Confident Christianity

Text: Romans 1
January 16, 2005, Dave Philips

 

 

Confidence is not one of our leading characteristics in the 20^th century mainline church. We all came from spiritual roots that were rich in confidence. I can remember a highly confident Presbyterian denomination back in the fifties and early sixties, but since then we have suffered a great loss of confidence as a people.

But confidence is one of the leading characteristics of New Testament Christianity. When you read the New Testament, you’re amazed by the confidence of the apostles. After the resurrection, there is very little evidence that any of the apostles suffered from a failure of nerve. Quite the contrary: these men and women were so nervy and so confident that they scandalized the world around them. People who had never before had any spiritual confidence flocked to become Christians. The Christian gospel was proclaimed confidently throughout the Roman Empire, and by the early fourth century, even the Emperor had turned his back on his paganism and had become a Christian.

We mainline Christians at the beginning of the twenty-first century need to reclaim our heritage of confidence. One of the places where we can find it in spades is in the book of Romans.

From now until the end of Lent, I plan to preach from Paul’s letter to the Romans. The book of Romans is clearly one of the most powerful books in the history of the world. I would go as far as to say that Romans, along with the other New Testament books, are the most revolutionary books ever written. We’re still appreciating the teachings of Socrates after the passage of 2400 years, but Socrates is not turning today’s world upside down. Jesus and Paul and the other apostles still are. Karl Marx has been touted as the most influential philosopher of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In my university days, everyone trembled and genuflected at the name of Karl Marx.

Who’s doing that today?

Marx’s teachings are passe — they don’t work! Jesus’ teachings do! And Jesus, Paul, and the other apostles continue to change lives all over today’s world.

The letter to the Romans has been the hinge that has turned many great minds around and has started many revolutions in our world. In the ancient world, Paul, the writer of Romans, was the first highly influential Jewish rabbi to be converted to Christianity. The teaching of Romans was like a bombshell under the old paganism. No one took ancient paganism seriously once Paul had set off this amazing spiritual bomb.

Later on around the end of the fourth century, at the time the Roman Empire was coming apart at the seams, Augustine, a brilliant intellectual and a pagan, highly popular as a teacher, wealthy, a playboy, living unmarried with his girlfriend and the father of an illegitimate son, came to a crisis of faith. He realized that none of his brilliance was making him a good or happy man. One afternoon in the garden of a friend, in spiritual turmoil, Augustine sensed that God was confronting him. He heard the voices of children outside the garden, apparently playing some kind of nonsensical game, chanting, "Take and read, take and read, take and read." In that children’s chant, Augustine heard the voice of God. A New Testament was lying at hand. Augustine picked it up, opened it to Romans, read a few verses and was converted soundly and powerfully to Christianity. His writings as a Christian were a milestone in theology for the next thousand years and are still exciting to read today.

In the sixteenth century, when the Church had lost its way and was wandering in a fog of corruption, an Augustinian monk named Martin Luther was in turmoil over his soul. Nothing he did was bringing him peace. He also was a university professor like Augustine. Luther started to teach his students the book of Romans. In the very first chapter, in the verses we’ve just heard read, Luther came upon the great news that he had never understood: "the just shall live by faith." Luther had been trying to deserve God’s love through living a good life. He discovered that God’s love was a free gift. He found the peace he had been looking for, began to preach justification by faith to his students, and the Reformation of the Church began.

And in the twentieth century, a brilliant young Swiss theologian named Karl Barth was also in deep distress because the Church had, once again, lost its way. Large numbers of Christians in those days bought into the cultural belief that the world was getting better and better. But along came World War I, and the optimism of Europe suffered a stunning blow from which it has never fully recovered. Barth wrote a commentary on Romans as the war was progressing, and in his study of Romans he rediscovered New Testament Christianity. He said his rediscovery of the gospel was like groping in the darkness of the church’s steeple, stumbling and putting out his hand to steady himself, and grabbing the only thing available, the rope that rang the church’s bell. That bell Karl Barth rang was a wake up call for the modern Church.

And now, almost a hundred years after Karl Barth woke up the Church with the bell he rang, we Christians again are suffering a failure of confidence. And again, the remedy for that lack of confidence is at hand. Once again we can hear the chant that woke Augustine from his paganism: "take and read, take and read, take and read."

I challenge you to take up this powerful, this revolutionary book and read it again — perhaps for the first time. Romans is not an easy read, but it is a great read. Luther recommended memorizing the whole book. Not a bad idea! Tyndale, the English reformer, said, "No man truly can read [Romans] too often or study it too well: for the more it is studied the easier it is, the more it is chewed the more pleasant it is, and the more basically it is searched the more precious are the things found in it, so great is the treasure of spiritual things hidden in it."¹

I had the privilege of knowing George, a bricklayer from Pittsburgh, who in his early thirties discovered the gospel. The conversion of this very plain man was one of the most exciting things I have ever witnessed. George’s introduction to the Good News was the Gospel of Matthew. I was in a small study group with him, and frequently, when someone would be puzzled about some point of doctrine, George would say, "Hey! It’s all in Matthew’s!" "Matthew’s", George’s name for the gospel, was where he got the point about Jesus Christ, and as far as he was concerned, you didn’t have to read any farther in the New Testament.

Following George, and many other Christians, I can say confidently, "It’s all in Romans." Take and read! Chew this book, savor it, and digest it, and you’ll get the point of Christianity. Even if you already have the point, read it again anyway. Romans is where the gospel came home to Augustine, to Martin Luther, to Karl Barth, and to millions of less famous Christians. Romans is no less powerful or revolutionary today than it was when Paul first wrote it.

Take a look at three powerful incentives to confident Christianity in this first chapter of Romans. Paul says, "I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and the foolish."²

Why would Paul call himself a debtor, or have any sense of obligation to Gentile people? Did he borrow any spiritual capital from them? Is he telling the pagan world, as many are doing today, "All religions are the same, there are many roads up the side of the mountain, they all lead to God, and your way of paganism is just as good as my way of Christianity?"

No! Not at all. Paul is in debt to the Gentiles because he has won God’s lottery. He has discovered the winning ticket to a wealth that he will never be able to spend by himself. He has found the secret of blessedness.

It’s as if you were living in a slum with no hope of ever getting out of it. You’re too old to learn a skill, you’re too dull to go to school and get an education, and you’ve lost hope that life can ever be any different than it is.

But one day someone comes into your slum and knocks on your door. This visitor tells you that you are the heir of the richest man in town. This man is many times a billionaire, and he has died without an heir. You are a distant relative, but the closest relation that he has. He has stipulated in his will that if a blood relative can be found, that relative shall inherit all his wealth. You’re the blood relative, therefore you’re the heir. And so you are suddenly fabulously wealthy.

There is only a single stipulation: you are to move from your slum down town out into the beautiful suburb where the billionaire lived. You are to occupy his house and take his name. And you are to continue his work which is to teach as many people as you can how to become as rich as you are.

Would you turn down that offer because you want to continue living in a slum?

Here’s Paul saying that he has discovered the way out of the spiritual slum that he was stuck in. He has discovered that he is God’s heir. God is infinitely wealthy, and there is no way Paul can spend all God’s wealth. So, Paul feels indebted to the Gentiles to share this wealth with them and to make them as rich as he is.

Who would be fool enough to turn that offer down?

If we are living in a spiritual slum, we may move from that slum into the best spiritual neighborhood in the world. All we need to do is to believe this great news and accept God’s offer.

So, that’s the first powerful incentive to confident Christianity in Romans. Paul gives us a second powerful incentive when he says, "I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile."³

Why would Paul make a point of saying he is not ashamed of the gospel? Is there an implication in these words that he ever had been ashamed of it? Hardly seems in character! Or, is Paul emphasizing his pride in the gospel by saying things backwards?

Queen Victoria was known to say, "We are not amused." What she meant was the polar opposite of amusement. She meant to say, "I am outraged!" Maybe that’s the sort of thing Paul is expressing here. Instead of saying, "I am not ashamed of the gospel," he’s really intending to say, "I’m proud as I can be of the gospel."

No matter how we understand this verse, there’s an encouragement here for us in Paul’s words. Have you ever been ashamed of the gospel? Or have you ever been ashamed of being a Christian? Would it be true to say of the majority of us here that from time to time we’ve been ashamed of our Christianity, that we have soft-pedaled our proclamation of our faith, that we’ve had feelings of inferiority when we come up against a bright atheist or agnostic?

We timid Christians can take courage from Paul’s boldness. Here’s one of the great thinkers of all time saying, "I am not ashamed of the gospel, I’m proud of it!" Why is Paul unashamed? Because the gospel is the power of God to salvation." That word "power" is the Greek word dunamis from which we get our English words "dynamic" and "dynamite". Paul is telling us that there’s nothing to be ashamed of in the gospel because it’s the "dynamite of God." This dynamite of God has transformed lives, brought down empires and built new societies, and it has healed people in body and soul. It’s something we can be proud of. We may have some shame attached to the way we’ve practiced our Christianity, but in Christianity itself, in the gospel, we can be utterly confident.

The final powerful incentive Paul gives us in this passage are in his words, "In the gospel the righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: ‘The righteous will live by faith.’"⁴

Why is this such a revolutionary verse, and why has it caused such a stir in the lives of so many? I want to get into that in coming weeks in more depth than I have time for this morning.

Suffice it to say that without faith we could have no Christianity. Without faith we could not know God. Without faith we could not attempt the great things for God that Christ calls us to attempt. All of us have a choice: we can live by faith or we can live by fear.

Think of it this way: you’re invited to dinner at a friend’s house. When you arrive, you discover that the dinner is being served buffet style. The things on the table look great, but there’s a big crowd, and you wonder if there’s going to be enough of your favorite dishes to go around.

So, because you’re worried, you scout out where the good things are, and you hang out there. You discover that on the hors d’oeuvre table is a bowl of giant prawns with cocktail sauce to die for. And you stand right there by the prawns and munch away and talk only to the people who come and munch prawns, too. And you are just a bit worried that the other prawn munchers are going to eat up the prawns that you want.

Then as you’re munching your prawns, you look over at the next table, there on the table is your very favorite: prime rib. But the roast looks kind of small, and you hope that you’ll be able to get enough. So, you go hang out near the prime rib and kind of look with disapproval on the people who also want prime rib.

And finally, you learn that one of the desserts is the kind that you dream about, waking up in the morning with a wet pillow from all the salivating you’ve been doing in your sleep: banana cream pie. But there’s only one such pie on the dessert table. So, you’re concerned to get there first before the others hear about the pie and go gobble it up before you have a chance to have your piece. So you wolf down your prime rib so you can be sure to be first at the dessert table.

But then imagine that your host and hostess come up to you and say, "Dave, we know how much you love those prawns, so we prepared them especially for you. In fact, there are a couple more bowls of them and plenty of that cocktail sauce you love so well back in the kitchen. Really, we have so many of them, that we’d like you to take some home with you after the dinner party.

"And the same is true of the prime rib. We knew you loved prime rib, so we have two more roasts in the kitchen waiting to be served. We’d like you to take one of them home with you.

"And as for that banana cream pie, we remembered that it’s your favorite, and there are a couple of extras in the kitchen in case you want an extra piece or two. We hope you’ll take a pie home with you, too, after the party.

"In fact, we love you so much that you’ve got a standing invitation to come and eat with us at any time. Just let us know you’re coming, and we’ll prepare your favorite food always."⁵

A lot of people approach life as if it’s a party where too many people are invited and there isn’t going to be enough for everyone, so the smart thing to do is get there early and get what you want first. When we have this attitude, we’re really motivated by fear.

What the letter to the Romans teaches us is that we can live confidently by faith in the God who loves us and will always see to it that we have enough. We need not fear that we’ll miss out on the fun of life. God has invited us to eat at his table both now in this life and forever and ever, and he provides for us food that is so nourishing and so delicious that it will satisfy our deepest longings, not just for time, but forever and ever.