Living in the Fairy Tale

I was reading in Joshua this morning about the Israelites taking/destroying Jericho (Joshua 6). It was interesting to me that Joshua gave instructions to the two spies (who had taken refuge with Rahab the harlot) the task of finding and delivering Rahab and her relatives safely out of the city. I imagine the pandemonium and destruction. The passage says the Israelites killed every man, woman, and child in Jericho…EXCEPT…Rahab and her family. What an astounding task, the task of deliverance, of rescue, bestowed upon the two faithful spies. Their first trip into the city, they were the targets, they were the hunted at risk, they were the messengers of destruction, who were given refuge by God in the home of Rahab. On this return trip, they enter with the hunters, but they are spared the task of destruction, and given the mission of rescue and deliverance. What a beautiful and precious picture of mercy and salvation against the backdrop of bloodshed and violence! But without the background, would the focal point be as resplendent and striking?

The circle of the remnant desolating completely, yet rescuing a remnant, is complete. What a beautiful, full of mercy, God-thing!!! God has always done this. Adam and Eve, Noah and the flood, Abraham and the Chaledeans, Isaac on the altar, Joseph in Egypt, Elijah against the prophets of Baal, Lot and Sodom and Gomorrah, and the list goes on.

The whole world is Jericho. God has pronounced His judgment and all are condemned…EXCEPT for those who respond to Jesus’ knock and open the door. To those, Jesus has made and completed, a plan of deliverance. These will be rescued and become a part of His holy nation, His royal family.

I long for Rahab’s faith! The spies gave their word, but the waiting must have seemed interminable!! I wonder if she was able to walk through the market and gaze into the faces of her friends and aquaintences and see them as walking dead men and women? Did her heart break for them? Did she solicite everyone she could to come be a part of her family of delivered ones? Or had she lost hope, presuming that her present was reality, and her future was merely a fairy tale?


Oh God, give me eyes to see my neighbors as about-to-be dead men, and give me a heart that desperately wants to see You deliver them!!! Use me to do it, if You so desire.

The Judge is Colorblind?

Recently I've been watching this older tv show called John Doe. It's about a man who knows everything. Every fact ever recorded. Yet he doesn't know who he is. He has no memory of his life. He doesn't know if he ever went to school, where he grew up, if he likes hot dogs or hamburgers. He is completely colorblind. He sees only in black and white. I tried imagining what it would be like to see only in black and white. It's nearly impossible for me to fathom. Hold that thought.

Romans 2:2

In Romans 2:2 Paul begins to lay out the Four Principles of God’s Judgment by using four separate prepositional phrases. (Romans 2:2 – 2:16)
1. God judges according to the truth (vs.2)
2. God judges according to your hardness and unrepentant heart (vs.5)
3. God judges according to his works (vs.6)
4. God judges according to the gospel of me/Paul (vs.16)

“But we know that the judgment of the God is according to the truth…”

Oidamen. It comes from the verb oida, meaning “to perceive with the eyes” or “to perceive with the senses”

This is the agreement of Paul and the unspecific/hypothetically specific man (for the sake of the argument) to whom he is talking (a Greek diatribe). He is saying, we all agree that the judgment belongs to the God and that it is…(he will go on to say more about it)

The subject is the judgment.
Krima= This is a ma noun. It comes from the word krinow = to jugde, to determine, to separate.
In the 3rd declension, it refers to the sentence/judgment that God has already made. It is His to make, and He has already made it. God's judgment is a done deal.

IS = is the main verb. esteen It means “to be” or “to exist”, presently and continually as a fact.

according to the truth. kata alaytheian.
kata = a preposition with the accusative case, means, “according to the rule of measure”
alaytheian = the object of the preposition. The ah at the beginning of the word is a negative particle, which means “without”. lanthano = means “to be hidden, to be secret”. This translates to our word “truth”. Something uncovered/unhidden. The factual condition of man - who we are is uncovered- exposed before God. This is the truth about us. The REAL us, masks off.

This is the first principle of God’s judgment. It is according to the truth. This TRUTH is the rule of measure. There is no grading on a curve with God. God judges on actual facts, not on our interpretations, intentions, or comparisons of ourselves to others.


“…upon the ones practicing such things…”
epi is translated “upon”. Here it is in the accusative case which literally means “against” or “on” or “to”.
“the such things” refers back to Rom. 1:32. This is the direct object that receives the action of “practicing”.
prassontas = accusative plural masculine present active participle. This verb means continually practicing. A habit. When your habit is sin, you are in bondage to it. Addicted to it. Paul is speaking to the unsaved here. Specifically, the unsaved Jew.

1John 3:9-10 tells us that it is impossible for a saved person to habitually practice sin.
1John 2:1-2 makes an important distinction. A Christian can commit acts of sin. But then John goes on to delineate a clear distinction between a believer committing acts of sin, and an unbeliever living in a habit of continually practicing sin.

Christians can never be habitually practicing sin. Salvation is not just a religious term. It’s not just being delivered from hell. Having fire insurance. Salvation is a literal saving. Being SAVED from the bondage of sin. DELIVERED from the domination or control of Satan. We are ALL filled. A person is either filled with the Spirit or filled with Satan. This is so bold, so black or white. In our pragmatasim we have so many questions! In our estimation, the verdict should alter when the colors of individual circumstances are laid out. How far have we digested situational ethics? It reminds me of the song, Life Boat, by that brilliant lyricist, Steve Taylor. When I read these passages questions flood my mind. Where does this put the one who is called but has not yet responded? The one who is predestined, but hasn't yet received? We want technicolor!!! But Paul is saying, in the courtroom of God, there is only black and white. The judge is colorblind.

Defense Offense Judge Defendant

Romans 2:1

“…everyone who is judging is without defense…”
Without defense=Guilty. Inexcusable.

Then Paul adds another explanatory conjunction:

“…for in what you are judging the other, you are condemning yourself…”
en ho= “in which” is something specific. The something exactly that you judge.

Krineis=2nd person singular present active indicitive, meaning, again, “a continuous habit of life” This word “to judge, to separate, to determine” means that you are separating things out and coming to a conclusion.

the other/ton heteron. There are two adjectives that are both translated “another”, but in Greek there are two separate words: allos, meaning another of the same kind, and heteros, meaning another of a different kind. You can see which one is meant here.

We can see this is true. The things that we criticize others for, or judge them in, these same things we are guilty of. In our human nature, we judge others for the very same sins we are committing. Yet we tend to show mercy to someone practicing a different sin.

The gospels show us that for three years, Jesus was putting the disciples in positions that they did not have the answers for, or resources to deal with, to show them who they really were - helpless. Powerless. The point was to make them see that they are just the vessel. God is the do-er. It was true for them, and it is true for us too. It is not our wisdom, our ability, our resources, that accomplish anything, it is God who works, we are the conduits.

“…for the same things the one judging is practicing…”

”the exact same things”/ta autah
prasseis= 2nd person singular present active indicative verb. “Is practicing” denotes a habit. This word is used 5 times in Romans 1:32 – 2:3. It is talking about people who sin as a habit of life. Paul was very specific in choosing this word rather than poieho = meaning "to do a single/specific act". The habit of continually judging is a form of self-deception. When we are busy judging others, we are not judging ourselves, or putting ourselves in a place of humility before the judge. We are putting ourselves in the position of the judge, instead of the defendant.