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Romans 2 "Impartial"
In chapter one, last week, we found out how the God of love, could also
be a God of wrath. Paul explains how man rejects God, refusing to worship
Him as God, to honor Him as the Creator, to obey Him as Lord, and replaces
God with himself. So God gives man up to the result of this misguided
worship. As man seeks to please himself, only obeying himself, everything
about man is twisted and corrupted. And what the Creator intended to
be the very image of God, leading others to know Him, instead only drives
them further away from Him. If my son asked me which food was good to
eat, and I told him to eat poison, wouldn't that be a crime? If someone
asked me for directions to Osaka and I told him how to go to Hokkaido,
wouldn't that be evil? If you need to find God, and all you can see
in me is the flesh, is not that just as evil? We have so twisted and
corrupted the good design of God that we deserve punishment.
But as people listened to Paul there would be those who would think,
"Yes, that's right, you preach it to those sinners Paul! Those
people don't know God, they don't worship God, even though God made
them they don't thank Him. They are without excuse and deserve God's
wrath." Paul takes aim next at these "religious" people
who are looking down at others.
Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are who judge,
for in whatever you judge another you condemn yourself; for you who
judge practice the same things. But we know that the judgment of God
is according to truth against those who practice such things. And do
you think this, O man, you who judge those practicing such things, and
doing the same, that you will escape the judgement of God? Or do you
despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering,
not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? But in
accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart you are treasuring
up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous
judgment of God, who "will render to each one according to his
deeds": eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing
good seek for glory, honor, and immortality; but to those who are self-seeking
and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness--indignation and
wrath, tribulation and anguish, on every soul of man who does evil,
of the Jew first and also of the Greek; but glory, honor and peace to
everyone who works what is good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
For there is no partiality with God. (Romans 2:1-11)
There is no partiality with God. The Jews thought that because they
knew God, had the Scriptures, had the law and the prophets, they would
automatically skip right past judgment and go straight to glory. They
agreed with Paul that the Gentiles were without excuse. But Paul turns
the same phrase back on them saying, "Therefore you are inexcusable,
O man, whoever you are who judge, for in whatever you judge another
you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things."
In society we have an idea of crime as something that is abnormal. The
criminal is someone who is not functioning properly and needs to be
fixed. It is easy to look at criminals and place yourself above them,
thinking to yourself, "I would never do that!" But sin is
not something abnormal in this world. Sin is the condition of every
single person alive. We are all sinners, fallen short of the glory of
God. So how can look down on others because they are doing the same
things that we do. Now perhaps we are better at controlling our sin
nature, or better at concealing it from others, but we cannot say, "I
would never do that!". Because we have all sinned. Jesus told the
story of a man who had taken out a large loan that he wasn't able to
repay. Perhaps if Jesus had been in Japan he would say that this man
was a salaryman who had gone to the loan shark and borrowed 100 million
yen, but could not pay the money back. The time came when the yakuza
knocked on his door in the middle of the night. Unless you pay back
the money you owe, we are going to hurt you. We will hurt your family,
your wife and your children. So the man went to the loan shark and pleaded,
begging him to have mercy on him and spare his family. And the loan
shark was so moved by the man's plea that he not only called off the
yakuza but also forgave the man his entire debt. But after receiving
this incredible mercy from the loan shark, the salaryman went out and
hired the same yakuza to collect money that another man owed him. This
man owed him 500,000 yen. The loan shark heard of it, and he was furious.
Calling the salaryman back into his office he said to him, "How
is it that I forgive you such a huge debt, and then you can't even forgive
this man 500,000 yen?
As Christians we have been forgiven a debt that we never could have
repayed. Our sin made it impossible to please God, and no matter how
good we tried to be it could never measure up to perfection. But Jesus
Christ payed that debt for us by living a perfect life and then being
punished for our sins on the cross. When we judge others, we are despising
the riches of God's goodness, forbearance and longsuffering. When we
judge others we are forgetting that we too have be forgiven much. Instead
of judging, we should be led by the goodness of God to repentance. We
should always be quick to see our own sin, turning from it to the righteousness
of God, and slow to see the sin of others. Now of course this is not
natural. It is natural for us to see the sin of others first. Especially
when it is sin that is directed towards us! When someone is angry with
us and yelling and screaming and calling us names, it is hard not to
see their sin. But what we must do is look first at our own sin. We
must see our own mistakes that have caused this person to become angry.
When we see ourselves correctly as much a sinner as the other man, then
we are able to forgive. As long as we see ourselves as perfect and everyone
else as sinners we will be judgmental.
I notice this most clearly when driving. Why is it that when I make
a mistake I want them to forgive me, but when they make a mistake I
am angry with them? Every time I have a near miss, or get in the wrong
lane or hold up traffic I think to myself, "These things happen,
we are all drivers, we've all experienced the same things." But
when the guy in front of me does the same thing I am thinking, "You
idiot! Where did you learn to drive?" We are naturally partial
to ourselves. We are always biased towards our own case. But God is
not partial at all. In fact God judges everyone the same. This is what
Paul is telling the Jews here. Just because they have the law, doesn't
mean that God will not judge them, because it is the doers of the law,
not the hearers that will be justified. There will come a day when God
will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ. Paul says to them in
verse 24, "You who make your boast in the law, do you dishonor
God through breaking the law? For "the name of God is blasphemed
among the Gentiles because of you." Likewise it is not the name
"Christian" that will save us. It is not membership in a church
that will keep us from judgement. Knowledge of the Bible or doing Christians
things cannot make us right in the eyes of God.
When I was a boy I went to church every Sunday. But I did not have Jesus
Christ in my heart. It is not the hearers that will be saved but the
doers. Perhaps you have spent most of your life as a member of one church
or another, but you know deep in your heart that you are not living
a life that is pleasing to God. If your friends at work knew that you
were a Christian would they be surprised? Would they think better or
worse of God, knowing that you claimed to be a Christian? What does
God require? God does not require religion. God does not care about
how much money you give or how many prayers you say or how many people
you bring to church with you. None of these things will impress God.
The only thing that can move the judgement of God, is if you give your
heart to His Son Jesus Christ. It is the heart that God cares about.
Let me be very plain, as Paul is plain here. Unless you have received
Jesus Christ into your heart, as your Lord and Savior, you are in terrible
danger of judgement. Unless you are born again, even though you come
to church every Sunday, you are still going to be judged guilty by God
on that day when every secret is revealed. Just because your parents
baptised you when you were a baby, or you repeated the words with everyone
else in your confirmation class doesn't mean you are born again. You
have to confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your
heart that God has raised Him from the dead. It is the heart that you
must get right with God.
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