Have you ever resigned from one job and taken another?  If so, you will understand today’s analogy.

Let’s say the new job offered you better pay, a nicer boss, and greater job security, would you even consider going back to work for the bad boss who stressed you out, threatened to fire you all the time—all for a job in which you were constantly abused?  Even after you started your new job, if your old bad boss called you on the phone and threatened to make your life miserable if you didn’t come back, would you leave the good job and go back to the bad one?

This is the argument that the Apostle Paul is making in today’s passage (Romans 6:12-23).

He says you previously had a bad job.  Your boss was Satan.  Your cubicle was a filthy, foul place.  Your job description included sinning, doing all kinds of bad things to yourself and others, and at the end of the end of your work week, you had a paycheck that was nothing but death.   Your coworkers were the Grim Reaper, Satan’s henchmen, and probably a few evil clowns.  Clowns can be creepy.

But now, look!  You resigned from that job. 

You’re never going back.  Good for you! 

Your new boss is God.  Your office is clean. Your job description is to serve Him; do good stuff; and obey His wise instructions.  He cares about you and your welfare.  It’s Friday and you and all your coworkers get paid for the random and planned acts of kindness that God paved the way for you to do.

 Your paycheck? Wow! Righteousness and holiness!

But then in your envelope, you see it: God gave you a wonderful bonus that you didn’t (and couldn’t) earn.  It’s eternal life and it starts right now and continues forever.   

So would you really take the gift of God’s presence and favor and trade it for being Satan’s whipping boy all over again? (I didn’t think so).  You might hear Satan calling like the telemarketer from Hell trying to sell you on his brand of relationship saying, “Come back, I’ll make you a deal.”  But you can say like the Dave Edmunds song,

“You better get back to your use-to-be
‘Cause your kind of love ain’t good for me
I hear you knockin’
But you can’t come in
I hear you knockin’
Go back where you’ve been

Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

* * *

Give it up for Lent: Looking back, longing for the sinful days to return

* * *

For further study:

1. How is it that you resign from the bad job of sinning?
2. What does God’s job application process entail?  Is this job something you deserve or earn?
3. Read James 4:1-10.  What does this say about how to get rid of the old boss?

If there was a “Wanted” poster for Christians, it’d read, “Wanted: Dead and Alive.” 

How is that possible?–you ask–to be both dead and alive?”

“Because of Jesus” would be my reply.  For the Christian, it is possible to be simultaneously dead and alive.

What are we dead to?  Because of Jesus, we are dead to the old body of sin and our slavery to it.

What are we alive to?  Because of Jesus, we are alive to experience life as it was meant to be lived: free from sin and free to worship God.

That’s what today’s passage (Romans 6:1-11) is all about.  It’s a life-and-death matter, wrapped up in the idea of baptism.  Why baptism?  It is an outward physical sign of washing with water to indicate the inward spiritual change of being cleansed from sin.

The Dead and Alive argument goes: if we are dead to the things of this world, we aren’t under the thumb of sin anymore.  How could we be?  What can dead people do?  Jesus died for our sins and when we believe Him, it’s like we died along with Him.

But because He is alive, we’re also alive again!  It’s like we’ve been given a whole new life—free from needing to obey what jeopardized us in our former way of living.  We obey Christ and have new life because that’s what He gives us.  His Holy Spirit indwells us as new creations!  Perhaps now might be a good time to insert the words Born Again, although some argue that there’s never a good time for those words—they’re far too polarizing to ever be spoken.

If I died to the old master of sin, and I am alive to serve the new Master, Jesus Christ, why is sin still a struggle?  It’s part of the already-not-yet of being already born again in a world that has not yet been renewed.

Let’s face it: Born Again Christians don’t fit in.  Christians are Wanted men and women who are wanted by God to be following Christ, crucified with Him and born again by Him.  We’re wanted but also waiting for the new creation fit for those Born Again, Christians who are Wanted: Dead and Alive.

* * *

Give it up for Lent: Being ashamed of being Born Again; Contentment with dead priorities

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For further study, read John 3:1-21.

1. What does Jesus say here about being dead physically and alive spiritually? 
2. If there’s a sin issue you struggle with, how might considering it dead help you to let go of it? 
3. How might considering yourself to have died to the things of this world by being crucified with Christ help you to live as a person who is born again?
4. What do you think is at the root of the words born again being turned into a pejorative term?

In the movie, Baby Mama, Tina Fey’s character, Kate Holbrook, is investigating surrogacy with Chaffee Bicknell,

Chaffee Bicknell: Our surrogacy fee is $100,000.  

Kate Holbrook: It costs more to have someone born than to have someone killed!  

Chaffee Bicknell: It takes longer.

Interesting, isn’t it, that a throwaway humor line can carry such truth?

Today’s lesson comes from Romans 5:12-21 and contrasts the legacy of Adam (sin and death) with the work of Christ (righteousness and life). Giving ourselves a legacy of death cost little compared to the immeasurably high cost of giving us life again.

In Genesis 6:5-7, we read this sad statement:

The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. So the LORD said, “I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth– men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air– for I am grieved that I have made them.”

Adam’s legacy reflected wickedness–amplified with each generation–as we carried not only the pollutant of Adam’s sin in our nature, but we also added to it by rebellious acts of our own.  Every inclination…only evil…all the time—that, my friends, is what Adam accomplished with his human work of rebellion.

Even a flood couldn’t wash our nature clean.  But it did buy humanity some time.

Paul offers this contrast between Adam and Jesus Christ: 

“Again, the gift of God is not like the result of the one man’s sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification.  For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.  Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men.  For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.” (Romans 5:16-19, NIV)

In one foolish moment in the Garden of Eden, death arrived and it has infected every human being ever since.  But in one glorious moment on the Cross, death was conquered and Jesus’ death provided a cure for human sin that brings believers to eternal life.  Death could limit mortal life, cutting it short.  But Jesus showed us that while it costs more and it takes longer to give someone eternal life, this gift of His righteousness far surpasses the death and stain of Adam’s sin.  Bringing life to God’s people Costs More, Takes Longer, but it Lasts Forever.

* * *

Give it up for Lent: Short-term thinking about eternity

* * *

For futher study:

1.  Have you ever thought that you might have done things differently than Adam and Eve?  How does the eternal work of Christ display God’s love far more than any individual, day-by-day decision that Adam and Eve could have made?
2. In The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer, he writes “‘Return, ye children of men’ (Psalm 90:3) was the word spoken at the Fall by which God decreed the death of every man, and no added word has He needed to speak.  The sad procession of mankind across the face of the earth from birth to the grave is proof that His original word was enough.”  If God isn’t real and if Adam didn’t sin, resulting in his death, how do we explain how this earth is populated by things that are in the process of dying?
3. God promised He would never again flood the earth (Genesis 9:11).  Jesus was never “Plan B.”  Why did God destroy the earth once by a flood if Jesus was coming?  Read Matthew 24:38-44.  How does it set a pattern for faith?

I think I should have given up Oldies music for Lent or maybe home improvements.  I’ve been listening to Oldies while painting walls and recalling days past. As I heard the song by David Gates (of Bread fame) entitled “Everything I Own,” I was thinking how appropriate it would be for today’s devotional.  When it was released in 1972 it was thought by many average listeners to be a romantic love song when in fact it was written as a tribute to his father.

David Gates’ father was a music teacher and influenced his son toward a love of music.  During his junior year of college, David told his father that he wanted to move to California–just for the summer–to pursue a songwriting and performing career.  His mother and father were deeply disappointed that David would not be finishing his education but his father selflessly said,

Take two years and give it a shot. If it doesn’t work out, you can still finish college.”

Toward the end of that two years his father passed away, never having seen the full success that his son would achieve.  So much was left unsaid between father and son when he died.  That is the back story behind these lyrics to “Everything I Own”:

“Is there someone you know

You’re loving them so

But taking them all for granted?

You may lose them one day.

Someone takes them away

And they’ll never hear the words you have to say.

I would give anything I own.

Give up my life and my heart, my home.

I would give everything I own just to have you back again. “

Consider this: David Gates could not be with his father if he actually gave up his life, even if it is a beautiful sentiment.  Moreover, David and his father were not relationally estranged, just separated by time and distance.  The song communicates the strong bond of the father-child relationship and the love infusing it.

Our bond with God the Father is strong and infused with love, too.  But Scripture is clear that we are estranged from our Father in heaven…because of sin.

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.  Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die.  But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:6-8, NIV)

Jesus, God’s One and Only Son, gave up His life so that we could be reunited with our Father in heaven.  He gave up everything just to have us back again.

* * *

Give it up for Lent: Estrangement from God the Father

* * *

For further study: read all of Romans 5:6-11, John 3:11-18

1. Why could Jesus die and yet be with the Father but David Gates couldn’t die and bring his father back?
2. Read Genesis 3:17-24.  What caused our estrangement from our Father in heaven?  What does our estrangement look like?  Whose fault is it?
3. How has Jesus’ death provided the only remedy our estrangement?

How does one make sense of suffering?

I have a few planks in my theological platform.  One is the Image of God.  One is His sovereignty.  One of them is the perfect sacrifice of the perfect God-Man, Jesus Christ.  One is my hopeless condition as a sinner.  One is the absolute truth of God’s Word.   And one is the biblical art of Suffering Gracefully.

These few planks don’t make a floor, but I’ll pause my listing here to talk about Suffering Gracefully.

Oh, I haven’t suffered like those in the persecuted church, but I’ve experienced enough times of grief and sadness that I’ve probably been catapulted to the top of some people’s “Boy, I’m glad I’m not her” list. 

Today’s Scriptures read:

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.  And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. NIV Romans 5:1-5

There is a double-sided blessing of faith in Christ.  On one side, we have peace with God because of Jesus.  On the other, hope from God’s pouring out His love.

I am fond of analogies, as you can probably tell.  Today’s analogy comes from spelunking:  stalactites and stalagmites.

Spelunking is cave exploration and stalactites “grow” down from the ceiling and stalagmites form beneath them.  Sometimes they grow together to form a column as minerals present in the water get deposited before, during, and after the water drips.

This is a picture of Suffering Gracefully.

God so loved the world that He gave us Jesus who suffered and died for us.  By faith, it’s like the sufferings of Christ drip down from heaven and give us peace with God, but then the sufferings in our lives, handled with grace and by faith, cause us to accumulate hope until we become more and more Christlike in suffering.  Suffering allows the love of God to drip down and pile up.  As we continue in faith, the formation becomes visible to others.

Just as the stalagmite doesn’t grow up from the ground, but is the result of an outpouring from above, my growth depends on the outpouring of love from God in heaven.  In Christ, the love of God will be visible as a strong column of love, hope and comfort that testifies to a long drip of God’s grace that blesses me by faith.

    “For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows.”      (2Corinthians 1:5 NIV)

* * *

Give it up for Lent: Letting suffering interfere with seeing God’s grace 

* * *

For further study:

1. Read Romans 8:24-27.  Why is the unseen nature of hope frustrating to us as we try to persevere?
2. Romans 12:12 states ,”Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.”  How does patience in affliction contribute to the slow drip formation of suffering gracefully?
3. Read Colossians 1:24 in the Message paraphrase (and you can search other versions too).  How can suffering encourage ourselves and others?  Do you know anyone who has a visible column of faith, hope and love piled up from the outpouring of God’s love and comfort? Consider telling them what an encouragement they have been to you.

Vader: No, I am your father!

 Luke: No! No! That’s not true. That’s impossible!

Iconic dialogue from Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, it is often quoted as “Luke, I am your father!” because the plot’s twist was so meme-able, not to mention memorable.  Even so, it fails to capture the suspense we encountered when the sequel film was released (1980),  as we endured three long years–griping about its ending and waiting for Return of the Jedi (1983) to find out whether it was a Darth Vader trick or true fatherhood, fictionally speaking.

Today’s passage Romans 4:16-25 is kind of like that…it’s all about Abraham’s fatherhood and the role of fatherhood in Abraham’s faith being credited as righteousness.

In a surprising plot twist, Paul argues that Abraham was not only the father of the chosen people, the father of the promised seed (Isaac), but also the father of all those who would receive the promise in the same way Abraham did: by faith! 

For the Jewish people today, Abraham is their father—the great patriarch of the Jewish people—but also their father in terms of faith, if they believe God like Abraham did.

Romans 4:16 Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring—not only to those who are of the law but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham.

For any Jewish people who felt that salvation was their inheritance alone—their right because of their Jewish heritage—Paul pulls together his closing argument on the case for grace.

Grace isn’t earned. 

Grace resides not in heritage, club, or church membership. 

Grace cannot be bought or extorted. 

Grace is a gift.

It is unmerited favor.  It comes by faith in the promise God made to Abraham and his offspring to send a Deliverer–the Seed promised all the way back in Genesis–a Redeemer, a Messiah!

Grace invites all to hear the Gospel, to respond by faith in God and in His Promised Messiah.  Whether Jewish or Gentile believers, Abraham is our father.

* * *

Give it up for Lent: Trust in heritage and Unbelief

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For futher study, read also Galatians 3:14-28. 

1. How is Paul saying the same thing in today’s passage as in Galatians?
2. Going back to the concept of rights and privileges,  how does family heritage create the perception of exclusivity and keep us from seeing the need to share this grace with others?
3. If you’re Jewish, how do you feel about Gentiles claiming Abraham as their father, too?  If you’re a Gentile, how will you respond to the privilege of sharing the Messiah with others?
4. Read John 8:25-47.  Jesus takes this idea of fatherhood and faith to a shocking step farther.  How would you describe the listener reactions to the truth as Jesus presents it?

     Humans sin.     Do animals?

(I’ll wait while you react.)

* * *

Yes, you’re right: theologians do think about strange things.

How many angels dance on the head of a pin?

If a tree falls in the woods and there’s no one there to hear it, does it make any sound?

What happened to people who died before Jesus came?

Romans 4:1-15 sheds light on two of the four questions although not directly.  This passage reads like one big riddle which explains why many people blip right over it and miss out on seeing Paul’s brilliance.

Let’s face it: Paul was a really smart guy and he’s Building a Case for Grace.  If we jump over this section, we lose something valuable.  So go ahead and read Romans 4:1-15.  I’ll wait.

There ought to be two verses that pop out at you:

• verse 3 “What does the Scripture say?   ‘Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.’” (People who died before Jesus came either believed God or they didn’t.  Faith was credited as righteousness and unbelief wasn’t).
• verse 15: “[B]ecause law brings wrath. And where there is no law there is no transgression.” (Animals can’t really sin because there was no law they broke in the Garden of Eden, unlike Adam and Eve who transgressed God’s law/command.)  Animals–indeed all created things–were made subject to the same broken world we’ve received as punishment (see Romans 8:19-21).  So while animals may do awful things to each other because of a broken world, they don’t have the Image of God or the law, and therefore don’t sin.

I argued earlier that the Mosaic Law served as a Sacred Space Maintainer (Lent 9-2013).  So whether the person was the patriarch Abraham or Abraham Lincoln, Paul is Building a Case for Grace–for grace that fills this Sacred Space.  No special rights are owed to any of us, no matter how famous we are or what contributions we’ve made to religion or culture.

This righteousness, Paul says (translated into words I can understand), cannot be earned like a wage, received through a bribe, come as a perk of paying membership dues, or fall into the vending slot after you put enough coins in.  All those things depend on us.

Paul is Building a Case for Grace, unmerited favor.  Righteousness–right relationship with God–is a gift.  It’s a gift of grace by our God who loved us enough to bless our faith.  While we cannot depend on ourselves, we must depend on the One who sent His only Son to pay for sins–our sins!  (He didn’t commit any of His own).  We receive His righteousness and that’s grace!

* * *

Give it up for Lent: Thinking it all depends on you

* * *

For further study:  Re-read today’s passage and identify the concepts of wages, bribes, perks of membership and a vending machine idea. 

Questions:

1. Circumcision isn’t most people’s favorite topic.  Read here to find out why it was important to the Jewish people (see also Leviticus 12:3).  How did this sign set the Jews apart from others in the Ancient Near East?
2. How might a sign demonstrating their role as the chosen people become an exclusive club membership ritual?  It is easy to take what is a sign of something and turn it into the saving event.  Church attendance, spiritual disciplines like prayer, baptism, Bible study–how might we fall prey to the same error of substituting what we can do for what God did?
3. Why does Paul go through such description of Abraham and circumcision?  We’ll explore this a bit more down the road, but think about why Abraham’s not being circumcised and living well before the Mosaic Law was ever given makes a difference in the case Paul is building for grace.

When my children were little I enjoyed reading to them the Berenstain Bears book, Inside Outside Upside Down.  In the story Brother Bear gets inside a box that gets brought outside, turned upside down and put on a truck to go to town.  It was perfect for teaching spatial concepts.

The Jewish people of Paul’s day were about to get a lesson of their own about this.  Remember Paul asking rhetorically what benefit there was to being Jewish?   They had an insider role by being entrusted with the very words of God (Romans 3:1-2).

Being the chosen people made them proud (in both the good and bad senses of the word).  So Paul points out that even though they are inside, they are also outside.  They are inside the covenant of God’s chosen people, but outside with the same sins as everyone else.

Romans 3:27 Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. On what principle? On that of observing the law? No, but on that of faith. 28 For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law. 29 Is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too, 30 since there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith. 31 Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law.  (NIV)

If faith is what God’s looking for, then it doesn’t matter if you’re inside or outside the covenant because we’re all outside as sinners.  Paul was Jewish but he argues that this heritage alone isn’t reason for boasting although if anyone could reasonably boast, it would be Paul (Philippians 3:3-9).

Rather what matters is faith.  Faith brings the outsider inside.  It seems upside down that God would choose to put sinners in right standing with Himself.  Why would God bother?  It is His grace that motivates such an upside down thing.  Yet through Jesus Christ, Jewish people can be Inside Outside Upside Down and saved in the same way as God saves the Gentiles: by faith.

* * *

Give it up for Lent: Boasting, Insider Attitudes

* * *

For further study:

1. What was the point of having a chosen people if they were outsiders, too?  (Isaiah 42:5-7 Luke 4:14-21)
2. Ephesians 2:8-9 reads, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith– and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God– not by works, so that no one can boast.”  Why was it necessary that God turned salvation upside down?
3. What can we boast about?  Read 1 Corinthians 1:26-31

All analogies fall apart when pressed. 

With that caveat out of the way, I’d like to offer an analogy for today’s passage: Space Maintainers. 

 They’re necessary to avoid space invaders (not this kind).

* * *

Baby teeth lost prematurely may require a child’s receiving a metal space maintainer to save the space.

We have baby teeth for a variety of reasons, among which is that they normally save space for a permanent tooth which will erupt into its position as the baby tooth is lost at the right time.

When baby teeth fall out prematurely, spacers perform that function.  However, they were never designed to be permanent. They are removed when the new tooth erupts or the adjacent teeth become loose.

There is a Sacred Space called righteousness.  When God created Adam and Eve and placed them in the Garden of Eden, they were created to be righteous, in right relationship to God.

But when Adam and Eve rebelled against God, it’s like their baby tooth of righteousness fell out.  God watched as everything began to shift out of place, so He gave us a space maintainer: the Law and the Prophets.

The Law was not the space.

The Law testified to the Sacred Space of right relationship.

The Prophets were not the space.

The Prophets testified to the Sacred Space of right relationship.

But neither the Law nor the Prophets were the Sacred Space.  When Jesus came, He came to us as Emmanuel, “God with us.”  He indwelled that Sacred Space perfectly because He is holy.  The Law and the Prophets were not replaced because they never were that space at all.  The Law and the Prophets circumscribed holiness.  They kept that space sacred.  They maintained that space from encroachment by sin and showed us that we are on the outside as sinners.  All we could do was look into the cordoned truth and become conscious that our own sin was keeping us out.

In the past, believing God was credited to faithful people as righteousness in anticipation of the day that Sacred Space would be filled.  They drew near to that Sacred Space by faith waiting for the cordon to be removed.

But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.”   Romans 3:21-22

The Sacred Space has been filled by Christ Jesus.  The saints from the days before Christ and believers today find our right relationship with God by the grace shown in the death of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

* * *

Give it up for Lent: Relying on Spacers of Legalism or Religion

* * *

For further study, read all of Romans 3:19-26: 

1. Why is it often easier to trust in what we can see and do (like the law and good deeds) than in Jesus whom we cannot see?
2. Read Galatians 3:15-25.  In what ways are we “locked up” and like prisoners of sin?  Is there anything prisoners can do to free themselves and no longer be declared guilty? 
3. Hebrews 7: 18-19 reads, “The former regulation is set aside because it was weak and useless (for the law made nothing perfect), and a better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God.”  In what ways is Jesus a far better hope for humanity?

Just in case I start to think that I’m better than the average bear, Scripture pushes its way through my crowd of self-serving thoughts—gathered around me like adoring fans—and God’s Word reminds me that I have no real cause for self-indulgent self-esteem.

There is no one righteous, not even one.” (Romans 3:10)

Hmmm.  Could we make an exception in my case?  Nope.

Like many other people—particularly women I know—I suffer from low self-esteem and frankly, passages like today’s don’t do anything to relieve this affliction.  In fact, it says, throw another log on the fire!

The conversation would appear to go like this:

Barbara:  God, have you no pity upon my low view of myself?

God:  Not really.  There is no one righteous. Not even one. Get over yourself already.  It’s not about you.

Self-esteem.  Hmmm.  A sober self-assessment says we’re all in the same boat.  We’re sinners.  Some of us may do better window dressing of the sinner, but the naked truth remains we’re all prone to rebellion and are living like we shouldn’t.  Add us all together and we still don’t compensate for one another.

So, I ask myself, “Is it really low self-esteem or simply an accurate assessment?”

And if it’s an accurate assessment, shouldn’t I be even more thankful that God doesn’t hold me to a humanly impossible standard as my only recourse?

That is part of why the Gospel is such good news.

***

Give it up for Lent:  Preoccupation with Self-Esteem

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For further study:  Read all of Romans 3:9-18

Notice how our passage speaks specifically of sins of knowledge, devotion, actions, speech, ways, and worship.

1. Among the thoughts, words, and actions, how do these apply to you?
2. What changes might you need to make to find the way of peace?
3. In Job 28:12-30, there is a discourse on wisdom.  In verse 28 it says “And he said to man, ‘The fear of the Lord– that is wisdom, and to shun evil is understanding.'”  What is our passage saying when we read, “There is no fear of God before their eyes”?