Romans 2:1-29
Romans 2:1-29
Background
Remember where we left off last week? Paul’s building a case for why the whole world - both Gentile and Jew! - are without excuse for sin and in need of salvation from God’s justice. He’s striving to level the playing field between people of all stripes, so as to then build a case for unity and commonality in Christ. He began last time by pointing out how bad “those people are over there” (the pagan Gentiles). This week, we see him point his finger towards “you,” his Roman Christian audience.
GOD DOESN’T PLAY FAVORITES
Paul just rattled off a list of “all unrighteousness” that pagan Gentiles are guilty of: “evil, greed, wickedness, envy, murder, quarrels, deceit, malice. They’re gossips, slanderers, God-haters, arrogant, proud, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, senseless, untrustworthy, unloving, and unmerciful.” And now he points the accusing finger away from the Gentiles and towards his readers: “therefore, every one of you who judges is without excuse.”
His reasoning? Because they do the same things that they’re judging everyone else for doing. They love God’s blessings: his kindness, restraint, and patience. But they’ve seem to forgotten that they, too, are liable to judgment for sin, and that God’s kindness is meant to lead them to repentance. They might be God’s covenant people, but God doesn’t play favorites or sweep facts under the rug when it comes to his own justice.
Have you ever been put in a situation where someone was playing favorites? What was that like? What dynamics did that create in your relationships? Was there someone who could get away with anything, while someone else who could never do anything right?
Remember the situation in Rome. Can you recall what the historical background was and what relationships were like between Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians?
Why would Paul push back against the notion that God’s going to “go easy” on Jewish Christians because they’ve been his covenant people? Consider…
…how that would impact the unity of the church in Rome.
…what that would say about God’s perfect sense of justice.
…what that would say about the importance of doing good according to the law.
Paul basically says, “Anytime you point the finger at someone else, you’re pointing it back at yourself.” What does he mean by this? How can he say that?
He goes on to remind his audience that God’s passive wrath from last time isn’t the only kind of wrath to come. God will actively repay everyone on the day of judgment. Who will get what? On what basis?
How does this square-up with being saved and inheriting eternal life by grace through faith in Jesus alone? We can’t earn our salvation, and yet he says that we’re rewarded or punished based on what we do.
It’s Doing Good, not just Knowing Good, that Matters
Paul goes on to say that it’s not enough for the Jewish Christians to simply hear what God has said is good in the Law; they have to do it. The righteous don’t merely know it in their head, but they live by it. People can sin and die whether or not they have the law. And people can do what the law would have encouraged them to do - even if they’ve never heard the law in their entire life! Regardless, it’s not dead faith that merely hears, but living faith that believes and does that will be justified before God.
(Consider what James says about being justified in James 2:14-26. Neither he nor Paul are encouraging “salvation by works.” Rather, both are painting a picture of salvation by faith that make dead people come alive to Christ as new creations who live - under grace and by the Spirit - in the here-and-now for him.)
Surely we know plenty of non-Christians who are “good people” who do “good things.” How does Paul incorporate those folks in his arguments here? What does he say about them?
When Paul says that Gentiles who do the law without knowing the law become a law to themselves, what do you think he means? What point does this prove?
How could a commonality of “conscience” be an entry point of conversation for a non-believing neighbor about the Lord?
Again, God doesn’t play favorites. How does the second paragraph hint at God’s fairness when judging people based on what they know? What do people know (based on last week and this week)?
Many people have never heard about Jesus - and never will. While this is a painful reality, how does this passage help us think about God’s justice here?
It’s Not Wearing the Jersey, but Playing the Game That Matters
Despite having all the knowledge of the law - so much that they’re willing to teach others the law! - Paul says that Jewish Christians are just as susceptible to breaking the law as anyone. And in fact, it’s worse when they break the law, because they know better - and the watching world knows that they know better. “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles” when they do that!
Circumcision (which was the sign of the old covenant) was a great thing - even for Jewish Christians! It marked God’s covenant faithfulness to them and their people throughout the OT. But it actually becomes a liability when they then live outside of the covenant and break the law they’re wearing the sign of. Paul goes out of his way to make the point that being a true member of God’s people isn’t so much about the outward signs, forms, and formalities that make up the letter of the law, but the spirit of the law that flows from an inward desire to do good according to God’s word. He calls this circumcision of the heart, which was not an original idea of his; it refers to the Old Testament (Deuteronomy 30:6; Jeremiah 4:4).
Do people know that you’re a Christian? If so, how? Do they know it because you attend a church, have been baptized, or mention “spiritual things?” Or do they know it because of the way you love others and conduct yourself?
When you sin against or in the midst of non-believers, what’s your reaction? Do you feel a bigger burden to be “better” around them? Or on the flip side, do you feel more “loose” about holiness around non-believers? Why?
How are public confession, repentance, and humility helpful ways to undo the dishonor we might show the Lord? How can those things actually point people to the gospel in sweet, surprising, refreshing ways?
Consider the weight of what Paul’s saying when he writes that physically uncircumcised men will judge circumcised ones in the kingdom. Or that someone isn’t a Jew just because of a physical marker, but because of their inward circumcision of the heart. What impact do you think this would have on Jewish Christians?
On the flip side, what impact might this have on Gentile Christians?