Justified By His Blood
The true ground of the Church's hope and unity
“...you then who teach others, do you not teach yourself?” (Romans 2:21)
From the earliest days of the church there has been a temptation to base one’s justification, not on the solid ground of Christ and His redeeming work, but on the much more shoddy foundation of “at least I’m not like those guys.” This, at least, seems to have been what the Jewish Christians in the church at Rome were doing with their Gentile brothers in the first century, a mistake which drew forth Paul’s scathing rebuke cited above: “...you then who teach others, do you not teach yourself?” (v. 21).
The Jews, in other words, were priding themselves on their dissimilarity to the second-class Gentile plebs within their midst, while neglecting to turn that same critical eye toward their own hearts. If they had done so they might have noticed, as Paul points out in chapter 3, that they too had sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and thus were just as much in need of a Saviour as everyone else (3:23). Being a descendent of Abraham might carry with it certain benefits (3:2), but in the way of establishing a saving relationship with the God of the universe, claiming Jewish identity was a moot point (3:20). Sin and judgment are the great equalizers of the human race, and in their dark shadow Jew and Gentile stand on level ground.
The application here for us is that we too need to be wary of establishing our justification on any other ground but Christ and His cross. Opposition to DEI agendas is a good thing, and so is rejecting insane woke dogmas, but it should go without saying that none of these provide any saving merit before God. Sinners are justified “by his blood” and no other way (5:9). Thus the foundation of our hope, and the unifying principle of our churches, must always and ever be Christ and Him crucified. Apart from this, Jew and Gentile, conservative and progressive, rainbow fanatic and bearded lumberjack are all aboard the same sinking ship. Only Christ affords that hope which can never be lost: a righteousness given in grace, to be received by faith (3:22).
May this be the hope that draws us together in a fractious world and enables us to rejoice in the face of overwhelming darkness.