What is the effect of hypocrisy in the Jews?
They know the word but they don’t believe the word. They make the word an obedience thing and not a law thing. They use their knowledge of the word to help others, but they don’t allow it to help them.
Piper writes, “Love uses truth to bless others; but sin uses truth to exalt self.”
So, Piper preaches, “My point is simply this: one of the reasons Paul dwells on the demonstration of sinfulness in Romans 1–3 is that we are so resistant to seeing it and feeling it. We find ways of avoiding the issue and softening the indictments and escaping the evidences of our sinfulness. And there are endless ways, it seems, to admit to a little bit of it, while not being broken and humbled by it. But brokenness and humility are the gateway to paradise, and indeed they are the road to paradise. In this life, we never outgrow our need for ever-new experiences of brokenness and humility because of our sinfulness.”
So, how does this apply to Christians today?
Piper writes, “These Jews are people of the book. And Paul agrees with that. But there is clearly something wrong. And we, who are Christian people of the book, should be all ears and on the edge of our seats to find out what went wrong, lest we make the same mistake. There is nothing wrong, in themselves, with relying on the trustworthiness of God’s law or boasting in God or knowing his will or approving things essential. But evidently there is a way that all that can go wrong. All of that good use of the Law can be a part of what shows a person to be a sinner.”
Faith in God for his gracious gift of forgiveness, and a right standing with him, and the enablement to obey his commandments. But instead, you use the law to establish your own righteousness and thus rob God of the most basic thing he demands from you, humble trust in him for his mercy. And what is this but adultery as you give your heart and trust—that belong only to God—to another? And what is this spiritual adultery except the taking of the very idols of the world and making them your own—as if to rob their temples because God himself is not good enough for you.
Lord, may your Word humble us from faith to love...
Steve Allen
ACTION Zambia
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