Yesterday, I opened with a challenging paragraph from Romans 2 and suggested four points that Paul was making to the religious Jews of his day:

• Knowledge without action is not enough.
• Teaching without lifestyle is not enough.
• Ceremony without heart change is not enough.
• Heritage without obedience is not enough.

Today, let’s look at the first one: Knowledge without action is not enough. (Romans 2.12 – 16)

Remember, Paul teaches later in Romans 3 that all are saved by grace through faith, but God is very interested in our works.

In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. (Matthew 5.16, ESV)

Robert Lewis, a pastor from Little Rock, used to say, “Note that Matthew 5.16 doesn’t say, ‘…hear your words,’ it says ‘…see your good works.'” Here’s an example: A bible believing, bible teaching church met at a YMCA. A fellow came to the Y one Sunday to work out, but it was closed. As he was leaving, he saw the people coming in for the church service and noticed that the sidewalks were covered in snow. He saw a shovel and just grabbed it and started shoveling. Every person who went by thought he was a Y employee and chewed him out for not having done it sooner!

So the unbeliever (maybe) is doing the good works, actually loving his neighbor. Meanwhile, the church members would have been glad for him to “hear their good words inside the building” but I’m afraid their bad words outside the building carried more weight.

We need to be careful not to let our religion block out the gospel and a relationship with God! It’s possible there are people who have been trusting their religion, their church affiliation, their baptism, maybe their good works, instead of trusting Jesus and accepting salvation by grace. If so, the message of Romans 2 is a serious warning. Jesus said it earlier, and the MSG brings it home very forcefully:

This man is the vanguard of many outsiders who will soon be coming from all directions—streaming in from the east, pouring in from the west, sitting down at God’s kingdom banquet alongside Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Then those who grew up “in the faith” but had no faith will find themselves out in the cold, outsiders to grace and wondering what happened.” (Matthew 8.11, 12, MSG)