Probably almost everyone who believes in God would agree that He is not only the Creator, but the Judge. Some day, He will right all wrongs and end all the injustice we see and experience in this world. Some day, everyone will answer for what he or she has done.
However, this raises a question. While those who have violated God’s standards should pay the consequences, what about those who have never had the opportunity to know what God requires? How will God judge them? In his inspired letter to the church at Rome, the Apostle Paul points out that God does not show favoritism. He will judge people by what they have done according to the opportunity they had to know the truth. Even if someone never had the opportunity to know God’s Law, nevertheless we all have a conscience which informs us of right and wrong. Have we obeyed our conscience, or have we violated it?
But not everyone is ignorant of God’s Law. God gave His Law to the Jewish people. Since they have the Law, how will God judge them? In chapter 2, verses 17 through 29, Paul writes, “Indeed you bear the name of a Jew, and rest on the law, and glory in God, and know his will, and approve the things that are excellent, being instructed out of the law, and are confident that you yourself are a guide of the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of babies, having in the law the form of knowledge and of the truth. You therefore who teach another, don’t you teach yourself? You who preach that a man shouldn’t steal, do you steal? You who say a man shouldn’t commit adultery. Do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who glory in the law, through your disobedience of the law do you dishonor God? For “the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you,” just as it is written. For circumcision indeed profits, if you are a doer of the law, but if you are a transgressor of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. If therefore the uncircumcised keep the ordinances of the law, won’t his uncircumcision be accounted as circumcision? Won’t the uncircumcision which is by nature, if it fulfills the law, judge you, who with the letter and circumcision are a transgressor of the law? For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit not in the letter; whose praise is not from men, but from God.”
Because God gave the Law of Moses to the Jewish people, they enjoyed a relationship with God that no one else had. Unfortunately, instead of humble gratitude that God selected them out of all the peoples on earth, the Jews began to boast that they were superior to all others. They forgot that what made them special was that God chose them, not that they were better than anyone else. Moses told them, “The Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath he swore to your forefathers that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery…” (Deuteronomy 7:7-8 NIV)
There is no doubt that the Jews had an advantage over other peoples. As Paul says, in the Law they had knowledge and truth. Why did God give them this advantage? One reason is so that the Jews would become a blessing to others. For example, God told them, “Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation…” (Exodus 19:5-6 NIV) One of the functions of a priest is to pray for and teach others about God. This is what God intended the Jewish people to do for the other nations.
However, the Jewish people began to glory in the position God gave them but apparently forgot their responsibility. It is tragic that they saw themselves as the instructors of the foolish, guides to the blind and light-bearers to those in the dark, yet violated the very Law they were so proud of. The things Paul mentions, that is, stealing, adultery and robbing temples are all things which the Law prohibited. No doubt these are merely a few examples of the way in which the Jewish people broke the Law of Moses.
Their hypocrisy had severe consequences. Instead of drawing other peoples to God, the Jews’ example of disobedience caused others to mock or blaspheme against God. To establish this point, Paul refers to what the prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel wrote. The prophets point out that the Jews were God’s people, yet because of their disobedience God had to send them into exile in a foreign land. As a result, the nations concluded that God was not powerful enough to save His own people.
The point of Paul’s discussion is that merely knowing God’s standards or having the Law of Moses is not enough to avoid God’s wrath and judgment. In fact, those who knowingly violate God’s Law will receive a greater condemnation. This agrees with what Jesus taught. He said, “That servant who knows his master’s will and does not get ready or does not do what his master wants will be beaten with many blows. But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.” (Luke 12:47-48 NIV)
The Law of Moses required the Jewish people to circumcise their children. The Jews took great pride in this physical indication that they were in a covenant relationship with God. However, Paul points out that it is not circumcision, but obedience which makes someone pleasing to God. If someone does not have the Law, yet lives according to the Law’s principles, God looks at him as though he had been circumcised. If someone is circumcised yet breaks God’s Law, it is as if he were not circumcised. The uncircumcised law keeper will condemn the circumcised law breaker. What God is looking for is not a physical mark on the body, but a heart which wants to do what is right. All of us who claim to be God’s people need to ask ourselves whether we merely have the name, or whether we are truly obedient to God from the heart.