08 God’s Righteous Judgment – Part 2

Both the Greeks and Hebrews of Paul’s day had views about righteousness. The Greeks viewed it from the sense of ethics, while the Hebrews applied a legal standing to it.

Therefore, Paul continued developing his teaching on how anyone who attempted to live on any standard of righteousness other than God’s would fail miserably.

In the conclusion of the opening section of Romans chapter 2, Paul emphasized that God’s judgment of the unbeliever will be justified:

Romans 2:5

Paul addressed a particular group of individuals who were prevalent in the culture of his day, those known as moralists, who believed that they were better than those who were openly rebellious and sinful.

These individuals established the premise, that their morals and standards would be acceptable to God and keep them from His judgment. 

1 Judging the Self-righteous

Romans 2:6-10

Because the morally self-righteous individuals believed that their actions would be found “good enough” and acceptable to God, Paul suggested that the Lord would in effect afford them the opportunity, as they would see their actions fail before Him.

When it comes to verse 7, some have struggled, with whether Paul was shifting in some way, to say that one might receive eternal life through their good works:

Romans 2:7

Proper context however, will show that Paul had been speaking about how certain individuals “believed” they could stand before God based on their own shaky standing, and therefore in judgment they would see how fallacious that was.

Therefore, Paul was in effect saying, That if someone had lived perfectly, that they would be judged as “guiltless” and would receive eternal life. Of course, no one other than Jesus, ever has, or ever will attain to the level of perfection:

Romans 3:23-24

The context in verse 8 makes it clear that Paul is referring to those who are self-willed and in rebellion against the Lord.

He refers to them as those who “do not obey the truth”. But in the original Greek, the tense speaks of someone who “continues to be in disobedience”.

Therefore, rather than be followers of God, they follow a lifestyle of “unrighteousness, indignation and wrath…”

Once again, the Greek is very expressive, as the word “indignation” speaks of someone who is “boiling up” because of their unsettled nature.

In verse 9, the apostle describes how God’s judgments will be rendered against the Jews first, and then against the Greeks (meaning Gentile nations).

The priority is very consistent with the manner in which the Lord works, since He determined that His Word was to be presented to the Jews first:

Romans 1:16

The judgment Paul spoke of is manifested in two aspects:

• One, is the final judgment that will take place before God’s great white throne which is described in Revelation 20:11-15. In that judgment, all who’ve reject Christ as personal Savior will be sentenced to an eternity in hell.

Revelation 20:12

• The second aspect refers to the Great Tribulation, a seven-year period just before the end of the age. During the Tribulation, God will pour out His wrath upon the world which has rejected Jesus. During the Tribulation, Israel will be targeted by both the antichrist, as well as a confederation of nations, which the Bible refers to as Gog and Magog.

Therefore, God will judge those of His people, who continue in their rebellion, by refusing to ask Christ as the only means of salvation.

On the other hand, in verse 10, Paul speaks of God’s love and grace towards those who’ve committed to Him:

Romans 2:10

In the same way that judgment will be upon the Jews first, so was the Gospel, as it was always the Lord’s desire that Israel would present His Word to the world, both under the Old and New Covenants.

2 There’s No Partiality

Paul then showed God’s fairness in both rewarding faithfulness, and judging unfaithfulness:

Romans 2:11-16

The phrase “no partiality with God” from verse 11, came from the combination of two ancient Greek words, which meant “to receive” “and to face” and referred to the idea of judging based upon preconceptions. 

But Paul was showing that God’s judgments would not be based upon preconceptions, but rather fairness and on merit.

It’s because Jesus is “the” true standard, therefore all who belong to Him, have been acquitted by the Father, and have been deemed as guiltless.

On the other hand, those who have not accepted personally accepted Christ are deemed guilty.

Next, Paul first, spoke of “those who sinned without the Law” referring to the Gentiles. But again, he was particularly referring to those who were insisting upon living by their standards. Paul stated that even they would be judged by the Law.

After speaking of the Gentile sinners, Paul then addressed those who sinned “under the Law” meaning the Jews who were also insisting upon living according to their standards. He showed that they also would be judged by the Law.

Thus, Paul showed that all who do not accept Christ as Savior will be judged by the Law, which will show their incapability of keeping it.

Paul continued by stating that even those who had never heard either the Old Covenant Law or the New Covenant Gospel, are not without excuse.

He had already established the foundation in chapter one, where he showed that God has established two means of revealing His will to man:

• The first, is “special revelation”, which is His Word as delivered by His prophets, and apostles, which we now have as Scripture.
• The second, is what is often referred to as “general revelation” whereby God reveals Himself through Creation itself.

During Paul’s day, several unbelieving authors wrote of what they called an “unwritten law” with man. This spoke of God have placed within man a conscience, with the basics of right and wrong.

Paul then spoke of these individuals as being s “law to themselves”, meaning that they were responsible to respond to God’s “unwritten law” which was in their hearts.

In verse 15, Paul spoke of that response, which would either accuse of excuse them, accordingly.

In verse 16, Paul concluded the section, by showing how none who are accused will escape God’s judgment, as all will stand before Him as guilty, since they will have rejected the only means of salvation – Jesus.