Romans 3:21-31

I'm so glad I get to post on this part.  Salvation has interested me ever since I heard Paul Washer's sermons online last term.  In the very first one I heard, I remember him saying that we will spend all of eternity trying to understand the mystery of salvation.  His statement stands in contrast to what we think now, that salvation is the first thing a Christian should "master", and that other, deeper subjects (such as eschatology or divine election) are the more "advanced" topics.  No, Washer says.  Every single person, Christian or not, will know exactly what happens on the Day of the Lord in regards to these topics.  But salvation -- we will spend all of eternity praising God for it, and learning more and more of its wonders.

Of course the whole book or Romans, indeed the whole Bible, is the salvation story.  But these eleven verses really concentrate on God's greatest gift to us.  Righteousness, as I mentioned earlier (or rather my Bible dictionary did), is not only being "good", but right with God -- seeing Him eye to eye.  And it has been established that no one sees eye to eye with God, and no one ever can.  Yet Paul opens this bit with "but now a righteousness from God, apart from the law, has been made known..." (v. 21a).  The italicized bits emphasize two things:  first, that the way to being right with God comes from God.  No surprise there.  Jesus Himself said "I AM the way and the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through Me." (John 14: 6).  This has implications for my spiritual life.  If being right with God comes from God, then it makes sense that my new earthly experience (which is really spiritual exercise and warm-up for the work-out in eternity) should come from God.  As a follower of Christ with my treasure set in heaven, I've come a long way from a doomed soul who rejects God, as described in chapter one, but all the failures I've met in my earthly struggles do prompt me to ask:  how much am I choosing to receive from God? 

The second word I emphasized is apart.  We are saved apart from the law. This word really moves me to thank God.  He saw that mankind would surely fail if we had to live up to His standards (seriously, we couldn't even resist eating a fruit, how are we supposed to resist bigger temptations?), and so He created a way out.  In Corinthians, Paul states that "[God] will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under [temptation]." (1 Cor. 10:13b).  Now, I know that it's a different context and I should be careful about randomly cross-referencing, but the key thing I'm grasping at here is simply how lovingly and how powerfully God provides back doors for us.  And back doors I'm no stranger to.  Half the stuff I do at McMaster I can do because people have opened back doors for me.  And if I'm grateful to them for providing back doors for temporal things, how much more should I thank God for giving me back doors for eternal things!

The meat of my devotion this time, however, is the lead-up to verse 23.  The famous verse "for all have sinned..."  is prefaced by "there is no difference".  Difference between what?  Paul clarifies later in verses 29-30, when he talks about salvation of both Jews and Gentiles through the same faith.  It's a serious wake-up call to the "chosen people", that God doesn't see them any differently than the people they regard has barbarians and heathens.  That has got to hurt.  But I want to look at this the other way -- the heathen and the ungodly and the demon-possessed -- God sees them with the same love as He sees His chosen people.  And it's so like God to do that!  Abraham's forgotten son, Ishmael -- his people were not chosen by God (at least, not like Isaac's were), but God still blessed him (for more details see Gen. 16 and 21).  And one of the things I remember most vivdly in the gospels (apart from the "IT IS FINISHED!" bit) is when the writer records Jesus being "moved with compassion" when he sees the physically and spiritually disabled.  Some translations, I think, have "moved with pity", or some variation of that.  And here we are reminded that "there is no difference".  God looks upon everyone with the same love a Father has for His son (or even for His Son).  

For the upcoming choir concert, we're doing two pieces that are especially touching to me.  One is Agneau de Dieu (Lamb of God) by Rupert Lang, and the other is Ave Verum Corpus by Imant Raminsh.  Ave Verum Corpus, in particular, features one massive fortissimo section that only lasts about two measures, and right there are the words "O clemens!", which translates to "O merciful [Jesus]!"  Singing that just makes me want to fall on my knees.  The text for both songs also include "have pity on us" near the end.  They are such powerful pieces, but it's even more powerful that the Lamb we're singing about is moved with compassion and says "I am willing.  Be clean!".

That's pretty powerful when I tack that on to "there is no difference."