GOD'S GREAT NEWS for MAN'S GREAT PROBLEM - Romans 1-8

A Jew Faces Jewish Sin

Perhaps the most famous Jew in America today is Elie Wiesel, a survivor of Auschwitz and Buchenwald, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986. I've read two of his books, both of which are autobiographical: his first account of losing his mother, father and little sister in the Holocaust, entitled Night, and his latest work, entitled Memoirs: All Rivers Run to the Sea. I want to share one reflection from his Memoirs. It illustrates in modern language what Paul describes in Romans.

"Since I have just used the word 'ashamed,' let me dwell on it for a moment. [As a journalist], I researched an article on organized crime in America: the Mafia, and in particular the hired killers of 'Murder Incorporated.' As I sifted through the archives of various newspapers and visited the Public Library, I was stunned to come across some Jewish names. In the twenties and thirties there were Jews who offered their services to the criminal underground, murdering men and women who had done them no harm. One of them reportedly boasted of being an observant Jew who wore his yarmulka to 'work' and scrupulously respected the day of rest, the Shabbat. It was also reported that two members of a gang suggested to a Palestinian Zionist leader that they eliminate delegates who planned to vote against the UN partition resolution [leading to the creation of the nation of Israel] in 1947. ...

"These revelations came as a shock to me. I simply could not imagine a Jew becoming a hired killer. Yes, I had too idealistic a view of Jews, but the fact is that in Eastern Europe my people might have been criticized for just about anything, but not involvement in murder. Jews may have been guilty of lying or cheating, fraud or smuggling, theft or perjury, but murder was unimaginable. ...

"I like to think that what accounts for this virtual absence of blood crimes in our communities was perhaps related to the commandment revealed at Sinai: Thou shalt not kill. The voice of God sounds and resounds in our collective memory. But then what accounts for the present reality?" What a great question: what accounts for Jews who become murderers, despite being Jews, despite being the chosen people to whom the oracles of God were given? Why couldn't Elie answer his own question, as a man who saw human sin and evil showcased at Auschwitz? When Elie asked "But then what accounts for the present reality [of Jews who become murderers]?," Paul the Apostle would venture this answer: What accounts for the present reality is man's great problem: SIN. Sin is our great enemy, the destroyer of our own souls, the slayer of others, and it can be found in every person in every place: whether they are like the Immoral Man, the Judgmental Man, or the unique case in history ... the Jew. That sin flares up in anyone, at any time, anywhere, should never surprise us. It festers in all our hearts.

Reading the Court Record ...

For the past few weeks, we have been in the courtroom of God, while Paul has been presenting God's case against the human race. To set today's passage in context, I considered what a court record of this case might look like, by way of creatively paraphrasing what Paul is saying in these chapters. Here's a possible court record:

COURT RECORD: Supreme Court of Heaven, Judge God the Father Presiding. Case: God vs. The Human Race. Docket Number: Rom.1:18-3:8.

[Opening Statement] Paul the Apostle: "May it please the court, here is God's fundamental charge against man: 'For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident in them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.' Now, to call my first witness, Witness A, the Immoral Man." [Witness takes stand].

Paul: "This man knew God, but didn't honor Him nor give Him thanks. Instead, he exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corrupted man and animals. So, God gave him over to impurity. Furthermore, he exchanged the truth of God for the ancient lie of Satan, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator. So, God gave him over to degrading passions. Finally, he exchanged the natural functioning of the body through heterosexual sex and pursued homosexuality. So, God gave him over to a depraved mind. In the end, even though he knows the ordinances of God, that those who practice such sin are worthy of death, he not only does the sin but gives hearty approval to all who join in with him. You are under His wrath, Immoral Man." [Witness removed]

Paul: "To call my second witness, Witness B, the Judgmental Man. [Witness takes stand]. You have stood in judgment over the Immoral Man just described. But in that act of judgment, when you imposed your standard of judgment on him, you sinned the same way he did. You exchanged God as the righteous judge with a single standard, for yourself as an unrighteous judge with a destructive double-standard. For you, others' sin is terrible but your own sin can be easily explained. Therefore, you are without excuse, every man who passes judgment, for in that you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things. Judgmental Man, you too are under God's wrath." [Witness removed, gaping].

Paul continues: "Let us now examine the third witness, Witness C. Take the stand, Rabbi Ben Avraham. [Witness takes stand]. Rabbi, describe yourself to us."

Rabbi Ben Avraham: "I bear the name 'Jew,' and I am zealously observant of all the Law. I rely upon the Law, my boast is in God as one of His chosen people. We know His will, and we approve the things that are essential, being instructed out of the Torah by great sages of whom the world is unworthy. As a rabbi, I am a guide to the blind, a light to those in darkness, a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of the immature. In our Torah we have the embodiment of knowledge and the truth."

Paul: "Objection! You, therefore, who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that one should not steal, do you steal by coveting in your heart? You who say that one should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery in your heart? You who abhor idols, do you nonetheless rob from temples and look for personal profit in your own heart? You who make your boast in Torah, do you by your heart attitude dishonor God? For your own Scriptures clearly state that 'the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.'"

Rabbi Ben Avraham: "So, maybe my inner life is a little lacking. BUT I am of the party of the circumcision, making me a son of Abraham, the friend of God."

Paul: "So, you're counting on your circumcision as a means to avoid God's judgment and be saved? Well, indeed circumcision is of value, IF YOU PRACTICE THE LAW. But, if you are a transgressor of the Law in your heart, as you just admitted, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. You, my dear rabbi, are just like those two, the Immoral Man and Judgmental Man."

Rabbi Ben Avraham: "Now wait a minute, your quick and witty tongue has gone too far. What was that again? You compare ME with a GENTILE dog?"

Paul: "Yes I did. And here's why: He is not a Jew who is one outwardly; neither is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God."

Rabbi Ben Avraham: "You're a radical!! If all this is true, then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the benefit of circumcision?"

Paul: "Great in every respect. First, the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God, the greatest treasure the world had ever seen prior to the great gift of Jesus Christ. The Jews were the people with whom God established the great covenant with Abraham and David, they are the chosen people."

Rabbi: "Okay, let's talk about this covenant between our God and His chosen people Israel. If some did not believe, their unbelief will not nullify the faithfulness of God, will it? Remember that both sides of the covenant must be upheld for the covenant to be a true covenant."

Paul: "May it never be! How can man's unfaithfulness to man's part of the covenant possibly imply that God will in any way be unfaithful to fulfill His portion of the covenant? He has been a faithful husband to Israel, across all time. He even sent Jesus Christ to fulfill man's portion of the agreement when He saw Israel totally failed. So, God remains faithful even when man is unfaithful. In fact, the contrast between God and the Jew is so great in this case, let us find God to be true, though every man be found to be a liar, just as David said when confessing his sin with Bathsheba before God: 'That Thou might be justified in Thy words, and might prevail when Thou art judged.'"

Rabbi: "Okay, okay, I'll agree with David. But if we are as bad as Gentiles, if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God by extreme contrast, what shall we say? The God who inflicts wrath is not unrighteous, is He, when He judges us for being so unrighteous that His righteousness shines all the brighter?"

Paul: "May it never be! God's wrath must be unleashed against all unrighteousness and ungodliness of man, regardless of how this makes God stand out all the more brightly as the true light in the darkness. He must and will judge unrighteousness, committed by Gentile or Jew, regardless of how it makes Him look."

Rabbi: "Okay, so He's a holy and righteous judge. That at least I can agree with. But if through my lie the truth of God increased all the more to His glory by contrast, why am I still being judged as a sinner? In fact, I have even heard that you, master Paul, have preached something like this: 'Let us do evil that good may come.'"

Paul, "For one thing, I never said that. Those who attribute that to me are false witnesses. You ask if your lie increased God's glory, why not lie all the more? Well, my answer is the same as before. You draw a stark contrast between you, the Jew, and God, when before you saw yourself aligned with God. You are right to draw the contrast, because His holiness and our sin certainly are in contrast. But, your problem is when you try to make this great contrast an excuse for your own sin, saying that you should lie all the more to make God's glory increase. You forget that God is a righteous judge with one standard: He will judge your deeds. Thus, you must be judged for that one lie, regardless of whether or not you're a Jew, a teacher, even a rabbi. It is time to stop looking for loopholes. The Law is clear: He will judge your deeds. You are just as quilty of sin as either Witness A or Witness B, because you broke the Law. You too are under the wrath of God."

END OF RECORD

Having presented the case in this way to help us enter into Paul's thoughtflow, let's consider how sin has worked in God's chosen nation, the Jews.

The Self-Righteous Jew and His Ungrounded Confidence in the Law - 2:17-24

In vs. 17-24, the Jew describes himself and Paul counters that lofty image with the stark reality that the Jew has disobeyed the Law in his heart. Here Paul takes away the first of two foundation stones on which the Jews based their claim to salvation and a "passing over" of judgment: their privileged relationship to the Law. Paul will then remove their false confidence in the rite of circumcision in vs. 25-29.

Before we read vs. 17-20, and indeed this whole section up to 3:8, it is extremely important to recall that this is PAUL describing this Jew. No NT writer could have done this more accurately, because no other NT writer had climbed into the inner circles of rabbinic teaching and Temple government in Jerusalem. Paul studied with Gamaliel, the renowned sage given the title of "Rabban," the greatest Torah scholar of his generation (after a humble rabbi from Nazareth). The great Gamaliel who was the grandson of Hillel himself. Paul describes the Jew as one of the inner circle. It is not as if I were describing the Jew as a 20th century WASP; it is Paul the Apostle, Hebrew of Hebrews, who frames this dialogue. The Jew Paul is describing is a composite portrait of the archetype "Jew," drawn from Paul's broad experience with Jews both in Jerusalem and Tarsus. Let's look at Paul's composite sketch.

Rom. 2:17 begins by introducing the man bearing the privileged title "Jew." Paul emphasizes this title here to lay groundwork for his re-definition of a "Jew" in vs. 29. The name "Jew" comes directly from the name Judah in Hebrew, one of the sons of Jacob. The name Judah means "praise," as is seen in Gen. 29:35 and 49:8. Thus the name Jew means "praise."

The Jew's first contention is that he "relies upon the Law." He rests the weight of his life and eternal destiny on the Law. Right away there is an error in his thinking: just because you were of the race given the Law and made a steward of the Law doesn't automatically mean you are justified under the Law. The Law is simply a standard. Its purpose is to reveal sin and convict us of it, not to save us from our sin. Relying on the Law as a means of salvation represents a misunderstanding of the Law at the deepest level. Furthermore, the Jew "boasts in God." This boasting means that the Jew rests his great self-confidence on his privileged relationship with God as a physical son of Abraham. Jesus dealt with this boasting in John 8:31-59.

In vs. 18, the Jew also claims to "know the will of God and approve the essential things of the Law." The Jew saw in the Torah and the Prophets all the will of God for man clearly laid out, with His will pointing to the coming Messiah for ultimate salvation. The phrase "approving the essential things" reflect's Paul's own experience with Gamaliel, because it means to test out and argue the minute things in the Law, in order to decipher the highest moral standard applied in each verse of the Law. Paul and Gamaliel's other charges spent years in such moral hair-splitting.

But in vs. 19, the crux of Paul's claim against the Jew becomes increasingly clear. Here he says "having put TRUST IN YOURSELF to be a guide of the blind, a light of the ones in darkness." Just as Immoral Man had exchanged God as the focal point of his worship, and just as Judgmental Man had replaced God as the righteous Judge with himself as the human judge, the Jew had taken his confidence in God and exchanged it for confidence IN HIMSELF. He saw himself as a guide to the blind, a light of the ones in darkness. Exchanging God with the self because of a deluded sense of self-importance, he is just like the Immoral Man and the Judgmental Man.

Even one of the most famous Jews of our century, David Ben-Gurion, saw the Jews as Paul says the Jews see themselves. In Wiesel's Memoirs, he recalls when he met the first Israeli Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion. Wiesel says, "It was in America in 1956 that I met David Ben-Gurion, when I was assigned to cover his visit with President Eisenhower. The first time I saw him I could not help thinking ... was this the same man, the same ruthless leader, who now spoke of prophetic ethics as often as of world politics, and who said it was Israel's mission to serve as 'the light unto the nations'?" What Paul saw in his day about the Jews can be seen in our day also.

In fact, the city where we used to live houses one of the larger populations of Hasidic Jews outside of New York. On any Saturday, we would see scores of such Jews walking throughout our neighborhood, because they are forbidden to drive in light of the statutes concerning work on the Sabbath. One statute is that you cannot start a fire, which includes the firing of piston engines. Thus, no driving is allowed. Whether walking or driving is more likely to constitute "work" in an absolute sense I will leave up to others to determine, but this is what we used to see. The men, dressed in somber black, all wear hats and prayer shawls. The women's heads are all covered. The men walk in front, the women and children behind. Every time we used to see this, both Blythe and I were amazed at the audacious "parade" this is, how much they literally wore their religion on their sleeves. As an obviously excluded outsider, we Gentiles felt less like the Jews were a light to the nations, but rather that they were pompously parading their religion before the nations. And yet their tradition is so rich, and God has a remarkable plan of salvation for this special, chosen people as Paul will highlight later in Rom. 9-11. In fact, we Gentiles saved by faith in Jesus Christ are just branches grafted into their tree. But something just doesn't add up. They see themselves as privileged, and practice their religion in front of others, yet they are missing something.

Paul summarizes this pleasant self-portrait the Jew is painting in vs. 20. He is "an instructor of foolish ones, a teacher of infants, having the form of knowledge and of the truth in the Law." Certainly the self-righteousness of the Jew comes out here: all others are "foolish ones" to be instructed by him, "infants" to be taught by him.

I am struck by how this reliance on externals and the self-righteousness it spawns is more than a Jewish sickness. We Christians often specialize in emphasizing externals, and turning the externals into the yardstick by which we measure our Christian walk, and the walk of other Christians. For example, too often we have compressed into a 15-minute daily quiet time something as all-encompassing and life-changing and wildly exciting as an eternal relationship with the living God. How many Christians have I known who measure their righteousness by the length or regularity or emotion of their quiet time? How many of us, when our quiet times are going well, feel very self-satisfied, ready to instruct any and all about the benefits of that 15 minutes. But what about the rest of our day, which we believe belongs to us now that we have plugged in our time with God? What about our need for God over the course of 24 hours? What about our relationship with God when He wants to speak to us in His timing, rather than according to our regularly scheduled quiet time? Do we listen to Him at all times? Does all our time belong to Him? Do we rest in Him for 15 minutes, or is there still an ongoing Sabbath rest for the people of God? The Jew based his confidence on the Law; far too often we base our confidence on our quiet time. Neither are wrong in themselves; it is all a matter of our heart. If we understand the Law in light of Jesus Christ the fulfillment of the Law, then amen. If we understand a quiet time as one introduction to a whole day and whole life of intimacy with our indwelling Christ whose life is our life and who is Himself the content of our Christianity, then amen. Only then have we not substituted the external for the internal, the lesser for the only.

But far too often we miss the point, the point being Jesus Christ Himself. Paul tells us the point the Jews missed at the end of vs. 20. Just as this self-portrait began with the Jew's affirmation of his total reliance upon the Law for salvation and a passing over of judgment in vs. 17, so Paul ends this portrait with a much more accurate statement: 'having a form of knowledge and of the truth in the Law." The word "having a form" is a telling term: it means the "form, rough sketch, i.e. the outline or framework without the substance." Thus, the Jews had the right form, the right framework, the general rough sketch in the Law of how to know God and His truth. BUT THEY HAD NOT THE SUBSTANCE, which is JESUS CHRIST.

The Law is only a BLUEPRINT. It is the blueprint of God's heavenly Temple. It is a magnificent blueprint, but it is two-dimensional, merely the form of the building. But the building cannot actually be constructed until the cornerstone is laid. What the Jews were missing, what they had rejected, was the cornerstone that would take the blueprint of the Law and make it a three-dimensional reality. The cornerstone is Jesus Christ, as seen in Eph. 2:19-22. With Him as the cornerstone of God's Temple, God is now building that temple using living stones, you and me, because "you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit." (Eph. 2:22). But the blueprint only describes this incredible living Temple in two-dimensions: it takes the Cornerstone Jesus Christ and the Spirit of God within believers to enable God the Father to erect this Temple to the full dimensions of His glory.

Thus, the Jew painted a very rosy self-portrait, but it was profoundly self-delusional. Their self-confidence was in the Law, and they had convinced themselves they were justified under the Law. But their confidence was in a blueprint without substance. To obliterate this false confidence, Paul applies Jesus' logic from Matt. 5 in the Sermon on the Mount, by asking five piercing questions that will reveal how they have disobeyed the Law IN THEIR HEART.

Here are Paul's questions: "You, therefore, who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that one should not steal, do you steal? You who say that one should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who boast in the Law, through your breaking the Law, do you dishonor God?"

Paul forces them to look inside their hearts with these questions: being quick to teach, are they quick to be taught by others? This question reveals how sin lurks in the heart of every teacher: we who teach often struggle with being teachable ourselves. And while the Jews abhorred the idolatry of the Gentiles, did they forego opportunities to profit from idolatry-related businesses, or even pilfering silver or golden stores in foreign temples? And it is easy to teach against adultery, but then nurse a private fantasy life. Paul uses Jesus' logic here with the question of adultery, as Jesus taught on the subject in Matt. 5:27, 28: "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery,' but I say to you that everyone who looks on a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart." Paul is asking the Jew to answer these questions honestly, not in the outward sense of whether or not he had ever climbed into bed with another woman but to look inwardly and analyze his thought life, his fantasy life, to see if he had ever committed adultery in his heart. Since God looks upon the heart, the heart is where the Law must be fulfilled. God's logic is inescapable here, and the Jew's fulfillment of the Law must be measured by God's standard of the heart, not the Pharisees' standard of the external rule. Any man alive, if he is honest, must concede the fact that in his heart he has sinned when it comes to adultery as internal fantasizing.

It is interesting that Paul's logic of human sin is identical for the Gentile and the Jew here. In 2:14-16, the Gentile will be judged for the "secret things" within his heart, against the standard of his conscience. Here in 3:21-24, the Jew will be judged for the "secret things" within his heart, against the standard of the Law. Certainly both will be found wanting in the day of judgment. Certainly both need Jesus Christ.

The problem here is the outward compliance with the Law vs. the inward heart compliance with the Law. The two are extremely different. Let's say that in one of our homes, the parents establish a basic rule that if one child makes another cry, the offending child must say "I'm sorry." This rule exists to emphasize the importance of maintaining the relationship and the value of owning personal responsibility. But if the child is like me, the child will often struggle with saying "I'm sorry." Apologies don't come as standard equipment in the human package. But cunning usually does. Before long, the child recognizes that simply saying "I'm sawwee" mollifies the parents and helps him avoid punishment. Thus the child learns the loophole to the law. He may wallop his brother, look up angelically at his parents and turn to his brother and intone, "I'm sawwee," then haul off a few minutes later and knock the little brother on the ground. The outward behavior conforms to the rule, and the face even looks angelic, but on the inside that child is chomping a fat cigar and figuring how to work the system. The child performed an external action that becomes MEANINGLESS because he missed the point of having a heart that cares about the relationship, not hitting because hitting damages the relationship. When the external is done without the internal substance, the external becomes meaningless. This is the fundamental problem Paul is explaining.

In vs. 23, 24 Paul summarizes this point with two statements. First, in vs. 23, Paul says you who boast and rest your confidence in the Law actually dishonor God because in your heart you transgress the Law. In fact, in vs. 24, Paul quotes out of the Hebrew Scriptures that this has been the Jews' problem historically, because "the name of God was blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you." Even the Gentiles had gotten wise to their hypocrisy, and had derided God for it.

I am afraid that many in our country today view Christians with derision as well. Have we held aloft the name of Christ in love and compassion, or have we hastily responded to the world's constant encroachments into our communities? Have we spoken the truth in love, or has our loud truth drowned out His love, which seeks expression in more quiet ways?

A good question to ask yourself is this: what would happen if a nonbeliever were to live with me 24-hours-a-day for an extended period of time? What would that nonbeliever have to say about my Christ as a result of being with me? Unfortunately, one poor brother utterly turned off America's most famous writer when they went on a lecturing tour together. Here is a letter from Mark Twain, explaining what it was like to know this Christian:

To: William Dean Howells Philadelphia, February 27, 1885

"My Dear Howells: To-night Baltimore, to-morrow afternoon and night in Washington, and my four-months platform campaign is ended at last. It has been a curious experience. It has taught me that [George W.] Cable's gifts of mind are greater and higher than I had suspected. But --

That "But" is pointing toward his religion. You will never, never know, never divine, guess, imagine, how loathsome a thing the Christian religion can be made until you come to know and study Cable daily and hourly. Mind you, I like him; he is pleasant company; I rage and swear at him sometimes, but we do not quarrel; we get along mightily happily together; but in him and his person I have learned to hate all religions. He has taught me to abhor and detest the Sabbath-day and hunt up new and troublesome ways to dishonor it ...

Ys. ever,

Mark"

Whatever poor Mr. Cable did utterly disgusted Mr. Twain. What would the keen eye of Mr. Twain see in us, had we been his constant partner for a four-month ride?

Paul the Apostle's keen eye had laid bare the Jew's sin of self-righteousness and false confidence in the Law. But if their basis of self-righteousness from the Law has been torn away from under them, what about circumcision? Can't they still rely on that?

The Self-Righteous Jew and His Ungrounded Confidence in Circumcision - 2:25-29

I'm going to focus here on vs. 25 and 28, 29. In many ways vs. 26 and 27 echo the basic idea put forward in vs. 25. In verse 25, Paul affirms the great value of circumcision. But circumcision has value ONLY in terms of the value given it by the Law. Circumcision and the Law are intimately bound up into one system, so Paul immediately refuses to allow the Jew to bank on circumcision alone now that his trust in the Law has been stripped away. Paul says they are inextricably bound together, for "circumcision is of value, IF you practice the Law; but if you are a transgressor of the Law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision."

Thus, Paul's argument in vs. 25-29 becomes a direct logical extension of his argument in vs. 17-24: internal compliance and heart attitude are the keys, not external fulfillment of simplified rules or external symbols such as circumcision. Paul is resting his case on the internal spiritual reality, which quietly issues forth in outward action. What he is militating against is the Jew resting his case on external fulfillment of rules and the outward physical reality of circumcision WHEN THE INTERNAL SUBSTANCE, WHICH IS CHRIST, IS MISSING.

Paul says as much in vs. 28, far more eloquently than I could: "For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly; neither is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh."

Let's spend a good deal of time looking closely at vs. 29, which you should circle in your Bible because it is one of the most important theological verses in the whole NT. In this one verse, Paul summarizes God's definition of a "Jew," not man's definition. He also summarizes God's definition of circumcision, not man's. Finally, and most importantly, he introduces the Spirit of God as the sole agent able to change the human heart. The Spirit is the living Spirit of Christ in us, thus He is the substance which the Jew has been missing in order to be a true "Jew" from God's perspective. If you want to change on the inside, vs. 29 is for you.

The verse begins with "BUT a Jew [is] one inwardly." Paul sets up a stunning contrast between vs. 28 and 29, between "outwardly" visible and manifested before all, and "inwardly" seen only by the Father who sees in secret and rewards in secret. There is no mistake that Jesus' key term in Matt. 6, "in secret" is the same Greek term translated "inwardly" here in vs. 29. One's spirituality is to be worked out in secret that the Father who sees in secret rewards in secret and that one's praise is from God and not from man. In many ways, Matt. 6:1-18 can be boiled down to Rom. 1:29. There is a marvelous quote supporting this, although I don't know who spoke these words: "Reputation is what other people think you are. Character is what you would do if no one else would ever find out." What happens in the secret recesses of your heart is what really matters to God, not what is outwardly visible.

Paul gives us here a sweeping re-definition of what a "Jew" is from God's perspective. This brings us back to vs. 17, to one who "bears the name 'Jew.'" This means that anyone indwelled by the Spirit becomes a true Jew from God's viewpoint. I have a friend named Eric, who played Rabbi Ben Avraham in a drama based on the Court Record we read at the beginning of our study. Eric is a cultural Jew; but he is also a true Jew because the Holy Spirit lives in him. This redefinition would have deeply rattled the cages of any cultural Jews. But Paul clearly says the spiritual Jew is the true Jew.

Then Paul says "and circumcision [is] of the heart by the Spirit not by the letter." This is the grand statement that lands the theme of circumcision in the NT era. Let's briefly trace this theme through the OT: 1) Gen. 17: Circumcision established as an outward sign of an inward faith and covenant with God. This was the outward sign that "He is your God and you are His people." Gen. 17:13 talks about this covenant being "in your flesh for an everlasting covenant." 2) Dt. 10:16: Here Moses develops the theme in terms of the inward, spiritual realm: "Circumcise then your heart, and stiffen your neck no more." This is a solemn command to the people of Israel. 3) Dt. 30:6: Here Moses tells of a coming age in the future when God Himself will circumcise their hearts: "Moreover the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your seed, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, in order that you may live." This is one of the most significant foreshadowing verses in all of Deuteronomy. Moses foreshadows the New Covenant whereby God Himself does the internal work of circumcision, producing a new heart enabled by Him to love Him fully because of His indwelling love, poured out in our hearts by the Spirit because Christ fulfilled the Old Covenant on the cross. 4) Finally, in Rom. 2:29, Paul explains circumcision in the age of the Spirit. The indwelling Spirit circumcizes our hearts, reforming our hearts to please God inwardly. The Spirit reforms us inwardly, making us godly on the inside. This formally introduces the subject of the Spirit into Paul's argument in Romans 1-8. As the argument culminates in chapter eight, the Spirit will become Paul's main subject, mentioned 17 times in Rom. 8:1-26.

Paul concludes vs. 29 by saying "this one's praise is not from men BUT from God." This true "Jew," the one who is a Jew inwardly, is praised by God who sees his inward being. As we discussed in vs. 17, the term "Judah" in Hebrew, from which we historically got the term "Jew," actually means "praise" in Hebrew (as is seen in Gen. 29:35 and 49:8). In other words, Paul's word play here in vs. 29 might read like this: "The praised one's praise is not from men BUT from God." It is God's praise which defines the one whose name will mean "praise." God defines the true Jew, based on the internal circumcision performed by the Spirit.

In the end, what matters to God is the internal spiritual reality. The only way we can be made right in our hearts is by the indwelling Spirit, not by the letter of the Law, not by quiet times, not by any deeds. My friend Eric went through his bar mitzvah, studied profusely and was a devout Jew. But his fits of depression and deep anguish of soul remained untouched. But I had the privilege of watching the internal change only the Spirit of Christ can engineer in the human heart. Over three years, I watched Eric grow more and more steady in Christ; I watched him grow and mature on the inside because his heart was circumcized. What Judaism was unable to do, Christ did by living within Eric through the Holy Spirit. The farther we walk with Christ, and the deeper we delve into Romans, we will see how the Spirit is the key to this whole adventure called the Christian life.

But I think our archetype "Jew," like Rabbi Ben Avraham in the Court Record, is not going to swallow Paul's argument so readily. What might he say to Paul?

About the Jew and His Privileges -- No Loopholes Allowed - 3:1-8

He objects immediately in vs. 1: "What then is the advantage of being a Jew? What is the benefit of circumcision?" But Paul doesn't detract from the great value of the privileges accorded the nation of Israel by God's specific choosing. Paul shows the true standing given the Jews by highlighting their privilege as being "entrusted with the oracles of God." God literally entrusted them with the Scriptures. God reached out to them with a great revelation and with a heart of trust, only they ended up worshiping the words themselves rather than the God behind the word, or the Spirit behind the Law. So, they had indeed a great privilege, but they had missed the substance of that privilege, a substance obtained by faith.

In vs. 3, the Jew continues to ride the dead horse of his cultural privileges. After all, there was still the great covenant of Abraham and the covenant of Moses that God had entered into with His chosen people, the nation Israel. So, the Jew says, "Hey, if we Jews have so totally failed in keeping our part of the covenant, doesn't that cast a bad light on God? Does that make Him unfaithful since we are unfaithful? After all, a true covenant is when both parties keep their part of the agreement."

But Paul responds in vs. 4 and says (paraphrased), "May it never be! How can man's unfaithfulness to man's part of the covenant possibly imply that God will in any way be unfaithful to fulfill His portion of the covenant? He has been a faithful husband to Israel, across all time. He even sent Jesus Christ to fulfill man's portion of the agreement when He saw Israel totally failed. So, God remains faithful even when man is unfaithful. In fact, the contrast between God and the Jew is so great in this case, let us find God to be true, though every man be found to be a liar, just as David said when confessing his sin with Bathsheba before God: 'That Thou might be justified in Thy words, and might prevail when Thou art judged.'"

Paul's quote of Ps. 51:4b here in vs. 4 is highly significant. The Jew was standing condemned of sin, alongside the Immoral Man and Judgmental Man. Yet, rather than admitting his sin like David did so humbly and beautifully in Ps. 51:4a, he wrangles about ridiculous theological points from the extreme of an argument he has clearly lost.

But, the Jew has one last argument to lodge, a common argument stated several different ways in vs. 5, vs. 7 and vs. 8. In these remaining verses, the "Jew" takes what Paul is saying and argues it from the gross extreme. What Paul had done is what we saw in the Court Record: the Jew comes in claiming to be closely allied with God, but because of the sin in his heart through his self-righteousness, he actually ends up being allied with the two Gentile sinners. Thus, rather than the Jew next to God through a common righteousness, God stands alone in righteousness and the Jew takes his place with the rest of humanity in sin. This creates a striking contrast in the courtroom scene. God stands in the august light of His own holiness, alone. So, the Jew looks at this great contrast, and how this seems to make God's righteousness stand out all the more clearly, and so he argues in vs. 5, "Hey, if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? The God who inflicts wrath is not unrighteous, is He?"

Paul counters in vs. 6: "May it never be! For otherwise how will God judge the world?" Their argument in inherently flawed from the very beginning. The issue here is simply that God is a righteous judge with a righteous standard already established in 2:5-11. As a holy and impartial Judge, He must judge on the basis of deeds, like He has said He will. If the sin of man and their unrighteous deeds makes His holiness and righteous deeds stand out all the brighter by comparison (like the whitest white shining all the more brightly when set against the blackest black), that has no effect on His righteous judgment on those deeds. The point is, since God is a righteous judge, sin must be judged. Period.

In vs. 7 and 8, the Jew harps on, even though he has lost the argument. "Okay, so He's a holy and righteous judge. That at least I can agree with. But if through my lie the truth of God increased all the more to His glory by contrast, why am I still being judged as a sinner? In fact, I have even heard that you, master Paul, have preached something like this: 'Let us do evil that good may come.'"

Paul ends the whole debate in vs. 8 by saying "their judgment is just." God is a righteous judge with one standard: He will judge our deeds.

What this section of point-counterpoint in Rom. 3:1-8 displays is man caught in his sin, grasping in vain for anything he can say to justify himself. This is a dialog of vain self-justification, when your sin is obvious and unavoidable. But still we cry out in self-defense, even if we are arguing utter nonsense!! The endless wrangling of the Jew, the ongoing search for loopholes in the Law, is fruitless. But it is not just the Jew: it is me as well. On the way to Greenville from California, we stayed for five days on the beach in Charleston. As we were nearing Charleston in the car, I said some things to Blythe that were rude and obnoxious. I could see how much it hurt her, but in my mind a mighty campaign of self-justification was launched. For two whole days, I keep thinking to myself, "It was not my fault ... what I said was not so bad, in light of what I really meant ... Really, Blythe shouldn't be so defensive ... After all, I'm feeling a lot of pressure ..." and so on and so forth until I felt quite justified. But my Lord would not let me still. I remember taking a walk on the beach the third morning, and having Him face me in my heart in prayer like Nathan faced David: "You are the man!" My sin was blatant, obviously my fault alone, and I needed to confess it. I now understand the Jew's senseless debate unto self-justification, having just debated similarly myself. But all such debates seem to end as Paul concludes at the end of Rom. 3:8: "their judgment is just."

In the end, God will judge sin, all sin, the sin of Gentile and Jew, the sin of Germans in the death camps, the sin of Jewish hit men, and Elie Wiesel's sin. And my sin. And yours. We are all under sin.

Conclusion: Our Only Hope ...

Each of us can find our own sin in this passage in Rom. 1:18-3:8. We can find our sin somewhere in the catalog of sin Paul lists in Rom. 1:28-31. We can see our own judgmental hearts, as described in Rom. 2:1-3. We can see how we easily trust in externals, measuring our Christian life by mighty small measures, then feeling self-righteous and looking to instruct others as did the Jews in Rom. 2:17-24. In the next study in Rom. 3:9-20, we will hear Paul's crushing closing arguments, proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that all humanity is under sin, across all time, across cultures, across races, across genders. Thank God there is only one more week on the dark side of the cross of Christ.

I pray that as we have studied, we have had to face our sin and the sin of humanity more squarely than before. We need to face it, because we so need our beloved Christ of the cross. All this teaching is designed to set the stage for His introduction as our Redeemer in Rom. 3:21-26. Oh how we need Him, every day, every hour, every minute!!! He is our only hope for today, for tomorrow, and forever!!!

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