Circumcision of the Heart

Reading:  Romans 2:25-29
    
    Paul’s words here were likely revolutionary and controversial to many of his Jewish readers, despite the fact that they have clear Old Testament precedent.  Having challenged the Jews to live by the Law they teach others, he goes a step farther.  “For circumcision indeed is of value if you obey the law, but if you break the law, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision”(Rom 2:25).  Circumcision does not make up for sin and disobedience; in fact, it is intended to signal our desire to obey God (Gen 17:1-2).  Meanwhile, what about the opposite combination, the righteous Gentile?  “So if a man who is uncircumcised keeps the precepts of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision?  Then he who is physically uncircumcised but keeps the law will condemn you who have the written code and circumcision but break the law”(Rom 2:26-27).  This man’s lack of circumcision will not overrule his obedience to God; he will instead condemn the Jew who disobeys.

     What should we conclude from this?  “For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical.  But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not the letter.  His praise is not from man but from God”(Rom 2:28-29).  Jewishness—the deep connection between God and his people—is not merely a matter of birth or cutting the flesh.  Following God is a heart matter.  This is a truth God spoke to Israel repeatedly (Lev 26:41; Deut 10:16, 30:6; Jer 4:4; Acts 7:51).  When our hearts are given over fully to obeying God, we become part of God’s people—whatever nation we hail from.

    True devotion to God is an inward matter in which we turn our hearts toward obedience and surrender our lives to him.  We do not rely on our parentage or the faith of others for our standing before God.  We refuse to be stubborn any longer.  We seek to please him rather than ourselves.  We then are circumcised as “a matter of the heart,” a part of God’s new covenant and people.

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One Thing to Think About:  What is the posture of my heart toward God?

One Thing to Pray For:  The praise of God, not man
 

Teach Yourself First

Reading:  Romans 2:17-24
    
    Paul continues to take aim at the deep hypocrisy of Jews who condescend to Gentiles while being guilty of the same sins.  Paul speaks as an insider here who has witnessed (and probably experienced) the spirit he ridicules.  “But if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the law and boast in God and know his will and approve what is excellent, because you are instructed from the law; and if you are sure that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth”(Rom 2:17-20).  Before Paul issues the rebuke, he details the superiority in Jewish thinking.  Others are blind, in darkness, children, while they are guides, full of light and wisdom.  While there is truth in their assessment of themselves, the arrogance seeps through.

    Yet the deeper flaw is that the differences between teacher and student don’t really exist.  “You then who teach others, do you not teach yourself?  While you preach against stealing, do you steal?”(Rom 2:21).  Convinced of their racial, cultural, and religious superiority, they brush past the most important issue:  do you do what you tell others they must do?  Do you live by what you teach?  Ironically, by praising the Law yet not keeping it, they dishonor the God they claim to serve.  “You who boast in the law dishonor God by breaking the law”(Rom 2:23), even causing the Gentiles to blaspheme God’s name by their hypocrisy (Rom 2:24).  Unbelievers may not be able to track with all our arguments or expose our logical errors, but they can smell hypocrisy.

    These verses should make for uneasy reading for Christians.  Whether we are Jewish or not, it is easy for us to adopt a condescending mindset because of what we know about the Bible and bypass applying it to ourselves. “You then who teach others, do you not teach yourself?”  The solution is to teach yourself first—to do the hard work of introspection, life change, and slow growth on ourselves before we purport to teach others.

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One Thing to Think About:  Do I ever condemn others for things I struggle with myself?

One Thing to Pray For:  Deeper awareness that my sin is not different from others’
 

Written on Their Hearts

Reading:  Romans 2:12-16
    
    Paul is challenging the hypocrisy of the Jews who condemn Gentile misbehavior while guilty themselves.  He wants them to remember that “God shows no partiality”(Rom 2:11) but judges all nations fairly.  “For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law”(Rom 2:12).  The Jews in his audience evidently think that the Law is proof that they are superior; Paul pushes back.  While Gentiles, not having law, will perish due to their sin, so Jews will also be judged by the very law they do not fully obey.  First he addresses the Jewish part of the equation:  “For it is not hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified”(Rom 2:13).  Just because Jews hear and know the law does not mean they fully do it.  When they break the law, it becomes a witness against them rather than a blessing.

    But what does Paul mean that Gentiles have “sinned without the law”(Rom 2:12)?  How is this possible?  He argues that Gentiles at times “by nature do what the law requires” and “are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law”(Rom 2:14).  “They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them”(Rom 2:15).  All people have a general sense of moral behavior which often coincides with the precepts of the Law of Moses.  All people try to live by it, with mixed results.  All people have consciences which guide us in this quest.  So what happens when Gentiles inevitably fail to do what they know?  They also find themselves guilty.  Paul continues to build toward the conclusion that all people have sinned (Rom 3:23).   

    Even people who have not been formally taught about God “by nature do what the law requires” and “show that the work of the law is written on their hearts.”  These statements remind us that God has always been at work among all kinds of peoples.  He has placed within us a deeply ingrained moral sense, but it needs direction and clarity which his revelation provides.  It is this sense that pushes us toward him for righteousness, order, and forgiveness—and is also one basis of appealing to others with the gospel.

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One Thing to Think About:  How do I respond when my conscience accuses me?

One Thing to Pray For:  Awareness that I am just as guilty of sin as anyone else
 

Judging or Repenting?

Reading:  Romans 2:1-11
    
    Paul’s letter takes a fascinating turn here.  Where he has been discussing the Gentiles’ descent into widespread sin (Rom 1:18-31), he now changes his focus to the Jews who were looking down on those sinners.  “Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges.  For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things”(Rom 2:1).  His Jewish audience has set themselves in the judge’s seat but will only end up condemning themselves.  Just as the Gentiles are “without excuse”(Rom 1:20), so the Jews "have no excuse”(Rom 2:1) because they know God will judge sin (Rom 2:2), including their own.  “Do you suppose…that you will escape the judgment of God?  Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?”(Rom 2:4).  If we sin, we too will be judged; we cannot “presume on” God’s grace and think our sins will be forgiven just because we’re us.

    So Paul loudly reaffirms that God’s judgment is impartial.  “He will render to each according to his works…There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek.  For God shows no partiality”(Rom 2:6, 9-11).  This is different from human courts.  God cannot be bought off.  There is no separate line for the rich or intelligent or successful.  Jew and Greek are equal before him.  The world’s inequities are ignored at God’s judgment.  This means that my sin is a far more pressing issue for me than someone else’s sin—no matter who I am.

    I believe that Paul’s words are directed at Jews (perhaps even Jewish Christians) who look at the sin in the world and judge others.  They cluck their tongues and shake their heads, scandalized by the depravity of others—yet they steadfastly ignore their own sins.  God’s grace is not intended to lead us to judgment, but repentance (Rom 2:4).  We can take warning from the mistakes of others, search our own hearts for similarities, and beg God for pardon lest we fall into their errors.  But if we are only judging and never repenting, a fearful doom awaits us.

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One Thing to Think About:  Why are we quicker to point out guilt in others rather than ourselves?

One Thing to Pray For:  God’s kindness to lead me to sincere repentance 
 

God Gave Them Up

Reading:  Romans 1:24-32
    
    Paul describes the Gentiles’ descent into sin as a rejection of God followed by a steady movement away from him (Rom 1:21-23).  He also details several ways that human beings exchange the natural created order for what they wanted (Rom 1:23, 25, 26).  What is surprising is God’s reaction to them:  three times Paul says that “God gave them up”(Rom 1:24, 26, 28).  “Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever!  Amen”(Rom 1:24-25).   Since they were consumed with lust and a desire to glorify themselves, God allowed them to fully dishonor their bodies.  “For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions.  For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error”(Rom 1:26-27).  As they move farther from God, they reject the sexual relationships God created for them and seek “those that are contrary to nature”; God gives them up to this as well.

    But these are only stepping stones to further rejection of God.  “And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.  They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice”(Rom 1:28-29).  On and on the list goes, detailing their resistance to God’s order and the horrific personal and social consequences that follow.  “Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them”(Rom 1:32).  They continue the pattern of refusing to act on what they know about God (Rom 1:21).  God gives them up to this “debased mind” as well.

    “God gave them up” implies that in ordinary circumstances God holds us back from our worst desires and their disastrous consequences.  Yet it also means that we can reach a state of rejection where he removes this protection.  If we are determined to rebel against him and live in sin, he will “give us up” to it.  The only hope is that we see the wreck we have made of our lives and turn to him for deliverance.

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One Thing to Think About:  How have I rejected God and his will for me?

One Thing to Pray For:  God not to “give me up” to sin, but to help me resist it