Romans 16: God Reveals What He Thinks of This World... And it's Not Good!

[Rebbe]

PAUL'S LETTER TO THE ROMAN CHRISTIANS [16]

Analytical Commentary on Romans

God Reveals What He Thinks of This World... And it's Not Good!

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Copyright © BRI 2016 All Rights Reserved Worldwide by Les Aron Gosling,
Messianic Lecturer (BRI/IMCF)

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"The great Rabbi Gamaliel had among his disciples one who, according to a passage in the Talmud, gave his master a good deal of trouble, manifesting 'impudence in matters of learning.' But his name is not given; he is remembered simply as 'that pupil'" (F.F. Bruce, The Spreading Flame, 1958, 81. See also J. Klausner, From Jesus to Paul, 1944, 310f; Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat 30b).

"Organised Christianity is still in its infancy, as is the mind of man as he seeks to grapple with truths that could only come to him by revelation. The half has not yet been told and the full implications for human thought and action of the coming of God in Christ have as yet been only dimly grasped by most of us" -William Neil Nottingham University, Editor's Preface in W.H.C. Frend, The Early Church, 1965, 5,6

"The first problem for all of us, men and women, is not to learn, but to unlearn" , Gloria Steinem

Over the past 15 lectures in this present series, we have traveled with Paul the apostle through his step-by-step analysis of God's condemnation of the world. And God's Spirit has led Paul into an understanding of why it is humankind needs to be saved , and from what. And, Paul leaves nobody out of the equation in his inspired Letter to the Roman Christians. Even today in our modern technocratic civilisation we have two segments of society that claim they do not need "salvation" of any kind. One portion of humanity that feels this way is the atheistic humanist. He's ultimately OK and you'll be OK in his worldview.

Well, that's his opinion, and he's welcome to it. In another few short years his little secure world will literally tear apart at the seams and I cannot help but wonder when that occurs how many authentic atheists will still hold to such an optimistic outlook. I well recall a number of our students who resisted any mention of an asteroid hit on this planet and who desired to go their own "pleasure-seeking" way in life without the cumbersome thoughtful weight of dangerous reality hanging about their necks. This was as a consequence of my mention in an early lecture on the year 2028 as a possible date (and as the years go past its becoming more probable!!!) for an asteroid collision with our blue planetary orb , and all that we call "home" and "ours" here below. Now 2028 may or may not be set in concrete as far as I am concerned (and NASA as well). But one thing is for certain. Our planet will soon be in horrendous turmoil. Do your own research. And be prepared for findings that may well be somewhat unsettling if not utterly unnerving.

But a second element in society also claims to not be in any hurry for "salvation" , at least in the way the Messianic Scriptures emphasise salvation. And that happens to be the religious Jewish people. They believe they are saved already because [1] they are Jews and [2] they are bound to the eternal God by the Sinai Covenant and are thereby saved by that contractual relationship.

Paul in his Letter to the Roman Christians lambasts the philosophical and mystery religious organisations of the Second Temple period which had entered Rome as the capitol of the world and which were destroying the moral fibre of the normal, everyday Roman citizen. Other scholars of the time also denigrated these systems of thought along with their bizarre unnatural sexual practices involving non-human species. Rome in their opinion had become the sewer, cesspool and latrine of the world.

Then Paul proceeds to condemn the moralists and humanists of his day and, while in the Spirit, also fires his remaining ammunition at the Jewish people. They do not have a leg to stand upon. In a word, ALL the world stands condemned by God through the writings of Paul.

In the immediate past lecture I have wanted to stress that WE need God's salvation as never before. We need salvation from the Dark Lord's world wide web of various bondages, and from the evil political, educational, and economic system of this age, and from the perils of our own down-pulling dark nature , our yetzer ha'ra. I have attempted to lead our students into an appreciation of our already existing and unwavering STATE OF SALVATION, as well as our need to actually SEE our unconscious nature for what it really is. God is TRIPARTITE and as God's mirrored image we are equally TRIPARTITE. Our spirit needs salvation. Our soul (our fleshly appetites and will) needs salvation. And our body needs to be redeemed into SPIRIT as God is Spirit. As far as this world is concerned God tells us that their condemnation is well-deserved (Rom 3.8).

This brings us to the present text.

"What then? Are we any better off? [or, at any disadvantage] No, not at all; for we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, as it is written:

'There is no one who is righteous, not even one;
there is no one who has understanding,
there is no one who seeks God.
All have turned aside, together they have become worthless;
there is no one who shows habitual kindness,
there is not even one.' [Psalm 14.1-3; 53.2-4 (1-3)]

'Their throats are opened graves;
they use their tongues to deceive.' [Psalm 5.10 (9)]
"The venom of vipers is under their lips.' [Psalm 140.4 (3)]
"Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.' [Psalm 10.7]
"Their feet are swift to shed blood;
ruin and misery are in their paths,
and the way of shalom they have not known.' [Isaiah 59.7,8; Proverbs 1.16]
'There is no fear of God before their eyes.' [Psalm 36.2 (1)]

"Now we absolutely know that whatever the Torah says, it speaks to those who are within the sphere of the Torah, so that every mouth may be silenced, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For "no human being will be justified in his sight' [Psalm 143.2] by deeds prescribed by the Torah, for through the Torah comes the full knowledge of sin. But now, irrespective of Torah, the righteousness of God has been disclosed, and is attested by the Torah and the prophets, the righteousness of God through the faith of Yeshua the Messiah for all who believe.

"For there is no distinction, since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are now justified by his Grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Messiah Yeshua, whom God put forward as a sacrifice [or, place] of atonement by his blood, effective through trust.

"He did this to show his righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over the sins previously committed; it was to prove at the present time that he himself is righteous and that he justifies us on the ground of Yeshua's faithfulness.

"Then what becomes of boasting? It is excluded. What kind of Torah excludes it? By that of works? No, but by the Torah that orients around trusting. For we hold that a person is justified by trusting apart from works prescribed by the Torah. Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, since God is One [Deut 6.4]; and he will justify the circumcised on the ground of trusting and the uncircumcised through that same trust.

"Do we then overthrow the Torah by this trusting? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold [confirm, establish] the Torah" (Rom 3.9-31).

PAUL WRITES AS A JEW
There is a reason, of course, for the availability of so many differing and contentious volumes explaining what Paul meant when he wrote on certain issues. A straightforward exposition of the Letter to the Roman Christians is a rarity indeed, due to the imposition of a millennium of Catholic theological discipline, and over four hundred years of Protestant theological illogicality, concerning the epistle. Its extremely rare to locate a Jewish view of Romans. The fact is, Paul writes his letters as a Jew with a Second Temple background and education, not as a Gentile. Again, Paul was neither a Catholic or a Protestant. But having said this, even Jewish scholars "sympathetic" to the Jewish origins of the religion of Christianity continue to parrot what they themselves have been conditioned to accept from the Yeshua-rejecting rabbinic authorities. Case in point: David Flusser -- Hebrew University Professor on early Christianity -- (and whom I admit has my ongoing admiration)! He writes with glaring Judaism bias:

"Paul, one of the most important of the founders of Christianity, is probably the most famous early Christian beside Jesus. Many regard him as the second founder of Christianity... Paul lived in a state of tension with the Christian community of Jerusalem, all the members of which were observant Jews... he... considered the core of Christianity  to consist of the act of salvation by Jesus the Messiah, who redeemed the whole of mankind and opened the gate, as it were to the Gentiles. Paul's attitude to the Torah and the commandments was in no way positive... Paul drew the conclusion that God's election was the only act of grace, and that there was no point in fulfilling the commandments of the Torah, since they did not lead to divine grace" (David Flusser, Jewish Sources in Early Christianity, 1987, 67, 71).

Doesn't this sound very familiar? It's Church doctrine through and through. Billions of Christians have swallowed this rot and rubbish for 2000 years.

Let me clarify my statement that Paul writes his letters as a Jew with a Second Temple background and education, and not as a Gentile.

P'SHAT; REMEZ; DRASH; SOD
There were four basic modes of Scripture interpretation used by the rabbis of the Second Temple period. They are called (1) P'shat (2) Remez (3) Drash or Midrash (4) Sod.

P'shat means simple; Remez means hint; Drash or Midrash means search; Sod is secret.

We find Paul utilising these four modes right throughout his letters. Understood correctly by Gentile scholars this would put new meaning into that which Paul composed.

David Stern explains it simply.

"P'shat... the plain, literal sense of the text, more or less what modern scholars mean by "grammatical-historical exegesis," which looks to the grammar of the language and the historical setting as background for deciding what a passage means. Modern scholars often consider grammatical-historical exegesis the only valid way to deal with a text...

"Remez... wherein a word, phrase or other element in the text hints at a truth not conveyed by the p'shat. The implied presupposition is that God can hint at things of which the Bible writers themselves were unaware.

"Drash... an allegorical or homiletical application of a text. This is a species of eisegesis , reading one's own thoughts into the text , as opposed to exegesis, which is extracting from the text what it actually says. The implied presupposition is that the words of Scripture can legitimately become grist for the mill of human intellect, which God can guide to truths not directly related to the text at all.

"Sod... a mystical or hidden meaning arrived at by operating on the numerical values of the Hebrew letters, noting unusual spellings, transposing letters and the like. For example, two words, the numerical equivalents of whose letters add up to the same amount, are good candidates for revealing a secret through what Arthur Koestler in his book on the inventive mind called "bisociation of ideas." The implied presupposition is that God invests meaning in the minutest details of Scripture, even the individual letters" (David Stern, Jewish New Testament Commentary, 11,12).

This Hebrew word sod has no association or connection with the English expression "sod off." As an English expression "s.o.d.," could stand for "Shopping on Demand," "School of Dentistry," "Secretary of Defense," "Skate or Die," "Slaves on Dope" or even "Sheep on Drugs." While nobody seems to have solved the origin of "sod" in the term "sod off" everyone is agreed that "sod" means a fool or idiot. I mention this as an aside to distance our thinking from English concepts into those of Hebrew.

In fact we find this Hebrew mode of technique utilised all through the NT corpus. Its not peculiar to Paul. Matthew 2.15 is a useful example. Matthew has examined a text of the prophet Hosea which says "Out of Egypt have I called my Son" (Hos 11.1). Obviously Israel is intended (Ex 4.22), and not the Messiah (and so, p'shat). However, Matthew perceives that we are dealing with a remez , a hint of the coming of the Messiah who will be found in Egypt in order to be called back into the Promised Land. Matthew was well aware that Yeshua as an infant, and his family, had fled into Egypt (probably to an Essene colony long-established in Alexandria) to escape being slaughtered by a mad king. After Herod's death Yosef brought the family safely back to their homeland. Matthew is clearly also utilising a form of midrash for he is reading Yeshua into the verse. And, in using p'shat, remez, and drash Matthew is revealing his rabbinic and scholarly approach just as other rabbis of the same period (and for that matter) even today. That Matthew was alert to the secret (sod) that was long-locked into the passage under discussion in Hosea can be attested to without concern for rejection by any rabbi worth his circumcision.

It almost goes without saying that we must be very cautious when reading biblical texts. As students of rabbinic authorities it is stressed: One Jew three opinions, and one text 72 interpretations. I will give you a prime example of a text where it is, at first reading, plainly simple (p'shat). Turn with me to Judges 21.25. It is written,

"In those days there was no king in Israel; each man did that which was right in his own eyes."

This verse comes as a concluding statement after a scroll filled with violence and horror. The plain reading insinuates that when human beings think they are doing right it invariably turns out that they are self-deceived and creating havoc in their lives and in the lives of others. In Proverbs 14.12 and 16.25 (for emphasis) we are reliably informed "There is a way that seems right to a man but the ends thereof are the ways of death." Fairly accurate and fairly conclusive I would assess.

So the normal reading of the Judges text gives us all a sense of the negative as a realistic outcome. That would be a p'shat rendering. However, when we take some time out to THINK on that text, we can come to an entirely different conclusion. The Hasidic Rabbi of Satmar declared that each of us as human beings possess common sense which can guide us to make right and positive decisions in our lives. How can this be the case? The Rabbi of Satmar bases his view on the Torah injunction, "Do that which is proper and good" (Deut 6.18).

QUESTION: How do we determine a differentiation between proper and good, and that which constitutes wrong-doing or evil? Clearly, by examining the Torah. BUT, and here's the point the Rabbi of Satmar was making. If the Torah avoids mention in any particular case of what is proper and good then we must of necessity turn to another source for understanding , the inner Man. Therefore WE MUST ALL POSSESS an innate common sense. We can now read back into the Judges text a more positive clarification. In other words we could paraphrase the text to read like this:

"In those days there was no king in Israel; therefore each man had to rely on his own common sense."

According to Rabbi Abraham Twerski our world seems so unjust and it does so for a reason: "people do not act according to their own common sense, but rather according to what they think others might think of them. If people did what was good in their own eyes, we might have less injustice. The driving force behind the lusts for power, fame, and wealth - which themselves lead to corrupt behavior - may not necessarily be what people want for themselves as much as their desire to impress others. If we stop behaving according to what we wish others to think, we might give our common sense a fighting chance."

He's right, of course, in this matter. It also enables us to look again at the Judges text and see beyond the p'shat surface rendering to a further remez, drash and sod implication.

BACK TO ROMANS: THE CHARGE
Our conclusion of the first section of Romans, along with Paul's assessment, answers the question "Is the world lost?" Now notice that in Rom 3.21 Paul introduces a new concept into his running text of absolute condemnation. He starts with two little words: "But now..."

Paul has separately dealt with the condemnation of the Gentile, the moralist and humanist, and the Jew. In a sweeping classification he then brings all Gentiles and Jews together in a huge sinful lump in Rom 3.9. "What then? Are we (Jews) better than they (the Gentiles)? In no way! For we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles THAT THEY ARE ALL UNDER SIN."

Does he really mean "all"?

"There is no one righteous, not even one! No one understands.." (Rom 3.10).

"No one seeks God" (Rom 3.11).

"All have turned away, and at the same time become useless; there is no one who shows habitual kindness, not a single one!" (Rom 3.12).

Got the picture? How many are there who are righteous? There is none (v.10), there is none (v.11), there is none (v.11), there is none (v.12). Four occasions Paul states the obvious.

"What then? Are we any better off? No, not at all; for we have already charged that ALL, both Jews and Greeks, are under the power of sin... ALL have turned aside, together they have become worthless; there is no one who shows kindness, there is not even one...  Now we know that whatever the Torah says, it speaks to those who are under the Torah, so that every mouth may be silenced, and ALL the world may be held accountable to God" (Rom 3.9,12,19).

Three times Paul resorts to the inclusive "ALL." None appears four times, all three times. Add these numerals together and we have SEVEN - which marks completeness. God's indictment is a wholehearted complete one. Its sevenfold. As Alva McClain sums it up , "Paul brings the whole world to the judgment bar of God and leaves them standing there - trembling and silent" (Romans: The Gospel of God's Grace, 92).

McClain in his scholarly way adds something which the ordinary reader may have missed...

"In this section is a picture of a courtroom with a criminal on trial. The very terms that the apostle uses are legal. There are several elements involved in a human trial. First, a charge. Then, very often there is an indictment, written and carefully prepared, and it has perhaps one, two, three, four or a dozen counts. Then there is an opportunity given for the prisoner to make his defense. Finally, there is a verdict brought in specifying the guilt or innocence of the party. These four elements appear in this passage: (1) The Charge, verse 9; (2) The Indictment, verses 10-18; (3) The Defense, verse 19; and (4) The Verdict, verses 19-20" (ibid).

Now if your version or translation of the Bible has the word "prove" or "proved" in Rom 3.9 where it says "we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles" please remove it! The text ought to read, "For we before laid to the charge both of Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin." The Greek literally means "to lay a charge against somebody in court." McClain states, "It does, however, include the idea of proving that charge, because Paul not only laid a charge against the world, but he proved the charge. So we might speak of it as a proven charge... What was the charge? "All under sin." He does not say that all have sinned. He will say that later on. He does not say, "I charge Jews and Gentiles that they are all sinners," but "They are all under sin." This is a very striking phrase, especially in the original. It means that these people are not only under sin but they are under all that goes with sin. Sin has its guilt, sin has its power, sin has its condemnation, and sin has its doom! Paul is saying that every one of these people (both Jews and Gentiles) is under the guilt of sin, under the power of sin, under the condemnation of sin, under the doom of sin. All these ideas are gathered up in this statement."

BACK TO ROMANS: THE INDICTMENT
There are 14 counts in this indictment:

1.   "There is none righteous, no, not one" (v.10)

2.   "There is none that understands" (v.11)

3.   "There is none that seeks after God" (v.11)

4.   "They are all gone out of the way" (v.12)

5.   "They are together become unprofitable" (v.12)

6.   "There is none that does good, no, not one" (v.12)

7.   "Their throat is an open sepulchre" (v.13)

8.   "With their tongues they have used deceit" (v.13)

9.   "The poison of asps is under their lips" (v.13)

10. "Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness" (v.14)

11. "Their feet are swift to shed blood" (v.15)

12. "Destruction and misery are in their ways" (v.16)

13. "The way of peace they have not known" (v.17)

14. "There is no fear of God before their eyes (v.18).

What a comprehensive picture of the human race is here drawn up by God through Paul.

The Rebbetzin and I have known people who claim to have been good all (or most) of their lives. They are saturated with a sense of their own innate holiness, righteousness and self-importance. Yet these 14 identification signs are glaringly obvious to any and all who come into contact with people bearing them proudly like so many badges of courage. I am sure our students have also bumped into them time and again, day after day. And these same individuals with their borderline personality disordered lives are overflowing with acute narcissism. They are a scourge of Satan himself.

Further, these 14 descriptions of rank human nature at its level of yetzer ha'ra need to be grasped by all of us who love and obey a Jewish Christ because we are right now seeing the peril of a society facing its death throes.

These 14 indictments are readily viewed on today's streets of your own home town. Our civilisation is in massive decline, and the brutal truth is that we are witnessing the utter oblivion of western civilisation as we have known it. Europe is indeed in crisis. Angela Merkel will rue the day if she hasn't already that she invited Islamic refugees on to European shores. Sweden has become the rape capital of the world and coverups by police of rape statistics involving Muslims has opened a gift-box to xenophobes. What is also remarkable, but right on point, is the emergence of German far-right neo-Nazi political extremism that wants to rid European soil of Muslims.

We ALL said in 1945, "NEVER AGAIN!" But oh, how the worm turns.

In Asia the Red Dragon of China is becoming what she was never known to be in all of its long history: expansionist. A West-threatening North Korea continues to flex its military muscles and nuclear capability despite continued US sanctions. The Philippines is severing US relations and wants Americans out. Oceania , primarily Australia and New Zealand , faces its own demons. And Russia is ruled by a megalomaniac as America is poised to rapidly become Amerika.

A picture of utter gloom? Just about!

The final groundwork is being laid by World Federalists for the coming of the Antichrist.

Westerners need a damn good reality check.

In our next lecture we shall examine biblically these 14 indictments. For, Romans was intended for our generation today. I have stated on many occasions over the past 40 years that our existence at this juncture of history largely parallels that of the Second Temple period in the first century of our era.

We are living witnesses of the WORD OF GOD preparing us for the next major event in human history prior to the Second Advent of Our Lord Yeshua to rule this world with a shepherd's rod of iron and to bring, finally, "peace on earth to men and women of good will."

THIS CONCLUDES LECTURE SIXTEEN

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