THE FAILURE OF THE LAW

Romans 2:17-23

By David Woodbury

17 You who call yourselves Jews are relying on God’s law, and you boast about your special relationship with him. 18 You know what he wants; you know what is right because you have been taught his law. 19 You are convinced that you are a guide for the blind and a light for people who are lost in darkness. 20 You think you can instruct the ignorant and teach children the ways of God. For you are certain that God’s law gives you complete knowledge and truth.

21 Well then, if you teach others, why don’t you teach yourself? You tell others not to steal, but do you steal? 22 You say it is wrong to commit adultery, but do you commit adultery? You condemn idolatry, but do you use items stolen from pagan temples? 23 You are so proud of knowing the law, but you dishonor God by breaking it. (Romans 2:17-23 – NLT)

Reliance on a detailed set of regulations (law) has always been attractive to humanity in its relationship to God; it requires little risk, discernment, thought, and little decision making, since it is all laid out in the letter of the law. It goes basically to physical actions and can circumvent the attitude of heart and mind.

Keeping the law was of paramount importance to the Jewish leaders of the day, although they were well aware of how imperfectly they obeyed it. The Old Testament rings with the truth that what God requires is not sacrifices and rigid enslavement to the letter of the law but to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God. (Micah 6:8) To God, the intention of the heart and mind are more important than outward actions, regardless of how virtuous they may appear. A broken and repentant heart (Psalm 51:17) is of far more importance that religious rituals or verbal proclamation of prayer and praise.

The truth is that rigid observance to law-keeping does not make for a happy existence. If you try to live your life by strict observance to law, not only will you fail, but you will probably be inherently miserable, and difficult to live with. People who want to live by the dictates of the law seem to have an innate tendency to try and impose the law on everyone around them. They turn life into an unhappy and rigid experience. Such was the way in which the Jewish rulers of the day operated; they sought to impose an ever-increasing set of rules and regulations on the people.

Jesus condemnation of the scribes and Pharisees was that by their haughty and pretentious teachings and lifestyle, they had shut the very people they were supposed to be serving, out of the kingdom of God. As interpreters and teachers of the law, they had a responsibility to serve their people and assist them to enter the kingdom of God. They make strict rules and try to force people to obey them. But they themselves will not try to follow any of those rules. (Matthew 23:4 – ICB). Those who may have entered the kingdom through a saving relationship with God were prevented by these Jewish leaders. There is a sense in which they made God seem impossible to please, his commands impossible to obey, and heaven an impossible goal. Living in the kingdom requires a lifestyle that is an example of Christlike living. Servants within the kingdom need to have a lifestyle and witness that makes others believe that kingdom living is not only possible  but also desirable and achievable.

Jesus knew that while ever people laboured under the strict keeping of rules they would carry intolerable burdens and would never find joy and fulfilment in life. He knew it was impossible for men and women to persistently obey the law and therefore could never to be in a right standing before God. He came to bring a new way in which men and women, boys and girls, could come into a right relationship with a holy and just God; the way of grace.

The real problem was that the law in itself could only point to the failure of humanity to live the kingdom lifestyle God wanted for them, and as such, it was incapable of bringing humanity back into a right relationship with Him. It highlighted the problem of sin but offered no practical resolution to it. The reality is that the law was not meant to save us, but to clearly reveal our need for salvation through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In the final analysis, the Jews obsession with the law led to double standards, elitism and hypocrisy, issues that still surface regularly within the church today.

Christians today can learn much from the Jewish obsession with laws and regulations. David in his penitential Psalm concluded that being right with God was a matter of the heart rather than observance of laws: You do not desire a sacrifice, or I would offer one. You do not want a burnt offering. The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit. You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God. (Psalm 51:6-7 – NLT) The kingdom lifestyle God requires from the Christian is a lifestyle based on humility, gratitude and love, a lifestyle that not only pleases God but calls from him a similar response.

19 You are convinced that you are a guide for the blind and a light for people who are lost in darkness. 20 You think you can instruct the ignorant and teach children the ways of God. For you are certain that God’s law gives you complete knowledge and truth. (Romans 2:19-20 – NLT)

There was a certain arrogance among the Jews that lead them to believe that they were the sole repository and guardians of spiritual knowledge.  Such spiritual arrogance has always been a factor within the church and we need to not only guard against it but also not be afraid to challenge it. Unfortunately, more often than not it parades as a super-spirituality devoid of any sense of humility and seeks to impose its ideas on people through intimidation and a sense of spiritual superiority. Jesus was not hoodwinked by such people in his day. Jesus replied, “Every plant not planted by my heavenly Father will be uprooted,  so ignore them. They are blind guides leading the blind, and if one blind person guides another, they will both fall into a ditch.” (Matthew 15:13-14 – NLT)

In Roman 2:19 we hear the echo of Jesus comments about Jewish leaders in Matthew 15:14; the blind leading the blind. To be a teacher of those who are spiritually blind is a great and noble calling and no doubt the Jewish leaders had many academic qualifications that would have fitted them for the task, but the reality was that they were so blinded by their own image and obsessive observance to the law they missed the opportunity. The point of Jesus’ comments about the Jewish leaders was that they possessed the knowledge and powers which might have opened the door of the kingdom of God to others. However, they chose to stay outside and prevented others from entering. 52 “What sorrow awaits you experts in religious law! For you remove the key to knowledge from the people. You don’t enter the Kingdom yourselves, and you prevent others from entering.” (Luke 11:52 - NLT).

The illustration of the blind leading the blind used by Jesus is very potent and pointed; It would be difficult to find a more poignant image than that of the purposeless fumbling of flagrant pride and ignorance, than the figure of one blind man guiding another as sightless as himself. We may well be amused at the funny scene of sightless floundering which finally lands both leaders and the led in the ditch. Yet the reality is that there is a tragic and alarming side to the scenario. Those who need, and are looking for direction in this crucial area are denied it, while those who have the responsibility of leadership and ought to able to see and perceive these spiritual truths, have abdicated their responsibilities because they are focussed solely on image and outward appearances.

In verse 21 Paul now gets to the nitty-gritty of the failure of the Jewish leaders. One of the basic requirements of Christian leaders and teachers is that they have authentically embarked on a course of learning that goes beyond mere head knowledge.  To academically learn theology is no guarantee of heart knowledge. A preacher may be able to give the most eloquent sermon based on the Bible but if the knowledge has not impacted their heart and soul they are as a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. (1 Corinthians 13:1)

In Paul’s writing, there is a warning against the sins of hypocrisy, spiritual pride and spiritual arrogance.  Such sins have always been a problem within the church of God. When people have reached the place where they are proud of their spiritual standing they are on thin ice. Spiritual maturity and spiritual pride are two different animals but all too often spiritual pride masquerades as spiritual maturity.  Paul accuses the Jews of boasting about their perceived, special relationship with God and neither would Jesus: 27 “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs—beautiful on the outside but filled on the inside with dead people’s bones and all sorts of impurity. 28 Outwardly you look like righteous people, but inwardly your hearts are filled with hypocrisy and lawlessness. (Matt 23:27-28 – NLT)

Hypocrisy, spiritual pride and spiritual arrogance were problems in the day of Jesus, in the day of Paul and in religious communities today. The church must always be on guard against these insidious elements within the community of faith. They inevitably engender a judgmental mindset and attitude and as such will isolate the Christian community from the very people to whom it seeks to minister.

Spiritual pretentiousness has no place in the kingdom of God. While there needs to be leadership and management within the church, those who are appointed to these roles need to be acutely aware of the requirement for authentic humility. It may well be true to say that the person who exercises authentic humility has embraced it to a point where they may well be unaware of it. It has become an integral and natural part of their character and shines a light as bright as a star on a dark night. However, the truth is that they have not arrived at this point without first being aware that one of the great temptations of spiritual leadership is the temptation to adopt a plastic persona which appears highly spiritual and saintly. They have understood and learnt that such temptations need to be acknowledged and surrendered to the control of the Holy Spirit.

There is always a danger in a long religious tradition. The danger is, that as times passes and tradition becomes ingrained into the culture of the community, it assumes power and influence beyond its real significance. Such was the problem Paul was facing in the obsession of the Jews to the law. They possessed the law given to them by God through Moses and felt it was their divine right to not only protect the law, but also to interpret it and deliver its judgment on others.

Paul is about to launch into his great doctrine of justification by faith as humanity’s only hope of being put right with God. However, he has to first deal with the Jews obsession with the law, and their blatant incapability to flawlessly hold to it. In a series of challenges, he confronts them with their hypocrisy in brazenly teaching others the law which they were flagrantly violating.