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Almost everyone is aware of the impact that inflated appraisals can and is having on the housing market. The recent downturn in real estate sales in the US has painfully reminded us of the need to keep appraisals realistic and not ethereal in substance. After all real estate is supposed to be real estate, not unreal estate! There is another arena in which appraisals need to be real, but in which the consequences are far more devastating; that arena is the appraisal of ourselves against God’s standard of worth.

Paul chided some of the Jews with the following: “Indeed you are called a Jew, and rest on the law, and make your boast in God, and know His will, and approve the things that are excellent, being instructed out of the law, and are confident that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, having the form of knowledge and truth in the law.” (Romans 2.17-20). Their self-appraisals were grossly inflated, their actual spiritual conditions being far beneath their own estimates!

There is always a need to self-appraise spiritually. Paul told the Corinthians to examine themselves to see if they were in the faith (2 Corinthians 13.5). Those who ate the Lord’s Supper were to examine themselves as a pre-condition of communing with the Lord in this manner (1 Corinthians 11.28). So it was not the case that a faithful Christian was unable to correctly and accurately self-appraise; in fact, it was a requirement. The problem with the process of self-appraisal had to do with the standard against which such appraisals were to be done. How is a person to examine him or her self? What is the standard against which such examinations are to be performed? If there is no standard, then they are to be purely subjective and unrealistic and inflated appraisals would be a fact of life both then and now.

The answer to this apparent dilemma is to be found right in the book of Romans which we are considering. Later in the book, Paul wrote, “For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.” (Romans 12.3). The admonition is exactly consistent with the issue under consideration in Romans 2. There was a need to self-examine, but the need for an objective standard was also present. The “measure of faith” is the measure of a man that is possible according to the absolute and unalterable standard which is revealed within the faith (the gospel; the word of God). God has issued the standard of faith to every man and that measure is the same for one as it is for another. The measure of the Jew is the same as the measure for the Gentile; it is the same for a man as it is for a woman; it is the same for a slave as it is for a free man. The standard is absolute and not subjective.

Had the Jews of Romans chapter 2 applied this standard to their lives, they certainly would have realized that their spiritual roles were no where near that which they estimated them to be; their over inflated appraisals would not have happened! However, without the absolute standard which God issued to all, the process was bound to fail; over inflated appraisals were bound to happen!

The bottom line is this: We have an obligation to examine ourselves against the “gold standard” of God’s word. Any other standard is incorrect and will lead to spiritual death. Apply the rule!

Questions

1. Why do we need to spiritually examine ourselves?

2. What will result if we fail to use an objective standard?

3. What will result if we fail to use the correct objective standard?

4. What is the source of this standard? Other than self-examination, will this standard ever be applied to us in another way? If yes, when and how (see John 12.48)?

"Refreshment in Refuge" from Gina Burgess

3 steps to peace...