Walking through Romans PT 5: Romans 2: 11 - 29
2:11 For there is no partiality with God. 2:12 For all who have sinned apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. 2:13 For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous before God, but those who do the law will be declared righteous. 2:14 For whenever the Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature the things required by the law, these who do not have the law are a law to themselves. 2:15 They show that the work of the law is written in their hearts, as their conscience bears witness and their conflicting thoughts accuse or else defend them, 2:16 on the day when God will judge the secrets of human hearts, according to my gospel through Christ Jesus.
2:17 But if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the law and boast of your relationship to God 2:18 and know his will and approve the superior things because you receive instruction from the law, 2:19 and if you are convinced that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, 2:20 an educator of the senseless, a teacher of little children, because you have in the law the essential features of knowledge and of the truth – 2:21 therefore you who teach someone else, do you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal? 2:22 You who tell others not to commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? 2:23 You who boast in the law dishonor God by transgressing the law! 2:24 For just as it is written, “the name of God is being blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.”
2:25 For circumcision has its value if you practice the law, but if you break the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. 2:26 Therefore if the uncircumcised man obeys the righteous requirements of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? 2:27 And will not the physically uncircumcised man who keeps the law judge you who, despite the written code and circumcision, transgress the law? 2:28 For a person is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision something that is outward in the flesh, 2:29 but someone is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is of the heart by the Spirit and not by the written code. This person’s praise is not from people but from God.
God does not play favoritism:
God does not play favorites. He does choose us by Grace through faith. Yet, to think it is that we are “good” misses the point of the Law. While one who is not under the Law or “apart from the Law” who sins will still be under judgment, one under the Law will will also be judged. To one reading they might ask, “What good is the Law?” If it does not help to be under the Law, then how does it help one?... The answer is that whether one has heard the Law or not does not mean anything… it is he who does the Law that will benefit from it… yet… there is still an issue.
The Jewish believer in Christ in Rome saw that they had an advantage as they had the Law and regarded the Gentile believers as lesser as they did not. Because of this they felt the Gentile must come under the Law as they were to receive the benefits… and in that they must first convert to Judaism then come to Jesus.
The issue was though, that the Jewish believer had the Law and could not do it… and the Gentile by the Holy Spirit was keeping the Law as it was now written on their hearts.
In Ezekiel 36:26 God promised “I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you. I will remove the heart of stone from your body and give you a heart of flesh.” In that the Gentiles received this promise in Christ Jesus. “They show that the work of the law is written in their hearts, as their conscience bears witness and their conflicting thoughts accuse or else defend them, on the day when God will judge the secrets of human hearts, according to my gospel through Christ Jesus.”
This was a bit confounding to the Jewish believer as they had Christ yet still held to the Law that was written on stone… Paul admonishes them that since they are the trusted ones of this Law, why do they not keep it… or rather understand it?
The Jewish Laws held that it was wrong to divorce yet a divorce was rather easy in those days. The Law also taught that no one should steal, yet since the Gentiles were not “chosen” and were the “others”, a lesser than human… it was deemed not a sin to enter their temples and plunder them. Paul was stating, stealing itself is a sin regardless of whom one is stealing from. In these things the Gentiles looked at the Jew and saw him as a hypocrite… and stated, “the name of God is being blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you”.
May we not fall into categorizing others as lesser than ourselves. That be it the Religionist or the Righteous we are all in need of Jesus… equal by our sin and fallen state… and equally worthy of the wages of sin… Death.
So being a Jew outwardly has no value if one does not live out the teachings of the Law. In such the person who is not circumcised yet keeps the Law will look at the person who is circumcised and think that that person is lesser as he knows what to do yet chooses not to.
No, one is not a Jew by the physical removing of the foreskin as one is not a “Christian” by any physical works… it is only by the Holy Spirit who cuts one heart… that leaves it raw and sensitive that makes one a Jew, as well as a Christian. We are not made a believer by the “written code” as some teach… but by the Holy Spirit.
Blessings,
iggy
2:11 For there is no partiality with God. 2:12 For all who have sinned apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. 2:13 For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous before God, but those who do the law will be declared righteous. 2:14 For whenever the Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature the things required by the law, these who do not have the law are a law to themselves. 2:15 They show that the work of the law is written in their hearts, as their conscience bears witness and their conflicting thoughts accuse or else defend them, 2:16 on the day when God will judge the secrets of human hearts, according to my gospel through Christ Jesus.
2:17 But if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the law and boast of your relationship to God 2:18 and know his will and approve the superior things because you receive instruction from the law, 2:19 and if you are convinced that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, 2:20 an educator of the senseless, a teacher of little children, because you have in the law the essential features of knowledge and of the truth – 2:21 therefore you who teach someone else, do you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal? 2:22 You who tell others not to commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? 2:23 You who boast in the law dishonor God by transgressing the law! 2:24 For just as it is written, “the name of God is being blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.”
2:25 For circumcision has its value if you practice the law, but if you break the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. 2:26 Therefore if the uncircumcised man obeys the righteous requirements of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? 2:27 And will not the physically uncircumcised man who keeps the law judge you who, despite the written code and circumcision, transgress the law? 2:28 For a person is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision something that is outward in the flesh, 2:29 but someone is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is of the heart by the Spirit and not by the written code. This person’s praise is not from people but from God.
God does not play favoritism:
God does not play favorites. He does choose us by Grace through faith. Yet, to think it is that we are “good” misses the point of the Law. While one who is not under the Law or “apart from the Law” who sins will still be under judgment, one under the Law will will also be judged. To one reading they might ask, “What good is the Law?” If it does not help to be under the Law, then how does it help one?... The answer is that whether one has heard the Law or not does not mean anything… it is he who does the Law that will benefit from it… yet… there is still an issue.
The Jewish believer in Christ in Rome saw that they had an advantage as they had the Law and regarded the Gentile believers as lesser as they did not. Because of this they felt the Gentile must come under the Law as they were to receive the benefits… and in that they must first convert to Judaism then come to Jesus.
The issue was though, that the Jewish believer had the Law and could not do it… and the Gentile by the Holy Spirit was keeping the Law as it was now written on their hearts.
In Ezekiel 36:26 God promised “I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you. I will remove the heart of stone from your body and give you a heart of flesh.” In that the Gentiles received this promise in Christ Jesus. “They show that the work of the law is written in their hearts, as their conscience bears witness and their conflicting thoughts accuse or else defend them, on the day when God will judge the secrets of human hearts, according to my gospel through Christ Jesus.”
This was a bit confounding to the Jewish believer as they had Christ yet still held to the Law that was written on stone… Paul admonishes them that since they are the trusted ones of this Law, why do they not keep it… or rather understand it?
The Jewish Laws held that it was wrong to divorce yet a divorce was rather easy in those days. The Law also taught that no one should steal, yet since the Gentiles were not “chosen” and were the “others”, a lesser than human… it was deemed not a sin to enter their temples and plunder them. Paul was stating, stealing itself is a sin regardless of whom one is stealing from. In these things the Gentiles looked at the Jew and saw him as a hypocrite… and stated, “the name of God is being blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you”.
May we not fall into categorizing others as lesser than ourselves. That be it the Religionist or the Righteous we are all in need of Jesus… equal by our sin and fallen state… and equally worthy of the wages of sin… Death.
So being a Jew outwardly has no value if one does not live out the teachings of the Law. In such the person who is not circumcised yet keeps the Law will look at the person who is circumcised and think that that person is lesser as he knows what to do yet chooses not to.
No, one is not a Jew by the physical removing of the foreskin as one is not a “Christian” by any physical works… it is only by the Holy Spirit who cuts one heart… that leaves it raw and sensitive that makes one a Jew, as well as a Christian. We are not made a believer by the “written code” as some teach… but by the Holy Spirit.
Blessings,
iggy
