At the Altar – Meeting God; Averting Wrath; Embracing Hope

By P. Douglas Small
President, PRAYER AT THE HEART

At the Altar

The prayer of Paul, his benediction, stands at the end of the book of Romans. The book of Romans itself is an overview of the book of Leviticus – at least, it is built on the concepts of the five sacrifices reviewed in the first five chapters of Leviticus. Those chapters are the ideological scaffolding for the book of Romans, though barely observed. Paul gives us a New Testament interpretation of these Old Testament sacrifices. In Romans, we are gathered around the altar – not here, not in Jerusalem, but around the altar in heaven. Around the finished work of Christ.

• In Chapter 1, Paul asserts the devolution of the whole world, a process in motion, one that started at the Fall and has continued, unabated. It is leading to desolation of the earth and the wrath of God. The world has rejected God. It ‘knew’ Him but chose not to honor or worship Him. It is now facing judgment.
• As a result, the heart-lights of humanity were extinguished. Spiritual blindness came over men.
• As they continued to resist God, in Romans, you find the recurring phrase, “And God gave them over … gave them up…” It is as if a rebellious son is being restrained by a loving father. The son, however, breaks free and runs some distance, and then the father catches him, only to have the son break free again. Each time, the son resists, with more force and more danger ahead of him, all the while, eluding the loving grip of the father, until he is finally gone. In his focus on rejecting, resisting the father’s grip, he has no idea he is backing into the jaws of death.
• This is Romans 1.

In the rest of the book, Paul sets forth God’s redemptive plan.
• In Chapters 2-8 – Paul addresses sin. And by extension, he is talking about the sin offering – Christ himself.
▪ It is a Jewish Problem – Chapter 2 – the Jew is inexcusable
▪ It is a global Gentile Problem – Chapter 3 – all have sinned
▪ It is not solved by the law, but by faith – Abraham is the example – Chapter 4
▪ It is only solved by God’s act of justification – Chapter 5
▪ It is exacerbated by carnality – Chapter 6 – the flesh must be crucified
▪ It is further complicated by marriage to the law – Chapter 7 – only in death are we free
▪ But new life is by being led the Spirit, manifest in those who walk by the Spirit – Chapter 8.
• In Chapters 9-11 – Paul addresses trespass, the trespass of Israel. And the potential for trespass by the church. We dare not miss God’s purposes. Somewhere, “there is a remnant …” (11:5). This is then, his emphasis on the trespass offering – deliberate sin, conscious rebellion and its blinding, separating consequences.
• In Chapter 12 – Paul calls for consecration – this is the burnt offering! (12:1-2).
• In Chapter 12 – Paul calls for all our native gifts to be given to God as vehicles for God’s grace – critical insight (the prophetic, by faith), serving (ministry, with patience), teaching, encouragement (exhortation), giving (without a hidden motive), leading (ruling, with decisiveness), mercy (with cheerfulness). (12:3-8).

Included are the three great offices of the Old Testament – the prophet, the priest-teacher, and the kingly leader. Interspersed are equally important gifts – servants, encouragers, resource locators, the merciful and compassionate. What an army.

This is the meat or grain offering, the offering of service, the means by which grace flows naturally through us.

• In Chapter 13 – Paul describes what the peace offering looks like when it is lived out before a watching world. He continues his exhortation on love and peace, on relational wholeness, from 13:8 – 15:7. This is what the consecrated (vv. 1-2), army (vv. 3-8), does – this is the effect, the end of their work as peace officers, as agents of reconciliation, as those who wade into a world under wrath with a message of hope. Wow!

• Now we come to Paul’s prayer, to his benediction over the Roman church. This is the climax of the book. Not what Luther and the other theologians have labored over, justification by faith, the cog wheels of soteriology – though that is foundational. What Paul is after is an army of peace agents who carry a message of hope against the backdrop of God’s wrath. He now prays for their commission (Romans 15:5-13).
Israel’s great trespass was a failure to act as an agent of peace and reconciliation to the nations. It is the same failure with which the church grappled. They “shut up the kingdom.”
In Luther’s day, the church had become rigidly institutionalized, self-interested, and shamefully carnal. But the Reformation of Luther, now 500 years old, has failed us. We too now “isolate” ourselves from the world. We have failed to be the missional agents’ God has called us to be! We again, as a church, are far too self-interested. Our wineskins are hard. We have retreated from mission to sing our songs in chapels shut away from the world.

The church is not a building, it is a worshipping, missional community. A new Reformation is needed. The last divided us; this one must unite us. The last one emphasized distinctive denominational doctrines, this one must return to the centrality and supremacy of Jesus Christ.

An Overview

In a sense, Paul is urging the church back to the altar –

• Deal with sin – by the justification, by faith, through grace, and be empowered by the Spirit. (Romans 3:10, 23; 5:1; 6:23; 8:1; 12:1).

• Don’t trespass – by sinning against your purpose. As Gentiles, we were grafted-in branches, and we, Paul argues, can be replaced (Romans 11:17-21). God wants to use us. Yet, we must remember, He alone is Sovereign – and we are disposable. He calls us to partner in His purposes, but He is not a hostage to our recalcitrance.

• Consecrate yourself. Die to self. Give your bodies, your whole beings, sacrificially to God’s purposes. Be holy, dedicated, transformed. Change the way you think. Prove out God’s perfect will and purposes (Romans 12:1-2).

• Give God every gift you have – and let Him use it as a delivery system for His grace.

• And finally, and most importantly, and if this doesn’t happen – what really, does all the rest mean? (Romans 12:3-8).

• Finally – be agents of peace. (Romans 12:9 – 13:10).
The responsibility of the church is that of intercessor. The character of the church’s ministry is reconciliation. Our feet are shod with the gospel of peace. Our task is that of a missionary agent, heralding good news. We have traditionally connected intercession with spiritual warfare – with the dark spiritual and intangible realm. We have made it about railing against these unseen powers, binding this or that, fencing with dark powers. The really important work of intercession is that of mediation, of the reconciliation of lost and hurting people to God. It is helping people, by prayer, as their first step, their first act, to reconnect with God as their Father. It is the first step in evangelism.