Righteous Judgement
Notes
Transcript
Intro
Intro
You will remember that last time we ended in Romans 1:29-32 where Paul describes the sins which led pagans away from God.
They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.
We reflected on our own lives and what sins we might be hanging on to that might be leading us away from God.
We will now dive into Romans 2:1-11 to see what point Paul has in bringing this up to his readers. And at the end we will look at how we might apply some of the things Paul says to our lives as well.
Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things. We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.
He will render to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. For God shows no partiality.
Background
Background
So we see now that Paul has switched from addressing the sins of the pagans to the sins of the Jews.
He does link chapter 1 and 2 together though by using the word “therefore”.
Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things.
But why? He just listed some pretty serious sins in chapter 1.
I don’t think he is specifically talking about them committing those sins though, because he would have just said that.
Instead he points to the way that they were judging the gentiles as the way in which they were sinning just like the pagans did.
But how is judging their sins the same as committing those sins?
The answer is based upon the root cause of what caused the pagans to commit those sins.
They wanted to do things their way and not God’s
Putting anything above God is called idolatry
They were placing their wants in front of everything else in their lives instead of God’s wants
We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God?
So how can judging someone turn into a form of idolatry?
First, I need to take some time before we go any further to clear up some confusion about judging others
Many times we get the word “Judge” and “Rebuke” confused
How many times have you heard someone say “don’t judge me” or even “judge not, lest you be judged”
We are told not to judge, but we are also told we can rebuke our fellow brothers and sisters
So what’s the difference?
In today’s vocabulary we tend to use both words interchangeably
However, their difference comes in the goal behind the action
When you rebuke, your goal is to correct someone with the hope that they will see their error and turn from it
When you judge, you are looking down on someone and handing them a sentence as punishment for their error.
You aren’t necessarily interested on helping them get through their problem
So we see that these Jews were not rebuking, they were judging.
When they were judging gentiles in this way, they were essentially putting themselves on God’s throne and handing out a sentence as punishment for their sin.
They were making an idol of themselves just like the pagans made an idol of themselves by choosing their sins over God.
This judgement is the same exact thing that the Pharisees were doing when Jesus was rebuking them.
The problem that the Pharisees and these Roman Jews had is that they thought salvation came through being born a Jew.
Some of this still goes on today.
So, any gentile coming into the faith was already being looked down upon as being a second-class citizen.
On top of that, the standard by which the Jews were judging the gentiles went above and beyond just God’s law
They had added many other laws on top of them
Laws that were supposed to keep Jews from getting anywhere close to God’s actual laws that he gave Moses in the Old Testament.
Because of the gentiles not obeying these laws that the Jews grew up with, they would judge them harshly and treat them as inferior.
It reminds me of the way that incoming freshman are treated sometimes.
They come into high school not really knowing the routine of things.
Who the teachers are, where to go for classes, how much time there is in between classes, where to sit for lunch
So, they aren’t really seen or treated the same by the rest of the high schoolers.
They are treated as if they are still middle schoolers who are just on an extended stay in the high school
It’s not until they start to adapt and act like the rest of the kids, that they are treated like an actual high schooler
It can be a very tough and discouraging time for kids going through this process
This is the same feeling that the gentiles coming into the faith must have felt
Not only were they trying to learn about Jesus, they were also expected to learn all of these new customs that they’ve never been a part of
After rebuking them for this misplaced judgement, Paul asks a rhetorical question to the Jews of that time in verse 4.
Romans 2:4 (ESV)
Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?
I actually prefer the CSB translation for this in verse 4 by saying do you despise the riches of his kindness?
He’s essentially asking them if they are mad because the gentiles aren’t immediately punished for the sins that they commit.
This calls to mind the story of Jonah.
He was called to go to Ninevah to warn them that God’s wrath is coming unless they repent.
He famously rebels against God and runs away from this task because he is afraid he will die for saying those things to them.
After God corrects him by letting him set in the belly of a whale for 3 days, he finally goes to Ninevah to warn them.
Shockingly, they obey, repent, and weren’t destroyed.
We are then told that this angered Jonah instead of making him happy because he thought they deserved to be punished for all of the bad things they had done.
For the Jews in Rome, all they needed to do was to read the book of Judges and Kings to see the many times that God was patient with them despite their sins
His patience in dealing with sin is not because He doesn’t care, or is indifferent to people sinning.
He hates sin!
As Paul points out here in verse 4, his patience is because he hopes that we will come to repent of those sins
Sometimes the only way for people to get to that point of repentance is to allow them to suffer the real-world consequences of their sin
They have to be given the opportunity to learn from their mistakes.
The next part of this passage then deals with the consequences of these things that the Jews were doing to the gentiles.
Romans 2:5
But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.
Again, I like the CSB’s rendering of this passage a little better than the ESV
It says they have a hardened and unrepentant heart
This calls into question just where the faith of these Jews was at?
He was writing to true converted Jews right?
Things get a little more confusing from there
This verse and ones that follow describe the judgement of God based upon a person’s works
However, we know that salvation is not based upon works, but on faith
So what is Paul saying here?
What he’s getting at is that these Jews still have some of their old baggage that they still need to get rid of
Just as gentiles had certain practices that they needed to stop when they became Christians, the Jews needed to do the same thing as they came into faith in Jesus
They were still acting with an unrepentant heart that was focused on obeying God’s law in order to earn salvation
The irony is that with an unrepentant heart, it’s impossible to actually do good works
And that is something that is crucial to keep in our minds when reading not only this passage, but all of Paul’s writings
It’s that classic “what came first, the chicken or the egg”
Our good works mean nothing without a repentant heart that only comes by having saving faith
On the flips side, if you have a repentant heart that has been saved by faith, you will produce good work
There is no other option there.
Finally, at the end of this passage we start to see a phrase that Paul starts using here “to the Jew first and also the Greek”
Romans 2:6–11 (ESV)
He will render to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. For God shows no partiality.
This highlights a couple of things for us
First, the Jews will be judged first
This is because they were the ones who were given God’s law
More is expected of them
It hearkens back to Jesus’ parable of the servants in Luke which states “to those who are given more, more will be expected”
The second thing this highlights is that both Jews and Greeks are going to be judged without any partiality
This flies in the face of what the Jews of the day thought
They thought they were superior to the gentiles
Paul’s statement here refutes that claim
The gentiles will be judged in the same way that the Jews are judged and will be entitled to the same blessings or punishments
Now that we’ve dissected this passage and talked a lot about the Jews, what does it mean for us now?
It’s sometimes hard to find meaning and to relate to things that happened so long ago
On the surface it seems like our world and the world of Jesus and Paul is a million miles away
But let’s take the labels of the people groups away for a second
You have one group of people that have been raised in the word of God their entire lives
They gathered every week to hear His Word preached, and studied it diligently
They try to do what it says to the best of their ability
They might even have specific customs that they do because of their faith
But they have one fatal flaw
They struggle with people who aren’t members of their specific group
They see those who look, act, and even worship differently than they do as if something is wrong with them
They have a holier than thou attitude, that those from the outside looking in can see and even feel when they try to talk to them
Does any of that sound familiar to any of you?
Have you ever treated some stranger or even other Christians like that because of your differences?
I fully believe that Christians who were raised in the Church can become susceptible to the type of judging that went on in the passage that we studied today
It happens because we don’t always know what it’s like on the other side of the fence do we?
We might not have had a life that started off a mess until we had this moment of salvation that firmly separated our old life of sin from our new life of salvation
We’ve never experienced the struggle with some of the sins that we see today
The addictions that people have to battle through
See, when we read about the Pharisees and the Jews in Rome that we read about today, we can’t automatically skim through it as if it’s not speaking to us
We need to reflect on what those people were being rebuked for, and check ourselves to make sure we’re not in danger of being scolded for the same thing
As we saw Paul talk about, our actions should be reflecting our faith
If we truly have a repentant heart, we should be willing to give the same patience and grace to others as God does with the hope that maybe one day they will be led to repentance
We should be in the business of gently rebuking others around us and showing them a better way, not handing out judgments based upon our assumptions
Because sooner or later we are going to need God to be patient and gracious to us so that we have time to repent of our sins.
Prayer - Lord’s Supper
· At this time I would ask the ushers to come forward as we partake in the Lord’s supper
· Bread has been passed
o We remember now how Jesus took this bread during his last Passover meal and blessed it. He then broke it saying “this is my body, which is broken for you” eat this now in remembrance of me.
· Juice has been passed
o We now recall Jesus taking this cup, the third cup in the Passover meal, after they had finished eating and blessed it, saying “this is my blood which is shed for you as a covenant for the forgiveness of sins”
· Let us pray………..
Benediction
Benediction
May we go out today with a renewed sense of compassion towards others. A compassion that looks to support our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ when they stumble instead looking down on them with judgement when they fall.