*** SHOW NOTES (not fully edited or a transcript) ***

Lead:

What does the creativity skill of zooming have to do with reading the Bible?

Intro:

In the world of the people who study creativity skills, one that they identify as important — and that anyone can develop — is “zooming.” The idea is one of zooming out or in like how you might use a camera — zooming out to catch the big picture, wide-angle view and at other times, zooming in on the details. This is a useful skill to use purposefully when it comes to reading the Bible, too, and in today’s All Our Minds segment we’ll use this to evaluate something we’ll hear Paul write to the church in Rome.

Also, one housekeeping item: I recently got notified by my website provider that somehow the connection on the email form to the email service I use had disconnected. That’s technology for you, but I got the notice because a few people signed up for the email that drops this podcast and anything else I blog into your inbox. So…if that was you, I fixed it. Just know that you will have to sign up again…just go to forthehope.org and scroll to the bottom of any page.

Yesterday, after Paul’s opening greeting, we heard him make the case that eternal issues are at stake — that through the natural order of things that every human on the planet CAN come to the realization that they are sinners in need of a savior and therefore have no excuse for not honoring Him as God. Now you might remember that he’s writing to a church, so this writing started with acknowledging that Jesus is the way we can be healed of our mess and have relationship with God restored.

Today you’re going to hear Paul continue his opening argument…that God gets to be God, that he’s a just judge, and that through Jesus we’re justified — a four dollar theology term that was, back then, legal term. In other words, when we accept Jesus’ freely-offered gift of grace by trusting Him with our whole hearts and minds, the debt or legal obligation before the judge, is settled. Today’s reading then wraps up with Paul pointing out that this has always been true going way back to Abraham. Which is a nice way of saying that while Israel was who God chose to come to first, that was only part of the plan that’s been in place since, well, forever.

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Bible:

Passage: Romans 3-4
Translation: ESV (English Standard Version
Verses: 56
Words: ~1224

All Our Minds:

For today’s AOM, I want to zoom in and out on the idea of self-righteousness, so let me start with a description from an old book, The International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, and you will hear it use an example that includes what we read today. And then I’ll make a final point about what we should remember with this new skill.

SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS, self-rī´chus-nes: A term that has come to designate moral living as a way of salvation; or as a ground for neglecting the redemptive work of Jesus Christ. The thought is present in the teaching of Jesus, who spoke one parable particularly to such as reckoned themselves to be righteous (Lk 18:9 ff). The Pharisees quite generally resented the idea of Jesus that all men needed repentance and they most of all. They regarded themselves as righteous and looked with contempt on “sinners.” Paul in all his writings, esp. Rom 3; Gal 3; Eph 2; Phil 3, contrasts the righteousness that is God’s gift to men of faith in Jesus Christ, with righteousness that is “of the law” and “in the flesh.” By this latter he means formal conformity to legal requirements in the strength of unregenerate human nature. He is careful to maintain (cf Rom 7) that the Law is never really kept by one’s own power. On the other hand, in full agreement with Jesus, Paul looks to genuine righteousness in living as the demand and achievement of salvation based on faith. God’s gift here consists in the capacity progressively to realize righteousness in life (cf Rom 8:1 ff). See also Sanctification.(1) (emphases mine)
~ William Owen Carver

So here’s the thing — we we just sat down and read Romans, we’d be done in less than an hour and a quarter. And if we did, we’d catch the whole context of his warning about self-righteousness…the warning came today in chapter three, but we’ll hear some critical context about it in chapter seven which we obviously didn’t read. And if we zoomed out to reading all Paul’s writings or even the whole Bible, we’d catch additional context in Paul’s letters to the Galatians, Ephesians and Philippians.

The bottom line

Here’s a really important thing to remember: There’s a time to zoom in and go deep. I love that stuff. But we also run a risk that we’ll miss important context. You’ve heard me comment before about commonly taken out of context like hearing Jesus say we shouldn’t judge, when if we zoom out a little, we see that he’s not saying that we should be discerning and use judgment — quite the opposite!

Finally, this is one reason this podcast reads broader swaths of Scripture and goes through the Bible in a year…I’m just trying to help out by zooming out and catch the big picture. After all, the whole Bible is about Jesus and what we’re going to do — or not do — with His resurrection on our behalf, right?

Wisdom:

Passage: Proverbs 10:7-18
Translation: ESV (English Standard Version)
Verses: 11
Words: ~175

Love you!

-R

ForTheHope is a daily audio Bible + apologetics podcast and blog. We’ve got a passion for just keepin’ it real, having conversations like normal people, and living out the love of Jesus better every single day.

Roger Courville, CSP is a globally-recognized expert in digitally-extended communication and connection, an award-winning speaker, award-winning author, and a passionately bad guitarist. Follow him on Twitter -- @RogerCourville and @JoinForTheHope – or his blog: www.forthehope.org.

Sources and resources:

Thank you for supporting this ministry should you choose to use the Amazon affiliate links below.

(1) William Owen Carver, “Self-Righteousness,” ed. James Orr et al., The International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia (Chicago: The Howard-Severance Company, 1915), 2715. (link)

Not cited today, but this week we’re using one of my faves! —> Crossway Bibles, The ESV Study Bible (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2008).

#919: Romans 3-4 | Zooming | Proverbs 10:7-18