Rulekeeping | Wayfarer

What does Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”
Romans 4:3 (NIV)

In the entirety of the Great Story, Abraham stands out as one of the most important and influential individuals. In fact, Abraham figures into current events to this very day. Three of the major world religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) trace their roots back to Abraham. The animosity between Muslims and Jews today is, in a sense, a family squabble from over four thousand years ago. Amazing.

In John 8, Jesus has a lengthy argument with his fellow Jews about Abraham. It’s a fascinating read along with today’s chapter because both Paul and Jesus are addressing the same problem in different ways. Their fellow Jews were proud of being “Abraham’s children” and letting everyone know it. Once again, Jesus points out the pesky sin problem that His people refused to see.

“If you were Abraham’s children,” said Jesus, “then you would do what Abraham did. As it is, you are looking for a way to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham did not do such things.“

Fast forward to Paul and his fellow Jews who were now followers of Jesus and making two basic demands. 1) That their non-Jewish counterparts become circumcised and 2) They follow the law of Moses. The problem with these demands is that they perpetuate what Jesus came to confront once and for all, and Paul continues the Message: Salvation is not dependent on keeping rules and/or removing the foreskin of your penis. Salvation is a gracious gift given through faith in Jesus alone. Period.

By demanding that their Gentile counterparts be circumcised and keep the Law of Moses, the Jewish believers were going back to the very problem Jesus came to address.

So how does Paul address this? He goes back to Father Abraham, and he points out to his fellow Jews what their own scriptures say: “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” He then goes on to point out that this act of faith and accrediting of righteousness happened before the covenant of circumcision was given, and before the Law of Moses existed. They have the salvation equation backward. From the beginning, from Father Abraham, salvation has always been about God’s kind and gracious gift that is activated by simple faith.

In the quiet this morning as I meditated on Paul’s words, I realized that I have long observed the same problem Paul and Jesus were dealing with 2000 years ago. It’s so easy to slip into the mode of rule-keeping and virtue-signaling. The history of humanity proves to me that this always ends up in hypocrisy, secret sins, condemnation of others, and self-righteous pride. How cool to think that all the way back to Father Abraham God was showing us the way.

Listen to God.
Believe what He says.
Have faith that God will do what He says.
Receive the gracious gift of God’s forgiveness.
Have righteousness credited to your spiritual account.

When I experienced this, it resulted in so much gratitude. My natural response was “What can I do for you God? How can I ever thank you for this gift I don’t deserve?”

“Live in the ways I ask you. Love others as I love them. Share with others what you’re experienced in Me,” God responds.

And so, I’ve been endeavoring to do that every day of this earthly journey.

Not because I have to in order to earn salvation. Salvation is already mine. I want to do the things God asks of me out of gratitude for that gift I’ve been given.

And that makes all the difference.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

…and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
Romans 3:24 (NIV)

Wendy and I get along remarkably well despite the fact that we have very different temperaments. Wendy is an Enneagram Type Eight (the Challenger) and I am an Enneagram Type Four (the Individualist). The Enneagram Institute calls this relational combination the most “inherently volatile.” Nevertheless, Wendy and I somehow manage to be around one another pretty much 24/7/365. Not only have we not killed one another, but we actually enjoy our perpetual proximity. The Enneagram Institute goes on to describe the Eight/Four coupling: “Both types bring passion, intensity, energy, and deep (often unconscious) feelings to all aspects of the relationship.”

Wendy and I have also found ways in which we are very different. This occasionally creates rifts between us. For example, I was raised in a home where the rule was “the door is always open and everyone is welcome at any time.” My dad would be happy to regale you with countless stories of my friends, and the friends of my siblings, stopping by at all hours unannounced.

Wendy, on the other hand, believes firmly in the rule that the kind thing to do is always let people know in advance that you’d like to stop by. Thus, we had a rift that would regularly present itself in conversation while on our way to Des Moines to visit my parents. It started like this:

Wendy: “Did you call your parents and tell them we’re coming?”

Tom: “No.”

I’ll let you imagine the rest of the conversation.

In today’s chapter, Paul continues to address the rift between Jewish and Gentile believers. The rift was rooted in the Jewish preoccupation with being rule-keepers. They had been given God’s rulebook through Moses, and good religious Jews were obsessed with keeping the rules. This presented a problem, however. It was a historic problem that presented itself almost immediately after the Law had been given. It then continued through the period of the Judges and the period of the Kings and perpetuated itself during Jesus’ ministry. Jesus confronted this problem time and time again.

The problem was relatively simple: People chose which rules they wanted to follow, and which rules they wanted to conveniently ignore. The rules that they chose to follow were the rules that others could clearly see with their own eyes.

Did you keep the sabbath?
Did you make your prescribed offerings?
Did you go to the Temple for the feast?
Did you circumcise your male children?

The rules they ignored were easier to hide and corporately convenient to simply sweep under the rug.

Did you love the foreigner in your midst and honorably treat them as you would want to be treated?
Were you generous, refusing to get rich at another’s expense?
Did you treat others lovingly and with equity?
Did you take care of the poor, the needy, and the outcast?

Jesus spent his entire three-year ministry trying to get His good religious Jewish brothers and sisters to see the problem. They cared more about Jesus keeping the rule about not working on the Sabbath (which is easy to see) and failed to see that the rule was never intended to keep them from doing something good for someone (e.g. healing, helping, lending a hand). Having God’s rulebook didn’t make the Jewish people righteous. It didn’t make them better at anything other than learning to keep up appearances with some rules while clandestinely skirting other rules for their selfish gain.

This cultural obsession with rule-keeping was deeply ingrained in them. Jews who became followers of Jesus and had been raised in this culture had a hard time not demanding that everyone be a rulekeeper. They looked down on those non-Jewish believers who never had the Law of Moses (and didn’t really care). Thus the rift.

In the quiet this morning, my mind drifted back to Wendy and me in the car on our way to Des Moines. One of the things we’ve learned about the rifts that appear in our relationship is that it’s rarely, if ever, an “either-or” issue in which one is right and the other is wrong. It’s often a “both-and.” My parents’ hospitality and generosity were wonderful aspects of a home that blessed countless people. It’s nice to know that they were always open to welcoming someone unexpectedly knocking at the door. Also, it is always a kind thing to call ahead and let people know you’re planning to stop by.

Paul is making a similar “both-and” argument for the rift between the Jew and Gentile believers. Yes, the Jews were blessed to have been given God’s rulebook, AND having the rulebook didn’t make them more righteous than the average Gentile. Both Jew and Gentile have sinned and fall short of God’s glory, AND both Jew and Gentile are justified by God’s grace through faith in Jesus alone. The spiritual realities they share are greater than the differences they experience in the rift about rules.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.