Romans 2:6-11 “Impartial”

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

[…God] ⁶who will give back to each according to the works of him; ⁷eternal life to the ones seeking glory, honor, and immortality according to endurance of good work, ⁸or wrath and anger to the ones also disobeying the truth out of contentiousness but obeying the unrighteous; ⁹trouble and affliction upon every soul of man practicing  the evil, to Jew first but also to Greek, ¹⁰but glory, honor, and peace to the every one working the good, to Jew first and also to Greek, ¹¹for there is no partiality from God. 

I’m so glad I finally got to study these verses. They’ve always bothered me because they seem to be saying that it’s works that determine heaven or hell. However, what I now realize from taking the time to really ponder it is that it all has to be understood in its context. Once again, the whole point of 2:1-17 is that even moral people are condemned and the proof of it is their willingness to judge others. The point of verses 6-11 is simply that God’s judgment is impartial. The moralist thinks because they can judge people they perceive as “less moral than themselves,” therefore, somehow they don’t have to grapple with the reality of their own sins.

The whole point of the passage is, “You won’t get away with it. God’s judgment is impartial.” As the young student once observed, “He don’t grade on no curve.” Verse 7 says “To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, He will give eternal life.” Any honest person reading those words will not puff their chest and say, “Yup, that’s me!” I can’t lay any claims to “persistence in doing good” or being a person who has always sought “glory, honor, and immortality.” An honest person will say, if that’s the standard I’m in trouble!

And that is precisely the Lord’s point. He hasn’t given us the hope of the Gospel yet. First He has to convince us we need it! And some of the hardest people to convince of their need are those who are quite sure they’re “better” than others. As the Pharisee said, “I thank Thee, Lord, I am not like other people … like this tax collector.” And the Pharisees are alive and well today. They need to read Romans 2.

The problem of course with most of them is that they will read the chapter and still think it applies to someone else. However, that is where the Holy Spirit has to enter. It’s His job to convict the world of sin and righteousness and judgment. Only He can open our blind eyes to see the truth.

And the truth is that God’s judgment will be impartial. No one will be able to escape the truth of who they are and what they’ve done …unless the Lord Himself provides an answer!

We’ll get there. We just need to keep reading!