Romans 2:17-29

"Therefore, give the people of Israel this message from the Sovereign LORD: I am bringing you back again but not because you deserve it. I am doing it to protect my holy name, which you dishonored among the nations. I will show how holy my great name is - the name you dishonored among the nations. And when I reveal my holiness through you before their very eyes, says the Sovereign LORD, then the nations will know that I am the LORD. For I will gather you up from all the nations and bring you home again to your land.

Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. Your filth will be washed away, and you will no longer worship idols. And I will give you a new heart with new and right desires, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony heart of sin and give you a new, obedient heart. And I will put my Spirit in you so you will obey my laws and do whatever I command."

Ezekiel 36: 22-27

God's desire for Israel was to set apart a group of people that would be a light to the nations to show God's love and mercy toward humanity. The problem with this intended identity was that Israel failed miserably at it. Rather than be faithful and remain in relationship with God so that the other nations would see how wonderful it is to be close to God, they were rebellious and showed their lack of trust in God. Many times Israel tried to look like they were faithful, but over and over again they showed how unfaithful they were.

The wonderful thing about this passage in Ezekiel is that God tells Israel that although they failed miserably at being His people, His desire was to restore them and make them what they could not be on their own. This would be accomplished by God's Spirit in them rather than their attempt at perfection in keeping the law and remaining close to God. This is God's desire for everyone.

It's highly likely that Paul had this passage in the back of his mind as he reminds the Jewish believers in Rome that their being made right with God has nothing to do with their ability to keep the law and stay close to God. In fact, they were proving the opposite to be true: they could not keep the law and on their own they showed how distant they were from God. ["You are so proud of knowing the law, but you dishonor God by breaking it."] What makes people, whether Jew or Gentile, right with God is God's Spirit that forms each person with the ability to remain in relationship with God. That formation is likened to Jesus. He was able to stay faithful to the Father in Heaven in the face of sin and temptation. Because He was successful, He has made it possible for all of us to be successful as well. The insurance on God's part that we do remain faithful is His Spirit that He gives us so that we are able to be faithful.

It is damaging when Jewish believers set their confidence on their knowing God's law as an advantage with God over against Gentiles. God's change in their lives by His Spirit has nothing to do with their knowing the law. It has everything to do with what He has done to us and for us in Jesus. This change can take place in anyone. Even in this, Jewish believers are actually an example to the Gentiles that they too can have such a change in their heart.

What is evident in what Paul shares with the Roman believers is that evidence of change in a person's standing with God is not seen on the outside but rather is a matter of the heart and happens on the inside. It cannot be faked or fabricated. It is either genuine and has God's fingerprints all over it or it is no change at all.

One of the worst things we can do is try and help God along in His work of changing and transforming us. We get in the way of what God wants to do in us and to us when we think that the change can happen through anything we can do on our own. Paul will focus in on this in chapter 12:1-3. For the time being, Paul continues to point the Roman believers away from what they are boasting in [themselves and their ability] and toward what they should be focusing on: the difference of Jesus in our lives.

Questions for this week:

1. What are some of the assumptions we make as God's community of people who look spiritually suspicious on the outside?

2. Why are believers tempted to fake their faithfulness with God by affirming their outward devotion?

3. What is it about you that matters to God?

4. What turns people off about church?

5. As God's community, what kind of life should we be promoting to people?

Romans 2:1-16

"We are not a people who believe that God loves us because we are good, but that God makes us good because He loves us." C.S Lewis - Mere Christianity

C.S. Lewis says that apart from every other religion which seeks a path toward God, Christianity is the only religion where humans are accepted before God not out of their good behaviour but because God himself makes them good.

The character of such a God is clear in the verse which is the focus of this week's passage:

"Don't you realize how kind, tolerant and patient God is with you? Or Don't you care? Can't you see how kind he has been in giving you time to turn from your sin?" verse 4

The focus of the good news that Paul is sharing with the Roman believers does not focus on behaviour and how good some think they are over against others. Rather the focus is on the mercy and grace of God on humanity when we are precisely distant and sinful. One of the most amazing things about this passage is that Paul sets this character of God within the judging/rules atmosphere that was prompting Jewish and Gentile believers to be judgmental toward each other.

Paul declares for certain that there will be a judgment in the end of time. ["For there is going to come a day of judgment when God, the just judge of all the world, will judge all people according to what they have done." verse 5b] As Paul so well knew, this judgment accompanied by the law of God that requires it is part of God's plan. God will judge evil in order to redeem and recovery humanity and the earth. The focus of God's judgment is on recovery - purging the world of evil so that the creation [humanity and the earth] can be free to live the lives God has given. When men and women operate in judgment the result is not recovery but rather condemnation toward others.

It all goes back to the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The reason God warned Adam and Eve to not eat of it is because they did not have the capacity to judge between what is good and what is evil. The proof is when they believe the lie of the serpent and do eat of the tree. Rather than look on themselves in a healthy way, Adam and Eve saw their nakedness and judged it to be a negative thing; case in point - we can't handle judgement properly. Judgment is reserved only for God. When we walk in judgement towards others, we take on a role that only God can properly fulfill. When God judges, evil is dealt with. When men and women attempt to judge, they throw fuel on the fire of evil.

[for those of you who want to read more on this check out Gegory Boyd's book Repenting of Religion]

Paul also declares quickly that God is in no rush to condemn and judge. Rather, he is patient waiting and giving humanity time to come to him. In fact, he helps humanity along through what Jesus has done for men and women. He has restored them back to God. There is no need to fix ourselves up so we can be acceptable before God. Without Jesus, we were all destined to condemnation [Paul will spell this out clearly in chapter 3:21ff]. With Jesus, something has happened to us. We now are given the opportunity to trust in God for the change in heart that we so desperately seek through our own attempts at curing ourselves. We do not need to pretend with God. We do not need to fake perfection with God. He loves us the way we are. The more authentic we are the more we are open to the reality of what Jesus has done for us.

Question to consider this week:

1. When we are judgmental toward others, what are we saying about the God we serve?

2. When we are accepting and embracing toward others, what are we saying about the God we serve?

3. What kind of community has God called the church to be?

4. Have we done a good job at being that community?

5. Is God in a hurry to judge the world? [cf. Romans 11:32]

Romans 1:18-32

Isaiah 45:18b Isaiah writes the following:

"He [Yahweh] made the world to be lived in, not a place of empty chaos."

Isaiah shares God's desire to give order and purpose to the world where everyone has a sense of significance and belonging because they are in relationship with God and understand who they are.

In this section of Paul's letter to the Romans, Paul comments on the human race in general and its history of running away from God. Humanity has decisively ignored the truth that God has revealed to humankind. They have made a conscious choice to go their own way. In the back of Paul's mind is Genesis 1-3. The world was created with order and purpose as well as a place for men and women to be fulfilled as human beings. Humanity chose to be deceived and follow its own way. We see how Cain ran from God after killing his own brother, even though God told him he would protect him. Cain went East, away from the Garden where God was, and built cities where he would feel comfortable in his now fallen skin. Here Cain could make his own rules and plot his own way. If he wanted something he could take it. If he didn't like someone he could deal with it without God looking over his shoulder. Cities and nations rise in this rebellion. They defy God and carry on like He was not there. Today we bear the history of this human legacy.

The truth is that men and women will never feel at home until such a time as they are restored to relationship with God. Paul describes the atrocities of human expression, sexuality and behaviour. There is a sinister reversal that has happened in the human race. Rather than worship God [Yahweh] they worship themselves or even worse animals, reptiles and insects. Even the sexes turn in on themselves in a confusion of roles and purpose in the world. Evil is on everyone's mind and evident in everyone's behaviour. In Roman culture during Paul's day, evil was very evident. Homosexuality was rampant, family breakdown was evident, unwanted children were left on the trash heaps to die to the elements, rulers were corrupt - blood thirsty for power and prestige. There was no leap to the imagination for the readers of Paul's letter to understand this human rebellion. Death is the essential end for humanity. It is bent on self destruction. Yet this was not God's plan. God's plan is for a world of order and purpose where humanity is fulfilled. This is the world that breaks into the present through Jesus. God is about restoring the world to His plan and purpose.

As we understand what the climate of relationship was in the Roman churches - "I'm better than you are." - this climate lent itself to the type of chaos that was evident in the world and city that they lived in. It was "anti-Christian." To take stock in one's background, behaviour and pedigree was to mirror humanity in rebellion. That is why Paul is so adamant about "not being ashamed of the good news for its God's power that changes those who believe!" [1:16] Paul had nothing to do with restoring relationship with God. It was all God. All Paul had to do was trust that this was true. Rather than boast in himself - a dangerous thing in Paul's mind since it is the very thing that rebellious humanity does - Paul boasts in the fact that God saved him and changed his life! All this was done in the person of Christ - not the person of Paul. For the Roman believers the same stands true. The change that happened in them was the work of Christ not of Gentile believers or Jewish believers. Paul is attempting to show the Roman believers that their behaviour mirrors more that of humanity in rebellion than that of humanity redeemed. In chapter 2 and 3, Paul will make this plain for the Roman believers to see in themselves.

Group Time:

In your groups this week discuss the damage we do as believers when we behave in a way that mirrors the type of rebellion and behaviour in humanity throughout history.

What happens when God pleads with us to lean on him and we ignore his plea?

What happens when we are proud about how "Faithful" we are and how we're great examples of being Christian over/against those other Christians in the church across the street? Better yet, those people living across the street?

What are we setting ourselves up for with this kind of behaviour and attitude?