Romans 2:29-3:9 - A Israelite had to be a Israelite both inwardly and outwardly for God to consider that person a true Israelite. Do you think those with a Israelite heritage who were readily willing to accept Paul’s indictment of the Gentiles as being wrath worthy, were now equally as ready to admit their own wrath worthiness, to accept that indictment against themselves?
First came that plea of ignorance, “We Gentiles just did not know there was a God, why didn’t God tell us about himself?” Paul quickly dispensed with that notion, they knew all about God according to Paul. God had shown them all about himself and told them about himself. It would be easier for them to dispense with the God they knew about, than to have to be accountable to that God.
The second plea of ignorance came, the self defense motion of relative righteousness; the plea that went along these lines, “I do some pretty good things from time to time, surely my righteousness is worthy of God’s consideration.” When it comes to our failures at rightness, our pride nature will not let us see what is in the room.
The third self defense plea of natural righteousness, the Israelites were entertaining in their minds a rightness that they supposed came along with their physical heritage; their lineage. The Israelites identified themselves as being the offspring of Abraham and God certainly honored Abraham. He was a great man in God’s eye, so they felt that that linkage to Abraham made them great in God’s eyes. Their is a very real difference in taking pride in a privileged position God has provided and thinking you are worthy of holding the position God has given.
Romans 3:10-17 - No one has a self defense plea that will successfully excuse them from being counted worthy of God’s wrath. The natural person is the person who can only perceive things that fit in with their own human reasoning. The natural person has their mind tuned in only to the channel of their own human perspective; satisfying the lust of their flesh; the lust of their eyes; and the pride of life. If something is not logical to the natural person’s way of thinking, they refuses to believe it, whether God said it or not, they want to remain in their comfort zone.
The human race has become quite adept at mixing poison with their speech. They lace their poison with perfume, but it is poison, nonetheless. The words come out designed to appear innocuous, but lo and behold, there is something hidden under the lips of sinful people. While their words may appear harmless and unoffending, oftentimes these words are not benign words at all. They are insidiously designed by the speaker to be laced with character venom so as to contaminate the object of the speech.
Swearing is not the meaning of the word, this word cursing has more to do with wishing harm on another; wishing ill will toward another person; bringing another under the condemnation of ill will due to the bitterness or animosity in our hearts. Every where a person goes, you can see the results of their having been there. Destruction and misery line the pathway of the human race. We could say that the footprint of sin is easily traced to the sinner. Sin renders lasting peace impossible.
Romans 3:18 - People have a lack of proper alarm when it comes to the judgment of God. The pride of the Israelite people, there are many parallels between the pride of these Israelites and the pride that take place in Christianity today. The programs have simply been intertwined in the minds of the religious world. Christianity, they have mixed God’s program with Israel and his program with the Body of Christ and mixed dispensations together; dispensations that do not mix together and as a result, they think they have taken on Israel’s role from the point where Israel left off.
We look at the Old Testament scripture, and we see God’s judgment being rained on those who walked contrary to his law, and it is hard for us to understand God’s love in light of those passages. We tend to think that a God who is love is totally incapable of being a God who will judge. One of Satan and his forces goals accomplished through the heart of sinful people is to humanize God. That is precisely what the human race has done, God is our great big buddy in the sky, Jesus has simply become our best friend. Many think that salvation comes to those who can maintain a sufficient camaraderie with Jesus, their friend.
Where do people go to see how far they have removed themselves through their behavior from God’s favor? More often then not, they go right back to the Law of Moses taught in the halls of religianity by ministers of righteousness. That can only lead in one direction, instability. The religiously minded begin to believe they are indeed measuring up as righteousness becomes relative to those people. On the other end of the spectrum, there are people walking away from a God they perceive as being unfair in having created them to fail in the first place.
Some take it to the extent of a total denunciation of God altogether. If God does exist, how can he demand perfection? If God does exist, the fact of his fairness or unfairness does not really matter, does it? You see, no matter where on the performance spectrum one happens to sit, whether it be the perceived safe haven of religion or avowed atheism on the other end.
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