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Two Theses


Brothers and sisters, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they 
may be saved. For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal  is not based on knowledge. Since they did not know the righteousness of God and ought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. Christ is the culmination of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes. (Romans 10:1-4)
          Five hundred years ago, Martin Luther nailed ninety-five theses to a door. As I understand it, they were all rejections of wrong teachings and practices of the Roman Catholic Church. I’m not Martin Luther and my main disagreements aren’t with the Roman Catholic Church (though I have disagreements with them, too.) Today’s passage brings to mind two problems with most general faith.
        The first is “It doesn’t matter what you believe as long as you’re sincere.” The Jews were and are sincere. They have suffered for their faith for millennia and at least some of them never let so. But I know of other folks who believe that the white race is superior. They sincerely believe it, and they’re wrong. So the sincerity of one’s belief, also called their zeal, does not make what they believe right.
          The second is “Everyone has to make their own way to God.” There is truth in this. My parent’s and grandparents’ salvation might have guided me somewhat, but it didn’t provide salvation to me. Salvation takes place individually, but the real problem with this statement is found in the words “make their own way.” If you can make your own way, you are God. I know from experience, people make terrible gods. But the alternative involves a word that many people think worse than all those four-letter-words that society used to think bad: s.u.b.m.i.t.
          That nasty word has a reputation more connected to marriage than to religion. Our response to it is the same. “It’s wrong for someone to become a doormat to anyone else. It’s wrong for anyone to expect someone to become a doormat. I will not be a doormat to anyone, including God!” Of course, submission is not about being a doormat, it’s about accepting leadership. In a conversation about submission in marriage, it came to mind to ask what sort of a person my conversant married. Did she marry a man who was likely to be abusive, or too stupid to be trusted with decisions? Why would they marry someone that they trusted so little? Submission isn’t about obedience. It’s about trust, and that’s why we have such a hard time submitting to God. We don’t know Him well enough, or trust Him well enough to be willing to submit to His leadership. Unfortunately, we can’t get be righteous without Him. That leaves us in a tough situation.

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