Romans 2:25-29 The Gospel - Gods distinguishing criteria

Theological Proposition/Focus: True faith is evidenced not by external observance, but by a heart that has been transformed by God. In Romans 2:25-29, Paul emphasizes that true circumcision is not merely physical but a matter of the heart. He explains that outward signs of religious devotion do not define one's relationship with God; instead, it is the transformation of the heart that truly matters in the sight of God. External religious observances, while important, are meaningless without true heart transformation. We must align our motives and actions with God's desires. God values internal integrity over external performance.

Christ Focus: In the context of the Bible, this passage points to Christ as the fulfillment of the Law, where He offers the ultimate circumcision of the heart, changing lives and hearts from the inside out, making us true children of God through faith.

Homiletical Proposition/Application: This passage encourages Christians to examine their own hearts rather than just their external religious practices. It reminds us that God desires genuine faith and obedience that flows from an inner transformation. In a world where it's easy to focus on appearances, this message challenges believers to seek authenticity in their relationship with God.

Introduction

Image: Put your heart in it

One of the most inspiring examples in sports history is the story of Wilma Rudolph, an American sprinter who overcame tremendous odds to achieve greatness.

Background:

Wilma Rudolph was born in 1940 in Tennessee, the 20th of 22 children in a poor family. As a child, she suffered from several serious illnesses, including pneumonia, scarlet fever, and polio, which left her with a partially paralyzed left leg. Doctors doubted she would ever walk again without braces, let alone run.

Overcoming the Odds:

Wilma refused to accept those limitations. With her mother's encouragement, she worked tirelessly to strengthen her leg. By the age of 12, she had discarded her leg brace and began playing sports, eventually excelling in basketball and track during high school. She was discovered by Tennessee State track coach Ed Temple, who saw her potential and began training her rigorously.

The Triumph:

Wilma qualified for the 1956 Melbourne Olympics at just 16 years old, where she won a bronze medal in the 4x100m relay. But her crowning achievement came four years later at the 1960 Rome Olympics. Despite battling injuries leading up to the event, Wilma became the first American woman to win three gold medals in track and field at a single Olympics. She won the 100m, 200m, and anchored the 4x100m relay, cementing her place as one of the greatest sprinters in history.

The Heart

Wilma's "heritage" was all wrong, but her heart led her to greatness. We need to focus our hearts on God because spiritual greatness is going to come from a heart oriented toward God.

Setting the Stage:

Our final destination today is Romans 2:25-29, but before we get there, I want us to look at 1 Samuel 16:1-13.

1 Samuel 13 — Irreverence demonstrates that no king is above God's law.

In 1 Samuel 13 Saul messed up by offering a sacrifice himself rather than waiting for Samuel to come and offer the sacrifice. God has a prescribed way of doing things, and Saul failed to understand that no king outranks God. Moreover, the writing is on the wall as demonstrated by

1 Samuel 14 — The war with the Philistines begins to show the rashness of Saul.

In 1 Samuel 14 Israel was at war with the Philistines, Saul was king, and Saul's son Jonathan earned a major victory over the Philistines. But there was trouble brewing. Saul, the nation's leader, was acting rashly, and the text shows that Saul's ability to lead the nation in a godly manner was significantly in question.

1 Samuel 15 — Disobedience with the Amalekites demonstrates an unfit king.

In 1 Samuel 15 Saul was given the job by God through Samuel the prophet to destroy the Amalekites. Saul, however, only partially completed the job and in

1 Samuel 15:22 Samuel famously remarks, "Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams."

Saul has demonstrated that he is not capable of godly leadership and is unfit as king.

This is where we pick up in 1 Samuel 16.

Body

Heart over Habitus - It is the heart that qualifies an individual (1 Samuel 16:1-13).

Habitus refers to the embodied dispositions, skills, and habits that are acquired through repeated social practices. The term encompasses the way an individual presents themselves to the world. Your spell-checker may flag it as misspelled, but I did look it up! Here is the reality. We each have this external self that we show the world, and there are parts of the external that reflect the internal, but what we choose to show is not always who we really are. The reality is that God sees who we really are, and that is what God looks upon. In order to begin, we are going to start with the story of David's anointing in 1 Samuel 16:1-3.

Thankfully, God is the one in charge, and God gets to choose who God chooses (1-4).

I find it interesting that as early as 1 Samuel 13:14 God is already working to solve a problem that the people didn't even recognize yet. The king God had given the people was not the man for the job.

I think that in order to understand what is happening here, we need to better understand Saul and his rise to power.

• In 1 Samuel 8:5 the people of Israel approach Samuel and ask for a king.

• In 1 Samuel 8:6-7 Samuel is displeased and prays to the Lord. God tells Samuel that the people are not rejecting him but are rejecting God as their king.

• In 1 Samuel 8:10-18 Samuel warns the people about the consequences of having a king, describing how the king will take their sons, daughters, lands, and possessions for his service.

• In 1 Samuel 8:19-20, despite the warnings, the people insist, saying, "No! But there shall be a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations."

• Saul, according to 1 Samuel 9:2 was a physically appealing leader who could meet the people's desire for a king who could "fight their battles," as described in 1 Samuel 8:20.

God gave the people Saul as king to satisfy their desire for a warrior king they could follow because of his physical prowess. But Saul was not the man God had ordained as king.

Here in 1 Samuel 16 we see that God has prepared a king, and now God is ready to install His choice of king over the people.

One of the realities I have seen in my own life is that when I make decisions, I tend to make bad decisions. When God makes decisions for me, the decisions are the right decisions. I have learned that in every circumstance, God has the better idea.

As a rule, when we are outside of God's will, we will find ourselves unsettled.

We need to remember that God's choices are good choices, and we need to be thankful for God's choices even when they are outside of what we would do otherwise. Thankfully, God is the one in charge, and God gets to choose who God chooses.

Since God is omniscient, He is capable of seeing more than skin deep (5-7).

What happens when Samuel arrives in Bethlehem is exactly what we would expect. The people gather together to make a sacrifice, and upon seeing a strong young man, Samuel believes he has accomplished his mission.

As a general rule, people judge books by the cover.

People talk about the taller candidate winning in presidential elections, and while there is some debate on the matter, there is also some historical evidence that this is the case. Discrimination is a real thing, and it is not just based on race; there are other ways in which discrimination occurs. As a general rule, people judge based on outward appearances.

It is obvious that there is more to a person than meets the eye, but it is sometimes hard to implement.

We are fallen and lack God's perspective. But we also lack God's knowledge. Samuel, as great as he was, was not God and failed to properly evaluate the situation in which he found himself. But that was okay because God knew exactly what was going on and exactly how to evaluate the situation.

God's criteria involve far more than outward appearances and behaviors (8-13, 1 Samuel 13:14).

As the text continues, we see a parade of individuals coming before Samuel, and one by one they are eliminated. Finally, with all the choices seemingly exhausted, Samuel asks if there are any others and learns that there is one more son.

Jesse tells Samuel that the "youngest" has not yet come. Young, in our NIV is a fine translation, but the word can also be translated as small. I think there is supposed to be some contrast here. Saul was the tallest; David, in contrast, is the smallest.

If we are not careful when we read verse 12, we may think that again the physical has been overemphasized, but I want you to compare 1 Samuel 16:12 "So he sent for him and had him brought in. He was glowing with health and had a fine appearance and handsome features. Then the Lord said, 'Rise and anoint him; this is the one.'" with Goliath's description in 1 Samuel 17:42 "He looked David over and saw that he was little more than a boy, glowing with health and handsome, and he despised him."

I think the picture that we are painting here is that David is a cute little boy. This is a far cry from the warrior king the people had asked for before.

We are reminded God looks more than skin deep. But there is more!

David was something of a scoundrel; just look at Bathsheba in 2 Samuel 11-12, but David's outward actions, while terrible, must not have reflected his true heart as evidenced by 1 Samuel 13:14.

Here is the thing. David lacked the physical prowess of Saul, and David made terrible sinful mistakes. However, David's heart chased after God, and so God used David!

You don't need to be the most physically fit or attractive person. You don't need to have had a perfect past. You need to orient your heart toward God!

Heart over Heritage — It is the heart that will reveal our allegiance (Romans 2:25-29).

Last week we saw that the Gospel was God's mission. The point is that we need to not focus on ourselves, our titles, or our rules. We need to focus on Christ.

Paul transitions to the true significance of circumcision, emphasizing that it is not the physical act, but the condition of the heart that counts before God. This distinction underscores the transformation that comes through the Holy Spirit. It shifts focus from outward rituals to the heart's posture towards God, highlighting the transformative power of faith in Jesus. As the ultimate revelation of God's righteousness, Christ enables believers to live out an authentic faith marked by a heart changed by God's Spirit.

God did, in fact, set aside Abraham's descendants for a special position of blessing (25).

Okay, so here we go, we are going to need to dig into some of the covenants in the Bible. In particular, let's dig into both the Abrahamic and the Mosaic Covenant.

Let's read Genesis 17:1-10.

Genesis 17:1-10 NIV

When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, "I am God Almighty; walk before me faithfully and be blameless. Then I will make my covenant between me and you and will greatly increase your numbers."

Abram fell facedown, and God said to him, "As for me, this is my covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations. No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations. I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you. I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you. The whole land of Canaan, where you now reside as a foreigner, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God."

Then God said to Abraham, "As for you, you must keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you for the generations to come. This is my covenant with you and your descendants after you, the covenant you are to keep: Every male among you shall be circumcised."

I want you to notice a few key characteristics of this covenant that God made with Abraham:

• It was unconditional (the original statements made in Genesis 12 were not conditioned; God was simply going to do it).

• It was a national covenant made with Abraham but also all his descendants.

• It was geographical and involved the land of Canaan.

• It was perpetual in that it applied to all generations.

• It was international in that all the world was blessed through Abraham as in Genesis 12:2-3.

• There was a physical sign of the covenant, circumcision.

I want you to notice something significant here. God promised an inheritance to the people. This inheritance was a physical nation and descendants. This was a special blessing, but it was not necessarily a promise of prosperity. The prosperity comes into play in the Mosaic covenant.

The Mosaic covenant itself is described primarily through the books of Exodus and Deuteronomy, and no level of reading as part of a worship service could do it full justice. However, we can focus in on one particular passage Deuteronomy 28:1-2 "If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. All these blessings will come on you and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God."

What I want you to notice is the contrast between the Abrahamic covenant and the Mosaic covenant.

• The Abrahamic covenant was unconditional; the Mosaic was conditional.

• The Abrahamic covenant was everlasting; the Mosaic could be replaced as described in Jeremiah 31:31-33.

• The blessings of the Abrahamic covenant was a land grant; the blessing of the Mosaic covenant was temporal physical blessing.

So what was the condition on the Mosaic covenant? Simple, the condition was obedience to the Law.

So, what is Paul saying when he states in Romans 2:25 "Circumcision has value if you observe the law, but if you break the law, you have become as though you had not been circumcised." I think to really capture what is going on here we need to widen our view just a little. Romans 2 is all about God's just judgment on unrighteousness. Here is a key point of the Mosaic Covenant. The Mosaic covenant promised blessing for obedience and punishment for disobedience. Look at Deuteronomy 28:15 "However, if you do not obey the Lord your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come on you and overtake you."

Obedience brings blessing, but disobedience brings curse.

This is huge; obedience brings blessing, but disobedience brings curse. Imagine that you are a Jew who believes that your lineage guarantees a special place of blessing, you party hard relying on your metaphorical trust fund. Then you find out that in fact you are subject to the Mosaic covenant. Suddenly your heritage results in cursing because you have failed to obey!

God did set aside Israel for a place of blessing, but Israel was also subject to obedience!

But God will also bless Gentiles who are faithful to God (26-27).

Paul introduces here a rhetorical device to prove a point.

Suppose there was a non-Jewish person who managed to live a perfect life. Wouldn't that person be counted as one of God's people? Paul's implied answer is yes, they would. Now, we have to understand Paul is building an argument, so we cannot go outside of the text. Paul does not say such a person exists, and because of sin nature, we know no such person exists, but for the purpose of argument, we can accept Paul's point.

The implication of the rhetorical argument is that Gentiles who are faithful to God are eligible for blessing.

Now, we know that nobody is perfect, so how does this apply?

The answer is really pretty simple.

Jesus was perfect and then offered His perfection for each of us to be credited to our account.

The so-called Great Exchange is the fact that we put on Christ's righteousness. In putting on the righteousness of Christ, we who are by nature the uncircumcision, that is, those of us who are naturally outside of the Abrahamic line, are counted as recipients of God's blessings and adopted into the family of God.

Ultimately, the truth, the reality is that

God looks at the heart and uses the heart as His measure (28-29).

Jeremiah 31:31-33 ""The days are coming," declares the Lord, "when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them," declares the Lord. "This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time," declares the Lord. "I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people." is becoming a favorite passage of mine because it emphasizes the reality. While the Mosaic covenant was in effect, blessing was dependent on obedience, but now a new and better covenant has been put into effect. This covenant is based on the obedience of Christ who was perfect and grants the Holy Spirit to all who follow Him. The Holy Spirit writes the law on our hearts and through the circumcision of the heart, we become the children of God.