Listen to this post NOW on Beyond Everything Radio!

Paul is going to conclude his letter by once again pointing us to the Christological framework of living. After deconstructing religion, Christ is the only place to go. Just as last week, he starts chapter 15 with instruction about how to get along with others, and then expands it into his overarching Christology. In 15:1, the (dunatós-able, strong, competent) are to (bastálzo- endure, accept, support, bear with) “the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves.” Instead, we are to please is our “plesion-neighbor, nearby” or those in proximity to us. This is the idea of moral proximity. The secret to a peaceful society is that the stronger we become, the less we are focused on pleasing ourselves, and the more we focus on pleasing those in proximity to us.

Paul then restates his Christological framework: “For Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me.”(v.3). Consider how people have drifted out of sync with this standard. I think this begs the question: What about our pleasure? Are Christ followers also to go through life not being pleased with things? NO! Although I’ve met pastors and churches with this grumpy disposition. The design is that when we are focused on pleasing others in our proximity, that these would be focused on pleasing us. It isn’t that we are to go without, it is that we empty ourselves into others as they empty into us, thus all are filled.

This mirrors the divine flow of God, and then Paul expands us into his Christology, which is the basis for both unity and diversity. “May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (v.5-6)

Paul’s Christological unity resolves the tension from the previous 14 chapters surrounding the Jews and the Gentiles (ěthen, ẽthnos– heathen, nation).

“For I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show God’s truthfulness, in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs, and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy.” (v.8-9)

Why is it so important for Paul to explain in chapter 15 that out of the Jewish tradition came a scripture which proclaimed the “anointed one” (christ) and that through this figure, all people (heathens included) would rejoice and have hope? Furthermore, Paul makes no requirement for the non-religious to join Judaism, nor any other “new” religion. Paul’s work (in all his letters) freed the religious from having faith in their religion unto faith in Christ (who justifies all people through grace) to the love of God (3:24).

Why isn’t Paul a model for Church leadership?

This brings up another question for me. If Paul is no longer a practicing Jew, but instead is a Christ follower, and his Apostleship is to the Gentiles (heathens), why does the modern Church insist Paul was inaugurating a new alternative religion? Clearly, Paul established churches (écclesia-gatherings, assemblies) of people who shared faith in Christ (Christ followers) but these early gatherings are nothing like the business of church we see today. If we understand Paul’s letters, we can be sure he would condemn the institutional church. Paul would reject our practice of full-time paid clergy. He would be horrified at our replacing faith in Christ back into faith in a transactional religion, replete with temples, priests, money changers, and rules which imprison its constituents.

Our study proves that the institutional gospel is NOT Paul’s Gospel.

Paul worked tirelessly to free all comers into a life of faith, and that the Church would be the one place where the entire world could witness a society of peace on earth, liberty and service, love and morality, unity and diversity, all modeled by each person’s unique experience of Christ. The church was intended by Paul to be the literal (not figurative) body of Christ, each part being very different from the other. The church was not supposed to be an alternative religion which required conversion in order to belong.

As we leave the book of Romans, we can apply Paul’s work and Gospel by re-imagining the church for tomorrow. The modern Evangelical church requires much healthy deconstruction if it is to be liberated by the Gospel in the same way that Paul’s religion was. Those who are over-identified with their religion or denomination, who have religious, racial, political, or economic power will resist this change as they did for Paul and Jesus. Since church is big-business, constituents must vote with their money. Do not pay for anything Paul or Jesus would deconstruct.

For clarity, Paul’s Churches didn’t had no elaborate buildings. Each person is the dwelling place of God. The body of Christ has no need for parking lots, coffee shops, book stores, and cradle to the grave programs. God doesn’t require Jumbotrons, fog machines, or a worship band wearing skinny jeans to manifest in our lives? Paul’s ministry wasn’t a multi-million dollar enterprise. Church didn’t produce rock-star status pastors? Paul’s gatherings were not a Sunday “big show” to entertain his audience and make them feel comfortable and favorable toward Jesus? If the letter to the Romans leads us to follow Paul and his Gospel, we would do well to return to faith alone, in Christ alone, by grace alone, and abandon any faith in the institutional Christian religion.

Let’s start a movement of pastors and church leaders who will step away from the modern model of “contemporvent” church ministry, and return to loving and welcoming all comers in our spheres of work. Quit getting paid to teach the Gospel! Stop paying any staff members. Sell your buildings and possessions. How can a church require so much money to run and then deny being a place of commerce? The “house of God” is again full of money-changers and that’s why it lacks the power of God in the world. Why do we settle for this? When I made this change I had to start all over. I had to get a real job and work along side those I lead spiritually. I had to re-discover what true faith and trust in Christ really was.

Christ following is different than church going. Christ following is to know suffering, loss, marginalization, rejection, poverty, and isolation. Through these Christ experiences, we also get to experience new life, renewal, and resurrection. When Paul wrote this letter, he didn’t consider it as the scripture, he wasn’t intending to write the Bible, there wasn’t a religion to codify these words as sacred. This was a letter to people who witnessed Jesus and who were living under Roman rule. What makes this letter sacred, is his admonishment to find and follow Christ (who sacrificed Himself for all people). Then we are to love and be good to those who are very different (body parts) from us. The Christology of Evangelicalism has made Christ’s body too small.

We can know that Christ is alive and at work if we welcome and possess love for one another. There is more integrity in finding God at home, or going for a hike on Sunday morning than participating in some of our unloving, unwelcoming communities. We get what we pay for, and in many cases, it’s fiction, illusion, or pretense.

May love, and not appearances, nor doctrinal statements, nor optics determine our involvement in a community. If Paul were alive today, what letter would he write to your church? If Romans is any guide to us, it reminds us that freedom in Christ is God’s gift which has been lost in religion.