Passage: Romans 2:1-29
Summary
Paul’s point in Romans 2 is that religion is often just a thin veneer papered over a heart that is still every bit as sinful as everyone else’s, and that religion by itself is powerless to change our hearts. It might change our behavior, but nothing deeper.
Sermon Questions
- In your own words describe the difference between a disciple of Christ and a religious Christian?
- Why do we get caught up in thinking we are “better” because we go to church and follow the “rules of Christianity?”
- How do you know your heart is changing?
- Paul makes this point...the external practices of religion does not equal inward transformation. Why is it we do things that we tell others not to do? What does it mean for us to use religion to get things from God instead of getting more of God?
- Tim Keller: “It is possible to trust in Christianity, rather than Christ. And this can happen in conservative, evangelical churches. Paul is showing us a condition called ‘dead orthodoxy,’ where the basic doctrines of the Bible are accurately subscribed to, but do not make any internal difference. There is an intellectual grasp of the gospel, but no internal revolution.” What does that statement mean to you?