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Last week Paul taught that the religious were not better off (Romans 3:9), and now he is begins with a big “but” and offers a new operating system which he calls FAITH.

“But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law…” (Romans 3:21)

Paul uses the religious term “justified/ righteousness” (dikaiósune/dikaiów–made right, religious observance, acquit, set free) A LOT because he’ re-training (freeing) the religious mind in the next few chapters. We too must be retrained. Every religious framework succeeds on inclusion and exclusion criteria, it’s the definition of every worldly institution (principality and power-Ephesians 6:12). The biggest power play any human institution can make, is determining who is “right” (dikaiow) with God.

There are two keys to understanding Paul’s Gospel operating system:

1. The religious mind is not limited to the Jew. Judaism is archetypal for the religious mind.
2. Paul’s Gospel is not binary, but an inclusive Christological continuum (dimmer switch).

Miss these points and Paul’s letter collapses into another exclusionary religion, that of the institutional Christian religion, not the Christian Faith. Religion, like politics, gains power by pitting believers against unbelievers, something Paul was clearly speaking against. Faith or belief in Christ is not a threshold for entry. Judaism (and all religion) have those “in the boat” and the rest. This new system of Faith is like an unconscious drowning soul who is pulled into the boat and resuscitated, who then awakens to realize he or she has been rescued. Everyone is in the boat, but at varying degrees of resuscitation.

Think about how this nuance changes the posture and message to the culture. Evangelicalism exists because it believes those who don’t believe exactly as they do are “out of the boat” and doomed to Hell. Compare that to what Paul says:

“For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.” (Romans 3:22-25)

Textually this is part of a very large sentence relating back to “dikaiów(sune)” right with God (in the boat), and he joins three verbs (sinned, fallen short, and justified-there’s that word again) all to the subject of this sentence, “Pantes” or “All, Everyone, totality“. It’s super easy to preach that ALL have sinned, so why is it so hart to teach the ALL are justified? The ALL is part of the same sentence. He’s saying that God has always dikaiosune (justified) this way, but now it shows up outside of religion.

“But now the righteousness (dikaiosune) of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it…” (Romans 3:21)

The religious mind says: “Those people aren’t in the boat.” Paul’s Gospel says: “Everyone is in the boat, but some are still unconscious.”

Like all metaphors, this one will break down if pressed too far. It’s enough that it unearths our subterranean emotions and inner posture. The heart who cries, “Unfair…Unjust!” is the soul who remains unconscious and not yet resuscitated to restorative justice. The un-resuscitated always seek retribution. Paul says ALL…

“…are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,” (v. 24)

Christ doesn’t make us savable as modern Evangelicalism teaches. Christ doesn’t only save a tiny sliver of human history as the Reformed doctrine teaches. Christ doesn’t only save those who subscribe to religious architecture as Catholicism, or Mormonism, or Judaism claim. Paul says: Every person’s redemption is already in Christ, long before any of us believe it…long before any of us were even alive.

The Evangelical who is street witnessing believes he or she is superior to the “un-converted”. The un-converted believes he or she is superior to the Evangelical. Paul comes along and says: “There is no distinction between you. You both possess religious frameworks which make you feel superior. Everyone has been “bought back” in Christ, and neither of you are happy about it, because neither of you are resuscitated to redemption.

We either reject or ignore the Good News until we awaken to it.

Jesus proclaimed the same restorative justice, and the religious hated it.

“And on receiving it they grumbled at the master of the house…you have made them equal to us…”(Matthew 20:11-12) 

“Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also,  since God is one.” (Romans 3:29-30)

The Hebrew Shama (hearing, understanding) “Hear or Israel, the Lord is One…”(Deuteronomy 6:4) is not a claim of monotheism, it is a the theological claim of total convergence. All things come from God and come together in God, and find their terminus in God. Paul is leveraging Moses’ to argue for this redemptive claim.

The effect of Christ making all sinners right with God is that no one can claim moral superiority of another. Paul says it removes boasting (v. 27). No one is actually better than anyone else, though we are in different points along the journey. Faith is not being convinced of a religion, it is waking up to see our life experience is not distinct from Christ’s. How hard is it to believe we have been marginalized, despised, betrayed, yet deeply loved at the same time? That human experience is that of “the son of man”, Christ is alive in each of us. The belief or faith, is waking up to the implications of what this means. Instead of conversion, it’s more like completion, just as it was for Paul. Faith is seeing that the “you” inside of you, isn’t you…it’s the “dikaiow” in you.

“It was to show his righteousness (dikaiosunes) at the present time, so that he might be just (dikaion) and the justifier(dikaiounta) of the one by faith (by seeing) in Jesus (in the boat).” (v.26)

Only Christ puts us in the boat. No religion can do that. Remember, Christ is not Jesus’ last name, it’s an office that is neither mutually exclusive to Jesus, nor co-extensive. All poodles are dogs, but not all dogs are poodles. All of Jesus is universally the Christ, but not all of Christ is specifically Jesus. The faith is our ability to understand and follow (put trust in) Christ, just as Abraham and Moses did, even though they had no knowledge of Jesus.

So how does this happen? How are we put in the boat if not for religion? Paul explains:

“…Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation (ìlastérion-means of forgiveness) by his blood, to be received by faith.” (v.24-25)

As a religion, Christianity has made belief the threshold for inclusion and then made Hell the threat in case we don’t. Sola fide (faith alone) is not a binary high-bar that excludes most of human history. How did we get here?

If belief is binary, then we either believe or we don’t. If Faith is a Christological continuum, then on one end of the spectrum is a universality whereby all people are in faith (in the boat) being justified (v.24) by the cosmic work of Christ, yet in a very general, non-specific sense. An example of this which Paul gives in 1 Corinthians 10:4 is how the rock that flowed water and saved the Israelites from death in the wilderness, was Christ. None of them had any consciousness of Jesus, the cross, or Christianity and yet Christ saved them. On the other end of this spectrum is a faith specifically in Jesus Christ, and his atoning sacrifice. This Christological continuum is what comprises The Faith. Our spiritual progress is not getting into a religion (boat), but discovering ourselves in Christ, or being resuscitated, and realizing Christ has been with us all along. As Rob Bell said: Faith is as wide as the Universe and as narrow as Jesus.

If we ask a person what makes trusting this so challenging? The rejector will say its too wide and the ignorer will say its too narrow, and both are suppressing the truth.

Faith then, is our curious re-entry into the discovery of our self as we are hidden in Christ and found in God.