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?