Evangelistic Hypocrites

Introduction

Review of last weeks text

All have the law, either written or unwritten, and are judged accordingly by their works.

Those who judge others condemn themselves because of their sin.

God shows no partiality. Jew or Gentile, they are judged by their works, which are always either sinful or tainted by sin. Thus all are condemned.

The point of our text: having the law and the outward form of religion does nothing to make one acceptable to God. “God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.”

The Jews and their Boasting

Paul begins by addressing the boasting a Jew may somewhat legitimately make based on their knowledge and observance of the OT law. It is important to note that Paul’s argument is leading to chapter 3 where Justification by Faith will be presented as the only option for salvation for both Jews and Gentiles. Paul is not advocating legalism, but showing that the legal requirements of the law are unable to save.

Boasting in the Law and Circumcision

The boasting of these Jews is in two things

First, the fact that they have the OT law

Second, that they have the outward observance of the law through circumcision.

Both of these reasons for boasting cannot easily be dismissed because both were given by God to the Jews as an ethnic people group. This is something Paul will establish in our text when he says that circumcision benefits “much” and later in Rom 9:4

Romans 9:4 ESV

They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises.

So Paul cannot simply write off their boasting without good reason. In Paul’s objective to bring both Jew and Gentile guilty under the wrath of God so that they may rely on Justification by Faith in Christ, he does have reason.

Defining Justification so we can understand where Paul is going.

What is Justification?

Justification by the law.

Justification by grace through faith.

Teachers of the foolish

The Jewish mentality was that essentially one could be justified by observing the OT law which was symbolized by circumcision. Circumcision was more than a mark on a male’s foreskin, it was an outward symbol of law keeping. What Paul needs to do is show that this method of justification is not viable in order to show Christ as the only way one may be justified.

Another Jewish mentality present in the text is the Jewish position above the gentiles as morally superior because they had the law. The law and the Jewish identity were, for them, genetically linked which put them far above the pagans talked about in chapter 1:18-32. They considered themselves teachers of children and instructors of the foolish in comparison to their Gentile counterparts, and this easily made its way into the church. Judaizers were a heretical group of Jewish Christians that supposed that because Christ came through the Jews, which indeed he did, and that the law was given by God, which indeed it was, then a Gentile first needed to submit themselves to circumcision in order to be a true Christian. This heresy was fought by Paul in the book of Galatians and other places in his letters.

This heresy contradicted the newness of the new covenant and the freedom of the Gospel to go “to the Jew first, but also to the Greek.” In other words, one did not need to become a Christian through first becoming a Jew; both Jew and Gentile were under condemnation, the Jew through breaking the law, and the Gentile through breaking the law revealed in their hearts, so the law was not a saving mechanism of the Gospel, only Faith in Christ. If the law did perform a saving function, Gentiles would first need to be under the law as a Jew before they could be saved. The Jewish heresy was really a fall into what the Jews prided themselves in: having the law and the outward markings of circumcision.

This is what it means that the Jews saw themselves as teachers of the law to the Gentiles as seen in verse 20, “having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth.”

Boasting

Paul is precise in his aim at the Jewish boasting in the law, not by voiding the law or the boasting that could hypothetically be made in keeping it, but by showing through hypocrisy that the law is unable to function in salvation.

The boasting of the Israelites was always done in the context of their own hypocrisy. Paul isn’t merely addressing their current state, but their history. They have been adulterers, thieves, idolaters. They have always lived as Gentiles even though they put on a faux exterior of following the law. Paul’s point is that having the law of God and having the exterior sign of circumcision is not enough to show whether someone is right with God or not.

The fact Paul ends this text with is that a true Jew, that is, a truly godly person, is the person who is justified before God in holiness. They boast not in themselves, for they seek no praise from man. Instead, “his praise is not from man, but from God.”

The point is not that boasting is wrong, but what are you boasting in? What do you hope in and trust in for your assurance of salvation and acceptance from God?

Hebrews 3:6 ESV

but Christ is faithful over God’s house as a son. And we are his house, if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.

Notice what the Author of Hebrews points to as the object of a Christian’s boasting. Our hope, what is it? It is not that Christ died for the greatest and most despicable sinners?

Paul is illegitimizing the Jewish boasting, not by illegitimizing the law but by showing that simply having the law does nothing for them. The same goes for circumcision. Having the outward form of religion is not enough for God to consider someone godly. Paul does this by pointing to the hypocrisy in their teachings.

This boasting manifested in seeing themselves as instructors of the poor, illiterate gentiles and yet Paul points out the fallacy of their thinking by asking, “do you not teach yourself?”

Hypocritical boasting does not boast in God but boasts in a superior position relative to God, when this superior position is non-existent. This is shown in Israel’s failure to follow the teaching of the law in which they boast.

As a result, the fruit is that the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles when Israel was disciplined by God, a quote from Is 52:5

Isaiah 52:5 ESV

Now therefore what have I here,” declares the Lord, “seeing that my people are taken away for nothing? Their rulers wail,” declares the Lord, “and continually all the day my name is despised.

Paul’s point is that the Jew’s failure to obey the law, a clear hypocrisy, makes them no better than Gentiles. For “a Jew is one inwardly.”

The boasting of the righteous is not before men to be praised by them, but “his praise is not from man but from God.”

The True (Hypothetical) Jew

He does this by creating a hypothetical Gentile who does not have the law or the sign of circumcision, but nevertheless follows the law written on their heart perfectly.

Paul makes the point that the outward mark of circumcision wouldn’t matter if it is worn in hypocrisy, since such a gentile would be regarded as a godly man, one whose uncircumcision is counted as circumcision.

His point, again, is not that one can be saved by obeying the law. That isn’t what the law can do in the heart of anyone. The point is that the religious exterior is no true sign of inward godliness. Neither is ethnicity, or we could say, baptism, membership, or good works that are seen by others. Martin Lloyd Jones says of this text, “Nothing avails before God except holiness.”

The need for religious people to be justified

The Jewish problem of hypocrisy is common in any religious context, including the church.

Hypocrisy stems from a trust in religion rather than God. A trust in being part of a religious group, having and doing religious things, and constructing a religious exterior rather than pursuing holiness and reconciliation with God through Jesus Christ.

This morning we looked at what hypocrisy looks like, here we see where it stems: a love of human praise rather than a love for holiness in Jesus Christ.

I’ll ask you what Lloyd Jones asked his congregation when he preached this text. What are you trusting in for your justification before God? He pointed towards Christian nationalism, baptism, church membership, taking the Lord’s Table, and other exterior ways a person may identify themselves with Christ. But none of the externals can prove justification with God. The sin you continue to practice in your heart and behind closed doors reveals who you truly are and what you truly trust in.

Conclusion