By Neil Earle
Tucked away in quiet dignity near the heart of the majestic Book of Romans lies what I like to call Paul’s Christmas Message.
The Gospel writers Matthew and Luke have theirs – sometimes called the Birth or Infancy Narratives. The Queen Of England will have hers. No doubt the Prime Minister and the U.S. President will have theirs. So why shouldn’t Paul? It is sometimes fun to play the “what if” game. For example, what might that contagious Gospel communicator, the apostle Paul, the best missionary the church has ever had, how might he approach the Christmas season if he were here today? I get a feeling from studying some of his core purpose statements (1 Corinthians 9:22) that he might well have used this season as a platform or jumping off spot to explain more of the deeper purposes of God. He’d see the sham, the commercialism, the greed but his single-minded outlook on life caused him to rejoice even if the Gospel were preached out of envy or strife (Philippians 1:15-16). Yet he might also have noticed that such phrases as “peace on earth” and “glory to God in the highest” ringing in everyone’s ears this time of year might “soften” people up to be a little more receptive to the Gospel.
So I propose a thought experiment: That the apostle Paul’s pronounced penchant for evangelism, his primary principle that it little mattered how Jesus was preached as long as he was preached, he might not mind too much if I introduce Romans 5:12-21 as his Christmas message.
Romans 5:1 sets the context and lends support for this theory.
Paul opens with: “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”
“Peace with God” – marvelous phrase. Don’t we hear a lot about peace at this time of year? “Gained access” – that was God’s purpose in the tabernacle of old: to have fellowship with Israel. This urgent desire of the Great God to share everything including his very nature with us (2 Peter 1:4) this can, without much digression (I hope!) be artfully aligned with the theme of some of the inviting songs people sing this year. “O Come, all ye faithful,” “Angles we have heard,” and a plaintive favorite, “O Come, O Come , Immanuel.” Immanuel means “God with us.” Then there is the powerful and surging line from “Angels We Have Heard on High” that announces: “Come to Bethlehem and see/ Him whose birth the angels sing.”
Note that these stout old songs say nothing about flying reindeers or store-bought stockings hung by the chimney with care. They rather underscore a great Gospel truth. Israel in Jesus’ time felt it was still living in bondage, that the nation had really not atoned for the sins that led to the Babylonian Captivity almost 600 years earlier. This is why their deepest thinkers explained the oppressive Roman jackboot in Judaea, according to N.T. Wright in The Climax of the Covenant, page 141. Now…here comes news of this little baby born in Bethlehem, One foretold by inspiration as the real purpose for Israel’s existence, One who personifies “the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven to shine in those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace” (Luke 1:78).
Peace – irene in the Greek – was one of Paul’s favorite words. As we know, it meant more than the absence of war – though that is a comforting enough thought for an age of terror. It means a positive anointing of our hearts and minds with the saving, refreshing, revivifying oil of God’s Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Peace. It means good will towards all the men, women and children we meet all year round.
Paul’s brief overture to Romans 5 ends with the hope we cherish deep inside us to participate in the glory of God. Wow! To share in the glory of the Godhead. That’s where God is taking us, to eventually become “heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ” (Romans 8:17). That’s some theme, eh? This message was broadcast to the rough and rowdy shepherds responding to the angels majestic appearance outside Bethlehem. The angelic choir spoke to captive Israel’s need: “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people” (Luke 2:10). How extraordinary was that first Christmas! Rugged, culturally-despised shepherds from the laboring classes given first access to God’s work in Bethlehem that night. “Angels We Have Heard on High” catches the shepherd’s response perfectly. They “returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen” (Luke 2:20).
Now, back to Paul and Romans 5.
In verse 10 he enunciates how important the life of Christ is to every believer. “For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!” Exclamation point indeed. If Paul were here today, Gospel opportunist that he was, he might point out that the One we worship as the Lord Jesus Christ began his life as “the dayspring from on high” (Luke 1:78, NAV) – as a little baby in Bethlehem.
There’s an echo of that in a Christmas hymn that goes “man shall live forever/because of Christmas day.” That might be forcing the theology a little bit (the Cross was always first with Paul) but such kinder, gentler openings to the Gospel are all around us this time of year. Late December in the Western world offers alert Christians incentive to study, teach, and share – even if over a cup of coffee – more of the Good News of salvation. The fact of the incarnation, of the very Light of the world, of this universe “tabernacling” among us (John 1:14) should help us emulate the switched on apostle Paul. His reflection upon the great purpose God is working out in us burst out in thanksgiving: “We also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”
Access. Peace with God. Reconciliation. These are all emotional incentives to spiritually luxuriate in at every season of the year, but how much more when people are surrounded with Gospel hints and cues at every turn – in the malls, on TV, in the streets of the cities. These are prime opportunities to reflect upon and be a little bolder about expressing what it all means – Christ’s first coming, his mission to be our atonement, to bear our sins and to make access possible to the Father. It all began in Bethlehem. That’s the Gospel.
These themes are stupendous enough. But, as scholar C.K. Barrett, remarked some time ago, Paul is also the patron saint of Thought, of the Intellect, in Christianity. A smug, sentimental, “I’ve got mine” anti-intellectual Gospel had no place in Paul’s theology. The zestful thinker who hammered out the human plight and God’s remedy in forceful parallel form through Romans 5:12-26 showed he was a “thinking man’s Christian.” Paul could both formulate in philosophical terms as well as deeply feel an almost cosmic concern for the plight of our hurting war-obsessed planet. Paul was no gushy sentimentalist. In Romans 5:12-21 he sketched out his deep awareness of what the coming of Jesus Christ at Bethlehem had meant for the world. It meant nothing less than removing the curse, the spiritual contagion caused by Adam’s sin. The stakes for a successful delivery at Bethlehem were thus high indeed.
Paul put it in a nutshell: “Therefore just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin…how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many” (Romans 5:12-15).
Death. Sin. Wars. Terrorists. Innocent suffering – even on our highways. These stark tragedies are the stuff of our nightly news. Paul knew this would be our human predicament in a world without God’s obvious presence. But he also painted the answer – the gift of God to us of his son, Jesus Christ, coming into this dark and dreary world to offer….what exactly? Let’s read the answer in this marvelous thumbnail commentary on the bad news of the world today:
“For, if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more – (key words here in the argument) – 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.”
So much was at stake at Jesus’ first advent. That child of Bethlehem would grow up to carry “the hopes and fears/of all the years.” No wonder Matthew and Luke spend so much time on the Birth Narratives. What was at stake? Life. Eternal life. That we might reign in life with him! What a hope. What a blessing. What a gift!
Paul continues: “Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men.”
Again – what a hope! What a delicious slice of good news!
Let’s read the upbeat conclusion: “The law was added so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Remember the words of the carol? “And man shall live forevermore/because of Christmas Day.”
Romans 5 affords a good reason to celebrate this time of peace and rejoicing in a deeper, more satisfying Scriptural mode. That is how we strive to keep Christmas in our congregation. We don’t need snow or mistletoe. Tis the season to be reminded yet again of the grand themes of the Gospel – peace with God, access to the Father, eternal life through the coming of Jesus Christ. That may be the way Paul would preach his Christmas message if he were here today. At least its nice to think so.