Luke 23: 32-46: Forgiveness

Presented to TSA AV Ministries, 06 July 2025 by Major Michael Ramsay

 

“Forgive them Father for they know not what they do.” (v.34)

“I tell you the truth today, you will be with me in paradise.” (v.43)

 

Jesus on the cross, according to Luke, offered forgiveness to two groups of people, who did two different things. One was the person being executed for a capital offense. A criminal who deserved his sentence. The other: people who hurt Jesus personally. People who hurt people Jesus loved. People who killed – or were in the process of killing and/or having Jesus killed.

 

“HE HAD MANY WOUNDS.” She spoke with the precision of a coroner. “In the upper abdomen were five wounds. These wounds indicated that different weapons were used to stab him, or a group of people stabbed him.” Mrs. Mhlawuli continued her harrowing testimony to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission [in South Africa]. She spoke about the disappearance and murder of her husband, Sicelo. “In the lower part, he also had wounds. In total, there were forty-three. They poured acid on his face. They chopped off his right hand just below the wrist. I don’t know what they did with that hand.” A wave of horror and nausea rose in me, writes Archbishop Desmund Tutu in “The Book of Forgiving” which he wrote with his daughter Mpho

 

Now it was nineteen-year-old Babalwa’s turn to speak. She was eight when her father died. Her brother was only three. She described the grief, police harassment, and hardship in the years since her father’s death. And then she said, “I would love to know who killed my father. So would my brother.” Her next words stunned me and left me breathless. “We want to forgive them. We want to forgive, but we don’t know who to forgive.”

 

As chairman of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, [Archbishop Desmund Tutu writes] I have often been asked how the people of South Africa were able to forgive the atrocities and injustices they suffered under apartheid. Our journey in South Africa was quite long and treacherous. Today it is hard to believe that, up until our first democratic election in 1994, ours was a country that institutionalized racism, inequality, and oppression. In apartheid South Africa only white people could vote, earn a high-quality education, and expect advancement or opportunity. There were decades of protest and violence. Much blood was shed during our long march to freedom. When, at last, our leaders were released from prison, it was feared that our transition to democracy would become a bloodbath of revenge and retaliation. Miraculously we chose another future. We chose forgiveness. At the time, we knew that telling the truth and healing our history was the only way to save our country from certain destruction. We did not know where this choice would lead us. The process we embarked on through the TRC was, as all real growth proves to be, astoundingly painful and profoundly beautiful.”[i]

 

Most of my words in this sermon are not my own. Most of them are taken from “The Book of Forgiving”. I just found the stories Desmond Tutu and his daughter Mpho shared so powerful that I have left much of this sermon in their own voices.

 

Desmond Tutu writes, “I have also been asked what I learned about forgiveness from that experience and from the many places I have visited during my life where there has been conflict and suffering, from Northern Ireland to Rwanda… How do we forgive?

 

There are days when I wish I could erase from my mind all the horrors I have witnessed. It seems there is no end to the creative ways we humans can find to hurt each other, and no end to the reasons we feel justified in doing so. There is also no end to the human capacity for healing. In each of us, there is an innate ability to create joy out of suffering, to find hope in the most hopeless of situations, and to heal any relationship in need of healing.

 

I would like to share with you two simple truths:

1)    there is nothing that cannot be forgiven, and

2)    there is no one undeserving of forgiveness.

When you can see and understand that we are all bound to one another—whether by birth, by circumstance, or simply by our shared humanity—then you will know this to be true. I have often said that in South Africa there would have been no future without forgiveness. Our rage and our quest for revenge would have been our destruction. This is as true for us individually as it is for us globally.

 

There have been times when each and every one of us has needed to forgive. There have also been times when each and every one of us has needed to be forgiven. And there will be many times again. In our own ways, we are all broken. Out of that brokenness, we hurt others. Forgiveness is the journey we take toward healing the broken parts. It is how we become whole again."[ii]

 

"In South Africa, we chose to seek forgiveness rather than revenge. That choice averted a bloodbath. For every injustice, there is a choice. As we have said, you can choose forgiveness or revenge, but revenge is always costly. Choosing forgiveness rather than retaliation ultimately serves to make you a stronger and freer person. Peace always comes to those who choose to forgive. While both Mpho and I have seen the effects of drinking the bitter poison of anger and resentment—seen how it corrodes and destroys from the inside out—we have also seen the sweet balm of forgiveness soothe and transform even the most virulent situations. This is why we can say there is hope."[iii]

 

"In South Africa, Ubuntu is our way of making sense of the world. The word literally means “humanity.” It is the philosophy and belief that a person is only a person through other people. In other words, we are human only in relation to other humans. Our humanity is bound up in one another, and any tear in the fabric of connection between us must be repaired for us all to be made whole. This interconnectedness is the very root of who we are.

 

To walk the path of forgiveness is to recognize that your crimes harm you as they harm me. To walk the path of forgiveness is to recognize that my dignity is bound up in your dignity, and every wrongdoing hurts us all."[iv]

 

Tutu writes: "THERE WERE SO MANY NIGHTS when I, as a young boy, had to watch helplessly as my father verbally and physically abused my mother. I can still recall the smell of alcohol, see the fear in my mother’s eyes, and feel the hopeless despair that comes when we see people we love hurting each other in incomprehensible ways. I would not wish that experience on anyone, especially not a child. If I dwell in those memories, I can feel myself wanting to hurt my father back, in the same ways he hurt my mother, and in ways of which I was incapable as a small boy. I see my mother’s face and I see this gentle human being whom I loved so very much and who did nothing to deserve the pain inflicted upon her.

 

When I recall this story, I realize how difficult the process of forgiving truly is. Intellectually, I know my father caused pain because he was in pain. Spiritually, I know my faith tells me my father deserves to be forgiven as God forgives us all. But it is still difficult. The traumas we have witnessed or experienced live on in our memories. Even years later they can cause us fresh pain each time we recall them.

 

Are you hurt and suffering? Is the injury new, or is it an old unhealed wound? Know that what was done to you was wrong, unfair, and undeserved. You are right to be outraged. And it is perfectly normal to want to hurt back when you have been hurt. But hurting back rarely satisfies. We think it will, but it doesn’t. If I slap you after you slap me, it does not lessen the sting I feel on my own face, nor does it diminish my sadness as to the fact you have struck me. Retaliation gives, at best, only momentary respite from our pain. The only way to experience healing and peace is to forgive. Until we can forgive, we remain locked in our pain and locked out of the possibility of experiencing healing and freedom, locked out of the possibility of being at peace.

 

Without forgiveness, we remain tethered to the person who harmed us. We are bound with chains of bitterness, tied together, trapped. Until we can forgive the person who harmed us, that person will hold the keys to our happiness; that person will be our jailor. When we forgive, we take back control of our own fate and our feelings. [Christ lets us] become our own liberators. We don’t forgive to help the other person. We don’t forgive for others. We forgive for ourselves. Forgiveness, in other words, is the best form of self-interest."[v]

 

That is all fine and good but, you may ask, ‘why should I forgive so and so’; ‘does everyone deserve forgiveness?’ Is anyone beyond forgiveness?

 

“What about evil, you may ask? Aren’t some people just evil, just monsters, and aren’t such people just unforgivable? I do believe there are monstrous and evil acts, but I do not believe those who commit such acts are monsters or evil. To relegate someone to the level of monster is to deny that person’s ability to change and to take away that person’s accountability for his or her actions and behavior. In January 2012, in Modimolle, an agricultural town in Limpopo province, South Africa, a man named Johan Kotze committed acts of monstrous and evil proportions. Indeed, such was the horror of his acts, the newspapers and town dubbed him “The Monster of Modimolle.”

 

I was appalled at the story I read. We were all appalled. Johan Kotze was alleged to have forced three laborers at gunpoint to gang-rape and mutilate his estranged wife. He then tied her up and forced her to listen and watch as he shot and killed her son. Johan Kotze claimed he was driven to commit these horrific crimes because he saw his estranged wife with another man and, in his rage, he chose the path of revenge.

 

These are, without doubt, barbaric and dastardly deeds. They are acts so monstrous we are all quite right to condemn them. What shook me deeply as I read the media coverage of this case was that the righteous outrage at the alleged acts of Mr. Kotze had led journalists to call him a monster. In response, I wrote a letter to The Star newspaper. In it I argued that while he may indeed be guilty of inhuman, ghastly, and monstrous deeds, he is not a monster. We are actually letting him off lightly by calling him a monster, because monsters have no moral sense of right and wrong and therefore cannot be held morally culpable, cannot be regarded as morally blameworthy. This holds true for all those we wish to deem monsters. No, Mr. Johan Kotze remains a child of God with the capacity to become a saint.

 

This piece shocked many. But the world is filled with heartless sinners and criminals of all sorts who have [been] transformed, [have had their lives transformed by Christ}... In the Christian tradition, we often recall the story of the repentant criminal who was crucified beside Jesus. He was a man who had committed crimes punishable by death. Jesus promised him that, because of his repentance, “…we will see each other in paradise.” He was forgiven. The Bible is full of stories of reckless, immoral, and criminal people [whose lives were transformed], who became saints. Peter, the disciple who betrayed a friendship and denied Jesus—not once, but three times— was forgiven and became the chief of the apostles. Paul, the violent persecutor of those faithful to the fledgling Christian faith, became the sower who planted Christian communities in the gentile world.

 

Let us condemn ghastly acts, but let us never relinquish the hope that the doers of the most heinous deeds can and may change. In many ways, that was the basis of our truth-and-reconciliation process. The stories we heard at the TRC were horrific, some were bloodcurdling, yet we witnessed extraordinary acts of forgiveness as perpetrator and victim embraced and did so publicly. We believed then, and I still believe now, that it is possible for people to change for the better. It is more than just possible; it is in our nature ... in each and every one of us.

 

In my plea for the people of Modimolle to stop calling Mr. Kotze a monster, I called on my Christian faith for the examples needed...our model of the ultimate example of forgiveness is Jesus Christ, who on the cross was able to ask for forgiveness for those who were torturing and ultimately killed him…

 

I have said before that given the same set of circumstances, under the same pressures and influences, I may have been a Hitler, or a Kotze. I would hope not. But I may have been. I will not label anyone beyond redemption, regardless of what that person has done. I have found that hope and goodness can sometimes emerge from even the unlikeliest of packages.

 

... So, when I am asked whether some people are beyond forgiveness, my answer is no. My heart has been broken a thousand times over at the cruelty and suffering I have seen human beings unjustly and mercilessly inflict upon one another. Yet still I know and believe that forgiveness is always called for, and reconciliation is always possible.

 

… True forgiveness is not superficial or glib… We all want to be free of the pain of living with a broken and unforgiving heart. We want to [be] free ourselves of the corrosive emotions that threaten to burn away the love and joy [of Christ] residing in us. We want to heal our broken places. It would be wonderful if we lived in a world where there was no harm, no hurt, no violence, no cruelty. I have certainly not lived my life in such a world, but I do believe it to be possible. Surely he must be senile, you say. But these are not the fantastical beliefs of a man of advanced years. I know in my heart that peace is possible. I know it is possible in your life, and I know it is possible in mine. I know it is possible for our children, our grandchildren, and the generations that follow. But I also know that it is only possible if this peace begins with each of us. Peace is built with every small and large act of forgiveness.[vi]

 

I will likely speak more about this in the weeks to come. I want to conclude today by pointing out that Jesus’ last actions before he died was to forgive 2 people or groups of people – one, a criminal sentenced to the death penalty, like you would probably read about in a US or Chinese newspaper, as those two countries still torture and kill criminals. Jesus, however, forgave the man. And two: Jesus forgave those who hurt his family and himself by sentencing him to death and carrying out his execution. If Jesus can forgive them, surely we can forgive anyone who has been a part of harm done to us.

 

As Desmond Tutu has said many times in his speeches and writings,” there is no future without forgiveness.” If we aspire to live in the Kingdom of God now and forever, then we will forgive those who have harmed us, loving them as if they are our own mothers and children – because in all likelihood they are. When we forgive we are set free. We are free of our attackers and we are free of sin and death. My wish today is that each and everyone of us will experience that true freedom in Christ that only comes as we allow Him to help us forgive others. 

Let us pray.

---

[i] Tutu, Desmond and Mpho Tutu, The Book of Forgiving (HarperCollins, 2014), 1

[ii] Tutu, Desmond and Mpho Tutu, The Book of Forgiving (HarperCollins, 2014), 7

[iii] Tutu, Desmond and Mpho Tutu, The Book of Forgiving (HarperCollins, 2014), 1-3.

[iv] Tutu, Desmond and Mpho Tutu, The Book of Forgiving (HarperCollins, 2014), 1-3

[v] Tutu, Desmond and Mpho Tutu, The Book of Forgiving (HarperCollins, 2014), 32

[vi] [vi] Tutu, Desmond and Mpho Tutu, The Book of Forgiving (HarperCollins, 2014), 55-59 

Genesis 2:15-3:24, Matthew 28:1-20, Revelation 22:1-5: Life and Death and Creation.

Presented to the Community Dinner at the Friendship Center by Major Michael Ramsay, 19 April 2025.

 

Hello,

I am Major Michael Ramsay from The Salvation Army. As well as running The Salvation Army, the Bread of Life Soup Kitchen, shelter and The Salvation Army thrift store, I am a Christian pastor / teacher. This weekend is Easter. That is the most important time on the Christian Calendar.

Christians acknowledge Jesus as God. Our teachings tell us that God, as creator, created the whole world. And when He did it was perfect. Not only did we not harm each other, ourselves or the earth; but we never got sick, we never got injured; and the earth itself – the trees did not fall to the ground and die. Animals did not eat animals. All of creation was in perfect harmony. The Creator even walked in this Garden He created with people He created.

Then something happened. The first people created made a choice.  Because of this choice, death, decay, harm and hurt entered the world. Where there was none before, now there was illness, injury and death for all of creation. Plants, animals and all that is given life now dies. Since that day, Creator would like nothing less than to get us back to what was our life was like in the Garden: with no more death, no more decay.

Today is the Saturday between Good Friday and Easter. On Good Friday 2000 years ago something happened: God died. Creator died. Jesus died. Today is called low Saturday. How would you feel if we were around when God died?

Tomorrow is Easter. On Easter God, Jesus, Creator rose from the dead. He came to life again. He vanquished death. He defeated it. That is why we celebrate on Easter: we can get back to the Garden. By overcoming death, Jesus ended the decay, death and disease that came to the world and as a result when Creator returns to earth no one will ever die; no plant will ever decay; no animal will ever eat another… there will be no more blindness, no more deafness, no more addiction, no more violence, no more pain, no more sorrow. Only goodness. Only wholeness.

In the Christian faith, everyone who wants to serve the creator is invited to live and help others live like this today by providing for those in need until the day arrives when there is no more need. Our sacred book, the Bible, even tells us the ‘Sheep and Goats’ story: that the nations which take care of the vulnerable will be with the creator forever in the new world and those who don’t, won’t.

The Bible often compares life with Creator, Jesus, to a banquet, a feast, a meal, like we have here today – where everyone is invited: the rich, the poor, the old, the young, the widow, the foreigner, the stranger, the… everyone.

Today… Who has been here at the Friendship Centre before? Who has been here a lot and feels at home, comfortable here? I invite you to look out for the new people, the stranger, our guests – those who you have not seen around here before. I invite you to – on behalf of Creator – make the people who have not been here before feel comfortable. Extend to them the Creator’s hand of friendship. Let our guests know that we are happy they are here with us for when we welcome the stranger, the foreigner in the Creator’s name, we are indeed welcoming in the Creator Himself.

Let us pray

Genesis 2:15-3:24, Romans 5:11-18, Revelation 22:1-5: Back to the Garden

Presented to Alberni Valley Ministries, Port Alberni BC, 28 July 2019 by Major Michael Ramsay and 30 March 2025

 

This is the 2025 version; to view the 2019 version, click here: https://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2019/07/genesis-215-3-back-to-garden.html

Doctrine 5: We believe that our first parents were created in a state of innocency, but by their disobedience, they lost their purity and happiness, and that in consequence of their fall, all men have become sinners, totally depraved, and as such are justly exposed to the wrath of God.

…and/but…

Doctrine 6: We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ has by His suffering and death made an atonement for the whole world so that whosoever will, may be saved.

 

Doctrine 5 has been referred to as the doctrine of Original Sin (or more precisely ‘originating sin’) and that concept goes back at least to Irenaeus and Augustine. Doctrines 5 & 6 are how TSA explains corporate (as opposed to individual) Salvation; Corporate Salvation is like getting back to the Garden of Eden – what life was like before the Fall.

 

This is the garden. Reading from Genesis 2:15-18:

¹⁵ The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. ¹⁶ And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; ¹⁷ but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”

¹⁸ The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”

 

Then this is what happened there, Genesis 3:1-6:

3 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

² The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, ³ but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”

⁴ “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. ⁵ “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

⁶ When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it

 

And as a result of this first/original sin, Genesis 3:21-24:

²¹ The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. ²² And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” ²³ So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. ²⁴ After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.

 

Salvation can be understood then like humanity getting back to the Garden. Salvation is about people and even all of creation returning to our original full and proper relationship with God. In Revelation Chapter 22 it speaks about us being restored to be in the very presence of the Tree of Life (which was in the garden!) and of God Himself.

 

Some people have asked why do we need to be restored? Why do we need to get back? Why were we kicked out, punished for what Adam and Eve did anyway? I never ate from the fruit of the tree of knowledge; how come I have to suffer their consequences? I look at the consequences of the original sin like this: Our lives are affected by the choices of Adam and Eve, our original parents, in much the same way that our lives are affected by the choices of our biological or custodial parents and their parents before them. Adam and Eve were evicted and moved from the Garden of Eden; therefore, their children - Cain, Abel, and Seth - weren’t born in the Garden of Eden.

 

I was born and Susan and I were raised on Vancouver Island here – like Adam and Eve were created and raised in Eden. However, Heather was born and our eldest two daughters were mostly raised in Saskatchewan and then Toronto. We left the Island before Sarah-Grace was one year old for our work with The Salvation Army. It wasn’t sin that caused us to move away – like it was with Adam and Eve – but our children had no more say over the fact that they were raised and away from the Island than Cain, Abel, and Seth did that they were raised away from Eden. As our children live with the results of our actions –both good and bad: a life of serving the Lord but also growing up without family nearby – so we all live with the results of our ancestors’ actions – not just moving from one place to another – but the results of all kinds of choices they made over the years: our parents, our grandparents, and their parents, all the way back to our original parents. That is why and how we are suffering the consequences of originating sin. Does that make sense?

 

Walter Bruggemann, one of the foremost OT scholars, has noted that Adam and Eve’s perfect fear here cast out love (Genesis 3:10) and notes that as Jesus sets everything right, perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:18-20).[1]          

 

This is the Adamic Covenant. The Bible also speaks about the way in which we can return to perfect love, to the Garden, to Eden. In Genesis 15, through the ceremony of the smoking firepot and the Abrahamic Covenant, we are shown that God (Jesus Christ) will give up His life in consequence of humankind transgressing that agreement with Him; and then Jesus’ death will lead to our Salvation insofar as Jesus receives the consequences for those actions (that of humanity at the time of Abraham, and at the time of Adam, and more) [2] – thus making it possible for us to return to what life was like in the garden.

 

Doctrine 6 of The Salvation Army reads: We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ has by His suffering and death made an atonement for the whole world so that whosoever will may be saved.

 

Good Friday and Easter is all about this and In the New Testament we are told a little bit about this. A few people today have some scriptures to read for us:

·       Galatians 3:13: Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole.”

·       1 Peter 2:24: “He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.”

·       Romans 5:6: You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.

·       Romans 5:17-18: For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ! Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people.

·       1 John 2:2: He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.

Again:

·       Galatians 3:13 says Jesus became a curse by dying on the cross

·       1 Peter 2:24 says that He bore our sins and we are healed

·       Romans 5:6 says that He who was righteous died for we who were unrighteous

·       Romans 5:17-18 says that Jesus’ death and resurrection reconciles us all, undoing Adam’s death and banishment.

·       1 John 2:2 says that this atonement was for the whole world, all of creation.[3]

 

And let me read from near the end of the concluding book in this more than a Divine anthology, the Bible. Revelation 22:1-5 speaks about at the end of our age when God will come down with Heaven in the New Jerusalem and there once again will be the Tree of Life (from Eden), freely available to all of us:

 

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. 3 No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and His servants will serve him. 4 They will see his face, and His name will be on their foreheads. 5 There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever.

 

Even though sin and death entered into the world through Adam and Eve and we have been living life outside of the garden, Jesus is the light, and because of Good Friday and Easter morning and more He is returning and bringing back with Him when He does at the eschaton, the Tree of Life from Eden.

 

This is what Easter is about. Last time I spoke we chatted about the Mosaic Covenant and the Law. Jesus died on the cross so that we can return to a time before we even had the Law. Jesus died so that we could return to a time before there was even sin; the Law was trying to mitigate sin’s consequences for us. Jesus’ death completes the Mosaic Law. Jesus’ death fulfills the covenant with Abraham. Jesus’ resurrection removes the cherubim and flaming sword from the Garden of Eden. As Jesus has entered new life for eternity so can we; we can re-enter the garden. We can be welcomed back into the garden and see and experience the Tree of Life and reign with Jesus forever. This was made possible through the resurrection and is what we celebrate at Easter.

 

Would you like to reign with God forever? Do you want to be in the eternal city, with the Tree from the Garden of Eden, where there is no more sin, no more hate, no more death, no more deceit; no more decay, no more sorrow, where everyone is honest, and everyone is loving, and serving our Lord? Do you want to? You can. Jesus provided for our Salvation between the Cross and the empty tomb on Good Friday and Easter morning and we can start experiencing the beginning of that very Salvation even today which lasts forever in the eternal Garden of Eden.

 

Today, as we have accepted Jesus as our Lord and leader, we can in essence make our way back to the Garden. If we would like to live forever in this place, where there is no more pain, no more suffering, no more sin, no more hate, no more death, no more deceit; where we are honest and loving and serving our Lord, we can. All we need to do is ask - Jesus has already done the rest.

 

Let us pray.

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https://www.facebook.com/Salvogesis/

 

[1] Walter Bruggemann, Genesis (Interpretation: Westminster John Knox Press, 1982), p 53

[2] Captain Michael Ramsay, Praise The Lord For Covenants: Old Testament wisdom for our world today, (Vancouver, BC: Credo Press, 2010. (c) The Salvation Army). Available on-line: http://www.sheepspeak.com./ptl4covenants.htm

[3] Cf. Terence E. Fretheim, The Book of Genesis, (NIB I: Abingdon Press: Nashville, 1994), 369.

Romans 2:11—29: Stop ‘In the Name of the Law’.

 Presented to TSA Alberni Valley Ministries, 27 October 2024, by Major Michael Ramsay

Who has had a chance to read through Romans? We have spent the previous 3 weeks here on Chapter 1 of Romans. Who has at least read Chapter 1? This week I will speak on Romans 2 and then next week Susan may do the same or she may still have some things to say about Romans 1 or something else – so this week, if you can spare 10 minutes in your busy lives, I encourage you to read at least Romans 1 and 2. (That is how long it takes to read those two chapters out loud really slowly – 10 minutes.) When you read them, you can also check up on what we are saying in our sermons! Keep us on track!

 

Before we begin today, there is some prerequisite knowledge required; so, let’s have a review quiz. Let’s see how we do. Quiz (Review):

1.     ‘Romans’ is written to people living in what city?

a) Damascus

b)    Rome

c)     Philadelphia

d)    Port Alberni

2.     What is a Jew?

a)    A descendant of Abraham

b)    One who was subject to the Law

c)     One of a people chosen by God to share His message of Salvation

d)    All of the above

3.     What is a Gentile?

a)    Someone who is quiet and calm

b)    A type of flooring

c)     A Greek or other non-Jewish person

d)    Short form of ‘Gentleman’

4. What is the significance of circumcision?

a) A sign of a covenant with Abraham

b) A sign that you are a Jewish male

c) A painful ritual practice

d) All of the above

5. What is the Law?

a) A note to follow ‘So’…’Doh, Rae, mi,,,’

b) Something I fought and it won.

c) Rites and rituals that are an important part of ancient Israelite covenant, culture and tradition.

d) A type of Tee-Dah; a Law-Tee-Dah

6. Who wrote Romans?

a) Roman Polanski

b) Julius Caesar

c) William Shakespeare

d) Paul

7. Who was Paul?

a) A Jew

b) A Roman

c) A Christian

d) All of the above

8. What is a Christian?

a) A follower of the Law

b) A follower of Jesus

c) A follower of Moses

d) A follower on Facebook

The Law comes up a lot in the New Testament. Today we are looking at Romans 2 and how Covenant Law relates to us as Christians. Remind me again: what does Paul mean when he refers to ‘the Law’? 

 

Those of us who have been studying Acts on Tuesday nights at the Gruenhages’ know that the early Christians struggled a lot with whether to follow the Law or not and how to follow it or not follow it. Two weeks ago at Bible study, we spoke about the Council in Jerusalem and how James and the other leaders proclaimed that the Gentiles shouldn’t have to follow the Law – but that they should follow some rules that are included in it? Do we remember what those rules are? (Acts 15:19: “...to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood.") And last week in Bible Study we spoke at great length about what Paul had to say about the Law in Galatians 5:2, “Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all” versus what he encouraged Timothy to do, as recorded in Acts 16? What happened to Timothy? Timothy was circumcised (Acts 16:3). This shows some of the early confusion around the role of the Law in the lives of early Christians. It is finally more or less settled as Paul explains it to the Romans here.

Romans Chapter 2, written around the same time as Paul’s letter to the Galatians, and probably after the Council in Jerusalem, gives us a good insight into how the Law applies to believers: both Jews and Gentiles.  Remind me: What is the difference between and Jew and a Gentile? What is the Law again? Reading Verses 11-13:

11 For God does not show favoritism.12 All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law. 13 For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous.

 

In this chapter Paul explains that even though they were chosen by God for His purposes that, as Douglas Moo writes, “contrary to popular Jewish belief, the sins of the Jews will not be treated by God significantly different from those of the Gentiles.” [1]  In Verses 12-16 Paul makes it clear that it is not those who hear the Law (Like every Jewish person attending synagogue would regularly) but rather those who obey the Law that are justified – whether they attend synagogue or not or whether they even know about the Law or not (v.13).

 

An analogy to our local laws here today: If our law says that you are not to run a stop sign, the fact that that law exists, and the fact that you know that law says you aren’t supposed to run a stop sign aren’t going to save you. What is going to save you (and others!) is if you don’t run the stop sign!

 

But there is more. Reading Verses 14-16:

14 (Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law. 15 They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts sometimes accusing them and at other times even defending them.) 16 This will take place on the day when God judges people’s secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares.

 

Verses 14-16 talk about the Gentiles in relation to the Law: even some Gentiles who do not even try to follow or even know Jewish Covenant Law are able to do some of what the Law states.

 

These verses refer to the new covenant of Jeremiah 31:31-34 where it is recorded that the Law will be ‘written on the hearts of the Israelites’ but even more than that, it is reference to the good news of Genesis 12:3: the promise to Abraham that he will be a blessing has been fulfilled – not just for the Jews but for all the nations of the earth.

 

Back to our stop sign analogy: Some people who may not even know the law about stop signs will actually arrive at an intersection and come to a complete stop. They will realize, without anyone telling them, that maybe they shouldn’t drive straight out into the traffic. Paul would say that though they were never told this law, it was indeed written on their heart. I think there are many times in life when you and I probably obey laws by accident. Maybe a speed limit would be a better example: maybe you are driving down the street and never do see the sign but find yourself going the speed limit quite by accident. This is like Gentiles who do not have the Law, following the Covenant Law.

 

 

Verses 17-24:

17 Now you, if you call yourself a Jew; if you rely on the law and boast in God; 18 if you know his will and approve of what is superior because you are instructed by the law; 19 if you are convinced that you are a guide for the blind, a light for those who are in the dark, 20 an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of little children, because you have in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth— 21 you, then, who teach others, do you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal? 22 You who say that people should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? 23 You who boast in the law, do you dishonour God by breaking the law? 24 As it is written: “God’s name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.”

 

Paul here addresses a Jewish claim that they can ‘know [God’s] will and determine what is best because [they] are instructed in the Law (v.18)” and that they, because they have this Law from God, are even “a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the Law the embodiment of knowledge and truth (19-20).” Paul disagrees! He says basically, “How can one claim to be a teacher of a Law when one does not even obey the Law oneself (cf. 2.1)?” Theologian N.T. Wright goes as far as to claim that “if the [Law] was put in place to deal with evil in the world, then the failure of the covenant people [under the Law] to be the light of the world means that the [Law] itself seems to be under threat.”[2] In other words, if the purpose of the Law was to bring salvation to the world then it failed.

 

This would be like if people were bragging that we are the best drivers in the world because we have the most laws: no speeding, no running stop signs, always signal, stop for pedestrians, don’t drive on the sidewalk… but then we don’t follow all those rules. What good are those laws if no one follows them? Paul says that this is what his fellow citizens are indeed doing – claiming to be great because of all these great laws– but then not following them; Claiming to be great because they have THE LAW but then not following it any better than people who don’t have it.

 

This always reminds me of when we or our allies invade yet another  country in the name of 'democracy' and then when it comes to participating in democracy most of us don’t even bother to show up! Most of us don’t attend local political debates and read party platforms so that we can at least cast an educated ballot. And most of us certainly don’t bother to participate in more legitimate or more meaningful avenues of democracy on a regular basis (the VAST majority of people in our country don’t bother to do this at all). This is like the LAW. What good is it to you if you don't participate in it?

 

Verses 25-29:

25 Circumcision has value if you observe the law, but if you break the law, you have become as though you had not been circumcised. 26 So then, if those who are not circumcised keep the law’s requirements, will they not be regarded as though they were circumcised? 27 The one who is not circumcised physically and yet obeys the law will condemn you who, even though you have the written code and circumcision, are a lawbreaker. 28 A person is not a Jew who is one only outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. 29 No, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a person’s praise is not from other people, but from God.

 

Verses 25-29 speak specifically about circumcision and the Law. Two groups of people are being addressed. The first is a circumcised people, Jews who do not keep the Law (cf. vv. 25, 26, 27) and the second is an uncircumcised Gentiles who do keep the Law.  Paul points out that the Law of the Covenant is only valuable if you obey the Law and he says that the circumcised Jews are not obeying the Law and thus “The Name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles (v.24; cf. Isaiah 52:5).”

 

The role of Law is to reveal how we are guilty of sin (cf. 2:1, 17-24; 3:19) like our local laws show us how we are guilty of a crime. Covenant Law points out how and where we fall short. It is the ‘doing’ of the law that counts more than having or even knowing the Law (2:13-14,18, 25-26). Both Jews (who received and know the Law) and Gentiles (who don’t and aren’t) are equally able to ‘do’ or ‘not do’ the Law (cf. 2:3, 14-15, 17-14, 25-26, 3:19-31) – just like anyone ,whether they know our laws or not, is equally able to drive through a stop sign or not, or speed through a school zone or not – and just like no one born in this country will probably spend their whole life without breaking the law - no one will likely ever keep all of the Covenant Law.

 

Just like it is really not possible for you and I to obey every law in Canada, even if we know them. And it probably isn’t even possible for us to obey every traffic law. The Lord knows I have had a few tickets and one or two accidents. But if it was possible for anyone not to break the law then they would be able to look down their nose at the rest of us. Likewise, if it was possible not to break the Covenant Law (cf. 3:20), the Gentile who did so without even knowing the Law would stand in judgement of those who did received it, knew it, and don’t follow it (contrast 2:1-3).

 

So, at the conclusion of the second chapter of Romans, it is clear that the Jew and the Gentile stand on equal footing before the Law. Neither of them can be saved by it, whether they know it or not.

 

The Law “cannot be the means of demarcating the true covenant people; they merely point up the fact of sin (3:20). Instead, the covenant faithfulness of the creator of the world is revealed through the faithfulness of Jesus, the Messiah, for the benefit of all, Jew and Gentile alike, who believe.” [3]

 

Salvation, as will be argued later in Romans, comes not through The Law, any laws or anything else. Salvation comes through Christ alone.

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[1] Douglas J. Moo, The Epistle to the Romans (NICNT 6: Grand Rapids, Michigan / Cambridge, UK: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1996), 126. Cf. also NT Wright, The Letter to the Romans (NIB 10: Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon, 1995), 440, where he acknowledges that God’s national impartiality was not totally unconsidered in Jewish tradition.

 

[2] N.T. Wright, “Romans and the Theology of Paul,” Pauline Theology, Volume III, ed. David M. Hay & E. Elizabeth Johnson, (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1995): 37.

 

[3] Douglas J. Moo, p. 126.