Introduction
We are moving on to Romans 2 this morning. With that, we have completed the first part of the first major section of this book.
Paul argues that everyone needs the righteousness of God because everyone is unrighteous.
The theme verse is Romans 1:18.
God reveals His wrath on mankind because of their willful and rebellious suppression of the truth about God.
Romans 1:19-32 describes the sins of the unrighteous Gentiles. Not only did they not glorify God or give thanks to him, they became futile in their thinking and worshipped idols rather than the glorious God.
They exchange the truth about God for idols, for lies, for unnatural relations.
Because of their insistent sinful ways, God gave them up to impurity, to dishonourable passions, to a debased mind.
All unrighteous Gentiles stand condemned before God because of this.
Now in chapter 2, Paul turns his attention to the Jews.
For the next one and a half chapters, he will be addressing them.
Notice he shifts from using the third-person pronoun “they/them” in Romans 1:18-32 to using the second-person pronoun “you.” Surely the Jews, who have the laws of God, the promises and covenants of God, will fare much better than the pagan Gentiles who do not have the law of God.
What Paul will say here is that the Jews are no better than the Gentiles and that God will be impartial in His judgment.
I. The Hypocritical Judges are Inexcusable (Romans 2:1-5)
A. The Human Judge is in the Same Condemned State (2:1-2)
1. The Human Judge Has No Excuse (2:1a)
When Paul begins with “therefore,” he is referring back to Romans 1:18-32, that because God’s wrath is revealed to all people, because God has shown His attributes to all people, therefore, even the person who judges is “without excuse” before God.
We would be familiar with the phrase “no excuse,” because we saw it back in Romans 1:20 in reference to those who have seen God revealing his invisible attributes but yet suppress that truth.
Now this phrase is used by Paul to describe those who, up to this point, may have been saying “Amen” to Paul’s description of the wrath of God upon wicked Gentiles.
While back in Romans 1:18-32, Paul is describing people who suppress the truth, Paul is now talking to people who are approving of the truth.
While all men have natural revelation from God, there is a group of people with supernatural revelation from God.
But has the additional light enjoyed by these people saved them?
No, rather, they used that light that they receive to condemn others.
This human judge is someone who feels superior to the idolaters and sinners described in Romans 1:18-32.
Who is he talking about?
While he does not specify who he is talking to at this point, this person has enough enlightenment to judge.
We see in vv. 9, 10 that he makes reference to the Jew and Greek (Gentiles). Then, further down in Romans 2:17 we see that he is specifically addressing the Jews.
These are Jewish people who refused to believe that Jesus Christ is the Messiah. They cannot be excused from condemnation.
But I would add that this includes anyone who has received supernatural revelation but rather than humbly putting their trust in the Lord in response to that knowledge, they use that knowledge to condemn and judge others.
They assume that just because they have this additional knowledge, that they are right with God.
But you may ask, Aren’t the Jews God’s chosen people?
Surely if anyone is to escape condemnation, it would be the Jews.
What we see is that while they have the head knowledge, their lives are no different from the pagans who have not received this supernatural revelation in the first place.
This verse very clearly shows that they too are condemned.
2. The Human Judge Stands Condemned for Practicing the Same Sin (2:1b)
Next, Paul tells us the reason why even the Jews are without excuse before God.
Paul says that the very act of judging is that person condemning himself because he is guilty of the very same sin that he is just accusing another of.
The Jews are equally guilty of the sin of idolatry that goes way back to Moses and the wilderness wanderings with the golden calf.
When it comes to homosexuality, there was a sordid episode in Judges 19 of a Levite whose concubine left him and when he went to find her; on the way back they stayed with an old man and the men of the city of Gibeah wanted to have relations with the Levite.
The host told them to take the concubine instead.
Now not everybody may be guilty of the sexual sins described in Romans 1:26-27, since they know that homosexuality is an abomination before God.
But they are certainly guilty of the list of sins in Romans 1:29-31, sins of envy and pride and so on.
In fact, to stand in the position of a judge is already an act of pride; it means that this person is putting himself in a superior position. He is in a more moral position, but Scripture here reveals the blindness this person has to his own depravity.
Isn’t it such a common thing for a person to think that he is better than he is?
And isn’t it common for people to defend how good they are?
This happens all the time!
We all are prone to believe that we are better than we are, or at least, better than some hardened sinner. You will always find someone worse than you to judge.
All this while, they are condemning themselves because on the one hand they judge other sinners, on the other hand, they fail to repent and all this while they think they are on God’s side when the opposite is true.
We call this self-righteousness.
This is the greatest height of self-deception.
Jeremiah 17:9 says this about the heart: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?”
So much so that we believe our own lie.
3. The Human Judge Will Rightly Be Judged by God (2:2)
So how does God respond to those who are guilty of such sins?
There is judgment that awaits them.
God must judge sin, or else He would not be a righteous judge. God is perfectly just and right to punish sin.
And as we have seen back in Romans 1:32, what everybody deserves is death. For the wages of sin is death. This is something that the Jews know well.
B. The Unrepentant Human Judge Will Not Escape God’s Judgment (2:3-5)
1. Contrary to his own flawed calculations (2:3)
We see what Paul first mentioned in Romans 2:1 reiterated here in v. 3. The person who judges others who practice such sins and yet do them himself, will he escape the judgment of God?
The obvious answer is “No.”
But the way this man reasons or supposes is that he will escape the judgment of God.
Just because you have more knowledge about God does not make you saved. These people are deceived because they know God, they are in a sound-preaching church, they are faithfully serving.
In fact, it jeopardizes your position. You have more responsibility before God.
2. Contrary to his utter contempt of God’s kindness (2:4)
It is because of God’s kindness, and forbearance, and patience that we are not consumed. It is because of God’s goodness that He withholds His judgment.
This is a magnanimous display of God’s mercy!
Paul is questioning this person: Do you think that just because you are experiencing God’s kindness, forbearance, and patience, that God is actually pleased with you?
God’s mercy has provided a false sense of security to the Jews.
What we have seen in this passage is that God’s wrath and judgment falls on sinful men.
We can be forgiven for thinking that the way God deals with sinful creatures is to unleash His wrath and judgment.
As we will see in v. 5, that will happen, but in the meantime, the fact that wicked people are still walking around and maybe even prospering shows that God is merciful and kind. God’s mercy is His not giving to us what we deserve.
Man should be immensely grateful for God’s kindness!
When God could have destroyed all of us and He would be perfectly just in doing so, God gave us His Son instead.
But the fact that God is showing His goodness and mercy is not meant to excuse our continued sin, but to lead us to repentance.
While Paul is writing to Jews who have not placed their trust in Jesus as their promised Messiah, we who have placed our trust in Him ought not think that our faith in Christ gives us a free license to continue sinning because after all, Jesus died for all our sins and all our sins have been covered by the blood of Christ.
We will see Paul explain more later.
3. Because of his own unrepentant heart (2:5)
Yes, God is kind and merciful, but there will come a time when He will unleash His wrath.
This is because of man’s hard and impenitent heart.
An impenitent heart is an unrepentant heart.
Rather than responding to the riches of God’s kindness and patience, man continues to harden his heart, and refuses to repent. And all the while they are accumulating the wrath of God for themselves.
We have seen that God is at this moment revealing His wrath on sinful creatures by giving them up to their impurity, dishonorable passions, and a debased mind.
But God’s wrath will culminate to that day of wrath when God will unleash His judgment on mankind which we read about in Revelation.
Application
We must never reduce Christianity to mere externalism. This kind of attitude results in hypocrisy and mere externalism. For these people, religion is mere external conformity.
A right response to the true knowledge of God’s Word must result in true transformation from within. They know the law and judge others by it, but for themselves, their religion has never taken root in their hearts in such a way as to transform their attitude towards their sin. They are correct theologically but pagan internally. “You can have just enough Christianity to make you a sophisticated and secret sinner rather than a crude and public one” (Minnick).
But notice that the condemnation is on them who practice the very same thing. It is not just a one-off thing that they are guilty of, it is a habitual practice of these sins. 1 John 3:4, 6 “Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. . . . No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him.”
Therefore, one who habitually practices sin should not be self-assured of his salvation. What he keeps on doing is not consistent with how the Bible describes a true believer to be.
The test is what you do when no one is watching. This is when you are free of human accountability. Do you have a sense that God is watching? Do you seek to do what is right even when no human being is around? Or does that become an opportunity for sin?
Conclusion
Even as we see Paul giving no comfort to those who have additional light, we need to heed what he is saying here.
Just because you come from a Christian home, or attend a Bible-believing, Gospel-preaching church or are an active member of one, these do not protect you from the wrath of God if you insist on continuing in your sinful ways.
God is very clear on that.
For Personal Reflection
In what ways can we display a self-righteous attitude towards unbelievers?
Are there any habitual sins in your life that you are not willing to give up? Is your response consistent with one who has been saved from sin by God?
How can the community of believers help us from being complacent towards sin?
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