Romans 2:17

Romans 2:17

The Bible says in Romans 2:17, "Behold, you are called a Jew, and rest in the law, and make your boast of God." Starting in Romans 2:17 Paul directly addresses Jewish people. It does seem a little strange that he speaks to the Jew in this letter that was addressed to the Christians in Rome, but we must remember that during the first century there was a much closer association between Jew and Christian. Many of the first Christians were Jews before they became Christians. When Paul entered into various cities to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ, he would often go to the Jews first; and before groups of Jews he would present the gospel. Of course, Jesus was a Jew and Jesus is the Messiah of both Gentile and Jew.

Paul addresses the Jews in order to show to them the futility of the law, and the inability of the law to justify them or to give them the standing before God that they need. Romans 2:17 says, "Behold you are called a Jew, and rest in the law, and make your boast of God." Anyone who rests in the law is in trouble, because that person must perfectly keep the law or else he is a breaker of the law, and a breaker of the law will be found guilty because he is guilty. That is justice. And that is also the value of belief in Christ. Those who rest in Christ will find the peace of God because Christ kept the law, and no failure by a believer can undo what Christ did. The righteousness of the law is found in Christ, and those who depend upon and rely upon Jesus as their savior, are imputed the righteousness of Christ. Anyone who has found forgiveness of sins through faith in Christ no longer rests in the law, but rests in the good news about Jesus Christ.

Notice also that when Paul addresses the Jews in Romans 2:17, Paul says, "you are called a Jew." There is some question as to if they really are Jews. Most people who we call Jews are those who have inherited through their parents a status and a standing as being a Jew. Actually, in the Bible anyone could become a Jew no matter if their parents were Jews or not. The sign of being a Jew was circumcision. There are several examples in the Bible of people who became Jews but who were not so by their parentage. Two women who were in the lineage of Christ were not Jews by birth, but became Jews by belief in God and by a change in heart. One was the harlot, Rahab, who was an inhabitant of the city of Jericho, and one was Ruth the Moabitess.

Paul will make it very clear here at the end of Romans Chapter 2, that the true Jews are not those who are made Jews by circumcision, but those who are changed in their heart. Ceremonies with accompanying symbolism are emphasized in the Old Testament where the law is found, but in the New Testament the Spirit of God is emphasized without ceremony.

The word Jew comes from the word Judah. Judah was one of the 12 sons of Jacob. After King Solomon Israel was divided into two separate kingdoms. One was called the kingdom of Israel and the other was called the kingdom of Judah. Both kingdoms were destroyed by foreign nations. Only the kingdom of Judah was restored by God 70 years after the destruction at the hands of the Babylonians some 500 years before Christ. The kingdom of Israel was never restored, and the land of Palestine became inhabited by peoples from many different heritages and ethnic backgrounds.

When Joshua entered the land of Canaan the entire twelve tribes of Israel were given the land of Canaan by the power of God. But once these descendants of Abraham, these children of Israel, finished with their complete and total failure to go with God and their failure to obey the law of God, the twelve tribes were no longer in place as before. Only one weakened tribe (and its smaller neighbor Benjamin), the tribe of Judah, was left and they were intermingled with other peoples. More often than not they were dominated and ruled by these other peoples. Such was the case in the time of Christ because the Romans were the rulers of Palestine. So there was a remnant and the remnant were called Jews, because the majority of them came from the tribe of Judah.

The children of Israel failed to walk with God and to go God’s way. One reason for their failure is because the law is made ineffective by the weakness of humans. The law came by Moses but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. A religion that is based upon law is a religion that will condemn and destroy. The lesson here is very clear. You do not become rightly related before God because of human lineage. You do not gain a relationship with God because of your parents. A true spiritual Jew is one of the few remaining souls on earth who walks with God and serves God. You are one of the remnant, you are one of the spiritual Jews, if you are so related to God by faith in Christ.

You do not become a Jew through your parents and you do not become a Jew through circumcision. Being related to God and becoming a child of God is not acquired through your parents. John 1:12-13 says about those who believe in Jesus, "But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name; Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God."

Becoming a true Jew is spiritual in nature. In a sense if you want to really be a Jew, then you must become a Christian. If you are a Christian then you are a Jew, because a Jew is one of the few remaining believers in God. The history of the Jews can be traced back to the promise made to Abraham, and through him to the twelve children of Jacob. But the twelve tribes were eventually crushed and destroyed, and practically all that remained was a remnant of the tribe of Judah.

Even Jesus came from the lineage of David and from the tribe of Judah. You become one of the chosen of God by means of a spiritual experience, not by a religious ceremony or a human lineage. The point that Paul will make later in the book of Romans is that Judaism started with a promise made by God to Abraham, and it was Abraham’s faith in the promise that gave him the relationship with God. It still works the same way. You do not gain the relationship with God that Abraham had by being in the lineage of Abraham; you gain the relationship with God and the standing with God that Abraham had by having the same kind of faith that Abraham had.

This faith and belief in God involves the forgiveness of sins and the repentance from sins. That is why circumcision under the time of the law was the symbol of being rightly related to God, because circumcision symbolized cutting away that which ought to be cut away; in other words sin. No one is forgiven of their sins unless they are truly repentant of their sins and desire to change and to do better. That is why Jesus said, and His audience was primarily Jews according to the flesh; "Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish."

There is no religious organization, there is no ceremony, and there is nothing that you can inherit from your parents that can give you this relationship with God. If Abraham was your own father, you would not inherit it from him. You must experience it yourself within your own heart and your own spirit. Paul addresses the Jews according to the flesh, and points out some of the dangerous attitudes that they may fall into that would keep them from coming to know the truth. One problem that they might have is a false sense of security and a false confidence. He says to them in Romans 2:18-20, "And know his will, and approve the things that are more excellent, being instructed out of the law; And are confident that you yourself are a guide of the blind, a light of them which are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of children, which have a form of knowledge and of truth in the law."

One of the main characteristics of those that are legalistic and who place their hope in a set of laws and rules is that they become proud of themselves instead of being humble before a mighty God. Notice that Paul says of them in verse 17 that they make their "boast" of God. In Romans 1:30 boasting is listed as one of the great sins of the human race, because the wrong kind of boasting is based upon the wrong kind of human pride. In Romans 2:19 Paul says that these legalistic people who are proud of their heritage in relation to the law of God also have the characteristic of being "confident" that they are a guide of the blind. But a true servant of God can have no confidence in himself. He must live by faith and keep his confidence in God and not in himself. To be confident in oneself is to be confident in the flesh, and the flesh wars against the spirit. If you have no confidence in yourself, then you are blessed indeed, because you have every reason to place your confidence in God. Those who have confidence in the flesh and in the religious tradition they have inherited from their parents have a major stumblingblock before them to finding true faith. Their table has been made a snare unto them.

These are people who have confidence in the law and their own misguided opinions that they are capable of keeping the law. But remember that the principle of the law states that you must obey in all points in order to be justified by it. If you fail in the future or if you have already failed in the past, you had better not depend upon the law when you stand before God. You can recognize people who have this spiritual problem of trusting in the law and their ability to keep it. When they talk about their relationship with God, they talk about their own goodness. They talk about ways in which they keep a certain set of laws or religious rules and regulations, such as going to church or synagogue on a regular basis or giving a certain amount of money to religious organizations. In contrast to this, the person who is rightly related to God through faith talks about his own sinfulness and how much he appreciates the mercy of God through Jesus Christ, and how undeserving he is of this blessing of forgiveness. Jesus spoke of the contrast between someone who relies upon his own ability to keep the law of God, and someone who admits that he has failed to keep it and therefore relies upon the mercy of God. Jesus said in Luke 18:13-14, "And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalts himself shall be abased; and he that humbles himself shall be exalted."

In Romans 2:21-23 Paul uses three of the laws from the Old Testament as examples of how easy it is to break the law. To those who boast in the law or who are confident in the law, Paul poses the question and asks them to reflect seriously and honestly: have they ever broken one of the laws that they teach others to keep. He said, "You therefore who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who proclaim that a man should not steal, do you steal? You who say that a man should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you commit sacrilege? You who make your boast of the law, through breaking the law, do you dishonor God?" Paul was referring to three laws from the Old Testament: 1. Thou shalt not steal. 2. Thou shalt not commit adultery. 3. Thou shalt have no other Gods before me.

Stealing, adultery, and idolatry are sins that were undoubtedly common 2,000 years ago in the days of the early Christians, and they are still common. To steal is to disrespect the property of your neighbor. Stealing allows selfishness and self-interest to violate the privacy and peace of others. Someone who steals, steals more than the property that does not belong to them; they steal the peace of mind and security that their neighbors should rightfully have. They steal from all of us, because we all pay for the courts and prisons and police forces, and rising insurance costs. No wonder that God said, "Thou shalt not steal," because stealing will corrupt and disrupt a society in many ways. But those who say, "Thou shalt not steal", have they ever stolen? There are other ways to steal, without breaking into your neighbor’s house or car. Like it or not, there are laws that exist for the paying of taxes; and there are legal ways to change the laws if you do not like them. Jesus said to render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s. To avoid taxes in a way that is not legal is stealing. You who say, "Thou shalt not steal," have you stolen?

Paul also mentioned the sin of adultery. To commit adultery is to dishonor and disrespect the marriage bond of your neighbor’s spouse; and adultery is a denial and a failure to keep your own marriage vows. Adultery is also a major curse and disruption to society. The end result of adultery will not be fun and pleasure. Adultery will result in broken families. Adultery will result in the spread of venereal diseases. Adultery will end with emotional and spiritual problems to those who fall into it. It seems as though adultery has always been much too common in human society. King David fell into it, and then to try and cover it up, he arranged for the death of Bathsheba’s husband, which was a far greater sin. One of the incidents in the life of Christ was when a woman was taken in adultery, and a group of men were going to stone her because they lived in a religious society that was dominated by the law of God. The law said, "Thou shalt not commit adultery." But Jesus knew a higher law, and He said to the men, "Let he that is without sin cast the first stone." The law is much harder to keep than you might think. In another place on the subject of adultery, Jesus said that if a man has lusted after a woman in his heart, then that man is also guilty of adultery. Anything that you would do, if you could do it: you are just as guilty before God as if you had actually done it.

After adultery Paul mentions the sin of idolatry. To put anyone or anything before God, or to love anyone or anything more than God is idolatry. Jesus said that the greatest commandment is to love God with all the heart and all the mind and all the soul and all the strength. Therefore, the greatest sin is to not do so. When Jesus said to love God with all the heart, He was not coming up with something new. He was quoting the Old Testament law. The Old Testament law requires man to love God and to serve God and to obey God. It emphasizes man’s responsibility.

The New Testament declares that you and I have failed to love and serve and obey God like we ought, but that God has not failed. It says in John 3:16, "For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." Don’t depend upon the law of God and your ability to keep it; depend upon the mercy of Christ and His ability to keep you.

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