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I need to explain the deconstructive snowball of Romans 3:1-20 that Paul began in chapter two. Paul is laying the foundation for his Gospel to come which remains largely lost on the religious mind. By establishing itself as an alternative religion, institutional Christianity has viewed Paul’s deconstruction of religion as a claim against Judaism. This mutates Paul’s Gospel of “Freedom from Religion” to a claim that freedom is found only in the new Christian religion.

If Christianity is understood as a new alternative religion, then repentance and faith become the admission requirements, rather than “The Faith.” The down stream pathology is the “reconstruction of religion” causing people to be subscribers/ joiners rather than Christ followers. Paul’s reason for writing his New Testament letters to churches, including this one to Rome, was to help the religious mind grasp this nuance of the Gospel. I’ll offer some stepping stones to make his Gospel more visible.

First, Paul’s lesson is to be culturally understood. Since Judaism was the big religion in this audience, we must see it as archetypal for all religions. We know in Paul’s earlier journey’s to the Areopagus in Greece, that he deconstructed those religions as well. Faith (faithing), not religion, is the theme of Pauline doctrine.

“Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious.” (Acts 17:22)

Second, once convinced of Paul’s historical message, we can apply it to our modern frame. This is where the collisions start happening. Like the Jews of Paul’s day, Christians are now facing two-thousand years of religious history which seems impossible to unwind. When Paul’s Gospel is placed within the modern context, it’s incomprehensible to religious mind that Paul would saying such things.

For example: The Jews (Paul especially) persecuted early Christians because they were claiming that Yahweh, the God of the Jews, the promised Messiah from Hebrew scripture, was now saving non-Jews, Gentiles, and everyone else without the requirement to convert to Judaism. Now superimpose that upon the modern framework. The scandal of the gospel is that God is now saving non-Christians, Muslims, Atheists, Buddhists and everyone else without the requirement to convert to Christianity. If it is unthinkable to you that the Christian religion should never have existed, then you may have never heard the Gospel without a tumor in it. A new religion was never part of Paul, John the Baptist, or Jesus’ Gospel. Instead, the New Testament corroborates the Gospel that the Hebrew prophets anticipated throughout Hebrew scripture. A point which the entire book of Hebrews is devoted to explaining.

 “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” (Jeremiah 31:33-34)

The Gospel is not a New Testament concept, it is the voice of Truth found in every human, and discovered, not in religion, but in the inner “Abrahamic experience” where a voice tells us to “Go and leave our kindred, and go to a land I will show you” (Genesis 12:1). The Gospel alway calls us to the desert, to an exile from safety in numbers, to solitude, temptation, and eventually into a life of freedom and seeing. This is what Paul is so excited about. Every book of Hebrew scripture, all the stories passed down, each taught this Gospel which subverted the institutional authorities that rename us from the “People of God.” The Jewish messiah was the anointed one (Christ) who would free not just Judaism, but everyone, and not with a political or religious power-over dynamic, but by way of subverting the political and religious overreach of institutional power, freeing people back to God ruling over people’s inner selves, rather than a king ruling over their behaviors (1 Samuel 8:6). The Gospel of the Old Testament is Paul’s Gospel. Remember, the New Testament didn’t exist for the Roman church. Paul didn’t even know he was writing it.

From here we can see Paul’s frame of reference.

“Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision? Much in every way. To begin with, the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God. What if some were unfaithful? Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God?” (Romans 3:1-2)

Keep in mind Paul is prioritizing “inner belief” over obedience to religious law. For Jews, they would really understand the repercussions for unfaithfulness/disobedience. For example, If the Levitical (priestly) law was not followed to perfection, God would smite them regardless of their belief. Paul’s audience, just like today, would struggle to understand how God would or could treat the disobedient the same as the obedient. That is why some were accusing Paul of heresy and seeking to kill him (Acts 23:12). You can see this in the next verses.

“But if our unrighteousness serves to show the righteousness of God, what shall we say? That God is unrighteous to inflict wrath on us? (I speak in a human way.) By no means! For then how could God judge the world? But if through my lie God’s truth abounds to his glory, why am I still being condemned as a sinner? And why not do evil that good may come?—as some people slanderously charge us with saying. Their condemnation is just.” (Romans 3:5-8)

If Paul was convinced religion was the way, he’d say so because he was the most religious. Instead he says:

“What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin,” (v.9)

The religious mind looks down on others. It sees itself as better off, superior, more holy than all the sinners who don’t care. For Paul to level the playing field by saying the religious mind is equally under sin as the non-religious, is similar to telling an Evangelical that he or she is not a former sinner, and are potentially no better off. To prove this, Paul goes on a “Proof texting” spree to show that the religious mind has not correctly understood and believed the scripture. Paul quotes Psalm 14:1-3, Psalm 5:9, Psalm 140:3, Psalm 10:7, and Psalm 36:1, which would mean nothing to non-Jews.

This is so inspiring to me personally. What does is say that Paul’s Gospel can be completely elucidated by Hebrew scripture? Paul really shows that the Gospel is imbedded in their scripture, and it is distinct from religion. This is true today, and why I’m so passionate about teaching the scripture because it does the same thing today. Unfortunately, far too many people have been abused by the Bible and now distrust it. When the religious mind grabs the authority of scripture, only the authority of scripture (or extreme pain) can dislodge it. Paul validates what they know but leads them to the deeper truth beyond the religious law.

“Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.” (v.19-20)

The term “stoma phrasso” means (to block the mouth), it’s basically to have everyone “shut the F’ up.” No one can be “good enough“, no one can obey “good enough” no one is made righteous by their “good behavior.” Though no “flesh” will be made right by obedience, this doesn’t mean the law is to be disregarded. We learn that the true purpose of the law is to reveal to us the sin within our inner selves.

I’ll address sin as we move forward, but what a great transition point for Paul to pivot to an alternative way to live. Paul is going to finish deconstructing, and then he’s going to reconstruct something so liberating, so inclusive, and truly healing to the world…a faith…between ourself and God.