By
1.
INTRO:
1.1.
In our last study, we looked
at verses 1-10 of chapter 2.
1.1.1.1. Paul began to develop theological precepts concerning the basis upon
which the Lord acts as judge over creation.
We saw that acting as judge is one of the activities of the Lord, part
of His reign over all of creation. Thus,
this chapter began a very important foundation of doctrine which every sensible
person ought to be very interested in and desire to study.
1.1.1.2. Paul began to discuss on what basis God in the end times will judge the
entire world of people who have ever lived .
Paul stated that judgment will fall upon all who do wickedness in this
life, while honor and peace await all God’s people, those who know Jesus Christ
as Lord and Savior and serve the Lord.
1.1.1.3. Paul began to describe how that what is meted out to a person when he appears
before the Lord as His judge after this life has nothing to do with the
physical heritage from which he descends, his nationality, race, religious
affiliation, cultural background, social class, station in life, etc. Rather, what a person shall receive from the
Lord is completely based upon what the person does in this life, whether good
or bad, as well as the attitudes of his heart in doing the things that he
does. A good action with bad motives is
really a bad act.
1.2.
In our study today, we are going
to look at verses 11-20 of chapter 2.
1.2.1. Having established in our previous study the fact that God’s judgment
that shall be carried out upon a person by the Lord will be based only upon the
good or bad works that he/she commits, in this study Paul will now begin to
apply this truth to the Jews, for they were a people who thought that they
always had God’s favor just by the fact that they were of the nation of Israel.
1.2.2. The Jews had so many things in their storied history to look upon which
showed that at one time they had God’s favor.
Of all of the people groups upon the earth, the Jew knew that it was
they who were chosen of God to be His people.
The Jews also knew that they had the great godly patriarchs as their
ancestors, men like Moses, Israel, Joseph, Elijah, David, Giddeon, Daniel,
etc., These men had God’s approval of
them made so evident to them, and they conquered lands and obtained
inheritances only because God had been with them and fought for them. The nation was also the keeper of the
1.2.3. This past week as many of you know I have had some medical problems
involving an ear infection in my left ear.
A week ago last Saturday I first noticed that something was wrong with
my ear. I have gone to three doctors
this past week trying to get the infection stopped and what I discovered is
that everything that I have done on my own to fix my ear infection problem was
wrong. I always clean my ears using
Q-tips and the second doctor I visited pointed out to me how that Q-tips should
never be used to clean out ears because they can cause damage to the soft
tissue of the ear. In fact, my using a
Q-tip to clean my ear was perhaps what caused my ear problem in the first place
which was basically a pimple in the outer ear canal that got infected. Then, on Sunday when I wasn’t sure whether
the problem might not be just a wax build up in my ear I had my wife candle the
wax out of the ear however the second doctor told me that this ancient folk
remedy was not really a good idea to employ because the heat from the smoke
that melts the wax in the ear can also damage the soft tissue in the ear. Next, after following the first doctor’s
advice and placing my ear on a heating pad for one evening the next morning I
put some Rubbing Alcohol on a Q-tip and tried to clean out the ear where the
pimple had now popped however this caused more irritation (no pun intended) to
the soft tissue of the ear canal. Each
day for a week my ear swelled up more, got more inflamed, and hurt more. Finally, yesterday I went to the third doctor
and he told me that my antibiotic had not been working nor the Advil and ear
drops to remove the inflammation and pain and so he put me on another
antibiotic and some steroid pills.
Amazingly, after just a few hours the inflammation was way down, the
pain was gone, and the swelling was going down.
You see, finding the right doctor and cure make such a difference in a
person’s life. In the same way, religion
is man’s attempt to find God on his own efforts, and men have tried in many
different ways to invent schemes to find and know God, all to no avail. A person can only come to know the Lord in
the manner in which the Lord has laid in the Bible, and any other attempt may
seem right but will fail in the end. In
the scriptures it says, “There is a way that seems right unto a man but its
ends are the ways of death.” Paul in
the book of Romans is primarily trying to reveal to us what is the proper means
that men and women may come to know the Lord, and here in these early stages of
the book Paul is building the early stages of his doctrinal foundation for the
gospel message of Jesus Christ.
1.2.4. In application of the fact that there are so many people in our world
who wrongly presume that they have God’s favor because of various assumptions,
we who are in the church today need to likewise beware of presuming upon having
the Lord’s favor because of being raised in a Christian home, attending a
church, participating in religious activities, knowing God’s word, etc. Some people think that because they take the
name of Catholic that they are accepted by God, or that because they are
Baptist and understand more accurately what God’s word teaches that they are
accepted by God. However, none of that
matters. What matters is what we do with
what we know, and how seriously we have been about trying to find out and do
God’s will.
2. VS 2:11 - “11 For there
is no partiality with God.” - Paul tells us that God does not act upon any
kind of a policy of showing partiality to some
2.1.
In this verse, Paul repeats
what he had said earlier, that with God there is ‘no partiality.’ God is not impressed by any person’s status
in this life, who they are in man’s eyes, from what tribe they have come, what
possessions they may have, etc., etc.
God judges people strictly on the basis of their works.
2.2.
Impartiality is an
unchangeable part of God’s character, and it is resultant from His omniscience
and complete righteousness. Because God
is God He must be impartial to all and judge all upon the very same standards
of truth and knowledge.
2.3.
All stability in the
universe is based upon the fact that God is totally impartial and just in all
that He does. If God were not impartial,
then how could we trust Him at all with our lives? How could we know that our lives would be in
good hands if we walked with and served Him?
It would be perhaps a viable option to oppose God if He were capricious
and unreliable. However, we Christians
can trust the Lord with every area of our life.
We can do this because we know that He will always do what is best for
us and for all people and bless and reward us for living a righteous life, and
this because He is impartial.
2.4.
Charles Spurgeon, the great
English preacher of the 1800’s once preached an interesting and insightful
message on Jesus’ qualifications to be judge, and he spoke the following about
how that Jesus will be completely impartial when He judges, “It is as
Son of man as well as Son of God that our Lord will judge the world at the last
great day. Be ye sure, then, of his impartiality. He is God, yet man, having an
intense sympathy both with the King and with the subjects, having manifested
his grace even to the rebellious, and being yet filled with intense love to the
Father and his law. If we could have the election of a judge, what being could
we suppose more impartial or so impartial as the Lord, who, though he counted
it not robbery to be equal with God, yet made himself of no reputation, and
took upon himself the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of sinful
flesh?”
2.5.
On another occasion,
Spurgeon stated the following about the judgment that God shall carry out upon
mankind, “We have to deal, brethren, with an omniscient God;
with One who once knowing never forgets; with One to whom all things are always
present; with One who will conceal nothing out of fear, or favor of any man’s
person; with One who will shortly bring the splendor of his omniscience and the
impartiality of his justice to bear upon all human lives. God help us, where’er we rove and where’er we
rest, to remember that each thought, word, and act of each moment lies in that
fierce light which beats upon all things from the throne of God.”
2.6.
The New Bible Dictionary states the following
concerning judgment and the fact that the Lord will judge mankind with
impartiality and perfect justice:
The NT insists on the prospect of divine judgment as,
besides death, the single unavoidable fact of a man’s future: ‘It is appointed
for men to die once, and after that comes judgment’ (Heb. 9:27). This fact
expresses the holiness of the biblical God, whose moral will must prevail, and
before whom all responsible creatures must therefore in the end be judged
obedient or rebellious. When God’s will finally prevails at the coming of
Christ, there must be a separation between the finally obedient and the finally
rebellious, so that the kingdom of God will include the one and exclude the
other for ever. No such final judgment occurs within history, though there are
provisional judgments in history, while God in his forbearance gives all men time
to repent (Acts 17:30f.; Rom. 2:4; 2 Pet. 3:9). But at the end the truth of
every man’s position before God must come to light.
The Judge is God (Rom. 2:6; Heb. 12:23; Jas. 4:12; 1
Pet. 1:17; Rev. 20:11) or Christ (Mt. 16:27; 25:31; Jn. 5:22; Acts 10:42; 2
Tim. 4:1, 8; 1 Pet. 4:5; Rev. 22:12). It is God who judges through his
eschatological agent Christ (Jn. 5:22, 27, 30; Acts 17:31; Rom. 2:16). The
judgment seat of God (Rom. 14:10) and the judgment seat of Christ (2 Cor. 5:10)
are therefore equivalent. (The judgment committed to the saints, according to
Mt. 19:28; Lk. 22:30; 1 Cor. 6:2f.; Rev. 20:4, means their authority to rule
with Christ in his kingdom, not to officiate at the last judgment.)
The standard of judgment is God’s impartial
righteousness according to men’s works (Mt. 16:27;
There is hope, however, for the man who
seeks his justification from God (
2.7.
As an application of the
fact of God’s impartiality and how that this characteristic comes about because
of who God is, since God always knows what is best for us, there are times when
it is best for us Christians to pray simply that God execute His justice
perfectly and completely, rather than try to convince Him to do something we
wish for and think that He should do. We
need to always be praying that God’s will be done in our life, not our own,
because we do not always know what is best for us or others. Also, in the end God is going to win every
battle that anyone may wage with Him, therefore we would be wise to give up
trying to fight against the Lord’s will for our lives and just let Him do what
He will in and through us. It’s a waste
of energy to fight against someone who is always going to win.
3. VS 2:12 - “12 For all
who have sinned without the Law will also perish without the Law; and all who
have sinned under the Law will be judged by the Law;” - Paul tells us that all of
those who have sinned whether under the Law of Moses or not will be judged by
that Law
3.1.
Paul implies in this verse
that people will be judged according to the light that they have. He had already written in chapter 1:18-20
that all people were “without excuse” who do not come to know Christ as
Lord and Savior in this life.
3.2.
The Jews were given the
Mosaic Law and they lived under the Law, and therefore Paul is speaking here
about those who are non-Jews, or Gentiles, as being those who are ‘without
the Law.’
3.3.
Paul says that Gentiles will
‘perish,’ not having the Law, or who are ‘without the law.’ One does not have to know and live under the
law in order to die and spend eternity in hell.
Every person who does not know Christ will spend eternity in hell, for “the
wages of sin is death” (including eternal death).
3.4.
The word translated ‘perish’
here has the primary meaning of ceasing to exist, however it can also mean to “be
ruined,” as in food becoming spoiling or rotting. Paul is not saying that Gentiles who die
without Christ will cease to exist, for this would contradict what he says in
dozens of other places, he is speaking primarily of their being “eternally
ruined,” their lives wasted in hell.
All who pass from this life without know Jesus Christ as their Lord and
Savior shall ‘perish’ for eternity in hell. Jesus said in John 3:16 that the Lord had
sent His only begotten Son so that mankind may not have to ‘perish’ in
this way: John 3:16, “16
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His
only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have
eternal life.””
3.5.
Paul says that those who are
Jews living under the Law will have a greater accountability, knowing more
about God, and therefore they will be judged ‘by the law.’ Knowing intimately God’s Law and then not
coming to His Son, the One who is revealed and
prophesied all throughout God’s Word, makes a Jew’s judgment of
condemnation and punishment much more severe than that which those who did not
have God’s law will face. To know much
is to be accountable for much.
4. VS 2:13 - “13 for not
the hearers of the Law are just before God, but the doers of the Law will be
justified.” - Paul tells us here that it is the doers of
the Law that are just before God not the hearers
4.1.
The Jewish leaders in Paul’s
day had the Mosaic Law, however they were not ‘doers of the Law,’ but
rather they taught others to do the Law yet did not do it themselves. The Christian is one who by nature carries
out the Law, for the Laws of God have been placed within his heart.
4.2.
In this verse, Paul again
uses this word ‘just,’ which is translated also as ‘righteous,’
and indicates a standing of blamelessness before God. Obeying the Law and having good works is not
the means of having a ‘righteous’ standing before God, rather it is the
result. A righteous standing before God
is obtained through Christ and by grace through faith as Paul writes in Eph.
2:8-9.
4.3.
We will see as we go through
the book of Romans that Paul is seeking to establish the fact that there are
only two ways that a person might be “saved” or “inherit eternal life.” One is to keep God’s Law perfectly from
birth, which of course no one will ever be able to do, and the other is to
believe in Jesus Christ as God’s Son and trust in the work that He performed
for us upon Calvary’s cross to be the full payment for our sins. In this book, before Paul expounds to us the
cure for our sins he first seeks to instill in us the fact of our sinfulness
and inability to save ourselves. Here,
we must all recognize that we have not kept God’s Law continuously throughout
our life.
4.4.
At the same time, we Christians
ought to be people who seek to be doers of God’s Word, and not merely just a
hearer of it. When our life does not
match up with what we know is God’s will for us, then we must be people who
repent. We should not anymore sit on the
fence, neither hot nor cold for the Lord, we must be people who are truly and
completely sold out for Him. If we will
be people who are broken and repent at God’s Word, then God will use us in a
great and mighty way, and He will work great things in the church.
4.5.
James wrote in Ja. 1:22-25
that we ought to be “doers of the Word,” “22 But prove yourselves
doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. 23 For if
anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at
his natural face in a mirror; 24 for once he has looked at himself and gone
away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. 25 But one who
looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not
having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man shall be
blessed in what he does.”
5. VS 2:14-15 - “14 For
when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law,
these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves, 15 in that they show the
work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness, and
their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them,” - Paul tells us that if a
Gentile instinctively does the things that are written in the Law that they are
a law to themselves and show the work of the Law written in their hearts
5.1.
In verse 14, Paul begins to
write about the effect of a man’s conscience in his life and how that God uses
our consciences to bring conviction of our sins and what is right and wrong.
5.2.
In verse 14, Paul writes
that when those who are Gentiles do good things, things which the Law itself
commands people to do, then they themselves become ‘a law to themselves.’ That is, their own good works do for them
what the Law does for the Jews, it stimulates their God-given consciences to
understand right and wrong, and therefore Gentiles will be judged because of
their own good works. The good works of
Gentiles should be enough to convict and bring them to inquire of God and seek
to know Him and His true righteousness.
It should be enough to have them cry out to know the One who himself is
good and righteous.
5.3.
Secondly, the ‘conscience’
of Gentiles bears ‘witness’ and will be a judge to them in the day of
their judgment, for every person on earth has a conscience. That conscience is always either accusing
people of wrong, or it is trying to wrongfully justify them of their sin. A Gentile person’s ‘conscience’ will
condemn him to hell since had he listened to his conscience carefully he would
have searched out and inquired of God and His righteousness, and sought to know
Him. Therefore, the Gentile non-believer
will be ‘without excuse’ on the day of the Great White Throne Judgment
for not receiving Christ as his or her personal Lord and Savior.
5.4.
Notice here that Paul
indicates that even the unbeliever has God’s laws written upon his/heart and
that this law is revealed to him/her by his/her conscience, that voice that
often speaks to us about what we ought to or ought not to do.
5.5.
Men ought to listen to the
conviction of their conscience, and realize that there is a holy righteous God,
whose Law we have all broken, and, they ought to seek Him and His
righteousness, so that they might come to know Him through His Son Jesus
Christ.
6. VS 2:16 - “16 on the
day when, according to my gospel, God will judge the secrets of men through
Christ Jesus.” - Paul tells us that on the day of judgment
that God is going to judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus
6.1.
The ‘gospel’ message
as taught and proclaimed by Paul will be the basis upon which people are
judged. According to Paul’s ‘gospel,’
if a person receives Jesus Christ as their Lord and his Savior in this life,
then he shall enjoy eternal life.
However, if he rejects Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, then he shall
spend eternity in hell. Remember also
that to not make a decision for Christ is to make a decision against Him.
6.2.
Paul writes here that on
judgment day, God will ‘judge the secrets of men,’ those things which
people may be trying to hide since they are shameful. God is omniscient, and He knows all things,
including every secret intention and motive in every person’s heart. Hebrews 4:13 says, “13 And there is no
creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the
eyes of Him with whom we have to do.”
6.3.
God will judge each person
according to His perfect knowledge of them, as well as His perfect standard of
righteousness and justice. Everyone
shall be judged impartially, regardless of who they are as a person, and that
judgment shall be based strictly upon what they have done good or bad in their
life. Those who have received Christ as
Lord and Savior shall spend eternity with Him after their judgment of rewards,
and those who have not received Christ shall be judged according to the light that
they have and they shall be punished according to that light and spend eternity
in hell after they are thrown into the Lake of Fire prepared for the devil and
his angels.
6.4.
There is no secret sin which
any person shall be able to hide from the Lord, so the sooner that people
repent of their sins and receive His forgiveness, the sooner that they shall be
blessed and be where God wants them to be.
God will forgive and forget our sins if we will just confess and repent
of them, so we ought to not let our sins ruin our lives, but confess them to
Him now so that healing can come.
6.5.
A co-worker of mine made a
comment one day that he just didn’t understand how that God could ever send a
person to hell. Many people ask this
same question. However, when I consider
the fact that when man fell in the garden of Eden he broke God’s law to not eat
of the forbidden truth, and in doing this he spurned, dishonored, and
disrespected the Lord, and for no good reason, then I marvel that God didn’t
just destroy the entire human race and chalk us down as a big failure,
especially since He knew that men descendant from Adam would just continue to
sin against God in the same way. In my
mind I then marvel that not only did God not destroy mankind but instead He
sought to save them by sending His only begotten Son to take the punishment for
their sins so that they won’t go to hell but rather spend eternity in heaven
with God. The big question to me is why
God is so loving, mercy, and gracious so as to send His Son for me!
7. VS 2:17-22 - “17 But
if you bear the name “Jew,” and rely upon the Law, and boast in God, 18 and
know His will, and approve the things that are essential, being instructed out
of the Law, 19 and are confident that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a
light to those who are in darkness, 20 a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of
the immature, having in the Law the embodiment of knowledge and of the
truth, 21 you, therefore, who teach
another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that one should not steal,
do you steal? 22 You who say that one should not commit adultery, do you commit
adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?” - Paul now addresses the Jews and begins
confronting them with the fact that if they are depending upon their being Jews
and their keeping of the Law to keep them from judgment that they had better be
a doer of God’s Law
7.1.
Until this time, Paul had
been speaking in generalities about those who were under the Law, however here
he specifies that he was in reality speaking specifically about the Jews, and
the Law of Moses. He had previously said
that those who rely upon the Law for their justification before God would be
condemned to hell and judged for their sins by the same Law.
7.2.
The Israelites were called
Jews because they were descendants of Judah, who was one of the twelve sons of
Isaac. ‘Jew’ had become the name
with which the Israelites had come most to associate themselves with.
7.3.
In this list in verses
17-20, Paul places many of those things for which the Israelites had the most
spiritual pride and which they assumed granted them special favor with God,
however as we look at this list we see that the Jews actually fell far short of
doing that which they aspired or claimed to do and be:
7.3.1. First, the Israelites bore the name ‘Jew’ very proudly
for it reminded them of their being spiritual descendants of the family of God,
which no other people could claim and in which they assumed brought them God’s
favor.
7.3.2. Second, they relied upon the Law, taking great pride in it.
7.3.2.1. That is, they believed, and rightly so, that in the Law they had the
full embodiment of “truth.” By ‘the
Law,’ Paul meant the entire Old Testament covenant as given through
Moses.
7.3.2.2. “The Law” not only contained all “knowledge” about God and
spiritual things, it also contained “wisdom,”
which is “the understanding of how to
apply knowledge.”
7.3.3. Third, Paul says that they ‘boast in God.’
7.3.3.1. They boasted in all of the things in which God had done for them as a nation,
things in which they assumed had assured them special favor with God.
7.3.4. Fourth, Pauls says that the Jews ‘know His will.’
7.3.4.1. Having a knowledge of the Old Testament scriptures, the Jews were proud
of the fact that they knew the mind and will of Jehovah.
7.3.5. Fifth, Paul says the Jews are those who ‘approve the things that are
essential.’
7.3.5.1. That is, the Jews discerned the true ways of God, the things that were
imperative for a person to know concerning God.
7.3.6. Sixth, Paul says to the Jews that they were, ‘confident that you
yourself are a guide to the blind.’
7.3.6.1. The Jews saw themselves as teachers and leaders of the Gentiles who
were ‘spiritually blind.’ They
saw themselves as taking the blind Gentiles by the hand and leading them to the
ways of truth.
7.3.6.2. The Jewish leaders saw themselves as leaders of the Jewish people as
well, however they were more concerned about the external formalities and rites
in law observance than they were about truly keeping God’s Law from the heart. They loved having the title of a leader but
didn’t think it was important that they lead by their example.
7.3.7. Seventh, Paul says to the Jews that they saw themselves as ‘a light
to those who are in darkness,’ shining upon them the truth concerning
God.
7.3.7.1. This is actually what the Jews were called by God in the Old Testament
to do, however because of the hypocrisy and compromise of the Jewish leaders
they were only deceiving themselves thinking that they were a light to those in
darkness..
7.3.8. Eighth, Paul says that the Jews saw themselves as a ‘a corrector of
the foolish’ Gentiles who did not know the way of truth.
7.3.9. Ninth, Paul says that the Jews saw themselves as ‘a teacher of the
immature.’
7.3.9.1. They saw themselves alone as spiritually mature in their knowledge and godly
lifestyle.
7.4.
Paul says that the Jews were
‘having in the Law the embodiment of knowledge and of the truth.’ The Greek word “morphosis” is
translated ‘embodiment’ here and it is a word from which we get our
English word “metamorphosis,” which means a transformation of form. The word “morphosis” means “a form.” The Law of Moses held the very form of God’s
truth and knowledge.
7.5.
The Jews were very proud of
the fact that in their Law they had ‘the embodiment of knowledge and of the
truth,’ and they assumed that because of having God’s Law that they had
special favor with Him.
7.6.
The Jews assumed that just
because of their being physical descendants of Abraham, and being themselves
circumcised, that they had a special relationship with God unlike any other
peoples on earth. However, as was
mentioned earlier the judgment that people will receive from the Lord after
leaving this earth has nothing to do with the physical heritage from which they
descend, their nationality, race, religious affiliation, cultural background,
social class, station in life, etc.
Rather, what a person shall receive from the Lord on the day of judgment
is completely based upon what the person does in this life, whether good or
bad, as well as the attitudes of his heart in doing the things that he does.
7.7.
Before we in the church
today get too critical of the Jews for seeing themselves as being one thing
before God while in reality they fell far short of this, we ought to ask
ourselves how far short we fall from being the things that we claim to be when
we take the name of “Christian.”
The name “Christian” tells everyone that Christ is in us, however
if Christ is in a person’s life and living through him then that person should
life his life in a Christ-like manner.
His life should resemble Jesus’ life?
Does your life resemble Jesus’ life?
Are you seeing yourself as being one thing while in reality you are
another?
8. CONCLUSIONS:
8.1.
As we consider how we should
apply the truths from this study to our lives, lets first of all recognize the
blessing it is to us that we serve a God who is impartial to all men. Lets commit our hearts to trusting one who is
unchangeable and who is impartial to all when He judges.
8.2.
Since we serve a God who
sees and who never forgets a single deed anyone commits, it behooves us to be
people who live our lives according to God’s truth. Lets commit ourselves to seeking God’s truth,
to desiring God’s truth, and to living God’s truth from our hearts.
8.3.
Lets be wise and store up
good works for the day of judgment so that for eternity we can know great
blessing, give God the greatest glory, and have our lives lived for the
greatest good.