Dive into an exploration of Romans as we discuss the core aspect of faith and righteousness. This episode critically examines the notion of idolatry in both pagan and religious contexts, highlighting the illusion of resting on the law. With insights into the universal nature of human brokenness, we challenge the optimistic view of self-justification through human efforts and emphasize the essential call for mercy and repentance in seeking salvation.
So let’s see if we can pick up the threads of the theme that we’ve been working on before all the interruptions of repeats and so on because of my cold. Excuse my voice at the moment. But we talked about, first of all, the overall theme that Paul is introducing, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek, for in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the just shall live by faith. And so this book is about how a person, how humanity finds righteousness and goodness before God, because there’s a big gap, a big fissure, a big chasm between God’s righteousness and goodness and love and mercy and mankind’s brokenness. And how do they come together? How does God reconcile them? And the book of Romans is all about reconciliation. It’s all about how humanity is reconciled to God. But to start the process, he talks about, well, what is this big split, this big chasm between humanity and God? And it’s all about the fact that mankind is in suppression of God. Verse 18, the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. We use our evil acts to suppress the truth about God. Why would God be wrathful? What’s that all about? Well, God is love. And the God who loves goodness is wrathful against badness. Wrath is motivated by love. It is not God suddenly changing his character and personality and personhood and hating the human race. No, he is full of love, and in that love, he rises up against the evil of mankind. So mankind at the beginning, you know, in the creation, at the creation was in harmony with God, but then there was that break in which humankind started to suppress God in disobedience. And that suppression is the state of humanity and has been ever since. Now, Paul is going to talk about the suppression of humanity in the pagan world, that is, the idolatry of humanity in the pagan world, and then the idolatry of humankind in the religious world. Now, how do I link suppression with idolatry? Well, the truth of the matter is that mankind was born to worship. We love to adore, to fall down before a higher glory and power and beauty and goodness than we are. Man was created that way. So when man suppresses that because of his guilt before God, What’s his state of mind? Well, it’s an emptiness which terrifies him. He does not want to live without worship. And so what happens when mankind suppresses God is that it has no alternative except two. One, to turn back to God, and the other, to create alternatives to God to worship. And in that insanity which we call the fallen human race, mankind turned away from God and sought alternatives to God. And those alternatives are idols, all kinds of idols, not only physical idols of stone and wood, but idols where we put goals and worship of ourselves above God. So, what does God do when humanity worships idols instead of God? Well, here is the strange act of God, and it is a loving act of God. This is his loving wrath. He gives humanity over to what it wants. That’s revealed in verses 24, 26, and 28. Therefore, God also gave them over to uncleanness, and so on. So what does God do when he gives people over? Is he abandoning them? Is he giving them up, as it would suggest in the King James Version by that phraseology, giving them up rather than giving them over? No, it is not God abandoning humanity, but God getting very involved with humanity by bringing humanity into its state of idolatry. When human beings choose to reject God, God directs that rejection so that their idols become utterly disappointing to them. God, you see, is in the purpose, is, what shall I say, God has a goal. and it is to bring humankind in its fallenness to its emptiness in order that it will call out to God for mercy. And so we see in chapter 1 that God hands the pagan world over to its idols. But what about the religious world? Then Paul moves into where we are now, Romans chapter 2, and says, Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are who judge. For in whatever you judge another, you condemn yourself. For you who judge practice the same things. So what we have here in the religious world is hypocrisy. The religious world tends to point its finger at the pagan world and accuse it of all of its sin. Mind you, paganism in the West, too, and the religious people point to the pagan people in the West as well as the East. and say, sinners, you will be lost, you will go to hell unless you repent. And they talk as if imperiously they were above this kind of behavior of suppression. But Paul is revealing to us that every time you point to a person and say, there is evil, you are pointing to yourself. You’ll notice this politically. You will often hear on the radio or on television political commentators talking about certain organizations or religions or institutions that are evil, as if evil were located in a certain place, a certain organization or nation or race. When doing that, That politician is talking to himself. For evil is not in a certain place in the world. Evil is not in one area of the world and not in another. All humanity has fallen. All humanity is broken down. And when we talk of the evil of another human being, we are simply describing ourselves. Now, what is this evil that the religious world performs? Well, Paul gives us a good clue in verse 4, or chapter 2, verse 4 of Romans. He said, well, So these religious people By illusion from these verses, we can see that these religious people do not think it’s necessary for them to be repentant. They don’t feel as though they have any sins to repent of. We get a further clue of that in verse 17. He says, Indeed, you are called a Jew. Now he’s referring to Jews here, but we can also apply it to Christians. Indeed, you are called a Jew and rest on the law. Notice that word rest. Rest comfortably. We’re resting in the law. What is that law? The law of God. What does the law say? Thou shalt not kill, but whosoever hates a brother is guilty of murder. Thou shalt not steal, but whosoever lusts has already stolen. Thou shalt not commit adultery, but whosoever lusts after another. has committed adultery. And so Jesus, explaining the Ten Commandments, reveals that the true heart of the commandments is a pure heart. But that’s not what we have, is it? We don’t have pure hearts. So how can we rest in the law? We cannot possibly rest in the law. And yet that is what the Jewish people and the religious people do. Now, there’s another clue here about how the religious world acts towards God, and it is that they think that they can be righteous by means of their works and their law. You know, as you’ve already heard, I have written a book recently, and I’ll tell you about it in the break. And I was commenting, talking about it to a friend of mine, and he said, well, that’s rather a dismal view of humanity. And I thought to myself, well, why would he take an optimistic view of humanity? Humanity is fallen and is broken and is under the power of death. There’s no way we can be optimistic about humanity. But we can be optimistic about Jesus Christ, of course, because Jesus is the Savior of humanity. But when people think that we talk dismally about humanity, what are they doing? They are implying that humanity is basically okay and can keep the commandments and the law and be holy before God without any intervention of salvation. When people are optimistic about humanity, they are under delusion. And this is what Paul is saying in chapter 2, because he takes, strangely, the devil’s advocate position. And he says, it’s not the hearers of the law that are just in his sight, but the doers of the law who will be justified. Wow. Some people terribly misunderstand that verse and think, okay, I’d better do the law and then I can be justified, declared innocent. No, Paul is saying, if you want to rest in the law, then go ahead and rest in it and tell me how it works for you. Because the fact is, when we really know the truth about ourselves, nobody can truly rest in the law. Those who think they are resting in the law, are delusional about their true state. They are not in a healthy state. Nobody can be justified by the law. Paul says it’s the doers of the law who will be justified, but there are no doers of the law. That is revealed so clearly in chapter 3 when he says, We know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore, by the deeds of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight. For by the law is the knowledge of sin.
SPEAKER 01 :
So the doers of the law are not going to be justified. Why? Because there are no doers of the law. Where are we coming to then? We are coming to this position.
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If you have not felt grieved in your spirit over your sins, if you have not felt that you need God’s mercy, if you have not felt that you need to repent before him, then you are under a sad delusion. And it is time to get on your knees, at least in your heart, if you can’t get onto your knees literally, and call upon God to save you. And I ask you to consider a donation. You can make it online at faithquestradio.com. Thank you so much. And, I think you’ve heard already, my book is now published. It’s called God’s Unbreakable Oath, Volumes 1 and 2, and it’s available on Amazon. It’s about God’s way of saving all humanity. It’s available on Amazon called God’s Unbreakable Oath, Volumes 1 and 2. I’ll see you next time. Cheerio and God bless.
