Romans 2:17-24 “Cornered”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹⁷But if you are being called a Jew and resting in law and boasting in God and ¹⁸knowing the desire and examining the differing [things], being instructed out of the Law, ¹⁹and you are persuaded you yourself to be a leader of blind ones, a light to ones in darkness, an instructor of simple ones, a teacher of infants, ²⁰having in the Law the form of the knowledge and the truth, ²¹the one teaching others, are you not teaching yourself?  The one preaching not to be stealing, are you stealing? ²²The one saying not to be committing adultery, are you committing adultery? The one abhorring idols, are you committing sacrilege? ²³Whoever [is] boasting in law is dishonoring God through the transgression of the Law, ²⁴for, just as it is written, “The name of God is being blasphemed because of you (pl.) among the Gentiles.” 

Paul has been developing his argument since at least 1:18, trying to show us that everyone needs the Gospel, that no one will be saved by trying to keep the Law. In chapter 1, he presented the case of the very immoral of this world. To that, any thinking person would easily agree. Certainly if anyone should be judged, it is the very wicked people who do so many “bad” things. In 2:1, Paul turns the argument on anyone who had enough sense of morality to agree with chapter 1. In fact, he proves, the very act of judging others condemns each of us because it proves we know better – leaving us with no excuse for why we ourselves so often have failed and continue to fail.

If anyone was truly one of the “immoral” of chapter 1, read those verses, saw themselves, repented and turned to Christ, that would be a wonderful thing. If anyone read on into chapter 2, saw in themselves the hypocritical moralizer they are, repented and turned to Christ, that too would be a wonderful thing.

But I believe now in 2:17, Paul turns on the most difficult person, the people least likely to ever see their need of a Savior – the very religious lost. Obviously, reading the text, Paul applies his words directly to those who “are called Jews.” What I would ask everyone to see, however, is that today he could have just as easily said, “You who are called Christians…” Paul is talking to people who are very familiar with the Bible, probably people who “grew up in church,” people who attend church regularly, own several Bibles, teach Sunday School, go to Bible studies, sing all the right songs, etc., etc.

Just as in the case of the Jewish people, all of the above is highly commendable. Anyone who “grew up in church” is certainly someone blessed with privileges others did not enjoy. This is true, especially if the church really did teach the Bible, if the message of the Gospel has been clearly presented, if a person can honestly say the stories and teachings of the Bible are very familiar to them. Just as with the Jewish people, it really is true that those are great blessings.

However, the question for each person is, what have you done with all those privileges?  “To whom much is given, much will also be required.” All of those privileges added up do not somehow make us “good.” They only make us more accountable. And, if we would search our hearts, what do we find? Given all this knowledge and opportunity, have I thus been able to pull off a perfect life before God?

The obvious answer should be “No.” Probably even the most religious would admit the answer is “No.” But what does that mean? It means we have sinned against the very bright light of God’s truth! The very immoral were lost even though they perhaps knew nothing of the Bible. The moralizers were lost because their very moralizing proved they had some sense of right and wrong. But here you and I stand, claiming with our own mouths to be people very knowledgeable of God and the things of the Bible. If anyone, we should be the people who in fact are “righteous.”

Yet we are not.

This, I would offer is perhaps the worst form of blindness a human being could suffer – to enjoy the privilege of living in the bright light of Bible truth, and yet to think those privileges somehow equal a righteous standing before God, instead of seeing that all of it utterly robs me of any excuse whatsoever for my sins. It doesn’t make me more righteous. It makes me more guilty!

If anyone ever needed to take hard stock of their life, it’s not the very immoral, it’s the person who knows most the Bible.

In fact, as Paul asserts here in Romans 2, even the very religious have failed to obey the Law, and then it’s even worse than that because, claiming to be religious, their sins (which they do commit) provide opportunities for the enemies of God to blaspheme Him!

This is it. If salvation is to come to those who perfectly keep the Law, then even the very religious are lost. The ones who seem to “try the hardest” are, if anything only more guilty before God!  Salvation does not come to “those who try hardest.” Being very “religious” does not save us. It only makes us more guilty.

We’re cornered.

Sounds to me like we need God to come up with some other way of salvation besides us “doing our best.”

Sounds to me like we need a Savior.

Romans 2:16 “Two-Edged Sword”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹⁶in [the] day when God will judge the secrets of the men according to the Gospel of me through Christ Jesus. 

I feel like, as I study this book of Romans, I am scraping on the bedrock of reality. This is THE TRUTH. The whole world lives chasing here and there, wanting this and that, striving to accomplish so many things, and yet, the overarching reality of our very existence is that there is a God and we will answer to Him for all we do. As Paul will say later in this book, “So then each of us must give an account of himself to God” (14:12). The book of Ecclesiastes put it as, “For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil” (12:14). And as Peter says, “But the Day of the Lord will come” (II Peter 3:10).

The Day of the Lord will come.

That is reality – plain, simple reality.

John says in Revelation, “Then I saw a Great White Throne and Him who was seated on it…And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the Throne, and the books were opened…The dead were judged according to what they had done…” (20:11,12).

The Day of the Lord will come.

That is the overarching reality of our very existence.

Just for some exegetical housekeeping, there is a great deal of discussion of how this verse, verse 16, connects with the rest of the context. In Greek, and as I translated it above, it is a continuation of the thinking ahead of it, but, as all seem to agree, the thought itself seems abrupt. The most logically appealing position, based on the grammar, is probably to connect it to verse 12 and consider verses 13-15 as a parenthesis in Paul’s argument. Personally, I would suggest it may simply be, in Paul’s mind, connected to the entire context. This is what he’s been talking about at least since 1:18.

Then there is discussion around the statement, “God will judge the secrets of the men according to the Gospel of me through Christ Jesus.” The question is posed whether God will judge “according to the Gospel” or “through Jesus Christ.” Judging “according to the Gospel” seems logically awkward, since it will be the Gospel which will save people from God’s judgment. I think rather he means us to understand that Jesus Himself will be the Judge, which of course is supported widely through the New Testament in many, many passages.

On the other hand, and for whatever it’s worth, for us believers, the fact that God will judge the world is to us good news. The “Gospel” is God’s good news. First of all, I don’t have to fear it because Jesus already paid for my sins, I am forgiven, and “there is now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.” Our judgment is now a judgment for reward, not condemnation (I Cor. 3:12-15). What my accountability means to me is that my life matters.  As Paul says later in that same book, “Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain” (15:58). It is no fun to be given a work assignment, to work very hard at it, to accomplish the goals, only to have no one ever even check up on it. From a purely human perspective one is tempted to ask, “What’s the difference? No one seems to care anyway.” Knowing the Lord and that the Day of the Lord will come, I can say, “I did it for Him and He cares!” If I am accountable to Him then everything matters!

What I particularly want to comment on, however, from this verse in Romans, is that fact that Jesus Himself will be the Judge. That simple fact becomes what I would suggest is the colossal two-edged sword of reality.

Think about it. What difference does it make for us believers that Jesus is the Judge? Who is He? He’s our Savior! The same Jesus who will be seated on the Throne, who will be looking at you on that Day, was also looking at you as He hung on that Cross and died. He knew you then and He knows you now. He knew all about your sins then and He still knows about them now, yet “in His great love wherewith He loved us” He Himself chose to remove our transgressions from us, “as far as the east is from the west.” Our Jesus who “judges” us, is the very One who already loved us and saved us “to the uttermost.” What enormous comfort we ought to take knowing that He is who is my Savior is the Judge!

On the other hand, and this is the awful two-edged sword of reality, what difference will it make for those who spurned that love and spit in His face, who said of Jesus, “We will not have this Man to rule over us!” Suddenly, there they will be standing face to face with this One who went to the Cross for them, who loved them with that same “everlasting love,” who all their life provided food to eat and the sun to shine, who gave them every possible opportunity to be saved, who even “appointed the times of their lives and the place where they would live, if perhaps they might feel after Him and find Him” (Acts 17:27).

To add to their horror, they will find out this Judge knows about every act of cruelty, especially the times they mocked, and ridiculed, and persecuted His people, His children. He knows every secret of their naturally lying, murderous hearts, that, in life, they were like their father the devil and the lusts of their father they did. What a horror it will be to stand before this One without His precious blood to cover their sins. Someone once remarked that the Lord probably will not need to send anyone to hell – they’ll probably run and jump in just to escape those awful flaming eyes!

The Day of the Lord is reality.

And that reality is a two-edged sword. It will be a day of reward for His people and a horrible day of exposure and condemnation for those who never knew Him.

Every human being needs to stop their moving, stop chasing, stop their lying, murderous thoughts and come face to face with this reality: the Day of the Lord will come. To embrace Him now is to be saved forever, to be able to look forward hopefully to that Day of Judgment. To spurn Him now does not mean they’ll escape from that Day. To stand before Him is an appointment we all will keep.

Choose well.