World, Huh! (Good God, Ya’ll) — What is it Good for?

Posted on February 12, 2013 by Cindy Skillman

What’s good in the world? If we try to keep the law, are we good? If we try to live good lives according to our God-given instincts, are we good? No one manages either of these feats. Paul talks about it in Romans 3:1-18. Here’s my paraphrase:

So then, what is the advantage of being a Jew? What is the profit of the covenant (signified by circumcision)? It’s huge in every way! The Jews were entrusted with the spoken words of God (and if some distrusted, does that make this trust given them by God void?) Never! Let God be shown to be true even though every person be false!

Even as it is written:

. . . that You might be declared righteous in your words, and prevail when You sit to give judgment.” (Ps 51:4)

But if our unrighteousness by contrast makes God’s righteousness look even better, what can we say? Surely that doesn’t mean that God is wrong to show His anger at the bad things we do. (I speak as a man.)

God forbid! Otherwise how could God judge the world?

“But if my lie makes God’s truth shine brighter, thus revealing His glory all the more, then why does He judge me to be a sinner?”

“And why not let us do the bad things that the good may result from them?” (Some people injuriously accuse us of teaching this and saying this. Their condemnation is deserved!)

What then? Do we, as Jews, make ourselves out to be better? Not at all — as we said before, both Jews and Greeks are under sin. Even as it is written:

There is none righteous . . . not even one! (Ps 14:1-3)
There is none that discerns — none that seeks out God. (Ps 53:2)
All have left the path and have become useless together. (Ps 14:3)
There is none that does kindness . . . not even one! (Ps 53:1)
An open grave is their throat.
Deceit is the tool of their tongues. (Ps 5:9)
The poison of asps is under their lips! (Ps 140:3)
Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. (Ps 10:7)
Swift are their feet to shed blood (Pr 1:16)
Destruction and misery are in their ways,
And the Way of Peace have they not known (Is 59:7-8)
There is no fear of God before their eyes. (Ps 36:1)

Eh — that does not sound good. God gave the Jews every advantage: His written and spoken word, His commission to them to be a blessing to all the nations, His signs and mighty works to prove His God creds. Yet they were false to Him while He remains true. That makes Him look even better by contrast, you say? Um yeah. He’s not buyin’ that. I mean, sure — it does make Him shine, but that doesn’t let us off for our bad behavior. If that were the case, how could He ever judge the world?

(And I might interject that the Jews frequently implored God to judge between them and their oppressors. Judging is making things right. Human judges are limited in the ability to do that, but not God.)

To say that because our bad makes Him look GOOD, we might as well carry on being bad, is worthy of condemnation, according to Paul. None of us — Jew or non-Jew have ever been successful in meeting God’s requirements: to be righteous (what does that mean?), to discern Him and seek Him out, to walk in the right way and be useful, to be kind and do kindness, to be holy and wholesome, truthful, grateful, speaking words of healing, to run swiftly to save, not to shed blood, to build up and bless, to walk in the way of peace, to keep the fear of God always before our eyes.

But instead of the loving and obedient children God desires us to be, we are unkind to one another and to Him, we neglect His presence, wandering around uselessly, treating one another shamefully, with mouths like an open grave filled with cursing, bitterness, and the poison of asps is under our lips. Ouch! Yet we have to admit that if there’s one thing we’re good at, it’s the cutting clever words of sarcasm. Our feet are swift to shed blood (whether literally or metaphorically). We cause harm and bring pain and in that, boast about our cleverness. It doesn’t occur to us to think, “What would my Father say about this?”

While God brings good out of the evil, He is nevertheless angry with us for our unrighteousness. Still, He remains faithful though we are all false and faithless. He takes our words seriously; He wants us to use them to heal and help, but we have made them tools of destruction and despair. Our relationships with one another MATTER to God. None of us is better than any others, but that’s because we’re all in the same miserable mess.

Paul spends so much time on this topic because it matters. The Jews think they’re good because they’re Jews — better than the Gentiles by far. Today, we can shine this light on ourselves as Christians. Ask yourself next time you’re out about town, whether your behavior toward others glorifies your Father in heaven. Even if no one knows you (or perhaps even hears your curses for their BAD driving!), it matters. Father hears.

On our own we haven’t the ability to live righteous lives, but we as Christ followers don’t have that excuse. We have the grace of God enabling us. Let’s yield to that grace and bring beauty out of the ashes of this damaged and hurting world.

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A Circumcised Heart

Posted on February 11, 2013 by Cindy Skillman

Circumcision was a BIG deal with Jews of Jesus’ time (and Paul’s of course). In my last passage from Romans Paul talked about the difference between knowing the law and keeping the law. In this subsequent passage, he talks about the difference between symbolism (circumcision) and the thing symbolized (separation from the flesh). The “flesh” in scripture refers to our lower nature — the nature that wants what it wants, whether that’s a good thing or just a thing it WANTS. Here is my paraphrase of Romans 2:25-29:

Being of the circumcision covenant is a benefit IF you keep the covenant laws. But if you do NOT keep the covenant law, then it is as if you did not carry in your body the seal of the covenant — circumcision. Therefore if the uncircumcised Gentile (non-Jew) does keep this law, then God will count his uncircumcision as circumcision. And the one who keeps the law by nature, though he is uncircumcised, will be your judge — though you are circumcised physically and you have the written covenental law — but do NOT keep it.

For not the one who looks like a Jew is a Jew — nor is the physical appearance of circumcision in the flesh genuine circumcision. But the person who is inwardly a Jew is a true Jew, and the true circumcision is circumcision of the heart — in spirit rather than in letter (flesh), whose praise is not from people but from God.

What does it mean to be a “true Jew”? The Jews were chosen by God to be a light and a blessing to the whole world. They were to glorify God by revealing Him through their lives and their testimony. If they failed to keep the law, as a spiritual law and not just a legal skeleton, they failed to be the thing God had called them to be: a revelation of Him to the nations.

In placing such a high value on circumcision, they missed the point of circumcision. It is a symbol of the separation from the flesh (which represents this world’s system of slavery to sin). The Jews were to have been free from that through trust in God, but they failed. We as Christians fail too, when we trust in our own ability. Circumcision (our our own versions of that such as going to church, wearing a cross, reading a chapter from the bible each day, listening only to “Christian” music, etc.) means nothing unless it is the outward sign of a deep, inward separation toward God and away from the sinful world system.

God does not care how perfectly we keep the outward requirements of the law. He doesn’t care that we look good, smell good, talk good or even act good if our hearts are far from Him. Going through the motions does not cut it.

Have you ever had unexpected guests, and run through the house in the half hour’s notice they gave you, shoving things into closets, back rooms, dusting the living room and piling all those books and etc. off the coffee table and behind your bed? That is the bare minimum. Does your house look clean? Yes it does, as long as no one looks too deep. IS it clean? Hahaha. Sure. Is it a true representation of how you really live? Have you changed from a moderately messy person into a clean freak? Hardly.

Nope, if you’re going to count circumcision as your ticket into God’s good graces — as the thing that makes you better than THOSE people, you have to keep the whole covenant. Paul will go on later to explain that yes, this is impossible for us, in our own strength, to do. At present he’s establishing that this is what circumcision means and what it requires if it’s to mean anything at all. Circumcision is not the covenant, but merely the SIGN of the covenant, as a clean-looking house is not a tidy person, but merely the SIGN of a tidy person (unless it is a lie intended to lead your guests to think well of you).

Christians today find ourselves in the position of the religious Jews of Paul’s day. What is your bare minimum? Church attendance? Not cursing in public? A snappy “Christian” bumper sticker? Your radio dial set to the local Christian music station? “Christian” paraphernalia such as t-shirts, bible covers, jewelry, the latest books by your fave Christian author, etc.?

Or how about some other window dressing that we might feel less inclined to consider optional? The “sinners prayer”, our version of correct doctrine, the tithe, the communion ceremony, baptism. Do these things mean anything until the heart is put right? Hardly. Do we make our “baptism” into “unbaptism” by our failure to follow the Lord of Love?

But if someone follows the writing of God on his heart, will not his “unbaptism” be made “baptism”? Will that one who by nature followed the one true God in right relationship (righteousness) with Him and with one another be our judge?

My children, let us not love one another in word and in tongue, but in deed and in truth. (1Jn 3:18 Lamsa NT)

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Are You a Teacher of Babies?

Posted on January 28, 2013 by Cindy Skillman

I was going to say “babes,” as many translations have it, but that just sounded . . . well, wrong. You know?

Romans 2:17-24 takes aim specifically at self-righteous Jews, but in our own era, it has application to anyone who considers himself or herself to be spiritually wise and is in fact spiritually immature. Is that you? Is it me? No doubt we’re all immature in many ways, so perhaps the best attitude is one of teachable (though not gullible) humility. Always be ready to receive truth, no matter who it might come through. The Holy Spirit and the scriptures will confirm truth for you, if you’re willing to listen.

Here’s my paraphrase of this passage:

If you call yourself a Jew and:

  1. Rest yourself on the law
  2. Boast in God
  3. Take note of His will
  4. Test things that differ from it when hearing the law taught and read

. . . and what’s more, are persuaded that you yourself are:

  1. A guide to the blind
  2. A light to those in darkness
  3. A trainer of the simple
  4. A teacher of babes
  5. Having the forming of knowledge and truth in the law

You!

  1. You teach others; don’t you teach yourself?
  2. You proclaim: Do not steal!; do you steal?
  3. You say: Do not commit adultery!; do you commit adultery?
  4. You abhor sacrilege; are you temple robbers?

You who in the law do boast, through transgressing the law, do you dishonor God? Just as it is written, because of you God’s name is defamed among the nations.

It isn’t good enough to trust in the law, Paul says. You have to actually obey the law. Having it as the foundation of your very culture doesn’t cut it. Knowing the law back to front and teaching it to others means nothing in a person who doesn’t keep the precepts. As I pointed out, this applies to us as Christians. Knowledge is good, but knowledge alone isn’t king. Knowing this stuff doesn’t make us righteous. Even knowing that it’s all about relationship doesn’t put us in right standing with God.

We must BE and DO. Our transgressions of God’s law (in our case the law of love) cause our Father to be dishonored among the unbelievers. What we owe one another is not a perfect exegesis of scripture. It is love — from the Father. Judging and criticizing one another comes easily, but when we point the finger we are too often uncovering our own character flaws. You who hate boasting and hogging the spotlight; Do you desire to do the same? You who demand scrupulous honesty in others; Do you steal office supplies from your employer? I’m sure every one of us could craft such a couplet that would implicate our own persons in this form of hypocrisy, whether present or past. If we’re honest and perceptive, most of us would have to go with present tense on at least a few things.

Giving lip service to righteousness doesn’t honor our Father; only true obedience can keep the world from disdaining Him because of our own behavior. Looking good is not enough. We must be genuine through and through. Otherwise we cause seekers to stumble. They see our lives and say, “I want nothing to do with that pack of actors.” And if the hypocrisy has its home in a leader of the church, how much worse is that?

Until we ourselves are walking in humility and in the leading of the Holy Spirit, we have no business attempting to instruct others — as though we were icons of wisdom and maturity. None of us will be perfectly perfect in this life, but if we know and acknowledge that fact, it will go a long ways toward being genuine. We are His ambassadors. Let’s keep it real.

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Is God’s Love Different from Man’s?

Posted on January 23, 2013 by Cindy Skillman

I was reading this morning and came across something I just had to share. The book is “Walking in the Dust of Rabbi Jesus” by Lois Tverberg. Here is the excerpt:

Hesed: Long-Acting Love

Hebrew has a word for lifelong love that is richer and deeper than English has ever conceived of: hesed (HEH-sed). . . Based in a covenantal relationship, hesed is a steadfast, rock-solid faithfulness that endures to eternity: “Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love (hesed) for you will not be shaken” (Isaiah 54:10).
Hesed is a love so enduring that it persists beyond any sin or betrayal to mend brokenness and graciously extend forgiveness: “No one is cast off by the Lord forever. Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love (hesed)” (Lam 3:31-32)
Hesed is to love as God loves. When God’s presence passed by Moses on Mount Sinai and revealed his very essence, God proclaimed his great hesed (Ex 34:6). Biblical scholar John Oswalt describes it this way:

The word hesed . . . (is) the descriptor par excellence of God in the Old Testament. The word speaks of a completely undeserved kindness and generosity done by a person who is in a position of power. This was the Israelites’ experience of God. He revealed himself to them when they were not looking for him, and he kept his covenant with them long after their persistent breaking of it had destroyed any reason for his continued keeping of it . . . Unlike humans, this deity was not fickle, undependable, self-serving, and grasping. Instead he was faithful, true, upright, and generous — always. (John Oswalt, The Bible among the Myths (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2009), 71.))

Like other Hebrew words, hesed is not just a feeling but an action. It intervenes on behalf of loved ones and comes to their rescue. After Abraham’s servant miraculously found a wife for Isaac by bumping into her at a well, he praised God ‘who has not abandoned his kindness (hesed) and faithfulness to my master” (Gen 24:27). Because hesed is often active, it is translated as ‘mercy” or “loving-kindness,” but neither of these words fully conveys that hesed acts out of unswerving loyalty even to the most undeserving.

(I added the color to that Lamentations quote.)

There’s more, and it’s very good, but out of fairness to the author I’ll stop here. This is in chapter 3. Alas, I can’t tell you the page number; it’s on my Kindle. :roll:

So what do YOU think? IS God’s love different from human love? In my opinion, ABSOLUTELY YES! God’s love is so much more patient, forebearing, kind, merciful, self-sacrificing, unending, never-giving-up that we can’t even begin to fathom it. When we say He is good, can any of us fully understand how very, very good He truly is?

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No Excuses

Posted on January 15, 2013 by Cindy Skillman

If the second half of Romans 1 is a helium balloon for the self-righteous, Romans 2 is a dart gun. Ouch! Here’s my paraphrase of my first section:

Therefore you who judge others have no excuse, for you condemn yourself when you pass judgment on others, since you do those things too — the same things you condemn in others.

We know that God’s sentence against those who practice such things is true and right, however.

Do you, the one who judges others but do the same things yourself,think that YOU will escape the sentence of God? Or do you fail to honor and value and appreciate the riches of His patience, kindness, and willingness to put up with you?Don’t you realize that God’s goodness leads you to repentance?

But according to the hardness of your unrepentant heart you store up anger for yourself in the day of anger and revelation of God’s righteous judgment. He will render to each person according to his works:

On the one hand, life age-abiding to those who by persevering in good works seek glory, honor and incorruption.

On the other hand, anger and wrath, tribulation and anguish to the contentious and unyielding to the truth, but yielding to unrighteousness. This anger and etc. are against every soul of man who works out what is base:

To the Jew first and also to the non-Jew.

But glory and honor and peace to everyone who works out what is good:

To the Jew first and also to the non-Jew.

For God does not play favorites. Those who sinned without the law; without the law shall perish. Those who sinned within the law; within the law shall be judged.

God will not judge people righteous just because they heard the law, but rather because they DID the law. When the nations who don’t have the law obey the law by their nature, they become a law to themselves. They display that the law is written on their hearts and their conscience bears witness with the law on their hearts and between one another, either approving of or accusing them in the day on which God judges the secrets of people according to my gospel, through Jesus the Messiah. (Romans 2:1-16)

Paul’s goal here seems to be to poke holes in Jewish self-superiority. He warns his Jewish listeners not to think themselves especially favored just because they have the law. Having the law is no good unless you keep it. If a non-Jew keeps the law by nature, then he is approved while the Jewish lawbreaker is condemned. God doesn’t play favorites.

God doesn’t automatically squash everyone who disobeys His law. But we shouldn’t assume from this that He approves of our behavior. He is patient and wants to give us time to come to repentance. If we don’t respond to His kindness, then we will face Him as the wrathful judge, ready to inflict tribulation and anguish on the self-serving and base. Those who persist in good works, He will reward with age-lasting life, glory, honor, and peace.

Recognizing sin in others is easy — automatic even. But we tend to give ourselves a pass. That wouldn’t be so bad if we weren’t so hard on “those people.” Remember Jesus also said, “In the same way you judge others, you will be judged.”

From the point of view of keeping the law, whether written or known by nature, we will be judged on the day of wrath according to our works. If we are contentious and don’t yield to the truth, but yield to unrighteousness, we will be condemned. But if we are peacemakers and don’t argue with God’s urgings in our consciences, yield to the truth, and resist unrighteousness, we will have life. It is our own consciences which acquit or else condemn us through Jesus the anointed Messiah.

God’s sentence against our baseness is just and fair. He neither plays favorites, nor does He excuse the guilty.

God is patient with us and puts up with us not because we are such very good and excellent children, but rather in order to lead us to repent. We should be shamed by His goodness to us, who have shamed Him as our Father by our bad behavior. This should lead us to repentance from our own sins and mercy toward others.

In applying this more to our present day situation, we who are in the church shouldn’t suppose that we’re better than those outside the church. If we are self-righteous, thinking that we’re on the ins and THOSE SINNERS out there are on the outs and aren’t worthy of God’s mercy, we have some hard lessons ahead. None of us have earned God’s mercy, and ALL of us need it desperately. WE, who are judging THEM for not keeping the law, do not keep the law ourselves. Some of us happily play the “grace card,” explaining that WE don’t HAVE to keep the law — but THEY do! Um Hmmm.

Faith works by love, and love is the law. If we love, we keep the law. We can do anything that we like so long as we remain in love, and if we remain in love, we can only keep the law of love. But if we are judging and condemning others, we are NOT remaining in love, and have as much as shouted, “I want to be judged by the same standards I have set up for HIM!”

Oops.

Father, cause us to remember that You love all your created children equally. Remind us of our desperate need for your mercy. Inspire us to beg you for mercy for these wandering brothers and sisters of ours, rather than self-righteously pronouncing judgment on them. Cause us to walk in Your strength, and by that strength, to love as you love.

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The Nitty Gritty on Grace

Posted on January 1, 2013 by Cindy Skillman

Grace: that which gives joy and pleasure — gratifying to the senses — beautiful, lovely, delightful. Grace (charis in the Greek) means sweetness and loving kindness and all things favorable and merciful. Based on the word studies I’ve recently shared for righteousness and justice in my previous posts: Righteousness and Justice: What Are They?, The Justification of the Prodigals, and How to Right a Wrong, grace seems somewhat of a sister word.

I’ve heard grace defined as “God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense.” To be honest, that’s always seemed harsh, and I’m not sure it’s accurate. God’s riches at God’s expense, perhaps — as God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself. (2 Cor 5:19).  And we know that Jesus had the Spirit not by measure. This was an effort and a sacrifice of suffering on our behalf by the Holy Trinity in full. Jesus wasn’t left to take the fierceness of the storm all by Himself (though He felt like it for a few moments there). A free gift, and not only free (to us), but also given with all the favor and generosity and over-flowing love of the heart of God. THAT is grace.

I’ve been looking through the uses of charis in the New Testament — well, the gospel accounts, Acts, Romans, and into 1 Corinthians. I didn’t do the entire NT. You could use favor to translate in each and every case without doing violence to the context, or even stretching it — except one passage in the Beatitudes in which Jesus seems to use it to mean “thanks” or similar. It’s translated something like “thanks” in most versions, at any rate.

Another popular definition of grace is that it is God’s enabling power within us to do that which He’s given us to do. In many occasions, grace does take that form — we are freely given ability we could not otherwise have — but is that what grace IS? I’m not a Greek scholar, but in reading the uses of charis in the NT, it seems to me that grace is more the generosity and action and over-the-top love of one (in this case, God) actively giving or empowering or loving or protecting or blessing or pleasuring or acting in any way toward the benefit of the beloved, regardless of personal cost. Whether or not I’ve got that right, the grace of God exceeds that description and more.

I get the picture of a loving father gladly and sweetly and freely sacrificing his own gratification to bless and benefit the child who is his heart. If he has benefited the child, then he himself is benefited far more than if he had sought only his own good.

It is in this grace that we stand, and in this grace we are becoming and being transformed into the image of the Son of His love. That is God’s example and the grace into which we also will be conformed.

Think about it! From all eternity God the Father has emptied Himself into the Son and the Son has poured Himself out to the Father, and the Spirit being given and giving Himself to the Father and the Son. This is the dance He has exemplified for us, and the dance into which we are invited by none other than God Himself.

Righteousness, mercy, justice and grace. Beauty and delightfulness and joy unspeakable and full of glory. That is our God, our Father, Brother, constant Companion and our Beloved.

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The Cup of God’s Wrath

Posted on December 27, 2012 by Cindy Skillman

Romans 1 diagrams a downward progression into depravity. What does it mean? And is this really all about “those people?” Any scripture passage needs to be taken in context of the whole Bible, but at the very least we need to consider the context of the entire book or epistle. So let’s not be too eager to say, “Yeah! That’s the way they are!” Otherwise chapter 2 could be a bit of a shock.

My first studies of Romans 1 begin here. Below, I’ll share my paraphrase of verses 18-32:

God’s anger from heaven is being revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. By their unrighteousness, they suppress and hold down the truth — because what may be known of God is revealed among them, for God has shown and demonstrated it to them. For the unseen things are revealed by the visible things of creation — creation shows us who He is; His eternal power and divinity — so that they should have no excuse.

Because though they recognized and came to know God, they did not glorify Him as God or thank Him. Rather they were made barren and without fruit in their reasonings. Their undiscerning heart/spirit/mind was darkened.

Claiming to be wise, they became foolish. They exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image of an image of a corruptible man and of birds and four-footed beasts and reptiles.

Because of this, God gave them up in the covetousness of their hearts unto impurity, so as to be dishonoring their bodies among them, who truly traded the truth of God for the lie, and gave worship and service to the created, rather than to the Creator who is blessed unto the ages. Amen.

Because of this, God gave them up unto dishonorable passions — for even their females traded off the natural use for that which is against nature. In the same way even the males, forsaking the natural use of the female, flared out in their eager desire for one another — males committing indecency with males, receiving within themselves the necessary recompense of their error, as is due them.

And even as they did not approve of acknowledging God, God turned them over to a disapproved mind, to be doing unbecoming things — filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, baseness — full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil disposition — whisperers, detractors, God haters, insolent, arrogant, vain boasters, inventors of vices, unyielding to parents, without discernment, having no regard for covenants, no natural affection, merciless –

Who indeed having acknowledged the righteous sentence of God that the people who do this sort of thing deserve to die, not only do the same things themselves, but also delight in the company of others who do them!

Ouch! Does that hit a little too close or what? So where does this all start?

According to the passage above, the whole thing begins with something we’ve all done; ignoring God. We fail to discern God in His creation. We fail to judge Him righteously (see Righteousness and Justice: What Are They?) and we fail to be grateful to Him and to thank Him. Instead, we see ourselves as our source. That amounts to eating from the wrong tree — trusting in ourselves rather than in God as our guide, our mentor, our Father.

Have your children ever done this to you? Did it make you angry? Treating God this way shows disrespect for the relationship we have (or ought to have) with Him. It also leads us into all sorts of foolishness. We take for granted all the good things He provides for us from Himself. Human beings are sufficiently advanced to see and understand and know God. But we choose to remain in the natural state (as opposed to the spiritually awakened state of acknowledging Him). As a result, all these evils come upon us. We regress instead of growing into the fullness of the image of God. We are His children; we’re meant to look like Him. Instead, we become marred and dwarfed and degraded. And it all starts with blind, selfish ingratitude!

We behave dishonorably toward God and toward our fellow humans, and this unrighteous behavior suppresses the truth. God reveals Himself to us in countless pictures in the natural world, but we choose to worship nature (including ourselves). The paintings are meant to tell us about our God, not to be worshiped for their own perceived merit. Not to be presented AS God. When we insist (against our better judgment) that the material world is “all there is,” we end up calling nature our “creator.” But nature is non-rational and we are meant to be rational. How can rational, thinking beings be deceived into thinking we are the children of a non-rational system? This happens as a result of our pride and repugnance at the thought of being icons — image bearers — for the ultimate rational being: God. It isn’t enough for us that we are God’s children. We want to be the God of our own lives (and often, of the lives of others also).

What does God do about all this? Well, He’s done a lot, but the first thing He does is to give us our way. We pull on the reigns; He gives us our head and lets us run where we will. For our own good, we need to see the end results of our wilfulness. The cup of God’s wrath is just this: that He turns us over to all the things we have desired for ourselves and allows us to eat the fruit of those things.

And the fruit of those things is death.

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How to Right a Wrong

Posted on December 11, 2012 by Cindy Skillman

“If only I could have justice!” People have cried out for justice down through the ages, and how many of them have received it? If you’re wronged in some way, what do you want? What would make it right?

My husband and I had this conversation several weeks ago. I gave him a hypothetical situation:

Let’s pretend you have a brother

I always wanted a brother. We could have had a blast . . .

C’mon — just work with me here. Let’s pretend you do have a brother, and you’re close. You’re tight. And one day you get a phone call and you learn that your brother is dead. Some creep killed him because he couldn’t get his wallet out fast enough. What do you want?

I want that @#&% to fry!!!

Okay, I understand that. But will that make you happy? Will it make it right?

No, but at least I want justice for my brother.

But what is justice? Isn’t it making things right? Restoring what was taken?

Well yeah, yeah — that’s right. But I still want him to fry.

And is frying this creep going to give you what you want?

Absolutely!

But what do you really want most?

I want him to fry!

At this point I feel a little coaching may be necessary . . . I ask him, “Don’t you want your brother back?” He allows that this is true, but if his brother is dead, how could that happen?

And this is the limitation of our “justice” system.

Justice IS making things right. The best we can do is to even out the playing field a little bit. The mugger took a life? He must not be allowed to have an unfair advantage because of his crime. One way to prevent this unfair advantage is to execute him. He will not enjoy life, even life in prison, while an innocent man, whom he murdered, lies in his grave, and his relatives and friends grieve.

But if you execute the criminal, his relatives also grieve, and what have they done? They will grieve anyway, if they’re decent people, that their kinsman has done such a shameful deed and caused such pain to his own family and to the family of the dead man. That’s not just either. They only suffer because of their decency. If they were uncaring louts, they wouldn’t suffer.

So far we’ve made a hash of this justice thing. We can’t fix a crime like this. But God, who raises the dead, and to whom all live, He can make it right. He can restore the dead brother and he can dry all the tears of the innocent.

And He can fry the murderer, too. And perhaps He’ll do that. But let’s say that the murderer’s mother is a sweet old saint. She grieves the evil deed of her son. This woman is not at fault. She did the best she knew how to do in raising her son and now he’s murdered a man and not repented and he’s burning in hell. And heaven for her is not heaven and she wishes she could be in hell too, if this is how it’s going to be.

“God will take away her love for her son,” you say? Really? Do you mean the God who told us to love even our enemies? Now He’s taking away her love for her son? Against her will? Does that sound like something He would do?

“Well then, He’ll make her forget her son. Or He’ll cause it to be that her son never even existed. Then she’ll have peace.” Really again? Will He ask her permission first? And even if she agrees, will God also forget? We are to love our enemies so that we will be like our Father in heaven. So we know that He loves this wretched man whom He created, who has rebelled against all that is decent and good, and who has now come to this pass — he is burning and always will be. What of God? Must He forever mourn the loss and the continuing agony of this loved one?

Let’s not even discuss the tangled mess it would make of our minds for God to cause all of us to forget all of those who didn’t make it, and were either annihilated or condemned to never ending torment. I suspect that was what prompted the Roman Catholic Church to teach that there would be no remembrance in heaven.

No, that doesn’t work. For true justice to be done to everyone, all people must be restored — even the vilest. What won’t wash off will burn out, and the seed that remains; the good that God put in at the first; must be coaxed back into life.

Is this true? Well, we have all of Romans ahead, and while I’ve explored (at this point) up to chapter nine, I still don’t know how it’s going to end. Maybe the great apostle Paul will correct my thinking (and if he does, I will be corrected). If he persuades otherwise, though, maybe it would be well to listen to that also. After all, it’s the truth we seek — not the vindication of a lie we’ve grown accustomed to.

Next time: Grace, and then on to the rest of Romans chapter one.

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The Justification of the Prodigals

Posted on December 10, 2012 by Cindy Skillman

Before continuing with Romans, I want to look deeper into the meaning of justice, since it plays such a prominent part in this epistle. But what does it really mean? In Romans it mainly makes its appearance in the form of “justification.” As I mentioned in my first post on this subject, Righteousness and Justice: What are they?, the Greek word most commonly declined as dikaiosune in the NT is translated alternatively as righteous or just with variants for righteousness and justification, right and just.

If you take a moment to read the previous post on this topic, you’ll see that this word is also allied to kindness and mercy. We tend to see justification as a legal process whereby Christ’s righteousness covers us like a garment, making us acceptable to God. It is true that we are made righteous by Jesus’ blood; by His sacrifice on our behalf, but that may not mean quite what we thought. This is not a tricky bit of legal fiction whereby God can justify His acceptance of such miserable, filthy pieces of trash as we have become to Him. It isn’t like that at all; it’s REAL.

I submit that righteousness and justice and kindness and mercy are all part of the same package. I’ve heard it preached that righteousness means right standing with God, and in studying, I’ve found that to be a good and a true definition. It doesn’t go far enough, though. Righteousness comes from an old English word: right ways ness. To be righteous means to have right ways in all of our relationships. Our relationship to our Father and relationships amongst our fellow humans; all of these are included in dikaiosune. We are to treat one another with righteousness, justice, kindness, and mercy.

That is God’s way. That is the way He treats us. And when He justifies us, it is so much more than a legal fiction to enable Him to do something that goes against His innate sense of justice. He is drawing us close, into right relationship with Himself. You’ve heard it said that Jesus catches His fish before He cleans them? Well Jesus is just like the Father. We are justified with the Father because our relationship with Him is restored. It is right that we should be in the house of our Father; that’s where He wants us, whether we are snotty brats or joyfully obedient children. Sanctification will follow. We will learn to obey. But as of the moment we return, we are restored to relationship with Him.

In Jesus’ story of the Prodigal Son, who rejected whom? Was there a need to persuade the father to receive his son back to his bosom? No way! He RAN to meet his son (and I’m told such behavior is highly undignified even today for a middle eastern adult). He didn’t even allow the miscreant child to give his speech of repentance. He called for the best robe and a ring for his son’s finger and shoes for his feet. He threw a feast with music and dancing. Has the prodigal said a word all this time? The focus is not on the son, but on the father’s joyous reception of him.

Are you seeing this? THE FATHER DID NOT NEED TO BE RECONCILED TO HIS SON. We were the ones who did the leaving. WE took the good things our Father provided and WE turned our backs on Him and walked away. He has always only wanted us back and has been ready all along, eager to receive us the moment we returned. It was WE who needed to be reconciled to HIM.

But we couldn’t return. We couldn’t escape our evil master. That was Jesus’ gift to us. He died as our representative, not to save us from the wrath of the Father, but to set us, the captives of sin, free. He gathered all the children of Adam back into one bundle in His own body and He put the whole race of mankind to death in Himself. He has set us free from the law of sin and death. This is the gospel. As He conquered the grave, so we also can now be free and alive in our Lord. We are no longer the slaves of sin unto death, but we can now offer ourselves as the slaves of righteousness and have the fruit of that; the never ending life of God. Rejoice! For the next post on righteousness, click here: How to Right a Wrong

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I Am Wrong

Posted on November 27, 2012 by Cindy Skillman

Long, long ago in a kingdom far, far away (well okay, maybe 15 years ago in Custer, SD, which is at least an hour’s drive from here, and that IS far, far away) I heard a sermon that I still remember. Now that doesn’t happen very often, and to tell the truth, I only remember one little bit of that fateful sermon. The preacher, Joel Ziolkowsky, stood up and he said, “I am wrong.” Now if memorable sermons are rare, that sort of statement from a preacher, in the pulpit, is very nearly non-existent. No wonder I remember it!

Joel, by the way, was and still is a good friend of mine, and he has a great sense of self-deprecating humor (as many preachers do), and he still doesn’t believe in the existence of the internet, so I don’t think I’ll offend him by that remark about preachers. Probably . . . ;)

There wouldn’t be any point in a preacher getting up and preaching something he knew to be false . . . well, let me rephrase that . . . I mean the sort of preacher who still does believe in the God who is the rewarder and also the chastiser of His children. Most preachers want to preach true things.

Nobody likes to be wrong. Some of us would rather be wrong and thought to be right, though, sooner than change our minds about anything we consider important. We’re all like that a little bit. Lately I’ve had to learn that I was wrong about a LOT of things, in order to stop being wrong about them. And of course that entails changing my mind and admitting to people, “You know that thing I said was right? Uh . . . well, turns out I was wrong. :oops: That is definitely a flesh killer, which is a good thing in so many ways, though nearly always unpleasant.

But back to my friend Joel. He said, “I’m wrong about many, many things. But I don’t know what they are. If I knew, I’d change my mind and then I would be right.” Wow! It took me a little while to digest that. “Huh?” Fortunately for me, he said it several times, slowly. I think I may have even asked him afterward, “What did you mean by that again?” (I might be wrong about that, though.)

In case anyone out there is as slow as I was, I’ll ‘splain it for you. We are not perfect and mature in the Lord quite yet, and though we do try to be correct in the things we think and believe (not just about doctrine and theology, but about everything in life), we are often mistaken. We’re not wrong on purpose — we just have inaccurate understanding about so many things. And sometimes we’re right, as far as it goes, but our understanding is incomplete.

There’s no shame in being wrong. The shame comes when you can’t believe in the possibility of YOUR being wrong. Because you ARE wrong; so am I; about so many things. Some things, I grant, are core doctrine. Jesus Christ came to save sinners, of which I am chief (that’s Paul saying that, not me btw, though I might be a close second). Other things are NOT core doctrines, and yes we might be wrong about those things, so it’s good to keep a humble and a teachable attitude.

After all, the important thing isn’t to be SEEN to be right, but rather to BE right. And in order to do that, we have to be willing to admit the possibility that we might be wrong. Thanks, Joel! Great sermon — changed my life!

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