The Religious Man: Romans 2:17-29

The Story So Far

Paul is building a case that every single human being — apart from Jesus Christ — lacks righteousness. That is the conclusion he will reach in Romans 3:10: "There is no one righteous, not even one." He has already shown that the immoral pagan who spends their nights in the pubs of Galway, blaspheming and going home with a different partner, lacks righteousness. He has shown that the moral, decent, upstanding citizen — the devoted husband, wife, and parent — is condemned as well, because they don't worship God and glorify Him in all their ways.

But now Paul turns to a group who might think they are surely safe: religious people. He is speaking here to Jews, but what he says is relevant to all religious people today. After all, we are religious people. Here we are on the Lord's Day, in church, singing praise to God, praying, reading the Bible, listening to a sermon. We are exactly the kind of people Paul is challenging. As 2 Corinthians 13:5 puts it: "Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves."

The Greatness of Religious Privileges

The Jews of Paul's day would not have been troubled by anything he had said so far. They would have listened to all the terrible warnings about God's wrath and been completely at ease: "We're safe. We're God's chosen people. Those people in chapter 1 and chapter 2 need to fear God's judgement — but not us. We're Jews." They relied on two things in particular: the law and circumcision.

The Law (verses 17–20)

The law was the revelation of who God is, what He is like, what He has done — a reflection of His character and a description of His will. Remember how it was given: handed down to Moses on Mount Sinai, mediated by angels, accompanied by earthquake, smoke, peals of thunder and flashes of lightning. God Himself spoke audibly and then wrote on tablets of stone. Nothing like it had been seen before in the history of the world, and nothing like it would be seen for another 1,400 years.

God gave this one favoured nation His law because they were to be in a special relationship with Him. Exodus 19:5 says: "If you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession." He was saying: here is how you worship Me, how you structure your week, how you conduct your relationships and marriages, how you raise your children, even how you build your houses — put a parapet round a flat roof to stop people falling off, because I care about health and safety. That is the kind of God I am.

Imagine if the Taoiseach phoned you this week and asked you to be his special ambassador on state occasions — a post specially created just for you — and sent you a handbook explaining everything the job involved. What an honour that would be. That is what God did for the Jews. He chose them out of all the nations of the earth, gave them the job of being His representatives, and gave them His law so they would know how to do it. Isaiah 42:6 says: "I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations, to open the eyes that are blind."

Everything Paul says in verses 17-20 about these privileges is absolutely true: they relied on the law — quite right; they boasted in God — exactly what 1 Corinthians 1:31 says to do; they knew God's will — that is what the law is for; they were guides for the blind and lights for those in darkness — that is precisely the job description God gave them.

And these are the same privileges we enjoy as Christians today. We have God's complete message to the human race — not just the Old Testament, but the New Testament as well. We don't stumble around in the darkness like the vast majority of people in our city. We know what is right and wrong, true and false, good and bad — not because we follow the crowd, but because God Himself has told us, written down in a book in our own language. Just recently the Cass report on gender identity services called for an end to prescribing powerful hormone drugs to children — finally saying what Christians knew all along from God's Word about what it means to be male and female. One of our girls was having a class discussion about reincarnation and what happens after death, and these intelligent seventeen-year-olds had no clue — frightened and not knowing. But we are not like that. We have the immense privilege of knowing, because God has told us.

Circumcision (verses 25–29)

Circumcision was the sign and seal of God's covenant with Abraham, the father of the Jewish people. God prescribed it as a picture of purification — the cutting away of sin and uncleanness — and of a special relationship with Him. It was meant to humble the Jews, to remind them of God's grace: "That God would choose me, of all people, to be in relationship with Him!"

In the New Testament, circumcision has been replaced by baptism — a sign that doesn't involve blood or pain, that can be given to girls as well as boys, but which still represents the same realities: purification, the washing away of sins, and relationship with God. How many of us have received this wonderful sign? God has put His name on you if you are a member of the church. That ought to humble you and spur you on to live a pure and holy life.

The Inadequacy of Religious Privileges

The privileges themselves are wonderful — God gave them; they were His idea. The problem is with the Jews' abuse of these privileges. They thought that possessing them was enough to save them, that they would keep them safe from God's judgement. Paul deals with both in turn.

The Law Is Not Enough to Know — You Must Obey It (verses 21–24)

"You then, who teach others, do you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal?" (verses 21-22). The whole point of the law is to make people holy. If you know it but don't obey it, you are a hypocrite. This is deeply challenging for people like us — church-goers who put great store by reading and understanding the Bible.

We must not think for one moment that we are saved by the Bible, by reading the Bible, or by our Bible knowledge and doctrine. The question is: do you obey the Bible? Does this book affect your life? Does it change your behaviour, the way you speak, the way you treat people? When we heard last Sunday about the golden rule in Matthew 7:12 — "In everything, do to others what you would have them do to you" — did we actually go out and put it into practice? Can you think of specific ways you changed how you treated your husband, wife, children, parents, workmates, or schoolmates this past week? Or is it all just theory stored up in your head that never reaches your heart or your hands?

That is the temptation for religious people: we come along, hear sermons, accumulate true and accurate knowledge — but it doesn't change our behaviour. We trust in the privilege itself: "Look at how much I know about the Bible, look at all the books I've read, all the sermons I've heard, all the memory verses in my head." It is not enough. Don't abuse the privilege.

Circumcision Is Not Enough Without Inward Reality (verses 25–29)

The Jews took this gracious sign and exalted it to a place it was never intended to have. It became almost a magic charm. Rabbi Levi taught that Abraham would stand at the gates of heaven and ensure that no circumcised man would ever descend into hell — simply because he bore the mark. Just having the outward physical sign was considered enough.

Paul says: "Circumcision has value if you observe the law. But if you break the law, you have become as though you had not been circumcised" (verse 25). And verse 28: "A person is not a Jew who is one only outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical." It is like having a vial of genuine vaccine — real, effective, not a dud — and taping it to your forehead instead of injecting it. Carrying the bottle around does nothing. The vaccine has to be inside, doing its invisible internal work. The Jews were content with the outward sign without bothering about the inward grace.

And this is exactly what so many religious people do today. You have been baptised — wonderful, but it is not enough. As Billy Graham reportedly said, sitting in church will not make you a Christian any more than sitting in a garage will make you a motor car. You take the Lord's Supper — but have you put your trust in the broken body and shed blood that it pictures? You have a Christian family — a tremendous privilege — but your parents' faith cannot save you. You cannot repent by proxy.

Only Jesus Christ Can Save

Paul begins this passage with the words, "If you call yourself a Jew." Today the question is: do you call yourself a Christian? Paul says calling yourself a Christian means nothing. It proves nothing. Anyone can use the name. The question for each of us is whether we have the inward reality behind the outward name.

We are all hypocrites to some extent — there is a gulf in all of us between our outward profession and the inward reality. That is precisely why we need a Saviour. Jesus Christ, in whom the outward and the inward matched perfectly, with no gulf, no mismatch, no inconsistency. He kept the law perfectly because we cannot. He died to take the punishment for our failure to keep it. Religion cannot save you. The Bible cannot save you. The sacraments cannot save you. The church cannot save you. Only Jesus Christ is able to save — and He does save everyone who calls on Him in faith.

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This article is part of our Romans sermon series. Listen to the previous sermon: The Moral Man (Romans 2:1-16), or continue to the next: Dealing with Debaters (Romans 3:1-8).