Good morning! I hope you all had a good day yesterday and are planning on having a good day today! I am hoping to get out to the FLT for a short hike (7 miles) later this morning! There is plenty of yard work to do and house work- but I hear the woods calling me!
Thanks for all your comments and thoughts yesterday. I think we were all glad to hear some positive words from Paul!
A brief discussion of circumcision as the topic of circumcision comes up quite often, especially with Paul. Circumcision was practiced by several cultures "back in the day" (some used it as a rite of passage, some used it for religious purposes), but was not practiced by the Jews until after Abraham. In Genesis 17:10-11, God creates a covenant (promise) with Abraham, and says that the sign of that covenant will be circumcision. At that point, all males in Abraham's house were circumcised- regardless of age (Abraham was 99 years old when this happened). After that- All boys were to be circumcised by their eighth day of life; unfortunately- there is no corresponding symbol for women- primarily due to their lower status. This religious ritual continued, even through today in Jewish homes. Greek culture was very opposed to circumcision- even convicting those that did it to death! The big disagreement between Jews and early Christians is the point that Christians aren't circumcised (during the "inter-testimental" time and early New Testament). Paul says there is no need for circumcision, as we can be circumcised in our heart- the idea of removing our "fleshy, unnecessary" parts and becoming more spiritual. Circumcision is practiced today for various reasons: cultural "acceptance", health, religious, rite of passage to adulthood.
OK- on to chapter 5! Chapter 5 has some very deep and theologically intense statements!
Paul has convinced us, I hope, that the only way to salvation is to be justified by grace through faith. He now begins to talk about the practical "benefits" of this justification. The first "benefit" is that we all have "peace with God" (v 1). Not peace with the world, not peace with the flesh, peace with the devil- peace with God- and it was given to us through the complete action of Jesus Christ.
Our second "benefit" is the grace that we are given (v 2). Grace- God's undeserved favor towards us- was given through Jesus to us and gained by our faith in God. One point of grace is that God just doesn't love us, God likes us! With God's grace, there is no "score sheet", no "gold stars" to obtain. We can spend more time worshiping and loving God than hating ourselves for our actions. Our "access" to this peace and grace is only by our faith and through the actions of Christ. The conclusion of this peace and grace is our ability to have joy and hope (v 2b)
Paul addresses the "nay-sayers" by saying that we will have tribulations and troubles (v 3), and Paul should know about these tribulations! Even with these troubles, we can know God is near us. And with these troubles, we can be happy, because we know they will give us strength and endurance. You can't gain unless you struggle. I could stand to shed some pounds and gain some strength back from this last year of quarantine and odd living behaviors- but it is going to take work! Marathon runners just don't do it- they spend countless years struggling and training. Christians need to spend that time struggling so we can gain endurance and strength. Paul then creates a "golden chain" of Christian development: patience produces character, character produces hope, and hope wins (v 4-5). The culmination of this is that God pours God's love into our hearts.
God sent Christ to those that were the ungodly ones Paul mentioned in the first two chapters. I think I saw myself in that list a few times! Jesus was the substitution, the propitiation that we talked about earlier, that took my place of the sacrifice. Christ died for the ungodly, for "those people", for me, for you (v 6)! God demonstrated that through the death of Jesus on the cross. The cross, originally a symbol of torture, man's extreme hate for others, the vileness of humanity, became a symbol of love and grace and peace. The cross was the ultimate description of God's love for us- to have God's only Son (who was also God, the Trinity), hung on the symbol of the height of man's hatred, to become the symbol of the height of God's love. The last line in this paragraph (v 8) contains a line in our communion liturgy- "Christ died for us while we were yet sinners...that proves God's love for us." When we celebrate communion this weekend, and when I say those lines, I will definitely think of them differently now!
If we are justified through the actions of Jesus, we can then be saves form the wrath and anger of God through Jesus (v 9). It is God's righteous wrath, God's justified anger at us, but we are saved from that! And God did that when we were enemies of God (10), ungodly, sinners. Now that we are justified, imagine what kind of relationship we can have with God.
Paul turns now to a discussion of Adam and Eve and the origin of sin and God's anger to us. Paul believes that Adam and Eve were real and the story of Genesis is historically accurate. The life of Adam and Eve had an effect on our life today- but they are also the foundation for salvation- also for us! Adam is given credit for the fall of humanity (v 12)- not Eve! In 1 Timothy, we will hear Eve was deceived, but Adam had full knowledge of right and wrong. Because of Adam's sin, death entered the world. Death and sin are connected (v 12)- each grave is "evidence" that people are sinners! Tough for us to hear- right?! There were no laws before Moses (v 13) so sin entered the world regardless of having to follow the laws. Paul now takes a big leap- I hope you're ready for it. Paul presents a similarity between Adam and Jesus and Adam is a Jesus-type person (v 14). Both of them did something that was for the entirety of humankind. Both were sinless at their "birth" and both did something for all of humanity.
Paul then quickly dives in to the contrasts though (vv 15-17). Phew!! As a result of Adam's "gift" to humanity- we have judgement, sin, death, guilt, condemnation. Jesus's gift to humanity gave us grace, peace, salvation, justification. Death reigned over us because of Adam; life reigns over us because of Jesus. Adam and Jesus are sometimes referred to as "The Two Men" (v 18) and all of humanity has identification with both. We are born into this world identified through Adam; we are born again identified through Jesus. This is sometimes referred to as the "Federal Theology". In a Federalist society (United States), representatives are elected to speak for a group of people. Some people "elect" Adam; some people "elect" Jesus. One results in condemnation, one results in justification. We "elect" Adam with our first sin; we "elect" Jesus when we accept God and the grace that God offers. We really don't have a choice in electing Adam, sin happens- to us all. The choice comes when we decide to "elect" Jesus as our representative. We elect Christ as our representative through faith- not all people do this (v 19). The laws didn't make us sinners- Adam did; what the law did was make our sins worse (v 20a). Now that we had rules to follow, we became more bad because we would break those rules! (Confused yet?) However, the more bad we became, the more grace God gave us (v 20b).Grace upon grace upon grace!
Like I said, some deep and heavy theology today! My head is spinning!
I hope you understand most of this!
Have a great day and look forward to more deep theology tomorrow!
Shalom+
Pastor Paul
Good Morning! Pastor, I hope you have a wonderful hike today!!
ReplyDeleteThis Chapter made clear to me the difference between what I have called the OT God and the NT God. In the OT, I think we feared God because of Adam and because of the Mosaic laws. A lot was about punishment and the "chosen" The veil or heavy curtain of the temple not only separated us from God but God from us. But now, in the NT, Paul tells us that we have PEACE with God because of Jesus, that we are now God's friends. I always wondered why God was so harsh in the OT but so loving in the NT. It all came from God's gift of Jesus and our being justified by our Faith - not just punished by our disobedience - as we are because of Adam's first sin. I like Paul's statements in vs. 3-5 - tribulation gives us patience, patience gives us experience and experience gives us hope (my Bible translation). I must admit that I had to read the commentary in my study bible to fully understand who Paul was talking about in vs. 12-18. I totally misinterpreted the one man cause sin for all and one man took it away for all until the commentary said Adam and Jesus. That never occurred to me before.
Pastor, when you say "the more bad we became the more grace God gave us...." My understanding of vs. 20 was that the law made the sins more. "Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound." For example, if you drove 100 miles an hour it was not against that law until the law was made that you could only drive 60 miles per hour. So the laws told us what were sins - things that were being done all the time and nothing was thought about it. So the laws created only more sin because what was always being done was now a sin but God's grace covered it all. Not that MORE sin was being done or that we were becoming "more bad" but that things always done were now considered a sin. ???????
This chapter gave me some new thoughts and things to think about!
Cindy Thank you for the story of your friend. I hope that I will always remember to pray for a sense of humor when times are tough!
Enjoy the day everyone
I had a good friend several years ago; he and I would get into discussions about the Hebrew God and the NT God! Like you, I would say that the Hebrew God was a God of punishment, but the NT God was a God of love and grace. He would counter with God doesn't change- our interpretation of God changes.
DeleteI think we are saying the same thing- the more sin there is (even if we have done it before the law), the more God gives us grace to cover that up? I think we are thinking the same way- just my words weren't clear.
Definitely come new ideas and thoughts here! It was a struggle to read and attempt to understand. Some of Paul's writings are like that- super clear, and others it seems like he talks in circles!
Thanks Donna
A very confusing chapter even after reading more than once. I understand that our trials etc make us stronger and we struggle to endure and as we endure we grow stronger. So as we face problems God is there with us and because of our faith as we face those trials etc God is with us, we grow stronger in our love and faith in Him. God hates sin but He loves us and because loves us he sent His Son to die for our sins.
ReplyDeleteNow onto Paul's comparison of Adam and Jesus I really struggled with this.
Adam sinned as he disobeyed God when he was told not to eat of the fruit This is referred to as a sin, but at this time there was no law The penalty of Adam's sin was death so because of Adam's sin all died. So now i am wondering why the law if all were condemned to death from Adam's sin why Law? The law wasn't going to stop death!
Now God sent Jesus to do the opposite of Adam Adam sinned so we all sinned Jesus was righteous and did no wrong Now Paul says that the law was so people could see that they were sinners and all would die
God because of His love and Grace sent Jesus to give this life for us and our sins that we will have eternal life. We still have mortal death but the ETERNAL is the wonderful gift of God.
Am I anywhere right is my understanding of this chapter?
Looks to be a beautiful day. Hope enjoyed your hike Pastor Paul.
You are right on the first idea- the more we struggle, the more our faith (should) strengthen...is that always true? For some people. I think some people give up after a while though thinking God isn't present- they(we) just aren't aware and choose to ignore the God that is around us.
DeleteGood point about the law- it wasn't designed to "stop" the death that Adam allowed to happen through sin. I didn't think of that!
You are getting the idea of Adam- Jesus. Essentially because of Adam- we have sin and death; because of Jesus we have life forever. Paul brings this idea up in a few of his epistles. There is much controversy about these words and this comparison. I think in one text he calls Adam the "first Christ" or something like that!
If we keep in mind that Adam allowed sin to enter the world and Jesus allowed eternal life to enter the world- we can keep going!
Good thoughts Clara!
I have to wonder if a lot of people cannot accept justification by faith because they just can't stand it that if people don't tow the line, they can still be forgiven. This doesn't seem to be a problem for God because he is willing to forgive if we just repent and ask. I've known lots of times when someone makes a person who has wronged them pay back way more than others would. We want to judge instead of God.
ReplyDeleteI agree that this is confusing. I think that if we truly respect that someone actually was willing to die to save us that we probably want to live up to a certain level of decency for their sake.
It surely was a beautiful day.
Cathy- I think you really nailed the thoughts of many people! We don't like it when someone seems go cut the line and then we get made at God for god's forgiveness! We quickly forget the forgiveness that we are given!
DeleteYour second point- decency- is an emotion/moral/ethic that we have seem to have lost over the many generations (even since I have been alive!) How do we bring back that concept of basic human decency or respect?
Really good thoughts Cathy! Thanks!
Pastor thank you for explaining the importance of circumcision and always being so understanding in our different interpretations. Cathy what a beautiful story.
ReplyDeleteSaying that God not only loves us but likes us is a big deal. I think we have all probably had people in our lives who we love but don't like very much sometimes.
When talking about Adam and Jesus Christ my bible says...yet in an even greater way Jesus Christ alone brought God's gift of kindness to many.
To die to save us is the ultimate gift.
The Bible is confusing. I always think of the Ethiopian eunuch and Philip in Acts 8 when the Ethiopian says, "How can I understand if nobody teaches me!?" (my words, not his exactly) We can't totally understand unless someone is willing to take time and explain...that's why I love teaching!
ReplyDeleteLove and like- I have said that to my kids a few times. "I will always love you, but today I'm not too sure if I like you!" I think we have all had those days and those people- like you say!
I like your translation- Christ (one man) brought all of God to all people! Great concept!
Thanks for your thoughts Cindy!