The God of Justice and Peace

Romans 2:11–16 ESV

For God shows no partiality. For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without 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 before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified. For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.

Peace - it’s a massively relevant, massively important subject in our society today. You can have all the money in the world. You can have food in abundance to eat, you can live a life of luxury. But if you lack peace … you have nothing.

According to the New York Times, Americans are among the most anxious people on earth. One study found that Americans were significantly more anxious than residents of nations like Nigeria, Lebanon, and Ukraine. We spend billions of dollars every year on antianxiety medications and additional millions to fund research into the causes and cures for anxiety disorders.

Time magazine recently devoted its cover story to teenage anxiety, and the headline was: "The Kids Are Not All Right: American teens are anxious, depressed, and overwhelmed." The article claimed that today's adolescents "are the post-9/11 generation, raised in an era of economic and national insecurity. They've never known a time when terrorism and school shootings weren't the norm. They grew up watching their parents weather a severe recession, and, perhaps most importantly, they hit puberty at a time when technology and social media were transforming society."

One expert said, "If you wanted to create an environment to churn out angsty people, we've done it." One teenager explained, "We're the first generation that cannot escape our problems at all. We're all like little volcanoes. We're getting this constant pressure, from our phones, from our relationships, from the way things are today."

When you think of peace, I wonder where your mind goes? The reason I ask is because there are different types of peace: there’s WORLD peace - when nations are restraining themselves from war.

There’s SOCIAL peace - when people living together, within a country or city or school or family - are getting along (and if they aren’t - at least they’re putting on a good front). And, at the root of every other type of peace, there’s INDIVIDUAL peace.

If there is no war anywhere in the world, no riots in the streets of my city … no ugliness on social media or between the people in my home … all of that does me very little good if, on the inside of me, there is anxiety, hopelessness … an absence of peace.

Where too many people fail, is by stopping with the need for ‘inner peace’. There is a more fundamental peace that sits at the root of every other kind: Peace with God.” Every human being needs to deal with this question: “Is there a God Who created the entire universe, ordered it and watches over it, second by second … a God who created you and before whom you will stand one day to give account for how you used the life He blessed you with?”

If not - then peace is a meaningless term - because in that case - there is no design, no order - and you have no reason to have peace.

But, if there IS a God like that - then how can you expect to ever enjoy peace if your relationship with His is fractured?

Christianity deals with peace at every level, but is starts with the foundation - your relationship with God. And on this second week of Advent, the week in which we focus on ‘peace’, our text this morning in Romans 2, focuses on where peace begins.

1 GOD THE IMPARTIAL JUDGE, vv. 11-13

Let me remind you of the context: Paul is addressing clean-living, relitiously privileged God-fearers, who work to keep their noses clean. They are the type of people in Paul’s day, who if they were here in our day, at this time of year, would be adamant when they went shopping, to say, NOT, ‘Happy Holidays” - no way. They would fastidiously wish everyone they see, “Merry Christmas”! They would be petitioning to ‘Keep Christ In Christmas’ .... which is a good thing, by the way - but not as an end in itself.

THese are Jews, with a great religious heritage - God’s chosen people. They respect their Bibles (our OT) as the Word of God and they treat the Scriptures with a reverance in their synagogue services that would put many Christians to shame. You would never see them plopping the scrolls on the ground - carefully carry it.

These are people who take pride in being morally upstanding, God-fearers. that’s their assurance in being confident that in the Great Divide of humanity - between those going to heaven and those going to hell - THEY are taking the ‘UP-escalator’.

They are definitely proud to be NOT the pagans that surrounded them in the Roman empire - people who fall for all sorts of weird religious ‘flavors of the month’ - or who commit various types of ‘indecent acts’ in the name of ‘freedom’.

As we’ve been talking about over the last few weeks, Paul is making the point in chapter 2 - that everyone is under God’s judgment for sin - and just because you are born in the ‘right’ religious family and have a shelf filled with Bibles at home, collecting dust - none of that is enough to get you special standing with God, when you stand before Him on judgment day to give account for your life.

That’s what Paul is getting at in Romans 2:11-13, “For God shows no partiality. For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. (13) For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteouse before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified.”

In other words, it’s not the position of religious privilege that makes you right with God - it’s actually following Him - obedience. So, does that mean that if you obey God enough - you will earn your way into heaven? It may seem like that, but no. Notice that this whole passage is about judgment. It’s not a ‘how to’ guide to get into God’s favor … it’s a statement that everyone is going to be judged: everyone. The people who have been given God’s law and God’s word … and the people who haven’t.

“All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” So all are under judgment - The Jews of Paul’s day and church goers in our day - they’ll be judged by the knowledge they had.

The Gentiles of Paul’s day and the unchurched of our day will be judged by the knowledge they have.

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2 WHAT ABOUT THOS WHO HAVE NEVER HEARD? vv. 14-15

Now, if Paul says, in v. 13 that it’s not the hearers of the law who are righteous but the ones who DO it … that creates a question in many minds: “What about those who have never heard the Word of God? How can they obey God’s law when they don’t even know WHAT it is?! The Jews Paul is talking to here, they have a choice - they HAVE the word of God - many of them have memorized vast portions of it - - so with that knowledge of God - they can choose to obey Him or to NOT obey him. What about the people living in Rome who have never heard it?

What about the people living in Egypt? What about the people at that very time, living in the distant Roman province of Britannia … or those living among the indigenous tribes of what is now North America?

How is it fair to expect people that God has never spoken His word to - to obey a law they don’t even know? We need to spend some time here - because it’s the same question that people ask today about Christianity and God’s judgment.

If you ask Christian speakers on secular university campuses … they’ll tell you it’s one of the most asked questions they get from students: “How could a just God condemn people for disobeying Him … for not putting their trust in Jesus - when they haven’t even heard?”

Some people - even INSIDE the Church - they try to get around the problem by saying: “As long as you sincerely follow whatever path you THINK is right - God will be satisfied with that.”

Others would say, “Well, that’s PARTLY right ....”. But they would want to clarify that Jesus IS the ONLY WAY to God … BUT … as long as you are doing your best in whatever other religion you are following - then Jesus’ blood will cover you. You will be saved by Jesus Christ - even if you don’t have any idea who He is.

So what will happen then is that you’re going to have a bunch of ‘Anonymous Christians’ - who close their eyes in death and wake up in heaven, in Jesus’ presence and they’ll say, “Awww … I thought I was a Hindu … but Christianity is is .... COOL!”

Well you may have a prefered answer to the question about the eternal destiny of those who haven’t heard about Jesus - I may have a different opinion. But, in the end, none of our opinions matter. What matters is what God’s Word tells us. So, what DOES the Bible say?

Jesus said, over and over in the Gospels, some variation of what He so clearly says in John 14, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life and no one comes to the Father EXCEPT through me.” And the unified voice of the New Testament is that we come to God the Father, through the Son, by coming in repentant faith in His finished work.

Peter, in the very first sermon preached by the apostles, on the Day of Pentecost, to a crowd in Jerusalem, convicted by the realization of their need for rescue from the very Jesus whose crufixion they cheered for, asking what they must do to be saved: Peter gives his answer. Acts 2:38, “Repent and be baptized every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, and you

Then there’s Paul - in Athens, at the center of culture that is the Aereopagus, speaking to the philosophers there, representing every conceivable pathway of wisdom and religion. They have so many statues and idols, representing different religious faiths - that, just in case they forgot one … they put up an idol dedicated to ‘the unknown God’. So what does Paul say about the place of Christianity in this religious smorgasbord?

He does NOT say, “Well, as long as you choose one of those gods, whoever best meets your needs - and as long as you’re sincere - it’s all good - you’ll be fine.”

NO - listen to what he says:

Acts 17:28-31, “(GOd is not far from each one of us, (28) for in him we live and move and have our being; as even some of your own poets have said, ‘for we are indeed his offspring.’ (29) Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. (30) The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, (31) because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”

There is ONE way, ONE JUDGE - JESUS CHRIST - and it won’t work to plead ignorance. Paul agrees with Jesus.

And then there’s Romans 10:9, 10 - How can anyone be saved? “If you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. (10) For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.”

Romans 10:13, “For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

Romans 10:14-15, “How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whome they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? (15) And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”

Over and over - the message of the Bible: Everyone who is saved is saved by grace, through FAITH in Jesus Christ’s finished work.

And at the very end of teh BIble - Revelation ends in Revelation 21:27, with a description of heaven - “But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but ONLY those who are WRITTEN IN THE LAMB’S BOOK OF LIFE.”

We could go on and on - but there’s not time. See the clear message? Either you are saved by faith in Jesus Christ and the good works you do, they are ONLY GOOD - because they are the result of your being saved - NOT the cause of it. All of our righteousness is like filthy rags - the Prophet >>>>>>>>>>>>>>> says.

But when you are clothed witht he righteousness of Jesus Christ himself and His Holy Spirit has brought you to life and that new life overflows with good fruit … you can’t help but overflow with that fruit of your new life. Good works will come - and they will be good because they come from the right place.

Now I know some of you aren’t satisfied with this answer about those who haven’t heard about Jesus Christ. “So you’re saying that those who do not consciously put their faith in Jesus Christ - on judgment day will be condemned? BUt there are people right now, in hidden tribes in jungles around the world who haven’t had the privilege of hearing about Christ ...

Man - forget people in some distant land … there are people in Canada in our day, who don’t know who Jesus Christ is - except for a cuss word!” You have friends at school or colleagues at work or teammates on your sports’ team … and through no fault of their own - they’ve never even SEEN the inside of a Bible. How can God just them for what they don’t even know?!

Let me be clear right here: The Bible NEVER, EVER says that ANYONE will be judged for what they DON’T know. Everyone will be judged for what they DO know.

That’s what Pau is getting at, in vv. 14-15. Romans 2:14-15, “For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. (15) They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears wittness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them (16) on that day when … God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.”

Did you catch that, in v. 15: “The work of the law is written on their hearts … their conscience

Romans, Volume 1: Justification by Faith (Romans 1–4): An Expositional Commentary Sinners apart from the Law

Mere Christianity. Lewis begins with the observation that when people argue with one another, an angry person almost always appeals to some basic standard of behavior that the other person is assumed to recognize: “They say things like this: ‘How’d you like it if anyone did the same to you?’—‘That’s my seat, I was there first’—‘Leave him alone, he isn’t doing you any harm’—‘Why should you shove in first?’—‘Give me a bit of your orange, I gave you a bit of mine’—‘Come on, you promised.’ People say things like that every day, educated people as well as uneducated, and children as well as grown-ups.”

What interested Lewis about these remarks is that the people making them are not merely saying that the other person’s behavior just does not happen to suit them, but rather that the behavior of the other person is wrong:

The man who makes [these remarks] … is appealing to some kind of standard of behavior which he expects the other man to know about. And the other man very seldom replies, “To hell with your standard.” Nearly always he tries to make out that what he has been doing does not really go against the standard, or that if it does there is some special excuse. He pretends there is some special reason in this particular case why the person who took the seat first should not keep it, or that things were quite different when he was given the bit of orange, or that something has turned up which lets him off keeping his promise. It looks, in fact, very much as if both parties had in mind some kind of Law or Rule of fair play or decent behavior or morality or whatever you like to call it, about which they really agreed. And they have. If they had not, they might, of course, fight like animals, but they could not quarrel in the human sense of the word. Quarrelling means trying to show that the other man is in the wrong. And there would be no sense in trying to do that unless you and he had some sort of agreement as to what Right and Wrong are, just as there would be no sense in saying that a footballer had committed a foul unless there was some agreement about the rules of football.

I have a couple of problems with the idea that God will end up saving people who have never heard and responded to Jesus Christ - problems that rise out of the Scriptures themselves. The FIRST problem is that it kills the missionary mandate. Why would Jesus make his last words to His disciples, before he anscended to heaven - missionary words. The Gospel of Matthew ends with Jesus, giving his disciples the ‘Great Commission’ - “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Spirit ...”

And in Acts 1, just before He ascends into heaven, Jesus tells his apostles, ‘You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.”

Why would he place such an emphasis on taking the Good news to all the world - if it doesn’t, REALLY, matter?

And then there are the apostles - Every single one of them, except for John, died as martyrs for their witness as they spread the Good News of Jesus around the world - Paul went on journey after journey through the Roman Empire - gave his life in Rome spreading the gospel.

Thomas, dies on the shores of India. Why the sacrifice if the message of Jesus doesn’t need to be heard and responded to?

SECOND problem: If people who havent’ heard of Christ are safe - if they’re okay with God - then evangelism and missions isn’t what we think they are. We think it’s an act of love to take the Good News of Jesus Christ and present him to people around the world, from the person at school who sits next to us in chemistry class, to the guy who eats lunch across the lunchroom table at work - the guy in the next stall in the hockey dressing room - to the farthest hidden tribe in the deepest jungle across the world. But if they’re okay - then missions isn’t an act of love - it’s actually cruel. Why do I say that?

I say it for the same reason that I say it’s cruel to offer me half a dozen Crispy Creme donuts. As long as I don’t know you have them - I can just go about my business blissfully ignorant. But as soon as you come along and say, “Hey, I have these donuts and I thought you might like them ....” - suddenly I have to make a choice. Either I reject them and spend the rest of the day miserable over what I could have had .... OR … I eat them and spend the rest of the day miserable because I feel gross for being such a pig and I hate myself for my lack of control.

When we present Jesus Christ to someone who hasn’t heard - we’re forcing a choice on them that they wouldn’t otherwise have to make. And if they choose to reject Christ - now they are under judgment they wouldn’t otherwise had to face. And if they accept Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord … so many of them are plunged into a life of persecution ...

EXAMPLE

How many people have lost family? Shunned by family, lost jobs, sent to languish in prison - all because they responded to missions with faith in Jesus Christ. Not to mention the cost to missionaries and their families - Paul, the Apostles and countless Christians over the past 2000 years have given everything to reach the lost with the message of Jesus Christ ...

John Paton - went to the Cannibals on the New Hebrides Islands - told you that the missionaries that had gone before him - barely got out of their boats on the island shore - when they were cut down and killed. Not a single convert. Was that a fool’s errand? Graham Staines and his precious boys in India - burned to death in the Jeep they were sleeping in - there to reach those who hadn’t heard with the Good News of Jesus Christ - did they die for nothing? And his wife - who forgave the killers of her family and stayed in India to reach more people … WHY - if everyone’s okay as they are?!

No - don’t tell me that te people who haven’t heard about Christ are okay just as they are … it doesn’t fit the Bible’s message and it doesn’t square with logic. And ironically - I have never heard a missionary accuse God of wrongdoing for not cutting a special deal with those who haven’t heard. In fact, of those most loudly complaining that God would be unjust to condemn anyone who hasn’t heard of Jesus - the people I hear most often - are ones who don’t want to get off the couch and make a sacrifice to take the Gospel to the next door neighbour or the isolated tribe.

Let me be clear - God is sovereign. He’s free in His grace to do whatever He wants and He hasn’t revealed every detail to us of all of His ways in working salvation … He saves infants and others who are physically and mentally incapable of understanding God’s word. But whatever God might CHOOSE to do in any special case, all we can live by is what He has promised to do - and what He has promised to do is to save all of those and only those - who call on the name of Jesus Christ.

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3 THE GOOD NEWS IN JUDGMENT, v. 16

Now, just as seems to be the case in almost every passage we deal with in this section of Romans - if we stop too soon, or if we don’t read carefully enough - the passage seems to be such a downer. “Why would you choose THIS passage for Advent - on the road to Christmas celebrations?”

Hopefully you’re starting to realize that there is Good News everywhere in Romans. And this passage is no exception. I want to close this morning by showing you the Good News in Judgment. Look at Romans 2:15-16, pick it up near the end of v. 15, “.... their conflicting thoughs accuse or even excuse them (16) on the day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men’s hearts by Christ Jesus.”

Don’t miss that single phrase tucked into v. 16: “According to my gospel ....”. “God judges the secrets of men’s hearts by Christ Jesus ACCORDING TO MY GOSPEL.”

Yes, this is a passage about JUDGMENT - God shows no partiality and if He’s judging me - not only by what I DO … but even my SECRET thoughts, buried in the depths of my heart - the things I work so hard to hide from everyone else’s view - - Then I’m in HUGE trouble .... NOBODY MAKES IT OUT ALIVE.

So, back to the theme of peace .... of course peace isn’t the DEFAULT mode of life for people in this world - if you’re living under the black cloud of coming judgment, because you’re living in rebellion against God - it’s not rational to have peace. You’re on death row - every day that ticks by, is just bringing you that much closer to your appointment before the universe’s Judge.

And every other religion and philosophy says: “Get yourself right!” “But I CAN’T get myself right - I know what’s right and my conscience painfully reminds me day after day of how often I blow it - and do what I KNOW is wrong.” If the advice you get is to make yourself better and hopefully be so much better today that you make up for the way you blew it yesterday - then you’ll NEVER have peace.

Oh, but Paul says, “That’s not the end of the story.” He has a ‘gospel’ - the word means ‘Good News’. I love how he puts it: not THE Gospel alone - not something just ‘out there’ -but “MY GOSPEL”! Can you say that friend - “YOUR Gospel?”

And the Good News is exactly what we are celebrating through Advent and Christmas. The Holy, All-Knowing, All-Powerful God of the universe prepared for the human race He would create in His own image, which He knew would use its freedom to shipwreck itself. He saw me - a rebel human that could never make myself good enough for Him ....

And what does He do? He doesn’t consume us with fire from heaven at the instant moment of rebellion. He doesn’t simply send a prophet to tell us to pick up our socks … Doesn’t send a angel to warn us. What does the Holy Judge do? He sends His Son to join Himself to our broken humanity. God takes on human flesh in a peasant girl’s womb, is born in an animal stable, endures our suffering

See how brightly the Good News of Jesus Christ shines against the black background of God’s judgment? Knowing that I deserve hell - my conscience makes that clear … but He loves me THAT much … to gift to me His Son and His sacrifice. Does that not stir you with peace?!

Sovereign Grace Music has come out with some powerful songs over the years - including some tremendous Christmas songs. I just came across one this week that I hadn’t heard before - and I had discovered it sooner, I would have had the music team lead us in singing it. But let me read you the words. You all know the familiar carol, “O Come all Ye Faithful” - it’s a great hymn, but it can leave you feeling on the outside. If you know you are anything but FAITHFUL - if you know Jesus Christ

Verse 1 O come, all you unfaithful Come, weak and unstable Come, know you are not alone

Verse 2 O come, barren and waiting ones Weary of praying, come See what your God has done

Chorus Christ is born, Christ is born Christ is born for you

Verse 3 O come, bitter and broken Come with fears unspoken Come, taste of His perfect love

Verse 4 O come, guilty and hiding ones There is no need to run See what your God has done

Bridge He’s the Lamb who was given Slain for our pardon His promise is peace For those who believe

Verse 5 So come, though you have nothing Come, He is the offering Come, see what your God has done