THE ROMAN PARADOX

The Roman Paradox

The God who is effectively ineffective

I have a confession to make. My own life is a paradox.

I am not half as Christian as I want to be, despite having attempted to follow Jesus for over MOST of my life.

I would love to tell you that my life is a worked example of the character of Jesus, but the fact of the matter is that I am a walking contradiction.

A two-faced hypocrite – and I know it.

Yet I cannot seem to change.

Some people talk about how they found peace when they came to know God. Other people talk about the battles they have faced as a result of following him.

Some people talk about internal comfort, others about internal conflict.

Some talk about the gift of grace; others about the struggle with sin.

Some walk confidently in peace and victory.

Others drown in defeat, doubt or despair.

Most of us perhaps know both sides of the story – our Christian life is itself a paradox.

We know both joy and pain, faith and doubt, peace and frustration.

We are declared holy, but we struggle to BE holy.

Our sin and guilt are washed away, but we fall for temptation time and time again.

Whether we are new to the faith, or have been Christians for decades, we know the struggle of longing to be like Jesus, and we know all about feeling like we fall short.

Like a corrupt army officer on dress parade, externally we might put up a good show, but inside it’s a different story.

These are the sort of issues that are raised by the Roman Paradox. Paul’s letter to the Roman church contains many verses people love to quote at one another – here are some examples:BOOK OF ROMANS!! (SAY THESE SLOWLY)

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus . . . Romans 8:1

Since we have been justified through faith, we have peace . Romans 5:1

We are more than conquerors . . . Romans 8:37

God works for the good of those who love him . Romans 8:28

You have been set free from sin . . . Romans 6:18

If God is for us, who can be against us? Romans 8:31

But Paul’s letter to the church in the capital of the Roman Empire also contains verses that make for significantly less easy reading, passages that seem to indicate an exactly opposite view:

I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. Romans 7:14-20

What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Romans 7:24-25

Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God. Romans 8:8

Each of us will give an account of himself to God. Romans 14:11-12

The letter to the Romans allows us to explore this more personal faith paradox, as Paul shares his own personal battle with holiness – in what some argue is his finest theological work.

Paul wrestles with very real questions:

Why can’t God just deal with our sin the instant we come to faith?

(Surely we would be better advocates for him if He did?)

Why can an absolutely holy God only manage to make us relatively holy?

If we can never please God through good deeds, and we know he loves us unconditionally, why even bother trying to be holy?

Does God get some sort of pleasure out of watching me fail over and over?

Maybe it is a ploy to keep me reliant on him?

When it comes to making US more like Himself, is God, in effect, ineffective?

Let’s try and wrestle with these questions alongside Paul.

Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things – and the things that are not – to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.

1 Corinthians 1:26-29 (READ FROM YOUR BIBLE)

This new faith, Christianity, deliberately set out to turn the world’s values on their heads; God does indeed take delight in making something out of nothing, making saints out of nobodies. God chose Israel, the least of all nations; now, from across society, Jew or Gentile, he chooses the weakest individuals to be his flag-bearers.

By rescuing the most broken, rejected and despised of society, God provides a living example of what his character is like and turns upside down the hierarchies and strata of society.

Jesus did not choose the most powerful or intelligent men.

Instead, he chose a ragtag group of dysfunctional followers who often seemed to get more wrong than they did right.

You remember the 12 disciples?

How many of you remember Matthew, Mark, Luke & John? Now tell me who of those four were actual disciples?

(Just a little fun to see if you are still awake?)

Paul argues that when we look around the church, it is obvious that God did not choose people because of their social significance or influence; his business is to take broken things and make them beautiful, to take the weak and make them strong, to choose the despised, the marginalized and the outcast and to include and welcome them in his family.

Isn't God amazing like that?

These gracious, loving, compassionate characteristics of God are treasured in all of Scripture.

We too are called to be like God in this: when we demonstrate his love to the most vulnerable and needy in society, as we are called to do, we make the character of the invisible God visible.

Maybe, though, we feel that the rules must change after we have become Christians: now we’re in, we need to show this by being perfect.

This is not the case.

Post-conversion, we are still just as fallible as human beings, yet this is not a barrier for God to demonstrate his compassion through and to us.

Let me tell you about a father I know. He reads his children stories at bedtime, drives them to school on rainy days, and gives them treats occasionally for no reason.

You might think he sounds like a good dad.

But imagine he adopted another child who, because of his past abuse, was often vindictive, unpredictable, rude or worse.

Would this man’s reputation as a good father suddenly be destroyed?

No, surely it would be affirmed as he continued to love this new troubled son, read to him, drive him around and give him treats, despite his bad behavior.

God’s compassion was clearly shown in the fact that he adopted us into his family.

But it shines even brighter as he continues to love us and forgive us despite our continued rebellion and sinfulness – which, at risk of repetition, do not disappear post-conversion.

But this raises new questions for Paul as he continues working through this logic of the gospel of grace: ‘Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?’ Romans 6:1 TELLS US (PAUSE)

This is such an attractive argument.

Resisting temptation feels like a fight against our most basic desires.

Paul gives us three reasons why we should not give up our struggle:

1. We are dead to our past wrongdoing and its effects.

2. We are alive to Christ.

3. We live in the power of Christ.

None of these are simple concepts; let us consider each of them in turn.

Immediately following his rhetorical question, Paul states that we have ‘died to sin’. Romans 6:2

In other words, becoming a Christian means there has been a decisive change in our lives, not so that we are immune to the influence of sin, but so that we no longer live ‘under the domination of sin’. Romans 6:3-4 “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.”

This sounds good in theory – but in practice, resisting temptation seems to be as hard as ever. So what does Paul mean when he says that we have died to sin?

Christians, however, have had their spiritual debts written off once and for all through their connection with the actual physical death of Christ. We just read that!

To deliberately get back into debt again after all the lengths that Jesus went to in order to redeem us is as ridiculous as a drowning man jumping straight back into turbulent water the moment after he has been rescued.

Choosing to continue to sin devalues the grace that has been shown.

So why do we believers continue to sin after we have been rescued?

Surely no one would choose to make things worse in their lives?

Isn’t the reality of the situation that it is just too hard to change, to break the old habits?

Imagine you are a prisoner of war in an internment camp deep in enemy territory.

After years of imprisonment, you hear rumors that your entire camp is going to be executed. But in a daring rescue your camp is liberated, although the captain of the rescue effort who led the charge is tragically killed in the process.

Your liberty has been bought at great expense & you are now free to leave.

But your fellow captives have become your family, and you don’t know what you will do for food if you strike out across the country.

You have a familiarity with the land and the routines.

The captain died for your freedom, but in practice you are tempted to stay living under the fear of the old regime.

The grace of God was demonstrated when Jesus, the commanding officer in OUR rescue, died to liberate us from imprisonment and slavery to sin.

Jesus’ death for us has brought about a decisive change already.

But only if we make the journey out of the camp will we begin to more fully enjoy the benefits that Christ has won for us.

Continuing under the old regime does not bring greater honor to Jesus.

Continuing to sin does not make grace increase.

In fact, continuing to live in sin devalues the grace we have been given, and dishonors Jesus.

But deciding to leave our sin behind is as difficult as deciding to leave behind a place of captivity that has become all we can remember.

Prisoners who write of surviving experiences such as these describe how hard it is to get rid of a concentration-camp mind-set.

Habits, fears, values and priorities ingrained under those extreme conditions are not easily dismissed.

Once you become a Christian, your status has changed.

You were once a prisoner, enslaved by wrongdoing, unable to escape its consequences. But now you are dead to sin, freed from prison – yet you struggle to live out this new status.

This is why Paul also talks about another status, one which is positive: we are alive in Christ. ROMANS 6:11

This little term ‘in Christ’ is used by Paul on numerous occasions here. as he wants to hammer home that this is the place where we now belong.

Thinking back to that prisoner freed from an internment camp, imagine they make it back to their family.

But, suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, they wake up screaming in the middle of the night.

We can imagine their family reassuring them that they are now ‘at home’, deliberately dropping that fact into their conversation whenever possible to reinforce the understanding that they are now somewhere safe.

Similarly, Paul wants us to know that we are ‘in Christ’, and so vitally connected to Jesus that all His accomplishments and characteristics become ours. Maybe you're asking, how does this help us in our struggle with temptation and wrong actions?

Now keep following my logic, if you can? (smile)

Parenting experts teach us that telling a child to ‘stroke the cat’ is more effective than saying, ‘Don’t pull the cat’s tail’ when it comes to ensuring good behavior around pets.

Shifting our focus so that we live up to our positive identity in Christ, accessing his resources and accomplishments, is much more effective in forging our new life than constantly worrying over past temptations and trying not to get sucked in again.

Looking at the one who died to rescue us motivates us to live in the light of His grace, rather than in the shadow of our sin.

Paul tells us to practice living out our resurrection life:

In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. Romans 6:11-13

In the same way, Paul calls on Christians to increase their consciousness of their new status by practicing it.

The internal battle that we experience is part and parcel of our transformation from one identity to another.

We have seen that it in no way undermines God’s love for us; rather, His grace is seen more clearly as a result.

But we choose not to continue to sin, because we are dead to sin and alive in Christ, a status which was won for us at great cost.

If we become comfortable in our discipleship, we should expect God to come in and disturb us, to try and make us more like him.

We are supposed to struggle with sin in this life, in order that we worship God more effectively through our efforts to be holy.

We worship the God who freed us, united us with Christ and helps us in our struggles.

Paul describes the Christian faith using forceful metaphors such as running the race or fighting the good fight, which implies the continual need for discipline, exertion and stamina to live lives of worship to God.

God has shown that he could not love us any more than he already has.

He has proven beyond all doubt that despite the sin we have committed and are committing, he remains committed to us.

But it still feels like he is leaving us to it, rather than really helping us to deal with sin and temptation.

To help us understand why sin remains such a problem for us,

Paul goes on in this same chapter to offer three arguments.

He explains the 1). addictive nature of sin, 2). the destructive nature of sin 3). and the relational nature of sin.

He uses a number of metaphors to help us understand what Jesus accomplished on the cross; one powerful metaphor is that of redemption.

He begins by introducing the idea of sin as slavery: we have been freed from slavery and liberated from captivity.

Slaves on sale in a marketplace go to the highest bidder – only by paying the highest price can one buy the right to own the slave, or to set him or her free.

Jesus paid the ultimate price for us when he offered up the most precious thing in the universe – Himself – to redeem us.

He offered himself, outbidding any other claim.

We were given a preliminary glimpse of this idea in the Abraham story as we considered how precious the life of Isaac was to Abraham.

Now the intensity of the image is increased as we consider the value of Christ, the true Son of God, to God the Father.

Our redemption price was nothing less than Christ himself.

But now that we have been freed, what will we do with our freedom?

If we choose to carry on as we were and not give our future actions to God, then we effectively sell ourselves back into slavery.

Paul explains: if you ‘offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey’. Romans 6:16

Although sin is addictive, Jesus has effectively dealt with its power.

With his help we can break free of those things that enslave us.

This leads to the second argument that Paul uses to further challenge the view that because we are recipients of grace, sin does not matter.

He asks his readers to remember the results of sin in their lives.

‘What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death!’ romans 6:21

What good did it do you when you were living under the power of sin?

Sin promises so much but delivers so little.

Like a moth drawn inexorably to a flame, so we are drawn to sin.

If only a moth were able to think through what is happening to it – that its urges are leading it to death.

But, sadly, there is no reasoning with moths.

Paul honors his readers by assuming they are not just unthinking insects incapable of reflection, restraint or redirection.

He asks his readers to consider the trajectory that sin takes them on.

When we offer ourselves up to sin, we are being controlled and manipulated not by a gracious king who loves us and wants the best for us, but by an enemy who wants to destroy life and inflict as much pain and chaos on us as possible. John 10:10

Paul’s arguments relate directly to the character of God.

As we have been exploring throughout these paradoxical teachings, the character of God is perhaps the most fundamental paradox of the Christian faith.

In the end, all these questions come back to one, central question: is God trustworthy, or not? Sin is not just a legal status, or a physical addiction, but is a relational state of being.

Sin is a decision to turn away from a God who has not turned away from us.

The only fitting response to this kind of love is to give love in return.

The appropriate response to God’s forgiveness is love towards him and forgiveness towards everyone else.

The grace of God is not an excuse to take advantage of Him, but a motivation to live a life of worship worthy of the calling we have received.

Our experience of the Christian life is always going to feel paradoxical, because we are people in transition.

We are like slaves, learning to be free.

We are addicts coming off our dependencies.

We are newlyweds getting used to our new identity.

We are prisoners of war venturing out of the camp.

We are bankrupt, rebuilding our lives now that our debts have finally been paid.

We are people sentenced to death who have been given new life.

We are living between two realities – who we used to be, and what God is making us into.

God has done the work that was needed: he has rescued, justified, redeemed, liberated and accepted us.

Now he calls us to work out the implications of what he has done in the day-to-day reality of our lives, and empowers us to do so by his Spirit.

God inspires us to do so by helping us to remember our identity in Christ.

In the end, it comes down to fundamentals: Who are you, really?

When times are hard, where will you turn?

To God, or against him?

That is what is really at stake here.

Let me finish by sharing with you a story:

A young 22 YEAR OLD woman from a wealthy background became a Christian and started attending an introductory course about living a Christian life, as a preparation for baptism.

But fierce persecution broke out against Christians and her whole baptism class were arrested and put on trial.

The young woman had just given birth to a son and she was not allowed to nurse her baby in prison.

On the day of her hearing her father came into the courtroom carrying the baby and begged his daughter to deny her faith so she could raise her son herself.

What would you and I have done?

This young woman held fast to her faith, and she, along with her friends, was sentenced to death.

First they were publicly whipped, then they were gouged by wild animals, and finally they were stabbed to death by soldiers.

That was in AD 203.

The young woman’s name was Perpetua, and she was twenty-two years old when she was killed.

Sadly, this kind of persecution didn’t end during Roman times. Even today, all around the world in places like North Korea, Pakistan and South Sudan, Christians are facing imprisonment, beatings and execution.

Day by day Christians make courageous choices to live for God despite great temptation to compromise to avoid suffering and death.

In the light of this kind of courage our attempts at faithfulness seem pretty feeble.

Yet the reality of temptation and struggle is not restricted to believers facing martyrdom.

All of us need a rationale for fighting sin, resisting temptation and persevering in the Christian faith.

Not long before Perpetua was martyred, her father visited her in prison and begged her to denounce her claim to be a Christian. She answered him:

‘Father, do you see this vase here?’ she replied. ‘Could it be called by any other name than what it is?’ (PICK UP THE VASE)

‘No,’ he replied.

‘Well, neither can I be called anything other than what I am, a Christian.’

For anyone who believes, their new identity of being ‘in Christ’ shapes and directs their life.

The problem we face is that we live in the paradoxical moment (in God’s long timescale) of disparity between our identity in Christ and the reality of our daily experience.

This paradox can be difficult to live with – but nevertheless, God wants us to learn to live in the reality of who He has made us and what He has done for us, even in this temporal life, surrounded as we are by trials and temptations.

Learning to live in the tension of the now and the not yet is the challenge we must face. This can only be met by having a real life conversion of Self to CHRIST! (I'M GOING TO ASK THE MUSICIANS AND GARY TO COME FORWARD AT THIS TIME) (ME SAY A SHORT PRAYER)-THEN GARY/LADIES PLAY HYMN OF INVITATION)

IF YOU HAVE NOT GIVEN YOURSELF TO JESUS CHRIST, WHAT IS STOPPING YOU? JESUS DIED SO YOU AND I CAN HAVE A REAL & ABUNDANT LIFE! OR OUR YOU SATISFIED WITH YOU BEING CONTROL?