Romans 2.24-The Jews Hypocritical Conduct Caused Gentiles to Blaspheme God
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Wednesday September 12, 2007
Romans: Romans 2:24-The Jews Hypocritical Conduct Caused Gentiles to Blaspheme God
Lesson # 64
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 2:17.
This evening we will continue to study the twelfth and final principle of divine judgment, which is contained in Romans 2:17-29, namely, that God judges according to reality and without regard of racial background or religious profession.
The Jews erroneously, presumptuously and arrogantly thought that they would enter the kingdom of heaven because of their racial background as Jews and circumcision as well as being the recipients of the Law.
In Romans 2:17-19, Paul destroys their false security, which was based upon six privileges God had given to them, which did not produce obedience in the Jews but rather arrogance towards their relationship with the Gentiles.
In Romans 2:19-20, the apostle Paul lists four pretensions of the Jew and in Romans 2:20c, Paul teaches that this arrogance is based upon “having in the Law the embodiment of knowledge and of the truth.”
In Romans 2:21, Paul poses two rhetorical questions to the self-righteous, unsaved Jew, which exposes their hypocrisy.
Then, in Romans 2:22, Paul poses two more rhetorical questions to the self-righteous, unsaved Jew, which exposes their hypocrisy.
Last evening we studied Romans 2:23, in which Paul posed a fifth and final rhetorical question to the self-righteous, unsaved Jew, which exposes their hypocrisy.
This evening we will note Romans 2:24, in which Paul teaches his unsaved Jewish audience that their hypocritical conduct as a nation caused the unsaved Gentiles to blaspheme the reputation of the character of the person of God.
Let’s read Romans 2:17-29 and then concentrate on Romans 2:24.
Romans 2:17-29, “But if you bear the name ‘Jew’ and rely upon the Law and boast in God, and know His will and approve the things that are essential, being instructed out of the Law, and are confident that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of the immature, having in the Law the embodiment of knowledge and of the truth, you, therefore, who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that one shall not steal, do you steal? You who say that one should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who boast in the Law, through your breaking the Law, do you dishonor God? For ‘THE NAME OF GOD IS BLASPHEMED AMONG THE GENTILES BECAUSE OF YOU,’ just as it is written. For indeed circumcision is of value if you practice the Law; but if you are a transgressor of the Law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. So if the uncircumcised man keeps the requirements of the Law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? And he who is physically uncircumcised, if he keeps the Law, will he not judge you who though having the letter of the Law and circumcision are a transgressor of the Law? For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God.”
Now, let’s look at in detail Romans 2:24.
Romans 2:24, “For ‘THE NAME OF GOD IS BLASPHEMED AMONG THE GENTILES BECAUSE OF YOU,’ just as it is written.”
“For” is the “inferential” use of the post-positive conjunction gar (gavr), which introduces a self-evident conclusion that is based upon the five rhetorical questions that appear in Romans 2:21-23 that exposes the Jews’ hypocritical conduct.
Therefore, in Romans 2:24, the conjunction gar introduces a self-evident conclusion from the facts derived from the five rhetorical questions that appear in Romans 2:21-23, which imply that the conduct of the unsaved, self-righteous Jew is hypocritical in that they commit the same sins as the unsaved Gentiles commit while at the same time teaching them not to commit these sins.
The statement “THE NAME OF GOD IS BLASPHEMED AMONG THE GENTILES BECAUSE OF YOU” is capitalized because it is a quotation from Isaiah 52:5.
Thus, we see that the apostle Paul uses the very same Old Testament, which the unsaved, self-righteous Jew boasted of possessing to condemn them for their hypocritical and sinful conduct.
He rebukes with the authority of the Old Testament Scriptures.
Isaiah 52:1-5, “Awake, awake, clothe yourself in your strength, O Zion; Clothe yourself in your beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city; For the uncircumcised and the unclean will no longer come into you. Shake yourself from the dust, rise up, O captive Jerusalem; Loose yourself from the chains around your neck, O captive daughter of Zion. For thus says the LORD, ‘You were sold for nothing and you will be redeemed without money.’ For thus says the Lord GOD, ‘My people went down at the first into Egypt to reside there; then the Assyrian oppressed them without cause. Now therefore, what do I have here,’ declares the LORD, ‘seeing that My people have been taken away without cause?’ Again the LORD declares, ‘Those who rule over them howl, and My name is continually blasphemed all day long.’”
In Isaiah 52:4, Isaiah reviews the history of the nation of Israel in slavery.
They had been slaves in Egypt and more recently Assyria had conquered the Northern Kingdom of Israel and exacted tribute from Judah.
Then, in Isaiah 52:5, the prophet alludes to yet another power, Babylon, which would be used by the Lord to discipline the nation of Israel.
This Babylonian captivity caused the heathen, pagan Gentiles to blaspheme the name of God.
Paul uses the quotation to demonstrate that once again the privileged nation of Israel was causing the unsaved, pagan Gentiles to blaspheme the name of God through their hypocritical and immoral conduct, which caused the Lord to discipline the nation throughout her history.
Romans 2:24, “For ‘THE NAME OF GOD IS BLASPHEMED AMONG THE GENTILES BECAUSE OF YOU,’ just as it is written.”
“The Name” is the onoma (o*noma) (on-om-ah), which refers to the “reputation” of the “character” of the “Person” of God.
In Romans 2:24, the noun onoma has a four-fold sense: (1) It signifies the “personality” of God distinguishing Him from the heathen gods. (2) It signifies the “character” of God representing who He is. (3) It signifies God’s “work” in creation and for the salvation of men. (4) It signifies the “reputation” of God before men.
As the elect nation of God, Israel was to represent God and proclaim salvation to the Gentiles and reflect His holiness to the Gentiles.
Exodus 19:5-6, “Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the sons of Israel.”
Leviticus 11:44-45, “For I am the LORD your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy. And you shall not make yourselves unclean with any of the swarming things that swarm on the earth. For I am the LORD who brought you up from the land of Egypt to be your God; thus you shall be holy, for I am holy.”
Leviticus 20:26, “Thus you are to be holy to Me, for I the LORD am holy; and I have set you apart from the peoples to be Mine.”
However, their conduct caused them to fail to reflect God’s holiness in their lives since Paul teaches in Romans 2:1 that they committed the very same sins that the Gentiles were guilty of.
Therefore, the unsaved Gentiles would say to themselves why follow the God of the Jews when they do not obey Him.
In Romans 2:24, the noun onoma signifies the “reputation” of the “character” of the “Person” of God.
Therefore, when Paul teaches the unsaved, self-righteous Jew that his hypocritical and sinful conduct causes the name of God to be blasphemed among the unsaved Gentiles, he means that the “reputation” of the “character” of the “Person” of God is slandered by the unsaved Gentiles.
“Slander” refers to defaming someone’s character as a result of bitterness towards them.
Therefore, the unsaved Gentiles defamed the character of God as a result of bitterness towards the unsaved Jew for his hypocritical conduct.
It is ironic that the sacred name of God was blasphemed by the Gentiles because of the hypocritical conduct of these self-righteous, unsaved, legalistic, religious Jews since they would never use the personal name of God.
When the rabbis began to add their traditions about 300 B.C. that are now recorded in the Mishna and Talmud, they noted that the Third Commandment forbids misusing the name of Yahweh (Ex. 20:7).
Therefore, these rabbis decided it was too holy to pronounce so they quit pronouncing the name, thus YHWH is called the sacred Tetragrammaton.
Whenever they came to the name in Scripture, they read `adhon, “Lord.”
Therefore, these self-righteous, unsaved Jews who did not dare use the personal name of God when speaking about Him because they considered that it was too holy to pronounce would cause this same name of God to be blasphemed by the Gentiles because of their hypocritical conduct!
Romans 2:24, “For ‘THE NAME OF GOD IS BLASPHEMED AMONG THE GENTILES BECAUSE OF YOU,’ just as it is written.”
“Of God” is the noun theos (qeov$), which refers to the second member of the Trinity, namely the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ who was the member of the Trinity that manifested the Godhead to the forefathers of Paul’s Jewish audience.
“Is blasphemed” is the verb blasphemeo (blasfhmevw) (blas-fay-meh-o), which is composed of the verb blapto, “to injure” and noun pheme, “speech,” thus the word literally means, “to injure with speech.”
Thus, the word denotes “slandering” someone, which refers to defaming someone’s character as a result of bitterness towards them.
In Romans 2:24, the verb blasphemeo is used with the reputation of the character of the person of God as its object and refers to speaking against God’s reputation in such as way as to injure it, thus the word means, “to slander” the reputation of the character of the person of God.
Romans 2:24, “For ‘THE NAME OF GOD IS BLASPHEMED AMONG THE GENTILES BECAUSE OF YOU,’ just as it is written.”
“Among the Gentiles” is composed of the preposition en (e)n), “among” and the articular dative neuter plural form of the noun ethnos (e&qno$) (eth-nos), “Gentiles.”
The noun ethnos is used in contrast to the Jews and thus refers to all those individuals who are “not” of Jewish racial descent and thus “not” members of the covenant people of God, Israel.
Therefore, by implication this word refers to all the nations of the world.
“Because of you” is composed of the preposition dia (diaV), “because” and the 2nd person plural accusative form of the personal pronoun humeis (u(mei$), “you.”
The 3rd person plural form of the personal pronoun humeis refers to all the unregenerate Jews constituting the nation of Israel that rejected Jesus Christ as their Messiah.
This form of the personal pronoun humeis emphasizes that Paul is addressing the nation of Israel as a whole.
The preposition dia is a marker of a participant who is the “cause” or “reason” for an event or state.
Therefore, the preposition dia with the accusative form of the personal pronoun humeis indicates that the unsaved, self-righteous Jew is the “cause” or “reason” for the state of the unsaved Gentiles slandering the reputation of the character of the person of God.
Romans 2:24, “For ‘THE NAME OF GOD IS BLASPHEMED AMONG THE GENTILES BECAUSE OF YOU,’ just as it is written.”
“Just as” is the comparative conjunction kathos (kaqwv$) (kath-oce), which is used with the indicative mood of the verb grapho, “it is written” in order to signify that the previous Old Testament quotation from Isaiah 52:5 is a comparative clause that indicates a comparison with the present negative attitude of the Gentiles towards God because of the hypocritical and sinful conduct of unregenerate Israel.
The conjunction kathos, “as” with the indicative mood of grapho, “it is written” signifies that the previous Old Testament quotation from Isaiah 52:5 supports Paul’s assertion that the reputation of the character of the person of God is being slandered because of the hypocritical and sinful conduct of unregenerate Israel.
“It is written” is the 3rd person singular perfect passive indicative form of the verb grapho (gravfw) (graf-o).
In Romans 2:24, the “intensive perfect” tense of the verb blasphemeo emphasizes the present permanent and authoritative state of the Old Testament Scriptures that was produced by the past action of the Holy Spirit supernaturally guiding the human authors of the Old Testament in communicating in writing God’s will to man with perfect accuracy.