As I begin, I just want to say that the Book of Romans is deep! Given that fact there is no way a simple blog entry will do each chapter justice. I pray that the Holy Spirit will guide each of our studies and lead us into all truth.
Last week I did not mention the second half of Chapter 1, verses 18-32 and that was for two reasons. One was that I ran out of time and the blog was too long, second is that I feel that passage relates more to the beginning of Chapter 2 than it does to Paul’s introduction in the beginning of Chapter 1. Remember in the original texts there were no chapter markers, the chapter markers were put in place by the translators to help us navigate quickly.
Verse 1 “You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things.”
This is an incredibly important verse and is the connector between what I believe is simply Paul’s description of the human condition without God in the end of Romans 1. Paul gives us what the world looks like without the light of Christ. Without Christ foolishness seems wise, light seems dark, truth confused with a lie. In this condition men will naturally pursue things that are contrary to nature and God himself. Think about things we do when we are without light…have you ever walked down the hall with your arms stretched out in front of you feeling your way around, shuffling your feet trying to avoid stubbing your toe and running into things. That’s what living life in darkness looks like, it’s crazy. Imagine living life that way when the lights were on! Someone who sees the light will be able to navigate much easier.
I want to state for the record I don’t think Paul’s purpose was to create a list of sins for the Roman Church to avoid but rather to give an objective history that human beings are hopelessly lost without Christ. Here’s the deal, if you think this is a list of sins to try to avoid, by your own efforts with intention of becoming pleasing to God, you may say to yourself, well I’m doing good on 8 of the 9 so at least I’m better than Joe Smoe over there and get puffed up with a false sense of righteousness. I want to make it clear that I’m not saying God is somehow okay with the things Paul mentions, no, God hates these things. The point however is not to inform people of a list of things God hates, it is to demonstrate the wretchedness of the human condition, that’s all of our condition’s without Christ.
Thus the connector Scripture in 2:1 where he says “Therefore”, meaning given what I have just demonstrated that humankind is lost without Jesus, don’t get excited and start judging your neighbor because no matter how much knowledge of God’s likes or dislikes one might have, we are still lost without Jesus.
So when our neighbor down the street chose to get smashed on New Year’s Eve, we have no right to feel superior or judge because we went to church and prayed the New Year in. No, he’s doing what is natural for someone without Christ, someone without light will make some pretty bad decisions in the dark. The opposite is true, the person who made a Christ centered choice was just naturally doing what someone should do when they are living in the light.
I wish I could phrase this right…People aren’t better because they made a good choice and avoided running into the couch when the lights are on. It was the light that shined on the obstacle that should get the credit. Neither is God’s purpose for us to run around in the dark, when light is available, to demonstrate our superior memory of where the obstacles are. No we are to live in the light, and make decisions based on that light but never fooling ourselves that we would be somehow okay and able to make it if the light was gone.
That said, we must live our lives in accordance to the light. If we choose to pursue a lifestyle ignoring the light we will experience consequences. Just as if I walked around in daylight with my eyes closed. In Romans 2:6-8 Paul says that each individual will be rewarded or payed according to their actions. Ultimately eternal life for one, and wrath and anger for the other. That’s serious folks!
To me Paul just continues to hammer down this theme that there is no salvation other than living our lives in the light through faith in Christ Jesus. He had to take extra time to explain to the trap the Jewish Christians experienced because they had previous instruction with the Law of Moses. In verses 17-28 Paul tries to remind them that just because they have the law “the embodiment of knowledge and truth” doesn’t mean they can fulfill it or please God through it. Please don’t get confused here in verse 25, when Paul says “circumcision has value if you observe the law” the rest of the verse should clearly indicate that it is impossible to follow the law. In the end Paul says that the person who is pleasing to God is the one who is following him from the inside, which may mean Spirit led or continually led through life following the light given by the Spirit. A “circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code.”
