"To Him be glory forever": Romans

Showing posts with label Romans. Show all posts

Thursday, April 28, 2016

Not From, But Through

I want to share something from a funeral sermon I had prepared for this morning. The scripture text was Isaiah 43:1-3a. Today, Thursday, I no longer quite recall why I picked the text last Sunday afternoon. Sunday morning I preached from Mark 6:45-56, and I used the passage from Isaiah in my conclusion. So I guess that it was swirling around a bit in my mind and I thought I could bring something out of it for the funeral.

In verse 2 the prophet Isaiah writes:

"When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;
when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,
and the flame shall not consume you."

Speaking for God the prophet is direct in saying that trouble will come to God's people. But he is also clear, crystal clear, about the fact that God's people will come through the trouble. Things will come, really bad things, maybe even horrible things, but those things won’t change the facts revealed in verse 1, which is that the people Isaiah speaks to are redeemed by God, they are called by Him by their names, and most importantly, that they are His. And so the trials may test them, may prune them, or may refine them, but they will not destroy them. Just typing this now reminds me of Paul's confident testimony from Romans 8:35-39.

So often we want all things to work out in our lives in the ways that are the easiest for us, or ways that lead to happy endings, or ways that keep troubles of our lives to the level of nuisance and not beyond. But Isaiah teaches us that difficult and painful things really do come to God's people. It isn’t a matter of if hardship will come, but of when and how.

By faith in God, His people are not delivered from all troubles in this life, but they are carried through them.

For God's people hard times will come, but God is faithful. May you know the comfort of His presence in each and every storm of your life.

Sunday, September 27, 2015

The Bible...and hope

The Bible. According to my dictionary it is "The sacred scriptures of Christians comprising the Old Testament and the New Testament." It is an old book, seemingly written by and about a small, obscure group of people living in a time and place very different than ours. We stumble over their names and struggle to follow the storylines of their lives. We read their stories and everything seems to be so obvious to us. What on earth is their problem? Why can't they seem to get things right?

And yet as Christians we hold the words of this book dearer to our hearts and minds than the words written anywhere else. Why is that? What is it that makes this one particular book so special? Over the next few weeks we are going to take a closer look at the Bible, asking questions and seeking answers about this book, this one book whose words are so essential to our faith.

The basic questions are What, Who, Where, When, How and Why? Each Sunday we will look at questions about the Bible that follow from the basic questions, such as:

· What is the Bible?

· Who wrote the Bible?

· Where does the Bible speak today

· When should we read the Bible?

· How should we apply the Bible to our lives?

· Why does the Bible matter?

It is my hope and my prayer that as we dig into these questions we will find answers that strengthen our faith. That we will find answers that deepen or understanding of God and His love for us. And that we will find answers that deepen our love of God.

On the one hand the Bible is a very old book, a book that for many people is out-of touch with the culture of our time. But on the other hand I am certain that the Bible, while indeed old, continues to be relevant, and the message in its pages is one that is urgently needed in the times in which we live.

I look forward to exploring some Bible basics as a congregation. I welcome any questions you might have that would add to our understanding. And I pray that God would lead us, through His Word in the Bible, to more fully love and serve Him in the world.

Addendum: I wrote the body of this post a few days ago. This morning in worship our basic question was "What?" The questions that came out of that basic question were these:

What is the Bible?

What does the Bible contain?

What is the purpose of the Bible?

What ties the Bible together?

What relevance does the Bible have today?

Here is a brief look at the continuing relevance of the Bible.

There are many ways in which the Bible is relevant today. This morning I focused on hope. In Romans 15:4 the apostle Paul writes,

"For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the scripture we might have hope."

This last week was a fairly ordinary one for me in ministry here in Dulce, which means that there were a number of people and life situations that came to my attention as pastor. Some of these situations were expected in some way, and others were completely new. And as a pastor there is little direct help that I can provide to people in need. I can’t "fix the problem." But what I can do is listen, and pray. And in prayer I can turn the person I am with and their situation over to God.

As we pray we remember that all things are in God's hands, all the time. And we remember that it is God whom we hope in. All the time. We don't hope in some lesser thing, and there are any number of lesser things in which people hope.

We place our hope in the God of the universe, the Lord of heaven and earth, the One through whom all things were created, and for whom all things were created. And the only place we have to turn to in order to learn about this God in whom we hope is in His word, the Bible.

The Bible is relevant because it teaches us, fully and reliably, about God and thereby encourages us to seek Him, to find and know true hope in all things.

Tuesday, August 4, 2015

Happy birthday?

Last Saturday, August 1st, was my birthday. It was number 58, in a series that began in 1957 and will run until…well, I don’t have the foggiest idea when it will come to an end.

Birthdays in our family are traditionally celebrated in some fashion, although the fashion in which mine was marked this year was a bit unusual. We were on the road and out of town for a week, so the celebration was in multiple segments.

There was cake, a card and a gift with my in-laws last Thursday. The on Saturday there was another card and some singing from a few of my family members. And after returning home late last night the festivities will conclude this evening, with cake, ice cream and a few gifts from my wife and our youngest daughter.

And, thanks to Facebook, my birthday this year had what must be the highest number of well-wishes that I have ever received. All day long there were short notes of greeting and wishes for the best for me on that day.

And in many ways it was a very good day, a day that of all my birthdays provided memories that will be particularly treasured. For on my birthday I went to a funeral.

An uncle, the husband of my father's sister, died in mid-July, and the best date for our family to get together to worship God and remember him, was on my birthday. And while a number of my relatives gathered on Saturday in Wisconsin for his funeral there was another group of relatives gathered the same day in Florida for the funeral of my mother's youngest sister, who died last week.

I was unable to attend my aunt's funeral but saw that part of the scripture used on that day was from Romans 4. Verses 23-24 say,

"But the words “it was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification."

At my uncle's funeral we heard from Philippians, Romans, and John, which said,

"Yes, and I will rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance, as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith, so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus, because of my coming to you again." Philippians 1:18b-26

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written,

“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:31-29

“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God;1 believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going.” Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. John 14:1-6

These are powerful passages from scripture that point to true hope. They point to a hope found only in God, a God who never fails to deliver on His promises. We may have gathered in Wisconsin and Florida with heavy hearts, remembering family members we loved dearly and will never see on this earth again. But at the funeral I attended we were reminded that God has greater things in store for His children than anything that this world may hold.

We were reminded that my uncle, my aunt, and all who pass from this life with faith in Jesus as Savior and Lord, are at this very moment in His very presence, and giving Him the praise and glory that only He deserves. While it may run against the logic of the world, I found it to be a very precious gift to be able to gather with God's people, at a funeral on my birthday, in such a powerful time of worship of my Savior. To Him be glory, now and forever. Amen.

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Fellowship with Christ

One of the things that Paul teaches in chapter 8 of his letter to the Romans is that those who are in Christ are adopted with Him as sons and daughters of God. Christians are heirs with Christ and participants in all that is His. The text doesn't directly speak of fellowship, but fellowship is something that comes naturally between a parent and child are in a relationship that is healthy and whole, as a saving relationship with God through Christ must be.

Last night I read some examples of what it means to have fellowship with Christ. According to John Owen fellowship with Christ includes these things:

“fellowship in name; we are (as he is) sons and daughters of God”
“fellowship in title and right; we are heirs, co-heirs with Christ”
“fellowship in likeness and conformity; we are predestined to be like the firstborn of the family”
“fellowship in honor; he is not ashamed to call us brethren”
“fellowship in sufferings; he learned obedience by what he suffered, and every son is to be scourged that is received”
“fellowship in his kingdom; we shall reign with him”[1]

I said above that a saving relationship with God through Christ must be healthy and whole, but there are often times when it may not look that way on our end. We struggle in our families. We see injustice in the world. We wonder when God is going to answer our prayers.

But our circumstances don’t change God’s eternal promises, or His ability to fulfill those promises, which He surely will do. So I invite you to read Romans 8:14-17 below, and re-read the promises above, and know that these remarkable blessings are yours and mine because you and I have fellowship with Christ.

“For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.”

[1] These thoughts on fellowship, including the use of italics, are original to John Owen and are found in his book Communion with God, which is cited in: Beeke, Joel R. and Mark Jones, A Puritan Theology (Grand Rapids, MI: Reformation Heritage Books, 2012) 111.

Monday, September 17, 2012

Book Review: The Epistle to the Romans, by Karl Barth

Karl Barth is considered by many people to be one of the most influential theologians of the 20^th century. He was a pastor, professor and a prolific writer, his commentary on Romans being the work that introduced him to the world. My introduction to Barth came through some excerpts of his Church Dogmatics while I was in seminary and then from reading a collection of his later sermons. I recently read Eugene Peterson’s memoir and he noted that Barth’s Romans commentary exerted a powerful influence on his own early ministry. I have always enjoyed Peterson I took his recommendation and dove into Barth’s Romans for myself. Having finished, I can perhaps best describe Romans as a sort of cross-country trip, one which exposed me to a vast landscape and nearly overwhelmed me with visual images, pictures that will have to be studied again and again to fully appreciate all that they contain.

Barth’s work here is significantly different from a traditional commentary of either an exegetical or expositional nature. The former often address significant issues of culture, the historical setting and language as they bear on our understanding of the text, while the latter provide the manuscript of sermons preached from the text. An example of a work of exegesis of Romans is the recent volume by Leon Morris, while an excellent exposition is James Montgomery Boice’s Romans, which runs four volumes. Barth’s method is more akin to opening his Bible, reading a chapter and then going back, paragraph-by-paragraph, phrase-by-phrase, writing as the Spirit leads him in understanding the words of Paul.

Barth’s comments on Romans are extensive, expounding on Pauls’ 16 chapters of Biblical text over the course of 500 pages. Part of this length is due to Barth’s style. When I write I may introduce a new thought with a question, while Barth frequently uses 3 or 4, or more questions, a technique that does aid in understanding the relevance of Paul’s words for Barth’s time, and ours as well. These questions are then answered in depth. Barth ultimately published six editions of his commentary, the second being a significant reworking of the original, while the remaining editions being what Barth considered to be minor updates. He was well aware that his writing had a lot to offer to the pastors and theologians of his day and he had the freedom to follow each new thought for as long as he felt was necessary.

While I have a graduate degree in divinity I often felt a bit underpowered, intellectually, to follow and apprehend Barth’s line of reasoning. One thread that did emerge early in the commentary is Barth’s deep love for Jesus as the second person of the Trinity and the understanding of God’s work in Jesus in the act of his death-and-resurrection as the defining moment in all of human history. Writing on Romans 5:6, “For while we were yet weak, in due season Christ died for the ungodly,” Barth says, “Everything shines in the light of His death, and is illuminated by it. No single passage in the Synoptic Gospels is intelligible part from the death.” (159)

Writing a bit further, of the new creation in Christ that believers become when they grasp Christ by faith, (Romans 5:9-11) Barth says, “To the question, Whence are we? – which is the question of all questions – we receive the answer which is beyond all answers: We are they who have been justified by God,” adding later on the same page, “As the beloved of God we have no alternative but to love Him in return. In the dawning splendor of His glory, we have no alternative but hope.” (163)

I have read that Barth was considered by some to be soft on the theme of universal salvation, i.e. that while his theological grounding was in the Reformed tradition, he personally held to the belief that ultimately God’s salvation would be known by all people, rather than a particular group chosen by God, as affirmed by the Belgic Confession and the Canons of Dort. When he writes of the church, from Romans 9-11, Barth seemed to lean towards universal salvation, although without explicitly saying so.

Barth discusses Christian ethics from Romans 12 and in that discussion something jumped out at me that has profound pastoral implications. In a section on the theme of grace he writes, “Grace means also the possibility, not of a ‘good’(!) conscience, but of a consoled conscience.” (428) We who know God through our faith in the finished work of Christ know that we will continue to sin against God, a God who continues to hold us and forgives us nonetheless. God forgives our sins. He removes them from our presence. But the sure grasp of this knowledge in our minds, the removal of our sin from God, does not remove the memories that we have of our sin. In Christ we are not changed existentially from ‘bad’ to ‘good.’ In the knowledge of who we are before God we are not so much ‘bad’ as ‘broken.’ And Barth reminds us that in our brokenness, through the work of Christ, we are consoled and comforted as we receive God’s mercy. This is a bit of the Good News that we need to be reminded of each day, sometimes many times each day.

Barth has written a commentary of profound depth and in my first reading of it I just managed to get my feet wet in it. Should I at some time teach or preach from Romans this would be a good reference to consult in addition to other commentaries, rather than using it as a primary resource. Paul’s letter to the Romans is a very rich text and I think Barth has given me a good resource from which to approach the letter in smaller parts, as I continue to study it for my own spiritual growth.