What is Most Original to You
some thoughts on Romans 10
Can you ascend to heaven to bring Christ down? Can you descend to the realm of the dead to bring Christ up? Or is Christ somewhere else… somewhere we might least expect?
A Note on Sermon Posts
I’m taking a break from publishing my reflections on the lectionary text for a few weeks. School is coming to a close, and my attention is divided between several different projects that require my immediate attention.
These posts, along with my series on John, will hopefully resume in May once school is out for the summer and I can return to recreational reading and writing.
What Romans is All About
The book of Romans is all about unity. Paul’s goal in writing his most famous epistle is to remind the Roman Christians, both Jew and gentile, of their mutual need for grace in Christ. The Jewish believers could be zealous for the Law without demanding conformity from their gentile brothers and sisters, and the gentile believers could embrace the liberty of the gospel without condemning the Jewish brothers and sisters.
One of the ways Paul goes about to establish the unity of these two communities is to remind them that they both sin. The zealous Jewish believers who loved their traditions and the former pagan gentiles who were learning about their new spiritual heritage in Abraham were both culpable for the ways in which they failed to Love.
There was no point for one group to judge the other.
The ground at the foot of the cross, or rather at the entrance of the tomb, is level.1
Doers, Not Hearers
When I first began preaching, one of the points I liked to make was that Paul and James both taught that one had to both hear and do the commands of God. It’s not just enough to sit in church on Sunday. You have to live out the message.
While I do wish Christians would live out the gospel, that’s not what I meant back then. I had in mind a legalistic process one needed to follow to make sure they were saved.
But both interpretations aren’t really what Paul had in mind when he said this. Let’s see what Paul actually says:
For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous in God’s sight but the doers of the law who will be justified. Romans 2:13
Paul’s point here is not that one must hear and do. His point is that one must do regardless of whether or not they have heard.
Now this might not seem fair at first, but keep reading:
When gentiles, who do not possess the law, by nature do what the law requires, these, though not having the law, are a law to themselves. They show that what the law requires is written on their hearts, as their own conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts will accuse or perhaps excuse them… Romans 2:14–15
What Paul is saying here is that it is possible for one to do without ever having heard.
Now, keep in mind that Paul is talking about fulfilling the law, that is, the Law of Moses.
How on earth could a gentile come up with circumcision and the feast days and the dietary restrictions and all the other things the Law required?
Are these things obvious from nature? Can one study creation and come up with laws about different kinds of washing, priestly requirements, and various cleanliness expectations?
If this isn’t what Paul meant by “doing what the law requires,” then what did he mean?
Later on in Romans, Paul tells us something that is both new and old:
Owe no one anything, except to love one another, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery; you shall not murder; you shall not steal; you shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law. Romans 13:8–10
When Paul said that gentiles could keep the law without ever having the law, he meant that they learned to walk in Love. They knew there was something wrong with defrauding one’s neighbor or letting orphans and widows go hungry.
For Paul, keeping the Law wasn’t about the food and the sacrifices and the special days; it was about “peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Romans 14:17).
Paul doesn’t stand alone in this. The prophets discerned that this was true long before Paul lived. Here’s two passages to consider before we move on:
For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings. Hosea 6:6
Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” He has told you, O mortal, what is good, and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God? Micah 6:7–8
Where Does this Love Come From?
How do humans know to walk in Love? How do we know that this is the fruit of the Spirit? Where does this Love come from?
I think this is what is meant to be made in the image of God. Since God is Love, we are to be Love.
When Irenaeus said that Christ became what we are so that we might become what he is, I think Jesus, Paul, and John would understand that to mean Love.
While the Augustinian tradition teaches us that the thing most original to us is sin, there is another tradition from northwest corner of the Roman Empire and the Eastern Church which says that the thing most original to us is goodness—or, as I’d say, Love.2 And sometimes written law can get in the way of Love.
How else could the Samaritan do what the priest and Levite could not? How else could the centurion and the Canaanite woman and the tenth leper express so great a faith? And how else could a child tell you what’s right and wrong better than some adults who have been studying the Bible their entire life?
Because Love is what is most natural to us.
Theological debate, worship services, and ritual purity are all fine things, but when they get in the way of Love, we need to consider what truly matters:
For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything; the only thing that counts is faith working through love. Galatians 5:6
But this poses a big question: how could some godless gentile, some impure Samaritan, or an unclean leper know Love without knowing the Law? To put this another way…
How could those without access to the Holy Place have intimate access to God, to Love?
Confessing What is Most True About Us
To answer this question, we’ll be looking at Romans 10.
Righteousness By the Law
Let’s start with Moses.
Moses writes concerning the righteousness that comes from the law, that “the person who does these things will live by them.” Romans 10:5
From Paul’s perspective, this is virtually impossible.
In Romans 9:31, he said, “But Israel, who did strive for the law of righteousness, did not attain that law.” In Romans 8:3, Paul wrote, “…what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do…” So for Paul, trying to attain righteousness through the Law was one of the things that had to be “crucified with Christ”:
Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith. Philippians 3:7–9
Going back to Paul’s main point in Romans, the unity that comes through strict keeping of the letter of the Law is no unity at all because it is an impossible goal to attain and maintain. From the beginning of Israel’s history, unfaithfulness to the Law brought strife between tribes, between families within tribes, and between Israel and the other nations.
What was meant to bring blessing to all families of the earth brought violence, war, and division.
The kingdoms were left divided, ended up in exile, and, for the few lucky ones who survived, came back home with a limp.
Under this system, the answer to our question above is that it is impossible for someone who does not have the Law to access the presence of God.
Yet they did.
How?
Righteousness by Faith
But the righteousness that comes from faith says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ down) “or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). Romans 10:6–7
Let me offer a creative paraphrase of this passage:
Who could possibly be so righteous that they could attain the heights of heaven, that they could deserve the incarnation? Who could be so repentant that they travel to the realm of the dead and back to bring Christ from the dead?
The answer is obvious: nobody.
Although I think some believe they have come close.
Notice how Paul follows this up:
But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim)… Romans 10:8
In other words, they have no need to ascend to heaven or to descend to hades because Christ, who is the Statement of Faith, is in their heart already. It’s like what Paul said in Athens,
From one ancestor he made all peoples to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, so that they would search for God and perhaps fumble about for him and find him—though indeed he is not far from each one of us. For ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we, too, are his offspring.’ Acts 17:26–28
What faith and confession do in this system, if system is even the right word, is affirm and name what is true—that God Loves us and has poured out his Love for us through Jesus while we were weak and antagonistic to Love (Romans 5:6-11).
This is why Paul immediately says,
because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For one believes with the heart, leading to righteousness, and one confesses with the mouth, leading to salvation. Romans 10:9–10
It is upon this basis that we have unity. Unity is inherent within the body of Christ. It is not something that has to be attained because it is already true about us. If there is ever a division in the body of Christ it is because someone somewhere has forgotten to Love. Someone has placed the letter of the law over the spirit (or Spirit) of the law.
This led Paul to say,
The scripture says, “No one who believes in him will be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and is generous to all who call on him. For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Romans 10:11–13
No one is shamed for the lack of perfection, for nobody is perfect. No one is shamed for their identity, for all are one in Christ, and the Lord is generous to all.
It’s not about who has heard but who lives according to Love. You might not have the knowledge I have, and I may not have the knowledge you have, but if we have the same Love, then all things shall be well.3
Now concerning food sacrificed to idols: we know that “all of us possess knowledge.” Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. Anyone who claims to know something does not yet have the necessary knowledge, but anyone who loves God is known by him. 1 Corinthians 8:1–3
cf. Romans 8:34—have you ever noticed how Paul “corrects” his emphasis on the death of Jesus by reminding them that the purpose of Jesus’s death was resurrection?
John Philip Newell’s Book Christ of the Celt’s is a great exploration into the world of Celtic spirituality.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_of_Norwich