16) Misplaced Confidence
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Go ahead and turn to chapter 2 of Romans. Paul is moving through his argument that all are in need of a savior.
There is no advantage for anyone. In his argument at the end of chapter 2 he starts to speak against the traditions of the Rabbis and Jewish leaders of the day. There were many beliefs that had crept into their teaching over the generations. These false traditions were a stumbling block, heresy, and blasphemy before the Lord. What he taught in this letter would have been shocking to them.
Please turn to Romans 2:17 and we will read the first part of this argument against the false securities that the Jews had.
17 Now if you call yourself a Jew, and rely on the law, and boast in God, 18 and know his will, and approve the things that are superior, being instructed from the law, 19 and if you are convinced that you are a guide for the blind, a light to those in darkness, 20 an instructor of the ignorant, a teacher of the immature, having the embodiment of knowledge and truth in the law—21 you then, who teach another, don’t you teach yourself? You who preach, “You must not steal”—do you steal? 22 You who say, “You must not commit adultery”—do you commit adultery? You who detest idols, do you rob temples? 23 You who boast in the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law? 24 For, as it is written: The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.
The Jews had a false security before the wrath of God. He outlines some of the wrong places that they put their confidence. They were the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They were the chosen nation of God his people. They were the people who had received the Law on the mountain and were the ones who were given the duty to teach the words of God to others.
The issue is that they did not live it out. Their lives did not reveal a people who would be given eternal life. Their lives were filled with hypocrisy and because they boasted in the Law but they broke it God says, “The name of God was blasphemed among the Gentile because of you.”
They were given great advantages in regards to having a saving relationship with God and yet as a nation those advantages did not result in special privilege before the justice of God.
After these shocking statements, he will continue with his attack on false security by looking at their false assurance in the sign and symbol of circumcision.
25 Circumcision benefits you if you observe the law, but if you are a lawbreaker, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. 26 So if an uncircumcised man keeps the law’s requirements, will not his uncircumcision be counted as circumcision? 27 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. 28 For a person is not a Jew who is one outwardly, and true circumcision is not something visible in the flesh. 29 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.
The Jews had a false assurance of the benefits of circumcision.
The External Symbol
The External Symbol
25 Circumcision benefits you if you observe the law, but if you are a lawbreaker, your circumcision has become uncircumcision.
The symbol of circumcision was a central part of the life of a Jew. It was to be a reminder of the covenant that God had made with Abraham. We turn back to Genesis to understand what this meant to the Jews.
1 When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him, saying, “I am God Almighty. Live in my presence and be blameless. 2 I will set up my covenant between me and you, and I will multiply you greatly.” 3 Then Abram fell facedown and God spoke with him: 4 “As for me, here is my covenant with you: You will become the father of many nations. 5 Your name will no longer be Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I will make you the father of many nations. 6 I will make you extremely fruitful and will make nations and kings come from you. 7 I will confirm my covenant that is between me and you and your future offspring throughout their generations. It is a permanent covenant to be your God and the God of your offspring after you. 8 And to you and your future offspring I will give the land where you are residing—all the land of Canaan—as a permanent possession, and I will be their God.”
God makes a solemn promise, a covenant with this man. A promise that God confirms between Abraham, his future offspring, and himself. This is a promise that will carry down through all of the generations following Abraham. It is a permanent covenant to be his God and the God of his offspring. This is a central part of the Jews lives and rightly so.
God would give Abraham a sign of this permanent covenant and a dire warning for those that did not carry the sign.
9 God also said to Abraham, “As for you, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations are to keep my covenant. 10 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. 11 You must circumcise the flesh of your foreskin to serve as a sign of the covenant between me and you. 12 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. 13 Whether born in your household or purchased, he must be circumcised. My covenant will be marked in your flesh as a permanent covenant. 14 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.”
Circumcision would be included in the Levitical Law and any foreigner would have to be circumcised to participate in the Passover.
We can see why the descendants of Abraham, the Jews would be very religious in having all men carry the sign of the covenant. There was an interpretation of these promises to mean that any Jew would be saved regardless of the life they lived as long as they were circumcised.
There are recorded commentaries and oral traditions of the Jews that had statements like:
• “No circumcised Jewish man will see hell.”
• “Circumcision saves us from hell.”
• “God swore to Abraham that no one who was circumcised would be sent to hell. Abraham sits before the gate of hell and never allows any circumcised Israelite to enter.”
So what Paul says here would have been crazy to them.
25 Circumcision benefits you if you observe the law, but if you are a lawbreaker, your circumcision has become uncircumcision.
You believe that the sign that you carry in the flesh will save you from the wrath of God. You have wrongly interpreted that the promise is based on heritage and ceremony. Who your ancestors were and if you carried the sign of the covenant. But Paul says that circumcision only has a benefit to the one who observes the Law, the one who obeys the commandments of the Lord.
But if you are a lawbreaker then your circumcision has become uncircumcision.
10 For whoever keeps the entire law, and yet stumbles at one point, is guilty of breaking it all. 11 For he who said, Do not commit adultery, also said, Do not murder. So if you do not commit adultery, but you murder, you are a lawbreaker.
Jesus said,
21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in your name, drive out demons in your name, and do many miracles in your name?’ 23 Then I will announce to them, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you lawbreakers!’
God has made a promise to Abraham. God established a physical symbol to be a sign of that promise. You carry that sign but if you are a lawbreaker. A transgressor of the Law. A person who steps over the commands of God then the symbol that you carry and trust in has become uncircumcision. In essence he is saying if you are a law breaker you are no longer one who will receive the promise, you have no more advantage than the pagan Gentile that you look down upon. You circumcision is of no value before God.
The sign was to be a reminder of the promise. It was to draw them to seek and obey God but instead it had become an idol, one that gave a false sense of security. One that gave them an excuse to sin without the fear of condemnation. The sign of the covenant was to lead them to a life of goodness in response. But instead they took it a free pass against the consequences of breaking the law.
So if that statement didn’t rock them the next one would hit them again.
The External Work
The External Work
26 So if an uncircumcised man keeps the law’s requirements, will not his uncircumcision be counted as circumcision?
If a man lives by the law and keeps it, won’t he be counted as one who is circumcised? The Jews would have had many arguments spring up in their minds. But they are not the offspring of Abraham. They have not followed the law and been circumcised on the eighth day. How can you say this thing Paul?
At first this doesn’t make sense to us but think of it in the terms of a marriage covenant. In our culture most wear a wedding ring. This is to be a symbol of the promises that were made on the wedding day. We may call them vows or I dos. But two people stand before their friends and families and God and make solemn promises to each other. This is why we call it a covenant marriage. These promises are to be sacred and lasting.
On a man’s wedding day his wife says "With this ring, I thee wed, and I do promise to love, honor, and cherish you, in good times and bad, for richer or poorer, in sickness and health, until death do us part"
We have heard these said many times but what if at the end of the wedding. He walks out and never does any of the promises that he made her. His friend comes up and says aren’t you worried about her being angry or leaving you? Nope, you see this ring. She promised to be my wife until she dies. We are good. Week after week he doesn’t do anything husbandly. What are his actions saying. He is actually proving that he is not her husband. He may have gone through the ceremony. He may be able to point to the symbol of the promises that she and he made but that doesn’t actually make and man a husband.
Another man in another country that doesn’t have marriage ceremonies wears no ring. He has devoted his life to her and in all ways he lives out his promises to her. He wears no ring, never even seen one. He never had the symbol and never made promises but he has shown him to be a married man by his actions.
The Jews were the first man. They walked out of the wedding day ready to party with the mindset that she cannot break her promise regardless of my actions. The Gentile that follows the law is the man who knows what is good and does it. He reveals he is faithful to the promise.
The difference is instead of two women there is one God. But the second man with judge the first.
27 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 spite of what advantages you have had, the law and circumcision, you will be judged by the one who keeps the law. We know from earlier in Romans that there is only one judge and that is Jesus. So he is not speaking of the judge as the one who passes judgement but that the man who keeps the law shines a light on the wickedness of the circumcised.
The symbol of circumcision wasn’t to free them from the obligations of the Law but to make them more responsible because of the advantage they had.
3 Again I testify to every man who gets himself circumcised that he is obligated to do the entire law.
The external symbol was taken to be of saving value when it was to be a physical reminder of what happens inside a person.
The Internal Work
The Internal Work
28 For a person is not a Jew who is one outwardly, and true circumcision is not something visible in the flesh. 29 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.
This issue is given much attention in the new testament as it was a really issue for the early church. There are long discussions in 6 different letter that Paul wrote to churches. There were Jews that claimed that their heritage gave them special advantage and there were others that demanded that anyone who was to be saved had to come under the Mosaic Law.
They were presumptuous people.
9 And don’t presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that God is able to raise up children for Abraham from these stones.
There are those that are descendants of Israel that will be cut off from the people of Israel.
6 Now it is not as though the word of God has failed, because not all who are descended from Israel are Israel.
In His letter to the Galatians, Paul works through this with much more detail as he rebuked the church that was going back to observing the law and putting their trust back into their works.
The covenant symbol wasn’t what was important. It was supposed to be a testimony of the heart of a person. Like a wedding ring. The ring means nothing if the man and woman do not live out lives of husband and wife. There are many who have rings of no value as symbols.
The true circumcision is one on the inside.
6 The Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the hearts of your descendants, and you will love him with all your heart and all your soul so that you will live.
There is no life without a circumcised heart. There is no new creation with the flesh.
15 For both circumcision and uncircumcision mean nothing; what matters instead is a new creation.
It is the work of the Spirit that brings the new heart and salvation.
26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27 I will place my Spirit within you and cause you to follow my statutes and carefully observe my ordinances.
It is only those who have the Spirit placed in them that will be caused to follow God’s statutes and to carefully obey them.
19 Circumcision does not matter and uncircumcision does not matter. Keeping God’s commands is what matters.
The reality for the true child of Abraham is one has God’s Spirit dwelling in them.
9 You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him.
It is a work that has been done not by the hand of man on the flesh but by the hand of God on the heart of man.
8 Be careful that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit based on human tradition, based on the elements of the world, rather than Christ. 9 For the entire fullness of God’s nature dwells bodily in Christ, 10 and you have been filled by him, who is the head over every ruler and authority. 11 You were also circumcised in him with a circumcision not done with hands, by putting off the body of flesh, in the circumcision of Christ, 12 when you were buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead. 13 And when you were dead in trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, he made you alive with him and forgave us all our trespasses. 14 He erased the certificate of debt, with its obligations, that was against us and opposed to us, and has taken it away by nailing it to the cross.
Abraham’s Offspring
Abraham’s Offspring
The Jews that Paul is speaking too had been blinded to find assurance outside of the covenant. The covenant promises were given to Abraham to his offspring and they took this to be that the many physical descendants of Abraham were guaranteed the fulfillment of this promise.
7 I will confirm my covenant that is between me and you and your future offspring throughout their generations. It is a permanent covenant to be your God and the God of your offspring after you.
They ignored the fact that each time God spoke of Abraham’s offspring he spoke of a singular seed.
16 Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say “and to seeds,” as though referring to many, but referring to one, and to your seed, who is Christ.
The single offspring of Abraham are those that have been united with Christ. Abiding in him.
7 You know, then, that those who have faith, these are Abraham’s sons.
29 And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, heirs according to the promise.
Those that belong to Christ are those who have become the seed. They are Abraham’s true children and heirs of the covenant promises.
14 The Holy Spirit is the down payment of our inheritance, until the redemption of the possession, to the praise of his glory.
Abraham was saved by faith just as his offspring is.
6 just like Abraham who believed God, and it was credited to him for righteousness? 7 You know, then, that those who have faith, these are Abraham’s sons. 8 Now the Scripture saw in advance that God would justify the Gentiles by faith and proclaimed the gospel ahead of time to Abraham, saying, All the nations will be blessed through you. 9 Consequently, those who have faith are blessed with Abraham, who had faith.
In the end the Gospel is about belief and faith. For without faith there is no salvation. And those with saving faith will live by it.
11 Now it is clear that no one is justified before God by the law, because the righteous will live by faith.
It would extend to the Gentiles
14 The purpose was that the blessing of Abraham would come to the Gentiles by Christ Jesus, so that we could receive the promised Spirit through faith.
There is one redeemed group of people. The Jews only saw a shadow and a symbol of what was to come they had to wait for the cross to come.
22 But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin’s power, so that the promise might be given on the basis of faith in Jesus Christ to those who believe. 23 Before this faith came, we were confined under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith was revealed. 24 The law, then, was our guardian until Christ, so that we could be justified by faith. 25 But since that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, 26 for through faith you are all sons of God in Christ Jesus. 27 For those of you who were baptized into Christ have been clothed with Christ. 28 There is no Jew or Greek, slave or free, male and female; since you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Those that had faith and obeyed the words of God would be credited with righteousness once the offspring turned his voice to heaven and shouted “It is finished.” For when God’s plan of redemption was fully revealed there was no longer and division just those part of Abraham’s offspring of faith with circumcised hearts and those who God says “I never knew you, Depart from me, Lawbreakers!”
To the offspring it will not be the word’s of man they long to hear but the praise from God.
That person’s praise is not from people but from God.
Conclusion
Conclusion
The fallenness of man blinds them to the truth. It is the word of God and the work of the Spirit that illuminate the mind to the truth of God and his plan of salvation. The lies that the Jews believed are many of the same lies that are believed today. There are some thoughts that can draw our minds to God this morning.
The sons of Abraham will:
Seek the truth of God’s word. Incorrect interpretation of scripture has eternal consequences. The lost man does not what to obey anyone. It is a foreign concept to the blind. People will got to great lengths to justify to themselves that they are ok. That their sin isn’t bad, that God isn’t offended. The Jews missed the meaning of God’s word to them.
Seek to put their trust in God’s promises alone. They seek to have no idols in their hearts, minds, and lives. Today people put there trust in ceremony just like the Jews were doing. Their confidence is not in privilege, or ceremony, or in any trinket or symbol. There are no scoreboards, teams, or advantages that anyone has over anyone else. It doesn’t matter what church you are a member of, what revival you prayed to God at. It doesn’t matter if you have been baptized or not. There are no ceremonies that save. there are no affiliations that save. There is just faith in Jesus’ finished work on the cross.
Seek to keep the commands of God. What pleases the Lord is important to the sons of Abraham. There is a desire to do what God has commanded and to flee from what displeases the Lord. From what provokes his anger.
Seek the praise of God. There is nothing more precious than to hear the praise of the Lord. To share in the Masters Joy.
23 “His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You were faithful over a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Share your master’s joy.’
Are you a true son or daughter of Abraham? Do you live like the world, think like the world, believe like the world? Do you live in a false confidence in something other that Jesus. Today you are convinced that you are living a lie. Calling yourself a follower of Jesus but the word of God today has shown that you have not put your trust and faith in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. Today your confidence in everything else has been shattered. Then turn to him today. Repent and believe and you will be saved.
Are you seeking to know the word of God for yourself? Are you diligently and carefully examining the word so that you know truth when you see it and hear it. Or have you lived as if God’s word is not a necessity to following Jesus. How can you live for the master if you do not know his will for your life?
Are you one who knows what God’s word says and have chosen to live like the uncircumcised, there is a warning here to examine yourself and to turn from that way of living. Do you know that God has commanded you to be baptized. He has commanded that we are to go and make disciples. To be generous. Loving. Lights in the world. To be bold in our faith. To be ready. To love the lord and our neighbor. Do you know the will of God for you and choose to do something different. I encourage you to resolve that with the Lord today. Wait no longer. Love your Lord.
15 “If you love me, you will keep my commands.
Do you seek the praise of men or of the Lord. Do you live in a way that that pleases the Lord? Are there parts of your life that you are hanging on to that you know do not please the Lord or bring him glory. Even though the world or even other Christians do not condemn you but your own heart does. Then I encourage you to be bold in what the Spirit is laying upon your mind and heart though the mediation of his word.
31 So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God.
Let us be bold as we approach the throne. Not because we are great but because his saving work is accomplished and his promises are true and he is a faithful God.
Let us pray.
Let us pray.
Prayer
Blessing/Benediction
24 Now to him who is able to protect you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of his glory, without blemish and with great joy, 25 to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, power, and authority before all time, now and forever. Amen.
