The wedding ring that I’m wearing this morning is not the same one that Mary placed on my finger on our wedding day. Fairly early in our marriage we went to San Diego on our vacation and I managed to lose my wedding ring while swimming in the ocean. That ring was an important symbol of the relationship that I have with my wife, but during the time that I wasn’t wearing that lost ring, it certainly didn’t mean that we were no longer married nor did it change the essence of our marriage relationship in any way.
Conversely, while the replacement ring I wear this morning is an important symbol of our marriage relationship, that external symbol in and of itself does automatically convey the reality of our relationship. It is, as we often see in our culture today, possible for a man or a woman to wear a wedding ring while violating one’s wedding vows by engaging in some thoughts or actions which damage or destroy the marriage relationship. So we see that while symbols do have value, the mere ritual of displaying those symbols is not nearly important as the reality of the underlying relationship they represent. So I think it would be fair to say that:
Ritual that rejects relationship is pointless
Ritual that reflects relationship is priceless
Although, because it is made of gold, my wedding ring does have some intrinsic value, what makes it priceless to me is that it reflects the reality of the relationship I have with Mary.
As we’re going to find this morning, this principle is also true when it comes to my relationship with God. As we wrap up our study of Romans chapter 2, we’re going to see that Paul continues to address his fellow Jews and show them why they need the gospel just as much as the pagan Gentiles. In that chapter Paul has been pointing out the hypocrisy of the Jews who claimed to know God and His Word, but who failed to live according to the light they had been given. He is going to conclude this chapter by addressing one more area in which their hypocrisy was evident – a particular religious ritual that had lost its meaning because they had abandoned the relationship that gave meaning to the ritual.
So turn with me to Romans 2 and follow along as I begin reading in verse 25:
For circumcision indeed is of value if you obey the law, but if you break the law, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision. So, if a man who is uncircumcised keeps the precepts of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? Then he who is physically uncircumcised but keeps the law will condemn you who have the written code and circumcision but break the law. For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. 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.
(Romans 2:25-29 ESV)
Paul’s message to his fellow Jews in this passage is exactly the same principle that we applied to my wedding ring:
Ritual that rejects relationship is pointless
Ritual that reflects relationship is priceless
For many of us, the word “ritual” probably has a negative connotation. But not all religious rituals are bad or harmful. In fact, as we’ll see this morning, God had expressly given us some rituals that He wants us to engage in. The real issue, as we’ll see this morning, is our motivation for participating in them.
Paul has already addressed several things that the Jews thought provided them with special privilege that meant they didn’t need the gospel of Jesus. And one by one, Paul had rejected those ideas:
• The Jews could not depend on their heritage to excuse them from their need for the gospel. Just because they were born as a descendent of Abraham didn’t exempt them from God’s judgment.
• They couldn’t depend on their knowledge to excuse them from their need for the gospel. Just because they had the Scriptures and they listened to them and had them taught to them on a consistent basis didn’t excuse the fact that their actions weren’t consistent with what they knew.
• They couldn’t depend on their words to excuse them from their need for the gospel. Just because they were able to teach others what they knew intellectually didn’t excuse their behavior which didn’t line up with what they were teaching.
But these Jews thought they had one final “ace in the hole” – their circumcision. They had been consistently taught by their religious leaders that the physical act of circumcision was their ticket to heaven. Later Jewish writings reflect the teaching that would have been typical in the synagogues of Paul’s day and in those writings we find these teachings related to circumcision:
• “Our Rabbis have said, that no circumcised man will see hell.”
• …it is taught, “Circumcision saves from hell.”
• …it is taught that “Abraham sits before the gate of hell, and does not allow that any circumcised Israelite should enter there
So it’s really hard to blame these Jews from thinking that if circumcision was going to save them from hell, they really didn’t need the gospel. But Paul uses this section of his letter to remind them that:
Ritual that rejects relationship is pointless
Ritual that reflects relationship is priceless
Unfortunately, the Jews had lost sight of the relationship that gave meaning to the physical act of circumcision, and, as a result, that religious ritual had actually become pointless. It had no value in God’s eyes. But Paul gives us a hint here that this really didn’t have to be the case. In verse 25 he starts this section by pointing out that circumcision does have great value if it is accompanied by obedience to the law. But if it is merely a ritual that does not flow out of a personal relationship with God in which God transforms hearts and gives the desire and ability to live a life of obedience to Him then it has no value at all to God.
My guess is that many of us here this morning are already thinking that this passage really doesn’t apply to us because we really don’t engage in a whole lot of religious rituals. So I’m going to do my best to show all of us that we do engage in a whole lot more religious rituals than we might think. I’m going to enlist your help in that process. And then once we do that, I’m going to suggest some ways that we can help insure that when we do engage in those rituals we make sure we make appropriate connections to the underlying relationship that gives them meaning and value so that they will be priceless and not pointless.
When it comes to religious rituals, there are two broad categories that we need to consider –
1) Rituals that are expressly given by God
2) Those that are not
Note: In this next section of the message, wait for responses from the congregation where appropriate.
Into which of those two categories would circumcision fit?
That’s right, it was expressly given by God all the way back in Genesis 17 and we’ll be going there in a bit.
What would be some other examples of some other religious rituals that were expressly given to the Jews by God?
• Passover and the other six feasts
• Sacrifices
And what would be some examples of religious rituals that were practiced by the Jews that were not expressly given by God?
• Hanukkah
• All the man-made laws that had been added to the Scriptures
Let’s bring this forward to today and how it applies to us as believers. What are the religious rituals that have been expressly given to us as followers of Jesus by God?
• Baptism
• Lord’s Supper
We’re going to discover this morning that for those who have accepted the gospel of Jesus, these two rituals have actually replaced the Old Testament rituals of circumcision and Passover.
Finally what are some examples of religious rituals in which Christians or those who call themselves Christians might engage that are not given expressly to us by God?
• Christmas
• Easter
• Other holidays
• Confession to a priest, rosary beads, “Hail Mary’s”, etc.
Can you see now that as Christians we actually do engage in religious rituals a lot more than we might think at first glance? That, by itself, is neither a good thing nor a bad thing. As we have already suggested with our main theme for this morning, whether those rituals are pointless or priceless has to do with how well they reflect our underlying relationship with God.
So let’s use our remaining time to discuss how to make sure our religious rituals are priceless and not pointless.
HOW TO MAKE MY RITUALS PRICELESS
My original plan this morning was to cover both kinds of rituals – those expressly given by God and those which are not. But as I worked on the message, it became apparent pretty quickly that we won’t have time to cover all of that this morning.
Fortunately, however, I did schedule an extra week at the end of chapter 2 to summarize these first two chapters in Romans and answer any questions you might have on those chapters. So we’ll use at least part of our time next week to address the rituals that have not been expressly given by God – things like Christmas, Easter, etc. So this morning our discussion will be limited to:
• For those rituals expressly given by God:
This is the issue that Paul is dealing directly with here. Circumcision was a ritual that, as we will see clearly in a moment, was expressly given by God. And when that act was accompanied by obedience to God’s Word which provides evidence of genuine faith, it clearly has great value. But as Paul states in the last part of verse 25, if a circumcised Jew disobeys the law, his circumcision actually becomes uncircumcision, with the clear implication being that in that case circumcision is of no value. So obviously the act of circumcision itself, just like any other religious ritual, has no value in God’s eyes unless it is accompanied by action that gives evidence of genuine faith.
On the other hand, if an uncircumcised pagan Gentile actually keeps the law, God will consider him to be circumcised in a spiritual sense. As we’ll see more fully in just a moment, at least one purpose of circumcision was to identify that someone belonged to God. And Paul is making it clear here that identification with God has a lot more to do with a person’s overall obedience to God than it does with some religious ritual.
In verses 28-29, Paul closes out this chapter by identifying four traits of a “real Jew.” Here in those verses, Paul is clearly using the term “Jew” not as a description of a race, or even a religion, but rather as a term to describe those who truly are God’s chosen people. And those four traits provide us with four ways that we can make sure that our rituals truly reflect our underlying relationship with God and which therefore ensure that those rituals are priceless.
1) Focus on the inward, not the outward
The Jews mistakenly thought that the outward action of circumcision somehow gave them a free ticket to heaven. But as we’ve seen frequently here in Romans, God is a lot more interested in the inward reality of our lives than the outward façade.
There is obviously nothing inherently wrong with engaging in rituals which require our outward physical participation. It is only when we put all the focus on the outward act rather than the inner reality that we have a problem. Since this is such a crucial issue, Paul addresses it again from a slightly different angle.
2) Focus on the heart, not the flesh
This is really just another way of emphasizing the need to focus on the inward rather than the outward.
According to Paul, the “real Jew” is not one who just engages in some external ritual in the flesh, but rather one who has had a spiritual heart transplant through the work of the Holy Spirit. We’ll address that important idea more when we address the next principle.
While the Jews continued to unfailingly participate in the physical act of circumcision, they had completely forgotten the heart of God and why He had established that ritual in the first place. And until their hearts were made right by restoring God’s purposes for circumcision, the act itself would continue to be pointless.
Let’s go back to Genesis 17 and see what God’s purpose was when He first established the act of circumcision:
This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised. You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you.
(Genesis 17:10-11 ESV)
The primary purpose of circumcision was to identify the Jews as those with whom God had established His covenant and who therefore belonged to Him. It was to be a reminder of their covenant relationship with God. And an important part of that relationship was that they were to be set apart from the other peoples around them in a way that would be evidenced by the way they lived their lives.
It is instructive to note the timing of God’s initiation of this ritual. First, we see that it comes after God had credited Abram with His righteousness because of Abram’s faith:
And he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness.
(Genesis 15:6 ESV)
That means that circumcision was an outward demonstration of and testimony to the relationship that Abram already had with God as a result of His faith.
We also see that the ritual of circumcision was first given by God over 500 years before He gave the Law to Moses. Under the Mosaic Law, circumcision took on an additional meaning – it also signified membership in the covenant community. That merely reinforced its purpose as a reminder of the need to be set apart and morally pure.
But unfortunately, by the time Paul wrote his letter, circumcision had become the symbol of Jewish superiority. Rather than reminding of them of their responsibilities toward God, the Jews regarded it as a symbol of privilege which they mistakenly thought excused them from their need for the gospel.
Let’s think about how all of this is relevant to us today when it comes to the two rituals God has given to us – baptism and the Lord’s Supper.
Interestingly, baptism serves much the same purpose in the church that circumcision did among the Jews. It is an outward act that reflects a relationship with God that has already been established through faith in Jesus. It is a symbol of our membership in the covenant community we call the church. And, perhaps most importantly in light of this morning’s passage, it is a mark that identifies us as belonging to Jesus which reminds us of our need to be set apart from the world around us by the way we live our lives.
Without our relationship with God and all those accompanying realities, being baptized merely gets us wet. Baptism, by itself, doesn’t make us right with God or extend any kind of privilege to us any more than the physical act of circumcision did for the Jews. On the other hand, baptism, just like circumcision did for the Jews, does have great value when it is done as an act of obedience which demonstrates that we have a heart for God and the things of God and that our faith is genuine.
Although I can’t make the case from the Bible that baptism is required for salvation, I do know this – it was important enough to Jesus that He both participated in that act personally as an example for us as well as commanded His followers to do the same. So I have a hard time understanding why any genuine believer would refuse engage in Scriptural baptism.
Because of what Jesus did while observing the Passover meal the night before His crucifixion, the Lord’s Supper serves the same purpose for Christians that the Passover did for the Jews, The physical act of taking the bread and the cup serves as a reminder of what God has done for us by freeing us from the bondage of sin through the death and resurrection of His Son. And it is also important that our participation in the Lord’s Supper be done with the right heart – one that recognizes what Jesus has done for us and that desires to be obedient to Him out of gratefulness for the sacrifice He made on our behalf.
Since we’ll be observing the Lord’s Supper two weeks from today and we’ll have a chance to explore its underlying meaning in more detail then, I’ll wait until then to expound on this idea further.
3) Rely on the Spirit, not the letter
This is the essence of what Paul has been saying throughout this chapter. The Jews thought that because they had obeyed the letter of the law, especially when it came to circumcision, that they really didn’t need the gospel or a Savior. But the same Scripture that these Jews claimed to know so well consistently pointed to the importance of relying on God’s Spirit rather than their obedience to the letter of the law.
Here is what God had said to the Jews hundreds of years earlier through the prophet Ezekiel:
And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.
(Ezekiel 36:26-27 ESV)
Notice here that it is God who is doing all the work here. He is the one who will give a new heart. He is the one who will put His Spirit within His people. He is the one who is going to remove the heart of stone and replace it with a new heart. And the reason God is going to do that is so that His people will be equipped to walk in His statutes and obey His rules.
But unfortunately the Jews had missed out on the importance of that new heart and the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit and therefore they were willing to settle for a physical act that was meaningless without that new heart. And, as we’ve seen already here in Romans, the only way to get that new heart was by responding to the gospel by faith in Jesus alone – the one thing that so many of these Jews refused to do.
Unfortunately, I’ve seen those who claim to be Christians do the same thing with baptism and the Lord’s Supper. I remember a time several years ago when the worship team was practicing on a Saturday and a woman who was driving by came in to see when we would be observing the Lord’s Supper next. And it was clear by the way she asked that she viewed the Lord’s Supper as a ritual she needed to do to satisfy the letter of the law rather than an act that flowed from a heart that was controlled by the Holy Spirit.
I was really hoping that she would come back the next time we observed the Lord’s Supper together because perhaps then she might have seen it in a different light.
4) Seek God’s praise, not man’s praise
There is a really interesting word play in verse 29 that just doesn’t come through in our English translations at all. As we saw last week, the word “Jew” is derived from the name Judah, one of the 12 sons of Jacob. If you go to Genesis 29:35, you can see that the name Judah means “praised”.
So in verse 29 Paul is saying that a “real Jew” – a real “praised one” – is one whose praise comes from God and not from man.
Here Paul is dealing with our motivation for engaging in religious rituals. If I’m doing that because it pleases God, then that ritual will reflect the underlying relationship I have with God and it will be priceless. But if my motivation is to do something that will benefit me personally or will somehow make me look better to other people, then that same participation will become pointless.
Unfortunately over the years I’ve observed people participate in both baptisms and the Lord’s Supper because they were more worried about what others thought than what God thought. I’ve seen people decide to get baptized because their best friend was getting baptized or because someone else in the church was doing that and they didn’t want to be left out. I’ve observed people taking the bread and the cup during the Lord’s Supper because they didn’t want others to see them pass on taking the elements, even though I know they weren’t believers. And in each of those cases, their participation in those rituals was pointless, not priceless.
As we conclude this morning, let me go back to the illustration of my wedding ring. Let’s suppose that I’d never lost that ring or never even taken it off my finger. And let’s suppose that while I was wearing that ring constantly, I became a cruel and unfaithful husband. And one day Mary reached her breaking point and came to me and said, “You have ceased to be a loving and faithful husband. You have become a cruel tyrant who cares only for himself and not at all for me. I want you to leave.”
How do you think she would feel if I responded, “How dare you complain, I’m wearing the same wedding ring you put on my finger on our wedding day and I’ve never taken it off even once. Sure, I’ve mistreated you and cheated on you, but I was always wearing this ring.” That would be pretty ridiculous wouldn’t it? But isn’t that exactly what we’re doing with God when we engage in the symbols He has given us while at the same time completely disregarding his purposes, plans and ways?
Ritual that rejects relationship is pointless
Ritual that reflects relationship is priceless
What are you doing in your life to make sure that your rituals are priceless?
