Listen to this post NOW on Beyond Everything Radio!

I explained early in this series how the religious mind will struggle with Paul’s Gospel if they remain stuck in a binary framework. Paul’s alternative is the Christological continuum that I described two weeks ago. Your feedback and questions regarding chapters three and four have proven that this concept remains a struggle, therefore, I will offer a metaphor today that I hope will get us closer toward understanding Paul’s theology, which he derived from several Psalms, and is the anchor in chapter 3:

“…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 3:23-25)

You will need a new wineskin (Mark 2:22) to understand Paul and his Gospel. What most people think is a struggle with me or my content, is actually the breaking point of their own tiny, stretched out wineskin or religious framework. You may be at a decision point. The Christian religion has tattooed on our consciousness that there are those who are “saved” and those who are “unsaved,” justified and unjustified, in and out, heaven bound and hell bound. The modern Evangelical gospel is similar to Paul’s Gospel in that it apprehends the work of Grace, but it is dissimilar in that it limits this work to “only those converted to the Christian religion,” whereas Paul begins with total inclusion. Those on the narrow aspect of the Christological continuum reject Paul’s inclusivity, and those on the wide end of the continuum will reject Paul’s exclusivity as he moves narrow. Both ends lack the biblical revelation of the gospel, for scripture shows that it is BOTH totally inclusive, AND extremely exclusive.

Is your gospel too small?

The tribal binary belief (innies vs outies) is exactly what Paul faced with his religious audience. It’s what we hear on Christian radio and in pulpits. The Jews saw themselves as the “people of God“, the “Chosen Ones” and everyone else was outside the camp. I’ve proven that Paul’s Gospel is not a game of red-rover with the culture and chapter five is where one’s faith in Platonic Dualism collides with the Good News. But unfortunately, most people prefer to reject the Good News in favor of tradition, and as a result the gift of Paul’s Gospel remains unopened, leaving two kinds of unbelievers: those who suppress the truth of the entire story, and those who suppress the truth of it’s inclusionary criteria (the heathen and the religious), or what Jesus described as 5 out of 10 virgins (Matthew 25:1-13) “morai-foolish” and “phrenomoi-lacking understanding.”

I offer the following metaphor to help you replace your operating system for justification with Pauls’s.

Imagine a city where every single citizen was given a home to live in by the Governor. The home is completely empty, but is a place that each person can call their own and live their life. This is analogous to Paul’s explanation of God’s gift of universal justification as I showed above. Everyone gets to live in the Governors city, and none of them deserve it, all have spit in the Governors face and all are given a house.

A large group of people begin to complain against the Governor because there are no lights, no cookware, no appliances, no bedding, or anything in the homes, which makes life very difficult. They go out everyday seeking what they need for life, but the town offers very little, and since life is struggle, they live resentfully toward the governor.

Now as we walk down the streets, we notice that on the porches and front yards of each home are piles and piles of Amazon boxes and deliveries. These come everyday, more and more, and the residents just step over them to go about making a life for themselves. Then you see a neighbor with no packages and knock on the door. This is where we learn that the first package was a box of lightbulbs, next were the appliances, then bedding, furniture, decorations, and everything a person could imagine, nothing was lacking, it was all gifted to everyone, everyone received the house and all the gifts, but only those who looked into the boxes and discovered the gift ended up fully satisfied with their existence and gave glory and thanks o the Governor. These citizens truly loved the Governor.

Justification is the beginning point in Paul’s doctrine, not the destination as religion pitches it. There is no barrier to entry, no bar to cross over. Everyone has everything, some will never open the gift because their religion tells them they are dangerous, they could be a trap, or that it’s better to go get your own stuff on your own effort. In religion, humanity ascends to God through effort. In the Gospel of Faith, God descends to humanity.

Now you are ready to hear Paul’s Gospel.

Chapter five begins with a “THEREFORE” which means we must understand what it is there for. It all goes back to the verse above in 3:23-25, but is building on the explanation that faith, which is given to all by God, is the key to opening the gift of justification, not religion.

“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” (v.1-2)

Remember, all were given over to our depraved minds and lived under wrath, and now all have been given faith and are justified. We all have peace with God through the ministry of Jesus Christ, whom this group in Rome would have been eyewitnesses. This is a loaded statement. The Greek word (prosagogyn- right to speak, given the scepter) is the grace in which we (estekamen-firmly remain). And since we have all fallen short of the “Glory of God“(3:23) we now rejoice the hope it. That is a reversal of the curse.

Literally nothing stands between anyone and God. And if that shocks you, or if you disagree, or you just can’t make that work inside of your religious frame, then Paul has provided you the rest of chapter 5 to convince you. He’s in the wide part of the Christological continuum, but he’ll be coming back to narrow in chapter 8.

The opening of the Amazon boxes on the porch is the metaphor for the spiritual discovery of how all things are redeemed. We discover there is no such thing as meaningless suffering. Our struggles are a gift, which allow us to open another gift, and another and that’s when we discover God’s love in and through it all, and we fall in love right back. The greatest gift of all is that of the Holy Spirit. Imagine leaving that out on the lawn.

“Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” (v.3-5)

No you didn’t have to do anything to earn this…sorry religion, who is always saying: “You have to believe, you have to behave, you have to try…” Paul’s Good News proves that we do not need to be good to have peace with God, we have peace because God is good.

“For while we were still weak (hasthenés– unable, sick, helpless), at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.” (hasebés-those with no regard for God)(v.6)

Since this is an absolute scandal, Paul has to explain the Goodness of God by comparing it to one of the most honorable sacrifices we witness on the human plane of existence…dying for another person.

 “For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.” (v.7-11)

All are justified…we have each been given the gift of faith…we have peace with God when we should have wrath… through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ…who died for all of us…while we were still sinners…while we had no regard…more than that…we are rescued by Christ from wrath…while we were enemies we were reconciled…we are saved by HIS life…through Jesus Christ (narrow/wide continuum) we have now received reconciliation.

Like a RING doorbell announcing a package is on your step. Complete and total reconciliation has been delivered.

This is not FUBU. These words are inclusive. Paul’s audience is not limited to the innies. The work of Christ is not for the limited…sorry Calvin, it’s for everyone. The Governor gives everything needed to everyone, we all have life and we all have the gifts to open to make that life its ultimate. We all have everything through love, in order to love.

Paul is not done. He continues his defense next week. The Good news is only good news if it’s good for everyone, and that is exactly Paul’s point. The expectation is to open the gift and discover the power of what Paul is saying. The true Gospel will cause us to love and follow Christ, not a religion.