The Epistle of Romans

Chapter 2

Romans 2:1 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. ² But we know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things. ³ And do you think this, O man, you who judge those practicing such things, and doing the same, that you will escape the judgment of God?

As we enter into chapter 2 of Romans, we take a serious look at those who claim they do not commit those sins as listed in chapter 1, but judge those who do. God tells us that this is also inexcusable in His sight. Pride sets in and love goes out the window.

How we want to be treated is so reflected on how we treat others - whether it is to give out love, love is returned. When we give out kindness, we receive it back. Do we desire to be forgiven, then we too must forgive. "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." Or, it could say, how you treat others is how you will be treated back. The is a principle that God instilled within mankind toward one another. It is also a principle that God uses with us. Do not judge others or God will judge you.

 ⁴ Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?

Can you see how wonderfully kind, tolerant, and patient God is with us? He wants us to do the same thing with others. You see, His kindness toward us in this principle of not judging others is intended to turn you and me away from our sins. When we are always blaming others and can't see the sin in our own lives, peace and joy are gone because we are always looking at the sins of others. I don't think anyone of us deep down want to harbor pride and judgment toward others, because God put that principle within us of consequences of sin, thus helping us avoid it at all costs. Therefore, can we then never despise, but embrace, how God as our loving Father teaches us His children how to behave toward others. That's not wrath, but God's loving kindness toward us to show us how to live a emotionally healthy, happy life in a world with others around us. 

 ⁵ 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, ⁶ who “will render to each one according to his deeds”: ⁷ eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor, and immortality; ⁸ but to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness—indignation and wrath, ⁹ tribulation and anguish, on every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek; ¹⁰ but glory, honor, and peace to everyone who works what is good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. ¹¹ For there is no partiality with God.

Sadly, there are many who are stubborn and refuse to turn from their sin. Their hearts are unrepentant and storing up sin upon sin. While God is presently patient, a day is coming when the day of righteous judgment is coming. For on that day, everyone will be judged either to eternal life with Christ or the eternal lake of fire with Satan. God will pay back everyone for his or her deeds.

• For unbelievers, everyone will individually stand before God at the Great White Throne Judgement at the end of time. The Judgment books will be opened and if a person's name is NOT written in the Book of Life, their sentence will automatically be the Eternal Lake of Fire for all eternity. Next the Book of Deeds will be opened and all sin will be exposed. This book will not include any good deeds, for good deeds will not get you into heaven, nor will good deeds lessen the sentence into the Eternal Lake of Fire. Every unrepentant sin, including unbelief, however, be exposed and judged accordingly. Then the 3rd book will be opened which will determine the punishment experienced in the Eternal Lake of Fire.
  
  
  • Sadly, there will be some who claim to be Christians who went to church, may even said a prayer to accept Jesus; however, his or life never changed. Maybe their parents were Christians and they assumed they were Christians as well. Remember, believe and trust means to change one's heart about Christ, choosing to follow in His ways. They could have even taught Sunday School, or did some good deeds and are expecting to go to heaven. In the words of Jesus:
    
    Matt 7:21-23 "Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. ²² On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ ²³ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
    
    
  • Will it please God to send people to hell? Absolutely not. 
    
    2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some count slackness; but is longsuffering to you-ward, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.  
     

    1 Timothy 2:4 (God) who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
    
    
• For believers in Christ:  Each and every believer will stand before Christ to give an account of his or her deeds at the Judgment Seat of Christ. Again three books will be opened. The first book - the Book of Life will have his or her name written in IF they have repented of their sins, confessed Jesus as Savior and Lord, and asking for a heart change to walk the Christian life, following after Christ. Book #2 - the Book of Deeds will be opened and everything a believer did for Christ will be listed in this book - every thought, word, and deed. While the deeds will go through a sifting to make sure your heart was right in doing the good deed, what will come out will come out as pure gold. There will be no judgment for sin for believers in this judgment because Christ paid the penalty for our sin on the cross of Calvary. The Judgment Seat of Christ consists of all reward - no punishment. The more we served the Lord, according to His will for us, the greater the rewards. Book #3 will determine how much rewards we will receive.
  
  
  • Sadly, for some, they will make it into heaven by the skin of their teeth because they did very little for Christ while upon the earth. For them, there will be no rewards, while others will be enjoying the fruit of their labor while they served Christ upon the earth.
    

A word of caution here.
The Apostle Paul began this chapter by instructing us that we are to judge no man, lest we be judged. The only heart we can judge is our own. As Christians, we cannot make an assumption that someone isn't a Christian, even though they claim they are, if their life doesn't show it. Matthew 7:16 tell us we can tell a person by the fruit in their life, meaning we can judge the fruit of their words or actions, but never another person's heart. Only God sees the heart of man and judges accordingly.

This applies to all people - Jew or Gentile, male or female, slave or free. God shows no partiality. He will judge everyone according to what they have done, giving eternal life to those who do the will of God, seeking after Him. Sadly, it will grieve Him to pour out His anger and wrath on those who live for themselves, who refuse to obey the truth and instead lived lives of wickedness. 

Wickedness means anything that is contrary to the will of God.

Glory, peace and honor comes to all who purpose to follow after Christ - both Jew and Gentile. God shows no favoritism. The question automatically arises here: What about those who never have heard about Jesus or God? Will they go to hell?

• As we brought out in chapter 1, God has created within all mankind a knowledge of Who He is. It is through our conscience that we know Who God is, and that sin does exist. When we violate God's laws, our conscious tells us.
• In addition, God has shown Himself through the heavens - the sun, moon and stars - night and day, rain, snow, and the four seasons. Fall, winter, spring and summer runs like clockwork, having a divine Creator. 
• Upon the earth, God has revealed Himself in nature - the dirt, trees, foliage, vegetation - all coming from a seed, germinating, and it grows into fullness and blossoms. In its season, it withers, goes dormant, and then at just the right time, God begins the growing process all over again.  
• The fish of the sea, birds of the air, and the animal kingdom are a wonder of God's creation. God knew that after the Mosaic flood, these creatures would provide food for mankind.
• And then finally, God created man after His image as an eternal being. God built within man to replicate Himself so that generation after generation man could replicate himself.

Avoid hardening your heart 

⁵ 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, ⁶ who “will render to each one according to his deeds”: ⁷ eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor, and immortality; ⁸ but to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness—indignation and wrath, ⁹ tribulation and anguish, on every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek; ¹⁰ but glory, honor, and peace to everyone who works what is good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. ¹¹ For there is no partiality with God.

Remembering this word was given to Roman believers in Christ - the Apostle Paul is telling them that because they are stubborn and refuse to turn from their sin - which is hardening their heart, and what they are doing is storing up terrible punishment for themselves. A day of anger is coming when God's righteous judgment will come down on them and be revealed to everyone. Guaranteed, God will judge everyone according to their deeds. 

• For those believers who keep doing good, seeking after doing good - glory and honor and immorality that God so freely offers is promised throughout eternity. 
• But for those who live for themselves, refusing to obey God's truth, they are living their lives in wickedness. The word "wickedness" simply means anything that is contrary to the will of God. Trouble and calamity only await these people. God's anger and wrath will be shown to them. Nothing is promised for believers who keep doing evil - and it doesn't matter whether you are Jew or Gentile. For God does not show favoritism. 

Since eternal life with God carries no punishment, this could mean only one thing - a Christian can lose his or her salvation. 

How God judges

¹² For as many as have sinned without law will also perish without law, and as many as have sinned in the law will be judged by the law ¹³ (for not the hearers of the law are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the law will be justified; ¹⁴ for when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves, ¹⁵ who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them) ¹⁶ in the day when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel.

Very simple - If you, as a Jew lived under the Law of Moses, that is how you will be judged. For it is not merely the hearers of the Torah whom God considers righteous, rathter, it is the doer of what the Torah says who will be made righteous in God's sight.

Then the question of whether Old Testament Jews will be saved because Jesus didn't come until the 1st Century A.D., the Bible tells us this:

• The Law of Moses, foretold of the Messiah's coming. Whether through the Torah or the writings of the prophets, Messiah was promised over 250 times throughout the Old Testament. A Jew then was commanded to follow the Law - following it meant they anticipated the coming of the Messiah.
• They were God's chosen people who were designed to one day lead the Gentile people to the Lord because God gave them knowledge of Jesus first. 
  • Jesus, as a Jew, came to the Jewish people first
  • Jesus commanded the Jews to go out into the world and lead the Gentiles to Jesus
  • Jesus came to set all mankind free.
• If you, however, as a Gentile did not live under the Law of Moses, that is how you will be judged. God will judge you by the law that lived in your heart. Remember, God has laid His law upon the hearts of all mankind. Your conscience tells you whether you are doing right or wrong. We cannot escape that. The law you live under then will be the law by which you will be judged.
• That means for everyone who has heard of Jesus - whether before or after the cross, is responsibile for that knowledge.
• Regardless of which law you will be judged under, God goes to the secrets of your heart, knowing everything. In other words, you will be judged by all sin that goes on in your heart - in thought, word and deed.

Remember, the Apostle Paul is speaking to Christians in Rome. All this to say, without Jesus, fully believing and trusting in Him, which means living a repentance lifestyle - trusting in Him for what happens in your life tells you how you will be judged.  In other words, living an unrepentant lifestyle with or without Jesus is VERY dangerous.

The Jews are as guilty as the Gentiles

¹⁷ Indeed you are called a Jew, and rest on the law, and make your boast in God, ¹⁸ and know His will, and approve the things that are excellent, being instructed out of the law, ¹⁹ and are confident that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, ²⁰ an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, having the form of knowledge and truth in the law. ²¹ You, therefore, who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that a man should not steal, do you steal? ²² You who say, “Do not commit adultery,” do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? ²³ You who make your boast in the law, do you dishonor God through breaking the law? 

The Apostle Paul goes beyond the comfort zone of these Jewish believers in Rome. "You call yourselves Jews because you have been instructed in the Torah? You know and rely on God’s law and then you boast about your special relationship with God. Then you believe you can lead the blind for people who are lost in darkness. You are arrogant enough to think you can instruct the ignorant and teach children the ways of God, thinking you have all of God's laws and you alone hold all the knowledge of His truth. Yet, why don't you teach yourselves?"

• "You tell others not to steal, but how about you? Are you stealing?
• You say it is wrong to commit adultery, but do you commit adultery?
• You condemn idolatry, but do you use the items stolen from pagan temples?"

While he is not directly accusing them, he is asking them whether they are guilty.

²⁴ For “the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you,” as it is written.

You are proud, thinking you know the law, but you dishonor God by but are so proud of knowing the law, but you dishonor God by breaking His Law.  Are you not surprised that the Gentiles blaspheme the name of God because of you.” You are dishonoring God by your behavior.

Circumcision of No Avail

²⁵ For circumcision is indeed profitable if you keep the law; but if you are a breaker of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. ²⁶ Therefore, if an uncircumcised man keeps the righteous requirements of the law, will not his uncircumcision be counted as circumcision? ²⁷ And will not the physically uncircumcised, if he fulfills the law, judge you who, even with your written code and circumcision, are a transgressor of the law? ²⁸ For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; ²⁹ but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God.

So much validity has been made over circumcision over the centuries. Some people lean on circumcision for their salvation, while other replace it with baptism. The reality is that circumcision is only profitable IF you keep the Law, but IF you break the Law, your circumcision is no longer useful. 

• It matters not whether you were born of Jewish parents or that you have gone through the ceremony of circumcision. Why? Because a "true Jew" is one whose heart is right with God.

Circumcision is not merely obeying the letter of the Law, but is is a change of heart produced by the Holy Spirit. A person who has had that change of heart produced by the Holy Spirit seeks his praise from God, not from people.

It doesn't matter if you rely upon outside circumstances if your heart is not right with God whether it is circumcision, baptism, or any other outside circumstances. Your heart must be right for the outside circumstances to be effective in your life. For then, a "true change of heart" desires to please God and not man. The real Jew is one inwardly, and the true circumcision is of the heart - spiritual, which turns to outward righteousness to please God.