17 | Romans | Romans 2:6-11 | God’s Righteous Judgement

INTRODUCTION

Read Romans 2:6-11 in light of Romans 2:5. What is the main point Paul is making in this section of his ongoing argument?

On Sunday, Jeremiah said that there is no redeemed life that does not seek God. Read Romans 6:20–23 and Ephesians 2:8-10. How these two passages help us to understand the point Paul is making in Romans 2:6?

There are three different people who will encounter this scripture. 1) Those who know little of God and his gospel. These must hear the gospel and respond with faith for the forgiveness of sin, rescue from wrath and for eternal life. 2) Those who know God’s word and his gospel, even going through the religious motions and yet continue in unrepentant self-seeking. These must hear the gospel and respond with faith, laying aside not only their sin, but also their self-righteousness. 3) Those who know God and his gospel by faith and have received not only rescue from God’s righteous judgement upon sin, but also have been rescued to a righteous life. These must remember the kindness of God in the gospel and continue in the repentance and joy that the Spirit has begun in their life on the basis of the gospel. Discuss together not only how you see yourself in these three different groups, but also how you can preach the gospel to each of these.

INTRODUCTION

We will spend the next number of weeks in Romans 2 and the beginning of chapter 3.

The main idea in this chapter is that there are none who are without sin …

… and there are none who are without excuse for their sin.

Therefore, there are none who, on their own, will escape judgement for their sin.

Longman - Human inadequacy in light of divine standards.

The reality of fallen humanity and perfect divinity.

Last week, I mentioned a diagram in our Gospel Partnership Manual that comes from a book called, “The Gospel Centered-Life.”

It describes how the Christian life is bracketed by a growing awareness of two things.

1) A growing awareness of the holiness of God

‌2) A growing awareness of the depth of our sinfulness

There is a great chasm that opens between God and man.

This is human inadequacy in light of divine standards.

These brackets open up for us the most serious of questions:

What must we do to be saved?

Is there any hope for a sinner like me in the presence of the holy God?

Is there any good news, is there any gospel for us?

This morning we explore …

… the perfect justice of God’s judgement

… and the hope of a life transformed by the righteousness of God revealed.

PRAY

4:00

GOD’S RIGHTEOUS JUDGEMENT WILL BE REVEALED

We need to go back one verse to v5 …

… as this opens up the argument Paul continues in v6 and following.

Read v5.

Impenitent heart …

… is storing up wrath

… for when God’s righteous judgement is revealed

Now, we hear that word, judgement, and we immediately think condemnation.

But read it again.

It doesn’t say, “Hey, impenitent heart, you’re storing up judgement.”

It says, “Hey, impenitent heart, you’re storing up wrath for when God’s judgement is revealed.”

What we’re about to find out is that on the day of judgement there is both wrath and life.

6:00

Let’s go back and remember the flow of thought at the end of last week’s passage.

In the present age, God’s kindness and forbearance and patience has been revealed for the purpose of leading to repentance.

What does it means that God’s kindness is revealed?

Every moment from the garden, with the entrance of the sin of Adam and Eve …

… the just judgement upon sin has been death.

And yet, God, in his steadfast love and mercy has passed over sin.

We have many images of this forbearance such as…

… the garments of animal skin God gives to Adam and Eve to cover their shame

… the wrath of the flood and yet the preservation of Noah and his family

… passover, in which the angel of death brings judgement upon the land of Egypt, but passes over the houses with the blood of the lamb on the doorframe.

… in the temple worship in the regular sacrifices, and particularly in the day of atonement.

All of this patient kindness over centuries culminates in the coming of Jesus, God the Son, and his gospel …

… his sacrificial death and resurrection.

When Paul speaks of presuming upon the riches of God’s kindness …

… ultimately he is speaking of making light of the transformative power of the gospel.

But the time is coming in which God’s righteous judgement will be revealed.

You see, we already glimpsed the wrath of this judgement in the cross of Jesus Christ.

For those who place their faith in the sacrifice of Jesus on their behalf, the wrath of God upon their sin has already been poured out.

But for those who have not taken hold of Jesus’ gospel by faith …

… for those who do not walk in repentance

… this same judgement we glimpse in the cross of Jesus will be revealed upon their own soul.

The judgement has not yet been revealed, but it is being stored up.

11:00

APPLY

What follows is a description of the righteous judgement of God.

What ought we to take from this already this morning?

God’s righteous judgement will be revealed.

We ought not to presume that the pattern of forbearance will continue unchecked by final judgement.

12:00

HE WILL RENDER TO EACH ONE ACCORDING TO HIS WORKS

I want us to see clearly what the scripture says.

The Lord will render.

He is the judge.

Paul is pressing the point that it is the Lord’s righteous judgement that will be revealed.

He will render judgement.

There will not be anyone on that day that will have any right to claim …

… any error … any impartiality.

The judge sees the works of each one.

Each one will receive what is due him.

And the judgement will align with these works.

This is the very definition of justice.

15:00

APPLY

Wait. Each one will receive according to his works?

What about the gospel? What about grace alone through faith alone?

This may feel disorienting.

We are right to prioritize grace.

We preach grace.

Yes, salvation by grace alone by faith alone.

We will come back to all of the questions that are surely in each of our hearts and minds.

Paul is making a powerful argument in this chapter, and he doesn’t shave off any edges or cut any corners.

No, he presses the arguement

There is a judgement coming.

That judgement will be shown to be perfectly righteous.

And every single human will be rendered his judgement according to his works.

17:00

What Paul presents is a two way judgement.

There are only two results.

And those results align with what each person seeks.

TWO WAYS TO SEEK

Seek glory, honor and immortality

Receive eternal life.

Self-seeking, not obedient to truth, but unrighteousness

Receive wrath and fury.

He then states it another way with an even clearer contrast.

Every human who does evil = tribulation and distress

Everyone who does good = glory, honor, peace

I think a key word here is the word seek.

What does one seek?

He seeks what his desire.

He seeks what he thinks will satisfy.

He seeks his hope and treasure.

These four verses make it clear that there are those who seek the things of God …

… those who believe, as demonstrated by their actions

… that the way of the Lord is the way of life.

And there are those who do not believe the truth.

They still think that the way of self …

… the way of the world, the way of the flesh, the way of unrighteousness is life.

They are wrong.

You cannot serve both God and the things of this world.

To do so is to presume on the kindness of God.

It is to presume that because God has not yet judged unrighteousness …

… that you are not storing up wrath for when his judgement is revealed.

I am reminded of that summary statement near the sermon of the Sermon on the Mount:

Matthew 6:33 (ESV) But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

Seek the Lord and ALL these things will be added …

… glory and honor and peace

… even eternal life!

But continue in self-seeking unrighteousness …

… and there will be wrath and fury

… tribulation and distress.

20:00

There is no redeemed life that does not seek the Lord.

I said last week that we will misunderstand the purpose of Romans 2 if we do not remember that our passage this morning is the beginning of an argument, not the end.

Paul is going somewhere with what he is saying here.

If we were to stop reading at the end of v11 we might think the application point is something like:

So, do good works!

The whole of religion is doing the right things and then getting rewarded for it.

Always be afraid you’ve done too many evil works, so make sure you do more good works.

But if we stopped here with this conclusion, we would be dead wrong.

And I mean that. We would be making a deadly error.

As the argument of Romans continues, Paul makes it clear that there are none who are righteous.

Romans 3 there are none who, in themselves, do good.

There are none who, through their own initiation seek God.

Romans 6:20–23 (ESV) For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Can you see it right here in this verse?

It is a culminating moment in the argument in Romans.

You were slaves of sin.

Seeking both unrighteousness and its end, death.

But God’s gift is to set you free from sin.

You are now bound to God himself …

… to seek both sanctification and its fruit, eternal life!

24:00

Ephesians 2:8–10 (ESV) For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

The grace that forgives is the same grace that prepares a new way of good works in which to walk.

The gift is not given as a result of works …

… or it would be a wage and not grace.

There is not one who boasts that he was set free from sin because of the labor, fortitude or purity of his own will.

We were dead in our sin and trespasses in which we once walked.

No, the gift is to be set free from sin through the atoning work of Jesus on the cross.

Having been freed from sin, we are have been granted a new and eternal life of good works.

The fruit of our previous way, our self-seeking way of unrighteousness, in which we all once walked, is death.

The fruit of our new way, the way we have been set upon by grace, is life.

We all once lived as sons of disobedience, following the passions of our flesh, carring out the desires of the body and the mind, by nature children of wrath.

But God! Because of his great mercy and love, we have been made alive together with Christ!

Made alive!

Not, given future eternal life …

… but still living this life suppressing the truth and obeying unrighteousness.

No, the redeemed by the blood of Jesus have been made alive!

SUMMARY: It is “in salvation” that the righteousness of God is revealed.

That he is just to save sinners.

That sinners become righteous.

And this is from faith from beginning to end.

Romans 9:30 - righteousness is obtained by faith

Romans 9:33 - whoever believes in him will not be put to shame

30:00

APPLY

There is a judgement coming.

That judgement will be shown to be perfectly righteous.

And every single human will be rendered his judgement according to his works.

Believer, you have been redeemed from sin to righteousness.

From death to life.

Believer, when judgement comes …

… you have been cleansed of your unrighteousness by the blood of Jesus Christ

… and you have been set free to a loving pursuit of the things of God

… his kingdom and righteousness.

31:00

GOD SHOWS NO PARTIALITY

Let me say again.

The purpose of this whole section of scripture is this very thing.

Underline and highlight it!

God’s judgement is just.

In judgement he shows no partiality.

Jew and Greek.

Both in tribulation and distress …

… and in glory and honor and peace

… the Jew

… the first to know the truth

… is the first to receive the judgement.

… and the Gentile

… follows quickly

… will be judged in the self-same manner.

APPLY

There are not two courtrooms, two disparate conditions, two avenues of justice.

One for the religiously initiated …

… and another for the ignorant pagan.

The judgement is impartial …

… and there will be none who are able to argue that his judgement is anything but just.

33:00

Paul begins by setting up our passage this morning with v5 …

… and the wrath of God stored up for the impenitent

… that is, those who persist in unrighteousness in spite of the kindness of God revealed in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

WRATH STORED UP

I want to make sure we under stand the nature of God rightly.

God does not have some reserve of anger seeking an object of wrath.

It is sin which produces this righteous wrath.

The measure of God’s wrath is perfectly in kind with the measure of sin itself.

Not one ounce of wrath stored up will be wasted…

… but that it finds its perfect complement in the sin for which it has been stored.

When God’s wrath is poured out upon sin …

… and all of the sin is accounted for

… there is no further wrath that remains.

For the impenitent, who does not obey the truth, but unrighteousness and persists in doing evil …

… every bit of wrath due for that sin will be used up as such.

And for the one whose sin is placed upon the Christ …

… every bit of that wrath is used upon him.

There is therefore tribulation and distress waiting for he who does evil.

And there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Look at Romans 1:16-17

The righteousness of God has been revealed.

And in the believer you can see it when you judge his life.

The righteous of God has been revealed not through the law …

… so that only the Jew would have access.

The righteousness of God has been revealed in the gospel of Jesus Christ from faith for faith.

We will live by faith.

We will live in the end and we will live day to day by faith.

38:00

RIGHTEOUSNESS REVEALED

The whole of Paul’s argument deals with the question of righteousness.

Are there any who are righteous?

Is God’s judgement righteous?

What has been revealed?

Romans 1:17 - the righteousness of God

Romans 1:18 - the wrath of God (with an eye toward Gentiles)

Romans 2:5 - God’s righteous judgement (with an eye toward Jews)

This church stands in a the Reformed tradition.

That is, we see the sovereignty of God in salvation …

… such that salvation is solely the work of God from beginning to end.

Mankind, since the Fall, by nature, is dead in sin, and unable to turn to God.

We will see, as we study Romans …

… that it is consistent with the teaching of the rest of scripture.

The redeemed are saved by grace alone and not by works.

All of mankind is dead in our sin. Period.

The only way to be made alive is by the grace of God.

And this grace is received, not by works of the law, but by faith alone.

But, if we do not listen carefully and submit ourselves to the whole of scriptures argument here …

… we will find ourselves righting for a stale doctrinal rigidity

… that is the very thing Paul is warning against when he speaks of presuming upon the kindness of God.

In order to maintain a stale, unbiblical understanding of grace we will invent a hypothetical possibility …

… that it is possible that there is such a one

… who has faith in Jesus to forgive his sin

… and so be granted eternal life

… and that same one continues to love the world

… and has only his own selfish desires as his moral guide.

Can you see the error?

It is an effort to maintain the sure hope of grace received with faith …

… while requiring no works for salvation.

40:00

Friends, that’s not faithfulness to the doctrine of faith alone.

It is to deny the power of God for salvation.

For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed.

You see, Christ died while we were yet sinners.

Grace encounters one who is dead in sin.

Faith is granted as a gift to the one who previously was self-seeking.

All of this is apart from works done by man.

But when grace comes and when sin is forgiven …

… eternal life is secure and the way of righteousness is opened to the one who is redeemed.

And he who began a good work in you will be faithful to bring it to completion at the day of Christ Jesus.

What man can take hold of the power of salvation …

… behold of the righteousness of God and yet live in self-seeking unrighteousness.

No, the righteous shall live by faith.

From faith for faith.

From beginning to end and through and through.

The same faith by which we first believed is the same faith by which we live in the righteousness of God.

Read Romans 2:4.

This most clearly describes the atoning work of the gospel.

That is, the death of Jesus on the cross in the place of sinners …

… where God pours out his righteous wrath and fury bringing tribulation and distress upon the Messiah

… is the pinnacle image of loving kindness to which every other forbearing patience of the Old Testament points.

This act of grace is given to lead you to repentance.

The argument of Paul is only clear in light of a full view of grace.

APPLY

God’s righteous judgement will be revealed

This ought to bring a severity to our attention.

We are right to respond with the fear of the Lord.

And if you have not turned in faith-filled repentance to Jesus for the forgiveness of your sin …

… you are storing up wrath for yourself!

This morning’s message is for you.

Turn away from the things of this world and turn to Jesus in faith.

There is no hope for you here, but there is perfect and sure hope for you in Jesus Christ.

And here this! Not only will you be rescued from wrath in judgement …

… but you will also be rescued from the power of sin in your life

… so that you will seek the things of God which bear the fruit of life.

Fro the one who knows the truth but continues in unrighteousness, you are right to fear the Lord.

There is an intentional warning in this passage for you who are religiously initiated.

Do not presume on the kindness of God while continuing to seek the things of this world.

That is not faith. It is the suppression of the truth.

Today is the day to lay down your presumption and turn for the first time in true faith.

And for the believer, this morning.

You too are right to fear the Lord.

He is the holy and righteous judge of all mankind.

But you are also right to love him and give thanks to him.

Romans 8:14–15 (ESV) For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”

45:00

Robert Murray Works without redemptive aspiration are dead works. Aspiration without good works is presumption.

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