The Human Condition

Stephen Terry

 

Commentary for the October 21, 2017 Sabbath School Lesson

 

Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”

“No one, sir,” she said.

“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

John 8:10-11, NIV

Our lesson focuses on the first three chapter of Paul’s Epistle to the Romans. That is a broad area to cover, but is perhaps necessitated by the fact that the first two weeks did not really get into our favorite epistle. While my book covers these topics in greater depth, we shall at least try to hit some high points in this short commentary. In the last part of chapter one, Paul lists several sins that have become a shopping list for some to condemn the activities of others as though they themselves were somehow spiritually superior to those they would condemn. However, two things should cause us to take pause about doing that.

First, Paul applies these sins to the all-inclusive group "men" (or mankind) (v 20), and second this may be a lead up to the well-known verse in Romans 3:23 which indicates we are all guilty. Far from being a shopping list of who is "in" and who is "out." Paul's litany may be a condemnation of all that all might be saved.  How can this be?

At the risk of comingling Pauline and Jacobine theology, I will venture outside of Paul to James here, where we are told that anyone who sins in one point is guilty of all. (James 2:10) In other words, if I am sinless (Remember we are leading up to Romans 3:23) then I might be able to condemn those who are doing the sins that Paul enumerates here. (John 8:7) However, as Paul will later point out, none of us is without sin, so by the reasoning James has given, our sin, whatever it may be, makes us also guilty of the sins listed in this chapter as well.  Those who are familiar with Romans 6:23 may ask at this point, “If all sin leads only to death anyway, what does it matter what sin it is?” Perhaps that is exactly Paul’s point.

Paul rightly and logically asks in chapter two, if we are all sinners, what are we doing judging one another? (v 1) When we do this we not only condemn ourselves for we are sinners, also, but we assume perfect knowledge of all that is going on in the other person's life.

Such knowledge belongs only to God. Perhaps that is why judgment is reserved only to Him in the person of Jesus. (John 5:22) If we can learn to set ourselves free from the anxiety of judging others, perhaps we will find our life burden to be much lighter. (Matthew 11:30) We see profoundness also in Paul’s statement that judging others actually shows contempt for God’s mercy. Such contempt even hinders those who might otherwise have responded to God’s compassion. (v 4) In understanding that God’s kindness toward us is what led us to repentance, we perhaps should, in the same perfection of love as God (Matthew 5:48), show kindness and compassion to all others. While it may be difficult to accomplish, failure to do so many be spiritually catastrophic. If in our stubbornness, we refuse to show kindness, we may be failing to understand the result of such a decision. Every judgment is storing up a cargo of judgments against us to be delivered at some future time. (v 5-6, cf. Matthew 7:1-2) But this logic also produces a hope. We might also infer from this that those acts of love, compassion and kindness toward others are also accumulating a measure of compassion that God will extend toward us. (ff – v 11)

Some may not recognize that every effort to earn salvation through obedience to the Law is a statement that to that extent, Jesus’ sacrifice was not sufficient. It states by deed, if not by word, that the cross is not enough to make it into heaven. If we take that amount of obedience that is necessary to add to the cross to be saved for each of us, then we multiply it by the trillions who have lived on the Earth, then the sacrifice of Christ begins to appear very small indeed and woefully inadequate.

Sadly there is not just this theological failing of such a focus on obedience, there is also the failure of pragmatic faith. The teaching that obedience is a necessary prerequisite to salvation is also schismatic for it sets up a tiered system of faith where holiness, authority and control are determined on the basis of outward appearances of obedience to the Law. This practice encourages all to hide who they really are behind a mask of apparent righteousness. Jesus compared this to whitewashing tombs. (Matthew 23:27) Those who live like this find it very easy to judge and condemn those who do not. They would like to see all of Christianity living behind these masks as they do. When we do not, they are quick to be the ones who point out that our “slip is showing.” But the fact that they have succeeded in hiding their sins for a time does not make them more righteous, only more devious. They play a dangerous game of deceiving not only others but themselves for sin, like a dead fish, always rises to the surface.  (Numbers 32:23)

For those who feel the need to judge others for sins they do not have such as homosexuality or abortions, which are popular sins to rebuke in modern evangelical Christianity, Paul provides a simple and direct response in Romans, chapter three. When we choose to point out the sins of others as particularly heinous while ignoring our own relatively "trivial" sins, we overlook that "there is no difference." (v 22) As already pointed out, in James 2:10, we are told that committing even one sin makes us guilty of all sin. Or more plainly, if we "bear false witness" (Exodus 20:16), we are guilty of murder and adultery and all other sins as well. Perhaps this is because in our choosing the sin we are willing to live with ourselves, we give license to others to also choose the sins they prefer to live with.

When we apply this principle to Paul's words in Romans 2:1, it becomes clear that we ourselves are guilty of the same homosexuality that we condemn, in principle if not in deed. If Jesus, whom Christians typically believe was sinless, did not condemn someone for their sexual sin, even though there were witnesses to the act, (John 8:1-11) then how can we, sinful as we are, condemn others as though somehow their sin is greater than our own? Paul said we are all sinners (Romans 3:23). It seems it should be impossible to find someone to cast the first stone. (John 8:7)

Paul tells us that the Jews and Gentiles both have access to that same door, which he calls "faith." We might ask, "Faith in what?” Paul’s answer is “Faith in Jesus,” ( v 26) that He will provide what we are unable to provide for ourselves. Strangely, some who say that they believe this whole idea of righteousness by faith have not grasped this point. Perhaps it seems too easy, too cheap, even though it cost the highest price ever paid: the death of Jesus. Instead these continue to focus on obedience to the Law and judge others over the issue of that obedience. These have more in common with the Judaizing Christians of the first century than with the Pauline theology ultimately accepted and endorsed by Hellenic Christianity. Those Judaizers never completely escaped the righteousness by obedience to the Law path to salvation of their forebears. The split between the two camps in apostolic times continues to reverberate in the church today. We still choose which path we will follow in how we choose to live each day. Perhaps it is time to focus on what God is able to do for us and through us, as opposed to what we are able to do for ourselves. More importantly it is perhaps time to stop teaching that grace is not enough to reach heaven, that additional sacrifice is necessary beyond the unique sacrifice of Christ.