Law vs. Inward As A Means Of Salvation

In Romans 2:17-29, Paul continues his thoughts on the impartiality of God and how all human beings are in dire need of God’s mercy. In essence, he draws a comparison between resorting to law for salvation (it condemns) and resorting to the inward for salvation (it saves).

Regardless of what one’s relationship to the law of God is, that relationship in and of itself, will not save man. The Gentiles will not be saved by their ignorance of this law and the Jews will not be saved by their possession of this law because the only way to be saved by relationship to law is to keep it perfectly (Galatians 3:10; James 2:10). There are no exceptions. God does not show favoritism. He is impartial.

Essentially, what Paul does in vv.17-24 is spoil the Jews’ hope in the law. I don’t think he is saying it is irrelevant in that they shouldn’t even bother to follow it. Of course God wants His people to follow His commands—always! But Paul is trying to get them to understand that their knowledge and possession of it is not the source of salvation. He forces these Jewish Christians to see the hypocrisy of their ways. He exposes their own sinfulness to point out that they are not perfect themselves. So the logic behind what Paul is writing here, and this has tremendous application for us too, is this: if you claim that the law saves you, and you are not obeying it (and none of us are completely), then where does that leave you? According to v.24, law-breaking dishonors God. Our sin not only is an insult to God, but ultimately causes others to sin as well. The Jews’ sin indeed impacted the Gentiles. When we sin in a community filled with non-believers, we make God’s name look bad. We fail in our efforts to enhance the reputation of Him (and His church).

Thank God we are not saved based on our adherence to His law. May God have mercy on us if we don’t try our best (Romans 6:1ff). However, let us also understand that no matter how close we are to doing so perfectly, we still fall short and therefore cannot be saved by our relationship to God’s law.

In this final section of chapter 2 (vv.25-29), it seems that Paul knew that the final straw the Jews would seek to grasp was circumcision. After all, circumcision is what made the Jews God’s special people, right? This was the sign! The token of covenant between God and His people. See Acts 15 for a lesson on what the Jews thought about circumcision and the high regard they had for it, even after Christianity commenced. They wanted to bind this on the Gentiles after they were added to the church. They looked upon their circumcision as concrete evidence that their relationship with God protected them.

And so Paul is not condemning circumcision, but merely doing with circumcision what he already did with the law—showing that it will serve as no basis for special treatment come Judgment Day. We have to understand the lesson here because it is too important for us to miss. The internal is the measure of salvation, not the external. This is where Paul now begins to hint at the need for grace. If not for grace, we are stuck with law as our system of salvation—a system in which of all us would be doomed.

By the way, “letter” as it is used in v.29 means “written code.” True spiritual circumcision is a matter of the heart being right, not about external law-keeping. The spiritual or inner circumcision, according to Paul, is the Holy Spirit working in the heart of the Christian—that is the strengthening of our hearts (John 3:3, 5; Acts 2:38; Titus 3:5-8; Colossians 2:9-14).

Paul’s final words in chapter 2 are “His praise is not from man but from God.” It should be a great source of comfort that God has the ability to discern hearts. 1 John 3:20 reminds us that God is greater than our hearts. He can discern and we can’t. And its high time we quit thinking we can take on that role. When you keep this entire letter in its context, God through Paul is sending a strong message to these Christians: “You cannot see what is on the inside like I can see. So stop being critical and thinking you are better because I’m telling you, you’re not—you all fall short of law and therefore you’re all going to need something greater than law to save you if you are going to be saved.”

I think the application to us is obvious. We need to let God do the judging and worry about our own efforts to live for Him. This does not mean we can’t help each other out and encourage one another. This doesn’t mean we should not go to one another out of love and concern for each other when the need arises. It simply means that when we do so, it needs to be done with a humble disposition that recognizes that we too fall short. Our job is to lovingly reach out to and help others (and even correct, if necessary). God’s job is to pass judgment. And there is a big, big difference between these two roles!

In the first 20 verses of Romans 3, Paul continues to elaborate on the fact that all are deserving of eternal punishment, which is why we cannot be saved by law (v.20). We will pick up with this portion of this great epistle in a couple of weeks after I return from camp.

Peace!