No Excuses – Part 2
Romans 2:1-29
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Several weeks ago we began this series called “Summer in Rome” and we learned in the first message that the Gospel is the Power of God for salvation and for righteous living.
It is only through trusting in Christ that we can be saved and only through trusting in Christ that we can live a righteous life in God’s eyes.
Then we saw that there were no excuses for those who did not believe in God because he made knowledge of himself evident through creation as well as through our conscience and that when we reject God, we will fall further and further into depravity.
Now we begin in Chapter 2 of Romans, if you could turn their in your Bibles
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Now as you turn there, realize that the Jewish hearers of this letter would have been in total agreement with Paul in Chapter 1 giving verbal amens as they heard what he wrote. Those heathens who are rejecting God will have no excuse when they face judgment and they were already facing some judgment as God gave them over to their depravity.
But now Paul turns his focus from those who reject God outright, to the Jews, those who considered themselves religious, to show them that they were no better in the way they lived and if they were relying on their possession of the law or an adherence to the outward act of circumcision, rather than on Christ and Him alone, they too would be standing before God without excuse.
So let’s read and see what Paul has to say about some of the principles of Divine Judgment of those who are relying on something other than a sole belief in Jesus Christ for salvation.
Romans 2:1-16
2 You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. 2 Now we know that God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth. 3 So when you, a mere man, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment? 4 Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness leads you toward repentance?
5 But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. 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.
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.
Let’s pause here and pray.
Pray
Paul in these verses tells the Jews who were relying on their heritage and their circumcision to show God’s favor upon them that they were without excuse and if they were going to rely on something other than Christ, they were going to be judged by the Lord and Paul lays out in these verses some
Principles of Divine Judgment
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First, he begins by telling them that
Divine Judgment will be based upon your standards for others
Romans 2:1 - You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things.
Jesus said basically the same thing in
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Matthew 7:1-2 - 7 "Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2 For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
The Jews, the religious people of the day, were all too happy to sit in judgment on others and declare what they were doing was wrong while rationalizing their own sin. After all, they didn’t need to worry about what they did because they were Abraham’s children and they had a special relationship with God.
Paul exposes their hypocrisy by pointing out they are not acting any differently than the gentiles they were condemning, and if they were going to be judged by what they did because they were not in relationship with Christ, the Jews too, would be facing judgment if they were not trusting in Christ and they would be being judged with the standards they were judging others and when that day arrives, we will see clearly our won hypocrisy.
People tend to be able to rationalize their own behaviors but judge more harshly other people’s actions.
Plank Eye
People tend to get something called plank eye.
What is that, you ask? Listen to what Jesus said.
Luke 6:41-42
"Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 42 How can you say to your brother, ’Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
Illustration – David and Bathsheba
David sinned by sleeping with Bathsheba and then had her husband Uriah killed and did not think anything of it until he was confronted by Nathan who told the story of supposedly another man’s sinful conduct and David thought that man should be put to death. Then Nathan exposed David’s hypocrisy by pointing out that David, himself, was the man who sinned.
We need to spend more time looking at our own life than judging other’s lives.
Paul tells us that if we were examining ourselves and judging ourselves, we would not come under judgment. We would be seeing our need for Christ in greater ways and trusting in Him for our salvation and righteous living.
Paul goes on to give some other aspects of Divine Judgment.
In the second verse he tells us that
Divine Judgment will be based on Truth
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Romans 2:2 - Now we know that God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth.
The truth of our actions will be exposed against the truth of the word and the truth of our motives will be exposed as well.
1 Corinthians 4:5
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Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait till the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men’s hearts.
Now maybe we hear that and breathe a sigh of relief. We think that if people only understood the whole situation, then sometimes the way things appear would not look so bad. But the reality is that we tend to even deceive ourselves with our motives.
We may serve others, but is our serving being done for God’s glory or our own?
What ever our motives are, the truth of what it is will be shown and our actions will be judged in truth for those who are not relying on Christ.
Be assured that Divine Judgment will be based in real truth, not our truth.
Thirdly, Paul says
Divine Judgment will be based upon your works
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Romans 2:5-11 - 5 But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. 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.
Now perhaps you are sitting here thinking, wait a minute. We aren’t judged by our works. Christ died for our sins, He faced our judgment on the cross.
If you are trusting in Jesus that is correct. But if you are trusting in something other than Jesus, you will be judged according to your works.
Look back at verse 5.
Paul says that it is because of their stubbornness and unrepentant heart that they were storing up wrath for themselves.
Now understand that this letter is written to the church that was formed in Rome, but there were people that associated with the church that were not yet Christians.
Paul had confronted the Jews in many places who were trying to say Jesus died for our sins and all, but you still need to become a Jew and be circumcised if you are going to be saved. When Paul confronted this in Galatia, he said,
Galatians 5:3-4
3 Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. 4 You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; (NIV)
The Jews who Paul is speaking to here in Rome, were not trusting in Christ, but were seeking their justification in the law and their Jewishness and trying to get others to do the same.
When we are trusting in anything other than Christ, we are not believers. They had not turned to Jesus Christ for forgiveness.
And if we do not trust in Christ for our salvation and righteous living, the only righteousness we will have is our own righteousness that will be judged according to the things we have done. If we are trusting in our won righteousness, we have no hope.
Listen to what John writes in Revelation
Revelation 20:12-14
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12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. 13 The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done. 14 Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death.
Our own righteousness and our own works will get us nothing but thrown into the lake of fire, an eternity apart from God in Hell, and that is what we will be judged on if we have not trusted in Jesus Christ for our salvation.
One final principle of Divine Judgment is that
Divine Judgment will be based upon what you know
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Romans 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. NIV
Now God has given us all enough knowledge of Him for us to come to salvation. But we do not all have the same knowledge of God and what He desires.
We see in Isaiah 7 that there is a time when children do not know enough to reject wrong and choose right (7:15-16).
We also see Jesus after healing the blind man and having some Pharisees respond to a comment he made about people being blind, said "If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains. (John 9:41)
He was saying that these men had seen the full revelation of God in Him, in Jesus, and yet they would not believe it and accept it so they were guiltier than those who did not experience and see Christ.
They were guiltier because they had more revealed to them.
God is fair and is going to judge us based on the amount of revelation that we have.
The Jews, who were so eager to condemn the Gentiles for their sins, were even more guilty because they had great knowledge of God and his plan through His word, but were continuing to trust in their possession of the Law and physical circumcision.
Transition
Now, I want to move on to this last part of the chapter where Paul specifically addresses the Jews and shows that they are without excuse and guilty as well.
Romans 2:17-29
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."
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.
Paul identifies the 2 things that the Jews were relying on to show their special favor with God, their possession of the Law and Circumcision. Here he shows that if you are relying on religion, you too are without excuse.
Paul tells them that
Possessing Knowledge does not save you
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He says, you who teach others, do you not teach yourself?
They had the law, but they could not keep the law.
But the Jews thought by just possessing God’s law that showed their relationship with God and that is all that mattered.
Jesus confronted some of this same thinking when He walked the earth. When he was confronting the Jews, he said in
John 5:39-40
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39 You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me to have life. NIV
The Jews would read the Scriptures, the Old Testament law, but they could not follow them, but they thought the mere possession of the law gave them eternal life.
It is only through Jesus that we have eternal life.
These Jews were living not very differently than the gentiles but they had the law and knew the law, but did not practice what they preached and brought disrepute to the name and glory of God.
For those here today who call themselves a Christian, what does your life say about what you really believe?
Do you know the word of God more than you live the word of God?
Men’s Bible Study
I am loving our men’s Bible study on Saturday mornings. In the last 5 weeks we have gotten through 1 chapter. We are really spending some time talking through how to live out these verses we are studying in James. We are talking about the challenges we face and encouraging each other to live for the Lord and for His glory.
We are working at growing in practicing what God’s word says rather than just knowing more about what it says.
Knowing what it says doesn’t save you. Knowing Him who said it and walking in the Spirit brings salvation.
Paul also confronts the Jews regarding circumcision, another thing that the Jew was relying on and trying to get others to follow in. But Paul says
Performing Physical Acts does not save you
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Here again, the Jews felt that just performing this physical act would make you a Jew and save you. The Jews wanted the Christians to be circumcised.
As I read earlier in Galatians, Paul said you cannot add anything to the salvation that is available by faith. Circumcision is not going to save you.
Now, he is going to go on and say later for the Jew that Circumcision is not valueless, but it is not what saves you.
For the Christian, I would compare it to baptism.
Water baptism is not going to save you. I believe it is important only as far as it is representing an inward reality of trusting in and associating with Christ.
Just as Paul would say to the Jews, that circumcision is nothing if your heart has not also been circumcised by the Spirit, baptism is meaningless if you have not received Christ.
Don’t think because you have been baptized that that makes you a Christian.
This is a major problem in some denominations who teach that water baptism is what saves you. I grew up in this system. I know people who would not take their babies outside until they were baptized thinking that now they would be ok if something happened to them.
Even adults later in life, as I would talk to them sometime asking them why they thought they would be going to heaven, would bring up that they were baptized as a baby.
They are trusting in the wrong thing.
Just like circumcision for the Jew was meaningless if there was not heart circumcision, water baptism is meaningless apart from being baptized by the Spirit, which I would argue is the exact same thing as having the Spirit circumcise your heart.
Conclusion
What are you trusting in for when you meet the Lord face to face?
Are you trusting in your good behavior?
Are you trusting in the fact you call yourself a Christian, but have no evidence of the Spirit of God working in your life?
Are you trusting in the fact that you were baptized in water?
Without a relationship with Christ, without the Spirit of Christ working inside you, no obedience to the word, no matter what you call yourself, no matter that you were baptized in water, is going to gain you any special favor with the Lord.
You will be judged on the day of judgment in regard to how you judged others, according to the truth of your actions and motives, according to your works and according to what you had revealed to you about God’s plan of salvation and you will find that you stand before God without excuse, just like the one who totally rejected God, just like the Jew who is relying on his possession of the law and circumcision.
And you will find that not only are you without excuse, you are without hope.
But as long as you are breathing, you have hope.
If you have not yet put your trust in Christ, won’t you do that this morning?
If you have been trusting in anything other than Him, then repent and turn from your sin and be washed by the blood of Christ for forgiveness and you will not face judgment regarding your salvation because that judgment has already occurred at the cross for all who have received Jesus as their Savior, their sole hope and trust for salvation.
If you have never done that, then do that this morning by confessing to the Lord your heart belief in Him.
Later in this same letter, Paul tells us exactly how to be saved from this judgment.
He says in Romans 10:9 to “confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. NIV
Pray
Parts of this message outline are based on message by Bob Deffinbaugh – No Excuse for the Jew.
http://bible.org/seriespage/no-excuse-jews-romans-2
