Romans 13 PART 3: Jews Need Salvation

[Rebbe]

PAUL'S LETTER TO THE ROMAN CHRISTIANS [13]

Analytical Commentary on Romans

On Jewish Hypocrisy in the Second Temple Period [3]
Jews Need Salvation

The Audio MP3 of this lecture is available via this link: http://www.bripodcasts.com/Romans/Lecture13.MP3

Copyright © BRI 2016 All Rights Reserved Worldwide by Les Aron Gosling,
Messianic Lecturer (BRI/IMCF)

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"The great Rabbi Gamaliel had among his disciples one who, according to a passage in the Talmud, gave his master a good deal of trouble, manifesting 'impudence in matters of learning.' But his name is not given; he is remembered simply as 'that pupil'" (F.F. Bruce, The Spreading Flame, 1958, 81. See also J. Klausner, From Jesus to Paul, 1944, 310f; Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat 30b).

"I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change. It is now time to change the things I cannot accept" - Angela Davis

It was my mother who introduced me to the synagogue in Sydney when I was a child. When I departed the synagogue and opened a copy of the Christian "New Testament" and read through Paul's Letter to the Roman Christians I had no issues with anything he wrote. Here I was a Jew, reading what a Jew from the Second Temple period in Jewish history had penned concerning issues facing the (still largely Jewish) Yeshua Messianic Movement in the city of Rome. I had no difficulties about anything Paul wrote in this letter. I already knew academically that what was called twentieth century "Christianity" bore little (if any) resemblance to the original "church" "Jesus" had established. I already was well-versed in the Dark Age of Constantine, and was fully aware of the changes and reforms the Roman emperor had made to eradicate all things Jewish from the universal church. My understanding at that time (which has remained unchallenged) was that Constantine had almost single-handedly created a new church altogether -- the new Roman Catholic Church. Those who remained "Jewish" in their continued observance of the seventh day as the Sabbath of the Decalogue and circumspect in their daily dietary regime were persecuted, with myriads killed or driven across the Parthian borders of the Roman empire. Many authentic followers of the Lord Yeshua resettled in the Balkans and in Armenia. My education at this point took a radical turn, but much of what I learned in the decades since has merely proven my original grasp of ecclesiastical history to have been well-grounded in truth.

Certainly, my initial understanding of the historical background of the Messianic Scriptures and early ecclesiastical history , and first century Jewish traditions , has brought forth an abundance of right knowledge which I share with any and all who have open minds and hearts in respect of today's Jewish-Christian Messianic Movement. I make no apology for having learned much gleaned from the writings of the late Dr Hugh Schonfield and I greatly treasure his contributions to a reconstructed history of the original followers of Yeshua. Sadly, Dr Schonfield later became apostate. It was also through Schonfield that I came to a broader, fuller grasp of the plan of God in relation to those who had never ever heard of "Jesus." I grasped the meaning of the festival of Shemini Atzeret back in the '60s, but in 1985, like a man dying of thirst, I voraciously swallowed Schonfield's grasp of the Greek telos. His honest and uncompromising translation of telos in the text of 1 Corinthians 15.24 substantiated my greater vision of eternity. To clarify what I am sharing with all my students Rav Shaul wrote the following. I am using Hugh Schonfield's translation and I will also appeal to his notes on the subject of telos.

"But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead as the first fruits of those who have gone to their rest. For since by man came death, so by man, came also resurrection from the dead. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ will all be brought to life, though each in his proper order, first Christ, followed at his coming by those who belong to Christ, then the remainder when he has handed over the Kingdom to God, to the Father, after abolishing all other government, authority and power. For he himself must rule until "he has put all enemies under his feet." The final enemy to be abolished is death, for everything is to be brought into subjection beneath his feet..." (1 Cor 15.20-27 emphasis is his own).

Schonfield rightly translates telos not as "end" but as "remainder" in this context. As he stresses in his notes "Gk., telos, here used not in the sense of 'the End' but the 'tail end' who are the vast majority. The order is processional, the general, his staff, and then the main body of men bringing up the rear" (Hugh J. Schonfield, The Original New Testament, Edited & Translated from the Greek by the Jewish Historian of Christian Beginnings, 1985, 321).

JEWS LARGELY SELF-RIGHTEOUS
Arguably, the mid-to-later Second Temple period of Jewish history was the most deplorably corrupt period experienced at any time by the Jewish people, with the possible exception of our present modern age. The conditions that abounded at the time of Christ overreached those of the immediate pre-Nebuchadnezzar period when God sealed the doom of Jerusalem and sent the Jews into Babylonian exile. In the opinion of this lecturer the sinful condition of the Jewish people in the days of Our Lord Yeshua and Paul were far worse than even the time-period prior to the Assyrian invasions of the Northern Ten-tribed Union that saw the actual eclipse of Israel (Ephraim/Samaria) and the obliteration of that Nationhood. The great sin of the Second Temple rabbins was that of self-righteousness (Lk 18.9-12).

There are records extant from the bygone era of the Second Temple milieu but admittedly they are few and far between. The Christian corpus known as the NT (or Messianic Scriptures) almost uniquely spells out a description of an age which proceeded to produce a devaluation of human character, an epoch of political chicanery, bribery, lies, deceit, assassinations, and the use of immense cruelty on the part of Roman power with Jewish Sanhedrin collaborative cooperation in the pursuit of the Pax Romana on Jewish soil. Crucifixions were a daily event. The apostle John in his Apocalypse writes that not only had Jerusalem sunk into the immoral fabric of Sodom and Egypt (Rev 11.8) but describes the Jewish Commonwealth as the "land creature" intimately in league with the "Sea beast" , Rome. As articulated so concisely in the Gospel accounts of the trial of Yeshua, "We have no king but Caesar!" (Jn 19.15).

The Jews today still have no king but Caesar -- and some will do anything to get the approval of this rotten, degenerate, God-rejecting world.

The Sanhedrin coldly and eagerly sought to profit from Rome at every level, and Rome's political representatives purchased Sadducee treason in a bid to outnumber Pharisaic placements in the Jewish ruling body. The Pharisees were more popular with the Jewish masses and wore out Roman pretensions at various "peaceful party negotiations." In a word they couldn't be bought at any price.

At any event, Herod's consumptive utilisation of secret police in professional covert intelligence operations, with the aim of rooting out dissidents and dissentients from the Jewish masses, has only recently been forthcoming in serious studies of that age. Herod was second only to the infamous J. Edgar Hoover in such an administration. The latter excelled in blackmailing his "opponents" as a consequence of wiretapping and surreptitious photographic surveillance, while Herod used the Torah with its myriads of extra-biblical rules, regulations and expectations against his apparent opposition.

This procedure of surveillance is mentioned in passing by Peter in Acts 15.10. It will once more be repeated when the Antichrist rules from Jerusalem (Mt 24.20). And yet, Judaea -- and certainly Jerusalem -- was the showcase (if you will) of the entire Roman empire. It was the very centre of immense exploitable wealth and power as far as Rome was concerned, but it was established with mistrust, political manipulation, and the constant threat of retaliative military might which hung over the Jewish Commonwealth. Recall that Jerusalem was internationalised in 6 CE when Roman troops marched in to Jerusalem as a programmed peace initiative to "protect" both Roman and Jewish interests in the region.

Of course, the major and minor prophets of Israel and Judah scathingly rebuked the State of Israel which was to exist at the end of the age, and the apostles of the Messianic Movement all believed to a man that they were living at the time of the end and therefore the descriptions given by the prophets of a debauched Israelite people under a curse from God was already realised as far as they were concerned.

Be this as it may, we are now living in the days predicted by the prophets and it will not be long before the ax of heaven falls on the entirety of the world, including the Jewish State.

RECAPITULATION
So, at the beginning of this 13th lecture into Paul's Letter to the Roman Christians let us recapitulate for a moment our journey thus far in relation to the outline of the letter.

1. Paul condemns the entire Gentile world in Romans 1.18-32 with special attention given to the idolatrous debauched sexual deviancy of a pagan Mediterranean Mystery Religion that had entered Rome itself, involving bestiality.

2. Paul condemns the moralist or humanist in Romans 2.1-16. At this juncture Paul takes an approach which he drew on from that of the prophet Nathan in a pronounced circumvention with King David (2 Sam 12.1-7) and also perhaps using the example of the indirect approach of Amos in Am 1&2. The prophet Amos condemns the Gentile nations surrounding Israel, and it is only when the Jews join in on this orgy of vehement denunciation that Amos turns the tables on the Chosen People and incorporates them into his message of impending destruction and doom. Self-righteousness prevents people from seeing their need of salvation, of apprehending their need of the Gospel. They put their trust in their own intellectual prowess and powers to change, their own abilities to self-approve, and at the same time they look down their righteous noses at others blaming them as the real cause of their troubles and travails.

But have you noticed that in Romans 1 Paul speaks often of "they" and when he gets to Romans 2 the rabbinic scholar changes his emphasis from "they" and substitutes "YOU." He is speaking eyeball to eyeball with his own national and racial and cultural kindred.

3. Paul then proceeds to condemn the Jew (Romans 2.17-3.8). In Romans 2.17 Paul says, "Behold, you are called a Jew." In Romans 2.28 the term "Jew" is repeated in the phrase, "For he is not a Jew..." repeated in Romans 2.29: "For he is a Jew..." and again in Romans 3.1, "What advantage then has the Jew?" Paul has mentioned the Jews four times in this section of Romans. It is clear that he is now speaking to Jewish Christians in Rome. This is the group he is addressing in this section of his text. He is decidedly not referring to Gentiles as so-called "spiritual Jews"!

Hypocrisy is an enormous sin, but it is negatively birthed from the soil of a yet greater sin , that of self-righteousness. Lecturer Alva McClain makes the point: "When Paul started to condemn the world [in his Letter to the Roman Christians], the Jew claimed to be exempt from condemnation on three grounds. Paul knew this, for he himself was a Jew. These were the three grounds:

"1. Because he was a son of Abraham. When Christ was condemning those Jews, they replied, "We are Abraham's seed" (Jn 8:33)...

"2. Because he had the law. The Jew rested his hope on possession of the law.

"3. Because he was circumcised. The old rabbinic writings of the Jews contain such statements as this: "No circumcised man will be lost." In the days of Paul there was a saying that Abraham stood at the Gates of Hades [Sheol]... seeing that no circumcised man was ever cast into hell..." (Alva McClain, Romans: The Gospel of God's Grace, 1973, 81).

But these three claims did have a basis of truth , they can be found in the writings of the rabbis of the Second Temple Period and based on their interpretative emphasis in Hebrew Scripture. And so Paul needed to deal with each of these three arguments. But his warning to the Jew is clear enough: he was saying, in effect, "Unless you repent of your self-righteous hypocrisy you are going to be judged. There WILL be a day of judgment , and you will not survive it!"

That day of judgment fell upon the Jewish Commonwealth in 70 CE.

McClain continues,

"Three words are the key words. In the first section the emphasis is on the law: "resteth in the law" (v.17); "instructed out of the law" (v.18); "the form of knowledge and of the truth in the law: (v.20); and "Thou that makest thy boast of the law, through breaking the law dishonorest thou God?" (v.23).

"In the second section the emphasis is on circumcision: "circumcision verily profiteth... thy circumcision is made uncircumcision" (v.25). Paul uses this word in verse 26 and 27, too.

"The third section emphasizes lineage: "He is not a Jew..." (v.28), "but he is a Jew..." (v.29).

"Now then, take those three ideas, and with them let us make [an outline]. It would be something like this:

"1. The law cannot save the Jew (vv. 17-24)
"2. Circumcision cannot save the Jew (vv. 25-27)
"3. Birth cannot save the Jew (vv. 28-29)."

So much for any argument that we cannot possibly locate and establish doctrine from Paul's writings! Such a view is simply laughable.

The Jewish Commonwealth was populated by, on the one hand, ignorant masses who did not live by the Sinai Torah and, on the other hand, those few thousands who claimed a loyalty to the Law but who lived their lives in contempt toward those who seemingly failed to measure up to the Torah's high standards. Intriguingly, the Essenes separated from the religious cultists who had become ritualised as well as mechanically ceremonial considering them as entirely hypocritical and belonging to an apostate Temple system , a view Paul himself also later adopts.

Let us regard the text as it stands in Romans 3.1-8 which flows on from the end of chapter 2. We have already discussed Romans 2.17-29.

TEXT
"Therefore you have no defense, whoever you are, when you judge others; for in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, are practicing the very same things... Then what advantage or preeminence has the Jew? Or, what is the value of being circumcised? Much in every way! In the first place, the Jews were entrusted with the very divine utterances of God. If some of them were unfaithful, so what? Does their faithlessness cancel God's faithfulness making it ineffectual? Heaven forbid! God would be true even if everyone were a liar! - as the Scripture says, 'so that you, God, may be proved right in your words and win the verdict when you are put on trial." [Psalm 51.6 (4)] Now if our unrighteousness highlights God's righteousness, what should we say? That God is unrighteous to inflict his anger on us? (I am speaking here the way people commonly do.) Heaven forbid! Else, how could it be possible for God to judge the world? 'But,' you say, 'if, through my lie, God's truth is enhanced and brings him greater glory, why am I still judged merely for being a sinner?' Indeed! Why not say (as some people slander us by claiming we do say), 'Let us do evil, so that good may come of it'? Against them the judgment is a just one!" (Romans 2.1; 3.1-8).

Firstly, Paul, in addressing the Jew, begins with a profound "therefore." Some scholars find this difficult to connect with what has gone previously as Paul sums up an argument meant to disable his Jewish readers who are receiving his letter. My view is that he is referring back to his introduction wherein he addresses relational sins concerning which every single one of us is guilty in some measure (Rom 1.29-31).

Indeed, its astonishing how the law of karma actually works when we consider upon reflection the number of televangelists who have condemned people from the pulpit for adultery and sexual promiscuity and then its been discovered that they themselves have been "frequent flyers" in relation to massage parlours (really, brothels) or as promiscuous gays caught out in public toilets. One famous Australian radio talk-back shock-jock was arrested by London police for lewd behaviour in a public toilet and it took our then Labor PM Bob Hawke to secretly negotiate to bring him home without charges laid. And he's back on the radio waves as pious as ever -- and an anti-Labor pro-Liberal at that.

Secondly, and this point is important, please take note that Paul does not discourage circumcision as such. He insists it has a value for the Jewish race, in his own words: "What is the value of being circumcised? Much in every way!"

Concordant writer A.E. Knoch has written, and with which comment we are in agreement: "The rite of circumcision was the outward sign, in the first place, of an inward faith, but it degenerated into a mere mark of privilege. But misused privilege is of no avail at the bar of God. In the judgment the outward visible tokens will count for nothing. Only that which is vital, in spirit, which will meet the scrutiny of God, will receive recognition. Men may applaud many an action which God detests, and may condemn that which God approves. Human standards and outward appearances will weigh little in the judgment" (A.E. Knoch, Concordant Commentary on the New Testament, 1968, 232).

FIVE IDENTIFYING MARKS OF HYPOCRISY
It took decades after Paul wrote his epistle To the Roman Christians for the destruction of Jerusalem to occur, with the loss of over a million Jewish lives and the deportation as slaves of almost a hundred thousand from this lost generation. Jewish immorality finally took the life of the Saviour and then his brother James , and a frightening curse came crashing in on the Jewish race in 70 CE. Two thousand years of exile ended in 1948, and the Fig Tree began to blossom in 1967 when the Jews retook Jerusalem.

But the fact remains that the laws of karma WORK. They work for good (2 Cor 9.6; Lk 6.38; Prov 11.25) and they work equally for evil. "What a man sows he shall also reap" said Paul (Gal 6.7 cf Prov 1.31; 11.18,24; 14.14; 21.13; 22.8).

Steven J. Cole, a non-denominational minister and graduate of Dallas Theological Seminary (Th.M., 1976 in Bible exposition) and California State University, Long Beach (B.A., philosophy, 1968) has written extensively on five identifying marks of a hypocrite.

Note well what he exposes:

In Romans 2.1 "Paul is not saying that it is wrong to judge others. Rather, he is saying that it is wrong self-righteously to judge others, while at the same time you're practicing the sins that you're judging. We could come up with more, but let me give you five marks of a self-righteous hypocrite by which to evaluate yourself. (If you apply these to your spouse, then you are one!)

"(1) A self-righteous hypocrite judges the sins of others while overlooking his own sins. As Jesus says in Matt 7:5 "You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye." Someone has defined a hypocrite as the guy who complains that there is too much sex and violence on his DVD player! (Reader's Digest, Oct., 1991, p. 183; I changed VCR to DVD.)

"(2) A self-righteous hypocrite judges others based on selective standards, not on all of God's Word. One of the most helpful chapters for understanding the sin of self-righteousness is Jesus' indictment of the Pharisees in Matthew 23. The Pharisees picked out certain parts of the Law and prided themselves on their obedience, but they neglected the weightier parts of the Law (Matt 23:23). They tithed their table spices, but they neglected justice, mercy, and faithfulness. They invented loopholes around keeping the Law. They said that if you swore by the temple, you were not obligated to keep your word, but if you swore by the gold of the temple, you were obligated (Matt 23:16-21).

"We laugh at how stupid that sounds, but many Christians do the same thing. God's Word tells us that God hates violence (Ps 11:5) and that we should not even talk about immorality, impurity, or greed (Eph 5:3). We should be innocent in what is evil (Rom 16:19). But somehow it's okay to fill our minds with TV shows and movies that are filled with profanity, violence, and sexual immorality. The self-righteous person picks parts of the Bible that he likes and prides himself on keeping those parts. And he condemns as "legalists" those who seek to obey all of God's Word.

"(3) A self-righteous hypocrite is more concerned about external conformity than with true, inner godliness. Jesus said (Matt 23:28), "So you, too, outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness." The Pharisees were concerned that they not defile themselves for the Passover by going into Pilate's Gentile court (Jn 18:28) at the same time that they were seeking to crucify the innocent Lord Jesus! Self-righteous hypocrites want to keep up outward "Christian" appearances, but they don't judge their own sins on the heart level. They put on the happy Christian face at church, but use abusive speech with their families at home.

"(4) A self-righteous hypocrite is not interested in helping others grow in godliness, but only in gaining a following. Jesus said (Matt 23:13,15), "But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you shut off the kingdom of heaven from people; for you do not enter in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you travel around on sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves." They didn't care about the people or their hearts before God. They just wanted to gain followers so that they looked good.

"(5) A self-righteous hypocrite justifies himself by comparing himself with others or by blaming others for his own sins. Jesus told the parable of the proud Pharisee who went to the temple and prayed, "God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get" (Lk 18:11,12). He wasn't comparing himself with God's Word, which condemns pride. Rather, he was comparing himself with others who, in his mind, were worse than he was. In his mind, he kept some of the Law; the tax collector didn't keep any of it. So, on the curve, he is accepted by God, while the tax collector is rejected. But, God doesn't grade on the curve!"

In conclusion, I would encourage us all to examine ourselves as Paul also recommended (2 Cor 13.5) for if we are not sincere in our pursuit of the Faith which was "once and for all time delivered to the saints" (Jude 3) then we stand as hypocrites and that is THE ONE PERSON with whom Our Lord Yeshua himself could not stand to be associated.

It was due to the one great sin of hypocrisy , insincerity , that ultimately destroyed the Jewish State and exiled the Jewish people from their own Land for 2000 long and awful years.

It is the one great sin that will dwarf our growth and finally "pull the plug" on any personal pursuit of God's holiness in character. Yet, we can change our world by first changing ourselves.

"Life has no remote. Get up and change it yourself" , Anonymous

THIS CONCLUDES LECTURE THIRTEEN

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