Romans 2:24 Commentary and Bible Study

This is the result of the hypocrisy spoken of in verse 23. Instead of causing the unbeliever to be in awe of God and to seek his face in repentance, he is led to blaspheme God. So damaging is your conduct as a hypocrite, and so obvious is it to even the most untaught people that your religion is phoney, that they have no difficulty in writing you off as a pretender, whose religion is worth nothing. It is God who then gets the blame for this – not that they believe in God – and his name is cursed as a God who is not real and who is no different to all the other gods in the world. What a disaster! You have put an obstacle in their path which they will never be able to get around. Instead of bringing them to salvation – which ought to be your great longing – you have done the devil’s work, and guaranteed that they never come to God for salvation. This anti-testimony is the sum total of your life.Paul’s quotation is a paraphrase of various Old Testament passages (Psalm 74:18;Isaiah 52:5; Ezekiel 36:20-23). By behaving in this way, the Jews who he is addressing are doing exactly what the prophets said was the utter failure of their testimony to the Gentiles, and sure to bring down the judgment of God.