House of cards

A FOUNDATION OF SAND

One of the best known Biblical parables is the story of the two foundations (Matt. 7:24-27). One man built his house upon sand. When the storms came, the sand shifted and the house crumbled. The other man built his house upon a rock. Because of this solid foundation, his house withstood every storm. The analogies to the foundation and the superstructure are generally familiar. The unbeliever who tries to gain salvation by his own works relies on a foundation of sand. It will not hold up in the light of God’s judgment.

Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us . . . (Tit. 3:5).

For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 3: 11).

The believer who is legalistic, self-righteous or moralistic that is, he considers morality the Christian way of life is constructing his Christian life upon a foundation of sand. This type of believer seeks to build a superstructure of righteousness upon someone else’s unrighteousness. He has spent his lifetime comparing his own good points with the bad points of others, and he sees himself with a halo (2 Cor. 10:12). In doing this, he has constructed a HOUSE OF CARDS! To such a person, life is merely an overt and superficial system of morality. Consequently, he says with confidence, “I have not done those horrible, monstrous things; therefore, I am righteous.” Like the Pharisee, he thanks God that he is not like “other men” (Luke 18:9-14).

The area of sin of the self-righteous person is the type of carnality which begins with mental attitude sins. Self-righteousness is the breeding ground for vindictiveness and implacability, as well as a subtle form of jealousy and bitterness. Perhaps you have observed some of the immoral types having fun, and there is a little jealousy on your part.

You see, rationalizing your own righteousness is a coin with two sides. On one side of the coin you build a house of cards; on the other side you resent certain things. You become bitter, you judge, gossip, malign and slander. Then when you find in your own life the same inevitable weaknesses, failures and sins which emanate from the old sin nature,''' you cannot face the reality of those weaknesses. Therefore, in order to justify yourself, you must say, “I didn’t really do this. “Or, “Someone else caused me to do it.” So you add to the cluster of sins already accumulated under the principle of “operation palsy.” You refuse to take the responsibility for your own failures; you won’t “rebound” and keep moving. You won’t admit, “All right, I have failed; I was wrong,” and then forget it and move on.

What is the result? Your Christian life shrivels up, your capacity for life disappears, and you become the worst kind of person in the world — a self-righteous monster! As a self-righteous believer, you will inevitably want to “play God.” You will not only have your own house of cards (which folds up as soon as any wind of adversity blows), but you will also want to regulate the lives of others. You will try to squeeze those around you into your mold.

You can’t build your life on someone else’s unrighteousness any more than you can build your happiness on someone else’s unhappiness. In fact, you cannot build your life on anything but your own soul. You become a mature adult the day you are willing to take responsibility for your failures as well as for all of your decisions.

THE CONDEMNATION OF THE MORAL AND THE IMMORAL MAN

The first two chapters of the Book of Romans set forth a contrast between the moral (in the sense of being moralistic) and the immoral man. Chapter One denounces the overt sins of immorality; but Chapter Two says that the person who only THINKS sin is just as guilty before God as the person who practices sin. Chapter One concludes:

Such are those who, having fully discerned the sentence of condemnation of the God, that the ones habitually practicing (PRASSO) such things are deserving of death, not only do (POIEO) the same things, but also give approval to them who keep on practicing (PRASSO) them (Rom. l:32).

PRASSO is used for the practice of overt or obvious sins, while POIEO is used for hidden sinning. The moral man’s sins are predominantly mental; the immoral man sins with the volition of his soul plus his body. Sins which are confined to the soul have a tendency to multiply more rapidly. Those sins which are confined to the body have more social restraint placed upon them. Therefore, the moral man is not as well off as he may think. He adds sins to sins. He thinks sins and then uses his tongue to follow them up. Although the immoral man may have a tendency to avoid some of these hypocrisies,

BOTH are equally guilty before God!

Since judgment is the sole prerogative of God, no one else has the right to judge either the moral or the immoral man. Both are judged according to the standards of the Word of God. Now obviously, there are certain areas where the immoral man is judged by the laws of the land, and rightly so. But this passage is looking at the subject only from the standpoint of the self-righteous person. Chapter Two demonstrates that the moral man is under the same condemnation as the immoral man of Chapter One. Now this principle DOES NOT deny the role of morality as part of the laws of divine establishment. However, it does deny you the right to compare yourself with others whose sins, in your opinion, are worse than yours!

THE CRITICAL ATTITUDE OF THE MORAL MAN

Because of which thing you are without defense, 0 [moral] man, everyone that keeps on judging. For in the sphere of which you keep on judging another of a different kind, yourself and only yourself you keep on condemning; for you who keep on judging practice the same things (Rom. 2:1).

The “man” in context is the self-righteous Jew, in contrast to the immoral or reversionistic” Gentile of Chapter One. Because the moral person can hide his sins behind a facade of self-righteousness and legalising they are not as obvious as those of the immoral person; yet the moral person is just as guilty before God as the one he judges.

“Judge” in the Greek here means “to judge without a trial or without the facts”; hence, “to judge from prejudice.” The self-righteous person who is trying to build his righteousness on the unrighteousness of the immoral person is obviously prejudiced favorably toward his own sins; yet he is said to be thinking the same things that the immoral man is doing. Remember, each member of the human race has an old sin nature, which has many categories of sins as well as production of human good. Although the old sin nature is the source of all sin, each sin nature has a different trend and a different area of weakness. Confusion exists because of the varied manifestations of personal sin. For this reason we often condemn certain sins more than others. Our viewpoint toward sin is influenced by the background and environment in which our human conscience is developed.

But righteousness must come from an absolute standard, and that standard is the Word of God.

THE JUDICIAL VERDICT OF GOD

But we know that the judicial verdict from the source of the God keeps on being according to the norm or standards of the doctrine upon those practicing such kind of things (Rom. 2:2).

Now we have the first principle of judgment of the moral or self-righteous man. “But” introduces a contrast between the false judgment or criticism of the self-righteous legalist and the true evaluation of Bible doctrine. “We know DOGMATICALLY that the judicial verdict from the source of

the God” is correct. His norms and standards, expressed to us through Bible doctrine, are absolute and perfect. The Greek noun ALETHEIA refers specifically here to the doctrine of hamartiology (sin). Man is a sinner because he is born with an old sin nature (Rom. 5:12; 6:23a). Although he is born physically alive, he is at the same time spiritually dead because of the presence of the sin nature in the soul at birth. Personal sins come from the sin nature and are manifested in three categories: mental attitude sins, overt sins, and sins of the tongue. There are always two factors involved in sin: first, the source, which is the sin nature, and second, volition. But although the sin nature is the only source of sin, no one ever sins apart from his own volition. Even if you don’t know something is a sin, you know you want to do it, and you do it! Only Adam, in the first sin, sinned directly from his volition, since originally he did not possess a sin nature.

The moral man has a tendency to commend his own respectability and morality while condemning the sins of the immoral man. He rationalizes and minimizes the sins of self-righteousness and legalism and magnifies the sins of immorality. Therefore, by comparing himself with others, the self-righteous man builds up a system of human righteousness with which he seeks to gain the approbation of God. While he sees himself favorably by comparison with others, GOD sees the self-righteous moral man from the standpoint of the old sin nature. So the moral man, like the immoral man of Romans, Chapter One, is condemned as a sinner by God’s standards.

We have the divine evaluation at the conclusion of Romans 2:2: “upon those which commit (PRASSO). . .” This refers to the previous chapter, where the same word was used to describe the sinning of the immoral man. “Such kind of things” recognizes a different CATEGORY of sins committed by the moral man. He commits certain kinds of sins; the immoral man commits another type; yet sin is still sin. When one tries to build righteousness on the basis of comparison, he is building on a foundation of sand. Any righteousness built upon comparison depends on a system of “judging.” Judgment is the prerogative of God, for He alone has both the character and the information to be a perfect Judge. For our benefit God has reduced many of His judgments to writing, as recorded in the canon of Scripture. Therefore, with certain exceptions, connected with divine establishment, the prerogative of judgment is removed from man.

Judge not that ye be not judged. For with what judgment [the sin of another you named] ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye; and then shall thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye (Matt. 7: 1-3, 5).

Who are thou that judgest another man’s servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth . . . (Rom. 14: 4; cf. verse 10).

These are severe warnings against those who seek to build their righteousness on someone else’s sinfulness. The exceptions for judging others are delegated in several areas: the function of judgment residing in the authority of rulers under the divine laws of establishment (Rom. 13:1-5); the function of judges in determining innocence or guilt in violation of the law; the function of an executive, a president, a shop foreman, etc., in evaluating personnel under his supervision; and the function of military superiors in formulating efficiency ratings. In the spiritual realm, the function of apostles during the Apostolic period and the function of pastors within the framework of the local church also gives the prerogative of judgment.

The only true basis for determining righteousness is the absolute standard — Bible doctrine! But even as believers in Jesus Christ we cannot meet the standards of the Word of God. True experiential righteousness must be based upon the filling of the Spirit and the function of Bible doctrine in the soul. The greatest manifestation of this righteousness is the super-grace life, which comes from living for a prolonged period of time in the “penthouse” of the edification complex of the soul — that is, in maximum happiness. Of course, reversionism, or moving in the reverse to God’s plan, is the great enemy of this righteousness. The more time you spend in carnality, the more you miss the great life of perfect happiness under super-grace!

THE RATIONALIZATION OF THE MORAL MAN

And do you rationalize this, 0 man, judging them who practice such things, and doing the same things that you shall escape the judicial verdict of God? (Rom. 2:3).

The vocative of ANTHROPOS (man) is addressed to the person who tries to build his righteousness on someone else’s unrighteousness. This passage says that you are not only rationalizing your own actions, but judging another’s. This inevitably leads to hypocrisy. Self-righteous people can always see the failures of others, but they never see their own faults. They put the sins of others under a microscope but see their own sins through a telescope.

The self-righteous man excuses his own sins by judging the more obvious, overt sins practiced by the immoral man. He hides his own sins, both-mental attitude and sins of the tongue, behind a facade of legalism and religiosity. Thus he becomes not only self-righteous but generally very religious. In other words, he self-righteously condemns the practice (PRASSO) of immorality, but he is doing (POIEO) the same thing mentally. That is why, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus placed such great emphasis on mental sin (Matt. 5:21, 22; 27:28). In these passages the immoral man commits murder, while the moral man thinks murder (hate); the immoral man actually commits adultery, but the moral man thinks adultery. In fact, the self-righteous man not only thinks adultery, he adds to his sins by judging, gossiping or maligning others.

Even though the sins of the moral man are not as obvious, they are just as evil. The Scripture indicates that mental attitude sins and sins of the tongue are the worst categories because of their repercussions in the life. The only exception to that in the overt realm is murder (Prov. 6: 16-19). In God’s eyes there is actually no degree of evil. The difference between PRASSO and POIEO is in the category of sin not in relativity. The moral man is no more justified than the immoral man. The respectability of the moral man does not minimize his sins, and respectability or morality certainly does not indicate “sinless perfection”!

The self-righteous man concludes from his own false rationalization that because he has constructed a system of self-righteousness, he has escaped the judicial verdict of God. According to the indicative mood of the word “escape,” he thinks he has actually avoided judgment by means of his own activity. However, God cannot justify self-righteousness and maintain His divine 10 Because God is holy, He cannot be a Respecter of persons in the human race moral or immoral, religious or non-religious (Acts 10:34). All are under the judicial verdict of God (Rom. 3:23) because all are spiritually dead.

None of us can build our righteousness on what we do whether it’s PRASSO or POIEO. This means that the believer cannot be spiritual by his own works nor can the unbeliever be saved by his own works. There are no good deeds, no system of righteousness which man can develop whereby he can gain salvation. Salvation must depend on who and what God is, and all righteousness must have as its foundation Plus-R (God’s perfect righteousness). Romans Two takes the self-righteous person apart, bit by bit, and shows him that for all his efforts he has nothing at all. The only righteousness God recognizes is absolute righteousness. So the “rug” is pulled out from under the self-righteous man, and his “house of cards” topples.

The unbeliever’s only hope is to accept Jesus Christ as Savior and receive the imputation of divine righteousness. When a person believes in Jesus Christ, God immediately credits to his account Plus-R, and that person is vindicated on the basis of possessing God’s righteousness. This is called “justification” and occurs at the moment of salvation. It is the only bona fide justification. There is no basis for self-justification by comparing your sins and good works with others. That puts justification on the basis of relativity rather than on the basis of the absolute standard of God’s character. Now once a person becomes a believer, Bible doctrine must be the object of his function in life so that he can develop a true experiential grace-righteousness.

No matter how you slice it, if righteousness doesn’t have God’s divine standards as the foundation and grace provision in the structure, it isn’t righteousness at all. That’s why sin is defined by so many standards in Scripture, negatively and positively: “Thou shalt” and “Thou shalt not.”

In summary, the facts are these: there is no basis for any righteousness except that which God has provided. Since God is perfect, the righteousness He provides is perfect. God is absolute in His

standards; therefore, His standards destroy any system of self-righteousness, any system of human morality.

THE CONTEMPT OF THE MORAL MAN

Or, the wealth of his very own kindness, and clemency, and forbearance do you disregard, despise, hold in contempt, scorn; being ignorant that the graciousness of the God brings you to a change of mental attitude? (Rom. 2:4).

The self-righteous man is, first of all, anti-grace. Notice how he operates: in the last verse he rationalized; in this verse he looks down his nose. “Despise,” KATAPHRONEO, is a thinking word and means “to think down, to despise, to disregard, to scorn, to treat with contempt.” All meanings of the Greek are true here. What does he treat with contempt?

GOD’S GRACE! The word PLOUTOS means “riches or wealth” and gathers up into one “ball of wax” all the benefits of grace. Grace is described by three nouns: His kindness, clemency and forbearance.

The self-righteous person must inevitably disregard, despise, scorn and look down his nose at grace. Why? Because grace completely destroys his self-righteousness. Grace comes from God, just as judgment comes from God. Both come from the same perfect Person. Judgment says to the immoral man, “You’re sinful; you’re dead!” Judgment says to the self-righteous man, “You’re sinful; you’re dead!” Now that’s a hard verdict for the moral man to accept. More often than not, it’s the immoral man who latches onto grace first. You see, he’s ready for grace. That’s why Rahab the prostitute became such a great believer (Josh. 2). She was the first one in all of Jericho who responded to grace, and she even led some of the members of her family to the Lord. As a famous courtesan, Mary Magdalene understood human nature, and she, too, responded to grace immediately.

Self-righteous and religious types have a problem with grace. Why? They have spent their entire life saying, “I am a good person; I am a righteous person. If you don’t think I’m good, look at so-and-so.” Inevitably, a self-righteous person spends most of his time in carnality because he’s always judging someone else to keep up his righteousness. His so-called righteousness must constantly be inflated through a system of relativity. But when something like the Word of God sticks a pin in self-righteousness, the ego pops, and there’s nothing left.

The trouble with many of you is that you have spent your entire Christian life thinking about yourself, rationalizing and building your house of cards. No wonder you’re so selfish and self-centered! No wonder you are so easily offended! That’s the only way you can sustain your righteousness. You haven’t a clue as to what grace is all about. You have always associated a certain kind of speech and behavior with sinfulness. If someone says “hell” or “damn,” you go right through the ceiling. If a lady wears pantsuits, you cluck and look heavenward. What’s wrong with you? It’s your phony self-righteousness. It’s your HOUSE OF CARDS! You have always felt superior because YOU don’t do THOSE things — but you do SOMETHING ELSE! You spend all your time judging!

This passage is designed to knock you right off your self-righteous perch; otherwise, you are never going to understand what God has provided, and you are never going to grow spiritually. You think it’s your righteousness that counts, and that everything depends on you. Sometimes preachers help you the ones who always hit on the “big five” don’t smoke, don’t drink, don’t dance, don’t go to the movies, and don’t play cards! So you say, “I don’t do those things; therefore, I am a great Christian!” This has become your standard for spirituality, and if someone does ALL of them, you think he isn’t even a Christian! Now whether such taboos are right or wrong is not the issue here. The point is, this is not the criterion of GRACE, and it’s not God’s Plan. Some of you have begun to associate your house of cards with Christianity. But Romans 2:4 says that Christianity is grace — God does the work and man receives God’s provisions.

There is a “house” made of true righteousness, but you must have a clear understanding of certain principles before it can. be constructed. Just because you happen to have a different type of dirt in your house than someone else has doesn’t mean that you don’t have dirt. In Altoona, Pennsylvania, everyone’s home is dingy from coal dust. In El Paso, Texas, the-sand filters into everything. Now a person in Altoona might say, “I-don’t have any SAND in my “house; therefore, I’m clean.” On the other hand, someone in El Paso could say, “I don’t have any COAL DUST in my house; therefore, I’m clean.” Who’s clean? God says NEITHER ONE! A house of righteousness cannot be built on someone else’s dirt. That’s a HOUSE OF CARDS!

Once a believer becomes self-righteous, he has nothing to sustain him. He goes negative to Bible doctrine, and doesn’t even feel the need for doctrine. A self-righteous person thinks he doesn’t need anything (Rev. 3:17). When a believer falls into this category, he immediately despises, disregards and scorns divine spiritual riches. You cannot build your righteousness on someone else’s unrighteousness and know anything of the spiritual wealth that God has for you.

THREE GRACE NOUNS

The first word describing the wealth of God’s grace in Romans 2:4 is translated “goodness” in your English Bible; but CHRESTOTES in the Greek actually means “kindness” or “generosity.” It is a word for grace function on the part of God and indicates what God has provided. The kindness and generosity of God is manifest through propitiation in eternity past and reconciliation in time. God’s attitude toward us begins with maximum love at the point of the CROSS, and it will never be anything less. No matter how you tail or succeed, you can never get away from the love of God. Yet the believer who operates independently of God doesn’t mind USING grace provisions. For example, a self-righteous person who understands rebound may occasionally confess some sin. He expects to be forgiven, and he is. He is using grace while actually despising the very principal by which he is being forgiven.

God has given you one day and then another and another. He has provided for your every need. You are so well fed you are FAT! That’s grace! Yet you treat with contempt the very thing that keeps you alive, the very thing that gave you eternal life. You complain, you become bitter and disappointed and frustrated. Why? Because you have no capacity for life; self-righteousness dries you up on the vine. The more disillusioned and frustrated you become, the more you gossip, malign and criticize, and the more you will try to pull strings, to do your own thing in order to be satisfied. If you had loved grace, you would have taken in doctrine day by day, you would have grown in grace, and you would have been occupied with Christ. You would have realized that although people are unstable, Jesus Christ never changes (Heb. 13:8). Had you been occupied with Christ, CHRESTOTES would be in your soul, and you would have compassion and love and tenderness rather than bitterness, disappointment and frustration. You would be living the super-grace life instead of a self-righteous, miserable existence.

Self-righteous people are never happy. Place them in a party or even in a church with a group of relaxed people, and they are miserable. Where can you put a self-righteous person where he will not be miserable? In heaven! A self-righteous person ekes out a superficial pseudo-happiness only when someone is buttering him up or giving him the attention he craves. This type must inevitably gather around him a mutual admiration club to stay alive. The greatest monster in the Christian life is the self-righteous person who has taken the weaknesses of others and compared them with his strengths until he has constructed a “house of cards.” And every card is a joker!

The second grace word, ANOCHE, translated “forbearance,” actually means “clemency” — an act of mercy and love; an act of compassion. The clemency of God’s grace is seen in the restraint of His judgment and wrath on every generation of the human, race; thereby He permits history to continue. Apart from divine clemency, none of us would be alive today, nor would we have had the opportunity in time to believe in Jesus Christ and be saved.

The third word, MAKROTHUMIA, translated “long-suffering,” means “patience toward others; forbearance.” This noun reflects the character of God the Father in allowing the angelic conflict to run its course. The same concept is amplified in Romans 9:22 and also in 1 Peter 3:20. MAKROTHUMIA is actually directed toward the angelic conflict stage of history, while ANOCHE is directed toward the human conflict stage — toward relationships in life. MAKROTHUMIA is not used here so much in the sense of “forbearance,” its ordinary use, but in the sense of “live and let live” — to be relaxed.

MAKROTHUMIA actually means “to stop judging others; to stop building your self-righteousness on someone else’s unrighteousness.” There are a lot of people whose way of life doesn’t appeal to you, people who do things you don’t like. All right, then put it in the Lord’s hands. Give privacy to the other person grace privacy!

REPENTANCE: A CHANGE OF MENTAL ATTITUDE

“Not being ignorant that the graciousness of God brings you to repentance” (Rom. 2:4b).

Repentance, METANOEO, is a change of mental attitude about something. The object of repentance is always indicated by the context. When the context is the Gospel, it is always the unbeliever who does the “repenting” he changes his mind about Christ. What changes his mental attitude toward Christ? What changes your mental attitude regarding salvation? The GOSPEL changes it. Repentance is coterminous with or immediately precedes faith in Christ. You can’t try to repent. It is automatic; usually you are not even aware of it. You simply believe in Jesus Christ.

Repentance for salvation is NOT feeling sorry for sin. There is a word in Scripture for “regret” or “feeling sorry” (METAMELOMAI), but it has no spiritual value. It is not a part of the Grace Plan. Although the unbeliever is a sinner, in salvation he changes his mind about Christ as a Person or about salvation as a subject.

In connection with believers, “repent” (METANOEO) is used for a change of attitude toward human good, a change of attitude toward doctrine when you are in reversionism, or a change of attitude toward carnality when you sin. God in His grace has provided a phenomenal system, which I call “rebound,” whereby you are forgiven when you confess your sin, no matter how you feel. God is not impressed with your constant regretting or attitude of sorrow. It may be normal human behavior, but God doesn’t condone it because it is NOT a part of grace! God is impressed only with what He does, with His Plan — GRACE!

You are impressed with your sincere regret, and you try to impress other people with your sincerity. However, your sincerity doesn’t impress God at all. Once you move into super-grace, you will have grace-compassion. This is infinitely more impressive because God has provided it in toto. It wipes out the phony sincerity that goes with self-righteousness. Are you ever going to be changed? Are the obnoxious corners going to be knocked off? If they are, it has to be God’s grace. Only grace can make changes that are worthwhile. If it isn’t a grace change, it doesn’t mean a thing. Reform doesn’t mean anything — it has no strength of character. Reform is pressure squeezing you into a mold. Grace is a way of life that gives you capacity. It is absolutely phenomenal!

God’s grace-righteousness is a part of the super-grace life. You get there only through doctrine, through the daily function of GAP (the grace apparatus for perception). When you are in the super-grace life, you have super-grace capacity. Only then can God pour out super-grace blessing! The tragedy of self-righteous people is that they are ignorant of grace. They have constructed their lives on a system of self-righteousness, and grace has no part in it. They try to regulate and mold everyone’s life around them, and they have used their tongues as the shillalah — to judge, to malign, to be critical, to run down, to coerce, to push and to pull. Obviously and inevitably, they have failed themselves and others, not to speak of the great Plan of God called GRACE.

THE INDICTMENT OF HUMAN GOOD

Next we are going to discover that the person who builds his righteousness on someone else’s unrighteousness is actually depositing divine wrath in heaven. The self-righteous person always assumes that everything he does is just one more good deed, one more merit badge deposited to his account. Moreover, the moral unbeliever thinks that if he accumulates enough good deeds, he is somehow going to get to heaven. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The pseudo-righteousness developed by the moralistic man is “filthy rags” in God’s sight (Isa. 64:6). Every good deed that the self-righteous unbeliever accomplishes is a deposit of wrath, or an indictment against him at the Last Judgment. Why?

Moreover, according to your scar-tissued and unrepentant right lobe, you store up and accumulate for yourself punishment in a day of punishment and manifestation of the just and fair judgment of God (Rom. 2:5).

The word translated “hardness” actually means “scar tissue” in the Greek. This scar tissue is based on persistent negative volition toward the Gospel. When you go negative to the Gospel, you build scar tissue on the left bank of the soul. Scar tissue is always built on the left bank first, sine that is the area of response toward God. This leads to the buildup of scar tissue on the right bank of the soul, which involves relationship with other people.

The immoral person builds scar tissue on the right bank through lascivious practices in a frantic search for happiness. The self-righteous person builds scar tissue on the right bank by the accumulation of human good — Operation Do-gooder, Operation Bleeding Heart, Operation Sensitivity Training, Operation Social Action!

This passage specifically refers to the unbeliever, but the same principle applies to the believer. The believer who is continually negative toward doctrine goes into reversionism. He builds scar tissue on the left bank of the soul, which opens up “mataiotes,” or a vacuum in the soul. This sucks in Satanic doctrines (1 Tim. 4:1) or human viewpoint. He may become involved in church work or other good deeds in order to satisfy approbation lust, power lust, etc. This puts scar tissue on the right bank of the soul.

The self-righteous person is also said to be “unrepentant” or obdurate. In other words, he refuses to change his mind. The “heart” refers to the right lobe. Because of the existence of the old sin nature, both believer and unbeliever can develop a “scar-tissued and impenitent right lobe.” The believer with such a right lobe is minus doctrine. His vocabulary and categories are influenced by his lack of divine norms and standards, and he has human viewpoint on the “launching pad” of his soul. He is deluded by the idea that human good impresses God. He either admires do-gooders or becomes one himself and devotes his life to the production of human good. This is the function of the right lobe in building self-righteousness.

The unbeliever is minus spiritual phenomenon in his right lobe. Therefore, he, too, must rationalize and judge. When other people’s norms and standards do not meet his own, their sins and failures are the object of his judgment and scorn. He then takes that information and puts it in his frame of reference and vocabulary, and he concludes, “I am righteous; I am good; therefore, I am going to heaven!” But no one ever gets to heaven by being “good.” Human good has no place in the Plan of God. You cannot be saved by joining a church, by being baptized, by feeling sorry for your sins, by raising your hand, by walking down an aisle, by keeping the Law, or by inviting Christ into your heart. These are all human works — something in which you participate.

“Inviting Christ into your heart” as a way of salvation is a great apostasy in Christendom today. To “open the door,” as in Revelation 3:20, is reversion recovery for the believer who has become lukewarm. The only way to be saved is by what the Bible declares: “ . . . whosoever BELIEVETH in him [shall] not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). “He that BELIEVETH on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him” (John 3:36). “He that BELIEVETH on him is not condemned: but he that BELIEVETH NOT is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name [the God-Man-Savior] of the only begotten Son of God” (John 3:18).

The Gospel must get into the right lobe through HEARING, not by inviting the Gospel in. When you hear the Gospel, it first goes into the left or perceptive lobe. There God the Holy Spirit makes it an objective reality, which transfers it over to the right lobe, and it becomes EPIGNOSIS (complete knowledge). Now volition can respond or react. Response is positive volition toward the Gospel; reaction is negative volition. If the unbeliever responds, he EXHALES faith in Christ. Salvation is an exhale, not an inhale. The inhale is Gospel-hearing. The Gospel goes into the soul, but it is not inviting Christ into your heart. That is an insult to the grace of God (Eph. 2:8, 9). You simply tell God the Father, privately and silently, that you are believing in Christ. You aren’t saved until you do.

Now the person who has built himself up at the expense of others and constructed a house of cards upon someone else’s unrighteousness has a “bankbook.” The next word in Romans 2:5 is THESAURIDZO — “to store up and accumulate for yourself.” According to the divine viewpoint, the sum total of your bankbook (human good) is ORGE the wrath of God as Judge. ORGE is a very strong word in the Greek for wrath, anger or indignation. This is an anthropopathism or language of accommodation, ascribing to God a human characteristic to explain a divine attitude. In context it is a righteous expression of wrath toward those who have rejected His grace and substituted their own works. God must take punitive measures in such cases; so ORGE is better translated “punishment,” which is exactly what God metes out at the Last Judgment. The details of this are found in Revelation 20:11-15......…

THE ETERNAL PAY-OFF OF THE UNBELIEVER

And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them (Rev. 20:11).

All judgment is committed to Christ (John 5:27). At the First Advent Christ was judged for us; at the Second Advent He is the Judge. Everyone who rejected His judgment at the Cross must face Him as Judge. Everyone must either accept His love at the Cross or His justice at the Great White Throne.

And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works (Rev. 20:12, 13).

As the unbelieving dead are resurrected and stand before God the Son, the books are opened (these are the “deposit books’); then another book is opened, which is the Book of Life. This is the book which contains only the names of believers. The name of the unbeliever is blotted out of the Book of Life when he dies (Psa. 69:28; Rev. 3:5). Now notice, the unbelievers are judged ACCORDING TO THEIR WORKS — their good deeds! Every deed of human good that the unbeliever has ever performed is recorded in the books of works.

Inevitably, the self-righteous man who builds his righteousness on someone else’s unrighteousness will seek to perform good deeds by which he impresses himself as well as his fellow man. Now remember, this is not condemning morality as a part of the laws of divine establishment. Here we are dealing with the self-righteous man who has rationalized all his life that, because his sins are not as obvious and apparently not as evil as someone else’s sins, he is righteous.

He brings his “house of cards” to the Last Judgment, expecting it to stand up under the fire of God’s judgment! So God brings out all the human good all the deposits and let’s say they total 927,628 good deeds and thoughts the entire house of cards. They still add up only to Minus-R! Jesus Christ is Plus-R (absolute righteousness). Minus-R cannot have fellowship with Plus-R.

The unbeliever says, “But . . .. “And the Lord says, “I died for your sins at the Cross, so they are not going to be mentioned. But I have rejected your human good. You have brought your human good here with you; I still reject it. I rejected it at the Cross; I reject it at the Throne!” When Jesus Christ died on the Cross, He bore the sins of the entire human race (unlimited atonement; 1 John 2:2). During the time that Christ was bearing our sins in His own body on the tree (spiritual death; 1 Pet. 2:24), He bore only our sins. He did not do anything with human good except to reject it.

We have all been exposed to some preacher or evangelist who has said, “When you stand at the Judgment Bar of God, will you hang your head in shame as God mentions your sins?” At the Judgment Bar there is one thing that CANNOT be held against you, and that is sin you committed in time. For when Jesus Christ went to the Cross; every sin — past, present and future — was poured out upon Him and judged. Every sin in the human race went to court when Jesus Christ was on the Cross. Under the law of double jeopardy, a person cannot be judged twice for the same crime. The same rule applies to the Grace Plan of salvation. Therefore, sins will not be the subject at the courtroom activity of the Great White Throne. It is true, the unbeliever will be in court; but he will be there for one reason only: his refusal during his lifetime to personally believe in Jesus Christ.

And death and hell [the dead who were in Hades] were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire (Rev. 20:14,15).

“Whosoever” means there are no exceptions in the human race; but the decision as to your eternal destiny must be made in time. Those who have rejected the work of Christ on the Cross and stand on their own good works are now indicted. The religious people, the self-righteous people, along with the immoral people, all have one thing in common: they have a “bankbook” full of works — and it is their passport to the lake of fire!

Now immediately, someone will question God’s judgment: Is God fair? God’s character is infinitely and eternally perfect, without being subject to change or instability of any kind. Therefore, it is impossible for God to be unfair. In His fairness He “will render [refund] to each one [unbeliever] according to [the standard of] his works” (Rom. 2:6). The Great White Throne is a demonstration of God’s fairness. Although all believers have had the opportunity to believe in Christ, each person is now given a trial. Salvation depends on faith in Christ, the Rock (1 Cor. 10:4), but their house of

cards had a foundation of sand and will never stand before the absolute righteousness of a just and fair God!

THE ETERNAL PAY-OFF OF THE BELIEVER

The English translation of verses 6 and 7 seems to say that salvation is by works. However, if you understand that verses 7 and 8 are expressing the ATTITUDES of volition rather than the MECHANICS, you won’t have any trouble with them. The mechanics of volition are expressed by John 3:18 and John 3:36, as we have already seen. Verse 7 is the attitude of POSITIVE volition; verse 8, NEGATIVE volition.

Who will render to every man according to his deeds: To those, on the one hand, seeking eternal life according to the expectation of a good work — glory, something of value, immortality (Rom. 2:6-7).

“Seeking” expresses positive volition at the point of God-consciousness, when man becomes aware of the existence of God through the mentality of his soul. Romans One demonstrated that every normal person reaches God-consciousness at some time in his life. At that point he is accountable to God for his attitude. When any member of the human race desires relationship with God after reaching God-consciousness, God will provide information by which he can be saved (John 7:17; Acts 17:27).

Now here is a person who is seeking. He is not saved, but he is positive, and he anticipates information from God. The “good work” is divine good — that which God has done to provide salvation; and positive volition anticipates finding out what God has done. The individual who is positive at the point of Gospel hearing will express his faith in Christ and enter into fellowship with God, which is followed by three grace results the eternal pay-off for the believer. First, “glory,” which refers to divine essence. The believer in Jesus Christ is related forever to “The Glory.” Second, he has honor, or something of value, which refers here to resurrection. Third, he will have immortality — a reference to the resurrection body.

In verse 8, we see again the eternal pay-off of the unbeliever.

To those, on the other hand, from contentiousness and refusing to believe the truth, but believing the false and deceitful anger and wrath (Rom. 2:8).

“Contentiousness” means that when you become aware of the existence of God, you are not only negative, but you build up your own righteousness as a substitute for God’s .Here the “truth,” “ALETHEIA,” is the Gospel. If at the point of Gospel-hearing you refuse to believe, you will inevitably believe deceit and falsehood. You are using as your building material self-righteousness instead of God’s righteousness. God’s attitude toward such a person is anger and wrath — divine judgment. Now, in contrast to these two verses, we next have the wages for each category in time.

THE TEMPORAL PAY-OFF OF THE UNBELIEVER

Pressure and distress upon every soul of mankind working out [producing from the inside] the evil [reversionism], of the Jew first, and also the Gentile (Rom. 2:9).

Here is the pay-off for the reversionistic unbeliever. Both Jew and Gentile are included; therefore, race or culture is not the issue in spiritual things. Not every unbeliever is reversionistic. He may have had good norms and standards, but when he rejects the Gospel, he gradually builds scar tissue on the left bank of the soul. This causes a blackout of the soul and emotional revolt, and opens up the MATAIOTES. Satanic doctrine infiltrates into his frame of reference, changing his norms and standards and viewpoint, so that all establishment thinking in his right lobe is destroyed. He is under the “strong

delusion” of 2 Thessalonians 2:11. These things bring nothing but self-induced misery to the individual involved, whether he is an unbeliever or a believer.

THE TEMPORAL PAY-OFF OF THE BELIEVER IN SUPER-GRACE

But glory, something of value, and prosperity to everyone producing the divine good to the Jew first and also to the Gentile (Rom. 2:10).

God’s glory is given to the maximum to the believer who has the capacity for it. God is waiting to benefit every believer to the utmost in the field of grace (Isa. 30:18). But until you erect an edification complex in the soul, you do not have capacity for life or freedom, for love or happiness. Glory belongs to the believer who has taken in doctrine on a daily basis through the function of GAP and who has erected an edification complex. Then beyond the ECS is the super-grace life, which is the most valuable thing a believer can have in time.

“Glory” is the doctrinal and spiritual capacity for life. “Honor” or “something of value” refers to the marvelous things which come to the believer in super-grace, be they visible or invisible. “Peace” or “prosperity” is the absence of sorrow and misery; hence, tranquility — an overall benefit from the first two, whereby something that God possesses becomes our possession through grace. These, in turn, produce divine good. Here is the super-grace pay-off.

Again, it is not dependent on race or culture. God does not have more grace for one race or culture than for another. Grace does not have more to offer the moral man than the immoral man. Grace benefits both, as indicated by the next verse: “For there is not partiality in the presence of God” (Rom. 2:11).

No matter how large the accumulation of human good or how great the self-righteousness, no matter how sweet or pleasing the personality, these cannot save or gain the approbation of God. While the sincere do-gooders, the pleasing personalities, and the maudlin sentimentalists, with their “love everybody” attitude may impress people, they do not impress God, nor does God approve of them. Why? Because they are spiritually dead people who function in the realm of Satan. They are incapable of loving everyone or of producing brotherhood; and yet this is the way Satan tries to pull his kingdom together. The more human good you produce, the deeper you go in debt with God (Rom. 4:4). The harder you work for salvation, the farther you get from it. Good deeds are like an undertow which carries you out to sea.

These last three verses anticipate another principle on which people build a house of cards — snobbery. Such a person imagines himself better than others on the basis of rationalization or something he does or thinks. He may be an intellectual snob, a cultural snob, a social snob, or even a sex snob. People from very humble circumstances can be snobs as well as those from very exalted circumstances. But you can’t build your righteousness on snobbery!

THE CONDEMNATION OF THE RELIGIOUS SNOB

A snob is a person who on the one hand repels the advances of those he considers inferior to himself, while on the other hand he blatantly imitates or fawningly seeks association with anyone whom he considers superior. Name-droppers fall into this category. They associate VIP’s with themselves and form a system of snobbery. Since the Jews considered God superior, they sought association with Him through their own self-righteousness.

A snob can never really get hold of Bible doctrine because it always means the intrusion of self-righteousness where grace-righteousness ought to exist. We all have areas where we are tempted; we all have occasions when we can look down our noses at someone and say, “I’m better than you.” But this passage is going to strip away all the phony gear and leave the real you; and when you look at the real you, there’s just one way to go — as fast as you can toward God’s grace!

Having the Mosaic Law made many of the Jews snobs. They said, “We have the Law; therefore, we are better than the Gentiles.” But God leveled them by saying, “There are Gentiles who are better at keeping the Law than you, and they have never even heard of the Law!” Being a snob may cause a person to avoid immorality; but he has avoided it on the basis of snobbery, not on the basis of character. And this is neither morality nor character. Distorting the Law into a system of legalism led the Jews to substitute snobbery for character. Snobbery is usually a rationalization where character ought to exist.

Because the Jews considered the Gentiles inferior, they would not associate with them until the Gentiles were circumcized and went through the whole system of the Law not because this was necessary, but because the Jews under the Law were snobs. Verse 12 says that the self-righteous snob is just as guilty as the immoral Gentile.

For example, as many as outside the law have sinned, outside the law also shall be destroyed. And as many as inside the law have sinned, through the law shall receive judgment (Rom. 2:12).

Those “outside the Law” indicate Gentile or Greek unbelievers, and further portrays the category of immoral unbelievers. While Greek culture, which has been exalted through the centuries by mixed-up people, demonstrated phenomenal genius, it also included tremendous immorality — particularly homosexuality. The Jews didn’t tolerate homosexuality; in fact, they had strict laws against it. It was the Jewish attitude of snobbery which lacked character, not the Law itself. They looked down their noses at the Gentile practices and said, “We are better than they!”

The next phrase would get the Jewish snob to nodding: “[those] outside the law shall also be destroyed [receive punishment] ."You see, the snob would be quick to say that the immoral Gentile was going to hell. The Jew would say, “I judge him to .be wrong by my Law; I judge him as being immoral and lascivious.” But the tables would turn on this self-righteous snob. Since he has not only built his righteousness on someone else’s unrighteousness, but maintained his righteousness by snobbery rather than character, he had a house of cards which was about to crumble, and here it is: the Jew under the Law is just as much a sinner as the Gentile who knows nothing of the Law!

There is no partiality with God. An unbeliever is an unbeliever whether Jew or Gentile, moral or immoral, religious or non-religious, and he is under the condemnation of God. All have missed the boat of grace! All unbelievers are condemned by God’s standards on the basis of their rejection of Christ, not because of the moral category in which they happen to be.

The Law demonstrates that the human-good of the self-righteous man is not good enough. The classic illustration is the rich young ruler (Matt. 19:16-28). The very way in which he came to Jesus and asked, “What good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?” indicates that he was a snob. He had compared himself to everyone around, and he figured he had it made! Therefore, he expected flattery from Jesus; instead he got smashed to the ground.

The Mosaic Law not only sets up a standard to determine sinfulness, but it also reflects the absolute standards of God’s perfect righteousness and character. God is infinitely superior to all creatures without-one ounce of snobbery. In grace, God has found a way to communicate the perfection of His character, and on the basis of character He is going to reject unbelievers because they rejected Christ. He does not change His character for pleasing personalities, for the do-gooders or

the brotherhood types. He has found a way to love mankind without compromising His character because of who and what Christ is. not because of who and what we are.

THE DELUSIONS OF THE SELF-RIGHTEOUS MAN

The self-righteous man is proud of his house of cards, and it is quite a shock to hear that he is just as guilty as the immoral Gentile. To the self-righteous man, the Law, with specific reference to the Ten Commandments, becomes a check chart by which he can keep track of his self-righteousness and human good. This was the case with the rich young ruler. Such a check chart feeds the pride and inflates the ego into arrogance. The proudest people in the world aren’t necessarily the obvious boasters — they are generally only trying to cover their insecurity. The proudest people are the arrogant, self-righteous types. They feel totally secure in their human good; but keeping the Law neither saves nor justifies them before God (Rom. :20-28;9:30-33; Jas. 2: 10). Therefore, a parenthesis of amplification is given in Romans 2:13-15.

For the ones instructed in the law not righteous in the presence of God, except the doers of the law shall receive justification (Rom. 2:13).

This verse is not a point of doctrine, but the erroneous assumption or delusions of two types of self-righteous snobs — the intellectual and the hard-core legalist. First, the intellectual snob assumes that merely hearing and learning the Law in itself provides justification before God. Remember, the Mosaic Law is not just the Ten Commandments; it is far more than that. The Jews would master the entire content of the Law. When they came into contact with a Gentile who understood nothing of the Law, they would immediately develop a type of snobbery.

The second assumption is the view of the legalistic snob who disagrees with the first assumption. He says, “No, you can’t have justification on the basis of perception alone; you must DO the Law. There must be overt manifestation by which to evaluate your righteousness.” I must say that the Jews in their legalism developed justification by works to a much greater extent than Christianity has today. The Jews would spend as long as ten years learning the Law; then they would spend the rest of their lives trying to fulfill every jot and tittle of the Law in order to get to heaven. Yet today legalistic Christianity has the nerve to promote such psychological deception as raising your hand or walking an aisle for salvation! Of course, the Jews, with all their zealous efforts, were just as lost as anyone is today who is trying to be saved by good works.

How good must you be to impress God? How many good deeds must you do to get to heaven? There’s no end to it because NO AMOUNT of good deeds can get anyone to heaven! God doesn’t operate on the basis of relativity. He is absolute, and His justice and righteousness are absolute. Therefore, His salvation is based on an absolute: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shall be saved” (Acts 16:31).

The functional self-righteous Jew completes the illusion by assuming that when you do the Law, your deeds of human good can serve as a standard to compare yourself favorably with the immoral man. Hence, self-justification leads to an erroneous conclusion concerning divine justification. However, the next two verses demonstrate that the Gentiles without the Mosaic Law could produce human good comparable to the human good of the Jews within the Law.

Both types of snobs have had their delusions paraded in order that they might be refuted; but since verse 13 is written from the standpoint of the hard-core legalist, or the functional snob, he is the first one to be refuted in verse 14.

Verse 15 will refute the intellectual snob.

GENTILE MORALITY VS. JEWISH MORALITY

For whenever Gentiles having not the things [content] of the law constantly do by instinct the things of the law, these ones not having the law are a law to themselves (Rom. 2:14).

“Being a law unto themselves” means that the Gentiles were able to produce human good or the morality of the Law without knowledge of the Law. Furthermore, this verse implies that they did a better job instinctively than the Jews did with the Law. Man is born with a natural instinct for establishment, even though he lives in the devil’s world. Therefore, if the Gentiles could produce the same morality as the Jews who had the Law, it made the Jews look bad. It also demonstrated the FALLACY of the second assumption of verse 13 that keeping the Law could justify them before God (Rom. 3:20; Gal. 2:16; Rom. 3:28, in that order). This is a very disillusioning piece of logic to hit people who are intellectually dishonest and snobbish.

The very ones who demonstrate the work of the law written in their right lobes, their conscience confirming the testimony, and between one another [of the same kind i.e., Gentiles] the thinking alternately accusing or defending (Rom. 2:15).

That the Gentile unbelievers had morality without the knowledge of the Mosaic Law demonstrates that they had good norms and standards in their right lobes. Since the conscience (SUNEIDESIS, meaning literally, “with knowledge” or “to know with”) is part of the right lobe or heart, it is here that the norms, standards and criteria for morality and establishment are located. “The conscience [of the Gentiles who do not have the law] confirming their testimony” is one of two genitive absolutes. In the Greek, this is a grammatical construction disconnected from the rest of the sentence, designed to wake up the reader — or better still, to shake him up! Now, what is it here that would startle the intellectual snobs? It blasted them right out of their seats to find out that Gentiles had souls with norms and standards like theirs. The Jews spent years learning the Law from which they developed their norms and standards. Now along came the Gentiles who had not even studied the Law, but produced the same morality by instinct.

“The thoughts [the reasonings or thinkings] alternately accusing or defending” is the second genitive absolute and shows the function of the conscience. “To accuse or defend” demands norms and standards by which right and wrong can be sorted out. So because the Gentiles had norms and standards residing in their conscience, they could say of one another, “He’s right,” or “He’s wrong.” That destroyed the use of the Mosaic Law as an instrument of justification before God.

In the day [the Great White Throne Judgment] the God shall judge the hidden things of mankind [the human good from the area of strength of the — sin nature] through Jesus Christ (Rom. 2:16).

The righteousness of the self-righteous man is inadequate for salvation. He must have a righteousness which is totally apart from human merit and equivalent to the Father’s perfect righteousness. The only way to obtain this righteousness is by the imputation of God’s righteousness (2 Cor. 5:21) through faith in Jesus Christ. Since the self-righteous man has rejected Christ, he must, at the Last Judgment, depend on his own righteousness. But the COMMENDATION he sought from God through human good becomes CONDEMNATION!

These three verses also form a pattern for believers who are saved by grace but spend the rest of their lives thinking that the Christian way of life is DOING! They think that learning doctrine is not important. Instead they believe that they must witness to so many people a day; they must spend so much time in prayer; they must do, do, do! So there are deluded legalists in the churches today who use every system and gimmick for spirituality with the hope of impressing God. But like the human good of the unbeliever, the believer’s human good is also rejected and will be burned at the Judgment Seat of Christ (1 Cor 3: 13). Now you ask, “What about bona fide production in the Christian life?” The answer is that divine good is produced automatically when you are filled with the Spirit and learn doctrine!

THE CONDEMNATION OF THE RELIGIOUS MAN

From Romans 2:17 to the end of the chapter, we have the religious man’s house of cards. Remember that religion belongs to the devil (John 8:44). It is antithetical and antagonistic to Christianity; religion and Christianity are mutually exclusive. Christianity is NOT a religion; it is a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. Religion is man’s attempt to have relationship with God through his own works, rituals, plans or abilities. Religion under this concept is always condemned in the Word of God.

Verses 17-20 introduce one of the longest conditional clauses in the Word of God. The Jew, who is using the Mosaic Law as a system of salvation, spirituality or gaining the approbation of God, is going to be used as the background for setting up a “straw man” in the field of religion.

If, however, you bear the name of Jew, and rely on the quality of the law, and keep on boasting in God (verse 17).

In the category of religious Homo sapiens, none has been more religious than the unbelieving Jew. Therefore, the devout, zealous unbelieving Jew becomes a perfect illustration for the condemnation of the religious person. If the religious Jewish unbeliever is condemned by God, all religious unbelievers are condemned. The religious person is always boasting about his relationship with God; but he has no relationship because he’s trying to be saved by his own works. “Works” are anything you add to faith in Christ for salvation. Christ did all the work. This is divine good, and it is the only “work” God will accept for salvation. His work is a gift, which we receive through faith in Christ (John 1:12).

The three verbs of Romans 2:17, each of which is characterized by a different form of the present tense, denote three assumptions or illusions of religion: that racial identity, religious activity or pseudo-intellectualism connote superiority. All religious people, Jew or Gentile, operate under illusion, and religious illusion leads to delusion or apostasy. Verses 18-20 state three delusions of religion.

THE DELUSIONS OF THE RELIGIOUS MAN

Doctrinal Delusions.

And you understand the sovereign will, purpose and design, and test for approval the things that are superior, being orally instructed with the catechism from the source of the law (Rom. 2:18).

The Jewish unbeliever is under the delusion that by learning the Law he understands the sovereign will of God. He is also under the delusion that his false standards are the standards of God and that his thinking is God’s thinking. A third delusion is based on intellectual snobbery. While the religious Jew was thoroughly inculcated with the content of the Law, he failed, to understand its true meaning and purpose. Hence, he was deluded into thinking he was saved simply because he knew the Law.

Operational Delusions.

And you have confidence [that] you yourself keep on being a guide to the blind, a light to those in darkness (verse 19).

Under this category, the religious Jew was confident that he was a guide to the blind — that he was the only one who could lead others out of the “swamp” of ignorance. Furthermore, he was confident that all non-religious people were in darkness, and only he was enlightened.

The Teaching Delusion.

A disciplinary drillmaster to the stupid, a teacher to the immature, having the outline without the reality of the knowledge [GNOSIS] and the truth in the law (verse 20).

A third attitude of religion is that non-religious people are stupid and immature, and they must be straightened out by coercion. This is illustrated in more recent history by the Spanish Inquisition. Those who did not follow the dictates of the religious leaders were often tortured or killed. Religion is the worst thing that has ever happened to this world. In the name of Christianity, it is responsible for more evil than any other factor in human history!

When the religious Jews taught the Law, they took it out of its context and made it an outline for religion. The Law was to teach freedom and privacy, but these Jews destroyed freedom and privacy. The Law was to teach Jesus Christ as the only Savior, but they rejected Christ as Savior and set up their own system of works for salvation.

THE REFUTATION OF RELIGION

Verses 21-29 show that the suppositions stated in Romans 2:17-20 are contrary to the truth. This is demonstrated by four questions, which refute religion.

You, therefore, teaching another of a different kind, you do not teach yourself. The one proclaiming not to steal, do you steal? (Rom. 2:21).

The first half of the verse actually sets up the principle of attack. All religious people have a system or gimmick which they hope will provide a “ride’” into heaven. With the religious Jew, this system was the Mosaic Law. They taught it to Gentiles so that the Gentiles could learn the Law and be saved — yet they themselves were not saved! The four questions which follow illustrate this principle.

The first question: “You proclaim not to steal do YOU steal?” They were telling people that if they were guilty of stealing they couldn’t go to heaven. Yet these same Jews were guilty of the worst kind of stealing — the “corban” gimmick, which was, in effect, stealing from their parents (Matt. l5:5; Mark 7:11-13).

The second question: “You who keep saying not to commit adultery — do you commit adultery?” (verse 22a). The religious Jews were just as guilty as the Gentiles they were teaching because they were committing mental adultery (Matt. 5:27,28).

The third question: “You who detest idols, do you rob idol -temples?” (verse 22b). Since the seventy years of the Babylonian Captivity, the Jews had had a fanatical hatred of idols. They used the second commandment as an excuse to steal vast sums of money from the heathen temples (Acts 19:37), which were the banks of the ancient world, as well as the center of the phallic cult.

The fourth question: “You who keep boasting in [the keeping of] the law, through the violation of the law, are you dishonoring God?” (Rom. 2:23). The religious Jews always boasted about the portion of the Law which they kept. But there was always a part which they overlooked and which condemned them. Furthermore, their legalism and rejection of grace was dishonoring to God. They added insult to injury by transgressing the very Law which they used as a means of salvation. Religion fails through both works and sins to meet the standard of its own self-appointed system of salvation.

THE FALLACY OF RELIGION

For the name [essence] of the God is maligned [slandered] among the Gentiles because of you, as it stands written [in the Old Testament] (Rom. 2:24).

The Jews had such a pious respect toward the Name of God, they would not even pronounce the Tetragrammaton (Jehovah), but used ADONAI instead. Yet through the hypocrisy of religion and the inconsistency of legalism, the religious Jews maligned the very Name they claimed to worship and revere by extracting a bona fide part of the Word of God designed for something else and making it into a system of works for salvation.

This hypocrisy overflowed to the immoral Gentiles, who had the common sense and discernment to see through the facade of the religious Jew. They just laughed and blamed this blasphemous inconsistency on God. If there’s anything that makes a bright person stupid and robs him of his common sense, it’s religion! It’s the same today. People who are normally intelligent and have understood the grace of the Cross, often fall in line with many non-Biblical and legalistic practices in their own churches.

Before the Cross, doctrine was taught by ritual as well as by exegetical verse-by-verse analysis of the Scripture. After the Cross, the only rituals which are bona fide for the Church are communion and baptism, which represent certain doctrines. But, like the Law, ritual had been distorted into a system of legalism. At the time the Book of Romans was written, the religious Jews were still trying to practice Judaism with its Old Testament rituals, which were intended for the previous dispensation. They continued to perform various ceremonies until the fifth cycle of discipline (the Jewish dispersion of 70 A.D. One of these was circumcision, which is now used as an illustration in verse 24.

RITUAL WITHOUT REALITY

For indeed, circumcision is beneficial if you practice law [the Mosaic Law] ; but if you are a violator of law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision (Rom. 2:25).

Circumcision was now being used by the religious Jews as the key ritual for gaining both the approbation of God and entrance into heaven. Wherever you find ritualism converted into religionism, you find something that is dishonoring to God. Ritualism, which comes from the trend of asceticism in the old sin nature, has an ascetic appeal for a lot of people. It makes them FEEL closer to God. But “feeling” is not a part of the spiritual life. Spirituality is determined by what the Bible teaches.

Circumcision was beneficial or bona fide for Israel under the principles of the Law. It was a teaching aid and a sign which designated the Jews as a race and a national entity. It has no literal spiritual significance in the Church Age, but it does have a meaningful analogy. In circumcision the superfluous skin is cut away. This represents anything which is contrary to the laws of divine establishment or anything which is superfluous in the spiritual life. The super-grace life and the laws of establishment set aside the superfluous.

We no longer practice the rituals of the Mosaic Law, for Jesus Christ fulfilled them at the Cross. There are, however, certain principles of establishment in the Law which will always be applicable to both believers and unbelievers. From the time that the Law was given, the Law has been broken. The entire human race is in violation of the Law. This verse is saying that if you are a violator of the Law, then your circumcision is just a physical operation without spiritual

meaning.

Jewish circumcision had become ritual without reality. Reality lies in the doctrine which the ritual reveals or portrays. The Jews were placed under the fifth cycle of discipline because they did not have the circumcision OF THE SOUL to accompany the ritual (Jer. 6:10; 9:25, 26). Ritual NEVER takes the place of doctrine, nor does any experience. It’s just another house of cards when taken out of its context and made into a substitute for doctrine.

People are always trying to DO something to take the place of doctrine. Even born-again believers today in their legalism have tried to make something special out of ritual, when the only thing that is special is the assimilation of doctrine. It is the knowledge of doctrine that gives capacity for freedom, for life, for. love and for happiness. This knowledge fulfills the purpose of the intensified stage of the angelic conflict. Life becomes real only when doctrine makes God real and fulfills the principle of occupation with Christ. Circumcision is used in this passage to represent all the evils

of religion in the field of ritual.

Therefore, if the uncircumcision [Gentile] observe the regulations [principles of establishment] of the law, his uncircumcision, shall it not be evaluated for circumcision? (Rom. 2:26).

And the uncircumcision from instinct fulfilling the law shall judge you [Jews] who with the advantage of a written document [the Law] and circumcision [are] a violator of law (verse 27).

This portion of the dissertation parallels verses 14 and 15, where the moral Gentile compares favorably with the religious Jew, who emphasizes ritual without reality. So the question is asked: If the Gentiles keep the regulations or requirements of the Law without the ritual of circumcision, wouldn’t it be the same as if they were circumcised? The answer has to be yes. Once it is established that his uncircumcision is equivalent to circumcision, the ritual of circumcision loses its spiritual significance. Therefore, the Jews cannot use the keeping of the Law as a basis for gaming the approbation of God.

The Gentiles, who had never been circumcised, stand as a judgment to the Jews, who have been circumcised, because the Gentiles do the Law instinctively, while the Jews, who knew the Law, did not obey it. The key is what is in the soul. The Gentile has establishment in his soul, although he has not been circumcised. The Jew in question has been circumcised, but is anti-establishment in his soul.

THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN THE RELIGIOUS JEW AND TRUE ISRAEL

Up to this point we have had the distinction between the Gentile (the uncircumcised) and the Jew (the circumcised). Now we have another distinction: there were two kinds of Jews in the Dispensation of Israel, just as there are today — the believer and the unbeliever. The unbeliever had been circumcised and placed emphasis on the ritual. The believing Jew also had been circumcised; but he placed the emphasis on the circumcision of the heart, which meant he was functioning under the laws of divine establishment. For not he who by overt manifestation is a Jew, neither that which by overt manifestation in the flesh is circumcision (Roman 2:28).

“Overt manifestation” indicates a Jew by birth or nationality — that is, a racial Jew. He can be a religious Jew: but this is not referring to a regenerate Jew. A person can be born a Jew, but he is not true Israel until, like Abraham, he believes in Jesus Christ for salvation (Gen. 15:6; Rom. 4:3).

Remember, this chapter is talking to Jews of the Church Age but is speaking of the Jews of the previous dispensation. The Jews of Paul’s day were distorting Jewish Laws and rituals, so Paul had to go back and explain the original purpose of circumcision under the Law. In the Dispensation of the Church, any racial Jew who believes in Christ becomes a member of the Body of Christ.

Now we come to a contrast between the true and the false Jew from the standpoint of Bible doctrine.

But he who by means of a hidden [birth] is a Jew, and circumcision of heart is by means of the spirit, not by the letter [Mosaic Law], whose recognition is not from men, but from the God (Rom. 2:29).

Both the circumcision of the heart and the new birth are invisible. Circumcision of the heart, which represents the edification complex and the super-grace life, is invisible be- cause it is in the soul. All the advantages which belonged to the Jew of the Old Testament came from Bible doctrine in his soul, just as they do for any believer today. This is the only means by which anyone can receive blessings from God.

So we have seen that immoral, moral and religious people are all in the same boat they — are all condemned! They all have a system, a house of cards, by which they hope to be saved or to gain the approbation of God. But any system of human works will be inconsistent because man is inconsistent and imperfect, and his own inconsistencies and imperfections will trap him!

The only permanent “house a person can construct is built on Bible doctrine. You must have the true foundation of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ, and then, through the function of GAP, erect a superstructure in the soul. This superstructure consists of grace orientation, mystery of the details of life, a relaxed mental attitude toward others (the AGAPE love ), capacity to love, and inner happiness. This is the means of producing maximum divine good and the entrance into the super-grace life! Why waste your time on a meaningless, flimsy, unstable HOUSE OF CARDS, when you can have every grace asset needed to build a “house” which will stand forever!

APPENDIX

DOCTRINE OF MORALITY

1. Christianity is not a morality, but a relationship with God through Christ, defined by positional sanctification (2 Cor. 5:7).

2. Morality is also a by-product of the Christian way of life (Eph. 5:3). Bible doctrine is not antinomian, nor does grace give license to sin.

3. However, morality has no spiritual dynamics (Gal. 5:16). Morality is for unbelievers as well as for believers under the laws of establishment. Anything the unbeliever can do is not the Christian way of life. Consequently, morality is a result, but not the means of living the Christian way of life.

4. In contrast to keeping the Law, the true dynamics of Christianity are located in the filling of the Holy Spirit (Eph. 5:18; Rom. 8:2-4) and the daily function of GAP, which result in an edification complex in the soul (Eph. 4:24).

5. Morality cannot provide either salvation or spirituality (Gal. 3:2; Tit. 3:5).

6. However, morality is part of the divine laws of establishment, therefore, absolutely necessary for the orderly function of the human race. Morality provides the framework for the true function of the divine institutions (volition, marriage, family, nationalism). As apart of the laws of establishment, morality is for the entire human race, believer and unbeliever alike. The unbeliever is capable of very high morality, as indicated by the rich young ruler (Matt. 19:18,20).

7. Morality protects human freedom, as illustrated by the Ten Commandments, the “magna carta” of human freedom, and makes evangelism possible in every generation.