Memorize: Human judgment of sin
Key Verses: 1, 5, 7, 11, 12, 23, 29
Chapter One of Romans focused on those who never had the Gospel preached to them in a formal way. This chapter deals with religious people. Religious people, as opposed to true believers don’t judge others. Their lives are filled with grace. OOOPS! I guess I shouldn’t have said those unkind things about the other driver the other day! The focal point of this chapter is this concept. No matter at what point we judge other people, we fail ourselves. God’s judgment is designed to bring us to repentance. Is our judgment working toward repentance? Probably not, if you are anything like me. God has held off judging us, so we should do the same.
Remember, this is focused on non-believing religious people, not believers. For them, they are adding to their store of sins that will be judged, for which they will have to give an account. The only people who could meet the criteria of verse seven are believers. Everyone else fails to meet it 100% of the time. We fail as well, but God’s grace gets involved with us. Persistence in seeking good versus self-seeking and rejecting the truth. Look at the contrast between verse seven and eight. There is no middle ground in God’s mind. God will use the same standard to evaluate all people, Jew or non-Jew.
That same standard exists regardless of the presence or absence of the Old Testament Law being present in someone’s life. That is because God wrote in everyone’s heart His requirements. We often choose over time to reject those requirements, and thus the wide variety of sinful behavior, some of which we read about in chapter one. But God uses the same standard for everyone.
Paul then focuses on Jews as the epicenter of religious practice of his day. He points out that they have the requirements and fail to keep them. And this failure has blacken their reputation. Everyone can see the king’s nakedness except the king. Others can see our sin when we often think it is hidden. Paul’s uses the example of circumcision, the outward sign of Jewish identity for men, and shows that the presence of the sign does not guarantee faithful behavior. If only the sign is present, it means nothing, has no value. The sign only counts when it represents what is happening in the heart.
REVIEW: IN THE CHURCH
The Arnold Journey 