Before us is a patient. He is described as ethnically and religiously Jewish. He is devout, having been raised in a Jewish home and educated in the synagogue. The synagogue was an integral part of his life. He could recite the Torah, recount the patriarchs, and quote the prophets. He was raised in the staunch belief that he was chosen by God because God had chosen the Jews. God had always seen them through and provided for them.

He kept the law, the feasts, and the festivals. By all accounts, he was a respected member of the community seeking to honor God through a life defined by ritual observance, careful yet reasonable law-keeping, and an abiding knowledge of the Scriptures, along with an apparent wisdom in living according to them. From within his community, he was as assuredly saved as anyone could possibly be.

He too was convinced that on the day of judgment he would pass the test, with his good works outweighing his bad and earning him a place in the presence of his God. After all, it’s not as though he was one of those compromising Hellenistic Jews who embraced pagan Greco-Roman ways. Surely there was a clear difference between his piety and the paganism of the Romans.

So then, why do we read in the examination of Scripture that the Great Physician determined the cause of death to be “ignorant zealousness”? And what traits in the dead faith of the Jews can we observe so that we might examine ourselves and see whether we possess some of the same causes of spiritual mortality within us?

We’ll look at all of this and more this Sunday as we open our Bibles to Romans, Chapters 9 and 10.