Roaming in Romans

At my church, we are working our way through the book of Romans and yesterday we briefly looked at Romans 12:1, and as we read it some thing hit me for the first time ever. When we think about the Roman culture of the time, what Paul is suggesting to the Romans was very counter culture.

At this point in history, the Romans have been heavily influenced by Greek philosophy and would have likely been dualists, viewing the physical world as evil, and awaited the release of their "soul" from its physical prison, then they read this letter from Paul, and it says:

....offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship (NIV).

I wonder how "weird" or insane this would have seemed for them to be told to offer their "evil bodies" as living sacrifices to God. It may have been more understandable to them for Paul to tell them to kill their bodies as a sacrifice to God so their souls would be free, but for them to give their "bodies" as a living sacrifice?!

Then Paul tells them that this living sacrifice of the body is holy, pleasing/acceptable to God. I would think this would only further confound them as it goes against their basic understanding of the body being evil. Paul is telling them that living in this "evil" body for God is actually a holy and pleasing act of worship to God. Not only is this an act of worship, but Paul takes it a step further and contrasts the physical against the spiritual. Stating that this physical act of living in the body as a sacrifice to God is a spiritual act of worship.

This is all well and interesting, but what application does it have for our lives? It leaves me wondering what presumptions and biases in my own worldview have hindered me in my pursuit of truth.

Divine Inspiration?

This past week I was able to sit in on the Septuagint Conference that was held at Trinity Western. The Septuagint is a Greek translation of the Hebrew Torah/Pentateuch (first 5 books of the Bible) and ,depending on your tradition, some other biblical texts. At the conference the topic of multiple manuscripts came up and the reality that we do not have any original manuscripts of the Septuagint or any other books in the Bible. Furthermore, when we trace back as far as we can the manuscripts we do have contain variants (differences in the text). Discovering this can be a faith shaking experience or at the very least cause one to question their view of Scripture. This is likely more challenging if we think that the 66 books of the Protestant Bible were compiled by the Apostles and handed down from generation to generation (in the KJV, of course).

Realizing that we do not have the original manuscripts has actually increased my appreciation for Scripture because amidst the variants the message remains intact. The consistency of the message amidst the variants has done two things to me. One is it has made Scripture more "real" to me, as it is more believable to me that over centuries of coping copies that changes in the text would occur. Two is increased my awe of God, who has maintained his message to his creation through fallen humanity.

Losing My Religion

Most of us can think of a time where we have been hurt by an individual or a group who represent Christ. For some of us that has been enough to walk away from the Church, stating "They're all a bunch of hypocrites". Bob Dylan, a folk philosopher and spiritualist (more known for his unique music), rejected Christianity after his "conversion" in the 80s because of the "hypocrisy he experienced in the church".

I think this charge of hypocrisy many times is birthed out of hurt that results from us adding on to salvation requirements. People are introduced to this Jesus of love and compassion, who died for their sin and overcame death so that they could have a relationship with him. However, it's not long after they start to come to church and spend time with other Christians that they start to get told how horrible they are and how if they "have not done this" or if they "have done that" then they aren't really "saved" or they have "lost their salvation". Before long this yoke that is easy and burden that is light has had a check list piled on. This relationship they entered into has been turned into religion that they have been buried under.

When I look back to the Jewish religious culture Jesus was born into and compare it to the Church culture of today I see many similarities. Primarily, I see a people who have taken the revelation of God and formed it into religion. In James letter to "the twelve tribes" he is very clear that "true religion" leads to action. He does not, however, say it is our responsibility to "fix people" because they do not act the way we think they should or believe exactly the same things we do.

We add on to "believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved" (Acts 16:31) for us to consider someone a brother or sister. We create divisions within our family pitting brothers and sisters against each other. When people look at our family they see the Hatfields and McCoys. People still love Jesus, but when they meet his bride, they think she's a real........."piece of work".

As I have read some Emergent Church people, I have found their benefit and contribution to the Church has been in their Ecclessiology. In their simpleness they have gotten back to the heart of God, which is to be in relationship with his children and for his children to be in relationship with others. Going to an Ecumenical School (lots of different churches working together) began to open me up to a "simple Gospel", and the Emergent Church has blown the doors wide open on this. When we begin to add requirements onto "believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved", I believe we begin to add to the Gospel and turn this relationship God desires into a structured religion of rituals that serve to distance us from God.

This is not an assault on theology. I believe theology is crucial to our relationship with God and that it is through God revealing himself to us by various means that we enter into more intimate relationship with him. This is not a call to "abandon the church, and start our own "church". This an assault on the religion we have formed and a call to speak this "Simple Gospel" through the life we live as the Church. I have lost my Religion and I have grabbed hold of the "Simple Gospel".