Romans 2:12 “Fair”

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

¹¹for there is no partiality from God; ¹²for whoever sins without law will also be destroyed without law, and whoever sins in law will be judged by law. 

As I’ve studied this verse I have simply been amazed at how fair and reasonable God is. In verse 6, we learned that each individual person will be judged entirely on what they themselves have done. “”God will give to each person according to what He has done.” In verses 9 and 10, He says very clearly it matters not whether a person is Jew or Gentile. In verse 11, He says emphatically “God does not show favoritism.” Now today we come to verse 12 and learn that even judgment itself will be based on what each person actually knew. “Whoever sins apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law.”

Jesus Himself alluded to this idea of a measured judgment when He said, “And that servant who knew his Master’s will, and did not prepare himself or do according to His will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he who did not know, yet committed things deserving of stripes, shall be beaten with few. For to whom much is given, much will also be required…” (Luke 1247,48).

What really amazes me is God’s heart, even in judgment. He would have every right (humanly speaking) to just gather up the whole bunch of us and throw us into hell. Let us remind ourselves that in Romans 2, everyone is on their way to hell. That is the point. Back to verse 1, even the moralizer who is doing “better” than all those dirty sinners in chapter 1 is only condemning himself, proving by his very criticism that he knows better. In fact, this situation is only getting worse as we go! To the moralizer (us), God is saying, “I will judge each person entirely on their own merit.” It matters not that others might be “worse.” “When you stand before Me, you will stand entirely alone.”

Verse 12 before us puts us moralizers in even deeper trouble. So you know enough to criticize other people? The fact is now we learn we will be judged based on what we knew. In other words, that “sinner” we want to condemn may have been raised in an entirely “unchurched” home. Maybe their parents were never married. Maybe being immoral and hitting each other and lying was “normal” in their family. Compare them to us who grew up “churched,” who grew up knowing this or that is “wrong” but did it anyway. What verse 12 is trying to tell us is that actually our “knowledge” only makes us more accountable for our wrongs! We’re the people Jesus said would be beaten with many stripes! It’s not only bad that I can condemn other people for sins then do them myself. It’s even worse because I knew better!

So maybe the Lord should just throw the whole miserable lot of us into hell, be done with us, and maybe do another Creation that might do better? What do you think? Instead we find Him first of all granting to every human being the dignity that He will take the time to judge us based on what we ourselves did. The whole lot of us may deserve hell and yet still He will pause to consider each individually. Then we learn that He will even take into account what each of us actually knew and temper His judgment accordingly.

How much more fair and reasonable could He possibly be -- especially when the outcome for each is that we deserve hell? Even when the human race stands before Him as a black, rotting, stinking horde of justly condemned wretches, He still pulls each one aside one at a time to judge them fairly and reasonably. It’s just who He is.

The whole matter is very clearly depicted in Revelation 20:11-14:

“Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away…And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and the books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books…And they were judged, each one according to his works…And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.”

Notice that “the dead were judged” and that “each one according to their works.” This is the “fair” to which I’m referring. Once again, the bad news is that, based on those works, whether we knew much or little, we all stand condemned because no one has lived up to the “right” they knew. What is wonderful, however, is that even here in Revelation 20, at the very White Throne of Judgment itself, guilty sinners learn there is another way. What is this Book of Life? All are judged. All are condemned by their works. Yet, the actual measure that determines their eternal destiny is not their works but rather this matter of whether or not their names are written in this Book of Life!

In 3:21, we will learn, “But now a righteousness from God, apart from the law, has been made known…!” That is the hope to which Paul is leading us. However, here in chapter 2, he is still laboring to convince us we need that “righteousness,” whatever it is.

And so we study on under this God who, we learn, is totally fair and reasonable. His loving heart peaks out even from behind judgment to assure us that, if we will only run to Him, somehow He’ll make a way.

May we study on!