Genesis 12:1-4a; Romans 4:1-5, 13-17; John 3:1-17 It all depends on faith. When we were growing up, everyone assumed that Christian faith was a sharp contrast to the legalistic outlook of Judaism. Sunday schools and sermons assured us that the Jews of Jesus time were busy trying to earn their salvation by adherence to the Law, that Jesus and Paul came to overturn that with their shockingly new vision: salvation is a gift, and good deeds merely our response to that gift. Sometime since then, we Christians finally got around to talking with actual Jews, something we hadnt thought to do for, oh, 1800 years or so, and learned--shock!--that Judaism has never actually functioned like that caricature. Instead, we found out, the reason Jews follow Torah is as a response of gratitude for the gift of the Covenant. Why then the drumbeat of faith not works in Romans? Because, frankly, legalism is a temptation to us. Not to ancient Jews, but to us. Romans is written to the West, to Europeans and their intellectual heirs, not to Jews. (The letter to the Hebrews, for instance, which is written to Jewish Christians, barely mentions the topic--its not germane, because the recipients already got it.) Were the ones who have the temptation to become self-made men, to do it on our own. We like thinking that we can recreate ourselves with self-help books and disciplined adherence to a plan. The urge to save our selves by works is built into Roman Stoicism and drunk like mothers milk by modern America. Heck, it even pops up in the scatological recent film about the Rapture, This Is the End. No, dont go rent it. But trust us when we say it presents a vision of Christian theology as (ridiculously) focused on thinking good thoughts and doing good deeds. Not a hint of Jesus anywhere in the film. But somewhere deep in our souls, we know that this temptation is wrong. We cant save ourselves, and other than for brief periods in summer camp, we cant really remake ourselves either. My flaws can be slowly ground away by practice, but my basic personality is fixed. Why shouldnt it be? God made it! It is simply better theology, and better psychology, to trust God to have the universe in His control (lets call that faith), and to respond to that in gratitude by doing the right thing (lets call that works). Even when the works dont work out the way wed like. Even when were not feeling good about it. Even when we cant see any ultimate purpose to it all. Because our good deeds, our self-improvement, are responses to what we believe, which is that God sent His Son into the world to save it. And faced with a statement like that, who wouldnt want to say thank you?
Posted on: Sun, 16 Mar 2014 11:30:06 +0000
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