No Boasting – Faith prevents it

Romans 3:27-31

27 Then what becomes of boasting? It is excluded. By what law? By that of works? No, but by the law of faith. 28 For we hold that a person is justified by faith apart from works prescribed by the law. 29 Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, 30 since God is one; and he will justify the circumcised on the ground of faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith. 31 Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law.

Letting go and letting God is so easy to say, but so hard to put into practice. Surely, we say to ourselves, there are some things about me that would merit the attention of God. Some things that make we better than the other people. Surely, I am in God’s good books on my own merit.

In Paul’s day the Jews thought of themselves that way. “We are religious people,” they said to themselves, “we worship the correct God, unlike those other people the Gentiles. We are closer to God than they are.” (To be clear about what is being talked about Jewish males were circumcised, and almost all Gentile males were not circumcised. So the reference in vs. 30 is to Jews and Gentiles.) This Paul calls boasting, and he will have none of that. People who have been religious people all their lives have no greater claim on God’s grace than those who have wandered far from God. We are back to the “no distinction” from yesterday.

But Paul takes this further, “since God is one” (vs. 30) there is one way of being redeemed – “faith apart from works” – this is for all people. There are not multiple ways – there is one way, letting go and letting God. This applies to all peoples regardless of culture, ethnicity, or language. That letting go includes all of the narrow understandings we have that say that “it is faith in God” and… (various things get added – often things that have to do with culture and tradition). Letting go and letting God means letting go of the things that we think are essential to following – and holding to Jesus Christ alone – and letting Jesus in us to make us more like him.

Letting go is hard, but if we are going to experience the grace of God, we must let go, as Amazing Grace says, “Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved.” Grace can only be experienced by letting go, for only then do we find that God’s grace will redeem and reconcile us.

PRAYER:

God of grace, we confess that we want to claim the credit for our salvation, we want to be able to boast that we pulled ourselves up by our own bootstraps. Forgive our arrogance and teach us the hard but transformative lesson, to let go and let you act. Shape us around this truth we pray. Amen.