Are your Life and Faith Aligned?

Romans 2:17-29

Paul wraps up Chapter 2 by confronting not only the failure of Jewish teachers and leaders to live up to what they taught, but he also challenged some of the most fundamental and cherished cornerstones of their faith.

What many don’t realize is Judaism is both an ethnicity and a religion. For most of us, those two are completely separate. So, on first reading, we might only see the first part. The literal text. Clearly, according to Paul, some Jewish teachers and leaders weren’t living out what they taught.

As briefly mentioned, Paul quoted Isaiah 52:9 when he included the phrase: “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.” right before clarifying the God’s real meaning behind circumcision.

Blasphemy or the verb blasphemed aren’t words we hear very often. They refer to speaking disrespectfully about sacred things or deities. Hardly anything is sacred anymore and belief in any form of deity gets rarer by the day.

And yet, none of culture's retreat from Scripture changes anything.

What Paul began in Chapter 1 and continued through Chapter 2 was to call out every human excuse he could think of before penning what he had in store for Chapter 3.

But before closing out Chapter 2, Paul made one final statement worth all of our consideration… Will the beliefs we hold dear stand up to God’s scrutiny when our life is over? Will He have any praise for us?

Scripture says the answer will be an emphatic no if we’re relying on anything but the completed work of His Son Jesus on our behalf. That is what I meant when I said we will stand perfectly Holy or be rejected. Jesus paid the price we can’t. And no amount of praise from man will matter.

Which begs the question… Are your life and faith aligned with what God has said in His Word? If you’ve placed your faith and trust in Jesus as best you know how, but are continuing to struggle to live God’s way; not perfectly, but incrementally closer to what God expects, then ask Him for help. Ask one of us, or an Elder. Join a K Group. We aren’t perfect either, but we’d love to join you in our mutual effort to be pleasing, joyful servants of God’s Kingdom.