A Sobering Reminder

February 20, 2007

This morning while reading in Romans, I came across an interesting passage that caught my attention. In chapter fifteen, verse three, Paul writes “For Christ did not please himself, but as it is written ‘the reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me’.” That to me was interesting because I read it to mean that those who reproached me, their reproaches fell on Christ, and that is a God honoring thought… I think; after all, God’s wrath for my sins (which I’m finding are more in number as I see more and more of myself) fall on Christ. So it made sense to me that the reproaches of those who would reproach me for my faith would fall on Christ. That being the case, I can, without shame, declare His message to everyone.

While that is a good thought, as I looked closer at the words on the page, I saw a tiny letter referencing a footnote where Paul quotes scripture (…as it is written…). That little quote comes from Psalm 69:9, which carries a different meaning than what I had originally interpreted. In Psalm 69, David says “I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold; I have come into deep waters, and the flood has come over me.” He goes on describing in various metaphors his situation (which is everyone wants to kill him), and then in verse 9 he says “for zeal for your house has consumed me, and the reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me.” So while I interpreted that passage quoted in Romans as a promise of deliverance from reproach, it turns out that it is almost the complete opposite. Romans 15:3 promises not deliverance from reproach, but rather the rise of reproach. Those who reproach God will, because of my affiliation with God, reproach me as well. This passage is located in a section of scripture that is sub-labeled “The example of Christ.” The word “example” implies that it is meant to be followed.

Christ was met with the ultimate reproach: The people’s hatred of Him and their desire to take his life. Their reproach for God (the real God that Jesus represented, not the god represented by the Pharisees and their legalistic rituals and traditions) fell on Christ because He was the son of God. In Christ, my sins have been forgiven and I am now a co-heir with Christ; a child of God. As those who hated God dumped their reproach on Christ, so too will those who hate God now dump their reproach on me and anyone who proclaims rebirth into the family of God in Jesus Christ.

This passage is a sobering reminder of the price that comes with the redeeming grace and forgiveness of sins that’s found in Christ. In being joined with Christ, having our hearts and minds transformed into the likeness of His, there also comes with that the reproach of everyone who hates God (those who hate God will hate anything that resembles or is like God).