PENnED

Let not that question confuse you. Here’s a little background on why I ask such question:

Yesterday I preached on a passage in Romans that included the following verses:

Romans 9:30-33
New International Version

30 What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith; 31 but the people of Israel, who pursued the law as the way of righteousness, have not attained their goal. 32 Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone. 33 As it is written:

“See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes people to stumble
and a rock that makes them fall,
and the one who believes in him will never be put to shame.”[a]

Footnotes
[a] Romans 9:33 Isaiah 8:14; 28:16

Gentiles have obtained righteousness whereas the Jews have not. Why is that?

The reason is because the Gentiles DID NOT PURSUE righteousness* through faith, that is, not through their own effort but God’s through Christ’s redeeming work.

The Jews, however, PURSUED THE LAW as THE WAY of righteousness; and because that was (and is) NOT GOD’S WAY, they failed to obtain righteousness or justification.

By the way, the statements above are generalizations about Gentiles and Jews. They do not state what appears to be already obvious: that not all Gentiles have obtained justification and that not all Jews are condemned. The truth is, not all Gentiles have responded to God’s grace through faith, and not all Jews have rejected God’s way of obtaining justification through faith.

To some folks it’s a strange thing that people who did not work for it get it while those that did didn’t. And I guess that’s why they cannot accept justification through faith alone but somehow also work for their salvation as well. They do not admit that, but their words betray them.

Now why is it that trying to obtain justification through the law does not work?

One of the reasons people provide is that no one can fulfill the law 100% and thus through law justification is not obtainable. The implication of that, however, is that if the law can be fulfilled 100% then justification can be obtained.

The problem with that idea is not that the law is useless because it is definitely not! Just imagine a busy city without laws or, at the least, no traffic rules. Chaotic, right?

But observing the traffic rules because we don’t want to be fined and have a bad driving record, or worse, go to jail is not as good a reason as being careful in our driving so that we do not cause any accidents BECAUSE WE CARE about others; and we don’t want to hurt or cause anyone’s death.

I think those that emphasize the law too much miss the point and might have forgotten that what we have as creatures is a love relationship with our Creator (I capitalize the first letter of the word as I don’t want you to think that I’m thinking of something else other than God); and that such relationship is not “just a piece of paper” (like the commandments written on the pages of the Bible).

Indeed, if we believe in and love God, we show our love by doing God’s commands. But let’s be careful that in doing so our affection is not shifted from God to the Law of God for there seems to be a very thin line between them.

It seems to me that some Christians who believe in the work of Christ have been out of focus because of their over-emphasis on God’s commandments instead of focusing on the One who gave those commandments.

Every time I have a chat with some of them, or they post something on social media, they almost always talk about the strict observance of a literal Sabbath and other Jewish festivals, and the commandments and other things related to them.

What these Christians and fellow believers are often saying is that Christ has not changed things, or something to that effect, especially when talking about Old Testament laws. Well, he has! If he has not, they’d probably still be offering animal sacrifices for the atonement of their sins! (But I won’t be surprised if some of them actually do.)

The crux of the matter here is this: if we focus on God who loves us so much that he gave his only begotten son, Christ Jesus, as THE way for our redemption and in response to such wonderful grace believe, then we’re good! That’s because, using the Apostle Paul’s judicial parlance, we have been justified through faith.

Let’s not be like the Jews who proudly walk on the way of the law being confident that they’d reach their destination. Thus, they do not see that there is “a rock” on their path that can make them stumble and fall. Rather, let’s be like the Gentiles who acknowledge their unworthiness and shame but clearly see and trust Christ for their redemption:

“See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes people to stumble
and a rock that makes them fall,
and the one who believes in him will never be put to shame.”

—

• or ‘justification,’ a juridical term that applies to the guilty party being forgiven and thus acquitted of any violations committed