The letter to the Romans is about the gospel and why we need the gospel. Previously we saw in Romans 1:18-32 the terrible outworking of sin in the world. It all begins with the wholesale rejection of the Creator, manifesting in the exchange of Him for the things which He created. This is called idolatry- the substitution of God for lesser glories. This is always at the heart of mankind’s sinful disposition towards the God who has made this world and the Universe. For this reason, God gave mankind up. He handed mankind over to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done (1:28). And so, in that first chapter we walked through the gutters of life, and we felt as if we needed a bath afterwards.
But Paul is not yet done with us.
He must remind us of the subtlety of sin.
1. He must remind us that we need to take a good look at ourselves as we judge others.
2. And He will remind us that our faith will be known by our works,
...and so we move on to Romans Chapter 2.
1. TAKE A GOOD
LOOK AT YOURSELF (2:1-5)
In this chapter Paul directs his focus upon
the Jewish people who take pride in their heritage, being part of God's
covenant community – descendants of Abraham, God's chosen people, having
received a particular revelation of God (the Old Testament), first
through the patriarchs of Israel, then by the giving of the law, and then
by the mouths of the prophets. One might hear the Jews applauding whilst
Paul speaks concerning the wrath of God upon the ungodliness of the world.
However, Paul rapidly turns the table upon the Jews, and by implication on us,
who call ourselves God’s people.
What is the potential problem for the Jews of
Paul’s day and for us who call ourselves Christians? It is this - a refusal to
examine ourselves with regard to those sins that we accuse the pagan world of.
There is always the danger of thinking that, because you are a Jew or a
Christian, that you are better than others. This text will challenge such
thinking. We need a better basis to distinguish ourselves from others. Paul
challenges us in the very first verse:
2:1 “Therefore you have no excuse, O man, everyone of you who judges. For in passing judgement on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same thing.” Paul takes his own people to task. They do the same things that they condemn the pagan for. Little did they think that by condemning those things in others they were actually condemning themselves, for they were subtly engaging in the same sin. By way of an immediate application we could think of examples where we condemn the sinful practices of other religions, but where we might essentially be guilty of doing the same thing. We might for instance accuse Hinduism of gross idolatry, because their idols are so-in-your-face! But have we considered our own love of idols - those things by which we substitute the glory of our immortal God (1:23) with our cheap discipleship and lukewarm worship? We easily accuse Islam for its hypocritical, legalistic 5 -times-a–day-prayer routine. It may well be hypocritical.But do we Christians actually take time to pray? And how do we pray? The Muslims posture in prayer is often more biblical than our comfort driven Christianity. We are not commending Islam or Hinduism, but our text begs us to take a good look at ourselves and our Christian church culture. Jesus addresses this matter in Matthew 7:3,
“You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye’.”
Specks need to be removed from our brother’s eye, yes, but before we do that let us check ourselves whether we are not guilty of that which we accuse others of.
Let’s hear Paul’s argument as he continues ….
2:2 “We know that the judgement of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. Make no mistake! God will judge the heathen religions. We know that when God judges He makes no mistakes. And now again we hear a Jew saying at this point, “Absolutely right Paul! Look at these gentiles. Look at their false and perverted worship of a false God ”!
But Paul responds again in 2:3 “Do you
suppose, O man – you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them
yourself – that you will escape the judgement of God? “
Paul pushes us relentlessly into a corner. We can be self-righteous as we compare ourselves to others. We easily see their specks, and we see them rightly – but what if in that process we refuse to deal with the logs in our own eyes? Again, we may rightly condemn Muslims for murderous suicide attacks, but how is it that the Christian church remains mostly silent when our mostly Christian country legalizes and endorses abortion on demand? By that standard the so called free part of the world (much of which has a Christian heritage) is murdering more people than the Muslim world with its suicide attacks and attacks on Christians. The truth is, both are wrong and both will incur God’s terrible wrath in time. But, are you hearing Paul when he says, ”so when you, a mere man, pass judgement on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgement?” Paul destroys the thought that mere adherence to the Christian faith will secure God’s approval. The Bible teaches consistently that mere profession of faith without works is dead. We’ll get to that in a moment in 2:6, with overtones of James 2:17. God desires mercy and justice and the protection of the vulnerable, of which the unborn child surely must be one of the most vulnerable.
And so
Paul continues …
2:4 “Or do you presume on the riches of His kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?“ Here the apostle Paul addresses a particular problem for the Jews – the problem of hypocrisy. John the Baptist saw that hypocrisy when he said to the crowds that were coming in droves to be baptized for the forgiveness of their sins in Luke 3:8, “Bear fruits in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father. ’For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham.”
He knew that they were presuming upon their history. They presumed upon God’s kindness, forbearance and patience, without being correspondingly committed to God’s standards of holiness. Jesus saw the same thing in John 8:31-32. Here He challenges the Jews to think whether they are truly Abraham’s children. They hide behind a great religious figure, but they do not exhibit the faith of Abraham. They say that they believe in God, but their lives deny that this is so. In fact, they want to kill Jesus (Jn 8:37). They are ungodly. In truth they are of their father, the devil (Jn.8:44).
Jesus reserved His harshest words for religious hypocrites, who on the one hand live contrary to the law of God (that is sin) whilst talking to others about the goodness and the mercy of God. Hypocrisy is a real problem, and we must constantly examine ourselves in this regard. Dr Martyn Lloyd Jones says,
“It is like that experience when you stand in a line to shake hands with a great person, and your turn comes, he takes your hand, but he already looks at the next person. You would feel in an instant that he despises you. He is not really interested in you. People are like that with God. They see his kindness, forbearance and patience, but they treat it as of small insignificant value.3
That is gross religious hypocrisy. And so, in the span of these first 4 verses Paul shows us that we are really no better off than the gentiles if we are guilty of religious hypocrisy. We too need the gospel, and God help us if we should choose to live in the spirit of 2:5 having ”a hard and impenitent heart”. The day of wrath will not escape us, even if we have made a profession of faith in baptism (Matt. 7:21-23).
This raises the next question: What proves that we
are true believers?
2. ARE OUR WORKS IMPORTANT? (2:6-11)
Will God really judge us according to our
works? We are in the book of Romans – the great letter
of justification- by grace alone , through faith alone, through Christ alone. You
will be tempted to answer, “No, of course not. Our justification is by faith
and not by works“. That is true. But there is an aspect of our
justification that we easily overlook. God does judge us according to our
works. That is what 2:6-8 maintains. Are we facing a
contradiction here? No! It is a matter of ordering a number of
aspects concerning the doctrine of salvation according to
theological priorities.
1. It is true that our entrance into
eternal life cannot be not gained by good works . No one does
sufficient good works (Rom.3:23).
2. We are only ever admitted into
God’s presence by the imputed righteousness of Christ alone -
through our faith in Him alone. [Rom.3:28;4:5;5:1;8:33-34]
3. It is nevertheless true that good works are indispensable and necessary proofs of our salvation. “We are not saved by good works, but we posses a faith that works“.
How can it be otherwise?
Can a person claim to be saved and not be a changed person?
This point is made by James 2:14-26. And that kind of working faith is expressed in Romans 2:7 “… those who by patience in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, He will give eternal life…”, and it works the opposite way in 2:8.
It is true that saving
faith always changes our lives, because “Christ is in us“ by the power of the Holy Spirit. He helps us to bear fruit and grow in likeness
to Jesus. The gospel is not a weak thing in our life. It changes our life. It
produces “the obedience of faith” (Rom. 1:5; 16:26). So, we
“prove our salvation” in a secondary sense by
our works.
In that sense our works are
indicators where we will spend eternity
- Who will receive eternal life? Those
who by patience seek for glory and honour and immortality .
- Who will receive the wrath and fury of
God? Those who are selfseeking, who do not obey the truth
…
And so,
In 2:9 & 10
Paul spells out in graphic terms what will happen at the last
judgement
- “ There will be tribulation and distress for
every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek
“
- “… But glory and honour and peace for everyone who
does good, the Jew first and also the Greek.
So then, while works do not get us to heaven, they provide
proof of what we really are. In that sense also they are an indication of where we will spend eternity.
Our works form part of the final
Judgement when Christ comes again to judge the living and the dead.
That point is made at least 20 times in
the NT : e.g.
·
Romans 14:10-12
·
2 Cor. 5:10
·
Rev. 20:12,15
· Matt. 25:31-46 (Note the eternal judgement
is made according to our works).
·
Lk. 10:17,19
[We must guard against a misunderstanding here: Even though there will be degrees of reward in heaven, the joy of each person will be full and complete for eternity.]
So then, the Bible teaches that eternal life is not merited by good deeds but by Christ alone. But the proof before the Judgement throne of God will be your works. They will either commend you or condemn you. They will speak for you or they will speak against you. The Lord Jesus Christ the righteous Judge will either say, ”Well done good and faithful servant – enter into your promised reward“ or He will say “I never knew you – depart from me you workers of lawlessness.” (Matt 7:23).
CONCLUSION
But they matter in a secondary manner by providing proof that we are who we say we are – Lovers of God the Father. May the Holy Spirit who is present in the preaching of the Word strengthen us all with a great resolve to be what we are called to be – children of God! And may the Lord Jesus find us blameless on the day of His appearing.
Amen!
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