ROMANS 2:17-20 THE JEWS PROFESSION OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

Romans 2:17 Indeed you are called a Jew, and rest on the law, and make your boast in God,  18 and know His will, and approve the things that are excellent, being instructed out of the law, 19 and are confident that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, 20 an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, having the form of knowledge and truth in the law.

V2:17-20 We see the Jews profession (What they believed and thought they were doing for the world)  Paul says all this to show that what he is about to say is not said out of his ignorance of them

You who rest or rely on the law( the law referred to the first 5 books of the Old Testament  and also the Psalms, Proverbs, and prophets which had been given to the Jews up to that time

The Jews not only had the law, they trusted its truth and believed it and did not study anything else.   

The problem is not believing, which they only did mentally. They did not believe in their hearts and with their emotions that this was for them. They thought they had it all.

James 2:19 You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe----and tremble!

Make your boast in God- Because they were called the people of God and had been chosen as his vessels of revelation of God and His Word they thought they had the market on God and there was nothing else to be done

Growing up in church - Pastor or Missionary parents will not get you into heaven

V-18 To know his will- means to know what is agreeable to God (what is right, wrong, commanded by Him, what He approves of, prohibits, and what God rewards. The Jews had an awesome knowledge of God

The word approve means to recognize as genuine after examination and refers to the Jews ability to know right from wrong

The word instructed is the word we get catechism from

Catechism is to instruct orally, especially by repetition

The Jewish boys memorized large portions of scripture they had head knowledge of God not heart

2Tim 3:7 always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

v-19 confident that you are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness,

Jesus tells them in these verses they are blind

Matt 13:13-15

v-20 an instructor of the foolish,

A teacher of babes,

 Having the form of knowledge and truth in the law.

The word form is morphosis which means external appearance of knowledge and truth  To the outsider they looked good but to God all their works was nothing, it was not from the heart

2Tim 3:5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away! 6 For of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts, 7 always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

Head knowledge of God is not Heart Knowledge and it will not save you

Matt 3:7-9 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, "Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 "Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, 9 “and do not think to say to yourselves, `We have Abraham as our father.' For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones.

Luke 18:10-14 Pharisee and tax collector be merciful to me a sinner

It is no new thing for evil to be masked as Light in the darkness, Sometimes the one who promises the most to help you is your worst enemy and will destroy you if he can

2 Corinthians 11:14 And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.