ROMANS 6: FINDING THE LOOPHOLES!
If you are only just joining this journey through my Breadcrumbs, I have started September in the last third of the Creator God’s epic storyline. So far, we have journeyed through two “reports” written in the 1st Century AD by a non-Jewish doctor who was filing an investigation to a Roman Governor. Those two personal reports between two people were then miraculously preserved for 1980+ years against all odds, then translated into 1658+ languages. Much of the second report was following a Jewish academic named Paul who fell foul of the Jews and is now under house arrest in King Herold’s praetorium in Northern Palestine, about 10 years after the death and resurrection of Jehoshua bed Dovid (Jesus of Nazareth).
Today’s chapter from what is now called The Book of Romans, is actually a section of a letter written by Paul to Jewish and non-Jewish Believers in Jehoshua (Followers of The Way) who were living in Rome in the 1st Century AD. We are just six chapters into the first in a series of ‘letters of instruction’ that we will cover between now and the end of the year, and Paul has already given us a lot to think about!! If I said that today’s chapter is all about finding the loopholes, then the first words: “What shall we say then?” [v1] tells you that Paul is building a case. So, what went before in his letter is important for understanding today’s chapter. Likewise, Romans 6, 7 & 8 are three chapters that go together in unfolding teaching. Through the Creator God’s amazing rescue plan in HIStory, He used His own Law and Jesus’ one perfect sacrifice to “Justify” humankind (Romans c6), “Sanctify” us (Romans c7), and finally “Glorify” us (Romans c8).
Now if I have already tied your brain in knots as you get dressed for work, I’ve mixed the lyrics of the song Man of Sorrows with Paul’s teaching in this chapter and two things stood out for me this morning…
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- If Jesus was sent from Father God to “purchase and redeem”, then I’m ‘purchased’ at a very high price. [v13,16] And…
- I don’t carry on as normal by wasting the power of His righteousness only to allow sin to rule my life again [v12] because nothing will be the same again.
So if I think today about the forgiveness that I have received in the last five chapters, why would I want to spoil everything by ‘finding the loopholes’ in this chapter and ‘take advantage of’ my Creator God’s patience and grace? Quite the contrary, Paul uses the maths that
is found in measuring how deep, and high, and wide our Father’s love for us[a], to show how reckless and absurd it would be to abuse our Maker’s good graces. [v1-2] So then, I want to wake up this morning thinking about that Man of Sorrows, and thanking my Father and Creator of the Universe for sending Him so that I can have Eternal Life. [v23] “…Now my soul cries out ‘Hallelujah! Praise and Honour unto thee…”
As a trained lawyer within the Jewish leading council[b], Paul speaks in legal terms about an idea that is found in no other world religion and, due to the 1st Century split in Judaism that permanently separated the Jews from these Followers of The Way, it clearly remains little understood within modern Judaism. The legal contract that the Creator God drew up that is so vastly different from His first contract[c], includes justification: the act of showing something to be “right”; the action of declaring or making “right-eous” in the sight of God = Justified: just as if I had never sinned.[d]
To do this, Paul uses their own Law of ritual washing to prove how justified (reasonable) is The Way of Christ, both in Hebrew Law and in the face of God. [v3-6] Since Father God raised Him from the dead (to this day no-one can come up with a plausible answer for why the Jews at the time couldn’t find the body – produce the body and the “lie” disappears), and if God raised Him from the dead, then both Isaiah Chapter 53 and Daniel 7:9-10 & v13-14 are both real. [v8-11] That true, then Father God Himself has provided The Way, just as He promised Abraham in the earliest days of this epic storyline.[e]
As logic follows logic, why would I not change my lifestyle. Not out of a new religion based on yet another set of rules, but based on my new relationship with my Maker and Father God. To live out and live up to, my new status in the Creator God’s family: “…a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a hold nation, a people belonging to God[f]…” [v12-14] If purchased at a high price and adopted into my Maker’s family, how absurd would it be for me to find loopholes to twist His infinite grace! [v15-19]
If you struggle this morning with the legal way that Paul is speaking to those who were well trained in Hebrew Law, think simply in terms of Covid. Once free of the virus, why would you roll about in infection again. Would you sleep promiscuously with a covid carrier, or drink from the same glass of indulgence as those who don’t care about their fate? Certainly not! We’re too intelligent for such recklessness [v17-19], especially when: (a) we’re fully aware of the full detrimental cost of sin; and (b) we’re fully informed of the Creator God’s plan for those created in His own image to live like Him – both now and in the age to come. [v21-23]
As intelligent as this 1st Century Jewish academic is compared to a 21st Century housewife, Paul is not talking about finding the loopholes, nor has his great learning driven him mad.[g] If I care to investigate how it could at all be possible for a human to be permanently transformed, such that I’m finally “right” with my 100% Perfect God[h], then the Creator’s Way of making it possible, thus blessing all family on earth through this epic storyline[i], clearly is the Only Way out.
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[a] Ephesians 3:17b-19
[b] Acts 26:4-5, 9-11
[c] Jeremiah 31:31-34
[d] Isaiah 1:18; Psalm 103:12 and Micah 7:19
[e] Genesis 22:8&14
[f] 1 Peter 2:9
[g] Acts 26:22-25
[h] Matthew 5:48
[i] Genesis 12:3; 28:14