Romans 2:17 -3:8 Spot the difference
• Have you ever played spot the difference? You can usually spot the difference quite easily because all the differences are on the outside but when it comes to our standing before God, it is a little bit harder to spot the difference because the difference is on the inside and not always seen on the outside.
Well Paul In this passage moves on like a crafted lawyer with his brief TO SPOT THE DIFFERENCE between a Religious hypocrite and a person with a relationship with God. He wants to confirm to the religious JEW that all humanity is total depraved and under Gods Judgement. Paul has already referred to the Gentile world Rom.1 1- 18 and its total depravity he then moves on to explain that even the critical moralizers are without excuse and will too come under the inevitable judgement of God Rom 2:1-16. And now he turns his attention to his own countrymen the self confident Jewish people Rom: 17-29: then refuting their objections 3:1-8.
This isn’t going to be easy because the JEW considers himself different to everybody else, and it’s usually the JEW who go around spotting the differences.
The Jews were indeed a privileged people who had been given the revelation of God through Moses they had received (The law - Torah) and the Jews had also received covenant promises from God through Abraham These promises were: Many descendants would come from Abraham, many nations would be blessed through them, God would maintain the covenant and a promised land would be their inheritance.
The sign of that covenant was (circumcision) Gen 17:1 -12 this meant that they belonged to God this is what set Jews apart from their neighbours God had made an everlasting covenant with them yet God did require from them complete obedience to Him through the law.
V17 Now you who call yourself a Jew.....
You can imagine them saying, “ after all God has chosen us as his special people, we have the law in our possession given to us at mount Sinai it is our shield and we have this special relationship with God are you saying we are no better than the Gentiles?” They must of laughed at Paul, yet Paul continues
1. V17 – 24. Spot the difference no1. "Do you Practice what you preach?"
Here Paul gives a scalding critic to those who are supposed to lead others v19 -20 yet they have failed to practice what they preach v21 although they know Gods will they have failed to practice it... HE BRINGS THE LAW INTO PLAY v21-23. V24 The answer is a resounding no they are guilty because they have refused to live by their beliefs this of course is called hypocrisy.
C. S. Lewis explains the conflict in The Four Loves, “Anyone who has ever taught or attempted to lead others knows the tendency in all of us toward exaggerating our depth of character while treating leniently our flaws. The Bible calls this tendency hypocrisy. We consciously or subconsciously put forward a better image of ourselves than really exists. The outward appearance of our character and the inner reality (that only God, we, and perhaps our family members know) do not match up.
That was the case here these Jew they had put forward a better image of themselves than what was really existing they were teaching others about the law yet weren’t following it themselves Jesus had harsh words for them in Matt 23: 2, 27 read: Condemns the religious leaders. If the truth be known many Christians can be like it too.
• Have you ever stood behind those old fashioned Seaside Picture boards? Where you put your head into a picture body it reminds me that the picture of who we project of ourselves and who we are behind it are often two different people. In reality many people put up a façade, simply jump through the religious hoops when needed but in reality are we practicing what we preach?
• Francis Bacon said, “.It is not what men eat but what they digest that makes them strong; not what we gain but what we save that makes us rich; not what we read but what we remember that makes us learned; not what we preach but what we practice that makes us Christians.”
Paul says these Jews had brought dishonor upon God v24.. His name is blasphemed among the gentiles God …
What do others see you doing outside of here? Is it honoring to God? Or is it a contradiction? Can you Spot the difference… make no mistake they will spot the difference also. What are others going to think about God from watching your life?
2. V25 -29 Spot the difference no 2 Its not external rites that count but internal experience.
The outward rite here is circumcision the sign of God’s special covenant, submission to this rite was required for all Jewish males Genesis 17: 9-14. On the 8th day they were usually circumcised. Circumcision set the Jew apart from all other people groups. It meant that God had made an eternal covenant with his people and had given precious promises.
Trusting in external rites: The Jewish people had begun to trust in the outward rite as their grounds for right standing with God. But according to Paul this meant nothing if the person didn’t obey God’s laws….v25 Circumcision has value if you observe the law, but if you break the law, you have become as though you have not been circumcised.
You see the external rite in and of itself is of no consequence if we continue to break the law. The external rite itself became the Jews vehicle for salvation. Rather than the internal Dynamics of this covenant with its symbolic internal relationship between God and the Jew. You see for the Jew circumcision was also a symbolic picture of the Jew cutting off the old life of sin, purifying ones heart and dedicating oneself to God. Living a life of obedience to God’s Law, which they failed to do.
I wonder how many people have once been baptized maybe even here in this chapel over the years and yet for the last 20 years, have lived a stranger to God and his people, have continued to dishonor Him, break His laws in something as simple as remembering the Sabbath. Yet they continue to tenaciously hang onto the hope that the external rite of Baptism itself whilst still breaking the law of God will somehow save them.
Such a person is failing to understand that the external rite of Baptism, is simply an external picture (a sign) of an inward reality which has taken place (The significance). A picture of dying to the old nature of self and sin and being raised from the death into a resurrection life in Christ.Yet to many the rite itself has become the passage of acceptance without the inward experience of new birth.
The same is true today with many families still get their children christened through the Church of England, yet throughout their lives have nothing to do with the Church the Bible and God the only time you will see them is at Christenings , weddings and funerals. Yet still these people will profess to be a Christian its absolute nonsense.
Others will trust in confirmation, Mass, baptism, attend Church, participate in the Church ordinances, have a rich Christian heritage…... You may even believe that others are heading for judgment, but not yourself, if that’s you God wants you to think again! If you are trusting in these things then you are bankrupt.
What a Jew/Christian negative and positive V28 -29 circumcision of the heart not flesh that counts
Paul is saying here that you are not a Jew by the external rite but by the internal (secret) work of the Spirit of God in a person’s heart v29.
This wasn’t Paul’s new teaching it was Gods intended way for both Jew and Gentile.
OT REFS: God had spoken of it before to them Deut 10: 12- 16 He desired them to circumcise their hearts. Deut 30:6 He also promised he would accomplish this work so that they may love him with all their being. Also through the The prophets like Ezekiel and Jeremiah, God called the people to circumcise their hearts Jer 4:4 and had warning for those with uncircumcised hearts Jer 9:25 and precious promises that God would give them a new heart and new Spirit in the future Ez 36:26 – 27.
V29 It is not by the written code either but by the Spirit : This spiritual circumcision of the heart has replaced the mere physical rite this promise is fulfilled in Jesus Christ the only way we can ever be right internally is not through external rites of circumcision or even by the law but through the internal work of God’s Spirit in our life. Paul drives this home further in Romans 8: 1-4. Read
As Jesus said to the religious Jew Nicodemus who had all the external rites and the law. John 3:3 “You must be born again” and that takes place friends when you repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and completely trust in him you will receive the Holy Spirit. Acts 2:36 -38 Repent and be baptised and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
We must let go of all the props that are holding you up the outward rites the idea that you can fulfill God’s law as Augustus Toplady penned in Rock of Ages, ’Not the labor of my hands can fulfill thy law’s demands: could my zeal no respite know, could my tears for ever flow, all for sin could not atone: Thou must save, and thou alone.’
• Story: Jack was walking along the cliff edge and fell off yet managed to grab hold of a branch on the way down and began to cry for help. “Is there anybody up there?” Are we prepared to let go of all those things that prop us up and trust God alone for salvation? Who desire that we trust in His finished work.
3. Spot the difference no 3. Do you live for the praise of men or God?
The last difference we spot says Paul is that such a man who is circumcised by the Spirit of God, will live for the praise of God . This is a play on words as the name Jew means PRAISE from their ancestor Judah. They were living for the praise of their fellow Jew rather than God, they wanted the external praises of men.
Look what Jesus says Matt23:5-7. Everything they do is done for men to see: they make their phylacteries wide and their tassels on their garments long ; they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; they love to be greeted in the market places and to have men call them Rabbi.”
• Listen to this article found in Today in the Word, June 3, 1989. He made free use of Christian vocabulary. He talked about the blessing of the Almighty and the Christian confessions which would become the pillars of the new government. He assumed the earnestness of a man weighed down by historic responsibility. He handed out pious stories to the press, especially to the church papers. He showed his tattered Bible and declared that he drew the strength for his great work from it as scores of pious people welcomed him as a man sent from God. Indeed, Adolf Hitler was a master of outward religiosity—with no inward reality!
Purpose in life : In Vienna, Europe, the period leading up to WW2. Three Jewish psychiatrists, two learned masters in the field, one the young apprentice. The first master is a man named Sigmund Freud. He has spent years studying people, striving to understand what makes us tick. He’s reached the conclusion that the most basic drive in human beings is the drive for pleasure. It’s our need for pleasure that explains why we do what we do, how we live.
The second master is Alfred Adler. He too has spent years studying human behavior. His studies have led him to disagree with Sigmund Freud. Adler is convinced the bottom line explanation for human behavior is power. All of us grow up feeling inferior and powerless. Life is a drive to gain control, to feel we are important. The third man is a young up-and-coming psychiatrist by the name of Victor Frankl. He hopes to follow in the footsteps of his mentors.
But before his career gains any momentum there’s a hiccup – a little altercation called WW2. The Nazis invade and its dangerous for Jews. Freud and Adler are world renowned scholars and so manage to escape Europe before Hitler invades. Frankl is not so lucky. He is arrested and thrown into a Nazi concentration camp for 4 long years.
After the war is over Frankl is released from the concentration camp and resumes his career. He reflects upon his time as a prisoner. He noticed something quite strange – the people who survived were not always the ones you’d expect. Many who were physically strong wasted away and died while others who were much more weak physically grew strong and survived. Why? What was it that enabled them to hang on through a living hell?
Frankl reflected on the theories of his mentors. Freud’s pleasure principle couldn’t explain it. For four desperate and terrible years the men in that camp knew only pain, suffering and degradation. Pleasure was not a word in their vocabulary. It wasn’t pleasure that kept them going.
What then of Adler’s theory about power being the basic human need? That didn’t fare well either. Frankl and his fellow Jews were completely powerless during their time in the concentration camps. Each day they stared down the barrel of a loaded gun, were treated like animals, felt jackboots on their faces. They had no power and no prospect of power.
Victor Frankl came up with his own theory. The difference between those who survived and those who perished was hope. Those who survived never gave up their belief that their lives had meaning, that despite everything going on around them it would one day end and they would live meaningful, purposeful lives. What is the basic human drive? The one thing that gives life value? The ability to live with a sense of meaning. Not pleasure. Not power but GOD.
• C.S.Lewis observed “The more we let God take over, the more truly ourselves we become-because He made us. He invented all the different people that you and I were intended to be… It is when I turn to Christ, when I give up myself to His personality. That is when I first begin to have a real personality of my own
In closing today ask youself these questions, “Can you spot the difference in your own life? Between a Religious person and a relationship with Jesus Christ? Are you a person who practices what you preach? Are you a person who is trusting in the internal work of the Spirit of God and not the law and rites for salvation. And finally are you a person living for praise of God in your life?
PASTOR AUBREY VAUGHAN www.cbchurch.org.uk
