Blown Again

I should be getting used to this by now.  I have been teaching myself to read ancient Greek.  It's slow, but I've got time.  So I was reading Romans 3:22 and picked up on something that didn't seem right.  The NIV translates it as (context included):

But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, 23for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

In ESV the last sentence carries into v25:

21But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,

But the Greek doesn't say, "faith in Jesus".  It says, "faith of Jesus".  I thought I must be reading it wrong, But in the Greek, it is quite certainly the possessive form of the noun, usually translated as apostrophe s or "x of y".  This is confirmed in extra-biblical sources.  I'd eventually remembered seeing this translation before.  Some versions like KJV, Darby, and Youngs render it this way.  So it's not a verse about what we have to do, but about what Jesus did.

The thing is, that changes the meaning dramatically!  If it's not about how to receive salvation, as I had been taught, then what is it about?  So I looked further into the verse.

That's when another mistranslation jumped out at me.  To get the idea, I'll give you a very literal translation from Young's:

And now apart from law hath the righteousness of God been manifested, testified to by the law and the prophets, 22and the righteousness of God [is] through the faith of Jesus Christ to all, and upon all those believing, — for there is no difference, 23for all did sin, and are come short of the glory of God — 24being declared righteous freely by His grace through the redemption that [is] in Christ Jesus,

And again in the most literal I found, Darby's (which was actually created not to be read, but to be an English study tool for people who didn't know Greek)

21But now without law righteousness of God is manifested, borne witness to by the law and the prophets; 22righteousness of God by faith of Jesus Christ towards all, and upon all those who believe: for there is no difference; 23for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; 24being justified freely by his grace through the redemption which [is] in Christ Jesus;

Do you see the difference? This is not about how to, "be saved".  There's no prequalifier directing this to only those who believe, or ascribe to the right system.  No performance standard.  That is the old religious mindset of the Jews, the Classical Pagans, and every other religion.  Far from being an exclusive text, this is ultimately inclusive.

No one is right.  All are justified, including those who believe, because of Jesus' faith.  Not only those who believe in Jesus.  "For there is no difference"!  Why?  Because ALL have fallen short, but are justified freely by the ransom (i.e. 'getting rid of-ness' in possessive form again) in Jesus.

Wow!    Bomb dropped.    Mind blown.    Again.

Why is this a big deal?  It's really good news!  We're not exchanging one religious system for another.  That's the point of the chapter!  That's Paul's whole deal across all his writings!  Remember this is coming from Paul, the guy that some think is so different from the other writers in the Bible he should be decanonized!  But in this clearer understanding, he's right in line with the spirit of the other writers.  We are all justified.  Period.  Jesus did away with everything else by his faith.  Paul, the murdering jihadist, knew that better than anyone.  

His faith in what?  I'm not sure.  But faith just means trust.  That's really all the Greek word means.  It was a banking term originally.  Like you trust the bank with your money or a creditor trusts you enough to lend to you.  I think it might be his trust that God was working for his good.  In other words, his trust in God that all he was going through was necessary and would come out right.  His trust that God loved him and was powerful enough to complete what he had set out to do.  This is a Gospel...good news...I can get behind!

But what about belief?  Am I saying even people who don't believe go to heaven?  What about murderers and rapists?

OK.  Slow down a minute.  I am NOT discounting belief.  The Bible talks about it a lot.  Jesus himself says it.  What I'm talking about is JUSTIFICATION.  That doesn't depend on belief.  Secondly, let's use another word.  The original word is a verb form of the noun faith.  So it isn't like believing a fact.  To disbelieve a fact is idiotic.  Even an abstract fact, like the sun coming up tomorrow.  Sure we all know the world could end and the sun may not come up in some remote, all-possibilities-included, sort of way.  But to seriously disbelieve this...enough to act on the belief, would be a sign of mental illness, not faith.  Jesus isn't saying we have to believe in him like we believe in the sunrise...Yeah, he existed, even the demons believe that!

So if we sub in the word trust, it works a lot better.  Jesus says we need to trust him.  Yeah, of course.  He trusted God, and see what happened?  We have to trust him and act on what he said, then we'll see what happens too.  Not until then.  He is the first down the path.  The firstborn, the Bible calls him.

Next, let's let go of this concept of salvation equalling heaven.  That's a shallow piece of the puzzle.  And I can tell you, for anyone who has really faced their demons, heaven is the least of their worries and not much of a reward.  Sure I'll take it when I get there, but I really need the help NOW.

As for murderers and rapists, yeah, they are justified too.  I don't get it either.  But I trust God enough to know that everyone gets fair play and all wrongs are righted.  So I don't know what has to happen to people like that.  I don't know what they go through, internally, externally, in this life, or elsewhere.  But I trust that their wrong will be righted.  Not in vengeance alone, because that sort of retribution doesn't fix the wrong.  

But in real ways that are bigger than me or them, I can see that for them to come to true realization of the horror they have inflicted, the horror they have become, is the best vengeance and for them to react to that by doing all they can to compensate for it (i.e. to repent) can lead to far more good than the wrong done.  I also trust that the wronged person is not ultimately ruined, but can blossom from it into something so much more beautiful (hear me here: I know whereof I speak), and I can equally mourn the wrong and hope for the redemption of the wronger without hatred.
 

What If

What if our entire human existence as we know it is a peculiar state encapsulated in matter and time, matrix-like.  What if, in the truest reality, thought and action are so intricately linked that to think is already to do? What if the way to stop us from destroying ourselves was for God to lock us in this sequential bubble called space-time and fill it with thick and slow matter that is always decaying and recycling.

What if the fact that bad things can only happen at points in time and have limited spatial scope and duration is a mercy to limit the destructive capability of beings with the creative mind and will of the All Maker.

What if God determined that he would generate a truly free being that could grow and change on its own as much without his control as possible.  What if he decided to prove that his power was so perfect that even these beings, perfectly capable of unmaking themselves, would come to good and not be lost?

What if this consequence-delaying and scope-mitigating safety net of space-time is the way that could occur? What if humans are grown and not made?  What if space-time is our growth medium, our soil?  Growing us is the only way we could be truly free.  If we were compelled in any way other than guidance, we would not be free to be other than that and could not therefore truly love.

I, for one, would not want someone who only met my needs, even if they were perfectly good at it.  I could never know if they loved me for myself or because I wanted them to.  The only way I could determine that would be if the lover is perfectly free to love or not love, to go or stay, to choose things, people, etc. other than me.  What if that's what we are made for?

What if Jesus expressed this and guided us toward that growth that God knows will lead to our ultimate form?  Our ultimate form would be our ultimate fulfilment.  It couldn't be otherwise, unless our existence truly is a cruel cosmic joke.  But that doesn't even make sense.  Either there is order and it is good, or there is none, in which case we are beautiful but meaningless accidents that have no real value nor can make value judgements...but this is another conversation.

What if, everything Jesus taught was quickly co-opted and filtered through the natural paganism of humanity until he became nothing more than a new god in the pantheon, replacing outworn faces and practices with the same spirit of appeasement and supplication.

What if this is exactly what he meant by "ever looking but not seeing; ever hearing but not understanding".  And "he who has ears let him hear."

If this is the case, perhaps some people are just not developed enough to get it. If this is the case, there is no point in seeking stupid compliance and following rules.  They would only hinder us.

If our conception of God or reality is wrong, then urging people to comply with some system will only cement wrong ideas in them.  Better to let them go and learn and grow.  What if this is the point of the rich young ruler?  What if this is the key to everything Paul said, which otherwise seems so harsh and unJesus-like?

What if we were to try out this understanding and see if it's got any truth?

I have been doing this.  I have not found the bottom of the rabbit hole yet.  My heart swells at each new idea of it.  It's good news that I am bursting to share.  I can't deny it, don't want to.  It fills me with love for the beautiful possibilities I see in people around me in a way that old religion never did.  And it fills me with fire against anything or anyone that tells others lies about what is so good for them.  For the first time, I am beginning to understand how the martyrs could have felt.  I thought I understood before.  But no militant mindset can hold up to what they faced.

So preachers keep preaching your dead theology and keep watching your churches empty.  Ministers keep teaching rules instead of nurturing truth and watch how people fall away as fast as they fall in.  Whitewashed tombs where the dead can bury their own.  Your god is not my God.

My God exists in spirit and truth, light and life and love. And in spite of all the bad, he will make all things good.  And not just good as in lack of bad, but good such that every note of bad that ever existed will be rolled up into a goodness that we can not imagine as we see how it was simply the orchestrating of our own richer blossoming.

I'm not asking you to believe this.  Honestly, I don't care if you do.  It doesn't change anything either way.  I'm just saying, what if...