Dive deep into the complex themes of righteousness by faith as we explore the message of Romans 9. What does it mean to stumble over the ‘stumbling stone’ and how does this metaphor unfold in the context of our beliefs? Understanding the role of Jesus as both the bearer of our sins and our triumphant savior is crucial for any faithful believer struggling to face their own imperfections and brokenness.
So we continue to look at the issues, the psychological and spiritual issues, of the message of righteousness by faith. Remember that Paul says in Romans 9, verse 30 and 31 and 32, What shall we say then, that Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness of faith? But Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness… has not attained to the law of righteousness. Why? Because it did not seek it by faith. Now, this is a section that we haven’t covered so far, so let’s do it now. But as it were, well, let’s read that again. Why? Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were by the works of the law, for they stumbled at that stumbling stone. As it is written, Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame. So what is this stumbling stone then? Well, of course, it’s Jesus Christ. Well, I shouldn’t say of course, it’s not all that obvious, else it wouldn’t be a stumbling stone, would it? The stumbling stone is something very contrary to being obvious. The reason the Jewish people find it difficult to believe in Jesus is that he didn’t come as a warrior and didn’t overthrow the Roman Empire or didn’t overthrow the world and bring in the kingdom of God so far. Rather, he died, and he died a humbling and terrible death on the cross. And he still hasn’t brought in the eternal kingdom. And we Christians are still waiting for it. So this is a bit of a stumbling, not a bit, let me repeat that, this is a massive stumbling. Jesus, the one who was sent by God, had two roles. One to suffer for the sins of the world, and another to triumph over the powers of evil. so that at the cross he suffered for our sins, and at the resurrection he triumphed over evil. Now, unless you and I can absorb this by faith and hold on to it, then it’s going to be very, very difficult for us to face our humanity, to face our brokenness. Why? Because, you see, if Jesus did not die and suffer the consequences, let me put it another way, if Jesus did not take the judgment and the condemnation for our brokenness and our sin, then we have to suffer it. We have to go through it. And the problem is that that creates so much guilt and shame in us that we cannot face our issues. We’ve been talking about being able to talk to God, let not the soul go silent. We don’t let the soul go silent because we know that judgment has been taken by God himself, our judgment, so that we are freed from condemnation. But if we don’t recognize the stone which the builders have rejected and has become the head of the corner, the cornerstone, that is Jesus Christ, then we stumble over this idea. You know, I’ve been a faith training counselor. I don’t do any counseling these years, but for decades. And in that experience, I’ve worked with so many hundreds of people, I suppose, over the years that find it so difficult to to bring their brokenness, their sins, their addictions to God. And I’ve been one of them in my own experience, of course. That’s what makes the book of Romans so special to me. Because, as I say, if you don’t know Jesus as the one who is the offense and yet the one who will bring salvation… then you have to handle all this stuff yourself. Now, I said something there that needs an explanation. Why would Jesus be an offense? I remember years ago when I was teaching a Bible class, I said that Jesus was an offense. And the leader of that Bible class was so offended by the idea that Jesus was an offense that he forbade me to teach any further. What an irony. Jesus is an offense. The very idea that Jesus should die for the sins of humanity, that we are not good enough to save ourselves, that we have such a broken condition that we have to have somebody else heal us and help us and take our sins, is offensive. But if you embrace that offense, if you say, Lord God, I thank you that though the idea of Jesus taking my judgment and sins is so offensive because it means I’m such a sinner and can’t do it myself, I thank you so much that he did it because now I can talk to you about the things that are my wounds and my brokenness. Let’s read this verse again. Well, let’s read verse 31. But Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness. Why? Because they did not seek it by faith. but as it were by the works of the Lord. They did not seek what? They did not seek to be godly before God by faith, but rather presenting their own works before God. And then it says, for they stumbled at that stumbling stone. Now, people with addiction stumble at the stumbling stone because their addiction, whether it’s drugs or alcohol or food issues or sexual issues or gambling or work addiction, becomes after a while so embarrassing, so depressing, so inducing of guilt that we can’t face telling God about it. But once we know that Jesus is our righteousness, then we can start talking to God. Once we know, in other words, that we are not condemned and that Christ has taken our judgment and we are counted as if we were good and righteous people, then we can begin to converse with God. Now, not only do we talk about the sin that we’ve committed or the temptation that is pulling at us, we tell God that. We let him know. We don’t hide him away until we’ve gone through our addictive binge and then call upon him when we’ve finished. No, we talk to him in the very process or the very act or the very desire. That’s a shock to very many Christians. But you see, there’s no condemnation. Romans 4 verse 5 says God justifies or declares innocent the ungodly. So here we are ungodly, and we can say, Lord God, I’m ungodly, and yet I thank you that you declare me innocent in Christ. And this is why I can come before you with all my mess and tell you about it.
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Now, when you do that, you don’t feel so lonely.
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You realize that you have a companion, Jesus. You are in his presence. Now, why is that important? Because addiction is an escape from isolation, from loneliness, from deep soul separation, as I said the other day. And that soul separation is so profound that we feel we’ve even detached from ourselves in some way. which is terrifying. We don’t know our center. We’ve lost our center. But not if we talk to God. The moment you lift up your heart and say, Oh God, I’m devastated, but I thank you that you are there and you love me. When God loves us, our soul, and when we acknowledge that, our soul is restored. Now you say, well, what difference does it make, Colin, because I still go on doing my thing? It makes, it begins to make a whole load of difference. Because once you start talking to God, you can tell him everything and you can explore yourself. Let me explain it this way. Guilt stops you from thinking. Guilt stops you from talking. Because guilt is so devastating, we climb up, we close down, and we isolate. When we do those things, no creative healing thought process takes place. But once we are sure that we are not condemned and we can open ourselves up to God, then a creative healing thought process begins. And you know, it may take you back to childhood. Because addiction really has a lot to do with childhood. Something happened when you were a boy or girl. Maybe you were abandoned. Maybe you were highly criticized by a parent. Maybe your parent died. Maybe your parent had troubles of his or her own that were so profound that attention was not given to you. You were neglected in some way. Now, the world looks upon all this as victimhood and never gets out of being a victim. We are not that people. Christians can look at their wounded past, but not in the sense of, I’m a victim of it and I am mad as hell and I want to beat the world to death. No, we don’t go that way. We say, Lord, unveil my wounds, help me to understand myself. And we look, because there’s no guilt anymore, and we know that we’re not ashamed because Christ has clothed us with his righteousness, then we can explore what happened to us as children. And as we do, thoughts come in that may have been buried for years. Emotions, rather, come in that may have been buried for decades. and we start to cry, or we start to hurt, or we start to be afraid. And we have to learn to say, Father, it’s okay. I’m not condemned for what I’m suddenly realizing now. But I’m realizing that I’ve been escaping from this pain and this memory for decades. I’ve pushed it away. And yet it’s still there, underneath. And that’s what leads me to escape from it. I didn’t realize that, Lord. I didn’t realize I was escaping from something. So then what do you do with the pains? Well, you can bring it to the Lord and you can know that he has taken away all your shame, all that woundedness in the cross, and you can then begin to say, Lord God, I’ve never said this to you before, but I will now. I’m beginning to realize as I think it through that that pain was the very thing that led me to you. Oh God, I never realized it, that my pains brought me to the cross. Thank you so much, dear Father. We have more to say about this, so tune in next time. Well, thanks for joining me today. Colin Cook here, and you’ve been listening to my broadcast, How It Happens, how the gospel happens and works in our lives, training our faith, healing our wounds, leading us to be able to face the life we have. We’re complete in Jesus Christ. You can hear this program any time of the day or night on your smartphone. Simply download a free app, soundcloud.com or podbean.com, and key in How It Happens with Colin Cook. And if you’d like to make a donation, it would be so much appreciated. It’s listener-supported radio. Send your donation to FaithQuest, P.O. Box 366, Littleton, Colorado 80160, or make your donation online at faithquestradio.com. Thanks so much. I appreciate it. I’ll see you next time. Cheerio and God bless.
