More Leviticus Materials

From my perspective ("me" being Ryan) the discussions on Leviticus have been stretching yet quite interesting for most everyone involved. Is that fair? I hope so. Hopefully no one is bored to tears. Nobody has said so yet. Digging into the historical / literary context is often challenging, but the pay-off is high. I feel that way for sure about Leviticus. I have never studied so much for any other Context series. I am enjoying every minute of it.

Here are some valuable resources:

1) The document I passed out this week about clean / unclean (purity systems)

2) A great article about blood and its symbolism:
http://www.kchanson.com/ARTICLES/blood.html

I hope it is helpful!!

Leviticus Materials

We have embarked on a fascinating study adventure through the book of Leviticus. Yes, I just put fascinating and Leviticus in the same sentence! We believe that the community of wisdom that was responsible for putting Leviticus in both the Jewish Canon of scripture and the Christian Canon knew what they were doing. It isn't a mistake! In fact understanding Leviticus is essential to making sense out of many New Testament passages that are built on the theology and concepts of Leviticus.

Anyway, here is the link to our meeting schedule: CONTEXT

Here is the link to the first week's study materials: LEVITICUS 1-7 (Sacrifices)

Romans 8:1-11

I recommend viewing the word Doc I created for this posting since there is a table involved:

• Romans 8.1-11

Feel free to post questions / comments here on this blog though...

Outline Introduction

By way of clarification, I posted my outline / clarified version of Romans 1-5 in separate posts. It was drawn up on a word document and looks more readable. If you prefer to have the whole word doc sent to you, I would be happy to do so. Email me: EucharistSF@gmail.com

Ouline / Clarification of Romans 5

Romans 5:1-11 – Paul briefly rephrases what he has been building up to and then expands this into implications about our confidence

• In light of all that he just said, Paul clarifies to the church in Rome that whoever has trusted in God has already had the good declaration of God pronounced in their favor…
• meaning that now we (believers) are in a state of peace with God
• achieved through Jesus the true Kingly representative of Israel and the master of the world
• through whom we have obtained access to the undeserved generosity in which we now stand
• since we have nothing of our own to celebrate, we celebrate in the hope of sharing again with God the vice-regency of earth, the stewardship of creation
• We also celebrate our suffering because
• Suffering produces endurance
• Endurance produces character
• Character produces hope
• This hope is not going to let us down… we trust this is so because God has poured His love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which we have received.
• Here is how it happened…
• While we were still weak (with nothing to offer for ourselves), and at just the right pregnant moment in history, the representative (and king) of Israel died for the ungodly (Israel & the whole world)
• It is rare that someone would die for a worthy / righteous person
• Perhaps for a really good and “worthy” person someone might sacrifice one’s self
• But God shows Himself to be far beyond any reasonable expectation… demonstrating extraordinary generosity and love for us because He sent the faithful representative (and king) of Israel and all humanity to die for us while we were in active rebellion against God and deeply caught in sin
• Since God engaged in this ridiculous act of love, we can be confident that we will be rescued from God’s final judgment since we have been declared in the present to be right / vindicated by Jesus life / death
• If while we were enemies of God we were brought back into relationship with God through the death of His Son, we can be can be fully confident that we will be rescued from judgment by His resurrection life – the ultimate vindication of Jesus which includes all of us who trust Him.
• Even more than this confident assurance, we can celebrate our relationship to God through Jesus our Master and representative – the one through whom we received this incredible gift of reconciliation

Romans 5:12-21 – Paul lays out the two representative archetypes of humanity: Adam and Jesus

• We know how this sin, hostility to God entered onto the stage of the good world God created…
• It came through the archetype of humanity: Adam
• Once Adam sinned, its power was loose in the world resulting in spiritual death
• Which spread universally because everyone who came after Adam chose to follow in his footsteps. He set the table and poured us the cup of poison, but we drank it
• Sin was in the world before the Torah made it vividly evident, but it wasn’t handled the same way by God – being charged to the account of someone who knew better all the time
• Still, because sin results in spiritual death, death exercised authority and domination from Adam to Moses in spite of the fact that these people’s sin wasn’t like Adam’s sin – Adam disregarded a very clear command of God given to him, these people didn’t have that level of clarity.
• Adam was the archetype of humanity in the same sort of way that Jesus would be
• Representative Archetypes: Adam versus Jesus
• Action: Adam’s Sin (trespass) vs. Undeserved Grace
• Result: Many died vs. Grace of God (many receive free gift)
• Verdict: Judgment (condemnation) vs. justification (vindication)
• Consequence: Death Exercises Dominion Through Adam vs. Righteousness Exercises Dominion In Humanity Through Jesus
• Summary: One man’s trespass (rebellion against a specific command of God) led (eventually) to condemnation for all… in the same way, one man’s act of faithful righteousness leads to (the possibility) of vindication and life for all. Through one man’s disobedience “the many” were made sinners… through another man’s obedience, “the many” will be made right.
• Paul: notice, the Torah is not a part of the ultimate solution… in fact, it came into the picture with the result that intentional, “fully aware” sin actually increased exponentially.
• But here is the great news regarding this issue: Where sin increased exponentially (Israel), grace erupted exponentially all the more
• The bottom line: Just as sin exercised domination and authority through death as its chief weapon, so grace exercises domination and authority through the verdict of vindication (and the resulting right-being) – which leads to life everlasting through Jesus our representative and king.

Outline / Clarification of Romans 4:1-25

Romans 4:1-25 – Paul continues his argument about the primacy of trust as the mark of God’s people by talking about Abraham – the father of the covenant people.

• If we look at Abraham, what will we find? Are we in his family due to flesh?
• What makes Abraham special to God? Was it something he did to put God under obligation?
• No, Abraham simply trusted God… he didn’t have a list of things to point at that made him worthy to be declared right
• If someone is employed, this person doesn’t get paid because the boss is giving out gifts but because he is contractually obligated
• But in this case, we are talking about people who have nothing to offer God to put God into a place of contractual obligation.
• Humanity comes to God with empty hands… but in trust that God will render a judgment in favor of those who are ungodly in spite of this
• David talked about this undeserved blessing that comes from God. He says,
• “Blessed are the people who find their sin forgiven and taken care of… blessed is the person who God will not hold accountable for his/her sin.”
• So, is this blessing only for people who are ethnically / culturally Jewish, having been circumcised? Or is it also for the non-Jew?
• The scriptures say that Abraham was declared right / “acquitted” by trusting God. Was it before or after he was circumcised?
• Aha! He only received circumcision AFTER he was already declared right as a seal of that status which he had already received while he was not circumcised
• The purpose of this was to make him the father of all who trust God without being circumcised AND the father of those who are circumcised & trust like Abraham did before he was circumcised
• Why does this all matter? Because Abraham’s family was promised the whole world as an inheritance… but that wasn’t gonna happen if this distinction between Jew and non-Jew was the dividing line of who is in the family and who isn’t. That is why the defining feature of the family is trust in God not the Torah observance demonstrated especially by circumcision
• If it is only people who adhere to the Torah, then trust is meaningless and the promise is worthless
• The Torah actually highlights and increases God’s wrath… which makes it so the promise can’t come about. (When the Torah is out of the picture, a person can’t talk about violation’s of it as a category of sinfulness)
• Thus, the promise is dependent on trust so that it can be fulfilled as an undeserved gift (good because no one deserves it) to any and all who share the faithfulness of Abraham (regardless of Torah observance or its identifying marks demonstrating such).
• Abraham is the father of anyone who trusts in God… that’s why the scriptures record God as calling him “the father of many nations”
• God can do anything… give life to the dead (Jesus resurrection) and call into existence things that don’t exist (Creation, Abraham’s descendents)
• Abraham didn’t have any physical evidence that God’s promise of a family of descendents would come true. He just had his confident hope that God would fulfill His word
• In fact Abraham had evidence to contradict God’s word – he was 100 year old and his body was as good as dead… not to mention that he and Sarah had tried for years to have children unsuccessfully
• But he chose to trust… and he grew strong in that trust and he gave glory to God through his unwavering trust that God would do what He had promised
• God rewarded his trust by declaring him right and vindicating him
• The attribution of right-standing given to Abraham based on his trust in God is exactly what God is doing with us who believe
• We will be have this good declaration credited to our account at judgment if we trust in God who raised Jesus our master from the dead… the same Jesus who was handed over to death because of our screw-ups and who is raised from the dead in order to give us confidence of right-standing / vindication before God.

Outline / Clarification of Romans 3:21-31

Romans 3:21-31 – Paul unveils the solution to this universal problem of sin / unfaithfulness in a densely packed couple of sentences using a variety of images to convey the immense importance of these ideas…

• Now, in this stage of salvation history, the righteousness / justice of God (specifically, God’s faithfulness to His covenant promise to fix the world through Abraham’s family) has been revealed from outside the system of Torah. Yet this covenant faithfulness is not unconnected to the Torah – in fact it is anticipated and described by the Torah and the prophets
• This uprightness / covenant faithfulness of God is seen through the faithfulness of Jesus the Messiah (the one true deserving heir of the covenant; the true Jew; the representative of Israel)
• This uprightness / faithfulness is good news for any / all who trust (those who with no “physical” sign to lean on but who are instead depending & trusting that God will make good on His word – making them heirs to the covenant blessings)
• There is no distinction (no barriers, no discrimination)
• because it is not contingent on any physical markers such as circumcision or the distinctively Jewish lifestyle marks)
• because nobody can stand in judgment and expect to be vindicated – all have sinned and disgraced God by bringing His name disrepute rather than glory (Jew / non-Jew alike)
• The ones who trust are declared to be in the right / justified here and now (in anticipation of the final judgment)
• This comes not as part of the covenantal obligation nor because of moral performance (neither of which have anything to say for themselves), but due to God’s generous and undeserved gift…
• …which is received on account of and through the slavery payment (redemption) made for those who participate in / belong to the Messiah (representative head of the covenant community) Jesus…
• …who is the place of mercy (mercy seat – Lev. 16), removal of sin, removal of what causes wrath that God provided
• …by Jesus’ blood (life)
• Which is effective / available for anyone who trusts God for this gift
• God put forward Jesus as the place of mercy / forgiveness / removal of sin in order to demonstrate His justice / faithfulness to the covenant…
• …because in His patience / leniency He had not dealt with the sins that were committed previously (since the entrance of sin into humanity). He had merely passed them over in anticipation of dealing with them in this climactic act
• all of this was to prove in the present, here and now the fact that He is both
• just (a trustworthy, honest judge – having rightly condemned and dealt with sin)
• and…
• justifier (the one who declares His people vindicated)
• He justifies the person who trusts in Jesus (or who has the faithful obedience of Jesus)
• Based on all of this, is there any place for celebrating / taking pride in Jewishness (claiming to be God’s “insiders”)?
• No, it doesn’t belong… it is disallowed
• According to which Torah?
• Are you talking about the Torah we have been talking about all along? – The one which if kept clearly marks out “insiders” with God based on particular Torah actions like circumcision, Sabbath, purity laws?
• No, we are talking about the “Torah of trust” that we just referenced
• As we have already said, a person is declared right / vindicated by trusting God apart from Torah actions meant to show who is “in” and who is “out”
• After all, is God the God of the ethnically Jewish people only? Isn’t God the God of non-Jews too? – Yes, of non-Jews too!
• Since God is singular (one), He has a singular people – a group that is declared such on the ground of trusting Him regardless of whether you are coming from a Jewish or non-Jewish background!
• Does this mean that since the Torah is not used as a way of determining who is “in” and who is “out” that we should just chuck it?
• Absolutely not! Rather, in a round about way we are upholding the Torah and establishing its vital place in God’s plan (see 3:20 – “through the Torah comes the knowledge of sin”)