Romans (51) Concluding Thoughts on Romans 14

[Rebbe]

PAUL'S LETTER TO THE ROMAN CHRISTIANS (51)
Analytical Commentary on Romans

CONCLUDING THOUGHTS ON ROMANS 14

BRI/IMCF Lecture is now available for members: Paul's letter to the Roman Christians: Lecture 51
http://www.bripodcasts.com/Romans/Lecture51.MP3

Copyright © BRI/IMCF 2018 All Rights Reserved Worldwide by Les Aron Gosling,
Messianic Lecturer (BRI/IMCF)


Thus the seer,
With vision clear,
Sees forms appear and disappear,
In the perpetual round of strange,
Mysterious change
From birth to death, from death to birth;
From earth to heaven, from heaven to earth;
Till glimpses more sublime,
Of things, unseen before,
Unto his wondering eyes reveal
The universe, as an immeasurable wheel
Turning forevermore
In the rapid and rushing river of Time
-- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Rain in Summer

"Tell me of your certainties. I have doubts enough of my own" -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German statesman and writer.

If I have accomplished little else than my sharing of Pauline CERTAINTIES in relation to the elemental ingredients of the Gospel of our Salvation in this series on the Letter of Paul to the Roman Christians then I can justifiably breathe more easily. What I have so far shared in the past fifty lectures on the contents of Romans are my thoughts indeed... thoughts that became experiential in nature... but they are thoughts also shared originally by the apostle Paul. In fact, had Paul not first shared them in this letter over two thousand years past I would not have been so blest a recipient in both acknowledging and accepting his ideas as truth and nor would you, if you still call yourself a Christian. To be candid about it, assuredly and honestly, along with Goethe I have many doubts of my own on a number of issues and topics. But I insist that my doubts are invariably faithful doubts. And, I might honestly add, that I never share those faithful doubts with anyone.

At the very start of this lecture let me state, with Carl Gustav Jung, that I do not believe there is a God. I know there is a God, a first cause, a majestic creative MIND that brought all things into a reality and who is working out a plan and purpose and intention relating to the SALVATION OF THE HUMAN RACE here below. I possess an ABSOLUTE inner CERTAINTY regarding this fact.

And so I minister in the calling and election of the SPIRIT wherewith I have been equipped. I know what my gifts are, and I know where they originate, and I am learning still how to use them.  

At this juncture I would like to address the subject of Christian destiny. Many of our IMCF students are very cognisant of the ultimate destiny of humankind and the entirety of the cosmos. The salvation of the universe is the OUTCOME of Infinite Grace.

There are sincere Christians who do not accept the outcome of God's Infinite Grace. They effortlessly and argumentatively limit God's Grace and His LOVE, and become fools for resisting and even denying God's revealed will in this matter. Yes, it stands clearly stated in the New Covenant Scriptures but still they shy away from the patently obvious. In limiting God they commit an atrocious idolatry! They have replaced GOD with a god of their own devising, their own making, their own wretched imaginings. And they are so pious about it.

Listen! Well may we argue, articulate, and pontificate about matters of SALVATION but there is ONE DESTINY none of us will ever be able to sidestep, evade, circumvent and dodge and if we have the wrong attitude and perspective on it, the very idea of that one destiny will be enough in this lifetime to send us completely and totally mad.

What is that one destiny we will never be able to avoid?

I speak of a JUDGMENT that is yet to eventuate. And nagging thoughts about it are guaranteed to send us crazy. It has happened to people we know. It has sent Christian ministers to asylums. It will destroy us that is, if we misunderstand the PURPOSE of God in this judgment.

Turn to Romans 14.10.

"We shall all stand before the judgment seat of God" (Rom 14.10).

It's enough to frighten the living daylights out of us. But Paul hastens to add, repeating his prophetic predecessor with some slight adjustments...

"For it is written, I live, says the Lord, that to me shall bow every knee, and every tongue shall confess to God. So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God" (Romans 14.11-12 Greek cf Isaiah 45.23).

"Shall confess" in the Greek text, insists the great Greek scholar Marvin Vincent, "is primarily, to acknowledge, confess, or profess from... the heart. To make a confession to one's honor; thence to praise" (Marvin Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament, The Epistles of Paul: Romans., 1887, Vol.lll.,169).

Note that such an acknowledgment or confession is a welcome one in no way is this admission and declaration wrenched out of the human heart by God's terrible overwhelming and threatening force. It is purely voluntary, and the motive pure.

The apostle Paul all through his epistles is remarkable in his antagonism toward anything that will detract from the GRACE of God or that will deface the GLORY of Almighty God. So much so is this the case that one is brilliant if he or she can locate one skerrick of mention by the apostle to the Gentiles about a Gehenna fire burning up God's enemies. It just cannot be found in any of Paul's writings. This is not to discount the reality of such a fiery judgment, but it is never pronounced in Paul's theology because he well knows the Gracious ultimate outcome of God's loving Grace and he prefers to concentrate only on that purpose-filled Salvific consequence. Paul never deviates from this understanding of the Isaiatic passage.

We find the same emphasis in his later epistle to the Philippians.

"Wherefore God also has highly exalted him [Yeshua], and given him a name, that which is above every name: that [i.e., in order that or for the intent or purpose that] at the name of Yeshua [i.e., the name that Yeshua was given -- the NAME of Yehovah] every knee should bow [Greek, kampto: involving free will on the part of the one doing the bowing], of heavenly, and earthly, and infernal beings; and every tongue shall freely confess [Greek, exomologeo] that Yeshua the Messiah is LORD, to God the Father's glory" (Philippians 2.9-11 Greek).  

The name above all names is not that of Yeshua as such for the text does not state it (although most Christians think it does). Rather, the text suggests that this Name above all names is that of God Himself. And, pray tell, what is that Name? It is the Name YEHOVAH. (This becomes quite apparent when the Isaiatic texts above are read in the entire context of the passage.)

There is no real lasting glory for the Father who set the entire plan of redemption, reconciliation and salvation into operation according to His own purpose, design, pleasure, and Gracious Salvific will if this adoration described by Paul has to be twisted, wriggled and wormed out of stubborn hostility. Again, the word translated into English as "bow" is kampto, found in the Scriptures ONLY in the writings of Paul. It literally means "bow in religious veneration" as found also in Ephesians.

"For this cause I bow my knees [freely in worship] unto the Father," writes Rav Shaul (Ephesians 3.14). In contrast, Paul uses sunkampto (Romans 11.10) signifying "to bend down by compulsory force" whereas (as I have already stated but do so again for emphasis) confess is exomologeo, to praise or acclaim from the heart, freely, or... openly. This same word is used by both Matthew and Luke to express the glad spirit of Yeshua when he said, "I thank you Father, Lord of heaven and earth" (Matthew 11.25; Luke 10.21).  

Why should any of us fear to stand before the judgment Throne of our living, loving, gentle, kind and considerate Father who sent His uniquely begotten Son to DIE for each of us and to SAVE us from an eternal Christless Night?

As we have now seen here, according again to Paul (who realised our true liberty or freedom can only be authentically expressed within the will of God), the entire universe shall bow the knee in worship and praise to the Lord in the same humility that exemplified the character of Paul himself and that witnessed to the very Nature of Yeshua as the Son of God. This worship and praise, this bowing of the knee and open, free acclaim is to be the ONE perfect utterance that will fill the universe as it is swallowed up completely in the musical harmony which is the UNITY that is GOD.  

Our confession before the Throne of God -- our open admission of our human frailties -- will see our human nature burned up at the Dais (with our memories of sinful behaviour and every rebellious element of carnal lostness) being replaced with THE EVERLASTING CHARACTER OF CHRIST.

Read Romans 14.10 again with this understanding of God's Grace. After all, there is not a single word about any condemnation in this context -- no hint that we shall experience any penal judgment. And why is this so? Because, we were JUDGED AT THE CROSS two thousand years ago! The bloodied tree of Golgoleth indelibly imprinted on each page of the New Covenant Messianic Scriptures stands as witness to this our REALITY.

THE ISAIAH REFERENCE & ITS PROPHETIC SIGNIFICANCE
To properly understand the mind of Paul as a minister SERVANT of God and His people, we really need to refresh our understanding of the Isaiah passage from which Paul quotes.

Isaiah wrote that "every knee shall bend." The ancient prophet is emphatic. Paul is equally assertive. "Every knee shall bow." The Emissary of Messiah is convicted that this is the case, because he has read what Isaiah has written very carefully. Let me say this once again. I know I have mentioned it many times, but it bears repeating. Nowhere in the Hebrew or Greek texts can we locate one chapter or verse or comma or colon or semicolon or hyphen or paragraph or period (full stop). None of these items is inspired by God. They are additions to the text made by man in order to make the text clearer to the human mind and easier to understand. Actually, despite their noble intentions, the authorities oftentimes make the text muddier than it really is and as a result a different interpretive emphasis is often found to be the case than that which the Ruach HaKodesh originally inspired.

This is the case with Isaiah. The concluding thought in Isaiah 45 ought to be continued with verse 1 of the very next chapter. For, that is how Paul read it as we can ascertain from his quotation in the letter to the Philippians. Remember, he wrote "every knee should bow." There is a reason. For, not only does the text tell us plainly that "all knees shall bow" before God's Presence but specifically....

"Bel is bowed down, Nebo bends [the knee]; their idols are upon the camels, and upon the cattle: the images that are carried are burdensome, a heavy load for the weary [creature]" (Isa 46.1).

Bel [the moon-god of ancient Mesopotamia] is another name for Marduk of ancient Babylon, and Nebo was his offspring. Idols which were associated with the worship of these pagan gods were found on the cattle, and camels, and donkeys. These idols (as archeology has revealed) were metal trinkets and weighty images in the shape of the crescent moon. Isaiah's prophetic spirit has taken him into the endtime now. I will return to this thought in a moment.

Certainly, under the sixth seal in the Apocalypse every man will flee from the FACE of Yehoveh, Israel's God. Let us take time out to reappraise Revelation 6.12-17.

"When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and there occurred a great earthquake; the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, the moon in its entirety became like blood, and the meteors of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree drops its winter fruit when shaken by a gale. The sky vanished like a scroll rolling itself up, and every mountain and island were removed out of their places. Then the kings of the earth and the magnates and the generals and the capitalists and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us and hide us from the face of the one seated on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?" (Rev 6.12-17).

There is much more to the sixth seal that the biblical revelation reveals and I will be giving a lecture very shortly on the coming destruction of Islam. In the meantime I would like all my students to begin becoming more familiar with Psalm 81, 82 and 83. In doing so you will be prepared for a forthcoming lecture in which I will pursue the spiritual revelation from Almighty God concerning the future of a presently darkened world with its deliberate cow-towing to the demonic religion of Mohammed. I desire by the Spirit of God to share this lecture while there is still a certain measure of freedom of speech in this country. My speech will shortly be curtailed, and so also will yours. The prophet claimed that at the end of the age there would be a drought of hearing the Word of God (Amos 8.11-13).

"Behold, the days come, says the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord: And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, AND SHALL NOT FIND IT. In that day shall the fair virgins and young men faint for thirst."

That famine of which Amos speaks will extend from a point just ahead of us now to the time-period when Elijah comes and starts to RESTORE ALL THINGS. The Jewish tribulation -- the time of Jacob's travail -- will follow some time later when God will raise up His Two Witnesses who will give immense strife and radical opposition to the Antichrist (whoever he may be). They will THUNDER the Word of God at this son of perdition and God will enable them to accomplish this even through extreme suffering.

We are closer to the end of days than some would like to think!

God's Name will be ABOVE every name. The only true God, and His Name, will be exalted on that day. Note that beside God the Father, fleeing men see Yeshua as the disfigured Lamb. But he's not just any lamb. Yeshua is the Passover Lamb! Students, there is a great religion in the world today which recognises Yeshua as the Messiah, and reveres Miriam his Mother, but which denies that he was killed by crucifixion or that he was God's Son. That religion is Islam.

The Isaiatic text informs us that under the sixth seal EVERY man -- including, therefore, Moslems -- will finally acknowledge Yeshua as the crucified and resurrected MESSIAH and SON OF GOD. Nowhere in the heavenly scene before them will ayatollahs and their faithful see the presence of Mo'ham'med. He's not going to be there. He is decidedly not at the right hand of God surrounded by a host of virgins and little eight-year old girls or otherwise. He is where he has always been since his death in the pits of Sheol with every other sinner awaiting his sentence of Judgment.

I would also like to apprise that the events revealed under the sixth seal occur subsequent to the rise of the Antichrist. This is self-evident. For, the first seal introduced him and this is the sixth seal. Already the Temple stands in Jerusalem. Eretz Yisrael is divided up into the ancient tribal allocations and all the tribes of Israel are occupying those ancient allowances with their boundaries and borders firmly in place as the prophets of Israel and Judah foretold.

"The sixth seal doesn't describe the final destruction of the world (which occurs later in the Apocalypse) but rather depicts the Lord Yeshua's sudden intervention in human affairs. The judgment of the sixth seal originates [not in man as per the previous five seals but] in God as a divine punishment inflicted upon a blasphemous world" (J.F. Walvoord, The Revelation of Jesus Christ, 1966, 136).

We have seen in the past lecture that all levels of society (typified by seven designations) are mentioned as refusing the Grace of God in a maddened preference to escape from the heavenly vision through death. But death is merely a change from one state to another (Walvoord, ibid, 137). What awaits these overtly anxious, panic-ridden, obstinate, and obdurate sinners is what is known biblically as the Great White Throne Judgment. There is no eluding it. The seven classes of which John speaks include great men, professional men, admired men, but it also speaks of slaves. They each have one thing in common. They share the same identical predicament. A life lived to the full and replete with worldly success will not now help them. No friends made in business deals will assist them. They are confronted by a world descending into chaos and they have seen the hostile face of heightened heavenly fury. They realise all too late that there is no way out. No one escapes.

BACK TO PAUL
The use of the word Judgment in the context of Romans 14.10,11 is right enough as it stands, because a judgment is certainly involved, but Paul is careful to make use of a specific term altogether associated with the outcome of sporting activities... bema. The bema was a dais. A bema or dais was the upraised stage or platform at the annual or periodic Graeco-Roman Games where a winner in a chariot contest or sporting event was awarded with the laurel wreath of victory (or similar). He thereafter became a god-like hero to the masses, at least until the next Games were held in which he competed.

I must agree wholeheartedly with the controversial A.E.Knoch in this matter when he writes,

"First of all let us clear the ground, lest the dais of Christ should be confused with suffering for our sins. Those who stand before the great white throne will be judged according to their acts, but those who are presented before His dais will be requited for their good deeds. The dead who stand before the final judgment throne will be condemned for their doings, but the immortals who appear before His dais will be applauded for their achievements. Christ... is the Judge [who] distributes the prizes to the [victor]. He may, indeed, penalize for infringement of the rules, but He does not condemn. Negatively, as all our work will be tested by fire, some of it will be burned up, and we will forfeit our wages, but we ourselves will be saved (1 Cor.3:12-15). For the first time in our existence, our sins will not only be gone, but we will be what we should be.

"Moreover, the dais will not be a [negative] judgment. It is a grave error to translate the term bema thus, and leads, not only to serious confusion, but positive contradiction in the Scriptures. Judgment for sin is past for the believer. Even the Circumcision were assured by our Lord that he who is hearing My word and believing Him Who sends Me has life eonian and is not coming into judging, but has proceeded out of death into life (John 5:24). Here we have a hint why there is no judging possible...

"The key words which describe the dais are illumination, manifestation, requital [something given in return -- a compensation for a good or bad action] and applause. These are closely connected with judgment, but the sting has been withdrawn. They are not due to God's indignation, as is the case with the unbeliever, but to His holiness, which insists on the removal of all that might be, a source of evil in the future. He will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and reveal the counsels of the heart (1 Cor.4:5). The true value of our service lies in the motive back of it, not in its apparent success or failure. If it is done for His glory alone, it will not fail to find applause. But if it is centered in self, it will not survive the fire. Yet we will be glad to see it vanish" (A.E.Knoch, extract from The Dais or Judgment Seat of God and His Christ. Emphasis throughout Knoch's quotation is mine).

Why are WE there before the Throne of God in a judgment? The answer is simple: so that we can give openly and eagerly an appropriate assessment of ourselves and in that same account we shall give GLORY to God for saving us by His GRACE as well as to gain whatever reward God has made provision for us to receive! For every negative deed done in the body will be exposed to the ONE who so loved us that He GAVE Himself in our place in order to SAVE us completely, thoroughly. There is no need for timidity, fear, or terror. God is our Father and our Mother. God is LOVE. He never fails us.

Of course, it goes without saying that each believer in Yeshua must give God an account of his life. All that was accomplished through the flesh will be seen by the Saviour as worthless of any reward and what was gained by the indwelling power of the holy Spirit will be greatly approved and advantaged. After all, at that particular time as we stand before the bema of God we will already be GLORIFIED (by virtue of being raised to meet Messiah in the air at his advent. Our old sinful nature with all its yetzer ha'ra proclivities will be long gone). We shall equally be without guilt because we were declared righteous 2000 years past at the horrific death of Christ. There will be absolutely no need for any forensic punishment or correction as God in Yeshua internalised and redirected His own deep-seated furious anger against SIN and SINNERS at Himself in the death of His Son. Our Lord Yeshua bore personally ALL of the believer's sin.

Listen! This event ought not be considered with any sense of terror. Do we have any recollection of previous lives when we expired and came into judgment upon death? No, of course not. It's wiped from our memory. Then why should we be afraid?

PREVIOUS LIFE AFTER DEATH JUDGMENTS
The sectarians at Qumran believed in transmigration. One would live their life, die, and after this judgment would take place when the spirit returned to God who gave it in the first place. (This is not THE final Judgment. It is a judgment that occurs at death.) Some of the early converts to Messianic Christianity came from such a background and the unknown writer of the Epistle to the Hebrew Christians notes, in Hebrews 9.27-28:

"And just as it is appointed to men to die once and after that to be judged [please notice that there is no definite article before the word judged or judgment] SO Messiah, after being ONCE sacrificed to bear the sins of many, WILL APPEAR AGAIN, not to deal with sin but for the saving of those who are on the outlook for Him" (Greek).

The unknown author is drawing a comparison here between man's natural karmic cycle and the REAPPEARANCE of Messiah to ultimately save those for whom He died. Israeli academic scholars who have analysed this letter's contents all give evidence that it was written to an Essene Community just prior to the Roman-Jewish War. The Essenes believed that we came from God, lived out our life here below, died, returned to the heavenlies, were examined, studied and probed (judged) for growth and then sent back out into another body to live out our life here below, to then die, return to the heavenlies and be analysed (judged) for growth ad infinitum.

Unless we see in this text a recognition of reincarnation the parallel comparison being made between life and death and the return of the Messiah cannot be properly appreciated. The author of the letter is stating a fact of life, as understood by the Essenes, that when a person died he went to judgment to appear before the tribunal for an assessment of his life. He may need to return another time to complete his passage toward spiritual wholeness in his spirit.

Thus the argument for transmigration is used by the author of Hebrews to set the stage for the need for Messiah to come a second time without sin unto salvation (Heb 9.28).

We could read it this way for the purpose of clarification. "And just as it is appointed for men to die once and after that to be judged, and then to return to a new life, so Messiah after being once sacrificed to bear the sins of many, will appear again, not to deal with sin, but for the saving of those who are on the outlook for him that is, the elect, those experiencing their last human walk in this their final life of Grace."

Man lives, man dies, man is judged. Man lives, man dies, man is judged. Man lives, man dies, man is judged. Man is judged by the laws of karma, summed up in the Golden Rule. This was the teaching of the believers in transmigration in the mid-to-late Second Temple period leading up to and including the Fifth Procuratorship of Judaea and beyond!

Nothing less than the doctrine of transmigration believed in by the Jewish people of the Second Temple Period and by the early Messianic Movement for at least three centuries (and in some cases longer) can truly satisfy the need for Divine Justice and which sense of justice (accordingly) is finally and perfectly articulated in the GRACE of God in the perfect life, death and resurrection of Yeshua the Messiah.

As I have already articulated, the vast majority of scholarly Jewish opinion is that the circular Letter to the Hebrews was written to the believers in Yeshua in the Essene sect at Qumran, Damascus and Jerusalem. Thus new light is thrown onto the text in question. In fact the awesome amount of biblical research currently becoming available is so astonishing we can hardly keep up with it.

But keeping up with it means growing with it too into a better understanding of the contents of the biblical revelation.

The Jewish people have a saying, "The Torah always remains the same, but the ways in which we understand it are continuing to evolve."

So, if this is the case, before we shift gears and analyse the essential certainties of Romans 15, we ought to reflect again on the Sinai Torah before we depart from the essentials of Romans 14.

In the following lecture we shall attempt to do so with exactitude.

THIS CONCLUDES LECTURE 51