The Law and the Heart

Paul begins Romans 3 on the heels of a discussion about circumcision. In his circumcision discussion he explained how Jews should not presume to be members of God’s people based solely on the fact that they have engaged in a religious and cultural ritual.  What you look like on the outside, Paul argued, doesn’t matter in the eyes of God (1 Samuel 16:7).  Rather, what matters is the state of your heart.  Being a true member of God’s people is a matter of faith, trust, allegiance, and a circumcised heart – that is having a heart for which God has performed a surgically precise, spiritual procedure to remove all the things from a person’s inner being that are selfishly opposed to divine goodness. 

Paul, being the smart guy he was, anticipated that others would argue that faithless and sinful – but outwardly circumcised Jews –  could invalidate claims of God’s goodness by their sin. Jews are the chosen people of God, after all, and circumcision is evidence of that group membership. In response, Paul proclaims, "not true!" He reminds them that God always prevails as righteous, and that his legitimate righteousness allows him to fairly and rightly judge a world of sinners.  But, once again, Paul anticipates a counter argument from unbelievers.  Some argued that God’s goodness could be magnified by deliberately contrasting the dirtiness and rot of faithless Jews and Christians against his righteous purity and glory. In fact, he anticipated this quite easily because ungodly people had already falsely accused Christians of foolishly arguing that people should sin specifically so that God’s glory can be magnified (Romans 3:8). Is it fair, those mockers asked, that God condemn sinners for their sins when those very sins exalt him? Their implication was that God’s condemnation in such an instance would be evidence of a kind of unrighteousness on his part, as well as a kind of virtue on the part of the sinner. Paul decisively highlights how they had missed his point altogether. He called their attention to the scriptures which declare that everyone is a sinner and that no one seeks after God – neither Jews nor Gentiles regardless of outward cultural rites (Romans 3:10-18).  

Paul understood that what can pass from the outside as righteousness is often just a person seeking after his or her own self-interests and that this level of deception encompasses all of humanity (Romans 3:11, Psalm 14:1-4, Psalm 53:1-4, Philippians 2:19-21, Ephesians 4:17-24). 

Actual righteousness cannot be achieved from a culturally enforced, robotic adherence to the law. Such an orientation toward law-keeping is too often an orientation toward self-preservation, religious arrogance, or social status, and not a true orientation toward divine goodness and a relationship with God.  While the need for true righteousness is brutally illustrated for us by the law, genuine righteousness comes from trusting Christ to transform us from the inside out regardless of our cultural or genetic heritage (Romans 3:21-22). As this kind of transformation happens, we acquire an orientation toward good states of mind, as well as toward their resultant good behaviors, “against which there is no law” (Galatians 5:23b).  

In what ways has God changed the orientation of your heart?