Romans 3:9-31 shows us clearly and forcefully, with numerous references to the Old Testament, that no one is righteous, whether they are Jews or Gentiles. The world’s situation is summed up effectively by Paul: people don’t do what is right, they don’t fear God, they don’t seek God, they don’t follow God, their ways and words are evil and they don’t do good. This may well be at odds with society’s view of mankind (which seems to be that people are essentially good and that sociological reasons are the problem we must face, working on the reasoning that if these sociological issues can be ‘fixed’, man’s problems will ergo be fixed also.) Paul refutes this view emphatically in these verses, ending with the famous declaration in verse 23 that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

The law’s purpose is given in verse 20: “no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.” All people, whether Old Testament saints or those living after Christ’s death and resurrection, are essentially saved in the same way: “But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.” (Rom 3:21-11) It is hard for us, bound in time, to grasp the eternal plans of God, who does not inhabit time, but the fact remains (as Paul goes on to demonstrate in Romans 4, but that’s jumping the gun!) that God’s means for salvation are the same, whether for those who lived before Christ or those who lived after. We are judged righteous by faith in God, not by the good works we do.

This teaching cuts right across human thinking which works primarily on a cause and effect basis, believing that if we are good enough, if we obey the law, we will earn favour with God and will therefore be good enough to be saved. Paul teaches that even the Old Testament backs up the view that salvation is not through works alone, that faith has to be present, that we cannot ever hope to achieve righteousness by our own merits. “There is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith.” (Rom 3:30) It is that amazing truth which is the bedrock of our hope and which should fuel our service and way of life.

Tony Brown preached last night on Philippians, looking at ways in which we may live pure and blameless lives (Phil 1:10).

Purity is not about sinless perfection, as John makes clear in 1 John 1:8. Rather, the pure in heart will see God (Matt 5:8); purity here refers to complete sincerity, a heart that is not distracted from God, a heart that has no conflict of loyalties, no mixed motives. Being blameless involves obedience to God, having Him at the centre of our lives and relationships, keeping a hold of His Word so that we have knowledge and insight as well as passion to guide us into all truth.

Philippians 2 talks about us imitating Christ, being one in spirit and purpose. The unity of the church is meant to reflect the unity of the Godhead. The three persons of the Godhead may have different roles (the Father is the friend who made us, the Son the friend who saved us, the Spirit the friend who guides us) but they are one. In the same way, the church is made up of different people but in unity of purpose, we can be one. This involves not doing things out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but learning to serve each other and encourage each other.

One way in which we move towards the pure and blameless life which God intends is to have nothing to do with complaining, arguing and grumbling (Phil 2:14). The Israelites were characterised in the wilderness by their complaining spirit and this led them into disobedience. Such a negative spirit leads to doubt and depression, whereas being positive – despite our circumstances or feelings – is a sign of faith. Jesus is our example, as always, in this. Even when He was being crucified, He thought of others – praying for the repentant thief, praying for forgiveness for his enemies – rather than complaining about the difficulties He was facing.

“Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfil his good purpose. Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.” Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky.” (Phil 2:12-15)

Here, we see that who we are in private, behind closed doors, is what really counts. When no one else is watching us, God is. He wants us to be pure and blameless so that we shine like stars. We have a high priest in Jesus who is Himself blameless and pure (Heb 7:26) and we can be confident that He will give us strength and will help us in everything we do (Phil 4:13)

There are times when God’s presence seems especially close and this morning was one of those occasions. Times when His greatness and mercy overwhelm us. Times when all we can do is bow down in His presence because we realise how small we are in comparison and yet we are so grateful that we can be in the presence of a holy God at all.

Dave preached from Luke 11:1-13, a sermon about prayer that really looked at the importance of spending time with God, about the value of relationship over set words. Even though this passage contains the Lord’s prayer, it’s not that we can ever view prayer as a set formula, a series of words to be repeated without feeling or understanding, a magic incantation. Jesus taught His disciples how to pray primarily by focussing on the need for relationship.

Our feelings and thoughts can often get in the way of our prayers, however. Dave highlighted some of the problems we face:

1) We think we are not good enough to talk to God. Well, obviously in our own strength, we are not good enough. But Jesus’s sacrifice makes it possible for us to talk to God. God is seeking after the return of His children. He wants us to talk to Him.
2) We think God is too busy with other things to have time for us. This view may well be based on a respect for God, but reflects, nonetheless, a limited view of God. God is far bigger than we imagine – He can cope with so much more than we can and is not overwhelmed by the number of His children praying! There is nothing too big or too small to talk to God about.
3) We may feel it is wrong to ask God for things. We may feel that we are being selfish if we pray for ourselves and our own needs, but Jesus prayed for Himself and in this passage teaches us to pray for our own daily needs, for forgiveness, for help in overcoming temptation, for all that we need to live.
4) We often think that persistence in prayer reflects a lack of faith: “once should be enough.” God, however, encourages persistence in prayer and asks us to pray on an ongoing basis. Think of Jacob, wrestling with God all night until He had received His blessing. Prayer is not for the faint-hearted!
5) We don’t pray at times because we don’t know how to pray: “I might ask for the wrong thing.” We often feel confused and frightened by situations, unsure how to pray, uncertain what God wants us to pray for. In those times, the Holy Spirit helps us to pray (Romans 8) – sometimes, we don’t even need words. It’s not the words we use in themselves that matter; it’s the relationship we have with God and our heart attitudes that count.

Ultimately, what matters most is not the formal words we use in prayer, not the length of prayer we pray, not the outward signs at all, but the ongoing relationship we have with God, the desire we have to be in His presence and the time we spend with Him, seeking His face, enjoying His company, desiring to be with Him, even as Mary was commended in Luke 10 for spending quality time at Jesus’s feet. May we learn to do the same with God:

“To be in Your presence
To sit at Your feet,
Where Your love surrounds me,
And makes me complete.

This is my desire, O Lord,
This is my desire.
This is my desire, O Lord,
This is my desire.

To rest in Your presence,
Not rushing away;
To cherish each moment,
Here I would stay.”
(Noel Richards, (c) 1991 ThankYou Music)

I’m in training! I am taking part in the national Swimathon for charity (raising funds for Marie Curie Cancer Care) on 10th April (http://www.swimathon.org/) and will be swimming 5 kilometres (a staggering 200 lengths… if you don’t think that’s staggering, you are obviously a better swimmer than I am!!)

Why am I doing this? Well, swimming is something that is part of my everyday life, probably the only form of exercise I even remotely like (and that’s debatable at times!) Since I swim so often, it seemed natural that if I ever did do a sponsored sporting event, swimming would be the sport I’d choose.

Since I am swimming regularly anyway, having a goal to swim for also seemed like a good idea. Marie Curie provide nursing at home for those suffering from terminal cancer and I would like to be able to provide something towards that care. I would be swimming whether or not I had sponsors; hopefully, by swimming, I can contribute something positive to those who need help.

Having a goal in life is also important. I have been swimming regularly for 4 years now and it’s easy to become stale. I have gradually increased the distances I swim, since I’ve never been interested in (or remotely good at) speed. I can remember the feeling of first reaching the kilometre goal… then getting to a mile… then getting to 2 kilometres… then 2.5 kilometres and so on. I wouldn’t say I’m particularly ambitious or competitive, but there is something good about going further than you’ve gone before… about achieving more than you first thought you could.

Last autumn I was teaching sports vocabulary to 10 year olds and was staggered to find out one of my pupils could swim 2 miles (130 lengths). That spurred me on, and just before Christmas I managed that goal. Now I am fixing my eyes on 5km as a new goal and have until April to achieve it. I’m at 160 lengths so far, and keep adding lengths each Saturday…

The Bible doesn’t have much to say about swimming, but it does talk about running a lot! In a section headed ‘the need for self-discipline’ in the NIV, we read:
“Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.” (1 Cor 9:24-27)

I’m swimming to raise money for a good cause (and if I raise enough money, I win a T-shirt!!), but mainly for my health’s sake and to keep fit – after all, my body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, so I can’t abuse it. But we are all in the race of life and are running to get a crown that will last forever. May we all be in strict training and run (live) in such a way as to please the Lord.

At the Bible study this week, we looked at the rest of Romans 2 and the start of Romans 3. These verses continue to focus on the law and what this means to both Jew and Gentile as Paul systematically builds his argument leading to the conclusion that all of us have sinned and fallen short of God’s law and are therefore in desperate need of a Saviour.

So often we see that religion can lead to complacency, a belief that we are automatically saved and free from God’s wrath, not because of His grace and mercy, but because of… something else. Our goodness. Our merit. Who we are. The Jews so often fell into the trap of believing that it was their historical ancestry and the fact of circumcision which made them righteous and that, at times, led to them looking down on everyone else, instead of seeing that their ancestry was in fact a sign of God’s mercy and was intended to be a guiding light to all nations. Paul exposes the fallacies in that thinking in Romans 2:17-28, remarking that “A person is not a Jew who is one only outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. No, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code.” As the Message paraphrases these verses, “It’s not the cut of a knife that makes a Jew. You become a Jew by who you are. It’s the mark of God on your heart, not of a knife on your skin, that makes a Jew.”

In case this argument seems irrelevant to Western Christians, it’s an attitude that has so often plagued churches too. The moment we believe that actually, we’re not that bad and it’s everyone else who deserves God’s judgment, we are on a slippery slope. If we believe that by knowing God’s word, that by having the Bible, we automatically gain entry into God’s favour without that having any impact on our lives, we are falling into error.

Paul, in these verses, looks at other issues too: what about those who have never directly heard of God? What about young children who die? Are they automatically condemned? These are difficult issues, but in Romans 2:12-16, Paul talks about ‘the requirements of the law being written on men’s hearts’ and we have to understand that it is not up to us to judge the state of other people’s souls; God’s judgment will be fair and true and will take everything into account. As he says in Romans 3, ‘Let God be true and every human being a liar’ (Romans 3:4).

Ultimately, Paul highlights some human arguments (see Romans 3:5-6) which will be developed further in Romans 6:1-15, along the lines of ‘let us do evil so that good may come of it.’ This argument is invalid and is a travesty of a true understanding of the meaning of grace. We cannot taste the wonder of God’s grace and mercy and take it for granted or believe that we have done something to deserve it. Instead, we stand in awe and tremble, amazed at His love, awestruck at His generosity, grateful for His mercy.

“And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit” (2 Cor 3:18)

Mirrors are the chief way that we see our reflection. House mirrors are generally plane mirrors, giving a reasonable approximation to what’s really there so that we can see ourselves and make sure we have put on make-up properly or have shaved closely enough or don’t have a dirty smudge on our cheeks. The mirrors in fun fairs are often far less accurate in their reflections, being convex or concave mirrors which distort the reflection.

We are ‘a letter from Christ’ (2 Cor 3:3), read by people whether we realise it or not, and as such it is a challenge to ensure that our reflection of Christ is accurate. Jesus mirrored or reflected the Father, only doing what He saw the Father doing, living in trust and obedience and with a dedication to doing the Father’s will. In this way, we can be men and women of action (without having to be in a film full of special effects and implausible plot lines!), for as James says,
“But whoever catches a glimpse of the revealed counsel of God—the free life!—even out of the corner of his eye, and sticks with it, is no distracted scatterbrain but a man or woman of action. That person will find delight and affirmation in the action.” (James 1:25, The Message)

If we wish to accurately reflect Christ and so be transformed into His likeness, we need to gaze on Him and learn from Him, for He is “gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” (Matt 11:29) In Him, we see faith and trust in God, a commitment to doing the Father’s will and a zeal and passion for truth that are perfectly in balance with a gentleness and kindness of spirit that we so often lack.

As we reflect on our spiritual growth and so clearly see the ways in which we do not accurately reflect the true nature of Christ, we are nonetheless reminded that the work is not complete and are encouraged to know that He who began a good work in us will carry it on to completion (Phil 1:6). As the poster says: “Be patient with me; God’s not finished with me yet!”