Tag: Bible

Does Obedience or Faith Come First?- Romans 1:5

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Romans 1:5

Through him we received grace and apostleship to call all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith for his name’s sake.

After the gospel layout in vv.3-4, Paul resumes his personal introduction in v.5, and I paraphrase here to understand what the wording of the sentence: ‘I received the grace of being commissioned, from God’s son, to call the Gentiles to be obedient. This obedience comes from faith in Jesus Christ’. (The ‘I’ instead of ‘we’ in my paraphrasing is because in his letters,Paul often uses plurals when talking about himself, and in this case v.1 shows Paul is just introducing himself.) Although Paul felt his special commission from God was to reach the Gentiles, he definitely preached to the Jews as well.

We’ll see the theme of obedience and faith come up a number of times in Romans because it’s one of the cornerstones of being a christian. When I first went through Romans in depth over a year ago, this topic, obedience and faith, was very exciting to have clarified. The clarification for me, and you might have the same question, is what comes first; obedience for what God asks of us, or faith in God? Does faith lead to obedience or does obedience lead to faith? As Moo puts it, ‘obedience always involves faith, and faith always involves obedience’. One does not come after or before the other. In this verse, Paul is saying that his apostleship (special commission from God) isn’t just to bring the Gentiles to faith, but to bring them to obedience in the continual spread of the gospel.

You can see how this works if we take faith and obedience to their extremes. A woman with complete faith in God that he will provide for her will take risks to be obedient and spread the gospel to the ends of the earth and love others. A man with no faith that God is going to provide for him is going to spend his time seeking comfort from earthly things, and little to no time being obedient. The woman with complete faith couldn’t not be obedient, knowing what God does in her life, and the man with no faith wouldn’t be obedient, because there is no benefit in being obedient to a cause without faith of benefit or consequence. (you might find my post ‘Are we to pray for physical matters?‘ interesting)

ASK YOURSELF: Do you see both faith and obedience in your life? Which one do you think is most deficit, and is that result of deficit in the other area as well?

I pray, God, that you will give me the strength to increase my faith and obedience. Let me know that you are worth obeying wholeheartedly. Let me know that I can put my complete faith and trust in you, leaving nothing left for my own anxieties and pride. 

When Did Jesus Become Son of God? – Romans 1:4

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Romans 1:4

and who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.

This is what I would call a ‘Wait, What?’ verse; a verse that potentially tells me something theological I have never heard before, and could take a while to get my head around. It’s good to know with this verse, however, that I’m not alone in not being able to come to a 100% definitive understanding of this verse. If you read the commentaries and the research, there are many different questions that commentators and scholars look to answer here in v.4. For instance is it the ‘Spirit of holiness’ (as in the Holy Spirit) or ‘spirit of holiness’ (Jesus’ spirit of faithfulness to God)? And is this verse saying that Jesus wasn’t Son of God until after the Resurrection? If this is the case, then who was he before?

This verse is an important theological statement that Paul wrote to the Romans as part of his greetings. As a continuation of v.3, in v.4 Paul is further clarifying that Jesus Christ is the messiah, he is the Son of God, and his Resurrection was very important for both the Roman Jews and Gentiles. In regards to answering what the ‘Spirit of holiness’ is referring to, the short answer is no one knows for sure how the Romans would have understood this passage, but there is a strong consensus that is refers to Jesus’ ‘obedience and faithfulness to God’ because ‘Spirit of holiness’ is only used in this verse in the New Testament and when the Holy Spirit is talked about elsewhere, it is referred to as the Holy Spirit.

Answering the other fundamental question ‘When did Jesus become the Son of God?’, we must look at the adverb ‘appointed’. To say that Jesus was only appointed Son of God at the time of the Resurrection is to say before that point, Jesus was just another dude (This is called adoptionism Christology). Jesus was and is eternally the Son of God and messiah, sent to earth to save the world because us humans aren’t able to help ourselves. What he was appointed at the Resurrection is Son of God in power, able to save us sinners.

ASK YOURSELF: What do you believe? Do you believe in adoptionist Christology or functional Christology? How important to the sharing of the gospel are these distinctions?

I pray today that God will give me wisdom and understanding for the difficult questions, and peace that I won’t be able to understand everything as a fallible human, but this won’t stop me from sharing your love with those around me. 

Son of God, Son of David – Romans 1:3

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Romans 1:3

— regarding his Son, who as to his earthly life was a descendant of David,

V.3 is the start of Paul’s clarification of what he is talking about when he mentions the gospel in vv.1-2; the gospel in which he will be going further in depth of later in the letter. The whole sentence is talking about Jesus, because Jesus is the gospel. In this verse Jesus is described as being God’s son, and also a descendant of David. Why did Paul take the time to clarify Jesus’ heritage?

Son of God

As we’ll explore in depth in v.4, Jesus is the Son of God, appointed to that role through the Holy Spirit. Being the child of someone gives you quite a connection to them; you share their DNA, proneness to balding and when they die, their inheritance will go to you (if they haven’t spent it on cruises). As Schreiner (1998) writes ‘…if Jesus is God’s true son, then membership in the people of God depends on being rightly related to Jesus’. This is relevant because the Jews in Rome, who are part of God’s chosen people (Israel), didn’t agree that Jesus was the Messiah that the prophets of the Old Testament were talking about.

Son of David

The Jews, rightly, believe that the Messiah will come from the line of David (2 Samuel 7:12-17), a King of Israel and man of God. Paul is providing evidence to the Jews that the gospel he brings does fit with the Old Testament promises. He is also reminding the Gentiles that Jesus was a Jew, and as we’ll see further in the letter, Paul will be constantly reminding the Gentiles of this fact to ensure they know that the Jews are, and will always be, God’s chosen people. Paul also points out that only in his earthly life was he a descendant of David. Jesus existed eternally before and will continue to exist as the Son of God.

ASK YOURSELF: Do you believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God? What impact does that have on the way you share the gospel?

I pray that God will give me continual guidance and wisdom as I explore and learn concepts, some of which are far beyond our human understanding.

Old Good News – Romans 1:2

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Romans 1:2

— the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures

Paul’s one sentence autobiography in v.1 ends with ‘…[I am] set apart for the gospel of God’. For further clarification of the gospel that he is talking about, Paul lets the readers know the gospel he is preaching is a fulfillment of the gospel that the prophets in the Old Testament were talking about. As a side note, the prophets Paul refers to are not just the ‘official’ prophets like Isaiah and Jeremiah, but include others like Moses and David.  As we’ll see further in Romans, Paul uses old testament scriptures regularly to give evidence for his arguments and teachings. ‘What is the exact gospel Paul is talking about?’ the Roman readers might be wondering. Well he’s about to spell out the gospel in vv. 3-5, so stay tuned for that.

But it might be an interesting exercise to look at what the ‘Holy Scriptures’ are that Paul is talking about. I’ve already referred to the Holy Scriptures as the Old Testament, but is that the same as what Paul was referencing?

Back in the early centuries AD, it is understood and believed by most scholars that Jesus and his followers used the Septuagint. The Septuagint (Also known as the LXX) was the first Greek translation of the Tanakh, or the Hebrew Bible. The Tanakh is estimated to have been definitely complete by 200BC and the Greek translation was completed very soon after. The Tanakh, although in a different order and the books are divided differently, the actual content between the Tanakh and our modern Old Testament hasn’t changed. Therefore we can be sure that the Holy Scirptures that Paul is referring to are the same as ours today, and we can read in confidence that Paul really is preaching the good news that he promised through the Old Testament men of God that we can read about for ourselves today.

ASK YOURSELF: Do I know the scriptures? Would I be able to stand up for my faith when challenged, with scriptural evidence for what I believe?

I pray that God will give me a passion for diving deeper into God’s word to learn more about him and the promises he had for his people, and the promises he has for me and my future.

A One Sentence Autobiography – Romans 1:1

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Romans 1:1

Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God

Let me introduce myself to you

How would you write a letter to your brother? ‘Dear Nathan. You still owe me $20. From Mark.’ How would you write a letter to a prospective employer? ‘Dear Sir/Madam. My name is Mark and I would like to apply for the position of chocolate taste-tester at your factory…” How would you write a letter to a group of people in a different country in which you tell them how to live their lives? ‘Dear Italians. I have noticed that you’re not doing a very good job getting along with each other and you need some clarifications on theological ideas you live by. Let me give you some advice…’

That was the exact scenario that Paul was faced with when writing his letter to the Romans. At the end of the letter (spoiler alert), Paul writes he is looking for assistance when he comes to Rome on his way to Spain (Romans 15:23-29). As this is clearly a strong motive for writing the letter, Paul of course wanted the Romans to be willing to read past the first sentence! Therefore in Romans Paul gives a very detailed, theologically grounded greeting at the start of the letter (Romans 1:1-7), including a one sentence autobiography in v.1 telling the readers three things about the author; who he is, what authority he has to write and why he’s writing.

Who he is: ‘a servant of Christ Jesus’

Not only is Paul willing to call himself a servant of Christ Jesus, in that he submits all authority of himself over to the Christ Jesus the Messiah, but he is also saying that he is a servant of Christ Jesus in an employee sense. The prophets of the old testament, like Moses (Deuteronomy 34:5), were also referred to as ‘servants of the Lord’.

What authority he has: ‘called to be an apostle’

Although apostle comes from the Greek word literally meaning ‘messenger’, Paul was also using apostle here in the same sense as the twelve apostles. Paul was called to be an apostle, just like the twelve, by Jesus Christ and God the Father (Galatians 1:1), as a Jew with a mission to reach the Gentiles (Romans 11:13).

Why he’s writing: ‘set apart for the gospel of God’

Paul, in being set apart for the gospel of God, has totally dedicated his whole life (because God has called him to), to the sharing of the gospel; the good news of salvation through Christ. If someone has been set apart from their old life for something, it provides a strong indication of where the topic of conversation is going.

ASK YOURSELF: What would your one sentence autobiography be? What would other say your one sentence autobiography is?

I pray to God that I will recognise that I also have been set apart for the gospel, and that will be reflected in my life through the courage I have to share the gospel, and share God’s love with others through the things I do and say.

Attn: Rome – An Introduction to Romans

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A brief introduction before we walk into the 433 verse journey that is Romans. Romans is the first book of the bible I have studied through from end to end. For the last eight months I have been studying the book of Romans, averaging around three verses a day. I have discovered things for my own faith that will impact the rest of my life. My purpose for doing this blog post-style commentary is to offer commentary not as a biblical scholar or theologian (because I’m not), but as an everyday working-class man building my own faith stronger.

“Sorry; Paul who?”

Imagine receiving a letter in the mail from a man you might have only of heard by name. This letter, over the course of 7000 words, includes multiple reprimands, admonishing, notes of praise of your conducts but with corrections for your life. If that was me, I would have at some point said “Who is this guy to tell me how to live my life? I’m living the exact way that God wants me to live.” It turns out this was the same attitude as the Jewish and Gentile Christian Romans around the mid-first century when they received this letter from Paul, and one of the reasons for Paul writing the letter. At the time in Rome there were Christians that were divided into Jews and Gentiles. Although populations and majority-minority is unknown for the two, the evidence from Romans shows that the groups did not do a good job of getting along, each believing emphatically that their own group’s way of living was right, the other group’s way of living was wrong, and that stopped them from working together for the gospel. Paul’s letter then comes with the overall idea that both Jews and Gentiles are looking at it all wrong. Instead of being picky with the traditions and details, Paul pleads with them to accept their Christian brothers and sisters, don’t get caught up on the insignificant differences, and keep going with the great commission (Matt 28:16-20) that Jesus called them to. But an even greater theme of Romans is that of justification by faith. Paul lays out the complete gospel in Romans, the main point being that I, as a sinner, will never achieve perfection with human works, and because perfection is what God requires of us, the only way I can be in a relationship with him is through faith.

My prayer is that readers who read this blog-style commentary look past the fallible human author and see the awesome grace of God. He is the same God that Paul was writing about to the people in Rome, and God has not changed since. Some topics that Paul writes about in Romans will be difficult to pull an application from, and we won’t squeeze and mold the verses for our agenda. Instead, all verses in Romans will be provide talking points for us living in the 21st Century. Let this be a place of respectful conversation. Comment on verses that baffle you, inspire you or even points that you disagree with.

I’ll be using the NIV version of the bible. The main commentaries I’ll be using in my explorations are Richard N. Longnecker’s The Epistle to The Romans, Douglas J. Moo’s The Epistle to the Romans and Thomas R. Schreiner’s Romans.

 

How to be successful and influential – Proverbs 16:3

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Proverbs 16:3

Commit your deeds to the Lord and your plans shall succeed.

The titles of self-help books are always eye catching; ‘How to Win Friends and Influence People’, ‘The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People’. The books are aiming to help the reader become something that the reader feels they’re not, for example ‘influential’ or ‘effective’. We learn in the bible, there’s no ‘self’ involved in being successful or influential. Yes, working really hard for yourself can make you successful or influential to the world’s standards, but that is fleeting and certainly the path to going further away from God, rather than towards (Matthew 19:23-24).

The Bible is a God-help book. The Bible offers up sound advice for how one can be successful and influential, and they all involve searching for help and support from God, not ourselves. Why would the bible not contain the phrase ‘God helps those who helps themselves’? That’s not what grace is all about. Grace is about God loving us because he knows we can’t help ourselves. Surely the fact that there are plethora of self-help books released every year shows that no one has truly worked out how to help them-self with every aspect of their life, or really what ‘success’ actually is. The whole point of the gospel is faith and trust alone in Jesus is all we need to be saved, and that is the success everyone is searching for. God doesn’t need our good works. He certainly requests that we work hard towards the furthering of his Love and the gospel (1 Corinthians 10:31), and doing so is evidence of a strong faith and trust and understanding .

I have plans to succeed. I have plans to live comfortably, provide for my family, have a good job in a good workplace and let others know about God. Which of those deeds should I commit to the Lord? All of them, certainly, but I feel that providing for my family and letting others know about God, the two plans that align with God’s desire for spreading his Love and the gospel, are going to do better at succeeding. Why? Because if I’m focused on providing for my family and letting others know about God, it might mean myself not living comfortably, and not having a good job in a good workplace. All four plans might succeed, by God’s grace, but there is no reason I should expect all four to, and God could take away my living comfortably so that I focus more on spreading the gospel. Being successful means choosing what you want to be successful in; we can’t be successful in everything. For me, I feel being successful in loving others holds so much more worth than being successful for myself.

ASK YOURSELF: What are your plans? Are your plans for comfort or the furthering of God’s Love to this broken world? Have you committed your deeds to the Lord?

 

Cut it off, Cut it off, Pluck it out – Mark 9:43

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Mark 9:43

If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out.

Jesus and his disciples escaped the crowds by going to a small fishing village called Capernaum, which sits on the edge of the Sea of Galilee. There, Jesus is giving some private lessons to his twelve disciples. Vv. 33-50 of chapter 9 change subject a number of times, leading one to believe that the writer of Mark is giving us just the highlights of the teaching. Vv. 43,45 and 47 follow the same teaching: ‘if x causes you to stumble, get rid of it. It is better to enter heaven impaired in some way than be thrown into hell.’

As usual in the interpretation of verses there is a range of extremes that interpreters see in verses. On the less extreme end, these verses could be interpreted as talking about the church, and that it is necessary to get rid of a member if they are causing other members to stumble. On the other extreme end, Jesus is telling everyone to chop their hands off and get rid of their eyes, as there is no one that has not used these parts of their body for sin. Verse 42 may offer us a clue for what the following verses are referring to:

Mark 9:42

“If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them if a large millstone were hung around their neck and they were thrown into the sea.

This is such passionate language from Jesus. He is passionately against people that cause believers to stumble, and one can imagine that if it is better that someone dies on earth rather that cause a believer to stumble, whatever is in store for them on the day of judgement is not going to be joyful. With this in mind, v. 43 and it’s companion verses would then be talking about the church, or the body of Christ. Two major points remain:

1. Can we apply vv. 43,45,47 to the context of our physical body causing us to sin?

Until a really studied this verse, I thought that it could apply to our literal eyes. I have sinned through my eyes. I don’t know you, but I’m guessing you could attest to the same issues, and so we should all have an ‘eye going away’ party. But notice that the verses say ‘Our x causes us to stumble.’ My eye doesn’t cause me to stumble. My sinful heart wants to sin, and I use my eyes to stumble. Blaming my eye or hand or foot for something I did wrong would not even stand up in an earthly court room, and there is no reason why an infinitely wise God is going to judge with lower standards. Cutting off a body part is not going to stop our sinful hearts. We stumble from the sinful heart; to only way to get rid of that is using God to transform our hearts.

2. Are we the body parts that should be cut off?

Although we have concluded that we shouldn’t cut off our physical body parts because that’s not going to stop us from sinning, what should we do with the body parts (people) in the church who are causing others to stumble. It’s not our place to kill people that are causing others to sin; the role of judgement is God and God’s alone, but it certainly is our place to approach that person in love and help them see what they’re doing is wrong. But what if I am the body part that is causing others to sin? That is the biggest question, and from the passion that God talks about this issue, it is a question that we should all be asking ourselves daily. Are we causing others to stumble? A really quick and easy solution to this problem is to know whether our actions are loving to other people. If you’re loving everyone around you to the standard that God calls us to, you can’t be causing them to sin. They may sin, but you can’t, and shouldn’t take the blame. You can rest easy knowing you have done all that is humanly possible. Of course, this is far easier said and done, but from this verse we can see that God holds a very high standard for us in our interactions with people around us. We are only to love others, and only cause them to see God’s goodness and glory, never stumble.

ASK YOURSELF: How are you causing others to stumble? What can you do within your power to stop them from stumbling and to instead see God’s glory through your actions?

How to see God – 1 John 4:12

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1 John 4:12

No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

I will admit I am a skeptic when people, in the modern age, say they have seen angels, or been to heaven and back. I very much believe in the supernatural world, and I also believe it is within God’s power to take someone to heaven and back, or send angels to earth. All of that is to say we learn in the bible that we don’t need to see supernatural things to see supernatural things. And more importantly we don’t need to be a supernatural being to live supernaturally. When we are born again (that is accept Jesus as our Lord and Saviour), we are endowed with the Holy Spirit (see the rest of 1 John 4). As verse 12 says, if we want to see a glimpse of God, we need to only look at Christians loving one another. We, as Christians, need to love non-Christians so that they have the opportunity to see only a morsel of God’s infinitely larger Love waiting for them.

At the end of verse 12, John writes that ‘his love is made complete in us’. Surely God’s love doesn’t end with us? Well in verse 17, John explains this point:

1 John 4:17

 This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus.

We are not like Jesus, as in Jesus is part of the holy trinity and the Son of God. We are like Jesus in that we are going to suffer in this world. People are going to criticize and possibly even crucify us for what we do and preach in throughput of God’s love. But like Jesus, our earthly goal is to spread God’s love. That is how his love is made complete in us; the whole point of God’s love is to reach non-Christians and Christians alike, and a method in which he does that is through us fulfilling the command to love one another.

Isn’t it amazing that we can be the ones that show God to others? We can enable others to see God through our actions. If that doesn’t prove that our lives are not our own, I don’t know what does.

Stressings over Blessings – John 14:27

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John 14:27

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

It’s funny the things that cause us stress.  Often times it can actually be good things that cause stress. For example choosing between two job offers, or having to decide between two holiday locations. The blessings of being able to have the opportunity to be employed, or have the savings and time to take a holiday are not things that we deserve. God didn’t need to allow us to be in the situations we’re in, and he has every right to take away everything that is good in our lives. So why do we sometimes stress even when we’re not in what would be considered a ‘stressful situation’?

Stress is most commonly rooted in worry and anxiety. If we are dropped in the middle of a crocodile infested river, we will start to stress out of fear of becoming a crocodile’s morning tea. If we have a project deadline coming up, we begin to stress that not completing it to a high standard could lead us to losing our jobs. There are legitimate situations, like being in a crocodile infested river, when stress is a good thing, it helps us to make wise decisions like get out of the river. But a lot of the time stress and worry is caused by imagined threats, or ‘the worst case scenario’. Circling back to why we stress over blessings, many times it’s because we are trying to find the ‘worst case scenario’ in the blessing. For example ‘If I take Job A over Job B, what if in a months time I find out Job A isn’t what I thought it would be?’ or ‘What if I don’t perform/fit in/be accepted in my new job?’ or ‘What if other people think we’re too excessive if we go on holiday?’ or ‘What if the location we choose is not what I thought it would be like?’

When we stress over good things in life, there’s always a much deeper trouble in our hearts. That core trouble or issue will vary from person to person, but examples can be not trusting in God’s provision, not trusting in God’s control, seeking comfort from the approval of others, having a love over worldly goods above God. And these core issues will pop up time and time again, no matter if the situation you are in is good or bad.

ASK YOURSELF: What’s the core issue in your heart causing you stress or anxiety? Is that really the core issue or is there an even deeper trouble?