Am I a True Jew?

The Gospel for Religious People

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Text:  Romans 2:25-29; Romans 9:30-33

I want to you to consider a question that has arisen in my mind more than once over the years: “Why is it so hard for a sincerely religious, outwardly moral person to embrace the gospel, particularly when they are actively practicing their religion?”

When you share the gospel with people like this, they struggle to embrace the idea that they need the gospel Paul teaches in Romans. In fact, when you press them on this point, they often believe they’re not in any danger of damnation at all, even though they all acknowledge that they sin from time to time, sometimes grievously.   

The reason they struggle this way is simple – at the end of the day, they don’t believe they are truly lost. While they may often admit that they sin, they don’t honestly believe God will send them to hell for those sins.

The reasons they provide for this confidence generally stem from the idea that, even though they commit some of the same sins as others in the world, they share a special relationship with God through the religion they practice and belong to, which they trust will ultimately save them from God’s wrath on the Day of Judgment.  

And, they typically point to something specific, often a defining religious ritual, as evidence that they truly belong to the group that God will welcome into His kingdom.

This is precisely the type of person Paul addresses in Romans 2:1-24 – a self-righteous Jew who is thankful he is not like the immoral, idolatrous Gentiles in chapter one and who is confident that God will welcome him into His kingdom because he is a Jew (his circumcision) who observes the Law of Moses (his works). In other words, these individuals are confident that God approves of them, despite significant discrepancies between what Moses commanded and how they lived. 

At the end of a challenging and straightforward conversation with card-carrying members of the chosen nation of God, Paul made a very difficult statement: Only “true Jews” will be approved by God, justified before Him, and permitted to enter His kingdom. This brings us to the vital question: who is a true Jew, and how does one become one?

Paul’s answer to this question is found in five key realities in our text this morning that form a powerful argument: a true Jew is someone whose heart has been circumcised by God and who is approved by God because he has approved of Jesus. 

I. You Must Face an ____________ Truth – Everyone Needs God’s Righteousness (2:3-5; 3:9-10)

• The ____________ pagan idolater who looks to idols needs the righteousness of God (1:18, 32)
  Romans 1:18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
  Romans 1:32 Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them. 

• The ____________ Jew who looks to Moses needs the righteousness of God (2:3-5)
  Romans 2:3–5 Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God? 4 Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? 5 But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed. 

• The ____________ ____________ is guilty before God and will be held accountable to God for their sin.
  Romans 3:9–10 What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, 10 as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; (Ps 14:1-3; 53:1-3).

II. You Must Realize the ____________ of External Religious ____________
Romans 2:25 For circumcision indeed is of value if you obey the law, but if you break the law, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision. 

If everyone is guilty before God for suppressing the truth and under His divine wrath for breaking His law (whether it is ingrained in their moral nature or written down and placed into their hands), how can a person escape God’s wrath and enter into His kingdom?

Paul’s Jewish readers would have immediately replied in this way: “The one who is circumcised will escape God’s wrath and enter His kingdom because He approves of them because they belong to the nation He chose for Himself! And the signature mark that guarantees this for us is a religious marker that God gave to Abraham as a sign and that Moses commanded we do on the 8th day after our birth – our circumcision!”

However, Paul argues that circumcision is valuable only if the circumcised individual obeys the Law fully and perfectly. Furthermore, any disobedience to the Law invalidates the benefits and revokes the privileges associated with this religious marker. (2:25) 

The essence of being a true Jew is not something outward, like physical circumcision; rather, it is inward and spiritual. It occurs in the heart. Being a true Jew is not an ethnic identity, but a spiritual reality!  

Therefore, if an outward religious marker, such as circumcision, does not make a person a true Jew, how does one actually become one?

III. You Must Embrace the Surprising ___________of Religious Expectation
Romans 2:26–27 So, if a man who is uncircumcised keeps the precepts of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? 27 Then he who is physically uncircumcised but keeps the law will condemn you who have the written code and circumcision but break the law. 

How does a person like this become a true Jew?

Answer 1:  Physical circumcision changes nothing regarding his position before God or his eternal destiny.  

Answer 2: But, if he consistently obeys the precepts of the law, God will view his uncircumcision as genuine, valid circumcision in His sight.

Answer 3:  This uncircumcised keeper of the Law will one day condemn you who are circumcised who violate the written law of God!

Which gives rise to two massive questions:

1.  Will uncircumcised people (Gentiles) really judge circumcised people (Jews) on Judgment Day?
2. If the nation to whom God gave the Law (the circumcision) could not keep it, how is it possible that those to whom the Law was not given (the uncircumcision) are able to keep it in ways that truly please God?

The answer is truly astonishing –They can keep the Law of God because God has given them true circumcision when He circumcised their hearts! So, if being a true Jew requires this kind of spiritual circumcision, how does one circumcise their heart?

IV. You Must Experience the ____________ of True Spiritual ____________
Romans 2:28–29 For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. 29 But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God. 

• Understanding Circumcision
  • Physical circumcision was always intended to be the outward marker of an internal, spiritual reality.
• The Importance of Spiritual Circumcision to Pleasing God
  • Exhorted by Moses – “Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn!” (Dt. 10:16)
  • Provided by God – “And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your sould, that you may live!” (Dt. 30:6)
  • Disobedience resulted in judgment regardless of physical circumcision – “Circumcise yourselves to the Lord; remove the foreskin of your heart, O men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem; lest my wrath go forth like fire, and burn with none to quench it, because of the evil of your deeds!” (Jer 4:4).

• The Nature and Source of True Circumcision
  But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter
  • Internal on the heart as opposed to external in the body.
  • Accomplished by the Spirit of God rather than by human hands in accordance with Moses.
  • Results in a rebirth from above (John 3:1-8), a new heart, and a fresh power from the Holy Spirit. (Jer. 31:33; Ezekiel 36:25-27).
  • Performed exclusively by Jesus after His incarnation, death, resurrection, and ascension.  (Col. 2:11)
  • Available to anyone who repents of sin and responds to the gospel with obedient faith in Christ.
  • Verified by a joyful, energized, faithful obedience to the moral expectations of the Law! (Rom. 1:17 – “the righteous shall live by faith.”)

Which brings us to the final reality Paul wants his reader to embrace:

V. You Must Look To The ____________ of True ____________
Romans 2:29c His praise is not from man but from God. 

• True Jews earnestly desire and zealously seek God’s approval more than that of men!
• The only path to being a true Jew is to receive a circumcision of the heart from God, and the only one authorized by God to perform heart circumcision is Jesus Christ.  

• Anyone who desires this circumcision and all its immense benefits can receive it if they believe in the good news about Jesus announced in the Gospel!
  Listen to how Paul states this in Col 2:9-14:  For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, 10 and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. 11 In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. 13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. 

Conclusion:  What does this mean for a religious person like me?

• While outward religious markers like circumcision or baptism are valuable in many ways, they aren’t sufficient for entering the kingdom! 
• The requirement for entry is a different kind of religious marker—not the outward circumcision performed by hands according to the letter, but the inward circumcision of the heart according to the Spirit!
• You recognized “true Jews” in Paul’s day because they believed that Jesus of Nazareth is the promised Messiah and had turned from their sins (pagan idolatry or self-reliant righteousness). They embraced Him as their Savior and joyfully and obediently submit to Him as Lord over their lives.

• In fact, this is how you recognize a true Jew today! 
  • They love Jesus!
  • They live for Jesus!
  • They are not ashamed to be identified as His disciples.
  • And they want to tell everyone around them about Jesus! 
• Are you a true Jew of whom God approves?