Who are the true Christians? (Romans 2:17-29)

Who are the true Christians?

 

 

[Romans 2:17-29]

 

 

 

 

In A. W. Tozer’s book “That Incredible Christian”, there is a chapter called “The Importance of Self-judgment’ (Ch. 31) in which the author Tozer talks about seven rules for self-discovery about how we know that we are real Christians.  Although these seven rules may not reveal all about the real Christians, they will be partially helpful.  Why don’t you also reflect yourself on these seven rules (Tozer):

 

1.       What we want most.

2.       What we think about most.

3.       How we use our money.

4.       What we do with our leisure time.

5.       The company we enjoy.

6.       Whom and what we admire.

7.       What we laugh at.

 

After asking these seven question, Tozer talks about eight things: Who is a fake?

 

1.      Fake is instant: Instant Christianity tends to teach that everything is done in one act of faith.  This represses the desire for further spiritual advancement.

2.      Fake neglects the change of character: The first step in solving the problem is to get away from the illusion that over time will solve the problem. What we need is not time, but change. Only God can change us.

3.      Fake believes that God's discipline is bearing the cross: When we are disciplined and hurt by God, we must feel that we are out of the right path for a while.  On the other hand, feeling the pain of the cross tells us that we are on the right track.

4.      Fake seeks forgiveness of sins by doing: An attempt to obtain forgiveness of sins by doing cannot succeed.  For no one knows how much good to accumulate in order to offset one’s own fault.

5.       Fake ignores creeds: We shouldn’t say that we can experience the mystery of God without doctrinal knowledge, and that is enough.  Truth can be stipulated, and the trust that is stipulated is creeds.

6.      Fake disregards theology: It is theology that is essential to live right in this world and to lead us to the eternal kingdom of heaven.  We have many difficulties because we learn hard and forget easily.  Therefore, we must be determined and study theology.

7.      Fake neglects feelings: We must not fear or ignore feelings. It is because the feelings are our normal part of what God has made us.

8.      Fake has no spiritual balance: The trust is like a bird and the bird cannot fly with one wing. But we foolishly try to fly with one wing squeezing like crazy and flipping the other wing like crazy (Tozer).

 

In the Bible, Romans 2: 28-29, Apostle Paul wrote a letter to the Roman church saints and talked about “a Jew who is one outwardly” and “a Jew who is one inwardly”.  Why did Paul talk about this?  The reason is to teach Jewish believers who were condemning the Gentile brethren in their spiritual superiority and weren’t forgiving them that the Jew who was one outwardly wasn’t true Jew but the Jew who was on inwardly was true Jew.  As I was meditating on this, I thought about ‘Who are the true Christians and who are the superficial Christians, the outwardly Christians?’

 

First of all, let's think about the superficial Christians who are Christians outwardly.

 

(1)    Those Christians who are outwardly call themselves a Christian.

 

Look at Romans 2:17 – “Now you, if you call yourself a Jew; if you rely on the law and brag about your relationship to God.”  Paul said that the Jews who were one outwardly called themselves "a Jew."  Why did they call themselves “a Jew” even though they weren’t true Jews in Paul’s view?  The reason was because they had sense of privilege.  The Jews of Paul's day proudly called themselves "a Jew" because they believed that only they had a special right from God.  What special rights did they receive from God that they were proud of?  We can think about this in three ways: (1) Belonging to the chosen people, (2) Reliance on the law, and (3) A special relationship with God.  The outwardly Jews bragged about their relationship to God in front of their Gentile brothers in the Roman church community with their consciousness of the chosen people (v. 17).  Outwardly, it seemed that they were boasting God, but inwardly they were boasting themselves.

 

The Christians who are outwardly want to exercise their special rights in the church.  Although they praise God's power with their lips, in their deepest hearts they have spiritual superiority and pride.  They liked to brag themselves.  And through bragging, they wanted to be honored and be recognized by people.  This kind of Christians craves the praises from people.  The Scriptures teach that God's wrath (1:18-32) and God’s judgment (2:1-16) will be upon those who call themselves “a Christian”, brag themselves in the church and claim their special rights in the church with their consciousness of the special right.

 

(2)    The Christians who are outwardly are convinced that they are true Christians.

 

Look at Romans 2:19-20: “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 infants, because you have in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth.”  The Jews who were outwardly believed that they themselves were a guide for the blind, a light for those who were in the dark, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of infants.  Surprisingly, these Jews didn’t know that they were the blind, they were in the dark, the foolish, and the infants.  The cause of this ignorance was their spiritual superiority and pride.  Like this, pride makes us blind.  It doesn’t allow us to examine ourselves and look back on our own weaknesses and deficiencies.  The outwardly focused Christians’ spiritual pride brings out the weaknesses and shortcomings of other believers, compares them with themselves, and lets them boast that they are better than the other believers.  This is more prominent in those who think that they know the Bible well.  Those who think they don't know much about the Bible humble themselves in their ignorance and have earnest desire to learn the Word of God.  Those who have long lived their faith and learned a great deal about the Bible break up the peace of the church and raise problems by putting themselves up in spiritual superiority.

 

(3)   The Christians who are outwardly like to teach others but don’t teach themselves.

 

Look at Romans 2:21 – “you, then, who teach others, do you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal?”  The Jewish believers, who received the law from God through Moses, believed that they knew God's will because they relied on it (v. 17) and were instructed by the law (v. 18).  And they liked to teach others with their own misunderstanding and pride.  They liked to preach against stealing, to teach that people shouldn’t commit adultery and abhor idols (vv. 21-22).  But they themselves didn’t teach themselves and were guilty of the same sin.  So Paul rebuked them like this: “You who brag about 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’” (vv. 23-24).  Apparently, Jewish believers knew much about the Bible, and their teachings seem biblical, but in reality they lived a hypocritical life.  It was because they neglected to teach themselves.  We as parents, teaching biblical lessons to our children is the right thing to do.  But if we neglect to teach ourselves before God, we cannot influence our children's hearts.  This is what Dr. Park Yun-sun said: ‘The lessons from this kind of people are not from motives for mercy, but from humiliation.  Such lessons don’t affect the educated, but rather cause resentment. ‘

 

(4)   The Christians who are outwardly focuses on outward living.

 

Apostle Paul told the Jewish believers in the Roman church about both the law and circumcision and urged them to obey the law and not just have it and hear it (v. 13).  And he told them that if they didn’t obey the law, circumcision had no value and they had become as though they hadn’t been circumcised (v. 25).  The reason why Paul said this to the Jewish believers in the Roman church was because they had consciousness of special right and proud.  That is, they boasted of the law and circumcision.  For the Jews, the law and circumcision were the signs of the people chosen by God, so both were great pride to them.  But the problem is that they didn’t keep the law completely.  They were guilty of boasting the law and circumcision, and arrogantly condemning the Gentiles with consciousness of spiritual superiority.  This is the appearance of Christians who are outwardly.  They focus on their outward life of faith, and live hypocritical life without true faith.  They are trying to live a Christian life in order to be seen by people.

 

Second, let's think about the true Christians who are Christians inwardly.

 

Who are the true Christians?  The true Christians are not the outward Christians, but the inward Christians.  The inward Christians follow these three things:

 

(1)    The Christians who are inwardly know that they are saved by God’s grace alone.

 

Look at Romans 2:29 – “No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a man's praise is not from men, but from God.”  Apostle Paul told the Roman church saints that the Jews who were the one inwardly, that is those who did circumcised of the hearts by the Holy Spirit.  Here, those who did circumcision of the hearts by the Spirit were those whom God chose in love and gave gift of faith to believe in Jesus Christ and were saved by God's grace alone.  Never were they saved by keeping the law.  The reason why Paul said this to the Roman church saints was because they believed that they could be saved by keeping the law, rather than believing in the Lord Jesus Christ.  It was because their view of salvation was conditional with human efforts instead of unconditional grace of God.  In other words, the Jews were guilty of greater dependence on human merit than on the merit of Jesus on the cross.  That was why Paul, by his letter of Rome, taught the Roman church saints about the God's unconditional grace of salvation.  The Christians who are inwardly, the true Christians, believe in Ephesians 2:8-9 completely: “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God -- not by works, so that no one can boast.” True Christians know that faith and salvation is God's gracious gift.  They know that salvation never comes from their works.  That is why true Christians know that not only they shouldn’t but they can’t boast about themselves.

 

(2)    The Christians who are inwardly have living faith.

 

Like superficial Christians who are inwardly, the true Christians who are inwardly are not proud of their laws and circumcision or are living their faith in their pride through their lips.  They don’t just talk about the words of God.  They hear them.  Not only they hear the words of God and obey them, they bear its’ fruits.  Even when they go out to the world, they don’t only say ‘I go to church.  I believe in Jesus. '   But they live in this dark world, truly shining the light of Jesus Christ.  If we are true Christians, we must be ashamed.  This is because we aren’t shining the light of Jesus Christ in this dark world.  It is because our church is like the church.  It is because our lips seem to resemble Jesus, but our actions and lives are far from Him.  We the church must repent our sins.  We must turn to God and listen to God's Word and live the right life of faith.

 

(3)    The Christians who are inwardly focus on inner Christian life rather than outward Christian life.

 

What is important to the Christians who are inwardly is to be praised by God, not by man (v. 29).  They try to be recognized by God rather than by being recognized by people.  They live their life of faith by cultivating their inner being.  And such a life of faith is beautiful.  This reminds me the hymn “Lord, I Want to be a Christian”.  In this hymn, the phrase “in my heart” appears 20 times: “I want to be a Christian in my heart,” “I want to be more loving in my heart”, “I want to be more holy in my heart” and “I want to be like Jesus in my heart”.  “Miles Mark Fisher, in Negro Slave Songs in the United States, writes that this African American spiritual could have been written in Virginia in the 1750s based on a story from Hanover, Virginia, 1756: “A black slave asked Presbyterian preacher William Davies, ‘I come to you, sir, that you may tell me some good things concerning Jesus Christ and my duty to God, for I am resolved not to live any more as I have done…Lord [Sir], I want to be a Christian’” (Internet).  Can the black slave who had to spend harsh years as a slave try to teach others by saying that he or she was a true believer with the consciousness of spiritual superiority?  Couldn’t he or she only cry out to God that “Lord, I want to be a Christian” from deep in his or her heart?

 

 May we all become true Christians, those who are Christians inwardly and not just outwardly.  May we all know and believe that we are saved by God’s grace alone.  May we all become men or women of living faith that has action.  May we all be true believers who are beautiful inside.