Bridgewater Presbyterian – 29 Jan 2023
Romans 2:17-29
[This was an attempt to return to outlining my sermon. It starts that way… then I returned to manuscripting. 😂]
- Intro – refresh on context of letter
- Mixed community in Rome and its history
- Jewish founded > draws Gentiles > Jews banished > all Gentile > Jews return > tension and even strife in how to worship and interpret Scriptures
- Think about this tension.
- The Jews see Jesus in the context of Judaism, fulfiller of Torah, answer to the promises of the Prophets, a Jew who celebrated all the biblical fasts and feasts and who worshiped in the Temple (which is still standing at this point)
- The Gentiles see Jesus as savior of the world, they don’t know how to live as Jews neither do they want to; when the Jews were forced away, they learned to do church in a less Jewish way, maybe they’d even heard from the Jerusalem Council that Gentiles didn’t have to be circumcised and follow the 613 commandments of the Torah
- When the Jews return, they want to do church in a Jewish way and the Gentiles “aren’t doing it right”. The Gentiles want to be Gentiles, Romans, and the Jews “aren’t doing it right.”
- The Jews see Jesus in the context of Judaism, fulfiller of Torah, answer to the promises of the Prophets, a Jew who celebrated all the biblical fasts and feasts and who worshiped in the Temple (which is still standing at this point)
- So Paul is reminding these disciples of Jesus, Jews and Gentiles, that they are equal before God in their sinfulness. You’ve seen how the Gentiles are sinners. Now we look at how Jews are sinners and in need of the grace of God.
- Jewish founded > draws Gentiles > Jews banished > all Gentile > Jews return > tension and even strife in how to worship and interpret Scriptures
- Mixed community in Rome and its history
- Listen to part of our passage again, in a translation by a Jewish believer in Jesus:
17 But if you call yourself a Jew and rest on Torah and boast about God 18 and know his will and give your approval to what is right, because you have been instructed from the Torah; 19 and if you have persuaded yourself that you are a guide to the blind, a light in the darkness, 20 an instructor for the spiritually unaware and a teacher of children, since in the Torah you have the embodiment of knowledge and truth; 21 then, you who teach others, don’t you teach yourself? Preaching, “Thou shalt not steal,” do you steal? 22 Saying, “Thou shalt not commit adultery,” do you commit adultery? Detesting idols, do you commit idolatrous acts? 23 You who take such pride in Torah, do you, by disobeying the Torah, dishonor God? — 24 as it says in the Tanakh [Hebrew Scriptures], “For it is because of you that God’s name is blasphemed by the Goyim [nations].”25 For circumcision is indeed of value if you do what Torah says. But if you are a transgressor of Torah, your circumcision has become uncircumcision! …28 For the real Jew is not merely Jewish outwardly: true circumcision is not only external and physical. 29 On the contrary, the real Jew is one inwardly; and true circumcision is of the heart, spiritual not literal; so that his praise comes not from other people but from God.
Let’s go through this passage, not verse by verse, but maybe thought by thought.
- 17 But if you call yourself a Jew and rest on Torah and boast about God 18 and know his will and give your approval to what is right, because you have been instructed from the Torah; 19 and if you have persuaded yourself that you are a guide to the blind, a light in the darkness, 20 an instructor for the spiritually unaware and a teacher of children, since in the Torah you have the embodiment of knowledge and truth; 21 then, you who teach others, don’t you teach yourself?
In chapter 1, Paul talks about the idolatry of the nations (though there are allusions to the idolatry of Israel, too). In Romans 9, Paul will remind the Gentiles of all that God has entrusted to the Jewish people: the Scriptures, how to worship rightly, even the DNA of the Messiah. This is meant to keep Gentile followers of Jesus humble before their Jewish brothers and sisters.
Here, in chapter 2, Paul is reminding the Jewish people how hard it is to keep the commands of God, so that they are humble before their Gentile brothers and sisters.
The challenge to the Jewish believers is, Are you practicing what you preach? No, you’re not, Paul says. You are not keeping the 10 commandments, let alone everything else. - And by not keeping the commandments, they are causing a greater sin.
23 You who take such pride in Torah, do you, by disobeying the Torah, dishonor God? — 24 as it says in the Tanakh, “For it is because of you that God’s name is blasphemed by the Goyim.”
The greater sin is that they are causing those outside of Judaism to sin more. From Genesis 12 and the call of Abraham through to the Prophets, the call of the Jewish people is to shine the beacon of God’s kingdom in the world, to all the nations.
Instead, the sin in this world ushered in by the serpent, Adam, and Eve, plagues Israel as much as anybody else. Israel has carried the name of the Creator God, and their failure to be faithful to God has caused the rest of the world to curse God instead of praise him. Israel caused the nations to sin that much more.
Paul is saying in a different way what Jesus says in Luke 6 to his fellow Jews and to his followers:
39 … “Can one blind man lead another blind man? Won’t they both fall into a pit? … 41 So why do you see the splinter in your brother’s eye, but not notice the log in your own eye? 42 How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me remove the splinter from your eye,’ when you yourself don’t see the log in your own eye? You hypocrite! First take the log out of your own eye; then you will see clearly, so that you can remove the splinter from your brother’s eye! - What value then is circumcision? In other words, Paul is asking, what value is it to be a Jew? Again, remember that Paul is not speaking to all Jews here. He’s speaking to Jews who believe that Jesus is the Messiah and who are lording their Jewishness over their Gentile brothers and sisters in Christ.
What is circumcision? I hope I don’t have to get into the technical details. If you don’t know exactly what circumcision is, ask your momma or your daddy.
- Circumcision is a sign in Judaism of belonging to God, of having relationship with God. Abraham and his male descendants were called by God to bear a physical mark of their belonging to God. God showed love to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and their descendants. They were to show their love for God by obeying his commandments.
So circumcision is a sign of not only belonging to God but a call to then be holy as God is holy. The Torah is God’s instruction on how to be holy as he is holy. So Paul affirms that being a circumcised Jew has value in the economy of God but the circumcised Jew has a responsibility to hold up his end of the covenant. Relationship with God isn’t a one-way street. It’s like a marriage. There is give as well as take.
25 For circumcision is indeed of value if you do what Torah says. But if you are a transgressor of Torah, your circumcision has become uncircumcision!
A Jew who doesn’t keep his end of the covenant with God is as lost as his pagan neighbor. - And a pagan who begins to keep the commands of God – such as a Gentile who is a disciple of Jesus – he or she is counted as circumcised. They are counted as a son of Abraham, as Paul will explain in Romans 4.
28 For the real Jew is not merely Jewish outwardly: true circumcision is not only external and physical. 29 On the contrary, the real Jew is one inwardly; and true circumcision is of the heart, spiritual not literal; so that his praise comes not from other people but from God.
Is Paul saying Gentile Christians are Jews? In a sense, yes. It’s not that we Gentiles who follow Jesus the Messiah are replacing the Jewish people. Not at all. Rather, it is that Gentiles who are disciples of Rabbi Jesus are being added to Israel. Paul in Romans 11 gives the picture of wild olive branches being grafted into the cultivated olive tree that is Israel. In Ephesians 2, he says Gentile followers of Jesus are naturalized citizens in the Commonwealth of Israel. God is adding the nations to Israel, not replacing or exchanging them.
- Circumcision is a sign in Judaism of belonging to God, of having relationship with God. Abraham and his male descendants were called by God to bear a physical mark of their belonging to God. God showed love to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and their descendants. They were to show their love for God by obeying his commandments.
- Application.
- 17 But if you call yourself a Jew and rest on Torah and boast about God 18 and know his will and give your approval to what is right, because you have been instructed from the Torah; 19 and if you have persuaded yourself that you are a guide to the blind, a light in the darkness, 20 an instructor for the spiritually unaware and a teacher of children, since in the Torah you have the embodiment of knowledge and truth; 21 then, you who teach others, don’t you teach yourself?
Paul is speaking to a congregation with members who have believed in the One God of Israel all their lives (the Jews) and those out of the pagan world who come to this truth later in life (the Gentiles).
Now, 2000 years later some of us here have grown up in the church. Even as we understand the historical context of this letter, Paul’s words are instructive to us.
What we call the church, the congregation of Jesus the Messiah, has been around for two millenniums. We have the Scriptures, Genesis to the Prophets. We have the words of Jesus and the apostles in the New Testament (a new covenant, by the way, promised to the Jewish people in Jeremiah 31:31).
Jesus gave us a new sign of belonging: baptism. Baptism – a picture of Jesus’ death and resurrection – is the outward sign that a Jew or Gentile has decided to be a disciple of Jesus and is covered by Jesus’ atoning sacrifice on the cross.
So listen to our passage again, paraphrased so we can hear what the Spirit is telling us today:
But if you call yourself a Christian and rest on on the Bible and boast about God and know his will and give your approval to what is right, because you have been instructed from the Bible; and if you have persuaded yourself that you are a guide to the blind, a light in the darkness, an instructor for the spiritually unaware and a teacher of children, since in the Bible you have the embodiment of knowledge and truth; then, you who teach others, don’t you teach yourself? Preaching, “Thou shalt not steal,” do you steal? Saying, “Thou shalt not commit adultery,” do you commit adultery? Detesting idols, do you commit idolatrous acts? You who take such pride in the Bible, do you, by disobeying the Bible, dishonor God? — as it says in the Scriptures, “For it is because of you that God’s name is blasphemed by the world.” For baptism is indeed of value if you do what Bible says. But if you are a transgressor of the Bible, your baptism has become unbaptism! Therefore, if an unbaptized person keeps the righteous requirements of the Bible, won’t his unbaptism be counted as baptism? Indeed, the man who is unbaptised but obeys the Bible – showing that he loves Jesus – will stand as a judgment on you who are baptized and have 20 Bibles at home but violate it! For the real Christian is not merely a Christian in name.
We need to be honest with ourselves. We live in a post-Christian world. Or, more optimistically, a pre-Christian world. By and large, the society around us does not know Jesus and consequently does not live by God’s standards. So let us remember three things about God’s standards:
- God’s commandments are for believers, not unbelievers.
- They don’t save us. Jesus saves us.
- His commandments are his instruction for how to be like him, and only those who know and love God want to be holy like God.
We as believers can get a little full of ourselves. We rail against the sinfulness of this world, the sinfulness in our government, in our cities, in our neighborhoods. And we forget that we are as sinful as the godless around us.
A bumper sticker I saw a lot growing up encapsulates this truth: I’m not perfect, just forgiven.
I’m not perfect, just forgiven.
Our knowing Jesus does not mean we need him any less than those that do not know Jesus.
We’ll use me as an example (taking a page from Paul).
- I made my first profession of faith at 4
- I went to Christian school K-12
- I’ve walked with the LORD for more than 40 years
- I pray in tongues (don’t tell Samson)
- I’ve lived in Jerusalem!
- I went to seminary.
- I am a called and ordained minister of God’s word.
- None of that changes the fact that I am a sinner!
I stand next to Paul and say, I am a chief sinner. I need Jesus just as much as an atheist or agnostic or lapsed Christian or whomever. Those of us in church on a Sunday morning need Jesus as much as those who don’t go to church.
And when somebody who is unchurched does courageously decide to walk in that door to see what is happening here, we need to remember that we are as lost as they are. We need Jesus as much as they do. We need to humbly introduce them to Jesus and not bash them with our Bibles.
When a new Christian joins our community, we are to be patient. Maybe they’ve never been in a church. Maybe they have a different way to worship God. Maybe they dress differently. Maybe they eat differently. Maybe they look different. God doesn’t love them any less. Neither should we.
Again, back to Luke 6, Jesus says it simply:
36 Show compassion, just as your Father shows compassion.
37 Don’t judge, and you won’t be judged.
Don’t condemn, and you won’t be condemned.
Forgive, and you will be forgiven.
Let us pray.
Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come.
You made us in your image, and we have broken that image.
You are holy, yet you did not recoil from us, sinners.
You came down in Jesus – Immanuel – God with us – to make us holy
And to repair our brokenness and make us more like you.
Teach us to be humble as you have been humble with us.
Teach us to be compassionate as you have had compassion on us.
Teach us to forgive as you have forgiven us.
Make us holy, as you are holy.
In the name of our Father in heaven, Jesus the Messiah, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.