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June 1, 2008
Romans 3:21-26Rev. Dr. David A. Davis
“Of Jesus Christ”
Last weekend we made our first Davis barbeque sauce of the summer. It’s a family recipe. We use it for chicken mostly, sometimes with chipped ham (that’s a Pittsburgh thing—chipped ham). We guard the recipe with all the loyalty the family can muster. That’s in memory of my father. I’m not sure whether he created the recipe but he certainly perfected it. It is passed on in the Davis household only by blood and marriage. Soon after Cathy and I were married, my mother gave us a very small three ring binder full of recipes. All of them hand written, most them family favorites. The first one in the binder: Dad’s Barbeque.
We followed the recipe again last weekend; the card with my mother’s handwriting, now well-blotched with sauce. The directions cover two sides of a three by five card. There’s a part of the process that makes me chuckle every time I make the sauce. After following the recipe and chopping and measuring and stirring and pouring just as instructed, after carefully doing what I am told on the front and back of the card, I get to the last line offered by my mother. She put it right at the bottom of the back page, like a footnote. Not a footnote really, more like an endnote. She wrote, “I usually double this recipe!” That’s not a very helpful note to read at the very end of a recipe. Some notes are better read at the beginning.
There’s a footnote in the scripture lesson this morning that really ought to be read right up front, considered, thought about. It is a really short but important footnote. It’s not one of those PhD dissertation footnotes that goes and on and on; one of those “explanatory notes” Neither is it a reference note that gives an annotation or suggests further reading. It’s not one of those biblical footnotes that refers to what other ancient manuscripts say or don’t say. However, this footnote to Romans chapter three, it shouldn’t be missed or lost completely. It hangs there at the bottom, near the end of the page. The note hangs precariously there at the edge, too easily glossed over.
Most readers of the bible don’t spend much time in the footnotes. Most of us wouldn’t even stop to look at the little footnote marked by a very small italicized letter at the bottom of the margin in your bible. There’s plenty of other stuff to catch your eye in Paul’s material. Plenty of other stuff that sounds familiar. This text from Romans 3 is no different. “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God”. When you get to that part of the reading that says “since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”, by the time you get to that part, the part that so many memorized at camp or in Sunday School, by the time you come to the way that Paul affirms that all have fallen short of the glory of God, Paul’s summary of the human condition for both Jew and Greek, “since all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God”, by the time you get there you have already missed it. Missed the footnote, I mean.
“Apart from the law” Paul writes, “the righteousness of God has been disclosed, and is attested by the law and the prophets, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.” Through faith in Jesus Christ. That’s where the note comes in. Through faith in Jesus Christ. Or as the note points out, the translation could be “through the faith of Jesus Christ.” In Jesus Christ or of Jesus Christ. Either one is possible when translating the Greek. In or of.
A similar example of the ambiguity of the Greek comes when Paul is writing to the Church in Galatia. Galatians 2:16 “We know that a person is justified not by the works of the law” Paul emphasizes, “not by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ.” And the note appears again; “or the faith of Jesus Christ”. In or of. “A person is justified not by the works of the law but through the faith of Jesus Christ.” Of or in. Subject or object. Faith in Jesus Christ or the faith of Jesus Christ! Justified through faith in Jesus Christ. Or justified by the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. The very righteousness of God revealed through faith in Jesus Christ or revealed by the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. In or of! It’s not such a small note after all!
The phrase “faith in Jesus Christ” is not common in scripture. In fact, if I’ve done my research correctly, the Greek phrase only occurs three times in the New Testament and I have just given you two of them. The third one also comes from Paul and it is in Galatians, chapter 3. Again Paul is addressing matters of the law and the righteousness of God and justification by faith. He uses the construction “faith in Jesus Christ” and once again, there’s that same footnote. In or of. Whenever Paul writes about the righteousness of God and those whom God has justified by faith, whenever Paul writes about how one is justified not by works of the law but by faith, whenever Paul writes about “faith in Jesus Christ” there’s this note. Faith in Jesus Christ or the faithfulness of Jesus Christ.
It won’t surprise you to know that while the footnote is small, brief, so easy to miss, the scholarly material written on the matter is vast. It is not difficult to find biblical scholars who argue for “in” and others who argue for “of”. In each of the three cases, the King James Version of the English bible sticks with the “faithfulness of Jesus Christ”. So translations can be found on both sides of the scholarly discussion. For some it is a study of Greek grammar, for some it is looking at the biblical texts case by case, for some any decision on the preferred little word best comes in the context of the Apostle Paul’s theology of justification. Most seem to mention that it could be either in the Greek text. Consensus would seem to support the presence of the footnote. The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ (or through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ). Some notes, like this one, ought to be read right up front.
Here’s why—Before it is “in Jesus Christ”, it is “of Jesus Christ.” Before it is “faith in Jesus Christ” it is “the faith of Jesus Christ”. Before the very righteousness of God is revealed through faith in Jesus Christ, it is revealed through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ; faithfulness revealed through his life, his death, his resurrection. Before you and I are justified by faith in Jesus Christ, we are justified by the faithfulness of Jesus Christ shown in his sacrifice at the cross, his willful suffering, his self-emptying love. Before you and I are saved by faith in Jesus Christ, we have been saved by the faithfulness of Jesus Christ uniquely epitomized by his death, when he spread his arms on the cross and embraced the sinfulness of humankind, when he gave of himself so completely, gave of himself to show God’s love for the world. Before we can even speak of our faith in Jesus Christ, we can only point to the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. Before is has anything to do with us, it has everything to do with him. As Paul reminds us in Ephesians, “for by grace you have been saved through faith, and it is not your own doing, it is the gift of God—“ (2:8) Christ the Savior is the gift of God!
Of or in. In or of. When you work with biblical texts, when you are in the process of interpretation, when you are searching for meaning in a text, the work is so contextual. Yes, the study of grammar and other biblical texts and Paul’s theology. It all comes into play for the reader. And history, and tradition, and the language, and tradition, and literature. All of it, and more! And don’t forget the Holy Spirit! But there is always the reader’s context, the interpreter’s context, the preacher’s context. Who we are, where we are, where we live and move and have our being. What we bring to the text, as it were. And when you live in a community like ours that is defined by over-achievement, and success, and educational mountaintops, and wealth, and worth, where identity is so wrapped in what you do and where you work and where you went to school and where your going to school, where every one of us buys into the pressures to do more and be more and earn more, when you live in a community like ours, you better stop and read the footnote. Of Jesus Christ. Because there is nothing you can do when it comes to being loved by God, other than to be so utterly and completely overwhelmed with humility, so humbled that you can barely say yes. You can’t earn it, work on it, develop it, prepare for it, study for it. There is not a darn thing you can do. And that’s really hard for us Princeton Presbyterians. Because before it is your faith in Jesus Christ; it is the faithfulness of Jesus Christ and his love poured out for you.
Bobby Shuler was a member of the congregation I served in Blackwood. He was in church every Sunday; sat on the left hand side almost all the way back. He sat with a group of church ladies. Bobby was in his 60’s. He had some significant disabilities and learning issues. His parents had died but he lived in the house with a caretaker. Around the church, the ladies took care of him. Some days he was a bit more restless in church. Other days he would try to whisper something to one of them, but he really couldn’t whisper.
One morning we were celebrating communion. It happened that there weren’t enough elders to distribute the elements. So I joined in and moved about the congregation. I took the tray to the far left side of the church, over by the windows where Bobby and the church ladies sat. There was an appropriate, if not sullen silence, in the room as we served communion. It was Presbyterian after all. I made my way down the left side, offering the bread, not saying a word. When I came to Bobby’s pew, he was all the way over against the wall. After I served Mame and her sister Rae there in the next to the last pew, I leaned over to offer the tray to Bobby. He stood up and reached back toward me and said with a full voice loud enough for God and everyone to hear, “Thank you. Thank you very much”.
No one said a word. No one chuckled. The congregation didn’t miss a beat when our solemn piety was upended. I thought at first folks were just being understanding. Certainly those ladies had known Bobby his whole life. Sometime later I figured out that people weren’t just being polite, he was right. His response to the bread life, to the body of Christ, to the righteousness of God, to the faithfulness of Jesus Christ….Bobby’s response was exactly the right one. With a piercing clarity and completely free of any decorative religiosity…thank you. Thank you very much.
Here at the Table. Come and feast on the promises of God, feast on the faithfulness of Jesus Christ.
© 2008, Property of Nassau Presbyterian Church
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