Would you join me at Romans 2:12.  We are going on in our study of the first 5 chapters of Romans.

What we have been grinding through is not exactly the most touchy feely easy to digest teaching in the Bible.  Its not easy to hear.  Maybe some of you have been feeling this?  Like:  “Paul, lighten up man.  Enough with this we’re all sinners bound for hell teaching.”

Paul began his letter with a wonderful greeting.  We’re all in this together.  God has given us a great opportunity and calling to share His gospel with the world.  God’s gospel is what all of us need - at the heart level - God’s answer to our deepest need - which is to be put into a right relationship with God - peace with God.  Hugely relevant.

But then Paul has headed off with description after description of what mankind has made of ourselves by choosing to reject God - to suppress the truth of Who God is.  That’s been a pretty ugly picture.  Yes?

Honest.  But ugly.  Very much a picture of where our society is today.

Paul has been slowly peeling off the layers of the onion.  Getting closer and closer to home - to us - to our hearts and what’s really going on deep within us.

Last Sunday - 2:1 - was really personal.  “Each of you are without excuse.”  Easy to think about others as “sinners.”  But, way too easy for us to go easy on ourselves.  Paul cuts through all that.

And so, enough already.  All this is hard to hear.  But, point being:  we need to hear it.  We’re pretty much on the same page with that? 

The main point of what Paul is driving at in what we’ve been looking at looks something like this.  Paul’s main point is that all of us are judged by the standard of God’s righteousness.

Some day - maybe soon - all of us are going to be brought before God as our judge.  Whatever we come with - wealth, power, status, ethnicity, nationality, heritage, culture, philosophy, religion - having more friends than anyone else on Facebook - all that counts for nada - zip.  However we might compare ourselves with others will mean nothing.  Our own self-estimation counts for nothing.  Not even a smidgin.  Or a tad.

At the end of days - each of us standing before God as the judge - everything that we’ve ever done is going to be placed on God’s scale and weighed against the character of the one holy righteous God.  God’s holy character is the one true standard of righteousness that all of us are going to be judged by.

If the weight of our righteousness fails to tip the balance in our favor, we will be found guilty.  We’re toast.  Period.  That puts us in a very precarious position.

What Paul writes here - no matter how hard it is to hear this - what Paul is showing us we need to be reminded of.  If we’ve grown up in the church we tend to loose sight of the horror of sin and the precariousness of our standing before God.  If we’ve had some dramatic conversion - God taking us out of the gutter and bringing us to life in Him - after some time goes by the memory of where we’ve come from tends to fade.

Which isn’t so bad a thing - unless we start loosing perspective of how precarious our position is apart from God’s grace and just how awesome is our salvation.  What we’re running from and Who we’re running to.

So, hang in there.  Paul is almost to the God is gracious part.  But we have bit farther to go in sobering up our estimation of ourselves and the awesomeness of knowing that God really does love and save us despite ourselves.

Coming to verses 12 to 29 - the first section here that we want to focus is verses 12 to 16 - which we can summarize as the Gentiles And The Law.  Would you read these with me:

For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law.  For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified.  For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even thought they do not have the law.  They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.

That is a mouthful.  Isn’t it?  In order to unpack what Paul is getting at here its helpful if we think about law in two ways - Law with a capital “L” and law with a lower case “l”.

(cartoon)  “What is the capital of Texas?”  “T.”

Looking at the chart - perhaps the easiest way to grab on to what Paul is getting at is for us to think about Law with a capital “L” and law with a lower case “l”.

Law with a capital “L” represents God’s righteousness.  The very nature and essence of Who God is.  God Who is righteous - holy - without sin.  Law - capital “L” is the absolute standard of God’s righteousness that God judges us by.  The requirement - the standard - that Paul has been writing about.  Live righteous - as God is righteousness - or we spend eternity apart from God - punished forever.

Law with a lower case “l” is God’s Covenant Law - meaning laws like the Ten Commandments, Levitical Law - which are God writing out for us what it means to live in a right - or righteous - relationship with Him.  In other words - God is righteousness and I know I’m suppose to live that way, but what does that look like in real time?  Law - small “l” - is the instruction manual.

Let’s be clear.  The Old Testament Law is not just a set of “do’s and don’ts.”  If you don’t do these God will roast you.  Old Testament Law is a covenant - an agreement between two parties - God and His people - agreeing together about what it means to live in a  righteous - or right - relationship with God.  God - by His grace - covenanting - agreeing to give Himself to His people to pour out His blessings on them and they in turn - covenanting - agreeing to give themselves to God - to belong to Him - to do life His righteous way.  (Exodus 19:5-8)

Are we kinda together?  God - in His covenant law - small “l” - describes what it means to live in that relationship with Him - God who is Law - capital “L.”

Point being - if we could live by law - small “l” - we would then be living according to Law - capital “L” - and when it comes to final judgment everything’s gonna be alright.  Because we all are living righteous.

Well, not really - because we’re still fallen - born into sin - as sinners - under the curse that Adam got us into because he sinned.  And, every one of us has confirmed that Adam made the right choice as our representative because we all sin and don’t even come close to the righteousness of God - Law with a capital “L.”  Which is hugely significant but isn’t Paul’s point here.

Are we reasonably together on the two uses of Law and law?

Keeping all that in mind - let’s go back and trace through what Paul writes here.  Hopefully this gets clearer.  Paul writes that whether or not someone does or doesn’t have the law - small “l” - they’re still going to be judged according to the Law - capital “L.”  Because Law - capital “L” is the standard.

So hearing the law - small “l” is not as important as doing the Law - capital “L.”  In fact, it is possible for someone - a Gentile - that’s us not Jews - to do the Law - capital “L” without actually having the law - small “l”.  In a sense, when the Gentiles do the law - small “l” - when they live righteous they actually prove that they have the Law - capital “L” written on their hearts.

Another way of putting this - Paul writes in verse 15 - is that we all have a conscience that’s like a moral compass - a spiritual road map - that God has placed within us - that gives to us a sense of right and wrong - of what living rightly before God is and what it is not.  Living righteous verses living in sin.

Problem is what?  We all have conscience compasses that are tweeked by sin.  Conscience compasses that we suppress.

But when we do live righteous - even if we’re living out in the jungle someplace and have never heard of the law - small “l” - if we do live as it says then it shows that something in our conscience is tweeked towards God - that in our heart there’s something that’s still seeking to live God’s way - righteous.

Let’s be clear on Paul’s point - writing about the Gentiles and the law.  Hearing the law is one thing.  Doing the Law is what makes one righteous.  That doing the Law - capital “L” - standard is what God is going to judge us by.

Let’s go on.  We can summarize verses 17 to 25 as the Jews And The Law.

Let’s read these verses together:

But if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the law and boast in God and know his will and approve what is excellent, because you are instructed from the law; and if you are sure 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 children, having the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth—you then who teach others, do you not teach yourself?  While you preach against stealing, do you steal?  You who say that one must not commit adultery, do you commit adultery?  You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?  You who boast in the law dishonor God by breaking the law.  For, as it is written, “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.”

Paul shifts from Gentiles to the Jews - the people that God chose - made the covenant with.  The people that God had given His law - small “l” - that God had given His law to.  And they knew that.  And that “we are the people of God… YES!” reality was something they boasted in - prided themselves on - made sure their children knew that.

Made sure everybody else knew that.  Ultimately - for the Jew - that what God did by His grace not because they deserved it - that historical fact of God’s choosing - that ultimately became a kind of cultural and spiritual snobbery.  Somehow they’d forgotten the “God’s grace” “we didn’t deserve this” part.

Which is why what Paul writes here about Gentiles and the law - small “l” - what Paul writes here would have really spun their dreidels.  “HELLO!”  How could the Gentiles apart from our - God gave it to us sacred law - how could these ungodly - disgusting - they’re no better than dogs - Gentiles ever do what the law requires?

Let’s be clear.  Its hard to imagine someone setting out to be a spiritual snob. 

The Pharisees - in Paul’s day - were the ultimate example of what it meant to be a righteous Jew.  Living the law - small “l”.  And they were the ultimate example of Jewish spiritual snobbery.  But even they didn’t wake up one morning and say, “Hey, let’s all become spiritual snobs.”

The Pharisees were intent on obeying God - on spiritually doing the right thing before God.  They worshipped God.  Studied God’s law.  Spoke out in defense of God.  Desired others to join them in obeying God.  We tend to think of them as spiritual losers.  But in a significant number of ways they were right on.

Problem was they began to think of themselves as the spiritual elite.  And others as being somewhat less than that.  They even came down on Jesus - on God - because He didn’t measure up to their standard of righteousness.

Which may be true of us.  We may be well intentioned.  But, it is way too easy for us to fall into the trap of seeing others through the lenses of our version of righteousness.  What we know is the Godly form of music or dress or mannerism or language or service or lifestyle or whatever…

Which isn’t just limited to who we let into our little religious club.  All that touches on our attitudes towards people we encounter as we move around the greater Merced metroplex just doing the stuff of life.  People who drive slower than us - who take their time a the check out.  Our attitudes towards our spouses - our kids - the people at work or school.  Not that any of us would struggle with any of that.

Paul - in verses 17 to 20 - Paul goes to the heart of Jewish snobbery.

The name “Jew” comes from “Judah” meaning “Yahweh be praised.”  A reminder of the covenant.  God chose the Hebrew people to take His word to the rest of the world.  They had a unique relationship with God.  “Boasting” in that relationship here has a negative connotation - arrogance.  They knew God’s will - how to evaluate and process things in light of where God is going in history.  They had a God given responsibility to teach the nations about God.

Can you hear the Jews?  We are the one’s who know what is excellent.  We are the one’s who know God’s law.  We are the guides to the blind - the light to those in darkness - the instructors of the foolish - the teachers of children.  We have the law, the embodiment of knowledge and truth.  Do you hear just a hint of spiritual snobbery in that?

The Jews figured that since they we’re God’s chosen people they had an “in” with God.  In a sense they were using their status as Jews as an excuse to live however they choose to live and to look down on everyone else as being spiritually “less than” who they were.

Paul’s purpose isn’t to bash the Jews but to wake them - and us - up to the reality that all that religion and spiritual snobbery and “relying” on the law - boasting in their relationship with God - that all that was missing the point of God’s graciousness - doing absolutely nothing to transform them on the heart level - the I need to be righteous before God - the level of I desperately need God’s grace reality of what life with God is all about.

Going on in verse 21 - Paul asks four dreidel spinning questions.  Questions aimed at getting the Jews to do some serious soul searching. 

Question number one:  you then who teach others, do you not teach yourself?

It isn’t the correctness of their theology and doctrine - the correctness of what they we’re teaching - that isn’t the issue.  The question is:  Are you moving past head knowledge to a heart understanding of what God is trying to teach you about a relationship with Him?  Practical obedience not just head knowledge.

Question number two:  While you preach against stealing, do you steal? 

In Paul’s day it was known that even the orthodox Jews left little loopholes in their business deals - clauses in the contracts - a little adjustment of the weights - just enough to allow for a little refined stealing.  Hey - its just the way business is done.

Question number three:  You who say that one must not commit adultery, do you commit adultery?

It was a known fact in Paul’s day that some of the better-known rabbis had been charged with sexual immorality.  Thinking about what Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount about adultery and what goes on in our minds and hearts we don’t have to go too far to find some application here for ourselves.

Point being - we can’t write these questions off as Paul just talking to the Jews.

Question number four is a little harder to grab on to.  Paul asks:  You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? 

As good keepers of the law - small “l” - the Jews were adamant about law #2 - no idols.  “Abhor” - translating the Greek - literally means to turn away from something that’s totally disgusting.  The Jews - by the time of Paul - were disgusted by the idolatry of the Romans and Greeks.

But the Roman and Greek temples had things in them that were valuable.  The Jews somehow “acquired” - possibly stole - were acquiring these articles and selling them at a profit.  Meaning the Jews were not only guilty of theft but also defiling themselves with these pagan gods.

An idol is anything - or anyone - that occupies a greater of place of devotion in our lives than God.  In a sense the Jews - who we’re boasting in their abhorrence of idolatry - had exchanged one set of gods - their idols - for another set of gods - gods of business and profit and personal gain. 

Put that way, it is much easier for us to see how this relates to us.  We can pride ourselves in our devotion to God - what we don’t do - and yet fill our lives with things - all the stuff we’re hanging on to - fill our lives with experiences - events and outings and recreation and on and on - even work and people and family can be an idol for us - fill our lives with what - push comes to shove - way too often wins out over God. 

Wins out over worship and Bible study and witnessing and serving and missions and stewardship and devotions and prayer and whatever God may call us to.

Put simply - these four questions - one point:  Practice what you… preach.  Hey Jew - are you?  Christian - are you?  Or is there an inconsistency between what you say you believe and how you actually live from the heart level out?

Verse 23:  You who boast in the law dishonor - you’re disrespecting - you’re trashing - God by breaking the law.  For, as it is written, “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.”

Verse 24 is a quote from Isaiah 52:5.  It’s the late 700’s BC and Israel is self-destructing - coming apart at the seams.  Horrible things are happening to God’s people who are about to be conquered and dragged off into captivity by the Assyrians.

The nations around them are looking at all that and thinking that all that is because Israel’s God is pretty worthless and obviously powerless to save His chosen people.  When ultimately, the conquest of the Assyrians was God’s judgment on the sin of His people - they’re unrighteous breaking of the covenant.

Point being that God’s name and reputation and character was being trashed - God was being blasphemed because of the sin of God’s people.

(cartoon)  “Touch my sign and I’ll kill you.”

That’s how a lot of people see Christians.  Sadly, there are times - maybe way too many times - when that perception of Christians is deserved.  How many people have we come across who’ll have nothing to do with God because they’ve experienced the hypocrisy of God’s people - God’s people acting ungodly - towards them or our siblings in Jesus.

Are we together on what Paul is getting at here?  When it comes to righteousness - it really doesn’t matter if one has the law - small “l” - or not - doing the outward stuff of religion.  What matters is if we’re living up to the standard of Law - capital “L” - from the heart level out.  Meaning if we’re relying on our religion - or anything else - to get us there we’re in serious trouble.  Because even the most right on religious person here is going to live inconsistent with God’s standard of righteousness. 

We need to seriously process that before we get all comfortable and complacent and cruising at status quo in our relationship with God.

Let’s move forward.  We can summarize verses 25 to 29 as Circumcision And The Law.

Let’s read these verses together: 

For circumcision indeed is of value if you obey the law, but if you break the law, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision.  So, if a man who is uncircumcised keeps the precepts of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision?  Then he who is physically uncircumcised but keeps the law will condemn you who have the written code and circumcision but break the law.  For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical.  But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, but the Spirit, not by the letter.  His praise is not from man but from God.

If the law was huge for the Jews - running a close second was circumcision.  Like they did with the law - the Jews were guilty of putting way too much confidence in the rite of circumcision.

Circumcision is the most personal and intimate part of the Jew’s heritage.  Circumcision represents a Jewish man’s participation in the Covenant - a connection with Abraham that goes back to the earliest days of what it means to be a Jew - God’s chosen people.

Jewish tradition had Abraham sitting at the gate of Gehenna - making sure that no circumcised person - no Jew - was mistakenly going into hell.  The Jews divided the world into two classes of people - circumcised or uncircumcised - saved or not saved. 

Circumcision to the Jew is what baptism is to those who see baptism as a means of salvation.

Paul writes that circumcision is of value.  Yes.  “If you obey the law.”  If you break the law your circumcision becomes uncircumcision.  Meaning you might as well be a Gentile.  That’ll topple your dreidel.

Paul’s point:  If one has the symbol but lacks the substance what good is the symbol?

We can go to the store and buy a can of chicken noodle soup.  Come home - open it up - inside is cat food.  Something’s seriously wrong with that.  Yes?   

Baptism is like taking a shower with our rain coat on.  It may clean us on the outside but it doesn’t get us clean inside - at the heart level.  Baptism is an outward symbol of what’s already taken place at the heart level. 

That’s crucial to grab on to.

When we finally choose to die to our doing life by our own self-focused sinful whit, wisdom, and working.  When we - by faith - accept what God has already graciously done for us in Jesus on the cross - God gives to us new life.  We then and there are holy - a set apart for God - person.  Saved - made right with God - forgiven - cleansed from sin - righteous.  God makes us to be right - righteous - before Him the moment we accept what Jesus did for us - in our place on the cross. 

Baptism is a symbol of our - at the heart level being made righteous - by God.  Into the water.  Identifying ourselves with the death of Jesus in our place.  Death to self.  Out of the water.  Identifying ourselves with Jesus’ resurrection.  Being made alive by God’s working.  By God’s gracious working made righteous.  (Romans 6:3-5; Colossians 2:11-15; 1 Peter 3:21,22)

Paul writes that there is a difference between circumcision as a physical act - think symbol - and circumcision as a spiritual reality - think heart level.  Just as its possible to be circumcised physically and not be circumcised at the heart level - cat food instead of chicken soup - its also possible to be circumcised at the heart level and not be circumcised physically.

Are we tracking with Paul?

If a Gentile - that’s us - keeps the Law - capital “L” - it demonstrates that at the heart level he is more circumcised than a Jew who fails to keep the law - small “l” - even though the Jew may be physically circumcised.

Which is Paul’s bottom line in coming in verse 29:  a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, but the Spirit, not by the letter.  His praise is not from man but from God.

What’s happening in us a the heart level is what get’s God’s praise - His stamp of approval - now, as we’re going through life and later when we stand before God as our judge - God weighing our righteousness against His.  Not our religion.  Not our acts of righteousness.  Not all the outward stuff.  But whether or not our heart really is God’s.

Processing what Paul writes - doesn’t it seem easier for us to pursue religion over relationship?  To pursue comfort over consecration?  Status quo over stewardship?  Tradition over transformation?  Self over surrender?  Where the basis of our relationship with God is something other than God’s grace?

A way of doing life that points to something within us that’s not yet given over to God.  We’re hiding behind a façade of faith rather than letting God deal with the real issues of our life.  A standard of our righteousness that demands that others approach God apart from God’s grace.  A way of life that ultimately blasphemes God and drives people away from Him. 

We can smug about our title as a Christian.  But who receives the glory for that, us or God?  We can be smug about having the Bible - God’s divine truth.  But do we live as if that truth applies to others and somehow we’re beyond the need for God’s grace?  We can revel in our unique relationship with God.  But is our boasting in God’s grace or what we’re doing for God?  We can be smug about our knowledge of what’s according to God’s will and where God is going in history.  But are we simply marking time waiting for the end to come or are we intentionally working to get His gospel out into the world?

Donald Grey Barnhouse - a great pastor - theologian - born in Watsonville - died back in 1960.  Dr. Barnhouse writes:

“There are those who are attached to form, ceremony, liturgy, religious precepts and practices, and all the attitudes that go with such attachment, and who are yet alien to the grace of God.  They have ritual without redemption, works without worship, form of service without the fear of God in its proper sense, and thus they come under the condemnation of God.

It makes no difference what name they go by, the principle is the same.  In the day the New Testament was written the argument was against religious Jews.  Today it would be against zealous Roman Catholics or the fervent Fundamentalist just as much as it was against the Jew in Paul’s day.  The profession of religion, even though it be divinely revealed religion, is not enough if the one who professes the religion is not in some sense transformed by it.”  (1)

Do we really get the precariousness of our situation and the hugeness of God’s grace?  Being a Christian - a true follower of Jesus - one of God’s people - is a matter of what God, by His grace, has done for us at the heart level.

What Paul is writing is hard to hear.  But in that honesty we need to hear grace.  Paul is laying out for each of us an invitation to respond to God’s grace.

_________________________

1. Donald Grey Barnhouse, God’s Wrath:  Exposition of Bible Doctrines, Taking the Epistle to the Romans as a Point of Departure (Grand Rapids:  Eerdmans, 1964, 2:110-11 - cited by Charles R. Swindoll, Insights on Romans - Zondervan, 2010