A study on the book of Romans (part 3)

We move on to the next section of Paul's letter.  It is important for us to remember that the division of letters into chapter and verse is not in the original texts.  These were added later to help the reader.  This means that Paul's letter flows naturally from the last study.

If you have not read the last two short studies, I recommend you do, as they set the context for this passage.

Romans 2:1-29

"You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things.  Now we know that God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth.  So when you, a mere human being, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment?  Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realising that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?

[Who are these people passing judgement?  This applies to both sides of the division in the Church in Rome, but in light of the previous section, it is particularly salient for the more conservative Jewish Christians, who might be feeling put on a pedestal of righteousness by Paul's harsh words about pagan life.  We can imagine the puzzlement, however, as a Jewish Christian might be thinking that as a good Jew, they have never committed any of these sins.]

But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed.  God ‘will repay each person according to what they have done.’   To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honour and immortality, he will give eternal life.  But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger.  There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile;  but glory, honour and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.  For God does not show favouritism.

[The Jews would have believed that God does show favouritism - they, after all, are God's special and chosen people.  As a Jewish Christian, they would have a willingness to accept that glory, honour and peace is given first to the Jew and then the gentile.  But Paul's careful words are a sobering reminder that there will also be trouble and distress - first for the Jew and then the gentile.  Paul is carefully positioning his argument that both Jew and gentile are treated equally by God.]

All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law.  For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous.  (Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law.  They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts sometimes accusing them and at other times even defending them.)  This will take place on the day when God judges people’s secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares.

[A confusing concept for Jewish Christians in that day is the place of the Law, which was the Jewish Torah and teachings of what we now call the Old Testament.  The Law is how they knew what was sin and what was not.  What then of gentiles, who knew not of the Law?  Paul is here laying out a revolutionary concept.  The gentiles can be considered to be right by the Law when their hearts and consciences result in behaviour that is consistent with the Law.  Now Paul here cannot be referring to the very Jewish specific customs and dietary requirements, but rather the overarching concepts as Jesus refers to in the words of the Great Commandments of loving God with heart, soul, mind and strength, and loving our neighbour as our self]

Now you, if you call yourself a Jew; if you rely on the law and boast in God; if you know his will and approve of what is superior because you are instructed by the law; if you are convinced that you are a guide for the blind, a light for those who are in the dark,  an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of little children, because you have in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth – 

[at this point, we can imagine the conservative Jew nodding enthusiastically, because deep down, this is what many believed and indeed is the case of many in our church today]

 you, then, who teach others, do you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal?  You who say that people should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?  You who boast in the law, do you dishonour God by breaking the law?  As it is written: ‘God’s name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.’

[Paul is asking the conservative Jewish listener to consider their own hypocrisy]

Circumcision has value if you observe the law, but if you break the law, you have become as though you had not been circumcised.  So then, if those who are not circumcised keep the law’s requirements, will they not be regarded as though they were circumcised?  The one who is not circumcised physically and yet obeys the law will condemn you who, even though you have the written code and circumcision, are a law-breaker.

[And here is the nail in the coffin of the Jewish arrogance.  Paul, himself from a respected and strict Jewish background, aware of all the requirements of the Law, is saying that the non-Jew is morally on higher ground when their behaviour is better than the Jew.]

A person is not a Jew who is one only outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical.  No, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a person’s praise is not from other people, but from God."

[And here is the crux of the matter.  Pleasing God is not a matter of legalistically following Scripture, but of a renewal of the heart by the work of the Holy Spirit.]

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There is a desperately sad irony that in our Church today, many of the more conservative wing quote Romans 1:18-32 at other believers as a way of condemning them and their views, trying to show how the law is clearly against them.  Yet in doing so, they are using a passage designed to do the exact opposite - heal the division.  What Paul wants of us is to live life by the Spirit.  In doing so, we live as God wants.  This is not a licence to sin, but a warning against legalism and judgemental attitudes against other Christians.