God's Righteous Judgment

INTRO

Throughout the book of Romans, Paul tries to communicate to the believers in Rome how to determine if they were in right standing with God. The only way believers can do this is because they have been justified through Christ—the Justifier. Romans 4:25, one of the theme verses for the book says He—meaning Jesus—was “delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.” Jesus took everything on Himself and put it on the cross so we wouldn’t have to. Through Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection, we have been justified.

TEACHING

Romans 2:1-3: Nelson’s Commentary breaks this chapter into three principles, which we will see today. In the first century, people thought they were free from God’s wrath because they hadn’t done the things listed in Romans 1:29-32. But Romans 2:1 says, “Therefore, any one of you who judges is without excuse.” We might think, “I might not do those things, but I’m going to judge someone who is doing them.” Jesus warned against this in Matthew 7:1-6.

Principle #1: God judges righteously.¹ Because God sets the standard, He is the only One who can judge. We didn’t set the standard, and we do fall into these things (Romans 1:29-32). Warren Wiersbe said, “Certainly the Jews would applaud Paul’s condemnation of the Gentiles in Romans 1:18-32. In fact, Jewish national and religious pride encouraged them to despise the ‘Gentile dogs’ and have nothing to do with them.”² But Paul uses this judgmental attitude to prove the Jews were guilty because they were doing the very things they condemned. The Jews “thought they were free from judgment because they were God’s chosen people.”³

Romans 2:4-11: As Warren Wiersbe said, “Instead of giving Jews special treatment from God, the blessings received from Him gave them greater responsibility to obey and glorify Him.”⁴ It’s not God’s judgment that leads people to repentance but His kindness and goodness. Exodus 34:6 says, “Yahweh is a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in faithful love and truth.” Everybody views God as a God of wrath who is ready to come down and hammer people because they’ve messed up. We think He’s out to get us. But the reality is that it’s the kindness of God that leads us to repentance. Since people are so thickheaded and/or spiritually religious, they’re actually storing up wrath instead of repenting. God gave them (the Jews) time to repent, and they said, “No,” simply because they were His chosen people.

Principle #2: God’s judgment will deal with what every person really did.⁵ The gospel went forth to the Jew and the Gentile in Romans 1—2. They chose to repent or not. Ultimately, God’s judgment fell on both. “He will repay each one according to his works” (v. 6). God is going to judge us based on deeds, dealing with the consistent actions of a person’s life. “For example, David committed some terrible sins, but the total emphasis of his life was obedience to God. Judas confessed his sin and supplied the money for buying a cemetery for strangers, yet the total emphasis of his life was disobedience and unbelief.”⁶ People either have the mentality to persist in doing good or the mentality of being self-seeking and disobeying. Does my life reflect my faith in Christ? If it does, then I’ll be persistent in who I am. If not, then I’ll clearly be self-seeking and disobedient. I will see some form of judgment for every single thing I’ve done. This could mean taking away rewards or receiving rewards; it could mean eternal life or wrath and condemnation. There is no favoritism to the Jew or to the Gentile. If you’re not living according to the will of God, you will experience either affliction and distress (v. 9) or glory, honor, and peace (v. 10). True saving faith really results in obedience. Even though you might have an occasional fall (into sin), it doesn’t take away your salvation. That’s the key with David and Judas. David still had the faith and belief. Judas probably never had it. God shows no favoritism; He has equal justice for everybody.

In reference to verse 6, A. M. Hunter said, “A man’s destiny on Judgment Day will depend not on whether he has known God’s will but on whether he has done it.”⁷ Here are a couple of perspectives on Romans 2:7: (1) If a person obeys God perfectly, he will receive eternal life; (2) eternal life is a free gift and a reward for good deeds; (3) Christians experience eternal life to the extent we do good deeds; (4) those self-righteous and unbelieving store up something that will come on them in the future, namely condemnation.⁸ These are all thoughts. We know that salvation is based on faith alone and not works. When you have faith, you will walk it out.

Principle #3: God’s judgment is He will treat everyone evenhandedly.⁹

Romans 2:12-16: Judgment will be the same for everyone whether they know the Law or not (v. 12). God will judge “what people have kept secret” (v. 16), meaning we can’t hide anything from God. The lens of judgment is the gospel. The lens of judgment of everything we’ve done when God looks at us will be through the lens of Christ Jesus. Judgment is coming, but God has also given us an out—salvation through Christ Jesus.¹⁰

Romans 2:17-24: The term “Jew” is a religious term. The term “Israelite” is a national term. And the term “Hebrew” is a racial term. The mentality is that all three are the same. If the Jews really thought they were the light for the Gentiles (vv. 19-20), then they should obey the same things they taught others (vv. 21-24). Even though the Jews thought they were the light and the teachers, they were doing the same things the Gentiles were doing. Because they did this, “the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles” (v. 24; Isaiah 52:5). The Gentiles were not fooled by the Jews’ activity. Neither group was exempt from God’s judgment.

Romans 2:25-29: The law and circumcision does not determine who is safe from God’s judgment (vv. 25-27). “A person is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is of the heart—by the Spirit, not the letter” (v. 29). It is not about what you do. It is all about how your heart has been changed. The Jewish mentality was to seek man’s praises. But true heart change results in praise from God. Wiersbe said, “When you recall that the name ‘Jew’ comes from ‘Judah,’ which means ‘praise,’ this statement takes on new meaning.”¹¹

CLOSING

If God’s going to come and judge righteously based on the truth, if He’s going to judge every single one of us, if He’s going to treat every one of us equally, then it must be about the heart as it says in verse 29, “a person is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is of the heart— by the Spirit, not the letter. That man’s praise is not from men but from God.” If you are remotely concerned about God’s judgment, then get your heart right. Getting your heart right has nothing to do with going to church; it has everything to do with experiencing Jesus, who is the Justifier. Getting your heart right will take care of God’s judgment. It’s not performance-based. It has everything to do with radically changing your heart because that’s what God looks at.