Sermon Cloud

Romans 2:1-3:20

Theme: We cannot be made right before God by our works

Aim: Look to Jesus Christ in faith to be made right before God

 

Welcome

Series in Romans – How the Gospel transforms urban people and urban communities

 

We’ve seen how the Gospel transforms:

• Identity
• Longings
• Righteousness
• Worship – idols or God

 

This afternoon, looking at how the Gospel transforms:

• how we can be made right before God 

 

Today looking at the negative – how we CANNOT be made right before God

Next week, the positive …

 

PRAY

 

Four works that cannot make us right with God

1. Relative righteousness (2:1-10)           

2. Religion or spirituality (2:11-24)

3. Physical circumcision (2:25-29)

4. Works of the law (3:1-20)

 

I. Relative righteousness (2:1-10)

State

Relative righteousness is ….

 

Your relative righteousness will not save – here is why:

 

Explain

Because of the scope of God’s judgment and the basis. 

#1 - The scope of God’s judgment – everyone: (2:1-5)

• Paul writes in 2:1 (Read)
• “O man” => not just Jew, Greek.
• The scope of God’s judgment also comes out in 2:9 (Read)

 

• Everyone will be judged.  Paul’s original audience at this point at first may have been thinking ‘yeah those really sinful people we just read about’.
• But shockingly for the original readers, and for us, Paul is not just pointing a finger at those really sinful people at the end of chapter 1, but is now pointing the finger at everyone, including his original readers, us, himself, and saying we all are going to be judged by God. 

 

 

• We are never told in Scripture that we will be judged relative to other people – God will judge each individual person on their own merits; not relative to others.

 

#2 - The basis of God’s judgment – works: (2:6-10)

• 2:6 (Read)
• But some will read 2:10 (Read) and think, well I can earn my way out of God’s judgment – it says so right in the text!   
• But we have to read these 11 verses in light of 3:20 – Read 3:20.    We can’t earn our righteousness before God.  

 

• Given that God is going to judge us according to our works, in one sense we have a problem – because as 3:20 says …
  • We can’t do enough good things to earn our way to God

 

Illustrate:

• Not only those relative righteous not save, it also results in some undesirable character traits
• Personal.  Raised in a religious moral family and culture.  Believed …
• For One Chicago …

 

Apply:

If we believe our righteousness comes from our RELATIVE RIGHTEOUSNESS then we become judgmental, condescending, unkind …

But ultimately it will not make us right before God

 

Transition:

That was the first work we are not made right before God: Relative righteousness

Now …

 

II. Religion or spirituality (2:11-24)

State:

Religion or spirituality will not save.

 

Religion = taking good things and even God things and turning them into people centered traditions  (larger group)

Spirituality = constructing our own individual belief system – religion (individual)

 

Here is why religion nor spirituality will save -

 

#1 – God shows no partiality.  

 

2:11-12 (Read)

• God ultimately doesn’t care about your religious identity; whether you are religious or spiritual
• No matter if you are “without the law” or “under the law” God shows no partiality
• Doesn’t matter whether you are a Gentile who has never heard God’s written law – i.e. “without the law”, or
• are a Jew who has God’s written law committed to memory – “under the law”

 

In this passage then there are those who have ‘religious’ identity, and those that don’t.  In this passage the division is based on whether or not one has the Law. 

 

What was really shocking for Paul’s original audience was that

#2 – Even having the ‘right’ religious identity does not save (JEWS):

In this section, the Jews had a religious identity based in having “The Law”

• First mention of “law” in Romans (2:12)
• Paul uses the word “law” over 70 times in Romans. 
• Generally then Paul uses “law” to speak of the specific Law God gave to Moses.

 

What does “law” mean?

YOU:

When you here the word “law” what do you think of? 

• A profession lawyers practice. 
• What our various levels of government produce. 
• Ways you may have learned about “law” in church …

 

PAUL

The key thing to ask is how did Paul view the word “Law”. 

• “The Law” = the Law gave Moses starting with the 10 commandments on Mt. Sinai.  God gave his people the Law they were to live under. 
• Gal 3:17 Paul is consistent with Biblical history in affirming that 430 years after God made his covenant with Abraham; God gave the law to Moses 430.  So think of the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. 

 

The Law – a way of categorizing all peoples (2:12)

“all who have sinned without the law” = Gentiles = ‘Spiritual’ people today

“all who have sinned under the law” = Jews = ‘Religious’ people today

Same division as in 1:16 (“Jew first, and also to the Greek”)

 

For original readers, somewhat surprising that those “under the law” can also face condemnation – why?

 

2:13 (Read)

Doers of the law justified

• Simply hearing the law is not good enough.  Have to be a doer of the law as well. 
• This verse raises the issue of does Paul contradict himself with regard to justification and works?  Some may say that Paul both says we are justified by faith; then other times we are justified by works.  Which is it? 

 

2 things to unpack to explain why Paul not contradicting himself

 

First – no one could ever keep the law perfectly

 

Second – there is an initial justification by faith, but a later justification 

“Justification” – scholars speak of Paul’s use of the term as having 2 parts. 

The first “justification” is by faith; the initial declaration by God that a sinner is “righteous”; God mediates that righteousness to us by faith. 

Then there is a second “justification”.  Everyone will be judged …

 

No one could ever be declared righteous by their works alone.  We are declared righteous because of faith.  As James says, our works will demonstrate that initial declaration of righteousness …

 

#3 - Spirituality (GENTILES):

Paul is not done.  He disarms the religious people, but also everyone else in the world! 

Read 2:14-16

So what is Paul saying? 

 

Paul theoretically puts forward in 2:14-16 that the Gentiles could do what the law requires – because God has given everyone through our “nature” basic morality, basic sense of wrong and right, thereby in theory allowing all people to have the chance to perfectly live up to that standard.  But no one ever has, or could, except Jesus. 

 

God has written his moral code on everyone’s hearts.   

 

Illustrate: (Spirituality)

Spirituality has a ring of truth to it; God has put his moral law in everyone’s heart.  But he has also explicitly revealed Himself …

 

Parade, October 4, 2009

 

Application:

Despite having a ring of truth to it … spirituality will not save …

 

Religious - Are we in danger of just ‘hearing’ the Gospel, but not having it radically transform and renew us? 

ð Some under the Old Covenant were just ‘hearing’ the law

ð So we have to recognize a danger for us is just ‘hearing’ the Gospel, making some level of agreement to it, but for it not to affect what we ‘do’.

• Next week

 

Transition:

That was the second work we are not made right before God: Religion or spirituality

Now …

 

III. Physical circumcision (2:25-29)

State:

Physical circumcision does not make us right before God – here is why

 

Explain:

• Read 2:25-26
• Starting to see a pattern – if you do this, then that you will have something positive. 
  • By a perfect standard of works (one could argue) that one could have “eternal life” (2:7)
  • By doing the law perfectly one can be “be justified” (2:12)
  • Now, there is “value” in circumcision “if you obey the law” (2:25). 
  • 2:26 – Paul says that those who are not circumcised can be counted as those that have been circumcised
  • These are really hypothetical what-ifs that Paul uses to both demonstrate to his Jewish readers that one needed perfect obedience to get value from these various works, and also that Gentiles could derive the same value if they were perfect in their keeping of these works. 

 

Circumcision – what it signified

Gen 17:4 “Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations”

Sign of the Abrahamic covenant - circumcision – Given to Abraham in Gen 17:9-13; every male child was to be circumcised as a “sign of the covenant” between God and Abraham. 

 

Clearly then circumcision was important – God commanded it, and it signified the greatest relationship any people can have with God – that He is their God, and they are His people. 

 

Illustration:

Illustration – wedding band

(a sign/symbol being different from the essence of what it represents)

 

But circumcision was just a SIGN of the covenant – it was not the thing that brought righteousness. 

 

Read 2:28-29

 

Apply:

• If you were raised in a Christian home, then our danger is to place our trust in being baptized; having prayed a prayer, or made a profession of faith.  

 

The preceding has shown that someone can be part of “physical” Israel, but really be outside of God’s people.  Being in God’s people is not a matter of ethnicity, receiving God’s revelation, or certain cuts on one’s skin.

 

Transition:

That was the 3^rd way we are not made right before God: Physical circumcision

Now …

 

IV. Works of the law (3:1-20)

State:

Works of the law do not make us right before God and here is why -

 

Explain:

Despite having the sign of the covenant – circumcision - and God’s written Word (3:2), Paul writes:

Read 3:9 => everyone sins; everyone going to be accountable to God

• Jews no better off
• But both Jews and Greeks are “under sin”

 

Paul then quotes from various Psalms and Isaiah. 

• Interestingly, in their original context these quotations were part of God’s people describing the sin of those outside of God’s people and God’s covenants.  Now Paul is saying many who though they were included in God’s people/covenant were not.

 

Read 3:10b-12 => Headline

Read 3:13-14 => Sins of speech

Read 3:15-17 => Sins of violence

Read 3:18 => concluding summary 

 

The point of all this?

• Read 3:19
• This “law” actually refers to the universal law God places in every heart.  Despite that universal law God places within each of us, we still sin, we still commit the sins Paul uses the quotations from the OT as representations. 
• Remember back in 2:14-15 that Paul said the Gentiles, though they do not have the law, can do what the law requires …
• 3:19-20 applies to everyone – Jew, and Gentile, Religious and Irreligious

ð So we are all accountable to God; however, we all sin, break this universal law that God has given everyone 

 

Illustration:

CS Lewis – Mere Christianity 17-18 “The Law of Human Nature”

 

Application:

• What is Lewis saying?
  • This common moral code we know deep down is within us, and we expect other people to abide by, points to a God who has put that moral code in our heart. 
  • God has given each of us enough truth or knowledge to make us accountable, on His terms, NOT OUR OWN.
  • Even if you are an ‘irreligious’ person (spiritual), God has given you as Lewis calls it “The Law of Human Nature”, and he is going to hold you accountable.  However, as 3:20 tells us …

 

 

Gets worse

• Read 3:20
• We can’t be made right by works of the law!
• But that’s the main point of all these verses.

 

Illustrate:

• Jesus said we can commit adultery by having lustful thoughts; commit murder by being angry at some one. 

 

Apply:

• We need to strive to not sin, to do good.  But ultimately our works will not make us right before God, because no matter how hard we try, we still fail, still sin. 

 

Give me some hope!

• Where is the hope?
• Paul has been setting up the next section beginning in 3:21 – the Gospel

 

What then does make us right?  The Gospel

 

Conclusion

The Gospel and

1. Relative righteousness            

Why relative righteousness does not save

God’s standard is perfection; God doesn’t grade on a curve

God’s plan is that we would never save ourselves – Genesis 3 – Eve was told that one of her offspring defeat Satan and sin -> Jesus

 

How the Gospel overcomes relative righteousness

• Its not about you, Its not about your works either isolated from others, or relative to others.  Rather, it is all about what Jesus Christ did for you, and I. 
• Romans 3:27 – no room for boasting.
• Jesus came for sinners, not the religiously self-sufficient (Matthew 9:10-13)

 

2. Religion or spirituality

Why religious and irreligious identity does not save

If we place our trust in either identity, they are both empty facades that do not deliver

 

How the Gospel overcomes religious and irreligious identity

Galatians 3:28 “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus”. 

• Identity needs to be in Jesus Christ,
  • not the shadows that point to Jesus.
  • Not in religion, nor spirituality

 

3. Physical circumcision

Why physical circumcision does not save

Physical circumcision is just Outward and physical; we need instead

Spiritual circumcision which is Inward and a matter of the heart (2:29)

 

How the Gospel overcomes physical circumcision

True circumcision – circumcision of the heart 

Read 2:28-29

• Jeremiah 31:31-34 New Covenant; God writes his law on peoples hearts
• Ezekiel 37:1-6 – the Spirit of God causes us to have spiritual life
  • The sign today that you have been spiritually circumcised is the dwelling of the Holy Spirit within you.  

 

4. Works of the law

Why works of the law does not save

The law was never meant to save us.  The law was meant to show us our sin, show us our inability to reach God’s perfect standard, show us that we needed God to provide salvation for us. 

 

How the Gospel overcomes works of the law

The Gospel is not about what we do; its about what God has done for us in the person and work of Jesus Christ; in his perfect sinless life, yet his atoning sacrifice on the cross; and His overcoming sin and death by being raised from the dead on the 3^rd day. 

 

Matthew 5:17-20:

• Jesus said the law will never pass away; Jesus didn’t come to abolish the Law, he came to
• Fulfill the law – We are made right because Jesus perfectly fulfilled the law
• Jesus also said that “unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven”
  • Jesus’ righteousness, or your own? 
  • Which do you want to trust in? 

 

The only way we can have a righteousness that exceeds that of the Pharisees, and therefore be able to enter the Kingdom of Heaven is to trust in Jesus, the one who perfectly fulfilled the law on our behalf. 

 

Theme: We cannot be made right before God by our works

Aim: Look to Jesus Christ in faith to be made right before God