Week beginning Monday 15th June

Romans 3 & 4

Faith and Law – There is a huge perception in the wider community that the Christian faith is about Law – i.e. what we should and shouldn’t do. And this lie becomes then a barrier because of the justifiable criticism of christians that they/we are hypocrites. Now, the criticism is fair but the perspective is false…if we believe what the Bible says about faith. In Romans 3 Paul outlines clearly that all the Law can do, by itself, is show us that the criticism is fair. All of us, Christians included, stuff up. We stuff up truth, integrity, compassion, justice, mercy, forgiveness and love. We do this because naturally we put ourselves at the centre of life. Romans speaks of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ as being the alternative to self, when the writer speaks about having faith in Jesus. Faith alone saves. Faith alone overcomes condemnation. Faith does this because it is a gift. Faith is received not because of anything we do but is received because God is love and offers this love to us freely.
The Law still is helpful but only in as much as it is powered by faith. So we do not dismiss the Law, but we recognise its limits and how the power of the Holy Spirit works to help us enact the Law. This means that we do not judge each other by the Law because only God can do this, but that we encourage one another in faith to power up (Romans 3:31) the Law – which is fully revealed and to be understood in and through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. The Law without Christ is condemnation and death but the Law through Christ is life and Spirit.
What I mean by this is that we need to know and follow Jesus’ way through the Law. We need to know that Jesus said to “love God and love one another just as I have loved you” Jesus often said, “you have heard it said….now I say to you….” This was part of the process of the Law being understood through Jesus. And also how the LAw was to be encated was re-imagined and re-formed through Jesus. e.g. when the woman was caught in adultery the religious leaders brought her to Jesus to be stoned…according to the Law. But Jesus re-formed the process through love and forgiveness and challenged the leaders both in their intentions as well as their own qulaifications to enact the Law – “you without sin cast the first stone”. Jesus empowered the Law through love – “no-one condemns you woman…go and sin no more”
The focus of the Christian is to receive this gift of faith from God which means to begin the journey of turning to God and placing Jesus Christ at the centre of our lives instead of self. Know Jesus and be empowered by His Holy Spirit to live a powered up life of witness, worship and service. [Prayer - LORD I keep wanting to sneak back into the centre of my life. Thank you that your Spirit and your Law reminds me that to do this is death, but to know you and be connected to you is life. Spirit help me be obedient to God's call and Christ's way... and it will be good! AMEN]

Week beginning Monday 8th June 2009

Romans 1 & 2
I remember in my Uni days doing a study on Romans with a woman who was the Aunty of one of the blokes at College. ‘Aunty Shirley’ had served as a missionary in Indonesia for a long time and she taught the Bible to people over there. Well as a bunch of 18-21 year old males at University we thought we knew everything there was to know…about pretty much…everything. What’s that saying ‘you don’t know what you don’t know!’ Well after a few months of studying Romans with Aunty Shirley we realised what we didn’t know…and it was a lot. So…to write a couple of paragraphs about two whole chapters of Romans is a tough task. So just a couple of points…
Firstly this letter to the church in Rome (Romans) is all about Paul speaking to both Jews and non-jews in a non-jewish culture. Paul’s total focus is to share with these people the good news of Jesus Christ and to teach and equip them to live lives that is a witness to this good news. The book of Romans is filled with amazing truth about God’s grace and love and the extravagence in which God shares this with all of us through Jesus Christ, the giving of the Holy Spirit and the living of this in this new community called ‘church’.
Secondly the way Paul does this is through the combining of reason-argument, historical faith, cultural context and personal experience. This is a great example of the work of every Christian – to know scripture, know our society, know our experience and be prepared to give reason for our faith in Jesus Christ. Through this Paul speaks to the Jew and to the Non-Jew. To those with faith Paul challenges them to not give in to the culture as if their nationality makes them exempt from personal ethical behaviour and relationship and he challenges the Non-Jew as also being without excuse from seeing faith in Christ as a gift which requires-results in personal transformation. Faith is neither merely a cultural norm or a intellectual idea. Faith changes people and impacts communities…even all of creation.
Through Romans Paul not only shares that faith in Christ is personal but that through the work and gifts of the Holy Spirit this new community called ‘church’ becomes the transformative agent in the world.
Paul’s definitive statement is early in chapter one “The Gospel is the power of God saving all people, whether Jew or Gentile” The Gospel saves personally, communally and globally and it is grounded in our personal ethical behaviours and relationship…not ideas, concepts or cultural heritage. The gospel is here, it is now, it never leaves you the same…and it is eternally good!
[Prayer – LORD may I have the power of the gospel shake my world and bring me to a knowledge of the never-failing love of God that I may be a witness to this eternal reality…everyday!. Amen.