Last time in Romans, we saw Paul’s condemnation of the pagan man, the idol worshiper who is given over to sensual pleasures. Mankind chooses to suppress the truth of God’s existence, becomes ungrateful, and then turns to idol worship. This leads to sexual immorality, and eventually to vile passions in the homosexual lifestyle. Along the way the Holy Spirit is bringing conviction, and mankind persists in his rebellion and unbelief. As a result, God begins giving them over to their desires and the destructive consequences of their sin until they reach the point of becoming reprobate. They have rejected God long enough that He finally gives them over to their desire to do so. At this point, pretty much anything goes, and those individuals will eventually face the wrath of God in Hell. In this chapter Paul addresses the moralist and religious man, who as we will see, is self-righteous. Man’s tendency is to think if he at least upholds some moral standard or shows religious devotion that it will cancel out his faults, or that God will somehow overlook them. However, Paul is going to make the case that all three groups (the pagan, moralist, and the religious man) are equally deserving of God’s wrath.
Lest we should somehow think we are better than the pagan man in Romans 1, Paul changes from the general plural to the specific singular (they to you). He says you are inexcusable when you judge, because when you do so, you are doing the same things. The word judge does not mean we are to refrain from discerning between right and wrong, but we are not to judge unto condemnation or judge hypocritically (Matthew 7:1-5, 15-19, and Heb 5:12-14). We are to be in the habit of using the word of God to determine good from evil. God’s judgment or condemnation, however, is according to truth. Having a moral standard and passing judgment on others for not keeping it will not free us from the same condemnation if we are doing the same things. It’s the riches of God’s goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering that holds back His judgment and blesses us in spite of our sins.
These attributes should be what draw us to repentance, but people unfortunately despise it in their ungratefulness. In their hardness and impenitent hearts, they are treasuring up wrath for the day of wrath. We can either be a recipient of God’s goodness, forbearance, and long suffering, or of His wrath, in which He will give everyone according to their deeds (a scary place to be). These people are self-seeking, and don’t obey the truth. There will be indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish. In contrast, for those who patiently and consistently do good, seeking glory, honor, and immortality, they will have eternal life. They will receive glory, honor, and peace. Here we see reference to the Jew and the Greek, meaning the religious and moral man is across people groups. At first glance it may seem as though Paul is teaching a works-based theology, but he is merely stating that the evidence of those who are desiring eternal life will be that they persist in doing good.
There is no partiality with God. Those who have sinned without the law will perish without the law, and those who have sinned in the law will perish by the law. It’s not enough to just be a hearer of the law, for a lot of people hear the word of God and don’t obey it. In fact, none of us obey it. In order to be justified by the law, a person must be a doer of it perfectly (Gal 5:3 and James 2:10).
Paul tells us something interesting here: the Gentiles will die in their sins because the Gentiles obey the law even though they weren’t taught it. This is because the law is written on their hearts. People have an innate sense of what is right and wrong. The proof of this is when a person is offended by things like murder, theft, adultery etc. It’s not ok unless they’re the ones doing it. However, the more a person does it, the more hardened their heart becomes. Their thoughts either will accuse or excuse themselves when Jesus will judge the secrets of men’s hearts according to Paul’s Gospel. This is proof that God’s wrath is part of the Gospel message. Again, it’s what makes the good news truly good news.
Lastly, Paul will focus specifically on the Jew (the religious man). The Jewish people believed that because God had given them the law, they were His chosen people, and thought that keeping the law ensured their salvation. However, Paul would ask the Jew, do you steal, do you commit adultery, do you profit from the idol’s temple? They who boast in the law, did they dishonor God by breaking the law? The obvious answer to these questions is, yes. We have all broken the law in one form or another, if not outwardly, certainly inwardly, in the heart. Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” (Mat 5:27-28) So then, the sins of the heart still make us guilty before God.
Paul quotes from Isaiah in stating the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you. When Paul is talking about the law, he is referring primarily to the 10 Commandments, the 10 cannons of God’s law. An interesting fact, all of the 10 Commandments are restated in the NT as valid for us today with one exception, and that is the keeping of the Sabbath. The author of Hebrews tells us that Jesus is our Sabbath rest. The literal keeping of the Sabbath was meant for a sign between God and the Jewish people. Paul will develop this later, but the law was not given to make man righteous, but to reveal to him he cannot be righteous on his own.
He then gets into the topic of circumcision. For the Jew, circumcision was a big deal (Gen 17:1-4). This was the physical sign they were God’s people, and if they refused to be circumcised, they would be cut off from being part of the nation. A Jew would likely have protested to Paul’s argument saying they were saved because they were circumcised. However, Paul said if they, being circumcised, did not keep the law, then it was as though they were not circumcised. Likewise, if an uncircumcised man keeps the law, it would be counted as circumcision, and he would in turn judge them who were breaking the law. He then makes a radical statement if you were a Jew: being a Jew is not outward in the act of circumcision, but being a Jew is being one inwardly, and circumcision was of the heart, in the Spirit. In other words, the true change is not outward in a person’s behavior, but in their heart when they respond to the call of God by faith. Circumcision was merely an outward sign of an inward faith. Paul will later refer to Abraham who was credited righteousness before he was circumcised, and will explain to us what is this circumcision of the heart.
Where might we find those who fit into the category of the moral or religious man? We can find them within the Christian Church, in both Catholic and Protestant denominations. We also can see them in pseudo-Christian sects like the Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses. Really, it’s anyone who is trusting in their own righteousness or religious devotion to be in right standing with God, and attempt to condemn others for not doing the same. Many of these are very nice people and moral by man’s standards, but as we have already seen, our own morals or religious devotion cannot make us meet the righteous requirements of the law.
In application, do we have a tendency to be overly critical of others? Do we condemn or pass judgment on others when we are doing the same things? Sometimes the things we are doing are actually just as bad or worse. It is right to properly identify sin as the Bible says it, but we need to be careful that we are not condemning others, for that is the Lord’s job. We also need to be careful not to judge hypocritically. We need to remember where the Lord has brought us from. This will hopefully help us to deal with others in humility. Remember, it’s the goodness of God that leads us to repentance. When we are dealing with the moralist or the religious person, it is important to go back to the 10 Commandments to draw their attention to their own sin in order to show them their need for the Gospel. So far, Paul has proven all of humanity (the pagan, moralist, and the religious man) to be guilty, and just in case we are missing it, he will explain things even more clearly in the next chapter.
No comments:
Post a Comment