Paul's Admonition Series

I believe that when these Jewish believers in Rome were hearing or reading this letter for the first time…I can bet they were thinking, “Yeah Paul, you tell ‘em! They are dogs and how can God love such an unrighteous and reprobate people like the Gentiles!”

They were also thinking, “I’m so glad I was born a Jew… I could have been born a Gentile OUTSIDE of God’s favor…” While this was technically true, the Hebrew nation had fallen from its covenant with God on several occasions and what they believed to be their entitlement by RIGHT, was now being offered the Gentiles thru this Jesus? This would NOT do…

There had been many Jews who had accepted Jesus as Messiah and were saved. They were ministering to other Jews in their areas, but it seems as if the position on Gentiles was still the same regardless of whether or not they believed that Jesus was Messiah or not! What Paul was saying to them now was the Gentile was NOT outside of God’s covenant, but was welcomed just like the Jews! This did not set well with them as they believed that they were set apart and special! Among these Jewish believers Paul was addressing the arrogance within their hearts.

And so with all that being said, here is where we pick up chapter 2 in the letter to the Roman church… Paul had just lambasted the Gentiles for their reprobate nature, and I am sure every Jewish believer in that church was nodding their heads and in their hearts they were thinking… “Those awful Gentiles…if only they could have Jesus!”

Paul then turns the tables on these Jewish believers and begins to point out their shortcoming and failures as Jews! God had called Abraham out of Ur and had chosen him to father a nation… but that nation was not to be set apart to judge the earth, but to bless it! The Jews had not taken that message to heart!

In v.1-29 Paul basically tells the Jewish believers that it is THEY who are sinful, reprobate and fallen! They… the chosen of God… have fallen and he tells them that it is because of THEM that the Gentiles are blaspheming God’s name BECAUSE of their lives… because of how they live… how they act… WHAT AN INDICTMENT on these Jewish believers!

In v28-29 Paul sums it all up…

28For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. 29But 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.

So what can we… followers of Christ today… what can we learn from Paul’s admonition of the Jews and Jewish Christians of the 1st century?

First, I believe we have to understand that…

What is on the outside, while important, should not be our focus (v.28)

Show verse 28 here…I will read

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

Was it important for the Jewish believers to adhere to the dietary laws that God had set forth? Yes it was, they did not stop being Jewish just because they accepted Christ!