HoHum:
A woman looked out of her window every morning and commented on the dirty laundry on her neighbor’s line. One day she noticed it was sparkling clean: “Maybe she’s using a new detergent,” she said. “No,” said her husband, “I got up early and cleaned our windows.”
WBTU:
Last Sunday night we talked about the Gentiles and their depravity from Romans 1:18-32. They will be condemned as sinners without the gospel of Jesus Christ.
From 2:1 to 3:8, Paul turns the spotlight on his own people, the Jews, and shows that they are equally condemned as sinners before God. In 1:20 he states that the Gentiles are without excuse, and in 2:1 he states that the Jews are without excuse. This news was a shock to the Jews! Surely God would deal with them, they thought, differently from the Gentiles! No, states Paul; the Jews are under the condemnation and wrath of God because God’s principles of judgment are fair.
Without the gospel, the way of grace, we are under the law system or way of salvation. No one will be saved without Jesus Christ.
Thesis: In ch. 2 Paul points out three principles of judgment that prove the Jew is equally condemned with the Gentile.
For instances:
Judgment is According to God’s Truth (2:1-5)
As the Jew read Paul’s talk of the “heathen Gentiles” in the first chapter, he must have smiled and said, “Serves them right!” Their attitude would have been that of the Pharisee in Luke 18:11 —“God, I thank you that I am not like other men!” One of the easiest things to do is to be self-righteous. We can always find someone we consider not as well behaved as we are. We then compare ourselves to that person, and feel that compared to that person, we are doing just fine!
But Paul turns the Jew’s judgment of the Gentile right back upon him: “You do the same things the Gentiles do, so you are just as guilty!” God’s judgment of men is not according to hearsay, gossip, our own good opinions, or man’s evaluations; it is “according to truth” (v. 2 ). Someone has said, “We hate our own faults, especially when we see them in others.” How easy it is for people today, as in Paul’s day, to condemn others, yet have the very same sins in their own lives.
But the Jew may have argued back: “Surely God wouldn’t judge us with the same truth He applies to the Gentiles! Why, see how good God has been to Israel!” But they were ignorant of the purpose God had in mind when He poured out His goodness on Israel and waited so patiently for His people to obey: His goodness was supposed to lead them to repentance.
God treats us kindly in every way possible. We neglect to pray; he gives us health, life, food, clothes and friends. We forsake the church; God’s gifts still come. We curse and scream and fight; God’s mercy flows on. We rob, steal, and kill; the sun still shines, the rain still falls. Not everyone will be brought to repentance, but all who are, will come by this means- “the kindness of God”. 2 Peter 3:9: He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
Instead, they hardened their hearts and thus stored up more wrath for that day when Christ will judge the lost.
These same two “excuses” that the Jews used in Paul’s day are still heard today: (1) “I am better than others, so I don’t need Christ”; (2) “God has been good to me and will certainly never condemn me.” But God’s final judgment will not be according to men’s opinions and evaluations; it will be according to truth.
Because judgment hasn’t come, they take this as proof that God will not punish their sins or that God is indifferent toward their sins.
Judgment Is According to a Person’s Deeds (2:6-16)
The Jews thought they held the highest “status” among God’s people, not realizing that it is one thing to be a hearer of the Law, and quite another to be a doer (v. 13 ). Keep in mind that these verses are talking about the law way of salvation, the law gate. They describe how God judges mankind according to the deeds performed in the course of life. No one persistently or consistently does vs. 7, we all do vs. 8.
Vs. 8- First for the Jew and then for the Gentile. The judgment of God falls equally on both Jews and Gentiles. This is true and to drive home the point, God will actually pour out his wrath on the “Jew first.”
Luke 12:48: From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.
Each person (vs. 6), every human being (vs. 9), and everyone (vs. 10), these phrases show that God is no respecter of persons but judges all mankind on the basis of the lives they have lived. One might ask, “But is God just in judging men this way? After all, the Jews have had the Law and the Gentiles did not.” Yes, God is just, as vv. 12-15 explains. God will judge people according to the light they have received. The Gentiles have a law code by instinct while the Jews have one by revelation. The Jews hear the Law but refuse to do it, and will be thus judged more severely. They, of all people, should know that they cannot keep the Law. Need the way of grace, or the grace gate.
Those who hear or possess the Law will not be declared righteous, but only those who do the Law. James 1:22: Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.
God also knows the secrets of the heart- vs. 16. Matthew 23:28: In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.
Judgment is not based on special privileges or external things (vs. 17- 29)
Twice now Paul has mentioned a “day of judgment” (vv. 5 and especially vs. 16). Now he states that this judgment will be of the heart, when God will reveal all secrets.
The Jews boasted of their racial and religious privileges. Because God had given them His Word, they knew His will and had a greater sense of values. They looked upon the Gentiles as blind, in the dark, fools, and babes (vv. 19-20).
The Jews considered themselves to be God’s exclusive favorites; but what they failed to see was that these very privileges obligated them to live holy lives. They disobeyed themselves the very law they preached to the Gentiles. The result was that even the “wicked Gentiles” blasphemed God’s name because of the sins of the Jews!- vs. 24.
I remember reading some time ago of a couple of young men who were standing on a street corner in Glasgow, Scotland, when a very dignified-looking older man walked by them. One of these young men turned to the other, and said, "You see that man? He is the founder of the infidels club here in Glasgow." And the other young man said, "Why, you must be mistaken! I know that man. He is an elder of the church where I belong." The first young man said, "That is exactly what I mean. He is an elder of the church, but the way he conducts himself in his business life, and in his personal affairs, he has turned so many away from God that he is literally the founder of the infidels club here in Glasgow."
If any people had “religion,” it was the Jews; yet their religion was a matter of outward ceremony. They boasted of their rite of circumcision, a ceremony that identified them with the living God; yet what good is a physical rite if there is no obedience to God’s Word? Paul even goes so far as to say that the uncircumcised Gentile who obeyed God’s Word was better off than the circumcised Jew who disobeyed it (v. 27 ), and that the circumcised Jew who disobeyed God was looked upon as uncircumcised! For a true Jew is one who has faith inwardly, whose heart has been changed, and not one who merely follows outward ceremonies in the flesh. Verse 27 boldly states that the Gentiles who by nature, though uncircumcised, fulfill the Law are going to judge the Jews who transgress God’s standards!
Circumcision that counts for eternity is not the outward circumcision of the male organ.
Because of their blessings, the Jews had some fatal conclusions and the writing of their rabbis reflect this attitude: “At the last Abraham will sit at the entrance of Gehenna and will not let any circumcised man of Israel go down there.” Circumcision will deliver Israel from Gehenna (hell).” All Israelites have a share in the world to come.”
If a person has never believed the Gospel and received Christ, then he or she stands condemned. The Jews, with all their religion and legalism, were (and are) just as much under sin as the Gentiles—and more so, because to them were given greater privileges and opportunities to know the truth.
How many people are going to hell because they think God is going to judge them according to their own good opinion of themselves, their status, or their religion? God does not judge according to these principles, but according to truth.
Galatians 3:24 KJV: Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
Human beings are moral beings by creation. That is to say, not only do we experience an inner urge to do what we believe to be right, but we also have a sense of guilt and remorse when we have done what we know to be wrong. Guilty feelings drive us to seek forgiveness in Christ. What are we going to do with our guilt?
Psalm 32:5: Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD”— and you forgave the guilt of my sin.
