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There once was a man who played guitar. He was highly gifted, and his talents were renowned in the community. Restaurants booked him for live music attractions. Schools hired him for student concerts. Churches sought him for their music teams. Even funeral homes employed him for memorial services. One funeral home contacted him to play for an unknown homeless man who died. There wouldn’t be many people present, but the funeral home wanted to honor this man who had a hard life. The funeral director told the musician the gravesite would be towards the back of the cemetery, and actually through a wooded area to an open field, since it was a pauper’s grave.

On that day, the guitarist was running a few minutes late. And the typical musician wasn’t good with tardiness or directions. So, he wandered through the cemetery attempting to find the gravesite. Eventually, he saw across a field a few men with shovels finishing placing dirt in a ground hole. He thought his tardiness missed the hearse and funeral attendant. So, he wandered to the dirt covered hole and began to play his guitar. “Amazing Grace” had never sounded so sweet. The shovel laborers were inspired, so they dropped their shovels and gathered around to listen. The musician played his heart and soul, and the shovel laborers wept. After the musician finished, he packed up his guitar and started walking back to his truck.

The shovel laborers put their hats back on and began talking to each other. The guitarist overheard their communication, saying, “That was amazing. I never saw anything like that before and I’ve been digging septic tanks for over 20 years.”

By nature, men do not like to admit they’re lost, or if they’re standing in a mess. Romans 1 reminds us how lost and messed up we are apart from the gospel grace of Jesus Christ. Paul spends the first few chapters of this book making us see and feel the lostness in our soul that has caused us to be separated from God. To discover divine rescue and delightful grace, we must first have an accurate assessment of our human nature.

And the typical response of human nature to deal with our lostness is to become religious. We think, “Ok, I’ll do better.”
“Fine, I’ll go to church.”
Or, “If I have to, I’ll stop ___.”

But Romans 2-3 reveal 4 reasons why the religious approach still fails against God.

To discover divine rescue and delightful grace, we must first have an accurate assessment of our human nature.

EXAMINE Romans 2-3 Rescued By Relationships[1]

Religion creates hypocritical standards.

Paul is writing to Romans, and thus far, Jewish believers are likely in full agreement with his descriptions about ungodly rebels and unrighteous sinners. However, Paul includes the Jews in this depraved description who attempt to use their religion as righteousness. Paul indicts their judgmental mindset.

2:1, 3 “For in passing judgment on another, you condemn yourself because you practice the very same things… Do you suppose… that you will escape God’s judgment?”

The Jews were like the Pharisees who preached holiness but practiced hypocritically. When looking at God’s law, they used binoculars to magnify the sins of others but they failed to look in the mirror to see their own flaws and failures.

And we all have an inner Pharisee. We think that our sin is not as severe or should be overlooked by God. We think of ourselves as better than others and compare ourselves with terrible standards. Why do we compare the deeds of others to depraved dictators like Hitler, but compare our own sins to a simple miscalculation?

The standard by which we are all judged is God’s standard. Instead of comparing ourselves horizontally to one another, we must evaluate our life vertically, starting with God’s 10 commandments.

1. You shall have no other gods before Yahweh. In other words, nothing else is more important or joyful to you than Jesus.
2. You shall not create earthly idols or worship profane images. In other words, you have never reimagined God according to your own conceited prejudices or comfortable preferences.
3. You shall not take God’s name in vain. In other words, you’ve never complained or cursed God. And, you’ve never take credit for something you didn’t create, or never blamed someone for something they had no control over.
4. You shall remember and keep the Sabbath holy. Ok… I’ll grant you ½ credit if you’re at church today, but what about that Sabbath implies rest/enjoyment in God for every day?
5. You shall honor your parents. So, you’ve never spoken condescendingly toward your parents and have always obeyed their rules?
6. You shall not murder. For those of you thinking, finally – “I’m good and scored a point.” Not so fast. Jesus explained that having a bad attitude or being angry at someone, and certainly hating another is just as sinful as murder in God’s eyes (Mt 5:21-22). So, while you may not have murdered anyone, have you wished someone to fail or delighted in someone’s downfall?
7. You shall not commit adultery. Again, you might think you’ve scored a point. But Jesus taught that lust of the mind and desires of the heart cause us to be emotionally unfaithful (Mt 5:27-28). So, if you’ve never entertained the idea of escaping your marriage or fantasized being with someone else, but just a single thought or wayward glance makes us guilty.
8. You shall not steal. Are you still hoping to gain credit? Be honest. Have you copied answers on a test, illegally copied music, wasted your employers time by being on social media, or even taken a pen that didn’t belong to you?
9. You shall not lie. You’ve never bent the truth or withheld the full story to make yourself appear better than you are? You’ve never broken an agreement or failed to fulfill a promise made?
10. You shall not covet. This means that you’ve never been jealous of someone’s abilities or appearance, desirous toward possessions or positions, and have always been grateful and fully content for what you have and where you are in life.

If you’re like me, your score is zero. And newsflash, if you score 0 of 10, that’s not a passing grade. This means that we are far worse than we ever thought, and no matter how religious we think we have been, we still fall short.

We are far worse than we ever thought, and no matter how religious we think we have been, we still fall short.

Religion camouflages hypocritical motives.

The sad reality is that even when we do the right thing, we still can do it the wrong way or with selfish motives. While we can please people with external actions, God knows our heart and reasons why we perform. Paul explains that our works must be done with the purest of motives for God’s glory and not our own.

2:8 “those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth and practice unrighteousness, there will be wrath”

Illus: Imagine you’re on vacation and you meet a man at a hotel. He’s friendly and he realizes you are staying in the room next to him. So, he tips the bellhop to carry your bags to the room. He prepays for your meals. And you think this man is one of the kindest and generous persons you’ll ever meet. However, you discover that the woman going in and out of his room each day of your vacation is not his wife but someone else’s wife, and that he’s married to another woman too. He knows you know and asks you to keep his secret. Do you understand the man’s prior good deeds were done with deeply deceptive and selfish motives?

The same is true of us. In the larger context of life before God, all our good deeds and tokens of kindness have at least some hint of self-interest to camouflage who we really are.

Religion circumvents the root cause of sin.

2:14-15 “For when Gentiles who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them”

Paul reminds us that the core issue is not religious rules but broken and selfish hearts.
Paul’s argument is that there are sometimes we do what is right and even with the right motives, but that in itself is a reminder that humans have an innate law written on our hearts – each of us have a conscience knowing good and evil, right and wrong, truth and falsehood. So, that even
our righteous deeds are an indictment on our rebellious hearts because we don’t act 100% righteous in 100% of circumstances.

The heart of the matter is the heart, which is contaminated by our environment, corrupt by selfishness, and deviant with sinful rebellion against God.

Religion caters to repetitive cycles of humanity.  

This reason gets a little complicated, so hang with me and as they say, “Put your thinking cap on.”

2:22 “You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?”

At first, Paul sounds confusing. He’s not accusing the religious Jews of breaking and entering temples to steal their treasures. His reasoning is that religious people profess to hate idols. The word usage is actually provoking: βδελύσσομαι / βδέω, which means “to break wind,” and words denoting a smell. In other words, it’s turning away from something on account of the stench, and thus to abhor, detest.^[3] So, religious people go to a temple to worship for the goal of receiving what they want from their god. Things like wealth, health, position, possessions. In essence, these people attempt to rob God by using Him as a spiritual means to their selfish end. Religious people view God as useful not beautiful. But when something is beautiful to us, we seek it for its own sake – and this is what God wants from us.  

How can we discern if we are robbing God in this manner?

• Are you religious in some regular manner of reading Scripture, attending church, and overall spiritual disciplines? This fits most Christians – hopefully!
• Now, do you get angry when God doesn’t bless your path – your relationships, your decisions, your promotion, your circumstances? You find yourself thinking: “God, I’m doing what you want. Why are you not doing your part?

Religious people view God as useful not beautiful. But when something is beautiful to us, we seek it for its own sake – and this is what God wants from us.  

3:1-8 “¹ Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision? ² Much in every way. To begin with, the Jews were entrusted the oracles of God.

Paul asks, “So, what is the advantage of being religious? What is the value of getting baptized?” Then Paul answers, “The value is that you have the Scriptures.” In other words, when you’re living in darkness, having a flashlight isn’t as good as it turning daylight, but you are forever grateful to see your feet. God’s word is the lamp to your feet (Ps 119:105). God’s word helps us to admit we’re lost, then becomes the map for how to course correct.

³ What if some were unfaithful? Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? ⁴ By no means! Let God be true though every one were a liar, as it is written: ‘Though you may be justified in your words, and prevail when you are judged.’

Paul asks another question: “What if some religious friends set a wrong example? Does the bad behavior of religious people negate the truth of Christianity?” No way! Why judge Jesus by the behavior of Judas? – – Do you judge all restaurants by a poor experience of one? If not, then why skip church because you were offended by another? – –

Are you understanding Paul’s thinking?

In v.4 he quotes Ps51 regarding God being justified in judging. The context is King David, after his downfall of adultery and murder of the woman’s husband to hide his impregnating her. His private sin becomes public information. And, so David repents in Ps51. So, if God did not abandon David after his unfaithfulness then, God’s faithfulness can still be trusted.

⁵ But if our unrighteousness serves to show the righteousness of God, what shall we say? That God is unrighteous to inflict wrath on us? (I speak in a human way)
⁶ By no means! For then, how could God judge the world?
⁷ But if through my lie God’s truth abounds to his glory, why am I still being condemned as a sinner? ⁸ And why not do evil that good may come?… Their condemnation is just.

Rounding out Paul’s questions in this chapter, he states, “If God remains faithful and is glorified by forgiving our sin – either God is wrong for punishing us; or if being bad makes God look good, then we will do much wrong, so God gets much praise.” Yet, we know such thinking is in error. As Paul states in v.8 “their condemnation is just.”

In other words, 3:10 “None is righteous, no, not one”

APPLY/THINK

The biggest conundrum with religion is that we’re drowning in the question: “Have I done enough?” We can keep asking this question, but we’ll never have our head above water to hear an answer, and eventually you’ll sink in your sin. Our hope isn’t in swimming harder or floating longer, but instead from an external rescue. Religion exhausts you but a relationship with Jesus will save you.

3:21 “²¹ But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it – ²² the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: ²³ for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, ²⁴ and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus ²⁵ whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.”

The gospel of Jesus is the bad news of drowning without any way of reaching land, matched with the good news of looking up to see a lifeline and God saying, “I’ve got you. You’re going to live if you quit punching the lifeline and just let me pull you in.”

While the gospel is for the unbeliever, it is also good news for the believer. Perhaps you are here today, and you feel like you have let God down. Remember this: You were never holding God up. His grace is sufficient to bring you back, replace your feet on solid ground, and renew your spirit and joy.

Perhaps you are here today, and you feel like you have let God down. Remember this: You were never holding God up.

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[1] As stated in beginning of this series, there is some content loosely adapted from J.D. Greear’s Essential Christianity. Full confession, this message is more tight/closer to Greear’s content in chapter 4, but certainly not in full.

[2] See: https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/essay/the-clarity-of-scripture/ https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/essay/approaching-biblical-problems/

^[3] Leon Morris, The Epistle to the Romans, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Leicester, England: W.B. Eerdmans; Inter-Varsity Press, 1988).