15. Made Justly Innocent

Covering Romans Chapters 1-3:

Paul not only believed his Gospel of the Unveiling of Jesus Christ, but he passionately committed his life to its meaning, that the gathering together of each local Church was Jesus made visible to all creation.

Paul was both an idealist and a realist, going back and forth between both ways of thinking without realizing that he was. Paul was also both highly intelligent and deeply emotional, even sentimental and exuberant at times. God gave Paul these qualities all mixed together because such was needed in a vessel tasked with bringing forth the True Gospel into human knowing. Yet this mix of qualities would also produce a muddled mess for generations to come of what Paul meant when he said, “My gospel.”

Driven by the Gospel. Paul’s intelligence shows itself in the driving and careful layout of purpose displayed in two ways, in Galatians through emotion, and in Romans through careful thought.

But the problem of confusion through the Church ages does not come from IQ high or low, but from the heart, either set on self-exaltation, or that which humbles one’s self before God. It is perverse hearts set on self-exaltation towards God through unbelief, that have chopped up, not only Paul’s teaching into unrelated bits, but also the entire Bible. Typically, Paul does bounce around, chasing after rabbit trails without explanation, and bringing in stuff no present reader has any idea about. This is NOT happening with Galatians and Romans. In fact, it was hardly a couple of months between writing the two. Paul is driven to express his gospel.

The Tension of Paul’s Gospel. My point is this. Every part of Romans is coming immediately out from every part of Galatians, and both are coming out from the critical truths expressed in 2 Corinthians and in parts of 1 Corinthians. It is only as we keep this fully in mind that we can stay with God’s meaning through Paul. Our study of the flow of Gospel Verses has finally enabled us to KNOW Paul’s Gospel, a great tension between JOY and WAR.

The several weeks between Galatians and Romans has been enough time to see Paul’s anger dissipate somewhat, but not enough time to lessen his driving purpose. Paul’s intention is to take the believer in Jesus out from any thought of the old creation, and into a Universe of LIFE, inside of all GLORY. And he begins this exercise by establishing fully what it means that God has made us to be JUSTLY INNOCENT.

Resurrection. (Chapter 1) 3 Concerning His Son, who came out from the sperm of David according to flesh, • 4 having been determined a Son of God inside of power, down to the finest details of the Spirit of Devotion by the resurrection out from the dead, Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Paul begins with Jesus. And this time he connects Jesus to David, the man who messed up in every direction, the man who always ran into God, regardless. Then Paul gives a definition of the Lord Jesus as He is now. In essence, it is the Resurrection that proves that Jesus is a Son of God. Paul then adds five qualifiers to what he means by resurrection and by Jesus proven as a Son. More than that, Paul is pointing towards the Truth that the same things are also True for us, in the redemption of our bodies.

Defining a Son of God. The qualifiers are these (1) this is a Son of God the Father, (2) He bears the same flesh as David, (3) the determination of His Sonship, resurrection, is inside of power, (4) His resurrection corresponds with the specific realities of the Spirit of Devotion, and (5) it is a resurrection – out from the dead. We have learned that “out from the dead” MEANS, carrying all whom the Father has given to Him inside Himself. I can see that Paul is setting the stage for Romans 6, inside of Christ.

Definition: God proves Jesus as His own Son by the resurrection. First Jesus bore the same flesh as David, the man who ran into God, regardless. He was raised into life by the power of the Spirit and not of Himself. And in being raised, He came out from the dead carrying inside Himself all whom the Father had given Him. These qualities pervade the letter to the Romans.

Defining the Gospel. • 16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God carrying into salvation all who are actively believing, Judeans first, and also Greeks. • 17 For inside of the gospel the just approval of God is unveiled out from faith into faith; as it has been written, “Those declared justly innocent will live out from faith.”

Verse 16 is a powerful and straightforward definition of the Gospel, which we can now see is tied straight into the definition of Jesus as a Son of God in Verse 4. “Carried into” means Ruling Verse 6, Jesus as the Way, which then means that “Salvation” is living now inside the Most Devoted, that is, inside of God, sharing all of life and every moment with Him. The Son, out from God and out from David, carries us into the same relationship as sons with God.

Carried through Faith. Our part is an active faith, and thus Verse 17 is an expansion on the role of faith, which is typically Ruling Verse 7.

Definition: The Gospel is defined specifically as the power of God, a power that carries us into Salvation as God means Salvation, we who actively believe that God speaks the Truth.

Ruling Verse 6: “Carried into” is the action of Jesus as the Way, something that has already happened. The Salvation into which Jesus has carried us is the Most Devoted Place, that is, inside of all that is God, who shares our lives with us.

Ruling Verse 7: Faith is that quality that looks straight at every Gospel Word and says, “Let it  be to me according to what You mean by what You say.” Faith proclaims that we are inside of God’s Salvation and that God is inside of us. We are part of Christ as we are confident that we are part of Christ.

Perceiving God in Person in All. • 20 Indeed, His invisible qualities of unceasing power and divine personalness are clearly perceived from the creation of the cosmos, being understood by the things He has made, so that they are without excuse. • 21 For having known God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were they thankful, but they became pointless, even psychotic in their thinking and their incoherent heart was darkened, misunderstanding everything.

I will place verse 20 into the category of Life. You see, since I was nineteen, this is how I have thought. I have been fixated on a Personal God who is real, whom I cannot see, but with whom I must relate in directly seeing Him in all things. And that is the beginning cause of Life, perceiving God in all, not as “pantheism,” but as a Personal Father towards us.

Trapping the Reader. For verse 21, the “definition” will be to show the actual “fall” of humans, as I have explained often. Yet there is something more that MUST be understood in Paul’s purpose, both here and in Chapter 7. Paul is taking the reader to a great hammer BLOW, one that most readers successfully escape – Romans 3:19 – GUILTY and SILENT!

Life: Life is knowing God (see John 17:3). Life begins with perceiving God always inside of all, not as “pantheism,” but as a Personal Father always towards us.

Definition: To look straight at God and to refuse to believe Him is to “not glorify God.” This refusal leads immediately to the next, refusing to give thanks, hating the way God made us and the circumstances of our lives. Immediately our thinking and our hearts are at war against God. This is the sin of mankind.

Got You! (Chapter 2) • 1 Therefore, you are inexcusable, oh man, each one who judges, for by the very thing you judge another, you condemn yourself. Indeed, you practice the very same things you are judging.

Paul’s description of human iniquity in Chapter 1 was for one purpose only, to catch the self-righteous in his trap, the ones who “point the finger” at “all those wicked people out there.” There is only one phrase in all of the ruling verses that Paul has in his mind, “I have already been crucified with Christ.”

Ruling Verse 5: Paul is driving towards Romans 3:19, guilty and silent in the presence of God. He is taking us to the meaning of “Already crucified with Christ,” Galatians 2:20. For only inside such an ending already accomplished can we know the Jesus inside of Whom we now live.

Into Galatians 2:20. 4 Or do you despise the riches of His kindness, forbearance, and long-suffering, not knowing that • the kindness of God leads you into the complete change of your mind? – • 13 Indeed, it is not the hearers of law who are justly innocent in the presence of God, but the doers of the law will be declared justly innocent.

We can see now that Paul is not only obsessed with bringing the reader into Galatians 2:20 in all that it means, but he is also being very clever about how he is doing that.

Ruling Verse 5: Paul is obsessed with taking us into Galatians 2:20. If you want to connect with God yourself, you must demonstrate perfect obedience every moment, always. It is not our disobedience that changes our minds, however, but the kindness of God in having placed us into Christ Jesus, already.

Our Story of Self. • 16 Inside the day when God will judge the secrets of men by the finest details of my gospel through Christ Jesus. – • 29 but he is a Judean who is one secretly, and circumcision is that of heart, in Spirit, not letter, whose praise and approval is not from men, but out from God.

The clue for both of these verses is the word “secret.” And the “secret” inside is the story we tell ourselves about ourselves, whether that which boasts in self in any way, or that which seeks the knowledge of God in Spirit.

Speak Christ: The “secret” inside is our story of self, a continuous flow of words we tell ourselves about ourselves. The judgment of God is to fill our story of self with the speaking of Christ made personal as us, in the heart, in Spirit, looking always to God as our Source and our only Refuge.

The Great Story of God. (Chapter 3) 3 So what if some did not believe? Does their unbelief negate the faith of God? 4 It does not happen! • Let God be True and every man a liar and a fake, as it is written, “That You may be justified inside Your words, and will prevail inside Your judgment.”

This is the defining verse of the Great Story of God and thus is tied with Paul’s statements on the secrets of the heart. It is also the line that shows us the real meaning of the serpent’s words, “Did God indeed say?” Yet it is also a critical line in Paul’s rapid path to GUILT and SILENCE. And this is another problem with chopping the Bible up into tiny unrelated pieces by the imposition of Nicene “theology.” Paul is always connecting the beginning (Genesis 1-3) with the completion, weaving it all together into the Gospel.

Contention over Word. Life is movement within and without. Another word for movement without is story, one’s life story. God has a Story, and His Story drives everything. It is a Story of contention over Word, does God speak the Truth – or does He not?

Life: God has a Story that is the outward flow of His Life, and His Story drives everything. It is a Story of contention over Word (see Genesis 3:1), does God speak the Truth – or does He not? We have always accused God of lying by not receiving His Word as already fulfilled. God will prove us wrong.

Ruling Verse 5: Paul continues to take us straight into Romans 3:19, the only Way through which we can know the Salvation of God. We are proven liars; we are proven FAKE. What more is there to say? Shut your mouth about yourself, for you are entirely GUILTY.

Cutting Us to Pieces. • 10 As it is written, “None is justly innocent or approved, not even one. 11 There is none who understands; there is none who seeks after God. 12 All have fallen away; together they have become useless. There is none who does good; not so much as one.

In the Tabernacle of Moses, people brought their animals into the outer court where the priests cut them all to pieces to lay all the carnage out upon the altar of sacrifice. This is what Paul is doing with his list; he is cutting us to pieces so that we cannot speak anything about ourselves. Our efforts “to be Christians” are only a horrific LIE. We do NOT understand! We have never sought God, and we never will. Yet all who preach “the total depravity of mankind” from these verses present themselves as “one who understands.”

Refusing the Cross. “I know what that verse has to mean” is DEATH, for it is the open declaration that God is a liar, but “I am true.” All preachers who place any shadow of, “I know that you are fleshy; you are all wicked sinners; you are less than nothing in the sight of God,” upon their hearers are staying as far away from the Cross and from Jesus as they can. They preach depravity, but do not believe it of themselves. You see, Paul is NOT bringing us to the “end” of ourselves, that has already been accomplished. He is bringing us to Jesus, yet I have known few preachers who brought me to Jesus.

Ruling Verse 5: God is not bringing us into death as any “end” of ourselves, for He has already executed us in all our GUILT. Yet we must know that we CANNOT save ourselves so that we might know ourselves ONLY inside of Jesus.   

That Every Mouth Might Be Closed. • 19 We know, moreover, that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are inside the law, that every mouth might be closed, and the entire world-cosmos brought under judgment before God. 20 Therefore, no flesh will be declared justly innocent inside His presence out from works of law, • for through law comes the recognition, the personal acknowledgement of sin, of a broken relationship with God.

No one can enter into the knowledge of God who is not destroyed utterly regarding themselves by the overthrow found in these two verses. In everything Paul will write going forward, from Romans 4 on, he will be assuming that he has successfully caught the reader in his trap. – You are toast already; shut up about a “self” separate from Christ.

We Must Come to Another. It is impossible to shut up about one’s self. Those who “try” become really twisted in their thinking. “There is no me,” is the exaltation of “me.” “Getting rid of self” is boasting in self. We must come to Another; we must have Someone Else’s story to speak, but One who shares our story as well, making it brand new. This is the wondrous beauty of our precious union with the Lord Jesus Christ, and the ONLY thing to which Paul is taking us.

I do want to express Paul’s driving conclusion without the shadow of all the ways Nicene Christians have found to escape the obvious. To do that, however, we must have that shadow clear in our minds, lest it creep in unnoticed. Why do so few take us to Jesus?

Only through Christ Jesus. Ruling Verse 5: The first command of the Gospel is that you would shut up about yourself as if you exist separate from Jesus. You are already guilty; God has already executed you. The old is gone; union with Christ Jesus is the only life you are.

Speak Christ: God made us like Himself; we must speak. God must bring us to Another; God must give us a Life, a Story now entwined with ours that we might speak Jesus our Life.

Definition: God did not place the tree of knowing good and evil that we might eat of it. God did not give the law so that we might “try” to keep it. If we “kept” the law better than Saul of Tarsus, we would still be putting Jesus to death. God gave the law to prove to us that we FAIL to connect with God, that we might run, like David, into Jesus, our Savior and only Life.

Through Jesus’ Faith. 21 Now, however, God’s just approval has been made visible completely separate from law, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; • 22 the just approval of God coming through the faith of Jesus Christ into all those who believe. Indeed, there is no separation, no present disconnection from God.

Here, as well as in verse 24, we have the full connection between Ruling Verses 5 & 6. Ruling Verse 6 shows us how our full union with Christ, without consciousness of sins, is our immediate reality upon receiving Jesus.

Ruling Verse 6: It is impossible to share Life with God through Jesus, which is Salvation, except we live in no consciousness of sins, no thought of any disconnect ever. Jesus as our only Way is how we know Jesus as our only Life.

Defining Just Innocence. • 23 For all have sinned and failed to meet the glory of God— 24 now being declared justly innocent, utterly without sin or any falling short of God, by His grace and favor through the redemption, the winning back, that is inside of Christ Jesus.

Just innocence is from our point of view; the same thing from God’s point of view is just approval. “Just” does not mean, “just as if I have never sinned.” It means that God meets all the requirements of divine law in declaring that we are, in fact, without sin, for we are born brand new inside of Jesus.

Definition: Just approval is God’s view of our just innocence, which is True ONLY by the express declaration of God. Just innocence means that by all the requirements of divine law, we are without sin, brand new inside of Jesus.

No Consciousness of Sins. • 25 Whom God set forth as propitiation through faith inside of His blood, the demonstration and proof of His just approval through the bearing of all prior sins inside the carrying of God, 26 towards the demonstration and proof of His just approval in the present time, that He might be just in Himself as well as declaring justly innocent the one coming out from the faith of Jesus.

Paul is continuing to write out from Ruling Verse 6, but we must accomplish a critical task, we must eliminate the evil definition of propitiation as “appeasement” without saying anything about the false definition. You see “just approval – just innocence” is the cause in us of “no consciousness of sins,” which is the only way we can share life with God in every next step together.

Propitiation. Propitiation is a very simple concept. It means the continual resolution of all differences between two, that the two might walk as one. The Blood is the propitiation, not to signify something awful, but to declare the GREAT VALUE it is to Jesus that we might share life together with God our Father. It is the Scapegoat who bears all sins inside an empty grave. I can say, “God my Father shares my life with me in all things, and every next moment, we share together,” Life inward and Life outward, BECAUSE Jesus is continuously giving all of Himself to God and to me. This is beyond wonder.

Ruling Verse 6: Propitiation means the continuous resolution of all differences between God and us, that we might walk together as one. The Blood is that propitiation, the great Value of Jesus that we might share Life with God our Father.

The Only Way. • 28 For this reason, we reckon, give account, declare it to be so, that a man or a woman is to be declared justly innocent through faith completely separate from works of law. 31 Do we nullify the law, then, through our faith? It does not happen! Rather, we establish the purpose of the law.

The purpose of the law is to persuade you to shut up about yourself as if you exist separate from union with Christ. Your problem is that you CANNOT shut up, for God made you like Himself, the One who loves Jesus so much that He also cannot stop speaking. There is one solution only – that we should speak Christ our life, Jesus sharing all with us, and we just like Him. People call it Narcissism in Paul, but to speak Christ made personal as me is the ONLY Way not to speak the boasting of self.

Speak Christ Your Life. I write in free-flow so that I can see what the comment must be. Often, however, such writing is what I need.

Definition: The purpose of the law is to persuade you to shut up about yourself as if you exist separate from union with Christ. Your problem is that you CANNOT shut up, for God made you like Himself, the One who loves Jesus so much that He also cannot stop speaking.

Speak Christ: There is one solution only – that we should speak Christ our life, Jesus sharing all with us, and we just like Him. People call it Narcissism in Paul, when he says, “I live, yet not I, but Christ.” To speak Christ made personal as me, however, is the ONLY Way not to speak the boasting of self. Those who speak against themselves are boasting in self. Those who speak Christ my Life, honor the Father.

It Did Not Work! Paul is very clever in setting his trap to bring all to silence, except for one thing. – It did not work. All Christianity I have known spins its stories out from the refusal of the Cross. All of us have successfully evaded Paul’s (and God’s) trap. No wonder we have never known Paul’s Gospel. No wonder God has hidden from us any sight of the Tree of Life. Why have we refused? Paul takes us twice into Adam’s rebellion to show us why. We have refused to believe that God is telling us the Truth BECAUSE we hate the way God made us and the circumstances of our life, as Jesus said, for no reason whatsoever.

Yet Paul doubles down, coming at the Cross from a different angle. Why? Because Paul is convinced that God will have a people who will glorify God by believing His Word and who will give thanks inside of and for the sake of all.

Reading for Next Time. The next lesson is now titled 16. “Inside of Christ.” It will cover Romans 4-6, as well as the first part of Chapter 7, marriage with Jesus. I can make this lesson longer because I hope to have the following lesson, 17. “The Law of the Spirit of Life” for the next Zoom meeting, even if I don’t quite finish lesson 16.

“The Law of the Spirit of Life” will cover Romans 7:7 through Romans 8:17. In this section, Paul is preparing for his final departure from all that is old into the full explosion of the gospel with all thought of disconnection from God gone forever. Paul is preparing for a complete TURN AROUND! Thus I hope that Lesson 18, “The Gospel Core,” Romans 8:18-39, would be ready for the following Zoom session.

Let’s Pray Together. “God, our Father, You have carried us inside of power into all that Salvation is and means. Father, You have brought us into Yourself through Jesus that we might know You as He does, and that we might love one another as He loves us. Father, You have made us to be just like the Lord Jesus Christ. You share every moment of our lives with us.

“Father, when You turned us around, You bade us to sit down upon the Blood. We are seated upon the Resolution that Jesus is, causing You and us always to walk together as one. This is Grace, oh God, this continuous active Giving of Jesus to You and to us, of us to Jesus and to You, and most of all, You to Jesus and to us. It is Your giving of Yourself, Father, that causes us to Live – inside of You now and forever.

“Yet You have turned us around and seated us upon Blood, for great Purpose, Father, that we might be this same Grace, this same giving of Life to all our Christian brethren. Father, just as Jesus carried us inside Himself all the Way into You, so we would be the same for all our Christian brethren, all whom You have given to Jesus, now alive.

“Father, we would carry all our Christian brethren inside our hearts all the way into You.

“We know, oh God, that Grace is You inside of us giving Yourself for this very Purpose. Father, we know that we speak only what is already Your great Determination. Be Grace through us, Father, that all Christians might be swept into the knowledge of God inside of Glory and by Your Gospel. Inside of Jesus, we know that You are and You do.”