God's Impartial Judgment

C. Applic: Paul lambast his countrymen for their lack of contrition before God. Rather than breeding repentance, their association w/ the Law had led to pride and arrogance. Don’t ever let that be the case for us, Christians. Be humble. Be grateful.

II. The Unwritten Law vv. 12-16

A. Next Paul proves a Point to Demonstrate All People are judged impartially by God.

1. Paul turns the Argument back on the Jews by Using the Actions and Lives of the Gentiles.

a. These verses can be a bit confusing. Some of the best scholars offer us help in understanding the intention of the author. You have to remember, Paul was probably pacing up and down, dictating to Tertius, his secretary, (Rom. 16:22) who struggled to write it down. Vv.14-15 is kind of like a parenthesis. It might be a little easier to understand if you read vv.13&16 and then 14&15 after that.

b. God will judge everyone with perfect justice. Paul is anticipating a Jewish objection, “But surely God will treat us more favorably than the pagan Gentiles. We know God’s ways as revealed in His Law, but they don’t!” Or, perhaps a Gentile would object, “It’s not fair for God to judge me for disobeying a standard that I knew nothing about! I’ve done the best that I could with what I knew. God won’t judge me, will He? So Paul shows that God will impartially judge everyone for sinning against the light that they were given. His line of reasoning goes like this: The Gentile sinned without the Law, so he will perish without the Law. The Jew sinned under the Law and so he will be judged by the Law (2:12).

2. Illust: “Someone has once quipped that the definition of a jury is: “twelve people chosen to decide who has the best lawyer.” With the current state of litigation in America, it’s no wonder that people are openly skeptical about truth and justice in our law courts. Indeed, the problem with justice is that it appears to be no longer admissible in our practice of law.There is coming a day, however, when things will be different—radically different. It is a day Paul refers to in Romans 2:16 when God will judge men. There will be no need for lawyers; God does not need to listen to crooked defense strategies. There will be no need for remembering what actually happened; God is omniscient and omnipresent. He knows what happened better than we do; indeed he was there when the deeds were done.” (Greg Herrick, Romans 2)

B. Paul Outlines that there are Two Classes of people with Respect to the Law.

1. Jewish with the Written Law of God. Gentiles with the Implanted Conscience of God.

a. How to interpret vv.14-15? Is the Apostle defending the behavior of Pagan Gentiles and saying they will inherit salvation thru their works? NO! Illust: Augustine, preeminent scholar of Church Fathers interprets this passage: “When a heathen, who leads a wicked life, and not truly worshipping God, nevertheless, performs this or that good work required by the Law, they may be said to have fulfilled something of the demands of the Law. Thus, by nature, and in limited circumstances, the heathen do those things contained in the Law.” (Luther, p. 59) Is Paul complimenting the pagans to salvation? No! Rather, he is saying that both Jew and Gentile have at best, only kept the Law of God in part and not the whole!