Scripture: Romans 3:19-26
Dear Church,
Early in the first century a man newly named Paul wrote a letter to a struggling church in the capitol city of the Roman Empire. These days we call that letter ‘the Book of Romans,’ and we read it as if it were the raw material for a volume of systematic theology (looking at you Karl Barth!).
But it wasn’t. It was a letter. To a real church–a struggling church–a small church. A church made up of different groups of people with very different life experiences and conflicting understandings of how to live as a disciple of Jesus Christ.
And Paul, who wasn’t their pastor, was trying to help them come to a common understanding of how the death and resurrection of Jesus was a spiritual revolution that changed everything–not just their future eternal destinies, but how they would live together righteously and courageously in their current lives.
Too often, we turn the death of Jesus into an abstract theological equation. Since ‘all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,’ ‘God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement,’ therefore ‘all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.’ For too long, we’ve understood that to mean that the cross was a ‘one and done’ sacrifice by Jesus for God and now we are all justified and empowered to live however we like with no consequences.
Beloved–that’s not true.
And, more importantly, if it were true–if the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross meant that we are justified to live however we choose to live–that wouldn’t be grace, that wouldn’t be good news, that would be a curse.
Paul is writing to people just like us, trying to help them understand how what Jesus did on the cross opens up a new way for us to be human and gives us a new way to live as children of salt and light in a brutal and violent world. Those of us who believe in the righteousness of Jesus Christ that we see on the cross, will joyfully pick up our own crosses and follow him–ready and eager to make acceptable sacrifices that glorify God every day of our lives.
I hope you’ll join me as we unpack Paul’s teaching and receive a vision for the kinds of life-giving atoning sacrifices we who believe in Jesus gladly make each day of our lives.
Peace,
Pastor Kate
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