Our Spiritual Résumés (Romans 2:17-29)
Big Idea: Don’t trust in your religious accomplishments and advantages; trust in Christ alone.
If you’re looking for a job, a standout résumé isn't just important; it's essential. Your résumé must clearly showcase your skills, experience, and achievements in a way that's specifically tailored to the position you want. When employers sift through dozens of applications, you want yours to communicate unmistakable value. A powerful résumé doesn't just earn you an interview; it demonstrates you're the perfect fit for the role. Ideally, your résumé should be so compelling that the employer can't possibly ignore you.
But what happens when we adopt this approach with God? What happens when we present God with a résumé of all our spiritual skills, experiences, and achievements?
Over these past months, we've been working through Romans. In the first few chapters, Paul constructs an airtight case for universal human guilt before a holy God. His argument unfolds methodically. First, he demonstrates how Gentiles stand condemned for suppressing divine truth. Then he pivots to show Jewish people fare no better despite their advantages. Paul's conclusion is inescapable: all humanity, without exception, stands accountable before a righteous and just God.
But now he pictures someone pulling out their religious résumé. This person would have been tempted to say, “I agree, Paul. Things are really bad today. Look at the change in sexual ethics, the fundamental shift in values, the drift from our Judeo-Christian foundations, the world’s rejection of absolute truth, and the growing antagonism against Christianity. Things are bad. If God is a God of justice and wrath, he will surely condemn all of this. Keep preaching, Paul. The wicked of this world need your message. The drug dealers, the crime lords, the politicians—all, no doubt, will profit from your gospel.”
“But leave me out of it! I am a very religious person, and my religious commitments exempt me from your blanket condemnations. I’ve been baptized. I’m a member of a good church. I give and serve. I’m one of the good guys.”
Paul is going to make the same point: none of our religious advantages will save us. Any outward sign, even one ordained by God, is worthless unless it’s accompanied by in inward work of God’s grace in our hearts. Don’t trust in or rely on anything external as the ground of your acceptance with God. Don’t trust in anything but Christ for your salvation.
Religious Advantages (2:17-20)
What would the Jews of the day been tempted to trust as the basis of their acceptance with God? In verses 17 to 20, Paul lists the religious advantages that the Jews in Rome may have been tempted to think gave them a leg up on others. He mentions two, and they’re significant. You can see how they may have been tempted to trust in these things rather than in Jesus.
Superior Knowledge (2:17-18)
But if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the law and boast in God and know his will and approve what is excellent, because you are instructed from the law…
In contrast to Gentiles, Jews had the clearly articulated law of God given to Moses. They had the Ten Commandments; Gentiles did not. God had revealed himself exclusively to Israel at Sinai. The Jewish people had a clear understanding of who God is and what he expects of humanity. They had a record of God’s dealings with his people for thousands of years right from Adam to Abraham right through to the prophets. They had so much knowledge of God, and they stood head and shoulders above everyone else because of this.
This is similar to the advantages that we have today, except we’re even better off. For most of Christian history, believers possessed fragments of Scripture at best. Medieval Christians might hear portions read aloud during worship, but owning a complete Bible was unthinkable for ordinary people. The Reformers fought and died for the principle that every believer should have direct access to God's word. Today, we carry multiple translations in our pockets and barely think about it. I have a whole row of excellent study Bibles on my shelf at home. I can’t even keep up.
Not only that, but we have access to the best preaching in the world. It used to be that you were stuck listening to whoever your preacher happened to be. If you were lucky, you could occasionally find a good preacher on Christian radio or this thing they had called cassette tape. Now we have instant access to the best possible preaching you can find in the world.
This is an advantage. We are even more blessed than the people Paul addresses in this passage because we have even greater access to God’s word than they did back then.
But that’s not the only advantage Paul mentions. Paul mentions another one in verses 19-20:
Superior Position (2:19-20)
and if you are sure that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth—
Because they had a superior knowledge of God through Scripture, they claimed four advantages for themselves. They were, they believed:
- A guide for the blind
- A light for those in the dark
- An instructor of the foolish
- A teacher of infants
They had a point. In a world of idol worship, pagan superstition, and wickedness, they were in a superior position to help others understand the truth about God. They were perfectly positioned to be who God wanted them to be, as described in Isaiah 42:6-7:
a light for the nations,
to open the eyes that are blind,
to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon,
from the prison those who sit in darkness.
Don’t miss this. They were right about their advantages. And if the Jews of Paul’s day had advantages, we have even more. We have greater access to God’s word; we have perhaps even more opportunity to influence the world with the truth we know about God.
Question (2:21-24)
But here’s the question Paul asks in verses 21 to 24:
…you then who teach others, do you not teach yourself? While you preach against stealing, do you steal? You who say that one must not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who boast in the law dishonor God by breaking the law. For, as it is written, “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.”
Paul's question cuts to the heart: What are you doing with these advantages? Possessing the Bible, knowing about God, even teaching others—none of this matters if you're not obeying what you claim to know. The real issue isn't whether you know the Bible; it's whether you're living by the Bible you profess to understand.
Paul essentially goes through the Ten Commandments, which prohibited stealing, adultery, and idolatry. The Jews preached against all of these, and yet Paul says, their behavior violated the very standards they preached. One commentator puts it this way: “When theft, adultery and sacrilege are strictly and radically understood, there is no man who is not guilty of all three” (C. K. Barrett). As a whole, the Jewish people did not keep the law they possessed and taught. The Jews had advantages, just like we do. But with greater privilege comes greater responsibility. The Jewish people could not claim to have lived up to the law they knew and taught. They’re guilty of doing the same things for which they denounce others.
The result is that they fulfilled what Isaiah wrote in Isaiah 52:5: “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.” Instead of being a light to the Gentiles, the Jewish people caused God’s name to be dishonored among the Gentiles despite all of their advantages. C.S. Lewis said, “When we Christians behave badly—or fail to behave well—we are making Christianity unbelievable to the outside world.”
I feel this. Lloyd-Jones says:
Allow the Scripture to search you, otherwise it can be very dangerous. There is a sense in which the more you know about it, the more dangerous it is to you if you do not apply it to yourself… We must apply the truth to ourselves and be humbled by it. We must be very careful that we are not talking about things theoretically, without troubling about the application of them to our personal lives, lest thus unconsciously we may be dishonoring the God whom we claim to be worshiping and whom we desire to serve.
This is Paul’s argument: if you know Scripture and enjoy some of its benefits, that is a clear advantage, but it still leaves you in a difficult position because you haven’t lived up to what you know. Divinely given privileges are not enough to guarantee acceptance by God.
Objection! (2:25-29)
In verses 25 to 29, Paul anticipates an objection that a good Jew might have raised at this point. Is it not true, someone might say, that God gave the Jewish people the covenant of circumcision? In Genesis 17:9-14, God gave Abraham and his descendants circumcision as the mark of their covenant with God. It was a surgical procedure performed among Jews on male infants who were 8 days old and a key part of their identity that gave them great assurance.
Rabbi Menachem, in his commentary on the Book of Moses, wrote, “Our Rabbis have said that no circumcised man will see Hell.” Another said, “Circumcision saves from Hell.” The midrash Tillim says, “God swore to Abraham that no one who was circumcised should be sent to Hell.” Circumcision was seen as almost a passport to salvation.
Not so fast, Paul says.
For circumcision indeed is of value if you obey the law, but if you break the law, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision. So, if a man who is uncircumcised keeps the precepts of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? Then he who is physically uncircumcised but keeps the law will condemn you who have the written code and circumcision but break the law. For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God. (2:25-29)
Circumcision holds significance, but Paul emphasizes that its true value lies in the heart's transformation. While circumcision was intended as an outward sign of a personal relationship with God, Paul points out that genuine obedience from the heart is what matters most.
In fact, Paul says something shocking: Israel’s failure to keep the whole law of Moses negates their circumcision, while Christian Gentiles can fulfill the Torah’s intent through faith in Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit’s indwelling. Paul made a similar argument in Colossians 2:11: “In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ…” What matters most isn’t what a rabbi did to our bodies when we were eight days old; what really matters is what God has done to our hearts through Christ.
Paul contrasts two paths: outward signs without inward obedience are meaningless, while true obedience from the heart is what God values. Ultimately, it's not about having the right marks but about doing the right things for the right reasons. It’s never about the externals; it’s always a matter of the renewal of the heart by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Here’s what Paul is saying in this passage: your religious résumé is worthless. What you need is the same thing irreligious people need: for God to save you through the finished work of Jesus on the cross. Don’t trust in your religious accomplishments and advantages; trust in Christ alone.
It’s so easy for us to focus on the wrong things. We can focus on and rely on externals too: that we know and study the Bible; that we’ve been baptized; that we’re members of GFC; that we take communion. These are all good things, but they’re not to be relied upon for salvation.
In fact, our advantages can get in the way if they become the ground of our assurance. True salvation is a matter of the heart. The only thing that belongs on our résumé is this: that we realized we’re no better than anyone else; that we stood guilty before a holy God; and that we fled to Jesus for the forgiveness and the transformation we need.
