What do you call yourself? Christian? Teacher, nurse, policeman, politician; householder; Muslim; Hindu; Meter Reader; water Board representative? What do you call yourself?
What
expectation do you have of yourself?
Policeman
shouldn’t burgle. Teachers should be able to teach and know something.
Politician should have some knowledge of the government, water Board
Representative, well you should ask a lot more questions before you let one
into your house.
But
what of a Christian? Or a Protestant?
Or reformed? Or Evangelical? Or Charismatic? You may, and I hope should claim
all those labels in some way, but what does it mean to you?
Paul is explaining the gospel in detail and as we saw last week, he is answering questions about God’s justice, his righteousness, how you can be approved of by God. We have already seen that being a Jew or non-Jew makes no difference. Now he looks at the Jews self evaluation.
To quote:
In
chapter 2, St. Paul extends his rebuke to those who appear outwardly pious or
who sin secretly. Such were the Jews, and such are all hypocrites still, who
live virtuous lives but without eagerness and love; in their heart they are
enemies of God's law and like to judge other people. That's the way with
hypocrites: they think that they are pure but are actually full of greed, hate,
pride and all sorts of filth (cf. Matthew 23). These are they who despise God's
goodness and, by their hardness of heart, heap wrath upon themselves. Thus Paul
explains the law rightly when he lets no one remain without sin but proclaims
the wrath of God to all who want to live virtuously by nature or by free will.
He makes them out to be no better than public sinners; he says they are hard of
heart and unrepentant.
Martin Luther Preface to the letter of St.
Paul to the Romans,1483-1546
I
want to make it quite clear that this is not anti-Semitic talk. We must always
keep in clear view that Jesus was a Jew. Paul was a Jew, and so were all the
apostles and the majority of the early disciples. The anti-Semitism that came into
the church in the Middle ages was exactly the hypocrisy that Paul is speaking
against here reversed. Christians decided that they were God’s people and the
Jews rejected and therefore fit for punishment. Our forbears murdered 500 in
York on one night believing it was Christian to do so. It is a dark stain on our history.
You
see the problem is that when we call yourself Christian or Jew or whatever,
there are expectations of what that means. To claim to be a Jew, Paul points to
the 10 commandments and says claiming to be a Jew means you should keep the
Law. That is the foundation of Jewish ness, the Torah with all it regulation of
behaviour, family and worship.
But
you claim to be a Christian. What does that mean? The rest of the world expects
you to behave in a certain way even if they don’t.
Paul says that the behaviour of Jews is as good as
blasphemy because they claim all the glory of having the Law of God and yet
demonstrate its failure to make good honest citizens. The reference to robbing
temples may relate to a scandal that resulted in
the expulsion of the Jewish community from Rome in a.d. 19 (Josephus, Ant. 18.81–84). But
in context the thought more probably has pagan temples and idols in view—the
danger being that of actual plunder, or of use of items taken from idol shrines
(since they lacked an owner anyway!), despite the clear warning of Deut
7:25–26
25 The images of their gods you
shall burn with fire. Do not covet the silver or the gold that is on them and
take it for yourself, because you could be ensnared by it; for it is abhorrent
to the Lord your God. 26 Do
not bring an abhorrent thing into your house, or you will be set apart for
destruction like it. You must utterly detest and abhor it, for it is set apart
for destruction.
So
there God was held in contempt because his chosen people – the Jews, could not
keep his laws.
That
is a real challenge to you and me. You claim to be Christian. You claim to be
evangelical, you claim a brethren tradition. So how come your behaviour does
not fit with your claim? You claim the Bible is your guide, but you rarely pick
it up and read it. You read it and analyse it and put it away and go on with
life. It no longer transforms your life. You are just as miserable and whinging
and anxious as everyone else in your office or road.
You
claim a special relationship with God but your knee-jerk reaction is to panic
and not to pray. We say ‘ I can’t do anything else but I will pray! Is prayer
such a weak weapon in our spiritual warfare? Or is it that Satan can easily
remind you that the prayer of a righteous man avails much and you know you are
not righteous. So on what basis do we pray?
We
claim God is important to us but on his day we complain if the service overruns
and interferes with our lives.
You
claim to have the Holy Spirit living in your life and have gifts of the spirit,
yet your morality is no different to that of the atheist. As a result God’s
name if blasphemed.
The danger is that we are superficial Christians, listen to John Wesley, the founder of Methodism on the subject of what is the ‘almost Christian’.
The
second thing implied in the being almost a Christian is, the having a form of
godliness; of that godliness which is described in the gospel of Christ; the
having the outside of a real Christian. Accordingly, the almost Christian does
nothing which the gospel forbids. He taketh not the name of God in vain; he
blesseth, and curseth not; he sweareth not at all, but his communication is
yea, yea; nay, nay. He profanes not the day of the Lord, nor suffers it to be
profaned, even by the stranger that is within his gates. He not only avoids al
actual adultery, fornication, and uncleanness, but every word or look that
either directly or indirectly tends thereto; nay, and all idle words,
abstaining both from detraction, backbiting, tale bearing, evil speaking, and
‘all foolish talking and jestings’.
He
abstains from ‘wine wherein is excess’; from revelling and gluttony and so
on….. He that hath the form of godliness uses also the means of grace; yea, all
of them, and at all opportunities. He constantly frequents the house of God;
and that, not as the manner of some is, who come into the presence of the Most
High, either loaded with gold and costly apparel, or in all the gaudy vanity of
dress, and so on… No; he who has even this, behaves with seriousness and
attention, in every part of that solemn service. More especially, when he
approaches the table of the Lord, it is not with a light or careless behaviour,
but with an air, gesture and deportment which speaks nothing welse but ‘God be
merciful to me a sinner!’
That
is the behaviour of an almost Christian. The point I want to make is that here
Paul is warning us off the externals of religion. If your salvation is this
morning dependant on your observance of a pattern of behaviour, then our gospel
says you are without hope, because the very rules you seek to obey condemn you.
We fail. And if our salvation depends on our efforts, we are losers.
Salvation,
we will discover, is not to be gained by work, good behaviour or religion.
They, Paul correctly says, only lead to self-condemnation. Your religion tells
you ‘you are a failure’, your moral code tells you ‘you are a failure’; The
Bible tells you ‘You are a failure’ BUT God sent Jesus for failures. Our Good
news, we will see, is that we do not justify ourselves, God wipes away the
record of our sins and gives us a clean bill of health through the death of his
Son Jesus. But I have jumped on to
chapter 3:21 onwards. And you will see from our programme that we are going to
spend 3-4 weeks considering the salvation of God.
But
we must return to today’s reading.
In
verse 25, Paul discusses circumcision. This was the religious act by which male
Jews are identified as Jews. On the eighth day, a priest removes, surgically,
the boy’s foreskin. And they still do.
We
practice believer’s baptism. That is, you identify yourself with the people of
God, tell the world you have died with Christ and you also raised to new life
in Him.
So
what Paul says about circumcision applies to baptism. Much as baptism is
important and we expect church members to have been baptised. It is not the act
of baptism that is significant but the changed life. Let me read this passage
replacing circumcision with baptism.
ADAPTED
VERSES 25-29
25 Baptism has value if you observe what Jesus says, but if you disobey
Jesus, you have become as though you had not been baptised. 26 If those who are not baptised keep Jesus's requirements, will they not be regarded as
though they were baptised? 27 The one who is not baptised physically and yet obeys Jesus will condemn you, who, even though you have the
Bible
and baptism, are a law-breaker.
28 A man is not a Christian if he is only one outwardly, nor is baptism merely outward and physical. 29 No, a man is a Christian if he is one inwardly; and baptism is baptism of
the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a man's praise is not
from men, but from God.
I
could, have put ‘Baptised with the Spirit’ and ‘Speaking in tongues’ in there.
In fact any aspect of outward religion that we think proves that we are somehow
on the inside track with God,
It
is not a nice message but it is essential we understand that grace can only be
received and faith has to depend on God not our own standing.
So
the challenge for each one of us this morning is: ‘What are you trusting in?’
Is it your religion? Is it your morality? Is it your circumcision or baptism or
christening or whatever? Jesus calls us to receive his salvation freely because
you cannot obtain the right to it or earn it in any way.
But
we must conclude where Paul ends this discussion. Verses 28-29
You
see, there is encouragement here. Our religion is not what we do outwardly but
what happens inwardly. God is actually interested with your thought life where
your heart is and your deepest desires. And when you come to Christ, he meets
our deepest need, he is the one who can transform the inner person. In our
struggle with sin and evil within, he is there, empowering, exhorting,
encouraging and guiding our thoughts so that we are transformed into his
likeness. And there is more about that in this letter. There is so much to look
forward to. But what we must not do is hang on to false righteousness, false
God’s and wrong thinking. If you are hoping God is satisfied with what you do,
surrender to his grace, accept a free salvation based not on your self view but
on his love for you, his sacrifice for you, his righteousness.