Romans 3.27 (ESV)
Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith.
As part of the requirements to maintain my teaching certification, I am taking a course called "Ethnic Groups in American Society." One of the most heartbreaking things about the class is realizing that it is built on the premise that learning about one another will do away with racism and exclusion of the "other." Instead, it is the Gosepel itself that most decisively destroys the insidious pride that drives humans to exclude and oppress one another. Here's how I expressed it in a reflection on a reading for the class:
People are proud (in the sense of self-promotion) and fearful that others will cause them harm. Our pride and fear will always lead us to form alliances with some people, rejecting the rest. It is especially sad for me to see how often in this country it's been Christians (from certain parts of Europe) who have positioned themselves as the “best.” That kind of boasting in genetic heritage (or anything else) is attacked in so many places throughout the Bible. It starts in Genesis 1 when all people were created in God's image and continues in Genesis 3 when all people are shown to be sinful and imperfect. The point is driven home in the Gospel, in which all people, equally unable to save themselves, have equal access to God through Jesus' death and resurrection. Does this mean that I believe Christianity is true and other religions are false? Well, yes. Otherwise, I wouldn't be able to say I really believed it was true. But does it make me or other Christians better than people of other beliefs? Never. I want to apply the principle in 1 Peter 5.5-6, “Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.’ Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God…” When I see the extreme humility of my position compared to God, there is no longer any reason for me to think I am better than anyone else.
God's complete destruction of my pride that would set me above any other person is built in stages:
All people are alike in dignity as God's image-bearers.
Genesis 1.27 "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them."
All people fail to keep God's standards and are deserving of God's righteous and severe judgement.
Genesis 6.5 "The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually."
Romans 3.10-12 "as it is written: 'None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.' "
Ephesians 2.1-3 "And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. "
Romans 3.22-25 "For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith."
Ephesians 2.4-9 "But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ— by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast."
So what does all this mean day to day for me? It means that I am of no higher value than any other human being who I meet or don't meet. My genetic and cultural heritage gives me no better standing than anyone else, since the common heritage of God's image and condemned sinfulness overrides all differences. My faith in Jesus Christ gives me no more personal value than others because my faith requires the work of God to initiate and maintain. Similarly, the righteousness I strive for in my living makes me no better than anyone else, because without the supernatural work of God I could do nothing good!
God, thank you for the humility you give to me after destroying my pride. Help me to never look down on others who bear your image as having less worth or even being beyond your reach. All the good we do is from you, and all the evil we do is shared with all of humanity. Make me always humble under your mighty hand!
