So, here we are in the third chapter and Paul has moved from his indictment of them – the Gentiles – to you – the Jews in the church at Rome – to us – everyone. Paul has thought about this long and hard. What is the role of the Jew in the world? What advantage is there in being a Jew if, as he says, “a man is not a Jew if he is only one outwardly…No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly.” If that is the case then, as we said last week, we might as well all be what we want to be if we can claim identity inwardly. We can be inward Americans, inward members of Willow Brook, inward Marines or inward Rotarians. Why make any distinctions at all? Paul spent the last chapter making that question obvious, didn’t he? “What advantage is there in being a Jew if anyone can be one?”

As well, I suspect there was a good deal of Gentile sentiment in the church asking that same question and not without a little hostility and resentment. “If the Jews are no longer exclusive then why are they acting as if they are?” Maybe Jews were actually obsolete now or at least marginal in the life of the church. They had made their contribution and it was time to move on. We all know where the future lies. They are no better than us and because of their obvious imperfections and failings they have disqualified themselves from being a peculiar people. It was over and they needed to accept that and give up the idea of being special in God’s eyes. You could read the last part of Chapter 2 in Paul’s letter to them and think that is where he is going with this. But he doesn’t.

Paul knows they have a unique – and irreplaceable – value in the plan of God. What is it?

They “have been entrusted with the very words of God.” Think about what that means. They have been entrusted with the very words of God. I find it remarkable that God, knowing what He knew about them and their propensity toward pride and sin, would entrust them with his character and reputation. Why not someone else? Why not someone more responsible or less prone to drift and wander away from the truth? Why trust someone so untrustworthy? I don’t know. I would have probably looked around for other options but God chose the Jew.

They were entrusted not only with God’s character and reputation but with the responsibility to keep the compass for the world – the very definitions of right and wrong, just and unjust, true and false, up and down, dark and light. It was in their power to distort that compass and many tried through false prophets and false teaching but they didn’t.

They were entrusted with the very words of God, the very character of God, the very truth of God but also the very blessing of God. Deuteronomy 26:8. “And the Lord has declared this day that you are his people, his treasured possession as he promised, and that you are to keep all his commands. He has declared that he will set you in praise, fame and honor high above all nations he has made and you will be a people holy to the Lord your God, as he promised.” As he says to Abraham: “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing..and all peoples of the earth will be blessed through you.”

They were called to a special discipline – not just to a special status. The root word of inheritance means an assignment and a responsibility. We have misshaped it to mean a gift of material wealth but an inheritance is a special burden and expectation for a life. The Jews received an inheritance from God unlike any other people. They were called to be God’s Marines and not God’s royalty.

Every age has its own form of twisted thinking so every age needs “the very words of God.” I recall Bishop Gene Robinson saying, “Wouldn’t Jesus want us to proclaim that no one is outside the Father’s love. Wouldn’t Jesus want us to live as if God loves all of us beyond our wildest imaginings?”

Without the “very words” we make up our own version of God and his nature. We make compasses where any direction is true North and every choice is as defensible as another. In a recent article on heresy in Christianity Today, Justin Holcomb says this: “Traditionally a heretic is someone who has compromised an essential doctrine, usually by oversimplification, and has thus lost sight of who God truly is and what he has done for us. While most heretics throughout history were asking legitimate questions, they weren’t called heretics simply for asking questions. Their answers were the problem, as was their unwillingness to accept clear and detailed correction. In many cases, the heretics went too far, trying to mold the faith into the shape of unbiblical ideas they found appealing, especially those of pagan Greek philosophy. Or they began to emphasize certain ideas in Scriptures to the exclusion of others.”

We too often want oversimplified answers – bumper stickers, posters and refrigerator magnets or favorite verses often out of context. This is why church leaders used to make it so important to “preach the whole counsel of God” and not just topics or a few verses. Maybe that is why it takes a lifetime to teach. Charles Spurgeon said this, “Most truths have two sides, and it is well to try to see both of them. Nearly every doctrine in the Word of God is balanced by some other doctrine, and many of the differences amongst the people of God have arisen from the undue stress which has been laid on one aspect of truth, while the other side has been altogether neglected. This danger very frequently besets us. For instance, some see the sovereignty of God, and are so carried away with that sublime truth, that they deny the responsibility of man; they thus both wrest the doctrine they do know, and fight against the doctrine they do not know. Others can see the universality of the gospel invitation, and with large hearts can urge all men to turn unto God and live; but they have never seen the speciality of this redemptive work of Christ, and so fail to understand the eternal purpose of God to save his chosen people. Running away with half a truth, they are like men that go through the wilderness wearing only one shoe, and they get lame of one foot, and that makes them limp all over. It does not matter which foot it is that is lame; the man is a cripple if either foot is thus afflicted.”

And it is this catching hold of one idea and twisting it that Paul carefully untangles in the next several verses. They have fabricated some very distorted excuses for wriggling out of sin – Jew and Gentile alike. In essence, they are justifying their sin by saying it makes God look even better. Oscar Wilde put it this way, “I love to sin and God loves to forgive. It is the perfect arrangement.”

It’s like a thief saying, “I make the police look good when they catch me. You guys should give me a medal.” Or, “God needs my failures to show his compassion. It brings out the best in him.”

It’s always the same – just a different version. It’s always a person looking to excuse or justify sinful behavior. In yesterday’s paper there was an update on the case of Ethan Couch who, at 16 was driving drunk and responsible for a horrible accident that killed and crippled several people. His defense lawyers came up with the argument that he was a victim of “affluenza”. During his deposition he described a privileged life seemingly with few rules or consequences. He testified that he did drugs, that he thought his mother knew he drank alcohol and warned him not to drink and drive the night of the accident, that his parents allowed him to start driving by himself at age 13, and that he often stayed alone in the family’s second home in Burleson, Texas.

When asked if she had ever disciplined Ethan for anything, Tonya Couch testified in the deposition that she would “sometimes … take little things away from him or we would just discuss the problems.” When asked if she could recall the last time she disciplined her son, Tonya replied, “I don’t remember.”

At the sentencing hearing, Couch’s legal team called prominent psychologist Dr. G. Dick Miller to the stand to testify on Couch’s behalf. Miller said that Couch’s upbringing and a lack of consequences for his actions caused him to suffer from “Affluenza.” He was given 10 years probation with treatment and his parents chose a $450,000 a year center near Newport Beach, California.

A life of entitlement always ends in being a victim and blaming others and saying they have no right to judge or hold me responsible. It is the mark of a life whose whole energy is pointing to other people or forces that are to blame for their behavior. What’s worse is when they, like those in this passage, begin to find a distorted kind of value in their behavior. Sin hates the name God has given it. It wants to be called “good” instead. That is what sin is always trying to do by changing it’s name because it desires to steal the place of good without changing it’s essential nature.

So, what does Paul conclude? Everyone – Jew and Gentile alike – are under the condemnation of sin. The Gentile because they do not perfectly obey the law written on their hearts and the Jew because they do not perfectly obey God’s revealed Law. There is no escape for anyone and what is Paul’s diagnosis of the human condition? None are righteous. All have sinned and fallen short. All are empty and incapable of being good. It doesn’t take away the special role of the Jew because they have been included in that condemnation. They are still a peculiar people with a special role but they are not exempt.

But, in a sense, it is not an accusation but the best possible diagnosis. I met a doctor years ago who people claimed was the best diagnostician in the country so I was anxious to watch him. He fit this description perfectly. “Diagnosing an illness is an art. A diagnostician needs to be one part scholar, one part detective, and four parts artist. He has to be a good listener, open minded, and capable of assimilating a large amount of sometimes confusing data into an accurate picture of a disease process.”

That is Paul. He is not making an a bitter or hurtful accusation. He is making his diagnosis. The facts of sin did not make Paul angry any more than the diagnosis of measles would a doctor with the cure in his hand.

A friend of mine suffered for years with a condition that had been misdiagnosed and he had received the wrong treatment. When he received the correct diagnosis – even though it was worse than he thought – there was a genuine sense of relief. At least he knew and he was grateful for that. Paul has diagnosed the source of all our sickness but, instead, we have listened to others and gone after other cures. We cannot be righteous. We cannot be good. We cannot understand.

And how do we know that? Because of the Law. We have the Law as a gift – the gift of being conscious of sin. The Law – both laws of Gentile and Jew alike – make us conscious of our imperfection and may even keep us from further sin but they cannot make us sinless and sinless is what God requires. The Law does not relieve us of sin but reminds us of our shortcomings and need for something more than the Law. The Law increases our sensitivity to sin but it does not take away our sin.

People who have no guilt are sociopaths. People who have no sense of sin are spiritual sociopaths and yet so many voices in our culture are telling us to give up sin as an unhealthy concept that only harms us and makes us feel guilty for no good reason. Why be legalistic and narrow? Why make people feel badly about personal choices that harm no one?

What if we raised our children with no sense of guilt at all? Would we be doing them a favor?

Leprosy is itself not fatal. Instead, people die from the consequences of not feeling pain. They develop infections from burns and cuts and lacerations. It is the absence of pain that finally dooms the leper. In the same way, the law is a gift because it keeps us from being morally and spiritually numb and dying from the inevitable result of feeling no pain or guilt or remorse.

Is the Jew still special? Is he still a treasured possession? Is there still a unique role for the Jew or has God changed his mind? We’ll look deeper into that in the coming weeks.

Three questions for you this week.

First, with what had God entrusted you? Has it become a privilege to be enjoyed instead of an assignment to be carried out? Have you made royalty the model for your life with all its benefits and exclusions from hardship or have you accepted your calling as a Marine and as someone under orders. What inheritance are you leaving for your children as well. Not in material wealth but an inheritance of an assignment, a responsibility and a task to accomplish with their lives?

Second, what part of your life needs diagnosis? Not condemnation or accusation but time with someone who can look into your life, listen and discern? Someone who can tell the truth in love.

Third, what part of your spiritual life has become numb and needs the equivalent of clofazamine – the drug used to treat leprosy. That is what Paul would call “the very words of God”

“For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”

You cannot be good enough. You cannot be sinless. You can still rest in God’s promise that you are an inheritor with a purpose and an assignment in the plans of God.