Religion is vanity because it lacks inward reality in spirit (2:29). Romans 2:29 says that whatever we are, whatever we do, and whatever we have must all be in spirit. If you are a Jew and are circumcised, your circumcision must be in spirit. If you are a Christian and are baptized, your baptism must be in spirit. Everything must be in spirit. The spirit here, of course, is the human spirit. Why must everything be done in our spirit? Because our spirit is the very place within us where God can dwell. The spirit is the site, the ground where God can act on our behalf. If you are a Christian in your spirit, this means you are a Christian with God. If you act in your spirit, this means you act with God. Without God, everything is vain; with Him, everything is reality. Therefore, we must return to our spirit. If we love other people, we must love them in our spirit. Otherwise, our love is not genuine. It is a political love. However, if we love in our spirit, our love is with God. When you husbands tell your wives that you love them, you need to say this with your spirit. If your love is not in the spirit, it is a fraud, a political love. Many wives have been cheated by their husband’s political love. If I say a word to you, I must say it in my spirit. Then that word will be a word with God. Otherwise, it will be political talk. Our spirit is the organ through which God can touch us and through which we can touch God. Everything we are and everything we do must be in our spirit. This is not religion; this is reality.
Eventually, the religious people practice the same evils as the unreligious (2:21-22). It seems that there is no difference between the unreligious people and the religious people. All are the same. Although the Jews were religious, they behaved even worse than the Gentiles.
In this portion on the condemnation of the religious, we see that religion means nothing, that it is vanity. Therefore, we must stay away from religion and have nothing to do with it. We need the living Person of the Triune God.
Now we come to the condemnation on all the world, a condemnation that unfolds the totality of hopelessness (3:9-20). The world situation is hopeless. Do not try to cure it, correct it, or improve it. Give up your hope. The world condition is incurable.
In this section of Romans, Paul portrays man as totally evil and gives several proofs that the condition of the world is hopeless. Not one person seeks God and no one understands God (3:11). All have turned away from God and have become useless (3:12). No one is righteous (3:10) and no one practices good (3:12). In other words, there is not one righteous man and not one good man. Do you know the difference between a righteous man and a good man? If I work for you for one month at a salary of five hundred dollars per month and you refuse to pay me, you are unrighteous. However, if you pay me, you are a righteous man. If I did not work for you at all and you gave me five hundred dollars as a gift when I needed it, that would be an act of grace. If you did this, you would be a good man. However, Paul says that among all the human beings in the world not one is righteous and not one is good. Do you believe this? I do. We should not think of ourselves as exceptions. No one is righteous; no one is good. Therefore, everyone has become subject to the judgment of God (3:19). The condition of the world is totally hopeless.
Where were we before we were saved? We were all under the righteous judgment of God. Everyone of us was wrong. Not one of us sought God or understood God. Everyone of us had turned aside and had become useless. Not one of us was righteous or good. We were all under the righteous judgment of God. By this we can see the hopeless condition of the world.
I appreciate Paul’s writings. In the section on condemnation we see the source of wickedness, the way of restriction, the vanity of religion, and the hopeless condition of the world. Here is the conclusion of Paul’s writings on condemnation: the whole world is subject to the righteous judgment of God. Where would we be and what would we be if we were not yet saved? We would be a hopeless case under God’s judgment. Regardless of what we did, what we had, and what we were, we were under God’s righteous judgment. We all realized our need for God’s salvation. This section on condemnation paves the way for God’s salvation and opens up the door for people to enter into God’s salvation. Regardless of who we are, we need Christ. We need Christ with His redemption.
Paul’s intention in the section on condemnation was to prepare the way for him to minister Christ into us. The ultimate goal of Paul’s gospel is to minister Christ into us. When we come to Romans 8, we will find a verse that says, “Christ is in you” (8:10). This is Paul’s goal. Whether we are one of mankind, one of the self-righteous, one of the religious people, or a person in the world, we need Jesus. Our need is in our spirit. We should not pay attention to outward things or outward doings, but turn ourselves to the spirit. There in the spirit we will meet Christ. In the spirit we will enjoy Christ. Paul’s writing on condemnation paves the way for us to receive Christ. It opens the way for Christ to come into us.