7/10/24

When I decided to spend Camp Meeting Days preaching through Romans 8, I didn’t realize just how deep we’d be getting! 

And what sort of frustrates me is that even though we’re doing a “deep dive” (one of those catch-phrases that came up Sunday) into Romans 8, there are still all sorts of things I end up skimming over because Paul’s writing is so dense! 

Take the doctrine of justification, for instance. We’ve mentioned it, and I’ve defined it (briefly) as God forgiving our sins (justification = just as if I never sinned) and declaring us to be a true members of the family (and most people will stress the first part, “forgiving us our sins” and neglect the “family” part).

But that just scratches the surface.

So, to remedy that, starting July 24th, our Wednesday Bible study will be on the book of Galatians, a book that shares much in common with the book of Romans. One of the main themes of the Galatians is justification, so I hope you’ll be able to join us. 

The reason behind Paul writing Galatians is similar to Paul’s reason for writing Romans: threats to the unity of God’s people. When Paul planted the Galatian church, the Jews and Gentile Christians in Galatia fellowshipped as one family, but then certain believers (troublemakers) came up from Jerusalem and drove barriers between the Jewish and non-Jewish believers. 

If you remember from last summer, when I preached on Romans 12-16, we saw that Paul was writing to the believers in Rome  in order to keep the church from dividing. The previous emperor, Claudius, had expelled all the Jews from Rome and after several years they were returning to find the congregations in Rome had a much more Gentile flavor than they had before . . . and the Jewish believers (more troublemakers)  didn’t like it! 

So in both Galatians and in Romans (as well as just about every other letter Paul wrote), Paul is writing to keep the Jews, Greeks, Barbarians, Scythians, men, women, slaves, free (and whatever other category seemed more important than the blood of Christ) united. 

They were one family now and needed to act like it.

Why? An early signpost of God’s endgame is the unified diversity of the church. Remember all those boundary markers that kept Jews and non-Jews apart? All the rules and regulations that made sure Jews steered clear of the unclean Gentiles (the very people to whom  they were supposed to be a light to the world). Jesus did away with them. All the social categories so dear to the Romans and the Greeks? Gone. 

We are all one family now. We are all “sons of God,” or “children of God” — it’s a new creation!  There could have been nothing more revolutionary at the time than Jews and Gentiles eating together at the same table or rich people washing the feet of the poor. 

So, in Romans 8:14, Paul uses a little word that is really easy to miss: all. He  makes it clear that “all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.”

All. Paul goes on, “Because you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, however you have received the spirit of sonship, in whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”  The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.”

All, you, and we. Paul is writing to a church made up of all sorts of people from all over the world, not just Jewish people. And they  are all one family. 

In Romans 15, Paul writes this benediction, which I think sums up why Paul wrote the letter: “May the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, in accordance with Christ Jesus, so that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 

Harmony, together, with one voice. Don’t lose sight of that! 

In Galatians, Paul wrote, “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.”

“There is no longer” – don’t lose sight of that either! Especially in a very divisive election cycle, it’s important to remember that, as a song we sang in my tradition put it, “Christians all should dwell together in the bonds of peace, all the clashing of opinions, all the strife should cease.”

The whole world is God’s inheritance, not just one little strip of land in the Middle East, and God’s people are more than one race of people. God’s family is made up of all sorts of people from all over the whole world, “red, brown, yellow, black and white,” to quote the very old (and non-pc) Sunday School song. And the fact the church is a multicultural and multi-chromatic church, made up of Jews and Gentiles, drawing their identity from Christ and not their background, is an important witness to an increasingly divided world. 

And it is through this multicultural, multicolored church that God is working to transform this world. God’s purposes are worked out not only in us and for us, but through us — and that’s where I think the church has missed the point over the years. Like the holiness people in my background who reduced holiness to whether or not a woman wore earrings and “face paint,” we’ve failed to see the greatness and the grandeur of God’s plans — plans that are worked out through us. 

They are accomplished by people whose identities are rooted in Christ, who have renewed hearts, who are united into one family and filled with and led by the life-giving power of the Spirit.

Blessings,
Pastor Terry