Romans 2
Personal Perspective
Verses 1-7 are best described by an analogy of a street witness out of context. The question is asked to the person, what must you do to go to heaven? They might say “if your sincere and do the best you can” or “do good and try not to do bad and hopefully the good will weigh out the bad” or “just love everyone” and on the responses go. Paul is saying that okay, then by the “truth” that you hold your judgment will be. The first respondent rebut is were you always sincere, were there times you were not; did you always do the best you could? If not then your damned. The second respondent, did you truly do good and try not to do bad always? Did you indulge in sin without trying not to? if you did then you’re damned. The third have you loved everyone you’ve met? Have you ever hated anyone? If so you’re damned. In other words, each person according to the truth that they hold they will be damned. Their condemnation will be custom made according to their works. Paul doesn’t take the same approach as evangelical church takes, theologians, pastors and teachers. They preach that if you haven’t heard the gospel or received Jesus then your damned or damned because you sinned with Adam. This goes against the convictions of most people as they cannot accept being damned for something they’ve never heard or done.
Whether personal law (truth) or judgement of the mouth (proof of law one holds) both results in to dismiss one sin is the dismiss justice; Paul’s argument is to present fool proof case, customized per person no one can cry foul.
1. 1, Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man,
a. Therefore. What’s “therefore” there for? It’s referencing the things we just read; the list of sins and they who know the judgment of such things. Because of that there is no excuse. To them: Because you know that such things are damnable; because you know that such things are worthy of death, because you know such things you have NO EXCUSE. The truth you hold will condemn you who not only do the same but have pleasure in them who do them.
2. “whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things”.
a. Paul is not saying that all judgment stops and shuts down. He is not changing subjects from his message and now beginning some practical teaching on judging. He’s continuing with the same context. In fact if you hold any standard at all, any conviction at all you’re judging. The principle is simple, whatever standard you use to judge, you will be judged accordingly.
b. Analogy of the ruler. Your measure of truth, righteousness and judgment grows and develops with you. The highest moral standard that we hold is what we will be judged by. Not the corrupted truth, not the changed truth, but the truth that we held before we did not like to retain the knowledge and changed it, reduced it, made it more promiscuous, more convenient. God will hold us to the highest standard that we’ve held.
c. Judge. 132 times in the NT. G2919 - κρίνω krinō kree'-no. Here are some samples.
d. Matt 7: 1, Judge not, that ye be not judged. 2, For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.
i. This is the most popular scripture at a strip club, bar or place of prostitution. This is the only scripture the wino knows besides Jesus drank wine. This is the most quoted in a church at a sermon. This is used by the masses to excuse, divert and justify before the judgment of God.
ii. This is why it is so important to understand that judgment comes by the truth one holds and that which the heart holds will measure the man and find him wanting. If there be any of the list of sins in the previous chapter, he is guilty and worthy of death. When one comes to this conclusion, more true conversions will take place and be ready for the good news, the gospel.
e. Luke 12: 57, Yea, and why even of yourselves judge ye not what is right?
i. In other words, judging is a natural part of life. We discriminate against things all the time. Whether we hold our council to ourselves or are vocal, we judge and cannot help but do so. The human soul was given capacity to judge between good and evil, right and wrong. We were given a conscience to help us but some have seared their conscience. They held high moral standard but through the depravity and corruption and choices over the course of their lives they changed the truth of God into a lie. They said, that’s not really that wrong, no you seared your conscience. You say, my sins aren’t that bad. Others are really bad, hell was made for them. God won’t judge me for those that are common to man, everybody does those, they are just part of being human, they say. No, they’ve been given over to a reprobate mind. Their mind has been altered, they can no longer hear God, their minds glazed over unable to hear because of the hardness of their hearts. Having been pricked with the truth, having been convicted about their wrong doing by their conscience and not obeyed the truth they held, their heart grew over the pricks, grew thicker over the convictions till soon no more feeling was there and they became callous. No longer able to feel or hear but given over to their lusts.
f. Luke 19:12-27. Story of a noble man who went away to receive a kingdom, he gave his servants some money and said invest this while I’m gone. When he returned he summoned them to get an account. The first gained 10, the second gained 5, the third hid and returned the sum with no gain. His excuse picks up in v21-22 READ: Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee. He condemned himself by what came out of his mouth. Everyone that judges will have a tailor made judgment just for them. By the “truth” they profess not lies, not corrupted truth, changed or modified truth. But that truth which they hold, that truth which they “know” shall damn their soul. Not because they didn’t hear the gospel or didn’t receive Christ, but from the profession of their own mouth.
g. 2Sam 12:1-10. David’s sin with Bathsheba. “And Nathan said to David, Thou art the man.” David sitting in power and authority as judge had pronounced judgment on the man, but then finds out that it was himself. Out of his mouth he condemned himself to death. V13, “And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the LORD. And Nathan said unto David, The LORD also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die.”
3. “2, But we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things.”
a. How are we sure the judgment is according to truth? Because it is tailor made for each sinner by the truth they held and confession of their mouth.
b. Paul is not giving us another gospel or method in which to get saved, he’s saying whatever truth you hold you’ll be judged.
4. “3, And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God? 4, Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?”
a. Paul is saying, do you think that you’re getting away with adultery over the last two years and God has not damned your soul? Do you despise the longsuffering of God because he hasn’t exposed you to the world for doing pornography? Do you despise the longsuffering of God for not having damned your soul for doing the same things?
b. Sun and rain on the just and unjust alike. Mat_5:45” …for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.”
i. Two neighboring farmers. One uses his profits for good, the other for evil. The sun and rain fall upon both crops.
c. Self deception of God’s forbearance and longsuffering. Analogy of the water damn with the water level rising.
5. “ 5, But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God;”
a. Thy Hardness. How does one get hard? What is getting hard? The heart is hardened by the word of God bouncing off, being cast aside, not penetrating. Like conditioned knuckles, skin and bone that is repeatedly used and even abused, building callousness, with every strike. Building hardness able to break bricks and boards and not at all soft and pliable. Not letting God’s word sink in and penetrate and permeate.
b. Impenitence is different than unrepentant. Unrepentance is when a person has not turned from their sin because they’ve not been challenged to do so. Impenitence is when someone in the faced with the challenge to stop sinning and refuses to do so.
c. Dam analogy. Heaping up, piling up, the water level of wrath rising up until the day of wrath.
6. “6, Who will render to every man according to his deeds:”
a. This is the law before the gospel. Do good, you live, do evil and die. Obey the law and live, disobey the law and be killed. The law must always precede the gospel to demonstrate and show Man’s hopeless situation without God. Was there any that were able to keep the law? Let’s listen to the Apostle Paul answer this question.
b. The First Ecumenical Council of Jerusalem. There was contention between the sect of Pharisees and Gentiles. This was held in order to resolve what was to be observed in the law now that Gentiles were being saved.
c. The law could not save, no one could fulfill it. Remember what we read previously in Rom 1:17 that the just shall live by faith? The same quoted passage is found in Gal 3:11 (10-12)
i. Gal 3:10, (quoting Deut 27:26) For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. 11, But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith. 12, And the law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth them shall live in them.
7. “7, To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life:”
a. Wait is this another gospel? What about Act 4:12
i. Act 4:12, Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.
b. No, just like what we just read in the law that none were able to do the law, none were able to keep Sabbath etc. Was the law a theoretical salvation, is this verse here in Romans a theoretical salvation? Not at all. The offer is real; the word is true and binding. So then, does this mean that I can receive eternal life by patiently continuing in well doing, seeking for glory and honour and immortality? Yes, can any man do this? No, just like the law. No man continually does good, no not one. That is where Paul is taking us into Romans 3. That is Man’s whole problem in the first place. Then why is this verse here? Is it misleading by offering another way or alternative salvation?
c. Remember it follows and has the same purpose that the law had. The law to the Jew and without the law to the heathen.
i. Let’s pick up in Rom 7:7-13. READ. The law reveals the righteousness of God. The law was to make sin by the law, exceeding sinful.
ii. Gal 3:22-25. READ. The law was a schoolmaster, beating us, driving us to the cross of grace by Christ Jesus. No longer Jew nor Gentile, male nor female, slave nor free, but all are saved according to the promise of God.
d. Illustration of the Gold bar from Fort Knox. Was the offer real, yes. Had anyone ever done it? No. It was so that people would appreciate the value and character of Gold.
e. Jesus responds to a rich ruler, “What must I do to be saved”. Lk 18:18-22. Jesus tells him to keep the law; He didn’t give him the gospel, was this an alternative salvation? The man then “recognizing” that his keeping of the law was insufficient, Jesus tells him to sell all he has and follow him. How would Jesus’ evangelistic method work today? You ask Jesus, how do I get saved? He responds sell all you have, give it to the poor and become a vagrant preacher. Jesus is not playing with this guy; knowing that he had issues with wealth, says get rid of the thing that is keeping you from entering into heaven and follow me now.
8. “8, But unto them that are contentious,”
a. What is contentiousness? When someone says “I can’t believe that love could ever be wrong. As long as two people love each other it is good.” The sodomites, the fornicators,
9. “and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, 9, Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile;”
a. Is this a truth that they didn’t know or is this wrath according to something they did know and didn’t obey? But they, by their free will, obeyed unrighteousness, wrong doing and are judged accordingly.
10. “10, But glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good,”
a. Here is the offer! To those that patiently continue in well doing throughout their lives, seeking glory, honor and immortality; they get just that. That is the promise of their reward.
b. The Concept. Paul is laying out an airtight case that all are under sin. However, that the heathen would not cry foul but that justice would be according to the truth one holds. That the judgment would be ultimately fair and just and right. There would be no one who could cry foul. They were judged out of their own mouth.
11. “to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile: 11, For there is no respect of persons with God.“
a. Not that God prefers the Jew, but that the Jew having receiving the oracles first in order.
12. “12, For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law: and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law; “ Note: answers verse 6-10.
a. The American Indian. He had no law and will perish without the law. In other words, there will be no law condemning that American Indian before God. He will not be held accountable to the standard of the law. He will perish by the law that he holds.
b. For those who are under the law, they will be judged by that truth they hold.
13. “13, (For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.
a. The brackets in scripture are a “personal note from the author”.
b. Here is the foundation of the just, that by obedience they are justified.
c. Mat 7:21-27 “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, …Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them…”
d. Jn 14:21,23,24 “He that hath my commandments and keepeth them…”
e. I don’t follow the OT “Law” but I follow the NT law of Christ based upon a superior covenant, and better promises with a superior high priest. Analogy of the British vs American Law; spitting on the sidewalk.
14. “ 14, For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: 15, Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;)”
a. So by nature. In other words, without the law but by the truth they hold. Evidence of divine truth they hold; truth written by the same author.
b. Hearts, conscience and thoughts. The heart or spirit and mind bearing witness to the truth.
15. “16, In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.”
a. This is finishing the thought from verse 12.
b. There is coming a day called “the Great White Throne” judgment in Rev 20:11 where all men will be placed before the throne, there will be books opened which are the handwriting of ordinances against the unjustified dead. Judged out of the things written in those books ACCORDING TO THEIR WORKS (twice repeated). Then another book will be opened called “the book of life”. “Whosoever was not found written” in this book were cast into the “lake of fire”. This is called the “second death”.
16. 17, Behold, thou art called a Jew, and restest in the law, and makest thy boast of God, 18, And knowest his will, and approvest the things that are more excellent, being instructed out of the law; 19, And art confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind, a light of them which are in darkness, 20, An instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, which hast the form of knowledge and of the truth in the law.
a. Jewish national pride. Today the Jewish nation is godless. Ichabod is written over their door post “the glory of the Lord has departed”. They are faithless and ungodly and mostly secular.
b. Story of the Jewish rabbis and guys with the hats and curls.
c. They rest in their nationalism, boast of their superiority, claim knowledge and approval, instructors, confident guides, illuminated, instructors and teachers of truth. God is telling them unless their righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees (keepers of the law), they will perish. Talmut, Mishna rules and regulations added. Straining out a gnat but swallowing a camel Jesus says of them.
d. Many have an arrogance of their superiority because of their religion. They think themselves a little higher a little closer to God. They boast of their high moral standards. Seen among the homeschool community allot.
e. Isa 42:6,7. Israel was to be a light, but they put it under a bushel. Like the story of the “good Samaritan” then avoided the unclean, they interpreted not that they were to be a light but that they were the light as a nation. That the Messiah was the light, they commandeered that to be themselves. They reformed God’s message into a religious system of their own making. They avoided Samarians, Gentiles, a woman, etc to keep from being unclean in their own religious zeal. One of their own making. They stifled the word of God that was to “open the blind eyes”, “bring out the prisoners” and “them that sit in darkness”. And instead the free flowing grace of God congealed and coagulated into religious national pride.
17. 21, Thou therefore which teachest another, teachest thou not thyself? thou that preachest a man should not steal, dost thou steal? 22, Thou that sayest a man should not commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery? thou that abhorrest idols, dost thou commit sacrilege?
a. In other words, when your teaching someone else don’t you reflect that upon yourself? When your teaching someone not to steal, do you cheat or steal? Or adultery, do you lust after women in your own heart? With idols, do you have one called T.V. or money or whatever?
18. 23, Thou that makest thy boast of the law, through breaking the law dishonourest thou God?24, For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you, as it is written.
a. This is referencing David’s sin with Bathsheba. David’s sin gave much reason for the nations around them to blaspheme God, ridicule, belittle and condemn because the Jews were no different than they were. Therefore their Jehovah God had no power different than theirs. The whole point of God giving the Jews the law was to reach the nations round about them. To make a difference where God had planted them. To place them at the crossroads of the ancient world to minister truth to the world. But instead, through national pride, thought themselves better than the heathen. Like the story of the good Samaritan. Where the Pharisees seeing the robbed, beaten man, crossed over to the other side to avoid him altogether. They thought themselves better, that when they committed sins that they were a little more righteous because they didn’t do it to the same degree or intensity. Being damnable resting in their nationality. Like those who think themselves Christians because they’re Americans.
19. 25, For circumcision verily profiteth, if thou keep the law: but if thou be a breaker of the law, thy circumcision is made uncircumcision. 26, Therefore if the uncircumcision keep the righteousness of the law, shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision? 27, And shall not uncircumcision which is by nature, if it fulfil the law, judge thee, who by the letter and circumcision dost transgress the law?
a. Circumcision was a cutting away of the foreskin of the male member. It was a symbol for the cutting away of the sins of the flesh. It was focused on the heart not on the physical. Even Abraham’s righteousness was accounted to him BEFORE circumcision not after. Circumcision is of the heart not of the body.
b. Col 2:11 says that we were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands for the putting off of the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ.
20. “28, For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: 29, But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.
a. So God confirms it here again. Their pride and boast and requirement was that all must be like them, circumcised. This as you recall was the reason for the first Ecumenical Council at Jerusalem mentioned earlier. The Gentiles having heard the gospel from Paul or another were confused. The council findings remedied the question once and for all. Yet the contention continues even today, following the law, going back to the law’s requirements. Trying to keep Sabbaths, tithes and offering. When one keeps those things or does those things in their duty to appease God or please God, they have fallen from grace and the cross is no longer of any value for them. Circumcision is used to portray following the law.
b. Gal 5: 1, Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. 2, Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. 3, For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law. 4, Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace. 5, For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. 6, For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love.
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