While We Were Still Sinners (Romans 5)

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It isn’t even Thanksgiving, but we’re already thinking about Christmas. Sure with the tradition of the Living Nativity here we can’t really avoid preparing for Christmas this far in advance. But it isn’t just us. The stores are already gearing up for Christmas, the radio stations are already playing some Christmas music, and some people are already putting up Christmas decorations and shopping for gifts. Even Santa Claus is checking his list to see that those who are nice will get their gifts. But are those gifts? We seem to be a little confused today over what we mean by the words gifts and grace. Rarely do people object and say that Santa is not giving gifts because the kids have to be good in order to get those gifts. Yet at the same time you will hear economics professors arguing for the forgiveness of third world debt also using gift or grace language when they mean that those nations should be forgiven without having to be good. In other words, sometimes we think we are being gracious and giving a gift when people do something to deserve it and sometimes we think that we are only being gracious and giving a gift when the recipient is unworthy because we would say that it isn’t a gift to give someone something when they have worked for it. So which is it? The Greeks and Romans and even the Jewish people all would have agreed on how to define gifts and grace, but not Paul. 

1. Paul discovered the real meaning of grace by reflecting on the timing of the gift of Jesus Christ.

   1. The way that the Greek, Roman and Jewish people all understood gifts is not unlike Santa’s view. It is not that Judaism was a religion of works and not a religion of grace. They talked about grace a lot. They thought of God as the giver of all good gifts. But the way that they looked at grace and gifts was the same as the Greek and Roman philosophers. For example, Seneca said this about gifts: “For it follows that, if they are ill placed, they are ill acknowledged, and when we complain of their not being returned, it is too late; for they were lost at the time they were given.” He added, “pick out those who are worthy of receiving our gifts.” So for Seneca gifts were wasted on those who are not worthy and you should expect something in return for giving a gift like a public thank you. Greeks, Romans and Jews all agreed with this way of thinking about gifts and grace – gifts were to be given to the worthy – they have to fit the person to whom you give the gift. To them grace is conditional. (But not Paul.)

   2. Paul says that if you get a reward for a work then it is not a gift. His theological vocabulary underwent a profound shift after he received the gift of the crucified Jesus Christ. He had to rewrite the grace entry in his theological dictionary because of the timing of this gift. He says, “God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” God did not wait until His people were worthy of the gift or until the gift would have been a fitting one for its recipients – no, the recipients were ungodly, sinners, enemies, and weak or powerless. If you followed the philosophers, like Seneca or Philo, you might say that God checks his list twice and gives gifts to the worthy boys and girls because God would not waste His gifts. But Paul says that at the right time – at precisely the time when we were still sinners at enmity with God – that was when God gave us the free gift of the crucified Son. Thus grace is a free gift given to the unworthy. Paul now understood that grace is God’s unconditional favor and it is not a wasted gift at all but a free gift. It is the free gift of the crucified Christ, which if you have Jesus then you have justification and life. (So the question is, ‘Are you more more like Santa or more like God when you tell people about Jesus?’)

2. We need to abandon any traces of thinking that the gift of Jesus is for the worthy and take that gift to offer to the ungodly.

   1. The more the Christians in Rome appreciated that the crucified and risen Jesus is a gift given to ungodly sinners the more they would be eager to help Paul reach the barbarians. The more the Greco-Roman culture and modern Judaism influenced their thinking, the more bias they would show to “worthy” fellow-Romans with good morals. Indeed, Christians in Rome might want to baptize Seneca as teaching philosophy compatible with Christianity but God’s grace is a free gift given to the ungodly. Thus despite their culture’s view of gifts, Paul’s mission to the barbarians makes sense. A mission to the barbarians is what God would do.

   2. God is still on a mission today and you are invited to join Him on it. Bias toward “worthy” fellow-Americans with good morals is not fitting then. For “at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.” Of course, at that time when Jesus died for you, you weren’t even born yet – thus you had done nothing to be worthy of salvation. But even once you were conceived and born, you still were not worthy. You would be an ungodly sinner at enmity with God except that you have received the free gift of justification by faith in Christ Jesus. The more you grow in your appreciation of this free gift, the more you will want to reach those living somewhere else on the globe who sound funny to you. You can begin by sharing the good news of Jesus with those foreign telemarketers and customer service representatives who frustrate you because you can’t understand their thick accents. Then too you can share the good news with those foreigners visiting Niagara Falls as you meet and strike up a conversation with them in the store. But to really witness to foreigners in a foreign land we will need to make a plan as a group. Let’s start talking about what it is that God is going to be doing through you. May He be praised. Amen!