Romans Chapter 2 Part 2

I understand the NIV easier for this second half.

V 24 is a powerful verse. Verses 17-23 go into detail comparing your pride to your actions and seeing if you are genuine. The hypocrisy was so bad that even the “pagan” Gentiles saw how “vile” the Jews actually were. The Gentiles were like “why the heck would I want to be a Jew in faith and follow God? Obviously, God isn’t benefiting those guys. What the heck are they learning in that Mosaic Law that I’m really missing out on? I am actually doing better than them without God.” In fact, the Jews were the best case against Judaism. Likewise, today, many have said that the best case against Christianity is Christians! We are in a greenhouse being evaluated at all times. The crazy thing is that many times it is the ungodly that are evaluating us and when they see us in the wrong, they discount God’s power & wisdom. Just listen to what is said about Christians on TV. People that have no clue about scripture are judging us & God.

V 25 If you go back and read about when circumcision started…not when Moses came around…but before when God found favor with Abraham, we read in Genesis 17 that this circumcision was a physical representation of a emotional commitment. You were stating that “God is my Lord; he is who I answer to.” You were telling others that this was an enduring commitment until death. The amazing thing is that parents would dedicate their children to God via circumcision but the rest was up to the kid. So Paul says, “so what!” to being circumcised (pledged to God) if you are sinning & acting like you aren’t circumcised (pledged to God). As verse 26 says, you can point to your circumcised body but will not be regarded as circumcised because there is no obeying. Incredibly the guy who isn’t circumcised but does what is right (the Gentile from verse 14 who obeys instinctively) will condemn you (not as in them being God but as in them being used as the standard to measure you up against).

How furious would a Jew be that a Gentile would be their standard?

V 28 “A man is not a Jew if he is only one outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical.”

If you read Genesis 17 and pieces of chapters 18-21, you will see that these promises God was making Abraham were based on a condition. Many of God’s promises are conditional. Conditional on us doing our part! Most definitely, circumcision was a physical action initiated by an emotional/mental response. Abraham had to do a gut check and accept that God would lead him in every aspect of his life. That is what God was demanding via circumcision.

V 29 "No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a man’s praise is not from men, but from God."

Your heart has to be in to it. Your parents may have devoted you to God but as you grew up, you had to come to grips with the reality that it was up to you to fulfill the pact created with God. Now how do we tell whether the devotion is really there and growing…we see the fruit. Just like James says that out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks, out of the overflow of the heart, you obey. This devout person will be satisfied if his God is happy with him and will be able to battle on through even though the rest of the world ridicules him.

Oh and although circumcision was part of the Law of Moses, it did not originate there. It originated with Abraham, hundreds of years before. A pact between God and his descendants.

Now in all this talk of circumcision, replace the word circumcision with immersion, Jew with Christian, Gentile with unbeliever and see if that isn’t a hard pill to swallow. Here we are pointing to our immersion but Paul is saying there better be some hard proof that your heart is in it. Like Brother Wilkey says, there has to be a line when you broke from the pack and said God is first for me, everyone else is last.

When did you cross the line?

I believe whole-heartedly that I and other New Testament Christians crossed the line when I let myself be immersed into Christ’s death and was brought up into the resurrection of Christ.