4/28/24 “The Heart of the Matter”
“The Heart of the Matter”
Romans 2:17 – 3:8
18 inches.
18 inches is roughly the distance between your brain and your heart.
Now, obviously, that’s an average.
For 7’ 4” NBA player Victor Wembanyama, it’s probably a bit more than 18 inches….and for 4’10” actor Danny DeVito, it’s most likely a bit under that length.
But, for most of us, if we were to measure the distance between our brain and our heart – it would be somewhere around 18 inches.
There’s even a popular Bible tract called “Missing Heaven by 18 Inches”
(Show Picture)
It begins like this: “18 Inches. Can anyone actually get that close to heaven and yet hear the Lord say, ‘I never knew you: depart from me?’ However, this will be the terrible fate of many professing Christians in our churches today. Some of these people are even in responsible positions in the church, but they have only a ‘head’- or intellectual – acceptance of the Lord Jesus Christ. The distance between the head and the heart is 18 inches. Unfortunately, a ‘head’ knowledge of Jesus Christ – knowing and giving mental assent to the plan of salvation…without also a ‘heart’ acceptance that brings the personal relationship that the Bible demands – avails nothing to anyone.”
The point is - you can have all the head knowledge in the world about the nature of God and His Word…you can have entire books of the Bible memorized…but if that knowledge isn’t also accompanied by a heart change brought about by a relationship with Jesus – then that vast storehouse of knowledge is utterly useless.
Today, we continue Paul’s basic theme of man’s depravity that he lays out for us in the first 3 chapters of the book of Romans…all of it being inspired by the Holy Spirit himself.
In Romans chapter one we looked at the condemnation of the unreligious – those people who don’t know Christ, nor do they claim to have a relationship with him.
Last week in the first half of Romans chapter two we looked at the moralist – those individuals who claim to be right before God because they don’t participate in the blatant sins of the unreligious mentioned in Romans chapter one.
The moralist grades himself on a curve…
They say: “Hey, at least I don’t commit THAT sin!...You know, God will accept me since I haven’t murdered someone…or committed adultery…or stolen money from my employer….I’m basically a good person compared to those lost souls in chapter one!”
But, if you recall, Paul drops the hammer of condemnation on the moralist as well. God doesn’t grade on a curve…He doesn’t compare us to others.
God compares you to His eternal standard of righteousness – and when you claim to meet those standards on your own without being in Christ – you stand just as guilty before God as any of those people participating in the laundry list of sinful behavior listed in chapter one.
Remember the young rich ruler from the synoptic gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke?...He was a moralist. He thought that his generally good behavior would gain him access to heaven.
Then, Jesus exposed his fatal flaw…his heart was not where it needed to be.
In today’s passage, Paul doubles down on this theme of moral hypocrisy amongst those who claim to be people of faith as he takes aim at a third variety of lost souls:
A group that we’ll simply call “The Religionists.”
In Paul’s day, Religionists would have included many of the Scribes and Pharisees – those intellectually elite spiritual leaders who were full of pride and hypocrisy.
They believed that their good works were such that God would be impressed by their obedience, and thereby be obligated to welcome them into eternity.
Today, Religionists would be those people in the church who place their faith in following ceremonial and ritualistic rules of tradition….
All in the attempt to earn a good standing before God – rather than - pursuing a genuine relationship with the savior…
Which includes the acknowledgement of one’s complete dependance upon the finished work of Jesus Christ.
These are the legalists of our day – those people who love to come up with unbiblical ecclesiastical rules, regulations, and restrictions…only so they can feel good about themselves when they follow them…
AND at the same time – to feel even better about themselves when given the opportunity to condemn others who don’t follow them.
There’ve been numerous examples of unbiblical regulations and restrictions set up to be on par with genuine biblical mandates in many churches throughout the years.
For example, some churches hold the view that ALL movies are evil…. or that ALL forms of dancing are of the devil (No dosey-do for you!)
…or that ALL of your friends must be Christians, or that – guys - you MUST wear a suit & tie to church.
…Or ladies, you MUST wear a dress to church every Sunday…yes, even when it’s 10 below...remember, the frostbite that you are enduring…it’s for the Lord!’
The small Baptist church that I grew up in still had a few lingering legalistic regulations in place when I was a kid.
I remember that one of the rules was that playing cards was definitely frowned upon.
I guess that it was considered to be a gateway to gambling or some other vice that could possibly manifest itself through the participation in a game that was based on chance.
My family & I had to go way ‘Underground’ to play a hand of UNO or Old Maid…then when my methodist grandfather introduced me to euchre it was all over…I was now destined for a life of habitual gambling and financial ruin…
Folks, this is legalism…and legalism is as unbiblical as its opposite extreme, which is called license….that’s the idea that you can do whatever you want – and act however you want - without breaking God’s moral law.
Legalism is rooted in self-righteous hypocrisy – and license is rooted in self-worshipful disobedience…
But BOTH represent a disconnect between the head and the heart – a problem of 18 inches, so to speak.
In verse 17 (Romans 2:17) Paul begins a section where he calls out his fellow Jewish brethren for their failure to carry out God’s original plan for the Jewish people – that being, to reveal God and His truth to the rest of the world.
The Jewish people – God’s covenant community – were privileged in a mighty way as they were God’s chosen instrument of revelation to the world.
Unfortunately, much of Israel’s history was one of disobedience and self-indulgence & glorification.
On rare instances, the Hebrew nation would rise to the occasion and briefly live in obedience to God – but, sadly, these times were few and far between.
Paul is reminding his fellow Jews that through God’s providence they had been given a great privilege – and with that great privilege – would come great responsibility.
The nation of Israel had a responsibility to bring the truth of God’s Word to all people, but instead of reaching outward toward others, they continually looked inward with pride and condescension toward Gentiles and Samaritans.
Having this spiritual responsibility would make them more accountable to God.
Does anyone here have a CDL license?
A Certified Driver’s License (Or CDL) is granted to someone who has gone through more extensive driving tests than one goes through to obtain a regular license.
Depending on the kind of CDL one has, it provides legal permission for that person to operate anything from semis to dump trucks to busses to other large and potentially dangerous equipment.
But with a CDL comes higher expectations as well.
The extra training one receives in obtaining a CDL results in greater expectations in terms of driving safely and obediently to the law.
In a way, because of the close connection that God had with the nation of Israel, one could say that the Jewish people had “Spiritual CDL’s.”
Through the Torah, the wisdom literature, and the writings of the prophets, the Jewish people were spiritually trained in the truth like no other people…
So, accordingly, God had higher expectations for them as well.
Folks, this is also true of us today as well.
As the church of Jesus Christ, we have an abundance of God’s truth all around us.
From the completed canon of scripture to an abundance of commentaries, to online videos and podcasts, to the fact that the person of the Holy Spirit indwells all believers…
We, also, have been given much in terms of understanding God’s Will, Truth, and Purpose…And – unlike most Jews in Paul’s day - we need to live in obedience to God’s direction in our lives.
This is why Jesus says in Luke 12:48 “…From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much will be asked.
Much of verses 17 through 24 is a condemnation of how the Jewish people of the day – especially the Scribes and Pharisees – were hypocritical religionists.
They were preaching something that they themselves were not living in obedience to…and they were making up rules and regulations that were actually taking away from the convicting purpose of the law.
The law was given to remind people of their sinfulness - that it was impossible to completely follow the law in obedience to God.
Therefore, it was meant to humble people as they were forced to view their sinful flesh in light of God’s Holiness…
But the Pharisees attempted to circumvent the thrust of the law by concocting various regulations that would redefine what God had originally intended – thus making it easier for them to live by what had become a redefined, man-constructed religion.
Some Rabbis also taught the heresy that just a mere knowledge of the law was good enough to put a Jewish person into a right relationship with God – one’s moral obedience was just a secondary consideration.
Understandably, these things made God angry.
This is why, in Matthew 3:7 John the Baptist says this to the Pharisees: “…You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?”
In Matthew 12:34 Jesus also says to the Pharisees: “You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.”
On another occasion in the book of Matthew, Jesus says this to the Pharisees: “You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell?” (Matthew 23:33)
These harsh words for people who were self-righteous and hypocritical needs to be taken seriously by all of us today as well!
A vast majority of Jewish people were so concerned with observing external rules and regulations – and living for themselves - that they completely missed the point of the law…
which was to drive them to a state of humility and dependance upon God’s grace and mercy.
This is what Paul warns Timothy about when he says that in the last days there will be people who are “Lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God – having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.”
Let us not make a similar – and tragic – mistake in our lives today.
Don’t allow pride and condescension to sever the 18-inch connection between your head and your heart.
Paul spends the remainder of chapter two talking about the outward act of circumcision.
Circumcision – as I’m sure you are all well aware – was a cutting away of flesh on male infant boys.
This act would be administered when the child was 8 days old in accordance with God’s directive that signified the mark of His covenant with the Jewish people – this went all the way back to Abraham.
God said to Abraham “This is my covenant with you and your descendants after you, the covenant you are to keep: Every male among you shall be circumcised. You are to undergo circumcision, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and you. For the generations to come every male among you who is eight days old must be circumcised…” (Genesis 17:10-12)
The act of circumcision was not a covenant in and of itself – rather - it was a physical sign of the covenant that God made with Abraham earlier in chapter 17 of Genesis.
Beginning in verse 4, God says to Abram (Abraham) “As for me, this is my covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations. No longer will you be called Abrahm, your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations.” (Genesis 17:4-5)
In many ways, circumcision for Jewish people is similar to what baptism is for believers today – those who have placed their faith and trust in Jesus Christ…and the new covenant that is in his blood.
The problem that Paul speaks of in Romans was that Jewish people were considering the act of circumcision alone to be something that placed them on solid spiritual footing before God.
Instead of looking at circumcision correctly – that it was a graphic symbol of the need for removing sin from one’s life in accordance to living within the Abrahamic Covenant – they had begun to view the act of circumcision as something that would convey salvation in and of itself.
Does this sound familiar when it comes to baptism today?
Have you ever asked someone their thoughts about whether or not they’ll be going to heaven after they die…. and they respond to you by saying “ Yep, I’ve been baptized, so I’m good to go…I’m going to heaven.”..?
This is the same general error in one’s thinking – just in reference to a different covenant.
In verse 29 of our passage for today (Romans 2:29) Paul gets to the point about what circumcision is really all about: “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….”
A circumcision of the heart…With God, It really has always been a matter of the heart.
It’s not about the specific act – its about what that act points toward that really matters.
The substance of pleasing God is obedience to His will, of which circumcision is but a symbolic reminder.
Lastly, the first 8 verses of Romans chapter three, Paul establishes a few truths regarding how Jews were to correctly view the Lord and His spiritual requirements of them.
In verse 1 (Romans 3:1) Paul reminds his fellow Jewish brethren that – despite their lackluster spiritual history - being a member of the house of Israel carried with it a great privilege.
Verse 2 (Romans 3:2) is a reminder that it was the Jewish people who were “Entrusted with the very words of God.”
What an awesome privilege to be the bearers of truth regarding almighty God – the author of life - the maker of heaven and earth!
And, because we are the church – the body of Christ – we have that same privilege today.
God has entrusted us with the privilege and the responsibility to know His Word and to carry the good news of the gospel to a world that is desperately seeking spiritual healing.
…a healing that can only come through Jesus Christ.
Let’s Pray.