Romans 2:17-29, having shown that outwardly moral people, Jew and Gentile alike-will stand condemned by God’s judgment, Paul turns his argument exclusively to the Jews, God’s covenant people. Neither their heritage (vs.17a), their knowledge (vv.17b-24), nor their ceremonies, specifically circumsion (vv.25-29), will protect them from God’s righteous judgment. The focus of these verses stems upon the reality of faulty understanding of what religion is all about. Religion has its creeds, morals, values and traditions. None of these are what Paul is against, for Paul, living in Christ means being ethical, but it can only come from an all encompassing view of the sovereign work of Holy Spirit indwelling the believer. This already contradicts the modern view by many Christians who think that being good in the end will warrant you eternal life. Being good has nothing to do with being a believer, although demonstrating the inward life on the outside certainly can indicate that you truly do belong to Him. In your heart of hearts, each one knows if he/she is really His own, because His heart beat, beats within them. He speaks to those who are His own in unmistakable terms telling His own how much He loves the wooing them with His passion by calling them back and to Himself.
The kind of religion that Paul is speaking here of is the kind of religion which puffs itself up in religious creeds, ideologies without the reality of the presence of Christ that is shown and revealed through Himself to others. It’s the kind of religion that is dull and shallow, which is the whole point in his address to the Jews. The Hebrews viewed knowledge as experienced, not externally oriented, but during this time the view switched to the view of the Greeks which is external knowledge rather than inward wisdom.
Some have stated that these verses radically re-intrept the Torah. I want to suggest to you today, that they are not re-intrepting the Torah, but rather explaining the real meaning of Torah. Torah was not ever meant to be an external reality lead with legalism, but with the inward parts obeyed because it demonstrated the reality of faith present, the hope promised to the nation of Israel. The reality is that knowledge is always to be applied into our lives, otherwise we become delusional, which leads us to become mere professors of truth rather than living embodiments of the truth. we profess. Often times the intellectual, myself included fall prey to merely intellectualizing the Lord and His Word, and forget that we are to experience the knowledge we teach, letting the Spirit of the Word touch us in profound ways, which lead us to a greater understanding, and insight into our own personal journeys with the Lord. Be encouraged today, He offers you the opportunity even, as a Pastor or Teacher to come to Him daily to be refreshed in the rivers of His everlasting loving arms, because He calls you, His precious child adopted through His blood.
Romans 2:17-20, “ 17Indeed[a] you are called a Jew, and rest on the law, and make your boast in God, 18and know His will, and approve the things that are excellent, being instructed out of the law, 19and are confident that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, 20an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, having the form of knowledge and truth in the law.”
Jew: Previously called Hebrews and Israelites, by the first century Jew had become the most common name for the descendants of Abraham and Isaac. Jew comes from Judah meaning praise, one of the 12 tribes and the designation for the southern half of Solomon’s kingdom after his death. From the time of the Babylonian captivity, the whole race bore this title. Their great heritage however, (Gen 12:3) became a source of pride and complacency (Jon 4:2; Mich 3:11-12; Matthew 3:7-9; John 8:31-34, 40-59), which led to further judgment instead of praise.”
18and know His will, and approve the things that are excellent, being instructed out of the law: This points to the fact that every Jew was to be instructed and grew up in the synagogue. Yeshua grew up learning the Torah just as every other Jew would. In the same way as this, school children begin kindergarden and progress through high school while some even go further than high school The Jews; however, were instructed out of the Law. Things that are excellent refers to what was morally important. Jews were taught what the Torah said, because that would be the distinguishing factor between for them deciding what was right and what was wrong, culturally, religiously, and ethical.
In the same way as the Jews were instructed in the ways of Torah, so are many on these sites online. Many of us have the mentality, of a person sitting on the curb waiting for the bus. We expect the bus to show up at some point, but sometimes the bus just blows right by us and we miss it all together. Many of us think that we can pull out our eternal life card at the end of the day, call ourselves believers, and think, “All is well and good with my soul today?” The curbside mentality is what is really the problem with our thinking today just as with the Jews who elevated the concept of wisdom and knowledge, from what they knew to be true, to the secular view of knowledge. What we need is not the Greek view of wisdom, but the Biblical understanding of what knowledge is. Knowledge begins with the fear of the Lord, for the Lord’s name is the only name. None of the other god’s have risen from the grave to prove deity, but also none of the other god’s have died on a Cross either. None of the other pagan deities have ascended to heaven, there is only ONE, the Lord Yeshua Hamasriach, that is the Lord Jesus Christ. How are you responding to the call to believe in your heart in what He did, for you to have eternal life today, reader?
The blind… babes.: Because they possessed the law, the Jews were confident that they were spiritually superior teachers: guides to the blind pagans (Matthew 23:24-2), light (Is 42:6), wise in God’s ways; and able to teach babes (a reference to Gentile proselytes to Judaism).
Romans 2: 21You, therefore, who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that a man should not steal, do you steal? 22You who say, "Do not commit adultery," do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?”
A series of questions designed to contrast most Jews’ practice with what they knew and taught (Psalm 50:16-20; Matthew 23:3-4; James 3:1). The first question is a cutting question, “Do you not teach yourself?” On the surface this question may not look hard, but if you look at it in the following way, it definitely is a lot harder. In effect what Paul is telling the Jews’ that they were expected to know what they knew, not what they merely thought about the faith, but what in fact it said. Being the covenant nation with the Lord Yeshua; they were expected to be the demonstration of that covenant relationship. It was through disobedience they became nothing other than bondaged through the sins of commission and omission.
In the same way believers many, of us are well read in the Bible and other such subjects. Many would rather sit on the curb adopting the attitude of “it doesn’t matter in the end”. This just shows serious issues with ignorance, and denial, which stems from an attitude of procrastination that is found with people who have no vision or no hope. Yet, as believers we do have hope. Our hope in Christ is living and active, able to touch the hearts of those who are dead spiritually, as long we are radiating the light of Yeshua in our own lives. As believers, we have a command not a request to go out to the nations with the Covenant God’s message of eternal salvation through the Blood, of His Son-Yeshua Hamasriach. It is about high time that we got off the curb, sounded the trumpet and called the congregation to praise, because the Lord is coming back for His bride. Its time that instead of dishonoring the name of the Lord willfully that we let our voices rise together as we win the lost, mend the broken heart, and called sinners to repentance. Its about high time that we ought to teach ourselves rather than feeding on the milk, adopting the attitude of conformality to the neo-postmodern philosophy of the world rather than conforming to the living presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
The second question, “You who preach that a man should not steal, do you steal?”
Paul is merely talking about the eighth commandment, which goes back to Exodus 20:15, “You shall not steal.” The Jews would have known this because any dishonest acquiring of another’s goods or assets greatly disturbs the right to ownership of private property, which is an important principle for societal stability. Paul was taking an external teaching that the Rabbi’s would have taught to the congregation and posing it in a rhetorical form.
The third question is, “You who say, "Do not commit adultery," do you commit adultery?” This again leads back to the seventh commandment in Exodus 20:14, “You shall not commit adultery.” This applies to both men and woman, causes this commandment protected the sacredness of the marriage relationship. God had instituted marriage at the creation of man and woman (Gen 2:24) and had blessed it as the means of filling the earth (Gen 1:28). The penalty for infidelity in the marital relationship was death (Lev 20:10). Adultery was also referred to as a great sin” (Gen 20:9) and a “great wickedness and sin against God (Gen 39:9; Matthew 5:27; James 2:11).
The four question is, “You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?””
The first part goes back to the second commandment, “You shall not make for yourself a carved image-any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and four generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love me and keep My commandments (Exodus 20:4-6). The clear teaching of these verses is that the mode or fashion of worship appropriate to only one Lord forbids any attempt to present or caricature Him by use of anything He has made. Total censure of artistic expression was not the issue, the absolute censure of idolatry and false worship was the issue. Violation would seriously affect succeeding generations because the Lord demanded full and exclusive devotion (the Lord is a jealous God 34:14; Deut 4:24; 5:9). The worship of man-made presentations was nothing less than hatred of the true God.
The Jews were ready to preach morality but their lives did not back up their message. They were stealing from one another, perhaps by collecting an extreme interest; they were committing, adultery; they were profaning the house of God by commercialism; and thus Paul asked the biting question, 23You who make your boast in the law, do you dishonor God through breaking the law?”
Do you rob temples?: This may refer to fraudently skimming funds from money give to the temple or withholding part of their temple tax or offerings (Mal 3:8-10). More likely, however, it refers to the common practice-in direct violation of God’s command (Deut 7:25)—of looting pagan temples and selling the idols and vessels for personal profit (Acts 19:37) under the pretext of religion.
Romans 2:23-24, “23You who make your boast in the law, do you dishonor God through breaking the law? 24For "the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you,"[b] as it is written.”
Paul argues that these particular Jews who thought they were guides to the blind (v.19) were actually breaking their own laws and dishonoring God (Matthew 15:3-8). Paul applies Is 52:5 as proof of his point. As a result of their hypocrisy, the Gentiles themselves blasphemed God. Isaiah 52:5, “Now therefore, what have I here,” says the Lord, “That My people are taken away for nothing” Those who rule over them Make them wail,” says the Lord, “And My name is blasphemed continually everyday.” Those who rule over them: A reference to the Babylonians and their cruelty to captive Israelites. My name is blasphemed: Foreign rulers despised the God of Israel as long as His people were in bondage God delivered His people, not for their goodness, but for the sake of His holy name- to prove He was truthful, faithful and powerful (Ezek 20:9, 14). Paul cited the blasphemy to Israel’s God that resulted from the hypocrisy of first century Jews not applying to themselves the standards of God that they knew and taught others (Romans 2:24).
The point is then simple for us biblically. If you claim to be one of the Lord’s then your life ought to reflect what God is like. When you disobey the Lord, you dishonor his name. People may even blaspheme or profane God’s name because of you. What do people think about God as they watch your life? Many people know a great deal about Scripture just as the Pharisees did, but what we need is not more people who know the right words, or the right actions to do, but people with a heart set upon seeking the face of Yeshua in passion, and purity. What we need is more people who are hungering for the face of Yeshua Hamasriach seeking the plans and designs of what He wants to do with their lives rather than them basing their whole lives around what they can do to advance in their own careers, or professions.
The religion of the Jews was void because they were a spiritually dead people having abandoned the heritage that spiritually that they inherited as beacons of light to the world, exchanging instead the hypocrisy and double standard of the world. In the same way the congregation today does the same way through religious practices that do not ultimately honor the Lord in the first place. We do the same when we skip out on even thinking about the Lord daily as our Lord and Savior, for He gives us breathe to live for Him, and to sing praises to His name. Nothing under the sun is greater than worshipping the name of the Lord Almighty.
Here then, we come to our conclusion to these few verses. We see that the curbside mentality of the Jews is just the same as the Gentiles. This problem runs throughout history even to our modern times the attitude, of curbside religion. We drive through the fast food restrauent expecting to get a burger, shake, or fries quickly, because our world is screaming out to us to get our daily list of activities done. How many have stopped to think God is screaming out at you today? How many have stopped to think that the Lord is desiring the same passion you put into your job, food, spending habits, music tastes, entertainment pursuits, or anything else that takes up your time? The Jews abandoned the Covenant faith because they exchanged the truth for a lie, for they adhered merely to a form of godliness yet denied its power.
In the same way as the Jews holding to a form of godliness yet denying its power, many believers need to throw off the mentality of the curbside, because it is grounded in Greek philosophy. Greek philosophy teaches us to view knowledge externally, but the Bible teaches us to view knowledge inwardly. Only knowledge applied can be knowledge that is real not the other way around. Paul rebuked the Jews, probably even the Jewish Christians, for viewing knowledge in such an external pagan way. Its time that we started applying the truths of the Word into our own lives, allowing the Spirit to move in us and within us. We are supposed to grow in the grace and understanding of the Word allowing the Spirit as we learn more to change us supernaturally through His Spirit giving us greater insight into what faith in His name means.
How can we escape the curbside mentality? We can only abandon the curbside mentality that is so prevalent in our churches when we can gain a true understanding into the insight of what Paul is saying. The force of these few verses is very cutting, for it cuts to the heart of the kind of religion that merely wants to be external and not inwardly. These verses call us (believers) back to the kind of religion that seeks to worship the Lord not the ways of the world. These few verses call us to be separate as the Jews were called to be separate unto Yahweh, to worship Him alone, and not the ways of the world. How often has our story become entangled through the affairs we have engaged ourselves in? How often has our beliefs merely become just another thing we do? Paul is in a sense building the case against the Greek view of wisdom, knowledge and truth by pointing the reader to the reality that apart from the sacrifice of Yeshua there is no other way to pursue knowledge or wisdom.
The grave is empty, not was, but is, Yeshua proved who He was and what’s He about. Yeshua is all about changing lives and giving life, while Satan is all about destroying them. Satan is merely jealous and deceitful about the reality of what faith is all about. Satan wants believers to live in defeat, but the Lord our God calls us from our own personal wilderness experiences to arise out of the religious indoctrination, which has befallen us; giving us a a fresh revelation of His Word. The Lord has not done away with the Israelites nor the Jews, but protected them according to His Davidic Covenant that He would rule over the Throne of David, but also according to the Word of the Lord He shall never leave us nor forsake, us, for that is a solemn oath of the Lord Almighty. The Lord is the I am, there is no other than Him, for He has reigned from before the foundations of the world with the Father as the Son of the Creation He was before all was, before the stars were a thought the Son existed and the concepts of the stars, moon and planets existed, He was. God always was, always will be God, who reigns over all and in all.
Believers its time that we moved to the biblical understanding of what knowledge is. Knowledge is to be experienced in the context of our story of our lives. Apart from that story we often put external things that distract us from the place of His Word in our lives. Knowledge for Paul was knowledge that was experienced through the reality of a heart engaged in the passionate pursuit of His love. Knowledge separated from that truth is knowledge that is merely intellectual, which will not lead to further development in our spiritual lives, but just lead to more information. Is the house your building in your own spiritual life based upon a heart felt engagement of your heart? Believers its time that we jumped in with all of our hearts into the Word of the Lord allowing our lives to be changed by the heartbeat of the Master. Is your own life today being changed by His heartbeat?
If your life isn’t being changed today, I would like to invite a space and a time for you to do so. If you don’t know the Lord maybe today you are seeing that you do need Him in your life. All you have to do is open up your heart, believe upon His name in your heart and thus become His child adopted through His blood. The decision rests alone with you today, if you will let His heart beat change you, and your own life. The Jews, as well as the Gentiles were guilty of denying this very truth being presented to you today, but the decision today rests with you if you will allow this truth to be suppressed or live it out in your everyday lives. The Lord is everywhere and His presence is ready to take you higher for His glory.
Pastor David Jenkins
