Romans Chapter 2(B) Revelations Of Judgment 2 Series

Dakota Community Church

March 1, 2009 pm

Romans – Chapter 2(b)

Revelations of Eternal Judgment

Read Romans 2

Our thoughts on the matter really are not important.

What then does God reveal concerning eternal judgment in Romans 2?

God’s judgment is:

1. According to truth

2. According to accumulating guilt

3. According to actions

4. Without bias

Romans 2:11-12

For God does not show favoritism.

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.

I hope you will not misunderstand what I am going to say. I am no preaching, and Heaven knows I do not pretend to be better than anyone else. I am only trying to call attention to a fact; the fact that this year, or this month, or, more likely, this very day, we have failed to practice ourselves the kind of behavior we expect from other people. There may be all sorts of excuses for us. That time you were so unfair to the children was when you were very tired. That slightly shady business about the money - the one you have almost forgotten - came when you were very hard-up. And what you promised to do for old So-and-so and have never done - well, you never would have promised if you had known how frightfully busy you were going to be. And as for your behavior to your wife (or husband) or sister (or brother) if I knew how irritating they could be, I would not wonder at it - and who the dickens am I, anyway? I am just the same. That is to say, I do not succeed in keeping the Law of Nature very well, and the moment anyone tells me I am not keeping it, there starts up in my mind a string of excuses as long as your arm. The question at the moment is not whether they are good excuses. The point is that they are one more proof of how deeply, whether we like it or not, we believe in the Law of Nature. If we do not believe in decent behavior, why should we be so anxious to make excuses for not having behaved decently? The truth is, we believe in decency so much - we feel the Rule of Law pressing on us so - that we cannot bear to face the fact that we are breaking it, and consequently we try to shift the responsibility. For you notice that it is only for our bad behavior that we find all these explanations. It is only our bad temper that we put down to being tired or worried or hungry; we put our good temper down to ourselves. – C.S. Lewis Mere Christianity

Life on a sin sickened planet is very much biased; there is very little fairness about it.

Where we are born and to whom is totally void of any level of fairness.

There is nothing worse than dealing with favoritism or bias against us.

Les qualified people move up the ranks because of politics or favoritism.

The boss’s son who is a complete incompetent winds up as everybody’s boss, no justice. (Forgans)

As men we are biased about other people’s attempts to be unbiased. Hockey referees for example.

We may have to deal with the unfairness of favoritism and bias throughout our live but not when it comes to God!

5. Not according to religious insight

Romans 2:13-15

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. (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, 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.)

It is not enough to hear the law, to be aware of what is required, the law must be obeyed.

It is not enough to have heard the gospel either, it too must be obeyed.

Acts 4:11-12

He is “‘the stone you builders rejected, which has become the capstone.’Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved."

It is important to remember that God has no grandchildren.

You are not saved because you parents are saved and they had you baptized or brought you up in Church. Salvation comes by hearing the good news and placing faith in Christ our substitute.

James 2:19

You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.