Principles of Divine Judgment: Romans 2:5-11 Introduction In demonstrating the guilt of the self-righteous man, o Romans chapter 2 presents us o with several principles of divine judgment. The first one was presented at the end of last week s lesson: (1) God s judgment is according to truth. God doesn t judge like we judge. o His judgments are not based upon our shallow self-righteous justifications and rationalizations. God s judgments are based on His own o unshakable, unmovable, unchanging truth. Human excuses, vain imaginings, and self-deception o will not protect anyone from divine wrath. God will judge according to reality, o in absolute truth and absolute justice. (2) God s judgment will be according to deeds. This is the main point of today s passage. o God will judge each person according to what he has done. A profession of faith will never take the place o of the kind of life that should be produced by faith. God will not judge us on what we say we believe o but rather he will judge us on what we DO with what we believe. In the end it matters what you do. Text: Romans 2:5-11 5 But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God; 6 Who will render to every man according to his deeds: 7 To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life: 8 But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, 9 Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile; 10 But glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile: 11 For there is no respect of persons with God.
Verse 5: We concluded last week with the understanding o that the goodness of God leads men to repentance. We start this week with the word But. o But is an opposing conjunction. It means that what comes next is the antithesis of what came previously. Instead of repentance, this arrogant Jew o has turned the goodness of God into an excuse not to repent. But after thy hardness and impenitent heart This arrogant self-righteous person o had hardened their heart as a result of God s longsuffering towards them. Instead of being led to repentance o by the goodness of God, they have cultivated an unrepentant heart. By heart Paul means the inner man, the inner life. o The heart and soul of who they are has been directed away from God. There is a hardness there, o a refusal to repent, to forsake sin, to live their lives in God s way. treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath Treasurest up is a picturesque word. o It is means to lay up as treasure, to preserve some valuable thing, to store it up for another day. Ironically, this hard-hearted, unrepentant person o rejects the true spiritual riches of God while treasuring up wrath to be revealed in the day of judgment. They despise the riches of God s goodness o in forbearance and long-suffering in order to heap up a treasure of wrath. The point here is that sin will inevitably reap its due reward. o These individuals who are abusing the goodness of God
to continue in sin are not escaping the wrath of God, they are only delaying the inevitable. The wrath of God will come. o There is a day of wrath that has been appointed. On that day the God s wrath against sin will be fully realized by the sinner. The goodness of God will give way to the judgment of God. o And God will render to the sinner the just reward for their sin. and revelation of the righteous judgment of God; Revelation signifies that something o that was previously existent, but not known, is revealed. All of God s judgments are righteous. o The wrath of God is not in a struggle with the goodness of God. God s judgments are good. o On that day both the sinner and the saint will see all of his judgments as the righteous judgments of God. Verse 6: Who will render to every man according to his deeds: This phrase, every man according to his deeds o is rendered from two old testament passages which say the same thing: o Psalm 62:12 Also unto thee, O Lord, belongeth mercy: for thou renderest to every man according to his work. o Proverbs 24:12 If thou sayest, Behold, we knew it not; doth not he that pondereth the heart consider it? and he that keepeth thy soul, doth not he know it? and shall not he render to every man according to his works? Both Testaments agree that God will o repay everyone according to his works, not his privileges. He will judge on the basis of conduct
o rather than mere verbal profession, on performance rather than mere knowledge. There is no contradiction here o with the doctrine of justification by faith, just as there is no contradiction between the writings of Paul and James. First, this section does not present works o as a basis of salvation but as a basis of condemnation. No one will be excused on the basis of works; o in fact, all are condemned on that basis. Only through faith in Christ o do we obtain the righteousness God requires. In theory, if one lived perfectly without sin o he would be righteous in God s sight. In practice, all have sinned, o so God can judge no one righteous based on his works. Thus, the means of salvation is still faith in Christ. o The believer receives imputed righteousness from Christ. God will judge the believer o based on Christ s sinless life, not his own past sinful record. This emphasis on deeds does show us, however, o that saving faith consists of more than just easy believism. Under divine inspiration o Paul established that no one can be saved apart from doing good, o but he waited until subsequent chapters to explain how one can do good, which is only by the life of faith. Salvation is designed o to produce actual righteousness in our lives. Faith that does not produce works is valueless. o Genuine faith will always bear fruit in the form of good conduct.
It is the invariable teaching of the Bible o and not the peculiar viewpoint of any one writer or group of writers o that judgment will be on the basis of works, even though salvation is all about grace. Works are important. o They are the outward expression of what the person is deep down inside. In the believer their works o are the expression of faith, in the unbeliever their works are the expression of unbelief. The Jew held that salvation was bound up with the law. o Very well, Paul is saying here, let s look at what that means. It means that a person s works, o not his claims to belong to a favored group, are the basis of the judgments of God. For God will render to each according to his works. o The Jew cannot rest in his imagined security of privilege o but he must look to the day when his works will be subjected to the divine scrutiny. Paul is inviting him to consider how o his own works will stand up on the Day of Judgment. Verse 7: To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life: The next four verses o contain this beautiful piece of literature that present us with a contrast. It is the contrast between two life choices: o faith and obedience o versus unbelief and disobedience. Those who patiently continue in faith doing good, o thereby seeking glory, honor, and immortality will inherit eternal life.
Those who do not obey the truth o but are self-seeking and unrighteous will receive God s wrath and indignation patient continuance This is a unique kind of persistence. o It is used of the soldier who, in the thick of a hard battle, gives as much as he gets; he is not dismayed by the blows he receives, o but fights on to the end. Paul says there is a kind of godly persistence o that is linked to doing right. It is this attitude about living right and doing right o that is willing to endure some hardships and trials along the way o because it recognizes that what it is striving for will not be found in this life. It is persistence in the pursuit of glory o and honor and immortality. Glory is a divine attribute as is honor and immortality. o The thing that the righteous saints of God persist in their pursuit of is not something that can be obtained o in this life. o It is the pursuit of heavenly things. It is the pursuit of eternal life. It is the pursuit of the gift of God. Verse 8: But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, As Paul turns to those who do not o seek the things of God, he uses the word But to introduce the contrast. Paul defines the contentious ones o as those who do not obey the truth but, instead, obey unrighteousness.
This is the contrast. o The righteous ones, out of faith, obey God. Their faith is actualized o in their obedience to the word of God. Their faith in God is demonstrated o by the life that they live. In contrast the unrighteous, o the contentious, do not obey truth. They do not obey God. This is the evidence of their lack of faith in God, o they do not obey the word of God. Rather they obey unrighteousness. And to them God has reserved indignation and wrath. o The believer, who demonstrates his belief through his obedience to God will receive everlasting life o but the unbeliever, who demonstrates his unbelief by his disobedience of God, will receive the wrath of God. One thing to note is that both the believer o and the unbeliever are in submission to something. o Both obey something. Both submit themselves to some power. The believer lives in obedience to God. o He submits himself to God. He lives a life of submission to God. The unbeliever, on the other hand, o lives in obedience to unrighteousness. He submits himself to sin. He exercises his liberty from God o by putting himself in bondage to unrighteousness. He lives a life that is submitted o to the carnal desires o and whims of the flesh, he is bound to unrighteousness, a slave to the depraved desires of the flesh.
Verse 9: Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile; All evildoers will receive tribulation and anguish. o This Judgment of God will come first to the Jew then to the Gentile, just as salvation did. Tribulation is outward. o It is a kind of oppression. Anguish, however is inward, o it is an agony of the soul. Both Tribulation and Anguish o are the reward that is coming upon the soul of every man that does evil. Verse 10: But glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile: Once again but introduces a contrast. o Paul is turning from those who do evil to those who are right with God. Those who do good o will receive glory, honor, and peace. This reward is also available to both Jews and Gentiles. Perhaps there is an outward and inward element o present here too just as was present in the contrasting verse. Glory and honor could be construed, as an outward blessing o while peace is certainly indicative of the state of the inner man. If we are to harmonize the doctrine of judgment o based on works that is presented in Romans chapter 2 with the doctrine of justification by faith in chapter 3, o we must recognize that faith and obedience are inseparable. They are two sides of the same coin. o It was Dietrich Bonhoeffer who observed, Only he who believes is obedient, and only he who is obedient believes.
We must realize that when Paul spoke of faith o he had in mind the obedience of faith. The lesson here is not that we will be justified by doing o but rather that doing is an integral part of believing. Works will be the final test of judgment. o Faith which does not produce works is declared to be useless. Godliness is of no value o unless it produces actual righteousness. Faith is not a license to sin with impunity. o Rather, faith is the means of overcoming sin and living holy. If faith doesn t produce fruit in your life, o then your faith is dead and it will be declared vain. o That is the consistent message of scripture. This passage of Scripture shows us the importance o of actually dealing with sin in our lives first, by seeking to prevent sin and, second, by repenting of any sin we commit. Mental faith alone o or a onetime decision of faith alone will not suffice. Chapter 2 teaches that God will judge us o on the basis of whether or not our lives are actually holy. Subsequent chapters will teach o that faith is the only means by which we can live holy. In the end, it matters how you live. Verse 11: For there is no respect of persons with God. This final verse of today s lesson o introduces a third principle of divine judgment: (3) God s judgment will be impartial.
God will judge everyone fairly and without favoritism. o Both Jews and Gentiles have the same choice between salvation and condemnation. Paul inserted this idea in the previous 4 verses. o By emphatically including the Jew first and the Gentile he was indicating that God will not overlook the sins o of His own people; o in fact, He judges them first! He doesn t play favorites. Favoritism. o Preference. None of that will affect the judgments of God. He will not weight things in favor of the rich or the poor. o Nor will he favor any one nation, or race. In the end we can rely on the fact that justice will be done. And for the sinful that is very frightening. o There will be no get out of jail free cards, no free passes on the basis of extreme circumstances, o God is no respecter of persons, he will judge all men equally. Close In the end, Paul s message is simple and powerful. o Some think that because they have a special revelation about God they are excused from obeying the word of God. Others may think that because of certain circumstances in their lives o that they are exempt from certain facets of the word of God. Still others don t believe o that it is fair for God to hold them accountable to the whole of scripture. But Paul has spelled out, o in a pretty powerful manner, the continual truth of scripture: God will judge each man according to his works. God is no respecter of persons, o he doesn t grant any free passes, every man, woman, and child
will be measured according to the word of God. He will judge them all in righteousness o and his judgment will be good. The key to faith is obedience. o If I told you that I had a crisp clean $100 bill that I would give to the first person to come running down the center aisle, o your belief in my statement would be evidenced by the physical act of running down the center aisle. o However, since you haven t come running I can know, from your actions, that you don t really believe that my wife would give me a crisp clean $100 bill. o So you didn t come running. The relationship between faith and works o springs forth from obedience that is based on faith. My works will never save me. o But everyone that is saved, according to Paul, will have works in their lives. Faith always produces obedience o which yields works. In every case. o That s the measure of true, biblical, faith. It is more than mere assent, it is a belief that results in obedience.