Esther 1:1-9 “Greatness?”

Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹And it was in the days of Xerxes (he [was the] Xerxes reigning from India and upon Cush, seven and twenty and a hundred provinces). ²In the days the those the king Xerxes [was] dwelling upon the throne of his kingdom which [was] in Shushan, the citadel. ³In the third year of his reigning, he made a banquet to the all of his princes and his servants, the power of Persia and Media. The nobles and the princes of the provinces [were] to his face. ⁴In him showing the wealth of his kingdom and the splendor of the excellence of his majesty days of many eighty and one hundred days. ⁵And in being full the days the these the king made to the all of the people being found in Shushan the citadel, to great and until small, a banquet of seven days in the court of the garden of the palace of the king. ⁶Linen cloth of linen and purple wool being grasped with cords of fine white linen and red-purple wool upon rings of sliver and pillars of white marble, couches of gold and silver upon a pavement of red marble and white marble and mother of pearl and black marble, ⁷giving to drink in vessels of gold and vessels of one from another differing and royal wine plenty by the hand of the king ⁸and the drinking [was] according to law, “No compelling,” because the king had established upon the all of the chief[s] of his house to do according to pleasure of man and man. ⁹Also, Vashti the queen made the banquet of the women of the house the royal which [was] to the king Xerxes.

I am continuing to ponder on these opening verses. We can just read them quickly and say, “Let’s get on with the story,” or we can slow down and sincerely try to understand why the Lord chose to provide this information. As I’ve said before, without any doubt, these verses are extremely important as they reveal to us the world in which Esther must live her faith. It is only right that we should grant her the honor of trying to understand her world. To the extent we succeed, our respect for her will only deepen and we will ourselves carry away the precious jewels of her example – as we too would live our lives in a world which may or may not be what we would choose.

And what do we see? In this passage, what is being portrayed before us is, in a sense, everything this world calls “greatness.” What more could anyone ask for? Here is this king. He is a young man, no doubt still strong and healthy. He has ascended the throne of a vast kingdom, possesses immeasurable wealth, is surrounded by his governors, generals, and aides, lives in a palace practically made of gold and jewels. Is he not a great king? And Vashti his queen can herself throw an enormous banquet for the ladies. Is this not all greatness?

According to this world’s definition? Absolutely. Here is precisely a place where the Lord would have us all realize He sees the world through very different eyes than we do. It is interesting that, in Revelation 17, He portrays this world’s wealth and “greatness” as a drunken whore “dressed in purple and scarlet, and glittering with gold, precious stones and pearls. She held a golden cup in her hand, filled with abominable things and the filth of her adulteries.” This definition of “greatness,” Xerxes and Vashti’s definition of “greatness,” doesn’t impress the Lord at all – and no wonder: Xerxes thinks all his gold makes him important. In God’s heaven, they use gold as paving material. Xerxes is impressed with all his jewels. In the new Jerusalem, the very foundations of the walls are jewels. Xerxes thinks his pearls are beautiful things. In the new Jerusalem, the very gates of the city are each made from a single pearl.

So Xerxes has amassed everything this world can offer to make him “great.” Yet, in God’s eyes, it’s nothing but rocks and sticks and fleeting vapors of human existence. Xerxes is not great in God’s eyes. Rather he is perhaps the most miserable of paupers. There is nothing in this account which will count in eternity. He possesses nothing he can carry from this world.

As Jesus said, “A man’s life does not consist of the things he possesses,” and we can add: neither does his “greatness.” In God’s eyes greatness is not a matter of what we have, it’s a matter of who we are. Running ahead of our story, when this book is done, who will be the hero? Who will be “great?” Esther, of course. And why? Because she was beautiful? Because she became the queen of a “great” king and lived in a palace? No. None of the above. Her “greatness” is who she is: a young woman of great faith and courage, a girl who would risk her own life to save her family and her people. Listen to her own words: “…though it is against the law, I will go in to see the king. If I must die, I must die…For how can I bear to see disaster fall on my people? How can I bear to see the destruction of my family?” (4:16 and 8:6). Here is a young woman, living in the midst of all this wealth and “greatness,” yet she will hazard it all out of love for others. That’s greatness!

The supreme example of God’s kind of greatness is, of course, our Jesus, who “considered not equality with God as something to be grasped, but made Himself nothing” and “By His stripes we are healed.” Jesus, in a sense, came to show us what true greatness is, and in Him, we see that one way or another, it always comes down to love. It is love that makes us great in God’s eyes.

Joseph Parker saw all of this here in Esther and wrote: “Would you be great? Be great in soul…Here is an opportunity for every man to be great—great in patience, in self-control, in charity, in magnanimity. A man is great because he takes great views of others, conceives liberal things for God and carries them out with both hands. So the poorest may be rich; the giver of mites may throw the giver of gold into contempt. What say we of working the miracles of goodness, of speaking to those who have no friends, of visiting the uttermost abodes of poverty and the lowest tenements of distress? All the miracles of goodness are yet to be done. Miracles of power have dazzled the vision of history,—now we may not show the glory, but we may disclose the goodness of God.”

Hear what Parker is saying: To be “great,” do good to others. I will never be rich or powerful, but today I can sincerely try to do good to the people around me. I like that Parker calls these “miracles of goodness.” Do we not all know exactly what he means? How many times have we had someone touch our life with their kindness? Was that not a miracle to us? I think so. Can I even go so far as to suggest this might explain Jesus’ words to His disciples: “whoever believes in Me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these” (John 14:12). I’ve pondered for years “greater than these”? How can it be that we would do greater works than Jesus Himself??? He could heal the sick and raise the dead and turn water into wine. What is left for us to do that would be “greater” than that??? I believe the answer goes back to our definition of greatness. What if Jesus is talking about His kind of greatness – about what Parker calls “miracles of goodness”? What if He’s talking about the miracle of touching someone else’s soul through kindness?

Elsewhere, Jesus said, “If you had the faith of a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, ‘Arise and be cast into the sea,’ and it will be done.” That too has perplexed me. I doubt I will ever have even that mustard seed of faith to do anything so powerful and miraculous. But, here’s my thought: What if a faith that sees real greatness were to say, “Yes, by the power of faith I could cast that mountain into the sea, but why should I? I’d rather somehow the Lord could use my life to touch someone else for eternity. I’d rather know I said in this life five words that drew someone else to Christ than to lift up a hundred mountains and cast them into the sea."

Can we not see that, in both of these sayings of Jesus, our problem in “understanding” them arises from the very fact that we don’t see “greatness” through His eyes?

Lord, open our eyes to see and to value true greatness, the greatness of soul, the greatness of love, the greatness that makes us vessels not so much of Your power but of Your goodness. Help us to see that this world’s greatness is but a useless mirage. May we be like our heroine Esther and value the greatness that truly matters!

 

Esther 1:1-9 “Our World”

Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹And it was in the days of Xerxes (he [was the] Xerxes reigning from India and upon Cush, seven and twenty and a hundred provinces). ²In the days the those the king Xerxes [was] dwelling upon the throne of his kingdom which [was] in Shushan, the citadel. ³In the third year of his reigning, he made a banquet to the all of his princes and his servants, the power of Persia and Media. The nobles and the princes of the provinces [were] to his face. ⁴In him showing the wealth of his kingdom and the splendor of the excellence of his majesty days of many eighty and one hundred days. ⁵And in being full the days the these the king made to the all of the people being found in Shushan the citadel, to great and until small, a banquet of seven days in the court of the garden of the palace of the king. ⁶Linen cloth of linen and purple wool being grasped with cords of fine white linen and red-purple wool upon rings of sliver and pillars of white marble, couches of gold and silver upon a pavement of red marble and white marble and mother of pearl and black marble, ⁷giving to drink in vessels of gold and vessels of one from another differing and royal wine plenty by the hand of the king ⁸and the drinking [was] according to law, “No compelling,” because the king had established upon the all of the chief[s] of his house to do according to pleasure of man and man. ⁹Also, Vashti the queen made the banquet of the women of the house the royal which [was] to the king Xerxes.

As usual, the passage before us offers much to be pondered. What do we have before us? We are being afforded a glimpse into the extravagant wealth of this famous Persian king, who may very well be the wealthiest man who ever lived.

That in itself calls for some pondering, but I also want to remind us that what is being portrayed is the world in which Esther and Mordecai lived. Whatever all of this extravagant wealth may mean, it is the world in which Esther and Mordecai must live their faith. Where we stand to profit most is to realize that, in the end, this is the same world we live in, in various different ways, and the faith that they lived we can and must live as well.

Isn’t it interesting that all of this takes place in the “third year” of Xerxes’ reign? What I mean is, here he is basically taking credit for the unfathomable riches of a kingdom that stretches from India to Africa and how long has he been on the throne? Three years. And yet he provides this 180-day long banquet for the express purpose of “showing the wealth of his kingdom and the splendor of the excellence of his majesty.” The very plain and simple fact is he only inherited this kingdom. It has been handed to him by kings who went before him, all the way back to Nebuchadnezzar, not to mention the three Persian kings (including his father) who went before him. But even at that, those kings didn’t march across continents and bloody themselves against enemies. Those kings didn’t labor to build the roads necessary to maintain a kingdom so vast and neither did Xerxes. Xerxes didn’t even build the palace he would entertain his guests in. Yet he would claim the glory of it all to himself.

I suppose if we slow down to think about it, we realize his arrogance is appalling. But then, is he really any different than you and me? His arrogance may get broadcast on a scale much larger than ours, but is it really any different? Paul asks I Cor. 4:7: “and what do you have that you did not receive? And if you received it, why do you boast as if you didn’t receive it?” It is an important aspect of humility to recognize this very point. No matter what I might accomplish, I will never do it alone. I will always have God and a whole lot of people to thank. Unfortunately, Xerxes doesn’t see this and we can fully expect from him all the mischief of a heart filled with the sin of pride – all the impatience, insensitivity, harshness and even cruelty, blunt, cutting words, and all the rest. May each of us strive to live in humble thankfulness, but, as we read this book, we must realize what is being portrayed before us is the king in Esther’s life.

My ponderings could probably head in about a million different directions but I think it worthwhile to observe in these first nine verses the deceitfulness of riches. Just to ponder the subject is good for our souls but, again, to understand Esther’s world, I think it prudent. I rather think, if we were all honest, the extravagant wealth of this Persian king does not offend us. In fact, give us half a chance and we would love to join the party. In fact, way down deep, we would love to possess such wealth ourselves.  We tell each other money can’t buy happiness, but in our heart of hearts, we’re quite sure a few cool million dropped in our account wouldn’t be all bad.

And why do we think that? Why? May I suggest it is because life is very hard and it seems like money makes it easier? And the problem is that there is an element of truth to that. We don’t say that rich people live a “soft” life for nothing. In a sense they do. While I’m sweating mowing my grass, the rich guy just pays someone else to do it. While I’m struggling to keep an old worn-out car running, the rich guy next door roars by in his (latest) brand new Corvette. While the best “vacation” I can come up with is to go visit relatives, the rich guy is soaking in a hot tub in his vacation villa in Bermuda. Is all of that true? Yes, to an extent. And it is “true” enough, just typing this paragraph stirs something discontent and sinister inside my own heart.

But what did Jesus say? “A man’s life does not consist in the things he possesses.” Here is where the lie worms its way into our minds – riches offer us “life, that we may have it more abundantly.” They do seem to offer relief from all the hardship. They do seem to offer us joy and peace. And, for whatever reason, we humans are easily deceived to believe they really can. We may note from time to time that actually rich people often live miserable lives. Although they may be fabulously wealthy, their marriages may be train wrecks, their kids may hate them and end up strung out on drugs, they may live in the constant drama of family squabbles, hostile “takeovers,” and all the rest. I recall a girl in my kids’ school who always looked sad about something. For her 16^th birthday, her parents bought her a brand new car. She just went on with her sad face. I know nothing of their business, but I suspect what the girl really needed was her parents’ attention, not the new car their money could buy.

Jesus says our lives do not consist in the abundance of things we possess. What the Bible helps us to see is that the huge issue of life is love. To love and be loved is actually “life.” That is precisely why it is so often true that some of the most pleasant, most generous, most content people, that some of the happiest families in the world are the poorest. And herein may be precisely why the fabulously wealthy can be so miserable – they’ve spent all their energy to gain wealth and failed to let love reign over their many, many decisions. Relationships are what really matters in life and, in that account, the balance for them is sadly “0” (or worse).

As an aside, I need to point out that love and money are not mutually exclusive. In other words, there always have been and always will be people who gain great wealth even as they love. The other side of the coin is equally true, we can be poor as paupers and still be just as materialistic as the richest billionaire. Even if we have none, we can still worship money and sacrifice our relationships in our frenzy to get more of it. A farmer once told me he was shoveling in his pig pen one day when it suddenly hit him his daughter was 18 years old. He no doubt got a lot done in those 18 years and made money doing it, but sadly, he had forgotten to invest in what really mattered -- such a critically important relationship.

The Bible is filled from cover to cover with wisdom concerning money – how to earn it, give it, save it, spend it, etc. – and on the other hand what it means to truly live for love. If we would really have “life, and have it more abundantly,” it will have to be the life that Jesus offers, and we must deliberately resist the deceitfulness of riches – the lie of wealth.

Which brings me back to the whole point here: As we make our way into this book of Esther, what we see right up front is a world completely misled by this “deceitfulness of riches.” You and I need to see past the golden goblets, the linen hangings, the marble pavements, and see that none of that makes the people happy. Though surrounded by literally tons of gold, hearts without love are still impoverished. Sadly, this is Esther’s world. We all naturally like that she’ll end up a queen in a palace, but we need to remember that she has to live in a world where it is money and power, not relationships, that matter.

And, once again, is not that our world?

 

 

Esther 1:1 “And So It Begins…”

Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

 ¹And it was in the days of Ahaseurus (he [was the] Ahaseurus reigning from India and upon Cush, seven and twenty and a hundred provinces).

 And so I am embarking on a study of the book of Esther. This is an immediately pleasant undertaking for me since our Queen is the namesake for my youngest daughter, Esther. My daughter Esther (whom we affectionately called “Bess”) has always personified everything we see in Queen Esther. Bess was seemingly born with a regal deportment. I’ve always thought she belonged in a palace, dressed in the finest of clothing and adorned in jewels. She would herself have made any king a beautiful queen. But then, she shares with Esther not only her royal beauty but also her amazing resolve and courage. Time and again I’ve watched as our Bess saw what needed to be done and then pushed ahead, in spite of what to others might have seemed insurmountable obstacles. Like Queen Esther, I can almost hear her say, “…and if I die, I die.”

 It certainly adds an enormous element of pleasure for me to study this book as it constantly reminds me of my beautiful daughter, of whom I am enormously proud.

 I’m also looking forward to studying this book as it is the other “girl” book of the Bible, along with Ruth. I enjoyed a study of the book of Ruth several years ago, in part also because it constantly reminded me of my oldest daughter Ruthie! I have my two beautiful daughters and their names reflect the two “girl” books of the Bible. What intrigues me, comparing the two books, is that I believe they portray for us the two opposite sides of living in this world.

 What do I mean? Ruth is a book set in Israel. They’re in “the right place.” The people acknowledge the Lord in practically every sentence they speak. The Lord and faith in Him are very important to them and the people around them. The book of Esther is set in Persia (modern Iran). It is seriously “the wrong place.” Our Lord and faith in Him mean absolutely nothing to the people among whom Esther lives. Interestingly, there is not one mention of God in the entire book. He is profoundly present in the book of Ruth and though He certainly works wondrously in the book of Esther, He isn’t even mentioned here.

 Once again, I believe what the Lord is doing for you and me is very deliberately portraying for us what it’s like to live in this world. For people of faith, He is in fact very present and it is a glorious thing to be surrounded by other people who share that faith. Yet we live in a world where it is often true they care nothing about Him. They live their lives all day every day utterly ignoring Him. In fact, I would suggest that the world Esther lives in is precisely the world in which most of us have to work and live.

 It is great if you and I get to work and live “in the right place” and be surrounded by other people of faith. However, that is rarely the case. Most of us have no choice but to work and live in what is in reality Esther’s Persia – singing in our hearts, “This world is not my home...,” and having to live our faith amongst people who couldn’t care less about the Lord or what is right and wrong. It would be easy in that world to forget God even exists or has anything to do with the trials and troubles we face every day.

 Esther is a book to remind us that, even in that kind of world – a world where it would seem God doesn’t even exist – He is still quite present, quite active, and still lovingly attentive to those troubles we face.

 I suppose I should mention that I am very aware of all the “scholarly” chitter-chatter about this book, but I’ll not pay it much mind. The Bible is not a book to be dissected on the table like some formaldehyde-soaked frog. It is fine to research the time and place and authorship of any book (I’m an engineer – I love to study!), but with the Bible, the goal is to know God, to read what is written as His Word. To go to the Bible for any other reason guarantees final failure. Peter mentions people who struggle with the many things “hard to be understood” and says they “wrestle to their own destruction, as they do with all the rest of the Scriptures.” I will study everything I can get my hands on, but when it’s all said and done, I want to know I’ve met God, that He has taught me some little bit more of how to see my life and this world through His eyes. His goal is to redeem me – to pick up the mess of who I am and to slowly, surely change me into the person He intends me to be.

 With that all said, there is good evidence to understand that this Ahaseurus is the Xerxes who was the son of Darius and Atossa (the daughter of Cyrus the Great), and that his reign lasted from 486 to 465 BC. He is the Persian king who suffered monumental defeats at the hands of the Greeks, then returned to Persia to spend his time on building projects and such. Both the names “Ahaseurus” and “Xerxes” are feeble attempts to transliterate his Persian name which roughly ends up in English as “Khshayarsha.” Yeah, that’s bad, but hey, he’s from 2600 years ago and half way around the world. Even the transliterations are coming down to us through many different languages. If I had to transliterate the Hebrew even here in Esther, I’d spell it something like Akashverosh. Just for the ease of it, I’ll use his traditional English name of Ahaseurus.

 Persia is the second world kingdom in Daniel’s prophecies from his chapters 2 and 7, the chest and arms of silver and the bear raised up on one side with three ribs in its mouth. Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylon was the head of gold. Nebuchadnezzar was an absolute monarch and had essentially conquered the civilized world. Now the Persian empire rules that world (the 127 provinces from India to Cush) but the king does have to, at times, submit to the “laws of the Medes and Persians.” He is not quite the absolute king that Nebuchadnezzar was. Nevertheless, history still remembers Ahaseurus as a cruel tyrant who (like most ancient kings) enjoyed the luxury flying into rages and killing anyone who displeased him.

 So, right off the bat, this is Esther’s world. Neither she nor Mordecai get to decide whether they want to live their faith in this world. This is their world and if they want to live their faith, this is simply the world they’ll have to live it in. Sound familiar? It should. It’s the world you and me live in. Like the book of Daniel, the very setting of this book should provide you and me with oceans of practical wisdom how to pull off a life of faith in a world where God seemingly doesn’t even exist!

 And so it begins…

 

 

Romans 3:27-31 “Jesus’ Way”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

²⁷Therefore, where [is] the boasting? It is excluded. Through what sort of law? Of the works? By no means, but through a law of faith, ²⁸for we are concluding [that] a man is being justified by faith without works of law. ²⁹Or [is] God of Jews only? Not also of Gentiles? Yes, of Gentiles also, ³⁰since [there is] one God who will justify circumcision out of faith and uncircumcision through that [same] faith. ³¹Are we therefore nullifying law through that faith? May it never be! Rather, we are establishing law.

As I said in the last post, I find in these five verses some serious pondering fodder. Just a few more thoughts on the business of “boasting” – Although I think the problem here is specifically Jewish, it is another one of those problems “common to man.” I would suggest one of the pitfalls of any law/justification system is that it stirs in people this sense of being “better” than everyone else. With every “religion” in the world, its adherents are unanimously confident their “religion” makes them better than everyone else. It has been my observation that churches do the same thing. They are invariably sure they are the “best” church in town. As we are seeing in Romans, grace salvation very specifically suppresses this evil propensity. A true understanding of justification by faith alone says, in the words of Albert Barnes, “…all are alike dependent on the mere mercy of God in Christ.”

In the well-known Eph. 2:8,9 we’re told, “For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.” In I Cor. 1:28-31 it says “He chose the lowly things of this world…to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before Him…Therefore, as it is written, ‘Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.’” Any law system begs comparison and tends to this boasting. Only a salvation based totally on faith can strip away from us humans any opportunity for this arrogance. As I said above, people who call themselves Christians can be just as bad as any other “religious” group, but, in our case, it is absolutely inexcusable. Arrogance on our part reveals we have either forgotten that we ourselves are wholly dependent on grace or that our own understanding of it is faulty, or, worse yet, that someone has never truly embraced grace at all. I would suggest that, to whatever extent our “religion” tends to make us feel “better” than others, we may be quite sure we are having a deficient view of grace. A sincere apprehension of grace leaves us saying, “Where then is boasting? It is excluded.”

I suppose I should comment on Paul’s statement in verse 28, “…we are concluding [that] a man is being justified by faith without works of law.” Once again, barrels of ink have been spilt addressing the apparent contradiction between this verse and what James says in his 2:24: “You see that a man is justified by what he does and not by faith alone.” People for centuries have thought they find in these words a contradiction. Of course there is no contradiction at all. In Romans, Paul is addressing people who think their works will save them. James is addressing people who think they can say they have faith but there is no fruit. Suffice it to say that a faith that saves is a faith that will change the person’s life. Real faith ushers us into the presence (or should I say lap) of our wonderful heavenly Father, opens our eyes to see Jesus in His beauty, and places His Spirit in our hearts. Paul himself will address this same matter of changed lives in chapter 6, but, as it is with every single human being, we must first come to the Lord with empty hands. As Barnes said, “…all are alike dependent on the mere mercy of God in Christ.” Notice the “mere.” Real faith saves totally by grace but that same real faith will bear the fruit of a changed life.

This all leads into what I want to say about verse 31. As I tried to literally translate it, it says, “Are we therefore nullifying law through that faith? May it never be! Rather, we are establishing law.” The NIV attempts to smooth it out and translates it, “Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law.” Paul is clearly addressing the age old objection that grace salvation, a salvation entirely by faith alone from beginning to end, leads to lawlessness.

I would like to record my response to this accusation, as maybe I take a little different twist than usual. I believe the person who even makes this accusation actually is proving that they themselves have never repented of their legalism. What do I mean? I will suggest that, ever since the Garden of Eden, we fallen human beings have been incorrigibly legalistic. It is somehow deeply ingrained in our hearts to believe everything comes down to law. If we don’t like something, it means we need new laws, different laws, better laws, fewer laws, even no laws – but it always comes down to laws. The accusation in verse 31 is protesting, “If you propose a salvation totally by faith, then you’re saying law doesn’t matter!” First of all, why are they so concerned to begin with? Because “law” is the crutch their souls lean on. They cannot bear the thought of standing totally naked before God – not only admitting I have nothing to bring, but also admitting I never will. True grace means the love relationship I enjoy with my God is based entirely on His grace – with absolutely not even the slightest contribution of my merit – not now or ever.

In order to enjoy that kind of relationship, the first thing we all must do is actually repent of our legalism. It is NOT about law. God’s love for you and me is NOT performance based. To even accuse grace of somehow minimizing law only reveals our hearts’ unwillingness to let go of law at all. Now let me go to the other extreme – even to say that grace means no law, even for a person to go around saying, because of grace, now there is no law and I can do as I please – that person has not repented of their legalism either, precisely because they’re still talking about law. Whether it’s more rules or no rules, they’re still thinking it has something to do with the rules.

NO, NO, NO. It is only on the basis of His grace that you and I will or will not enjoy a relationship with God.  To stand before Him, you must stand naked. “Nothing in my hand I bring; Only to Thy Cross I cling.” If you or I would crawl into His lap, we crawl there in all our filth and stench. The face we burrow into His big strong chest is a very dirty, emaciated face. But this is precisely the wonder of grace: that’s okay. It’s okay because His name is Jesus. He didn’t die on the Cross to help us toward God. He died to save us. He died to make us children of God, not just to make us so we could be children of God if we somehow do a good job of keeping the rules.

At this point, I’d like to include a quote from P. Hutchinson:  

“It is worthy of observation on this subject, that all the good works performed by believers in Christ Jesus are as much excluded from being the ground of justification as the works of sinners previous to conversion. All works really and instrumentally good are performed in a state of justification, are the proper and natural effects of it, and therefore cannot be the cause of it… Believers neither need to turn inward to their graces and frames, nor outward to their duties, to find the matter of their justification. This is abundantly provided for them by the grace of God in the merit of Jesus Christ, whose spotless obedience and unequalled sufferings are, by the wise and benign appointment of Jehovah, the alone ground of pardon and life to guilty men…This Divine plan of acceptance affords support, comfort, and tranquility to true Christians under the pressures of life, the revolutions of the world, and the challenges of conscience…The doctrine of justification by faith in the merit of Christ affords the most powerful motivations to love, gratitude, and obedience. Does not love naturally beget love? And shall not a display of the love of God in justifying the ungodly through the mediation of His Son beget love in the justified sinner? And if he love God, will not love constrain him to keep His commandments?”

Yes, Hutchinson “gets it.” Here is precisely where “law” re-enters the discussion – as you and I sit in the lap of our wonderful  Father, totally accepted, totally loved and all of that not because we have or have not (or ever will have) done a good job of “keeping the rules”—but rather because Jesus paid it all. As I sit there so loved, what does the “Law” mean to me? I find in it the expressions of my Father’s heart. I do want to please Him. I don’t want to be doing things that break His heart. “Fear” becomes a matter of knowing He loves me too much to let me do wrong! Is all of this not true of any real love relationship? When you love someone, of course you care what they think, what they like and don’t like, what they want you to do or not do. Of course they have expectations – And that’s okay – because you love them. You don’t “comply” in order to somehow gain their favor. You do it precisely because you love them.

And so, at this point, what have we done with God’s law? We have NOT nullified it. Rather, in the very greatest way possible, we have actually established it. If all the world had such a relationship with God, if they each one deeply loved the Lord and cared very much what He thinks, if they wanted to do right precisely because they love Him…it would be a place called Heaven.

Grace doesn’t create people who are really good rule-keepers, it does something far, far better. It wins their hearts. The Law would create people who get their list of rules from the far-away God and then spend their time trying to “keep” them. Grace invites people into the loving arms of a Heavenly Father and so fills their heart with the love of Jesus, they can’t help but be changed.

Law-keeping is man’s way of approaching God.

Grace is Jesus’ way.

I like Jesus’ way better.

Romans 3:27-31 “Level”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

 

²⁷Therefore, where [is] the boasting? It is excluded. Through what sort of law? Of the works? By no means, but through a law of faith, ²⁸for we are concluding [that] a man is being justified by faith without works of law. ²⁹Or [is] God of Jews only? Not also of Gentiles? Yes, of Gentiles also, ³⁰since [there is] one God who will justify circumcision out of faith and uncircumcision through that [same] faith. ³¹Are we therefore nullifying law through that faith? May it never be! Rather, we are establishing law.

 

These five verses are some serious fodder for pondering. As I said in the last post, the previous six verses should be printed in letters of gold. They sum up the most basic truths we human beings need to understand and embrace. If I may inject one more time, I urge you to read them over and over, study the terms, ponder them, pray over them. If you grasp anything in this world, grasp those six verses. They are, in the end, all that really matters. Please. If my life means anything to you, please seriously ponder over Romans 3:21-26.

 

And then we come to verses 27-31.

 

At my first glance they seem an odd appendage to the profound truths of vv.21-26. Having stated those amazing truths, Paul asks, “Where then is boasting?” “Boasting?” My soul wants to ask, “What does that have to do with anything?” It’s like “boasting” is something important to me and somehow, what Paul is saying is threatening it? I’ve had to ponder on this matter, precisely because the question, “Where then is boasting?” seems so irrelevant to me. I ponder because what that all means is that I don’t understand. I’m the one who is “wrong.” Any time the Bible “doesn’t make sense,” you and I can always be assured the problem is us, not the Bible. But then, what that tells me is I’ve found a gold mine. What it means is, if there is something I can understand, then I will see the world a little more clearly. I’ll understand just a little more of God’s heart. I’ll know the truth and the truth will set me free!

 

And so I ponder.

 

To be honest, as I sit here and type, I’m not sure I’ve come to any startling conclusions. Here’s what I think I’m seeing: My question itself reveals how little I really understand what is going on. We Gentiles read Romans 1-3 and, if we’re honest, the Jewish element is almost irrelevant to us. We read it and wonder at this Gospel of grace. We would agree that, yes, of course, Paul does have a few things to say about Jewish people, but we think what he says of them really just refers to religious people in general.

 

I think my confusion at verse 27 arises precisely because I have minimized the Jewish element throughout Romans 1-3. I want to suggest, just for anyone else’s interested perusal, that there is a huge sense that Paul is writing Romans 1-3 more to Jews than to us Gentiles. I know that is totally heretical, but I rather suspect it was the Jews who needed convincing more so than the Gentiles. I think it is safe to say the most difficult people to reach in any generation are the religious – the people who are quite sure they’ve already “got it right.” I would suggest, in a sense, it doesn’t take much to convince pagan Gentiles they’re guilty. When you’ve lived in open immorality, lied, stolen, and just generally been a pretty rotten person, you can hear, “For all have sinned,” and, like the tax collectors and prostitutes of John and Jesus’ time, readily admit it’s true. But when you see yourself as “religious,” when you can marshal all kinds of evidence of how “religious” you are and have been (own six Bibles, go to church every Sunday, “don’t smoke, don’t chew, and don’t run with girls that do”), it may have to come as a complete shock for God to convince you you really are a sinner. And that is precisely “the Jewish problem.”

 

And I think that is where the “boasting” comes in. The Bible is full of passages where the Jews saw the Gentiles as “sinners” and thought their very Jewishness was every reason in the world to puff out their chests and agree together they were “better” than the Gentile dogs. What is that? Boasting. And if I’m right that Paul’s primary audience is actually the Jews, then, yes, right at this point, he needs to address this “boasting” problem. Notice in vv.29,30, this is exactly where Paul goes. Is God the God of the Jews only? Is He not also the God of the Gentiles? At that point in church history, it was the Jews who needed to be utterly and finally convinced that God’s plan of salvation by grace meant they had no ground for their boasting. They are not better than the Gentiles. Are they Abraham’s descendants? Oh, yes. Does that mean they are a special people in the eyes of God? Oh, yes. But does that make them better than Gentiles. NO. Like the old saying, “The ground is level at the foot of the Cross.” The Jewish people needed to realize they must be saved by grace in the same way and just as much as any Gentile “dog.”

 

That’s what I think is going on. And that is why I think the very question seems odd to me. I’m not a Jew. I basically wasn’t even thinking I’m “better” than someone else. I was reading verses 21-26 and marveling in this amazing grace of a salvation that can be mine simply through faith in our wonderful Redeemer Jesus!

 

I think, if anyone is reading this, and if we’re going to study the Bible, then I will maintain that we need to work hard to practice a consistent hermeneutic. We need to let the Bible say what it says. And if Romans 1-3 is particularly addressing Jews, then we need to acknowledge that as we would seek to truly understand whatever the Lord is saying to us. Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe I really am a heretic. But, right or wrong in my suggestions, whoever you are and whatever you think, you had better be striving to let God speak, to read the Bible as His Word, not yours.  He has promised to bless His Word. He never promised to bless yours or mine. It’s His truth that will set you and me free.

 

Now, all that said, I do want to acknowledge that today, it may very well be true that Gentiles who call themselves Christians have exactly the same problem. Boasting. Thinking we’re “better.” I would suggest the Church has slid into exactly the same problem. We may not be quite so verbal about it, but I fear the Church is today filled with people who are quite sure they’ve “got it,” and who sadly comprise the group of people we may call “the religious lost.” And I’m not talking about “them there godless liberals and all their false religion.” I’m talking about people in fundamental and evangelical churches that may in fact claim to preach and teach the Gospel. The sad fact is you can slide into hell right off the pews of a Biblical church, just as easily as off a bar stool. In fact, once again, it may be the guy in the pew who is the hardest to reach, not the drunk on his stool.

 

The fact is you and I are no “better” than even the most disgusting, godless, immoral, far-left liberal.

 

Once again, “the ground is level at the foot of the Cross.”

 

So where is boasting? It is excluded.

 

Guess it does make sense after all!