Thank you for reading this sermon from Christ Fellowship. I hope and pray that this sermon will be a blessing of grace and truth to you. With that said, let me encourage you not to use this sermon as a replacement for your local church. Christ Jesus did not establish his Church simply for us to consume content. Instead, He calls us to be part of a real, covenant family.
There’s an old story about a young man who has his portrait painted. Then he makes a wish: let the painting grow old and let me stay young.
The wish comes true. He lives however he wants, and his face never shows it. Meanwhile, the portrait gets uglier with every sin and every secret.
So, he does what we’d all do. He locks it in an attic behind a curtain. Everyone admires him, and only he knows what’s up there.
Most of us have an attic. We have a version of ourselves that we keep covered up, and we keep the public version looking nice.
Over the past two weeks, Paul has described the world as deeply broken. And most of us nodded along. We see the problems in general. We just have a hard time seeing ourselves in the problems.
This morning, he’s going to take away our hiding place.
[11] For God shows no partiality.
Why?
[12] 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.
If you don’t know God’s law, which is communicated in the Old Testament, you’re still guilty when you break it. We understand that. If a police officer pulls you over for speeding, he’s not going to care that we didn’t know the speed limit.
But what about a lawyer? Why does our judicial system grant us the right to an attorney? Because we don’t expect ordinary citizens to know everything about the law. In a court room, lawyers are held to a higher standard, because they know the law.
Paul is shifting his attention here away from the Gentiles to focus on his Jewish brothers and sisters. They were the ones who have sinned “under the law”.
And they should know, because God made it clear, that failing to keep the law perfectly leads to judgment – whether you know it or not.
[13] For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified.
In other words, knowing the right thing to do is not the same thing as doing the right thing. You will only be justified if you do the right thing.
This is the first time Paul has used the word “justified” in Romans. And it is a really important word. It means that the judge pronounces you righteous, or vindicated.
And in this verse, Paul says clearly that under the law justification has to be earned. You have to BE righteous to be declared righteous by God. And that’s an impossible standard.
There is no such thing in the Bible as sort of righteous. Sin is like poison. It ruins us. If I put one small drop of poison in a glass of clean water, would you drink it? Of course not. The amount of poison doesn’t matter.
That’s the dilemma at the center of Paul’s argument. And it doesn’t matter if you believe sin is poison or not. It’s still going to kill you.
[14] For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law.
[15] 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
[16] on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.
Sometimes people do the right things. Every human being is made in the image of God. Everyone is capable of obeying the law sometimes. We are not all as bad as we can possibly be at all times.
We know that to be true. Some atheists live better lives than most Christians. They don’t know God’s law, and still, they instinctively live according to it in general.
But they also have a conscience. There’s an internal dialogue we all have. We feel guilt and shame when we break God’s law. We defend ourselves when we’re accused of breaking it, and we know we haven’t.
His point is that this is all evidence that knowing the law isn’t enough. Even the things we do in secret are known by God.
In other words, even the best people you can think of… they know deep down that it isn’t good enough. God isn’t going to misjudge us on the last day. There will be things only known by me and God that would condemn me.
It won’t matter whether people can quote the Bible or not. They will see the evidence and know that God’s judgment is just. Look at the next several verses.
[17] But if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the law and boast in God
[18] and know his will and approve what is excellent, because you are instructed from the law;
[19] and if you are sure that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness,
[20] an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth—
Notice all the privileges claimed by the Jewish people at the time. But this is a setup by Paul.
[21] you then who teach others, do you not teach yourself? While you preach against stealing, do you steal?
[22] You who say that one must not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?
[23] You who boast in the law dishonor God by breaking the law.
[24] For, as it is written, “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.”
This whole section is a verbal assault on the self-righteous pride of the Jewish people in Paul’s day. He knew them because he was one of them. They lived with an attitude of moral superiority, and the Apostle Paul was desperate to keep that attitude out of the church.
He starts with a piercing statement… “you call yourself a Jew.”
That phrase is used thousands of times in films and literature, and it’s always used the same way. You call yourself a doctor? You call yourself a friend? You call yourself a soldier? What’s being said? You’re not a very good one, right?
Paul’s message is clear. You’re not as good of a Jew as you think you are. By the way, you could change it to the word “Christian”. You’re not as good of a Christian as you think you are. The point still stands. If you think you’re doing a good job of keeping God’s law on your own, then you are mistaken.
Finally, Paul gives us a specific example.
[25] For circumcision indeed is of value if you obey the law, but if you break the law, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision.
[26] So, if a man who is uncircumcised keeps the precepts of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision?
[27] Then he who is physically uncircumcised but keeps the law will condemn you who have the written code and circumcision but break the law.
This example hits much harder if you’re living in the first century. There was a theological debate going on at the time. Were the new Gentile Christians expected to adopt the Jewish rules and rituals? Some said yes. Paul said no.
Jewish people at that time had an almost superstitious belief in the power of circumcision. John Stott says that they thought of circumcision as a permanent insurance policy against the wrath of God.
In other words, you could be a bad Jew and you’re better off than a good Gentile. Paul thinks that’s a dangerous assumption. And church people today are not immune to this false assumption.
If you think that the physical act of walking an aisle or praying a prayer or getting baptized made you righteous and gave you a get out of hell free card, then you’re mistaken.
[28] For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical.
[29] But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God.
It was possible, according to Paul, for people to consider themselves law-keepers, to earn the praise of men, but still fall under the judgment of God.
And that’s because being one of God’s people has always been a matter of the heart. A person can strive to keep God’s laws and still hate God and other people.
Paul didn’t invent this teaching. God said things like this in the Old Testament.
“Man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:7
“Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the LORD weighs the heart.” Proverbs 21:2
“Rend your hearts and not your garments.” Joel 2:13
This isn’t new. And Jesus confronted the same problem.
“This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.” – Matthew 15:8
He accused the most religious people in Judea of being white-washed tombs, clean on the outside and dead on the inside.
None of this is easy to hear when you think you’re a pretty good person. It’s offensive. But it’s also the kindness of God, meant to lead us to repentance. He’s speaking the truth to us in love.
In 1986, millions of children (including me) were watching the live broadcast when the Challenger exploded. A social studies teacher was on board the space shuttle, along with 6 other crew members.
It was a very traumatic experience for our country, and it happened because NASA ignored a memo written by several engineers. They were warned about the potential for the O-Ring seals to fail in cold weather, and they launched anyway because of the public attention they were getting.
They should have listened to the experts, even when the information was difficult to hear.
The first two chapters of Romans are a necessary intervention. Would you rather God hide the truth about our condition because it is inconvenient to our personal choices, or to spare our feelings? Or will we listen to our Creator?
The message is simple, even if it is hard to hear. We do the wrong things, even though we know they are wrong, because we have corrupt hearts. That’s true for the pagan people at the end of chapter 1. It’s also true for the religious people in chapter 2.
We deserve judgment, even if we don’t feel like that is true. And most people don’t feel like that is true. Remember from chapter 1, most people are actively suppressing the truth.
Even genuine believers struggle with this. I’ve struggled with looking at my own sin this week. There’s still a lot of pride in my heart. And right now, I’m asking God to show me. Help me understand my sin and need of Christ.
Taken as a whole, the message of Romans 1-2 is that we desperately need something only God can provide and we don’t even believe we need it.
God can either let us have the life we want apart from Him and the destruction that comes with it. Or He can wake us up from the Matrix… the dream world where we suppress the truth… that we are worse than we think we are. All of us.
You won’t really know how bad the world is and how much you contribute to it until God shows you. But it is a necessary intervention.
Because you will only be ready to hear the good news of the Gospel when you’ve been humbled.
When you go home today, spend some time praying. Ask God to show you the truth about who you are. Ask someone you trust to tell you how they experience you as a person. And when you see it, if you see it, confess it.
You’re worse than you think you are, but God’s grace is sufficient.