Real Believers? What for? (Romans Series No. 4)

Real Believers? What for?
Romans 3:1-20 Sermon 4
Introduction: There are two points in today’s message:
1. Who is a real believer? and 2. What is the point of being a believer?
In our journey through Romans, may I take you to some of the verses we read last Sunday. That is: to chapter 2:17-3:4
1.Who is a Real Jew?
There the apostle Paul answers the question: “Who is a real Jew?”
In this section there are seven questions about who is a real Jew.

Paul discusses the danger of being a Jew yet remaining an unbeliever.

Paul searches the Scriptures to see what God expects of His people and comes up with a verse from Isaiah: which he quotes in Rom 2 V 24: What is the significance of the OT quote in V24?
It appears to come from: Isaiah 52:5-6 “‘Now therefore, what have I here,’ says the LORD, ‘That My people are taken away for nothing? Those who rule over them make them wail,’ says the LORD, ‘And My name is blasphemed continually every day. 6 Therefore My people shall know My name; Therefore they shall know in that day that I am He who speaks: 'Behold, it is I.' "
V 24 is about this:
When God has His good name blasphemed because of the bad behaviour and consequent judgment of His chosen people, He will not stand for it.
Not only should believers know the name of God, but be obedient to His word. He has set it down in Scripture.
Paul says that what is so destructive about unbelief and its resultant disobedience to God is that it blasphemes God’s name and destroys people.
Hosea puts it so clearly when he says: HOSEA 4:6 “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest for Me; Because you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.”
So the knowledge the Jews needed, says Paul, is heart knowledge. They need to know God personally as we saw last week.
After asking all the questions Paul sets it all out for us:
Rom 2:29 “…he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God.”
It is no different for you and me.

Those who are justified before God, the just ones, those accepted on Christ’s behalf, are those who put their heart trust in Him.
Now the Jews of Jesus and Paul’s day had come to believe that you kept the law and God forgave you.
Rom 2v25: Paul’s argument goes on to say: “if you keep the law” That is “a big if..”
Ch 2:25 “For circumcision is indeed profitable if you keep the law; but if you are a breaker of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision.”
CIRCUMCISION
Since CIRCUMCISION is spoken of so much in Romans I better explain for those who are following Paul’s message…
Circumcision was the sign of a believers dedication to the Lord, to follow His ways all your life in faith.
It was the child’s parents who took their baby boys to the priest when they were eight days old, and has its following rite all through the church history in infant baptism until today. Baptism as directed by Jesus Himself replaced circumcision as the sign of God’s mark and favour on believers.
Notably, baptism is less gender biased and is quite PC because both boys and girls are baptised into Christ.

But back to Paul’s teaching…
Paul’s point is that no matter what you do, no one keeps the law perfectly.
So we all owe the Lord an obedience we have failed to keep…

He paid a debt He did not owe,
I owed a debt I could not pay,
I needed someone to wash my sins away,
And now I sing a brand new song, amazing grace,
Christ Jesus paid the debt that I could never pay.

Even if we followed all of the ten commandments, all of the regulations and all the ceremonial laws in the OT, like the Jews of old, we would not be saved.
Why not?
Because we would not keep them perfectly.
We would not do them perfectly. In writing to the Galatians Paul makes it very clear: Gal 2:15 “We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles, 16 knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified.”
So a real Jew, a true believer is one who is justified by God’s grace in Christ and knows it.
The words of Leviticus, ‘You shall be holy for I am holy.’ ” (Lev 11:44-45) is not only an O.T. expectation but a N.T. one as well.
Paul says: “without holiness no one will see the Lord.” (Heb 12:14)
We do not do all that God expects.
The Apostle Peter says:
1 Peter 1:13 “Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; 14 as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; 15 but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 because it is written, ‘Be holy, for I am holy.’ 17 And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one's work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear…”

Ch 2:27 would be appalling to a Jew: 27 “And will not the physically uncircumcised, if he fulfills the law, judge you who, even with your written code and circumcision, are a transgressor of the law?”
Certainly Not! May such a thing never happen!
That would be the orthodox Jewish reply.
Jews to be judged by the unrighteous? Horrible thought! May it never be…
Paul warns them that this is what will happen to his nation if they do not repent and believe the gospel. He goes into more depth in Ch 9-11.

2. What’s the Point in Believing?
Where’s the advantage in it?
There are eight questions in this passage that I have chosen for today. Maybe it’s a confirmation that it is legitimate to ask questions when preaching as I often do…
BUT…I am not going to answer every question, nor am I going to go longer than I normally go, God willing…

The questions in today’s passage (all eight of them) centre around the issue of what advantage there is in being a Jew.

Now you can read for the word ‘Jew,’ a believer in Jesus Christ.
What’s the use of believing in Christ?
I have made a switch, you may say…well it’s in the passage…

Let me explain:
Last week we saw that while we are non-Jews ethnically, that is, by our blood and by our background, we can be Jews inwardly, or, if you like, be accepted by God as God’s chosen people on the very same basis as every real Jew was accepted:
Rom 1:16 “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, "The just shall live by faith.”
So it is now Paul who can refer to genuine believers as “Jews inwardly” (Look at Rom 2:29)

The point of being a Jew inwardly he goes on to say is found in Ch 3 verses 1-20…
No.1. The Jews were given the word of God. I will read verses 1-4.
3:1 “What advantage then has the Jew, or what is the profit of circumcision?
2 Much in every way! Chiefly because to them were committed the oracles of God. 3 For what if some did not believe? Will their unbelief make the faithfulness of God without effect? 4 Certainly not! Indeed, let God be true but every man a liar. As it is written: ‘That You may be justified in Your words,
And may overcome when You are judged.’ ”
On Sinai, Moses received the ten commandments. Even if some of the people did not believe them they are still God’s holy word and must be obeyed.
God did not stop being faithful to His people even when they were unfaithful to Him. That’s the nature of grace.
No sooner had Moses got down from receiving the law than the people were fully in the damnable process of disobeying all of them.
God is still true even if every man denies Him and He is quite capable of maintaining the honour of His own name.

Reason 2.
What advantage is it to be a Jew, to be a believer?
Because it establishes God’s law.
Look at verses 5-9: 3:5 “But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unjust who inflicts wrath? (I speak as a man.)
6 Certainly not! For then how will God judge the world?
7 For if the truth of God has increased through my lie to His glory, why am I also still judged as a sinner? 8 And why not say, ‘Let us do evil that good may come’ ?-as we are slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say. Their condemnation is just. 9 What then? Are we better than they? Not at all.”
Some people argued that if we sin and God is gracious to us it emphasises the graciousness and therefore the goodness of God.
It demonstrates how great God is.
If God is seen as all the more truthful in contrast to my lies, is that not a good thing?
And if it’s a good thing, should we not sin more so as to show up how gracious and good and great God is? …sort of demonstrate the picture of who and what God is as with a magnifying glass?
This is the “Let us do evil that good may come” teaching that some people accused Paul of preaching.
It does not make much sense to us because it says we should forget God’s law once we have become believers… but it was attractive to some people at that time…
Paul says: “That’s NOT what I’m preaching! and people who say that deserve to be condemned,” but, and very quickly he adds, “does that mean I am better than they are?”
“By no means,” he says: “the Bible says,” asserting Gods law, “we are all sinners and not one of us is without sin…” then he goes on to give his proof texts or his evidence that this is true and he quotes:
Psalm 14:1, 3, 7; Psa_53:1-3; Isa 57; Job_14:4, Job_15:14, Job_15:16, Job_25:4; Jer_17:9; all over the O.T. actually. (Cf. Rom_3:23)
Commentator Albert Barnes says: “The apostle (Paul) is reasoning with Jews; and he proceeds to show from their own Scriptures, that what he had affirmed was true. The point to be proved was, that the Jews, in the matter of justification, had no advantage or preference over the Gentiles; that the Jew had failed to keep the Law which had been given him, as the Gentile had failed to keep the Law which had been given him; and that both, therefore, were equally dependent on the mercy of God, incapable of being justified and saved by their works.
To show this, the apostle adduces texts to show what was the character of the Jewish people; or to show that according to their own Scriptures, they were sinners no less than the Gentiles.”
By doing this, Paul established that the Jews had been given God’s very words, having failed to live them out as they were called to do, they are sinners as much as the Gentiles are, and so are equally dependent on God’s grace in Christ and that God is justified in upholding His righteousness.
By this God shows everyone that He establishes His law.
Conclusion
So who is acceptable to God, who is a real Jew, Paul asks?
Who are those who are God’s chosen people in Paul’s day or today?
Who is it that is acceptable before God?
By now, if you have read what Paul has been saying in ch.1-2:16 that we are put right with God by the grace of God and that grace comes to us through faith in the heart.
Christianity is a heart religion.
So when Paul says these words he is calling for a rethink:
Ch 2 v 28-29: “For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; 29 but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God.”
When Paul says that circumcision is of the heart, the heart has to be changed, that the heart has to be engaged and that it is never sufficient to be a Jew outwardly, he is calling us to search our hearts…
He wants everyone to know that being spiritual is a result of a spiritual change in your heart. It is something that God does by His Holy Spirit…
God’s own people belong to God because His grace has met them and a revolution has taken place!
And where do you suppose Paul expects that revolution to take place?
He says “circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God.” (2v29)
Yes, in the heart:
Acts 15:8 “So God, who knows the heart, acknowledged them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He did to us…”
ACTS 16:31 “ ‘Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.’ ” Amen.