Notes From Jon

Top Billing

We’ve all seen movie posters.  They tell us everything we need to know about a movie that’s coming – trying to entice you to pay $10 to sit in a theater and watch it.  They use clever graphics, descriptive fonts, and subtly faded portraits of the main actors to sum up the story in one snapshot.

Most posters have words of some kind.  And you can tell what’s important by how big the words are.  Most modern movie posters have the name of the movie in huge letters.  Next smallest are the key stars – the ones who get the top billing.  Then are the “other” stars.  Finally, in itty-bitty print at the bottom of the page… everyone else.

That’s now.  But do you remember back in the day, what was the main draw on movie posters?  The lead actor and/or actress.  Nowadays, you go see a movie because you read the book, or because the topic is intriguing to you.  But once, you went to see movie stars!

Do you remember what those movie posters looked like?  The star’s name in BIG LETTERS – sometimes bigger than the title of the movie.

Here’s a ridiculous thought – what if you saw a movie poster this week that had JON PARKS in big bright letters!  “Who’s that guy??” people would ask.  Oh, he’s just an extra.  Do you think people would go to see the movie then?

So now it’s time to wrap up this series on Romans.  But as we do, I think it’s worth looking back over the whole book to make sure we understand Paul’s big points.  We don’t want to “major on the minors,” get things out of order.  So let’s walk through what we’ve learned from Romans, chapter by chapter:

1. God has reason to be angry at human beings, who have been sinful.  We can’t claim ignorance – we know God is real and what he asks of us, but we still disobey.

2. Therefore, we have only one judge – God.  We cannot judge each other because we have all sinned and we are all sinful.  There is no place for division because of the quantity or quality of sin.

3. We can do nothing, by our own actions, to draw closer to God.  So God has chosen to draw closer to us, and to allow our FAITH to be counted as righteousness (rather than our careful observance of the Law).

4-7. Once we were slaves to sin and to the Law.  But God has freed us to choose whom we will serve.  But even then, we still fall short.

8.   So Christ makes up the difference.  His work and his death allow us to be adopted as God’s children, and for our sins to be covered.  God has done this – nothing can undo it.

9-11. Since all human beings are sinful, all are in need of redemption.  And God has chosen to use US as his way of spreading the good news!

12-13.  Our lives therefore should be lived totally in God’s service, no matter what we are doing.  Our conduct, both within the Body and without, should fulfill the Law of Love.

14-15.  The burden is upon us to live at peace with each other.  If someone disagrees with us, we can’t use that disagreement to justify division and fighting.  Rather, we must take all efforts to live in love and harmony with each other.  And this is not for our sakes, but so that God may be glorified by the way we live.

Paul covers the sweep of human history and God’s work.  And lest we put the wrong name in big letters, it’s important to see whom Paul recognizes as the big star in this story.

GOD

It’s so simple, you say.  But the fact is, we tend to put ourselves at the center of the world.  We start off this way as children – after all, for the first year of our lives or more, we’re not even aware that anyone else really exists.  But that tendency doesn’t stop with infancy.  Even in our spiritual lives today, we try to put ourselves at the center of God’s universe.

• We think, “why should I do anything for God?”
• “How does this make a difference for ME?”
• “Why does God ask so much of ME?”
• “Sure God did all this, but what has he done for ME lately?”
• Or, we look at all the things God has done, and we say:
  • Look at everything God has done, just for ME!
  • We make the story of redemption about “God and me.”
  • The buddy-buddy mentality, so focused on our own personal relationship.

It’s good to remember that God loves you and me personally – that’s wonderful news!  But I think sometimes we take this too far and begin to see ourselves as the whole reason God exists.  As if the reason God existed at all was to create us, to save us when we messed up, and to build our mansion in glory when we pass on.

Do you see how wrong this is?  Do you see how human-centered that understanding is?  Sure, I’m exaggerating things, but isn’t it true that we often put ourselves higher than we should?

A glance over the whole book of Romans gives us a different picture.

WE are not at the center of the universe.  GOD is.

WE did not choose God.  GOD chose us.

WE could not bridge the gap that came between us and God.  But GOD could overcome it.

WE do not do the work to save ourselves.  GOD does.

WE do not have the power even now to live the lives he asks of us.  But GOD gives us that power.

As we finish this look at the Letter to the Romans, I hope that we are not as impressed by Paul’s eloquence or thoughtfulness, as much as we are impressed by Paul’s GOD.  This God who has made us and who acts on our behalf – not because he must, but because he chooses to.

That God deserves top billing in my life, and in yours.  Does he have it?