Dale Partridge - Romans 2_25-29： Why Salvation Requires A Changed Heart

00:00:00.000 In this episode of Real Christianity, I finish up the last section of Romans chapter 2,

00:00:04.880 offer a clear presentation of the gospel, and we discuss

00:00:07.540 why you cannot be saved without a changed heart. All that and more coming up right now.

00:00:30.980 Welcome to Real Christianity. My name is Dale Partridge. Today's episode is titled Romans 2, 25-29, Why Salvation Requires a Changed Heart.

00:00:39.740 Now, as you know, this show is an audio and video ministry of relearn.org.

00:00:43.380 So if you're watching the video recording of this episode, please be sure to subscribe or follow along for more biblical content.

00:00:49.860 If you're listening from Apple Podcasts, Google Play, or Spotify, thank you for your faithful listenership.

00:00:55.220 You can also follow our ministry on just about every social media platform if you don't already.

00:00:59.300 and we'd love to have you on the journey.

00:01:01.380 Now, I have a big announcement.

00:01:02.520 This is something new.

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00:01:06.180 which is my first children's book,

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00:01:09.820 It has become very clear

00:01:11.400 that if you do not intentionally teach your kids

00:01:13.780 a biblical view of gender,

00:01:15.120 the world will teach them otherwise.

00:01:17.180 So in this book, we have incredible illustrations,

00:01:20.040 strong theology, and it rhymes.

00:01:22.520 And to throw in a little bit more,

00:01:24.120 I created a five-question catechism on biblical gender

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00:01:28.680 so we need at least 1500 people to pre-order this book before we send it to print so will you

00:01:34.440 consider grabbing a copy of jesus and my gender it'll be ready uh to ship out on the first week

00:01:41.640 of november so you will have these for christmas you can learn more see a bunch of pictures uh you

00:01:47.400 know get a real grasp of kind of the rhymes of the book if you just go to relearn.org forward slash

00:01:53.400 gender. Again, that's relearn.org forward slash gender. All right, guys, we are going to dive

00:01:58.820 into this episode. For the past several weeks, we've looked at Paul's primary objective of Romans

00:02:04.300 chapter two, which has really taught us that from the very beginning, he's basically teaching the

00:02:10.640 Jews that their religious actions and activity are not sufficient for justification. So he's

00:02:17.120 trying to strip them down so that they turn away from their religious practices and turn to Christ. 0.99

00:02:22.620 From Romans 2, verse 12 to 229, we see him really confront, expose, and reveal the condemnation and hypocrisy of the Jews. 0.99

00:02:35.760 This is really his focus. 0.99

00:02:37.120 He wants to show the religious elite, similar to Jesus, that their works were not sufficient to justify them. 0.88

00:02:44.300 They will not be justified by works of the law. 0.51

00:02:46.820 Now, you have to remember that the Jews found redemptive hope in three primary things.

00:02:52.500 I want you guys to pay attention here. Number one is who they were. And who they were was 0.73

00:02:57.640 the children of Abraham. That is a pride for the Jewish people, is that they were the children of

00:03:04.820 Abraham. God's chosen holy people entered into an Abrahamic covenant with God. And so this is

00:03:11.400 number one, is that they were a chosen people, who they were. Number two is what they had. They had

00:03:17.420 God's moral law. No other nation had God's moral law. It was delivered to them on Mount Sinai from

00:03:22.900 Moses on two tablets of stone. We know them as the Ten Commandments. This is a central mark of

00:03:29.900 identity for the Jews. The third thing is how they were marked. They were marked with a sign

00:03:37.180 of a covenant we know as circumcision. And this is the sign of the old covenant between God and 0.63

00:03:43.760 Abraham and his covenant people here. So the three things that they had redemptive hope was

00:03:48.920 who they were, what they had, and how they were marked. And so that's essential that we understand

00:03:56.000 the cultural, national, ethnic context that Paul is speaking to the Jews so that they would

00:04:04.240 understand this. Paul's objective in chapter two, as I said just a minute ago, is really to strip 0.94

00:04:09.940 away any redemptive hope that they have. It's to help them see that their ethnic heritage,

00:04:14.960 their law-keeping, and in today's sermon, really this covenantal mark that they have

00:04:20.000 is not sufficient to make them righteous before God, but there is something else that they need,

00:04:26.160 which obviously is the righteousness of Christ. So the Jews needed to see that

00:04:31.720 they weren't righteous, that they were unrighteous, that they were sinners. 0.88

00:04:36.040 they needed to understand that if a person doesn't keep the entire law, not just externally,

00:04:41.900 but also internally. And so this is why Jesus constantly through his ministry would say things

00:04:47.720 like, you've heard that it was said this, and he's referencing back to the law, but I'm saying

00:04:54.240 that it's actually much deeper than that. You've heard that it was said that if you commit adultery

00:05:01.080 with a woman that this is wrong. I'm saying that if you even lust after a woman, you're committing

00:05:08.740 adultery. So he's basically heightening the responsibility and showing that no man or woman

00:05:15.680 is going to be free from keeping or from breaking the law. All of us have broken the law at the

00:05:21.560 heart level. While we may have not committed adultery, all of us have committed lust. And so

00:05:27.040 Jesus is showing that the law doesn't just have jurisdiction on our actions, but also on our

00:05:32.900 thoughts, our intentions, and our heart, which is, again, making everything, just the stakes go way

00:05:39.240 higher, and we need to recognize, wow, I'm actually unable to keep the law. This is why the disciples

00:05:44.200 would often say things like, who can be saved then? If my righteousness needs to exceed the

00:05:52.060 righteousness of the Pharisees, who can be saved? Because these people dedicate their entire lives

00:05:57.060 to this. And Jesus is saying, hey, even these people aren't going to be saved. You need to have

00:06:01.900 a righteousness that exceeds these people. And so this is kind of the cultural theological context

00:06:08.560 of what's going on here. We looked at James 2, verse 10, that says, for whoever keeps the whole

00:06:14.600 law, but fails in one point has been guilty of all of it. So if you were born and you kept the

00:06:22.320 entire law, which you couldn't, but you kept the entire law until you were 85 years old and you

00:06:27.340 broke the law one time, none of your obedience matters at this point because you have now become

00:06:32.460 unrighteous and are sent out of God's presence. I think about Adam and Eve, two were completely

00:06:37.440 holy and righteous, standing before God without sin. And one sin, one sin of disobeying God,

00:06:45.920 eating of the forbidden fruit, and God sends them away. One sin was enough to plunge humanity

00:06:51.640 completely into judgment and deserving of help. And so Romans 3.20 says,

00:06:58.600 for by works of the law, no human being will be justified. This is core because we have to

00:07:04.220 understand that Paul is making a point here from Romans chapter one, verses 18, all the way to

00:07:10.540 Romans chapter three, verse 20. And it really ends with the culmination of this verse. And so I'm

00:07:17.580 going to read a couple other verses that I think will give us some other theological context so

00:07:21.720 that we can understand the law. My hope for you people is that you would understand the purpose

00:07:27.960 of the law in salvation, the purpose of the law in the gospel, why Jesus would say statements like,

00:07:35.200 I didn't come here to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. Jesus didn't just die for us,

00:07:40.040 but he also lived for us. He lived perfectly fulfilling the righteous requirements of the law

00:07:46.320 so that he can impute his righteousness to us through faith. Now, we need to understand that

00:07:50.500 the law has not been abolished, but it's actually still here bringing condemnation to those

00:07:55.980 individuals who are not keeping the law. It is the justification for the judgment that is coming.

00:08:01.740 They've broken the law. So this is, again, some of that context that you need to grasp

00:08:05.620 so that when you preach the gospel and you share the gospel, you leverage the law because the

00:08:11.640 gospel is a healing ointment to the wounds that are afflicted by the law. You must start with law

00:08:17.300 and then move to gospel. That's essential for people to understand. This is why Paul does this

00:08:23.040 throughout the Romans Road. If you've ever heard of the Romans Road, it's basically a presentation

00:08:25.960 of the gospel through the book of Romans. And so he starts with the condemning power of the law.

00:08:30.480 So I'm going to read a couple more verses, Galatians 3, 10 through 14. It says,

00:08:36.760 for all who rely on works of the law are under a curse. And so again, that word curse, you have to

00:08:42.180 think about that for a second, because this is covenantal language, blessings and cursings.

00:08:47.120 I'm going to keep reading. It says, for it is written, cursed be everyone who does not abide

00:08:53.980 by all things written in the book of the law and do them.

00:08:59.700 So you have to actually abide by all these things.

00:09:03.180 And then in addition, you actually have to do them.

00:09:05.480 And when it says do the law, it means completely, perfectly.

00:09:10.660 There is no human being or no soul in heaven who is not perfect.

00:09:16.340 That's the only way to be in the presence of God is to be completely perfect.

00:09:20.500 this is why God would say, be holy as I am holy. You need to be completely holy. The only way that

00:09:27.540 you can be completely holy is if you have been completely forgiven and have the righteousness

00:09:34.680 of Christ completely imputed to you so that you are as righteous as Christ is righteous and you

00:09:40.080 are as clean or as forgiven and pure as Christ is pure. And so this is, again, hoping you get

00:09:46.080 some biblical theological context here to understand the importance of law. I'm still

00:09:50.100 reading Galatians 3, 10 through 14. And Trevor, who does these slides is going to be absolutely

00:09:54.560 frustrated because we keep going back and forth. So we're going back here. In verse 11, it says,

00:10:01.320 now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law. For the righteous shall live

00:10:09.580 by faith. Okay, that line right there, it is evident that no one is justified before God by

00:10:16.260 the law. So anybody that's trying to earn their salvation by obedience or by law keeping,

00:10:22.760 it's right there. No one is going to be justified by God, by the law, by works of the law. The

00:10:29.520 righteous, those people who have the righteous verdict on judgment day shall live. That means

00:10:37.960 to not die eternally or be eternally punished, but to live eternally shall live by what? By faith,

00:10:46.640 by faith in Jesus Christ. So this is the central point that Paul is laboring to make in chapter two

00:10:52.620 and preparing to make in chapter three. Your obedience, your law following, your religious

00:10:57.740 activity, your giving, your church attendance, your Bible reading schedule, your prayer schedule

00:11:03.800 does not make you saved and does not contribute to your righteous standing,

00:11:11.100 to your saving, to your maintaining of your salvation. None of it. Now, yes, you can work

00:11:18.600 and obey from the place that you are saved with a desire and motive to please God. That's okay.

00:11:27.320 But if you're working to actually make yourself righteous as if you disobey, you'll lose your

00:11:32.680 salvation. That's wrong. And so the only thing that saves and keeps a person saved is faith in

00:11:38.200 Christ alone. We've heard, you know, saved by grace alone, through faith alone, and Christ alone.

00:11:44.860 That is our banner that we must fly. So I labor this point week after week after week,

00:11:51.180 because we have millions of Christians around the world who have a faith plus works gospel.

00:11:56.560 If you believe that you can lose your salvation, you will always work to keep it.

00:12:04.880 You will always work to keep up your faith.

00:12:08.140 And again, you're automatically performing.

00:12:11.760 You're trying to keep up with, make sure that God stays pleased with you.

00:12:16.680 And so too many people have this, Jesus did his part.

00:12:21.820 Now I'll do mine.

00:12:23.700 And that is so common.

00:12:24.720 I actually had a gentleman in our church recently come up to me and say, Hey, Dale, I know you kind of over and over and over again hit the gospel. And I sometimes even think that I do this too much. I don't even know if that's even a thing to preach the gospel too much. But I'm over and over again, talking about the mechanics of the gospel.

00:12:43.460 But he said, hey, it's really allowed this doctrine to sink into my mind, hearing it repeatedly, and allowed him to faithfully present the gospel to somebody he ran into in his everyday life.

00:12:56.500 So I hope that's true of you, that you're going to hear the mechanics of the gospel on this podcast over and over again, and it equips you to faithfully present the gospel when the Lord gives you those moments.

00:13:08.480 So we have this element in the gospel presentation or understanding of the gospel that we underestimate the power of the law and we overestimate our ability to keep it. We do this even in religion. I mean, if you ask any Mormon, you ask any Roman Catholic, you ask any Jehovah's Witness, you ask any even Seventh-day Adventist, there is so much of this there.

00:13:30.080 also the Church of Christ, which we often talk about here. There are so many of these

00:13:34.380 denominations or religions or different things that are going on that even fall into this category.

00:13:41.640 And so we need to remember that God's standard of righteousness is absolutely perfect. I think

00:13:47.680 about Isaiah 64, 6, where God says, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment. And you

00:13:56.820 go, how can a righteous deed be filthy to God? Because if it's not done in faith, if it's not

00:14:02.480 done to the glory of Christ, it is. This is why anybody who's a sinner, someone who's not saved,

00:14:10.840 if they do any sort of righteous work to God, it's filthy because it's not done to the glory

00:14:16.740 of Christ. If we do some sort of act that's self-righteous and not done to the glory of

00:14:22.060 Christ, even as a believer, God is not pleased with those things. Now we are, it doesn't mean

00:14:27.540 that we're not saved because our justification doesn't rest on our obedience, but the obedience

00:14:31.280 of Christ. But it's important that you understand that anybody that's not saved, even if they're

00:14:35.860 doing things like the Jews were doing, they're keeping the law, they're obeying the law. 0.83

00:14:42.100 God's trying to make it clear that your obedience, because you're a sinner and because you're not 0.96

00:14:47.440 redeemed, because you're not trusting in Christ alone, it's actually filthy. It's not righteous

00:14:53.300 because it's done to self-righteousness instead of the righteousness of God. And so we cannot view

00:14:59.060 our works as contributing to or maintaining our salvation. That's what I want to make sure we get

00:15:04.320 ultra clear as a guy who came out of a group of Christians years ago that absolutely believed that

00:15:10.080 we can contribute to our salvation by maintaining our good works and obedience. So this is a very

00:15:14.240 a real thing in the church if you haven't experienced it. Have you guys heard, I'm not

00:15:18.660 going to even ask, have you guys heard, have you guys recently sung the song Jesus Paid

00:15:23.520 It All? It's just an important hymn for us to remember the lyrics. I'll talk about that

00:15:28.760 at the end of this episode. To believe again that you can somehow contribute to your righteousness

00:15:33.440 and justification, it's pride. It's a prideful position. Anyone who believes this, we're

00:15:39.640 just blind to the wretchedness of our own sin. I actually met a gentleman recently and he came to

00:15:46.100 our church and he was from a different religious group. And I asked him about sin and he says,

00:15:54.220 I actually don't, I don't think that I sin that often. And he didn't understand the concept of

00:16:00.540 needing the righteousness of Christ and that he did his part. And I said, well, do you think you

00:16:04.960 sinned today? And he says, no, I don't think that I've sinned today. And so there's self-love is

00:16:10.020 blinding. And so we have to recognize that we should be sitting before the throne of grace

00:16:18.240 in prayer going, I can't believe how much of a sinner I am. Like when you really look at your

00:16:26.220 own heart, just drive in traffic for a bit and just look at your own thoughts. Deal with a

00:16:31.480 toddler for five minutes and then look at your own thoughts. You just quickly realize how sinful you

00:16:36.620 are and how much you need Christ all the time. And so at this point, you quickly begin to see

00:16:44.320 this need for a savior, need to be forgiven, need to be justified and brought back into the presence

00:16:51.060 of God. We know that that's what the gospel is doing, right? So God is in the presence of his

00:16:55.640 people, Adam and Eve, they sin, their sin separates themselves from a holy God. And there is now a

00:17:02.580 need for a bridge to reconcile humanity back to God. That's the whole purpose of the gospel is

00:17:08.440 that Jesus becomes that bridge to reconcile his people, the fallen people of Adam. So we are born

00:17:14.260 of Adam, but we need to be born again of Christ so that we can be reconciled to God. This is coming

00:17:17.820 to the Lord's table. Again, I'm hoping you're starting to get some bells ring that you understand

00:17:21.640 the gospel here. And so every one of us needs two things. And again, I'm talking about the gospel

00:17:25.520 then I'm going to get back into the exposition of Romans chapter two. The two things that we need

00:17:31.560 is number one, someone needs to die for our sin. But not just anyone, someone who doesn't have

00:17:39.200 sin of their own. And it needs to be a blood sacrifice that's attributed to our debt because

00:17:46.440 the wages of sin is death. Somebody needs to die for your sin. And number two, we need to be made

00:17:53.280 righteous. So even though Christ paid the fine, our debt was actually attributed to Christ and

00:18:00.460 we're forgiven of our debt. We still did the crime. So we're still unrighteous and need to

00:18:05.000 be made righteous. So we don't just need the forgiveness. We don't just need our sin imputed

00:18:10.900 to Christ. We also need the righteousness of Christ imputed to us. And that's called double

00:18:15.660 imputation. It's an important theological concept. So we need to be made righteous. So this is the

00:18:21.900 gospel. That's really the core of the gospel. The good news that Jesus accomplishes both for us.

00:18:28.740 He does all the work. We don't need to be working. We can rest in that reality. He died for the sins

00:18:35.880 of his people and he's given us his righteousness by faith. This is the gospel. This is 2 Corinthians

00:18:40.680 5.21. It says, for our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin so that in him we might become

00:18:48.340 the righteousness of God. That word righteousness, it's almost like the righteousness from God.

00:18:54.480 We get that righteousness of Christ that's given to us from God. Romans 4.25 says,

00:19:00.000 who was delivered up for our trespasses, died, that's the death part, and raised for our

00:19:08.560 justification, lived. So Jesus died for us, but he also lived for us, right? So he's accomplished

00:19:15.160 both in which we don't have to die and he's lived a life that we couldn't live. And so this is where

00:19:20.500 Paul's going. And I wanted to give you guys that gospel background, but this is where Paul's going

00:19:25.160 because he needs the Jews to see that they're clinging to the religious activity, to who they

00:19:30.560 are, what they have, and how they've been marked. They're clinging to those things and he's trying

00:19:35.600 to strip them from those things and showing that none of those things will produce forgiveness,

00:19:40.580 righteousness, and justification. And those are the things that they need. And so he wants them

00:19:46.240 to essentially turn, right? He wants them to repent, turn from their self-righteousness,

00:19:50.800 and turn to the cross. And so Romans 2, 1 through 16, Paul teaches, it's not who you are that makes

00:19:59.080 you righteous. God's impartial. And it says there's going to be more people than the Jews.

00:20:04.800 And so this is the whole focus of the first part of Romans chapter two. It's not who you are 0.97

00:20:09.340 that makes you righteous. Romans 2, 17 to 24, it's not what you have that makes you righteous.

00:20:15.940 It's not the possession of the law that makes you redeem. So it's not even who you are. It's

00:20:19.700 not what you have. And then now we're going to go in today to talk about, it's not how you've

00:20:24.660 been marked that makes you righteous. Physical circumcision does not produce justification.

00:20:30.920 Now, Paul is again, systematically step-by-step because he's a Jew and he understands how they 0.97

00:20:37.000 are relying upon these things so heavily. And he's trying to rip away all these rocks and boulders 1.00

00:20:46.380 and get down to the heart and the root of all this thing and going, these things you are relying on

00:20:52.400 and they will not make you justified. In fact, they are the very things that are sending you

00:20:58.020 to hell. And so Romans 2, 25 through 29 is our text. I'm going to read that right now.

00:21:04.420 I'm going to be reading in the ESV. Here we go. For circumcision indeed is a value if you obey

00:21:12.740 the law, but if you break the law, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision. So if a man 0.75

00:21:18.620 who is uncircumcised keeps the precepts of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as

00:21:24.580 circumcision? Then he who is physically uncircumcised but keeps the law will condemn you 0.60

00:21:31.260 who have the written code and circumcision but break the law for no one is a jew who is merely 0.92

00:21:38.500 one outwardly nor is circumcision outward and physical but a jew is one inwardly and circumcision 0.56

00:21:46.880 is a matter of the heart by the spirit not by the letter his praise is not from man but from god 0.92

00:21:55.980 Okay, guys, this is a jugular attack from Paul to the Jewish people. Circumcision was the golden calf of the Jews' redemptive hope in the religious activity. They placed so much hope in this religious mark. It was a sign of their inclusion in the Abrahamic covenant. 0.86

00:22:19.820 it was God's way of marking his people and making them holy. The word holy we know is to be set

00:22:28.220 apart. And so this is another way to set them apart. The Jews had all types of ways to be set

00:22:35.360 apart. They ate differently. They lived differently. They had different laws. They had different 1.00

00:22:40.280 ways of dressing. They had different rules and laws in the way that they behaved with

00:22:45.120 one another. They had all these different things, the physical marks like this, that were constantly

00:22:50.360 setting them apart as a holy nation. And again, holy doesn't necessarily mean righteous, it just

00:22:55.520 means set apart. It can be righteous in that way too. So this was a practice that dates back

00:23:03.000 even before Moses. So this is something that was really the root of roots. It's before Moses and

00:23:10.060 the Mosaic covenant. It's the thing that distinguished them as God's people. So there

00:23:14.240 There was such a heavy reliance upon circumcision. 0.76

00:23:17.320 So it was the sign of covenant between God and Israel.

00:23:22.060 And so Paul dismantling circumcision 0.84

00:23:25.260 and its importance for salvation 0.80

00:23:28.000 is a radical shift for the Jews to acknowledge.

00:23:31.140 And you have to understand that 0.91

00:23:32.420 because we have to bring you into the world of the Bible

00:23:34.820 and the historical cultural context

00:23:36.920 for you to understand how provocative

00:23:38.960 this statement might actually be to a Jewish culture. 0.98

00:23:42.040 So verse 25, I'm gonna read it again.

00:23:43.500 we'll go verse by verse here. It says, for circumcision indeed is a value if, contingency

00:23:50.280 clause right there, right? If you obey the law, but contrast clause, if you break the law, your

00:23:56.620 circumcision becomes uncircumcision. So first Paul wants to be clear that circumcision is valuable to

00:24:01.200 those who keep the law perfectly in the heart and on the outside of physically and which nobody can.

00:24:06.480 but if you don't keep the law perfectly it has no redemptive status or ability in and of itself

00:24:14.440 and so he wants them to see that circumcision doesn't justify a person but it was intended to

00:24:21.420 be a mark on God's people of the covenant promise between God and Abraham that pay attention here

00:24:29.320 that a justifier will come through Abraham.

00:24:34.060 And that's really what this is about,

00:24:36.720 is that the mark itself doesn't justify an individual,

00:24:40.460 but it is a promise of the people

00:24:42.740 by which the justifier will come.

00:24:46.440 And that justifier is Jesus Christ.

00:24:49.960 And so you go to verse 26 and it says,

00:24:52.980 so if a man who is uncircumcised 0.85

00:24:55.060 keeps the precepts of the law,

00:24:57.040 will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision. So Paul isn't saying that a Gentile

00:25:02.140 can keep the law. We have to remember we don't have this schizophrenic Paul who says one thing 0.95

00:25:08.120 over here and another thing somewhere else. That's what happens when people cherry pick scriptures

00:25:12.440 and they don't understand how to read the Bible in context. We know that chapter 1 verses 18

00:25:16.720 through 3 verses 20, he's making a point and he's getting somewhere and he's using all types of

00:25:21.020 literary devices to do so. And so we know in chapter 3 verses 20 that nobody will be

00:25:26.800 justified by works of the law. Now, Paul is using a hypothetical statement here about the Gentiles

00:25:32.380 to make a point to a people, the Jews, who genuinely think that humans can keep the law. 0.83

00:25:40.380 Now, he's making a point that you can't keep the law. And so, he's demonstrating that circumcision 0.98

00:25:44.440 isn't the act that justifies a person. He hasn't got there quite yet to what the act is

00:25:50.920 at this point in Romans, but he's saying that this isn't it. Circumcision isn't it. He's saying

00:25:57.300 that uncircumcised people can have the benefits of the circumcised, again, which again frustrates

00:26:02.420 the Jews because they have viewed themselves as such a holy people and they're learning that

00:26:09.700 circumcision does not redeem. And so he moves on to verse 27 and he's going to kind of culminate

00:26:15.640 here later in just a couple more verses. Verse 27 says, then he who is physically uncircumcised

00:26:21.720 but keeps the law will condemn you, that is the Jews, who have the written code and circumcision 1.00

00:26:28.280 but break the law. So again, Paul takes that dagger that's on the jugular and he pulls it 1.00

00:26:33.540 out of their neck and then thrusts it right into their heart. And he's basically saying that the

00:26:39.440 Jew that circumcision actually becomes the ground for greater judgment because now you are the 0.78

00:26:47.680 covenant people who are supposed to understand these things yet don't. And so it really highlights 0.92

00:26:53.700 this massive amount of hypocrisy in their inability to keep the law when in reality,

00:26:58.780 they think they keep the law, but they're not justified by works of the law or by works of

00:27:02.560 circumcision. So circumcision becomes the evidence of their hypocrisy. And so again, Paul is just 0.98

00:27:08.860 going right at it. And again, if this was, if you understood and can feel and sense the Jewish

00:27:14.360 culture, these statements are big, big statements. It's hard to get across to an American 21st 0.57

00:27:20.840 century culture. And so Paul goes to the central point in verse 28. He says, for no one is a Jew

00:27:29.680 who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. Okay. This is like a mind

00:27:36.020 blowing conversation to a Jew. Verse 29, but a Jew is one inwardly and circumcision is a matter 1.00

00:27:44.100 of the heart by the spirit, not by the letter, which is just a synonym for the law, not by the 0.80

00:27:50.900 law. And it closes with his praise is not from man. That's the law, but from God, that's really

00:27:59.040 talking about regeneration of the heart. And so this is not simply Paul making a new point either.

00:28:05.020 This is a point that has been made throughout the Old Testament. I'm going to read one verse

00:28:09.820 in Deuteronomy chapter 30, verse 6. It says, and the Lord your God will circumcise your heart

00:28:15.400 and the heart of your offspring so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart,

00:28:21.180 with all your soul, that you may live. Now, it's not talking about live physically. It's talking

00:28:27.140 about that you will live eternally, spiritually, that you won't have to experience the second

00:28:33.360 death the death after physical death the death that's talked about in revelation and the second

00:28:39.120 death is a separation not just from the soul and the body which is the first death but the

00:28:44.240 separation from the soul from god eternally which is the second death and he's saying that god will

00:28:50.560 circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring so that that's a purpose clause right

00:28:56.320 that you will love the lord your god with all your heart with all your soul

00:28:59.120 that you may live, that you may live eternally.

00:29:03.420 And so whenever you see those moments in scripture

00:29:05.960 that says that you may live,

00:29:07.040 it's not talking about living generally.

00:29:09.700 It's not talking about living physically.

00:29:11.560 It's talking about spiritually living,

00:29:13.820 being spiritually alive.

00:29:15.220 You think about passages like Ephesians chapter two,

00:29:18.200 it says you were dead in the trespasses and sins,

00:29:21.220 but God in verse four made you alive, right?

00:29:24.660 This concept of death and life.

00:29:26.820 When Adam and Eve sinned, they died spiritually that day. And everybody that was born of Adam

00:29:33.860 is born spiritually dead. And that's why they need to be not just born physically, but born again 0.96

00:29:39.980 spiritually. So again, I'm hoping you're starting to see some of this gospel mechanics here. So

00:29:46.180 Paul wants the Jews to know that when he stands before the judgment seat of God, 0.89

00:29:50.340 his outward circumcision's not going to save him. Paul's making that point clear. They need 0.85

00:29:58.760 a new heart. They need a new heart. He needs a mark of holiness, not on his outward flesh,

00:30:07.540 but he needs a new regenerated heart. He needs spiritual life. He needs his heart to be born

00:30:14.800 again a mark that can only come by the regeneration of the spirit and by faith in the messiah promised

00:30:21.200 to come through the line of abraham which is really the whole purpose of covenantal agreement

00:30:27.520 because of the promise that's coming down so we know again genesis chapter 3 that there is a

00:30:32.880 promise it's called the proto evangelium it's the idea that there is already the first gospel

00:30:38.480 pronounced in genesis chapter 3 that there will be a serpent crusher that comes through the line

00:30:44.080 of the woman, and that line of the woman is really carried throughout these covenants, preserved in

00:30:50.880 Noah, promised through the line of Abraham, then through David, clarified to the specific line of

00:30:57.200 Judah, and pronounced by John the Baptist and born, entering into the new covenant. And so,

00:31:02.560 this is the whole gospel. It's this promise of a justifier, of someone who will come and send

00:31:08.800 the spirit who will regenerate individuals' hearts and give them new life. And so lots of beautiful,

00:31:15.520 deep content here that we need to understand if we can preach faithfully the gospel of Jesus

00:31:19.700 Christ. The whole purpose of the second chapter of Romans is to demonstrate to the Jews that they

00:31:24.980 are equally condemned before God as the Gentiles, because God shows no partiality. If you're not

00:31:31.600 righteous, it doesn't matter if you have a covenant mark or if you have God's law or if

00:31:36.960 you're born of the seed of Abraham, none of that stuff matters. You need to have a new heart. You

00:31:42.340 need to be born again. I wish I had the verse up in front of me right now, but Jesus says,

00:31:46.380 if you're not born again, you can't enter the kingdom of God. It's John chapter three.

00:31:51.360 And so they need to stop leaning on who they are, what they have, and how they're marked,

00:31:57.420 and start repenting and trusting and leaning only on Christ alone. And so the lesson is not just for

00:32:03.620 the Jews, but it's also for us in this modern era. If any one of us believe that our outward

00:32:09.600 works and our obedience contributes at all to making us saved, to making us righteous before

00:32:16.820 God, we don't understand the gospel. We don't understand the gospel of grace. We don't

00:32:21.520 understand that there is no work to be done. You have to get that the law is due, but the gospel

00:32:27.560 is done. If you add anything to the gospel other than repent and believe, anything to maintain

00:32:37.620 salvation, then you have created a non-biblical gospel. So yes, we must obey, we must work,

00:32:45.400 but we work to please the Lord, not to maintain our salvation. And so our salvation rests in the

00:32:51.940 obedience and perfect righteousness of Christ. So this is why Jesus would say things like Matthew

00:32:57.020 chapter 11, verse 28 and 30, he would say, come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden,

00:33:04.440 and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in

00:33:11.180 heart, and you will find rest for your soul. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

00:33:17.780 So this is a statement to the religious person that is working and laboring to maintain their

00:33:23.900 favor with God. And he's saying, come rest in me, come rest in Christ to the individual that

00:33:31.640 believes that if they don't obey, uh, that God will be angry with them and, and push them away

00:33:38.460 and that they will no longer be saved. Jesus is saying, stop, come rest in, in the righteousness

00:33:46.100 of Christ. You know, this is the good news that the gospel is done, that we can come

00:33:54.320 and rest in Christ. I think a lot of people struggle to just receive the fullness of the

00:34:02.080 gospel because we want to somehow contribute. But the reality is we can't. And that's what

00:34:07.120 makes it so wonderful is that the gospel is completely done by Christ alone. And so we

00:34:13.800 work to be saved we work from being saved and that's the reason so you know you've heard the

00:34:18.440 famous phrase obedience is a fruit of salvation but it's not the root of salvation so the fourth

00:34:25.480 stanza of jesus paid it all i'm going to read it to you it says and now complete in him my robe

00:34:32.440 his righteousness i'll rejoice with all my might i am now divinely blessed jesus paid it all all to

00:34:40.600 him i owe sin had left a crimson stain he washed it white as snow so guys i hope this was helpful

00:34:48.200 for you guys to understand romans chapter 2 we're going to dive into romans chapter 3 in the next

00:34:52.760 episode and we're getting closer to some of the just beautiful parts of this uh gospel narrative

00:35:00.280 of romans and so just stay tuned stay stay with us on this journey through romans if you're new

00:35:06.120 here make sure you go all the way back and to listen to all these episodes through romans it's

00:35:10.440 such a wonderful uh presentation of the gospel of jesus christ if you have not left a review

00:35:16.200 of this show would you do so would you give a thumbs up if you're watching the video would you

00:35:20.520 go to the podcast app that you listen to the show and leave a review you don't even need to write

00:35:25.160 something but if you do i do read those reviews so thank you guys so much for those of you have

00:35:29.640 left those reviews they're very helpful for us they're encouraging to us they also offer an

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00:35:44.460 they do absolutely help support our ministry. On that note, thank you guys for listening to

00:35:49.400 this episode of Real Christianity. My name is Dale Partridge, and I'll see you next time.

Dale Partridge - September 13, 2022

Romans 2_25-29： Why Salvation Requires A Changed Heart

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