Chapter 10

Great Sin Greater Grace

Of all the attributes of God, Paul emphasizes His faithfulness as foundational to the theological construct. For pagan gods were unpredictable, whimsical, capricious; given to fits of rage and self-serving. Yahweh, for the pagans, is difficult to understand. First, unlike the pagan gods, He acts purposefully and planfully; He is not free-wheeling and unpredictable as He interacts with His creation. But the pagan morphing of God into man did not cease in the Christian era. Paul understood human nature as tending to self-deification, chronically ignoring the best evidence for the invisible Creator—the natural creation. Then, counter-intuitively, man venerates the natural creation, which spawns an unending plethora of speculative deities, each one a projection of man’s primal fears and desires. [1]  The ominous declaration of Romans 1:18-25 is prophetic. The modern religious and philosophical state of the world is reflected poignantly in this passage. But the most sobering observation is the cultural parallel of the “Christian” West with this description of paganism in Paul’s world. Alternately magical, mystical and mundane, the modern Western Culture is an unsophisticated frolic in a fool’s paradise of Yahweh [2] denying eclecticism. Paul’s indictment is just; guilty are the scornfully cynical who profess wisdom with foolish arrogance, as well as the doltishly gullible rank and file whose minds are numbed with incessant entertainment and sports fanaticism. “Ceasar entertain us!” is their cry! Later, Gibbon eloquently described in dramatic detail what Paul prophesied. As it was for Rome, so has it been, and will be for nations and empires that spurn the Apostle who continues to speak to them. The wrath of God is necessary; man’s dishonoring of God is hubristic, arrogant and inexcusable. Blasphemy is a cultural institution.

Although Paul, in the course of fixing mankind on the eschatological timeline of God, speaks prophetic oracles of warning, he never strays far from his primary mission—preaching the good news of the grace of God. “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.”[3] What informs God’s attitude toward sin? Not sin itself, but the sinners attitude in his sinful condition toward God. Sin may or may not include the element of deception. Paul is describing sin as apparently layered and corresponding to the outward and most shallow layer, the physical body, then under that layer is the soul, and at the core of man is the spirit.[4] Paul quotes Psalms 32:1-2 in his Roman epistle as he explains the basis of God’s forgiveness of sin. The key to understanding God’s forgiveness is found in verse 2 of Psalms 32 – “And in whose spirit there is no deceit”. Abraham and David are Paul’s chosen examples of the forgiveness of God. These two men were sinners, notable sinners  both falling short of the righteousness of God like the rest of mankind. The difference is found at the deep level—the level of their spirits—where they were without deceit. Abraham and David possessed the gift of faith. Since they were aware of God, they honored God, feared God, in spite of their sinfulness. The gift of grace is not deliverance from sin; it is the conscious awareness of God in the experience of the sinful condition. David is a man after God’s own heart, impetuous, violent, lustful, melancholy, and manic—all of these impulses and obsessions of the mind and body, but in spirit, he loved God. David’s relationship with God was not the result of priest and temple conscription.[5] His spirit developed in the sheep fields of his father Jesse, under the direct unmitigated influence of Yahweh. The Judean outback was his classroom, sheep, and predators his object lessons, earth, and sky, his props, a warring shepherd-king and poet minstrel the result. Faith is a work of God; men receive the gift of faith as a treasure buried in earth. The earth does not define the treasure; it reveals its great value and beauty.[6] Abraham, David, Paul, and all who love God are vessels of earth with treasure-cores slowly and gradually shining forth as the true reflection of their glorified identities. Water, wind, and fire are fit symbols of the work of God’s spirit and word revealing and refining the precious treasure of God’s elect [7] as the force of God’s spirit-elements expose them. Concerning Abraham’s faith for which God promised that he would be heir of the world, Paul emphasizes that he possessed it while being yet uncircumcised and since there was no  law there was no violation. Circumcision was merely a sign and seal of what he already possessed by faith and in Paul’s mind pointed clearly to spiritual circumcision which his converts were emboldened to claim in Christ.[8] In the passage just considered Paul lays the foundation for one of the pre-eminent tenets of Christian theology, namely, God’s foreknowledge and predestination. When did Abraham first have faith? Before he was instructed in the covenant and before he was circumcised, he believed. When and how a child of God comes to faith is a mystery hidden in the deep counsels of God. His foreknowledge and predestinating love extends at least as far back as the enigmatic phrase “before the foundation of the world” suggests. Apparently, Paul had sensed his calling and separation unto God from a very young age[9] causing him to reflect deeply on the questions: What does God know?[10] And, when did he know it?[11] God always viewed Abraham and Paul, and all whom they represent as righteous; before the law and after the law because of Christ.[12] The law simply magnifies the sin already present and causes grace to abound much more.[13] Paul’s song of grace is sung by Jew and Gentile alike in every age; Abraham’s children will be of many nations and what God has promised, He is able to perform.