In this episode, we delve deep into Romans chapter 2, showcasing how Paul challenges the religious individuals of his time, including Jews and by extension, Christians. Most importantly, this passage questions the notion of self-righteousness and judgmental attitudes pervasive among religious people. By revealing parallels between ancient scriptures and modern Christian behaviors, we explore themes of guilt, humanistic pride, and the necessity of Jesus Christ as the atoning sacrifice to truly understand our own brokenness.
So then, we need to consider Romans chapter 2, which is talking about the paganism, the idolatry of the Jewish people. Can you imagine that? It is an astonishing passage, but we need to consider this now in relation to us Christians. How does it apply to us? Now remember the context that we’ve been talking about. We have the condition of the pagan world in Romans chapter 1, which is idolatrous, but then Paul turns the table on his own religious people, the Jewish people, and declares their idolatry also. Well, let’s not just cluck, cluck and be very pleased with ourselves as Christians, because in principle this also applies to us. How can it be that way? Well, we have the clues, and I’m wanting to encourage you to read in such a way as you can discover those clues. Romans chapter 2 says, Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, who judge another. So that’s one of the first clues. These people, religious people, and let’s take ourselves as Christians, tend to be judgmental. Now we’re talking about Christians who have taken possession of the law. Now, remember, there are two groups of religious people, two groups of people in relation to the law in the book of Romans. One group of people is resting in the law and proud of the law and quite confident in themselves. That’s this chapter described here. And the other is the group in chapter 7, where Christians have become under the law and are broken by it, are deeply distressed and full of guilt and shame and fear. Both groups need Jesus Christ. One group needs Jesus Christ to realize that their own humanity is not righteous enough to live before God without Christ, and the other group needs to know that Jesus is their atoning sacrifice and has taken away their judgment. Well, that second group I just mentioned, we’ll talk about later when we get to chapter 7. But right now, we’re looking at the religious people who tend to be judgmental. That’s the first clue. Therefore, you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are who judge, for in whatever you judge another, you condemn yourself. Now, why would people tend to judge? Well, because inwardly, without admitting it, they feel guilty. They haven’t allowed that guilt to truly surface because they are resting in the law, but that guilt really has somewhere to go. And since they are not in acknowledgement of that guilt because they are suppressing God, these are religious people who have suppressed God. Can you imagine the paradox of that, being religious yet suppressing the true God? Because they have not found the true God and are suppressing him, that guilt is deep down buried within them, and yet it seeks to surface. And how does it surface? By imposing the guilt on other people. That is to say, the people who have not found peace and not found relief from their guilt, no matter how deep it is, no matter how subconscious, will judge others by projecting their own guilt upon other people. That’s what we are finding here in Romans 2. Verse 1, and then look at verse 4. Do you despise the riches of his goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads to repentance? Here is a people that is not repentant, but they’re religious. Well, why are they not repentant? Why are they not, and by the way, I don’t mean only repentant of individual sins, but repentant of humanity itself, their brokenness, acknowledging that they are broken before God. Because this people, this religious people, is a humanistic people. That is to say, they don’t believe there’s anything really deeply, seriously wrong with them. They believe, yes, they have a few scars and marks and imperfections here and there that can be brushed over and tightened up and sweetened up. But basically, these are the humanists of the world, the humanists who can’t believe that humanity can be so bad as to be judged by God or under God’s wrath. These humanist Christians, these religious people, are so unconsciously pleased with themselves that they kind of look with amusement at those Christians who believe that the world is in a bad shape and the world is under the power of sin and that the world is lost. They say, well, that’s a rather dim view of Christianity you have there. You must have been brought up very strictly as a child, religiously. They look down on people who take a serious biblical position that humanity is broken and cannot be redeemed. These people are not repentant of their humanity and therefore think that their natural humanity will make it into the kingdom of heaven. They don’t need a resurrection. They don’t need a change of heart. They don’t need God to come in with a Savior. Jesus is a mere example, example to them. He’s a way to live, a way to be kind to everybody and nice to everybody and merciful and let everybody in and without any question because they don’t see the brokenness of humanity. You see how we’re getting clues about this humanity, this religiousness that Paul is talking about. One, they judge others. And yet, paradoxically, they think everybody’s okay. That is, they are okay, but not everybody else. Now, then comes the next clue, which is that Paul has to say in verse 11, for there is no partiality with God. He is explaining that the law judges everybody equally. But that’s very unsettling for these Christians who have believed in their humanistic superiority, because… According to verse 17, they rest in the law. Indeed, you are called a Jew, and we can take the same position as the religious Christians without Jesus. Indeed, you are called a Jew and rest on the law and make your boast in God. Now, why do these people make their boast in God? Why do they rest in the law? Because they fell for the trap of believing that since God gave them the law, they must be very special people. Now take that into the Christian circle and understand how the Christian thinks. Well, the Christian has these moral values and believes that human beings are basically good at heart and we all need to be kind, and they have a religion without the atoning sacrifice of Christ. And so they are confident in the law. They don’t like the idea that the law is impartial, that the law judges everybody equally as broken and sinful. They don’t like that idea. They like the idea that the law affirms them. And to put the parallel over to Christians again, the Christians like the idea that their moral life and their humanism and their treating people with kindness and love, that that makes them superior. when in fact deep down in all Christians is brokenness and sin. And that’s why, even though they have the superior attitude of loving the world, they actually judge the world, according to chapter 2, verse 1. Well, then we see that Paul says that it’s only the doers of the law who will be justified. This is verse 13. Now, you remember what I said yesterday here. Paul is not talking about being saved by the law. It’s very clear. That is, by chapter 3, verse 20, Therefore, by the deeds of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. So why does Paul have to say in chapter 2 that it is only the doers of the law who will be justified? Well, because he’s talking to those who really have confidence in the law because God gave it to them. That is, God gave Christians the moral values, and the Western world considers itself superior to all the rest of humanity and is leading the world in its moralism and is policing the world, as it were. And so these people have become confident in their humanity, confident in their humanism, confident in their religiousness. And Paul says, well, if you want to go that way, then you’d better go the whole way, because the law will only justify you if you have kept it perfectly. Well, he is beginning to show to the religious world, that is to the Jewish people and also, now we apply it to us, to Christians, that no one has kept the law perfectly, that we are being judged by it just like everybody else. And that is why Paul says in 3 verse 9, Are we, then, any better than they? Why would he ask such a question? Because, deep down, Christians do believe they are better than others. Why would Christians believe they are better than others? Well, we need to understand that this passage referring to Jewish people and then by extension referring to Christian people is talking about Christian people without Christ. religious Christians without their belief in the atoning sacrifice of Christ for the world. There are millions of Christians like that, and you may be one of them, and you may have to ask yourself, do I look upon myself as superior to others, better than others? Do I not see myself as under sin, but I see the rest of the world under sin? Do I look at the world in such a way that I judge them, 2 verse 1? Do I find myself living a moral Christian life without coming before Jesus? in a sense, to receive his mercy every day and to receive his love for me because I have sinned and I am broken and need his atoning sacrifice? Do I see the cross of Jesus as simply an expression of the love of God and not also as an expression of the judgment of my sins before God? If these questions I ask lead you to think in the way that Jesus is not necessary as a sacrifice for my sins, then you come under this rubric, this description that Paul has made. And so we need to come before God and bow before him and say, Lord God, have mercy on my soul. Thank you for listening today, and I want to tell you the amazing good news that we received all the monies for the operation for the kidney transplant for Mark. In fact, just within the last hour, the operation was completed. The earlier operation for the donor was completed, and it is a successful operation. Praise God, and thank you with all my heart. In the name of Jesus, I’ll see you next time. Cheerio and God bless.
