Romans 2:17-29 - "Check for Motes"

Draw Me Close: Podcast - A Ministry of Whitestone Christian Fellowship, with Pastor Bob Lawrenz

Throughout this section, Paul takes the self-righteous Jew to task. But this text applies to all self-righteous people. Many people think that by keeping the Ten Commandments, they can merit righteousness before God. The problem is that one must do so perfectly one hundred percent of the time. Scripture says, “whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it” (James 2:10). Paul wants the self-righteous Jew, along with every other moralistic person to know that they have failed along with everyone else to meet God’s standard of holiness.

The bad news is that true and perfect righteousness is not possible for man to attain on his own; the standard is simply too high. The good news is that true righteousness is possible for mankind, but only through the cleansing of sin by Jesus Christ and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. We have no ability to achieve righteousness in and of ourselves. But Christians possess the righteousness of Christ, because “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). This is an amazing truth. On the cross, Jesus exchanged our sin for His perfect righteousness so that we can one day stand before God and He will see not our sin, but the holy righteousness of the Lord Jesus.