Inclusive Exclusivity

Today on Summit Life with J.D.

Greer. When your justification is based on how well you do, you are always in competition with everybody else. Because how good you see yourself is determined by how you compare to others. And that results in pride and boasting when you feel like you're doing well. And it results in despair and jealousy when you feel like you're not doing well. The essence of pride is competition. Welcome to Summit Life with Pastor J.D.

Greer. As always, I'm your host, Molly Vidovich, and we're so glad that you're back with us today. You know, if there was a buzzword for today, I think it would most certainly be the word diversity. But it seems like we often embrace the concept of diversity in principle, as long as other people adapt to our customs and styles. But the gospel teaches us a different way, a way where we're all different, yet the same. Today, Pastor J.D. teaches that while there is only one way to salvation, thankfully, God doesn't accept us because of anything about us, but instead because of what he's done for us. And this makes Christianity, as Tim Keller says, the most inclusive exclusivity there is. So let's find out what this is all about as Pastor J.D.

takes us to Romans chapter three here on Summit Life. Recently, my family and I were at Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida. I had to speak down in Orlando at something. And so while we were there, we decided to make it a family trip and take in a couple of the of the amusement parks. Well, if you've ever been to Universal Studios, you know that one of the main attractions there is Harry Potter World. And regardless of what you think about about that whole saga, I know some of you have some reservations and I'm not trying to get into that here this morning.

We're not trying to wade into those waters. But regardless, it is one of the most elaborately built, amazing sections of any amusement park that I've ever been to. The creativity and the construction that went into it are staggering. But here's the thing. If you've ever been to Universal Studios, you probably know this. The entrance to that part of the park is at the very back of the park and it's almost completely unmarked.

And that is intentional. It's supposed to recreate how you get into the, you know, the so-called magical world in the book. So when you're in Universal Studios, you basically at the back of the park, you walk through this open doorway in a wall that looks like you're going into a public restroom, but instead it opens up into this amazing and complex world of imagination.

I told my wife that if you did not know that that part of the park was there, it's very likely that you could walk right by it and miss the most elaborate thing at Universal Studios. Well, I share that because that is a little bit about how I feel about Romans chapter 3 verses 27 through 31. I'll be honest with you, I almost skipped it in the teaching of the book of Romans here because on the surface, when you read it, it looks kind of inconsequential after explaining in some of the most beautiful, majestic theological language how we come to Christ and why that's distinct from every other religion of the world. Paul then just starts to, starts to, starts to ramble on a little bit about the law, at least that's what it seems. Romans 3 verse 27.

Where then is boasting, he said, it's excluded. By what kind of law? By what works? No, on the contrary, by a law of faith. For we conclude that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law. Or is God the God of the Jews only? Is he not the God of the Gentiles too? Yes, he's the God of the Gentiles too since there is one God who would justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised by faith. Verse 31, do we then nullify the law through faith?

Absolutely not. On the contrary, we uphold the law. It almost seemed to me like Paul was rambling on a little bit about the law after he's finished making his point. It's like, Paul, man, land the plane.

Okay, you made it, you're stuck in the landing now, just wrap the chapter up. But the more I have learned about the book of Romans, the more I see that these verses address what is Paul's primary purpose, or one of Paul's primary purposes in the book of Romans, and they are absolutely crucial. You remember I told you this the first weekend in the introduction. The book of Romans is not just a treatise on the gospel.

It is that. It's the most detailed treatise we have in the Bible on the gospel, but it is also very practical counsel that is being given to the church in Rome about a real live problem they were having. And that problem was that Jews and Gentiles were not getting along in the church.

You remember this during the introduction? I told you that Romans was written right after Jews had returned back to the church in Rome after having been gone for five years. The Jewish people had been gone because five years prior to the writing of the book, Emperor Claudius had banished all Jews from Rome, which would have included Jewish Christians as well. Well, after being gone for five years, the Jews are allowed to come back in.

Here was the thing. Jews and Gentiles we know had all these cultural differences. They had stylistic differences, political differences, and so forth. Prior to this band, the Jews had been basically the ones in charge of the church. They were the first Christians, which means they had established the church and the Gentiles that became Christians were coming into a church that was led by Jews with Jewish customs. After they got banished, of course, the Gentiles took over. So now that the Jews are coming back after being gone five years, they are returning to a church very different than the one they left. The church was now doing Gentile music with Gentile instruments. The pastor was wearing Gentile style.

Sometimes he preached in Air Caesars or whatever. The potlucks they were serving, they were serving Gentile foods. Everything was different. So the culture that used to be in charge wasn't in charge anymore. And so all these racial and cultural tensions are flaring.

You can understand that, right? I mean, if you're part of the so-called majority culture here, imagine that Roy Cooper, our governor, just came out and just banished all white people from Raleigh and the Triangle for the next five years. And imagine that we all come back, if you're in the majority culture, to a church where other people, you know, other people that weren't raised like a lot of us, have different cultures and styles and things, all of a sudden it doesn't feel like, you know, the church we left.

You can see why there is going to be a challenge there. So Paul is trying to help unify these Jews and Gentiles in this church. By the way, I think it's really important here to note that they did not do the easy thing, which would have been to start a Jewish campus and a Gentile campus, right? Or to start a Jewish church down the road and a Gentile church on opposite sides of the town.

That would have been much easier, but they did not do that. And that's because Jesus's vision of the church was Jew and Gentile in one united body, which is why I would say that multi-ethnicity is so important to our church as well. We know that we need to reflect the diversity of our community and we need to also proclaim the diversity of God's kingdom. And if I could just be really, really candid here with you for a minute, some of our brothers and sisters of color here in this church have told me, they're like, you know what? You guys in the majority culture, you like the concept of diversity as long as you're the ones who remain in charge and everything is stylistically the way that you like it. I've told you that many of us, many of us think we want a multi-ethnic church when what we really want is a multicolored church with everybody of different colors acting like they all like our customs and styles.

It makes for a good picture on the website, but it is not actual kingdom diversity. That is why some at church, we try to share leadership here at the church and be open to doing things a little differently than some of us may have grown up used to, right? That's what we were trying to do here. I've told you the definition of a multi-ethnic church is that at some point you feel uncomfortable. If you're not ever doing that, it just means that you've made everybody conform to you and that's not the vision of it. So Paul is writing into this context to try to say, hey, there is a way to get beyond these things to have more in Christ than you have dividing you, whether it's culturally or politically or whatever. Paul says the answer to this relational breakdown is the gospel and he writes the longest treaties on the gospel to address a relational problem, which is in itself a lesson to you.

Paul didn't write five ways to get along. What he wrote was here's the gospel. He says this is ultimately a gospel issue. Relational problems go back to gospel realities being forgotten. So wherever you're broken, where are you going to put the gospel there?

And that's what we're trying to do. Paul says that one of the primary things that is dividing Jew and Gentile believers is how Jewish people approach the law. Jewish people approach the law with a typical, we call it a religious mindset. Every religion in the world functions on this premise, except for the gospel. Every religion says I obey, therefore I'm accepted.

If I obey well enough and often enough and do enough good things and pass God's standard, then I will be accepted by God. That's what the Jewish people, many of the Jewish Christians even, had continued to assume, that their justification, their being made right with God, was found in the excellence of their law keeping. It is that premise, Paul says, that fuels this division. Now you're like, well, okay, how's that? Well, see, when your justification is based on how well you do, you are always in competition with everybody else. Because how good you see yourself is determined by how you compare to others. And that results in pride and boasting when you feel like you're doing well. And it results in despair and jealousy when you feel like you're not doing well. You see, the essence of pride in any area, whether we're talking sports or religion or academics or parenting or culture or ethnicity, the essence of pride is competition. I love how C.S. Lewis explains it.

Look at this. Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man. We say that people are proud of being rich or clever or good looking, but they are not. They are only proud of being richer or cleverer or better looking than others. If everybody else became equally rich or equally clever or equally good looking, well, there'd be nothing to be proud about. It is the comparison that makes you proud. It is the pleasure at being above the rest.

Does that make sense? I mean, think of it this way. It doesn't matter to you Duke fans that your team is good, only that you are better than Carolina and vice versa. And to state fans, you don't care what your record is for the season, only that you beat at least one of those teams at least once during the season, right? Pride sustains itself.

It sustains itself by competition. So when you think of it in religious terms, you're always asking yourself subtly, am I better than this person? Am I, where am I on the scale of good people? Or you might think of it in another sphere like, am I as good of a mother as so and so? And like I said, when you feel like you're doing well, comparatively speaking, that leads you to boasting, which very quickly turns into judgmentalism and then even disdain. When you don't compare favorably to others, that leads to an inferiority complex or despair, which very quickly turns into jealousy and hatred. You end up developing a real sensitivity to criticism.

That's your first sign that this is a problem for you. You're really sensitive to criticism. Criticism really bothers you because your identity is built on being good compared to others. And when people challenge your sense of goodness by criticizing you, well, they challenge you at your very core. They're challenging your identity. So you get really, really prickly when criticized. Either their criticism devastates you and you go into a tailspin of despair, or in self-defense, you start criticizing them back or coming up with a list of reasons why you're actually better than they are anyway. The reason you're doing that is because your justification has been attacked. Your justification, what sets you apart?

What makes you good? So you got to defend yourself. Or maybe you just kind of silently resent whomever you feel like makes you look bad. That guy at work gets that promotion that you thought that you deserved, right? And so you're kind of jealous of him. And in your heart, you say these things like, well, I'm a better dad than him.

I'll be honest with you. I used to think this kind of stuff about other pastors I was jealous of, just to be totally frank with you. Man, if I heard somebody that I thought was a lot better preacher than me, or they had a lot more successful church, I'd be like, yeah, but I'm better at X, Y, and Z than they are. And that makes me all around better than them.

And that's because my justification came from how good I thought I was in my profession. Or maybe for you, it's that other mother that puts up her perfect little pic on Facebook of her perfect little kids and her perfect little outfits with her perfect little bows and her perfect little brownies in front of her perfect little HGTV worthy kitchen. You think, I just hate her. And you think, I bet you she's having marital problems.

I hope she's having marital problems, right? That's just the way that we work. That all comes from having an identity that is built on goodness. I'm being set apart on justification that comes from being good from law keeping. It even makes us end up really living in denial about our flaws, which makes us really hard to get along with because we can't even admit our flaws to ourselves because that would undermine our sense of goodness.

You might give us some throwaway comments about raw centers or, or you might make fun of yourself in some areas, but when it really comes down to self-criticism, you just don't do that because you got to maintain that sense of goodness to feel justified. You see why Paul pinpoints this as a major source of division. You're listening to Summit Life with J.D. Greer. Before we continue with today's teaching, I wanted to share with you about our latest featured resource. It's Pastor J.D. 's newest book called Essential Christianity. In this practical and approachable book, Pastor J.D. explores the foundational beliefs of Christianity, making it a must read for anyone with questions about the gospel. It is based in the book of Romans, just like our current teaching series, so most certainly will be a great companion to our teaching here on the program. You can get your copy today by calling us at 866-335-5220 or visiting jdgreer.com and making a gift of $35 or more to support our ministry. And when you do, we'll also include a free discussion guide to help you go deeper in your understanding of the gospel or to help you discuss this all with a friend. Thank you for your support that makes this resource and the rest of Summit Life possible. Now let's dive back into today's teaching with Pastor J.D.

Greer here on Summit Life. So after explaining the gospel in detail to them in chapter 3, that is that our justification doesn't come from how good we are at anything because we're not really good at anything. It's given to us freely as a gift in Christ Jesus. Paul then says verse 27, so where exactly is boasting then? It is excluded.

By what kind of law? Do we stop boasting because God says, thou shalt not boast? Do we stop judging because he says, thou shalt not judge?

No, it's not one of works. On the contrary, our boasting ceases by the logic of faith. The gospel eliminates boasting by undercutting the very basis of pride. I mean, hey, you weren't saved by anything you did. You weren't saved by keeping the law.

You couldn't keep the law. You were a miserable failure. There was none righteous, not even one, no one who even sought God. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. In fact, Paul explains, you were so bad. You were so bad that Jesus had to die to save your sorry soul. And that destroys the basis of pride. You know what we sing about here in the church?

When I survey the wondrous cross on which the prince of glory died, my richest gain I count but loss and pour contempt disdain on all my pride. Or Paul says, is God the God of the Jews only? Is he not the God of the Gentiles also? Yeah, he's the God of the Gentiles too.

There's only one God. He justifies the circumcised, that means the religious people by faith and the uncircumcised, the irreligious people. He justifies them by faith just as well because ultimately when you peel back the layers of their religion, they got the same sinful heart. That means they need to be saved the same way.

So why do you think of yourself in different categories? There's only one kind of person, sinner. All have sinned. All Jew, Gentile, rich, poor, black, white, religious, irreligious, all of them. There's just one kind of sinner.

All of them have fallen short of the glory of God. And there's only one way of salvation, verse 29, one God who justifies both the religious and the irreligious in exactly the same ways. That means the gospel, Paul says, that means the gospel should be creating a new humanity that really ought to overcome the divisions that result from boasting, that comes from you distinguishing yourselves in different categories and trying to show why you're set apart in some way. It's a new inclusive humanity that overcomes any divisions that resulted from boasting.

Now you're listening to me, you're like, wait a minute, Pastor JD, only one God, only one way of salvation? That doesn't sound inclusive to me. That sounds like the epitome of exclusive.

Well, that's a really good point. All right. But listen, if you're, especially if you're new to Christianity or new to the church, hang with me here for just a minute. Okay. You got to understand, I get why you think that would be exclusive, but you got to understand first that all religious claims are ultimately exclusive.

For example, hang with me. If you say all good people of every religion go to heaven. Well, that sounds like super inclusive, right?

I mean, hashtag coexist. All right. Well then if you say that all good people of every religion go to heaven, who have you just excluded? Bad people. And I guess you're the one who gets to define what is bad. And I suppose racist and rapists and child molesters will be on that list. And if you tend to lean more conservative, I'm supposing you would put certain kinds of sexual immorality on the list of what makes somebody bad. And if you're on the more liberal side, you would probably put anybody who judges somebody else for some kind of sexual immorality, you would put that on the bad list. But the point is you all have a list and some people are on it and others aren't.

Now I know you're like, well, no, no, no, no. I'm not religious at all. I don't exclude anybody for any reason. I would say that's not true. You still have a standard as to what constitutes a good person. I used to live right outside of Chapel Hill.

Now that's a hashtag coexist place if there ever was one, right? You try driving a truck with oversized tires and an NRA sticker on the back windshield and another sticker telling people you think global warming is a hoax and that's why you refuse to recycle. And I bet you will experience some non-acceptance from some of the people there.

That's not what I did, by the way. But I'm just saying the point is their definition of what is good and bad is just as exclusive in Chapel Hill as any other fundamentalist community in the world. All religious and all moral viewpoints end up being exclusive.

Everybody's got a line for who was in and who was out. But the gospel of Jesus, you see, is a different kind of exclusivity because the gospel teaches us that our acceptance with God is not based on anything about us. We're not accepted by God because of our higher morality. We're not accepted because of our education or our marital status or our race or our political viewpoint. No, God extends salvation to us as a gift to all who will admit that they are unworthy to receive it and repent and receive it in humility and faith.

In fact, you might say it this way. All religions are exclusive, Tim Keller says. All religions are exclusive, but Christianity is the most inclusive exclusivity that there is. What made the gospel scandalous in the first century was not who it excluded. What made the gospel scandalous was whom it included. According to the Talmud, which was a set of Jewish traditions that tell us about the history in the first century. According to the Talmud, every Jewish man, as part of his morning quiet time, would pray this prayer. He would say, God, thank you that I am not a woman, I'm not a slave, and I'm not a Gentile. Because in their kind of hierarchy, being a Jewish man was the highest in the hierarchy. All right, so I've told you, it is not coincidental that when Paul goes to Philippi, he's a Jewish rabbi, he goes to a Gentile city and he starts preaching the gospel. The first three people to get saved, the first three people to come to Christ is a woman, Lydia, a slave girl, and then a Gentile.

That is not accidental. God is saying, I'm turning everything on its head. I'm showing you there's really no distinction, that all people are saved in the same way, and that this is the most inclusive exclusivity that there ever has been. The gospel overturns all basis for boasting, all basis for division. Like Paul says, it's excluded, not because God gave us a law, don't discriminate.

He just undermined any of the things that would have caused discrimination in the first place. Now, by the way, in case it's still unclear to you, please don't think of justification. Don't think of this just in terms of religion, because all people, secular and religious alike, are seeking justification. In fact, this is the driving impulse that you have in life, whether you realize it or not. Many people will turn to religion.

They think that their religion makes them good and acceptable, but other people will turn to other things. In our secular culture, many people, for example, turn to excellence in their job. And so if they're really good at what they do, that gives them a purpose for living. That makes them good. It gives them a sense of worth.

It makes them put their head up high. I read this article a few weeks ago about Sidney Pollock, if you don't recognize that name. He was a very famous movie maker, has produced a lot of the movies that are probably your favorites.

He died in 2008. Right before he died, he was very sick, very weak, and that's when this article came out, because it explained that even though he was on the verge of death, even though he was very weary, he refused to stop working. Even when his family was pleading with him to slow down because they could see it was driving him to an early grave, he said, and I quote, he said, I know that it's driving me to my grave and it's a grueling process, but I can't justify my existence if I stop.

Every time I finish another movie, I feel like I have earned my stay for another year or so. That's what many people in the so-called secular sphere do. It's like, I gotta earn my stay by being good at what I do. That is a secular quest for righteousness. Many people try to find it, for example, in their parenting. I read another article about a writer whose career was not going anywhere.

I mean, nobody was reading his work and the papers weren't calling him, getting him to write articles. And he said, I started to question my whole purpose in life. But then he says, get this, then I looked at my two little girls and I know that my existence is justified. In other words, being a good dad to those two little girls justified his existence. I would say a lot of parents are like that. Their existence is justified by being a good enough parent that enables their children to be successful.

But here's the thing. If your children are your justification, you're going to end up putting way too much pressure on them because you need them to succeed for you to feel validated. If they don't succeed, then you feel like a failure. And that's why if they do poorly or they get in trouble or they compare unfavorably to the kids of your friends, you take it as a deep personal blow to your identity. In fact, it probably even slips out in the kind of things you say to your kids.

If you don't do this, then I'm going to look bad as a parent. Your passion for their success is not really about them at all. It's about you. It's selfish because your success, your validation is determined by their access. You need them to succeed so you feel justified.

We're always trying to find something that tells us we're okay. Today's teaching was the first half of a message called Inclusive Exclusivity. So Pastor JD, we're enjoying your newest book called Essential Christianity. Okay, so tell us who. Who is it that you're thinking of as you wrote this book? Molly, I had two basic audiences in mind when I wrote this book. It goes back to something I read when I was in college, a book called Basic Christianity by John R.W.

Stott. And John Stott's book, I read it as a Christian. It felt like a chiropractor for my faith, like getting the essence, the spine of Christianity right. But then I also found that it was the book that I most often handed out to a seeker who was really wanting to know more about Christianity and that I was in discussion with. And so I wanted to write Essential Christianity that way, an in-depth look at some of the basic essentials of Christianity with a view toward the questions that our culture is asking about some of these truths.

So again, whether you're a believer just looking to press into the essentials of the faith or whether you know somebody that would like to see some of these fundamental foundational questions answered, I think it'll be helpful for you. Reach out to us at jdgrier.com and let's get this conversation started. This is a great resource and we would love to get you a copy. It's yours with your gift of $35 or more to this ministry. Or we'll also be glad to send you a copy and include a free discussion guide when you join the growing team of monthly gospel partners. It's easy to sign up by calling 866-335-5220.

Or you can give and request the book online at jdgrier.com. I'm Molly Vidovitch. Thank you for joining us today and we'll see you next time as we continue unpacking what it means to be included in the exclusive message of the gospel. That's Friday here on Summit Life with J.D. Greer. Today's program was produced and sponsored by J.D. Greer Ministries.