If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about—but not before God. – Romans 4:2

Today's Scripture Reading (April 19, 2024):  Romans 4

How do you breathe? Are you good at it? How often has someone stopped you and told you that you are an excellent breather? Sometimes, it is great just to be able to watch the masters do something well, and there are days when all they want to do is watch you breathe. Maybe people do, but I wouldn't know; I am not a good breather. I struggle with asthma and allergies, both of which can impede my breathing. My guess is that we don't notice good breathing, but we do take notice of someone who is struggling with their breath. To breathe well is natural, something that we do without thinking. To struggle with breathing is unnatural and often an indication of severe illness.

Paul tells the Romans that if works justified Abraham, he might have something about which to boast, although there is an open question on why one would want to. The idea is that doing what is right should be as natural and automatic as breathing. It is how we were created back when God placed Adam and Eve in the garden. Doing right was as natural as breathing, and failing to keep God's Law was an indication of severe spiritual and physical illness.

It would have been natural for Abraham to be justified by works, except that he was suffering from the same disease that has beset every individual of the human race since the fall of Adam and Eve. I don't know what the mechanics of the disease might be; if we knew the answer to that question, maybe we could work toward a solution for the problem. But instead, we pass the disease from one generation to the next. As a result, instead of right practice being the natural outgrowth of our being, evil and sin have become our natural path.

I keep returning to St. Augustine of Hippo's story of the pear tree. It is well known that Augustine ran with a bit of a wild crowd during his youth. And one night, his gang became aware of a pear tree that was loaded with ripe fruit. They didn't want to eat the pears, but they thought it might be fun to steal them. Augustine says;

We carried off a huge load of pears, not to eat ourselves, but to dump out to the hogs, after barely tasting some of them ourselves. Doing this pleased us all the more because it was forbidden. Such was my heart, O God, such was my heart – which thou didst pity even in that bottomless pit. Behold, now let my heart confess to thee what it was seeking there, when I was being gratuitously wanton, having no inducement to evil but the evil itself (Saint Augustine of Hippo; Confessions).

It was evil that was natural, and doing good that was an achievement. But it should never have been that way. The reverse should have been true; doing good should have been our natural state, and because of that, it should never have been something that we might want to boast about, at least not in front of the God who created us. It would be like bragging about our ability to breathe.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Romans 5

What shall we conclude then? Do we have any advantage? Not at all! For we have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under the power of sin. – Romans 3:9

Today's Scripture Reading (April 18, 2024):  Romans 3

We have a problem with the Bible. We tend to look at short chunks of it, and sometimes, we miss the message that the author was trying to teach us. And this is very true of Romans. Romans opens up like a bunch of rules. So, we quote Romans 1 as a listing of the sins of the world, which it is.

Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.

Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.

Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they continue to do these things and approve of those who practice them (Romans 1:24-32).

Here is the list of things that we should not be. Paul makes the point that these people are so stupid that even though they know that their behavior is worthy of death, they continue in that behavior anyway. At heart, we are rulekeepers. And so, the tendency is to pull out Romans 1 and say, "See, this is who you are. Don't you know that you are sowing the seeds of your own destruction?" And again, I think what bugs me is that we use this verse and a couple of others like a sledgehammer against certain behaviors and miss the condemnation of others, of which we are more likely to be guilty. We can stand up and say that we are not murderers, but can we be as emphatic about not being greedy gossips? I am not sure. Those words hit a little closer to home.

But Paul isn't done. He fires his guns against the world and condemns the fire that is there, and then, in his very next statement, he speaks about the Jewish community: the established church of his day.

Now you, if you call yourself a Jew; if you rely on the law and boast in God; if you know his will and approve of what is superior because you are instructed by the law; if you are convinced that you are a guide for the blind, a light for those who are in the dark, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of little children, because you have in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth— you, then, who teach others, do you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal? You who say that people should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who boast in the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law? As it is written: "God's name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you" (Romans 2:17-24),

Paul, speaking to his Jewish friends in Rome, says, "I know you; you look down your nose at them because they break the law. But so do you. You just don't break the same law that they break. If you want to rely on the law, you had better be ready to rely on all of it. I know your argument."

The Jewish teachers had decreed that there are 613 Commandments. And while all of these 613 laws are equal, to paraphrase George Orwell, "some laws were made more equal than others." The Jews looked down on the Gentiles as lawbreakers. But the problem was that they weren't keeping the law either. They may not have been breaking the law of Romans 1, although the opinion was still out on greed, gossip, and slander, but that didn't mean they didn't break any of the law.

We are lawbreakers. The world is broken, and we are the ones who broke it. We started the fire that has engulfed the world. And the same argument that Paul had with the Jews fits us. We feel superior because we might not be Romans 1 lawbreakers, but that doesn't mean we don't break the law. We might argue that the laws we break don't make sense. Who cares if we shave the edges of our beards or tattoo our bodies? If we are men, who cares if we wear our hats inside the church, or if we are women, who cares if there is no hat on the top of our heads? How important can that be to our spiritual health? Those are unimportant laws. But if all laws are really equal, then the laws we break are just as grave as the Roman 1 law that we like to throw at sinners.

And so the Pharisees rose up. They became the lawkeepers of Israel. They believed that if all of Israel could keep all of the law, all 613 commandments, for just one day, God would send his Messiah. The Messiah didn't come because Israel could not keep the law. It was a hopeless task.

This is the theme of the first chapters of Romans, and it comes to a point in the ninth verse. ^"What shall we conclude then? Do we have any advantage? Not at all! For we have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under the power of sin" (Romans 3:9). None of us can say that we weren't the ones who broke our world. We did it. Maybe some did it more or worse than others, but does that really matter? We have all proven that we are unable or unwilling to keep the law.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Romans 4

To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. – Romans 2:7

Today's Scripture Reading (April 17, 2024):  Romans 2

Regardless of the sport, opening day is worthy of the celebration of the sports fan. It is the only day of the year when every team has a perfect record. It is a day when the dream of a championship is alive and well, and every team still has a chance to win it all. It doesn't take long for teams to begin to fall away and for other teams to make their bid to be the best; sports seasons are long, and the reality of sports is that every team will, at some point in the playing year, struggle, and begin to worry if they are really good enough. But on opening day, it is just the dream that seems to give a vibrant life to the sports fan.

Paul has talked about the Gentiles and the struggle that they have to suffer through because of their culture and the fact that they don't have the Law. Most of the Jews in Paul's audience would have been nodding their heads during that portion of the address. They knew that Jews had the advantage of the Mosaic Law, and because of the Law, the Jews held an advantage that the Gentiles didn't possess.

But Paul reminds them that they still have a problem. They would be fine if they could be perfect; if, through persistence, they could live according to the Law and choose to honor God and reject the ways of this world. But that wasn't the reality. Life is long, and we are bound to struggle at some point, just like a sports team. We choose what seems right to us instead of what seems right to God. We act selfishly instead of following the generous life to which we have been called. We fail to follow the way of truth and instead follow the way of unrighteousness.

What the Jews missed is that the Mosaic Law operates like a modern-day smoke alarm. A smoke alarm doesn't stop smoke, it simply tells us when smoke is present so that we have a chance to do something about it. The Law could never stop people from sinning, but it is designed to remind us when sin is present.

Perfection is beyond our ability. It doesn't matter who we are. The first two chapters of Romans simply build to a revelation that we already know.

"There is no one righteous, not even one;
    there is no one who understands;
    there is no one who seeks God.
      All have turned away,
    they have together become worthless;
there is no one who does good,
    not even one" (Romans 3:10b-12).

It doesn't matter if we are Gentiles who live without the Law or Jews to whom the Law has been revealed. We need a new way. We need the way of Jesus.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Romans 3

I am obligated both to Greeks and non-Greeks, both to the wise and the foolish. – Romans 1:14

Today's Scripture Reading (April 16, 2024):  Romans 1

In the mid-eighties, my wife and I were starting our lives together. We had moved to a small town and were living in this four-plex thing. It was basically a duplex with basement suites. Nelda and I lived on the top floor of the South end of the duplex. I was working at the local Toyota dealership when Toyota released a Toyota Tercel Coupe. Now, Nelda and I already owned a Tercel, but it wasn't a coupe and these things looked good. My wife and I didn't have kids yet, so we talked, and she let me order the car. I ordered my Tercel Coupe directly from Japan. I would have to wait months for it, but that was okay. When it arrived, it would be red with a sunroof and the exact mix of options I wanted. I was pumped. I was counting the months, weeks, and days until my car arrived.

Between the time that I ordered the car and the day that the vehicle was scheduled to show up, a couple of things changed in my home life. First, my wife and I started to look to buy a house; the time had come to stop renting and own our home.

Now, my car was getting close. The ship from Japan was about to reach port when a guy from Toyota phoned me. He had noticed that there was a car coming to Vancouver that had my name on it. And he asked, is this car for you? Yes, it was. He pushed it a little. Were you bringing it in to be your demo? No, this was a car that I was purchasing. I had lovingly chosen every option and the color, and I was anxiously waiting for it to show up.

The representative from Toyota continued, "Well, we have another buyer for it; it is exactly what this person wants." And I'm thinking, no surprise there, I am a person of good taste. Do you want to let it go, or even let this guy have it, and you can order another one from Japan?

It was not what I wanted to hear; I had waited long enough. I wanted my Red Toyota Tercel with the sunroof, air conditioning, the high-level factory stereo system, and black fabric seats. I had been waiting for months for this car to arrive.

A few days after that phone call, my wife and I found the house we wanted. It wasn't far from where we had been living. The house sat on a wide lot with a huge backyard for our kids to play in. Oh, and my wife found out she was pregnant. We had a problem. We really couldn't afford both the car and the house. I had a decision to make.

So, I told Nelda, "I know you want the house, but I want my car, and that is the most important thing to me." So, I forgot about the house and bought my car. (I am joking.) I did the mature thing; sometimes, acting like an adult hurts. I phoned up Toyota and told them they could have my dream car. I didn't even get to see the car. Other things were more important to me.

Listen to what Paul says: I am obligated and indebted. Paul's debt was present in two ways. First, Paul was indebted to God. It was God who had come down to him. God had stopped his hand. The words that Jesus spoke on the Road to Damascus were, "Paul, why are you persecuting me." God made sure that Paul realized that this was personal. The actions that he had taken had hurt God. I don't think anyone at the time or even in our time thought that was possible.

Paul was also indebted to people. He was indebted both vertically and horizontally. Paul's actions had hurt God, but they had also hurt people's ability to recognize that they needed to come to God. So, Paul says he is obligated under that debt to preach the Gospel. What used to be important is no longer essential; his circumstances have changed.

We are in debt. We have hurt God and people; maybe we need a Damascus Road experience. Our lifestyle, things that perhaps we haven't even thought about, has caused harm to someone else's walk with God. Not only are we in debt, but just like me with the house and car, we are in debt to the point where we can't afford another debt. We need to become focused only on God. And we need to recognize our obligation to share the Gospel. 

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Romans 2

He traveled through that area, speaking many words of encouragement to the people, and finally arrived in Greece. – Acts 20:2

Today's Scripture Reading (April 15, 2024):  Acts 20

I am on X (formerly Twitter). You can find me @garrythepastor on the social media site. One reason I am on the site is for the online community, although with some recent changes, I am finding it increasingly more challenging to participate in that community.

A few years ago, I received a message from someone on Twitter with a request. They gave me a person's Twitter name and said, 'Hey, would you (in 140 characters or less) encourage this person who is having a rough day."

My initial reaction probably wasn't that great. It was, "I can't do that." It is not that I didn't want to, but who wants to hear from me? The person in question lived in Texas, and I didn't know this person at all, not even through social media. But I happened to be speaking on encouragement the following Sunday, so I also felt that I needed to live my message.

So I tweeted. "Hey, someone asked me to pray for you. So, I am. Remember, God is in control." I pushed the send button. Did I do it good enough? I wasn't sure.

A little later, a message came back. Thanks; nothing else. Then later, another message; this message was a direct message just between me and this person. She opened up a bit more, telling me that she had just lost her business, which was oilfield-related, and now she was afraid of losing her house.

And I wondered, God, is this it? Is this why? Because I know that pain in my life? I could empathize with her because we both had struggled through similar experiences. It cost me so little to just say, "Hey, I'm praying because a friend asked me to pray. I will pause my day and ask God to move in your life. I don't know what that looks like. Honestly, I don't know what that looks like for someone in my congregation sometimes, let alone someone living a thousand miles away that I have never met. But I can pray."

Paul traveled through the area, speaking many words of encouragement. Paul hadn't always been an encourager; once, he had incited riots against the Christian community. Once, Pau had approved of the execution of Christians. But then God got a hold of him on the Road to Damascus; on the Road, Paul found God's love and encouragement even though he had done nothing to deserve it. Jesus called him into a life of discipleship instead of just being a fan of God.

Paul had done everything to disqualify himself from a life with God. But on the Damascus Road, with Paul's permission, God transformed Paul into the person he was intended to be to be in the first place. God placed inside of him a heart that naturally exuded encouragement, a heart that naturally wanted to build others up and pass on the gift that had been passed on to him.

One of the lies of Satan is that we don't deserve or that others don't deserve our encouragement because we don't measure up. However, Jesus Christ died on a cross for us. He took the first step so that we wouldn't have to, encouraged us when we didn't deserve it, and did it in abundance! But more than that, he has given us the same opportunity that he gave to Paul: the opportunity to be transformed.

My Christian heritage and beliefs tell me this: there is a work of transformation that God wants to do in Christians. It goes by several different descriptions, but I hold to the idea that we are being perfected in love. We are not perfect in performance, but can be perfect in our desire to love. This is the mark of Christ in you: that we will love.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Romans 1

Those who want to impress people by means of the flesh are trying to compel you to be circumcised. The only reason they do this is to avoid being persecuted for the cross of Christ. – Galatians 6:12

Today's Scripture Reading (April 14, 2024):  Galatians 6

During the 1980s, a post-punk musician named Steve Taylor sang satirical songs about the church. Taylor tried to speak directly to the Christian Church; his music was not intended for people outside the Christian community by making fun of some of the things we do. The title track on his debut record was a song called "I Want to Be a Clone."

I'd gone through so much other stuff
that walking down the aisle was tough
but now I know it's not enough
I want to be a clone

I asked the Lord into my heart
they said that was the way to start
but now you've got to play the part
I want to be a clone

Be a clone and kiss conviction goodnight
cloneliness is next to Godliness, right?
I'm grateful that they show the way
'cause I could never know the way
to serve him on my own
I want to be a clone

The song pokes fun at Christian Culture, which seems to require everyone to be the same. Writers from "The Babylon Bee," a satirical Christian website, argue in their book "How to be a Perfect Christian" that "to become perfect, you need to be baptized in the glorious waters of Christian culture." To be perfect, you have to act right. The argument is that the church often functions like a Junior High campus. You must be cool and hang out with the right people to be perfect. And it is incredible how many people have given up on the church because this is their impression of us. People are going to hell because we want to impress others rather than embrace Christ and those Christ embraced.

So Paul writes, "See what large letters I use as I write to you with my own hand" (Galatians 6:11)! The reality is that Paul used a secretary to write his letters. Paul would dictate his thoughts while another person would write them down. But, at this point, he grabs the pen and writes these thoughts with his hand. Paul says, see the different writing. I am writing this to you. I don't want you to think this may be someone else's idea. It is from me. Some people are trying to compel you to be circumcised and keep rules that they believe are important. They want you to be baptized in the glorious waters of Christian culture, but they are just doing it because they are trying to impress people, not because they are trying to embrace Jesus. They argue that they want you to be a clone, "If you want to be one of his, then you have to look like one of us." Paul's message, written in his own hand, is to resist this with everything you have because that is not what Jesus taught.

One of the most foundational commands of Jesus was that we are to love those who are unlike us. It is in the command to

"'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments" (Matthew 22:37-40).

To embrace Jesus means embracing God by loving him and your neighbor. Jesus's definition of neighbor is someone with whom you cross paths. Do this, and you have kept all of the Law and all of the prophets. These people trying to compel you to keep their rules are doing an end around the commands of Jesus. They argue that because they keep the rules, they don't have to love those who are different from them. But that is not what Jesus said. Being a part of Christian culture and making sure that others know how generous and great people we are does not excuse us from embracing Jesus and those he embraced.

We will likely be persecuted when we decide to love as Jesus loved. There will be people who say that we are going too far. They will tell us that we don't need to love these people. It is one of the criticisms that I receive about my teaching. I talk too much about love. But the problem is love was what Jesus taught. And if I, as a Christian, want to keep all of the Law and the prophets, the first step is not to keep the rules; it is to love as Jesus loved.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Acts 20

You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. – Galatians 5:13

Today's Scripture Reading (April 13, 2024):  Galatians 5

I read a story about a women's softball team a few years ago. In the bottom of the ninth, with the score tied 0-0, a batter came to the plate and hit the ball out of the park. With the homerun, the game was over. The home run was even more special because it was the first home run the batter had ever hit.

The batter began her trot around the bases, but as she passed first base, she realized she had missed stepping on the bag. So, she turns to step on first base and trips, twisting her knee. According to the rules, the one who hits the home run must touch all the bases, and a teammate may not help a player around the bases in any way. If the batter, for any reason, is unable to run the bases, the homerun would come off the board and be declared a single or double, depending on how many bases were touched, and the game would continue. In this game, the player was lying in pain at first base, and it seemed unlikely that she could run the bases. 

With determination, the batter tried to crawl toward the second base, but each motion just brought her more and more pain. It was about this time that the first baseman of the defending team came up with a plan. The rule said teammates couldn't help her, but what about her opponents? A quick meeting with the umpire revealed there was nothing prohibiting that happening. So, the first baseman went to the injured player and, with the help of the shortstop, picked her up and started to carry the player around the bases. At each base, they would instruct the baserunner to reach down with her good leg and touch the base, and then the strange trio went on to the next base. When they finally arrived at home plate, the stadium was in tears.

Paul uses a play on words we sometimes miss in this verse. The problem is that the translation of the word we have as "serve" should actually be "a slave." Paul says God has called you to be free, so in your freedom, become slaves to love. Freedom and slavery don't usually go together. And when they do go together, it is generally in the opposite direction. Once, we were slaves, but now we are free. The origins of Israel were in slavery. And the people of Israel prayed that they would be released from slavery and become a free people.

However, the image of slavery was slightly different at the time of Jesus. It was still slavery; there was an inherent loss of freedom that characterized it. But we often think of slavery as it existed in North America for the past few years. Slavery was defined by one people group being denied chances at education and being forced to work for a privileged class. We have the image of black men and women working on the cotton plantation, working under the hot sun day after day. People that had often been born into slavery and had never known any other existence.

In Rome, slavery was massive. Enslaved people were all over the place. And they came from the nations that Rome had defeated in war. Many of these slaves were very highly educated; often, slaves had a higher education level than their owners did. Slaves were made up of doctors and writers, philosophers, and experts in religion and astronomy. They were slaves, and they were still defined by that characteristic loss of freedom, but unlike what happened in the United States or Britain in the past few centuries, a slave owner could have a complex question and go and ask a slave for the answer. This doesn't make slavery right, but it did make it different.

As he writes to the Galatians, Paul is trying to instruct his readers that they should "Let love drive you into slavery," into that place where you use what is great about you to help someone else. In your freedom, choose slavery because you are free.

The team that helped the base runner to circle the bases lost the game. The game was a playoff game, and because two defenders decided to support their opposition, their team was eliminated from the playoffs. Paul would have approved. In your freedom, choose to be slaves to each other because of love. In your freedom, make the hard choice and love even if it costs you something. Be a slave for someone else. And in the process, the community of Jesus Christ will be strengthened.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Galatians 6