Have you grown tired of trying to impress God? Exhausted from checking off spiritual to-do lists, hoping you've finally done enough to earn his smile?
Well, you're not alone. Chuck Swindahl understands the crushing weight of religious performance. And today on Insight for Living, he'll lift the burden from your shoulders. His permission is based on a liberating passage in Romans chapter 2. Paul, the writer, exposes the trap that keeps Christians running on empty.
desperately seeking approval they already have. Are you ready to embrace the spiritual relief offered by God's amazing grace? Chuck begins with prayer. How great is. Our God.
How great you are. How full of wonder. And majesty. Takes our breath away, our Father, when we see evidences in nature. Before any human being ever puts his or her hand to it.
The awesomeness of your work. the magnificence of the mountains, and the breadth of the valleys and ca ons about us. The beauty luxury of trees. and the wilderness. and the vast oceans.
The stars, numberless. above us. How great is our God. It is only right, our Father, that we pause at least a week out of the year. to give you thanks.
By him, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips. giving thanks to his name. We do so today. As well, pray for those women and men in uniform. For those who serve in places of public service.
At hospitals especially, do we pray for those For those set aside, unable to be with family and friends. We pray for them. Thank you for the work you're doing at this church, and thank you for shaping lives, including my own. Through all kinds of circumstances. How great is our God.
We not only give you our thanks, we now give you our gifts. Full of thanksgiving. In the name of Jesus, our Savior. Never once said Uh You're listening to Insight for Living. To dig deeper into the Book of Romans on your own, be sure to purchase Volume 1 of our Searching the Scriptures Bible Study Workbook.
by going to insight.org slash offer. Chuck titled today's message, The Dark Side of Being Super Religious. If I had one message to bring, it would be How to be a Christian without becoming religious. I have in my mind a word picture that will come immediately to yours, and that's a treadmill. There you go.
A religious person is just running faster and faster on the treadmill. working and striving and hoping and Pleading and praying that somehow they might please God. Win his favor and gain his smile of acceptance. Because after all, there is so much between what we're doing and what God expects. I just have to stay at it and work at it and strive and labor, hoping to somehow find God and know God and please God and gain His.
affection in Love. But that's heresy. Nevertheless, it is the greatest, greatest heresy known on this earth that. Yeah. If I could somehow work hard enough and long enough, I might somehow please.
This God who has made me. Fact is you can't. You can't run the treadmill fast enough. or lift it high enough. For you somehow to win God's favor.
You're sinful and I'm sinful. None of that will take away our sinfulness. You see, that's where grace comes in so beautifully. Grace is what God does for us that we don't deserve. We Can't earn.
we're unable to repay. It's unmerited. Favor.
So he pictures the moral person as he reads this. At the beginning of chapter 2 of Romans. And again, he cuts through the membrane of the moral person's mind, saying, Even if you're moral and self-righteous, even you have a need for the Savior Christ. Because none of that morality changes you inside. And now he comes to the one in the first century who would be.
Oh. the most religious of all. And that would be the first century Jew. Don't take any of what I say as anti-Semitic, isn't meant that way. Paul is a Jew.
writing to fellow Jews. In fact, if you look at 17 and 18 of chapter 2 a little closer, you'll see Paul puts a list together. Of the things that causes you to, well, to feel a little smug and arrogant. He says in verse 17, if you bear the name Jew, Judat means... Praise to Yahweh.
Praise to Jehovah. The name meant. Praise to God. Why, if you're called a Jew, you're just by the title. Bringing praise to God.
It was a thing of pride. The Lord did not Rely on the Gentile to hear the law and then to preserve the law. It was given to the Jews. And Jews knowing that Felt proud of that. rather than humbled by it.
And as a result, what did they do? Verse 19. Watch it unfold. You are confident that you yourself are a guide. You're a guide to the blind.
You are confident that you are a light to those who are in darkness. On top of that, you are a corrector of the foolish. You are a teacher of the immature, having in the law the embodiment and knowledge of the truth. You feel it's sort of dripping with pride. But you see, when you're reared in the system, that's the way you think.
You view yourself as super-religious authorities. Guides to the blind and light to the darkness, and correctors of all these people who are so foolish and immature. You've been given to this earth to set the record straight. Bye and by it turned into an arrogance and a resistance. to sharing that message.
His whole reason is not to put down the Jew. It's to help the Jewish reader see. You need an inner life. That's transforming, and it can only happen. through faith in Messiah, Jesus.
In fact, he sort of steps up as a an attorney when he gets to verse 21. You get the feeling here that his role changes from a writer of scripture to one who is now. Cross-examining The witness. Look at 21. You therefore who teach another Do you not teach yourself?
You who preach that one shall not steal, do you steal? And you who say you should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? Remember Jesus' teaching, even in your mind? You're telling me you've never once lusted in your mind? And you who abhor idols, do you rob temples?
You who boast in the law, through your breaking the law, do you dishonor God? Let me give you a little. hint of the mind of the Pharisee. Hold your place and look at Luke 18. That's it.
Turn back to Luke 18, verse 9. Jesus is The he in verse 9. And he told this parable to some people who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and viewed others with contempt. Don't miss that. That sets up the parable.
He's telling this story to grab the attention of those who saw themselves as a cut above. He says, Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee. And the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself. I like the way it reads.
The Pharisee is praying to himself, God. I thank you that I am not like other people. Swindlers, unjust, adulterers. Or even like this. Tax collector.
I fast twice a week. I pay tithes of all that I get. Aren't you proud? to have me in your family. What's wrong with that?
It stinks! It's got pride all over it.
Now look at the other man. The tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven. beating his breast, saying, God be merciful to me, the sinner.
Now, look at Jesus' evaluation. I tell you, this man, meaning the Tax gatherer. went to his house justified rather than the other. And now the principle. Every parable has a principle.
Here's this one. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled. But he who humbles himself will be exalted. Wasn't Jesus a master storyteller? Just disarms you.
Paul says in Romans 2, are you kidding? You're telling me that you don't have a mind that's as vile as The Gentile mind. You're telling me that your nature is better than another nature? of another human being. Get past all the tradition, and you have come to the fact that you are.
As a matter of fact, Not only are you unrighteous, you are offensive. Look at verse 24. The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you, just as it is written. At this point, I would imagine the Jewish reader would suck in his breath. Frown and think.
Um How dare you say that about me? But it's true. When you and I are around self-righteous people, there is something that's turned off inside us. And if we didn't know Christ, it would turn us against that person's God. May I give a little sidebar application?
before we get to feeling too good about ourselves. You and I glean a lot of knowledge from our time together in our Bible studies. in our worship services, in our spiritual growth, and we're grateful for that. It really ought to make us humble. Rather than arrogant.
It really ought to make us kinder rather than more rigid. The deeper our faith grows, the more attractive. our lives need to be calm. Because folks, people watch. They watch us.
They watch things where words aren't even used. They watch. attitudes unfold and they watch reactions. They watch how we get along as a family. You think uh The squabble in a church doesn't make the headlines in the minds of a community.
Why? They form their opinion about our God and how we get along. how we conduct ourselves. Even when they hear us pray. our creditors who notice when we pay our bills.
form opinions about our God. That's why the Lord on occasion mentions Staying away from even the appearance of evil. You may not have evil in mind, but if it gives the appearance of evil, you know what? The perception will be you're doing evil. Gotta be careful about that.
We're the only gospel a lot of folks are going to read. And Paul says to this Jew that reads The name of God is blasphemed. I'm sure by now the Jew at least has one thing to fall back on. The one distinguishing characteristic of the Jew, unlike the Gentile, It's a very sensitive word among Gentile circles, but it's not sensitive to Jews. It's the word circumcision.
Why, the eighth day after birth, that infant is circumcised. Usually by the rabbi. And it is a mark of the Jew. It is a mark that that Jew is a part of the covenant of God. Genesis 17 spells all of that out to Abraham.
And it began there, the father of the Jews.
So the circumcision became Another reason for saying I am guaranteed freedom from the wrath of God. I have a corner on righteousness. I'm in the covenant with God. And look at what Paul writes about this. Talk about.
Uh Touching a nerve. Look, indeed, verse 25: circumcision is a value if you practice the law. But watch what he says. But if you're a transgressor of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision.
So, if the uncircumcised man keeps the requirements of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? Stay with the thought. Paul is saying it is Yes, it is a physical rite, and certainly it is a mark of the Jew, but there's no magical ceremony. There's no charm in the circumcision. It's not meant to be an insurance protection from wrath.
There's no substitute here for obedience. As a matter of fact, it's a commitment to obedience.
Next verse. 27. He who is physically uncircumcised, that's the Gentile. If he keeps the law, will he not judge you, who, though having the letter of the law and circumcision, are a transgressor of the law? What's his point?
Your inner life doesn't match all of the things that these things you're hanging on to. A claim to match. There's a disconnect. The dots aren't connected. For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly.
Nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. He is a Jew who is one inwardly.
Now we're getting to the heart of the issue. of a relationship with Christ. No outward act is going to, in any way, ingratiate you to God. It is simply A mark? That's supposed to reveal the truth.
In your lives, it isn't the truth. I thought of a wedding band. that many of us wear. on our ring finger on our left hand. The wedding band represents.
Fidelity, that's why it's in a circular. unending shape. But there's no guarantee that the wedding band keeps me a person of fidelity, but it should. be a r statement that says I am a faithful husband because I wear No, it's not because I wear the ring. It's just that's just a mark.
The label on a can ought to be what's inside the can, but it's really a label unless what's in the can is authentically that. Circumcision is like the ring or the label. Paul said, it's what's on the inside that matters. He who is a Jew, he is a Jew who is one inwardly in circumcision, is that which is of the heart, but the spirit. Not by the letter, and his praise is not from men.
but from God. Religion that's outward is only a curse. It's a blinding curse. It thickens the heart, it dulls the senses, it substitutes ritual for reality. And Paul's hope is to break through.
You know what religion does, it makes you proud of yourself. You have your own inner merit badges. And you hang on to those, thinking when you die, God's going to go, whoa. Look at that list you did. And his life's been about you.
A long time ago, a friend sent me a little thing on how to be miserable. I guess he thought I needed it. As I read through the list, it's yellow with age. I've carried it so long. It says, here's how to be miserable.
Think about yourself. Talk about yourself. Use I as often as possible. Mirror yourself continually in the opinion of others. Listen greedily to what people say about you, be suspicious.
Expect to be appreciated. Be jealous and envious. Never forgive a criticism. Trust nobody but yourself. Insist on consideration and proper respect.
Demand agreement with your own views on everything. Sulk. If people are not grateful to you for favors shown them, never forget a service you have rendered. Be on the lookout for a good time for yourself. Shirk your duties if you can.
Do as little as possible for others. Love yourself supremely. Be selfish. This recipe is guaranteed to be infallible. It will surely make you miserable.
It might show a gag. You know why? Because it's all about you. That's what religion does. It's all about you.
That's why that treadmill has to keep going fast and has to rise higher than the one next to you. That's why you'll stand on a street corner and hand out tracks in the worst kind of weather. And you'll do it for hours. Because you're earning your way in. My wife and I used to live near a temple of a religion where we saw people coming and going, and it was always a sense of more, more, more.
We got to do more, we got to be more involved, more involved. Wait. Stop! It is a gift. Stop all the religious activities and understand.
Nothing in our hands we bring, simply to the cross we cling. He has done all of the work, he has paid all of the price. Why am I yelling? He has done it all for us. There's nothing we have to add to it.
Religion says keep Driving. And a relationship with Christ says. Don't bother.
Some time ago, um My longtime friend Fritz Ridnauer wrote a wonderful little book called How to Be a Christian Without Being Religious. Listen to his story. Many a Christian looks at Christian living like a pole vaulter eyes the 20-foot barrier. He works on his form. That is, he gets his praying down pat.
He learns the right clichés and how to quote the favorite. proof texts at the right psychological moment. He constantly tries to find the springiest pole he can. That is, he's always looking for the new spiritual author. The new conference speaker, some new spiritual giant with whom he can identify and thereby somehow have some of the spirituality rub off on him.
And naturally, like any good vulture, he practices diligently. Showing up at all the meetings and services, making sure he looks and sounds as spiritual as the next guy. But inside, he doesn't really feel that he can ever do 20 feet. He still equates Christianity with being good, and he just doesn't feel he'll ever be good enough.
Well, in one sense, this kind of Christian is right. He isn't good enough, and he never will be as long as he goes at it that way. To go back to the pole vault comparison for a second, the bar is not just 20 feet up, it's 1,000 feet high. And all the poles are toothpicks. Being a Christian is not a matter of making all the right moves or earning brownie points.
or spiritual merit badges. Being a Christian is a matter of faith. personal faith and commitment to Jesus. Christ. If I had that one message to deliver, that would be one I deliver, and I just delivered it.
I hope it's not my last, but if it is, it'll be one worth remembering. If you've relied on yourself to get you from earth to heaven, you're in for a major stop along the way. A real surprise. Jesus prayed it all, all to him I owe. Sin left a crimson stain.
Christ washed it white as snow. That's for the Gentile, that's for the Jew. That's for the blatant sinner, that's for the religious traditionalist. That's for you. That's for me.
Let's bow our heads. I don't know what you're relying on to get you to heaven, but if it's anything but the blood of Christ. you're going to miss it. I don't know how hard you're planning on working, but if you think you're going to add to what Christ has done, you are disillusioned. And Terribly.
flawed in your thinking. Christ came that he might do the work. of our salvation And it's completed, it's done, finished, paid in full. And you have available to you a gift. A man in a previous service attending our meeting here at Stoneborough Community Church said to me when I heard that salvation was a gift.
I wanted to leap to my feet and rush to the prayer room. In fact, I did. when the service ended. Today, if you've never trusted the Lord Jesus Christ in Him only is eternal salvation. He is your Only hope.
I invite you to turn to him now. Thank you, Father, for helping us see beyond the membrane that can blind us and breaking through. with the sharp two-edged sword of the Spirit. Thank you that our praise is really not from men, but from you. And we await it because we are in Christ, and since you're satisfied with Him.
Praise your name. You're satisfied with us. Find in us, our Father, an openness and a willingness to hear the truth and adapt our lives to it. and build our church on this solid foundation of truth. That we might humbly walk through this life filled with gratitude and thanksgiving.
Break our stubborn Jonah-like hearts that hold back the message. because of some pride of knowledge. A birth. or privilege. and make us like that tax collector.
You simply needed your mercy. to continue to live. We trust you, our Father. to help us work this through and understand what it is you'd have us learn. and how we are to change.
I ask it in the name of Jesus. Everybody said. Amen. You're listening to Insight for Living with our Bible teacher, Chuck Swindahl. He titled today's study in Romans chapter 2, The Dark Side of Being Super Religious.
Many of our listeners are devoting extra time to this in-depth study in Paul's letter to the Romans. And to help you make the most of your personal study, we've prepared a special bundle of resources. The first is our Searching the Scriptures Bible Study Workbook. The edition for Romans comes in two volumes due to the length and depth of Paul's letter. and the first volume is ready right now.
Also, Chuck wrote a full-length commentary on Romans. It's hardbound, and it's from the Living Insights commentary series. Anyone who loves the Bible should own this resource from Chuck. In his approachable style, he helps us discover the rich theological treasures found in Romans. And finally, Insight for Living has produced a collection of audio CDs and MP3s so you can listen to Chuck's sermons in their entirety at your own pace.
and you can have a permanent record of this hallmark study. To purchase this special set of resources from Insight for Living, call us at 800-772-8888 or go to Insight.org slash offer. Before we wrap up today, I'd like to extend a word of thanks to those who consistently support Chuck's teaching ministry. Because of your generosity, Insight for Living is available to millions of listeners on radio, YouTube, our website, our mobile app. and all the digital platforms that are so popular these days.
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I'm Bill Miner. Join us again on Monday when Chuck Swindahl continues his study in the book of Romans right here on Insight for Living. The preceding message, The Dark Side of Being Super Religious, was copyrighted in 2006, 2010, and 2025, and the sound recording was copyrighted in 2025 by Charles R. Swindahl, Inc. All rights are reserved worldwide.
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