Romans 3:1-8

"Let God be true and every man a liar." Rom. 3:4

I don't know about you, but I have a habit of taking myself too seriously. Sometimes I get caught up in what I say and do, so much so, that I can be in someone else's face when they let me down or don't follow through on what they promise. I feel so ignored and hard done by. I'm reminded by Jesus that when I point the finger at someone else's imperfection, there is a glaring imperfection in my own life that I need to consider first before I start judging others.

In the first two chapters of Romans, Paul has been drawing the believers of Romans into understanding that the one and only thing they can truly boast in or be confident of exists outside of themselves. Boasting or putting confidence in who we are is a dangerous thing. It causes us to take ourselves too seriously; even to the point of putting ourselves in the position of judges that only God has. In these first verses of chapter three, Paul reminds the believers in Rome that God's faithfulness does not depend on what they do or don't do. The truth of all things hinges on who God is, not on who we are. When truth is placed in the trust of fallen human beings, it is no longer truth. In fact it turns into something less authentic and much more vicious.

I'm in Israel this week on tour with Joe Amaral and today I'm crafting this blog from a hotel in Jerusalem. We visited the Western Wall [aka Wailing Wall] in the old city of Jerusalem. Three different people and religions converge on this site. Geographically, there is a Jewish quarter to the west of the wall, Arabic quarter to the north of the wall and a Christian quarter to the east of the wall. All of these quarters look to the site as a significant holy place. All of them feel they have the truth as to the origins of the site and to who it belongs - yet it has created such a tension between the groups in terms of fighting and war over the recent past. When you think about these three groups, they are all the children of Abraham and so all have a connection to God yet they are adamant against each other that they have a the truth over and against the other.

How much suffering and pain would have been avoided in the land if all people realized that only God holds the truth and all need to relinquish this authority to Him? How much suffering would the Roman believers have avoided if they realized that only God holds the truth and they need to relinquish the authority of that truth to Him and not find it in their lineage, color or way of following Jesus. How much suffering and pain could be avoided in our own lives if we would relinquish the authority of truth to God alone and not find it in our own opinions, knowledge, status and position in life?

Paul mentions in this passage as well, those who may then use this truth of God holding all truth as a way of continuing in sin. The attitude is that if God is responsible for everything, then we don't need to be responsible. We can live any way we want because God will always demonstrate grace and mercy to us. Paul says, "No Way!" This attitude will actually create more distance from God. God having all authority and holding all truth does not exempt us from being responsible to honour God for who he is and what he has done by remaining in relationship with Him. Put it this way, if God loves us like crazy, why would we want to jeopardize that love by acting foolishly and hurtfully toward him by our behaviour. Would we want to jeopardize our loving relationships with our spouses, parents, kids and close friends by our foolish and hurtful behaviour? The last thing any of use would want to do is hurt the ones we love and jeopardize our relationships. Its the same with our relationship with God. We need God in our lives. The Jews live their lives orienting their lives toward God. As believers we must do the same if we want to hear His voice in our lives.

Questions:

1. Do you take yourself too seriously?
2. In your last argument with someone, did you try to win the argument or the person?
3. How do we as a community of believers, take ourselves too seriously?
4. What are the things that we need to leave in God's hands?
5. Who is the one that works change in people?