Romans Chapter 2

Romans Chapter Two.

2:1 - 3:8.     The Judgment of the Jew.    The Jew cannot escape the judgment of God.

2:1-16.     Principles of Divine Judgment.   The purpose of these verses is not to instruct us in the way of salvation, but to make clear the principles by which God judges the world.  The Divine principle of judgment are clear:

            *   It is according to truth or reality.

            *   According to works.

            *   Righteous and impartial.

           

The Jew is not named until 2:17, but he is the man who is most in view from the beginning of the chapter.    Nyrgren finds confirmation of this from Wisdom chapters 11-15.  The Jew held that the knowledge of God and of his will gave immunity from God's wrath, (Wisd.15:2).  However, the principles that Paul insists upon are of universal application, and apply to everyone, even though he sets himself up as a judge of others.  (See 2:12-16).  The same judgment falls on everyone, who professes knowledge of what is right, and does not practice it.  The self styled moral critic who professes to know God's will, and to be competent to judge the conduct of others, thereby affirms the righteousness of God's judgment upon his own wrongdoing.  Judgment falls upon men because they do not practice truth.  The Gentiles wilfully suppressed the truth in unrighteousness.  They turned their backs on known truth that was the real character of their sin.  It was this that made their sin so deserving of judgment.  It was not their ignorance, but their repudiation of God that made them liable to judgment.  In this consisted the central core of the inexcusableness.

           

Paul now begins to reason with the Jews in this way: that if the Gentile perished not through ignorance, but knowing what is right, and did not practice it, is not the case of the Jew more inexcusable?  The man who knows the truth and boasts in knowing God's will, and displays his knowledge by criticising others, that man is in greater danger of judgment, and his own moral  failure the less excusable, and the certainty of judgment is inescapable.  In chapter one, Paul wrote about Gentile sinners in the third person, but now he makes a swift turn and confronts his man face to face.  Like Nathan to David, he cries - "Thou art the man."  It can be assumed that the man who sets himself up as a moral critic, is an individualist who refuses the masses in their degradation.  Paul takes to task the self-appointed moral critic and judge of others.  Paul's face to face approach indicates an attempt to reach the man's conscience.

           

The second pronoun is prominent - "thyself" - "thy" - "thou o man."  If we fail to do the truth ourselves, then our criticism of evildoers shall not help us.

           

The Theme - Judgment.  

This chapter does not teach that men are saved by works.  It is not the intention of these verses to teach men the way of salvation, but the principles of Divine judgment.  They show that no man can escape the judgment of God.  In this way, Paul proves the need of all men and prepares the way for the exposition of the Gospel.  Men must first become aware of their need of the Gospel.  Only then, can they appreciate the grace of God revealed in Christ.

           

2:1.       "Wherefore," ('dio').  What had been written about the Gentiles, was also true of the Jews.  Both were inexcusable.  The Gentile did not sin because he was ignorant of God's moral demands, but he sinned in spite of such knowledge.  Therefore, the possession of knowledge itself provides no escape from wrath.  Now, the Jew boasted a knowledge of God's will, beyond that possessed by the Gentiles, and not only so, but the Jew thought his knowledge gave him certain security.  Assured of his far better knowledge, the Jew was ready to criticize the moral standards of the heathen.  This readiness to criticize others proved he claimed a better knowledge.  But since it is not knowledge that gives security, rather, knowledge makes failure more culpable then the critic is himself the most blameworthy if he also does evil. 

           

The Jew and many Gentiles also, would have agreed with Paul's indictment of pagan society.  They would not have consented with those who did such things.  However, they too were guilty of moral failure.  But human nature seeks always to justify oneself, and one of the most wretched ways we justify ourselves, is to criticize others.  When we pass criticism on others, we don't feel so bad.  In judging others, we bolster up our own status, and we find a certain feeling of satisfaction and security.  Paul was well acquainted with this species of man.  The man who assumes the role of a critic, or judge, exposes himself to greater judgment if he does what he knows to be wrong.

           

The words, "dost practice the same things," are difficult.  They are clearly fundamental to Paul's argument, but it is difficult to think that either Jew or Gentile moral critics were guilty of such excesses as the Gentiles practiced.  Bt. suggests that just as idolatry reveals man's ambition to put himself in the place of God, so the man who assumes the right to judge his fellow-men, does the same thing.  There is self-idolatry expressed in the criticism of others.  However, the meaning may be that Jew and Gentile were doing the same things in that at the root of the conduct of both, there was the suppression of truth.

           

2:2.       Truth.   'aletheia', "truth, reality."  The R.S.V. is quite inadequate here, with "rightly".  The words not only denote that things shall be judged as they really are, for all pretention, boasting and hypocrisy, shall be exposed, but the truth that men suppress shall ultimately judge them.  The apostasy of the Gentiles was the outcome of suppressing the truth.  They were not faithful to the knowledge they had, and this was their condemnation.  But this principle was even more true of the Jew, who has a much fuller revelation of God's will, but did not do it.  Therefore, he was more guilty of disobeying the truth.

           

2:3.       The Judgment of God.   The knowledge of what is right gives no security from the 'krima' of God.  To know and not to do, brings greater judgment.  To express disapproval of those who do evil and of those who consent with them and not live up to the light one has, is to be in danger of the judgment of God, and His judgment is absolute, certain and inescapable.

           

2:4.       Repentance.    This verse assails the snug position the Jew assumed.  They thought they were safe, for they were God's people.  God's kindness, forbearance and longsuffering, were taken for granted.  They presumed upon God's favour.  But God's intention was to lead them to repentance.  They had not repented.  By their impenitence, they had slighted God's kindness that He showed them, that they might have time, opportunity and desire to repent.  The Jews took it as liberty to continue in sin, when actually, it meant that not all was well with them, but God sought their repentance.  Their failure to repent was inexcusable, for God had shown the Jews a wealth ('ploutes') or overflowing abundance of goodness ('crestotes') and forebearance ('anoche') and longsuffering ('makrothumia').  They had in a marked and special way, been the recipients of God's kindliness; His patience with their sinfulness and His longsuffering that defers punishment and sought their repentance and return in heart to Him.

           

2:5.   Day of Wrath.   God deals graciously with men that He may bring them to repentance, but the heart that will not be changed treasures up wrath that shall fully burst forth upon it in the Day of Wrath.  Crysostum observed that the sinner, not God, stored up wrath.  Dd. argues that Paul speaks of the wrath of God in a curiously impersonal way.  The wrath of God is a nemesis upon sin, an inevitable process of cause and effect in a moral universe.  Against this, Leon Morris argues that this is not an adequate account of Paul's teaching.  Morris notes some texts in Paul which emphasizes the personal activity of God in judgment.

           

The personal activity of God is seen both in the present time (1:24,26,28, "God gave them up") and in the future judgment (2:6; 3:6; 9:22; 12:19).  It is righteous (2:5), impartial (2:11), universal and inescapable (3:19;  5:18).  This revelation of the righteous judgment of God upon sin constitutes our need of the Gospel.  This revelation of righteousness in the Gospel comes to save us from wrath.  The student of Romans must take the judgment of God seriously, for a true understanding of sin, propitiation and justification.  Wrath is the legitimate feeling on the part of the judge.  It is no sudden, emotional, fitful outburst of anger, but God's implacable antagonism to sin.

           

2:6.       That men are judged according to their works, is a fundamental truth of Holy Scripture.  Paul insists that each man is himself accountable for his works.  It is important to observe that Paul's theme in these verses is judgment.  He would bring the Jew or the moral critic to see himself a sinner.  Paul does not yet attempt to expound the way of salvation through faith.  Paul does not yet attempt to develop the new situation that the faith of Christ brings.

           

2:7.       Paul sets forth the basic principles of Divine judgment.  But actually it is the Christian who obtains glory, honour, incorruption and eternal life.  These are God's gifts, and are not earned by works.  Bt. translation gives the right idea, "It will be bestowed on those who with patient endurance look beyond their own well-doing to the glory and honour and incorruption God alone can give.  Those who view their own activity with patient endurance, attest thereby, that they are seeking what is not found in any human being and doing.  Glory and incorruption are matters which are exclusively God's gift; they are eschatological terms."  Bt. again says, "The reward of eternal life, then, is promised to those who do not regard their good works as an end in themselves, but see them as marks not of human achievement, but of hope in God.  Their trust is not their good works, but in God, the only source of glory, honour and incorruption."

           

2:8.       Bn. has, 'self-seeking' for 'factions'.  R.V.  But Bt. has, "to those who are out for quick selfish profit on their own account."  'Unscrupulously self-seeking'.   K. - It is the spirit of the hireling, who cares only for his own profit.  Wrath, or 'ogre', is the settled feeling, 'thumos', the outward manifestation. S + H.  The principle of Divine judgment operates consistently and invariably upon all men and every man.  Paul insists upon the accountability of each individual man, and along with it, the universalism and impartiality of God's judgment.  The Jew is not allowed to think that he is exempt from God's wrath.  Rather, his greater privileges and fuller knowledge of the truth, marks him out as first for judgment.

           

2:10-11.    This verse provides no ground for supposing that men are saved by their moral efforts or good works.  Paul is carefully laying down the unchanging and universal principles of judgment, and in laying down these principles he establishes the guilt of every man.  Paul has gone to some pains to establish the impartiality of God's judgment.  God does not in any way, favour the Jew.

           

2:12.     Paul reasons as though the Jew stood before him.  However, he sets forth principles of universal validity and applicable to all men.  Paul takes up the Jew on his own grounds and reasons with him.  The discussion is focussed on the Law.  Gentiles were not under the Law.  Except for verse 16, Paul faces the Jew and reasons with him on the basic principles, the rightness of which, Judaism acknowledged.  Paul takes the Jew to task on his own ground - the standard of truth he had in the Law - in which he boasted, and in which he felt secure.  The possession of the Law gave no immunity from wrath.  It is the doers of the Law that are acquitted before God.  Paul has not yet named the Jew, but he is getting closer to him and the discussion is becoming increasingly relevant to the Jew.  However, the matter is still discussed in a way that is applicable to Jew, and Gentile: to those under law and to those without the law.

           

2:14.     "There is something in the very pattern of created existence which should, and sometimes does lead the Gentiles to an attitude of humble, grateful, dependent creatureliness.  When this takes place, they are a law for themselves". - Bt. 

           

The thought is continued that to know the law is not enough, but the doer alone is justified.  The Jew held that his knowledge of the law gave him a superiority over the Gentile.  However, Paul argues that the Gentile is not without knowledge of the Law, for the Gentiles who from an innate moral instinct, do the things of the Law, are a law unto themselves.  The Jew professed a knowledge of what is right from hearing the law but the Gentiles also differentiated between right and wrong.  The best moral teachers in Judaism would have agreed with Paul, that only doers of the law were justified Many Jews did think that the hearing of the law conferred immense benefit.  It was presumed that a people who knew the will of God, had a higher status than those who were ignorant of the law.  They thought that knowing the law gave a measure of immunity from judgment, and that the Jew was not exposed to God's wrath as was the Gentiles.

           

Paul is probably alluding to the Stoic philosophers who taught that law was rooted in Nature.  They held that a divine principle, the 'logos', pervaded all Creation, and that 'Conscience'  is the human awareness of this principle.  Now, many Jews held that the Mosaic Law was instrumental in effecting Creation.  Moreover, a synthesis of Jewish and Stoic thought produced the idea that the Jewish law was the supreme expression of natural law.  See Bt., Knox. Paul held that man is a moral being, and has an awareness of moral principles.  The heathen are not without knowledge of what is right, and he knows when he has done wrong.

           

2:15      This is not to be confused with the New Covenant. (Heb 10:15-16).   It is rather the work of the law written on their heart, so that when they do wrong, they are condemned in their hearts, and their conscience stands as a witness against them.  People are continually making moral judgments, they do so every day.  They reflect upon the conduct of other people, and upon their own conduct.  Such reflection involves the exercise of the moral faculty, and when they reflect upon the conduct of others, they accuse or excuse them.  The fact that men exercise such moral judgments - accusing or excusing - is proof of an inward knowledge of right and wrong.  It shows that they are acquainted with moral standards, and are not without moral discernment.  The Gentile, no less than the Jew, has moral decisions.

           

Judgment falls upon Jew and Gentile, not because they do not know the difference between right and wrong, but because they do not live up to the light they possess.  The words "one with another" may refer to their intercourse with one another. 

The individuals of a community condemning or (more rarely) excusing one another.  But Paul may mean that the individual's thoughts are engaged in debate, some condemning and some excusing.  The difficulty here is that such a conflict of thoughts in the mind of an individual, about the moral quality of a particular action is no proof that he is a law to himself. It rather suggests that he is a creature of caprice.  It appears then, to mean, that in any community there are moral standards recognized by the members, which form the basis of their judgments upon the conduct of one another.

2:16.     There is a Day of Judgment.  This is an inescapable fact.  God shall judge the secrets of men.  Nothing shall be hidden.  The hidden things shall be brought to light.  The wrath of God is fully declared in the Gospel, for according to the Gospel, God has appointed a Day when He shall judge the world through Jesus Christ.  In the revelation of Jesus Christ as the Judge of men, is found the complete demonstration of God's judgment upon sin.  In saving men through the Cross, God makes fully known His judgment upon sin.  When a man comes to know the saving power of the Gospel, he apprehends as never before, the revelation of God's wrath upon sin.  The Gospel brings this distinctive feature to light concerning God's judgment that it will be through Jesus Christ. (Acts.10:42; 17:31).  Paul's discussion on judgment and the necessity of reality show the fallacy of knowledge without doing the will of God. All this forms a solemn preface or introduction to the subject of justification by faith.  It is a clear warning that religious privileges must find expression in the service of God, and that 'Justification by faith' is not to be understood in terms of religious snugness.

           

2:17-29.       The Judgment of Judaism.   Paul assails the fancied superiority of the Jew.

           

*   They relied upon their possession and knowledge of the Law. verse    17-24.

           

*   They presumed they were safe because of circumcision.                "   25-29.

           

2:17.     The Jew rested on (leaned upon) the Law.  They were confident that the possession of the Law was the pledge that they were God's people and it was the terms of their relationship to Him.  The Law was the revelation of God's will, and made them competent to test moral distinctions.  What if the Jew did not keep the Law, did not the Law mark them out as God's people?  The Jew assumed the position of a guide and instructor to the heathen.  It is not certain that Paul speaks with irony of the role they assumed.  There may be a reference to the intense missionary activity of Judaism in those times.  The Jew was the proud possessor and teacher of the Law, but this gave him no moral superiority over the Gentile if he himself broke the Law.  Neither possessing, knowing, or teaching the law, could save the Jew from judgment, who trangresses the Law.

           

2:21-22.     These two verses, suggest that such transgressions were common among Jews.  Some feel this is a difficulty, and do not agree that Jews were guilty of these crude forms of hypocrisy.  They think Paul means that they were guilty of these sins in a spiritual form:

            *   Stealing.       Mal.3:18;  Lk.11:52.

            *   Adultery.       Hos.1:3;  Jer.3:8.

            *   Sacrilege.     Matt.15:6;  23:23;  Mk.7:11.

           

On the other hand, the cruder forms of these sins may have been frequent.  (See Acts 19:37, for robbing pagan temples).  These practices among Jews excited the blasphemy of the pagans and this suggests that the cruder forms of these crimes were frequently practiced by Jews.  The transgression of the Law brought dishonour upon God. If the Jew was not aware of this then their moral consciousness was duller than the heathen, for they observed the inconsistency.  The pagans could point out the inconsistency of knowing the Law and not doing it.  The pagans made this an occasion to blaspheme God in whom the Jews professed to boast.

           

2:25-27     Circumcision.   The rite of circumcision is of no avail if one does not keep the Law.  The uncircumcised pagan if he keeps the righteous requirements of the Law, is equal to the Jew, in fact, better off, for he rightly judges the Jew, who having circumcision trangresses the Law.  "A bad Jew is no better off than a pagan:  a good pagan is equal to the Jew." - Bn.

           

2:28-29.       The True Jew.   (Compare 2:17), "who beareth the name of a Jew."  The true Jew is one who is such inwardly, whose circumcision is a matter of the heart, spiritual and not literal.  The whole passage from verses 17-29 has distinctly in view the judgment of the Jew, but verses 28-29, define one who is truly a Jew and whose praise is from God.  Jew is derived from Judah (praise).  In chapter 2, Paul reasons as a Jew with Jews and he does so on Jewish ground, for his argument turns on the Law and circumcision.  The propositions set forth are such that every Jew must recognize.

           

When Paul talks about the circumcised who keeps the precepts of the Law, he is not talking about the Gentile who has become a Christian.  Paul has in mind such Scriptures as Deut.10:16;  30:6;  Jer.4:4;  9:25,  which insist upon heart obedience.  It is true that these Scriptures have their complete realisation in the Christian but that is not Paul's point.  Paul strikes at the false confidence of those who relied upon their Jewish nationality.  He insists that the true Jew is one who is not merely a Jew outwardly but one whose circumcision is of the heart, and this is manifested in obedience to God's commandments.  To this man belongs the consecration to God that the name Jew suggests and his praise is not from men, but from God.  This is the man God recognizes as Jew.

Main Lessons in the chapter:-

*   The principles of Divine judgment are universal, unchanging and consistent.

*   Where there is no conformity to the principles of truth, neither the knowledge of such principles nor any other privilege, can give immunity from God's judgment.

*   The chapter is a warning against any pretention of knowledge or privilege that does not                manifest itself in moral reality.  It therefore provides the right approach to justification by faith - that we do not regard this great truth an opportunity for moral laxity.