The Unchanging Truth

Guest (Male): Welcome to The Unchanging Truth, the verse-by-verse Bible teaching ministry of Dr. Jerod Gilcher, lead pastor of Christ Community Bible Church in Arlington, Texas. Through the living and active word of God, The Unchanging Truth exists to encourage your soul, transform your life, and help you trust and treasure Christ as Redeemer, Savior, and King. Now, opening the scriptures and proclaiming the truth that never changes, here is Dr. Jerod Gilcher.

Dr. Jerod Gilcher: One of the weaknesses and really dangers of the American church is a weak and feeble view of faith and salvation. One of the dangers in the American church today is a weak and feeble view of faith and salvation. What I mean is that many in the church today do not understand the nature of saving faith and what it means to be a Christian.

It's been floating around for decades, lurking in churches, preached in the pulpit: a cheap grace, a man-centered view of salvation that says that one can have absolute assurance of their faith and salvation and have guaranteed assurance that their salvation is real, even if they bear no fruit and their life doesn't change.

There's this easy believe-ism, a cheap grace, a name-it-claim-it kind of faith where one can claim access to all the saving benefits of Jesus Christ but where authentic life change and holiness are considered optional. To be saved by grace doesn't mean you grow. To be saved by faith doesn't mean there's fruit. Salvation can exist where sanctification does not. Do you see?

That's a problem. That is a massive and troublesome problem because that is a salvation of which the Bible knows nothing. That is not saving faith. That would have been utterly unintelligible to the apostles and the writers of the Bible. What I'm saying is, imperfect though it may be, authentic saving faith is visible.

It is tangible. It displays itself in highly imperfect but ever-increasing conformity, joyful conformity, in obedience to the word of Christ. Where that does not exist, that salvation isn't real.

In America, there are thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions of professing Christians who, although they know some right answers, they get the culture, they know how to blend into a congregation, they've done the altar call, they've prayed the prayer, and maybe even been baptized, there just is no life in their soul because they've mistaken a counterfeit Christianity for authentic Christianity.

My point is that is exactly the problem with the Jews in the time of Paul. They didn't get it. They didn't understand that what you do with the truth tells the truth. Who you are is what you do. What you truly believe is displayed in how you live. Your works are the facts that reveal your faith.

For them, their legacy was enough. Their heritage was enough. Their history was enough. Believe it or not, circumcision was enough. Bottom line, they just didn't believe that they were sinners who desperately needed a savior. They couldn't fathom it. It was unthinkable to them. In fact, not only that, it was also deeply offensive to them that they and the pagan people they despised were both condemned and under the wrath of God. There's no way. There's no way that's true.

But it is true. Even to this day, this is the Jewish perspective. I met with a rabbi once and in the conversation, of course, the Messiah came up. He said, "Look, we're not waiting for some Messiah. We're not waiting for someone to come and save us. We have the law already within us and therefore we just do our best and seek to make a difference in the world," or some version of that. That's crazy.

That's crazy, and that's kind of like what the Jews were like in the days of Paul. That is, by the way, exactly why Romans chapters 2 and 3 exist, to persuade the Jews that they do, in fact, need a savior. That they are, in fact, sinners who need a Messiah. You remember the flow of the book so far. Having shown the guilt and the wrath and condemnation of the nations in chapter 1, Paul then moves in chapters 2 and 3 to show that the Jews were just as guilty and condemned. That their faith, whatever version of it was, it was hollow and hypocritical and self-righteous and deceived, and in the end, it wasn't even faith at all.

Why is this here? Why does Paul take almost a chapter and a half to talk about the fakey faith of unbelieving, hypocritical Jews? Why? Because it clarifies the gospel. It clarifies the gospel. In fact, the very point of this text is found in chapter 2, verse 11. The whole point of where Paul's going in these opening verses is found in chapter 2, verse 11, where Paul says, "There is no partiality with God." God is not partial. He is not biased.

He isn't fooled merely by what people say. He isn't tricked merely by what people claim. He isn't befuddled. He isn't fooled by what he sees on the surface. Rather, the piercing gaze of God peers all the way down into the very soul of a man and he sees the very secrets of the heart. You see, God knows the difference between authentic faith and fakey faith. Who you are is what you do. What you truly believe is revealed in how you live. Your works are the facts that reveal your faith. At the end of the age, we will all stand before the Lord Jesus Christ and what we did with the truth told the truth. There is nothing in the world more relevant than that.

This morning, I want you to see two sobering realities. Two sobering realities that make us fact-check our faith to see if it's authentic and real. Sobering reality number one is the unashamed hypocrisy of Israel. Because what Paul's about to do here in chapter 2 is what's known as a diatribe. A diatribe, do you know what a diatribe is? It's a hypothetical conversation with an opponent.

It's an imaginary dialogue with someone who needs to be corrected. Romans chapter 2 is a diatribe. The opponent here in Romans chapter 2 is your standard run-of-the-mill unbelieving Jew who thinks he's faithful to Judaism but he's not a Christian. That's the opponent here in Romans chapter 2. That's who Paul is talking to. A Jew who thinks he's faithful to Judaism but he's not, and he's also not a Christian.

You can totally tell that Paul is not talking to the Roman church in chapter 2. There's two reasons why. Number one, which you can't see in the English but it's there in the Greek, is that Paul moves from speaking to a congregation of people to speaking to an individual person in chapter 2. In chapter 1, he speaks second-person plural to a church. In chapter 2, it is second-person singular speaking to an individual. You can see it in the text. Look at verse 1: "Therefore you are without excuse, O man." Verse 3: "But do you suppose this, O man?" And then verse 17: "If you call yourself a Jew."

He's not talking to the church. He's talking to an individual. The second reason you know that he's not talking to the Romans is because the accusations that he makes against this individual person are radically different from the way he talks about the church in chapter 1. This was a church of radical faith. He commended them. Their faith was known and praised throughout the entirety of the empire. But here in chapter 2, all of a sudden you notice that this hypothetical, not-so-hypothetical person is a self-righteous, hypocritical unbeliever storing up wrath for themselves in the day of the revelation of the righteous judgment of God.

That is not the church in Rome. This is someone different. The reason why I call this hypothetical, not so hypothetical, is because even though this Jewish person is not physically, actually there, it's just an imaginary dialogue, Paul had this same conversation a thousand times throughout the years. He heard their defensive accusations. He heard their excuses. He heard their arguments. This right here in chapter 2 is the response to that Jewish defensive argument.

And again, it raises the question, why would this be here in the text? Why, in the greatest theological letter in the entirety of the Bible, is this chapter here? The reason why it's here is because it provides for us gospel clarity. It clarifies the gospel. Paul puts this conversation here because it equips us to know and proclaim the gospel of Christ with precision and clarity.

Starting in verse 1, remember, diatribe, imaginary dialogue with an opponent: "Therefore you are without excuse, O man, everyone who passes judgment. For in which you judge the other, you condemn yourself, for you do the same, you who judge practices the same things. And we know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things."

"But do you suppose this, O man, that the one who judges those who practice such things and does the same things, that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you take lightly of the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that the patience, the kindness of God leads you to repentance? But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart, you are storing up anger for yourself in the day of anger and the revelation of the righteous judgment of God."

And there it is. You can see it. The Jews are guilty. You can totally see the reason for their guilt was hypocrisy. It was hypocrisy. It wasn't just that they were proud and that they were self-righteous and actually lived kind of holy lives. No. It's that they did the very sins that they condemned in others. Which after reading through the book of Isaiah doesn't surprise us at all, does it?

Which is why verse 1 Paul says, "Therefore you are without excuse, everyone who passes judgment." Do you see what Paul did there? Back in chapter 1, verse 20, Paul said that the pagan nations of the world, they were without excuse to love God, to worship God, to yield in submission to God.

And here Paul pulls out the rug from under the Jews' feet and says in the exact same way, O house of Israel, you, just like the pagan nations of the world, are also without excuse. You're just as guilty as them. No doubt the Jews would have applauded Romans chapter 1 and the wrath of God upon the nations, and yet they were just as guilty as the people they condemned.

The reason why, verse 1, is Paul says they were judging other people. Do you see that? They were, as many people like to say today, judgmental. In our modern, delicate, overly sensitive culture, that is a crime that is almost unforgivable. And yet the question is, what does Paul mean by judging?

What does Paul mean by judging other people? Because if we're being honest, we use this word way too loosely today. In fact, oftentimes the way we use this word is not really even biblical at all. We tend to think that if it hurts our feelings or makes us uncomfortable or has the nerve to call something we do sin, then it is by that very nature judgmental. But that's not true at all.

The point is, the opponent of Paul isn't wrong in his condemnation of evil. He's not wrong. He is 100% exactly right. Those who practice wicked acts rightly do deserve the wrath of God, and it is not wrong at all to point those things out.

The problem with Paul's opponent is that they do the very same things as the people they condemn. Do you hear the difference? That's what Paul means by judge. And they could rightly see the log of sin lodged in the eyes of the nations, but they could not see the log of sin jammed in their own eyes.

So look at verse 1. He says, "For that in which you judge the other, you condemn yourself." Why? "For you practice the same things, you who passes judgment." And that's the problem. They were self-righteous. They were hypocritical. They were blind. They were condemned.

They really believed that—we'll see more of this later as we go—but they really believed that their ethnic status as Jews made them free from guilt and exempt from the wrath of God, and it made how they lived their lives totally inconsequential in the end. There is no partiality with God. It doesn't matter who it is. No one breaks the rules and gets away with it.

Look what he says in verse 2: "We know that the judgment of God rightly falls upon those who practice such things." Logic is cold as steel, but the opponent could not disagree. That's why Paul says, "We know. Let's not kid each other, friend. Can we just be honest with one another? You and I both know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things." That is true and that cannot be denied. And you see the judgment of God. By that Paul means both now and in the future.

They were under the wrath of God at this moment, and unless something radical and supernatural happened to them, like they get regenerated and born again and awakened and repent and believe and saved, they will face the wrath of God in the future. Notice carefully the word Paul uses. This is key for us. He says the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. Do you hear the significance of that word? He doesn't mean the occasional moral lapse, the occasional failure.

He's not talking about the faith-filled battle of an unbeliever in the trenches of life, desiring to be sanctified, fighting sin, sometimes losing, repenting and changing. That's not who he's talking about. Rather, Paul means the practice of an unbeliever. The habits and patterns of sin that they knowingly tolerate and secretly justify.

He means, and this is important for us, that the habits of life truly reveal who they are and what they love. At the end of the day, what they do with the truth tells the truth. That's what the Jews failed to see. Just because you profess salvation doesn't mean you possess salvation.

If God will condemn the pagan nations for their lives of sin and indifference to God's glory, why would he give the Jews a pass simply by being Jews? Because the proof of our faith is in the facts of our works. If that sounds crazy, then I would point you to James 2:17. He says, "So also faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself."

He goes on, "Are you willing to acknowledge, foolish man, that faith without works is useless?" That's exactly what Paul's saying here. They lived like the pagans they condemned and they thought they'd get a pass because they were Israel. Which means they forgot the rules of the game and that God doesn't play like that.

The question you have to ask is, is that the kind of faith that you possess? Do you or someone you love have a faith that's dead because it has no works? Not to earn salvation, but to verify salvation. Do you understand that true faith and salvation is tangible? It is visible.

Again, I'm not talking about sinless perfection and neither is Paul. It's just that if you're not breathing, eating, and you don't feel pain, you have no assurance that you are physically alive. In the same way, if you're not fighting sin, hungering for holiness, and feeling no pains of repentance when you don't obey, you have no proof that you are spiritually alive.

The question is, however slow and painful it is, and it is always slow and it is always painful for all of us, do you see the truth of God's word carving and shaping you little by little into the image of Christ? Do you see desires and passions in your life for which the only explanation is the work of God and sovereign grace?

Notice in verses 3 and 4, Paul turns up the heat. He moves from accusation to interrogation. He's got his opponent in the corner, finger in his face, trying to awaken him to the danger that he's in. "But do you suppose this, O man, who judges those who practice such things and does the same things yourself, that you will escape the judgment of God?"

That's exactly what they assumed. That they could do the very same sins as the people they despised and somehow escape the judgment of God. And that's crazy. And yet here we get to the heart of the Jewish problem, don't we? In fact, do we not get to the heart of the human problem? That we can feel outraged by and angered by real sins and yet in some twisted way have a version of that sin in our own lives?

Yet the Jews, because they were chosen by God, because they had the law, because they had the truth, they felt that they were above any sort of scrutiny or evaluation. Token allegiance and surface-level lip service to the word of God somehow made them acceptable and righteous and that the way they lived their lives really didn't matter in the end.

One writer said they were inconsistent because they ended up doing the very same things they condemned in the Gentiles. The correct moral judgments they uttered against the nations ironically turned out to be indictments against themselves. They were utterly self-deceived because even though they practiced evil, they harbored the hopes that they would escape the judgment of God. And the clear implication of the question is, you will not escape.

Except through faith in Christ, of course. I'm sad to say that the same is true for many people in the church today. There's a weak and false teaching that just pervades the church in America. There's this easy believe-ism, this cheap grace that has led people to believe that they can have all of the benefits of salvation in Christ, but the way they live their lives is irrelevant.

As if authentic salvation doesn't bear fruit. As if authentic salvation doesn't yield itself in slow and steady, ever-increasing conformity and joy in Christ through his word. As if believers don't need to yield their life to Jesus as his slaves. Because we absolutely do.

That's what it means to be a Christian. And any other version of Christianity out there that says you can have Christ as Savior but not as Lord is a perverted, false gospel that results in millions of people thinking that they are saved when nothing could be further from the truth.

So you see why this is relevant. Why a diatribe against this hypothetical Jew, why this is relevant to the argument. And the reason why is because it clarifies the gospel. And the gospel is: God is holy, we are not. Christ has come. Christ has died. Christ has raised. Repent and believe and not only get your sins forgiven but get your life transformed from the inside out.

Guest (Male): Thanks for joining us for The Unchanging Truth, the verse-by-verse Bible teaching ministry of Dr. Jerod Gilcher and Christ Community Bible Church in Arlington, Texas. At Christ Community Bible Church, we exist to prize, portray, and proclaim the supremacy of Christ as we trust in his word and wait for his return.

We hope today's teaching has encouraged your soul and helped you trust and treasure Christ as your Redeemer, Savior, and King. If you're in the DFW area and looking for a church home, join us for worship Sunday mornings at 10:30. To learn more about the mission of the church, meet the pastoral staff, or plan a visit, go to ccbiblechurch.com.

You'll find ministry services and additional teachings there as well. Just click on the resources tab to get started. That's ccbiblechurch.com. Join us again next time as we open the scriptures together and proclaim the truth that never changes. This has been The Unchanging Truth.