WHEN TRUTH IS CORNERED

What if some were unfaithful?  Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God?  Romans 3:3

Paul has just spent many verses explaining that Jews and Gentiles must both come to a faith in Christ to be saved.  The ground at the foot of the cross is level.  The Jew does not have an advantage because of his generational bloodline or the fact that they had been circumcised.  This was hard for them to hear, so hard, that Paul heard many arguments.  One sounded like this ~ “If Jews are unfaithful, as you say, and if God condemns them because of their sin, doesn’t that make God unfaithful?  After all, He made an everlasting covenant with them and called them ‘His people’.  What happened to God’s promise to them?”

Paul thinks this question is so important that he will spend all of chapter nine answering it.

To the Jew, and perhaps to us as we wrestle with certain scriptures, it seems as if truth has cornered God.  It appears there can only be two options for answering.  The first would give all Jews guaranteed salvation because of who they are.  The second would have them saved by faith alone, and since most did not acknowledge Jesus, God’s faithfulness to His covenant with them appears to be in question.

I have seven more chapters to prepare to understand Paul’s answers to this question.  I’m relieved about that!  But what struck me this morning is this ~ what do I believe when God seems to appear guilty?  When there is circumstantial evidence that might point to the possibility that God isn’t good, or loving, or faithful, what does that do to my faith?  If I’m one who has to put God in a box of my own understanding, I will be in trouble.  If I’m willing to admit that the kingdom holds many mysteries and I am not capable of understanding them all, then I can more easily exercise my faith.

When God appears to break a promise, I know that the problem is me.  God is a promise keeper.  When God appears to be absent, the problem is me.  God is ever near.  When God appears to be lax in His judgment, the problem is me.  God rules righteously.

Paul readily admits that these arguments are difficult for the Jews but they wrangle in the cobwebs of spiritual darkness.  Instead of standing on the bedrock of God’s character, they put God on the witness stand and rely on their own clever arguments to condemn Him.  Such is the downfall of man when we risk our lives on the shifting sand of human reasoning.

A child can stand on the truth of your character and remain unshaken.  I vow to trust you like that, to not be moved by the appearance of an inconsistency.  You character is unchanging.  Amen