There are days when my whole body feels like an antenna — too many signals, too many layers, too many subtle frequencies that hit me all at once.

It’s not painful, just overwhelming in a way that’s hard to name.

I feel the shift in someone’s mood before they do. I sense a lie in the breath before the words arrive. I hear every emotion that escapes between sentences.

And when it becomes too much, I go quiet. Not because I’m withdrawing from the world, but because silence is the only space where I can gather myself.

People think quiet means empty. But mine is crowded — with observation, with intuition, with all the things I don’t say because not everyone deserves that level of truth.

I don’t leave rooms because I’m difficult. I leave because I know the cost of staying too long in places that drain me.

And I’m done paying with my own presence just to be polite.

If I’m going to stay anywhere now, it has to be a place where I don’t have to bargain with myself to exist.

I owe no one the softened version of myself that swallows every reaction just to look “easy to handle.” Sometimes growth is just refusing to shrink anymore.

Some days everything arrives at once — the noise, the movement, the unsaid things people carry in their shoulders, in their eyes, in the way they breathe near you.

I feel it all. Every small vibration meant for no one in particular still lands somewhere in my body.

It’s not that I’m fragile. I’m just awake in places people have trained themselves to sleep through.

And when the world gets too loud, I don’t collapse. I retract. I draw the curtains inside myself so I can hear my own thoughts again.

There’s nothing dramatic about that. It’s simply the only way I stay whole.

Some chapters in Scripture don’t just teach—they transform. They don’t just clarify—they cut deep. They don’t just inform—they completely reorder how you see God, how you see yourself, and how you understand the story you’re living in. Romans 4 is one of those chapters.

Romans 4 is Paul pulling back the curtain on righteousness. It’s Paul showing you something shockingly simple and yet spiritually explosive: God does not count righteousness the way people do. God does not measure righteousness the way religion tries to. God does not award righteousness based on moral merit, personal performance, religious pedigree, or even spiritual consistency.

God counts righteousness by faith.

Not by perfection. Not by behavior. Not by success. Not by spiritual résumé.

By faith.

And Paul uses Abraham as the ultimate example—not because Abraham was flawless, not because Abraham was morally superior, and not because Abraham was a spiritual giant who never stumbled. Paul uses Abraham because Abraham embodies the truth that righteousness is not earned; it is received.

Romans 4 is not a theological debate. It is the very heartbeat of grace. It is the door through which every believer must walk if they want to live free, live secure, and live fully convinced of how God sees them.

This chapter rewrites identity. It rewrites belonging. It rewrites your standing before God. It rewrites the entire relationship between God and His people.

Because if righteousness is granted, not earned—then the pressure is gone. The fear is gone. The shame is gone. The insecurity is gone. The lifelong habit of trying to “be enough” is gone.

Romans 4 is freedom.

And once you fully understand it, you cannot go back to the old way of living.

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THE STARTING POINT: WHAT DID ABRAHAM REALLY HAVE?

Paul begins by asking a crucial question:

What did Abraham discover about being righteous before God?

He’s not asking, “What did Abraham achieve?” He’s asking, “What did Abraham learn?”

Because Abraham’s righteousness didn’t come from Abraham’s performance—it came from Abraham’s revelation.

And the revelation was this:

God counts faith as righteousness.

That truth changes everything.

If righteousness were based on works, Abraham could boast. But Paul quickly shuts that down by saying that boasting is impossible before God. Why? Because works-based righteousness would make God a debtor, not a giver.

If you earn righteousness, God owes you. If you deserve righteousness, God pays you. If you qualify for righteousness, God responds to your achievement.

But righteousness is not a wage. Righteousness is not compensation. Righteousness is not a prize for good behavior.

Righteousness is a gift. A deposit. A credit to your account—based solely on faith.

This means Abraham stands before God with nothing in his hands except trust.

And God says, “That is righteousness.”

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WHAT DOES ‘CREDITED’ REALLY MEAN?

The word Paul uses—“credited”—is a financial term. It means something is put into your account that wasn’t there before. It means God literally assigns righteousness to your name.

Imagine looking at your spiritual account and seeing nothing but insufficiency. Nothing but mistakes. Nothing but attempts. Nothing but inconsistency.

And then God steps in and deposits righteousness. Not because you earned it. Not because you proved yourself worthy. But because you believed Him.

This is not symbolic. It is not abstract. It is not poetic language.

It is a spiritual transaction.

God counts your faith as righteousness.

That is the bedrock of Paul’s message. That is the foundation of your faith. That is the reason you can stand before God without fear.

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YOUR FAILURE DOESN’T CANCEL YOUR RIGHTEOUSNESS

Abraham’s story is not a tale of perfect obedience. Abraham made mistakes so large that if they happened today, people would write articles, make videos, and host podcasts about them:

He lied to protect himself. He jeopardized his wife’s safety. He tried to force God’s promise with human strategy. He let fear make decisions. He doubted. He wrestled. He hesitated.

And yet—God still called him righteous.

Why?

Because righteousness is not based on flawless execution; it is based on genuine faith.

Abraham’s righteousness didn’t unravel when Abraham stumbled. It didn’t evaporate when Abraham failed. It didn’t shatter when Abraham made a mess.

Because righteousness was never built on Abraham—it was built on God.

And that is the same truth for you.

Your righteousness is not fragile. Your righteousness cannot be stolen. Your righteousness cannot be undone by a bad day. Your righteousness does not collapse under weakness.

Your righteousness stands because grace stands.

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THE BATTLE BETWEEN WHAT YOU SEE AND WHAT HE SAID

Romans 4 captures something profound about Abraham’s faith:

He faced the facts without letting the facts defeat the promise.

He didn’t pretend he was young. He didn’t deny Sarah’s barrenness. He didn’t minimize the improbability. He didn’t silence the natural evidence.

He simply refused to let physical reality override spiritual truth.

Faith is not irrational—it is supernatural. Faith is not blind—it sees differently. Faith is not ignorance—it is higher knowledge.

Abraham didn’t ignore the facts; he just refused to worship them.

This is where many believers struggle. They think faith means pretending things aren’t difficult. But Abraham shows that faith is acknowledging reality without allowing reality to dictate the outcome.

Faith says: “I see what’s in front of me, but I trust the One who stands above it.”

Abraham didn’t put his faith in his situation. He put his faith in God’s character.

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THE GOD WHO CALLS THINGS INTO BEING

Paul uses one of the most important descriptions of God in the entire New Testament:

God gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they already are.

This verse alone could change someone’s entire theology.

It describes two things God loves to do:

1. Resurrect what is dead

2. Speak into existence what does not yet appear

God doesn’t wait for life to show up before He speaks. God’s Word creates life. God’s Word carries future into the present. God’s Word defines reality before your eyes can see it.

Abraham wasn’t believing in circumstances—he was believing in a God who creates outcomes.

Your faith is in the same God.

He calls you righteous even when you don’t feel righteous. He calls you healed even when symptoms persist. He calls you chosen even when you feel overlooked. He calls you forgiven even when guilt tries to scream louder.

God declares what He will do—long before you see even the first hint of evidence.

And faith agrees with God’s declaration.

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AGAINST ALL HOPE, IN HOPE HE BELIEVED

This single line might be one of the greatest definitions of faith:

“Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed.”

Against all logic—he believed. Against all evidence—he believed. Against all biological probability—he believed. Against all emotional exhaustion—he believed.

Hope in the natural world had expired. Hope in God had not.

This is the kind of faith that heaven recognizes. This is the kind of faith that aligns with the character of God. This is the kind of faith that produces righteousness.

Abraham did not let go of the promise. He did not downgrade God to match his circumstances. He did not shrink the vision to accommodate his age. He did not reduce the supernatural to the level of the natural.

He believed.

And because he believed, heaven counted that belief as righteousness.

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THE PROMISE COMES BY FAITH SO IT CAN BE GUARANTEED

This may be one of the most important sentences in Romans 4:

“The promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and be guaranteed.”

Guaranteed.

Faith guarantees the promise—not because of the strength of your faith, but because the source of the promise is grace.

If the promise depended on you, it would be fragile. If the promise depended on your consistency, it would be unstable. If the promise depended on your goodness, it would collapse. If the promise depended on your record, it would fail.

But because the promise depends on God—because it rests on grace—it is unshakable.

You are secure because He is faithful. You are righteous because He is generous. You are accepted because He is merciful.

Faith ties your life to the reliability of God, not the volatility of you.

This is why the promise is guaranteed.

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DAVID’S CONFESSION: THE JOY OF FORGIVENESS

Paul brings David into the conversation to show another side of grace:

Forgiveness.

David says:

“Blessed is the one whose sin the Lord will never count against them.”

Never count.

Not occasionally count. Not count on your worst days. Not count when you slip up. Not count when spiritual momentum slows.

Never count.

Do you understand the weight of that?

This means your sin does not go on your record. Your past does not get resurrected in heaven. Your failures do not define your standing. Your setbacks are not held against you.

David sinned in ways that devastated lives—and yet he experienced forgiveness so overwhelming that he called it a blessing beyond words.

By quoting David, Paul is saying:

If God forgave David by grace… If God called Abraham righteous by faith…

Then God will do the same for you.

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THE STORY IS NOT JUST ABOUT ABRAHAM—IT’S ABOUT YOU

Paul makes this unmistakably clear. He writes:

“The words ‘it was credited to him’ were written not for him alone, but also for us…”

For us.

For you. For your children. For your future. For your journey. For your faith. For your identity.

This chapter is not historical commentary. It is personal revelation.

Paul is telling you:

“You stand before God the same way Abraham did—through faith in the God who raised Jesus from the dead.”

And then Paul gives you the gospel in a single sentence:

“He was delivered to death for our sins and raised to life for our justification.”

Jesus died to remove your sin. Jesus rose to declare you righteous.

His death clears the record. His resurrection rewrites your identity.

This is why righteousness can never be earned—because it has already been accomplished.

You receive by faith what Jesus accomplished by grace.

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WHAT ROMANS 4 MEANS FOR HOW YOU LIVE

This chapter is not information. It is transformation. It is the blueprint for confidence, freedom, and spiritual identity.

Here is what Romans 4 means for your daily life:

1. You don’t have to earn God’s love. You already have His righteousness.

2. You don’t have to be haunted by your past. Your sin is not counted against you.

3. You don’t have to fear failure. Righteousness cannot be undone.

4. You don’t have to be controlled by circumstances. Faith looks to the God who calls things into being.

5. You don’t have to shrink your prayers. Impossible is God’s starting point.

6. You don’t have to disqualify yourself. Abraham was righteous in his imperfection.

7. You don’t have to carry spiritual insecurity. Your righteousness is guaranteed.

Romans 4 is the Spirit of God telling your heart:

“You are righteous because you trust Him.”

And that righteousness holds. It lasts. It endures. It stands firm even when you don’t.

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STEPPING INTO THE FREEDOM OF FAITH

Imagine waking up every day knowing—truly knowing—that you are right with God.

Not hoping. Not wishing. Not trying. Not performing.

Knowing.

Knowing that righteousness has been credited to you. Knowing that your sin is never counted against you. Knowing that your faith is honored in heaven. Knowing that God sees you through the lens of Christ. Knowing that grace holds your story from beginning to end.

Imagine living with that kind of freedom.

That kind of peace. That kind of confidence. That kind of boldness.

That is Romans 4. That is the life God invites you into.

A life where righteousness is not a goal—it is a gift. A life where faith is not a struggle—it is a response. A life where grace is not a concept—it is your foundation. A life where the promise is not uncertain—it is guaranteed.

A life where God counts your faith as righteousness—and nothing in heaven, earth, or hell can reverse that verdict.

Because God said it.

And when God says it, it stands forever.

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jeg bærer overstimuleringen som et dyr under huden

enten spriker jeg med tennene eller faller stille bak øynene som om noen skrudde ned lyset i meg

og alltid den samme feilen:

jeg blir værende i rom som ikke tåler meg til jeg mister meg selv i forsøket på å virke ufarlig

og jeg sier unnskyld til mennesker jeg ikke engang husker hvorfor jeg lot røre meg

etterpå kommer varmen som flauhet gjør: en stille beskjed om at jeg solgte integriteten min for billig igjen

så jeg går hjem og lukker døren til alle som tror at min høflighet var for deres skyld

den var bare et symptom på at jeg hadde vært for lenge blant fremmede.

There comes a moment in every honest believer’s life when they must stop pretending that human effort can fix what only God’s grace can restore. Romans 3 is that moment written in Scripture. It’s the chapter that brings every one of us—no matter where we were born, what sins we hide, what mask we wear, or what we pretend to be—into the same courtroom of God, and it reveals the verdict that human pride has spent centuries trying to avoid.

Romans 3 is not polite. It is not diplomatic. It does not flatter. It does not soothe the ego. It does not allow anyone to stand on spiritual tiptoes and declare themselves the exception.

Romans 3 levels the ground beneath every foot. It dismantles self-righteousness. It dismantles comparison. It dismantles religious arrogance. It dismantles the illusion of moral superiority.

And then—when we are finally stripped of excuses, defenses, and illusions—it introduces us to the righteousness of God that does not come from us at all, but to us as a gift through faith in Jesus Christ.

If Romans 1 shows humanity spiraling downward, and Romans 2 reveals that religious people are not exempt, then Romans 3 is the spiritual autopsy report of the entire human race: nothing in us is capable of saving us.

But God still wants us.

And that is where the story turns.

This article takes you deep into the emotional, spiritual, and personal dimensions of Romans 3—not as a textbook, not as a lecture, but as a transformative encounter. We’ll walk phrase by phrase through the chapter, listening to its heartbeat, feeling its urgency, and seeing why it remains one of the most soul-shaking and hope-giving chapters ever written.

Let’s go slowly. Let’s go honestly. Let’s go deeply.

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THE TRUTH WE DON’T WANT TO HEAR: “THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS”

Romans 3 opens by continuing a conversation in which Paul dismantles the last surviving stronghold of self-confidence among believers of his time: religious heritage.

For the Jewish listener, heritage was identity. It was stability. It was covenant. It was history. It was meaning. It was safety.

And Paul honors that heritage—he says it is a blessing, a gift, a privilege. But then he makes something abundantly clear: heritage cannot save you. No background, no tradition, no denomination, no ceremony, and no religious badge of honor can cleanse the heart.

Paul then quotes the Old Testament—not once, but repeatedly—to make sure everyone understands the weight of what he’s saying:

“There is none righteous, no, not one.”

“There is none who understands.”

“There is none who seeks after God.”

“All have turned aside.”

“No one does good, not even one.”

This is not Paul exaggerating. This is not Paul being dramatic. This is God telling the truth about the spiritual condition of humanity without His grace.

It’s offensive to human pride. It always has been.

But Romans 3 does something brilliant—it forces us to look in the mirror long enough to see that the solution can never come from the person in the reflection.

Romans 3 is not trying to shame us. It’s trying to free us.

Because as long as we believe that salvation begins with us, depends on us, or is powered by us, we will spend our lives exhausted, afraid, condemned, and unsure of where we stand with God.

Freedom begins by admitting the simplest truth: We cannot save ourselves—and we were never meant to.

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THE MIRROR OF GOD’S LAW

Paul goes on to explain why God gave the Law in the first place. It wasn’t to reveal how righteous we are—it was to reveal how much we needed a Savior.

The Law is like a perfect mirror. It shows every flaw. Every crack. Every hidden stain. Every broken thought. Every wrong motive.

But it cannot clean you.

A mirror can expose dirt on your face. But you can’t wash yourself with a mirror.

That’s the Law.

It exposes sin but never removes it.

And for some believers, this is the hardest part to accept. We think if we just try harder—pray longer—read more—behave better—that one day we will become “good enough” for God.

Romans 3 destroys the illusion of “good enough.”

The Law was never meant to produce righteousness—it was meant to prove we didn’t have any.

And once you understand that, the next part of Romans 3 hits like a sunrise on the darkest night.

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THE TURNING POINT OF THE ENTIRE GOSPEL: “BUT NOW…”

There are two of the most powerful words in the entire Bible.

“But now…”

With those two words, Paul shifts the entire conversation from our inability to God’s mercy.

The righteousness we could never achieve, God gives freely through Jesus.

The forgiveness we could never earn, God pours out like a river.

The salvation we could never build, God completes through Christ’s blood.

God is not lowering the standard. He is fulfilling it Himself.

He is not ignoring sin. He is paying for it.

He is not pretending we are righteous. He is giving us His righteousness.

Christ did not come to make us better people. He came to make us new people.

And this righteousness is not reserved for the elite, the educated, the religious, or the morally impressive.

Paul says it clearly—this righteousness is available to:

“All who believe.”

That means no one is too far gone. No one is too broken. No one is too stained. No one is too guilty. No one is too late. No one is beyond mercy.

Grace is not a ladder for the strong—it’s a lifeline for the drowning.

Romans 3 is the chapter where God pulls back the curtain and says, “You can stop trying to be your own savior. You have One now.”

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THE MOST FAMOUS SENTENCE IN ROMANS 3: “FOR ALL HAVE SINNED…”

It’s the verse countless Christians know by heart.

“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

But many fail to recognize the miracle that comes immediately afterward:

“…and are justified freely by His grace.”

This is where the heart of God becomes unmistakably clear.

Yes—we fall short. Yes—we make mistakes. Yes—we sin. Yes—we rebel. Yes—we wander away. Yes—we break what God calls precious.

But the verse doesn’t stop at the diagnosis. It continues to the cure.

We are justified—declared righteous, absolved, forgiven—freely by His grace.

Not cheaply. Not lightly. Not casually. Not sentimentally. Not because God looked the other way.

But freely to us because it cost Him everything.

Grace is free to the receiver, but costly to the Giver.

The cross is where grace became visible. The empty tomb is where grace became victorious. Romans 3 is where grace becomes personal.

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JESUS: THE FULL PAYMENT, THE FINAL SACRIFICE, THE OPEN DOOR

Paul explains that God presented Jesus as a sacrifice of atonement—a complete payment for sin, a final settling of the debt.

This means:

You don’t owe God anymore. You don’t have to earn forgiveness. You don’t have to pay Him back. You don’t have to punish yourself. You don’t have to live in shame. You don’t have to carry the guilt another day.

When Jesus said, “It is finished,” He wasn’t speaking poetically. He was speaking legally, spiritually, prophetically, and eternally.

Your case is closed. Your debt is settled. Your sin is canceled. Your record is wiped clean. Your slate is washed. Your soul is redeemed.

And this isn’t a temporary covering—it is permanent righteousness.

This is the righteousness that allows you to pray boldly. This is the righteousness that allows you to walk confidently. This is the righteousness that allows you to stand forgiven and unafraid.

Romans 3 tells us God did all of this “to demonstrate His righteousness”—His faithfulness, His justice, His mercy, and His commitment to rescue humanity.

Every time someone is forgiven… Every time someone believes… Every time someone is redeemed… Every time someone is restored… Every time someone comes home to God…

…God proves all over again that He is righteous, merciful, and faithful.

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WHERE HUMAN PRIDE DIES AND REAL FREEDOM BEGINS

Paul concludes with a question that echoes through every generation:

“Where, then, is boasting?”

And the answer is simple:

“Gone.”

Boasting dies at the foot of the cross.

Because no one can brag about earning what was freely given. No one can boast about achieving what was mercifully provided. No one can praise themselves for a salvation they could never accomplish.

Romans 3 is the great equalizer. It silences pride. It silences comparison. It silences judgment. It silences the attempt to climb ladders God never asked us to climb.

And in that silence…

…God speaks grace over us. …God clothes us in righteousness. …God restores what sin destroyed. …God lifts the head bowed down by shame. …God breathes life into the soul tired of trying.

Romans 3 is not about condemnation—it’s about liberation.

It’s the chapter where humanity stops pretending and starts receiving.

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HOW ROMANS 3 TRANSFORMS YOUR DAILY LIFE

Romans 3 is not just theological truth—it is personal truth.

It changes how you see yourself. It changes how you see others. It changes how you pray. It changes how you worship. It changes how you repent. It changes how you show grace to people who fail you. It changes how you carry your past. It changes how you walk into your future.

When you deeply accept the message of Romans 3, something profound begins to happen:

You stop living from shame. You start living from grace.

You stop striving for approval. You start walking in acceptance.

You stop judging people. You start loving people.

You stop performing for God. You start partnering with God.

You stop hiding your flaws. You start healing from them.

You stop pretending you’re strong. You start leaning on His strength.

Romans 3 is the end of self-salvation and the beginning of real joy.

Real peace. Real confidence. Real transformation. Real freedom.

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THE HEART OF ROMANS 3 IN ONE SENTENCE

If you were to condense the entire chapter into one truth, it would be this:

We bring the sin. God brings the righteousness.

We bring the need. God brings the supply.

We bring the brokenness. God brings the restoration.

We bring the emptiness. God brings the fullness.

We bring the confession. God brings the cleansing.

We bring the faith. God brings the salvation.

Romans 3 is the story of divine exchange—and we receive the better half of everything.

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WHERE THIS LEAVES YOU TODAY

You may be reading this with questions in your heart. Maybe even pain. Maybe regret. Maybe failure you haven’t forgiven yourself for. Maybe confusion about where you stand with God.

Romans 3 answers those questions with clarity that shakes the soul:

You are not beyond forgiveness. You are not beyond hope. You are not beyond grace. You are not beyond God’s reach.

You can stop striving. You can stop performing. You can stop trying to carry the weight of your own righteousness.

Receive the righteousness that has already been purchased for you.

Walk in the grace that God is offering.

You don’t have to earn it. You don’t have to impress God. You don’t have to be perfect. You don’t have to fix yourself first.

The entire message of Romans 3 can be summarized in one breath:

You can come to God exactly as you are— because Jesus already paid for who you were and prepared the way for who you can become.

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THE FINAL WORD: GOD WANTED YOU ALL ALONG

Romans 3 does not end with despair. It ends with hope that cannot be shaken.

The righteousness of God is given. The mercy of God is finished. The grace of God is overflowing.

And God wants you.

Not cleaned up. Not polished. Not perfected. Not hiding. Not pretending.

He wants you because He loves you. He loves you because you matter to Him. And you matter because you were created for a relationship with Him that no amount of sin could ever cancel.

Romans 3 tells the truth about us… only so it can reveal the truth about Him.

A God who saves. A God who forgives. A God who redeems. A God who restores. A God who rescues. A God who stays.

This is the mercy that changes everything.

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Support the ministry by buying Douglas a coffee

Douglas Vandergraph

#Faith #BibleStudy #Romans3 #Grace #ChristianLiving #Encouragement #Hope #Inspiration #Transformation #JesusChrist

“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”

—Unknown

Five ⟺ Seven

Five loses hope distancing themselves from intrusions. With a worn down buffer, empty reserves, and a sense of scarcity that has progressed to starvation, they are forced to open up, indicating the transition from Rejection to Frustration. Afflicted by a profound state of depletion, they have nothing to lose by getting out in the open and filling up less discriminatingly at Seven.

At Five you gave up focusing on the source of intrusion and start focusing on what to be affected by instead and how to achieve this. Losing hope that diving into the current realities of a situation will be constructive, they start recreating and asserting their own reality irrespective of what already has been created. That there is something to fear or avoid in immediate surroundings may be so taken for granted that Sevens can be downright reckless in the face of negative consequences and risks.

Seven is a Five who has already been invaded. Already robbed, needs become more immediate. In the extremes of this state we can only do what is intrinsically motivating to ourselves, or we run out of fuel. Having lost their foundation at Five, Seven starts from scratch each moment. Their safe shell no longer exists, whether that be physically in the form of armor or psychologically in the form of detachment.

When defenses are overwhelmed, they give them up and stop investing in them. The starting point for Seven is having some pest to fend off, but having to do so indirectly; circumventing, avoiding, evading, or outmaneuvring it. Common pests include constraints, interruptions, insults, attacks, indications of being wrong, of having built something on shaky ground, and obstacles to what you want. We may for example hold beliefs that are incompatible to each other, enlivening whichever suits us in the situation we are in. Or we avoid facing an argument someone made, tricking ourselves we have addressed it when we are merely imagining that doing so is possible.

While postponing a confrontation can give us the chance to attain the resource or solution that were missing in the moment, this creates debts which have Sevens continually trading their energy to pay off the present moment. This in turn can make resting feel like standing in place while the ground falters underneath your feet, and they try instead to solve every deficit by finding some source of replenishment. Seven finds themselves on an endless search when as they branch out to find what solves their current debts, they encounter more and more drains and challenges which in turn create new needs, and on it goes.

Losing hope also of your capacity to hold onto resources, storage of possessions feel uncertain. This can explain an irrational spending habit, where the ego unconsciously responds to a situation where spending beyond one’s means would be fully reasonable. Of course there are just as many situations where spending is the better choice. Spending money is just an exchange of a general resource for a specific one. 

Without a controlled environment where you can limit what can impact you, Five to Seven can’t rely on preparing for what will be required in the future. They cannot expect what challenges tomorrow brings, as conditions may change at any moment. Under these circumstances, making long term choices is not as rational. You do not have the luxury of long term planning when the demands of existence can’t be predicted beforehand. At Seven you have the constant task of reinvesting your valuables or currencies, making sure they suit the situation at hand, making sure of their relevancy. The skills you honed for your given set of conditions at Five may be useless in a different setting. Your chosen currency may turn illegitimate. Commitment may be avoided as it means being vulnerable to future unforeseen demands.

Seven has more acute and unpredictable challenges, and therefore a more varied spectrum of interests compared to Five. They prioritise mobility and adaptability over storage and amassing, though may locate and hunt down a wide variety of sources of fuel or charge that may never be revisited, as it didn’t end up being the panacea hoped for. Yet, when you can’t carry a large pouch, you need constant refill, and become hyper-attuned to shiny treasures and other fascinations. As the highest Frustration type, Seven has a belief in the possibility of attaining them, and get bursts of energy to go after them.

Sevens have to learn to quickly navigate unknown territory, and therefore develop more general and translatable talents like improvisation and making quick approximations. They begin to seek ways to generate what they need as they go, investing what they have into the next target of attention instead of holding it, and become dependent on getting something out of every moment and on their productions yielding frequent and sufficient returns on investment. They continually scan their surroundings, seeing its positive potential and engaging with the environment in exploring, probing ways that hopefully generate some unexpected beneficial result.

The fun-seeking of Seven is usually seen as a luxury need, when what is fun and interesting to us is a flaming sign of what is relevant to the challenges we perceive we have. Interest springs both from needs and from what supports the desired development for one’s life. It is an excellent indicator of what is genuinely beneficial for you, as long as it stems from true interest and not avoidance of something else. Being in a prolonged thrill-seeking state indicates some chronic impoverishment, where it may be all you can do to be survive until you can find the missing piece to a chronic problem. Our descent into habitual coping begin if we forget the original problem and stop registering when improvement can be made to it. A gluttonous tendency is often a combination of the presence of some resource and the absence of another, such as a spoiled child who feeds the hole of lacking parental presence with toys and candy and is dependent on their overconsumption to compensate.

One way to view Wisdom, the virtue assigned to Seven by Claudio Naranjo, is knowing what is relevant in a given situation, such as how and when to use information or other resources, knowing what’s needed, and seeing the place of something relative to the full picture. A classic example of lack of wisdom is when a usually very knowledgeable type of person insists on their correctness after delivering a fact which is not the centrally relevant truth of the situation, however true it may be in isolation. This person does not see the whole picture but focuses on the veracity of their piece in itself, while the person on the receiving end often can’t explain why the know-it-all is wrong even if they are right.

The act of clarifying, successfully selecting what is relevant and what is to be discarded, is another integration to Five. Sharpening the signal; what you can make sense of, and neutralising noise; what you can’t. There is no noise, however, only too much complexity for our minds to make sense of, which would lead to mental overwhelm without appropriate noise reduction or holistic thinking to scale.

Selecting a vantage point, a central perspective, with which to see the world from when finding one you sufficiently believe in, is yet another. You choose a permanent ground when you found one solid enough to convince you of its incomparable payoff or long-term stability, such as when a belief, a relationship, a home, or a challenge continues to yield fruits and you can sustain its cost and inherent constraints. Sevens can struggle with the lack of a sense of spending time, energy or other resources on the right activity, wondering whether what they are doing is the best use of their time and focus, wanting to follow many trails at once. Choosing and choosing out of one such trail, like of a train of thought, demonstrates how integration and disintegration continually happens at a micro level.

Sevens are distractible by new stimuli because investment has to be redetermined with any change in overview. By finding a worthwhile focus they integrate, and mental direction is more unified and stable at Five. You can choose to cut off alternatives and narrow down your reality when you believe an experience will cover its costs, that the present moment supplies you enough to deliver you to the future. Or better yet, that it is the optimal way to spend your time.

When for any reason you lose faith in how you invest your attention, Five zooms out, going from focus to overview and moving attention quickly between several foci, scanning their mental space or physical surroundings at Seven. They gain accuracy at the expense of precision, going from deep understanding and high resolution of one area of focus to quickly comparing and contrasting different appearances and their dynamic interplay. Appearance means surface level depth, or as far as you can quickly grasp something without getting stuck at a plateau that requires greater effort and investment to break past.

A Merry Little Ex-Mas, Netflix 2025

3.5/5 Hot Chocolates

So begins Larry's 100 Holiday Movie Season! My family and I have been studying the genre for a decade, and for the past five years, I have been reviewing them on my Instagram. I am now applying the format of the Drable/100 Word review and cataloging them here. But don't worry, Instagram Fam, I will still post them there to preserve this cherished tradition.

Notable Stars: Alicia Silverstone, Jameela Jamil, and Melissa Joan Hart. Silverstone, Hart produced for Mellisa Joan’s Mom’s Heartbreak Films production company.

Alicia Silverstone joins the Christmas Movie industrial complex.

Consciously uncoupling Silverstone and Oliver Hudson attempt to maintain post-breakup holiday normalcy with their young adult children, new paramours, friends, and Granddads. Awkward festive gatherings, hurt feelings, and rekindled emotions ensue.

After years of trying, Netflix got its version of the Hallmark Christmas RomCom right, mimicking the look/feel with a few meta inside jokes while tweaking the Young Professional Female Gets Stuck In Wintertown trope.

Middle-aged “what now” angst and Silverstone's puppy-dog eyes ground the plot, and the writing sprinkles the story with core genre elements: humor, empathy, warmth, and baking.

Stream it.

#100HotChocolates #100DaysToOffload #Larrys100 #100WordReview #MovieReview #ChristmasMovies #HolidayMovies #Netflix #Cinemastodon #FilmMastodon #AliciaSilverstone #AMerryLittleExMas

WolfCast Home Page – Listen, follow, subscribe

Wolf In Wool is finally available on your favorite podcasting platforms. Happy to have you reading, and it’s a superior way to be in my head. But sometimes, it’s fun to listen too.

I’ll still include a link so you can listen here if you prefer the simplicity of wolfinwool.

In either case. Thank you and happy to have you on my journey.

—

And I'll always add a soundcloud link for those who prefer the purity of a listen without the hassle of the podcast system:

---

#podcast #wolfcast #confession #essay #story # journal #poetry #wyst #poetry #100daystooffset #writing #story #osxs #travel

There are chapters in Scripture that feel like a gentle hand on your shoulder, inviting you into comfort, mercy, or encouragement.

Then there are chapters that feel like a mirror.

Romans 2 is not a whisper. It is not a pat on the back. It is not the soft dawn after a dark night.

Romans 2 is a courtroom. Quiet. Honest. Unavoidable.

And the Judge is not God thundering from the heavens. The Judge is God speaking to your conscience.

It is the chapter where excuses come to die and truth comes to live. It is the place where God says, “I see the real you. And I still want you.”

Romans 2 isn’t about shame. It’s about truth. And truth is the beginning of healing. Truth is where transformation starts. Truth is where God rewrites stories.

1. The Chapter Nobody Escapes

Romans 2 is Paul stepping into the religious mind and saying something they didn’t expect:

“You are just as accountable as the people you judge.”

It’s easy to think Romans 1 is about “everyone else.” But Romans 2 is about us.

It is about the person who thinks they “know” God. It is about the person who feels morally grounded. It is about the person who can point to Scripture, quote verses, recall doctrine, or list out all the things they “don’t do.”

Romans 2 confronts the mentality of:

“I’m not perfect… …but at least I’m not as bad as them.”

But comparison is not righteousness. And judgment is not holiness.

Romans 2 pulls back every layer we hide behind and reveals the heart God is truly after.

Not the polished image. Not the impressive résumé. Not the religious exterior.

God wants the inside—the motives, the thoughts, the intentions, the real spiritual pulse beneath the surface of our lives.

This chapter levels the ground beneath every human foot. No one stands tall here. Not the Gentile. Not the Jew. Not the sinner. Not the religious elite.

Romans 2 says one thing clearly:

We are all accountable to the truth we’ve been given.

2. When Judgment Boomerangs

Romans 2 starts with one of the most piercing truths in all of Scripture:

“Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges; for in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself.”

Not because judgment is always wrong… …but because judgment usually reveals the very sin we hide.

We judge what we fear in ourselves. We judge what we secretly battle. We judge what we have not surrendered to God.

It is a spiritual boomerang.

Romans 2 exposes the psychology of hypocrisy:

• We condemn others to avoid confronting ourselves. • We highlight their failures to avoid admitting our own. • We magnify their mistakes because it minimizes ours. • We use judgment as a shield instead of confession as a doorway.

Romans 2 tears that shield down.

It does not do this to humiliate us. It does it to free us.

Because the moment we stop hiding behind judgment… …God can finally heal what we’ve been avoiding.

Judgment is a poor substitute for transformation. And Romans 2 won’t let us settle for it.

3. God’s Kindness Isn’t Weakness — It’s Strategy

One of the most beautiful, misunderstood verses in Romans sits right in the middle of this confrontation:

“Do you not realize that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?”

People misinterpret God’s patience. They assume silence means approval. They assume delay means permission. They assume grace means casualness.

But God’s patience is not passive. It is purposeful.

It is not softness. It is strategy. It is not weakness. It is rescue.

God gives us space not because sin is small, but because His mercy is big.

He waits because He loves. He waits because He knows we cannot change overnight. He waits because He is building the bridge from who we think we are to who He already knows we can become.

Romans 2 reveals a God who does not want to scare you into repentance but draw you into it.

Not through threats. Through kindness.

Not through terror. Through truth.

Not through shame. Through love.

If you ever wondered whether God is done with you… Romans 2 whispers:

“He’s been giving you time…because He wants you home.”

4. The Hidden Law in the Heart

One of the most profound insights of Romans 2 is Paul’s revelation that God’s law isn’t confined to tablets of stone.

It is written inside people.

Long before someone reads Scripture, something in them knows:

• Justice matters • Love is holy • Wrong cannot be excused • Truth should guide us • Cruelty is evil • Mercy is right • Life has meaning • God exists

Romans 2 calls this “the law written on the heart.”

This means:

You were born with a compass. Not a perfect one—but a real one. That inner voice urging you toward what is right? That is not culture. That is not upbringing. That is not guilt.

It is God. He signed the inside of your soul.

Paul says your thoughts—your own thoughts—alternate between accusing you and defending you.

When no one sees… when no one evaluates… when no one knows…

…your conscience speaks.

Romans 2 explains why:

Because God designed the human heart to respond to truth.

Because truth is not external—it is internal.

Because you were created to sense the Divine.

Even if you’ve never read Scripture…

Your spirit already knows you were made by Someone. And you were made for Someone.

5. The Illusion of Superiority Shatters Here

Romans 2 exposes every way human beings try to build their own righteousness:

• “I know the Bible.” • “I believe in God.” • “I’m moral.” • “I’m religious.” • “I live clean.” • “I don’t do what others do.” • “I’m a Christian, so I’m good.”

But Romans 2 says:

Knowledge isn’t righteousness. Religion isn’t holiness. Being informed isn’t being transformed.

God does not evaluate your life based on what you know. He evaluates it based on what you do with what you know.

The Jews had the law. They had the history. They had the covenant. They had the rituals. They had the lineage.

But Paul says—even with all that—

If your heart doesn’t reflect God, the law you study cannot save you.

Many people today carry a false sense of spiritual confidence because they grew up in church, or they “know about God,” or they’ve memorized Scripture, or they self-identify as Christian.

But Romans 2 reminds us:

God isn’t looking for people who know the truth— He’s looking for people who live it.

It is possible to admire Scripture but never obey it.

It is possible to praise God but never surrender to Him.

It is possible to look holy but be spiritually hollow.

Romans 2 dismantles every illusion that pretends to be righteousness.

6. God Sees What Others Can’t

Romans 2:16 says:

“God will judge the secrets of men.”

Secrets. The things you hide. The thoughts you never confess. The motives no one sees. The desires you don’t talk about. The wounds you never shared. The sins you think you buried.

God sees all of it.

But here is the miracle:

He sees your secrets not to destroy you, but to heal you.

Every secret is an unhealed place. Every hidden sin is an untreated wound. Every concealed fear is an unspoken plea for help.

God reveals what we hide so He can restore what we hide.

People judge what you have done. God heals why you did it.

People judge the fruit. God heals the root.

Romans 2 isn’t God pointing a finger at you. It’s God pointing you toward freedom.

Because you cannot heal what you refuse to face. And you will never face what you insist on hiding.

7. Hypocrisy — The Sin That Blinds the Soul

Romans 2 confronts the most dangerous spiritual condition: hypocrisy.

Hypocrisy is not failing. Everyone fails.

Hypocrisy is pretending. And pretending is poison.

It kills marriages. It kills families. It kills communities. It kills ministries. It kills authenticity. It kills faith. It kills transformation.

Hypocrisy is spiritual self-deception. We lie to ourselves about who we are so we never have to change.

But Romans 2 cuts through the pretending.

It says:

You who preach honesty—do you lie? You who condemn sin—do you hide your own? You who teach truth—do you live it?

God does not condemn you for struggling. He condemns pretense that keeps you from healing.

If Romans 2 wounds you, it’s only because God is cutting out the infection.

This chapter is not meant to humiliate you. It is meant to liberate you.

Because when the hypocrisy dies, the real you can finally breathe.

8. Real Circumcision Happens Inside

Romans 2 ends with one of the most revolutionary statements Paul ever wrote:

“A real Jew is one inwardly… circumcision is of the heart… by the Spirit.”

In other words:

The true people of God are not defined by rituals, but by rebirth.

Not by outward signs, but by inward transformation.

Not by religious marks, but by spiritual change.

God does not want your performance—He wants your heart. He does not want your religion—He wants your surrender. He does not want your ritual—He wants your transformation.

This means:

You are not defined by where you grew up. You are not defined by what you know. You are not defined by what you did. You are not defined by your past religious life.

You are defined by who you are becoming in Christ.

Romans 2 is your invitation to move from the outside to the inside.

From knowing about God to walking with Him.

From performance to authenticity.

From pretending to transformation.

From religion to rebirth.

9. What Romans 2 Really Wants From You

Romans 2 isn’t about fear. It’s about honesty.

It isn’t about condemnation. It’s about revelation.

It isn’t about humiliation. It’s about transformation.

This chapter calls you to:

• Stop hiding • Stop pretending • Stop comparing • Stop excusing • Stop self-justifying • Stop performing • Stop accusing others • Stop minimizing your own need for grace

And start:

• Letting God tell the truth about you • Letting conviction awaken you • Letting mercy draw you • Letting humility guide you • Letting surrender reshape you • Letting transformation begin

Romans 2 is not a spiritual attack—it is a spiritual rescue.

It pulls you away from the cliff of self-righteousness and leads you back into the arms of grace.

It dismantles your excuses so God can finally rebuild your soul.

It confronts you so God can restore you.

10. The Heart God Is Building in You

After walking through Romans 2, something shifts in the reader who truly hears it.

You begin to desire a different kind of life.

A life where truth matters more than image. A life where humility matters more than winning. A life where transformation matters more than performance. A life where surrender matters more than control. A life where mercy matters more than judgment. A life where authenticity matters more than appearance.

You begin to crave a heart that is real. Soft. Teachable. Pure. Surrendered. Alive.

You begin to long for the kind of spiritual integrity Romans 2 describes:

• Not perfect • Not God-impressive • Not outwardly impressive • Not self-righteous • Not image-driven • Not fearful • Not hypocritical

But humble. Honest. Awake. Transforming. Growing. Surrendered. Free.

Romans 2 doesn’t make you feel “better than others.” It makes you feel known by God.

And loved anyway.

11. The Courage to Face Yourself

Romans 2 gives you a rare opportunity:

To finally face the real you.

Not the you people see. Not the you you market. Not the you you pretend to be. Not the you shaped by fear. Not the you curated for approval.

The real you.

The one God formed in the womb. The one Jesus died for. The one the Spirit calls forward every day of your life.

This chapter is an inner reckoning— but it’s also an inner awakening.

When you face yourself honestly, you discover that God has been waiting in that place all along.

Not with anger— with mercy.

Not with rejection— with healing.

Not with punishment— with transformation.

Not with shame— with love.

12. The Conclusion: God Sees, God Knows, God Heals

Romans 2 teaches one of the most important truths of the Christian life:

You do not have to hide from God to be loved by God. You have to come to God to be healed by Him.

You can let go of:

• the pretending • the fear • the judgment • the comparison • the excuses • the spiritual mask • the shame • the performance • the image • the self-protection

And you can step into the freedom Romans 2 offers:

The freedom of being fully known and still fully loved.

The freedom of letting God deal with your secrets so they no longer control your life.

The freedom of humility that transforms you instead of hypocrisy that destroys you.

The freedom of finally being real with God so God can be real with you.

Romans 2 prepares the heart for Romans 3. It prepares the mind for Romans 4. It prepares the spirit for Romans 5. It prepares the soul for Romans 8— the crescendo of the gospel.

But first it prepares you to tell the truth.

Because only honest hearts can be healed. And only healed hearts can become holy. And only holy hearts can reflect Christ.

Romans 2 is not the chapter where God calls you out.

It is the chapter where God calls you back.

Watch Douglas Vandergraph’s inspiring faith-based videos on YouTube

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— Douglas Vandergraph

#faith #Christian #BibleStudy #Romans2 #Jesus #Grace #SpiritualGrowth #Hope #Encouragement #Inspiration

I går opplevde jeg noe som minnet meg på hvor lett det er å bli redusert til en rolle i et rom, også av mennesker som tror de kjenner deg godt. Det er fascinerende hvor fort dynamikken skifter når noen snakker med selvtillit, mens du selv snakker med presisjon. Samme innhold, men ulik effekt. Jeg sier noe — en annen gjentar det høyere — og plutselig er det hans idé. Det er ikke nytt. Det er bare tydelig hver gang det skjer.

Og når jeg sier fra, når jeg løfter blikket og tar tilbake plassen min, blir det dramatisk. Ikke fordi jeg er dramatisk, men fordi folk som er vant til at du holder rommet for dem aldri vet hva de skal gjøre når du holder rommet for deg selv.

Det som traff meg mest var ikke uenigheten, men reaksjonene: latter, stillhet, forvirring. En slags kollektiv usikkerhet forkledd som humor. Som om det jeg sa var “for mye” i et rom som hadde tålt langt grovere ting fra andre i løpet av kvelden. Det minner meg på hvor ulikt vi blir lest. Hvor forskjellig vekten av en setning blir, avhengig av hvem som sier den.

For meg handler det ikke om rett eller galt. Det handler om respekt, energi og makt. Om å se forskjellen mellom å delta i en samtale og å heve seg over den. Om å forstå at noen av oss alltid har måttet forklare hvorfor vi reagerer, mens andre aldri blir bedt om å gjøre det.

Jeg blir ikke flau over at jeg sa ifra. Jeg blir flau over at det fortsatt overrasker folk at kvinner setter grenser med samme tyngde som menn presenterer en idé. Det burde ikke være dramatisk. Det burde være helt vanlig.

Og kanskje var gårsdagen bare nok et eksempel på at jeg ikke lenger passer inn i rom der man ler av ting som er viktige for meg. Det i seg selv er ikke et tap. Det er informasjon. Og jeg tar det med meg videre — rolig, bevisst, og med ryggraden intakt.

Nominate your ideal dinner companion. This could be someone from the past or a contemporary, alive or dead, but who has an established reputation. What about this person’s reputation has impressed you?

I would like to sit down with Sylvia Plath and talk about the richness of her imagery and the breadth of her reading. Her writing, poetry as well as her journals, is full of obscure references and associations. I may have been too shy, but I would have liked to ask her how much her marriage to Ted Hughes bled through into her poems. In her journals, she described intense anxiety explained by Hughes as paranoia, which in retrospect seems to have been a cruel act of gaslighting. Sylvia Plath is almost entirely defined by The Bell Jar and her eventual suicide, but her journal reveals an intelligent person who thought deeply about the world and her place in it. Perhaps if we had had dinner she could have told me about the journals her husband destroyed after her death.

in 2024, the Shrine of Chandavila in Spain, where two girls claimed to have seen apparitions of Our Lady of Sorrows, was approved by the Vatican as a location for Catholic worship (Brockhaus, 2024). While the Vatican recognised the shrine’s importance, it did not address the visions, revealing a tension between Catholic doctrine and everyday expression of faith.

The Catholic News Agency—an organisation devoted to promoting ‘the Dogmas, Rules and Regulations of the church’ (Eternal Word Television Network, n.d.)—quoted the ‘nihil obstat’ judgment issued by the Vatican as saying that the shrine may ‘continue to offer to the faithful . . . a place of interior peace, consolation, and conversion’ (Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández quoted in Brockhaus, 2024). The girls are portrayed as virtuous, dedicating themselves to charity. A ‘nihil obstat’ judgement is an endorsement of the positive impact on the faithful, without authenticating any supernatural phenomena, which seems to reflect a tendency of the Vatican to encourage devotion while maintaining control over claims of divine intervention.

According to the Catholic doctrine of the Virgin Birth, Mary is honoured as the obedient mother of Jesus, chosen to bear God’s son. In Catholic art she is often depicted in imperial blue robes. The imagery of splendour, and her indifference to it, reinforce her purity and elevate her above humanity (Sinclair, 2019, p. 69). Blessed to bear a child without sin, she is the ideal the faithful should strive to emulate. In popular Marian devotion, however, Mary takes on a different character—an understanding Mary who suffers with her followers. She endured the pain of childbirth and her son’s death, an image central to Marian shrines and apparitions (Sinclair, 2019, p. 86-87). The power popular faith has attributed to Mary—as a divine being who can touch the world—is in stark contrast to the passive role assigned to her in the official canon.

When the Vatican approved the Shrine of Chandavila for worship in 2024, Cardinal Fernández remarked that ‘[t]here is nothing one can object to in this beautiful devotion’ (Brockhaus, 2024). By describing the pilgrims’ experiences as subjective, and stressing the girls’ virtue, the Vatican shifted the focus away from supernatural intervention. The girls’ experiences were re-contextualised in the light of how, they for the rest of their lives, sought to emulate the celestial Mary. A more overt example of the regulation of popular devotion to Mary can be seen in a 2025 article in the Catholic News Agency. Hannah Brockhaus reported that the Vatican put to rest a decades-long debate about Mary’s role in the redemption of humanity. The title ‘Co-Redemptrix,’ used in some denominations, was rejected as inappropriate (Brockhaus, 2025). Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández is quoted as saying, ‘’[t]his text . . . aims to deepen the proper foundations of Marian devotion by specifying Mary’s place in her relationship with believers in light of the mystery of Christ . . .’ This statement shows how the Vatican reasserts Christ’s role while defining boundaries for Marian veneration.

Lived religion sometimes reevaluates and supplants established religious dogma. Within the Catholic faith, Marian devotion has morphed beyond the role defined for Mary in the Bible and by the Vatican. The Vatican’s careful endorsement of the Shrine of Chandavila shows it deliberately interpreting spontaneous spirituality under official canon, while downplaying its more independent claims.

References Brockhaus, H. (2024) ‘Vatican approves devotion to 1945 apparition of Our Lady of Sorrows in Spain’, Catholic News Agency, 23 August. Available at: https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/258883/vatican-approves-devotion-to-1945-apparition-of-our-lady-of-sorrows-in-spain (Accessed: 9 November 2025). Eternal Word Television Network (n.d.) Press Room: Our Mission. Available at: https://www.ewtn.com/pressroom (Accessed: 9 November 2025). Sinclair, S (2019) ‘Mary, the mother of Jesus’, in The Open University (ed.), Reputations, The Open University, pp. 45-106. Brockhaus, H. (2025) ‘Vatican nixes use of ‘Co-Redemptrix’ as title for Mary’, Catholic News Agency, 4 November. Available at: https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/267563/vatican-nixes-use-of-co-redemptrix-as-title-for-mary (Accessed: 9 November 2025).

Cleopatra is a potent but mutable construct of femininity. Her name conjures up common associations-power, beauty and sex-these reputations can be called upon with no explanation, as in this Palmolive advertisement from 1910 (A111, Cleopatra Option 1, module materials). An elaborately clad Cleopatra can be seen seated on a curule-style sofa smiling, leaning over a vase of soap. In a time when the suffrage movement started gaining traction and gender roles were changing, Palmolive stripped Cleopatra of her intellect and title. They took a safer, reactionary route when drawing on a collective Western understanding of Cleopatra. This advertisement presents a sanitised and decorative sensuality stripped of intellect and agency; beauty is fulfilling, and a woman’s power stems from her role as consumer.

Palmolive’s advertisement shows Cleopatra sitting on a sofa in an elaborate headdress, constraining bodice, and heavy jewellery. She is smiling, leaning over her attendant, who is kneeling on the floor holding up a vessel filled with soap. To the right in the image, the merchant who brought the product is bowing with his arms crossed over his chest. Bright and colourfully decorated with vases and flowers, the illustration projects intimacy and innocence. Cleopatra is the epitome of femininity, and she is smiling because it was her goal all along. The ad-copy reinforces the message: ‘Once you become acquainted with . . . Palmolive . . . no other soap will satisfy’ (A111, Cleopatra Option 1, module materials) promising that Palmolive Soap will fulfil you.

The modern interpretation of Cleopatra may be softer than that of Roman historians Plutarch and Cassius Dio, but it is still influenced by it. Plutarch described her beauty as incomparable, and the ‘. . . attraction in her person . . . a peculiar force of character . . .’ (Plutarch, 1965, p. 294; quoted in A111 Book 1, p. 30). which put all under her spell. Cassius Dio also emphasised Cleopatra’s power as a kind of seductive magic; she bewitched and enslaved (A111 Book 1, p. 31). In the Roman accounts, Cleopatra did not convince; she enthralled; the Palmolive advertisement carries this idea forward. Cleopatra does not do, she is.

In this ad, Cleopatra is depicted as a woman who is unconcerned with matters outside of the domestic: the ruler, even the ‘master of a thousand flatteries’ (A111 Book 1, p. 31) is absent. There is one man whom she may command, a deferential, dark-skinned man eager to deliver products just for her. By representing itself in a role naturally inferior to a white woman in the early 20th century political landscape, Palmolive empowers her to consume, while signalling her appropriate lack of authority in other matters. By contrast, in medieval Arab accounts, Cleopatra was a noble and able monarch who furthered scientific learning. She was admired for her intellect and skill (A111 Book 1, pp. 33-35), not her beauty.

Cleopatra is one of the most well-known women in Western culture, and while the view of her has become more nuanced, Palmolive’s Cleopatra embodies the enduring Roman idea that a woman’s influence lies in her appearance, not her intellect. The advertisement leverages her reputation as a seductress but cuts her claws and turns consumption into a symbol of power.

References Palmolive Soap Company (1910) ‘Buying Palmolive 3,000 Years Ago’. Advertisement. Milwaukee: B. J. Johnson Soap Company. Fear, T. (2025) ‘Cleopatra’, in Jones, R. (ed.) Reputations. Milton Keynes: The Open University, pp. 5–43. The Open University (2025) Cleopatra in Hollywood. A111: Discovering the Arts and Humanities. The Open University. Available at: https://learn2.open.ac.uk/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=2487399 (Accessed: 15 October 2025).

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