Romans, Part 35

After the crescendo of faith and victory in Christ at the end of chapter eight, Paul’s abrupt admission at the beginning of chapter nine is disconcerting.  I am telling the truth in Christ (I am not lying!), for my conscience assures me in the Holy Spirit – I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart.[1]  But the sense of his great sorrow and unceasing anguish comes with its cause.  For I could wish that I myself were accursed – cut off from Christ – for the sake of my people, my fellow countrymen, who are Israelites.[2]  This has become more personal to me as I reflect on the fundamentalist Christians who are my people by birth.

To them, Paul continued writing about the descendants of Israel, belong the adoption as sons, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the temple worship, and the promises.  To them belong the patriarchs, and from them, by human descent, came the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever!  Amen.[3]  While this is objectively true of Israel I grew up feeling it subjectively, that fundamentalist Christians were the true heirs of it all.  It is not as though the word of God had failed,[4] Paul continued.  What does it mean for the righteousness of God through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ for all who believe[5] when the people for whom it was prepared rejected the Gospel of Christ?

This sounds, even to my ear, like a harsh judgment of the fundamentalist Christians I call my people.  But I am taking the absence of internet chatter regarding the movie “Courageous” as anecdotal evidence.  I only found one comment from a Lutheran theologian criticizing “Courageous” for being too synergistic (not monergistic enough).  I had to look it up, too, so I won’t choose up sides and argue theological jargon.  It makes me feel a little too much like a Gentile living in the futility of [my] thinking.[6]

I will simply say that the character Adam in the movie sought to have his own righteousness derived from his own reading of the Bible as a list of rules he resolved (or, swore an oath) to keep.  Then he became a stumblingblock to others as they followed him in his defection from Christ’s righteousness.  This is clearly part of the dung[7] Paul had rejected of his past life as a Pharisee.  And the silence on the internet is deafening when compared to the outrage over the movie “End of the Spear,” when a gay Christian was hired to portray a missionary and his son.

As I have written before I didn’t see this either as I watched the movie.  We fundamentalist Christians are so accustomed to being tossed back and forth by waves of the latest spiritual fad, and carried about by every wind of teaching by the trickery of people who craftily carry out their deceitful schemes,[8] and so dissatisfied with the lives we lead by faith alone[9] that Adam’s neo-Phariseeism seems completely right and natural to us.  We are they who maintain the outward appearance of religion buthave repudiated its power,[10] the power he exercised in Christ when he raised him from the dead,[11] the righteousness that comes from his Spirit, his love, his joy, his peace, his patience, his kindness, his goodness, his faithfulness, his gentleness, and his self-control.[12]

For not all those who are descended from Israel are truly Israel,[13] Paul began to explain how the word of God had not failed, nor are all the children Abraham’s true descendants; ratherthrough Isaac will your descendants be counted.”[14]  This seemed like an ad hoc argument to me, since all the descendants of Israel (Jacob) were also descendents of Isaac his father.  But then Paul reiterated the point he had made over and over in Romans, This means it is not the children of the flesh (σαρκὸς, a form of σάρξ)[15] who are the children of God; rather, the children of promise (ἐπαγγελίας, a form of ἐπαγγελία)[16] are counted (λογίζεται, a form of λογίζομαι)[17] as descendants.[18]  This is the same distinction Paul made between those born only of the flesh and those born of the flesh and of the Spirit,[19] and those who live according to the flesh and those who live according the Spirit.[20]

And look, I am sending you what my Father promised[21] (ἐπαγγελίαν, another form of ἐπαγγελία), the resurrected Jesus told the children of promise (all descended from Israel) just before He was taken up into heaven.[22]  While [Jesus] was with them, Luke reiterated in Acts, he declared, “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait there for what my Father promised (ἐπαγγελίαν, another form of ἐπαγγελία), which you heard about from me.  For John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”[23]  This Jesus God raised up, and we are all witnesses of it, Peter declared in his first sermon on Pentecost.  So then, exalted to the right hand of God, and having received the promise (ἐπαγγελίαν, another form of ἐπαγγελία) of the Holy Spirit from the Father, he has poured out what you both see and hear.[24]

For this is what the promise (ἐπαγγελίας, a form of ἐπαγγελία) declared: Paul continued.  “About a year from now I will return and Sarah will have a son.”[25]  Not only that, but when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our ancestor Isaac – even before they were born or had done anything good or bad (so that God’s purpose in election would stand, not by works but by his calling) – it was said to her, The older will serve the younger,” just as it is written:Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”[26]  This kind of talk rubs those born only of the flesh of Adam, those who are content with their own works, the wrong way.  Paul knew that.

What shall we say then? Paul continued.  Is there injustice with God?[27]  In other words, by what right did God distinguish between Esau and Jacob before they were born or had done anything good or bad?  Too often, I have missed the point here, rationalizing that God knew what Esau and Jacob would do before they were born.  But Paul said, Absolutely not!  For he says to Moses:I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”[28]  Even as He gave Moses the law that defined sin, God reserved for Himself the right to have mercy and compassion on any He chose to have mercy and compassion.  So then, Paul concluded, it does not depend on human desire or exertion, but on God who shows mercy.[29]

For the scripture says to Pharaoh: Paul continued to make his point doubly strong and doubly clear by declaring its inverse.  “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may demonstrate my power in you, and that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.”  So then, God has mercy on whom he chooses to have mercy, and he hardens whom he chooses to harden.[30]  Again, such talk infuriates one depending on his own works for glory, honor and salvation.  You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault?  For who has ever resisted his will?”[31]  But Paul didn’t back down (Romans 9:20-29 NET).

But who indeed are you – a mere human being – to talk back to God?  Does what is molded say to the molder, Why have you made me like this?” Has the potter no right to make from the same lump of clay one vessel for special use and another for ordinary use?  But what if God, willing to demonstrate his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience the objects of wrath prepared for destruction?  And what if he is willing to make known the wealth of his glory on the objects of mercy that he has prepared beforehand for glory – even us, whom he has called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles?  As he also says in Hosea: “I will call those who were not my people, My people, and I will call her who was unloved, My beloved.’”  “And in the very place where it was said to them, You are not my people, there they will be called sons of the living God.’”  And Isaiah cries out on behalf of Israel, “Though the number of the children of Israel are as the sand of the sea, only the remnant will be saved, for the Lord will execute his sentence on the earth completely and quickly.”  Just as Isaiah predicted, “If the Lord of armies had not left us descendants, we would have become like Sodom, and we would have resembled Gomorrah.”

Now if one reads the passage above, and suspects that he or she has been hardened by God into an object of wrath, and begins to fear rather than to mock, take heart.  You have begun to hear the word of the Lord.  He is calling you.  And the righteous prayer that justifies is near you, on your lips.  God, be merciful to me, sinner that I am![32]


[1] Romans 9:1, 2 (NET)

[2] Romans 9:3, 4a (NET) Table

[3] Romans 9:4b, 5 (NET)

[4] Romans 9:6a (NET)

[5] Romans 3:22 (NET)

[8] Ephesians 4:14 (NET)

[9] James 2:14-26 (NET)

[10] 2 Timothy 3:5 (NET)

[11] Ephesians 1:20 (NET)

[12] Galatians 5:22, 23 (NET)

[13] Romans 9:6b (NET)

[14] Romans 9:7 (NET)

[18] Romans 9:8 (NET)

[21] Luke 24:49a (NET) Table

[22] Luke 24:51 (NET)

[23] Acts 1:4, 5 (NET)

[24] Acts 2:32, 33 (NET) Table

[26] Romans 9:9-13 (NET)

[27] Romans 9:14a (NET)

[28] Romans 9:14b, 15 (NET)

[29] Romans 9:16 (NET)

[30] Romans 9:17, 18 (NET)

[31] Romans 9:19 (NET)

[32] Luke 18:13, 14 (NET); Religious and Righteous Prayer

Romans, Part 31

So then, brothers and sisters, we are under obligation (ὀφειλέται, a form of ὀφειλέτης),[1] not to the flesh (σαρκὶ, a form of σάρξ),[2] to live according to the flesh (σάρκα, another form of σάρξ), Paul continued, (for if you live according to the flesh [σάρκα, another form of σάρξ], you will die [ἀποθνῄσκειν, a form of ἀποθνήσκω][3])[4]  If I consider myself the old man, the sin condemned in the flesh,[5] I will die along with the flesh.  This truism is equivalent to Jesus’ saying to Martha, The one who believes in me will live even if he dies (ἀποθάνῃ, another form of ἀποθνήσκω),[6] or to his disciples, The one who loves his life [i.e., in this world] destroys [or, loses] it.[7]  But no, I didn’t see that for a long time.

I thought Paul was threatening me with eternal damnation if I lived according to the flesh, even though the text said die.  I wasn’t happy about it, especially after everything else he had said, but I couldn’t make any other sense of it at the time.  And yes, it is embarrassing to keep admitting how stubbornly dull-witted I am.

Paul continued, but if by the Spirit you put to death (θανατοῦτε, a form of θανατόω)[8] the deeds (πράξεις, a form of πρᾶξις)[9] of the body you will live.[10]  If I identify with the new man created in the image of God, I will live.  But no, I didn’t see how well this fit with Jesus saying to Martha, and the one who lives and believes in me will never die (ἀποθάνῃ, another form of ἀποθνήσκω).[11]  And I didn’t relate it to Jesus saying to his disciples, and the one who hates his life in this world guards [or, keeps] it for eternal life.[12]

I thought it was best, if I wanted to go to heaven, to keep trying to put the deeds of my body to death by striving to keep the law, or at least by striving to love by keeping the definition of the love that fulfills the law as if it were laws.  The idea that I could put to death the deeds of the body by faith, by believing that my old man was crucified with [Christ] so that the body of sin would no longer dominate [me], so that [I] would no longer be enslaved to sin,[13] because God achieved what the law could not doBy sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful fleshso that the righteous requirement of the law may be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit,[14] was a slow train coming.

For all who are led (ἄγονται, a form of ἄγω)[15] by the Spirit of God are the sons of God,[16] Paul continued.  Surely I am a byword in heaven.  Over and over I was led back to these verses, and over and over I refused to drink them in.  But let me recount the word ἄγω as used in the Gospels as a contrast to my Do-It-Yourself religion.

And you will be brought (ἀχθήσεσθε, another form of ἄγω) before governors and kings because of me, as a witness to them and the Gentiles,[17] Jesus told his disciples.  When they arrest (ἄγωσιν, another form of ἄγω) you and hand you over for trial, do not worry about what to speak. But say whatever is given you at that time, for it is not you speaking, but the Holy Spirit.[18]  Go to the village ahead of you, Jesus said.  Right away you will find a donkey tied there, and a colt with her.  Untie them and bring (ἀγάγετε, another form of ἄγω) them to me.[19]  They brought (ἤγαγον, another form of ἄγω) the donkey and the colt and placed their cloaks on them, and he sat on them.[20]  Then Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan River and was led (ἤγετο, another form of ἄγω) by the Spirit in the wilderness, where for forty days he endured temptations from the devil.[21]

So here I have Jesus ἤγετο (another form of ἄγω) by the Holy Spirit, and handed over to the devil: Then the devil brought (῎Ηγαγεν, another form of ἄγω) him to Jerusalem, had him stand on the highest point of the temple, and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here…”[22]  An angry mob got up, forced [Jesus] out of the town, and brought (ἤγαγον, another form of ἄγω) him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they could throw him down the cliff.[23]  A mob of duly authorized law enforcement types arrested Jesus, led (ἤγαγον, another form of ἄγω) him away, and brought him into the high priest’s house.[24]   Then the whole group of them rose up and brought (ἤγαγον, another form of ἄγω) Jesus before Pilate.[25]  Two other criminals were also led away (῎Ηγοντο, another form of ἄγω) to be executed with him.[26]

Now I look back at the meaning and usage of ἄγω and ask myself incredulously, “Just exactly what part of being led (ἄγονται, a form of ἄγω) by the Spirit did you think was your doing, Dan?”  But I’m not alone, though I might wish that I were.  I want to take the movie “Courageous” as my point of departure here.

Actually, a big part of me doesn’t want to do that at all.  As an independent filmmaker wannabe I have nothing but admiration for what the Kendrick brothers and Sherwood Baptist Church have done.  I can watch their movies without being embarrassed by the quality of the filmmaking, and each film gets better on that score than the one before.  I didn’t feel anything I’m about to say while watching the film (and I watched “Courageous” again last night).  What I feel is comfort, familiarity and a warm nostalgia for the religion of my childhood, my youth and beyond.  I like stirring music.  I want to be courageous, too.  That’s part of my problem, that I only see a problem in retrospect when I analyze the story in the light of the Gospel and the religious mind.

The storyline of “Courageous,” for those who haven’t seen it, is about a father Adam after his daughter Emily dies in a car crash.  She was his favorite, though he was almost as detached from her as from his son, concerned about his work and his appearance to others.  After her death he is concerned that he should have been a better father.  His wife reminds him that he is still a father.  He talks to his Pastor.  He studies the Bible.  He begins to make a rapprochement with his son.  So far so good.

Then he drafts a resolution, a list of rules derived from his Bible study about fatherhood.  He passes it out to his friends.  Most of them, interestingly enough, are other policemen.  He asks these policemen to hold him accountable to his list of rules.  They want to sign it, too.  Eventually, all the men join in a ceremony, effectively swearing an oath to abide by Adam’s rules.  It is all very moving, and courageous.  But Adam, a churchgoing man, was ashamed of the Gospel for exactly the same reason that Paul was not.

Paul was not ashamed of the gospel, for it is God’s power for salvation to everyone who believes,[27] because the righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel from faith to faith, just as it is written, The righteous by faith will live.”[28]  Anyone might become dissatisfied with the righteousness of God that is showing through him and out into the world at any given moment.  It is an excellent time to return to Christ, to be joined to the one who was raised from the dead, like a wife seeking to enlarge her family comes to her husband, to bear fruit to God.[29]  It is not a time to attempt to have one’s own righteousness derived from the law.[30]  You who are trying to be declared righteous by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace![31]

Instead of rebuking and correcting them privately, Adam’s Pastor praises the men publicly for their resolution and their oath to keep it.  Then Adam is allowed to speak to the entire congregation.  Adam persuades other men to follow him in his defection from Christ.  I feel this defection deeply when I get away from the movie and its rousing music, Adam’s tear-filled eyes, his upraised arm and his hand grasping for something elusive.  But my anger is restrained for two reasons.

First, I find it extremely interesting that the character’s name is Adam.  For all I know there is a “Courageous 2” in the works where Adam (or Shane, but that’s another story) learns to be led by the Spirit rather than by the flesh.  And secondly, I know how much remedial help I’ve needed in the sense that the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ.[32]  The NET has it, the law had become our guardian until Christ.[33]  Neither word alone is quite right, governess, nanny, just don’t say it.  I think of Creasy, Denzel Washington’s character in “Man on Fire,” taking Pita, Dakota Fanning’s character, to school, guarding her, protecting her, and preparing her to learn.  He became much more than a bodyguard, but not her teacher.  Jesus is the teacher not the law, or living by laws.

Even those born only of the flesh of Adam bind themselves to laws, rules and ethical principles to keep from becoming complete sociopaths.  It doesn’t take a prophet to see that if the Kendrick brothers’ resolution fails to bring those born of the flesh and of the Spirit to Christ, Shariah is waiting in the wings.  But it must be equally clear that the Kendrick brothers’ resolution derived from the Bible is no more the Gospel than Shariah law is.  Both are of the old way, the old written code, and neither is the new life of the Spirit.[34]

Romans, Part 32

The Life 

Back to The Soul

Back to Romans, Part 34

Back to Romans, Part 35

Back to Romans, Part 48

Back to Romans, Part 82

Back to Romans, Part 83


[4] Romans 8:12, 13a (NET)

[5] Romans 8:3 (NET)

[6] John 11:25b (NET)

[7] John 12:25a (NET)

[10] Romans 8:13b (NET)

[11] John 11:26a (NET)

[12] John 12:25b (NET)

[13] Romans 6:6 (NET)

[14] Romans 8:3, 4 (NET)

[16] Romans 8:14 (NET)

[17] Matthew 10:18 (NET)

[18] Mark 13:11 (NET)

[19] Matthew 21:2 (NET)

[20] Matthew 21:7 (NET)

[21] Luke 4:1 (NET)

[22] Luke 4:9 (NET)

[23] Luke 4:29 (NET)

[24] Luke 22:54 (NET)

[25] Luke 23:1 (NET)

[26] Luke 23:32 (NET)

[27] Romans 1:16 (NET)

[28] Romans 1:17 (NET)

[29] Romans 7:4 (NET)

[30] Philippians 3:9 (NET)

[31] Galatians 5:4 (NET) Table

[32] Galatians 3:24 (NKJV)

[33] Galatians 3:24 (NET)