Equal Rights - Week 2

Hearts Open to Truth: Understanding God's Judgment

Bible Passage: Romans 2:12–16

Summary: In Romans 2:12–16, Paul explains that God's judgment applies equally to all humanity—those who have the written law and those who do not. He asserts that although the Jewish people have the law, those without it demonstrate an understanding of right and wrong through their actions, showing that God’s truth is inscribed on every human heart.

Application: This passage encourages believers to recognize the inherent moral compass that God has placed within us all, prompting Christians to examine their own lives for consistency with God’s truth. It can help people understand that regardless of their knowledge of theological doctrines, the core of living righteously lies in following what is right according to their conscience.

Teaching: The sermon teaches that everyone, regardless of their background or access to Scripture, is accountable to God's moral standards. It emphasizes that God looks at the heart and the attitude of an individual towards His truth, rather than mere adherence to law or knowledge.

How this passage could point to Christ: This passage points to Christ as the true embodiment of the law and the solution to humanity's failure to live righteously. In Him, we see the perfect fulfillment of God's justice and mercy, providing a way for all to be reconciled to God, regardless of their prior understanding of the law.

Big Idea: God judges based on sincerity of heart rather than knowledge of the law; true righteousness originates from the heart's response to God's truth.

Recommended Study: While preparing for this sermon, consider delving into the differences in Jewish and Gentile perceptions of the law. Using your Logos library, look for resources on Paul’s theology concerning conscience and moral law. You may also want to explore how this passage relates to the broader biblical themes of judgment and redemption in Christ.

Intro

Romans 2:11 NASB 2020

For there is no partiality with God.

Last week - equality in Christ where no matter our background, we’re equal

Today we’ll see how judgement is applied equally to all humanity. Whatever might be an advantage you think you have doesn’t actually give you any advantage over judgement.

Paul shows us that even though the Jewish people have the written law, those of us who weren’t born in the Jewish faith and have no knowledge of the law, we have an understanding in our hearts of right and wrong.

1. Judgment: An Equal Scale

Romans 2:12

Have you ever showed up for game night and didn’t understand the rules of the game but all your friends were playing and you could just tell that they were making up their own rules because you pick up the manual and its different than what they’re doing?

The Jews had the Law

The Law is like the rules for life that sets to standard on how to live. The Jews have had the law since it was given to Moses. We see it in the Old Testament today.

Everyone else was like us showing up to the party and not understanding what the rules were…

Theres no one who can live up to the law. So what was its purpose?

The Law reveals to us that we’re sinful.

Its perfect standard shows us that we can’t meet it.

It doesn’t matter whether or not you’re born into the law as a Jew or like everyone else who doesn’t know it.

Ignorance is no excuse. Whether expert or not, we’re all subject to the punishment of the law.

The only person who lived perfectly by the law was Jesus. And because of His death and resurrection, He fulfilled the law because He was the only one who could do it.

When we repent and turn to Him, being lead by His truth, we get to share in His fulfillment of the law.

In His fulfillment, we are not under the law, but grace.

Back to game night - I have little kids, Its like when I let them sit on my lap during UNO because they can’t read and I ruthlessly defeat the rest of my family and they get to share in that victory with me!

But Jesus won so we didn’t have to. But it doesn’t end there.

We must always be looking at our lives and figuring out what is pleasing God and whats contrary to His truth.

The law still exists and it still shows us that we’re undeserving of His grace because of our sin.

We must then repent. We should even repent for what we do unknowingly.

How do we tell someone that they have to apologize for things that they don’t know that they did?

For me, God has challenged me.

Over my life I’ve heard sermons and read scripture that have challenged me and convicted me.

The Holy Spirit has used certain instances to reveal to me that I’ve not been pleasing God the way I should be.

As a Christian, my instinct isn’t to find a way to continue in that sin because “I’ve just always done it.”

It is to repent and ask the Holy Spirit for guidance.

We all stand in the same place here.

2. Doing, Not Just Hearing

Romans 2:13

The Jews at the time of Paul’s writing this thought that just because God gave the Jews the law, it made them righteous because they tried really hard to obey it.

But Paul’s saying that just hearing the Law isn’t enough - doing it is what needs done. But guess what? To do the law requires you to do it perfectly… you can’t only do some of it…. you can’t just hear it.

Whether we lack the knowledge, or have the full knowledge, we have sin and can’t live up to the law.

The law reveals our sin. Its like a light shining on it.

That light shines on everyone. It exposes us.

Again, we find ourselves all in the same boat, we’re all in need of a Savior.

If we don’t recognized our sin, how do know we need rescued from it?

If we don’t know that we need rescued, how do we recieve and accept a Savior?

If we’re supposed to be doing the law, how do we do it if we can’t achieve it?

The life we’re called to as Christians involves a lot more than just hearing the Word, but living the Word.

We have to understand that as Christians, we live in Christ and Christ lives in us.

Christ fulfilled the Law.

No matter how much we evaluate our faith, we can’t live up to the law.

We’re meant to live like Jesus - except we can’t do that either.

If Jesus was the real thing. We’re like early AI videos. We can mimic, but we will always fall short.

I went to church for years and still sat in unrepentant sinfulness.

I heard, but I didn’t do.

It wasn’t until I would seek Jesus’ help and repent.

When we repent, it moves us closer to the Father.

The Father sees us as He sees Christ - SO - Christ makes us righteous where we are unrighteous.

This is not by hearing - and its not even by doing.

Its by recognizing we can’t do it, we can only acknowledge our need for rescuing from our savior and He does the rest.

We know theres sin in our lives - we do.

Hearing the word, hearing the sermons, hearing the songs, isn’t going to do anything for us.

Putting it into practice will. But we also have to know that we don’t have what it takes to do it… to fulfill the law, but that we can allow Jesus (who has fulfilled the law) to work through us.

That action comes with … doing it perfectly? No!

…relationship. There is a closeness.

To know Jesus means that we haven’t just heard about Jesus, or even experienced Jesus, but we’ve allowed Christ to live in us.

3. Heart's Honest Reflection

Romans 2:14-15

Jesus will always bring us back to Him. Like a magnet. We’re drawn to His presence. Only in our stubbornness and love for sin would we walk away from it.

So many hurting people in the world won’t run to the Father because theres something they can’t get past. Its not God holding back from us. Its us.

Its us running away from what God is trying to do in our lives .

To instinctively perform the requirements of the law doesn’t mean that we’ll get it perfect… it means that we’ll act in order to survive…

Because we’re all in need of rescue. We’re all in need of an answer. We all have the same God shaped hole in us that needs filled and we try to fill it with things that will never fulfill it. Everything other than God.

Theres a natural survival instinct that we have. If we’re drowning, our body doesn’t freeze up because no one taught us how to swim. It starts to panic and flail.

Only those who know how to swim does the instinct line up with a learned skill.

When the moment of panic happens, you have that stored in you to survive.

In this world, we’re slowly drowning and our natural instinct is to swim. Some of us know how to swim and others don’t.

But heres the truth, In the middle of the ocean - eventually you’ll drown unless you’re rescued no matter how good at swimming you are.

Whether its stubbornness or ignorance, you’ll drown unless you’re rescued.

We’re all drowning in the ocean we call life. There is a good Father calling out to us. Jesus’ arms are stretched out to us.

The difference will be in those who call out to Him for rescue and those who don’t.

4. Christ’s Righteous Judgment

Romans 2:16

Its not the external things that matter here, but the heart’s compliance.

If God judged on the external only, there would be no need for faith. Because we can just go through the motions.

Its like when I tell my kids to clean their room. They do it, but their hearts are annoyed with me because they want to go do something else. And they just throw everything under the bed.

Its not our actions that change our hearts, but our hearts that change our actions.

Our actions are a reflection of our internal transformation and that our lives are sold out to God.

When we’re rescued, we should be sold out to the rescuer. We should reflect the rescuer.

Some of us have come to the father not for rescue, but for temporary help. We don’t reflect the Father, but we want Him to help us.

Social media algorithms example

Algorithms are to keep you engaged

They aren’t showing you what they want you to see, they’re showing you what you want to see.

I thought my algorithm was a reflect of the world, no. It was a reflection of me.

New algorithm based on Christian things, reflects better.

We’ve got to cut off that old life and focus on a new reflection. Not one that shows someone we used to be, but someone we are now.

The MSG translation says “your response to God’s yes and no will become public.”

We must recognize our need for rescuing! We must allow God to change our hearts, because if we don’t reflect the Father, we reflect the world and the the world will change our hearts.

Closing

IN Christ, our sins have already been punished on the cross.

We’re all drowning. We’re all trying to fight for our lives.

We’re all sinning. We haven’t been able to live up to our own standards let alone God’s!

When you look at those under the law and those outside of the law, we all end up the same place. Because God doesn’t judge based on who’s under the law and who’s not. We’re all drowning… theres none who aren’t.

He looks at who’s in Christ and who isn’t. We all are going to face the same decision: to follow Christ or not.

One day, the day of judgement will come and we will stand before God.

We will either stand in front of God and give account for how we didn’t live up to the Law, or we will stand before God in Christ and be seen and counted as righteous and sinless - not because of our righteousness, but because of the Grace of Jesus Christ.