🌾2018-09-03 [Roman’s 2:1 – 2:16]
God’s law, which was given to the Jews and written on the hearts of the Gentiles in the form of their conscience, accuses both the Jews and Gentiles of being sinners.
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1 Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things.
2 We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things.
3 Do you suppose, O man–you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself–that you will escape the judgment of God?
4 Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?
5 But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.
6 He will render to each one according to his works:
7 to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life;
8 but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury.
9 There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek,
10 but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek.
11 For God shows no partiality.
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.
13 For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified.
14 For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law.
15 They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them
16 on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.
🌾Thinking & Understanding
God does not distinguish between Jews who have heard the law and Gentiles who have not (vv. 2,6,11). Yet, the Jews mistakenly believed that the law guaranteed them salvation, and so they had confidence that they would avoid God’s wrath, unlike the Gentiles (vv. 3-5). However, righteousness is not achieved through knowledge of the truth, but by living according to the truth (v. 13). Whether Jew or Gentile, on the day of the final judgement, all people will be judged according to their obedience or disobedience (v. 16).
🏡Who is God?
Vv. 2-3,5 God judges according to the truth. Unlike people who make judgements based on imperfect knowledge and emotional bias, God judges according to the perfect, unbiased truth. Therefore, God’s judgement is right and righteous. We must remember that the right of judgement belongs to God and keep in mind that my judgement of others will also be judged by God.
🔖What lesson is God teaching me?
Vv. 6-16 God does not base his judgement on external factors, but judges all people fairly, according to his righteousness. Are we not proclaiming only that faith makes us righteous while ignoring that God judges us according to our actions? Are we doing good according to the truth that we have been made righteous by faith?
🙏Prayer
Help us, Lord, to remember that judgement belongs to you and to do good according to your word.
