• 17 Now you, if you call yourself a Jew; if you rely on the law and brag about your relationship to God;
• 18 if you know his will and approve of what is superior because you are instructed by the law;
• 19 if you are convinced that you are a guide for the blind, a light for those who are in the dark,
• 20 an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of infants, because you have in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth-
• 21 you, then, who teach others, do you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal?
• 22 You who say that people should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?
• 23 You who brag about the law, do you dishonour God by breaking the law?
• 24 As it is written: "God's name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you."
• 25 Circumcision has value if you observe the law, but if you break the law, you have become as though you had not been circumcised.
• 26 If those who are not circumcised keep the law's requirements, will they not be regarded as though they were circumcised?
• 27 The one who is not circumcised physically and yet obeys the law will condemn you who, even though you have the written code and circumcision, are a law-breaker.
• 28 A man is not a Jew if he is only one outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical.
• 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.

Introduction: The Bible warns us often about being "too religious" in the wrong way...

• Am 5:21 "I hate, I despise your religious feasts; I cannot stand your assemblies.
• Am 8:10 I will turn your religious feasts into mourning and all your singing into weeping. I will make all of you wear sackcloth and shave your heads. I will make that time like mourning for an only son and the end of it like a bitter day.
• Ac 17:22 Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: "Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious.
• Heb 10:11 Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.
• Jas 1:26 If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless.

Jesus often criticized the Pharisees for their self-righteous hypocrisy. He said they were like white-washed tombs. Quite clean and bright and attractive on the outside, but inside full of dead men's bones and corruption.

In our passage today St. Paul attacks the self-righteous Jews of his own time. He does this, not because he hates the Jews (of which he is one himself), but because in his exposition of the Gospel he wants to make it very clear that EVERYONE, both Jew and Gentile, is a sinner, and needs a Savior. And there is so much here that we must apply to ourselves today, as Gentiles (most of us) and Christians.

Summarizing Romans 2:17-29, Paul says that there were three things that the Jews should not have boasted about...

I. They should not have boasted about being Jewish (vs. 17, 25-29).

"I'm part of God's chosen people. I'm a descendent of Abraham/Isaac/Jacob. I'm worshipping God with the only right religion." Christians today might boast in a similar way: "I'm a Christian, so I'm special. "I'm a Baptist (Presbyterian, Catholic, Church of Christ, etc. etc.), and we are the only true Church. I'm one of the elect!"

Similarly, they should not have boasted about circumcision (the sign of being Jewish).

The Old Testament Church of the Jews had two sacraments (some denominations say "ordinances"), the same as Christians today. They had the sacraments of circumcision and the passover supper. In circumcision they were reminded that they were participants in two covenants: the Abrahamic covenant; and the Mosaic covenant (the national covenant). In the Passover meal, they remembered that God set them free from bondage in Egypt, and their lives were preserved by the blood on the door posts of their homes. No Jew was ever saved by eating the Passover supper. He could only be saved by putting his faith in the one symbolized in the Passover meal.

For Christians, baptism has replaced circumcision. Our baptism reminds us that we are in the Church, the Body of Christ. Circumcision symbolized the "cutting off from sin." Baptism symbolizes our sins being washed away. Jesus is our Passover lamb. We are covered by His blood.

Eating the bread, and drinking the wine, of the Lord's Supper won't take your sins away, either. It is the true body and blood of Christ that they point to. No ritual or ceremony can bring you salvation. Salvation is a gift of God to those who trust in Jesus Christ.

The Jews of Paul's time were trusting in their membership in the nation of Israel, God's chosen people. They were trusting in their circumcision, which symbolized their membership in Israel. But they had forgotten that SPIRITUAL MEMBERSHIP, AND SPIRITUAL CIRCUMCISION were what was really important. The symbol must POINT TO SOMETHING REAL.

Likewise for Christians in the Church today. Being a member of a local church is not what is really important. It is our membership in the spiritual body of Christ. When we believe in Jesus we are baptized by the Holy Spirit into Christ's Body. It's not the water baptism that saves. It is only a symbol. It is the work of the Holy Spirit that is vital (I Cor 12:13)...

"For we were all baptised by one Spirit into one body-whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free-and we were all given the one Spirit to drink."

II. They should not have boasted about their knowledge of their Bible (many references all through this passage).

The Old Testament (the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings) was the Bible of the Jews, and also the Bible of the Christians of the first century. The Jewish name for what Christians call the Old Testament is "Tanakh."

The name "Tanakh" is a Hebrew acronym formed from the initial Hebrew letters of the Tanakh's three traditional subdivisions: The Torah ("Teaching," also known as the Five Books of Moses), Nevi'im ("Prophets") and Ketuvim ("Writings") - hence TaNaKh.

The Jews could rightly claim to have the only inspired holy book, compared to all the other religions of Egypt, Europe or the Middle East. They were proud of the Tanakh. They memorized it. They copied it carefully. They had burial services for worn out Bibles. They kissed it. They carried it on themselves in little boxes. They put it on the door posts of their homes. They were especially proud of teaching Gentile converts.

Jesus said..."Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are." (Matt 23:15)

Christians today sometimes boast about their Bible knowledge, or knowledge of Christian doctrine. Sometimes we boast to our friends, fellow church members, people at work, or to our pastor. Sometimes we just secretly boast to ourselves. We enjoy being the one in Sunday School class who always has the right answers. Sometimes we challenge our teachers, and enjoy pointing their mistakes.

III. They should not have boasted about their personal holiness and righteousness (vss 21-24).

Paul says that the Jews were guilty of stealing; of commiting adultery; of robbing temples; of breaking the Law; of causing the Gentiles to blaspheme God. They claimed that they were holy and pure, but in reality they were sinners, too. The said that they loved the Word of God, but they were guilty of breaking all the Laws, and ignoring the prophets sent to them by God.

• 10 ¶ Hear the word of the LORD, you rulers of Sodom; listen to the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah!
• 11 "The multitude of your sacrifices-what are they to me?" says the LORD. "I have more than enough of burnt offerings, of rams and the fat of fattened animals; I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats.
• 12 When you come to appear before me, who has asked this of you, this trampling of my courts?
• 13 Stop bringing meaningless offerings! Your incense is detestable to me. New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations-I cannot bear your evil assemblies.
• 14 Your New Moon festivals and your appointed feasts my soul hates. They have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them.
• 15 When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide my eyes from you; even if you offer many prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood;
• 16 ¶ wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight! Stop doing wrong,
• 17 learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.
  (Isaiah 1:10-17)

They went down to the Jordan to watch John the Baptist preach, but they did not heed his call to repentance. They were curious about Jesus, but they hated His message, and persecuted Him, and eventually arranged for the Lord of Glory to be executed by the Roman government. When the Apostle Paul preached the Gospel to them, they stoned him, imprisoned him, tried to kill him, and ran him out of town. When Jews came to Christ, they cast them out of the synagogues, and treated them as dead to their families.

The fact is: Jew and Gentile, we are all sinners. We all need to repent. We all need to humble ourselves before God. We all need to quit being hypocrites, and stop thinking that we are better than everyone else. Even as Christians, we still are in bondage to the flesh, and will be until we die and leave these sinful bodies behind.

• 14 ¶ We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin.
• 15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.
• 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good.
• 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me.
• 18 I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh (body). For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.
• 19 For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do-this I keep on doing.
• 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
• 21 So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me.
• 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law;
• 23 but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members.
• 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?
  (Romans 7:14-24)

CONCLUSION: We see then three things that the Jews boasted about, and that Christians today may boast about; and all such boasting is sin...

• 1. Don't boast about being a Christian, or a member of a particular denomination. There is no such thing as the ONE TRUE DENOMINATION. SHOW me the reality by your life.
• 2. Don't boast about your Bible knowledge, or knowledge of theology. Show me your knowledge by your willingness to teach others with humility, not showing off.
• 3. Don't boast about your personal holiness. I don't believe you. I know you still struggle with sin, just like I do. The Apostle Paul called himself "the chief of sinners." How then can WE boast?