Romans 2:12-29
The Impartiality of God
In chap. 1, Paul revealed the condition of all humanity under the wrath of God because though they know God they choose not to honor God or be thankful to God. Rather than honoring and glorifying God they have chosen to believe the lie in exchange for the truth of God and worship and serve the creature rather than the Creator.
Well, now in chap. 2, Paul turns to the Jews, who are judging the Gentiles, who Paul describes in chap. 1, who sin themselves against God, and exposes the Jewish peoples' own falling far short of God's glory and how they are equally guilty before God and therefore equally, along with the Gentiles, under the wrath of God.
Picture Paul turning his guns on everyone in chaps. 1-2 and exposing every human being, Jew and Gentile, in falling short of God's glory. As Paul concludes in chap. 3:
What then? Are we better than they? Not at all; for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin; 10 as it is written,“THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE . . . Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, that every mouth may be closed, and all the world may become accountable to God; 20 because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin (Rom. 3:9-10, 19-20).
Paul certainly shocks his readers that the Jews are equally guilty before God and that they stand on the same, level playing field as the Gentiles in their rebellion before God. As we saw last time that God will judge every human being based upon their works, whether or not they live up to the degree of revelation they have received. And God will judge impartially every human being, Jew or Gentile, by their works, whether they were obedient or disobedient to God.
But the Jews will surely object to Paul's line of reasoning arguing that they possess the law of Moses and are circumcised so therefore they have a distinct advantage over the Gentiles. Therefore, Paul continues his line of reasoning in our passage this morning arguing that just because they possess these unique privileges of the covenant, the Law of Moses, circumcision, etc. that this in no way shields the Jews from judgment. God does not save the mere possessors or hearers of those distinct privileges but He saves only the doers of the Law. God requires absolute perfect obedience from either the Jew or Gentile if they have any hope of being saved.
Last time we pointed out how the Jews will be condemned on the day of judgment, even as we have pointed out that the Gentiles will be condemned in chap. 1, because even the Jewish people do not live up to God's revelation of Himself through the law of Moses (cf. vv. 1-11). In essence the Jews "do" the same things as the Gentiles in that they disobey God and therefore God's wrath will be poured out upon both Jews and Gentiles (vv. 1-2).
Now we turn to a very important passage in vv. 12-16 where Paul once again emphasizes the equality and impartiality of God's judgment upon both Jews and Gentiles. Every human being, both Jew and Gentile, will one day stand before God's judgment seat and give an account of their works before God. That is the universal norm by which all humanity will be judged by: by their works.
So, in Paul's argument in chap. 2, he sees the whole world divided into two groups: (1) those who sin without the law of Moses, the Gentiles and (2) those who sin with the law of Moses, the Jews. But everyone is in the same condition:
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23).Notice that Paul sees all humanity in these two conditions: the vast majority of the world is made up of those men and women who were not given the law of Moses. Paul is not arguing that the Gentile world is "lawless" but only that they were not given the unique specific body of commandments written in letters upon stone that God only gave to Israel to separate them from all the other nations of the world. The law is what separates the Jews and the Gentiles (cf. Eph. 2:11-18).
The Jews believed that the Gentiles could experience God's favor only by taking the "yoke of the law" upon themselves. They believed that outside of Israel, the realm of the law, there is no salvation. The Jews believed that simply because they lived with the realm or sphere of the law that they were virtually assured of salvation.
But Paul removes this distinction in one sweeping statement that "all who have sinned without the Law will also perish without the law" AND "all who have sinned under the law will be judged and equally perish by the law." No one is exempt from God's judgment. It is because we are all sinners that we will all perish in God's judgment.
Why? Because as Paul says in v. 13 it not those who have the law in their possession who will be saved, but the actual doers or those who obey the law who have any hope of being saved. The law only has the power to save those who exact perfect obedience. The law is a heavy taskmaster and will not accept any violation of the law. Paul told the Galatians:
10 For as many as are of the works of the Law are under a curse; for it is written, “CURSED IS EVERYONE WHO DOES NOT ABIDE BY ALL THINGS WRITTEN IN THE BOOK OF THE LAW, TO PERFORM THEM” . . . the Law is not of faith; on the contrary, “HE WHO PRACTICES THEM SHALL LIVE BY THEM” (Gal. 3:10, 12).
Each man or woman will only be considered right or just before a holy God if he or she has perfectly kept God's law.
Now note that Paul is not giving us some new way of being saved. Rather, he is clearly setting forth the holy standard that must be met by us in order to be saved. He wants each of us to look at the standard set before us and see how we measure up to God's perfect and holy commandments. And he cries out, "Only the doers of the law have any hope of being saved!" But Paul's next question he will ask, once he finishes this line of reasoning, is, "But who among us are the doers of the law?"
Even the Gentiles, who do not have the specific commandments of the law of Moses, in some generic sense know God's moral will -- they know, as we saw in chap. 1, right from wrong so that even they are without any excuse.
In vv. 14-15 Paul explains what he means in v. 12 that the Gentiles are "without the law." They are without the law in the sense that they were never given, nor was ever intended for them, the unique covenantal commandments of the Law of Moses. Therefore, when God judges them on the day of judgment He will not make His declaration based upon a law that they do not possess.
However, Paul says, the Gentiles do by "nature" or "instinctively" many things that are contained in the 10 Commandments, things like not murdering or stealing or lying. How is this possible if they do not possess the written 10 Commandments as given to Israel? The answer goes back to chap. 1 where Paul tells us that God reveals Himself through nature. The Gentiles have an "unwritten" or "natural" knowledge of God's moral demands, or what we often refer to as "natural law." We might say that since God is revealed through nature then His holy character is equally woven into the fabric of creation. The Gentiles have an innate moral sense of right and wrong, which God has made universally available to all humanity. Therefore, many Gentile unbelievers obey their parents, refrain from murder, theft, adultery, etc. This is all ordered by God's common grace upon humanity.
Paul can look at this restraint among the Gentiles and see that it obviously reveals that God's moral demands are written upon their hearts so that they have a "law to themselves" (v. 14). Notice that Paul does not say that the law itself is written upon their hearts but that it is the "works of the law" that is written upon their hearts. And it is this knowledge of the works of the law or their conscience, revealed through their conduct, that demonstrates their guilt because they in fact do many things that the law demands.
Paul is once again putting the Jews and Gentiles on equal footing. The Jews do not have in the law of Moses a decisive advantage over the Gentiles when it comes to knowing and doing the moral will of God. The Gentiles have, in some way, the same benefit by which they too will be judged by Jesus Christ (v. 16). Jesus will not judge the Gentiles by the Mosaic commandments, which were given exclusively to Israel, but according to the works of the law written upon their hearts (their conscience) through which, as Paul says in v. 16, even their secret thoughts will be examined.
Privileges Not a Special Advantage (vv. 17-29).
It is this special advantage that the Jews believe they possess in covenant with God that Paul will now dismantle throughout the rest of chap. 2. While Paul does not simply dismiss the incredible privileges the Jews possess under the Mosaic Covenant, he does insist that these privileges in no way exempt the Jews from God's judgment, which will be upon the same basis, their works. If anything, these advantages only increase their responsibility before God.
In v. 17, Paul is essentially saying that because the Jews do not live up to the very law that they are seeking to promote and by which they judge others that they do not even deserve to be called a "Jew." And it is because of this failure to live obediently to God's law that they are just as liable as the Gentiles in the coming judgment of God.
Here Paul lists three distinct privileges that the Jews believed gave them special favor with God: they belonged to the chosen people, they were relying upon the law of Moses, and they had a special relationship with God. Paul presents each of these from the standpoint of the Jews who would have agreed completely with what Paul says in vv. 17-20. Paul is simply presenting their own argument before he begins dismantling it.
First, "Jew" referred to the people from the region, which was occupied by the descendents of Judah, and it was applied to the Israelite people after the exile when most of those who returned lived primarily in that area. By Paul's day "Jew" had become a common designation of anyone who belonged to the people of Israel. The term itself separated the Israelite people from all other peoples and nations declaring that they had a special status or covenant with God (cf. 1:16; 2:9, 11).
Second, the Jews possessed the Law of Moses but Paul says that they were "relying" on the law, which means that they viewed their mere possession of the law in some way exempted them from judgment.
Finally, it is because of these special privileges that they were boasting in God and their special relationship to Him.
In v. 18, Paul says that what was true about the Gentiles in chap. 1 is also true of the Jews that they know God's will and are able to distinguish between what is right and wrong because they have been instructed in the law of Moses (cf. 1:19).
But it is because of these unique privileges mentioned that Paul now lists 4 prerogatives that the Jews over the Gentiles (vv. 19-20):
a. being a guide to the blind;
b. a light for those in darkness;
c. an instructor of the foolish;
d. a teacher of the immature.
Why? Because they have a detailed knowledge of God's will in the law of Moses that the Gentiles do not have (v. 20), the Jews boasted of this knowledge because they saw it as a distinct privilege they had over the Gentiles. They turned what God gave them as a blessing into a mere means of showing-off what they viewed as their greater importance and value to God in the eyes of the Gentile world.
Up to this point, the Jews would have readily agreed with what Paul has presented in his argument. But now Paul uses 4 rhetorical questions to expose the hearts of the Jews who have made such lofty claims (vv. 17-20) that they have failed to "practice what they preach."
In each of these questions notice how Paul again stresses that it is the "doing" of the law that ultimately counts before God. All of these privileges, distinctives, gifts, etc. that the Jews are relying upon before a holy God are completely meaningless if the law is not perfectly obeyed. The Jews treated God's law like a "lucky rabbit's foot" thinking that merely having the law shielded them from the judgment to come. But Paul says that it is not the mere "hearers" of the law who are safe, but the "doers" of the law.
Paul says in v. 21 that the Jews who smugly teach others are in need of teaching themselves. Those who are the loud protectors of the law of God are failing miserably to keep the law themselves, which Paul lists here 3 of the 10 Commandments (the second: idolatry; the seventh: adultery; the eighth: stealing; vv. 21b-22).
In v. 23 Paul says that the Jews "boast" in the law. Paul is here advancing his description of the Jews from the way he described them in v. 17 as "relying" on the law. They are proud and arrogant about having the law but where is their pride in actually obeying God's law. It is not boasting in the "teaching" of the commandments that honors God but actually doing and obeying the commandments.
In v. 24 Paul quotes from Isa. 52:5 showing that it is the arrogant and flagrant disregard for actual obedience, especially in the face of their judgmental and critical attitude of others, that is causing God's name to be blasphemed among the Gentiles. Notice that Paul here transfers the dishonoring of God's name by the Gentiles in chap. 1 (vv. 21, 28) to now declaring that the Jews themselves, as is true of their whole history, are causing God's holy name to be blasphemed.
In vv. 25-29 what Paul says about the way the Jews treated the law of Moses they equally treated the blessing of circumcision. He will conclude that circumcision is of no benefit to the Jew if the law is not obeyed.
Circumcision, like the Mosaic law itself, was a sign of Jewish privilege marking its members as the chosen people in succession of the promises which were made to father Abraham (cf. Gen. 12, 15, 17). In fact, many Jews in Paul's day went so far as to argue that no person marked with circumcision will go down to Gehenna, as many today wrongly argue in regards to baptism.
But the Jews are surely asking by now: "How can we be treated the same as Gentiles, even to the point of being in danger of the wrath of God?"
Paul answers their question that circumcision is of "profit" only if the law is obeyed (v. 25). If the law is transgressed, then your circumcision becomes uncircumcision and in equally in v. 26 that if the law is obeyed that even the Gentile who is not circumcised is considered circumcision. What is Paul saying?
Circumcision in no way shields the Jew from the judgment of works (cf. 3:1-2, 9, 19). Paul is arguing that not only does disobedience of the law endanger the Jews' salvation but obedience to the law can bring salvation even to the uncircumcised Gentile. If the Jews do not obey the law then their privilege of circumcision is removed and they become like a Gentile, who are not God's people. But if the Gentile perfectly keeps the works of the law written upon his own heart then he is considered circumcised and therefore one of God's true people. In other words, what is important to God is not the mere possession of these gifts, but the actual doing or obedience of what He commanded and every man or woman will be judged by whether or not they keep God's moral demands, not by what they have or do not have.
In v. 27 Paul again exposes a false belief the Jews had about the coming judgment of the righteous who will sit in judgment over the unrighteous. While it is true that the righteous will sit in judgment of the unrighteous, the Jews believed that simply because they were Jews, possessing the law, circumcision, etc., that they were the righteous and that the Gentiles were obviously the unrighteous. But Paul once again pierces their hearts by saying that an uncircumcised person who keeps the law perfectly will judge the Jew, who though having the letter of the law and circumcision nevertheless transgresses the law.
What is Paul obviously doing in these verses? Some people have taken Paul's words here and stripped them from their context to teach that Paul is offering us some new way of being saved. But it is clear what Paul is doing in that he is setting forth the clear standard by which God judges: perfect conformity to God's demands, which no sinner is able to meet. One of the greatest dangers that anyone can make before God is to water down God's commandments to something that is doable. To make the law of God something we are able to do ends up dulling the edge of God's sword by which He intends to strike us down. By making God's law something we can accomplish we end up destroying grace and remove all glory from the God who saves.
Paul is obviously setting up his readers to be cut to the heart by God's law so that they will come to the same conclusion that he is bringing us to in chap. 3:
Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, that every mouth may be closed, and all the world may become accountable to God; 20 because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin (Rom. 3:19-20).
In a more popular way of stating what Paul is doing here is that "he is not trying to get us saved, but to get us lost." Paul is using the law to show us exactly our pitiful condition before a holy God, that our hope in our own works will not end in salvation.
Here Paul introduces his famous contrast between the letter of the law and the Holy Spirit, which essentially focuses upon either our doing of the law verses Christ having fulfilled the law on our behalf (doing vs. done).
The Jews would have agreed with Paul that God was not merely concerned with the outward circumcision of the flesh but with the true circumcision of the heart (vv. 28-29). But where Paul strikes his fatal blow is by adding that little phrase that true circumcision comes "apart from the letter" (v. 29). In other words, those who are truly God's people are those who are made so by God's grace not by man's works of the law. And because this work has already been accomplished for us by Christ it has made all those things which the Jews relied upon and boasted about simply irrelevant to our hope of being received by God in salvation. Being declared a child of God is based solely upon the sovereign grace of God through the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
If we choose to attempt to be saved by our own ability to keep the law, we can certainly give it our best shot. But Paul warns us that all who attempt to do so will end up utterly undone before the throne of God.
So, what must you do to be saved? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved!
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “BUT THE RIGHTEOUS man SHALL LIVE BY FAITH” (Rom. 1:16-17).
Amen!
-SDG-
