Presented to TSA Alberni Valley Ministries, 27 October 2024, by Major Michael Ramsay
Who has had a chance to read through Romans? We have spent the previous 3 weeks here on Chapter 1 of Romans. Who has at least read Chapter 1? This week I will speak on Romans 2 and then next week Susan may do the same or she may still have some things to say about Romans 1 or something else – so this week, if you can spare 10 minutes in your busy lives, I encourage you to read at least Romans 1 and 2. (That is how long it takes to read those two chapters out loud really slowly – 10 minutes.) When you read them, you can also check up on what we are saying in our sermons! Keep us on track!
Before
we begin today, there is some prerequisite knowledge required; so, let’s have a
review quiz. Let’s see how we do.
1. ‘Romans’ is written to people living in what city?
a) Damascus
b) Rome
c) Philadelphia
d) Port Alberni
2. What is a Jew?
a) A descendant of Abraham
b) One who was subject to the Law
c) One of a people chosen by God to share His message of Salvation
d) All of the above
3. What is a Gentile?
a) Someone who is quiet and calm
b) A type of flooring
c) A Greek or other non-Jewish person
d) Short form of ‘Gentleman’
4. What is the significance of circumcision?
a) A sign of a covenant with Abraham
b) A sign that you are a Jewish male
c) A painful ritual practice
d) All of the above
5. What is the Law?
a) A note to follow ‘So’…’Doh, Rae, mi,,,’
b) Something I fought and it won.
c) Rites and rituals that are an important part of ancient Israelite covenant, culture and tradition.
d) A type of Tee-Dah; a Law-Tee-Dah
6. Who wrote Romans?
a) Roman Polanski
b) Julius Caesar
c) William Shakespeare
d) Paul
7. Who was Paul?
a) A Jew
b) A Roman
c) A Christian
d) All of the above
8. What is a Christian?
a) A follower of the Law
b) A follower of Jesus
c) A follower of Moses
d) A follower on Facebook
The Law comes up a lot in the New Testament. Today we are looking at Romans 2 and how Covenant Law relates to us as Christians. Remind me again: what does Paul mean when he refers to ‘the Law’?
Those
of us who have been studying Acts on Tuesday nights at the Gruenhages’ know
that the early Christians struggled a lot with whether to follow the Law or not
and how to follow it or not follow it. Two weeks ago at Bible study, we spoke
about the Council in Jerusalem and how James and the other leaders proclaimed
that the Gentiles shouldn’t have to follow the Law – but that they should
follow some rules that are included in it? Do we remember what those rules are?
(Acts 15:19: “...to abstain from food polluted by
idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from
blood.") And last week in Bible Study we spoke at great length about
what Paul had to say about the Law in Galatians 5:2,
“Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised,
Christ will be of no value to you at all” versus what he encouraged
Timothy to do, as recorded in Acts 16? What happened to Timothy? Timothy was circumcised
(Acts 16:3). This shows some of the early confusion around the role of the Law
in the lives of early Christians. It is finally more or less settled as Paul
explains it to the Romans here.
Romans
Chapter 2, written around the same time as Paul’s letter to the Galatians, and
probably after the Council in Jerusalem, gives us a good insight into how the
Law applies to believers: both Jews and Gentiles. Remind me: What is the difference between and
Jew and a Gentile? What is the Law again? Reading Verses 11-13:
11 For God does not show favoritism.12 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. 13 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.
In
this chapter Paul explains that even though they were chosen by God for His
purposes that, as Douglas Moo writes, “contrary to popular Jewish belief, the
sins of the Jews will not be treated by God significantly different from those
of the Gentiles.” [1] In Verses 12-16
Paul makes it clear that it is not those who hear the Law (Like every Jewish
person attending synagogue would regularly) but rather those who obey the Law
that are justified – whether they attend synagogue or not or whether they even
know about the Law or not (v.13).
An analogy
to our local laws here today: If our law says that you are not to run a stop
sign, the fact that that law exists, and the fact that you know that law says
you aren’t supposed to run a stop sign aren’t going to save you. What is going
to save you (and others!) is if you don’t run the stop sign!
But
there is more. Reading Verses 14-16:
14 (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. 15 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.) 16 This will take place on the day when God judges people’s
secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares.
Verses
14-16 talk about the Gentiles in relation to the Law: even some Gentiles who do
not even try to follow or even know Jewish Covenant Law are able to do some of
what the Law states.
These
verses refer to the new covenant of Jeremiah 31:31-34 where it is recorded that
the Law will be ‘written on the hearts of the
Israelites’ but even more than that, it is reference to the good news of
Genesis 12:3: the promise to Abraham that he will be a blessing has been
fulfilled – not just for the Jews but for all the nations of the earth.
Back
to our stop sign analogy: Some people who may not even know the law about stop
signs will actually arrive at an intersection and come to a complete stop. They
will realize, without anyone telling them, that maybe they shouldn’t drive straight
out into the traffic. Paul would say that though they were never told this law,
it was indeed written on their heart. I think there are many times in life when
you and I probably obey laws by accident. Maybe a speed limit would be a better
example: maybe you are driving down the street and never do see the sign but
find yourself going the speed limit quite by accident. This is like Gentiles who do not have the Law, following
the Covenant Law.
Verses
17-24:
17 Now you, if you call yourself a Jew; if you rely on the law
and boast in God; 18 if you know his will and approve of what is superior
because you are instructed by the law; 19 if you are convinced that you are a
guide for the blind, a light for those who are in the dark, 20 an instructor of
the foolish, a teacher of little children, because you have in the law the
embodiment of knowledge and truth— 21 you, then, who teach others, do you not
teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal? 22 You who say
that people should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor
idols, do you rob temples? 23 You who boast in the law, do you dishonour God by
breaking the law? 24 As it is written: “God’s name is blasphemed among the
Gentiles because of you.”
Paul here
addresses a Jewish claim that they can ‘know [God’s] will and determine what is
best because [they] are instructed in the Law (v.18)” and that they, because
they have this Law from God, are even “a guide to the blind, a light to those
who are in darkness, a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of children, having
in the Law the embodiment of knowledge and truth (19-20).” Paul disagrees! He
says basically, “How can one claim to be a teacher of a Law when one does not
even obey the Law oneself (cf. 2.1)?” Theologian N.T. Wright goes as far as to claim that
“if the [Law] was put in place to deal with evil in the world, then the failure
of the covenant people [under the Law] to be the light of the world means that
the [Law] itself seems to be under threat.”[2] In other words, if the purpose
of the Law was to bring salvation to the world then it failed.
This
would be like if people were bragging that we are the best drivers in the world
because we have the most laws: no speeding, no running stop signs, always
signal, stop for pedestrians, don’t drive on the sidewalk… but then we don’t follow
all those rules. What good are those laws if no one follows them? Paul says
that this is what his fellow citizens are indeed doing – claiming to be great
because of all these great laws– but then not following them; Claiming to be
great because they have THE LAW but then not following it any better than
people who don’t have it.
This always reminds me of when we or our allies invade yet another country in the name of 'democracy' and then when it comes to participating in democracy most of us don’t even bother to show up! Most of us don’t attend local political debates and read party platforms so that we can at least cast an educated ballot. And most of us certainly don’t bother to participate in more legitimate or more meaningful avenues of democracy on a regular basis (the VAST majority of people in our country don’t bother to do this at all). This is like the LAW. What good is it to you if you don't participate in it?
Verses
25-29:
25 Circumcision has value if you observe the law, but if you
break the law, you have become as though you had not been circumcised. 26 So
then, if those who are not circumcised keep the law’s requirements, will they
not be regarded as though they were circumcised? 27 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 lawbreaker. 28 A person is
not a Jew who is one only outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and
physical. 29 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.
Verses 25-29 speak specifically about circumcision and the Law. Two groups of people are being addressed. The first is a circumcised people, Jews who do not keep the Law (cf. vv. 25, 26, 27) and the second is an uncircumcised Gentiles who do keep the Law. Paul points out that the Law of the Covenant is only valuable if you obey the Law and he says that the circumcised Jews are not obeying the Law and thus “The Name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles (v.24; cf. Isaiah 52:5).”
The
role of Law is to reveal how we are guilty of sin (cf. 2:1, 17-24; 3:19) like
our local laws show us how we are guilty of a crime. Covenant Law points out
how and where we fall short. It is the ‘doing’ of the law that counts more than
having or even knowing the Law (2:13-14,18, 25-26). Both Jews (who received and
know the Law) and Gentiles (who don’t and aren’t) are equally able to ‘do’ or
‘not do’ the Law (cf. 2:3, 14-15, 17-14, 25-26, 3:19-31) – just like anyone ,whether
they know our laws or not, is equally able to drive through a stop sign or not,
or speed through a school zone or not – and just like no one born in this
country will probably spend their whole life without breaking the law - no one will
likely ever keep all of the Covenant Law.
Just like it is really
not possible for you and I to obey every law in Canada, even if we know them.
And it probably isn’t even possible for us to obey every traffic law. The Lord
knows I have had a few tickets and one or two accidents. But if it was possible
for anyone not to break the law then they would be able to look down their nose
at the rest of us. Likewise, if it was possible not to break the Covenant Law
(cf. 3:20), the Gentile who did so without even knowing the Law would stand in judgement of those who did
received it, knew it, and don’t follow it (contrast 2:1-3).
So, at the
conclusion of the second chapter of Romans, it is clear that the Jew and the
Gentile stand on equal footing before the Law. Neither of them can be saved by
it, whether they know it or not.
The
Law “cannot be the means of demarcating the true covenant people; they
merely point up the fact of sin (3:20). Instead, the covenant faithfulness of
the creator of the world is revealed through the faithfulness of Jesus, the
Messiah, for the benefit of all, Jew and Gentile alike, who believe.” [3]
Salvation,
as will be argued later in Romans, comes not through The Law, any laws or
anything else. Salvation comes through Christ alone.
[1] Douglas J. Moo, The
Epistle to the Romans (NICNT 6: Grand Rapids, Michigan / Cambridge, UK: William
B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1996), 126. Cf. also NT Wright, The Letter to the
Romans (NIB 10: Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon, 1995), 440, where he acknowledges
that God’s national impartiality was not totally unconsidered in Jewish
tradition.
[2] N.T. Wright,
“Romans and the Theology of Paul,” Pauline Theology, Volume III, ed. David M.
Hay & E. Elizabeth Johnson, (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1995): 37.
[3] Douglas J. Moo, p.
126.