Introduction
Paul in Romans 1:18 – 32 deals with the Gentiles first, those who do not have “a Godly background”. They do not have the light of the scriptures or the ceremonies that the Jews had; they were separated from God. God pours forth his wrath as men suppress the truth of creation and he leaves them to the consequences and the effects of their sin.
In Romans 2:1 – 16, there is another group of people that come in to view. The end of chapter 1 deals with people who perhaps indulged in what we could call the grosser sins, the larger sins. But now there is a group of people here that have kept themselves from these things. But Paul will show that they too are guilty before God.
The Self-Righteous Man
“Therefore, you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are who judge, for whatever you judge another you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things” Romans 2:1
The Identity of the Self-Righteous Man
Who is this man that Paul has introduces as “Therefore you are inexcusable O man”? Various commentators suggest that Paul is referring to the Jews. They were standing there, looking at how the Gentiles were living and thinking, “We haven’t done that. We are right before God; we are not engaged in the immorality or the violence or the deceit, the wrong practices that are amongst the Gentiles.” Perhaps he was talking about the Jews at that point. Others can see Gentile judges or philosophers, those who regard themselves as better than others. Perhaps in positions of authority as magistrates, to judge others or perhaps it’s the philosophers that teach others. Calvin sees hypocrites who have abstained from the grosser vices and think that in doing so all is well before God. Whoever it is, the key is this: We have people who think themselves right with God because they haven’t engaged in the grosser vices, the “larger” sins.
Whoever is in view, we have people who are resting on their works in some area of their life or in their relationship to God in some way, but have missed the fact that God judges everything. He judges the thoughts, He judges the small things. There is nothing that he misses. We all have a tendency to either not see our errors or to justify ourselves through the observance of some outward duty. We’ve all got it; we can all be blind to our faults.
The Self-Righteous Man‘s Hypocritical Judgment, and God’s True Judgment
The self-righteous man is hypocritical in his judgment. In condemning sin, we condemn whoever desires to do the sin, not just whoever commits the sin. On the Sermon on the Mount the Lord made it very clear: hatred starts in the heart. He who has a hatred for his brother is in danger of judgment and of hellfire. Adultery starts in the heart; the lust, the desire is there for someone who is not our partner in marriage.
Consider the tenth commandment, “Do not covet”, do not desire that which is not yours. That commandment runs through all of the preceding nine. If you don’t desire someone else’s property, you won’t steal it. If you don’t desire someone else’s wife, you won’t commit adultery. If you don’t desire to take or have the advantage of someone else’s possessions or reputation, you won’t try and murder them. If you don’t desire another God, you will not worship another God. God judges the heart. Who can say they are perfect in their thoughts – every thought right from their youth before God? None of us can. God judges the heart.
“But we know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things. And do you think this, O man, you who judge those practicing such things and doing the same, that you will escape the judgment of God?” Romans 2:2,3
God’s judgment is based on truth. The hope of the self-righteous man rests on God judging on some other criteria than truth because the trouble is, the truth condemns him. God knows all, sees all, searches our hearts and knows our thoughts. He cannot be deceived, cannot be lied to. Nothing can be hidden from him; He knows our thoughts before we think them and judges them. God judges in truth, in perfect knowledge, and with perfect standards.
The Longsuffering of God Towards the Self-Righteous Man
”Or do you despise the riches of his goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?” Romans 2:4
When we realize that God judges in truth, and that God gives us the time to repent and come to him, we have two choices. We can repent, acknowledge our wrongdoing and seek His forgiveness. Or we can take the delay of God not judging us instantly, and use that time to sin all the more. “Do you despise the riches of this goodness, forbearance, and long suffering not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?”
God’s Longsuffering to the Jews
God had given the Jews so much, had brought them into a covenant with Abraham, giving them access to His law, giving them access to the ceremonies and the temple that would point forward to the Lord Jesus Christ. If anybody should have been ready to receive the Lord Jesus Christ, it should have been those who had access to God’s word. The prophets predicted that He would come. The temple ceremonies were a picture of the work that Lord Jesus Christ would do. God gave them His law to bring them to see their need of forgiveness obtainable through Christ. They should’ve seen that they couldn’t observe the law perfectly. Yet they despised the goodness of God towards them, not by repenting. Instead they used the covenant as a means of saying, “I am okay with God. I am descended from Abraham.”
God’s Longsuffering to the Gentiles
God has kindly given to those who do not have immediate access to his word the light of creation, revealing his existence and power. As we will soon see He also gave the light of conscience showing something of what God wants from us. But what is our response? So often people suppress this knowledge and make a God that is more convenient. If they have any religious belief at all, people will often make a God that allows them to live the life that they want. They create their own idols. We see in our society widespread immorality, marital infidelity, drunkenness, violence, breakdown of family life, covetousness, materialism, and blasphemy. God in His patience, gives people a chance to repent, yet instead of acknowledging wrongdoing, they think either there is no God, or if there is a God, that He does not punish sin. The warning is there for us all. Instead of repenting, we turn our God-given opportunity for repentance into an occasion for further sin.
God Will Judge the Self-Righteous Man
“But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart, you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.” Romans 2:5
In either case, the self-righteous man has despised God’s kindness, patience, and tolerance to him and stored up wrath for himself in the Day of Judgment. On the one hand we have man who is so often self-righteous in his judgment, justifying himself through either an outward observance in some area or by his relationship that he thinks he has towards God, and on the other hand we have God who judges in truth.
The Judgment Of God
God Impartially Judges Our Deeds
Paul has introduced the fact that God will judge those who do not think themselves to be judged, they will be; but how will God judge? The first thing we see is that God has a judgment of works without favoritism.
“He will render to each one according to his deeds.” Romans 2:6
“There is no partiality with God.” Romans 2:11
God will judge each individual – no exceptions; nobody will escape his judgment. Everybody will bow their knee before the Lord Jesus Christ. God will judge each individual according to their actions and without partiality. God cannot be bribed. There is no other criteria that will be used. We will stand before him and be judged. Whatever background, race, color, creed – wherever you have come from upon this earth, God will judge impartiality; there is no favoritism with Him. So how will we do it?
God judges us according to our deeds, by what we do. The Jews all too often rested on their ancestry to Abraham and an outward observance to the law. The hypocritical Gentile rests on his own good judgment of himself. God, as one commentator puts it,
“will judge men neither according to their professions nor their relations but according to their works. The question at His bar will be, not whether a man is a Jew or a Gentile, whether he belongs to the Chosen People or to the heathen world, but whether he has obeyed the law.” Charles Hodge
Perfect Obedience Brings Eternal Life
“Eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honour, and immortality.” Romans 2:7
“But glory, honour, and peace to everyone who works what is good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” Romans 2:10
Those who persevere continually doing the good will have glory, honour, and eternal life and peace, whether Jew or Gentile. All you’ve got to do if you want to earn eternal life from God, all you have to do is perfectly obey every law of God right from your youth at every moment. Whether you’re angry, whether you’re at peace, whether things are going your way or whether they’re not. You just have to perfectly obey God’s law at every point at every part of your life and you shall receive glory, honour, and immortality. But none of us can do it.
However one man earned eternal life; the Lord Jesus Christ, who came as a man, lived under the law, and was perfectly obedient to it He, by patient continuance in doing good, at every point of His life never sinned and has earned glory, honour, and immortality. Paul will go on to show in Romans chapter 5 that when we truly believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, making Him both our Lord and Saviour, the perfect righteousness that he wrought out by living under the law is transferred to us, the theological term is imputed. We gain part of that righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, it that which covers us, it clothes us before God. So when God looks at us, He sees not our sin – Christ has taken the penalty for that; but more than that, he sees the perfect righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ that is transferred to us. That is the only way you or I can obtain that righteousness. Only Jesus lived that perfect life under the law.
Lack of Perfect Obedience Brings Death
“But to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness – indignation, and wrath. Tribulation and anguish on every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek.” Romans2:8,9
Those who serve self, rejecting God’s truth and follow evil, they will receive God’s judgment. His anger will be poured out upon them. They will not like this. They will have anguish. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. There shall be torment. This is the Biblical language that God uses for His judgment upon individuals. If we break the law at just one point, as James reminds us (James 2:10), it is as if we have broken the whole law. And if the individual rejects the truth and at just one point turns to serve self and not God, then they earn wrath as a result of their transgression. The wrath of God is upon them.
Judgment According to Revealed truth
If the universal principle is that all men will be judged according to their obedience or disobedience to the truth, the question may be asked: Do all men know the truth?
“For as many as have sinned without law will also perish without law, and as many as have sinned in the law will be judged by the law.” Romans 2:12
The Jews had access to the written law that God had given them, but they rejected it by transgressing it. They will be assigned the punishment with reference according to the law that they had: the Ten Commandments, the things that God had written down; how they should relate to one another; deal with one another financially; as well as observance in other aspects of life. The Gentiles have sinned against the lesser light of conscience – we’ll see in a moment – and the revelation of God through creation. And they shall be assigned a punishment without reference to the written law. Our Lord Jesus Christ in Luke chapter 12 says these words:
“The servant who knows his master’s will and does not get ready or does not do what his master wants will be beaten with many blows. But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. For everyone has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.” Luke 12:47,48
It is a tremendous responsibility to have the Bible, to know something of God’s law because we shall be judged in reference to that. Those who have not had God’s law, shall be beaten with fewer blows as the Lord Jesus Christ puts it. But everybody has received something of God’s truth either through the word or through the conscience. All men are guilty before God’s truth:
“For when Gentiles who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these although not having the law, are a law to themselves who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them.” Romans 2:14,15
The Gentiles do something of what God has commanded in the law even if they don’t have access to the scriptures. Written upon their natures, the Gentiles have the same law of God which has been more fully revealed in the scriptures. The man who pays his debts, honours his parents, is kind to the poor, does the things to the law, for these are the things which the law prescribes. He does them through the light of conscience. So the Gentiles who although not having the law, do the things of the law. God has revealed Himself to those that do not have the scriptures. Not in the same way, not to the same degree as those that do have the scriptures, but He has revealed something of His standards, something of how he wants us to behave through the conscience.
Judgment Through Christ
“in the day when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel.” Romans 2:16
In C.S. Lewis’ “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” one of the areas which is a good illustration of Bible truth is how Aslan, the king of this mythical land of Narnia, is depicted. Aslan is a lion, the king of the beasts. He created Narnia; he rules over Narnia; he is the true and rightful king of that land. When the older girl in the story, Susan, finds out she is going to meet Aslan, she is concerned when she finds out that he’s a lion:
“Oh,” said Susan, “I thought Aslan was a man. Is he quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion.”
To which the reply is:
“Safe? Who said anything about safe? Of course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the king I tell you.”
The Lord Jesus Christ will consign people to Hell for all eternity under the wrath of God. He is not safe. He is not a harmless individual. He will consign people under the wrath of God that is never ending for all eternity. But He is good; He is just; He judges rightly; He’s made a promise to us. He says, “Come to me all you who labor and are weary and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). In effect He says, “If your conscience is burdened, if you have seen something of this truth, that you have failed to live up to the righteous standards of a Holy God, come to Me,”
The Lord Jesus Christ has done everything for us. He has died taking God’s punishment for us. He has lived that perfect life under the law which we couldn’t live and which will be transferred to us when we believe in Him, when we believe that He has died for us. Have you made your peace with the Lord Jesus Christ? The opportunity is there. He has done everything for us. But make no mistake, all six billion people on this planet are guilty innately under the law of God. Unless we have come to Him through Jesus Christ, there is no salvation.
All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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