS IN MIND!!!!! (OR ELSE KEEP THOSE LAWS ALONG WITH THE LAW REGARDING MEN LYING WITH MEN) - FOR INTEGRITY'S SAKE!!!

God also destroyed the cities of the plains (Sodom and Gomorrah and a couple of others) because of their proclivity to homosexual behavior. The men of Sodom even tried to seduce the angels that were sent! (Sounds like San Francisco.)


Do you notice that there are no bible references provided? According to this commentary, there were two separate events. Homosexuality, and the sexual advances toward the angels; however, only the latter event happened.
Is this what the bible says? No
Most people who have read the story of Sodom and its destruction will remember the following, but maybe not as emphatically in the same light I’m putting it here.
Now behold, I have two daughters who have not had relations with man; please let me bring them out to you, and do to them whatever you like; only do nothing to these men, inasmuch as they have come under the shelter of my roof,” (Gen 19v8)
The first point I want to make here, is that the “men” in Lot’s tent were not just men; they were angels – messengers of God. Now, there are all sorts of possibilities that can explain why it is that the men of Sodom wanted to have sex with them – perhaps in their culture it was thought that having sex with angels could imbue them with angelic qualities or divinity?
However, the main reason why I think that this is not a group of homosexuals is because if it was then Lot was pretty uninformed of it. Imagine, all the men of your city are encamped around your house and you know that every one of them is gay. What do you do? You offer your daughters. Does this seem a bit implausible? I think so.
However, let me say this, everyone condemns the unrighteous sodomites outside Lot’s tent, but what about the man inside the tent? Lot, who the bible tells us, has a righteous soul, offers his daughters to be raped by what is potentially hundreds of thousands of men – and we simply ignore this as being irrelevant to the story?
Also, what about this explanation, if it were men, or if it were women in the tent that these men wanted to rape, perhaps their sin was wanting to RAPE – not the gender of their chosen victims. What about mulling this over for a while?

About 1,500 years later, God spoke through the Apostle Paul to re-affirm that those who practice homosexuality "shall not enter the Kingdom of Heaven."


Again, I am struck by the absence of bible verses, but I will tell you that it is 1 Corinthians 6v9 which is being referenced here. However the word in the Greek which is translated “abusers of themselves with mankind” is better translated as pederasty (which is related to the effeminate – also in this verse).
I refer to Wikipedia, to define this term for us:
“Pederasty, as idealized by the ancient Greeks, was a relationship and bond between an adolescent boy and an adult man outside of his immediate family. In a wider sense it refers to erotic love between adolescents and adult men”
So – looking at the ancient cultural context we can see that this verse does not apply to homosexuals de facto, but rather to another kind of eroticism which was prevalent in Biblical times.

Many argue that times have changed and we need to become modernized in our thinking. But the fact is that God is the rock. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Therefore, we can easily conclude that He has not changed His mind.


Amen

Homosexuality is still an abomination to Him.


But eating fish isn’t; cutting your hair isn’t. Only Homosexuality is a sin – is this a bit of a double standard?

Now this does NOT mean that God doesn't love homosexuals. He does,


I agree!

. . . and He wants them to REPENT (turn away) from that which is NOT pleasing in His sight.


He wants you also to do so! But – and this is a big but – you have not sufficiently proved that homosexuality itself is wrong! This is the problem!

Can homosexuals be saved? Yes, emphatically yes....IF they will repent (turn away) from that which is wrong.


I thought that salvation was not of works?
By grace alone- unmerited
Through faith
Through Christ Alone (John 14 v 6)
Though His blood (Col 1v14)
Regardless of works
but the presupposition is that when we are saved, after this transaction has occurred, then we are secure (sealed unto the day of redemption - Eph 4v30) - and the good and righteous works that we do from that point onward follow the higher law - this is the law of Christ. If we love Him we will do what He desires, not because we're terrified of burning in the lake of fire, but because we love Him and are in relationship with Him.
When you place an “IF” upon salvation, you are placing a works requirement on salvation.

But let me ask this very practical question . . . since Jesus never spoke once about homosexuality, but had important words to say about divorce and remarriage . . .

("Every one who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery."
Luke 16:18)

Does this mean that if someone wants to become a Christian, but has been divorced and remarried, the person must divorce his or her new wife/husband? Otherwise they would be “Christian Adulterers”.

It isn't the sinner that is hated; it is what he or she does (the sin). Is there such a thing as a Christian homosexual? No. You can either be a Christian, or you can be a homosexual.


But, you can be a Christian Adulterer (see above)

"If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood [shall be] upon them" (Lev. 20:13).


(see above comments regarding the Levitical law)

"For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet" (Rom. 1:26-27).


There is an excellent (and scholarly) rebuttal of the idea that this is about homosexuality as a concept . . . it’s found here:
http://www.jeramyt.org/papers/paulcybl.html
If you read this and come back thinking that Romans 1 still condemns homosexuality – then fine, but there must be a reason . . . or else, there is a word for your assumption. PREJUDICE!

Church History - a muted voice!

The Council Of Nicea

Since I learned about the element of church history which includes the council of Nicea in 325 AD, something began to stir within me because for the first time i was seeing that the church has a history, and it is a chequered history, it is one that is marred with all sorts of blemishes and bloopers. The council of Nicea is where the Bishops got together, under the command of the Emperor Constantine to vote on whether Jesus was God or not, and they then formulated the Nicean Creed. Please note, that for over 300 years before this, the church was willing to accept a variety of viewpoints, rather than one "statement of faith". The council of Nicea in a sense did away with all that. I am (as I'm sure you can tell) emotionally ambivalent about this whole episode . . . but regardless, i want to present it to you as best I can . . . so here goes nothing!

Definition:Christianity has seen two important church councils take place at Nicea, one in 325 and the other in 787. Both were called to deal with difficult theological divisions which had developed among the Christian faithful. The ancient city of Nicea is located at the site of the modern city Iznik, in Northwest Turkey.
The First Council of Nicea in 325 was called by Emperor Constantine, who also participated. Constantine had adopted Christianity as the state religion because he sought something which would unify the people - however, a heresy had developed which threatened to dissolve that unity and Constantine would not allow it. He intended to make sure that, one way or another, the disagreement would end.
The problem was caused by Arius of Alexandria who was teaching that Jesus Christ, instead of being fully divine as was believed by orthodox Christians, was wholly a created being. Arianism was condemned at this Council and Airus was exiled by Constantine. Also as a result, the Nicene Creed was adopted - this expressly taught that Jesus fully human and fully divine.
The Second Council of Nicea, held in 787, was the seventh ecumencial council in the history of the church and was called in order to address the Iconoclastic Controversy. This controversy began in 726 when Byzantine Emporer Leo III forbade the worship of icons. According to the final decision of the council, icons merited veneration and devotion, but not actual worship.
It was The Council of Nicea in 325, which decreed that Jesus was "one with the Father", in other words, "God." Bishop Arius rejected this argument because scriptures described Jesus as have been begotten by the Father, therefore, there was a time when Jesus did not exist, and therefore, could not be God (who always existed.) The point is, that this Council changed the beliefs of Christians from that day forward. Arian Christianity did not go along with this and became a minor sect, even being described as heretics today (New Advent).
The resulting consensus (all apart from two bishops and Arius - having been persuaded - finally signed) – the Nicene Creed.
We believe in one God the Father Almighty, Maker of all things visible and invisible; and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten of the Father, that is, of the substance [ek tes ousias] of the Father, God of God, light of light, true God of true God, begotten not made, of the same substance with the Father [homoousion to patri], through whom all things were made both in heaven and on earth; who for us men and our salvation descended, was incarnate, and was made man, suffered and rose again the third day, ascended into heaven and cometh to judge the living and the dead. And in the Holy Ghost. Those who say: There was a time when He was not, and He was not before He was begotten; and that He was made our of nothing (ex ouk onton); or who maintain that He is of another hypostasis or another substance [than the Father], or that the Son of God is created, or mutable, or subject to change, [them] the Catholic Church anathematizes.
The adhesion was general and enthusiastic. All the bishops save five declared themselves ready to subscribe to this formula, convince that it contained the ancient faith of the Apostolic Church. The opponents were soon reduced to two, Theonas of Marmarica and Secundus of Ptolemais, who were exiled and anathematized. Arius and his writings were also branded with anathema, his books were cast into the fire, and he was exiled to Illyria. The lists of the signers have reached us in a mutilated condition, disfigured by faults of the copyists. Nevertheless, these lists may be regarded as authentic. Their study is a problem which has been repeatedly dealt with in modern times, in Germany and England, in the critical editions of H. Gelzer, H. Hilgenfeld, and O. Contz on the one hand, and C. H. Turner on the other. The lists thus constructed give respectively 220 and 218 names. With information derived from one source or another, a list of 232 or 237 fathers known to have been present may be constructed.
Other matters dealt with by this council were the controversy as to the time of celebrating Easter and the Meletian schism.

One Polite Plea

Can i just ask that people who want to argue with me over doctrines stop telling me that i cannot be right on issues because i start with a presupposition and work with it to form my beliefs? I really mean this, because the very people who say this tend to have a big beam in their eyes and the beliefs that they have normally include somewhere down the line ... the bible is "the Word of God" and "inerrant" or "infallible". This is a presupposition as much as any other and i am frankly getting annoyed at the amount of double standards that are applied. I want to make this clear enough to distil down to a single sentence.

Don't beat me (or anyone else) up for believing presuppositions, because it's not a case of "do we have presuppositions", but rather, "do we have the right suppositions".

You see, the second question was deeper than the first - and i believe that the reason why we don't seem to have any answers in this day and age is simply because we tend to be afraid of questions, and when we actually do ask them, they're not deep enough!

Let me encourage you dear reader, to depth of thought. I dare you. In fact, i double triple dare you.

Learn to love the questions - for without the questions, there are no answers!

tom