Romans 2 (Wini Hoffner)

This week we are pleased to have Wini Hoffner as our "guest columnist", whose excellent study of Romans 2 we use here.

Introduction

We have seen that the theme of Paul’s letter to the Romans is “the Gospel”.

Rom. 1:16  I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the gentile.

Rom. 1:17 For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”

As Harry pointed out last week, what Paul means by “the gospel” is the good news of God’s entire plan of salvation and righteousness for all humankind, Jew and gentile alike, including his plan for the last days.

And so Paul speaks about the sin of all people in chapters 1-3. For the gospel is the good news of God’s salvation work of saving us from sin’s penalty, bringing us from death to life.

But the gospel is also the good news of God’s provision through his Spirit for us to live sanctified, holy lives. And so Paul speaks about freedom from sin’s tyranny and life in the Spirit in chps. 6-8.

The gospel also includes the good news of God’s plan for the restoration of all creation back to its original perfect state.

Rom. 8:19 The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed.

Rom. 8:20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope

Rom. 8:21 that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.

The gospel is “good news” for Jew and gentile alike and so finally in chps 9-11 Paul shows that God will be faithful to his promises to Israel. There is a future for ethnic Israel in God’s plan. Although Israel, because of their unbelief, is set aside for a time so that the gentiles might come to salvation their rejection is not final. We will go into this in detail when we get to chapters 9, 10, and 11.

I. The Universal Reign of Sin

The first thing Paul addresses in his defense of the gospel is the problem of sin.

In v. 18 of chapter 1 Paul begins his argument that because of the universality of human sin God is justified in condemning all humans —Jew and gentile alike.

“The wrath of God is being revealed”, he says in 1:18. We see evidences of the wrath of God every day all around us... evidences of his displeasure with the sin of all mankind. But this is just a foretaste of the wrath of God that is to come at the end-time. Paul gets to this in chp. 2.

Here Paul addresses the subject of God’s righteous judgment... the inescapable, inevitable response of a holy God to unholy sin.

In chapter 2 Paul adopts the style of a debate with an unseen critic. This style is a type of composition which the ancients called a diatribe, in which questions or objections were put into the mouth of an imaginary critic in order to be demolished.

Who is Paul’s imaginary critic?

Many commentaries say that this entire chapter is addressed to Jews. But is it clear that in Paul’s mind his critic could be either a Jew or a gentile. This is obscured by many Bible translations which leave out a vital word in verse one -- “O man” (or “O human”). 

Rom. 2:1  Therefore you have no excuse, O man, whoever you are, when you judge another; for in passing judgment upon him you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, are doing the very same things. (RSV) (also ESV)

Paul is emphasizing here that God’s standards are the same for Jew or gentile, male or female. His judgment is impartial.

So to this imaginary critic Paul says:

Rom. 2:1 Therefore you have no excuse, O man, whoever you are, when you judge another; for in passing judgment upon him you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, are doing the very same things.

Rom. 2:2 We know that the judgment of God rightly falls upon those who do such things.

Rom. 2:3 Do you suppose, O man, that when you judge those who do such things and yet do them yourself, you will escape the judgment of God?

Rom. 2:4 Or do you presume upon the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience? Do you not know that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?

Rom. 2:5 But by 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. (RSV)

Paul is attacking all who pride themselves on their moral superiority, Jew as well as gentile... people who have a knowledge of right standards but who do not in fact do them.

Jews in Paul’s day had more knowledge of the requirements of God’s moral law. But a few verses later Paul will point out that gentiles have in their consciences a “law to themselves”, on the basis of which they will be judged.

In v. 3 Paul questions his critic, perhaps with a bit of sarcasm:

Rom. 2:3 Do you suppose, (actually believe) O man, that when you judge those who do such things and yet do them yourself, you will escape the judgment of God?

Do you think that because of your own superior moral knowledge, your own self-righteousness, that God owes you heaven?

Or (v.4) Do you think that because you have lived a long life without any sign of God’s judgment that it is never going to come?

No, Paul says. This very patience of God---this delay in his ringing down the curtain of history---is actually intended to give people a chance to repent before it is too late!

How is God’s judgment different from our own?

• It is based on truth.
  
• It is righteous (i.e., just and fair) judgment.
  

God’s wrath against all evil is already revealed in his laying the world’s sins on Jesus at the cross, but his righteous judgment on those who stubbornly refuse to repent and believe in the Savior will only be revealed at the second coming, which Paul in v. 5 calls “the day of wrath.”

Question for your thought: What harm to our own souls comes from judging others?

Judging others with smug self-righteousness is evidence of a stubborn, unrepentant heart. Those who judge others are so busy looking at the sins of others that they don’t see their own sins. And so they are:

Rom. 2:5 storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed.

This “day of God’s wrath” will come at the end time. And the following verses Paul describe what will happen on that day.

Read the following verses

Rom. 2:6 God “will give to each person according to what he has done.” 7 To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. 8 But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. 9 There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the gentile; 10 but glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the gentile. 11 For God does not show favoritism.

What does this mean? Is this “works righteousness”?

Verse 6 is a quote of Ps. 62:12. This is logical of God as a just judge, and it is plainly stated in scripture. Each person is judged according to what he has done, not according to what he knows. Even Christians, who know that they owe their salvation not to their own deeds or merit, but to God’s mercy and grace, must never lose sight of the fact that they will face an evaluation of their lives and service when Jesus returns.

2Cor. 5:10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive good or evil, according to what he has done in the body.

What is the “doing good” of verse 7? It is perfectly obeying God’s perfect standard.

God’s standard is perfection. And it is by that standard that he judges all people. People who do evil works will suffer wrath. People who persist in doing good will gain eternal life. In both cases, it is that standard that Paul has in mind, not the people who meet that standard.

In vv. 12-16, Paul himself gives the best explanation for what he means in vv. 6-11. No one can meet that standard. That is the problem. And so he says:

Rom. 2:12  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. 13 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. 14 (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, 15 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.) 16 This will take place on the day when God will judge men’s secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares.

A Jew’s knowledge of God’s law is not going to save him. And a gentile’s God-given conscience which shows him right from wrong is not going to save him. People are condemned, not for what they know, but for what they do with what they know.

As Doug Moo points out in his commentary on Romans:

We must remember that Paul is in the process of building a case. It can be summarized like this:

Salvation for both Jew and gentile is available only by doing good. (2:6, 11, 13)

The power of sin prevents both Jew and gentile from doing good (3:9-19)

Therefore: No one can be saved by doing good. (3:20)

II. The Law

Having established the fact that all humans, Jew and gentile alike, will be judged according to how their actions meet God’s perfect standard, Paul now changes course and addresses an imaginary Jewish critic. someone who prides himself on his superior knowledge of the law and his special relationship to God.

Rom. 2:17 Now you, if you call yourself a Jew; if you rely on the law and brag about your relationship to God; 18 if you know his will and approve of what is superior because you are instructed by the law; 19 if you are convinced that you are a guide for the blind, a light for those who are in the dark, 20 an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of infants, because you have in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth— 21 you, then, who teach others, do you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal? 22 You who say that people should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? 23 You who brag about the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law? 24 As it is written: “God’s name is blasphemed among the gentiles because of you.”

The “boasting” of vv. 17 and 23 (or “bragging” in NIV) does not mean inappropriate conceit, but rather overconfidence. They assume that God will always look on them with favor because of their special relationship to him as his chosen people and because of their special knowledge of him through the law. Surely these privileges make them right with God. Paul points out the very opposite is true. These special privileges make them even more responsible to carry out God’s will.

Paul says to his Jewish critic “you consider yourself a guide to the blind” and “a light to those in darkness..” Paul may here have had in mind a passage on the blindness of some who are supposed to be guides like Is. 42:18-20:

Is. 42:18 Hear, you deaf; and look, you blind, that you may see! … 20 He sees many things, but does not observe them; his ears are open, but he does not hear. (RSV)

And of course Jesus made this accusation of the Pharisees in Mt. 15:14:

Matt. 15:14 Let them alone; they are blind guides. And if a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit.” (RSV)

The role of Israel as teacher among the nations is referred to in other ancient sources, such as Josephus and Philo. How can they teach others, Paul asks, when they themselves are guilty of the same sins as those whom they purport to teach?

Paul enumerates the sins in vv. 21b-22.

Some commentators say that this is a figurative list, an exaggeration. Surely Jews did not rob temples, for instance. John Zeisler, however, points out that the charge of temple-robbing may

allude to a case noted by the Jewish historian Josephus, in which there had been embezzlement of funds given as contributions for the temple in Jerusalem. If so, then it was a Jewish temple that had been robbed. On the other hand there is some evidence in contemporary or near-contemporary sources that on occasion some Jews were not above stealing or receiving valuable items from pagan temples, despite the ban on such actions in Deut. 7:25ff.

At any rate, the point is that Jews are no better than others. Their privilege of having the law and knowing it does not offer them automatic protection. One has to do the law.

Furthermore, Paul charges, to boast in having the law but to break it is to dishonor the name of God.

Rom. 2:24 As it is written: “God’s name is blasphemed among the gentiles because of you.”

Appliation:

James tells us to be not just hearers of the Word, but doers of the Word.

We know God’s Word; we are exposed to good teaching of the Word; we are memorizing the Word. But is this enough?

Questions to think about: Is it possible for a Christian to “presume” upon God’s mercy and grace in a similar way? How?

Do our actions reflect what we know and believe? We are known as Christians. We bear the name of Christ. Do our actions as Christians honor or dishonor the one whose name we bear? If our lives do not reflect what Christ is like then we discourage other believers and give nonbelievers reason to speak evil of him.

Paul continues his argument that a Jew who breaks the law is no better than a gentile. In fact a gentile who keeps the law is as good in God’s eyes as any law-abiding Jew. He makes this point by talking about circumcision--the sign of the covenant.

Rom. 2:25 Circumcision has value if you observe the law, but if you break the law, you have become as though you had not been circumcised. 26 If those who are not circumcised keep the law’s requirements, will they not be regarded as though they were circumcised? 27 The one who is not circumcised physically and yet obeys the law will condemn you who, even though you have the written code and circumcision, are a lawbreaker. 28 A man is not a Jew if he is only one outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical.29 No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a man’s praise is not from men, but from God.

Circumcision is the physical mark that shows one belongs to the covenant people--people chosen by God as a special possession. Surely it ought to make some difference in the way that God treats people. Surely at the judgment one who is circumcised will be recognized as a member of the people of God.

No, Paul says. Circumcision has meaning only when it is accompanied by a heart’s desire to obey the law.

“The heart in biblical usage is not specifically the seat of the emotions. It includes other aspects of the inner self, most particularly the will and the mind. Circumcision of the heart is thus synonymous with being a Jew inwardly, with having an inner commitment to God and to his will.” (Ziesler, p.93)

Any gentile who has such a total commitment to the law will be regarded by God at the Judgment as having been circumcised and so belonging to his people.

This “circumcision of the heart” is not new theology invented by Paul. There are many passages in the OT that show that God has always wanted circumcision of the heart--inward circumcision.

For example:

Deut. 10:16 Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and do not be stiff-necked any longer.

Jer. 4:4 Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, circumcise your hearts, you men of Judah and people of Jerusalem, or my wrath will break out and burn like fire because of the evil you have done—burn with no one to quench it.

Ezek. 36:26-27 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.

Circumcision of the heart is always accomplished by the Spirit of God.

Summary

Throughout this chapter Paul is showing that God judges every human being impartially on the same basis--what he or she has done, and that no one is good enough to save himself or herself.

So far Paul has not told us how we can be saved, but he is scattering hints throughout these opening 2 chapters.

Here in chapter 2 he said:

Rom. 2:13 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.

Rom. 2:16 This will take place on the day when God will judge men’s secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares.

The statement that “God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ” is part of the Gospel, Paul declared.

In this statement we see the merging of the two sides of the Gospel--the grace of God juxtaposed with the severity of God. The Gospel is the good news that God has made righteousness available to sinful men through Christ. But the Gospel also declares that all who stubbornly refuse that gracious gift will be judged by the One through whom it was made available.

The savior is the judge.

The judge is the savior.

All must meet him as judge, but before they do he comes to meet them with the gift of his own perfect sacrifice for their sins--a sacrifice that satisfies God’s just and righteous judgment. The Gospel never lowers the standards of God’s requirements. It makes them possible of realization.