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A clear, practical walk through Romans 1-8, one of the most dense and powerful sections of the New Testament. Taught with humor and simplicity, sharing the Apostle Paul’s message of grace, salvation, and the gospel. Perfect for personal study, small groups, or anyone seeking deeper biblical teaching. Join us as we dive deep into the good news that changes lives.
Alright. We're in Romans 3 today. Good morning. Good morning.
Morgan:Good morning. Okay. We're talking about law. This is kind of as a refresher, but different kinds of law, what it does, where it exists. Last time we talked about legal law for lack of a better term better word.
Morgan:And this is not gonna get you like a JD at law school case. It's just gonna get you enough to understand Paul's argument and what he's going to. Legal law, we said, was usually written down come on in. Come on in. Legal law is usually written down.
Morgan:There's a penalty for each infraction. Speeding tickets are the classic classic example of this. You go this much over, this is the fine. Okay? So it's very you know, and it's usually it's written down.
Morgan:Here's the penalty. Here's the here's the fine. Alright. So that's legal law. I wanna talk about moral law.
Morgan:We mentioned it last week. Remember, if you take, like, an ethics class or philosophy class, they'll call it maybe they'll call it natural law. Big in the in the in the Roman Republic era. It was developed about the time about generation or two before Paul, which is quite interesting because he uses that argument. Okay.
Morgan:Natural law. Good morning. And Melanie told me to back up last time too. I'm gonna be out of the blast zone. Okay.
Morgan:Okay. So we talked about our herdsman out in the Gobi Desert last time. You guys remember him? So he's this guy, and he he has never heard of Jesus or the Bible or or or nothing. He doesn't know who Moses is.
Morgan:He never heard of apostles. He has no idea about the Lord's Supper. He has no idea about any of that stuff. I have a question about him. Okay?
Morgan:Just picture him in in your mind. He's out there by his yurt, you know. Does that dude know that it's wrong to cruise over to his neighbor's yurt and beat him to death and take his wife and sell his kids into slavery and take all of his animals and burn his house down. Does he know that's wrong? Yes.
Morgan:Yes. Yes. Okay. Now the big question is, how does he know it's wrong? Natural Natural law.
Morgan:That's where we're gonna go. Okay? There is something in him. Again, he's never seen a Bible. He didn't know who Jesus is.
Morgan:Never heard the name Moses. There's something in him that he knows that's wrong. That's aberrant. Okay? The military goes to great lengths to to to break our natural aversion to killing people like it's something they've got to do.
Morgan:I'm sure Jeremy will tell you that, but it it's something deep in us that we don't do some things. Alright. I had a verse for you. Remember verse 14, Romans two? Very interesting.
Morgan:It's kind a parenthetical phrase he uses. He says this, indeed when Gentiles who do not have the law do by nature things required by the law. So they don't have the law of Moses, but they do some similar things that are in the law of Moses. So don't murder, don't steal, don't commit adultery, don't covet, all that stuff. They are a law for themselves even though they don't have the law.
Morgan:15, they show that the requirements of the law are written where? On On their hearts. That's quite interesting. Okay. That, ladies and gentlemen, is talking about moral law, natural law.
Morgan:Moral law is not written down in a book per se, but it is written somewhere. So it's not in, like, a big thick, you know, dusty law book. Where is it written? Yeah. On you.
Morgan:It's in there some I don't know where, like, here or here. I don't know. It's something it's in there somewhere, though. But it's written in you, and it's it's in the very nature of things as God created them. K.
Morgan:That is a breath of God. It's part of the breath of god that he breathed into to man. Okay. There are people in the world that have never seen a bible, they've never heard again of the law of Moses, they have no idea who Jesus is, and they know stuff like you shouldn't commit adultery. Do you honest question.
Morgan:Do you need a a preacher or a priest or like a shaman to tell you that stuff? No. You can figure that stuff out yourself. Okay? And that's his argument.
Morgan:Remember kind of an aside, but remember, there are thousands of years between Eden and Sinai, okay, when the law of Moses is given. The law of Moses doesn't exist in that time period. What is operative? At least one law is natural law. Okay?
Morgan:That's a big part of what he's trying to get to. Okay. And, yes, I know like, there's all kinds of edge cases here. The standards will look different depending on all sorts of things, geography, time, culture, all that stuff. This dude out here, you know, he may have six wives, and his neighbor may have three.
Morgan:And we're not okay with any of that because we can barely work things out with one. And and that's you know? And it's just kinda you know? But everybody knows whether you got one or three or six. You don't go mess around with somebody else's wife.
Morgan:Okay? Moral law. Alright. So Paul will argue again. I'm just gonna beat you to death with it.
Morgan:People in this world, there are people that have never seen the Bible. They don't know the name Jesus. They've never heard of Moses or Elijah or any of that stuff and never been to church a day in their life, and yet they know that there is a right and a wrong. They have they show in their hearts there is god given moral truth. They have a standard.
Morgan:That standard is natural law. K? Alright. What does law do? We talked about this a little bit last week.
Morgan:What's its nature? It does it actually does a lot of things. We'll get into some of those. What is the main thing law does? It condemns you.
Morgan:Okay? It condemns you. It's really good at that. Okay? He do you guys remember your Galatians three ten?
Morgan:This is not the Galatians class. Galatians is a sister book to Romans. It's kind of if Romans is like an email, Galatians is like a spray painted wall and graffiti. But it's kinda it's law, grace, a lot of the same themes. It's a sister book to Romans, but he says in Galatians three ten, he says Paul he actually quotes Deuteronomy.
Morgan:He says, for all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse. Remember this? As it is written, here's Deuteronomy. Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the book of the law. What's law expect of you?
Morgan:Obedience. Yeah. You gotta do it. You gotta do it. You gotta obey it.
Morgan:You gotta keep it. Right? You have to come up to the level of its requirements. Okay? Come on up.
Morgan:Come on. Come on. Come on. Scoot in if you got room. Wave if you there we go.
Morgan:You gotta do it. Would you say okay. You gotta do it. Would you say perfectly? Yes.
Morgan:Okay. So you got 10 commandments. How many you gotta do? You gotta do you gotta do eight? You gotta make a b?
Morgan:No. You gotta do all those things. Right? You gotta do all those things. Thou shalt not does not say, thou shalt when thou gettest the chance.
Morgan:And he doesn't say, thou shalt really try us thy best to whatever. Right? That's that's kinda more absolute than that. Okay. You gotta hit the bullseye.
Morgan:And you gotta hit the bullseye every time, which in the bullseye, I don't know if you guys are archers, but, like, it's really cool. It's really a thrill. It's not as rare as as, like, a hole in one, but it's very similar. It's great. And you kinda look around and you high five and you're like, do you see that?
Morgan:I did it. You know? And the the arrow is just quivering right there after you shoot it around the bullseye. Great shot. Guess what you have to do on the next shot with Law?
Morgan:Same thing. You gotta split the arrow just like Robin Hood. Okay? What do you have to do this shot after that? Again.
Morgan:Okay. So you just hit your hole in one and the and the and the club pro signed off on the ain't that what they do? They sign off on the flag and everybody takes pictures and all this stuff. What are gonna do in the next shot? You tee off and what?
Morgan:Hole in one. You gotta shoot 18. Okay? We don't grasp how difficult and how weighty and how impossible it is to live under law, but that's its expectation. You hit the bull's eye and the next shot, you hit the bull's eye and the next shot, you hit the bull's eye always.
Morgan:Remember hamartia? Remember sin? Right? What's what's the definite the actual definition of of a hamartia? Missing the mark.
Morgan:You blew the bull's eye because you didn't shoot the bull's eye every time. That's sin. Law's expectation is you do it perfectly every time. There's this I mean, it it would be again, I don't think we really grasp that. I don't know if I really grasp that.
Morgan:It would be far easier to do something like my kid's taking the SAT, you know, okay, like this time of, you know, the the year. And it would be far easier to hit a hit a perfect score in the SAT. Far easier than to do this. Far easier, again, to shoot 18 in golf. Bowl, what is it?
Morgan:Bowl three hundred? It would be far easier to climb Everest without oxygen and without a Sherpa than do that. And we don't grasp the weight of that, I think. There's a there's a famous quote by Bertrand Russell. He's an interesting guy, but and he he wasn't talking about law.
Morgan:He was talking about actually nuclear nuclear weapons with this one, but he said he said this famously, I think in the fifties. He said, you may reasonably expect a man to walk a tightrope safely for ten minutes. It would be unreasonable to do so without accident for two hundred years. See where he's going? You can live perfect for for for a little bit.
Morgan:I don't know how long. I have no idea. But you can't do it forever. But that's law's expectation. Okay.
Morgan:You see what he means by the curse of keeping law? You appeal the law for your salvation, boy, you know, pack a lunch. It doesn't matter furthermore, it doesn't matter if it's two commandments or 10 commandments or 613 commandments. It doesn't matter how many. Eventually, you will fail.
Morgan:Eventually, you will blow it. What what if you violated the law of Moses one time? What happened? Do you remember your James two ten? Remember that one?
Morgan:It's quite instructive. James two ten, for whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in what? Just one point is guilty of what? The whole law. Violating the whole law, breaking the whole law, break breaking all of it so law can condemn.
Morgan:That's what it's really good at. It does it really well. It does a bunch of other things, but what what can law not do? Save. Save.
Morgan:Yeah. It can't save. That's that's that's exactly right. Law cannot justify you. Law can't tell you you're good.
Morgan:Law can't tell you you're perfect. It can't make you I think I can say that. It can't declare you righteous. It can't declare you not guilty. It can't fix any mistakes you've made, and it can't paper over anything that you that you goofed up.
Morgan:It just can't do that. It does a lot of things really well, but it doesn't fix things. It's a standard. I think I've I've I've joked around about this last week, but it's true. You will never ever ever ever, and you have never gotten pulled over in like a 55 going 54, you know, and the dude, you know, pulls up behind you and he's got the big hat and the whole thing and the glasses.
Morgan:And you roll down the window and he just shakes your hand and smiles and goes, man, I wanna tell you, you're killing it out here. Just great job. You're a jazz. Chef's kiss. And he just goes back to the cart.
Morgan:No. This is not how it all works. Okay? If somebody bothers you to to pull you over, you're getting a ticket. Unless some of you guys can cry your way out of it, which I I envy.
Morgan:Okay. So that's not how law works. Law law has it has no interest in your perfection. It doesn't care. It doesn't care about your compliance, but it is very interested in your imperfections and your non compliance.
Morgan:That is where it's active, and it will jump on you the minute you step out of line. And importantly, which law we're talking about is in con is inconsequential. He obviously, he uses the law of Moses, kind of the example of law in Romans, but it didn't matter if it's the law that's, you know, the the state of Texas or or or the law of Moses or the the three rules my granddaddy told me makes a good Christian man. Anything like that. That's a law, by way.
Morgan:Any list of rules, they can't justify you. They can't make you good. They can't fix anything you've done wrong. They can't paper over your mistakes ever. Okay.
Morgan:And he'll say, why? Because law just didn't work like that. It's it's not something it does. It does a lot of things really well. We'll get into that a couple of those later.
Morgan:The best thing it does well, I don't know. The thing it does most effectively and most consistently is condemn you. He will say that over and over and over again in Romans that we're justified apart from law. It's not, you know, it's not law that justified Abraham. We're about to talk about him.
Morgan:It's his faith. It's as plain as day. And yet you're gonna meet people. Maybe if you're like me, you're gonna be people that try to make law do that for you. They you try to make it do something it cannot do.
Morgan:We have a word for that, by the way. Do guys know what that's called? You try to make law justify you. You know what that's called? Legalism.
Morgan:That's legalism. If you're if legalism is always a pejorative thing if it's thrown around like an insult, but that's what that is. It's trying to make a list of rules, make you good, save you, justify you, however you wanna put it. Law doesn't do that and legalists are swimming up a stream against the current and they're never going anywhere because they can't law doesn't do that. They're trying to twist and pervert law into doing something it just doesn't do.
Morgan:Okay. You had enough? Okay. Alright. I love analogies.
Morgan:I was talking who was I talking to? Troy. I love analogies. My analogy on law is law is like a bear trap. Okay?
Morgan:Have you guys seen the big bear traps on TV or something? Hopefully, you don't have one. Wow. This is not like Montana. You don't have you guys know how the bear trap works.
Morgan:Right? It's this big, you know, like clam looking thing, this iron thing, and it has this huge spring in it, you you wrench that thing apart and around the edges are what? You know? Sharp teeth. Sharp teeth.
Morgan:Right? And it's got this, like, plate or lever or something like this mechanism in the middle of it. And you step on that sucker, what happens? Right? And bad things happen.
Morgan:And maybe you go get your bear and shoot him when, you know, when he's when he's trapped like that, but that is that is a really good picture. Think of law. If you if you tinker around with that little plate in there, if you mess with law one time, if you activate it, okay, and there's no there's no undoing that, like, it's done. Once that thing is clamped on your leg, it's done. That's a that's a good picture, I think, of law.
Morgan:Okay. Are we breaking law or are we breaking laws? I wanted to touch on this. In the vein of of kind of James two ten, a moment ago, we if you fail in just one point, you're guilty of what? To all the laws.
Morgan:Breaking the whole thing. We do not think of it that way, generally. We think of laws as these collection of disparate rules, you know, and, you know, I got 10 commandments and goofed up on that one, but I got nine more that are just perfect. Okay? And that's not how that works.
Morgan:That's not how that works. A law is a cohesive thing, a whole. Okay? And and it's entirely one piece. The law of Moses, when you think about it, is really not 613 separate laws or rules.
Morgan:It's not even 10 separate laws or rules. It's really one thing. Okay? And that's what James is talking about. Legal law, we called it, is is shattered.
Morgan:It's destroyed when we fail to live up to it in any in any one point. It makes it actually makes a lot of sense. We talk about breaking law, you know, it's what that's how we say it because that's exactly what you're doing. Nobody ever like, you drop a coffee cup, you know, on the floor and, you know, the the handle goes that way and the rest of it goes that way. Nobody ever looks down and says, whoo, man.
Morgan:I'm glad I glad I only broke that one part. No. You take you take everything and throw it in the trash because it's all broken, and that's that's what we're doing with law. Okay. Did you know?
Morgan:Okay. So what what happens if you never break law? Can you did you know you can you can walk right into heaven? You can. If you never break one law, if you never sin one time ever ever.
Morgan:I'm talking about, like, since you're, I don't know, eight, 13, whatever the whatever the whatever the age is that you flip over and go, oh, and know the difference, if you never sin one time, you can walk right into heaven. Do you know that? But law wouldn't have gotten you there. It just wouldn't have condemned you. See what I mean?
Morgan:So effectively, in essence, you have walked right through the bear trap and it didn't help you. It just didn't get you. Okay? But it didn't help you. It didn't get you there.
Morgan:Laws don't justify. That's I mean, that is like I don't know if it's the part of his argument. That's a massive thing, and he's gonna build the rest of the book on. So so law doesn't you're not saved because of law, but in that case, you would be saved despite it because of your performance. But there's a problem as I'm sure you've recognized.
Morgan:Is that possible? Yeah. And he's gonna argue that we can't be perfect and we can't live without sin. And once you do one time I mean, it seems unfair. Once you sin one time, that's it.
Morgan:That's it. And nobody can live perfectly. So we can't waltz into heaven at our leisure, the bear trap goddess. And there's some reasons for that, by way. There's some reasons that we can't live like we wanna live, live perfectly.
Morgan:We're gonna get to that in chapter seven. Actually, chapter five really addresses that the the the best. There's some really interesting reasons that we're gonna talk about, hopefully, if we have time. And so Paul's gonna talk about coming up in a really special chapter, he's gonna talk about another way to get into heaven, and it is not by obeying law. It's not by being good enough to go to heaven.
Morgan:You have two choices, by way. I don't know if you do you know you have two two ways to get to heaven? There's two. You could be good enough and you can be sinless and walk right in, or you can get it as a gift. And you most of you probably in this room, just considering the audience, you have figured out that that first method is looking pretty dim right now.
Morgan:Okay? Kinda missed out on that one. You know? That ship has sailed. Okay?
Morgan:And we're not gonna want the the whole be good enough to go to heaven thing because we kinda blew all of us kinda blew that in the past. Anyway and so we're gonna wanna get it as a gift, and so that's what we're here for. Alright. All that to say, so my second standard of god's judgment, all people, Jew and non Jew, that's everybody, They have god given law and some law, interestingly, is actually not written down per se in a book. It's written on you and you know the difference between right and wrong and everybody does.
Morgan:Okay? Alright. And it condemns us, law does, but again, it doesn't justify you. Okay. One last one.
Morgan:I have to hit on this one briefly. Look at 15. Their conscience is also bearing witness and their thoughts sometimes accusing them and at other times even defending them. This will take place on the day when God judges people's secrets through Jesus Christ as my gospel declares. Paul introduces this third principle or standard of God's judgment.
Morgan:It's the standard of the conscience. Okay? And this has something to do with natural or moral law. I I didn't mention it last time, but what happens when you break natural law? Uncle, there's no fine, you know, But there are some there are some consequences.
Morgan:So things are tight out there for for our goby herdsman. Okay? And he's hungry, it's been a bad year. And he's out there one day on the step, and then he's looking around, and he sees his neighbor's goat out there. Nobody's around.
Morgan:And he takes the goat. And he takes the goat home, and he cooks it. And he eats it because he's hungry, and it tastes really good. And he goes to bed. And about 2AM now he didn't know it's 2AM because he hasn't got a clock.
Morgan:But by 2AM, he wakes up and he feels kinda weird, and he's thinking about that goat, and he feels kinda angry with himself and and kind of ashamed and kinda scared that someone's gonna find out, and he cannot sleep the rest of the night. What happened? Yeah. His conscience got his conscience is chewing on him, and he doesn't like it at all. Extremely difficult to define what the conscience is.
Morgan:Is it a, you know, is it a thing? Is it a feeling? Is it a you know, is it like guilt? Is it something you're taught? I don't think so.
Morgan:Is it like the thing like in Tom and Jerry? I like I wasted my youth with with cartoons. Okay? You guys are not shocked by that, but like Tom and Jerry, you know, and he's got he's got Tom dead to or he's got Jerry dead to rights, you know. And Tom is like, he's gonna think about what to do to him and and what happens, right, on his shoulder.
Morgan:Angel. Yeah. That pops up. One of them little Tom dressed as a devil about this tall. He said, you know, with a pitchfork, and he says, do it.
Morgan:Kill him. You know? And the other one pops up, and what's he dressed like? An An angel. Right?
Morgan:He's got this little ill fitting robe, you know, and he's got the halo and the wings. He's like, don't do it, Tom. You know? Is that what the conscience is? It's that's kinda how we feel sometimes.
Morgan:That's how it's portrayed. I have an entirely unhelpful dictionary definition if you want it. There are many. This is one. This one's crazy.
Morgan:The sense or consciousness of the moral goodness or blameworthiness of one's own conduct, intentions, or character together with the feeling of obligation to do right or be good. Now look, I can have a whole class about that definition, and it's it's a good definition. I think it's almost unhelpful because it is complicated. Okay? The conscience though, without dissecting all that, the conscience has a lot to do with what you believe to be right and wrong.
Morgan:Okay? And the wild part about the conscience, it sort of is like the devil and the angel thing. It acts in at times, apparently, completely independent of us, which is really interesting. It says Paul says their conscience is also bearing witness and their thoughts sometimes accusing them. I've done some stuff in my life, and I've done it and I did it, and then I felt weird.
Morgan:And I felt this thing right here, and I did not like any of it. And I did not like how I felt, and I still don't. And I look back and go and then I've I've done some things and been just absolutely jumped on by people about what I did, and I still don't know to this day what they were fussed about. Didn't bother me at all. Conscience, all good.
Morgan:Okay? He says also in in other times, even defending them. Okay? So you got this thing, bearing witness, accusing, defending what does that make you think of? What's the setting?
Morgan:Courtroom. Yeah. It's courtroom. It's courtroom. Okay.
Morgan:So one of the witnesses in your judgment, in your in your trial will be your own conscience, which is quite interesting. Either a witness for the prosecution or a witness for the defense or both, which is wild. Okay. Okay, little guy. Get up there and and did did Morgan ever do something that that you told him not to do and you told him don't do it and he did it anyway?
Morgan:That little sucker's gonna squeal on me. He's gonna rat me out. And then at times, some of the testimony is gonna be, okay, little guy. Did you know, what what about some other times? And he's gonna say, no.
Morgan:No. No. That one that one, I Morgan did not know that was wrong. He didn't hit. Absolutely pure intentions on that.
Morgan:I'm good here. I'm clear. Pretty interesting that that's one of the that's some testimony that's gonna be given a standard. Okay. And I know what you're thinking.
Morgan:There are so many edge cases and questions we don't have time to get into. But, yes, I know there can be wild differences in people's conscience. I I understand that. You know, one person might be completely fine with something that would just make the next person just faint, and that is actually an interesting theme. It's actually a main theme in Romans fourteen and fifteen.
Morgan:There are people and he talks a ton about the conscience. There are some people that are just not okay with some stuff and some people that are. And the interesting part is both are righteous but the conscience is the standard. Faith is the standard. We won't have time to get into that.
Morgan:But he he talks about that. Sometimes accusing, sometimes defending. You can see it at work there. And, yes, there are folks that they don't have any sense of of guilt or remorse or any sense of a conscience at all. And we have names for those those kind of people.
Morgan:What do we call them? Psychopaths. Yeah. Sociopaths, psychopaths, narcissism, the the real tough ones. And and they they don't have they got zero or maybe very little sense of actual, you know, guilt or or conscience or whatever, and and and right or wrong maybe internally is not quite what it should be or if it's even there.
Morgan:And those those Paul's not gonna deal with every single again, every single edge case. So don't hold him to that. Okay? And so Paul is talking generally here. Okay?
Morgan:The conscience does a really good job. It's not a precise thing, but it does a really, really good job about telling most people the difference between right and wrong. Okay? I'm not gonna say it's perfect. He's not yeah.
Morgan:Does it does it tell most people or is the conscience something that's trained? Well, and he goes into that. You can train it. I I suppose uh-huh. Yeah.
Morgan:Yeah. Well, that's where I'm going. So, like, I I suppose you could train it to be even more sensitive. I think that's actually probably a part of sanctification. Okay?
Morgan:I think I think if you've been a Christian a long time and you were really in tune with what the spirit wants, I think you can actually be more sensitive than when you maybe, you know, a couple years earlier. Okay? But most cases that we're talking about, people train it to not bother them. How do you do that? It's actually easy.
Morgan:Go it. Well, you go against it or what? Just just ignore it. Yeah. That's all you gotta do.
Morgan:Okay? If you if you ignore it long enough, it's gonna stop barking at you. I that's actually so you remember the the first Timothy four? Remember Paul talks about the conscience as being he's actually talking about false teachers in that context, but he he says that these guys, their their consciousnesses are seared like like a steak on a grill. Okay?
Morgan:I've never really been burned that bad, thankfully, but I got a lot of scars and I got some big ones, and I can't feel anything. I can't feel cold or hot or anything. I assume you could just take a pocket knife and just open me up and I wouldn't feel it. Okay? And that's the way you can get the conscience.
Morgan:Not a not a perfect analogy, but I I found it really interesting. The during the Chernobyl disaster in '86, people at the plant initially, at the power plant there, did not they thought the radiation levels that they were dealing with were a lot lower than they actually were. And the reason is because the the radiation monitors they have they had on-site were they only went to a certain number. That was a bad number, but it wasn't like a crazy number. And so they did not know what the real numbers were, but they thought they did.
Morgan:And the the true readings, as you guys, I'm sure, aware are are aware, were astronomically higher. Why? Well and the people would operate, you know, they they did what they did, and and they didn't know the real number because their their measurement device was was was defective, I guess. Okay? That is a good picture of what you can do with your conscience.
Morgan:If your conscience is there to tell you right and wrong and dangerous and not dangerous, you can cruise into somewhere and not know the lethality of that and not know just how dangerous it is if you keep your conscience up, if you if you if you mess it up. Okay. Did you ever violate your conscience one time? Did you ever ignore it one time? Did you ever try to shut it up and go back to sleep one time?
Morgan:Paul says, if you did, that's wrong and you're guilty. Yet another standard we can layer on. Okay. He shifts gears kind of. It would not have gone unnoticed to these people, again, reading the letter hearing letter read read out loud that Paul is putting Gentiles on on equal folk equal footing with Jewish folks.
Morgan:And the and the Jewish guys are hearing this saying, hey. Listen. We're God's own people here. Okay? And and that's and and any way you slice this, we are tons better than these godless Gentiles everywhere.
Morgan:I don't care if they're converted or not. And Paul responds with a really interesting section at seventeen. Let just read it real quick. Now you so you can again, you can hear him you can hear him moving over and training his guns on somebody else. Now you, if you call yourself a Jew, if you rely on the law and boast in God, if you know his will and approve of what is superior because you're instructed by the law, if you are convinced that you're a guide for the blind, a light for those who are in dark, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of little children because you have the law, you have in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth, You then who teach others, do you not teach yourself?
Morgan:You who preach against stealing, do you steal? You who say that people should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You boast in the law, do you dishonor God in breaking the law? People are asking, does Paul not know who we are?
Morgan:Oh, he knows. He knows. Okay? And here's who he says you are. Your identity he says these people, your identity isn't is in being Jewish.
Morgan:You rely on the law. You have a completely superior, quote unquote, superior life, and you're teaching these people that are ignorant and stupid and immature and they just don't know what you know and you're just the best. And it's all skin deep. And he says, you you go and do every single thing you teach against, and you're bragging about the law and yet you dishonor the God who gave it and and, you know, just the quick application and uncomfortable one is is you're gonna meet Christians that are just so smug in their Christianity that they went and forgot to be actual Christians, and that happens. There are serious consequences to hypocrisy.
Morgan:He says, as as it is written, 24 is a crazy verse. As it is written, God's name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you. The the awkward truth is the world does not know or much care what flavor of Christian we are. Okay? They don't care.
Morgan:We're all the same to them. So that's why it's I think that's why it's infuriating when you've got folks like and and I'll just pick somebody that I'll I'll pick the easiest target in the world. You guys remember the Westboro Baptist idiots? Okay. Boy, they were well, they were I don't even know if they're still around.
Morgan:I hope hope they've hope they've gone the way, but they would do some crazy things and that reflected really badly on us and on the name of Christ and on the name of God because the world doesn't really know the difference about any Christian versus that Christian. And that's I think it it's not just them though. It's we do stuff like that. Right? We live like that.
Morgan:Everybody around us, close to us, they know how we live. And we'll do some awful things and just some slimy things and we'll do these evil, awful, terrible things and people that are not believers around us will look at us and go, boy. That's that's Christianity. I don't want be part of that. Right?
Morgan:I have enough negativity in my life. Right? And and God is God's reputation is damaged because of stuff we do. We do it all the time. That's very uncomfortable.
Morgan:But that's that's what happens. Hypocrisy is, if you think about it, the the anti evangelism. Okay? If you're really into evangelism and you're just getting those people preached to and saving souls, that's great. If you're a hypocrite, you erase everything you do just like a dry erase board.
Morgan:Okay? It is a good way to to blow evangelism up, the anti evangelism. Alright. Paul says though so so how do you know if your religion is true or not? How do you know if you have have real religion?
Morgan:How do you know if it's genuine or not? Well, Paul's gonna kinda gonna say it's not just skin deep. Look at 25. He says circumcision has value if you observe the law. We're not gonna go into what circumcision is.
Morgan:Go home and ask your parents. That's what I actually told the middle school guys. We're doing we're doing some stuff in Galatians. I'm like, I'm not gonna do this. Just ask your parents.
Morgan:Hilarious conversations, I'm sure. So circumcision has value if you observe the law, but if you break the law, you have become as though you had not been circumcised. So then if those are not circumcised, these Gentiles, keep the law's requirements, will they not be regarded as though they were circumcised? See what I'm see what he's saying? If if if you're circumcised and yet you don't do any of the law of Moses, like, you're kind of not.
Morgan:And if you're not circumcised and you're doing everything scrupulously with the law of Moses, kind you know, you're more righteous than this other dude. And that's what he says. The one who the one who is not circumcised physically and yet obeys the law will condemn you who even though you have the written code and circumcision are a lawbreaker. It reminds me you guys remember the the parable of the the two sons? Remember that?
Morgan:And and dad says, go. I can't remember what he wants them to do. Go to a vineyard or something. He says, go. And the one son goes, not going old man.
Morgan:And yet later on, he decides and he goes. And the other son, you know, he he goes, oh, yes. Yes, sir. Absolutely, Right away, sir. I'm gone in five minutes.
Morgan:Let me just pick up my coffee. And he doesn't go. Which one's more which one's better? Which one's more righteous? The one that actually goes.
Morgan:Yeah. The one that actually goes. That's what point he's getting to. Alright. So look, if you're so again, if you're circumcised and yet don't bother with obeying the law of Moses, like, again, can you really even be said to be a a Jew at all?
Morgan:Doesn't seem so. Paul's drawing some lines though here that have to do not with heritage or ethnicity or tradition or anything like that, but obedience in faith. And that's gonna be really important coming up in chapter three and four. Why why would a Jew just not bother doing the law of Moses anymore? Why?
Morgan:He didn't believe. He didn't believe it. Didn't have the faith anymore. So what's the actual value of circumcision? Well, Paul says it's an indicator that you're a Jew.
Morgan:It's, you know, kind of the entrance into the covenant. Right? But if that's all you have, you have no other link to Judaism whatsoever other than circumcision. He's saying, that's not of much value. Can't believe it.
Morgan:Okay. So his point is, don't try to say you're righteous because of your pedigree that is not gonna cut it. Okay? Paul had a pedigree. He had really good pedigree.
Morgan:He talks about it now. Was it Philippians three? He says, I'm I'm better than all y'all. Okay? I outrank all y'all and you know what it's worth?
Morgan:What does he say it's worth in Philippians three? Garbage. Garbage. Nothing. Refuse.
Morgan:I count it as nothing. It's nothing. Don't try to hang your hat on your pedigree and say, well, God, do you you recognize me? Here I am. Yeah.
Morgan:Okay. So a person is not a Jew who is one only outwardly nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. No. A person is a Jew who is one inwardly and circumcision is circumcision of the heart by the spirit, not by the written code. Such a person's praise is not from other people but from God.
Morgan:That has a real strong whiff of Colossians two. Remember the circumcision not made with hands? We find out that Christ actually does in us. Okay. So righteousness is inward and by the spirit.
Morgan:So you wanna be a a a Jew. You want but in context, he's it's kinda be euphemism. You wanna be a righteous person? You wanna be God's chosen people? Really?
Morgan:It's more than skin deep. You're gonna be inside. It's gonna be inside you. Okay. I gotta speed up here.
Morgan:He says such a person's praises from from God, not from other people. You can look. I mean, you can fool people. Okay? You can.
Morgan:I shouldn't say this, but people are stupid. People are really stupid. And Christians, unfortunately, we can be really stupid. You know, we the Lord told us to be as wise as serpents and as harmless as doves, and a lot of times we flip that one around. We are harmless as serpents and wise as doves sometimes.
Morgan:We got a bird brain, but people can be hoodwinked and you can fool people and you can, you know, they can think you're super holy and this amazing Christian and none of it's real. And apparently, everybody thought these people were righteous and they got a lot of praise for that. Oh, what a what a wonderful person brother and sister so and so is. He says, you wanna you want praise from God? You're gonna be righteous from the inside out.
Morgan:That has a I mean, that's like straight up sermon on the mount. Right? Straight up, what, Matthew 23. You guys look great on the outside, and you're just rotten as all get out on the inside. And he's saying I mean, that's the concept here.
Morgan:Okay. Paul's dealing with pushback from his Jewish listeners here, but he's also introducing something. You can obey the law on the outside only. Did you know that? You can obey the law of Moses and not believe a lick of it, and that's his point.
Morgan:The important part is the faith on the inside, And that's what Matthew 15 is talking about. You know, Jesus quotes Isaiah there. He says, these people, they honor me with their lips. Man, they are way out there. They're they're not even close to me.
Morgan:That's what he's getting at. Alright. If you're trying to digest that, have we got some I think I think I can get these in. Actually, I think I can. If you're trying to digest that as a Jewish person, there are some questions that will naturally arise from his argument.
Morgan:Okay? They're they have a bunch of questions And let honestly, they are not questions we would ask because we're Gentiles living 20 later. But they ask them. Paul deals with four. I'm just gonna run through them real quick.
Morgan:Okay? Because I'm just strategically, I need to move move on. Question one. And I'm starting in three one. So okay.
Morgan:So Paul, so now you're saying the Gentiles have equal footing with us. So what good was even being a Jew? Like, did that have any value at all? And Paul says, yeah. A ton.
Morgan:You had the a big thing he mentions is you had the word of God. Remember we talked about chapter one, creation is telling you something? What does it tell you? There's a God out there. Yeah.
Morgan:He's out there. But that is not very specific. It's really really good to know there's a God out here, but these people had the specifics. They had exactly what God expects of them. And Paul says, man, that's great.
Morgan:That's that's one thing you had. There are others. Question two. Okay, Paul. So you're so you're saying a lot of Jews were hypocrites.
Morgan:So does that mean that God can now walk away from all the covenants and promises he made to us? Because we blew our part of Theodore. And Paul says, oh, no. No. No.
Morgan:No. No. He says, if everybody in the world is a liar, it doesn't matter. God is still gonna be true to his nature, which is what? We talked about that.
Morgan:Entirely what? Just. Just, good, loving. He is he's never gonna go back. He can't do some things.
Morgan:He can't watch on a deal. He can't go back on a promise. He can't forget. He can't double cross you. He can't do you dirty, and he can't do wrong.
Morgan:And he says, Paul Paul says, god's gonna come through even if all y'all are slime balls. Okay? And that's fine. Okay. Just one more and we'll go over the last one next week.
Morgan:Question three is kinda wild. It says, so you're saying our effectively our darkness makes God's brightness even brighter. So how could God be mad at us for being sinners? You see what they're doing? Interesting question.
Morgan:He says apparently, this was philosophy of the day. And his answer so, basically, like, if this whole thing's like an old timey western, we're all the guys in black hats. And it's our job to make, like, you know, John Wayne look great, you know, the guys in white hats. And so we're just doing our job. How could we be condemned for that?
Morgan:And he's like, no. No. No. No. That's not how it that's not how good and evil work, and our evil never produces good.
Morgan:He's gonna go over that more in-depth in chapter six. Should we sin so that what? Grace will abound. He's like, no. No.
Morgan:No. No. Okay. I got a ton more next week. We'll go over the fourth question.
Morgan:God bless y'all. Thank you.