The Heart of Paul

Romans 9:1-5

There are times when I walk along our bookshelves at home and look at the books sitting there, remembering how wonderful it was to read them. There is a section of historical biographies and I look at them and remember John Adams and John D. Rockefeller and Benjamin Franklin and Jonathan Edwards and Alexander Hamilton and Theodore Roosevelt.  I have a section of intuitive history books by Barbara Tuchman and I regret that she did not live longer to write more of them. There are a set of books about the men and women who fought in WWII that fascinated me. I look at Treasure Island, The Count of Monte Cristo, Les Miserables, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer, A Prayer for Owen Meany and I want to pick them up and read them all over again. I have a fascination with the Hornblower series by C.S. Forester and can read them over and over again. I love the Dorothy Sayers Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries and especially the ones where he meets up with Harriet Vane. Frederick Buechner is another favorite of mine and he wrote a number of short autobiographies, one of which took up the theme of books on his bookshelf and what they revealed about him.

I regret that I have already read many of these books. I wish I could pick them up and read them for the first time. They were so wonderful to me when I read them, I want that experience all over again.

I feel the same way about the first eight chapters of Romans on which I have preached over the past six years. I wish I was starting this morning on Romans chapter one. It would be so great to uncover, all over again, the treasures in this incredible chest of theology.

I have enjoyed preaching through books of the Bible over my nine years at RIC and have felt that a variety in our diet is a good thing. So I preach on Romans at the start of the year, then the Gospels for Lent, and Acts after Easter into the summer. The summer varies a bit. I preached from the psalms this past summer. In the fall I preach from the Old Testament and then we end the year with an Advent theme. This will be the seventh year we have begun the year with sermons from Paul’s letter to the church in Rome. 34 sermons over the past six years have taken us to the beginning of chapter 9.

These first eight chapters of Romans are like a treasure chest and we have seen the wonder of the treasures in this chest over the course of the sermons.

Before we get to those treasures, let me remind you of the background for Paul when he wrote this letter.

Paul wrote his letter to the church in Rome during his three month stay in Corinth, just before his departure for Jerusalem with the collection that had been gathered by the Gentile churches for the poor in Jerusalem.

As Paul contemplated his future, he felt led to take the Gospel to the Iberian Peninsula, what is today Spain. As he had used Antioch in Syria as a base for his church planting in what is today Greece and Turkey, so he needed a base for his church planting in Spain and decided that Rome would be the best location.

So Paul wrote this letter to the church there. The church in Rome had not met Paul but they had heard of him and what they had heard was not all positive. So Paul felt the need to explain his Gospel. He needed to set the record straight to defend himself and his Gospel from the accusations made against him. He wanted to establish a personal connection with the church in Rome so they would welcome him and support him.

This letter was one of great importance to him and so he put a lot into it. As a consequence, it stands as the greatest of his letters and the source of much of our theology.

The first eight chapters of Romans is the heart of the book of Romans. What follows is three chapters about how the Jews fit into all of what Paul has talked about and then four chapters of practical concerns.

But it is the first eight chapters that stand as a monument to the great mind of Paul as he took the death and resurrection of Jesus and helped the early church, and us, understand the implications of this mysterious intrusion of Christ into human history.

Let me take you on a highlight tour of the treasures.

In this primary section of his letter to the Christians in Rome, Paul walks us through three giant theological concepts: justification, sanctification and glorification. In the process he leads us into two dilemmas, two traps where it seems there is no escape. And in each case, he triumphantly announces the resolution to the dilemma, the way out of the trap.

The first trap Paul leads us into concerns the doctrine of justification, the process by which we are made holy in the eyes of God.

Paul began his letter by writing of the wrath of God. Before he could share the good news of Jesus, the bad news had to be presented. And the bad news is that all of us, every one of us, deserves the wrath of God. Note how Paul presents this truth in his letter.

Romans 1:18

The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, ¹⁹ since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.

The reaction for most of Paul’s readers and most of us is that this is true and just, because there are a lot of wicked people in the world and they do deserve God’s wrath. And as Paul goes on, we are gratified that we are not like these people.

Romans 1:21-32

For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. ²² Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools ²³ and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.

²⁴ Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. ²⁵ They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.

²⁶ Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. ²⁷ In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.

²⁸ Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. ²⁹ They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, ³⁰ slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; ³¹ they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. ³² Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.

Depraved, non-religious society deserves the wrath of God and we say “Amen!” to that. But Paul goes on. Critical moralizers who think they are basically good people, better than those around them, also deserve the wrath of God. Ouch! That hurts because that is exactly what we were thinking.

Paul continues. Self-righteous, religious people who think because of their religion and behavior they are good deserve the wrath of God. That is also us.

So when we think we are better than all the wicked people around us and better than others because of our religious life and devotion, Paul cuts off our room for maneuvering and we are trapped. And then just to make sure that there is no escape, Paul summarizes by saying that if we thought we escaped one of the three previous categories, the whole human race is sick and deserves the wrath of God.

Romans 3:10

“There is no one righteous, not even one;

There is no wiggle room. I am trapped. Although I am pastor of a church, help with charitable projects, pray for people regularly, do lots of good things, Paul has put me into a tight spot from which I cannot escape. I, along with you and everyone else, deserve the wrath of God. God who created the world around me, who is all powerful and all knowing, who speaks and the mountains melt, thinks I deserve to be the object of his wrath. That is not a good position to find myself in. That is not a good position for you to be in.

And then just when we are trapped, stuck with no hope of escape, Paul delivers the absolutely marvelous news that sets us free.

Romans 3:21-24

But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. ²² This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, ²³ for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, ²⁴ and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

We all, everyone of us, every single one of us, without exception, deserve the wrath of God but God has provided a way for us to get out of the trap we find ourselves in. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God but we are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

We all deserve the wrath of God but then God made known to us a way of escaping the consequences of his wrath. Paul goes on to detail what exactly this righteousness is that is given freely to us and then in chapter 5 he begins to describe the benefits that come to the Christian who has been justified by faith alone: Because we are justified by faith, we have peace with God; we stand in grace; we have hope of the glory of God; and we rejoice in our sufferings.

Although we are sinners, we are viewed by God as being righteous, This is not because God has a problem with his eyesight, but  because when he sees us, he sees us through the sacrifice Jesus made on our behalf. God is holy and the purity of his holiness burns away any impurity. For us to exist in his presence means we must be pure. This purity cannot come from us because we are sinners, but it comes from Christ. The purity of Christ is given to us so we can be pure in the presence of God. We are not holy. We do not deserve to be saved. We are still sinners. The death of Jesus and the sacrifice of his blood and life for us is what makes us holy in the eyes of God. This is justification, the first stage of salvation.

Paul then moves to the second stage of salvation and the second great doctrine of his letter, sanctification. Scripture says we have been saved – that is justification, but Scripture also says we are being saved and that is sanctification.

Justification, being made righteous in the eyes of God is a momentary transaction that takes place when we submit to God and accept his gift of salvation. But sanctification is an ongoing process that will continue to the day we die our physical death.

God sees us as being holy because Jesus’ righteousness has been given to us but sanctification is the process by which we are made over time to actually be holy. This is the subject of chapters 5, 6 and 7. And once again, Paul shows that we are trapped because although we are meant to be holy and we even want to be holy, we are unable to do so. This was Paul’s struggle

I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.

I have been a Christian now for 38 years and I understand very well what Paul felt when he wrote this. We have the nature of Christ but we also have our human nature and the two are in conflict.

When I preached two years ago about this, I used the Robert Louis Stevenson story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. This is a story of a benevolent doctor who gets tired of the struggle of doing good but being filled with conflicting desires of anger and selfishness. Finally he gives up on the struggle and develops a potion that transforms him into his other self, Mr. Hyde. Mr. Hyde strides through the night streets of London doing whatever he wishes without feeling guilty and then he is transformed back into the benevolent Dr. Jekyll. Dr. Jekyll tried to separate his two natures but this did not work. The story has an unhappy ending and Mr. Hyde takes over and Dr. Jekyll commits suicide.

This is the universal struggle and Stevenson’s story is a great illustration of the battle we face. It takes constant energy to resist our human nature and live as we know we ought to live and like Dr. Jekyll, we can get tired of the struggle.

Paul was tired of the struggle and he came to the climax of his frustration when he wrote at the end of chapter 7

So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. ²² For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; ²³ but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. ²⁴ What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?

In this second great doctrine of Paul’s letter we are once again trapped, with no escape and once again it is God who provides for us a way out by doing what we cannot do.

Who will rescue me from this body of death? ²⁵ Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!

We are trapped because we deserve the wrath of God and we are rescued by God.

But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. ²² This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.

We are trapped again because we are unable to live the holy life we are called by God to live and once again we are rescued by God.

Who will rescue me from this body of death? ²⁵ Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!

Because of what Jesus has done for us, we move into chapter 8 with the triumphal conclusion

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus

When we had no hope because we are incapable of making ourselves pure enough to enter the presence of God, God rescued us by sending his son, Jesus, to die for us so we can live. We were stuck and God reached down his hand asking us to take hold and trust him.

When we despaired because of our repeated failure to live a holy life, the Holy Spirit never stopped working in us, encouraging us to try once again, to renew our efforts to work with him in our sanctification.

It is because of the consistently faithful work of God in our lives that we are able to hold on to God’s hand with confidence and adventurous expectation. This is why we look up and say, “What’s next, Papa?”

We finished last year with a celebration of the third great doctrine of Paul’s letter, glorification. (Romans 8:18)

I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.

Our future glory, as God’s chosen sons and daughters, is so marvelous that our present sufferings are a price we are willing to pay. Remember that Paul’s present sufferings included being flogged five times, beaten with rods three times, stoned and left for dead, among other hardships and deprivations. And remembering this, Paul said his present sufferings were not worth comparing with the glory that would be revealed in him.

We, along with all of creation, are moving steadily toward the end when God’s glory will be revealed in all its fullness.

Paul ends the theological section of his letter with what I called last year a fireworks extravaganza.

For eight chapters Paul has been discussing humanly insolvable problems and then shooting up a firework rocket to proclaim the good news that God has done what we could not do. For eight chapters Paul has been shooting off these rockets of good news and now as he comes to the end of his discussion, he is caught up in a celebration of all God has done and shoots off multiple rockets, one after the other so that we are overwhelmed by the wonder of it all.

What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? ³² He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? ³³ Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. ³⁴ Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. ³⁵ Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? ³⁶ As it is written:

“For your sake we face death all day long;

we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”

³⁷ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. ³⁸ For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, ³⁹ neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

I can see Paul sitting there, having dictated his letter and in awe of all God has done. He takes a break to breathe, walks around and considers where he wants to go next in his letter. His mind runs over all the treasures of the first eight chapters, as I might do in looking at the titles of books on my bookshelf. He delights in the wonders of these glorious truths and then he asks himself, “What about the Jews?”

This was not a casual question. Remember that for Paul, the Jews were not a foreign community, they were his people. If you sat down to have tea with Paul and asked him to tell you a bit about himself, he would begin by saying

(Acts 22:3)

I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia

Paul was not just a Jew. He was a leader among Jews. He was a Pharisee. He had devoted his life to the study of the Scriptures and the preservation of God’s law given to Moses. Paul was a Jew through and through.

Paul knew the Jews were not simply one more tribal group, the Jews were God’s chosen people. Among all the peoples of the world, God chose Abraham and his seed through Isaac to be his people. The Jews knew they were distinctive because they had been chosen by God. The fact that God had chosen them was the core of their identity.

While Paul had seen the risen Christ on the road to Damascus and had turned 180?, he had not forgotten where he had come from. And now as he wrote this letter to the Christians in Rome, he reflected on the fact that most of the Jews were rejecting Jesus as the Messiah. The growth of the church was coming through Gentiles, not Jews and so Paul asked, “What about the Jews?”

With Paul’s incredible intellect he was able to see that the death and resurrection of Jesus had changed everything. God chose him when he was on the road to Damascus to persecute the followers of Jesus because God wanted him to use his great mind to lead the church into a fuller understanding of what had happened.

The first eight chapters of Romans stand as testimony to the brilliance of Paul’s intellect. But the opening verses of chapter 9 stand as testimony to Paul’s equally great heart.

Romans 9:1-5

I speak the truth in Christ—I am not lying, my conscience confirms it in the Holy Spirit— ² I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. ³ For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, those of my own race, ⁴ the people of Israel.

The bulletin cover shows Paul in this agony of his heart. It is not simply an intellectual question, “What about the Jews?” it is a deep, heartfelt concern of Paul’s heart.

I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart.

There are some who have great minds and others who have great hearts. Paul was an exceptional person because of his combination of a great mind and an equally great heart.

How deeply did Paul care about his fellow Jews?

He wrote:

For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, those of my own race, ⁴ the people of Israel.

This is a great challenge to me. Who is there that I love so much I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for their sake?

I have to confess that the answer is, unfortunately, pretty easy for me – no one. I tend to have a take it or leave it attitude. I will preach the Gospel. I will sit down with someone and explain the Gospel. I will pray for someone to respond the good news of Jesus but if they don’t that is their problem. There are some who have a heartfelt burden for the lost, those who do not have a relationship with Jesus as their Savior and Lord – but this has never motivated me.

I am challenged by Paul’s example. I know I do not have the brilliant mind of Paul and never will. But I can change and have the heart of Paul for those who are lost. This is an area of future growth for me.

It is because Paul cared so deeply for his fellow Jews that he spent three chapters of his letter discussing their situation.

There are a lot of theological understandings about the role of Israel in God’s plan of salvation that come out Romans 9-11 but Tracy and I will not be talking a lot about these different understandings. What we want to focus on is the passion of Paul, Paul’s heart.

His great mind has been on display in the first eight chapters and now we see how powerful his heart is. It is not that Paul threw away his mind in these three chapters, but it is his heart that is more prominently on display.

This is the area where I will be challenged and where I want us all to be challenged. In what way does your heart need to grow? Where is your heart? For whom do you care?

Jesus said we are to (Mark 12:30)

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.

Over the next several weeks as we look at the passion of Paul, may we all grow in our ability to love the Lord our God with all our heart and to have his heart concern for those who are lost.