Romans 2

v.1

You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things.

v.2

Now we know that God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth.

v.3

So when you, a mere man, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment?

v.4

Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness leads you toward repentance?

v.5

But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed.

“Storing up wrath against yourself” (2:5) reverses the Jewish concept that obeying the Torah stored up for oneself and other Israelites a treasury of merits (e.g., Tob. 4:9–10; Pss. Sol. 9.3–5; 4 Ezra 6.5; 7.77; 2 Bar. 14.12) by asserting quite to the contrary that attempting to attain merit before God by obeying the Torah actually reserves wrath for a person in the future. James Dunn puts this well: “The pious interlocutor assumes that by his faithfulness to the covenant he is laying up treasure in heaven; but by his failure to recognize the need for a more radical repentance he is actually storing up not ‘good,’ not ‘life,’ but wrath.”

It becomes clear from this structure that Paul’s message is simple: God is fair and will judge Jew and Gentile alike according to their works. Those who live a life of good works will enter into eternal life, but those who live a life of evil will enter into divine judgment. As noted earlier, this powerful and yet simple contrast in destinies recalls Deuteronomy 27–30, especially 30:15–20 and the “two ways” tradition specified there: if Israel obeys the stipulations of the Torah, they will experience the blessing of the covenant, which is life, but if they disregard the Torah, they will experience the curse of the covenant, which is wrath in the form of exile (cf. 30:4–5).

But does the teaching in Romans 2:6–11 contradict Paul’s gospel that justification before God at the final judgment depends solely on faith and not on works (so Rom. 1:16–17)? Not when one keeps in mind the overarching purpose of Romans 1:18–3:20, which is that Paul wants to show that acceptance before a righteous God is based on perfectly following his law, which, in fact, no one can do, not even Jews. Coming to grips with that reality, Paul hopes, will drive the sinner into the arms of God’s grace and mercy in Jesus Christ (see Rom. 3:21–4:25).

CMarvinPate

v.6

God “will give to each person according to what he has done.”

v.7

To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life.

v.8

But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger.

v.9

There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile;

v.10

but glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.

v.11

For God does not show favoritism.

v.12

All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law.

Paul’s point in 2:12 is that because God is impartial, both Gentiles and Jews will be judged based on the amount of revelation to which they have access: for Gentiles, natural law (though that overlaps with the Torah [see 2:14]); for Jews, the Torah. The criterion of divine judgment is obeying/doing God’s revelation, not just hearing it (2:13). marvinpate

The Jews have received a revelation of God in Scripture that has been denied the Gentile. But in this section Paul shows that Gentiles do have a law, and this suffices as a basis for judgement. Before discussing this law, however, Paul sees in it no power to save, for “all who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law.” Gentiles do not perish for the reason that they lack the law which Jews possess, but because they sin. In speaking of Jews, Paul says they “will be judged” by the law, but this does not imply exoneration, for no Jew has succeeded in keeping the law. The expression “all who sin under the law” could strike a Jewish reader as incongruous, but Paul is linking sin with law deliberately in order to prepare the way for his next statement—that the righteous are not those who “hear the law” (cf. Jas 1:22-24) Rather, doers of the law are the one who will be “declared righteous” (v.13; GK 1467).

harrison

v.13

For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous.

v.14-15

(Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law, ¹⁵since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them.)

v.16

This will take place on the day when God will judge men’s secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares.

v.17

Now you, if you call yourself a Jew; if you rely on the law and brag about your relationship to God;

v.18

if you know his will and approve of what is superior because you are instructed by the law;

v.19

if you are convinced that you are a guide for the blind, a light for those who are in the dark,

v.20

an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of infants, because you have in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth—

v.21

you, then, who teach others, do you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal?

v.22

You who say that people should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?

v.23

You who brag about the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law?

v.24

As it is written: “God’s name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.”

v.25

Circumcision has value if you observe the law, but if you break the law, you have become as though you had not been circumcised.

v.26

If those who are not circumcised keep the law’s requirements, will they not be regarded as though they were circumcised?

v.27

The one who is not circumcised physically and yet obeys the law will condemn you who, even though you have the written code and circumcision, are a lawbreaker.

v.28-29

A man is not a Jew if he is only one outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. ²⁹No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a man’s praise is not from men, but from God.