Paul's love for all men everywhere prompted him to give people the truth. To the Gentile, he gave the reality that idols and false prophets were of no eternal value and that only Jesus Christ could redeem them from the penalty of their sin.

To the Jew, Paul gave sobering truth of their own relationship with the one true God and how that relationship was based on faith, not on written codes given from God. In their case, they confused obedience to the law with a way to earn favor with God, when in fact, obedience to the law was to be the outcome of their faith in God.

The O.T. scriptures were pointing the Jew to the Messiah to come, who would, as Isaiah put it in, Isa 53:5 "But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. Isa 53:6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all."

Our text in Romans is a plea to the Jew to consider their waywardness. As Paul has been explaining, one cannot earn favor with God through a mere obedience to the covenantal laws. But, Paul goes a step further by showing them that if they were depending on a mere association with the law for their salvation, their lack of obedience to it was the third strike against them.

Paul begins his indictment of the Jew by reminding him of God's blessings bestowed on them. Rom 2:17 "Now you, if you call yourself a Jew; if you rely on the law and brag about your relationship to God;
18 if you know his will and approve of what is superior because you are instructed by the law;
19 if you are convinced that you are a guide for the blind, a light for those who are in the dark,
20 an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of infants, because you have in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth--
21 you, then, who teach others, do you not teach yourself? ..."

Paul recognizes the advantages, which the Jews possess, but stresses that boasting in those things is evil. What the Jew had was a relationship based on a covenant with God which God made with them. They also had divine knowledge of God's will for them. This was no small thing.

But their boasting was in these advantages, not in the God who gave them. They were busy telling the Gentile world what misfits they were because they didn't have this favored nation position, instead of extending the grace of God and His truth to these people.

They were boasting in the wrong things and then saying that, despite their actions, God was still with them. The prophet Micah spoke of this type of attitude when he wrote, over 700 years prior to Paul's writing, in Mic 3:11 "Her leaders judge for a bribe, her priests teach for a price, and her prophets tell fortunes for money. Yet they lean upon the LORD and say, "Is not the LORD among us? No disaster will come upon us."

That's boasting in a lie and acting as though God will look the other way. That's not the kind of lead you want to follow, and that's Paul's point when he say's: Rom 2:19 ... you are convinced that you are a guide for the blind, a light for those who are in the dark..."

Here's what Jesus Himself says of this in Mat 15:14 "Leave them; they are blind guides of the blind. If a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit."

Paul is telling them, 'you've already fallen, reach up to the light of life in Christ Jesus and quit boasting in yourselves.'

He tells them that they're so busy teaching others they've forgotten to teach themselves. Rom 2:21..... "You who preach against stealing, do you steal?
22 You who say that people should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?
23 You who brag about the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law?"

For Paul these are rhetorical questions with the implied answer, yes! And yet these Jews may very well have been able to say, 'no Paul, we have not stolen, we have not committed adultery, we have not robbed temples, we have not broken the law.'

But Paul's point here is much deeper. And this was Jesus' point in the sermon on the Mount. Our Lord gave the people not just the letter of the law, but the Spirit of the law, which they had pushed to the side because of their pride.

Mat 5:21 "You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 'Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.'
22 But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother without cause will be subject to judgment."

Mat 5:27 "You have heard that it was said, 'Do not commit adultery.'
28 But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart."

Mat 5:43 "You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.'
44 But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,..."

Jesus was taking the law to new heights. And yet the irony is that this is what God had always taught in His law. The people had twisted and rearranged what God had said, and limited the meaning to their own misguided ways.

Paul was telling the Jew that they were the blind leading the blind and boasting in what they believed was the truth; their own self-righteousness.

There's a message here for the Christian as well. There are those in the church-at-large who believe that their only duty to God is to go through the motions of church, while leaving their Christianity behind closed doors.

Going to church on Sunday or mid-week, putting money in the box, and then boasting in that, as if we've done God a favor, while the rest of the week we are living as though God were on vacation, is not what God means by living unto Him.

And I know there are Christians who would say, 'but I do what is pleasing to God and I've always been faithful to contend for the faith', and yet some of these same Christians hate their brother or sister, lust in their hearts after someone or something like money, constantly judging others, while setting themselves up as the standard and boasting in their "good works".

Now chances are that most of us may have someone else flash in our minds when such indictments are made, but the truth, is we all need to be careful not to make our walk with Christ in outward appearance only, while having our hearts walking in a different direction.

This is what the Lord told the prophet Samuel in 1Sa 16:7 "....The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."

If our hearts are seeking to please our God, and to love Him above all, then what proceeds from that loving heart will be the kind of works which will not only be beneficial to men, but will in fact honor Christ.

This is what the apostle had in mind when he wrote in 2Co 3:2 "You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everybody.
3 You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts."

In other words, you shall know we are Christians by our love. That kind of love will not be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. That kind of love will be patient when wronged. It will be kind when tempted to return evil for evil.

That kind of love will not be jealous of others, and it will not be boastful or arrogant. It will not act in an unbecoming way; it will not seek its own will or way to the exclusion of God's will, nor will it rejoice in unrighteousness, but instead it will rejoice with the truth.

That kind of love will bear all things, believe all things pertaining to God and holiness, hope in all things in which God promises, and endure all things with patience and thanksgiving, in the strength of the Spirit, as we wait upon the Lord.

Being a Christian is being real, but it's being a servant who understands we've been bought at a great price, not to do our bidding, but to honor our God who sent His Son to buy us back and take us off the path of destruction and place our feet on solid ground, on the hope of our salvation.

That's what Paul wanted for these Jews. He's saying, 'don't play the game of godliness, be the kind of people who admit we're sinners, but sinners saved by grace, seeking daily the power and love of Christ, to live lives to glorify God.

There are religious people, in word only, who boast of great things, and yet deny the truth, by their lack of Christ's love, which should show the Spirit working in their lives.

Paul describes them in 2Ti 3:2 "People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy,
3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good,
4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God--
5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them."

In other words don't follow their lead and don't be conformed into their image by following after them.

And Paul confirms this to the Romans in Rom 12:2 "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will.
3 For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you."

Praise God for the life you have in Christ and seek the things above, not the things which can pull us back into the world. And seek the Spirit who enables us to walk after the love of Christ.

Back to our text. Rom 2:24 "As it is written: "God's name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you." [Isaiah 52:5; Ezek. 36:22]

What the Jews thought was pleasing to God was actually a cause for dishonoring Him.

This verse is taken from Isa 52:5 "And now what do I have here?" declares the LORD. "For my people have been taken away for nothing?, and those who rule them mock, declares the LORD. "And all day long my name is constantly blasphemed."

The Jews were defeated by their enemies, and because of that, the Gentiles mocked them and their God. But Paul's implication is not just that the Jews were taken captive, but that disobedience caused God to allow their captivity, and that because of their disobedience, they mocked God.

You see God's name is at stake. His holiness and greatness is being trampled upon, and He takes it personally. You see, you and I are His ambassadors. As ambassadors we are given the privilege and responsibility to represent the living God. This privilege was first given to the Jewish nation, but they abused it and dishonored the Lord.

And yet in God's grace and mercy He implores them to return and repent of their sin by embracing their Messiah, which many of them did. Unfortunately, many did not.

Many of them continued to rely on the law and the covenant as a means of salvation. One of the signs of the covenant was circumcision.

Rom 2:25 "Circumcision has value if you observe the law, but if you break the law, you have become as though you had not been circumcised.
26 If those who are not circumcised keep the law's requirements, will they not be regarded as though they were circumcised?
27 The one who is not circumcised physically and yet obeys the law will condemn you who, even though you have the written code and circumcision, are a lawbreaker.
28 A man is not a Jew if he is only one outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical."

Paul anticipated the response from the Jew as, 'well I may not obey the law perfectly, but you cannot deny my being part of the covenant of God, and my circumcision will prove that, and is my badge for acceptance with God no matter what.'

Paul says, "is that so?" Well, circumcision does has some value if you keep the law, but don't think you can boast in your flesh when your heart is far away from God. In fact, he says, " if you break the law, you have become as though you had not been circumcised."

In other words, cutting off the flesh is no substitute for obedience from a loving heart to God. Observing the letter of the law, by observing circumcision, and yet walking outside the law, is of no value.

Now, what is the significance of circumcision? When God made a covenant or agreement with Abraham to be his God, and he and his descendants would be God's people, the Lord said, 'this is the way I will ratify the covenant and let the world know that you are mine.'

'You shall cut off the foreskin which shall be a sign of your allegiance to Me in the Spirit and not in the flesh.' Getting rid of the flesh, and the desire and will of the flesh, was the whole point here.

But, the Jew was boasting in the very thing which pointed to how the flesh was fleshly, and always moving away from God. For the Jew, it was to be a humbling reminder of how the flesh could not accomplish the things of the Spirit.

In fact Paul says, 'look just because your flesh has been cut off, which is the sign of your belonging to God's covenant, doesn't mean that you can act out of accord with that covenant, which clearly said that if you disobey God you will be judged according to your deeds.'

And then Paul goes so far as to say that the Gentiles who do not possess this covenant sign, when they keep the requirements of the law, they become your judge, the very people whom you have been judging.

'And so in the process your circumcision has become as uncircumcision because of your disobedience and their (the Gentiles) uncircumcision, in the midst of their keeping of the requirements, has become circumcision.'

Now to the Jew this was blasphemy. But, Paul's point is not to suggest that the Gentiles' obedience to the written codes of God could earn them favor with God, but rather he's simply making a point, that the Jews could not depend on physical signs to save them while they were rebelling against God by rejecting His Messiah, who came to give them eternal life.

And he wraps it up by saying in Rom 2:28 "A man is not a Jew if he is only one outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical.
29 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."

Someone may be a physical descendant of Abraham, but that doesn't guarantee eternal life. Remember, Abraham's righteousness didn't come simply from his obedience. His righteousness, as we're told in Hebrews 11, came from his faith in God, which in turn showed itself in his obedience to God.

The flesh cannot inherit the Kingdom of God, in the sense that it can accomplish righteousness in itself. That's why Christ came. Life with God is born of the Spirit, not of our flesh.

Rom 2:29 "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."

Paul uses a play on words here to drive home his point of how life with God is only life in and by the Spirit. The name Jew came from the name Judah which means praise.

And so Paul say's 'our praise from God, as God's people; in this case the Jew, doesn't come from anything we could do for God, which in the process tries to get praise from men, but our praise from God comes from a life transformed by the Spirit of God who gives life.

Circumcision was a sign and a seal of what God could do in the life of a person who sought God in the Spirit, not in the flesh. The prophet Jeremiah spoke of this relationship in Jer 31:33 "This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time," declares the LORD. "I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people."

Ezekial too. Eze 36:27 "And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws."

In a very real sense every person who has trusted Christ as Lord and Savior, who is sealed with the Spirit, is a true Jew. One who receives praise not from men, but from God Himself.

Our relationship with God is the result of the Spirit of God working in our lives, and He alone receives all the glory for our salvation. But, as believers, we must never think that simply going through the motions is glorifying to God any more than the Jew's mere fleshly obedience could be pleasing to God.

They that worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in truth. Part of our worship is in a life of obedience, out of grateful hearts, which praise God that He has given us life in Christ.

The Lord is not finished with the Jewish nation, as we'll clearly see later in this letter to the Romans, but God's plea to the Jew, even today, is seen in Jer 4:4 "Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, circumcise your hearts,..." For a circumcision of the heart they must seek the One whose hand is able to make that circumcision, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ.

That's what He desires of all true believers today. Paul sums up what our circumcision is when he wrote to the Colossians in Col 2:9 "For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form,
10 and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority.
11 In him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature, [Or the flesh] not with a circumcision done by the hands of men but with the circumcision done by Christ,
12 having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead.
13 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, [Or your flesh] God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins,
14 having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross.
15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. "

Praise God for the circumcision which He has done in our hearts, and may we live in that circumcision, as we seek the Spirit and His power, as we put off the old man and put on the new in Christ everyday of our lives to His honor and glory!