Objective 7
- At the end of this topic, you will be able to summarize the advantages and responsibilities of the Jews and explain how they came under condemnation.
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Lesson 2: Man's Need of Salvation (Rom 1:18-3:20)
Topic 4: Jews Condemned (Continued)
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Paul is talking directly to the Jews in Romans 2:17-29. Why? Because the Jews were always boasting of their privileges and advantages, but their lives did not measure up to their boasts. In Romans 2:17-18, we find six claims of their advantages:
In Romans 2:19-20, we find five more claims. These show us how the Jews saw themselves with relation to the heathen or Gentiles:
Paul points out to these Jews who have been given such great advantages and privileges that privilege brings with it the responsibility to live according to the revelation they have received. The greater the knowledge of God and His will we possess, the greater our accountability to Him. The problem with the boasting Jew was that he did not live according to what he claimed to be.
The Jews were God's chosen people. They were to be a missionary nation to tell others about God. The purpose for their existence was to receive and share with others the revelation of the true God. God called them His witnesses. The very name Jew means "praise." Their lives were to bring praise to God.
Just as the Gentiles are judged and condemned for having rejected the revelation that they received of God, the Jews in this passage are judged according to what they do with their higher revelation and responsibility.
Keep in mind that while Paul is talking about the Jews of his day, there is a much wider application for his words. Do you know people who think of themselves as these Jews did? Paul's description fits many religious people of our times. They may be nominal Christians in name only or followers of another religion. Have you ever faced this problem in your church? Have you ever met people who refuse to believe the gospel because they have seen hypocrites in the church? This passage lets us know that God judges the hypocrites.
Some people call religion "the opiate of the people." Of course, this is not true of the true religion that brings a person into contact with the living God, but in one sense this statement is true. If a man trusts in his religion (his association with a church) but his life is ungodly, religion to him is like a drug. It is a false security. This is the type of person that Paul describes in Romans 2:17-29.
Paul tells us in Romans 2:25-29 that to be a Jew is good if a person keeps the Law of God. But a Jew who breaks the Law is no better off than the Gentile. Circumcision, which Paul discusses here, was a sign of God's covenant with the Israelites. As you have seen in Galatians, this was the sign of the Jew's obligation to keep the whole Law. But if the person did not love and worship God in his heart, he disobeyed God's commands, the covenant was broken, and the outward sign of the covenant was meaningless. Some of the people in other nations also practiced circumcision. The Israelites who did not obey God from the heart were no better than the circumcised pagans.
In our study of Galatians, we saw that water baptism for the Christian can be seen as the New Testament equivalent to circumcision. Both are religious rites ordered by the Lord as outward signs of an inward commitment to Him. Today, some people trust in their water baptism and are proud of it, just as the Jews were of circumcision. But both are meaningless if they are not accompanied by the inward commitment that they symbolize.
Enter your answer for the question in the "Course Life Notebook Questions" page found in the "Personal Life Notebook" section.
In order to apply the lesson of this passage in your own life and ministry, read Romans 2:25-29 again, substituting the word baptism or baptized for circumcision or circumcised. In your Life Notebook, give a two- or three-paragraph teaching that applies these issues of false security in religion to your community.
