Pathway to Victory

Speaker 1

Hey podcast listeners, thanks for streaming today's podcast from Pathway to Victory.

Pathway to Victory is a nonprofit ministry featuring the Bible teaching of Dr. Robert Jeffress. Our mission is to pierce the darkness with the light of God's Word through the most effective media available, like this podcast.

To support Pathway to Victory, go to ptv.org/donate or follow the link in our show notes.

Now here's today's podcast from Pathway to Victory.

Speaker 2

Hi, this is Robert Jeffress and I'm glad to study God's Word with you every day. This Bible teaching program on today's edition of Pathway to Victory, there are many.

Speaker 3

People who labor under the idea, well, if you're born in a Christian home, that makes you a Christian. Or at least that guarantees that you're going to become a Christian.

Listen, being in a Christian family does not make you a Christian any more than sitting in a garage makes you a car or sitting at McDonald's makes you a hamburger.

Speaker 1

Welcome to Pathway to Victory with author and pastor, Dr. Robert Jeffress. The message of Christianity seems simple, doesn't it? Believe in Jesus and you'll be saved.

But many people try to add requirements like religious rituals, good works, or a particular heritage. Today on Pathway to Victory, Dr. Robert Jeffress explains why none of these extras can earn God's favor. We must be right with God through faith in Christ.

Now, here's our Bible teacher to introduce today's message: Dr. Jeffress.

Speaker 2

Thanks, David, and welcome to a brand new week of Bible studies on Pathway to Victory. Right now we're opening our hearts and minds to Paul's Letter to the Romans, chapters one through five.

As a companion to this study, I'm prepared to send you a helpful resource that we're really excited about at Pathway to Victory. It's called the Journeys of Paul Map. Look, most of us would be hard pressed to identify the places Paul visited on his three missionary journeys and even harder pressed to explain why they matter. Well, this four-color map clearly identifies the towns Paul visited and the significance of his ministry.

But that's not all. Because when you respond with a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory, I'm going to include a top-class reference book called An Illustrated Guide to the Apostle Paul. Truly, this book belongs in your personal collection with pictures, maps, and illustrations. This book will deepen your love for God's Word as you discover the backstory of Paul's life and remarkable ministry. I'm going to send you a copy today when you get a generous gift to support the growing ministry of Pathway to Victory.

Before we begin today's message, let me extend my deep appreciation for our pathway partners and all of those who support the ministry of Pathway to Victory. Your gifts are truly making a difference. More and more people are contacting our ministry to tell us their remarkable stories of life change, and their gratitude really belongs to you.

And now let's begin today's message from Romans. I titled today's message "How to Be a Christian Without Being Religious."

Speaker 3

Several years ago, the International Mission Board of our Southern Baptist Convention caused quite a controversy when they published a prayer guide encouraging Christians to pray for the salvation of Jewish people. This prayer guide was issued during some of the highest and holiest days on the Jewish calendar. As you can imagine, people were outraged that Southern Baptists would be calling for the salvation of Israel. Rabbi Yarek Yaffe, the president of the Union of American Hebrew Congregation, expressed a desire for "a little less love from Southern Baptists and a little more respect." Another Jewish leader remarked that it is "pure arrogance for any religion to assume that they hold the truth." However, the most insightful comment I read about this controversy came from a columnist for the Washington Post named William Raspberry.

You can tell from what Mr. Raspberry writes that he doesn't believe that Christ is the exclusive way of salvation, but interestingly, he understands the implications of that belief for those who hold to it. I usually don't like to read from an extended column, but this one so well sets the table for the message today that I thought you would enjoy listening to what he said. He writes, "The minister of my grandfather's church, when preaching the funeral of some beloved relative, would always take a few minutes out of his recital of the dearly departed virtues to announce that we were all going to hell, not because we were bad people, those of us who didn't subscribe to his particular brand of religion. We were going to hell because his brand was the only one ordained of God and thus the only sure ticket to glory. He would urge us to join before it was too late, then return to the business of the funeral. We were by turns embarrassed, annoyed, and angry. The preacher's remarks struck us as thoughtless, inappropriate, and rude, and we thought we deserved the simple courtesy of not being harangued about our religion. We also thought it insufferably arrogant that this unlearned man should presume to declare our own brand of religion null and void and take advantage of our captive presence to proselytize us for his. We felt the way a lot of Jews felt the other week when the Southern Baptist Mission Board urged members of its 40,000 churches to pray for the conversion of the Jews, especially during this month of Jewish holy days."

But look at the matter from the preacher's or the Southern Baptist's point of view. The minister believed to the point of certainty that he and his fellow believers had found the one sure way to salvation. It was his duty to share this knowledge with the rest of us, not because he wished us ill, but precisely because he didn't. It was as though he knew the bridge around the next mountain curve had been washed out and that to allow us to continue along that route would mean our death. Who would refuse to warn an unwary motorist, even if the warning might be misinterpreted as rudeness? Didn't the Old Testament prophets do the same thing, warning people to repentance before it was too late? And weren't those people Jews? Was the Southern Baptist prayer guide any more offensive or arrogant than, say, the prophet Jeremiah?

You see, Mr. William Raspberry understands the implications of the claim that there's only one way to be saved. In his column, he really articulated the two bottom line questions we all have to consider. Question number one: Is there only one way to salvation? And secondly, if there is only one way to salvation, isn't it our duty to share that one way with others? To both questions, Paul the Apostle answers with a resounding yes. And that is the theme of our message today. If you have your Bibles, turn to Romans, chapter 2, beginning with verse 17, as we discover how to become a Christian without being religious.

Now remember, we're in this first major section of the book of Romans. The theme of Romans is that the righteousness, which is a right standing with God, is only available to those who come to God through Christ. The problem is that none of us has righteousness on our own. We all need a right standing with God. In this first section of Romans, Paul goes to great lengths to show that all men are guilty before God. For example, we look at the pagan who's never heard the Gospel. Paul says he's guilty; he needs the gospel of Jesus Christ. Last time, we looked at the moralist, the person who tries to keep a code of good conduct. The Bible says he is still guilty before God because he's not good enough. Now, finally, Paul looks at a third group of people who stand guilty before God, and that is the religious person.

We have the idea that of all these groups, certainly religious people ought to be okay with God because, after all, by definition, they recognize something is wrong. They recognize they need God's forgiveness, and they go through a list of works in order to earn God's forgiveness. Shouldn't their confession of sin and their attempt at receiving righteousness count for something? Yet Paul says in this passage very clearly that the religious person is also guilty before God, in spite of his spiritual heritage, his biblical knowledge, and his religious works. Paul used the Jew as an example of that. In Paul's day, the Jew was the most religious person who, certainly by works, ought to be saved. Most people thought, I think if Paul were writing today to us, instead of writing about the Jews, he might insert other religions. He might talk about the Mormons, the Jehovah's Witnesses, the Catholics, the Methodists, and yes, the Baptists. He would say all of them are guilty before God, and regardless of their heritage, their knowledge, or their works, they need salvation that comes only through faith in Christ.

Look at this passage with me, and let's see how Paul develops that thought. Beginning in verse 17, he names the three excuses religious people use to say, "I don't need Jesus Christ." First of all, the religious person will say, "Examine my religious or my spiritual heritage." Look at verse 17 of Romans chapter 2. "But if you bear the name of Jew," that's what the Jew did. He said, "Look at me, I am a Jew. I don't need Jesus Christ." Now you know the word. God's people were called by a number of names. They were known as the Hebrews, the Israelites. But the name that meant the most to them was the name Jew. It came from the tribe of Judah, from which the Messiah would come. It means literally, "praise be to God." The Jew took great delight in saying, "I am a Jew," and he thought because nationally he was a descendant of Abraham, that he ought to be okay with God. There are many Jews who think that today. They believe it is their special relationship to Abraham that ensures their salvation.

Now, listen to me. There are benefits to being a Jew, as there were benefits to being a part of God's covenant people. In Genesis 12:3, God said to Abraham, "I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you, I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." Being a Jew meant that you got to share in some of God's national blessings to Israel. But being a Jew did not automatically make you a believer. Being a natural, physical descendant of Abraham did not mean everything was okay between you and God. Over and over again, the New Testament teaches that it is not a Jew's physical relationship to Abraham, but his spiritual relationship to Abraham that really makes a difference.

I point this out because there are a lot of people, even in our church, who get mixed up on that. They think, "Well, being a Jew, they're God's people. They're automatically going to heaven." No, being a Jew does not make you a believer. Jesus taught that. In John 8, for example, hold your place here and turn over to John chapter 8. Beginning with verse 37, Jesus was talking to the Pharisees. They prided themselves on being descendants of Abraham. Look at what Jesus said to them: "I know that you are Abraham's offspring, yet you seek to kill me because my word has no place in you. I speak the things which I have seen with my father; therefore you also did the things which you heard from your father." They answered and said to him, "Well, Abraham is our father." Jesus said to them, "Well, if you are Abraham's children, then do the deeds of Abraham. But as it is, you are seeking to kill me, a man who has told you the truth which I heard from God. This Abraham did not do. He didn't try to kill me."

In verse 44, Jesus said, "You Pharisees are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father." See what the Pharisees were saying? They were saying, "We don't need to listen to you, Jesus. We are descendants of Abraham." Jesus said, "Oh, no, he's not. He may be your physical father, but he's not your spiritual father. Your father is the devil because you're trying to kill me." He was saying, "Pharisees, it is not your physical relationship to Abraham that makes you right with God." Paul said the same thing in Galatians 3, verses 7 to 9: "Therefore, be sure that it is those who are of faith who are the sons of Abraham. And the Scriptures, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the Gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, 'All the nations shall be blessed in you.' So it is those who are of faith who are blessed with Abraham the believer."

It's not a Jew's physical relationship to Abraham; it is his spiritual relationship to Abraham. Yet, as in Paul's day, many people today think that being a national Jew, an ethnic Jew, or a religious Jew makes you right with God. Alan Dershowitz, the famous Harvard professor and lawyer, wrote a book entitled "The Disappearing American Jew." In it, he stated that it really doesn't matter whether or not a Jew believes in God. What makes a Jew a Jew is not his belief in God, but his belief in Judaism. There are many people who believe that today, not just about Judaism, but about Christianity as well. Many people labor under the idea that if you're born in a Christian home, that makes you a Christian or at least guarantees that you're going to become a Christian.

Listen, being in a Christian family does not make you a Christian any more than sitting in a garage makes you a car or sitting at McDonald's makes you a hamburger. Jesus said in John 3:3, "Unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." You have to have an individual faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. That is what saves you. I love the great line of Louis Palau: "God has no grandchildren." You're not related to God through your parents. God is not your grandfather. No, God has no grandchildren; he only has children. The way you become a child of God is by individually calling on the name of Christ for your salvation.

Now, some of you are saying, "Well, now, wait a minute, Pastor. What about Romans 11:26 that says all Israel will be saved? Doesn't that guarantee that all Israelites are going to be in heaven?" Now we're going to get to Romans 11, and we're going to see what Paul meant when he said, "All Israel will be saved." But what he didn't mean was that every Jew who's ever lived is going to be in heaven one day. There is no promise of that because it's not your physical relationship to Abraham; it is your spiritual relationship through faith that makes you a child of God. The religious person doesn't look at that. He says, "Well, look, examine my spiritual heritage. I've got the right pedigree. I'm okay with God."

Paul says, number two, another excuse of the religious person is, "Look at my biblical knowledge." That certainly should give me a right relationship with God. Look again at verse 17. "But if you bear the name Jew and rely upon the law and boast in God." Now remember to whom Paul is writing here. He's talking to Jews. The Jews believe that everybody else might need to know Christ as Savior, but not the Jew. Today, there is that same belief. There's what we call a two-Covenant theology. You hear it from even some prominent evangelical pastors. Two-Covenant theology says that God's plan for everybody in the world is to come to faith in Christ; that's his plan for everybody except the Jew. But the Jew has a special relationship with God, and all he needs to do is keep the law in order to be saved or he's saved automatically. Does the Bible teach that? No. The Bible says there's only one way for anyone to be saved, and that's through faith in Christ.

Now, why would the Jew believe that he has a special relationship with God that automatically makes him right with God? One of the things he would say is, "We, the Jewish people, were the channel through which God sent his word to all the world. We are possessors of the law." They would say, for example, "Moses, who received the first five books of the Bible, the Torah, he was a Jew." They would point to the fact that the prophets were all Jews. Therefore, since the Jews were the recipients of God's word, they had a special relationship with God. Jews would often quote Psalm 147, verses 19 to 20: "God declares his words to Jacob, his statutes and his ordinances to Israel. He has not dealt thus with any nation, and as for his ordinances, they have not known them." In other words, no other nation can claim to have received the word of God other than Israel.

I think Paul's alluding to that in chapter 3, verses 1 and 2, when he says, "Then what advantage has the Jew? That is, if Jews are not automatically saved, what advantage is there to being a Jew?" Well, there are some. "What is the benefit of circumcision?" he says in verse 2. "Great in every respect. First of all, that they were entrusted with the oracles of God." Unlike any other nation, the Jewish people were entrusted with God's Word. But the reason they were entrusted with God's word is not just so they could share it with others, but so that they might obey that word themselves. Because they were the recipients of God's word, they had a greater accountability to God than any other nation. Remember what Jesus would say: "To whom much is given, much is required." He's talking about those who are given the revelation of God. Whoever has the most knowledge has the most required of him.

By the way, think about what responsibility we have. It's true of the Jew as well, but he didn't understand that. He didn't understand that he had a responsibility to obey the word of God that had been entrusted to him. Look at Romans 2, beginning with verse 18. That's the point Paul is driving home: those of you who have received the oracles of God, and you know his will and approve the things which are essential, being instructed out of the law. You are confident that you yourself are a guide to the blind and a light to those who are in darkness, a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of the immature, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and of truth. You, therefore, who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that one should not steal, do you steal? You who say that one should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who boast in the law, through your breaking the law, do you dishonor God? For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you, just as it is written.

You see, the Jews had fallen into a trap that, quite frankly, many of us have fallen into as well. We equate knowing God's word with doing God's word. We equate knowledge with obedience. They are not the same thing. In Paul's day, the Jewish rabbis taught that it was impossible to obey God's law completely, so all you have to do is know it. If you can recite all of God's laws, that's the same as doing God's law. Then another rabbi came along and said, "You know what? It's impossible to know all of God's law, so if you simply have a copy of it in your house in the scrolls, that's the same as obedience." We laugh at that and say, "How could anybody be that stupid to think that knowing or possessing God's law is the same as doing God's will?" But don't we make the same mistake today as Christians? We equate biblical knowledge with obedience. We think, "As long as I believe that this book is the inerrant word of God, as long as I stand up for the sanctity of life and the sanctity of marriage and so on and so forth, I'm okay with God."

Let me burst your Baptist bubble here for just a moment, okay? Did you know you get absolutely no credit with God for believing the right thing? You get zero, zip credit with God. You believe the Bible is the inerrant word of God. You believe in the sanctity of life and sanctity of marriage. You don't get one check mark for that. All you get credit for as a Christian is how you obey God. Now, don't misunderstand. Beliefs and knowledge are important. It's impossible to obey that which you don't know. But unfortunately, you can know a lot of things that you don't obey. That's why Dietrich Bonhoeffer once said, "Only he who believes is obedient, and only he who is obedient truly believes." The Bible says it's not our knowledge of God's word; it's our obedience to God's will that makes a difference.

Speaker 2

The Apostle Paul didn't hold back. He exposed the Pharisees for their hypocrisy. You see, religion had become their God. They knew the Holy Scriptures inside and out, but even so, they failed to recognize Jesus Christ as the living God.

At Pathway to Victory, it's our mission to help people recognize the difference between empty religious activity and a relationship with Jesus Christ. And when you partner with Pathway to Victory, you play a significant role in making this possible. God uses your gifts to help men and women understand how to apply the truth of the Bible in a way that draws them closer to Christ. We have ample evidence of this. Pathway to Victory receives encouraging letters, emails, and phone calls every day of the week.

Recently, I heard from a woman who said, "Dr. Jeffress, I haven't been to church in a long time, but I've been listening to you on the radio. Today, I felt God speaking to me. I'm ready to commit myself to God and trust him through all of my trials. Thank you so much." This is the outcome of your gifts to Pathway to Victory. You are truly making a difference when you partner with us.

And today, when you give a generous gift, I'll be pleased to send you an illustrated Guide to the Apostle Paul. Sometimes a long book written in a narrative style is quite helpful, and this isn't one of those books. The illustrated guide is filled with fascinating maps, colorful photographs, and supportive illustrations. Each page will open your eyes to the realities of the first century, and it will revolutionize your understanding of Paul's New Testament writings.

So let us hear from you today. Now here's David with all the details.

Speaker 1

Thanks, Dr. Jeffress. When you give a generous gift to Pathway to Victory, you're invited to request a copy of an Illustrated Guide to the Apostle Paul. As an added bonus, we'll also include the Journeys of Paul Map to help you trace the pathway of Paul's missionary journeys. To request these helpful resources, call 866-999-2965 or go to ptv.org. When you invest $75 or more in this ministry, we'll also send you the audio and video discs for our current study in Romans, Chapters one through eight. It's called Grace Powered Living. Listen to these full-length messages during your daily commute or watch them with your small group Bible study. To request the CD and DVD sets, call 866-999-2965 or go to ptv.org.

You're also welcome to send your request by mail. Write to P.O. Box 223609, Dallas, Texas 75222. Again, that's P.O. Box 223609, Dallas, Texas 75222. I'm David J. Mullins. Meet us back here at this same time tomorrow for the conclusion of the message "How to Be a Christian Without Being Religious," right here on Pathway to Victory.

Pathway to Victory with Dr. Robert Jeffress comes from the pulpit of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas. You made it to the end of today's podcast from Pathway to Victory, and we're so glad you're here. Pathway to Victory relies on the generosity of loyal listeners like you to make this podcast possible. One of the most impactful ways you can give is by becoming a Pathway Partner. Your monthly gift will empower Pathway to Victory to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ and help others become rooted more firmly in His Word. To become a Pathway Partner, go to ptv.org/donate or follow the link in our show notes.

We hope you've been blessed by today's podcast from Pathway to Victory.