Don't steall, really? A study in Exodus 22

 Introduction

 Stealing takes from everyone involved; it takes from the person robbed and takes kindness and love from the thief. Society loses as does history and the future. Everyone loses when a thief is allowed to carry on. That’s why the Bible says in verse 9; he whom the judges condemn shall pay double to his neighbor. Eventually we all lose when thievery happens. For instance, the story is told of Emmanuel Nenger. 

Come with me to 1887. The scene is a small neighborhood grocery store. Mr. Nenger is buying some turnip greens. He gives the clerk a $20 bill. As the clerk begins to put the money in the cash drawer to give Mr. Nenger his change, she notices some of the ink from the $20 bill is coming off on her fingers, which are damp from the turnip greens. She looks at Mr. Nenger, a man she has known for years. She looks at the smudged bill. This man is a trusted friend; she has known him all her life; he can't be a counterfeiter. She gives Mr. Nenger his change, and he leaves the store. But $20 is a lot of money in 1887, and eventually the clerk calls the police. They verify the bill as counterfeit and get a search warrant to look through Mr. Nenger's home. In the attic they find where he is reproducing money. He is a master artist and is painting $20 bills with brushes and paint! But also in the attic they find three portraits Nenger had painted. They seized these and eventually sold them at auction for $16,000 (in 1887 currency, remember) or a little more than $5,000 per painting. The irony is that it took Nenger almost as long to paint a $20 bill as it did for him to paint a $5,000 portrait! It's true that Emanuel Nenger was a thief, but the person from whom he stole the most was himself. 

Some statistics

In 1989, in the US, 5% of what you spend goes to cover business losses from theft. Approximately $140 billion of material and time is stolen from employers every year.   Eternity, April 1989, p. 15. 

In “Time theft" by Robert Half International (headquartered in Menlo Park, Calif.) Half estimates that time theft costs U.S. businesses $230 billion a year. These crimes cover the fake sick day, getting someone else to punch in your card on the time clock, making personal telephone calls, conducting private business in the workplace.    Parade Magazine, May 27, 1990, p. 7. 

Remember the point of our study today (as we did yesterday) is to remind ourselves about protecting the innocent, and stealing just doesn’t do it!

Stealing, legal style: The role of the tax collector

In our world, there is stealing which is unauthorized and stealing which seems to be authorized by governments and such. Neither is right in God’s eyes.

Many will remember the TV show “The Weakest Link,” a show I found irritating, especially the lady presenter from the UK. She would end each segment by removing someone from the contest by saying, “You are the weakest link. Goodbye.”

In Bible days, being a weak link was no great honour. In fact, the weak were the dismissed, the tossed, and the vacant. Weakness invited contempt. Weakness allowed others to conquer. And in contrast, God was seen as the God who conquered, the God of strength. Listen to these quotes, 

“And he said, The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer” (2 Samuel 22:2)

“The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower.” (Psalm 18:2)

“The name of the LORD is a strong tower: the righteous runs into it, and is safe.” (Proverbs 18:10)

Into that situation, the Son of Man, Yeshua enters and since the beginning has been calling the weak and underprivileged, the outcast and dismissed into His family. The tax collector is welcome. There are conditions as we will see, but remember this phrase, which could have been made by Yeshua, as the TV presenter in the First Century, “You are the Weakest Link, Hello.”  

Taxes were collected everywhere in the First Century by the Romans. Just like the GST, the IRS, and the ATO today bring up images of being contemptible, so it was then.  Tax collectors were charged a certain amount for each person, then they in turn asked for more than that from each person.  Another favorite trick of theirs was to advance the tax to those who were unable to pay, and then to charge large interest on what had thereby become a private debt. 

The Roman world at the time of Yeshua was in financial crisis. Jewish tax collectors were in bad ways. Jewish leaders often declared tax collectors incapable of bearing testimony in a Jewish court of law, of forbidding to receive their charitable gifts, or even to change money out of their treasury (Baba K. 10.1), of ranking them not only with harlots and heathens, but also with highwaymen and murderers (Ned. 3. 4), and of even declaring them excommunicate. Indeed, it was held lawful to make false returns, to speak untruth, or almost to use any means to avoid paying taxes (Ned. 27 b.; 28a). And about the time of Yeshua the burden of such exactions must have been felt all the heavier on account of a great financial crisis in the Roman Empire (in the year 33 of our era), which involved so many in bankruptcy, and could not have been without its indirect influence even upon distant Judah.

Zachheus: Unlikely Hero

So here is the unlikely hero on the Gospel story, Zaccheus, one of ‘those people’ who is viewed by Yeshua and called to join him. Zaccheus says, “If I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will give back 4 times as much.” (Luke 19.8) Excellent. The ministry of God is getting into Zaccheus’ heart. He is learning what Moses wanted him to learn 1500 years earlier. That a tax collector had no right to steal any more than any other Jew did from anyone else. It’s dishonoring and it’s a lose/lose situation. 

What tree was he in? A sycamore tree, which in Israel is a variety of fig. The word fig in Greek is sukon and the word used here is very important. It’s the word falsely accused or defrauded. The Greek word is sycophant, the word we translate into a ‘yes’ man. [Sycophant— esukofanthsa, from sukon a fig, and fainw, I show or declare] for among the primitive Athenians, when the use of that fruit was first found out, or in the time of a dearth, when all sorts of provisions were exceedingly scarce, a law was made that no figs could be exported from Attica. Then this law (not being repealed, when a plentiful harvest had rendered it useless, by taking away the reason of it) gave occasion to ill-natured and malicious men to accuse everyone they found breaking the letter of it; and from them all busy informers have ever since been branded with the name of sycophants. [POTTER’S Antiq. vol. i. c. 21, end.].  In other words, the sycophant dobbed someone in, and curried favor of the king or leader. 

Here Zaccheus says in the place of the fig tree, that figging someone in (as they might have said it in our parlance) was no longer the way of life, but following Yeshua was. He admitted to being a weak link, Jesus agreed, and welcomed him.

Thus Zaccheus is an unlikely hero, but one who well understood the ministry of Yeshua, and the purpose of the Torah from its beginning.

Other thieves

Of course, when Yeshua died, some thieves were involved weren’t they? Judas, who had been one of his followers, betrayed Yeshua (John 12:6). The jailed thief Barabbas benefited temporarily from the choice of Yeshua over him (Mark 15:7, John 18:40). An earlier arrest and trial of two thieves caused them to be crucified with Messiah. While they were being crucified, one of those thieves berated him (Luke 23:39), and one believed in him (Luke 23:43). 

From this we see that thieves have a chance to repent and make right their wrong. God is always gracious [I will hear him, for I am gracious.” (Exodus 22.27)] and His nature is always to forgive and help people to make a new career of it. He wants repair to be our word and our calling. He is the God of the 2^nd chance.

From the other side

The role of the thief we have seen. It damages this person to no end. Throughout the text we see the phrase ‘his neighbour’ and are given to think in terms of location and next-door persons in our suburbs today. But the role of neighbour was one of commitment in ancient days, certainly among the Hebrews. A neighbour was someone with whom you shared covenant, not a property line. It meant you were bonded to him in a particular way and thus when he took from you, there was damage to the relationship which is much more crucial than to the pocketbook.

One last comment from our text today

 “And you shall not wrong a stranger or oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. You shall not afflict any widow or orphan. If you afflict him at all, and if he does cry out to Me, I will surely hear his cry; and My anger will be kindled, and I will kill you with the sword; and your wives shall become widows and your children fatherless.” (.21-24)

Do you hear how God is involved personally in the abuse or lack of regard of the downtrodden and innocent? He takes it personally and will not tolerate this kind of power domination. The Lord welcomes the weak, and you should do no less.

In the text of our passage today in Exodus, reparations were required again and again. How can we do less in our days?

Lessons learned

I believe we should see applications from our stories today. 

1)     God’s concerns for society to run smoothly required an honouring of each other by each citizen

2)     Lying about what is ours or what is another’s will only result in death and evil and problems in our worlds

3)      Abusing the widow and orphan is so serious, God himself will require it of the dominator

4)     Forgiveness is available for all who repent and turn to God

 

 

 

Woody Allen and what's true

Over the years I've written in this blog about famous people including Woody Allen. Maybe my favourite is this one.  He and I were in a barber shop in New York City and my shirt spoke to him, but I didn't. Lately HBO in the USA and Fox Showcase here in Australia have been airing a mini-series titled "Allen v. Farrow." The series features the relevant events circa 1992, when a child sex scandal involving Dylan Farrow, their adopted daughter, and Woody became national and international news.

The producers have done a marvellous job in blending history and interviews, information sourced from hundreds of boxes formerly hidden the last 2+ decades and the music of Orlando Perez Rosso, Miguel Bezanilla and David Das. It's a captivating series so far.

What prompts my writing today before the series finale next week is a line I heard in episode 3. Mia looks into the camera and quotes Woody. 

"It doesn't matter what is true; what matters is what's believed." - attributed to Woody Allen.

If that's a direct quote, that's significant to the writer/ director/ actor's case. Even if it's not a direct quote, it made me think today about matters of faith and religion as well as epistemology. 

Two XIX century authors said this about truth--

"Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all

    Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know."  (John Keats, Ode on a Grecian Urn, 1820).  

And this one, "It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife." (Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, 1813)

Whatever these two romantics inferred, consider this from The Bard. 

"When my love swears that she is made of truth, 

I do believe her, though I know she lies."

In this 138th Sonnet, Shakespeare preferred the deception of his lover's lie to the truth. And he uses the term "I do believe her." 

What is it about 'faith' and 'belief' that is considered a trump card to truth? Why do we choose to believe a falsehood when we know better?

The following is from Sociology of Religion, Volume 38, Issue 4, Winter 1977, Pages 368–388, Actually only the Abstract. I do not have access to the article itself.

"The accommodation between social science and religion of recent decades depended in part on the widespread conviction that there is no scientific basis for determining whether religious beliefs are true and whether religious practices are good. This conviction is based on dubious assumptions that have blinded sociologists to the judgments concerning religious beliefs and practice that are implicit in their theories. Put simply, general theory has implied that although there is much in religion that is good, religious beliefs are not true."

I guess the Allen v Farrow series triggered a lot of emotions in me.  Truth really does matter. What actually happened or didn't happen matters. What people say matters. And then, if we are honest, honest to what we perceive to be true, or what the truth-tellers say about truth, then we should believe those truths. 

Sociologist Ron McGivern wrote in a Soc 101 book printed in Canada this about religion/ belief systems:

"What is religion? Pioneer sociologist Émile Durkheim described it with the ethereal statement that it consists of “things that surpass the limits of our knowledge” (1915). He went on to elaborate: Religion is “a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say set apart and forbidden, beliefs and practices which unite into one single moral community, called a church, all those who adhere to them” (1915). Some people associate religion with places of worship (a synagogue or church), others with a practice (confession or meditation), and still others with a concept that guides their daily lives (like dharma or sin). All of these people can agree that religion is a system of beliefs, values, and practices concerning what a person holds sacred or considers to be spiritually significant."(https://opentextbc.ca/introductiontosociology/chapter/chapter-15-religion/) 

Children are taught about Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny in some circles. And the 'oh, just let them have their imagination and beliefs' dismissal of the narrative doesn't sit well with some truth-tellers. Here's the problem. Faith or belief should follow truth. 

I don't believe and thus a thought is true. I find truth and thus I should believe it. 

Gravity is true and always was true, long before Sir Isaac Newton discovered and clarified much scientific data about it. That people believe in gravity or not is irrelevant. If you don't believe it exists, please don't walk off the top of a roof of a skyscraper. Your 'faith' will not save you; you will die. 

Faith therefore should follow substantiated truth claims. 

We love the stories of heroes who rise in the midst of overwhelming odds and win battles against oppressors or who defeat much larger enemies in the boxing ring or the football field or in a land far away. The reason those hero-stories are so vivid is that they are so rarely found. Most of the time the lesser is ruled by the dominant. Most of the time the weaker team loses to the stronger. Most of the time the house wins in Las Vegas to the disappointment of the 'believing' jackpot loser.  Faith doesn't make things happen in most of those stories. 

In real life, in your life, in my life today, let's let truth dominate. Things like facts matter. Truth matters. Sorry, Woody Allen, the truth does matter. There really is no Easter Bunny. There really is gravity. 

Here's another set of truths that I discovered long after my birth. Jesus really did exist. He really did live in what we now call Israel. He really did die at the hands of Roman soldiers. They really did bury him in a sealed tomb. After three days, over 500 Jews really saw him alive; many ate with him and talked with him after his death. 

What you believe about those facts...that's where you make your religion. That's when you either dismiss or take this on board. Faith really should follow substantiated truth claims. Amen?

Torah: Good or Bad? A study in Romans chapter 7

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The actual text:

Book of Romans: A Bible study series in 17 parts

The general theme of Romans: How to be right with God.

Lesson eight:  Law: Good or Bad? (Romans 7)

[To watch this on YouTube as it was given live on Zoom and on Facebook Live, click    https://youtu.be/srLigerpUY0 ].  [The whole biblical text is at the end of this blog]

Introduction

Welcome to those of you who are new to our class in this the 8^th lesson, as we take up Paul’s comments recorded in chapter 7 of The Book of Romans. If you are watching this video on YouTube long after our class ended today, then please pause the recording and read the 7^th chapter. It will only take 3 minutes, or maybe 4 if you get a wee bit confused, then unpause and come back as we will try to bring meaning to it all. OK, welcome back.  For those of you on the Zoom call just now, have your Bible open, will you? And next week, please read the chapter before you come to ‘class.’ Thanks.

The overarching question of the day: Is Law good or bad? And how will this help me get right with God? 

Paul uses three relationships to help us with the question of Torah: 1) we are freed from Torah as a widow is free from her dead husband, 2) we are to show faithful regard and delight (v. 22) for Torah and 3) we have a war between our will and the reality of our failures, so law is on the side of ‘flesh’ and ‘sin’ and therefore ‘death.’ Knowing the law will only lead me to death… who will deliver me? That’s the apostolic cry at chapter’s end, and wait for it, there is an answer too. 

1.    First then, we are freed from Torah

Some of you watching will get very nervous just now. There are two such groups who might be thinking the same thing, but with different considerations.  Some messianic folks will be thinking that I’m relinquishing my honorable views of Torah, abandoning Jewish life and culture, and that I’m going to reach over and pull out a ham and cheese sandwich (probably on white bread with mayonnaise) and will scandalize the most Jewish of Jewish believers in Jesus.  

Others will imagine that same actions on my part and will be rejoicing thinking I’ve finally come to my senses about this whole “Jewish” thing and that I’m going the way of all the good Gentiles for Jesus. You will both be wrong as we shall see. I will eat no ham and I’m still very Jewish, and I intend no scandal to Jew, to Gentile or to the Church of God.

Paul’s metaphor of the widow being freed from her husband has many meanings, but the most obvious is that a believer, both the Jew first, and also the Gentile believer, is freed from Torah. Although the metaphor’s picture doesn’t exactly fit. The Law doesn’t actually die, but the believer dies to the Law. 

OK, back to verse 1: “are you ignorant?” This should be seen as following chapter 6, verse 14, rather than 6.23. Paul has argued against Torah and then goes on an excurses as is his custom. He now returns and assumes that both the Gentile and the Jewish believers know the Law. I find that fascinating already. 

By the way, the question “are you ignorant?” will probably not make it into the book I’m writing which some of you know about. It’s a selection of the top 52 questions in the Bible, actually asked in the Bible, and both my and the biblical answers will follow. Some, like this rhetorical one, will not make it into the collection. 

Verses 2 and 3 showcase the bondage of the woman in a marriage to the husband. If she goes off with another man while her husband is alive, she is an adulteress. If however, her husband dies, she is free to relate to another man. The issue is merely exemplary and not to be a full teaching on divorce, remarriage, etc. The argument is that Torah is dead and we, as the former wife, ruled by Torah, are now free! Don’t push the analogy too far; it’s merely exemplary. 

That’s why verse 4 works. Obviously Torah (husband) should die for this example to work perfectly. But Torah doesn’t die; we have been put to death to the law.” 

Please hear me, the imagery is forced and although it serves a single purpose, pushing the whole to an allegory for something won’t work. Jesus is the one who died, not Torah. And we are not free to do whatever we desire either. Thus, there are limits to this imagery. The point is clear: the Torah does not master us, nor does it rule over us. In Yeshua’s death we are liberated from the Law’s death sentence. And we are actually joined to another already, Messiah in his resurrection.

Verse five and six tells us that our sinful passions were triggered by the Law, which speaks both to the inefficacy of the Law and what he says in verse 7, that we wouldn’t have even known about sin but that the Law taught us of its existence. Knowing I’m not supposed to sin by murdering another never would stop an angry man from doing so. 

Do you know the story told by Rev Ironside about a native American and spitting?

Some years ago, I had a little school for young Indian men and women, who came to my home in Oakland, California, from the various tribes in northern Arizona. One of these was a Navajo young man of unusually keen intelligence. One Sunday evening, he went with me to our young people's meeting. They were talking about the special subject was law and grace. They were not very clear about it, and finally one turned to the Indian and said, "I wonder whether our Indian friend has anything to say about this."

He rose to his feet and said, "Well, my friends, I have been listening very carefully, because I am here to learn all I can in order to take it back to my people. I do not understand all that you are talking about, and I do not think you do yourselves. But concerning this law and grace business, let me see if I can make it clear. I think it is like this. When Mr. Ironside brought me from my home we took the longest railroad journey I ever took. We got out at Barstow, and there I saw the most beautiful railroad station and hotel I have ever seen. I walked all around and saw at one end a sign, 'Do not spit here.' I looked at that sign and then looked down at the ground and saw many had spitted there, and before I think what I am doing I have spitted myself. Isn't that strange when the sign say, 'Do not spit here'?

"I come to Oakland and go to the home of the lady who invited me to dinner today and I am in the nicest home I have been in. Such beautiful furniture and carpets, I hate to step on them. I sank into a comfortable chair, and the lady said, 'Now, John, you sit there while I go out and see whether the maid has dinner ready.' I look around at the beautiful pictures, at the grand piano, and I walk all around those rooms. I am looking for a sign; and the sign I am looking for is, 'Do not spit here,' but I look around those two beautiful drawing rooms, and cannot find a sign like this. I think 'What a pity when this is such a beautiful home to have people spitting all over it -- too bad they don't put up a sign!' So I look all over that carpet, but cannot find that anybody have spitted there. What a queer thing! Where the sign says, 'Do not spit,' a lot of people spitted. Where there was no sign at all, in that beautiful home, nobody spitted. Now I understand! That sign is law, but inside the home it is grace. They love their beautiful home, and they want to keep it clean. They do not need a sign to tell them so. I think that explains the law and grace business."

As he sat down, a murmur of approval went round the room and the leader exclaimed, "I think that is the best illustration of law and grace I have ever heard."  -H. A. Ironside, Illustrations of Bible Truth, Moody Press, 1945, pp. 40-42.

Back to our text. 

Verse 5: Paul uses a term “when we were in the flesh” This from Craig Nelson, a pastor in the US state of Arizona.  “In the Hebrew thought, the understanding of a human being is that there is nothing merely physical because humans do not have flesh, but are flesh. God created human beings (i.e., flesh) as good, just as all other parts of His creation (Job 10:8-12; Ps 119:73; Isa 45:12). God desired that human flesh be fully dependent upon Him for everything (Gen 2:7; 6:3; Isa 31:3). However, because of the Fall, the flesh was exposed to the endless assault of sin and is now frail and transitory (Gen 6:3,5,13; Ps 78:39; Isa 40:6). All of the New Testament uses of the word 'flesh' are built upon the foundation of Old Testament understanding.”-- Craig Nelson, LifeSprings USA (church), in Arizona)

John Murray in his commentary on Romans says, “flesh in this ethically depreciatory sense means, “human nature as controlled and directed by sin.” 

The contrast in verses 5 and 6 is clear. Fruit which is good comes from Yeshua and fruit which is bad comes from Torah and our natural inclination to sin. Verse 5: past. Verse 6: now. Note the other contrast: letter (old) and Spirit (newness). 

Now in the 2^nd case, Paul has to answer what would appear to be the obvious follow-up question: IS the Law sin? 

2.    Demonstrating regard and honor to Torah

Verse 7: Paul again puts on his clip-on shouting microphone and reminds us that the Law is not sin. God forbid! Verse 12, the Law is good and holy and righteous. But as he has and will continue to teach, the Law reminds us of our failures and sets the greatest standards of living with God, with our neighbours, with ourselves. Knowing not to spit doesn’t stop spitters. Knowing not to murder doesn’t prevent my ruining other people’s reputations or listening as others defame others. Simply put the law does not deliver us from sin.  In fact, the law aggravates and adds to our bondage to sin. 

Look at verse 9, he says he “was alive apart from the Law.” Not alive like eternal life, but self-complacent, self-righteous and undisturbed and then came conviction of sin, and ‘sin came alive and I died.” It’s not Torah which is the problem; it’s sin in my body, and sin took the occasion for knowing what to do and what not to do and found its strength. As he says in another epistle, “the strength of sin is the Law.”

Of note in verse 9, the dying is not the same as dying to sin (6.2). Dying from sin or due to sin is what he’s highlighting here. In chapter 6 he was talking about dying to sin and being united with Messiah. 

Verse 10 reminds us of the purpose of Torah itself. It was not to help us to sin but rather to guide and regulate our lives in the right path. But with the reality of sin in our lives, that same law enacted punishment on us leading to spiritual death, or separation from God. Listen, the prophets had long ago taught this. Isaiah said that 700 years earlier, “my hand is not so short that it cannot save, but your sins have made a separation between us” God said. (59.2) Ezekiel had said, “The soul that sins shall die.” (18.2)

Look at verse 12 of chapter 7 of Romans, “so then, the law is holy”. This is a deduction, almost a therefore. How did Paul come to that? Isn’t the Law the guilty party here? Not at all. It’s not sinful (verse 7), but due to our own actions and deep-seeded thinking we make our own lives to be not alive, and thus dead. 

He says the law is ‘holy righteous and good.’ Fantastic perspective on Torah, isn’t it? “holy” reflects God’s awesome nature and purity. “Righteous” because he is fair in all his doings and judgments, and “good” as it would show us the higher, brighter, better way of living.

Verses 16 and 22 say that Paul delights in the law of God which he considers ‘the good.’ On so many levels he was ever the faithful Jew who never spoke against Torah in his teaching nor in his living. Those antinomians will do well to hear that word particularly.

3) War exists between our will and the reality of our failures

The issue for Paul in chapter 7 remains the problem of sin in his own life and in the lives of all faithful people. Did Torah cause us to sin? Not on your life. But sin itself, which has roots in our First Parents, lives on in us and we are pleased that Law exposes our sin. If you will, sin is shown to be sin, and we are better for that. 

John Murray says, “the law exposes sin and convicts of it. The law becomes the occasion of sin in that the depravity residing in us is thereby aroused to activity. The law aggravates sin—it is the instrumentality through which sin is aggravated in its expression. But the law is not sinful.” 

Some commentators argue energetically that the Paul of chapter 7 is not a believer, but rather the words of an unregenerate Saul, and Paul is remembering his former estate. That’s easy to conclude and it makes everything neat and tidy. Except for one thing, and that is that Paul and you and I still have sin. And we still operate often in the flesh. And we still fail.  Chapter 8 will clarify for us the mind of the Spirit and the mind of the flesh and Paul is clearly thinking and being a regenerate man as he unpacks chapter 7.  But in verse 18 we read, “The willing is present within me.” That’s not the sound of an unbeliever.  And his conclusion in verse 24 of his own wretchedness is hardly the sound he was making as he described his pre-regenerate condition.

If these words are confusing, I apologize. What I’m saying is that there is a war that exists between our will and the reality of our failures. And that’s true of those who are born again and of those who are not yet born again. We all fail. We all fall short of God’s standards. Earlier in the letter Paul said, “we all fall short of the glory of God.” (3.23) Paul’s aching in chapter 7 highlights the desperation of every person who understands the holy, righteous and good God who gave us a blessed book and foundational information manual in the Torah. 

Verse 14: “I am carnal, sold under sin. For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. ¹⁶ But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good. ¹⁷ So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.”

Remember I told you that the word ‘law’ is used 70 times in this letter. Here we see ‘the law of sin’ (.23) and it’s not Torah; it’s perhaps better for us to say, ‘the reality that sin will eventually bring about death.’

This is not the apostle saying like Flip Wilson, the 1960s American comedian, that ‘the devil made me do it.’ Wilson’s character was self-excusing; Paul’s declaration here is an indictment of himself and causes a longing for salvation somewhere. Unless you know your own desperate need for redemption and salvation, you will continue to self-excuse. The Law shouts against our own sinfulness. The Law is unable to release us from its indictments. We all need someone outside us to save us. Who will save us? That’s what Paul cries from the depth of despair. “Who will save me from the body of this death?” (.24)

Miriam had led the Jewish woman in song at the Red Sea along with the Song of Moses (Ex. 15) singing “The Lord my God my strength and song, and he has become my salvation.” (.2) If you had the Egyptians chasing behind you and the Red Sea disallowing you going forward, then your cry for help would have been very real. David said it in Psalm 18. Isaiah said it in chapter 12. Isaiah also quoted God as saying, “I am the Lord, there is no savior besides me.” (43.11)

When you get to this end of your rope and see that you have no hope apart from the Lord, you will not attempt to impress God with your religion or your religious activity. You will deny your self-celebrations and look outward for the Almighty to bring you to himself. 

You will shout as the apostle here in verse 25. 

Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!

He alone is our hope. His is the eternal gift of life. His actions and his life give us the charisma of eternal life. He died and rose again to open the way into the presence of God to give us a holy, righteous and good life ahead with the Lord. 

Dear friends on Facebook and on this zoom call, if you are not yet a believer in Yeshua, I urge you today, call on him while he is near. If you know your Torah, and you know yourself, you know you need a Saviour. Whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be rescued, will be saved will be made to be in right relationship with God. It’s worth all the social distancing people will give you when you tell them about God. It’s worth all the rejection of others who don’t want to know about God’s love in Messiah Yeshua. 

If you want, you can pray a prayer with me just now to solidify your choice. Something like this, “Father in Yeshua’s name, thank you for loving me. Thank you for sending Yeshua to save me from myself, from my selfishness, from my despair and the harm I cause so many. Thank you for making me right with God by your sacrifice. I receive Yeshua (Jesus) as my saviour and the lover of my soul. He frees me to love others. I repent of my sins and ask for God’s forgiveness to be my portion. I receive the free gift of God, eternal life in Messiah Jesus our Lord. Amen.”

If you prayed that prayer, will you let us know via the messages or write me directly. I would appreciate that.  (bob@jewsforjesus.org.au) 

NEXT WEEK we will look at the 8^th chapter and find some of the most beloved promises ever made to believers. It’s designed to comfort us, and with global pandemic cases passing 5 million this week, that chapter will be very worthwhile to study.    

I’m delighted to be able to read and help us understand this book each Friday here from my home in Sydney.  Shabbat shalom!

Rom. 7:1   Or do you not know, brethren (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives? ² For the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is living; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband. ³ So then, if while her husband is living she is joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress though she is joined to another man.

Rom. 7:4   Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. ⁵ For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death. ⁶ But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter.

Rom. 7:7   What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, “YOU SHALL NOT COVET.” ⁸ But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind; for apart from the Law sin is dead. ⁹ I was once alive apart from the Law; but when the commandment came, sin became alive and I died; ¹⁰ and this commandment, which was to result in life, proved to result in death for me; ¹¹ for sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. ¹²  

Rom. 7:13   Therefore did that which is good become a cause of death for me? May it never be! Rather it was sin, in order that it might be shown to be sin by effecting my death through that which is good, so that through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful.

Rom. 7:14   For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. ¹⁵ For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. ¹⁶ But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good. ¹⁷ So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. ¹⁸ For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. ¹⁹ For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. ²⁰ But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.

Rom. 7:21   I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. ²² For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, ²³ but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. ²⁴ Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? ²⁵ Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.

You are in a sinking ship... but there's hope. Romans Lesson Four: Chapter 3b

[To watch this on YouTube when it was first given on Facebook Live, and on Zoom, please visit https://youtu.be/KZD-D9XISy8 ]

The book’s general theme: How to be right with God.

Today’s topic: We are all in a sinking boat, but there is a patch to fix it!

Welcome to those of you who are new to our class in this the 4^th lesson, as we take up Paul’s comments recorded in chapter 3 of this seminal work The Book of Romans. So far, we have listened to the overture of the themes that the symphonic conductor introduced to us in chapter one including faith and the Sonship of Yeshua, our Saviour and the Gospel itself which is the power of God. We saw the apostolic priorities of Jewish people first, and also a comprehensive inclusion of Gentiles in the Kingdom of God. Then Rabbi Saul has painted a fairly comprehensive picture for all people that everyone is guilty of sin and thus worthy of God’s judgment. At least I thought it was exhaustive, but like the late-night infomercial says, “Wait, there’s more!” That’s where we pick up today’s lesson, from chapter 3, verse 9 to the end of the chapter. [For those online, the whole text is at the end of this blog]

Paul asks questions throughout this letter, and verse 9 gives us the next one. Are we better than they? Paul almost shouts his answer, NOT AT ALL! This notion that forgiven people are better than those who don’t believe is a Shanda. (Yiddish for ‘shame’) The point of the apostle’s argument so far is that we are all in the same boat and no one is the captain, no one is above and no one is below anyone else. Paul’s answer to his own query is “We have previously charged both Jews and Greeks”. Those two categories are all with which he is dealing at this point. Yes, of course, there are other categories, but in religion, these are the two at this point. 

He then quotes 8 biblical passages back to back to back. (Psalm 14.1-2, Ecclesiastes 7.20, Psalm 5.9, 140.3, Psalm 10.7, Prov. 1.16, Isa. 59.7-8, and finally Psalm 36.1.) The links are clear between each of these passages. Everyone sins. Sin results in penalty. Sin is not good. Sin brings death and the curse. And it malaffects the sinner so that he is left with nothing but misery. 

Listen to these considerations, 

1)    No understanding

2)    They are together unprofitable

3)    Their throat is an open tomb

4)    Mouth is full of cursing and bitterness

5)    Destruction and misery are in their ways

6)    They don’t know peace

Let’s just say, that sin is not the kind of thing you want to keep doing, at all, according to Paul. And in verse 9 we see the word ‘sin’ for the first time in this epistle. It won’t be the last time! And what is the litany of citations intended to correct? Those Jewish people who were claiming special status. Paul writes with clarity that there is not a single Jewish person alive who has not sinned and who will not continue to sin. It’s the “Bad News” with which Paul introduces his theses.

Given that all of us are hopeless, then what are our options? How can we, if we want to do so, get right with the Almighty? There are really only two. One, to fix it ourselves, by religious activity and religious dignity and propriety. We will earn our way into God’s favor. That’s called “Justification by works.” The other is what Paul has already told us in chapter one, and that’s “justification by faith.” We will see those contrasted again and again, both in Romans, and in our own lives.

THE LAW

There are many Gentiles in the community of faith who are captivated by and long to be part of something Jewish. I’m not sure that I am altogether unhappy with that. In fact, it gives me kind of a warm, glowing feeling inside. People affirm our religion. That’s a comfort, isn’t it? Thus, when Paul says in verse 19 “whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law’ then he seems to be excluding those Gentiles who fancy our religion. In fact, he’s making that point very clear. The law, a word Paul uses 70 times in this epistle, and with different meanings at times (which can be very confusing), is not for Gentiles. Never was. Never will be. We’ll get to that subject down the track in this letter again.

Every month I hear about another group or gathering of people using the title ‘messianic.’ On further investigation, I find out it’s often a group of Gentiles who want to please a God who demands obedience and is almost an agro-deity, never pleased, always angry. He judges those who fail. He keeps score. He’s the god imagined by the prodigal son while the boy was living in the pigpen. He’s the exact opposite of the God Paul came to know. And what and who I want you to know. In chapter 8 we will see this come to the front and I will give you a bit of a tease for it: NOTHING can separate you from the love of God in Yeshua. Nothing!

OK, back to verses 19-20. Listen to the purpose of the Torah in 19. It’s as if Paul is addressing those people exactly. “Whatever Torah says, … it’s “that every mouth is closed, and all the world is accountable to God.” It’s not about obedience and thus boasting. Verse 27 says, “where is boasting?” The point Paul is making is that Torah’s place is not to be accomplished but to close our mouths from boasting and to boast in the Lord!  Why? Verse 20: we understood our own disobedience through the schoolmaster of Torah. We understand sin, he says, by reading Torah. We all fall short, he insists in verse 23, that’s Jews and Gentiles alike. 

The Law is therefore GREAT in its usefulness to instruct us, to help us be humble, to school us, even these days. 

But wait a minute, if Torah informs us of our failures, where is there real and genuine hope? Remember, we titled this section, “First, the Bad News.” So, come on already, where is the Good news? How is a man to be made right (biblically the word is ‘righteous’) with God? 

Verses 21-22 tells us! The Torah and Nevi’im both announce and witness the righteousness of God apart from Torah. Gentiles don’t have to work harder to catch up with us Jewish people. Being right with God is a matter of righteousness and faith. 

My friend Ernie Gruen died some years ago and he would characterize some people whom I’m guessing are listening to this talk just now as Billy Goat believers. What’s a billy goat known for? Butting heads. He would announce something like Paul is saying here, that right standing with God comes to all people on the basis of their faith, and Ernie would hear someone say, “But…” and try to change the conversation. But, but, but… that’s billy goat believers, he would say. There are no ‘but’s’ in the answer to how is someone born again and how is someone made right with God. By faith in the righteousness of God.

Remember what Yeshua said of the Spirit of God who would come after Yeshua himself departed? 

 “And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment; ⁹concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me; ¹⁰ and concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you no longer see Me; (John 16.8-10)

Sin is unbelief, Yeshua said. Righteousness is summed up in Yeshua being received by the Father in heaven after the crucifixion because the door of “Approved” or “Right standing” is opened by the Risen One. 

Verse 23 is one of the most quoted verses from this letter. “All have sinned” implies what Paul has been teaching for the last two chapters, that Jews and non-Jews alike are the fallen short folks. Sinned (hamartia) means ‘missing the mark’ which is an archery term. We try; we shoot our arrows, and we just miss. Sins of omission and sins of commission are abundant. 

Honestly, self-evaluate just now. Yes, there are times when your fearless moral inventory will show you do a good thing, in fact, perhaps many good things. And you should feel that just now; you should rejoice that God is leading you to do good to and for others. And in your continued self-evaluation, you will unpack more and more of your own sinfulness. You will see that much of your good behavior springs from a desire to be known or to be adored or from a place of selfishness. That’s missing the mark. That’s failure. Paul wrote the Corinthians about this in his first letter. Chapter 13. 

“if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.” (13.3)

Doing good is excellent, as long as we are seriously loving and giving with no thought for ourselves or the good we will receive as a result. Sin is so insidious, even when we do well, we can fail, you know?

Sin in verse 23 both shows our wrongdoing and our wrong not-going. (Fall short or ‘lack’) What, you say? Sin both sends us to hell and prevents our going to heaven. It brings ruin and doesn’t help us get repaired. 

One word I want to highlight is in verse 24. It’s translated ‘redemption’ in our text. The Greek word is “apolutrosis’ meaning to deliver by paying the ransom. The word for ransom is ‘lutron’ and was the price, usually massive, to buy a slave off the trading block. 

Then did you see verse 25 and the use of the verb ‘pass over.’ That has to hearken our minds back to Moses and the Exodus. God spared the Hebrews because of the blood of lambs, and here in verses 25 and 26 the justifier is using blood to do this. Thanks be to God!

FAITH DISALLOWS BOASTING

Paul asks the question in verse 27. By the way, we will see a continual and steady stream of questions by the apostle throughout his letter. It helps put voice to objections by other billy goat believers, and then he will quickly answer those charges or allegations or objections. I like that about the apostle. 

What’s the question in verse 27? Where then is boasting? I watched the movie “Risen” again the other day. Hollywood made a great one there. Yeshua rises from the dead after being crucified under the auspices of a Roman tribune played by Joseph Fiennes. All the troubles of the possible responses of people to the story of the resurrection are played out. Very well, I might add. And at the end, when the apostles are going out in the power of God, their proclamations are wrapped in the love of God that Yeshua taught. There is no boasting in themselves. There is no betterness unfolding here; they are redeemed and Paul’s legal term (Justified) by grace through faith in the blood of Jesus. Real sinners who know the real bad news, when we meet the Risen One, rejoice. Why? Because of our accomplishments? Not even close… by the grace of God extended to us, since he is (verse 26) both Just (another word for righteous) and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. 

We are justified, that is acquitted of all wrongdoing. We are forgiven. And as in these days, once you are acquitted of a crime, there is no double jeopardy allowed. You cannot be brought to trial again. New evidence cannot be forthcoming. Why? All our sins were in view in the first trial! And the blood of Jesus is the propitiation (verse 25) or the application of mercy to us then and to the end of the age.

The final question of the chapter is about Torah itself. If faith is so special, does this nullify Torah? The apostle will answer that in the next chapter, but his one-shop answer in this one verse is “No way, Jose, faith actually establishes the Torah!” 

We will talk more about where Paul is going next week.

NEXT WEEK, this business of faith and credit and justification is personalized by looking at Torah itself, and our father Abraham specifically. Was Abraham a Jew or a Gentile when he was declared righteous? And how did he gain that declaration?

We have much more to get through in this letter, and I’m delighted to be able to read and help us understand it each Friday here from my lockdown in Sydney. 

[For those reading this online, please watch this 7-minute 47-second video which showcases with great graphics the first four chapters of this book.  https://youtu.be/ej_6dVdJSIU ] 

The actual text:

Rom. 3:9   What then? ^1aAre we better than they? Not at all; for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin;

¹⁰         as it is written, 

            “THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE;

¹¹         THERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS, 

            THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS FOR GOD;

¹²         ALL HAVE TURNED ASIDE, TOGETHER THEY HAVE BECOME USELESS; 

            THERE IS NONE WHO DOES GOOD, 

            THERE IS NOT EVEN ONE.”

¹³         “THEIR THROAT IS AN OPEN GRAVE, 

            WITH THEIR TONGUES THEY KEEP DECEIVING,” 

            “THE POISON OF ASPS IS UNDER THEIR LIPS”;

¹⁴         “WHOSE MOUTH IS FULL OF CURSING AND BITTERNESS”;

¹⁵         “THEIR FEET ARE SWIFT TO SHED BLOOD,

¹⁶         DESTRUCTION AND MISERY ARE IN THEIR PATHS,

¹⁷         AND THE PATH OF PEACE THEY HAVE NOT KNOWN.”

¹⁸         “THERE IS NO FEAR OF GOD BEFORE THEIR EYES.”

Rom. 3:19   Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God; ²⁰ because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.

Rom. 3:21   But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, ²² even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; ²³ for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, ²⁴ being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; ²⁵ whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; ²⁶ for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who ¹has faith in Jesus.

Rom. 3:27   Where then is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith. ^28 1For ^awe maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law. ²⁹ Or is God the God of Jews only? Is He not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, ³⁰ since indeed God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith is one.

Rom. 3:31   Do we then nullify the Law through faith? May it never be! On the contrary, we establish the Law.