It's What's on the Inside that Counts

Introduction

I beg your indulgence this morning, while I take some time here in the beginning of the message to help us grasp what Paul is teaching in Romans 2:17-29, by directing our attention to our own context and culture. Let me start with a quote from one of my favorite author’s, Brennan Manning who wrote, “The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips and walk out the door and deny him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world, simply finds unbelievable.”

I hate that quote. You know why? Because it’s true of many Christians today.

According to Dave Kinnaman and market innovator Gabe Lyons in their book unChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks About Christianity, Christianity has an image problem. The nonbelievers surveyed in their research, “admit their emotional and intellectual barriers go up when they are around Christians, and [that they] reject Jesus because they feel rejected by Christians.” Kinnamon’s book considers six problematic areas of Christian behavior, from the perspective on nonbelievers:

Christians are hypocritical. So how did Christians acquire a hypocritical image in America today? According to the world, our lives don’t match our beliefs. In many ways, our lifestyles and perspectives are no different from those of anyone around us.

Christians are uncaring. The authors provide a story from one New Yorker that makes the point well:

A young guy approached me in a subway station once, friendly, full of questions, interested in talking. He seemed really nice, and I couldn’t believe a New Yorker was being so, well, nice! . . . Next time I heard from him, he invited me to a Bible study, and that was all he wanted to talk about. When I said, ‘No thanks,’ I never heard from him again.

From that subway rider’s perspective, the Christian only saw him as a “sales target”, and once he said that he was uninterested in hearing the “sales pitch”, the Christian moved on to the next target.

3.Christians are anti-homosexual. Correctly acknowledging the biblical stance on this sin, we sometimes demonize this sin above others and end up being far less loving to homosexual people than our faith demands. When we shun people, even those we label as depraved and sinful, we are actually limiting the spiritual influence we can have. In addition, if we don’t work at developing meaningful relationships with our co-workers, whether gay or straight, how can we expect them to respect us and our beliefs?”

4. Christians shelter themselves from the outside world. Here the authors provide an insightful comment from one Christian on the life many believers lead:

“So many Christians are caught up in the Christian subculture and are completely closed off from the world. We go to church on Wednesdays, Sundays, and sometimes on Saturdays. We attend small groups and serve on committees. We go to barbecues with our Christian friends and plan group outings. We are closed off from the world. Even if we wanted to reach out to nonChristians, we don’t have time and we don’t know how. The only way we know how to reach out is to invite people to join in our Christian social circle.”

Surely, the isolated life of many believers contrasts sharply with the example of Christ, who spent a great deal of his time with sinners and other unbelievers; so much so, that the “religious right” of his day condemned him for it.

5. Christians are too political. Christianity, they assert, is linked with politics to the extent that Christianity, at least the conservative branch of it, is identified with a party. The church’s gospel ends up being confused with its political causes.

6. Christians are too judgmental. Nearly nine out of ten nonbelievers surveyed agreed that the term judgmental accurately describes present-day Christianity.

Whether we agree with these viewpoints, and whether we like it or not, this is how many nonbelievers in the world view us who call ourselves Christians. Though our main goal as followers of Jesus is to please Him, and not worry about man’s praise, we have a lot of work to do to change the world’s perspective of us. The cross and the gospel are controversial enough, often a stumbling block to those who are deceived by Satan and walking in darkness. We only make matters worse when we do not live up to the gospel that saved us.

This was the same problem that Paul pointed out in this portion of Romans 2 that we are focusing upon today. Let’s take a look at Paul’s own version of Kinnamon’s research, and then we’ll come back to our context and ask some hard questions. In this passage, Paul was speaking directly to the Jews in the Roman church, believers who should have known better but didn’t. First, Paul rebuked them because …

1. They failed to live up to their privilege as God’s people. (2:17-20)

Paul listed eight advantages to being a Jew — eight boasts by which they assumed they would escape God’s judgment.

They were Jews!, God’s only chosen people. After all, didn’t Zechariah write, in Zechariah 2:8, For the Lord of Armies says this: “In pursuit of his glory, he sent me against the nations plundering you, for whoever touches you touches the pupil of my eye.” We’re the apple of God’s eyes; that should count for something. Or so they thought.

They, and only they, were given the law. Did God choose to give his law to any other people? Were any others at Mt. Sinai when God gave Moses the law?

They bragged about their relationship with God. They didn’t worship gods represented by wood or stone. They worshiped the One True God, the Creator of all that is, a real divine person, who rescued them from Egypt, spoke to them, loved them, blessed them, protected them, and guided them. No one else worships that kind of God.

They claimed to know God’s will. They were the only ones to whom God revealed his character and nature and missionary plan for the nations.

They had a superior life. Dietary laws, lifestyle restrictions, worship instructions, and other commands from God gave Jews a narrower view of life than their neighbors: a life they claimed was superior to everyone else’s.

They boasted that they were instructed by God’s law. Actually, Jews were so fond of law, they obsessed over it, and even made up hundreds of laws, of their own, to go along with God’s law. Eventually they preferred their laws over God’s.

They bragged about their place among the nations. They viewed themselves as guides for the blind, a light for those walking in darkness, teachers for the naive, ignorant, and immature. Indeed, God did call them to be a light to the nations. Indeed, God desired to reveal himself to the nations through Israel. Yet, from their perspective, this gave them the right to look down their noses toward others.

They boasted that God’s law gave them a corner on knowledge and truth.

What is interesting about these eight boasts is that all eight contain truth: God’s truth. Israel was God’s chosen people. They were to rely on the law of God for all theaters of life. They were offered an unprecedented relationship with God, a special relationship with Him, and a superior life to those who were devoted to dust rather than eternal treasure. God did intend the law to instruct them; and God did intend Israel to be a guide and a light to the blind; and God’s law does embody perfect knowledge and truth.

The problem was two-fold: the Jews in that little church in Rome treated all eight of these truths as external proofs of righteousness and guarantees of escape from God’s judgement. They took them for granted, but they did not take them to heart. As one scholar writes,

It is understandable, while not excusable, how Israel could be tempted to think of themselves as better than the rest of humanity. In terms of privilege and possession, they did have a chosen place. But, the behavior their privileged position should have produced, was not how they lived.

Do you see the similarities between Paul’s rebuke of the Jews in his day, and the perspectives of nonbelievers about Christians in our day? Isn’t it a good idea to hear Paul’s rebuke and inspect ourselves and ask hard questions, like: Is the behavior our privileged position in Christ should produce, evident in how we live?

Paul called them to account with a shocking conclusion:

2. Their hypocrisy caused the nations to blaspheme God’s name. (2:21-24)

Paul stated five clear discrepancies between their boasts and their practice:

They taught others, but did not teach themselves.

The preached against stealing, yet they stole.

They preached against adultery, but committed adultery.

They abhorred idols, but stole from pagan temples.

They bragged about the law, yet dishonored God by breaking it.

Rabbi Jochanan ben Zakkai, a contemporary of Paul’s, complained in his day “the increase of murder, adultery, sexual vice, commercial and judicial corruption, bitter sectarian strife, and other evils.” It appears then, that Paul wasn’ just making stuff up; and that this was a common problem among God’s chosen people in that day.

Verse 24 points out God’s missionary purpose in Israel, a purpose that was sidetracked by their disobedience. “Yes,” Paul is saying to the Jews, “the Gentiles have sinned and deserve God’s judgment. But from Abraham on it has been my purpose to use you to save the Gentiles from their sins. But your sins are so blatant that the Gentiles laugh at my name! How can I ever redeem them when it is you who need redemption! Your sins are as judgment-worthy as theirs. No, as a matter of fact, yours are more worthy of judgment than theirs, because you are supposed to be their light. And when you allow your light to go out, how great is the darkness in which they remain!”

Philospher and writer, Francis Schaeffer saw a worrisome connection between Paul’s words to the Jews and the contemporary American church:

Again we must admit, this is surely how God looks at much of Christianity today. Claiming to be under the umbrella of Christianity, claiming to have some sort of special blessing because the bells ring in the cathedrals, because in the United States great numbers of people go to church, and yet we commit blasphemy against God as we turn from the clear teaching of His Word. It is a sober truth and we must face it: if we have the Bible, if we enjoy all the blessings it brings, and yet by our lives bring shame upon God’s name, we are guilty of the greatest irreverence.… When the man with the Bible treats it as an external thing only, it causes the man without the Bible to dishonor the God of the Bible. Surely, then, the man with the Bible is justifiably under God’s wrath” (Schaeffer, p. 61).

Let that sink in for a moment. Schaeffer wrote that more than 40 years ago. It still speaks today.

Paul keeps piling on the rebuke. And I’m sure, by now, their heads were spinning in stunned confusion, as Paul exposed their shallow religion that was only skin deep.

3. They were unfaithful to God’s covenant. (2:25-27)

In these verses, I hear Paul saying something like this: If you want to know the true benefit and privilege of being a Jew, here it is: obey the law. Listen again to verse 25:

Circumcision benefits you if you observe the law, but if you are a lawbreaker, your circumcision has become uncircumcision.

Paul addressed a similar problem in his letter to the Galatians.

Galatians 5:3 (CSB)

Again I testify to every man who gets himself circumcised that he is obligated to do the entire law.

God ordained circumcision in Genesis 17:11 “You must circumcise the flesh of your foreskin to serve as a sign of the covenant between me and you.” Circumcision was a sign of God’s covenant with Abraham and all of his descendants who would follow. As the participants in the covenant cut off their foreskin, so were they admitting a willingness to be cut off from God should they fail to meet the demands of the covenant. Israel’s failure throughout her generations was to substitute the “sign of the covenant” for the keeping of the demands—obedience to the law. Indeed, God warned through Jeremiah that being circumcised in the flesh, as many of Israel’s neighbors were, would protect no one from judgment—including his own people Israel

Jeremiah 9:25–26 CSB

“ ‘Look, the days are coming—this is the Lord’s declaration—when I will punish all the circumcised yet uncircumcised: Egypt, Judah, Edom, the Ammonites, Moab, and all the inhabitants of the desert who clip the hair on their temples. All these nations are uncircumcised, and the whole house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart.’ ”

Paul’s not finished yet. He gets to the heart of the matter:

4. They had a heart problem. (2:28-29)

And that is what Paul makes clear in verses 28-29. Being a Jew — and putting it in our context — being a Christian cannot be determined by line of sight: following Jesus is not a matter of externals. Though there should be an outward transformation of our conduct, right conduct cannot make up for the absence of a heart commitment.

Romans 2:28 (CSB)

For a person is not a Jew who is one outwardly, and true circumcision is not something visible in the flesh.

What Paul writes here about circumcision and being a Jew could also be said about church membership, baptism and being a Christian. The real Christian, like the real Jew, is one inwardly; and the true baptism, like the true circumcision, is in the heart and by the Spirit. It is not in this case that the inward and spiritual replace the outward and physical, but rather that the visible sign (baptism) derives its importance from the invisible reality (washing from sin and the gift of the Spirit), to which baptism bears witness. It is a grave mistake to exalt the sign at the expense of what it signifies.

Let’s go back about a thousand years before Paul, and eaves drop on the conversation between Samuel and God, when God sent Samuel to find a new king for His people.

When Samuel saw Jesse’s son Eliab, he thought, “Surely the Lord’s anointed stands here before the Lord” (1 Sam. 16:6). What did Samuel see that made him think Eliab was to be the new king? Apparently not what God was looking for: “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” (16:7).

And in Jesus’ day, the Jews were still living life externally:

Matthew 23:5–7 CSB

They do everything to be seen by others: They enlarge their phylacteries and lengthen their tassels. They love the place of honor at banquets, the front seats in the synagogues, greetings in the marketplaces, and to be called ‘Rabbi’ by people.

From banquet and synagogue seats to the size of phylacteries and tassels, to being noted and greeted as “Rabbi” in the marketplace, the Jews lived large on the outside but small on the inside. Unfortunately for them, the inside is where God looks. And that is still where God looks.

It’s what’s on the inside that counts.

Now, let’s distill this passage into a few things we need to consider for our own lives.

What does this mean for my life as a follower of Jesus?

Am I depending on church membership and baptism as a “get out of jail card” from God’s judgment?

Am I more focused on outward appearances than I am the condition of my heart?

Do I find myself desiring praise from people rather than possessing a passion for blessing God and receiving His approval?

Have I laid open my heart before the Lord and asked Him to change it?

Here’s what I hear the Spirit telling me to do today: Surrender to the Holy Spirit’s surgical knife so that He can perform the circumcision of my heart. Listen to Hebrews 4:12

Hebrews 4:12 CSB

For the word of God is living and effective and sharper than any double-edged sword, penetrating as far as the separation of soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

Half-time talk

Let’s put our heart into following Jesus, and experience what He can do with a life fully surrendered, from the inside out.