Bible Study Romans 2
It would be easy for people who are relatively free from such serious sins to scorn those who do fall into them. From this point (Rom 2:1) Paul increasingly has the Jews in mind, as he fully has from Romans 2:17 onward. He argues that even those who do not fall into the grosser sins nevertheless sin in other ways and are equally culpable. If they do not experience God giving them up to the degrading way of life described in Romans 1, but rather experience his patience, they should see this as a merciful act intended to encourage and permit repentance. Lack of repentance will lead to divine judgment when people will be recompensed depending on whether they have sought the rewards that God gives by doing good or have followed self-seeking ways. And this judgment will be upon all people, both Jews and Gentiles.
But it is significantly present when Paul sums up the nature of salvation as the action of Jesus Christ in delivering people from the wrath to come (1 Thess 1:10; 5:9) and the fact that he begins his systematic exposition of the gospel in Romans by asserting that God’s wrath is revealed against all sin is significant. The picture broadens out when we take into account the fact that this “wrath to come” is associated with judgment (Rom 2:2–3, 16; 2 Thess 2:12).
God—the Father. God the Father is the initiator of the action in the story. He is the sovereign ruler, carrying out his purpose through the mission of his people and specifically of those called to be witnesses and apostles. The gospel is the gospel of God (Rom 1:1). God the Father is the one God and Creator of the universe (1 Cor 8:6; cf. Eph 4:6), and human beings are made in his image (1 Cor 11:7). He expects their worship and their willing obedience to his way of life for them (cf. Rom 1:21). God is living and active, by contrast with the idols worshiped by the Gentiles (1 Thess 1:9). He will judge the world for its sinfulness (Rom 2:5); indeed his wrath is already being revealed in the way in which human sin leads to human misery (Rom 1:18)
These are the people who ‘do what is good’ and so receive ‘glory, honour and peace’ (2:10); they are the people who ‘do the law’ and so ‘will be declared to be in the right’. As we saw earlier, the anxious protestant principle of never allowing anyone to ‘do’ anything which appears to contribute to any sort of justification has pushed exegetes into declaring that these solemn statements are either strange irrelevancies or, at most, the setting up of categories which Paul will then declare to be empty. But the close correlation of these statements in 2:7–10 with the similar ones in 2:25–29 (coupled with the fact that Romans 1:18–2:16 is a rather different sort of passage from what that older exegesis had imagined) means that we should read them as referring in advance to Messiah-believing people, Jews and Gentiles alike (2:10)
Paul’s belief in the certainty of God’s judgment is clear from his various statements in these letters. The most extensive discussion is in Romans 2, where he affirmed that the judgment of God would be according to truth (v. 2), that it would be based on behavior representative of a person’s life, whether good or evil (vv. 6–10), and that it would be without partiality (v. 11). These principles of judgment apply to all people, though Paul knew that humanity left to its own devices would incur certain condemnation (3:10–20), the essence of which was ultimate separation from God’s presence
We should not be misled by the fact that in a culture such as ours judges are supposed to be disinterested and not to let their personal feelings affect their judgment; here what is being emphasized is impartiality and freedom from arbitrary sentencing. However, it is quite normal for a judge to express the righteous reaction of the community against cruelty and violence, and this is what is meant by the wrath of God. God is impartial (Rom 2:11; cf. Eph 6:9; Col 3:25).
This just judgment (dikaiokrisia, 2:5) will be on the basis of the totality of the life that has been led. God will ‘repay to each according to their works’. Paul never for a moment undermines this biblical and traditional saying, widespread across the thought of ancient Israel. It is itself part of the ‘righteousness of God’, the ‘just judgment’ in which the creator will be seen to have acted ‘impartially’ (Romans 2:11)
But Paul also could speak of justification with a future tense, as a declaration that will be made at the judgment. He told the Romans that “it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but those who obey the law who will be declared righteous (2:13).
Obviously Paul was not teaching salvation by works. Later, in his summary of this entire section (3:20), Paul clearly stated that “no one will be declared righteous in [God’s] sight by observing the law.”
2:17–18 Verse 17 begins with a series of conditional clauses, each of which assumes its premise to be true. Paul addressed his listeners directly: “Now you, if you call yourself a Jew”113—and of course they did! To be a member of the Jewish race was to enjoy certain religious advantages over other nations. Gradually, however, privilege gave birth to self-righteousness. Paul understood the sentiments of those to whom he wrote because prior to conversion he himself was among those who were the most zealous for their Jewish heritage (Gal 1:14). They relied on the law. After all, God had revealed himself to Israel through the great law-giver Moses and laid out his expectations for the nation. Their national identity was inextricably bound up with Mosaic legislation. They boasted115 of their unique relationship to God. He was theirs and theirs alone. No other nation had been so blessed. God was the father of Israel (Exod 4:22; Isa 63:16). Another advantage for the Jews was their knowledge of the will of God (v. 18). God had clearly revealed to the nation what he expected of them. Because they were “instructed by the law,” they were able to distinguish that which was morally superior.117
the main requirement for a manager is to be trustworthy’, pistos, ‘faithful’. Israel was supposed to be pistos, not simply (in other words) ‘believing in God’, but being faithful, trustworthy, to his commission to bear his oracles to the nations, to be ‘a guide to the blind’ and so forth, as in 2:19–20. But the nation as a whole had failed in this commission. How then was Israel’s God to be faithful to his original purpose?
And Paul warns that the boast cannot be made good. Romans 2:21–24 has often caused exegetes to puzzle: surely Paul doesn’t think all Jews are adulterers, or all rob temples? No. That would only be the point (if at all) if he was trying to prove that all Jews need to be saved from their sin
Throughout the Gentile world the Jews’ hypocritical conduct had led others to blaspheme the name of God. Intended to represent God to the nations, they had caused others to hold him in contempt. By their conduct they had disgraced the God they professed to worship.129 In recent years a number of religious leaders have been publicly exposed for sexual sins. The impact upon those who trusted them as spiritual guides is great. Thousands have been disillusioned by the conduct of the thoughtless few. To bear the name of God is a sacred trust. To violate that trust has severe repercussions for those leaders themselves and for those whose spiritual growth is harmed by their actions. Jesus’ severe denunciation of those who cause others to sin (Luke 17:1–2) is appropriate at this point.
In practice, however, some of the law became obsolete for Jewish believers. The fact that Paul never mentions the temple and its ritual suggests that it has no significant role for him. Once Paul has argued that spiritual circumcision is what matters, the outward ritual becomes unimportant (Rom 2:25–29)
What Paul taught here about circumcision for the Jew is equally true of baptism for the Christian. Both function as signs; they do not themselves effect what they signify.
Thus as a Pauline theological term, it describes the activity of the Godhead. The Spirit also is the source of one’s life of worship (Phil. 3:3), a sign that believers are the true circumcision of God (cf. Rom. 2:28–29).
25 Circumcision, you see, has real value for people who keep the law. If, however, you break the law, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision. 26 Meanwhile, if uncircumcised people keep the law’s requirements, their uncircumcision will be regarded as circumcision, won’t it? 27 So people who are by nature uncircumcised, but who fulfil the law, will pass judgment on people like you who possess the letter of the law and circumcision but who break the law.
28 The ‘Jew’ isn’t the person who appears to be one, you see. Nor is ‘circumcision’ what it appears to be, a matter of physical flesh. 29 The ‘Jew’ is the one in secret; and ‘circumcision’ is in the heart, in the spirit rather than the letter. Such a person gets ‘praise’, not from humans, but from God.