Q - What is the Gospel? A - The Gospel is the Good News that God saves sinners through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
• God saves! That’s the Good News of the Gospel. • Sinners! That’s the Bad News of the Gospel. • Romans 1,2,3 are written to convince everyone (Jew or Gentile) of the bad news – that we are all sinners, broken, under God’s wrath, in need of God’s salvation.
REVIEW
• Romans 1 – God’s judgment on the unrighteousness. • Romans 2a – God’s judgement on the self-righteousness. • Romans 2b – God’s judgement on the rite-righteousness.
- Religious privilege does not make us righteousness.
Romans 2:17 (NASB), “But if you call yourself a Jew and rely upon the Law and boast in God, 18 and know His will and distinguish the things that matter, being instructed from the Law, 19 and are confident that you yourself are a guide to people who are blind, a light to those in darkness, 20 a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of the immature, possessing in the Law the embodiment of knowledge and of the truth…”
“Christianity tells people to repent and promises them forgiveness. It therefore has nothing (as far as I know) to say to people who do not know they have done anything to repent of and who do not feel they need any forgiveness.” - C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
- Right religion does not guarantee righteousness.
Romans 2:21 (NASB), “...you, therefore, who teach someone else, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that one is not to steal, do you steal? 22 You who say that one is not to commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who loathe idols, do you rob temples? 23 You who boast in the Law, through your breaking the Law, do you dishonor God? 24 For ‘THE NAME OF GOD IS BLASPHEMED AMONG THE GENTILES BECAUSE OF YOU,’ just as it is written.”
- Religious rites do not guarantee righteousness.
Romans 2:25 (NASB), “For indeed circumcision is of value if you practice the Law; but if you are a violator of the Law, your circumcision has turned into uncircumcision. 26 So if the uncircumcised man keeps the requirements of the Law, will his uncircumcision not be regarded as circumcision? 27 And he who is physically uncircumcised, if he keeps the Law, will he not judge you who though having the letter of the Law and circumcision are a violator of the Law?”
- True righteousness becomes reality by the Holy Spirit.
Romans 2:28 (NASB), “ For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. 29 But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from people, but from God.”
