Romans: The Gospel Unites (Week 6)

Announcements: Annual Business Meeting on May 19th!

May 14th and 28th will be our small group gathering. It will be at 6 PM at my home. We will have some food and fellowship and maybe even a game or two…that everyone can play…it won’t involve anything difficult. I would love for everyone to come and out and be a part!

Today we are going to be finishing out Romans chapter 2. We will be covering verses 17-29 this morning. They are more straight forward than our passages last week, so hopefully it will be less complicated. I pray you have enjoyed going through the book of Romans so far, I know that I have learned so much. Our passages today are nicely broken up into 2 sections (verses 17-24 and 25-29). I put an outline on your handout, so you can see at a glance the subject matter that we will be talking about.

PRAY

On your handouts I have included an outline of the first 2 chapters of Romans. This outline covers everything we have talked about up to this point…it also includes what we will be talking about today. I want to quickly go over it to remind you how Paul arrived at today’s passages.

I. The gospel as the revelation of God’s righteousness (1:1–17)

A. Salutation: The gospel concerning God’s Son (1:1–7)

B. Thanksgiving: Prayer for an apostolic visit (1:8–15)

C. Theme: The gospel of God’s righteousness (1:16–17)

II. God’s righteousness in his wrath against sinners (1:18–3:20)

A. The unrighteousness of gentiles (1:18–32)

1. Their rejection of God (1:18–23)

2. The consequences of their rejection (1:24–32)

B. The unrighteousness of Jews (2:1–3:8)

I. God’s impartial judgment (2:1–16)

a. Condemnation for the unrepentant (2:1–5)

b. Judgment according to works (2:6–11)

c. Judgment by a fair standard (2:12–16)

2. Jewish failure to honor God (2:17–29)

a. Transgression of law (2:17–24)

b. The conditional value of circumcision (2:25–29)

I realize that the outline is quite long, but it gives us a quick overview of how the passages today fit into a much larger context, where Paul is addressing both the Gentiles and the Jews who were attempting to be a community of believers. As we have talked about, there are some pretty major cultural differences between the two groups. As I mentioned, we will be looking at verses 17 to 29 in two sections. Let’s go ahead and read

Romans 2:17–24 “Now if you call yourself a Jew, and rely on the law, and boast in God, and know his will, and approve the things that are superior, being instructed from the law, and if you are convinced that you are a guide for the blind, a light to those in darkness, an instructor of the ignorant, a teacher of the immature, having the embodiment of knowledge and truth in the law—you then, who teach another, don’t you teach yourself? You who preach, “You must not steal”—do you steal? You who say, “You must not commit adultery”—do you commit adultery? You who detest idols, do you rob temples? You who boast in the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law? For, as it is written: The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.”

As soon as Paul finishes talking about the Gentiles and Jews being equal before the Lord, Paul continues to lay into the Jews within the Roman church. Not only did Paul rock their world by first suggesting that Jew and Gentile are equal, but then Paul suggested that some of the Gentiles actually keep the moral law better than the Jews. Now, Paul is calling them out for turning people away from God, rather than being an example of the kindness, goodness and freedom of God.

Imagine being one of the Jewish individuals who were causing issues in the church when this was read to the congregation! If you ask me, this is way worse than any sermon on giving…that is for sure!

Romans–Galatians (Comment)

But Paul desires to continue to press the point that God’s wrath is being revealed (Rom. 1:18). Romans 2:17 underscores that ethnicity (“if you call yourself a Jew”), obedience to God’s laws (“rely on the law”), or religious self-confidence (“boast in God”) are in themselves no protection against the coming judgment.

Let’s break down verses 17-24 down a bit further in to 2 sections. In verses 17 to 20, Paul gives 8 reasons why the Jew feels that they have the right to judge and instruct others. We won’t go through all of them in detail, but I will list them

I. Reasons to Boast (Vs. 17-20)

a. Reliance on the Law

b. Understand the superior way

c. Instructed in the Law

d. Guide for the blind

e. A light in the dark

f. Instructor of the ignorant

g.Teacher of the immature

h. Having the embodiment of knowledge and truth in the law

Because of these handful of reasons, Paul says that certain Jews in the Romans church were acting as though they were superior to their fellow Christians. Three times in this list Paul mentions the Law. It’s important that we understand, Paul is not trying to say that, in and of themselves, these are bad things. This is similar to the very beginning of chapter 2, where Paul says

Romans 2:1 “Therefore, every one of you who judges is without excuse. For when you judge another, you condemn yourself, since you, the judge, do the same things.”

Paul was not trying to say that we are not able to make judgment calls, what he is saying, is that those who do judge should not be guilty of doing the same things. In other words, get your own house in order first…people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones…etc. In verse 17-20, Paul lists a number of reasons why the one who has had the benefit of instruction should be able to instruct others…but there is one very important caveat…the one who wants to instruct others, especially in matters of the Law or spiritual matters (in general) must live by their own standards. We are getting a little ahead of ourselves here. I wonder though, if were were to replace Jews with Christians and Law with Gospel, what that might look like for us? After all, one of Israel’s main objectives was to be a light to the Gentiles. They were supposed to live as an example so that the surrounding Pagan nations would look at the people of Israel and want to know their God.

Isaiah 42:6–7 ““I am the Lord. I have called you for a righteous purpose, and I will hold you by your hand. I will watch over you, and I will appoint you to be a covenant for the people and a light to the nations, in order to open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the dungeon, and those sitting in darkness from the prison house.”

Do you notice some similarities between the things mentioned in verses 17-20 and the mandate given to the Israelites in Isaiah? Ideas such as blinded eyes, being a light in the darkness? This is why we know that Paul is not list is not supposed to be viewed negatively. Let’s keep moving forward.

After the long list in verse 17 to 20, Paul then poses 5 hypothetical questions to the Jewish audience in Rome, as he confronts them on their double standard. It’s for sure that Paul enjoys his lists. I’ll read it again real quick to remind us.

Romans 2:21–24 “you then, who teach another, don’t you teach yourself? You who preach, “You must not steal”—do you steal? You who say, “You must not commit adultery”—do you commit adultery? You who detest idols, do you rob temples? You who boast in the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law? For, as it is written: The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.”

While I was studying this text, I thought in my mind…why did Paul focus so heavily on the Jews, as opposed to the Gentiles in the opening few chapters of the book of Romans? I think we can all agree that Paul is really giving them what for. Like I said before, imagine being on the receiving end of this letter, knowing that you are one of the people Paul is talking to. Imagine what was going through their mind. What is a person’s first reaction when they get corrected? Especially if the correction hits pretty hard. We get defensive and begin to find ways to justify our words or actions. Our brains also begin to seek out instances where the person who is correcting us may have done something wrong; or perhaps a time when someone else did something worse than you. The point behind all of those things is for one purpose…to minimize our wrongdoing. We like to get the attention off of ourselves and onto someone or something else. People have always been like this, going back to when Adam blamed Eve and Cain blamed God.

I believe this is why Paul was hitting his fellow Jews so hard, because unlike the Gentiles (who had been pagan-which is bad enough), Paul knew that his fellow Jews suffered from the worst kind of pride and arrogance-which is spiritual pride and spiritual arrogance. When we have spiritual pride and spiritual arrogance, we see ourselves as morally superior to others…not only that, but we believe we have all the answers and we rebuff any sort of correction. A person with spiritual pride believes that they have a special understanding of God’s word that other people don’t have. Let’s take a look at the 5 questions that Paul asks.

II. Result of Hypocrisy (Vs. 21-24)

a. Don’t you teach yourself?

b. Do you steal?

c. Do you commit adultery?

d. do you rob temples?

e. Do you dishonor God by breaking the law?

Rather than directly accusing the Roman Jews of failing to teach themselves, or stealing, or lusting, or failing to honor God with their material goods, or just outright dishonoring God, Paul puts his statements in the form of questions. This is actually quite brilliant of Paul, as he if forcing the people to do some soul searching. When Sam was growing up, when he would do something he shouldn’t....I knew he did it and he knew he did it…and he knew I knew he did it…just like in Paul’s situation. Once he got older, I would not just stand there and say to him…what you did was wrong. Rather, I would always put it in the form of a question, and his answer determined the consequence. I would say, Sam, what do you think you did wrong? or Sam, why do you think your actions (whatever it was) were wrong? For example, if he talked back to his mother…Sam, why is it not right to talk back to mom? Or Sam, when you are frustrated with mom, what do you think you should do. Something along those lines. What this does is put the ball in his court. He is not responsible for detailing what he did wrong or why he did the wrong thing. This is different than me just saying: Sam, talking back to your mom is wrong or Sam, don’t talk back to your mom. The purpose of the question was to get Sam to think about his actions on a deeper level than me telling him he is wrong.

This is exactly what Paul is doing in verses 21-24. Paul doesn’t just accuse the people of stealing or Dishonoring God, he makes them look in a mirror and see their own mess, rather than telling them that they are a mess. This section then ends with Paul telling them the dire consequences of their hypocrisy.

Romans 2:24 “For, as it is written: The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.”

Can you think of a more devastating consequence of being a hypocrite? That something we do or say, as an image bearer of God, would cause someone to have a negative view of their savior? Not because we are standing up for holiness and righteousness, but because we are living a double standard. Perhaps by now you have noticed something about how I approach the Word of God and preaching in general. 95% of the criticism or judgment I offer up is pointed inward, rather than outward. In other words, the vast majority of any rebuke or reproof, or criticism is pointed toward the church (fellow Christians) and not the world. Then I will use 5% to discuss and point out the problems or wickedness of our world. Why is that? This is different than a lot of preachers. The reason most of my criticism points inward is because that is what we see in both the gospels and the letters of Paul. Jesus’s main criticism was toward the pharisees or even his disciples. Jesus did not spend his time talking about how terrible the Gentiles were. Likewise, in the early Church, Paul spend the majority of his time trying to get the church in order, not rail against the pagan Romans. When we turn that around and spend most of our time critiquing the wicked and sinful world, and very little time getting our own house in order, we open ourselves up to being a hypocrite. In essence, that is what the Jews were guilty of. Instead of getting the plank out of their eye, they focused on the piece of sawdust in the Gentiles.

Let’s look at the last few passages of chapter 2, which we will break up into 2 sections (Vs. 25-27) (Vs. 28-29)

III. Conditional Value of Circumcision (Vs. 25-29)

a. Trusting in Rites (Vs. 25-27)

Romans 2:25–27 “Circumcision benefits you if you observe the law, but if you are a lawbreaker, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. So if an uncircumcised man keeps the law’s requirements, will not his uncircumcision be counted as circumcision? A man who is physically uncircumcised, but who keeps the law, will judge you who are a lawbreaker in spite of having the letter of the law and circumcision.”

In the Greek this second part of verse 25 is interesting: “If you are a lawbreaker, your circumcision has become a foreskin.” In other words a Jewish lawbreaker is just like a Gentile lawbreaker; the Jews’ rite of circumcision counts for nothing.

The practice of circumcision is not something we talk about too much, other than simply mentioning the practice as part of the Mosaic law. It is a pretty personal thing. Today though, it’s kind of difficult to avoid getting into more detail about the subject…so, we will proceed with the utmost tack and care. The truth is, the practice of circumcision was a major part of the Mosiac law. It was not something that a person could choose to skip. In fact, there is a very interesting portion of scripture where Moses just about met an early demise, straight from the hand of God

Exodus 4:24–26 “On the trip, at an overnight campsite, it happened that the Lord confronted him and intended to put him to death. So Zipporah took a flint, cut off her son’s foreskin, threw it at Moses’s feet, and said, “You are a bridegroom of blood to me!” So he let him alone. At that time she said, “You are a bridegroom of blood,” referring to the circumcision.”

It is clear that the Lord had commanded Moses to circumcise his son. For whatever reason, Moses chose not to do it, or perhaps, Moses was just waiting for a better time. Thankfully, Moses’ wife was there and somehow knew what was going on…she also knew why the Lord was angry with Moses. We are not sure how Zipporah knew that the Lord was angry with Moses…but she did. So she went in and circumcised their son…which apparently did the trick, as Moses went on to live for a number of decades longer. This story actually takes place right before Moses and Aaron approach the Egyptian Pharaoh to demand the release of Israel. I share that story with you to let you know how serious circumcision was to the Lord.

This is not where circumcision began though. Abraham was the first one that God commanded to be circumcised.

Genesis 17:10–14 “This is my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you, which you are to keep: Every one of your males must be circumcised. You must circumcise the flesh of your foreskin to serve as a sign of the covenant between me and you. Throughout your generations, every male among you is to be circumcised at eight days old—every male born in your household or purchased from any foreigner and not your offspring. Whether born in your household or purchased, he must be circumcised. My covenant will be marked in your flesh as a permanent covenant. If any male is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that man will be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.””

Kind of a lengthy section there, but it is vital to understand why (quite understandably) the Jews viewed circumcision as such an important matter…even after Jesus came to the earth. Circumcision was not just some silly thing that people did as part of their culture, it was serious business. If you did not follow the command you were kicked out of the community. The act of circumcision was a physical sign that Israel was set apart from the surrounding nations. They were special and favored in God’s sight. Naturally, the Jews did not want to let that go. In fact, more than once in the O.T., when Israel talked abut their enemies, they would refer to them as “uncircumcised.” That said, even back in the Old Testament, circumcision was about more than just a physical act.

Deuteronomy 10:13–16 “Keep the Lord’s commands and statutes I am giving you today, for your own good. The heavens, indeed the highest heavens, belong to the Lord your God, as does the earth and everything in it. Yet the Lord had his heart set on your ancestors and loved them. He chose their descendants after them—he chose you out of all the peoples, as it is today. Therefore, circumcise your hearts and don’t be stiff-necked any longer.”

Even back in the book of Deut., God was telling the Israelites that the practice of Circumcision was about so much more than a physical act. Paul was hammering the Jewish Romans because the physical act of circumcision had become way more important than what it is supposed to represent. In a moment we will talk more about that, but first let’s finish chapter 2.

b. Circumcision of the Heart (Vs. 28-29)

Romans 2:28–29 “For a person is not a Jew who is one outwardly, and true circumcision is not something visible in the flesh. On the contrary, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is of the heart—by the Spirit, not the letter. That person’s praise is not from people but from God.”

Verses 28 and 29 are restating the same idea that Paul began back at the beginning of chapter 2. Remember, Paul said

Romans 2:14–15 “So, when Gentiles, who do not by nature have the law, do what the law demands, they are a law to themselves even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts. Their consciences confirm this. Their competing thoughts either accuse or even excuse them”

In essence, what Paul is saying here is the same thing God said back in Deut.....that circumcision of the heart is what matters more than circumcision of the skin. Let’s look at couple of the phrases in verse 28 and 29, because they can be somewhat confusing.

Romans 2:28 “For a person is not a Jew who is one outwardly, and true circumcision is not something visible in the flesh.”

Paul is saying that being a true Jew (meaning, one that is separated unto the Lord) is not about something that you do on the outside. Jesus said the same thing while speaking with the Pharisees in the Gospels.

Matthew 23:26 “Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup, so that the outside of it may also become clean.”

Paul says that the person who is truly a follower of the Lord is one whose heart has been make clean, not just some physical act that means nothing at the end of the day. Then, Paul says at the end of vs.29,

That person’s praise is not from people, but from God.

Paul is referring to the person who has a truly clean and pure heart before the Lord. The Jews would not allow an uncircumcised person to enter the Temple…in order to to in and worship the Lord and hear the O.T. read, a person had to be circumcised. Paul is saying, while the physical act of circumcision may get you accepted by other people…those whose hearts have been circumcised receive their praise from the Lord, not from man. Man may reject you, but the Lord accepts you.

Since halfway though chapter 1, Paul has been slowly taking apart the idea that Jewish Christians, or Jews in general are superior in any way in the eyes of the Lord. Paul talks about unrighteous judgments, hypocritical teachers, and circumcision. Paul does not do this because he hates his fellow Jews, as has been suggested by some. It’s actually the exact opposite, Paul loves his brothers and sisters. He longs to see them walk in the fullness of the New Covenant found in Christ.

To finish today I want to talk about the idea of circumcision relates to us today, as well as the idea of our actions leading others to blaspheme God. Naturally, both the O.T. and the N.T. talk about circumcision of the heart as being important. Circumcision of the heart is about being consecrated unto the Lord. Being set apart for Him. Paul states this as plainly as possible to the Corinthian church.

1 Corinthians 7:18–19 “Was anyone already circumcised when he was called? He should not undo his circumcision. Was anyone called while uncircumcised? He should not get circumcised. Circumcision does not matter and uncircumcision does not matter. Keeping God’s commands is what matters.”

All of this talk about circumcision…and I touched on it a time or two, but what exactly was the physical act of circumcision supposed to represent? What was God’s original intent behind commanding Abraham to get circumcised? Paul actually lays this out in Romans chapter 4, which we will get to one of these days. For now, let’s take a quick peek.

Romans 4:10–12 “In what way, then, was it credited—while he was circumcised, or uncircumcised? It was not while he was circumcised, but uncircumcised. And he received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while still uncircumcised. This was to make him the father of all who believe but are not circumcised, so that righteousness may be credited to them also. And he became the father of the circumcised, who are not only circumcised but who also follow in the footsteps of the faith our father Abraham had while he was still uncircumcised.”

Admittedly, this can be a confusing passage. What Paul is saying here is that Abraham was not found righteous, or , God did not have favor on Abraham because Abraham was circumcised. It was the other way around. Abraham was favored by God because of his faith…and then, because God favored Abraham, as a sign of that favor, Abraham was circumcised. Abraham was favored by the Lord before he was circumcised. There fore, we know that God intended circumcision to be a sign of favor, a sign of faith in Yhvh. Just because a person was circumcised as a baby does not mean that they have any better standing before the Lord.

Just as today, because a person says a few words about something they know nothing about, because some preacher manipulated their emotions does not mean that a person is a Christian. This is no different than circumcision. Or, just because a baby is baptized does not mean that baby is all of a sudden special and worth more to the Lord. It’s also no different than a person who gets baptized, but has no real life change. When we hold these “rites” up and claim that any of them are some sort of magical way that they are now favored of the Lord, that is no different than circumcision.

I love Billy Graham, I think he was mighty used of the Lord. I even know people who dedicated their life to the Lord at one of his crusades and went on to live for God and do mighty things....so I am not at all saying that Billy Graham got it wrong. However, think about the hundreds of thousands of people who flocked to the altar and said the sinner’s prayer, had no idea what they were doing (at the time) and walked away believing they were now good and reconciled to God, but after a week went by, were out doing the same exact things as before.

The sinners prayer ends up becoming a “rite” that means more than a repentant heart. In the N.T., whenever we see one of the disciples speaking to a large crowd and it says that many got saved, it is not talking about saying a few words…it is talking about true repentance and heart change. Let’s not allow our N.T. rites become like circumcision…where the outward sign is more important than the heart.

Last thing:

Right now, if you follow the goings on of churches and pastors, something happended a few days ago at a men’s conferece that has set people on fire trying to choose sides…and all of it causes the world to look at us and God in a negative light. I want to tell you a bit about it, then we will be done: James River and Mark Driscoll.

PRAY