Living by Faith - Romans

Hypocrisy

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Living by Faith

Lesson: 5-64

Genre: Talk

Track: 005

Dictation Name: RR311C5

Location/Venue:

Year: ?

Let us worship God. Thus saith the Lord, ye shall seek for me and find me when ye shall search for me with all your heart. Jesus said: “Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.” Let us pray.

Oh Lord our God, who art the high and holy one of Israel, we thank Thee that Thou hast loved us and freely given us all things in Jesus Christ. We come into Thy presence in thanksgiving, in joy and in gratitude, to offer and present ourselves unto Thee, a living sacrifice. Use us, make us strong by Thy Spirit and Word, and grant that through Christ our Lord we may be more than conquerors in all things. In His name we pray, amen.

Our scripture is form Romans 2:1-16, and our subject is Hypocrisy. Romans 2:1-16.

“2 Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things.

2 But we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things.

3 And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God?

4 Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?

5 But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God;

6 Who will render to every man according to his deeds:

7 To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life:

8 But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath,

9 Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile;

10 But glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile:

11 For there is no respect of persons with God.

12 For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law: and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law;

13 (For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.

14 For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves:

15 Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;)

16 In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.”

It is important for us to remember as we begin the second chapter of Romans, that in the first chapter Paul lays down the great theme of Romans, a theme as we saw that is misinterpreted and limited, and severely misunderstood: “The just shall live by faith.” As commonly interpreted, this is limited to mean: ‘The just shall be saved by faith.’ Indeed the just are saved by faith, but Paul’s term is more inclusive. The just shall live by faith; they are not only saved by it, but all their days they live by faith, and by faith is meant faithfulness, steadfastness, to the every word of God.

Now Paul was writing to Romans as an ambassador or apostle, in Jesus Christ. And when he makes his great indictment of Romans 1:18 through 32, while it is directed against all men, it is obvious that in particular he had the gentiles, especially the Romans in mind. Now there were a number of synagogues in Rome that had become Christian. These now had both gentile and Jewish believers; and in reading, Paul’s indictment in Romans 1:18-32 you can see how people had in mind the fact: “Aha, this fits Rome. Paul knows what he is talking about, he is describing Rome. He is describing the Greco-Roman culture.”

But now he directs his comments to the Judeans. Man’s inescapable knowledge of God leaves all without excuse. Paul makes that statement twice in the first chapter, “They are without excuse.” Then he begins the second chapter as he turns to his fellow Jews, by saying: “Therefore thou art inexcusable oh man, whosoever thou art that judgest. For wherein Thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself, for thou that judgest doest the same things.”

Now, before we go further it is important to understand this section. Commentators too often refer to the Jews of Paul’s time, and thereby limit the meaning. Paul is here contrasting the Gentiles, those outside the covenant, who are covenant breakers, and so he describes them, with those who are ostensibly within the covenant. So what Paul is here saying he said to the Jews of his day, and he is saying to the Christians, the members of the church of our time; to those who are outwardly in the covenant, but in reality are covenant breakers. And he says: “It is very easy for you, you covenant people, to look down your noses at these gentiles and their depravity. But you are without excuse, because you know these things better than anyone else; not only because they are written in all your being by God, but because the written law was given to you; because you, the people of the church, you the people of Israel have the enscriptured word of God. So we are sure that the judgement of God is according to truth against them which commit such things. And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which do such things, and you do the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God?”

So he issues a charge against those who are outwardly in the covenant, but inwardly not of it. They are guilty of hypocrisy. The covenant people of God must represent God’s grace and justice, not injustice. And he says to his fellow Jews: “You represent not covenant keeping, but covenant breaking.” This is the key to this chapter and more that follows, and this is why it is so important that the church today understand its meaning, because let me repeat, it applies today to the church, the visible church.

Paul’s indictment, in other words, is not racial. It is religious, it is covenantal. As Paul says later on in the chapter, in verses 28-29: “28 For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: 29 But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.”

Now change that to Christian, and you get Paul’s meaning. “For he is not a Christian who is one outwardly, neither is that baptism which is outward in the flesh, but he is a Christian who is one inwardly. And baptism is that of the heart and the Spirit, and not in the letter.”

This is what Paul is saying. Paul begins by condemning mere profession, easy-believism. To condemn and judge another man for doing the same things we do, simply because he is a non believer, is hypocrisy. As Hodge in commenting on this passage said: “he who condemns in other what he does himself, does thereby condemn himself.” Paul accuses the hypocrite of being judgmental: “Whosover thou art that judgest.”

As someone of a generation ago, H. A. Ironside once said: “When you point a finger of accusation at another person, three of your fingers are pointing back at yourself.”

Now, Luther observed on this same point, and I quote: “While the righteous, true believers, make it a point to accuse themselves in thought word and deed, the unrighteous, unbelievers, make it a point always to accuse and judge others, at least in their hearts. For this fact there is an explanation. The righteous invariably try to see their own faults and overlook those of others, again they are eager to recognize good things in others, and disregard those of their own. On the other hand, the unrighteous look for good in themselves, and for evil in others.”

The hypocrite in other words, seeks to gain virtue by means of self righteous judgement. Paul says in verse 2 that everyone knows that judgement is according to truth, not according to national and ecclesiastical relations. No man, Paul is saying, is saved by being a son of Abraham, and we can say today in terms of Paul: “No man is saved by being a Catholic or a Protestant, or a member of a good, Bible believing church.” This, Paul says, is a sure fact. How then can we think or reckon that any who do such things can escape the judgement of God? How can men who live by hypocrisy expect to have the blessing of those who live by faith?

Luther in commenting on this point gets to the heart of the meaning of Romans, in its everyday application. He said, and I quote: “Today we may apply the apostles words first to those rulers who without cogent cause inflict exorbitant taxes upon the people; or by changing and devaluing the currency rob them, while at the same time they accuse their subjects of being greedy and avaricious.” (may I say parenthetically, this looks as though Luther had a copy of a present daily paper in his hands, and was listening to Congress talk about tax evaders.) “Even worse are the blinded ecclesiastical rulers who commit similar if not greater wrongs, as everyone knows. Guilty of excesses, vainglory, pomp, envy, covetousness, gluttony and other iniquities, they yet regard themselves as beyond judgement. We may apply the passage also to those who judge others, either in their hearts or with their mouths, condemning them even though they themselves are as bad as those whom they judge. Or we may refer it to those who look upon themselves as holy, although they are guilty of other sins than those which they judge. Just as though they were righteous for not committing all the wrongs which others do. But to teach and correct such sinners is a most difficult task.”

With these words of course Luther takes us to the heart of Romans; living by faith, and the unity of faith and law and life, of grace and works, of love and obedience, and much much more.

God is good to us, patient, forbearing, in order to lead us to repentance, Paul says in verse 4. And then in verse 5 if we despise Gods patience we are storing up judgement for ourselves. As Charles Hodge said, summing up the position of Saint Bernard and John Calvin on this text, and I quote: “The wicked will be punished on account of their works, and according to their works. The righteous will be rewarded not an account of, but according to their works.” Paul is here speaking of law, of justice. He makes it clear as he says in verse 11, that there is no respect of persons with God. Men receive judgement in proportion to their responsibility. Our Lord made the same point in Luke 12:48 when he said: “For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required; and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.”

For this reason, Paul says, both honor and judgement went to the Jew first, but the same principal now applies to churchmen. Both honor and the judgement of God is according to privilege and responsibility. Thus we must say that those people in high places who are guilty of theft, false money as Luther said, exorbitant taxes, of fraud, while proceeding pharisaically and hypocritically to flay the people, as though the people were the problem. They shall be judged much more severely.

Now we get into a critical part of Romans which is very much misinterpreted by antinomians, verse 12 following: “For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law: and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law;” What is the meaning of that?

The whole of the New Testament, the whole of Romans, is perverted regularly in evangelical churches across the nation by their failure to understand the meaning of it, and any knowledge of the New Testament, and of church history, and of the literature of our Lords Day would tell us the meaning. It is simply this: to sin without law, anomos harmarton, harmarton, refers to the gentiles. Without law was a description of all people outside the covenant. Over and over again this was used; it did not mean that they had no law from God, but that they did not have the written law, the Torah. That was the meaning, so that the usage of the time spoke of the people with the law, and the people without law or without the law. And it had reference to the Torah.

Paul has already spoken of the inescapable knowledge of God, that all people everywhere and in all time know from the beginning of the world the law of God; it is inescapable knowledge. They have the law, but they don’t have the written form of it, the Torah. Now that was the usage, the usage that prevailed; the usage that Paul was brought up, taught of the rabbis, had learned and used naturally.

In 1 Corinthians 9:20-21, Paul again speaks of under the law and without law, and it is obvious in the context that he is speaking about Jews and Gentiles. So to take the term: “Without law” to indicate there is no law of God before these people, is an absurdity. It is a violation of the rules of exegesis, because Paul has said they all know it. They have an inescapable knowledge of it.

It simply means that the people outside the community of Israel were not the ones to whom the written covenantal law was given. All the same, Paul says, their hearts and conscience witness to the law. He is not saying this is a different law from that revealed in the Bible, as someone in Denver tried to say recently.

He meant they had the same law, but not in the written, supernaturally revealed form.

God will judge, Paul says, all men. Not according to their privileges, but according to their works, and the knowledge of duty which they possess. On these principles, in terms of this, the whole purpose of Paul is to show that no flesh living can be justified. All have a common standard. Hence he uses the phrase twice in the first chapter so that they are without excuse, and begins this chapter by stressing the fact that whoever you are, you are without excuse.

This is the standard. Not church affiliation, not racial or national affiliation. Mills, a Hebrew Christian commentator has said, that the Talmud speaks of the fact that the Gentiles good deeds are valid only if accompanied by a wish for admission into Judaism, and also without circumcision if a Gentile kept the whole law it would avail him nothing. This was Phariseeism. And you have it in the Christian circles. More than a few churches have like opinions about the necessity of membership in their communion, agreement with their form of church government, or baptism, or what have you.

We miss the point of Romans two, if we do not apply its judgments to the church, and to hypocrisy within the church. By restricting this account of hypocrisy to Paul’s fellow Jews, churchmen miss its meaning, and invite judgement upon themselves. But Paul is plain spoken. In verse 11 he says: “There is no respect of persons with God.”

As Moses said in Deuteronomy 10:17 “For the Lord your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty, and a terrible, which regardeth not persons, nor taketh reward:”

We cannot equate church membership any more than racial status with a privilege before God. This is the whole point of this section of Romans. Rather such things mark church membership, covenantal status; such things mark responsibility and culpability, and the Bible is emphatic; the greater the responsibility, the greater the culpability and the judgement. The law is the standard for all men. Judges are most judged by the law, as are authorities in every field, and then all covenant members.

No man however, as Paul says in Romans 3:20 can justify himself by works of the law. Just are those who are redeemed by Christ’s atonement, and who live by faith; who by their steadfast faithfulness manifest that Christ has redeemed them and made them a new creation. Let us pray.

Oh Lord our God, Thy word is truth, and Thy word sets forth our responsibility, and the way wherein we are to walk. Give us grace and strength Lord, day by day to be faithful unto Thee, to rejoice in our responsibilities, to give thanks even for our burdens; knowing that they come from Thee and have our ultimate blessing in Thee as their purpose. Teach us in everything to give thanks, in everything to rejoice, in everything faithfully day by day to serve and to glorify Thee, to live by faith. Bless us to this purpose in Jesus name, amen.

Are there any questions now about our lesson? Yes.

[Audience Member] Can you imagine in any way God can changed the failure of the Christians today to see the law, to see the importance of the law, can you imagine in any way how God can turn that to His good?

[Rushdoony] Yes. A couple of months ago I cited a verse or a line from a poet which I thought summed up what Paul tells us in Hebrews 12. The line was: “I saw the finger of God go forth, giving a body to falsehood that it might be cast off forever.”

Paul says in Romans 12 that the things which are, are being shaken, so that the things which cannot be shaken may alone remain. I believe that as Scripture teaches, God does allow men to work out their sin, and to see the fullness of its implications, to have their noses rubbed into it by their own acts, so that they know what the implications are of every man being his own God and his own law, come to.

So, yes, the antinomianism and the lawlessness of our time is going to create and is creating already a deep revulsion for this sort of thing, so that what men have called their gospel they are going to turn on, because it has failed them. Yes?

[Otto Scott] Well, this sort of self-examination I think is more difficult in the United States than it is in many other countries, because of the imbedded lies that surround us. Our history is false, falsely presented, psychiatry argues that you don’t have personal responsibility, that it is a fault of society or parents or traumatic experiences beyond your control, and it is almost impossible to find truthful expression in the American language. Therefore I think that the problem here is accentuated by the falsity of the positions propounded.

[Rushdoony] I would say I would agree with your analysis, and differ in the conclusion; I think the situation is particularly bad here, but we are the unique country in the world because of the Puritan background in our disposition to confess our own sins, sometimes the wrong ones; which the Liberals have exploited. Environmentalism and everything else has led Americans in terms of the Puritan past to confess to sins they are not guilty of. This makes us more prone in our history to make changes much more rapidly than others.

So that while I think things are particularly bad here in some respects, I do believe that we have a greater capacity to face up to sin, in fact it is almost too popular in America to do that. And that is one reason why psychiatry which you referred to, has been popular in this country. It has utilized this capacity for confessions on the part of Americans, and exploited it.

Americans have always been great for confessing their sins, and psychiatrist and psychologists and psychoanalysts have made a tremendous living in this country off of it.

[Otto Scott] Well, they confess their sins without personal responsibility.

[Rushdoony] Yes.

[Otto Scott] They are confessing sins that the community is guilty of, or that the government is guilty of, or that somebody else is guilty of; but in terms of confessing error, I must say that this country is unique in its inability on the personal level to confess error. I have had fellows from other countries, in other cultures, much quicker to say: “Yes, I was mistaken.”

[Rushdoony] Well, that is because there is a non-Christian basis to those confessions now. Yes Howard?

[Howard] Otto has been reminding me of C.S. Lewis’s little essay on days of national repentance, in which he said that one of the dangers he felt about national repentance; it was written in England during World War 2, but I could have sworn it was written about the United States during the Vietnam War, what he actually had to end up doing was repenting of other peoples sins for them, and in order to repent of someone else’s sin you have to condemn them; and since we are not supposed to be--- condemn them much more harshly as if you were not doing them the favor of repenting for them.

Often we find ourselves allied with (?) people who have fallen into the category of “Well, I am opposed to wars, I am opposed to homosexuality, I am opposed to all these things on this little list, I am for school prayer; and therefore God is certainly going to accept me.” And sometimes we don’t realize the connections or ministry we have in these relations we have with other people.

[Rushdoony] Any other comments on this point? Any other questions?

Well, if not, let us bow our heads for the benediction. For Thy grace, mercy, and patience; our Father we thank Thee. Thou art so good unto us who cannot be good to ourselves. Make us again a joyful and a Godly people; a land wherein righteousness dwelleth, and a people who show forth the glory of Thy righteousness and truth.

And now go in peace, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost bless you and keep you, guide and protect you, this day and always, amen.