So, how’s that working out for you?

As I have been reading and studying the Word, I thought maybe it might be a good idea to put my thoughts down. I’m going to shoot for a chapter a day, just a quick overview with some context. And, since I’ve never written down anything but scribbles in the margins, I figured, why not start with Romans, the [Sarcasm Alert!] one book in the Bible that doesn’t really bear on anything.

So, here goes. I’m reading in the English Standard Version, because it’s a literal (word-for-word) translation in more conversational language than many of the extant literal translations. So, crack open your own Bible, or click on the link below and read along! Comments are both encouraged and welcome! (You can find the beginning of this series here)

ROMANS 3

Paul now discusses some of the further implications of the Law, in regards to the Jews. Since they had the Law, oral traditions, and, not to mention, several thousand years’ direct interaction with God, they have greater accountability before Him. They’re kind of like the spiritual older brothers of the world: they knew all the rules, and they knew their responsibilities; they should have been helping the rest of us along.

³What if some were unfaithful? Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? ⁴By no means! Let God be true though every one were a liar, as it is written,

“That you may be justified in your words,

and prevail when you are judged.”

The important point here is, God is always there for us. He never gets tired, never needs to see other people. He will always do what He told us he’d do. When everyone else in the world has abandoned reason and sanity, God is still there, right where he was last time we looked. It’s kind of like the first time you took off your training wheels, and your Dad was jogging along beside you, hand hovering over the seat so he could grab it if you really screwed up… forever.

⁸And why not do evil that good may come?—as some people slanderously charge us with saying. Their condemnation is just.

We shouldn’t adhere to the “broken window” fallacy… whether morally or economically. It does not further God’s agenda if we do evil in order to create an opening for God to triumph. [I’ve read the end of the book: God wins] What we need to do is to look to our own relationships with God, and with each other.

Then we see why all humanity is condemned before God. Paul quotes Psalms, Proverbs, and Isaiah to illustrate. There are some real positive things to be said, like:

¹⁰as it is written:

“None is righteous, no, not one;[Psalms 14:1-3]

¹²All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;

no one does good, not even one.”[Psalms 53:1-3]

¹³“Their throat is an open grave;

they use their tongues to deceive.”[Psalms 5:9]

“The venom of asps is under their lips.”[Psalms 140:3]

¹⁶“in their paths are ruin and misery,

¹⁷and the way of peace they have not known.”[Isaiah 53:7,8]

Nice, huh? This describes us all. I know it does, because it’s human nature. And rather than excuse, our natures accuse us because it is the very character of human nature that it extends not from God, but from how we are when God’s not around, when we don’t let Him in.

²⁰For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

It is our nature to sin, apart from God; the Law simply exposes this nature for what it is. We can’t change that under our own steam.

²³for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

But God is, first and foremost, a God of love, eager to be reconciled to His creation, man

²⁴and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,

²⁸For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law

³⁰…He will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith.

I think God desperately wants us to return to Him. It amazes me that He is so desirous of my return to Him, someone as depraved as I know myself to be. Like the father in the Parable of the Prodigal Son, anytime I wander off, He’s watching the horizon, waiting for the first glimpse of me coming home.

Elsewhere, Paul writes that we are saved by grace through faith. But which is the chicken, which the egg? Does grace bring about our faith, or does our faith give us access to grace?

³¹Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law.

That is, faith allows us to claim the substitutionary sacrifice which by grace satisfied the penalties of the law. Grace provides the opportunity for faith to grow; it’s as if grace is what shows us the tub full of clean water. Faith allows us to conceive of not wallowing in the mud.

Who Are You to Criticize?

As I have been reading and studying the Word, I thought maybe it might be a good idea to put my thoughts down. I’m going to shoot for a chapter a day, just a quick overview with some context. And, since I’ve never written down anything but scribbles in the margins, I figured, why not start with Romans, the [Sarcasm Alert!] one book in the Bible that doesn’t really bear on anything.

So, here goes. I’m reading in the English Standard Version, because it’s a literal (word-for-word) translation in more conversational language than many of the extant literal translations. So, crack open your own Bible, or click on the link below and read along! Comments are both encouraged and welcome! (You can find the beginning of this series here)

ROMANS 2

I think this letter was written by Paul specifically to the believers in Rome. It’s universal in that it applies to all saints everywhere, and everywhen; however, the message is not one of salvation but of sanctification. And since sanctification is a process, unlike justification, his exhortations here should be applied to our own lives as followers of Christ, and not to the great unwashed multitude. The way I see it, the Gospels are for the lost, and the rest of the New Testament, while it can be useful in reaching unbelievers, is mainly concerned with the admonition and edification of the elect. That said, today’s passage is geared especially to the judgmental Christian. [Bear with me here, this is a working thesis]

¹Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things. ²We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. ³Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God? ⁴Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? ⁵But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.

Here, Paul is essentially pointing out that there is but one Judge, and we shouldn’t go around trying to do His job for Him. God’s been God for a really long time, and He’s probably got a much better grasp of how to do His thing than any of us do. Besides, when we sit in judgment of the lost — that guy with at least one tat and two piercings for each of his possession convictions, or the “tarted up” chick with the neckline down to here and the skirt split up to there — the only thing that differentiates us from them is grace. That’s it. [As in, “There, but for the grace of God, go I.”]

⁶He will render to each one according to his works: ⁷by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; ⁸and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. ⁹There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, ¹⁰but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek.

God’s judgment, like the rain, falls on everybody, the just and the unjust, alike. [Hey! I think I read that somewhere!] Our actions decide our reward; God repays us, like Lord Denethor [of LOTR fame] told Pippin, “Fealty with love. Valor with honor. Disloyalty with vengeance.” And He may not wait until the Last Day to mete out our rewards, for good or ill. “What we do in this life, echoes in eternity,” adds Maximus.

Here’s where I get the thought that this letter really only addresses the saved: Paul wrote, “There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil… but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good.” For while the lost will, indeed, experience God’s wrath in an up-close and personal way, believers, too, may become vessels of wrath,

¹¹For God shows no partiality.

What a comforting, or, depending on where you’re coming from, chilling statement! God will one day say, “Here’s the bar. Here’s how far short you were.” It doesn’t matter whether you’re Charlie Manson, or Benedict XVI, you have to meet the same standard. No amount of whining, dealing, or temper-tantrums will lower the bar, or raise your grade. No special treatment. [That line strikes me kind of like, “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”]

¹²For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. ¹³For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified. ¹⁴For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. ¹⁵They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them ¹⁶on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.

This takes away any concern that those under the Law, or those who heard of neither the Law nor Christ, are judged fairly, as well. And yes, this would be a departure from my general thesis. [But not entirely, since this would tend to put to bed some lingering questions about how the whole “Covenant of Grace” deal works… what about all those people who die without ever hearing the Gospel? Thinking, caring believers may be tied up in knots about this kind of thing] This also includes part of what I snickeringly call “Biblical post-modernism”: those with the Law are judged by rigorous standards of the Law; those without the Law are judged outside of the Law, they’re a “law to themselves.” Put succinctly, legalism kills. The much better way to go is to not only hear — which anyone, Jew or Gentile, saved or lost, can do — but live God’s Word. The freedom afforded us as believers allows just this ability to live uncorrupted lives in Christ; the question is, will we use that freedom, or continue to shackle ourselves to our sin?

¹⁷But if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the law and boast in God ¹⁸and know his will and approve what is excellent, because you are instructed from the law; ¹⁹and if you are sure that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, ²⁰an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth— ²¹ you then who teach others, do you not teach yourself? While you preach against stealing, do you steal? ²²You who say that one must not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?

This passage compares the dichotomy between unbelieving Jews and the saints. Well, I think it has a dual purpose: it also holds up the Jewish leadership, who should have been able to see clearly, as a cautionary tale to the saints; that’s sort of the subtext message I see here. But Paul is exhorting us to be pure in our motivations, to see that we are not ourselves immune to temptation and stumbling, no matter how “mature” we are in our faith.

²³You who boast in the law dishonor God by breaking the law. ²⁴For, as it is written, “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.”

How powerful are those two statements? The cost of hypocrisy: driving the lost away from God. [Wasn't the Great Commission something like: "Go forth into all the world, telling everyone how much better you are than they"?] What could possibly be more tragic? Is this why we were saved, why Jesus sacrificed? So that we who have benefited from his death can seal the doom of those who don’t know Him? [I know for a fact that I am guilty of this]

²⁵For circumcision indeed is of value if you obey the law, but if you break the law, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision. ²⁶So, if a man who is uncircumcised keeps the precepts of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? ²⁷Then he who is physically uncircumcised but keeps the law will condemn you who have the written code and circumcision but break the law. ²⁸For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. ²⁹But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God.

Paul was underscoring – maybe a reflection of the false apostles in Corinth – the fact that our only hope as believers in reaching the ideal that Christ has put forth for us is [literal] reliance on God and [figurative] casting off of our flesh.

So… how can I endeavor to live as Christ while not putting myself in His place of judgment?

An Exposition, Of Sorts

As I have been reading and studying the Word, I thought maybe it might be a good idea to put my thoughts down. I’m going to shoot for a chapter a day, just a quick overview with some context. And, since I’ve never written down anything but scribbles in the margins, I figured, why not start with Romans, the [Sarcasm Alert!] one book in the Bible that doesn’t really bear on anything.

So, here goes. I’m reading in the English Standard Version, because it’s a literal (word-for-word) translation in more conversational language than many of the extant literal translations. So, crack open your own Bible, or click on the link below and read along! Comments are both encouraged and welcome!

ROMANS 1

Here, Paul sets the groundwork for the explanation of why we need salvation, why all humanity stands guilty before God, and why that (in light of God’s character) made Jesus’ redemptive sacrifice not only necessary, but ineluctable.

¹Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle for the gospel of God… ⁷To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called …saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul gives this lengthy introduction, which I’ve pared down, because he wanted every reader or listener to know that the person writing the letter was the well-known and trusted apostle he claimed to be. It’s sort of a short-hand C.V. He was also trying to get across how important he thought his work on God’s — and the believers in Rome — behalf was.

¹⁶For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

How many of us can say this? I love reading Paul’s letters! Not for nothing he told us to emulate him, as he emulates Christ. But this is not exclusionary; “Greek” here could be replaced with “Gentile.” The gospel of Christ is for everyone. As the first 39 books attest, God sent his Word to the Jews first, that they could spread knowledge of Him throughout the nations. Their efforts — when they made any — were, arguably, a failure. At any rate, the Law can only convict sin, not absolve it, as we’ll see later. Also, those who had no Law were guilty anyway:

¹⁹For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. ²⁰For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. [Emphasis mine]

Everyone stands guilty under the Law. Nobody can go through life and not sin against God. Nobody. And let’s face it: who would even try? Who could?

²⁴Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, ²⁵because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

God said, “You want it? You got it. Do what you want to do. No, no. You don’t have to listen to me. You do what you gotta do, and I’ll do what I gotta do.” My daughters don’t particularly like to hear me say that, because they know they’re going to get in trouble if they do whatever it is they wanted to do after that. It’s much easier on them if they listen, and do as they’re told. They’re 4 and 2, respectively. I wish we were as wise as they, when God talks to us. ‘Cuz, if it’s bad when I say it, how much worse must it be when the sovereign of the universe says it?

²⁶For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; ²⁷and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with one another and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.

For those among my readership [quite limited, though it may be] who either cannot or will not accept the evidence of their own lying eyes, let me paint a picture for you: homosexual relations, forbidden in Leviticus 18:22, are still wrong in the New Testament. [Despite what activist Christians™ would have us believe] Contrary to some of the modern press about it, God still isn’t handing out passes for buggery. Or for heterosexual fornication, either, for that matter.

But next comes the “whammy”:

²⁸And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. ²⁹They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, ³⁰slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, ³¹foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. ³²Though they know God’s decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them, but give approval to those who practice them. [Emphasis mine]

Wow. Look here — in the midst of all these Really Bad Things (murder, inventors of evil, ruthless, etc.) you have “inconsequentials” like “gossips” and “disobedient to parents.” God doesn’t mess around, does he? That is “old school” …real old. Like, stone-your-rebellious-son-to-death-at-the-city-gates old.

What does that say about us? As I read this, I was thinking, “Paul’s talking to us. To me.” As a believer in America, how many lies do you tell? Paul wrote, “deceit.” I sometimes pat myself on the back because I don’t lie to my kids about Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny. [There’s that “haughty” thing] How many rumor mongering prayer requests are wrapped in some version of “bless his/her heart?” Or what about the “envy” we feel when we see that guy roll down the street in his super cherry, totally tricked-out 1965 Mustang with the over-size rear tires and racing stripes, with glass packs rattling the pictures off your walls? [Or is that just me?]

And how often do we “not only do… but give approval to those who” do? Guys, how often do we vicariously rubber-stamp the amorous exploits of the single guy at work? How often do we nod in agreement while our co-workers kvetch about our supervisor’s Big New Idea? How much of our money do we spend rewarding Hollywood for making movies that in no way reflect a Christ-centered worldview?

Don’t get me wrong: among the body of believers, I’m the worst when it comes to this stuff. But as believers in America, how can we judge anyone else, when we are so far from on-target, ourselves? And if one of the Greek words translated as “sin” simply means “missing the mark,” are we not, as a nation — as a church — steeped in sin?

And if this describes the church, how much worse off are the lost?

[Go to Romans chapter 2, here]

Obamaghanistan?

I have a friend at work who is an ardent Obama supporter, much like my parents and my in-laws.  I have yet to have anyone pin down for me exactly what an Obama presidency would entail — or even one unqualified position the man takes on any issue of substance.  The only — thoroughly unsatisfying — answers I get are along the lines of “he’s gonna change everything for the better,” or “check out his website… it’ll tell you everything you need to know.”  This last, if true, tells me that a prole like me doesn’t need to know much about the Obamessiah; his website doesn’t hold much besides talking points and rhetoric.  [Do not question happy fun ball...]

On lewrockwell.com, however, there is some meat, finally, zip-tied onto the Obama policy skeleton.  In his usual “no malarkey” style ["no bones"?  Okay, I'm ashamed of myself], the inveterate Charley Reese has this weekend set his sights on what an Obama foreign policy would look like.  Unfortunately, when you flesh this thing out, it starts looking suspiciously like a Clinton-Bush-McCain foreign policy.

Hank the Treasury Dog and Bennie-Me

Can anyone else tell me why this gives me chills? Investment firms, mutual fund managers, and investment bankers are trying to sell Treasury-backed Fannie Mae securities. What a monumentally bad — even immoral — idea. We’re over-extended to the tune of a half-trillion dollars annually, over $9 trillion total; we’re embroiled in an endless Middle East war of empire; and staring down the double barrels of the rise of liberty-crushing American fascism and a greater, deeper Great Depression. And these money men are trying to push us over the cliff of dissolution by making sure each and every one of us has a personal stake in their unwise investments. This Gross cat is even shilling for the GSEs, calling their plummeting stocks, and the bad paper backing them, “excellent.”

Can someone please, please take them out behind the wood shed and teach them some manners? It seems to me that, rather than trying to convince the rest of the world Fannie Mae is doing great, Bill Gross should be taking PIMCO’s marbles and going home. Or, at least to another playground.

Miraculously, the Brits seem to have a more reality-based outlook. According to bloomberg.com, British Chancellor of the Exchequer [rough equivalent to SecTreas Henry Paulson] Alistair Darling is a far cry from Paulson’s Pollyanna:

“The effect [of the current financial industry's "global credit crunch"] is going to be far more profound than people predicted even at the turn of this year…. It is quite clear that if you look during the course of this year, conditions have become more difficult across the world.”

[…]

In the [July 14 Bloomberg TV] interview, Darling said the worst is far from over, noting action to prop up the mortgage lenders Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae in the U.S….

Worldwide, banks and securities firms have raised $324 billion in the past year after record writedowns and credit losses of almost $410 billion from the collapse of the subprime mortgage market, according to data complied by Bloomberg.

“I don’t think anyone would be wise to start speculating on how long the present difficulties will last,” Darling said. “We are dealing with them here and other countries are dealing with them as well.  If you look at the problems the banks have had, they have moved into a different phase and governments have to take account of that.”

Of course, one wonders what Mr. Darling means by “take account of that.” As head of a state organ, I’m sure he means further regulation and consolidation of the financial oligarchy in the UK, the US, and elsewhere.

Bernanke’s British doppelganger toes the party line much better than Darling, however — not that he denies a problem, just minimizes its import. From the same Bloomberg article:

The Bank of England has already presented a more somber outlook [than Darling's March, 2008, guesstimates of the immediate impact of the "crunch"]. Governor Mervyn King said then [in March] that there may be “an odd quarter or two of negative growth.”  His deputy, John Gieve, said policy makers must grapple with inflation “well over” 4 percent, double the government’s target.

[You've gotta love the Brits' mastery of phrase-turning!  "[A]n odd quarter or two of negative growth.” Indeed!]

Our own Henry “Hank” Paulson, SecTreas to the stars, thinks things will get better if only we can leverage enough of our futures; if only Fannie and Freddie have access to the unvarnished [that is, non-existent] wealth of the US government, if only that government doffs all pretense to fascism and buys openly and directly into a corporate interest [which will not, of course, ever lead to preferential treatment in the affected sector], if only ordinary Americans would make themselves personally liable for any malinvestments — existing and future — those corporations may make [the subject GSEs currently hold over $5 trillion in bad paper — that's almost $17K for each and every man, woman, and child in this country, or over $100k for my family], if only a complicit and compliant Congress would allow these simple steps to be taken, everything would be just fine. Congressional idiots who know nothing of money or economics, of course, hoping to get re-elected this November, will dance to whatever tune he plays. “Trust me,” he seems to say. “I know what I’m doing.”

And Ben Bernanke is the evil little “Mini Me,” furiously printing Monopoly money as long as he has paper on which to print it. Seriously, does “Big” Ben not know that the sole practical function of the central bank — from Newton, to Bismarck, and on — has been to inflate the currency, in order to fuel governmental expansion? Or does he, a protected political elite, simply not care? It’s either complicity, or ignorance that drives these guys.

They’re either idiots, or they’re in on it.

I seriously wonder, sometimes, whether we don’t all deserve what’s coming. I’m not one to scream about the sky falling, but I do see a big “correction” on the horizon. And when this regulator-caused storm hits, what will be the cure? Why, more regulation, of course!

It’s like they think they can get out of the hole by digging out the bottom.

Or is it just me?