Romans 2:17-29 Sermon Notes

Structurally, 2:17–29 forms both an internal chiasm (reverse parallelism) and sits at the center of a larger contrasting argument, connecting themes of law, judgment, and identity across Romans 1–3.

The immoral. The moralist. Now the Jew – If you call yourself one.

A Romans 2:17–20 (ESV) 17 But if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the law and boast in God 18 and know his will and approve what is excellent, because you are instructed from the law; 19 and if you are sure that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, 20 an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth—

If you call yourself a Jew – 1st mention in the letter.
Boast - He exposes three major sources of Jewish false security:
National Identity: "Because he was a Jew..." (Romans 2:17)
Possession of the Law: "Rest in the law..." (Romans 2:17)
Circumcision: "The symbol or sign of the Covenant" (Romans 2:25–29)
National Identity – False Security
Jew was the nationality. Heritage. Boasting in such. It really was a privilege.
Christian – we do the same. Cape Town, “Christian.” Simply meant “not-muslim.” (Unhelpful Label)
Micah 3:11 (ESV) 11 Its heads give judgment for a bribe; its priests teach for a price; its prophets practice divination for money; yet they lean on the Lord and say, “Is not the Lord in the midst of us? No disaster shall come upon us.”
Matthew 8:10–12 (ESV) 10 When Jesus heard this, he marveled and said to those who followed him, “Truly, I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith. 11 I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, 12 while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
Know His Will - Possession of the Law – False Security
Deuteronomy 4:8 (ESV) 8 And what great nation is there, that has statutes and rules so righteous as all this law that I set before you today?
It was a privilege and is – to know God’s will, and have His Word. / (v18 “Instructed” = Catechism)
John 5:45 (ESV) 45 Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you: Moses, on whom you have set your hope.
Guide to the Blind / Light to those in Darkness
Isaiah 49:6 (ESV) 6 he says: “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel; I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”
It was the calling and expectation that God’s people would lead the nations to God! Salt / Light.
Isaiah 49:9–10 (ESV) 9 saying to the prisoners, ‘Come out,’ to those who are in darkness, ‘Appear.’ They shall feed along the ways; on all bare heights shall be their pasture; 10 they shall not hunger or thirst, neither scorching wind nor sun shall strike them, for he who has pity on them will lead them, and by springs of water will guide them.`
Matthew 5:14 (ESV) 14 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.
Instructor - Teacher – False Security
Embodiment of – Knowledge and Truth (Form of, Sketch, Outline)
2 Timothy 3:5 (ESV) 5 having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.
Identity, Knowledge, Teach and Do. - These parallels exist today: people trust in heritage, religious rituals, or knowledge instead of true relationship with God. Many Christians today may trust baptism, church attendance, or other rites rather than genuine faith in Christ. In what are you trusting?
John MacArthur – “We are not secured by our heritage. You may have had Christian parents, you may have been born in a Christian hospital with a Christian nurse and a Christian doctor who used tools purchased from a Christian manufacturer. You may have been fed Christian baby food and don't be surprised if somebody doesn't come out with that now. We have everything else. That doesn't mean a thing. It's a matter of individual faith. But the church has been so confused by this through the years. Heritage is not a security.”

B Romans 2:21–23 (ESV) 21 you then who teach others, do you not teach yourself? While you preach against stealing, do you steal? 22 You who say that one must not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? 23 You who boast in the law dishonor God by breaking the law.

Teach others, We are a people that teach, by nature. Teacher should DO what he says.
Matthew 23:1–3 (ESV) Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, 2 “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat, 3 so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do. For they preach, but do not practice.
Isaiah 56:9–11 (ESV) 9 All you beasts of the field, come to devour— all you beasts in the forest. 10 His watchmen are blind; they are all without knowledge; they are all silent dogs; they cannot bark, dreaming, lying down, loving to slumber. 11 The dogs have a mighty appetite; they never have enough. But they are shepherds who have no understanding; they have all turned to their own way, each to his own gain, one and all.
Adultery?
Jeremiah 5:7 (ESV) 7 “How can I pardon you? Your children have forsaken me and have sworn by those who are no gods. When I fed them to the full, they committed adultery and trooped to the houses of whores.
Divorce one’s wife for any cause etc. - Adultery. Rampant. – Just like today!
How many pastors have fallen to this? - v23 this dishonors God.
Ezekiel 22:11–13 (ESV) 11 One commits abomination with his neighbor’s wife; another lewdly defiles his daughter-in-law; another in you violates his sister, his father’s daughter. 12 In you they take bribes to shed blood; you take interest and profit and make gain of your neighbors by extortion; but me you have forgotten, declares the Lord God. 13 “Behold, I strike my hand at the dishonest gain that you have made, and at the blood that has been in your midst.
Do You Steal? Do You Rob Temples? -
Acts 19:35–37 (NLT) 35 At last the mayor was able to quiet them down enough to speak. “Citizens of Ephesus,” he said. “Everyone knows that Ephesus is the official guardian of the temple of the great Artemis, whose image fell down to us from heaven. 36 Since this is an undeniable fact, you should stay calm and not do anything rash. 37 You have brought these men here, but they have stolen nothing from the temple and have not spoken against our goddess.
Matthew 21:13 (ESV) 13 He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.”
Boast in the Law but Break the Law – It’s absurd!
James 4:16–17 (ESV) 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. 17 So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin. (v23 this dishonors God.)

C Romans 2:24 (ESV) 24 For, as it is written, “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.”

The focal point of the passage. This behavior caused the ruining of God’s name around the world!
Isaiah 52:4–5 (LXX) The Lord Rescues Jerusalem 4 This is what the lord Lord says: “Formerly my people went down into Egypt to dwell there, and they were led to the Assyrians by force, 5 and now why are you here?” This is what the Lord says: “Because my people were taken for nothing, be impressed and wail.” This is what the Lord says: “Because of you my name is always blasphemed among the nations.”
Ezekiel 36:16–21 (ESV) The Lord’s Concern for His Holy Name 16 The word of the Lord came to me: 17 “Son of man, when the house of Israel lived in their own land, they defiled it by their ways and their deeds. Their ways before me were like the uncleanness of a woman in her menstrual impurity. 18 So I poured out my wrath upon them for the blood that they had shed in the land, for the idols with which they had defiled it. 19 I scattered them among the nations, and they were dispersed through the countries. In accordance with their ways and their deeds I judged them. 20 But when they came to the nations, wherever they came, they profaned my holy name, in that people said of them, ‘These are the people of the Lord, and yet they had to go out of his land.’ 21 But I had concern for my holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the nations to which they came.
Lamentations 2:15 (ESV) 15 All who pass along the way clap their hands at you; they hiss and wag their heads at the daughter of Jerusalem: “Is this the city that was called the perfection of beauty, the joy of all the earth?”
Paul’s instruction in the Churches – To prevent this from happening
1 Timothy 5:14 (ESV) 14 So I would have younger widows marry, bear children, manage their households, and give the adversary no occasion for slander.
1 Timothy 6:1 (ESV) Let all who are under a yoke as bondservants regard their own masters as worthy of all honor, so that the name of God and the teaching may not be reviled.
Titus 2:4–8 (ESV) 4 and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, 5 to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled. 6 Likewise, urge the younger men to be self-controlled. 7 Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, 8 and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us.
Psalm 50:16–23 (ESV) 16 But to the wicked God says: “What right have you to recite my statutes or take my covenant on your lips? 17 For you hate discipline, and you cast my words behind you. 18 If you see a thief, you are pleased with him, and you keep company with adulterers. 19 “You give your mouth free rein for evil, and your tongue frames deceit. 20 You sit and speak against your brother; you slander your own mother’s son. 21 These things you have done, and I have been silent; you thought that I was one like yourself. But now I rebuke you and lay the charge before you. 22 “Mark this, then, you who forget God, lest I tear you apart, and there be none to deliver! 23 The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me; to one who orders his way rightly I will show the salvation of God!”

B Romans 2:25–27 (ESV) 25 For circumcision indeed is of value if you obey the law, but if you break the law, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision. 26 So, if a man who is uncircumcised keeps the precepts of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? 27 Then he who is physically uncircumcised but keeps the law will condemn you who have the written code and circumcision but break the law.

Circumcision – A SIGN of being entered into a Covenant. False Security.
Romans 4:11 (ESV) 11 He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised.
Galatians 5:6 (ESV) 6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.
Deuteronomy 10:14–17 (ESV) 14 Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it. 15 Yet the Lord set his heart in love on your fathers and chose their offspring after them, you above all peoples, as you are this day. 16 Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn.
Deuteronomy 30:5–6 (ESV) 5 And the Lord your God will bring you into the land that your fathers possessed, that you may possess it. And he will make you more prosperous and numerous than your fathers. 6 And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.
Jeremiah 9:25–26 (ESV) 25 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will punish all those who are circumcised merely in the flesh— 26 Egypt, Judah, Edom, the sons of Ammon, Moab, and all who dwell in the desert who cut the corners of their hair, for all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in heart.”
Baptism – Similarities, not 1 to 1 with circumcision, but parallel.
1 Peter 3:21 (NLT) 21 And that water is a picture of baptism, which now saves you, not by removing dirt from your body, but as a response to God from a clean conscience. It is effective because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Jeremiah 31:31–34 (ESV) The New Covenant 31 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, 32 not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. 33 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34 And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

The opening of the Chaism.

The closing of the Chaism.

A Romans 2:28–29 (ESV) 28 For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. 29 But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God.

Praise (meaning of the name Judah) – Play on word – True Jew, Lives up to his name (Judah).
Psalm 51:6 (ESV) 6 Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.
The summary of all of this false sense of security. They had ALL of them.
National Identity – False Security
Know His Will - Possession of the Law – False Security
Guide to the Blind / Light to those in Darkness Instructor - Teacher – False Security
Circumcision, Baptism – False Security
The point – God ------ is blasphemed.
When our identity doesn’t align with our claim.
When our behavior doesn’t align with our call.
When our routine doesn’t align with our cognition/ our catechism.

1 Samuel 16:7 (ESV) 7 But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”
David’s Prayer - 1 Chronicles 29:17–18 (ESV) 17 I know, my God, that you test the heart and have pleasure in uprightness. In the uprightness of my heart I have freely offered all these things, and now I have seen your people, who are present here, offering freely and joyously to you. 18 O Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, our fathers, keep forever such purposes and thoughts in the hearts of your people, and direct their hearts toward you.
John 4:23–24 (ESV) 23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”