22. Stumbling Over Grace (Romans 9-10)

Our passage this morning teaches something that is both surprising and, I hope we will see, something that is also deeply relevant to our lives. Sometimes, one of the hardest things to do is to receive a gift.

One of the most basic questions in life that we ask in all sorts of ways is, “How do we fix this?” We think of the mess of our world: wars in Europe and the Middle East, or the mess of our political system, or the sadness and hardship people are experiencing, and we ask, “How do we fix this?” We think of our own lives, of who we are, and see the mistakes we make. We’re frustrated with our failings, we want to be a better husband or father or friend, but we still make mistakes. “How do I fix this?” And perhaps most subtly, sometimes at a level we can’t even name, we feel the fact that we are far from our creator. That we were meant for a connection to God and purpose, and that we somehow have lost that: “How do I fix this?” We’re looking for a solution.

The Bible has a word for what it is we’re seeking when we are asking this question: righteousness. Righteousness is the word for how things are when they’re truly fixed. “Righteousness” is the description of a world no longer broken but now harmonious; “righteousness” also can describe how we’re made right again, as we become more loving and wise people. And above all, “righteousness” speaks of a right relationship with God, where all the guilt and sin that stands in the way is removed and reconnected to God. When we’re asking, “How do I fix this?” we’re looking for righteousness, whether we ever used that word or not.

The Christian gospel tells us that when we’re asking the question, “How do we fix this,” the simple answer is that WE can’t. Our mess is too great, we are too compromised, we can’t fix it. And I think thousands of years of human history back that up. But, importantly, this gospel also teaches us that what we can’t do, God offers to us as a gift. He offers to give us the righteousness that we are pursuing but can never obtain on our own. God sent Jesus to die and rise again for us to make a way for us to be right with him, with no guilt or shame. And in that new connection with God through Jesus, he provides a way for us to be made whole. And in the great work he’s doing through this, he is making the world whole. This is what we’re longing for: righteousness. And God offers it to us as a gift: free righteousness through Jesus, received by faith. That’s what the Christian gospel proclaims. 

When Paul writes this letter that we have to the Romans, news of this gift of God has been spreading throughout the Roman empire for about 30 years. Newly converted Christians become so excited about this message of the free gift of God’s righteousness through Jesus that they go from town to town to tell others.

Wherever they go, this message is told to two groups of people. The Jews usually hear it first in the synagogues. For this gospel news is an announcement of fulfillment. Jews have for centuries held on to God’s Law, which not only instructs them in the way of being righteous, it also promises a day when God will bring about his righteousness. Many Jews have spent their lives seeking to move toward this state of being right with God and becoming right. And so the gospel is first declared there at the synagogues, “God has fulfilled his promises! He has given his righteousness in Jesus!”

The other group that hears the message of this gift are the Gentiles—that is, everyone who isn’t a Jew. Greeks and Romans and Persians and so on—all of these are people for centuries have been unaware that the righteousness being described in the Bible is their greatest need. Sure, philosophers have asked questions about the meaning of life and various teachers have considered what it looks like to live well. But because the nations have lost contact with the true god, people didn’t really have a name, a sense of what their greatest need was. Their ways of living and beliefs and practices were often deeply at odds with what God’s instructions teach. They weren’t waiting for righteousness. And yet even so they’re told the news, because this gift is for everyone.

Wherever this news travels, it’s proclaimed to these two groups: the Jews, who are striving after God’s righteousness, and the Gentiles who are entirely ignorant of it. And if you were to predict ahead of time, you would assume that only one of these groups were likely to be receptive to the news, and that group wouldn’t be the Gentiles. When someone has been waiting for something all their lives, you would think they would be so excited to hear when it comes. On the other hand, when some people are unaware of a need, like the Gentiles, you would think they might greet such news with a shrug. 

But, instead a strange thing has happened. Look at verse 30: “Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, a righteousness that is by faith; 31 but that Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness did not succeed in reaching that law.”  

While there are many exceptions to this, including Paul himself, most of the Jews, those taught by God to seek righteousness, have rejected God’s gift of righteousness. They have rejected Jesus. And, surprisingly, at the very same time Gentiles, who have no background in the law, who have lived lives very much out of accord with God’s instructions, thousands upon thousands turn toward Jesus and are saved. It’s not what you would have predicted.

And so verse 32 asks the obvious question: “Why?” And here’s the reason. Because it was a gift. And sometimes, the hardest thing to do is receive a gift. “Because they, that is, Israel, did not pursue righteousness by faith, but as if it were based on works.” The people of Israel saw righteousness as something to be earned, and so they could not accept it as a gift. Or as 10:3 puts it, “being ignorant of the righteousness of God, seeking to establish their own righteousness, (did you hear that?), they did not submit to God’s righteousness, that is, as the next verse makes clear, they did not place themselves under Christ, who was always the goal of their law.” They could not receive the gift.

Paul uses an interesting word there in 10:3, and it begins to help us see the challenge in receiving this gift. He says that receiving this gift of righteousness means submitting to it. For anyone to receive something as extraordinary as the gift of God’s saving righteousness into their arms, they also need to put down whatever else they’re holding. To receive a new and beautiful life found in God’s gift of righteousness, one  also needs to surrender the broken life of being on their own that they had before. 

And it was especially hard for the people of Israel to do this, because they had invested so much in their former lives. Many of the Gentiles had already come to an end of themselves. They saw their need for something better. And so they could let their old lives go. But for many of the Jews, their lives were organized around this project to become righteous. Their sense of self, their security was built on doing this themselves. And they couldn’t let it go to take hold of something far better. In their case, perhaps the single hardest thing for them to do was to receive a gift, this gift from God.

Victor Hugo’s classic Les Miserable, made famous by the Broadway musical, helps us to see this dynamic at work in the contrasting characters of Jean Valjean and Inspector Javert. On one hand, these two men are similar: both were born into the cruelty of poverty; both become defined by an understanding of how to survive this cruelty. And both at a certain point in the story encounter grace that they have no categories for, grace that brings them to a place of decision.

Valjean is imprisoned for many years because as an orphan he stole a loaf of bread. His identity as an ex-con keeps him from finding a job and a place in society—everyone sees him as sub-human because of his status. So he concludes that this world is cold and harsh and unfair, and the only way to survive is to take what you can no matter the cost.

One day a Catholic priest welcomes him into his home, kindly providing him with a warm meal and shelter. When the priest goes to sleep, Valjean chooses to take advantage of the trust placed in him. He takes most of the priest’s silver and runs away with it. He is soon caught by the police and is brought back to the house of the priest. In that moment, he knows what will happen. This world’s cruelty will show itself once again as he will be imprisoned, probably for the rest of his life. It’s over.

But instead, the priest tells the police officers that this was all a misunderstanding, and that the silver was actually a gift to Valjean. In fact, the priest says, Valjean, you left so quickly that you forgot the silver candlesticks I gave you.  

And Valjean is speechless. He does not know what to do with this gift. He has experienced something he has no category for: in the priest’s kindness he has experienced an expression of God’s grace. And he recognizes he is at a decision point. For him to truly accept this this gift ultimately of God’s love, he will need to let go of his old way of taking. In the musical, he sings, “He told me that I have a soul. How does he know? What spirit comes to move my life? Is there another way to go?I am reaching, but I fall, And the night is closing in, And I stare into the void, To the whirlpool of my sin. I’ll escape now from that world, From the world of Jean Valjean. Jean Valjean is nothing now! Another story must begin! To take hold of this gift, he had to let go of the old life of broken autonomy. He embraces the love of God and is changed.

Javert who was born in a prison, has constructed a different way of dealing with the difficulties of the world. He sees it as ordered and structured; the way to survive and experience good things is through being good. As he says at one point in the musical, “Honest work, just reward, that’s the way to please the Lord.” He has built his life upon this ideal, choosing to become a police inspector, and enforcer of the law. It feels safe, predictable.

Throughout the story, he is pursuing Valjean, who has escaped parole in order to start a new life. Javert sees one thing: the need to do things right and enforce justice—that’s how the world works; that’s what makes him different from others. But then one time he is captured by revolutionaries who are opposed to the government and are intent on killing him. Valjean is among that group; he recognizes Javert, the one who has been pursuing him all these years and quietly he helps him escape—he saves Javert’s life. He gives to Javert a gift.

Javert doesn’t know what to do. It was clear to him he was going to be killed, and Valjean, his enemy could have done it at any moment. Yet he spared him, saved his life. Javert has experienced through Valjean the grace of God. And Javert also finds himself at a point of decision. To truly take hold of this gift, he’ll have to let go of what he formerly clung to. Because if grace is real, then it’s not all about earning and being better than others. If grace is real, he will need to give up on his whole project.   

In the musical, he says this: “And must I now begin to doubt, Who never doubted all these years? My heart is stone and still it trembles
The world I have known is lost in shadow. I am reaching but I fall
And the stars are black and cold. As I stare into the void
Of a world that cannot hold. I’ll escape now from that world
From the world of Jean Valjean. There is nowhere I can turn
There is no way to go on. He jumps off a bridge, unable to let go of his former way, unable to receive grace. 

Sometimes, the single hardest thing to do is to receive a gift.

Here’s the point. Whenever anyone hear about this gift, about God’s gift of righteousness offered in Jesus, like you are hearing right now, it confronts you with a decision. Are you willing to let go of what you were holding onto so that you can take hold of what God wants to give you? 

The surprise of our passage is that often the ones who are least ready to receive this gift; often the ones furthest from becoming a Christian are the ones who are so intent on doing it right themselves, on being a good person, gaining God’s approval that they have no room to accept God choosing to give them what they’ve spent all this time trying to achieve. Javert couldn’t let go of his being in the right to accept God’s righteousness. Israel, because they were seeking to establish their own being right could not accept God’s gift. And I wonder if it’s the story for any of us.

In almost every church there usually are some people who believe that being a Christian is about trying to become a better person for God. It’s about trying to be honest in your work, kind to others, going to church regularly, becoming the kind of person that God will accept into heaven. If I’m describing you right now, consider this. God wants to give you something better than this. You will never be good enough to fix this on your own. You won’t be able to fix your relationship with God, and you won’t be able to make yourself whole. And you don’t need to! God desires to give you freely what you’ve been working so hard to get. He desires to embrace you with his love and through Jesus make you whole. But first you need to let go of living on your own; first you need to do the difficult thing and receive this gift.

In almost every church, there also are usually some people who believe that being a Christian is impossible for them. Maybe it’s because of the choices they have made—they feel permanently disqualified because of what they have done. Maybe it’s because of the person they think they are: “I’m so full of doubts and confusion and my life is so messy—I can’t be a Christian.” If I’m describing you right now, consider this: God wants to give you what you believe is out of reach. You don’t have to be good enough to fix this on your own. You’re right, you can’t fix yourself or your relationship with God, and you don’t need to. It doesn’t matter who you are or what you have done, God desires to freely give: to embrace you with his love and through Jesus make you whole. All you need to do is let go of living on your own and take hold of his gift.

How? How do we do the hard thing and receive God’s gift of righteousness? How do we accept Jesus and become a Christian?

Well, there are two ways to receive a gift. The wrong way, and the right way. 

The wrong way is when someone has given you something really generous, you treat it like a debt, something you need to pay back. 

In the war film “Saving Private Ryan” Captain John Miller and a detachment of soldiers are sent into German occupied territory to find a single soldier, Private James Ryan, and bring him home. It’s a brutal job, many of the soldiers are killed, and Captain Miller near the end, after having found Ryan, is shot. As he lays dying, he whispers to Private Ryan, “Earn this. Earn this.” We’ve given our lives for you, now make it worth it.” And at the end of the movie, we see a much older Ryan visiting the grave of Miller saying, “I’ve tried to live my life the best I could. I hope that was enough.” 

I want you to know this is not how God gives his gift to you, and this is not how you are supposed to respond to it. When Jesus died for you he doesn’t whisper to you, “Look at what I’ve done. Now earn it.” Because he knows you never could, and there’s no way you can ever repay God. 

No, what God, what the risen Jesus says to you instead is, “Receive it.” 

How? It begins with hearing: as verse 17 tells us, “Faith comes from hearing.” This isn’t just talking about our ears being able to notice certain words—it’s talking about a receptivity of the heart. When the Bible is read and explained, like right now, God uses moments like these to speak the good news of his grace in Jesus. Receiving begins by us opening our hearts to it. Do you know what I mean by opening your heart? Do you know what it feels like when we drop the barriers and protection and allow our souls to let something in and experience what it is saying? This is how receiving God’s gift begins: you need to hear the news that God loves you and open yourself up to the fact that Jesus is offering you the gift of making everything right.

And then, second, hearing moves into faith. “Faith comes from hearing.” Faith is not simply something that happens to you. Faith is a choice to trust. When someone tells you that he or she loves you, you can protect yourself and doubt and say, “I’ll only believe that when it is absolutely certain to me,” or you can choose to trust. When God tells you his good news and you hear, you receive it by choosing to let go of our control and trusting. You must choose to accept that even though you don’t completely understand it and can’t prove it beyond every doubt, you will trust.  

And finally, receiving this gift involves calling upon God. Verse 14 tells us that as we come to believe, we learn to call upon God. Calling upon God is the fundamental act of faith, because it is the opposite of saying, “It’s up to me.” Instead when we are calling upon God we are saying, “My life is dependent on you. I need you. You have promised to forgive me though I don’t deserve it and make me your child. You have promised to heal in me what I can never fix. You have promised to give me life. I call upon you for help. Please do everything you promise. I take hold of your gift.”  

This is what it means to receive God’s gift of righteousness. It’s how somebody becomes a Christian, and it’s how each of us who are Christians continue to take hold of God’s grace. We hear, we believe, and we call on God for help. And notice what the promise is, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” 

Do you hear who this gift is for? It doesn’t say, “Those people who especially live a good life will be saved.” No, the one qualification is “call on the name of the Lord.” And it doesn’t say, “Only those people who call on the Lord in the very best and most heartfelt way,” no, it says, “Everyone who calls—the doubters, the confused, the hesitant, the weak-willed, the sinners such as you and me: everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

God wants to give you and he wants to give me what we most deeply long for. He wants to make us right with him, make us right, make this world right. He offers this to us as a gift. Do you hear him even now? Are you willing to let go of being in control and to believe? Will you take hold of this gift by calling on him?

Let’s do this now. Whether for the first time or the thousandth, let’s call on God for help. Let’s confess our sins and ask for forgiveness and call on him to take hold of the righteousness he offers.