How do you know if you belong to God or not? How do you know if you are in a relationship with the Lord? One of Paul’s purposes in the book of Romans is to teach the answer to these questions. Since the wrath of God has been revealed from heaven and the gospel is the power of God for salvation (cf. Romans 1:16-18), then who are the people of God? So I would like for us to take a moment to think about these questions. How are you supposed to know if you are in a relationship with God? How do you know that you belong to God? The apostle Paul is going to challenge the traditional measurements that were used to know if they were children of God. Paul is going to take us to the heart of the gospel.
Failed Light (Romans 2:12-24)
Paul has set forward the universal truth that every single person will judged according to their works (cf. Romans 2:6). Further, God is not going to show any partiality in this matter (cf. Romans 2:11-14). God is not going to show any favoritism, whether you had the Law of Moses or did not have the Law of Moses. God does not show any partiality with anyone. Now Paul is going to challenge those who think they have a relationship with God. Look at Romans 2:17. “But if you call yourself a Jew…” I want you to be startled by how Paul worded that because it is a challenge. No one who is a Jew would answer this that they called themselves “Jews.” They are Jews. They are descendants of Abraham. They can point to their bloodlines. The apostle Paul knows this because he made that point in Philippians 3:5 about himself. He was circumcised on the eighth days, belonged to the people of Israel, came from the tribe of Benjamin, was a Hebrew of Hebrews, and was a Pharisee.
But we are already getting a sense of what Paul is going to do in this paragraph. Paul is going to challenge their definition of belonging as God’s people. If you call yourself a Jew, rely on the law, boast in your relationship with God, know his will, received instruction from the law and know what is right, and know your mission to be a guide to the blind and a light to the people in darkness, then how do you teach others and do not teach yourself? You have all of these markers that you rely on for your relationship with God. But there is a really big problem. The problem is not knowing who you are. The problem is not that you do not know your mission. The problem is that you act like you are religious and in relationship with God, but you do not do what God says. You say it but do not do it. You listen to the teachings of God and like to elbow others to pay attention but do not apply those teachings to yourself.
We can think that this is not really a big deal. But there are two problems with us saying that we have a relationship with God but not living it out. The first problem was what we looked at last week. God will repay to each person according to their works. God does not repay according to what we claim. God is going to look at our actions. So not living out the relationship we claim to have will bring judgment on ourselves. But there is a second problem which is stated in verses 23-24. The second problem is that outsiders will blaspheme God’s name because of you. The mission is to be a light to the nations (cf. Isaiah 42:6; 49:6; 51:4; 52:5; 60:3). But do not think that this mission ended with the nation of Israel. Please remember that Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount that you are the light of the world and you are the salt of the earth (cf. Matthew 5:13-16). In fact, Jesus continued by saying that people are supposed to see our good works and glorify God in heaven (Matthew 5:16).
Paul points out a problem. People do not glorify God when we say one thing and do another. People will not glorify God if we say that we are children of God and have relationship with God but do not live like we do. When our actions do not match our words, then God will be blasphemed. I want us to think about this critical truth for a moment. Friends, this is true when it comes to our neighbors, co-workers, and friends. If we claim to be Christians, but our words do not sound like a Christian, then God will be blasphemed. Whether it is the way we talk about our country or politics or if we are just having a bad day, we must reflect Jesus in our words or God will be blasphemed. The same is true in our actions. We cannot say we are followers of Jesus but then not act like it around others. It does not take much to consider that some of the rejection of God that has happened in the world throughout the years occurred because Christians were not acting like Christians. Where I would also like us to consider this important truth is in the home. Children are some of the best hypocrisy meters. When do not live out what we say or live our lives by what we claim as Christians, we will lose our children. They will blaspheme God because of us. They will not see any reason to believe because we have completely dishonored God behind closed doors. We can completely underestimate what we are communicating to our families, friends, and outsiders by doing things and saying things that do not show that God is our highest love and priority. God’s name is blasphemed when we show that our careers, our comforts, our hobbies, or any of our desires carry the highest priority in our lives over God.
False Security (Romans 2:25-27)
To understand the point Paul is making, we need to understand the meaning of circumcision. When he talks about being a Jew and being circumcised, these are terms to be referring to be in a covenant relationship with God. In Genesis 17:9-14 we read God instructing Abraham to be circumcised as a sign of the covenant. God made a covenant with Abraham that all the people of the world will be blessed through Abraham’s offspring. So circumcision showed you were in covenant relationship with God and were participating in God’s blessings and promises. With this in mind, please notice Romans 2:25. Circumcision, the sign of the covenant, only has value if you obey the law. Your circumcision is meaningless if you breaking God’s law. Physical markers are of no value if we are not doing what God says.
Now we might not think this message means anything to us. But this is a critical teaching because there are many things we like to point to as a place of security for our relationship with God. The Jews thought that their circumcision was enough to prove that they were in God’s covenant. Paul just said that this is not true. So I want us to think about how we can have physical activities that we use as markers to make us feel secure in our relationship with God, but are false pointers if we are not doing what God says. For example, sometimes people will treat the Lord’s Supper this way. Participating in the Lord’s Supper memorial every week does not supersede breaking God’s law. Taking the Lord’s Supper and remembering Jesus is a meaningless symbol when we do not do what Jesus taught us to do and live how Jesus taught us how to live. We might think going to church every week is a sign of our relationship with God. But if we are not living our lives in obedience to Jesus, you can come to church every time the doors open but your efforts are pointless. Now let me say something that might be really challenging. Even our baptism will be counted as nothing if we are not living our lives in obedience to our Lord and Savior. This is not to say that these things are not important or not necessary. These things are necessary. We are commanded to be baptized. We are commanded to partake of the Lord’s Supper. We are commanded to come together and worship. We cannot swing the pendulum and say that these things are not necessary. But we make them of no effect when we are not living our lives breaking God’s law. These things are of no benefit if we are living hypocritical lives. It is important for us to think about if there are things that we are relying on as a false security for our faith.
The Heart of the Gospel (Romans 2:28-29)
So what is God looking for to have a relationship with his people? What Paul describes in Romans 2:28-29 is an inside out transformation. The circumcision is not merely external, but internal. The cutting what God wants is the cutting of our hearts. God wants the heart to be cut, cleansed, and transformed by the Spirit to be in relationship with him. This explanation that Paul gives is an exposition of what Jeremiah and Ezekiel taught about 600 years previously.
I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. (Ezekiel 36:25-27 ESV)
For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. (Jeremiah 31:33 ESV)
What God has always wanted from his people responses that come from their desire and love for him. God has never wanted his people to merely respond externally, begrudgingly or out of mere obligation. Giving flowers to my wife on our anniversary out of expectation or obligation is a nearly meaningless act. Flower giving on the anniversary possesses meaning only when it is reflective of what is in the heart. I desire to show my love through the flowers. This has been Paul’s message in Romans 2. Go back to Romans 2:15 where Paul says that the work of the law was written on their hearts (cf. Jeremiah 31:31-34). Paul made the point this way to the Corinthians.
And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. (2 Corinthians 3:3 ESV)
Paul is telling us that what is God is looking for is if his laws are written on our hearts. Rather than etching God’s law into the tablets of stone, like he did in the prior covenant, now God’s law would be etched into the tablets of our hearts. I am going to dig deeper into this very soon in an upcoming lesson from Jeremiah 31. Paul is drawing our attention on where it needs to be. The goal is that God’s law would be written on each of our hearts by the Spirit of God. This is what we need to ask ourselves if we are desiring to know if we are in relationship with God. Is God’s law written on my heart? Sometimes what happens is we make the wrong thing the goal. For example, the goal is not going to church. The goal is to be a disciple of Jesus which will then lead you to want to gather to worship him and study his word. The goal is not to make sure you take the Lord’s Supper. The goal is to love what Jesus did for you so much that you want to remember him every first day of the week by partaking of the Lord’s Supper. The goal is not making sure you had a contribution ready this morning. The goal is that you are so moved by the blessings of God in your life that you want to give to him so that more people can hear the good news of Jesus. The goal is not even to be immersed in water. There are plenty of people who have been immersed in water that are not disciples. The goal is to love the Lord your God so much that whatever God says you will do by faith, including repenting of your sins, confessing Jesus as the Son of God, and being immersed in water for the forgiveness of sins (cf. Romans 10:9-10; Acts 2:38-39). The goal is not to read and study your Bible. The goal is to so want to know this God who loves you and gave his Son for you that you want to spend time getting to know him by reading and studying his word. The heart of the gospel is not that you accomplished some things in the name of the Lord. The heart of the gospel is that God’s law is written on your heart so deeply that you would never want to dishonor God or cause him to be blasphemed by our words and actions. Those who are in covenant relationship with God have his law written on their hearts.
For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Matthew 6:21 ESV)
So what matters to you? What is important to you? Where is your treasure? I am urging you to treasure Christ. Value him above all other rivals and desires. God wants your heart’s desire for him to lead you to bear fruit in keeping with that love for him.