Ken Boa Reflections Ministries

Dr. Ken Boa: And he's the one who protects us, and he's the one who provides for us. And he's the one who purchased us, and we being his beloved. So it's a great romance, the greatest romance ever known. He's the sacred romancer of your soul. And that is the thing that I end up with marvel. I can't understand it.

Now we've been doing Romans, and I gave an overview of it where I was talking about how the Gospels present the words and works of Jesus, and how Romans explores the significance of his sacrificial death and its rich theology at the first end of the book. And then the last part of the book of Romans 12 through 16 focuses on practical exhortation. So this is the truth; now walk in it. And so live that way.

I had this little chart about the prologue of the book, the salutation, statement, and theme. And in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. And it talked about the penalty of sin and the power of sin and the presence of sin in this concept here. But ultimately there's this issue of condemnation. Because we saw that in the justice of God you had this problem of being condemned before God. Romans 1 talked about this spiritual darkness. Even though they knew God, they didn't honor him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculation. It started with the interior, the spiritual. That's what led to the intellectual distortion. Professing to be wise, what happened? They became foolish and they lost their wisdom and worshipped and exchanged the things that are created for the things that are the creator.

And then that intellectual distortion, what was the third step down? It would be a moral decadence. And it's a description that if that was true in the first century, it's even more true now in our own time. So we live in this context, and he's building a powerful case to render a clear judgment. And this condemnation he's building—so he starts off with the problem of the bad news first.

And then he talks about the need for justification and then sanctification and glorification. So he's building a case, but he starts off with the problem of sin. Justification by relative standards—God's standard is perfection. You can't go by relative standards, so you have condemnation, then the good news is justification. And in there is a progression, a retrogression actually of sin that goes downward and downward and downward.

And then in chapter two, which is our chapter today, we're going to be looking at the fact that he's building a strong case showing first of all the Jews fail to meet the standard as well as the Gentiles. So it's not only the Gentiles miss it, but also the Jews as well because he's writing to a mixed readership, both Jew and Gentile. Don't think you're any better than the others for doing this. So he's building a strong case and that's where I want us to go in our time together.

I came to realize though that there's a book that I have called the Broadman Holman New Testament Commentary. And volume six is the book on Romans, the chapter in Romans, and that's the one I did with my associate William Creydnier. So I just realized last night, you know what I need to do is to take this book and to turn it into a PDF. I've got a person who scans them. I'm going to take that PDF with my underlined parts and I'm going to provide it for you.

So I'm going to give you that PDF so that way you can always see where we're going because this will unpack it a great deal more than we have time to do in our short session together. But I did scan a few of the pages last night before I had the thing turned into a PDF so I can just show you some things about how this works and the concept that Paul is making a case to the Roman believers that the whole world needs the gospel. He's demonstrated that Gentiles deserve God's wrath. That was very clear in chapter one.

But now he's also going to be showing, lest Jews think they'll escape it by their privileged position, he's going to show that they also need the gospel as a result of their failure to obey the law of God. And that there's a law even in their own conscience that the Gentiles have, and the Jews have a moral law that was revealed but they failed to live up to it. And so it's really the concept of a deductive approach. By stating up front, "Here's my mission and my message. I'm going to proclaim the power of God to make people right with God." It has a power, but you've got to have the bad news before you're ready to see a physician. Before you realize you need healing, you need to know that you're sick. You need to understand before you go to a doctor you need to have that condition.

And so there are two kinds of categories of people, the Gentile and the Jew. The first half is that the Gentiles are guilty of sin before God, and he presented that as we've seen in chapter one. Now we're going to be focusing on the second half of Paul's evidence and we're going to be zooming in on that. And I want to just before I go any further, I'm just going to read some of the material here. I'm going to be using also another book of mine called Talk Through the Bible. And some of you may have it, but it looks like this. Because in Talk Through the Bible, I have an outline of every book of the Bible—the theme, structure, audience, background, style, and all that.

But the outline is the first part is a revelation of the righteousness of God. And so it starts off with the bad news first: condemnation. Then he talks about God's solution to the bad news: justification. He took the very thing that condemned us, which was the imputed sin of Adam, and placed it on our account. And he now does the same principle that caused us to be separated from God. But here he imputes our sin on his son.

And not only that, he doubles up the imputation because then what does he do? He imputes his son's righteousness on us. Best deal you'll ever get. I can't resist showing it to you because it's in Second Corinthians. You have this marvelous thought that when you look at my thoughts and words and deeds, it pretty well adds up to sin. Sin is anything that falls short of the glory of God. And we all have sinned and fall short. So you add that up. But then if you add up Christ's thoughts and words and deeds, that's another story entirely. In him there is no sin. He did not have the Adamic nature because he didn't have a human father.

But he was fully God, but he was fully man as well so the mystery is found in that solution. But at the same time you add up his deeds and thoughts and words and what do you get? Righteousness. Righteousness means to conform to a standard, and he perfectly fulfills the standard of God. Now here's the beauty. He made him who knew no sin to become sin on our behalf that we might have the righteousness of God in him, which means this. He made him who knew no sin to become sin. He took upon himself all the sins of the world, including ours. Even before we were born he knew us and his work was progressive and also retroactive because it goes back even to Adam. So this mysterious wonder is that he took upon himself the sin of the world.

But if that weren't enough, in order that we might become the righteousness of God. So here he double-imputes. The thing that condemned us he doubles up and now actually saves us because the thing that we couldn't possibly do he gives to us. He not only took our sin, but he gives us his perfection, his righteousness. And that is why it is possible for you to stand before God and he can be just and still justify the sinner because he paid the price. Because you see we live in a moral world and somebody has to pay the price. If anyone could get away with murder forever, it's not a moral world. God will not be mocked though. Whatever a man sows he'll also reap. Either that or you can choose for the sin bearer to have borne your price. You see the concept? You have an option. But at the end of the day, a choice is to be made.

So this wonderful truth is the best news you're ever going to get. You can't do better than this. He doubled it up. And so we look back at this concept here and we see that he imputed his righteousness, and we'll be talking about that a little bit later. We'll also be talking about then sanctification, which is the demonstration of his righteousness. To sanctify means to make holy, to bring into your practice who you already are in your position. Now you already are perfect in Christ. In your spirit, you're seated with him at the right hand of the Father and you're declared righteous and the Father sees you and he sees in you there is no sin.

Well how can that be? What about what I just thought or said or did? But we know that's not the deepest you. That's what Paul calls the flesh in Romans 7. He'll analyze that as we'll see. That's not the deepest you. So we see the vindication of the righteousness of God is found in the whole idea of God's purposes in Romans 9 to 11. So I want to go back here and let's just look at the chapter two. The Jews are judged according to truth; that's the first principle. Therefore you have no excuse, everyone of you who passes judgment. For in that you judge another, you condemn yourself. For you who judge practice the same things.

And we know that the judgment of God rightly falls upon those who practice such things. But do you suppose this, oh man, when you pass judgment on those who practice such things and do the same yourself that you're going to escape the judgment of God? Or do you think lightly of the riches of his kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance? But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you're storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.

So here he's saying that the issue is judgment according to truth, according to reality. And they're also judged by their works in verses 6 to 10, so he continues on. And he says who's going to render to each person according to his deeds? To those who by perseverance in doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life. But to those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth, wrath and indignation. There'll be tribulation and distress for every soul of man who does evil, for the Jew first but also for the Greek. It's universal.

But at the same time is the glory and honor and peace for anyone who does good to the Jew first, also to the Greek. No partiality with God. And so his principle of judgment then, first of all he judges according to truth, he judges according to the works and third he judges without partiality. So that's verses 11 to 16 as we look at in our outline. No partiality with God. For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law.

This is kind of harsh stuff but he's got to show the bad news. He has to build a case. It's an irrefutable case for our condition before God so that we can come to recognize we are the ones who fall short of that glory. Not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers will be justified. And so he says when Gentiles who don't have the law do instinctively the things of the law—this is an interesting argument because here in Romans 1 he said nobody's ignorant about God because he's made it evident within us and also from the created order. You can't say you didn't know about God. But you can't also say that you're ignorant of sin. We all have a conscience. Every one of us.

The Jew and the Gentile, we have a conscience. We know the right thing to do but we often don't do it. We know the better course because it's universal, because we bear the image of God and therefore we have a conscience. So they instinctively do the things of the law. They show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately are accusing or else defending them on the day when according to my gospel God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus. So there is this whole concept of that process. So it brings us up to verse 17.

Now he speaks about the Jews who do not obey the law and he's going to be building a solid case on that. And he's going to be saying in verses 17 to 29 that—it's hard to teach a whole chapter of Romans in half an hour. I'm doing my best. But anyway if you bear the name a Jew and rely on the law and boast in God, know his will and approve the things that are essential, being instructed by the law, and you're confident you're a guide to the blind, a light to those in darkness, a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of the immature. How is it that you don't teach yourself? You preach that, but do you steal? You say that one should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? Remember Jesus raised the bar.

It's not only a matter of actual physical adultery, but if a man looks upon a woman with lust in his heart. So now he raises it to the level of the heart. He made it even finer. I think Lewis put it this way: if a man were to look at a plate of bacon and eggs with hunger he's committed breakfast in his heart. So it's not just the act, it's the thought. And you know that the standards are such that we're nailed. You can say, "Well I didn't commit adultery," yet you have in your thought. "I didn't murder," yet you have hated your brother. So the standards are such that you realize nobody can make it. Who can be saved? Only if it's possible if God himself underwrote the cost.

And as chapter three will tell us, he can be just and justify the one who is in Christ because he bore the price. And so he says it's of value if you follow the law, but if you're a transgressor, it doesn't do you any good to be circumcised or to follow the law. So it's a matter of that which is of the heart, not by the letter. His praise is not from men but from God. So let me unpack this a little bit for you and just give you a little bit of a thought on this. There's some things Paul's not saying in this chapter as he builds his case.

He's not saying that salvation's by works. Works are not a means of salvation in lieu of hearing and responding to the gospel message. He's not saying that the heathen who have not heard the gospel can be saved in a manner different from those who have heard. And he's not saying that the Jews and the Gentiles are equally responsible before God. But on the other hand here is what he is saying. Judgment, not salvation's the focus. And your increased privilege—the more you've got, guess what happens? The more accountable you are.

So you're accountable for the light you have and nobody can, by the way, say, "I never had any light," because everyone is aware of God and has a conscience. But God will not hold us accountable for light we did not have. But he will hold us accountable for light we had. More privilege, more responsibility. But judgment's based on works. Works are based on the light received and the standard is the same for everyone. We all stand before him and we're guilty before him.

Now there's an interesting analogy that we use in our commentary where Jesus's parable about self-righteousness beautifully fits Paul's emphasis in this chapter. I want to go back and forth with the parable and you'll see where I'm going with that. In the parable, some were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else and he told this parable. Directed to you who pass judgment on someone else. The Jew and a tax collector were the subjects, weren't they?

And so both were Jews, but this tax collector who worked for the Romans was therefore considered like a pagan, like a Gentile, like a sinner. But here's this interesting thing. The Gentile sinners and the self-righteous Jews are both condemned in the same concept. In the contrast between the Jews who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else and here the Jews who rely on the law and brag about their relationship with God and they pass judgment on someone else—it's a very clear parallel. Then he compares in this parable, "I'm not like other men, like robbers and evildoers and adulterers or even this tax collector." I love that.

Those filled with wickedness, evil, greed and depravity—check again because actually it's there. The Jewish standard, "I fast twice a week and I give the tenth of all I get." And you who rely on the law, boast about your relationship with God and you're instructed by the law but you fall short. Again, he says "Have mercy." The Gentile's standards of righteousness, "Have mercy on me a sinner." Their conscience also bearing witness and their thoughts now accusing, now defending them. They know it's there. Whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. He's not left us without a witness, even if we haven't got the Scriptures. This man rather than the other went home justified before God.

The one who is not circumcised physically and yet obeys the law will condemn you. And then the conclusion: a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart by the spirit, not by the written code. His praise is not from men but from God. So it gives us an interesting analogy between these two. And he's building this case where he's saying what's being revealed are that people are being given over to increasingly sinful practices as their judgments are seen. Those who are self-seeking, who reject the truth and follow evil, there's going to be wrath and anger. There'll be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil, first for the Jew and then for the Gentile. On the other hand, those who by perseverance in doing good seek glory, honor—he'll give them eternal life.

So he gives to each person according to what he's done. He doesn't show favoritism. But it's obvious that no person has lived completely at either end of the spectrum: either totally evil or totally good. So we know these are hypothetical examples because certainly no one is totally righteous, even though all people are wholly defiled and wholly inclined to evil as the Westminster Confession of Faith would put it. So all people are somewhere in this spectrum and he'll give to each person according to what he's done.

So this is not a happy chapter as you can see. You begin to look at this material and you recognize that we're seeing really a picture of the condemnation of God. And he's going to be building up on this case because we're going to add some more next week when we talk about this unbelief that they have and then in chapter three the verdict is going to be "guilty." In chapter 3:23, where all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. This verdict is being—he's building a case and then they're ready for the good news. That's the whole concept there.

It's kind of interesting because some of you may know that in the serious business of heaven we argue that's exactly what Lewis was doing in Mere Christianity. And what we argue here is that this first thing here that you can see—let me put it over here. Go back to the cover. You see this image there? What is that? That's the law. Condemnation. Then justification, then sanctification, then glorification. My friend Steve Ervin observed—I haven't seen anyone else figure this out—that the key to Mere Christianity is it follows Romans 1 through 8. The four books correspond to those four.

So we then did our commentary where I just go back and forth and argue that condemnation, justification—it's quite intriguing that he came up with this idea. So then we have this traveling companion and basically I stop reading my book now and read his preface. Then go read this commentary. Then when you're through with that, stop reading that and read his chapter one. Then read my commentary. You see how it works? So we're going back and forth. But the point that I'm arguing here is that Lewis's—part of the genius of that book is that it really was based upon that insight.

So there's this whole process of spiritual darkness, intellectual distortion and moral decadence. We all fall short. Not only the Gentile but the Jew, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God as he's building that case. But then happily in chapter three, the good news starts. So after the first part of chapter three, then we get into God's solution to our dilemma. But you've got to show that we're sick before you're ready to call upon the physician and be healed. In understanding that position, then, we recognize we are in a condition before God where we stand before him and we need that righteousness.

And so beginning especially in chapter 3, verse 21—and these verses, some of my favorite in the entire book of Romans, we will be seeing next week chapter 3, verses 21 to 31. So I'd invite you to study them. I'm going to be having my little Romans commentary scanned and then we'll get it into your hands. So this just gives you a perspective on the outline of Romans. I just want you to be considering then how he judges according to truth, judges according to work and judges without partiality.

And this whole concept of realizing—I want you to grasp the depth out of which he's taken you. Because that's really the whole concept. The more you grasp your true condition before God, you'll realize it was a lot worse than you thought. We just don't see it very clearly. Yet, we have a way of justifying ourselves, don't we? "I'm better than most people," and most people have this silly notion—ask them on the street, go to a mall, do a survey, "How does a person get to heaven?" You know what it's going to be. It's going to be variations of the same silly answer. "Oh I go to church, I pay tithes, I do this, I do that." It's all works, works, works. And it's all going to lead you inadequately because what's the standard that God requires?

There's perfection, but they think that God grades on a curve. It's always fascinating how people are basically risking their eternal destiny hoping that God's going to grade on a curve. They actually have this notion that there's a ladder that one goes up to, I suppose, and there's a cutoff point. How is it that the cutoff point is a rung just below them? Where'd they get that? But it's amazing how people are so glib they don't even think about eternity. Yet there are reminders about it every day of our life. We recognize the brevity of the sojourn and we still choose not to see it.

And after a while you can inure yourself, you can become blinded to the reality. So it is a good thing for conviction to come in. That is why going back to where I started which was with the Handbook to Prayer, it's not accidental that confession follows adoration. Because the bigger your vision of who God is, the more you're aware of the sinfulness of sin. The greater your vision of God, the more you realize the need for grace. He's holier than you thought he was. And the great saints are the ones who know how far short they are. When we grow in Christ, we actually realize he's a lot greater than we thought and we're a lot worse than we thought.

And then what happens is grace grows with that, doesn't it? Your apprehension of grace. And I've shown you this before but it's worth reminding yourselves of this. When I look at the grace of God, I recognize that at first blush I see he's pretty far above me because in the grace of God I recognize that the standard's way way above me. Again silly people foolishly think, "Oh this guy is better than others so he'll let them in." Then they fail to realize the standards are a bit higher than you might have thought. You're comparing yourself with other people. Compare yourself with the perfection of God and then you begin to realize you fall short.

And your awareness of that grace is the degree to which you recognize the holiness of God and the sinfulness of sin. But guess what's going to happen? As you grow in Christ you're going to realize he's a lot greater as I just said. Your grasp of grace will increase accordingly. So you're going to come to see he's a lot greater than you thought. But your apprehension of grace—you know where I'm going with this, can't you? Because you can see at the end of the day it's going to go on forever. The more you learn about him in the ages to come, you're going to realize the depths of the gospel is even greater because it's going to be further up and further in. He's infinite. You'll never really find him in the fullness. But the more you know about him, the greater he will become and the richer your grasp of grace. So it's a growing process. So grasp the idea that you are here, saved by grace through faith, not of works, but it is the grace of God.

And let's focus on that concept and what that looks like. How does grace look in your life? Just that we ramble. What did you see about the grace of God—this concept, or either that motif or the other motif that we had about this? The more I look at those things, the more you realize that God's case is so profound against us that it's only by his grace that we can endure his presence at all. But he more than endures it; he invites us, he actually underwrites the cost. So this concept of the one who made this cosmos and all its glory in the micro, mid, and macro is the lover of your soul. Who could dream that?

That's something that I find still hard to conceive when I think about the four words of God. The inspired word reveals that the infinite word became the incarnate word. Who could have dreamed that the one who holds the galaxies together and understands the microbes and made them and all the wonders of this world is also a person who is the lover of your soul? That's hard to imagine, isn't it? But that's my Christology in one sentence basically. Because if it weren't for the inspired word, you'd never realize that the infinite word became the incarnate word, let alone that he'd become the indwelling word that would be in you as well, which is astonishing.

Guest (Male): Yes. You made a comment and the first thought that came to my mind was Kyle Busch. Kyle Busch. He died at age 41 yesterday. Famous car racer. He made a statement in his last interview. He won a race last weekend and he said, "Well, you never know when the last one's going to be."

Dr. Ken Boa: Reminder for us because we presume, don't we? Every day we presume if we're not careful. Every day is gift and grace and you realize your life is held together in the thinnest of gossamer threads. You don't know this very day how many times you've already been possibly been saved from somebody who's looking down at their phone and they were about to hit you and so forth and you didn't even know it happened.

Guest (Male): Yes. How should we as Christians deal with verses 6 and 7 where he says will render to each one according to his deeds: eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor, and immortality?

Dr. Ken Boa: Yes. Yeah, I love your little this thing—these little devices sometimes impose themselves upon us. Yes, it's the larger context of the whole because at the end of the day it's a divine-human synergy. And so if a person wishes to know him, he will find him. But it's not because of his deeds—he's not affirming that—but at the end of the day he's saying that if a person wants to know God, he's going to know him. And that's really what it comes down to at the end of the day. But even that desire to know God is the grace of God. It's a mystery.

It reminds me of a thing I did some years ago, my very first book. And if I would invite you to—if you have a specific question especially God's sovereignty versus human responsibility. That becomes an important area because these are mysteries, you see, and they transcend a ceiling. You have to hold them both in tension. I use these charts, for example, for the gate of heaven. From earth's viewpoint, "whoever will may come." But from heaven's standpoint, "chosen from the foundation of the world." And both are true.

So you can't solve the mystery. It's going to go beyond the ceiling of your comprehension because you come to realize my analogy is this: we are like a man and a dog. We have certain pets that are pretty clever compared to other things. That's why I don't really have a relationship with a centipede or an earthworm. Ernie the earthworm, roll over and play dead. I don't know if he even did it. So we choose animals that have a little bit of a personality at least, you see. Gary Larson has something to say about that.

But at any rate we choose these creatures. But you can teach—as I like to use the analogy—we can teach a dog to fetch a newspaper but you sure can't teach him to read it. And so when you get into an area of reading and he has no—think of a dog's mind in its categories. What would a dog be thinking about as his master is staring at it? At least he could be chewing on it or he could be playing with it, but he just looks at it. No category, you see? The obvious analogy is with us and God. How much more is that true with God and us?

So you should expect, and one of the marks of the authority of Scripture and its true uniqueness is that it's filled with mysteries, real mysteries that no one ever could have made up or thought of. It's utterly unique. That's one of them: holding those two truths in tension. So in the larger framework we begin to see at the end of the day, "whosoever will may come," but yet chosen before the foundation. I'll never resolve it. Never try to solve the mystery. The solution is not to solve it but rather to submit to the mystery and realize it's filled with things that we would not expect it to be. That's just the nature of the Scriptures. It's filled with beauty and wonder.

But who would have dreamed, who would have imagined that the one who is the ruler of all would be the sacred romancer of your soul? He's the one who purchased his beloved, and you are his beloved. Hard for guys to think of themselves as being the bride of Christ, but you are. Because compared to him, there's the femininity there. There's a strange notion there because he's the one who actually precedes us, pursues us. And he's the one who protects us, and he's the one who provides for us. And he's the one who purchased us, and we being his beloved. So it's a great romance, the greatest romance ever known. He's the sacred romancer of your soul. And that is the thing that I end up with marvel. I can't understand it, but I shouldn't—if it's truly God, I shouldn't expect to understand it. And with that I leave it and entrust him with you and entrust you to his grace. The more you know him, the more you'll grasp the grace of God. All of life is gift and grace. Amen.