Restest in the Law

2014-04-11

Behold, thou art called a Jew, and restest in the law, and makest thy boast of God, And knowest his will, and approvest the things that are more excellent, being instructed out of the law; And art confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind, a light of them which are in darkness, An instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, which hast the form of knowledge and of the truth in the law. (Romans 2:17-20)

For the past several verses in Romans 2, we have been making that transition from the spiritual state of Gentiles to that of the Jews. The Jews, who were very much the “in” crowd spiritually throughout the Old Testament, are now the subject of the rest of the chapter. Let us look at this set of verses a piece at a time.

First, they “restest in the law.” The law is their spiritual confidence. Maybe it is perhaps that they are “hearers” of the law (cf. Romans 2:13) and thought that this would suffice. Some also probably believed that just by being Jewish they were acceptable to God (we will see this in Romans 2:25-29). Many believed they were blameless because they thought they actually followed all of the law (cf. Philippians 3:6). Whatever this may be, their spiritual confidence was connected in some way to the Law of Moses.

They also made their “boast of God.” This is the logical conclusion of their “rest” in the law. “Look God! Look at all of this good stuff from the law I do! Look, I am one of the children of Abraham. I must be automatically acceptable to you!” (See the reality of this attitude in Luke 3:8.)

They know his will. The Old Testament shows us the will of God: we were created by Him, and therefore were created for His pleasure. They approve “the things that are more excellent.” They know what is right and wrong. Why? Because they were instructed by God’s law. The law is good and righteous, and the author thereof is God.

Now considering this mindset, the Jewish people of the time thought themselves as “a guide to the blind,” “a light of them which are in darkness” and so on. This is just what we saw in Romans 2:1-6. Consider Jesus’ parable:

“Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess. And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.” (Luke 18:10-13)

Are these folks right to boast in their works and heritage, or are they in the same boat with everyone else?

And those first century Jewish folks were the only ones who did that, right? We would never do anything like this, right? Nah...