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I received some comments that last week’s podcast was a bit too scholarly. Today will be easier, but you’ll see that we needed to understand the ontological framework Paul’s offering. This metaphors of the Spider Man costume will help us connect the boxcars in Paul’s train of thought. The result, I believe, will be a discovery from Romans that may have escaped you until now.

Chapter 2 has three parts and today we look at part 2 in verses 12-24. These themes are derived inductively from the Greek, not deductively from English:

1. Paul’s letter includes everyone. Like a Super Bowl audience, it’s not to be read FUBU.
2. Paul’s thesis is: Wrath is revealed by our “not being right” about ourselves and through suppression of the truth about God. We insist on our costume.
3. We exist in two planes: Authenticity “since all time” and Pseudo, our fictional, surface level existence which cannot ultimately exist.

Now Romans 2:12-16

“¹² For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. ¹³ For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified. ¹⁴ For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. ¹⁵ They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them ¹⁶ on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.”

I often compared religion to the Dr. Seuss’ story of the Star Bellied Sneetches. It’s all about “innies” and “outies.” (side note: the meta narrative in the Bible is every institution created by man establishes itself on exclusionary criteria…no matter how inclusive it’s claims. Called… “Principality or Power“-Ephesians 6:12.)

Religious people reject the idea that non-religious people are able to obtain the same moral ground as themselves. I’ve had discussions with pastors and fundamentalists who cannot reconcile the verses we just read, namely, that Gentiles (éthen–heathen) reveal that God’s law is written on their (kardia-inner selves) and by their (phúsis– nature) do what the “law” requires. It unravels their theology. This means modern theology is not shared with Paul. Paul is not binary in his thinking, he’s ternary (mind of Christ-1 Cor 2:16), so his doctrines are on spectrums(i.e. “depravity/divinity”).

I know those who are covenantal nomists or those with hyper inflated substitutionary atonement theologies are really offended right now, but stay with me. What if Paul can take you, the skeptics, and everyone in-between to a radical new plateau? He’s going to do just that. Please consider that your offense stems from verse 12 and all that is eisegeted into it. Let’s relearn how Paul builds out his train of thought and put’s competing truth claims (binaries) into larger and more inclusive frameworks.

 “For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law…” (v.12)

The Greek word (hàppóllumai“-perish) means to “become lost, or cease to exist.” This is why I taught as a seminary professor last week and provided Paul’s ontological foundation (existence, being, our true self). The common foundation of “behavior” falls apart later. One evidence is this word “happollumai” ceasing to exist. I warned about inserting Dante’s inferno into Paul’s letters which never mention hell. These inferences are modern insertions. Like Sneetches, the religious mind divides the world into saved/unsaved, or lost/found. This binary worldview is a quagmire that Evangelicalism has oversimplified. Paul’s “continuum” framework is nuanced (dimmer switch instead of light switch). Paul is agreeing with the Sneetches in these verses. The heathen, despite having the law of God written on their inner self, and despite being able to fulfill aspects of it, will still cease to exist. Why? Because they have suppressed their true identity in God, and live from the fictional plane which means they ultimately cease to exist.

Pau’s doctrine aligns with Jesus’, but not evangelicalism. (Matthew 7:21-23)

Paul’s experience is like ours, namely, we all know people who live far more morally than the most devout surrounding us. While religion has taught us the value of morality, and it is valuable, Paul’s has already hinted that he is subverting meritocracies as a means of displacing wrathful existence. Paul is stripping any ability for the heathen or the religious mind to look down upon the other. Everyone is a Sneetch. Though we can all behave, none of us do, and even if we give our life trying, our behavior (Religious or otherwise) doesn’t change our plane of existence…but repentance (reconsidering)and faith do.

Again Paul brings up “the Day” (v.16) where God will (krinei) make a decision (judge) about our Kruptòs tón hanthropon…hidden person. Remember the Spider man costume? God sees the face (v.11). Paul will build out how this decision will come through Christ and will be profoundly Good News.

Let’s reconsider Paul’s message emerging through the framework and theology.

We all start out life wearing a costume. We exist under a mask, we are hypocrites, or we live in falsehood or pretend we are our pseudonym (Fake ID). We seek to define ourselves and suppress the truth of our nothingness without God. We presuppose or existence. We clutch to endless identities and over-identify with institutions that exchange identities for our allegiance and worship. We do not know who we truly are in God (lost), and so we pretend, we hide our inner person and present personas to the world. It’s exhausting and we long to be real and to be loved. Every horrible thing in the world comes from us seeking the right thing in the wrong way, and we’ve made a mess of our world.

Paul’s path to freedom is Good News. God sees our true face, our identity has existed in God’s perfect wisdom from eternity past (v.7), and will exist forever with him (lest we deny God’s omniscience). The good news is that an indeterminate time (day)exists (the present moment) where Christ, the beloved of God, will help us to remove our mask in love and take off our costume to reveal that we too are the beloved of God. Christ has subverted the power dynamics of every institution (principality and power) on earth and will reveal how we can follow in his footsteps to experience the freedom of being who we are created to be in God.

Does this sound religious? Because it’s not. Is Paul advocating for a new world religion? No, but he’s introducing a life of Christ following (lost sheep) and will explain why he got out of religion. He’s opening up a rediscovery of faith in Christ, not religion, as the Good News for the world. There’s nothing to do but be found. Paul had to deconstruct his religion as he followed Christ, and will advocate a faith that is unique to everyone. Paul reveals that we become more “us” as we find ourselves in God.

The emerging question is this: will we continue to suppress the truth and insist our mask is really us? Will we just keep being who our favorite institution says we are? Or will we finally look God in the face and discover that we are loved, known, authentic, and…found?