ALL IS OF GRACE

Brother,

For the second Sunday of Lent mother Church points us to Paul's letter to the Romans. I remember one of our mentors long ago saying that if the New Testament is like a jewel, Romans is like the sparkling point of the jewel. Here is the first part of the reading,

"13It was not through law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith. 14For if those who live by law are heirs, faith has no value and the promise is worthless, 15because law brings wrath. And where there is no law there is no transgression.
16Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham's offspring—not only to those who are of the law but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all. 17As it is written: "I have made you a father of many nations."[c] He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed—the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were. "

God makes a wonderful promise to Abraham. A promise that he will become a great nation and that all the families on earth will be blessed in him. That promise comes completely free and undeserved and not because Abraham has earned it by obedience to God or anything else. The Jews at the time of Paul (and Jesus) were teaching that to win God's favour and receive God's blessings people had to put in a super human effort to do what the law required. One hundred percent perspiration was the only way to heaven.

Paul saw clearly what this attitude had done. As William Barclay puts it, 'It had completely destroyed the promise' God had made to Abraham. Why? Because no-one is able to fully and perfectly keep the Law. No-one has ever lived a perfect life from beginning to end. No-one, in imperfection can satisfy the perfection which is God. Therefore, if the promise depends on keeping the law, the promise can never take effect or be fulfilled and therefore has been destroyed.

Dear old Paul saw things in very stark terms, either we depend on human effort or we depend on God's grace. Either the constant losing battle to obey an impossible law or faith which simply takes God at his word. Barclay points out that on each side there are three things.

1. On the one side there is God's promise. There are two words which mean 'promise' in Greek. There is huposchesis which means a promise which has conditions. "I promise to do this if you promise to do that". Then there is epaggelia which means a promise made out of the goodness of one's heart - quite unconditionally. It is epaggelia that Paul uses of the promise of God.

2. Then there is faith. Faith is the certainty that God is indeed like that - a God of unconditional love. It is a willingness to stake everything on the Love of God. It is to rest back in this love from which fear is banished for ever.

3. There is grace. We used to say to our youth groups long ago G-R-A-C-E God's Riches At Christ's Expense.

1. On the other side there is law. Now the trouble with law is that it's very good at showing you where you have gone wrong but terrible at helping you avoid going wrong. It's good at diagnosis but rubbish at cure. In fact (as Paul later stresses) there is a terrible paradox about law. It is human nature that when a thing is forbidden it has a tendency to become desirable.

2. There is transgression. No-one can break a law which does not exist or be condemned if s/he does not know that the law exists. So what happens? Life becomes a long series of transgressions waiting to be punished.

3. Then there is wrath. Think of law. Think of transgression. Inevitably the next thought is wrath. Think of God in terms of law and before long you're thinking of him in terms of outraged justice.

Two ways! Hobson's choice if you ask me!

Mark