Romans 2:26-3:20

Let’s do a quick recap I ran out of time and the end got cut off. We talked about this contrast of people who Paul makes distinctions of. We had the leveled playing field that everyone dies and is judged whether by the law or by their conscious but all are judged. The hearers aren’t the saved people the doers are. The hearers are the Jews, they have had the law given to them. But this new contrast gets put together about the non-Jews the gentiles - ethnos in the Greek - which means nations it’s where we get the word ethnicity, they’re the rest of the world, the nations outside of Israel. These gentiles have the law, not written on tablets but written on their hearts! There are even those who boast in everything of the law and how they teach the fools and babes, but they’re hypocrites! They’ve dishonored God in their hypocrisy and they’ve caused others to blaspheme God because of their behaviour. Now we get to the big distinction between the Jews and these other peoples.

25 For circumcision indeed is of value if you obey the law, but if you break the law, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision.

We just recapped about being born Jewish, a teacher of the law, and now even circumcised which are all outward things that we might think would make you Jewish but it’s an inward attitude of reverence and humility; that seeks righteousness not for appearance but for it’s own sake that pleases God.

Romans 2:26–29 (ESV)

26 So, if a man who is uncircumcised keeps the precepts of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision?

27 Then he who is physically uncircumcised but keeps the law will condemn you who have the written code and circumcision but break the law.

28 For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical.

29 But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God.

Being aligned with God is not related to all the external stuff.

What are some things that people connect to ‘being Christian’ that are really the external stuff?

The real thing is a heart matter. Paul deals with the lie of ethnic salvation, then the lie of teacher superiority, then the outward sign. Now we see the doer of the law is more in line with God than someone who is ethnically, or teaching, or has the sign of Jewishness. Has your heart been cut, circumcised, by the Spirit?

So what if we’ve just gone through this whole thing and pointed out all the things that don’t seem to matter, do they not matter at all?

Rom 3.1-2 “Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision? Much in every way. To begin with, the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God.”

We get a rhetorical question which is nothing new we saw one only a few verses ago to start the chapter and Paul replies to himself, as he is oft to do, “To begin with...” he starts, or another translation might just say “First...” or in in the Greek it’s simply protos or proton here being an adverb- meaning first, we start a list here… but we’re quickly going to see that list never even gets a second item. Paul does this on occasion and it could be that he is bringing into your mind - or to the Jew’s mind all the list of reasons you might come up with. Paul does address this question with more support many chapters later but after chapter two if we went into that it would undermine the point that is being made here. What’s the point? that we are all at the same status in our relationship with God, whether Jew or Gentile. So instead of a long list we get one point (that they got the word of God) and move on to the next rhetorical question.

Rom 3.3-4 “What if some were unfaithful?

Are God’s promises dependent on us? Are we greater than God that we may break Him?

Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? By no means!

I feel like I hear this in a cheesy italian voice in the Greek here “Me Genoito!”

Let God be true though every one were a liar, as it is written, “That you may be justified in your words, and prevail when you are judged.””

Who is ‘you’ here? Where was it written?

This comes from Psalm 51:4 “Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.” and the context of this psalm is David’s repentance after he is called out for his sin of adultery and murder. The ‘you’ is God here. That God is justified in His words, and blameless in His judgement.

We can see here Paul is actually supporting his statement from the beginning of the chapter that indeed the Jewish people do have an advantage. God’s promise is first to them and it won’t be broken.

Paul did not start, interestingly, from the premise of those who believe. He started with the presumption that there are unfaithful Jewish people. He did this to reiterate his point that merely relying on the ethnic covenant would not be enough for salvation. Salvation has always been about faith.

Rom 3:5-8 “But if our unrighteousness serves to show the righteousness of God, what shall we say? That God is unrighteous to inflict wrath on us? (I speak in a human way.) By no means!

Me Genoito!

For then how could God judge the world? But if through my lie God’s truth abounds to his glory, why am I still being condemned as a sinner? And why not do evil that good may come?—as some people slanderously charge us with saying. Their condemnation is just.”

This is the sort of bizarre logical sequence that some people get to. If God gets glory from the grace he extends me, then wouldn’t he get more glory if I sinned more?

Rom 3:9 “What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin,”