Romans 2:1-11

1 You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. 2 Now we know that God's judgment against those who do such things is based on truth. 3 So when you, a mere human, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God's judgment? 4 Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God's kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?

5 But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God's wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. 6 God "will repay everyone according to what they have done." 7 To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. 8 But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. 9 There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile; 10 but glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. 11 For God does not show favoritism.


Dig Deeper
If you grew up being a fan of American baseball the way I was when I was a kid, the last few years of baseball have not been exactly encouraging. Baseball has gone from America’s pastime, with star players who every kid looked up to and wanted to emulate, to something entirely different. Almost out of nowhere in the 1990’s baseball changed dramatically. Records that had stood for decades were suddenly being smashed yearly and players were crushing home runs at simply unprecedented rates. There were a few hints that there might be steroid use and cheating, but no one seemed to pay much attention. In the past two or three years, though, even that has changed as it seems nearly every month, reports come out that one of those great players in the late 90’s or early part of this decade tested positive for steroids. It got so bad that the U.S. Congress decided to have a hearing on steroids in baseball and invited a group of well known players in to testify. What was particularly striking was that nearly every one of those players not only denied using steroids, they soundly criticized anyone who would use them. As time has gone on, though, their own words have damned them. Many, if not most, of those same players have since been shown to have used steroids, the very thing they denied and condemned in others. They sat in front of Congress and haughtily condemned behavior that they themselves were entangled in.

One technique that Paul seems to use fairly often in his writings is to create an imaginary or representative opponent with whom he debates and answers as he goes along. This creates two problems for us reading his letters so many years later. The first is that we can easily miss that Paul is doing this and think that he is directly addressing his comments to the members of the church that he is writing. The context, however, of the letter itself usually clues us in when he is addressing his imagined debating partner and when is addressing the church. The second problem is that we sometimes don’t know who his imagined debating partner is. In a case like this second chapter of Romans, is his opponent a haughty Jewish moralizer looking down at the pagans or is it a pagan moralist looking down at his fellow men, all the while thinking he is above them and not part of their activity. Whichever viewpoint Paul’s opponent is coming from, it seems fairly clear that he is using the technique of a representative opponent here. It doesn’t make a huge difference if we don’t know the precise viewpoint of his opponent, the important point is that it is someone who is sitting above the fray looking down at the rest of humans and thinking that they are the problem. This is something, apparently, that both the Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians were doing in Rome, to one degree or another, so Paul will take that line of thinking to the extreme and show the recipients of his letter where that leads.

Paul begins his theoretical argument with his opponent who fancies himself to not be in the same sort of mess that he has described in the latter half of chapter 1. Paul is trying to describe the common plight of mankind, Jew and Gentile alike. It doesn’t matter quite how they got to the state of rebellion against God but there is a big problem. If one group would like to sit back and exclude themselves from this state of judgment and experience of God’s wrath in the present then they are going to miss the solution. That’s the big problem with passing judgment on others. When we pass judgment, we usually assume that we are beyond the need for a solution because the judgment doesn’t apply to us so why bother with a solution. When a group of people begin to think that they are outside of the common plight of mankind, they are in very real danger. It’s not that it is wrong to take God’s standard and apply it to all human beings, pointing out our common need for God to reach out and remove us from his wrath. That is exactly the direction that Paul is heading. That’s not passing judgment on others, that’s reality. It’s when we remove ourselves from the picture as though we’re above it that it moves into the realm of passing judgment.

But does this mean, then, that Christians cannot ever tell anyone of their need for God because they stand in his wrath? Of course it does not. What Christians must remember is that we are no different from any other lost human being save for being in Christ. There is nothing special about us and we have no special status. We have simply found what everyone else needs and we should humbly offer it to others, being careful not to begin to think of ourselves as better or more pure than anyone else.

Those who think they don’t need the gospel, whether it’s a pagan caught in the darkness and futility of image-robbing idolatry, or a moralist who thinks that they have risen above such silliness, or Jews who think that they don’t need anything beyond their badge as the chosen people of God, are in serious trouble. God has shown incredible kindness in his patience and his grace in making the gospel available to all but that kindness has a purpose. The world is full of people who claim God’s grace as a license to do whatever they want, believing that God’s grace makes him a big pushover who will let them off at the final judgment. But they are sadly mistaken. God’s kindness has a purpose and it is to drive us toward repentance. We all need to see our need for a savior. But to continue in stubborn refusal of that and remaining in our darkened state, whatever it may be (and we should point out that idols like money, status, power, and prestige are every bit as real as pagan statues of gods), is to build up God’s wrath. Every moment we remain separated from God is a decision to further build up wrath against us. Every decision to remain unrepentant makes it more difficult to respond to God’s grace.

The modern conception and creation of who God is doesn’t often fit with a God of wrath. Yet, if God is a good God as we believe him to be then he must stand in firm opposition to evil. He is committed to restoring his creation and that would include human beings who engage in dehumanizing activities and behavior. Those who persist in this kind of evil are brining more judgment on themselves in the face of a patient and kind God. But this begs the question: why does God allow evil and suffering at all if he is so opposed to it? Why doesn’t he stop war, and children suffering and other forms of evil? When we ask questions like that, though, we don’t think them through all the way. God is definitely opposed to evil and the resurrection of Christ is the evidence of that, as Paul will expound through the remainder of this letter (especially in chapters 6-8). It is his kindness that defers him from destroying evil. If God were to rid his creation of all evil right now, what would that look like? Tyrants would be in trouble, as would child molesters, murders, and those that dehumanized themselves and others. But where would that stop. If God were to truly sanitize the creation from all evil right now, he could not stop there. He would have to destroy envy, hate, selfishness, pride, and even evil thoughts. Suddenly our collars get a little tighter as God’s kindness and patience come a little more into focus. Those who criticize God for not doing away with evil immediately are actually among those who benefit from that very patience. There is a time when he will lay bare all impurity and evil and burn it up in the all-consuming fire of his presence (see 2 Peter 3 for a clear description of that), but God has offered his gospel in the life of Christ as a way to seek good glory, honor, and immortality.

This is one of Paul’s clearest references to the final judgment that Peter describes in such vivid and classic Jewish language in 2 Peter 3. Those who seek good will be shown glory, honor, and peace. Notice that Paul does not insist that anyone achieve good on their own, simply that they seek it. As Paul is so fond of doing, he doesn’t unpack that statement yet, but simply alludes to a truth that he will expound upon later in his letter. No, they only need to seek good and they will find it. What is clear is that they will not find good in themselves and must find that solution elsewhere. Those who do seek for the solution in themselves, reject the truth and follow evil and will find nothing but wrath and anger in the end. Every human who does evil, and Paul will make it clear that includes every human (Rom. 3:23), will find trouble and distress on that day. Paul is not interested just yet in offering a solution to that problem. He is simply setting the stage. God does not show any favoritism to anyone.

But statements about God treating everyone the same bring us back to the questions of chapter 1 that Paul says are answered in the gospel but has not yet explained how. How does this impartiality that Paul is claiming for God match up with his covenant promises made to Israel? How can God’s justice as a good judge be reconciled with his justice as a covenant maker and keeper. Paul will unveil the answer to that quandary in the latter part of chapter 3 and the whole of chapter 4 but for now, Paul simply wants to drive home the point that God has no favorites. Everyone, Jew and Gentile alike, are standing on common ground in their need for the gospel.


Devotional Thought
Are you ever tempted to start to feel just a little bit privileged because you are a Christian? Do you ever find yourself not wanting to be around certain kind of people because they are such “sinners”? If so, what challenges does this passage hold for you?