Meditations

Read Romans 2:17-29

The Center And The Circumference

A man is not a Jew if he is only one outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward
and physical. No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly; and circumcision is
circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code.
Such a man’s praise is not from men, but from God.
~Romans 2:28-29

Going Deeper: The covenant of circumcision was a highly important outward sign that was to distinguish the Israelites as God’s very own people.  The covenant was first given to Abraham in Genesis 17:9-14, and later reaffirmed in dramatic albeit peculiar fashion to Moses in Exodus 4:24-26. Ritual circumcision was required of every Israelite male child, and it was an important physical reminder of the greater theological reality that the cutting away and cleansing from sin was necessary to a right relationship with God.

Unfortunately, over time, the Jews became prideful in their practice of the physical act of circumcision without the practice of the more important inward act of spiritual circumcision. In effect, the circumcised but disobedient Jew’s standing before God was no different than that of the uncircumcised heathen. In fact, the Apostle Paul, in a bit of news that must have been infuriating to the circumcised Jew, said that the uncircumcised but obedient Gentile was as good as circumcised in the eyes of God. (Romans 2:26)

I suppose at this point you may be wondering what Jewish males and ritual circumcision has to do with you.  Simply this: It is easy to fall into the very same sin of Jews, presuming their ritualistic observances and religious activities got them in and kept them in good standing with God.  There couldn’t be anything farther from the truth.

Let me illustrate it this way: Going to church doesn’t make you a Christian anymore than going to McDonalds makes you a Happy Meal.  You see, neither outward appearances nor practices of piety are good and accurate indicators of authentic faith.  True faith is internal—it is a matter of the heart.

That’s what God looks at: the heart—your heart.  Now that is not to say Christians shouldn’t look and act a certain way. They should—just like the Israelites were expected to look and act a certain way.  Our faith should be observable. It should be especially true that having been with Jesus will make a noticeable difference to those watching us.  Having experienced the grace and mercy of salvation ought to catalyze change in the way we interact with the world and experience life.  The very way we look, talk, relate, work, play and engage in our moment-by-moment existence should have the “fragrance of Christ” all over it.

But at the end of the day, the fragrance of our Savior is only possible if we are thoroughly saturated with Jesus.  Jesus needs to get from the outside of our lives to the inside.  Or perhaps more correctly, Jesus needs to start on the inside and work his way to the outside—which, by the way, is what takes places as a result of the more important spiritual circumcision of the heart. (Romans 2:29) Most importantly, at the core of who we are, we ought to retain the Lord Jesus Christ. In truth, Jesus must be both the center and the circumference of our lives.

So here is the $64,000 question: Is he?

“God sees hearts as we see faces.”
~George Herbert

Read Romans 2:17-29

Giving God A Bad Name

“As it is written: ‘God’s name is blasphemed among
the Gentiles because of you.’”
~Romans 2:24

Digging Deeper: A family-values senator is found out to have kept the company of female “escorts.” A high profile evangelical leader is exposed for visiting a male prostitute. The divorce rate among church-goers is nearly the same rate as non church-goers. Believers are said to blend in ethically with just about everyone else in the workplace.

And we wonder why non-Christians tag us as hypocrites and despise our God!

It is so easy to get caught up in the culture wars and the Christian political movement and every other cause that bashes the evil practices and mindset of this world. To be sure, there is nothing necessarily wrong with being outspoken about your spiritual values. However, we would do God and the Good News we represent a big favor if we would clean up our act first.

Jesus had some pretty pointed things to say about that:

“Don’t pick on people, jump on their failures, criticize their faults— unless, of course, you want the same treatment. That critical spirit has a way of boomeranging. It’s easy to see a smudge on your neighbor’s face and be oblivious to the ugly sneer on your own. Do you have the nerve to say, ‘Let me wash your face for you,’ when your own face is distorted by contempt? It’s this whole traveling road-show mentality all over again, playing a holier-than-thou part instead of just living your part. Wipe that ugly sneer off your own face, and you might be fit to offer a washcloth to your neighbor.” (Matthew 7:1-5)

How about this: First try living what you say you believe, then you can talk! Make sure your beliefs match your behavior. Don’t just mindlessly parrot, “what would Jesus do?”—do it! Live it from the core of who you are.

We may not win the whole world for Christ, but we’d be a lot more effective than we are now. And perhaps we’d convince a few folks that this Good News is a pretty good deal.

“Preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary use words.”
~St. Francis of Assisi

Read Romans 2:1-16

God’s Goodness To Little Goody Two-Shoes

Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering,
not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?
~Romans 2:4 (NKJV)

Going Deeper: It is one thing to be a willfully sinful pagan (see blog entry on Romans 1:18-32 — http://raynoah.com/2009/09/03/romans-bad-news/), but it is quite another to be an odiously sinful religionist, which is the type of person Paul turns his theological guns on here in this passage.  This one is of that tribe of people who fill the pews of churches every Sunday, perhaps sitting inconspicuously right next to you—self-righteous, smugly sanctimonious, and self-absorbed. As John McClintock quipped, “The Pharisees are not all dead yet, and are not all Jews.”

To be an intolerant, hypocritical, pious religionist is perhaps the worst enemy to the advancement of the kingdom of God.  These types say one thing, but do another.  They spout piety, yet behave anyway but.  They sit in judgment over the evil of the world, yet their hearts are full of the very evil they condemn. They make church all about them, and very little about reaching a lost world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And more than any other repelling factor, these religious do-gooders keep seekers from church, sully the reputation of God before a watching world, and solidify the excuses of sinners not to darken the doorway of the church because “of all the hypocrites who go there.”

But, as Paul says in Romans 2:1-4, these religious moralists are without excuse, because the theological knowledge they possess brings them an even greater accountability before God. The very judgment that God has pronounced on willful pagans will fall upon these folks as well. (Romans 2:3).  It is these who will likely hear those haunting words spoken by our Lord, “Depart from me, I never knew you.” (Matthew 25:41)  In truth, it is they who never really knew the God in whose name they sat in judgment over the world.

So just what is their problem? Mainly, their self-righteousness has led them to focus only on the external acts of religious piety while ignoring the more important inner core of the heart—love, devotion and purity—that so greatly matters to God.  In so doing, they have minimized their own sinfulness before a holy God, and have lost whatever connection with him they might have once, if ever, enjoyed. According to Romans 1:5, their hearts have become “hardened”, (“stubborn”—NIV), which in the Greek language is the word, sklayrotace.  It is the word from which we get sclerosis, the hardening of the arteries—a silent, invisible but deadly condition. That is exactly what the religious, hypocritical, judgmental moralist has, and that indeed is a problem.

Even while blind to their own sickly condition (Revelation 3:17), yet again, good news is still present.  Paul says in Romans 2:4 that God’s common grace (“goodness”) is upon even these people.  He has allowed them space to come to the truth rather than face the judgment they deserve (“forbearance”).  He has given then a period of time (“patience”) for his grace and forbearance to bring a change of heart, behavior and life-direction (“repentance”).

Isn’t is amazing that God’s grace is still reaching out to the most annoying sinners of all—that sanctimonious saint sitting in his pew, turning people away from God right and left by his religious hypocrisy and spiritual hostility? Yet our stubbornly loving God continues to woo even these goody two-shoes to himself. Lord have mercy!

So here’s the deal, dear friend: Let’s make sure you and I are not in that camp. Open up your heart to God right now and ask him to examine you. Don’t let hardening of the spiritual arteries lead you down that path. There are enough goody two-shoes in your church—it doesn’t need one more.

Neither does a world that God so desperately desires to redeem!

“A pharisee is hard on others and easy on himself, but a spiritual
man is easy on others and hard on himself.”
~A.W. TozerRomansR