Religious Guilt Based on the Evidence of our Actions...

This week, we are looking at a section of a letter in our Bibles where Paul addresses whether or not those who consider themselves religious are guilty of having a problem when it comes to a relationship with God. Yesterday, we saw Paul reveal for us the timeless reality that we are guilty when live life as though we can achieve religious excellence. In Romans 2:21-3:8, we see the Apostle Paul, like an excellent prosecuting attorney, reveal three pieces of evidence to prove that we are guilty when we live life as though we can achieve religious excellence. We see first piece of evidence revealed for us in Romans 2:21-24. Let’s look at those verses together:

you, therefore, who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that one shall not steal, do you steal? You who say that one should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who boast in the Law, through your breaking the Law, do you dishonor God? For "THE NAME OF GOD IS BLASPHEMED AMONG THE GENTILES BECAUSE OF YOU," just as it is written.

In these verses, we see the Apostle Paul ask those who would consider themselves religious a string of questions designed to reveal the first piece of evidence that proves our guilt when we try to live life as though we can achieve religious excellence. And that first piece of evidence is that we are guilty based on the evidence of our actions. Paul turns to the Jewish religious person and asks “as a religious person who finds security and well being in the list of rules and behaviors you keep and who teaches others that they must follow your list of behaviors to be right with God; as a religious person who critically examines and judges others based on the list that you keep; I have a question. Do you keep your own list?"

Paul then focuses on four of the Ten Commandments that are contained in the Law or Torah: the 8th commandment which is Do not steal; the 7th commandment which is do not commit adultery; and the first two commandments which involve idolatry, which is worshipping something other than God as God. Paul is asking “have you ever broken one of these rules on your list of what it means to be religiously right with God?” And for the Jewish religious person, to violate one of these commandments would be to break the very list that they boasted or took pride in. To violate one of these commandments would undercut the very well being or security that this list was supposed to provide them when it came to their relationship with God.

And for the Jewish religious person, to violate one of these commandments would deprive God of the honor or respect that He deserved. Paul exposes that reality for the Jewish religious person in verse 24 by quoting a section of a letter found in Ezekiel 36:16-20. In this section of the Bible, the prophet Ezekiel condemns the Jewish people for living lives that failed to follow the Law and resulted in the non-Jewish nations that surrounded them viewing God as no different than the false gods that they worshipped. Instead, these non-Jewish nations spoke of God in a very demeaning and denigrating way. And in the same way today, when we try to live a life as though we can achieve religious excellence based on what we do for God, we end up depriving God of the honor or respect He deserves.

You see a religious person who bases their security and well being with God on what they do for God inevitably ends up in one of two places, pride or despair. When the religious is keeping his list and judging others based on his list, he becomes spiritually proud and arrogant. And this spiritual pride and arrogance deprives God of the honor or respect He deserves. When the religious person fails to keep his list that he takes such pride in, the result is despair. Despair because they are unable to keep the list, they are unable to do what it takes to be right with God. And their failure to keep their list results in God being deprived of the honor and respect He deserves.

Maybe you consider yourself a religious person and you can totally relate to what you just read. You find yourself riding the roller coaster of pride and despair as a result of your efforts to keep the list of all the things you need to do to be right with God. And it is the failure to keep that list by our selfish and sinful actions that reveals the reality that we are guilty when we try to live life as though we can achieve religious excellence.

Paul then continues by revealing a second piece of evidence that proves our guilt when we try to live life as though we can achieve religious excellence in Romans 2:25-29. We will look at that piece of evidence tomorrow.

In the meantime, does your religious actions match your religious list?