The Mindset: Glory, Faith, Patience

Wealth gained hastily will dwindle, but whoever gathers little by little will increase it.
Proverbs 13:11 ESV

I recommended a certain kind of “mindset” in my book, Solomon Says (though I don’t know if I ever used that word). Recently, I’ve been listening to the book The Slight Edge. It isn’t a Christian book, but it has got me thinking about the relationship of faith to hope and future-orientation.

Propositions on Understanding Romans

I wrote and posted these back in 2010 (February 3) and still agree with them. Some expressions I use seem unnecessarily polarizing or patronizing, but I stand by the positive substance. Here they are below with a few comments added in brackets. I also added three more at the end.

Jesus & Paul on Israel’s Heritage & Identity

Jesus and Paul do not sound the same but they both have the same basic perspective: That Israel was basically a pagan nation.

There was reason they would be able to assert this. Aside from the frequent periods of pagan worship recorded in the book of Judges, Solomon had officially made the united nation of Israel a polytheist realm. YHWH got demoted from Israel’s only God to the head of a pantheon. In his letter to the Romans (1:18ff), Paul argues that all nations are piling up wrath by turning to idolatry instead of acknowledging God as he has revealed himself in his works. He includes Israel in that verdict, using phrases that point to their own history. The only sin Paul names for which their is no direct Scriptural evidence that Israel was a participant is lesbianism (Romans 1:26).

How does this compare to Jesus’ message during his ministry before the cross?

God’s Wrath Revealed from Heaven & Pharaoh’s Hardening

In Romans, Paul says that the Gospel reveals God’s righteousness. Then he says God’s wrath is revealed from heaven. I think these are one and the same revelation in the Gospel. Thus:

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.” For [in it] the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
Romans 1:16-18 ESV

Obviously, the bracketed words aren’t there, but I think the implication is entirely plausible. What Paul goes on (1:18ff) to describe God doing in response to idolatry in history is NOT God’s wrath. God does respond to sin by giving people over to more sin and this is “the due penalty” (v. 27), but this is not an expression of God’s wrath, but a continual and compounding provocation of God’s wrath. Romans 1:18ff does not describe God’s wrath but it describes why God is wrathful.

But the fact that God doesn’t respond in immediate wrath is because the same process is due to God’s kindness.

Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.
Romans 2:3–5 ESV

“Robbing Temples”?

Paul writes to Jews, “You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?” (Romans 2:22b ESV)

The English translation “rob temples” makes readers think of pagan temples. There was only one Temple for Israel, so robbing more than one would indicate other temples are in view. And if the Jews wanted to worship these idols secretly, or in shrines of their own devising, they could be robbing pagan temples in order to get them.

The charge then, would be that the Jews are known for rejecting idolatry but actually steal idols for themselves.

But…

Why Did God Harden Pharaoh?

I wrote on Romans 9. over eight years ago. I now have some related observations.

So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.
Romans 9:16–18 ESV

Does the Bible tell us about some of the results of God showing his power in Pharaoh and getting his name proclaimed in all the earth?

The Key to Romans: God Wanted & Needed More Sin in Order to Save Us from It

Paul writes to the Romans in what may seem almost an off-hand comment: “For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly” (Romans 5:6 ESV; emphasis added).

This verse starkly shows that Paul, at times, can refer to the flow of human history as a collective pronoun. “We” were weak in the beginning of the first century, and then Christ died for us. Many Christians have conversion stories whereby they learned what Jesus did for them, repented and entrusted themselves to Him, and were empowered by the Holy Spirit to walk in newness of life. That is a fruitful analogy, but Paul obviously isn’t talking about what happened in all Christian biographies. He is talking about what God and Jesus Christ did in human history at the crucifixion.

And this passage tells us not only that Christ died in human history but that he did so “at the right time” in human history.