We have a long gospel passage for the fourth Sunday in Lent. In the congregation I preach in, I will typically read the entire gospel passage prior to the message. I have not previously preached on this passage for lent, but three years ago when I preached on John 4 for the third Sunday in Lent, I showed the clip from that scene in The Chosen instead of reading the passage. Here is the YouTube clip of healing of the man born blind from Season 4, Episode 3.
Jesus repeats his “I am the light of the world” statement in 9:5 (originally spoken in 8:12), which seems to close the loop on that description of Jesus and his actions. The miracle of bringing light to the man’s eyes for the first time is definitive proof of that claim. In the broader context of Scripture, this harkens back to Isaiah 9, as I’ve indicated in other passages where light is a significant theme. This also seems to be the final proof that John offers for his opening statements in chapter 1 about Jesus being “light,” especially the “light” of Genesis 1:3, the firstborn of all creation. Jesus would be the physical, visible representation of God’s divine nature in his incarnation.
This passage is unusual in that a large section of it (vv. 13–34) happens apart from the presence of Jesus and his disciples. This only happens a couple times in John (the other occurrence is in 11:45–57, where the Jews are plotting to kill Jesus after he raised Lazarus from the dead). It would seem reasonable that the healed man would have relayed the story to Jesus or his disciples when Jesus sees him again in 9:35. The greater the miracle, the more intense the religious leaders’ desire to take Jesus out.
This section of the passage gives us some sense of how the Pharisees seemed to operate to protect their legalistic view of the Law. It shows how they participated in the darkness, having important discussions about the nature of sin and the impact of healing on the Sabbath behind closed doors and coercing (unsuccessfully) the healed man to recant his claim of Jesus healing, especially on the Sabbath. Worse yet, they were trying to get him to say something damning about Jesus, but he was too excited and too grateful to turn his back on the savior. You can almost feel the power of the Pharisees draining from their fingertips before their very (blind) eyes.
The healed man’s courage to speak the truth about who Jesus is and what he’s done for him is a testimony for all believers in this day and age where Christian persecution seems to be increasing in the heartland of America and elsewhere. But people are responding with a desire for faithfulness in Christ in great numbers in spite of (or because of?) it.
I’ll close out here with a couple links to my articles on “I Am the Light of the World” if you want to dig deeper into that topic. Peace to you in the next week. May God richly bless your ministry as you proclaim his word to those within your influence.
Lectionary Help for Third Sunday in Lent, March 8, 2026, Year A.
Taking a look at the literary context and historical setting of the account of Jesus speaking to the woman at the well in Samaria can help answer a few questions people may have about this passage. For example, why was Jesus so insistent that he “had” to go through Samaria? Consider the following points.
John begins his gospel by saying Jesus is the light of the world and has been around “from the beginning.”
Jesus shows his earthly authority over the Temple at Jerusalem by overturning the tables of the money changers, yet that doesn’t seem to be enough for him to insist that Jerusalem is the proper (or only) place of worship.
The well where he meets the woman is Jacob’s well. Jacob, of course, is one of Jesus’s earthly ancestors, so Jesus is in the land of his ancestors when he first reveals (at least in John’s gospel) he is the Messiah. That fact shouldn’t be overlooked.
“He establishes Jesus is fully divine and that God is his Father. Since he’s God’s “only begotten” on Earth, Jesus then is the primary authority in the Temple, which the Jews believed was home of God’s presence. Finally, Jesus, having been established as the authority for the Jewish religion, essentially abolishes the long-standing prejudice against Samaria by going to the place where his ancestor Judah’s father, Jacob (renamed Israel) first established himself in the Promised Land after returning from Laban’s home. I think this aspect of the story lends to its credibility and to the principle of worship he puts forth.”
The epistles passage is Romans 5:1–11. This is where Paul makes the point that Christ died for us “while we were still sinners.” This ties in nicely with the woman at the well story, of course, as Jesus is offering the woman living water in spite of her current social and relationship status.
A few Old Testament passages can provide some background for the “living water” Jesus speaks of. Isaiah 49 (esp. vv. 6 & 10) speaks of springs of fresh water, while Jeremiah 2:13 and 17:13 both describe the Lord as the Jews’ “spring of living water.” Of course, we can’t forget Ezekiel’s prophecy in 14:8–9:
“On that day living water will flow out from Jerusalem, half of it east to the Dead Sea and half of it west to the Mediterranean Sea, in summer and in winter. 9 The Lord will be king over the whole earth. On that day there will be one Lord, and his name the only name.”
I pray this helps you prepare this week. I’m updating my previous message, which includes both NT passages, to reflect some of the things I’ve learned or rediscovered in my recent work in Romans.
Heavenly Father, we come before you first and foremost pleading for your mercy in our lives. We admit that we are sinners and in need of your grace-filled salvation. But those of us who believe also know that in submitting ourselves to you and uniting with your death in our baptism, we were also raised to life to walk in your righteousness and power. Lord, we admit that we don’t often live in that power, which Ephesians says is like the resurrection power you used to raise Jesus from the dead. But now especially, O Lord, we who are Christ followers and God fearers need to rise up in that holy power that you’ve blessed us with in the heavenly realms.
Lord, even though our ultimate faith and trust must be in you, we recognize that we are stewards of the world and the times you’ve placed us in. As stewards and ambassadors of your kingdom, you have given us the responsibility to pray for those in power over us. You established the institution of government so that mankind might live in peace and order, regardless of that form of government. But as with any position of power comes the temptation to abuse it and oppress those who should be governed in peace. In our great nation of America, we are seeing the abuses of this power laid bare at almost every turn, and no one party or individual in power is solely responsible for this.
We know that mankind are not angels, that we are flawed, and flawed individuals have been leading us for nearly 250 years in this nation. But the flaws have nearly reached the peak of wickedness at the time of Noah. The principalities and powers that you ordained in the heavenly realms to oversee the nations and their government have become drunk with power and wickedness on the blood and toil of the innocents. From the blood of murdered children in the womb to blood in the streets for intentionally keeping people in poverty to lives lost to alcohol and drug addiction to poor state of our own health because of unscrupulous policies to benefit industries that keep us dependent on chemicals, almost everything controlled by the rich and powerful in the earthly realm seems destined to hasten our own demise.
So, Lord God, we come to you praying for the redemption of those powers and authorities in the heavenly realms, as you commanded your church to do in Ephesians. But Lord, we cannot do this with prayer alone. We give you thanks for providing flawed men and women in positions of power who desire to bring justice to the wicked, mercy to the oppressed, and walk humbly before you. We need these people in positions of power to use every tool at their disposal to undo the results of wicked and selfish leaders in our government. Expose the corruption! Punish the wicked, regardless of political affiliation! Let them confess their evil deeds and be treated according to the principles of government and justice you inspired our founders to set forth in the beginning.
Lord, we lift up our voices in prayer and to call others to prayer, especially those who understand the spiritual forces at work. We must with prayers and petitions support those in power who seek to do good, who seek to overturn the wickedness of times past, and who seek to bring restoration to those harmed by evil, greedy men and women. Let your justice be visible for all to see so mankind will know that you are a righteous and holy God. Let your church rise up to care for the poor and truly needy. Let professionals rise up who can bring healing and hope to those afflicted with mental disorders. Let your church shine like the sun into every dark corner, not only exposing the darkness, but finding and restoring those who are lost or trapped in that darkness.
Lord, we humbly but boldly ask for your hand to continue to work through those doing your will and doing the right thing. Raise up leaders where we need brave men and women to take the lead. Pour out your spirit in a double portion on these men and women and let the world see what your kingdom in supposed to be. In the name of Jesus our risen and glorious Lord, AMEN!
Option A is John 3:1–17, which I’ll cover in this post.
On “born again” in John 3:3, 3:7:
A word study of ἄνωθεν (anōthen) along with the context of the discussion between vv. 3 & 7 suggests that the more likely meaning here would be as an adverb of place (“born from above”) as opposed to an adverb of time (“born again” or “born anew”). “Born of water” (vs. 5) most likely refers to natural birth, while “[born of] the Spirit” refers to being renewed by Spirit through his infilling, which of course can only come from above.
Regarding the Serpent on the pole:
God told Moses to fashion what in Hebrew is called a saraph (שָׂרָף śārāp̄), a bronze serpent that itself must have had a fiery appearance in the desert sun and put it on a pole so the Israelites who were bitten could look upon it and live. However, it did nothing for those who had already died. This bronze serpent was not an idol originally[1] but rather something akin to a sign of judgment on the Israelites. It couldn’t save them from the pain of being bitten by the snakes, but it would save them from the poison that had entered their bodies. Something else was absorbing the fatal penalty of their disbelief. It’s a bit of a mystery why the word for the winged angels, or seraphim, of Isaiah 6 is also translated snake or serpent elsewhere. Regardless of the specifics of what it looked like, it must have fostered some measure of fear among the Israelites. “You can look at the scary bronze snake, or you can die from the real ones.”[2]
The serpents were cursing the Israelites with death, but if they would look upon the image of the curse, they would live. Jesus took on the curse of sin for us by being lifted up on a cross. We need to look to Jesus to be saved.
May God bless your sermon and lesson preparation this week as we settle into the season of Lent.
NOTE: Video link will be added when it is available.
I presented this message at StoneBridge Christian Church in Omaha, Nebraska, on February 4, 2026, to kick off the church-wide small group study on Paul’s letter to the Romans. In the first part of the message, I address the connection between faithfulness and righteousness in 1:5 and 1:17. In the last half of the message, I cover the high points of the other sections of the two chapters. There is a 7-second lacuna at about 9:18 where I had to cut out the audio from a Bible Project video on Romans that we showed during the service due to copyright laws. The bold text in the message represents the supporting slides on the screens.
Good evening, Church! The Lord be with you!
I trust you all have been enjoying Mark’s and Josh’s messages to this point. It is a huge undertaking in this day and age to take one chapter at a time through a book like Romans, but then that’s the answer to the age-old question, right? How do you eat the elephant in the room? One bite at a time.
If you’ve been in one of our First Step classes, or, if you’ve been here as long as I have, a 101 class, you know that StoneBridge is affiliated with a brotherhood called The Restoration Movement or Stone-Campbell Movement. You were probably also told that we have our “catchphrases” like “No creed but Christ; no book but the Bible” or “Where the Bible speaks, we speak; where the Bible is silent, there is freedom.”
It’s important and beneficial, then, to do something like this every so often to make sure we’re aligned as a congregation on both how we understand our relationship with God and what we expect from the church and each other in the congregation and especially in our small groups.
Paul’s epistles in the New Testament historically were arranged from longest to shortest, which is why Romans stands at the head of the Pauline epistles. But Romans is also the most complete “systematic” theology we have in the New Testament, covering all the key concepts of salvation and walking faithfully with Jesus, our Righteousness. The contextual clues in Romans 15:23–32 place the time of writing somewhere around AD 56 or 57, which coincides with the historical record in the first few verses of Acts 20. Paul was in or near Corinth at the time waiting to return to Jerusalem.
The situation in Rome at that time is probably pretty fluid. The Jews had been kicked out of Rome twice in the 40 years prior to Paul’s writing the letter: By Tiberius in AD 19 and by Claudius in AD 49. Under Claudius, then, the church in Rome was primarily Gentile. But some speculate after Claudius’s death in AD 54, the Jewish Christians may have started to return to Rome, only to find the church somewhat different than when they had left.
Paul’s letter may serve a couple purposes, then. The first, as evident in 1:5, is to affirm that his mission is to call the Gentiles into what he calls “The Obedience of Faithfulness.” But it seems also that he needs to remind the Jewish Christians who have returned to Rome what is their own relationship with their law in Christ and what responsibilities they have as God’s original “chosen people.” The Gentile Christians wouldn’t have been ignorant about the Jewish background of Christianity, but they may have forgotten some important details in their absence.
Paul talks about the law quite a bit in Romans, but he does so in a way that engages both Jews and Gentiles. While the law is important and reverenced by the Jews, Paul argues that it cannot ultimately be the thing that saves them. He points out that sometimes the Gentiles get it right even though they don’t have that connection to the law the Jews do. What matters is what is in their hearts, and that’s how he grabs the attention of both groups.
Paul also realizes the importance of evangelizing the largest city in the Roman Empire as well. Population estimates vary, but it was likely somewhere around 500,000 people, give or take a 100,000 or so. The only time Paul uses the word “church” (ἐκκλησία ekklēsia; perhaps a better translation would be “congregation”) in Romans is in chapter 16, where greets those who seem to be leaders in house churches in Rome. They certainly didn’t have any church buildings yet, although some Jewish Christians may have still been able to meet in synagogues. In a city that size, it may not have been feasible to try and gather all the Christ-followers in one place, either, even if only a couple times a year.
In keeping with the theme of “Pave the Way,” I want us to look at the “Romans Road” from two perspectives so we can get a fuller idea of the two main themes in Romans: the first is Righteousness and the second is the thematic statement at the beginning and end of Romans, Obedience of Faithfulness.
Now even though we have two perspectives of the Romans Road here, we’re not going to be looking at two separate roads. We’ll be looking at two parts of the same road. You can’t have one without the other. “Righteousness,” as I’m going to describe it here, is the foundation or substructure of the road. It’s the rebar, the expansion joints, the paved-smooth layer of compacted earth that ensures there will be no surprises or sinkholes after the road is complete. The foundation for any road, just like the foundation for any building, must be perfectly aligned and perfectly measured.
If you’ve ever seen the never-ending construction on I-80 across Nebraska, you’ve probably seen the perfectly placed dowel bars and tie bars they lay down before they start pouring the concrete. Those ensure that the road structure holds together under all the stresses placed on it. That is what righteousness is times infinity. Righteousness isn’t just about being “right with God”; it is absolute, uncorrupted perfection in the eyes of God. That is the foundation we need as Christ followers to have the assurance that we’re walking on the right road with all the support we need from our Father in heaven and to support our fellowship with one another here on earth.
The main part of the road, the part we see and walk on, is paved on this foundation of righteousness by Jesus’s faithfulness. Just like there’s more to righteousness than being right with God, there is more to faithfulness than just saying you believe in Jesus. I’ll break that out here shortly.
Now here’s the beauty of the foundation aspect of righteousness. That foundation has already been lain and the road has been paved and maintained in perfect condition for 2,000 years now. It is a straight and narrow path that goes straight from where each of us is now to the main entrance of the heavenly city. All we have to do is walk on it, in Jesus. People like Mark and Josh and your campus pastors are all primarily concerned with the part of that road that goes straight to heaven’s gate. But the reality is, when you’re “in Christ,” you have that foundation of righteousness wherever you find yourself—at work, on vacation, in your home, etc.
That is the important background information you need to know about Romans and some of the key words in this epistle. We’ve got a short Bible Project video here we want to play for you before we focus on chapters 1 and 2.
In Romans 1:5, Paul makes an interesting statement about the “obedience of faithfulness” in his greeting. I want us to read my translation of the first five verses of Romans 1 together here, because Paul has a lot of “supporting facts” that will come up as we discuss both righteousness and the obedience of faithfulness.
Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God—2 the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures 3 regarding his Son, who was a descendant of David according to his human ancestry, 4 and who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord 5 through him we received grace and apostleship to call all the Gentiles to the obedience of faithfulness for his name’s sake.[1]
Paul will close his letter to the Romans with that very same phrase. Again, let’s read the final verses of Romans together in context so we can hear it for ourselves.
25 Now to him who is able to establish you in accordance with my gospel, the message I proclaim about Jesus Christ, in keeping with the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past, 26 but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that all the Gentiles might come to the obedience of faithfulness—27 to the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ! Amen.[2]
Now many translations have tried to get creative with this phrase “obedience of faithfulness,” but the truth is it’s only two words in the original Greek. The New Living Translation, which Mark typically uses in his sermons, has “believe and obey.” While that captures the meanings of the two words, it doesn’t capture the unity of the phrase in the original language. The way it’s written in the Greek text implies the two words refer to the same thing. When Paul says, “obedience of faithfulness,” he is really saying that “obedience” is “faithfulness,” and “faithfulness” is “obedience” (e.g., see McKnight p. 32). The other implication of this is that “faith” is not just an intellectual assent to a fact. “Faith” always implies that some action is involved, as we’ll see.
Before we commence on this journey, I do need to make you aware of a couple of synonyms for these terms. Depending on the version of the Bible you read, and sometimes even within the same version, you may see the adjective “righteous” translated as “justified” and the verb “make righteous” as “justify.” Those words all come from the same root word. The Greek word for the noun “faith” also means “faithfulness” or “belief.” The verb “have faith in” may be translated as “believe” or “trust.” My goal is to be consistent with how I speak about these terms when they occur.
Let’s start with the theme verse in Romans 1:5. The concept of “the Obedience of Faithfulness” permeates Paul’s letter to the Romans, so it’s crucial to understand what it refers to. It’s also strongly bound to the concept of righteousness. We see that at the end of the first section in Romans 1, Romans 1:17. In the NIV, it reads like this:
17 For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”[3]
In the New Living Translation, we regularly use in Sunday service, it sounds a bit different:
17 This Good News tells us how God makes us right in his sight. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith. As the Scriptures say, “It is through faith that a righteous person has life.”[4]
This is a rather difficult verse to translate because of some technical grammatical issues that scholars debate. It’s also tricky because so much meaning is packed into the phrase “the righteousness of God,” it’s hard to capture the nuances of that in a straightforward translation. I won’t go into the grammatical issue here tonight, but I do want to deal with the part of the verse that is translated “from first to last” or “from start to finish” and establish the meaning of “righteous/righteousness” here. This is important to spend a few minutes on, because once you understand what’s going on, a lot of other things fall into place and make sense in Romans.
First, I want to talk about what “righteousness” means here, especially “the righteousness of God.” For years, many assumed that this phrase refers to the righteousness that God imparts to us when we believe. But about 35 years ago, several scholars argued for a different understanding of that concept, and I’ve been following, studying, and writing about that concept for almost that whole time. The concept they argued for, and that has taken hold in many circles, was that “the righteousness of God” was an inherent character quality of God that is unique to him, a quality that is active, that “is being revealed” in the gospel.
Who or what is the gospel that’s being revealed about, then? It’s about Jesus, of course. The “righteousness of God” then isn’t an object to be given. It is embodied in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is “the righteousness of God.”Jesus Christ is “The righteous one [who] will live by faithfulness.” That last bit is a quote from Habakkuk 2:4, where the Hebrew adds a pronoun: “The righteous one will live by his faithfulness.”
Let that sink in for a minute. Look back at vs. 16: the gospel is “the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who has faith.” Again, isn’t the “good news” of the Gospel that Jesus’s death on the cross and shed blood is what makes our salvation possible? This also helps flesh out the “first to last”/“start to finish” translation. A word-for-word rendering of verse 17 is “the righteousness of God in the gospel is being revealed from faithfulness into faithfulness.” How does that apply to Jesus?
Remember what I said a couple paragraphs back: God’s righteousness, like God’s word, is living and active. When it says “from faithfulness,” this refers to Jesus living out the righteousness of God by perfectly obeying the law of God while he’s living on earth. He’s the only one who can do that. Romans 10:4 says: “Christ is the culmination of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who has faith.” That means Christ fulfilled every requirement of the law, something no one to that time had ever done. Because Jesus fulfilled every requirement of the law, he is the only one who can be called “righteous.” And because Jesus is the righteous one, if we are “in Christ,” we share in that righteousness as well.
Because the phrase is “from faithfulness into faithfulness,” we must find out what is the “into” part. Well, Josh Dotzler said that when he preached on Romans 2: Jesus Christ lived a perfect life, and his reward was death on the cross. Christ’s faithfulness to the law resulted in his being faithful to death on the cross. Sound familiar? That’s because Paul makes that same statement in Philippians 2:8: “And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross.” There’s that word “obedient” from Romans 1:5. “Obedience of faithfulness” refers to the crucifixion of Jesus! So it makes sense that Paul would want to lead the Gentiles into an understanding of the significance of Christ’s death on the cross and his resulting resurrection from the dead.
Okay, everybody take a deep breath for a moment. Breathe in. Breathe out. That was kind of intense, so let me bring it down a notch. I want to come back to our current them of “Pave the Way” for Mark’s sermon series. I went through all that because it’s important to understand this: “Righteousness” is the foundation for the road we walk on. What I just said about Jesus being the righteous one doesn’t take away from the fact that because we are in Christ, we “have faith” or “act faithfully” as well. We’ll get to that in chapters 4 through 8, and especially in 8 when Paul talks about the role of the Holy Spirit in our walk of faithfulness. I would encourage you to read the section on “Honor” on pp. 40–42 in Scot McKnight’s Romans book that you should have received, because he unpacks so much more meaning and application from Romans 1:16–17, more than I can get into here tonight.
Here’s a quick summary then, and we’ll move on to other topics in chapters 1 & 2. Righteousness is something that only Jesus possesses because of his faithfulness to the law of God, but we still share in that because we’re “in Christ” and we have the Holy Spirit as our internal guide. It is typically more accurate to speak of “faithfulness” than just “faith” when we encounter that concept, especially in chapters 1–4. We need to use some discernment, however, to determine if the word is referring to the faithfulness or work of Jesus Christ or to our own faithful walk in Christ. This will influence how you understand these concepts throughout the rest of the epistle. God knows we will mess up from time to time. If we’re in Christ, though, his righteousness covers us. So don’t mistake what I’m saying here that we must be perfect 100% of the time or we’ll lose that standing. That doesn’t happen when we strive for faithfulness.
Now, some notes on what we skipped over to talk about the theme of 1:5 and its relationship to 1:17. In 1:2–4, we see that Paul, right off the bat, emphasizes both the humanity of Jesus and his divine nature. We often forget about the human side of Jesus. He never sinned, of course, but he did experience the full range of human emotions. But why did Jesus have to come in the flesh? Why couldn’t God have just made an updated list of the Ten Commandments and sent it through another prophet? Well the answer is quite simple, and it’s not some fancy theological mumbo jumbo.
By sending his son, who had all the fulness of the deity dwelling in him according to Colossians, God got a first-hand report of just what the human condition was like. God did know in a certain sense, but because God is spirit and we’re not, he couldn’t really express his love to us. That’s what Jesus did, both in his life and in his death: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son….” And why did Jesus have to die on the cross for our sins? The blood of bulls and goats in the sacrificial system could never really deal with sin. Those sacrifices were only an appeasement to God. They couldn’t make us righteous. They never came back to life. And those animals didn’t, and couldn’t, love us like Jesus could. Only the sacrifice of one in human flesh who had attained the fullness of God’s righteousness could love us enough to be both a sacrifice AND our source of hope (and righteousness) in his resurrection. That’s the importance of Jesus’s humanity.
A quick note on verse 6: I think Paul must be speaking to the Jews who have returned to Rome after getting kicked out when he says “you also are among those Gentiles.” The reason I think this is because he addresses the Jews and their relationship with the law in chapter 2.
After the greeting, in verse 8, we see Paul’s praise for the Romans that their faithfulness, that is, the way in which they are living out their faith in Christ, is being reported all over the world. That’s a common sentiment in many of his letters. He probably didn’t know too many Roman Christians personally. We know from Acts 18 that Paul had met Priscilla and Aquila (the first two mentioned in Romans 16) in Corinth and had probably learned much about the Roman church from them since they had just been expelled from Rome. I think it’s a safe guess to say that the list of house churches in Romans 16 probably came from Priscilla and Aquila. “Be sure you mention these folks when you write to the house churches there, Paul. Wouldn’t want to leave anybody out!” He learned enough to know he wanted, no, needed to go to Rome and encourage them all.
We can look at verses 8–13 here as a sort of model for what our small groups should look like. Praying for one another; sharing the gospel with one another; and encouraging one another to faithfulness. Small groups aren’t just a good idea; they’re a biblical concept that makes the experience of “church” more personal.
Jumping over to verses 18ff, we have a parallel statement on a different aspect of God’s being and activity in the world. “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness.”[5] God’s wrath, unlike God’s righteousness, is not bound up in one individual, though. God’s wrath is being revealed in real time. The verb form there implies the action is continuous and has not ceased.
The descriptions of unfaithfulness, idolatry, and contempt for the created order are pretty grim, perhaps even bordering on blasphemy of the Holy Spirit (see Romans 2:24), the “unforgiveable sin” in the gospels. This “wrath” likely encompasses both the physical and spiritual damage to an individual who’s progressed to that point. The physical damage in some cases may be beyond repair, (at least by human hands), but I think Romans 2 indicates there may be a possibility of spiritual redemption even for those whom God has already given over to separation from himself. Let’s turn there next and land this plane for the evening.
In Romans 2, we have two things going on. From a high level, Paul begins a series of “arguments” or persuasive speeches demonstrating how God is righteous in his judgments and that walking faithfully in Jesus is the only way to new life, but also warns of hypocrisy for those who think they have no reason to be rebuked. Then he starts to address the Jews, formally and cordially.
Paul emphasizes in the first part of chapter 2, as he’s continuing on from where he started in Romans 1:18, that you don’t need the law to know if you’re doing something bad. If you don’t live under the law and do something bad, you’ll still experience judgment. If you live under the law and you’re a Jew at least or a Jew who’s converted to Christianity, you understand what the law is and how it can be applied to you, if you’re not in Christ. But fortunately for those who are in Christ, they’ve already had the assurance we saw in Chapter 1: Christ became the righteousness of God so we wouldn’t have to experience the judgment and wrath of God.
But he also emphasizes that since we (Jews and Gentiles) have broken the law in some way, we must be careful of the judgments we make of others who are enslaved to sin. He reminds his readers in 2:4 that some of them have already received God’s kindness that led them to repentance, and they should be paying that forward to those who still need to hear the message of repentance and forgiveness in Jesus. Instead, they’re “storing up wrath” for themselves in the final judgment by showing contempt for God’s kindness because they (Jews and Gentiles both) are too stubborn to admit they’re wrong. What is the ultimate source of stubbornness? Persistent selfishness.
To counter this persistent selfishness, Paul exhorts his readers to persistent faithfulness in verses 7–10. In other words, instead of focusing on how bad others are, they need to focus on the good things that lead to eternal life, glory, honor, and peace. Let God take care of the judgment.
In verses 12–16, Paul shifts to talking about that final day of judgment. Just because the Jews are God’s chosen people and have “heard” the law all their lives doesn’t mean they are automatically declared righteous in the end. It’s not a matter of hearing only; it’s a matter of following through on what you’ve heard. The OT background here is Deuteronomy. Over and over again in Deuteronomy Moses exhorts the Israelites to “Be careful to heed the word of the Lord.” That “carefulness,” or to use a modern buzz word, “mindfulness,” carries over into the NT. We shouldn’t be sloppy about our faith. Think before you act or post (I’m speaking to myself when I say that!). What matters is that what you hear about the law or the gospel in your ears and process through your brain makes it to your heart and to your hands and feet. Then you will have assurance in the day of judgment.
Paul addresses the Jews specifically in the last half of chapter 2. He essentially repeats the warnings of the first part of chapter two, but for good measure and to tweak their consciences a bit, he throws in some conspicuous references to the Ten Commandments and how they might not be following them. The good that’s required by the law doesn’t go away because we’re in Christ. One way to look at the “thou shalt nots” of the Ten Commandments is to flip them into positive actions. “Don’t commit adultery” becomes “set boundaries for your marriage,” “love your wife as Christ loved the church,” “pay attention to when she does something different with her hair,” etc.
Paul ends chapter two with a discussion of circumcision. This was an initiation rite into the Jewish community from birth. Although many non-Jews practice circumcision today, it’s not much of a religious rite; it’s ostensibly done for health reasons. But as followers of Christ, we do have our own initiation rite: immersion, commonly known as baptism. I believe that Paul is setting up his readers for his discussion of baptism in chapter 6 here. We can’t rely on our baptism to get us into heaven if we’re not going to live like we’ve undergone that transformative event! What Paul says about circumcision in vv. 25–29 can be applied to baptism. If we’re only baptized outwardly but our hearts and our minds haven’t been “baptized,” then it’s of no value.
I’m going to tease chapter 6 here: As I’ve studied the book of Romans over the past 30 years, my understanding of the argument Paul is making in chapters 2–11 had broadened immensely. I have come to see that the first five chapters of Romans are building up to what is our “obedience of faithfulness”: our baptism. When we are baptized into Christ, Paul says, we are baptized into his death. Just as Christ was raised from the dead, so too does our coming out of the water affirm that we have newness of life. Think about the implication there. If Christ is “The Righteous One [who] lives by faithfulness,” then being in Christ means we share in that righteousness. That’s why righteousness is much more than being “right with God.” It’s about a whole new way of living life. If we remain faithful to living in the righteousness of Christ, then as Romans 2:13 says, we’ll be declared righteous when we stand before our maker. That is our prayer for all of you.
Let’s pray,
Thank you for allowing me to share with you. Go forth in the peace and strength of God.
An analysis of the gospel passage for the Fifth Sunday After the Epiphany (Year A), February 8, 2026. Please feel free to comment and give feedback below or use the comment section as a place to exchange ideas for communicating the message of this passage.
It’s been a busy couple weeks for me as I’ve been hard at work wrapping up my message on Romans 1 & 2 for our small group kickoff at my home church on February 4. It will be the longest message I’ve ever preached to the largest crowd I’ve ever been in front of. But I’m ready for the challenge, and I know a lot of people in the audience, so I’m not nervous at all.
The gospel passage for the Fifth Sunday After the Epiphany is Matthew 5:13–20, part of the Sermon on the Mount, and I’m sure very familiar to most preachers. Verses 13–16 about being salt and light are almost second nature for those who share the gospel, but I’ll still offer a few comments. However, in light of my just finishing up (at least for now) an intense study of Romans, I did want to focus on the last half of the passage in which Jesus discusses his and our relationship to the Law and the Prophets.
Salt had many uses in the ancient world that most of us are familiar with. But Jesus here focuses particularly on salt’s ability to add flavor to something (“If the salt has lost its saltiness”), so we should consider that aspect of it as Jesus’s primary intended meaning by referencing it. What are the ways in which believers can “add flavor” to a conversation or to life in general? I think most of you can answer that question based on your own experience and the demographic you minister to.
The use of the term “salty” to mean, essentially, “cussing like a sailor” or just using crude or unfiltered language generally did not arise until the late 19th century, so we should be careful to avoid reading that meaning back into a first-century text!
Jerusalem was built on a hill, so the image of light here may have a dual meaning. Borrowing from themes we’ve seen in previous weeks of the Epiphany season (e.g., Isaiah 9:2, 42:6, 49:6), we can see why Jewish tradition considered Jerusalem to be the light of the world. The Law held that distinction as well: “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path” (Psalm 119:105; see also v. 130).
With this in mind, it seems to be a natural transition from talking about “salt and light” into talking about the Law. Jesus says his mission is to “fulfill” (Greek πληρόω plēroō) the Law and Prophets. Not only, then, is Jesus the promised Messiah in prophets like Isaiah and the Psalms (Psalms 22 and 110 come to mind), but he also claims he has fulfilled the Law of God, something no one before him had ever dared to claim.
Since I mentioned I’d been working in Romans, some of you might know where I’m going with this last section of the gospel passage. Leviticus 18:5 says “5 Keep my decrees and laws, for the person who obeys them will live by them. I am the Lord.”[1] Paul cites this passage in Romans 10:5. But Romans 1:17 says “The righteous one will live by faithfulness.” So what’s the connection?
In Romans 10:4 (NIV), Paul says “4 Christ is the culmination (Greek τέλος telos) of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.”[2]The Common English Bible (CEB; a version you may see me quote more from since I discovered it this week) translates it this way: “4 Christ is the goal of the Law, which leads to righteousness for all who have faith in God.”[3]That’s essentially what Jesus means when he says he is fulfilling the law. Christ was faithful to the whole law of God such that he is declared “righteous” in the sight of the law, which allows him to qualify to be faithful to death on the cross for our salvation (Philippians 2:8).
This adds another layer of meaning, then, to “the righteousness of God [that] is being revealed” in the first part of Romans 1:17. Righteousness is not a “what” (or not just a “what”) but a “who.” Jesus Christ is the Righteousness of God! If we are “in Christ,” as Paul regularly says, especially in Ephesians 1, then we are walking under the umbrella of his righteousness. It’s not something “imparted” to us (at least not while we live), but something that we actively live in. Verse 20 then makes a lot more sense. How can our righteousness exceed that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law? Only by being in Christ, the righteous one who perfectly fulfilled the whole law.
Thank you for reading! Share this with your pastor friends. I encourage you also to leave comments below and use those comments as a way to share and exchange ideas about how to communicate the truths of this passage. Your feedback is always welcome as well.
Peace to you as we approach the end of the Epiphany season on February 15 with “Transfiguration Sunday.”
I presented this message on January 25, 2026, at Mount View Presbyterian Church, Omaha, NE. On the liturgical calendar, it was the third Sunday after the Epiphany, Year A.
Good morning! The Lord be with you!
Much of today’s gospel passage from Matthew is very similar to the events and themes we covered in last week’s Gospel passage from John. As such, I’m not going to spend much time in that passage today and instead want to look at our Old Testament reading, Psalm 27.
However, I will say a just a few words about the Matthew passage because there is a story in Matthew 4 that appears at first blush to disagree with John’s account about a similar encounter. Last week you may remember that Andrew was the first one of the disciples to want to follow Jesus, and he had meet Jesus at the place John the Baptist was baptizing in the Jordan River. He in turn went and got his brother, Simon Peter, to share the news that he had found the Messiah. After Peter met Jesus, John says they went and spent the day with Jesus.
Matthew’s account, as you heard, also has to do with the calling of Andrew and Peter, along with James and John, the sons of Zebedee as they’re fishing in the Sea of Galilee. However, in Matthew’s story, this comes immediately after Jesus spends 40 days fasting, praying, and being tempted in the wilderness. It seems clear then, that one of the things Jesus was praying about was who, among all the people he had met and interacted with during John’s “baptism revival,” would make the best choice for his band of 12 disciples. After all, Jesus had been in the wilderness 40 days, so it’s possible Andrew and Peter may have wondered what happened to him by that point. I’m guessing the four of them were pleasantly surprised to get the call from him, even if they didn’t yet understand the kind of commitment they were making.
The important takeaway for us in the choosing of Matthew is that Jesus wasn’t apparently looking for the well-educated scribes and well-respected, Pharisees, and Sadducees to be his followers. They surely would have argued with him the whole time given what we learn about them in the gospels and Jesus wouldn’t have gotten anything done. Although Jesus did come to preach repentance and a proper understanding of what our relationship to the Law and eventually Grace would look like, he was even more concerned about bringing people eternal hope, love, and joy in the midst of a religious structure that had grown increasingly legalistic and impersonal. The religious leadership of the Jews seemed to have a stranglehold on what the Jewish faith should look like, with hundreds of extra rules in place to keep you from even coming close to breaking the law.
This is where Psalm 27, a psalm of David, comes in. David’s leadership helped establish the nation of Israel as a regional powerhouse after 40 years of wandering in the wilderness and a few hundred years of rule by regional judges. It was during the period of Joshua and Judges where they conquered and in some cases wiped out nations that had “earned” the wrath of God for their wicked practices and animosity toward God’s chosen and beloved people.
Psalm 27 is filled with confident assertions and positive desires from David that he and perhaps the rest of Israel are in a right relationship with God. The Israelites were still adjusting to being a unified “kingdom,” not just scattered tribes ruled by local judges. But the attitude and the joy expressed by David in Psalm 27 seems to reflect a different mind set in his day than what comes across in the gospels. After all, you don’t see any of the Herods writing these kinds of psalms of praise! On the contrary, we get the impression that the Herodian Dynasty, which had descended from the Maccabees who had overthrown Greek rule almost 200 years prior to Jesus’s ministry, had become corrupt and heartless toward their own people in trying to appease their Roman overlords.
Our reading this morning left out a few verses from Psalm 27 this morning, so I would like to read through the whole Psalm a few verses at a time to talk about what it has to say to us this morning. We’ll start with vv. 1–3:
David didn’t have Pharisees and Sadducees telling him how to interpret God’s word and who added a “hedge” around the law. The “hedge” was a set of rules that rabbis had established much later in Israel’s history, probably sometime around 200 B.C. They were not strictly biblical commands, but they were guidelines intended to keep you out of situations that might increase the temptation to sin. It’s sort of like how some denominations today don’t want their members to dance because it might lead to “other things.” One such example from the Bible is when Jesus criticized the Pharisees because they tithed their mint, dill, and cumin—the smallest spices they knew about—but did nothing about justice, mercy, and faithfulness (Matthew 23:23).
David knew where his power and protection came from in Psalm 27: it came straight from God. He is emphatic that he has no need to fear. He knows his enemies will stumble and fall regardless of who comes after him. That is true faith, true confidence in God’s sovereignty. It’s no wonder he was called a man after God’s own heart.
4 One thing I ask from the Lord,
this only do I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
all the days of my life,
to gaze on the beauty of the Lord
and to seek him in his temple.
5 For in the day of trouble
he will keep me safe in his dwelling;
he will hide me in the shelter of his sacred tent
and set me high upon a rock.
6 Then my head will be exalted
above the enemies who surround me;
at his sacred tent I will sacrifice with shouts of joy;
These three verses are interesting in that David speaks of God’s dwelling, his temple. Yet at this time, the first Temple had not been built yet. But twice, David references God’s “sacred tent.” This is a reference to the Tabernacle that the Jews had carried around in the wilderness for 40 years and was in use by David and the priests right up to the time Solomon built the Temple (1 Chronicles 6:32; 2 Chronicles 1:5)[3].
David understood the importance of a leader being present at worship regularly as an example to the people. David had brought the Ark of the Covenant back to Jerusalem, so had been in the visible presence of God at least one time in his life. That is how he knows how awesome it is to gaze on the beauty of the Lord.
How does that apply to us today? We know when Christ died that the veil was torn in two, from top to bottom, so God’s presence no longer “hid” behind a thick curtain. God’s new way of working in his people after the death and resurrection of Jesus was to give each of us the Holy Spirit. So we most likely will not see a manifestation of the presence of God inside our four walls here, but we can see how the Holy Spirit is working in each of us as we fellowship, worship, and serve together in his name and for his glory.
David also realized in times of trouble that being in God’s presence allows him to call upon the Lord for mercy, protection, and strength. He asks God to “hear my voice” and for God not to “hid your face from me.” He desires to be taught continually so he is better able to serve God and lead his people away from and protect them from the dangers of the surrounding nations. He knows that people are out to get him. He knows God is the only one who can protect him from those aggressors.
We do this as well on Sunday mornings here, and throughout the week, by praying together for those things that are on our hearts. As a fellowship we can seek support from one another to receive comfort and strength. In all my years as a minister, I’ve lost track of how many people have told me they don’t have to go to church to be a Christian. Technically, that may be true, but it sure makes the Christian walk much easier when you have others around you who share the struggles and joys of human existence.
This is David’s concluding benediction, which seems to serve the same purpose in worship as something like our “Gloria Patri” or the Doxology choruses. David reaffirms the confidence he had in vs. 3. He calls on all the worshipers to “Wait for the Lord.” The most common translation for the Hebrew word translated “wait” [קָוָה qāwā(h)] is “hope.” David is waiting, hoping with confidence that the Lord himself will act to keep him and his people safe in the land of the living. David also calls the worshipers to “be strong and take heart,” something both Joshua and Jesus said in their respective ministries.
Early in Joshua’s account of taking the Promised Land, he writes to his fellow Israelites:
6 Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their ancestors to give them.
7 “Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go.
……….
9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”[6]
Jesus said in his final instructions to his disciples just before his prayer at the end of the Last Supper:
33 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”[7]
So I leave you with those words of encouragement this morning. May the peace of God reign in your hearts as you go from this place. Amen.
[3] In 1 Chronicle 23:26, David relieved the Levites of their responsibility to carry the Tabernacle since Israel was permanently settled in Jerusalem.
Thank you so much for reading “Lectionary Help.” This installment is for the Fourth Sunday After Epiphany, Year A, February 1, 2026.
The following is an excerpt of my message on the passage from three years ago, along with a link to a one-minute video clip where Eugene Peterson tells the story I reference. The link for my full message is at the end of today’s article.
“Blessed”
Eugene Peterson, author of The Message, a contemporary paraphrase of the Bible, tells the story of how he wanted to translate this passage. He mentioned that after preaching one Sunday, a woman came up to him afterwards and mentioned how “lucky” she felt to have found his congregation.
Peterson ruminated on that a bit, as he was in the process of writing the paraphrase at the time, and thought “lucky” might be a more contemporary word that could be used in place “blessed.” However, when he floated that idea with his publishers, they shot it down pretty quickly because there’s a large segment of Christianity that associates the word “luck” with “Lucifer.” That might be a buzz kill for someone wanting to publish a Bible translation.[1]
Whether that connection [between “luck” and “Lucifer”] is true is not relevant to understanding the word μακάριος (makarios), however. The word “blessed” implies that something is coming from someone who has the power to give you something special or grant you a special permission in his kingdom. “Luck” has nothing to do with that. Peterson eventually accepted the word “blessed” here, because he recognized the word best represented the meaning of the text.
Respecting the Form of the Text
My textbook for Preaching class in seminary was Fred Craddock’s Preaching. Our seminary had a vast cassette tape library (yeah, that dates me, I know) of sermons from a variety of preachers, but I always loved to check out Craddock’s messages and consume them on my weekly drive to and from Lincoln, IL. One chapter in Craddock’s book was on the “form” of the sermon. He made the point that at no time in Christian history has there ever been a “standardized” form for the message given on Sunday morning (or whenever the saints gathered). But I do remember him talking about how it might be a good idea for the sermon to reflect the form of the passage it’s based on in certain instances.
When I preached on this passage three years ago, I had a choice, then, it seemed. I could robotically work my way through each of the individual Beatitudes and share the results of the appropriate word study for the key word in each, or I could shape the message more poetically as it seemed Matthew (or at least Matthew’s record of Jesus) had done. Most of the key words in the Beatitudes seemed to begin with one of three consonant sounds, so there was at least some hint of alliteration in the passage. I wound up crafting my own “amplified” version of the Beatitudes to capture some of the nuances of the various key words. It all came together rather quickly, as I recall, maybe two hours tops.
Here is the amplified form of the first Beatitude as I wrote it for my message that day. The entire message (including audio file) is found at the link at the end of this post.
When doubt creeps in
Because you see so much sin:
Blessed are the poor in spirit.
When your vision gets blurred
And you can’t see God’s word:
Blessed are the poor in spirit.
When life drains you
But God’s hope sustains you
And His people maintain you:
Blessed are the poor in Spirit,
For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Meek”
Just a quick note on the Greek word for “meek” [πραΰς praus] in vs. 5. The word is used three other times in the NT (Matthew 11:29; 21:5; 1 Peter 3:4), all of which are translated “gentle” in the NIV. But if you look at the context of each of these verses, you’ll see that it has nothing to do with passivity. Psalm 37:8–11 is a good OT passage that parallels (and is perhaps the source for) Matthew 5:5.
I’m coming up on the 25th anniversary of my very first full-length article published in Christian Standard, February 4, 2001. When I wrote the article, I had been working with the Paxton (IL) Church of Christ (Instrumental) to help get a new contemporary service going. It was also a time when “worship wars” were prevalent in many denominations as contemporary music was starting to enter the “sacred” Sunday morning service scene. Do we even have worship wars anymore? I’ve been in a large, contemporary church for so long now I’m out of touch with what’s going on in smaller churches that have a mixed demographic.
I’m including a link to the Christian Standard archive site below for the article. If you wish to comment on it, you can do so on this post.
Christian Standard, a once weekly publication for Christian Church (Instrumental) goers of the eponymous publication house, published this article I wrote for their May 26, 2002, issue with the theme “Not the only Christians…” I had been teaching for a Missouri Synod Lutheran high school at the time I wrote it, but I only taught for one year there. I’ve provided the link for it below. If you want to comment on it, you can do so on this page. This has been sort of my life, having taught Bible in the colleges of several different denominations over my teaching career and now preaching half-time at Mount View Presbyterian Church in Omaha where I grew up and where my mom still attends.
Sunday Morning Greek Blog 