Take my life and let it be consecrated Lord to Thee.
” I receive your worship which is good and right. That is what I seek from each one of my children, even if the words may seem more grand than the actions that follow. Nevertheless the desire to offer yourself and your body as a full act of worship is the way to enter and continue our relationship. There will be many areas which you may not be aware of yet, that actually hold you back from complete consecration. However the desire to give all of yourself is an important step, from there we can work together to the point where you will ultimately see and experience My glory while you receive yours. So welcome as you and your readers walk with me into the future.”
As we read Romans 2:17 – 29, Paul now turns to address the situation of the Jews in relation to God’s wrath and judgement.
There were two main things that gave the Jews their specific identity as God’s chosen people. 1. Circumcision, which was the entrance right to His covenant relationship that God had given Abraham. 2. The Law, which was given centuries later, to direct the covenant people how to live and express their relationship as an example to the pagan world.
So Paul challenges them: If they know all the benefits of obeying the law – a relationship with God (vs 17), know His will, and what is superior, because they are instructed in the law, being a guide to the blind, a light in the dark, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of infants, because of their knowledge of the law…… Stop there. Does that sound familiar? Is that not what we claim as the benefits of being in a relationship with God?
Continuing – if they know all these things why do they not practice them? Do they steal, practice adultery, seek idols? Brag about having the law yet openly breaking it causing God’s name to be blasphemed by those who watch. My unsaved partner once told me that he knew all the people who sit in the front row of the church on Sunday and he knows what they get up to during te week and used this as a reason not to take Christianity seriously.
Paul then turns to circumcision. Once again the charge is that they claim the identity that God has given them because they have been physically circumcised, yet their behaviour does not reflect that.
Ultimately Paul concludes with the the statement that to be a genuine Jew their hearts have to be circumcised….note: not by the written code but by the Spirit. Sound familiar? We can apply these thoughts to ourselves as part of a massive “Christian community”.
Paul is moving along to bring everyone, equally to the same hugely frightening conclusion, that everyone is equally culpable and under God’s wrath. He will drive this home in the first part of ch 3 which we will look at next week.
This passage brought home to me again how we might. Identify ourselves by a number of outward actions – belonging to and attending a church, talking Christ – talk, doing charitable things etc, expecting them to identify us as Christian. While what actually identifies us as Christian is our changed lives through the Spirit and fired by our ongoing relationship with God through Jesus, expressing itself outwardly by a supernatural love for our neighbours.
May God bless you all till next week.