Well, I'm very honored to be able to speak at a
lectureship, and I appreciate the invitation
from Brady.
I think Brady is doing a great job, but I'm not
too sure about all that technology stuff.
Speaking as an old-timer, I don't know about
all those blackberries and blueberries and
strawberries and all the text messaging that's
taking place.
It's taking me a while to get used to that.
I learned a few years ago what being a part of
a wireless campus would mean and to have
all of the technology in our classrooms.
I made a terrible mistake.
I scheduled a class during the spring on a
Monday night, and any good basketball fan
knows that the NCAA Championship is going to be
on a Monday night.
So that was a real dilemma, but of course we
wouldn't think of canceling class, though
we probably should have, but we went on and we
wanted to get through as fast as we could
so that we could get out by the second half.
So I feverishly lectured, and they feverishly
pounded on their laptops, and it came time
to dismiss, and I was ready for the second
half, and the student raised his hand and
said the score is 38-34.
So I suppose that's what technology will bring
to the classroom, at least it did for me.
This last summer, I finally got around to
watching the heroic story, Amazing Grace,
by William Wilberforce and his great
challenging work of ridding the British Isles
of the Slave Tray.
I turned it on and began to watch, and of
course it had me hooked from the very beginning.
I knew how the story turned out, but I still
wanted to see.
I wanted to see how this lone individual could
overcome the entrenched interests and finally
come out triumphant and ban the slave trade
from England.
It had me hooked, and I could not stop until it
was over, even though I knew the end.
Well I think that's the way a story is supposed
to work.
I learned that a long time ago.
A story is supposed to hook you at the
beginning and keep you in suspense until there
is a
resolution and something comes to an end.
I learned that, I think, at the very beginning
when I first learned Little Red Riding Hood,
and I still experience that on those old reruns
of Law and Order.
Even if I've watched it again, I'm still
hooked, and I have to see how that turns out
because I want resolution.
Something about us likes stories and something
about us likes to be there until the moment
of resolution comes.
Well this week we are working through Romans,
and that doesn't look like much of a story.
It looks like a long essay or a long sermon.
You can imagine the attention span of those who
once heard this read all at once.
Well, if you read long enough and listen
carefully enough to Romans, you hear a story.
You hear it first in the passage that was
already a part of this lecture series.
But now, apart from the law, the righteousness
of God has been manifested, the righteousness
of God, through the faith of Jesus Christ.
But now, being justified by His blood, through
Him we have reconciliation.
But now, you are discharged from the law, and
now you live by the Spirit.
There is therefore, now, no condemnation to
those who are in Christ Jesus, for the law
of the Spirit has made us free from the law of
sin and death.
All of that has a now.
And every time you see that now, you realize
that Paul is telling the story in the economy
of words, that there is something behind that now.
And when you hear that, you know that there is
a story behind it.
You know there was condemnation, and there is a
story behind it.
There was a struggle with the law, and now he
says you are discharged from the law.
There was a story behind it.
But as Paul is writing a letter to a mixed
congregation, probably in Rome, several house
churches, people from different ethnic groups,
Paul is writing about the now that has changed
their lives.
And if they were Gentiles, they realized that
the story that they were a part of, that they
had been under the wrath of God, and if they
were Jews they realized they were also part
of the story.
Now there is now.
And something has changed.
There is a culmination of the story.
Well Romans has been that very, very
revolutionary book.
You fast forward a few centuries and there is a
teacher of rhetoric who has a Christian
mother but he is living his life of dissipation.
All the while his mother is praying for him but
Augustine isn't quite ready.
And Augustine prays, Lord give me self-control
but not yet.
But he heard someone read Romans.
Over the backyard fence someone was reading it
and said now is the time.
And Augustine experienced the now of his life,
the culmination.
Fast forward a few more centuries and we have a
monk who is not suffering from a dissipated
life, he is suffering from a good life.
But he is asking the question, how do I find a
righteous God?
And as he is struggling with his sins he
experiences Romans and there is that now to his life.
It's happened many times.
Then you go a few centuries more and there is a
slave trader named John Newton who finally
wrote a book, wrote a song called Amazing Grace.
And in it he sort of tells his story but it's
also the story of many of us.
I once was lost but now I'm found.
Was blind but now I see.
There is a story behind it now.
Let me tell you that there is a part of that
that is my story also.
I remember coming to Abilene in 1960 and I
didn't know anything about Romans but I did
know that we would be judged some day and I
sort of had the idea that there were God's
heavenly scales and if my good deeds would
outweigh my bad deeds then I would be saved.
Romans was this most revolutionary book when I
read it and I learned about grace.
There was the now in my own life that God
redeems us and that was a part of my story too.
I suspect it was your story also.
Many of our churches learned grace about a
generation ago and we've been struggling
with it ever since.
We learned it and we learned that the Bible is
not just about my good deeds outweighing
my bad deeds.
We learned about grace and we haven't been the
same since.
You look through the Bible and you see just
story after story of good news.
Little stories, little short stories.
Jesus tells the story of the most famous of
all, of the prodigal son.
There's a story of grace.
A young man living his life in dissipation,
perhaps bored at home, goes away, comes back
and there's a party.
I love that story of the laborers in the
vineyard because it's a story about grace.
Here are people who work all day in the fields
and these others come in and work one hour
and they all get the same gift and I think it's
not fair.
But God is not necessarily fair in that
traditional sense.
That was grace or that Pharisee and the
publican when the Pharisee had so many credits
to his
name and the poor tax collector comes and says,
God be merciful to me a sinner.
Great stories, something that comes to a
conclusion and we like stories that come to a conclusion
and a resolution.
But I have to admit I am a little uneasy with
those stories.
As much as I get hooked on a good story and
have to stay with it to the end, I have this
annoying habit of asking, what happens next?
After the man has ridden off into the sunset,
what happens next?
One of my favorite musicals was the musical by
Stephen Sondheim, Into the Woods.
Nice little fairy tales told at the beginning,
Little Red Riding Hood, Jack and the Beanstalk.
I can't remember the others because I don't
know those stories.
But it all ends in the first half and they've
lived happily ever after.
But then there's a second act and what you
discover is things don't go so neatly.
There was a morning after.
So Jack, as I recall the story, if I recall it
correctly, has killed a giant, stolen the
goose that lays the golden egg and there are
consequences for that.
The giant's wife isn't going to put up with it.
And so she's going to wreak terror among all
those people who lived happily ever after.
And what I like about the story is that it
dares to say that they lived happily ever
after is not a real world.
There is the question of what happens next.
And I've had the same question about all those
nice stories in the gospels.
I just have to ask myself the question, what
happened with the prodigal son about six months later?
That worked pretty well.
Go away.
Your father forgives you.
Does he think about trying it again?
Are those laborers in the vineyard?
That worked pretty well.
Show up for one hour.
What are they going to do tomorrow?
Well, this is a pretty gracious and forgiving owner.
Maybe I'll try that again.
William Meehl, who taught preaching at Yale for
many years, wrote a sermon that I read
long, long ago called The Cult of the Publican.
You know that story, how he went to his house
justified rather than the other.
And he said, that's a great story.
But then he says, there's something about that
tax collector that makes me uneasy.
I'm not sure I like him.
First time you read it, it's a great story.
But what about the time when you read it the
second time and the third time?
What happens when the tax collector himself
actually reads the Gospel of Luke?
Does he say to his children, I tell you how it works?
You don't have to do all those things the
Pharisee does, you just go act contrite.
And the point that he makes is that the curtain
always goes down on those stories, those nice
stories that end, whether it's Jesus parables
or Cornelius or the Ethiopian eunuch.
We have these nice stories and little cameo
appearances of these characters and we never
hear from those characters again.
And the curtain always goes down without our
knowing what happens next.
Well, Meehl says he had a grandfather who ran a
saloon and the grandfather had been
saved by Billy Sunday five times.
And the grandfather would love to tell the
story about how Billy Sunday made him so aware
of his transgressions and his sins and how he
experienced that grace five times.
And he wanted to experience that grace, but he
said there was always Monday and there
was always that saloon.
And Meehl says the curtain never went down on
my grandfather.
No one ever stopped the story the way we have
the stories in scripture that stop when they
live happily ever after.
Life went on.
And that's why I think there is the power of
Romans 8:1.
Because the power of Romans 8:1, there is
therefore now no condemnation to those
who are in Christ Jesus, for the law of the
spirit has made us free from the law of sin
and death.
It's a great story.
One might wish that Paul had stopped the book
right there, past tense, I've been redeemed.
That's the story.
That's where the story ends.
But Paul doesn't stop there.
And I suspect that the part of Romans that
often goes unread is the next part.
He's gone from past tense to possibility.
God did what the law in that it was weak
through the flesh could not do, sending his son in
the likeness of sinful flesh.
In order that we might keep the just
requirement of the law, or rather in order that
the just
requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us
who walk not according to the flesh,
but according to the spirit.
The story goes on.
It doesn't finish when you've experienced the justification.
It goes on.
You're not at the end of the story, you're in
the middle of the story.
And if you read the rest of Romans 8, you
realize that God is transforming
his people.
And grace is not about that instantaneous
moment of forgiveness.
Grace is about transformation.
That God can take us and mold us and transform
us and change us.
Grace is not about relaxing your commitment to
the church.
Grace is not people being lax in their ethical commitments.
Grace is about being changed, transformed.
There's a troubling passage in Romans 7.
You remember the tormented person who says, I
can will what is right, but I cannot do it.
What I want to do, I can't do.
I think many of us have seen ourselves in that
person and felt that way.
But as a matter of fact, Romans 7 comes before
Romans 8.
And Romans 8 says that we are the community
that will fulfill the just requirement of God.
And all of those ethical lapses, the
immorality, the vices you read in chapter one,
or the
judgmental behavior in chapter two, he is
saying it does not have to be that way.
To celebrate grace is to celebrate what God is
doing in our lives as we are being transformed.
As a matter of fact, the story goes on.
I fear sometimes we don't expect enough of people.
There's so much about us in life that tells us
that we are who we are, we're the creatures
of our environment or creatures of our heredity.
And we just have to sit there and accept God's grace.
And I read this passage and I see not just
forgiveness, I see expectations.
That those who experience grace are in a story
that is God's story.
It will come to a culmination when we are
blameless before Christ.
But as it is, we are being ethically transformed.
I suggest that we expect more.
That the church is not just the place of grace,
which it is.
The church is the place of expectations.
The church is the place where we don't freeze
in that moment when we have been saved.
But the church is the place where we are being
transformed by God.
There's a line from the 2nd century from Justin
Martyr who writes to the emperor.
And he writes to show that Christians aren't
such bad people.
And he writes to the emperor, I just have to
read Justin's statement.
Because it's a marvelous picture of the church.
We who formerly rejoiced in uncleanness of life
and now love only chastity.
Who also used magic arts and have now dedicated
ourselves to the good and unbegotten God.
We loved resources of money and possessions
more than anything.
And now actually share what we have and give to
people in need.
We who hated one another and killed one another.
And would not eat with those of another race.
And now since the manifestation of Christ, have
a common life and pray for enemies and
try to win over those who hate us without just cause.
That's a change to people.
And that's what grace means.
I have watched recently as someone lived out
the tension between Romans 7 and 8.
I have watched as someone feels addicted to the
power of alcohol and has fallen many times.
And I have watched how that person has been
surrounded by people in the church who have
never given up.
Because they will accept him with God's love,
but they will not accept that that is the
end of the story.
That even such a power, such an addictive
power, God can change.
And the reason is, as our passage reminds us,
it would be impossible on our own.
But the law of God is fulfilled in us who walk
according to the Spirit.
And Paul knows the prophecies of Jeremiah and
Ezekiel that in a new day, they will keep
God's commands because God will enable them.
And that's precisely what has happened to us.
Grace is not just forgiveness.
Grace is empowerment.
And that we can be empowered to be a
transformed people who love our neighbors and
live up
to God's highest demand.
God calls us to be the people who are really,
really the people of a grace church, but who
know what grace really is, the call to live the
transformed life.
Well, James, let's talk.
This is your chance to text message and email
in questions for James so that we can see
the man behind this great sermon.
Did you forbid any of my students from doing this?
No, no.
All students are allowed to do this.
The slide tells you how to text.
I think everybody's figuring out how to do this.
James, very well done.
Can I just say that? Wow.
A couple of lines that stood out to me, grace
is more than a moment, an instant moment.
It's a life of transformation.
And then later you said it's not just about
that moment of forgiveness, but empowerment.
Very well said.
Let me just ask you some of these student
questions here.
This one is from Steve Booker of Houston, Texas.
He says the battle of the spirit and the flesh
never ends.
Explain your view on the story of the battle
between the spirit and the flesh.
Paul describes a battle going on between two powers.
And the way he describes it, you can be the
slave of one or the other.
But Paul is so optimistic about what it could
be a life like in Jesus Christ.
He's so optimistic that you don't have to lose
that battle.
Because Paul says, Romans 6, we didn't talk
about, but in Romans 6, you are the slaves
of the one whom you obey.
And so he is absolutely convinced that you
don't have to be victimized because there
is the power of the spirit.
And if you turn your life over the spirit to be
its slave, you can be changed. Definitely.
Well, let me ask another one here, James.
This is from Kelsey Evans.
Aside from the individual condemnation that
lies behind stories like Augustine and Luther,
what's the nature of condemnation that lies
behind Paul's words to the Romans?
Well the part that we sometimes miss in Paul is
that God's justice also means accountability.
The judicial metaphor suggests that God is
judge who vindicates the helpless who call
on him.
But as we learn about the wrath of God, the God
who vindicates is also the God who holds accountable.
And God's grace never diminishes the fact that
in several of his letters he says we
give an account to God.
And so ultimately the God who is the judge of
grace and who says you are acquitted is
also the God who holds accountable how we
respond to that grace.
So there is accountability.
I think that's a good nuance.
And I think you even further nuanced something
that was very helpful as you talked about
chapter 7 and chapter 8 where we wonder how can
I keep from sinning?
I do these things I don't want to do and you
said well that comes before even chapter 8.
And I think you did a good job of emphasizing
the confidence that we can have before the
throne of God, yet not getting us off the hook
for right now.
I thought that was very well done.
Maybe I clarify that that certainly doesn't
mean that one doesn't have lapses and failures
and sins who is the one who is a Christian.
But it does mean that that doesn't have to
control you.
I had a student one time when I was teaching
Romans 7 and he said, as Paul is saying you're
just as good as your last game.
Or as Paul is saying you're not just as good as
your last game.
It's more than the lapse here or there.
It is the direction of your life that Paul is
talking about.
Here's maybe another nuance here.
This is from Kelsey Hilton.
She asks, should we not worry about sinning
because of grace but rather follow in Jesus
footsteps simply to share in God's redeeming
love or is there a different perspective concerning
Well, if I understand that question, I would
say I don't see an either or.
To follow Jesus is discipleship.
But as I read Romans 7, when you share his
destiny, that is not different from following Jesus.
You are sharing his destiny as one is baptized
and walks in newness of life.
That is discipleship and tantamount as far as I
know to following Jesus as it's recorded
in the gospels.
That makes sense.
So sharing his destiny means sharing his
journey and sharing his life that calls us into transformation.
Let's see here.
We've got another late coming text message.
I'm kind of curious myself as it's loading up here.
What passage in Romans does the contemporary
church really need to hear?
Is it Romans 8 or is it something else?
Well, since I did this lesson on Romans 8, it's
obviously Romans 8.
No, seriously, I do think that we have learned
the first four chapters of Romans.
At least if your experience, the audience
experiences like mine, we had that aha moment
of learning God's grace.
We learned what Luther learned, but what Luther
didn't learn so well is the chapters five
through eight, chapters 12-15, which call for commitment.
And so I would say Romans 8 is sort of a hinge
where you begin to see how ethics work in
that you are empowered to be what God has
called you to be.
Definitely empowered.
In fact, one of my favorite quotes from Dallas
Willard, God's grace is not opposed to effort.
It's opposed to earning.