The Roman’s Road to Righteousness (Chapter 2:17-29)‏‏‏‏

Hello Friends!

Welcome Back! Let’s continue our journey through the book of Romans – “The Romans Road to Righteousness.”

The Roman’s Road to Righteousness (Chapter 2:17-29)

This week we will begin reading chapter 2 verses 17-29 which is the second half of this rich chapter addressing false security. 

Here in Romans chapter 2, Paul speaks specifically in our verses today to destroy the false securities of the Jews. But in so doing he also lays bare the inadequacy of the many false securities of people today. Remember, the Apostle Paul has already indicted the pagan immoral irreligious people in chapter 1 verses 18 to 32. And then as we discussed in our last group, Paul indicted the religious moral people in chapter 2 verses 1 to 16 (the Jews were also included there). 

But now having dealt with irreligious people and generally religious people, now in verses 17 to 29 Paul zeroes in specifically on the covenant people – the Jews. In fact, this is the first time we see the Apostle Paul use the word “Jew” in this epistle.The word "security" is a word we all understand. It hits us where we live. We seek that comfortable sense of freedom that comes when we are confident there is no threat of danger or trouble. It is that comfortable freedom that says everything is under control. People talk about economic security and job security.

They want marital security – the confidence that they are loved and beloved by a trusted and faithful spouse. Everybody wants security. But what about security in God?

Man knows that God will judge their sin. Remember back in Chapter 1 it says that even the immoral pagan man who lives under the curse of a reprobate mind knows “the righteous judgment of God”:

who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them – Romans 1:32

It is innate in man to have a sense of right and wrong and where he understands wrong there is a guilt “trigger” that sets off fear in the face of judgment. In other words, you've done something wrong, you're going to be judged for it so you feel guilty about it and consequently afraid. Men often live in fear of the consequence of their sin and they know there's going to be a judgment. So, in some way or another they have to deal with that element of security.

Paul is now embracing everybody! He catches the pagan, the moral person and the Jew and all of them are brought to the “tribunal” to be told that they are sinful and come far short of God's glory – No one escapes!

Jesus Christ is the perfect model of this fact. As He arrived on the Judean scene in the Gospel of Matthew, He gave His first sermon in chapters 5 through 7 – famously known as The Sermon on the Mount. Jesus spends the entire sermon literally demolishing the religious, legalistic walls of Judaism. For example, He essentially says in Matthew chapter 5:

"Your righteousness is not adequate to get you into the Kingdom. Your attitudes are wrong. Your view of Scripture is wrong. Your human relationships are inadequate. Your words are inadequate. Your praying doesn't cut it. Your fasting doesn't cut it. Your giving doesn't cut it." – Shane’s paraphrase

Well, there goes all their security! Jesus literally strips Judaism bare of their religious securities. And that is the approach that we must always take in a presentation of the Gospel message to a lost sinner. The person has to be led to the place where they know they have no resource, no protection, no hope, no solution, no security apart from Jesus Christ. Therefore, we should not be surprised to see Paul do this very thing.

In these thirteen verses Paul deals with the Jews who had the highest and greatest privilege and who at the same time felt themselves the most secure. However, Paul devastates their false securities – which is an act of great kindness. We do people a tremendous favor when we lovingly tell them that their “security” is actually insecure. That's loving kindness. And so Paul is very honest, forthright and gracious in so indicting the Jew and makes them face the inadequacy of their false securities.

The Jew had three “great privileges” which gave him a false sense of security:

• Heritage – The Jew was part of the nation of Israel.
• Knowledge – The Jew possessed the law of God.
• Ceremony – The Jew was circumcised.

Therefore, based on the nation, the knowledge and circumcision, the Jew having these three “great privileges” felt himself greatly secured by them.

He believed that because he was a Jew, because he possessed the heritage of their Nation and the law, because he had the sign of the covenant in circumcision, he was therefore free from any fear about God’s judgment. So what Paul does here in these verses is to take each of these three privileges and systematically destroy them all – striking a killing blow at the supposed security of the Jew. And in so doing he strikes a killing blow at the supposed security of many so-called Christians and religious people in the church today!

In verse 17 it says that the Jews “rest on the law.” This is the major portion of the passage, it runs all the way down to verse 24:

Indeed you are called a Jew, and rest on the law, and make your boast in God, and know His will, and approve the things that are excellent, being instructed out of the law, and are confident that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, having the form of knowledge and truth in the law. You, therefore, who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that a man should not steal, do you steal? You who say, “Do not commit adultery,” do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who make your boast in the law, do you dishonor God through breaking the law? For “the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you,” as it is written – Romans 2:17-24

This is the second security in their knowledge. Their confidence was that they were secure because they had that knowledge. There are four points that Paul makes in these verses – what they learned, what they taught, what they did and what they caused with that knowledge flows through this section. They had the knowledge, no question about that. They were instructed from the law – katecheo. This is where we get our English word catechism. It means to be taught something orally. In fact, as Nehemiah states, they had received the truth directly “from heaven” by God:

You came down also on Mount Sinai, and spoke with them from heaven, and gave them just ordinances and true laws, good statutes and commandments – Nehemiah 9:13

There are a lot of people in that same category today because they know the Bible. Because they know of what it teaches. Because they may understand God's will. Because they have the capacity therefore to know what right and wrong is and maybe even to live a moral life. Because maybe they've been raised in a Christian family where they've been instructed. Because maybe they've even gone to a Christian school – perhaps even gone to a Christian college. Because they’ve been taught in a church. They feel themselves secure because they have that knowledge. Knowledge alone is no security – none at all. 

Later in the book of Romans Paul states:

Israel who followed after the law of righteousness hath not attained to the law of righteousness – Romans 9:31

In other words, they also had security in their “law.” They pursued the “law” but they never attained it because they sought it not by faith but by the works of the law. They knew it in their minds but they never apprehended it in their hearts and it simply meant greater judgment.

Finally, the third security was the security of ceremony found in our final verses:

For circumcision is indeed profitable if you keep the law; but if you are a breaker of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. Therefore, if an uncircumcised man keeps the righteous requirements of the law, will not his uncircumcision be counted as circumcision? And will not the physically uncircumcised, if he fulfills the law, judge you who, even with your written code and circumcision, are a transgressor of the law? For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God – Romans 2:25-29

The Jew thought just because they were circumcised, they were okay. It's actually a perfect parallel to the ceremony of infant baptism. In fact, infant baptism cannot be found anywhere in the Bible. It is simply translating the concept of circumcision into the church and instead of circumcising a child, they simply baptize a child as the sign of the covenant. But it has no New Testament teaching. It's strictly an extension of Old Testament circumcision. And here Paul says if you don't keep it, it doesn't mean anything.

In closing:

The obedience of an uncircumcised Gentile is proof of the responsibility of a circumcised Jew. They held on to circumcision like people do to infant baptism today. The Roman Catholic Church thinks people are saved by the sacraments. And there are many sacramental Protestants who believe that your baptism at your birth was redeeming. Not so! The theologian Hodge rightly said:

"Whenever true religion declines the disposition to lay undue stress on external rites is stressed. The Jews when they lost their spirituality supposed that circumcision had the power to save them."

The liberal Protestant dominations are also quickly moving away from the Word of God and the Biblical gospel of Jesus Christ. They are more and more trusting their salvation to the sacraments – as does the Roman Catholic Church. They are trusting in Baptism, Communion, Extreme Unction or whatever else “saves” you because, as the Bible declares:

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it? – Jeremiah 17:9

There are people like that today. They've been baptized. They belong to a church. They keep all the “rules” and act on a good moral basis outwardly. They're self-righteous. They try to do what's right and don't think they're going to be judged. So, when it comes to the “moral man” and the “religious person” who has identified with Christianity outwardly, Paul wants him to know that he's going to be judged too – because it's just an outward religion. 

However, the whole basis of the Christian Gospel is only understood insofar as people understand that they are guilty before God – whether they are the immoral Gentile of chapter 1 or the moral Jew of chapter 2.

Theses final thirteen verses of Romans chapter 2 represent a single section of Scripture and they too present to us the principles for divine judgment on which God judges men – understanding this truth will be the goal of this week’s session…

Please begin by reading verses 17-29 of the second chapter of Romans.

We are not guaranteed tomorrow – tomorrow may be too late! If you haven't yet made that most important decision of your life, won't you make Jesus Christ your personal Lord and Savior today - before it's too late? Today is the day of Salvation!

If you have been blessed by this message or have a specific question, prayer request or testimony, please send me a note to: encouragingconcepts@live.com

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Blessings!
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