Religion Will Not Take You to Heaven

Romans 2:17–24
» View this passage in NIV (Bible Gateway)

Few people were more religious than young Paul of Tarsus. He knew all about religious orthodoxy and how it can make a sincere and zealous person the very enemy of Christ. Orthodoxy in religion requires both access to the truth and accountability to the truth. Paul was speaking to Jews who gloried in being called Jews. In fact, they thought they were much better than the Gentiles, and Paul proceeds to give the following list of moral and religious things they gloried in:

1.     They relied on the Law (v. 17).

2.     They bragged about their relationship to God (v. 17). 

3.     They know His will (v. 18).

4.     They approve of what is superior (v. 18). 

5.     They are instructed by the law (v. 18).

6.     They thought of themselves as being:

a.   A guide for the blind (v. 19).

b. An instructor of the foolish (v. 20). They thought they were the only ones who had knowledge & truth. 

 7.     They thought they were the only ones who had knowledge & truth.

Paul then stops and asks a question. “You who teach others, do you not teach yourselves?” He goes on to say that they teach against stealing, committing adultery and having idols but they are guilty of doing these things of which they are telling others not to do. He says, “You brag about the law, but you dishonor God by breaking the Law.” He says that their hypocrisy even causes the Gentiles to blaspheme God. 

Application

When I say one thing and do another it causes others to not follow the Lord. Does my life cause others to want to accept Christ or turn them off to the things of the Lord?