Text: Romans 2:12-16

Title:God’s Impartial Judgment of All Humanity

Truth:God’s judgment on all sinners is fair. No one gets special favor.

Date/Location: Sunday March 10, 2013 at FBC

Introduction

The Bible continues to show the moralistic hypocrite that he falls short of eternal life, alongside all other sinners.

I. The Impartiality of God’s Judgment, v. 12-13

Verse 12 offers an explanation as to God’s impartiality in judgment.

A. For those who have sinned without law, their judgment and perishing will be without law. God will not judge them on the basis of a law that they did not have—the Mosaic Law.

B. As well, God will judge those who were given the MosaicLaw by that law. They will be judged on the basis of what they had, and, verse 13 adds, what they did with it. Being hearers only will not suffice. Rather, those who do the law will be justified.

C. The tenor of the text is negative for both the without-law-people and the in-the-law people. What I mean is this: the without-law-people are going to perish. That’s bad. But the in-the-law people will be judged by the law. That may seem better, as if they are going to be OK…until you go to the next step in your thinking and realize that no one has ever kept the law, but has broken all of it (James 2:10). So, they too will perish. Even before getting to Romans 3:10, Paul has already given away his conclusion about the sinfulness of mankind. Every person is in deep trouble.

D. Verse 13 helps us to understand this point. Just having the law does not help anyone. The law has to be “done” by a person in order for a person to be justified.The fact that no one can “do” the law 100% is what dooms everyone who tries to keep the 10 commandments, or any other divine law, in order to obtain God’s favor.

Application: In what do you trust?

Paul unmasks the person who trusts in “hearing the law” rather than in “doing the law.” Being a hearer and not a doer is useless. It has no spiritual value.

We learn the same thing in James 1:22-27 regarding our hearing of the preaching of God’s Word. We can deceive ourselves into thinking we are OK because we are associated with a gospel-preaching, Bible-teaching church. But if we are not doers of the word that we are hearing, we are indeed deceived.

E. So to review: there are two kinds of people in view in these verses:

Gentile / Jew
sinned without law / sinned in the law (of Moses)
will perish without law / judged by the law(of Moses)
(The outcome does not sound good.) / (The outcome doesn’t sound so bad…until you realize that no one has ever kept the law of God.)
Have not heard the law / Have heard the law

Paul talks about two groups of people, but he is thinking of them in individual terms. People are not justified or condemned as a monolithic group.

F. Neither group can legitimately claim unfairness in God, because everyone is judged to fall short of God’s standard.All are treated equally. The Gentile is judged apart from the law. The Jew is judged by his law. He cannot be exonerated, since all have sinned, and cannot be justified, since that is not a capability that the law possesses (Romans 3:20).

G. This passage might be read in a way that supports the salvation of those who “do good” or those who have not heard the gospel because “they are doing the best they can with what they have.” However, the intent of the text is not to encourage anyone that they are OK with God. Rather, it is to emphasize the true fairness of God and the lost-ness of mankind who fail by whatever standard they are judged. In other words, the tone of the context is not positive. It is negative/pessimistic. This Scripture does not give comfort to those who think they can work their way to salvation, nor does it comfort the unevangelized.

II. The Law of the Heart and the Conscience, v. 14-15

What we have read so far still leaves some questions in our minds. For example, how is it “fair” that the Gentiles do not have a law, yet are judged to perish? The Jews at least have a written code that makes clear the standard for them. Do they have a leg up? Another question is this: how can the Gentiles can be justified without knowing what the standard of behavior is?The answer is given in verses 14-15.

A. The Gentiles have a heart-written law (so do the Jews)

1. The Gentiles do not have THE law, but the Gentiles do have A law.

a. Should we capitalize law or not? I believe it is most accurate to understand the law as the Law of Moses, so, yes, it should be capitalized when it refers to “the” law that the Jews have.

b. The idea of A law in 2:14 seems to refer to some subset of the Mosaic Law. The reason I believe so is that there are esoteric aspects of the Law that the Gentiles would not understand inherently—about the particular regulations of sacrifice, priesthood, food laws, ritual cleanliness, Sabbath, etc. These things are not evident without special revelation from God.

2. This law is built into their nature and causes them to behave properly, at least some of the time. For example, people know certain things are wrong, and they refrain from doing those things. They do not do everything as bad as they could. They do some good things. When the text says that they are “a law to themselves” it means that they regulate themselves, as opposed to an external written code doing the regulating. In that regulation, then, they give testimony to the fact that they have a law from God.

3. The Gentiles do not make up their own law. No one is above the law, as the saying goes, although some people try to be.

4. The Gentiles do not have the law written in the heart in the same way as Jeremiah 31:33. That would mean that all Gentiles are partakers of the New Covenant already.To the contrary, this passage is speaking of a basic understanding of right and wrong, not a full knowledge of God and His ways, and not one mediated by an indwelling ministry of the Holy Spirit.

5. The Gentile cannot claim that God is unfair, because he or she has in fact received a law that is sufficient to judge them by.

6. The Jewish reader may be shocked to hear such positive words about the Gentiles. Such heathen are, in the unbelieving Jewish mind, so far from God that they have no chance whatsoever. To hear that they have a built-in law seems preposterous.

The passage, focusing as it does on the Gentile, gives the idea that the Jew cannot be boastful. They are not better than the so-called heathen!

Sidebar: The Fairness of God

Call up to your thinking the content of verse 11. It says that there is no partiality with God. God does not have unfair bias or prejudice or favoritism. That is a rock solid truth that cannot be legitimately assailed.

You may hear someone claim that God is unfair, or make another argument based on an assumption that God is unfair. But you know that such a claim must necessarily be false because God is fair. He is the definition of fair. He may not conduct His affairs in the way that an individual prefers or according to that person’s definition of fairness, but God always conducts Himself in perfect accord with holiness and righteousness.

Suppose someone says, “It is not fair that God sends non-Christians to Hell.” But you know that God is fair. So you can proceed to discuss the claim with the person with full confidence that you have the right foundational principles. You might ask them what they mean by fair. You might ask them, “If God does not like sin, how can He permit everyone into Heaven?” You might ask them how God should treat people who reject God and His revelation outright. Then ask, “If people reject God, is it fair to override their rejection?”“Is it fair that they could sin as much as they want and expect no repercussions from it?”

B. The Gentiles have a conscience (so do the Jews)

1. So all people have two things: a law written on the heart, and a conscience. The understanding of right and wrong is built in to every person. This is a feature of creation, of the nature of man, of the image of God, and is present in every person.

2. The conscience is a deciding function. It has been present in mankind since the beginning (Genesis 42:21, 2 Samuel 24:10).

3. It can accuse. This word is almost always used in a legal context. It reproaches or brings charges against you. It makes you feel “bad” when you have done a wrong thing.

4. It can defend. This word means to speak up in one’s own defense against charges that are false. You do not feel bad about whatever you are defending, and in fact may feel good about it. The word for defending in v. 15 is from the same root as the “excuse” part of “without excuse” in 2:1 and 1:20.

5. The conscience mediates the understanding of right and wrong by working “with” the heart to inform the mind with accusing or excusing type of thoughts. So it communicates through thoughts.

6. The conscience is a good thing to have, but it has been corrupted by sin, by bad training, and by continued rejection of its thoughts.

7. It is a Christian virtue to cultivate more sensitivity in the conscience. That is done by reading the Word, hearing good preaching, sitting and thinking about what you have done, and praying.

8. How does the unbeliever know what is right and wrong in Romans 1:32? He knows because of this twin provision of God—the heart-written law and the conscience.

III. God’s Judgment, v. 16

A. As we said before at Romans 1:20, no person, Jew or Gentile, is judged for what they do not have. That sounds good. But the problem is that they are judged in accordance with what they do have. For the Gentile, there is no written law code, but there is general revelation in the creation as well as the heart-law and conscience. These are enough to leave a person without excuse and to condemn them. The Jew has all the benefits of general revelation and the heart-written law and the conscience as well as the added benefit of direct written revelation from God and a long line of prophets sent by God. This subjects them to a more specific judgment which is no less serious than that of the Gentiles.

B. There is a question as to where the parentheses should go in these verses, or if there should be any at all. They are not found in the Greek text. The NKJV and KJV have parentheses, but I believe they are not placed properly. The NIV has the best placement of the parentheses. Many translations do not have them at all (ESV, CSB, NASB, NET; see Douglas Moo’s commentary on Romans in support of this).The difference in meaning makes enough difference that we have to examine the question.

Depending on where you put the parentheses, you could read verse 16 in several ways.

a. If the parentheses contain verses 13-15, the un-parenthesized text would say,
When those with and without the law will be judged; or

b. If the parentheses contain verses 14-15, the un-parenthesized text would say,
When doers of the law (and not hearers only) will be justified; or

c. If there are no parentheses, the text would say,
When the Gentiles’ conscience will accuse or defend them.

1. The first thing we can learn from this is that something seemingly insignificant in a Bible translation can make a big difference. With God’s word, it is especially important to get the translation right.

2. Second, we need to make a decision as to which option conveys the true meaning. Regarding option (a), to say that those who will be judged will be judged on the day when God will judge seems a bit redundant. Regarding option (c), it seems that the human conscience works throughout history, not only at the day of judgment. This leaves option (b), which does make good sense. People who are doers of the law will be justified in the day when God judges, because God’s judgment does include deeds (2:6).“Will be justified” from verse 13 is a future tense. This points to future judgment, as verse 16 indicates.

3. To boil it down, what I am saying is that you can read from verse 13 and skip to verse 16 to get the sense of what Paul is saying. Of course, you cannot completely skip 14-15, because they are connected closely to the case Paul is making.

C. Some thoughts on God’s Judgment

1. There is coming a day when God will judge you. Every person faces this reality (Hebrews 9:27). The Jews, the moralists, the do-gooders cannot escape judgment. We can read verses like 2 Corinthians 5:10 and Romans 14:10 to show the judgment of believers; and Revelation 20:11-15 for the judgment of unbelievers.

2. This judgment will be carried out by Jesus Christ, God the Son. See Acts 17:31, as well as John 5:21-27 (esp. 22 and 27).

3. This judgment will uncover the secrets of men. You can have no secrets from Jesus. God knows everything about your life. You might as well give up any hidden sins right now, because God knows all about them as if they were published in the newspaper for all to read. 1 Cor. 4:5. Eph. 5:12. 1 Cor. 14:25 talks about secrets being revealed at salvation—with repentance and confession.

4. This judgment will be according to the gospel.

Conclusion: How does God judge mankind?

1. God judges according to truth (2:2).

2. God judges according to hard and unrepentant hearts (2:5).

3. God judges according to deeds (2:6).

The above does not leave us in a good state. But…

4. God judges according to the gospel (2:16).The content of that gospel has been alluded to in chapter 1 and will come to fuller view in chapters 3 and following.

MAP

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