Romans 2:17-29 - It's not about foreskins!

Paul has been talking about Jews and non-Jews like they're just the same in God's eyes and this wouldn't have gone down very well with some of his Jewish readers.  After all, God chose them out of all the nations to have his law and his presence (and to be a blessing to the rest of the world too).  God also gave them circumcision (ouch) as a special reminder that they were different.  Why would God lump them together with everyone else when they're doing so well?  The thing is, religious people can sometimes really miss the point and this is something that was just as true in Paul's day as it is now...

Romans 2:17-29

The Jews had God's law through Moses (the 10 commandments etc) but Paul says this isn't enough to make them right with God (unless they're keeping it perfectly, which is impossible of course).  Many of the Jews apparently thought that possessing the law was as good as keeping it but it's not or that God chose them because they're better than anyone else, which isn't true either.  Paul's logic is: 'If you know God's law so well, you should also know that you're guilty of breaking it.'  He even says that they've become so ungodly that they're the reason non-Jews mock God (v24).  The same is true today.  Some religious people doing 'religious stuff' have so much pride that rather than pointing people to Jesus, they actually push people away from him.

Paul takes the example of circumcision and explains that it's only a sign of something.  As if cutting off your foreskin could ever be the thing that makes someone right with God!  Ridiculous.  It was only ever meant to be an outward sign of an inward reality.  Like a wedding ring doesn't make people love each other but it's only a sign that they do.  And just as it's possible to wear a wedding ring and not love your husband or wife, it's possible (and it should be stating the obvious really) to cut your foreskin off and not be right with God.  In the same way, just as it's possible to be married and not wear the rings, it's possible to be right with God and not be circumcised.  Sounds obvious doesn't it?  But to a lot of Jews at that time, they thought their religion was what saved them instead of God.  And people still make the same mistake today.

So it's not about foreskins and it's not about religion.  They're not bad, it's just that people miss the point when they do the religious physical signs without the inward reality of knowing God.  Being a Christian is not primarily about Bibles, churches and praying, though they ought to be useful.  Being a Christian is first and foremost about being saved by Jesus and knowing God personally.  So breathe a sigh of relief and throw your flint knife away!

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Romans 2:1-16 - God is right and we are wrong!

So Paul has been explaining how people have been running from God for a long time now and he's described the kind of wrong thinking and wrong behaviour this leads to.  Now he challenges the self-righteous way we judge each other and describes the righteous way God will judge all of us...

Romans 2:1-16

So because everyone has been running away from God and our sin has twisted the way we think and act, Paul says we are without excuse when we stop to consider God again.  And looking down on others to make ourselves feel like we're good is no help at all and is complete hypocrisy because in the scheme of things, we're as far from God as anyone else.  We might feel like we're good when we compare ourselves to Hitler but next to the infinite perfection and holiness of God, we're in the same boat as him.  We have no right to judge anyone else because we're rebels too.  Only God can do that.  The fact that God allows us to keep on living in this world is not because we're good enough to deserve it but because he is patient and wants to give us time and repeated opportunities to be sorry for our sin and come to him asking for mercy and forgiveness because we're wrong and guilty.

Paul says those who continue to reject the opportunity to stop running from God and ask for his forgiveness are actually making God angrier and angrier because he hates sin and wants us to know him.  This is justice.  The more they sin against God and think, speak and act selfishly, the more proportional punishment they rack up.  No-one gets away with anything in the end.  God sees it all and will judge everyone perfectly according to the truth.

Paul then describes two kinds of people and it's easy to misunderstand what he means but we must be careful to understand him in the light of what else he says about this in other places in Romans and in other letters he writes in the New Testament...

What he doesn't mean... is that there are good people and bad people and the good people go to heaven and the bad ones go to hell.  This is a myth!  God never says this, Jesus never says this and it's nowhere in the Bible!  It's easy enough to make the Bible say this but only if you pluck verses out in isolation and ignore the context of the rest of what the Bible says.

What he does mean... is that there are people who increasingly do good because they have faith and are trusting and following Jesus and know God personally and there are those who generally don't because they don't have faith and aren't trusting and following Jesus and don't know God personally.  Compared with God and his standards, there are no good people, only bad people.  It's clear from what Paul has said already that no-one is in a position to earn their way into heaven by their good actions so it can't be about this.  People have two choices though: either they continue to be 'self-seeking and reject the truth' or they repent (stop running from God and start running towards him instead) and trust and follow Jesus and receive the forgiveness from God they need. This is our only hope.

Paul then explains that all this applies equally to Jews (Israelites) as well as non-Jews (Gentiles).  Just because God gave the law to the Israelites does not make them any less sinful and in need of forgiveness and rescue than anyone else.  There are no excuses for Gentiles either.  God has given everyone a conscience and feelings of guilt when they do what is wrong.  There is no-one who can say to God, "But I didn't know I did anything wrong!"  In the previous chapter, Paul told us that God has given everyone enough knowledge to know there's a creator because of creation.  Now he tells us God has also made sure we know all too well that we need forgiveness because we know we fail to live life innocently.  No excuses for anyone!  And there will be a day when God judges everyone justly.  He will be proved right and we will be in the wrong.  Forgiveness through Jesus is our only hope.

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Romans 1:18-32 - God's anger and hatred

The Bible says 'God is love' and this is true but love is more than just an emotion - it is about action too.  In fact, God's emotions are wide-ranging and include anger and hatred when the situation and his goodness warrants it.  As CS Lewis said, 'anger is the fluid love bleeds when you cut it'...

Romans 1:18-32

The first thing Paul says God gets angry about is the suppression of truth, especially the truth about himself.  Of course, Christians are just as capable of suppressing truth and telling lies about God as anyone else is but Paul is talking about those who manage to exist in this world and invent reasons why it had to have come from nothing.  It's illogical, unscientific (Science can't observe 'nothing') and just plain wrong.  If our Universe had a beginning (and science assures us it did), its existence necessitates an uncaused cause.  More than this, the design, functionality and beauty of our Universe (even though it is broken) shows us the creativity of God.  Paul says everyone gets creation and there are therefore no excuses for not believing in the Creator.  And when people suppress this truth and believe lies instead, God hates it and gets angry because he loves the people he has made and he wants us all to know him. 

People's thinking continues to be 'darkened' in many ways and the truth about God is exchanged for many things, none of which deserve to come first in our lives.  The building of our lives around anything other than God is 'idolatry'.  People love to do whatever they want and act as god of their own lives.  Interestingly, this almost always leads to the devaluing and abuse of sex whether through the enjoyment of pornography, casual sex, gay sex or adulterous sex. For now, people are 'given over' and totally allowed by God to run their own lives and sin (wrong thoughts, words or actions and neglecting good thoughts, words or actions) to their hearts' content.  God hates it and gets angry because he loves the people he has made and he wants us all to know him.

Paul specifically mentions gay lust and sex as being sinful.  This is frequently misquoted and misunderstood by Christians and non-Christians alike.  Some will say God hates gay people and it's wrong to be gay but that's not what it says here.  Others say love is love and God's fine with gay relationships provided they're loving but that's not what it says either.  Paul is explaining that one way in which people sin sexually is to actively desire and have sex with the same gender.  This doesn't mean it's wrong to be gay but it is wrong to choose to sin sexually and to spend time thinking about sinning sexually and this is just one of the ways people do that.  It's unnatural and falls short of the best God intends for us.  God hates it and gets angry because he loves the people he has made and he wants us all to know him.

Incidentally, in our culture, singleness and community are both incredibly undervalued.  If a gay person decides to remain single in obedience to God, they're not ruling out personal fulfillment.  Marriage is great but our happiness is not dependent on pairing up.  I know lots of people who have stayed single their whole lives and they wouldn't have it any other way.  They aren't lonely because they're committed to friendships and are plugged into a community.  Our sadness at the suggestion that gay people might choose not to pursue romantic relationships is part of our 'darkened' thinking resulting from thinking that sex is more important than God in our culture.  God hates it and gets angry because he loves the people he has made and he wants us all to know him.

If you were faced with a glass of water with a big log of poo in it, you wouldn't drink it!  What if it was just a little bit of poo floating on the top?  You still wouldn't drink it!  Why?  Because poo is poisonous and dangerous.  This is what sin is like to God.  And no-one is off the hook.  We all sin in some of the various ways listed.  We all make selfish decisions to put ourselves first instead of God.  God hates 'little' sins as well as the 'big' ones because all sin is destructive, it's all against him and keeps people from knowing him.  God hates it and gets angry because he loves the people he has made and he wants us all to know him.

What should we expect from a perfect good God who created us and gave us life to love him back and be like him?  How long should we expect him to tolerate our sin?  Should we expect him to let us live forever?  If he did, he would not be a good God and there would be no justice.  The God of the Bible promises ultimate justice for all the sin in this world there has ever been or will be.  No-one gets away with anything!  Unless God intervenes in a dramatic way, we can all expect death and separation from God in the end.  What would it be like if God let us into heaven as we are?  Heaven would just as messed up and broken as this place is.  If God is real and perfectly good, something radical needs to happen to us before we could ever expect anything good from him.  For now, we experience the natural consequences of a world that is generally running away from God instead of towards him.  The good news will come later in Paul's writing, but before we can understand it properly, we need to grasp the bad news and the seriousness of our sin.

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Romans 1:5-17 - All about the gospel

What happens when you live for Jesus and put him first?  You want everyone to know him, that's what...

Romans 1:5-17

Paul mentions how the good news of Jesus (that he lived, died and rose so we could be forgiven, friends with God, live life to the full and forever) is not just for Jews (people descended from Abraham) but Gentiles (non-Jews) too.  God wants everyone to know his forgiveness and love and there are many in Rome who are trusting and following Jesus and are experiencing this reality.

Paul's heart aches for these new Christians.  He loves them and they are precious to him because they are trusting and following Jesus and trying to serve and share him too.  He wants to encourage them and he would love to be there in person to teach them more about living for Jesus and invite more people to join them too.  There's such a mixed bag of people in Rome and the gospel (good news of Jesus) is for all of them so Paul is excited to tell them all and see people of all nationalities and personalities come to know God personally through Jesus.   Paul knows that the gospel message is powerful and the activity of sharing it is also powerful work because God saves people to trust and follow Jesus and know his forgiveness and love.

It's a challenge for anyone who trusts and follows Jesus.  What's the most powerful job in the world?  It's not being President or Prime Minister and it's not running a multinational business.  It's sharing the good news of Jesus to people who don't yet know God personally.  If we're living for Jesus, let's not neglect this job!  We should want everyone to know Jesus.

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