Careful Consideration Must Be Given
Great harm
has often been done with the opening verses of Romans 2. I have heard person after person lift up
Romans 2:1-3 as proof that they have no right to “judge” one another. Now, on one hand this is absolutely
correct. Not one of us human beings have
any right to judge whether a fellow human being is going to be with God in
eternal life or destined to eternal torment.
None of us can ever sit in the judgment seat of God and dutifully
determine the eternal destination of anyone.
It’s just not possible for us to do that with any kind of righteousness.
However,
this does not mean that we cannot “judge” an act as sinful or righteous. This passage does not mean that we have to
throw open our doors and accept all kinds of behavior into our midst. This passage is not advocating that we should
accept any behavior because we are ourselves sinful! No! While
we should never pronounce eternal condemnation upon people; neither should we
embrace all actions, either.
In fact,
Romans 2:4 is the key to understanding the opening verses. Paul is asking his readers if they overlook
judgment and “presume the riches of God and His forbearance.” In the same verse Paul then reminds us that
judgment is supposed to bring about repentance.
Do you see it?
Repentance
is the key! Forgiveness is given to the
repentant and contrite heart; not the heart that skips judgment and goes
straight to grace! How can you ever
arrive at repentance if you never allow the Spirit to convict of sinfulness?
In order
to be true followers of God, we must proclaim both God’s grace as well as God’s
condemnation of sin and our need for repentance. This is precisely the Law and Gospel mix that
we hear so much about. It is the Law
that drives us to an understanding of our sinfulness and our need for God’s
Gospel of salvation! It is the Law – and
our complete and utter lack of attaining it – that drives us to the cross!
No Partiality
Paul then
levels an incredible line: God shows no partiality. Wham!
No partiality. Actually, to be
true to the text we should understand that the word “partiality” – or
“favoritism” – is the subject of the sentence.
So the true translation of this text is literally, “For partiality is
not within God.” Not only does God not
show partiality, but partiality has no place within God. Wow.
Now that’s deep.
You see,
God may have a chosen people. But the
Hebrew people weren’t chosen because they were better. They were chosen for a task. They were chosen to display God to the
world. God is not partial to the Jews
because He loved them more and He will not be partial to them because they were
His chosen. Rather, all will be held up
to the same standard and as we shall hear in the next chapter all will be seen
as coming short of that standard. So
there really is no room for partiality within God. All are measured against the stick of
righteousness, and all have literally no hope of measuring up.
It’s not
sounding very good for humanity if we take what Paul has said in the first two
chapters thus far.
From Where Does Our Hope Come?
So who
then can look for hope? Those who have a
circumcised heart can look for hope.
Those who not only hear the law but who also do it have hope.
I’m not talking
works based salvation in these words. We
do the law out of response! We do not do
the law in order to earn salvation.
Those who have an internal response to God’s gift of faith can look for
hope.
Recognizing Our Sinful Nature
But even
then, who among us can actually say that we are perfect inside where it
counts? Who among us can say that our
heart is always circumcised with respect to following God? Who among us – if God truly were to lay out
the desires of our heart before Him – would honestly be able to rise up and
confess that we fit into the righteous category?
Without Christ,
I doubt that number is very big. But now
that I’m introducing Christ into the equation, I’m guilty of putting the cart
before the horse. The point of Romans 2
is to lead us to our need for Christ, but not yet arrive there. It is still valuable for us to dwell on our
unrighteousness and just how uncircumcised our hearts actually are. So we know the answer is Christ, but let’s
not go there yet. Paul doesn’t go there,
yet.
I
know. It is painful. We want to jump to Christ. We want to revel in forgiveness and be done
with the pain of judgment. We want to
assert the truth that we know is already there.
We want to be a people of Easter and assert the victory of God.
But hold
on just a little longer. Let’s be a
people of Maundy Thursday for just a little longer. Let’s understand our need for that Passover
Lamb. Let’s recognize just how hard our
hearts can be. Let’s understand just how
much we are guilty of teaching against sin but going out and doing the sin we
confess is wrong. Let’s truly wallow in
our rebellious nature for a day or two before coming ack to the grace we
already know is there.
Paul talks
about how hypocritical we sound when we profess something to be true and then
prove it to not be true with our practices.
Paul actually goes to the extreme of calling those kinds of
opportunities not just hypocritical but actually he calls them blaspheming the
name of God. That’s a pretty base
accusation. But it is the truth of human
sinfulness. When push comes to shove, it
is who we are when left to our own devices.
When left to ourselves, God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because our
humanity does not match what we profess to believe in our hearts. People all across the world are given ability
to blaspheme God because we who are His children deny Him with our lifestyle
and our words.
I know it
is painful to stay here, but trust me.
If we dwell here for a day or so … then what comes in the future will
feel all the more welcome! Hang in
there. Contemplate your sinfulness
today. Contemplate the ways that our
inability to walk the walk actually blasphemes God’s name in the mouths and
minds of those who witness it. As Paul
reminds us in the beginning of this chapter, let these thoughts drive you to
repentance!
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