“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.”
In these verses Paul uses wild exaggeration to make a point about the importance of love above all else. Can anyone move mountains with faith? It’s never been literally done, but even if someone did, and the reason for doing it was wrong, it would mean nothing. Has anyone literally given away everything they have?
Also note the repetition of the word “all,” which appears 4 times. Nobody but God has all understanding, knowledge, and faith, and in Jesus He gave up all He had for us. Paul is saying that even if we were Godlike in these things, which we aren’t, without love even it wouldn’t matter.
No matter how “impressive” our actions are, if done for the wrong reason, they are useless.
Even if we move mountains, love is what really matters.
In chapter 9 of John’s gospel he records a story of Jesus healing a man who was born blind. In John’s story, Jesus made some mud out of saliva and dirt, then put the mud on the man’s eyes. Then Jesus tells the man to go wash off the mud in a pool. When the man does this, his blindness is gone!
Because this man was born blind and had begged in the temple area for years, the miracle was hard to deny as a claim that Jesus was the Messiah, but many of the people put their focus on the wrong question: the how of the miracle. Four times in the chapter someone asks how the man’s eyes were healed, as if the method of the healing was the important part. Some of “The neighbors and those who had seen him before” asked “how were your eyes opened?” [1] Then some Pharisees asked the man how he was healed. In both cases, the man formerly blind explained what Jesus had done.
Then, because Jesus had healed the man on the Sabbath and because practicing medicine on the Sabbath was against traditional Jewish regulations, the Pharisees asked, “How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?”[2] The Pharisees kept looking for an explanation. A scientific or natural explanation. Perhaps this wasn’t the same man who was born blind. So they found his parents, “and asked them, ‘Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?’”[3]
The better question is who healed the man born blind, but the Pharisees didn’t want to deal with that question. They had already made up their minds that Jesus wasn’t from God. So, they focused on the how, on the method. People still do this today, as Warren Wiersbe wrote: “We want to understand the mechanics of a miracle instead of simply trusting the Savior, who alone can perform the miracle.”[4]
Modern people want scientific explanations because they think nothing exists outside of scientific understanding and when something doesn’t fit that worldview it is denied or explained away. We want to fit miracles within our pre-existing understanding of the world. And when we can’t, we resist any way we can. In the case of the Pharisees and Jesus, “they cast him out.”[5] Anything to avoid the real question: who is this person who can do things that don’t fit into our narrow view of the universe? Comparing John’s gospel to modern events, we see this is nothing new.
However, if Jesus is who He said He was – God the Son – no miracle should be unbelievable because God has absolute control over His own creation. If Jesus is God, He exists outside of our universe and so obviously can’t be explained by using scientific laws that describe this universe. But we continue to resist. When people want to avoid dealing with their God, they still stick to the “how” question to avoid the more important question of “who.”
If you’re struggling to understand the miraculous stories of the Bible, make sure you’re asking the right (“who”) questions. If you’re talking to an unbeliever having the same struggles, make sure they’re asking the right questions, because: If Jesus is who God is, every how is possible, including the greatest miracle: the salvation of anyone who would believe in Him. And, Jesus can heal anyone who is blind to this reality.
[1] John 9:8-10 [2] John 9:16 [3] John 9:19 [4] Wiersbe, Warren. Be Alive (John 1-12) (1986). P. 143 [5] John 9:34
Many people think the God of the Old Testament is a God of judgement, and the God of the New Testament is a God of love, but I’m not sure these people are paying attention. The whole Bible speaks to us of the same God. The Old Testament is full of stories about God pursuing His people, calling them to come back to Him because He loves them. Likewise, the New Testament has many passages like Luke 13:24-27, in which Jesus says:
“Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. When once the master of the house has risen and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, open to us,’ then he will answer you, ‘I do not know where you come from.’ Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’ But he will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of evil!’”
Not only does Jesus here pass judgement on “workers of evil,” but many other places point forward to a time where Jesus will come again to judge the earth in righteousness and justice. But that may not be the scariest part of the verses above from Luke. In these verses, Jesus isn’t talking about just any “workers of evil,” but He’s talking specifically about people who think they’re following Jesus.
These verses are a response to someone asking Jesus: “Lord, will those who are saved be few?”[1] His response to the question isn’t “yes, they will be few” but more like “yes, because many are trying to get there the wrong way.” These people say, “We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets”? In my reading, this phrase is like saying “we go to church.” In church we “ate and drank” with Jesus in communion. When we listen to sermons, it was like “you taught in our streets.” They were around Jesus all the time and doing what other Christians do, but as 20th century evangelist Billy Sunday said, “Going to church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.”
We can’t get salvation by our own efforts, even if we do all the “right things” but only through what Christ has already done. Christ’s work is the “narrow door” and anything else will be a closed door when Jesus returns in judgement. Part of what we call the visible church is going to be shut out. Jesus says many in the church “will seek to enter and will not be able.” These are people seeking salvation, who “knock at the door” but don’t get in.
Does this mean we should spend a lot of effort on figuring out who is and who isn’t a true Christian? It doesn’t, but it does mean we all should examine ourselves, which is what I think Jesus expected from His audience when He said these things. As James asked “What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?”[2] I ask myself, since I call Jesus my Lord, what things do I do only because He wants me to? Do I do more than hang around Jesus and His people? Do I do things that earn me nothing in return, but which please God? This is what I think is meant by Paul when he wrote in Philippians 2:12 “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” Although our salvation is free, and can only be earned by Jesus Himself, if we believe in Him then He is our Lord. We should fear Him and do works that please Him.
Therefore, “strive to enter through the narrow door” of Jesus’ righteousness that was opened for us on the cross, but know that we won’t be the same on the other side. We will be forever changed.
I’m writing a series about the verses I’ve quoted the most on this blog, and I see some of these verses as foundational to Christianity. For example, another post in the series was about John 3:16 (“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”) Today’s post (#5 of the series) covers Romans 3:23, another verse that states a basic truth central to Christianity:
“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”
This is so important because without knowing we are sinners, we have no reason to accept Jesus. It makes John 3:16 and other verses matter more to the hearer. This is why Romans 3:23 is the first verse in the “Romans Road.” For those not familiar, the Romans Road[1] is an easy to memorize summary of the Christian gospel using verses from the book of Romans. It gives a quick outline describing the need for salvation and the way to salvation using these verses:
Romans 3:23 – “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” Romans 6:23(a) – “The wages of sin is death” Romans 6:23(b) – “The free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” Romans 10:9 – “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved”
In the times I’ve quoted Romans 3:23, it has often reinforced the logic of the Romans Road, particularly its first step. What does it mean that “all have sinned”?
Missing the Mark In the New Testament, the word “sin” is often a translation of the Greek “hamartia,” which means “to miss the mark.”[2] I’ve written that Paul in Romans 3:23 “is not saying everybody failed to follow a list of dos and don’ts, but that we have not fully lived the life God intended us to live.” Sometimes we make a list of what we think are sins and think if we’ve followed the list, we haven’t sinned. However, a better definition of sin tells us that “all have sinned.” If the goal is for each person to attain “the glory of God,” none of us have achieved the goal. We all need Jesus.
“There is Only One Who is Good”[3] When someone came to Jesus (Matthew 19:16) and said ““Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?” part of Jesus’ response was “There is only one who is good.” He says this because “all have sinned,” except Jesus, who is sinless. Regardless, often people are obsessed with grouping people into “good” and “bad.” I’ve written about “religious categories like Catholic versus Protestant, political categories like Republican versus Democrat, or Marxist categories like “oppressed” versus “oppressor.”” We assign people to these groups, then we like our side and hate the other. Therefore, one of my favorite quotes is by Solzhenitsyn, who said:
“The line separating good and evil passes, not through states, not between political parties either, but right through all human hearts.”
In each person there is good and evil. There is no way to separate groups of people into a group of good people and a group of bad people, because every person in every group is both. If we only put more stock in Romans 3:23, which declares: “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” we could avoid an awful lot of unnecessary hate and conflict.
God Loves Us Anyway Now here comes the good news: “Most of the Bible is the story of the failures of people who can’t follow the will of God, but that God loves and accepts them anyway.” Studying the Bible, particularly the Old Testament, it becomes obvious that God’s people aren’t “good’ people, but it also becomes obvious that God loves them anyway. Therefore, Romans 3:23 cultivates in us a spirit of humility and gratefulness. We know because of Romans 3:23 that any blessing from God is an act of grace because only Jesus lived a life of full obedience. In Deuteronomy when Moses reviewed the blessings and curses that Israel would experience based on their ability to obey God, God knew that every single Israelite would fall short of deserving blessing. Every single Israelite would sin. However, because of God’s mercy and grace, we don’t get the judgement we deserve, but we do get the blessing we don’t deserve. Therefore, we must be thankful for God’s grace, but also we must be aware that it is not at all earned by what we’ve done.
So, while Romans 3:23, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” is an important verse, Romans 3:24, right after it says, “and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” and that’s just as important.
The TV show Whose Line is it Anyway? is probably the most-widely-known form of improvisational comedy, and one of my favorites. Four performers act out short scenes based on a set of rules for each scene or game, spontaneously adding their own creativity and (if successful) humor. For example, in the “Props” game, pictured, the performers were given two “P” shaped props to make jokes about. The show wouldn’t be any good if they just showed us the props and explained the rules over and over again. The show is pointless without spontaneous creativity. But why am I writing about improv on a Christian blog? But why am I writing about improv on a Christian blog? Because today I’m writing about a Bible study that leaves us to ask: Whose Plan is it Anyway?
Whose Pun is it Anyway?
In Judges 6-7, God delivers Israel from the Midianites using Gideon, who thought God couldn’t use him because “my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.” At times, Gideon doubts God is speaking to him and that He really means what He says, but God patiently answers Gideon’s questions and performs miracles, encouraging Gideon to move forward.
Eventually, Gideon and his 300-man army attacked the enemy army, which was “like locusts in abundance, and their camels were without number, as the sand that is on the seashore in abundance.”[1] After Gideon split his army into three groups, this was the plan of attack:
“So Gideon and the hundred men who were with him came to the outskirts of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, when they had just set the watch. And they blew the trumpets and smashed the jars that were in their hands. Then the three companies blew the trumpets and broke the jars. They held in their left hands the torches, and in their right hands the trumpets to blow. And they cried out, ‘A sword for the LORD and for Gideon!’”[2]
Whose Plan is it Anyway? This is where improv comes in: the text does not tell us who came up with this wacky attack plan. Was it God’s idea or was it Gideons? Why leave it ambiguous? I think it is because, either way, it is not a decisive factor in the victory. The attack plan works because of God’s involvement, no matter whose idea it was. If it was Gideon’s idea, he was only using the abilities his Maker had given Him for the purpose of glorifying Him. If it was God’s, Gideon was also only using the abilities God gave him and dedicating them to God’s glory.
What’s amazing is that Gideon went from testing God with fleece to carrying out this attack. God had Gideon convinced it would work, and that it would work because God would make it work. Victory didn’t come from any advantage Gideon had or created, and all along God was determined to get the glory. The plan would have failed if God had not put fear into the camp, and had not let Gideon know about that fear by way of a dream a Midianite soldier had.
Like improv comedy, God’s rules only go so far before the performers need to take over. God gives us patterns, which are like the rules of an improv skit, not step-by-step instructions in every aspect of our lives. Adam and Eve were shown a pattern in the Garden of Eden, Moses was given a pattern for the tabernacle on the mountain, and Jesus lived a pattern of how to love the Father and our neighbor. Beyond the patterns and rules there is so much to do and explore. His will is for His people to make the world like Eden, to worship Him as He should be worshiped, and to love the world the way Jesus loved.
The Little Things To hear and obey His voice, we must spend time with Him in prayer and study, diligently learning the patterns He has laid out for us, but He does not expect us to stop there. At some point, we must take the guidance we have and move forward with the wisdom and creativity He has endowed us each with. When we do we will be like the servant who successfully invested his Master’s resources, and in return “His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’”[3]
However, if we either do not diligently seek Him, or if we say He has not given us enough instructions, we may find ourselves cast out from the Master’s presence, hearing: “you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest.”[4]
In Gideon’s story, we see God’s compassionate understanding toward His people who struggle to hear and obey His voice but keep trying. We, like Gideon, are not always faithful over the little things such as prayer, study, and regular worship. But Only He fully knows the depth of our doubts and struggles, and He provides what we need to trust Him and move forward in faith, knowing our doubt is never fully overcome until eternity.
In the story, we also see that we must often act on trust, even when we think we have incomplete information. Like Gideon, we should be imperfectly persistent, wrestling with God who knows our faith is imperfect. He can bridge the gap to us in His unlimited grace.
So, where does God’s guiding voice stop, and our God-given creativity begin? Like a good improv comedy scene, the parts can come together perfectly, glorify God, and encourage His people to come along in faith, as the men of Naphtali, Asher, Manasseh, and Ephraim joined the battle against the Midianites once it was clear God had delivered the victory[5]. When we seek Him and find Him, and in faith move forward to spread His character and creativity in the world, glorifying Him.
God is glorified when His people attempt things that sometimes don’t make sense, then succeed because He provided the way. It’s always His plan anyway.
Soli Deo Gloria
[1] Judges 7:12 [2] Judges 7:19-20 [3] Matthew 25:21 [4] Matthew 25:27 [5] Judges 7:23-25
Driving Toward the Morning Sun 