Introduction
Romans (especially 1-8) is the most
systematic presentation of God's good news in the New Testament. All Christians
should know this material thoroughly and be able to share and explain it to others.
But
although the gospel is God's good news, it begins with his bad news--that humanity
deserves God's judgment.
LAST WEEK, Paul declared that the immoral
pagans are justly under God's judgment because they suppress their knowledge of
the true God to worship false gods, and because their lives are filled with overt
rebellion against God (read 1:29-32 >> CRIMINAL ELEMENT). Those people are
in trouble with God!
"But what about the people who believe in the
God of the Bible, who go to church to worship him, who are upstanding, law-abiding
citizens--and who are deeply offended by the pagans? You're not saying that they
are under God's judgment also, are you?"
The chances are
pretty good that you describe yourself this way--or that you know many who do.
A recent survey shows that 82% of adult Americans believe in an afterlife that
includes both heaven and hell, but only 4% of those people believe that they will
go to hell.
Since only 35% of American adults claim to have received the gospel, this means
just under half of all American adults believe they do not deserve God's judgment.
If
you are one of those folks, you're not going to like Romans 2--because Paul
turns his guns on you in this chapter. Notice the switch from "they"
in 1:32 to "you" in 2:1 (read). This is God's bad news, part #2. The
"good" people are also in trouble with God, they are also headed for
God's judgment. They are "without excuse" just as much as the pagans
are "without excuse" (1:20). Paul is going to systematically expose
and refute every bogus exemption clause we use. And he's an expert at doing this,
since he lived the first 30+ years of his life as the quintessential "good"
person.
"I am a good person compared to
them."
Here is the most common and deep-seated form of denial. Our
standard of reference for most things, including morality, is how we compare to
other people. And in many human affairs, horizontal comparison is appropriate.
We
often grade exams on a curve, taking the range of scores and apportioning the
grades among them rather than grading everyone against 100%. On a hard test, 54%
may be a "good" score.
When we speak of human moral behavior,
we instinctively think in a similar way. There is a legitimate sense in which
we speak of "good" people (who may occasionally bark at their spouses
or not claim a $100 birthday gift on their income tax) versus "bad"
people (who murder their spouses or cheat the government out of hundreds of thousands
of dollars of income tax). On this basis, most of us can say "I am a good
person compared to them."
But it is a fatal error to assume
that God's judges according to the same standard. Read 2:1-3. Paul says God's
judgment is "based on truth" (NASB is poor translation). This means
that God judges us, not according to how we compare to "bad" people--but
according to how we really are compared to how he really is. And since God is
absolutely righteous, he evaluates us based on whether we live up to his standard.
God not only doesn't grade on the curve; his passing grade is 100%!
When
someone asked Jesus about how good he had to be to inherit eternal life, notice
how he immediately clarified the meaning of "good" in this context (read
Mk. 10:17,18). When it comes to earning entrance into God's kingdom, the
standard for "good" is God himself.
This is why Paul insists that
when you judge the "bad" person as worthy of God's judgment, you seal
your own fate. The issue is not whether you break God's law less than other people,
but whether you break it at all. If you agree that God should judge sin, and you
sin, then you agree that God should judge you. Look at the list of things that
deserve God's judgment in 1:29-31. If God judges greed, have you ever been greedy?
If God judges envy, have you ever been envious? If God judges . . . (deceit,
gossip, slander, arrogance, boastfulness, disobedience to parents, unloving, unmerciful),
have you ever been . . . ? If you have been, you deserve God's
condemnation.
JUMPING TO CATALINA: On a comparative level, it is appropriate
for me to say "I am a better jumper than most people." But on an absolute
level (actually jumping 20+ miles to Catalina Island), such comparisons are completely
irrelevant because we all fall hopelessly short.
"That's not fair!"
Why should God be obligated not to judge sinful people? Where would you draw the
line? Somewhere just below where you are? Wherever you draw the line, why is it
fair that the person who commits one more sin is rejected while the one who committed
on less sin is accepted?
"I have a religious pedigree."
This
form of denial was really deep-seated among Paul's Jewish countrymen. They mistakenly
believed that because they were born into God's chosen people, they were automatically
exempt from God's judgment.
Paul describes this mentality in 2:17-20 (read).
Although this
is more common in cultures that emphasize inherited privilege, you still see this
form of denial to some extent in our culture (LINE OF MINISTERS; BORN INTO THE
CHURCH).
Paul says that when it comes to earning God's acceptance,
he doesn't play pedigree favorites. The issue is not what kind of religious pedigree
you have, but whether you have fully obeyed God's law. Read 2:6-13.
It
is a violation of 2:1-3 to read this verses in a comparative sense. Paul is speaking
in an absolute sense. If you fully obey God's law (which no one does), you will
earn eternal life regardless of your religious pedigree. But if you "do evil"
or "sin" (which everyone does), you deserve God's wrath regardless of
your religious pedigree.
This doesn't mean there were no advantages
to being born into the chosen people (read 3:2). God gave the Bible through them,
and he gave the Messiah through them. But he didn’t give them any inherited
immunity from his judgment. In fact, they get judged "first" because
they know his standard more clearly than those who never had the 10 Commandments.
"I
have a clean public record."
Some people think they will avoid God's
judgment because they have "a good public record." It is possible to
live your whole life without committing overt, public sins--like murder, adultery,
gross tax fraud, etc.
But it is a fatal mistake to believe that a good public
record means you deserve exemption from God's judgment. This is because God will
judge not only our overt, public acts. He will also judge our secrets (read 2:16).
He knows our secrets because he is omniscient; he must judge our secrets because
he is just. So it's not whether people can find dirt on the outside; it's whether
God finds dirt on the inside. What does this "secret dirt" include?
Violations
of conscience, even if no one else condemned us (2:15; LYING & GOSSIPING TO
GAIN SOCIAL ADVANTAGE)
Sins against other people, even if they never found
out who did it to them (Lk. 12:2,3; PITCHING OLD FRIEND'S BOOKS IN JUNIOR
HIGH TO IMPRESS "IN" FRIENDS)
Sinful fantasies, even if we never
act them out (Matt. 5:22,28; HATRED & SEXUAL LUST)
"Good"
deeds done from bad motives (Luke 20:47,48; UNITED WAY GIFT TO GET AHEAD;
MUCH RELIGIOUS ACTIVITY)
Sins of omission (Jas. 4:17; FAILURE TO POSITIVELY
LOVE & SERVE GOD & OTHERS)
Anything that is not done as an expression
of loving trust in God (Rom. 14:23)
I don't know about
you, but I'd be in a world of hurt if I had to appear before God and my secrets
came out! How about you??
"I observe divinely ordained rituals."
Jewish
males in Paul's day banked heavily on receiving the rite of circumcision. To even
suggest that their circumcision gave them no immunity from God's judgment was
likely to result in a fight. In the same way, many church people put incredible
confidence in observing divinely ordained rituals like baptism, church attendance,
communion, etc.
But Paul denies this (read 2:25-27). He is not
against circumcision (or the others above)--he originated them--but he is against
false confidence in ritual observance. What matters is not whether you observe
divinely ordained rituals, but whether you obey God's law. Ritual observance provides
no immunity from God's judgment. This is contrary to the Old Testament, and it
turns God into a near-sighted idiot who can be fooled by people who go through
the motions.
"Are you saying that all the times I've gone to church
(when I could have stayed in bed) and worshipped God through the liturgy and gone
to confession and taken communion (when I could have been watching football) don't
count for anything?" It doesn't matter what I say. If you're talking about
earning God's acceptance, God says they count for nothing whatever.
Then
why did God give them in the first place? Paul gives a hint of this in 2:28,29
(read). His point is that they are outward pictures of an inward spiritual reality
that God gives you when you come to him with the right heart attitude (WEDDING
RING).
Circumcision was a picture of the radical heart surgery
God would provide through the Holy Spirit so we will want to obey God. Baptism
is a picture of how God washes away our guilt once and for all through Christ's
death for our sins. Communion is a picture of how God makes his grace available
to us through Christ as often as we need it.
What a tragic perversion to
rely on ritual observance to earn God's acceptance! This is like a criminal showing
off a clemency document as a graduation diploma.
Conclusion
You
can see from these last two verses why Paul wrote this painful chapter. Not to
humiliate you or drive you to despair of having God's acceptance. But to humble
you and drive you to despair of earning God's acceptance. Paul is like a doctor
trying to break through the denial of his patient by exposing the seriousness
of his condition--not to enjoy his distress, but so he will submit to the cure
he is offering free of charge.
Are you ready to take your place before God
with the "bad" people (read 3:9a)? Are you ready to admit that you are
just like "them" in the most important way of all--that you have broken
God's law countless times in thought, word and deed--and that you deserve not
his acceptance but his judgment? If you aren’t willing to admit this, you
are saying "I don't need God's charity--I'm good enough." But if you
are willing to admit it, you can receive God's complete exemption (read Jn. 5:24).
We'll learn next time how God can do this--but you can get in on it right now.
Are
you willing to risk offending your "good" family members and friends
so they can see their need for grace? This is not religious judgmentalism; it
is an act of love.
Footnotes