The Bad News About Good People

Romans 2:17-29

Main Points: 3 Great reversals that Paul uses to attack the hypocrisy of the moral person

Great Reversal Number One- While claiming to honor God, they dishonor God. Vs 17-24

(Read vs 17-20)- The Jews here have claim a lot of things that on the surface, look great.

They have a lot of privileges and advantages. Let’s just list them again

Possess the law and rely upon it

Boast in God and know His will

Instructed in the law

Claim to be lights to the blind

They claim to be wise and understanding in the midst of fools that they teach.

Illustration: One of the ways I use to think you spot a genuine californian is how they order innout. They can look like a californian and have the right style and sound like a californian, but they’re just a poser at best.

Paul is trying to build this case here about who a genuine Jew is and why these things they claim doesn’t make them right with God.

Possessing the law and possessing status as a jew was something that they took great pride in.

This was an argument either that was made against Paul or that Paul anticipated from the Jewish person in this community

Remember, Paul just preached the judgment of God on those who are outwardly immoral. Most likely, these were gentiles.

The Jews thought that they would automatically dodge God’s judgement.

These people here would probably be reading about this would object, “Well, I’m a jew, Paul. I have the law and understand every word of it. Thankfully, I’m not like that horrible person you described in chapter one.”

They may think God has “entered a special relationship with us and this started long ago, so we get a pass.”

They believe that they teach morals and uphold moral excellence outwardly but this is all reversed because they practice the same exact things they seek to condemn

(Read vv. 21-23)

Paul now asks a series of questions. He’s really indicting their character and seeking to reveal their own hypocrisy but his way of asking questions is a rhetorical device that helps the reader feel the weight of their own guilt. it causes deep thinking and deep feeling.

He points out three things they preach- Stealing, adultery, Idolatry.

These are really parts of the 10 commandments right?

Don’t steal but Paul has to ask, do you steal? Maybe they thought it was fine if they just stole things for a good purpose as we’ll see in a moment. Or maybe the small value of an item made them think it wasn’t a big deal.

Don’t think that just because Paul is indicting Jews that he’s not talking about others as well. This has much relevance for our day. This applies to the one who views themselves as extremely moral and a good citizen or church goer. The following of commands and doing what’s right on a grand scale and thinking that this makes me right with God. But Paul’s asking us, we tell othes and our children not to steal, but do we steal?

James Boice: Romans, Volume 1: Justification by Faith (Romans 1–4): An Expositional Commentary (The Eighth Commandment)

We steal from God when we fail to worship him as we ought or when we set our own concerns ahead of his. We steal from an employer when we do not give the best work of which we are capable or when we overextend our coffee breaks or leave work early. We steal if we waste company products or use company time for personal matters. We steal if we sell something for more than it is worth. We steal from our employees if the work environment for which we are responsible harms their health, or if we do not pay them enough to guarantee a healthy, adequate standard of living. We steal when we borrow something and do not return it. We steal from ourselves when we waste our talents, time, or money.

A big one in my generation is downloading movies for free or music for free, cutting corners and since we don’t get caught what’s the big deal?

Or what about adultery? The Moral Jew here might not be sleeping with other men and women who are not their wives, but maybe they forgot the words of Jesus:

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” Mt 5:27–28.

We may have wondering eyes but that’s only proof that there is a wondering heart. God sees to that hidden place. We might think “well hey, i’m not doing the BIG adulterous act. So what’s the big deal?!”

Or what about Idolatry? The Pharisee here knew the Israelites got themselves into trouble with Idolatry and it was the cause of exile so of course he’ll teach others to stay away from idolatry.

Paul asks a strange question “do you rob temples?” it’s a bit difficult to know what he means here but most likely what was happening was these religious Jews would go into the temples that were made for false gods and they would steal things from their temples to put in their own temples. Maybe this was done in jest or in some polemical way.

But Paul is in essence saying, “you say you hate idolatry but you’re defiling yourselves with the objects that you say you hate, you’re taking objects that are used in the worship of false Gods!”

Paul’s final charge is that though they claim to honor God with the law, they dishonor God by not practicing what they preach. Read Vs 24-25

Paul points out that there’s something big at steak here- the glory and fame of God Himself.

God’s name is blasphemed. He is being mocked by their moralism. They make everything look great outwardly and they think that because they don’t look like them out there and all their filthiness, they have this attitude toward their sin: “What’s the big deal?”..

Answer: The big deal is that it’s sin against God. It’s wickedness against Him.

Listen, When you sin, you offend one who is Holy and the only one worthy of obedience. At the root of all of this is idolatry. This is where the poison of hypocrisy comes from. Paul points out that even though these other people in chapter one exchanged truth for a lie, and worship the creation rather than the creator, you are not very different from them. You worship yourself and your own goodness thinking that is going to earn you a right standing but you fall under the exact same judgment.

This is prevalent even in churches today.

“I do so much good, I give to the church, I even serve the church! I teach my kids good things, I try to follow rules. I’m good!”

If you’re here and you’ve thought your own righteousness is going to save you, I promise you, you are deceived.

This is idolatry— a worship of your own goodness. Therefore, the poison of hypocrisy is permeating your life. You may be fooling others, but God sees and will never be fooled.

Or you may appear as if you’re fine at church and you put on the right face and say the right words so that people will always know you’re right with God but when you leave those doors, you live a life that showcases you don’t know God. God’s name is blasphemed in this world because of this. The biggest complaint against the church is what? Well can we blame them?

Here’s Dr. Martin LLoyd-Jones:

… “you cannot blame people today for judging Christ and Christianity by what they see in church members. And the blindness of many Christians at this point is something I cannot understand at all. People seem to think that the masses are outside of the Christian church because our evangelistic methods are not what they ought to be. That’s not the answer. People are outside the church because looking at us they say ‘what us the point of being Christians?— Look at them!’ They are judging Christ by you and by me. And you cannot stop them and you cannot blame them.”

Great Reversal Number Two- While Valuing religion, their pursuits lose value. Vs 25-27

Great Reversal Number Three- Heart renewal remedies and reverses all hypocrisy. Vs 28-29