Romans 2:17-24 Christ Fulfills the Law!

Romans 2:17-24  Now you, if you call yourself a Jew; if you rely on the law and boast in God; if you know his will and approve of what is superior because you are instructed by the law;  if you are convinced that you are a guide for the blind, a light for those who are in the dark, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of little children, because you have in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth— you, then, who teach others, do you not teach yourself?  You who preach against stealing, do you steal?  You who say that people should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery?  You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?  You who boast in the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law?  As it is written: “God’s name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.”

In the above passage, Paul addresses the Jews and their religious knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors.  The Jews relied on God’s law to save them, boasting that the law revealed God’s truth to humanity.  Through the law they could understand God’s nature: his holiness, justice, and perfection.  For them, the law sketched out the profile and essence of the Creator, removing him from the darkness of the unknown into the light of their reality where they as humans existed.  By knowing these truths about God and his nature, they believed they could teach the world about this wonderful Creator who chose them as his people: For you are a people holy to the Lord your God.  The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession.  (Deuteronomy 7:6)  God gave the Jews the law, his truth, in the wilderness.  However, Paul says, since you have this precious law and since you know so much about the law and claim that it is the only truth, why do you not follow the dictates of the law in your own lives.  Why are you still lawbreakers, knowing that the law condemns lawbreakers?  You who preach against stealing, do you steal?  You who say that people should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery?  You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?  You who boast in the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law?  He says, of course you claim to conform to the law, but your lives, your conversations, your attitudes reflect another story.  Your lack of adherence to his law is an affront to God, causing Gentiles to scoff at the Jewish God.  God’s name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.  Paul believed the Jewish people were eloquent in describing the basic tenets of the law and in defending the law; however, they seemingly were unable to satisfy the law’s commandments because of their Adam nature.  The law is good; it revealed not only the nature of God, but the nature of mankind.  As surely as it paints God as good and righteous, it concomitantly paints Adam's nature as self-serving and wayward.  Paul emphatically states: the Jews are not able to fulfill God’s demands on them.  Paul understood well the contradiction between the flesh and the law, for he was a Pharisee of good standing.  He tried to fulfill every jot and tittle of the law.  Paul states: If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless.  (Philippians 3:4-6)  He thought of himself as a righteous Jew, without fault in his attempts to follow the law’s dictates.  But as a Christian, Paul found in himself a spirit that ran directly counter to the law’s demands: We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin.  I do not understand what I do.  For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.  And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good.  As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me.  (Romans 7:14-17)  The law is good; consequently, it highlights sin’s hold on the corrupt Adam spirit. The law’s demands reveal why mankind without Christ cannot take hold of eternal life, for the law shows the cancer within mankind.  The law condemns man to death because the law cannot remove the cancer of sin or release mankind to serve God forever.

Paul speaks mainly to Jewish people in today’s scriptures, but he also talks to the Gentile, who has developed his own laws in his conscience.  We all have laws that we follow, even though they are not scripted, written down somewhere.  We try to follow these laws judiciously; however, we often break these personal laws as often as others break the written law.  “I will never treat my wife or husband like that again.”  “I will never again get that out-of-control.”  I will never lie again.”  “I will never gossip about him again.”  “I will never again envy someone else’s goods or lifestyle.”  “ I will never complain to God again about anything.”  “I will always obey the speed limits.”  Our list can go on and on.  The laws we establish in our minds are good: they are there to govern our behavior in positive ways, pointing to a better, more loving and caring life.  When we fail because our old nature goes its own way, we condemn ourselves.  We wonder why we seem weak and helpless to implement these good laws into our lives.  As Christians, we know our failings cause other people to discount the God we claim to serve.  Rather than harvesting people for God, we sow seeds of discord and unbelief when we fail to do what we and others know is right.  And we know these failures are sin: If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.  (James 4:17)  Sometimes we even lose our children and loved ones to the world’s ways of living because of our failure to follow our own laws of how to treat people.  Laws, whether in our conscience or written in God’s Word will never free us from the Adam nature and its tendency to go its own way.  Paul found this sin abounding within himself.  He cries out in Romans 7, who can free me from this bondage?  His answer is clear: Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.  For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering.  And so he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.  (Romans 8:1-4)

Paul tells the Jewish people that they need to put their faith in a Savior who has fulfilled the righteous requirements of the law.  He also implies to the Gentiles that they too need a Savior who is completely righteous, who never failed to obey his own laws and the Father’s will.  Jesus always did what the Father wanted him to do.  From the time He was baptized in the Jordan River, He did the works of God as the Holy Spirit directed him.  We who are in Christ are free to do the will of God, free to love and serve people.  We are free to hear the voice of God within us.  We are free indeed.  When Paul wrote to the church at Galatia because they were going back to the law, he said, It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.  Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.  (Galatians 5:1)  We are no longer condemned by the script of the law or by the laws in our minds.  They will only condemn us, not free us because when we depend upon our own abilities we will fail.  Instead, when we live according to the Spirit, the Spirit gives us life and power to overcome the world, the flesh, and the devil.  Jesus has saved us; He has made us part of the family of God.  Our nature has been changed.  We love people.  We care for people.  We try to be good.  Well, how is that different from following the law?  The law keeps us focussed on our failures and away from conversing with God.  When we feel condemned, we isolate ourselves.  We tend to work on being better, but when we follow the Spirit, we know we are in the family of God, and we have fellowship with God at ALL TIMES.  We know He will strengthen our souls through Jesus Christ.  We know Jesus will always be our advocate.  He will always defend us through his blood that He shed for our redemption.  Yes, we are perfect at all times because of Jesus.  We have eternal life within us because of Jesus.  We have a life of victory because of Jesus.  Sin we might.  As Christians, we are sorrowful and will confess our sins, but we can say as Paul told Timothy, I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until that day.  (2 Timothy 1:12)  So, we will boast in Christ, not in ourselves, not in our abilities, not in our strength.  We live not by some code, either written or spoken.  May people come to Christ through our testimony.  We live by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord and by the leading of the Holy Spirit.