A. One day, many years ago, a well-respected British minister took the trolley early Monday morning from his home in the suburbs to the church in downtown London.
1. He paid the driver as he got on the trolley, and being pre-occupied with his busy schedule and the needs of his church he didn’t notice that the driver had given him too much change.
2. When he sat down in his seat he looked at the change and his first thought was, “My, how wonderfully God provides!”
3. But the longer he sat there, the less comfortable he became, because his conscience was registering a strong conviction.
4. As he walked to the trolley door and waited for it to open, he said to the driver, “When I gave you money for the trolley ride, you accidentally gave me too much change.”
5. The driver smiled and said, “It was no accident at all. You see, I was in attendance at your church yesterday and heard your sermon on integrity and hypocrisy. I just thought I’d put you to the test. Looks like you passed.”
B. Let’s begin with a question: Is there a difference between being “religious” and being “righteous”?
1. In other words, is there a difference between being “religious” and being “godly”?
2. Truthfully, the answer should be “no” – religious people should be righteous and godly people.
3. But unfortunately, for some people, the more religious they are, the less righteous or godly their lives.
4. The word “hypocrite” is one that aptly applies to a person who is living that way.
5. The 16th century French Renaissance philosopher, Michael De Montaigne (“Mon-tane”) wrote: “I find no quality so easy to counterfeit as religious devotion.”
6. I am sure that none of us here today want to fall into that category of hypocrite, and yet the more religious we claim to be the easier it is to end up falling into that category.
C. I have a popular little paperback in my library that was written in the late 1960’s called “How to Be a Christian Without Being Religious” written by Fritz Ridenour.
1. The book is actually a brief examination of Romans.
2. Fritz’s main intention is to show that being a Christian doesn’t mean becoming a fuddy-duddy, holier-than-thou religious person.
3. Nowhere in the Bible is that point made more powerfully than in the book of Romans.
4. And nowhere in Romans is that truth demonstrated more clearly than in our text for today.
D. Before we get into today’s text, let’s do a brief review, since it is has been a couple of weeks since we have been in our Romans series.
1. So far in our sermon series on Romans called “Pursuing Righteousness from God,” we have determined that Paul was writing the church in Rome to help them resolve a conflict between Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians.
2. Part of the solution for that conflict is a proper understanding of salvation by grace through faith.
3. When a person is saved, they are brought into a state of justification because the righteousness of Christ is transferred into their spiritual account, so to speak.
4. No person is righteousness enough to save himself or herself – all people have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by grace because of the sacrifice of Christ.
5. But before Paul can drive home this truth of the good news of the gospel about salvation by grace through faith, he must first paint a picture of the bad news of the unrighteousness of all people.
6. So, in the early chapters of Romans, Paul labors to show the universal guilt of all mankind.
7. In succession, Paul takes up the case of various groups and show how each is truly guilty before God.
a. At the end of chapter 1, Paul revealed that the Gentiles are guilty.
b. In the first half of chapter 2, Paul revealed that the Moralists are guilty.
c. And here in the second half of chapter 2, Paul will reveal that the Jews are guilty.
E. This last group, the Jews were no doubt the toughest group for Paul to address. Why?
1. First, because they were so deeply devoted to their own religious heritage.
2. Second, because Paul himself was also Jewish – a descendant of Benjamin, a student of the great teacher Gamaliel, and a Pharisee.
3. Paul is certainly no anti-Semite and in later passages in Romans we will see Paul’s great desire for his own people, the Jews, to find the salvation that is only found in Jesus Christ.
4. The point of today’s section can be summarized in one simple sentence: Being a Jew is not a matter of racial heritage or religious ritual, but is instead a matter of the heart.
5. I think you will see how easily this same thing can be applied to us by simply substituting the word “Christian” for “Jew” – Being a Christian is not a matter of religious ritual, but is instead a matter of the heart.
F. With all that as a backdrop, let’s move into our passage for today: Romans 2:17-29.
1. In Romans 2:1-16, Paul did not specifically mention the Jews as his target, but for rhetorical effect had allowed his readers to infer who the target was.
2. But in contrast to that, at the beginning of today’s section he clearly reveals his target as verse 17 starts, “But if you call yourself a Jew…”
3. Today’s section falls into two units, the first unit focuses on the law (vs. 17-24), and the second unit focuses on circumcision (vs. 25-29).
4. The Jewish possession of the law and the covenant sign of circumcision were certainly the two most prominent marks of being Jewish.
5. Both of those things were given to the Jewish people directly from God and were a sign that they were a special people chosen by God.
G. The important issue that Paul needed to address in this section is how could the Gentiles and Jews be both equally subject to God’s wrath, when the Jewish people have a special place before God as the possessors of the law and circumcision.
1. What Paul will explain is that the Jews being blessed with the law and with circumcision did not in themselves bring rescue from divine judgment.
2. In this section, Paul will build on the truth he discussed in the last section that it not the possession of the law that matters, what matters is the practice of the law.
H. In a series of “if” clauses, Paul begins by enumerating many of the privileges enjoyed by the Jews: 17 But if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the law and boast in God 18 and know his will and approve what is excellent, because you are instructed from the law; 19 and if you are sure that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, 20 an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth— (Rom. 2:17-20)
1. Some interpreters think Paul is engaging in a certain amount of sarcasm here, as if these privileges were ones the Jews bragged about but were not really theirs.
2. But I think this misses the point of the text – all the privileges Paul lists are legitimate.
3. The problem is not that the Jews were illegitimately boasting in what was not really theirs, rather the problem was that they were not living up to their claim.
4. The first privilege was the most general – THEIR NAME - they did possess the name “Jew”.
a. The term “Jew” originally referred to a person from the region occupied by descendants of Judah, but it was applied generally to all Israelite people after the Exile.
b. The name signified that one belonged to the people whom God has chosen to be His own.
5. The second privilege was THEIR BOOK – the Law.
a. They relied on the law which is the law of Moses, the Torah.
b. The Greeks had Plato and Aristotle, but the Jews had the law of God!
c. No one could top that! God had written it with His own finger!
d. Their law gave them access to God’s will and to be able to approve of what is excellent.
6. The third privilege was THEIR ROLE – They were guides for the blind and teachers of the foolish and the children.
a. A natural outcome of the Jew’s knowledge of God through the law was that they were in a position to help others understand the truth about God and His ways.
b. The blind do need guides and the foolish and the childish do need instructors, and that’s the role God had hoped the Jews would play, but they fell short.
I. Paul then moved from the advantages to being Jewish to how those advantages turned out to be no advantage at all: 21 you then who teach others, do you not teach yourself? While you preach against stealing, do you steal? 22 You who say that one must not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? 23 You who boast in the law dishonor God by breaking the law. 24 For, as it is written, “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.” (Romans 2:21-24)
1. By repeating in summary form some of the privileges he listed in verses 17-20, Paul highlights effectively the contrast between claim and reality.
2. Unfortunately, religious people are often good at telling other people what to do, but then often do the very things they condemn in others.
3. What do we call people who say one thing and do another? We call them hypocrites.
4. And who ends up receiving the most discredit when religious people are hypocritical? God!
5. In verse 24, Paul uses a quotation from Isaiah 52:5 which says, “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.”
a. In other words, the Jews claim to be a teacher of the Gentiles, but because of their hypocrisy, God’s name is blasphemed among the Gentiles!
b. By failing to demonstrate in day-to-day living the qualities of the law they profess to love, they not only fail to be the light that God wants them to be, they actually harm the reputation of God.
c. Preaching without practice always leads to blasphemy.
d. The old saying, “Do as I say, not as I do,” doesn’t work in any context.
e. The old poem is right, “People would rather see a sermon than hear one any day…”
J. In verse 25 and following, Paul moves our focus from the law to circumcision.
1. Next to the law, circumcision was the most important distinguishing mark of Jewishness.
2. Therefore, it is logical for Paul to discuss circumcision along with the law in his continuing attempt to erode the Jews’ confidence in their inherited religious advantages.
3. Paul wrote: 25 For circumcision indeed is of value if you obey the law, but if you break the law, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision. 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. (Romans 2:25-27)
4. One of our challenges in approaching and understanding this passage is that circumcision does not mean to us what it meant to the Jews.
a. To us, circumcision is purely an optional physical act performed on young boys for hygienic reasons.
b. But to the Jews, circumcision was a holy mark on the body, a physical reminder to the Jewish male that he belonged exclusively to God.
c. God gave circumcision to Abraham and to his descendants as a sign and seal of the sacred relationship that existed between God and the Jewish people.
d. Circumcision was a physical mark on the body, but it was never meant to be an end in itself.
e. The physical mark was meant to be accompanied by a deep spiritual commitment to God.
f. Unfortunately, when spiritual commitment diminished, circumcision degenerated into ritualism.
g. Circumcision then degenerated into a symbol of Jewish superiority and into a guaranteed ticket to heaven.
5. To combat this false understanding, Paul made two points.
a. First, circumcision is useful only if accompanied by a changed life (obedience).
b. Second, it is better to be uncircumcised and truly obey God than to be circumcised and break God’s law.
c. Jews would have found both of those ideas shocking and appalling – The Jew could not imagine how an uncircumcised Gentile could be in a better spiritual condition than a circumcised Jew.
d. Since we know that Paul believes that all our lost and are in need of the grace that comes through Jesus, then we know that he is only speaking hypothetically about anyone being able to save themselves by the law – whether it be a circumcised Jew or an uncircumcised Gentile.
K. Let’s look at the last two verses that we want to cover in today’s sermon: 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. (Romans 2:28-29)
1. These verses are a kind of conclusion to Paul’s arguments in this section and are a bridge to other sections.
2. Paul has made clear that being circumcised and possessing the law do not, by themselves, qualify a person to be part of God’s true, spiritual people.
3. Such outward marks can show that a person belongs to the “physical” Israel, but real Jewishness can never be determined by physical birth, by cuts on our skin, or by possession of a certain book.
4. To be a “real Jew” is an inward matter that is marked by a circumcision of the heart that comes in connection to the Spirit and not the “written code.”
5. Actually, Circumcision of the heart was not a new requirement – Moses himself called on the people of Israel to “circumcise their hearts” (Deut. 10:16).
a. God’s true people have always been marked by faith-filled commitment to God and not merely by external rites.
6. But Paul goes beyond the Old Testament by insisting that this heart circumcision is accomplished in or by the Spirit (God’s Spirit).
7. What Paul does at the end of this chapter, is to anticipate the direction of his argument.
a. Paul will show that only those who, through faith in Christ, have received the Spirit of God make up God’s true people – true Israel.
8. This radical redefinition of “Jew” will require a lot more explanation as Paul moves forward in this letter.
L. So what important lessons can we learn and apply to our own lives from today’s section?
1. Let me offer two important lessons.
M. First, I want us to be sure we understand the difference between “anti-Semitism” and “anti-Judaism.”
1. “Anti-Semitism” is an irrational hatred of the Jewish nation or people, whereas, “Anti-Judaism” is an opposition to the Jewish religion as a valid expression of truth that leads to salvation.
2. We should not allow others to label Christians as being “anti-Semitic” because we are “anti-Judaism.”
3. Obviously, as Christians, we don’t hate anyone. Jesus teaches us to love even our enemies.
4. So, we, Christians do not hate or despise Jewish people even if we are convinced that their religion does not provide for their salvation.
5. Nor do Christians hate Arabs because we don’t think that Islam saves, or Indians because we question the validity of Hinduism and Buddhism, or secularists because we oppose humanism.
6. Truth is truth, and it comes only from God and we should never compromise the truth – it is right to stand against wrong – and to proclaim that Jesus is the way, truth and life.
7. All of us need God’s truth for salvation through Christ and are helpless to save ourselves.
8. We need to have compassion on those who have not discovered God’s truth, and do our best to understand where they are coming from and what they understand, so we can humbly share the truth as we know it – always in love.
N. The second lesson I want us to take to heart is the difference between “true” religion and “false” religion.
1. Those differences have to do with the difference between the outward and the inward.
a. The difference between ritual and relationship.
b. The difference between profession and transformation.
2. Just like the Jews whom Paul addressed here in Romans 2, if we are not careful we will put our confidence in the wrong things for salvation.
a. Those Jews thought they were right with God because they had the right book and the right rituals, like circumcision.
b. We can come to a similar false conclusion by putting our hope in the fact that we are rightly baptized, or are members of the right church, or are regular in worship attendance and regular in observing the Lord’s Supper.
c. Those things are all right and good and we should be observing those things, but what about our hearts, and lives, are they being truly dedicated to God in relationship with God?
3. If we are not careful, we deceive ourselves into thinking that if we just cross the right “T’s” and dot the right “I’s” with regard to religious ritual, then we have bought our ticket to heaven.
a. If a real relationship with God that shows itself in our heart and life is non-existent, then it doesn’t matter that we got wet in baptism, or are church members, or have perfect attendance at church, or have superior Bible knowledge.
b. God is more interested in what is happening in our hearts and lives (internally) than what is happening externally in religious ritual.
4. Here is a good test to see if we are becoming religiously self-deceived:
a. First: Am I condemning in others what I myself do? Do we excuse in ourselves the sin we condemn in others? Do our deeds match our declaration?
b. Second: Am I claiming special privileges without accepting personal responsibility? We are deceiving ourselves if we think the Christian life is all about freedom and blessing and no responsibility. Do we expect God’s blessings in spite of our ongoing disobedience?
c. Third, Am I going through the motions but my heart is not really in it. Believing in Christ and living for Christ are two different things. Going to church and being the church are two different things.
5. Paul ended verse 29 with the statement: His praise is not from man but from God.
a. When we have a right relationship with God – one that is inward, a matter of the heart, in fellowship with and empowered by the Spirit – then God is pleased and we are blessed!
b. God knows when a person’s religion is real or false, or just ritual and not relationship.
c. Let’s strive to receive our praise from God – not from man.
Resources:
Romans: Be Right, The Bible Exposition Commentary, by Warren Wiersbe
Romans, The NIV Application Commentary, by Douglas Moo
Romans, Interpretation – A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching, Paul Achtemeier
“Can a Person Be Too Religious?” sermon by Ray Pritchard.
