notes by Rhyne Putman

In The Same Boat
Romans 2:1-16

“It’s our job to hate the sin.  But it’s God’s job to deal with the sinner.  God has called us to despise evil, but he’s never called us to despise the evildoer.”

--Max Lucado

In The Grip Of Grace

God Shows No Favoritism

“Therefore you have no excuse, everyone of you who passes judgment, for in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things.  And we know that the judgment of God rightly falls upon those who practice such things.”

Romans 2:1-2 (NASB Update)

  Paul begins importantly enough with the word “Therefore”, connecting the group of pagans he speaks about in Ch. 1 (v. 18-32) to the group of Roman Christians written to in chapter 2.[1]  It is important to note that there is a shift in his grammar from 3^rd person plural, “they”, to 2^nd person singular “you”.[2] 

 I can see the audience now: they are sitting back; listening to Paul as he preaches about the Gentile pagans and their condemnation shouting out, “Preach on brother.”  Then the Apostle Paul turns to them saying, “I don’t know why you’re shouting, you’re in the same boat.”

·        Paul’s audience now is the Jews.  ( v.17)

·        “We know”—the Jews were aware of God’s judgment.  They had been warned repeatedly, and often punished throughout the Old Testament from Moses until the exile. 

·        All of humanity was given conscience and nature; Jews were given the law. 

·        In depravity, both Jew and Gentile have suppressed the truth.

·        The judgment of God is based on truth.   In his book In The Grip of Grace, Max Lucado says of judging others: “it’s a quick and easy way to feel good about ourselves.  A convenience store ego-boost.  Standing next to all the Mussolinis and Hitlers and Dahmers of the world, we boast ‘Look, God, compared to them, I’m not too bad.’  But that that’s the problem, God doesn’t compare us to them.  They aren’t the standard.  God is.”  Remember our definition of righteousness from last week?  Righteousness is a standard of purity and holiness in which God Himself sets the standard.

·        God judges the heart, not the outside actions. 

  Last week, God made an appeal to my heart when I studied the story of the rich young ruler who went to Jesus and asked, “What must I do to have eternal life?”  Jesus replied to him: “You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, do not steal,’ etc.”  The man replied, “Yes, all this I’ve done since I was a little boy back in Sunday School.”

 To this Jesus replied: “Yes, but you still lack one thing: give away all you own and sell it to the poor; follow me.”  The scriptures say that he went away sad because he had too much to give.  Jesus wasn’t so much wanting his possessions, but the heart that was possessed by what he owned.  The man could follow all the laws to the tee, but Jesus wanted His heart. 

The same goes for me.  I can stand here all day and preach and communicate God’s word.  I can be faithful in my tithing.  I share my faith five times a day.  Read my Bible an hour, and spend time in prayer and meditation.  I can do all these things on the outside and have many of you fooled that I’m something special, someone on a high spiritual plane.  God however knows my heart.  God knows how good I am at faking spirituality, even though it may never cross your minds.  God will judge my heart.  God will judge me not according to the way I act around you, how sweet or beautiful my prayer sounds, but according to the haughtiness that lies deep within it. 

·        God judges according to true character.

“But do you suppose this, O man, when you pass judgment on those who practice such things and do the same yourself, that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?”

Romans 2:3-4 (NASB Update) 

• Paul makes an appeal to their common sense: you pass judgment on others, but look at how stupid you sound.  You preach that the God of judgment will lay the smack down on those fornicators, liars, and homosexuals—do you think that God won’t judge you in the same manner for your pride, lust, and idolatry?
• It’s by God’s kindness alone that we can experience repentance.
• We aren’t to take that kindness lightly.  The Jews had slight reason to think they were something; after all, Israel was God’s chosen people.  They often took that to the extreme that since they were God’s chosen; there was no need to be repentant—they felt because they were God’s chosen they had license to sin.  We as Christians, though blood-bought and forgiven from our sin, step back and begin to point fingers.  We have a problem of forgetting Who brought us here, Who gave us 513, Who gave us the right to call ourselves sons and daughters of God. We take the cross lightly; using it has a credit card to sin with immunity.  French skeptic Voltaire criticized, “God will forgive; that’s his business.”[3]
• Repentance is not mere sorrow for sin, but forsaking and turning from it.  God’s kindness softens our hearts so that we have the opportunity to repent, where as judgment often hardens hearts further. 

Eternal Life

“But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who WILL RENDER TO EACH PERSON ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS:”

Romans 2:5-6 (NASB Update)

  Paul is using strong words to get their attention.  In his commentary on Romans, Gib Martin rephrases the Apostle Paul, “Because you are judgmental, you are, as watering flowing into a dam, storing up divine wrath against yourselves.”[4]

“God ‘will give to each person according to what he has done.’”

Romans 2:6 (NIV)

Paul makes reference to Psalm 62:12 and Proverbs 24:12, just as Jesus had in Matthew 16:27.  Here he sets up for the next verse:

“To those who by perseverance in doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life; but to those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, wrath and indignation.”

Romans 2:7-8 (NASB Update)

God has set the stage for the ultimate prize, which is eternal life. 

·        The Apostle Paul is not saying that our works save us.

·        However, he does give us the requirements of eternal life.

·        If we could earn eternal life we must first:

1)     Do good works

2)    Seek God’s Glory and Honor

·        The person who has earned God’s wrath has:

1)     Been Selfish

2)    Disobeyed the Truth

·        God’s judgment is according to man’s deeds, not his status.[5] 

“There will be tribulation and distress for every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek, but glory and honor and peace to everyone who does good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For there is no partiality with God.”

Romans 2:9-11 (NASB Update)

A speaker at the ASU BCM recently quoted her pastor saying, “The ground is level at the foot of the cross.”  If no man is capable of earning eternal life—then all men do evil.  All are depraved.  God doesn’t show favoritism: if a man could do good, Jew or Gentile: he’d earn eternal life.  However, both Jew and Gentile fall into the category of every soul “that does evil”.  Both Jew and Gentile are equally condemned. 

·        Because none are capable of good, Jew or Gentile, all are condemned.

“All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law. For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God's sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous. (Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law, since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them.)”

Romans 2:12-15 (NIV)

·        All who sin will perish, with or without the law. Some of the Jews sat back and found themselves privileged enough to have the Law, giving them license to sin.  To that God replies, it’s not only hearing my word, it’s doing it![6] 

C.S. Lewis writes in Mere Christianity about “The Law of Human Nature”.  In this he dictates that every man has a sense of right and wrong—with or without religion. 

·        Here Paul points out that the Jews aren’t excluded from obedience because they have the written law. 

·        The Gentiles have conscience, or the law written on their hearts. 

Jesus, Our Judge

“This will take place on the day when God will judge men's secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares.”

Romans 2:16 (NIV)

            This judgment is the same that we see in v. 12.  A judgment day is coming when all men will be judged according to what they’ve done, including every secret thing.  The Teacher of Ecclesiastes closes by saying, “For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.”[7]

I recall those paintings of Jesus in white and purple, holding a sheep with a bunch of little kids frolicking around Him.  Yes, Jesus is meek and mild and loving and gentle, wonderful and compassionate—but there is part of His nature that is often ignored, looked over and forgotten. 

·        God the Father has entrusted judgment to God the Son, and has given Him the authority to judge.[8]  “For not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son, so that all will honor the Son even as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.”  (John 5:22-23, NASB Update)

·        Jesus is a fair judge.  “I can do nothing on My own initiative. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.”  (John 5:30, NASB Update)

·        Because God judges according to the truth.  (Romans 2:2)

·        His Judgment is Inevitable and Unavoidable.  “And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment,”  (Hebrews 9:27, NASB Update)

·        Nothing Will Be Hidden From Him  (Romans 2:16)

God judges man through Jesus.  It’s the Apostle Paul that also wrote, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.”[9]   Those who have placed their trust in Christ Jesus are rewarded according to their good works, not punished according to their sin.  Jesus, our Judge, took on the punishment Himself on a cross 2,000 years ago.