God doesn’t have favorites

Recap

What is going on in the letter so far?

Paul is writing to believers (Romans)

Paul calls out how wicked people are

Romans 1:18 “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and wickedness of those who by their wickedness suppress the truth.”

Romans 1:26 “For this reason God gave them up to degrading passions. Their women exchanged natural intercourse for unnatural,”

Romans 1:28 “And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind and to things that should not be done.”

These are reminders of how bad people are, but then Paul switches pronouns:

Romans 2:1“Therefore you have no excuse, whoever you are, when you judge others; for in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, are doing the very same things.”

What do we know?

Anyone know Happy Salmon?

Volunteers

Don’t know the game = go out in the hallway

Recap of game for half that stayed

We can play another round after if we have a minute

Some of us had the rules, some of us made up our own

Paul is turning around his argument here: he’s switching into a fake conversation with someone (diatribe)

Basically: I see you shaking your head, thinking about that one jerk of a person you know, or maybe hitler or some really bad guy from a TV show, you don’t have any excuse to judge them!

Having truth doesn’t give anyone an upper hand in life

Romans 2:2–5 NRSV

You say, “We know that God’s judgment on those who do such things is in accordance with truth.” Do you imagine, whoever you are, that when you judge those who do such things and yet do them yourself, you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you despise the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience? Do you not realize that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But by 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.

Story of David and Nathan the prophet

Nathan told David a story of a rich dude who stole a poor dude’s sheep

David was shocked and thought it was terrible and Nathan said that David was that rich dude

But… David’s judgement was correct!

Judging rightly is something we should do, but we have to balance it with how terrible our own hearts are

Why do I say that having truth doesn’t give anyone an upper hand in life?

Next section is a chiasm with the main point in the middle and the end almost the same as the beginning

Romans 2:6–11 (NRSV)

For he will repay according to each one’s deeds:

to those who by patiently doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life;

while for those who are self-seeking and who obey not the truth but wickedness, there will be wrath and fury.

There will be anguish and distress for everyone 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.

Why is the main point here the middle?

“for those who are self-seeking, wrath and fury”

“Everyone who does evil will get anguish and distress”

Jew first, and the Greek

Read ahead and find out!

Romans 2:12–16 NRSV

All who have sinned apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but the doers of the law who will be justified. When Gentiles, who do not possess the law, do instinctively what the law requires, these, though not having the law, are a law to themselves. They show that what the law requires is written on their hearts, to which their own conscience also bears witness; and their conflicting thoughts will accuse or perhaps excuse them on the day when, according to my gospel, God, through Jesus Christ, will judge the secret thoughts of all.

Just like in Happy Salmon, we naturally find rules

We get a reminder here of what it means that “God has no favorites” or “God shows no partiality”

Psalm 51:17 “The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.”

At the end of the day, everyone is judged the same way, and it isn’t on the public side of things:

God ultimately doesn’t care if you went to church every day of your life

God ultimately doesn’t care if you read your bible 3 times every day

God doesn’t judge Jews different than Muslims or Christians different than Satanists!

Let me say that again…

God doesn’t judge Jews different than Muslims or Christians different than Satanists!

Leviticus 18:5 “You shall keep my statutes and my ordinances; by doing so one shall live: I am the Lord.”

This isn’t “by doing so, a Jew shall live” or “by doing so, a Christian shall live”

Dude named Francis Shaffer called this “secret thoughts of all” idea “an invisible tape recorder on our chests”

Picture if you spoke all of your thoughts out loud:

You might say to someone one thing, but that doesn’t mean that you believe it

You might call someone stupid for doing something stupid, but then a few days later do something very similar

Gosh, my brother is such a jerk for not cleaning off the table, and then…

I would clean off the table, but I promised my friend I’d get on Rivals by 6:30

Anyone can do things with bad motives

The same dude who quoted Shaffer talked about apples on trees and said:

Good works are like the apples on a tree: they aren’t what gives the tree health and life but they are evidences of it.

I love that analogy, because it’s a reminder to me that apples don’t do nothing!

Reading on, Paul just told us that God judges the secret hearts of all. Then he says:

Romans 2:17–24 (NRSV)

But if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the law and boast of your relation to God and know his will and determine what is best because

you are instructed in the law,

and if you are sure that you are a guide to the blind,

a light to those who are in darkness,

a corrector of the foolish,

a teacher of children,

having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth,

you, then, that teach others, will you not teach yourself?

While you preach against stealing, do you steal?

You that forbid adultery, do you commit adultery?

You that abhor idols, do you rob temples?

You that boast in the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law?

For, as it is written, “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.”

There are a few different takes here, it makes the most sense to me that these are crazy examples made to be obvious signs of what it looks like to be hypocritical and fake.

The people reading this likely didn’t do any of these things, but they did judge others for the same things they were guilty of:

She’s so prideful, I would never say that.

I can’t believe he just checked that girl out, I know I was doing it too, but that’s different.

We’re going to read this last section, and keep in mind who Paul is writing to: Jewish converts

They probably all agree that everything from chapter 1 is wrong

They know they are special because they have the law

They are separate because they practice circumcision

Romans 2:25–29 (NRSV)

Circumcision indeed is of value if you obey the law; but if you break the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision.

So, if those who are uncircumcised keep the requirements of the law, will not their uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision?

Then those who are physically uncircumcised but keep the law will condemn you that have the written code and circumcision but break the law.

For a person is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is true circumcision something external and physical.

Rather, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly, and real circumcision is a matter of the heart—it is spiritual and not literal. Such a person receives praise not from others but from God.

God has never changed his mode of saving people: it has always been the same, remember Psalm 51—a contrite heart

Jeremiah 9:25–26 “The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will attend to all those who are circumcised only in the foreskin: Egypt, Judah, Edom, the Ammonites, Moab, and all those with shaven temples who live in the desert. For all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart.”

Not even the idea of circumcision becoming uncircumcision is new

What does this mean for us?

I told you to put yourself in the mindset of Jews as we read that last section, but let’s take it home to us:

People have never been saved through works

It doesn’t matter what the world calls you

“A muslim” “A Christian” “A Catholic”

All that matters is what God is going to judge: “the secret heart” which does (and should) make fruit, such as being called “A follower of Christ” and other things, but it’s so much more than that:

Skipping ahead a bit as we close here, I’ll paraphrase something you’ll look at next week

Romans 3:23–25 (NRSV)

since we’ve all sinned and fallen short of God;

We’re only justified by his gracious gift;

Paid for through Jesus being sacrificed by God

and put on us through faith.

Guys, I know we echo it every week, but that’s the core of all of this.

It’s awesome and helpful to have

A church to go to

Some teachers who aren’t terrible

Friends you can talk to

A Bible you can read

But none of that changes who we are.

Faith in Jesus is the only thing that can save you, your mom, your grandfather, your best friend, or anyone else you see.