Romans 2.5-God's Judgment is Measured Out According to the Accumulation of Guilt
Prairie View Christian Church
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Tuesday August 7, 2007
Romans: Romans 2:5-God’s Judgment is Measured Out according to the Accumulation of Guilt
Lesson # 45
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 2:1.
This evening we will continue with our study of Romans chapter two.
In Romans 2:1, Paul addresses the self-righteous attitude of the Jews towards the Gentiles and in the process presents the first of twelve principles regarding the judgment of God, namely, that they will be judged according to the standards which they set for the Gentiles.
Then, in Romans 2:2, Paul presents a second principle of divine judgment, namely, that God judges men according to truth.
In Romans 2:3, Paul states to the self-righteous Jew that God’s judgment is inescapable.
Next, in Romans 2:4 Paul teaches the self-righteous Jew that God’s judgment is delayed because of His kindness, tolerance and patience towards them in desiring that he might be saved through faith in Jesus Christ.
This evening we will study Romans 2:5, in which Paul’s presents the fifth principle regarding God’s judgment, namely, that it is measured out according to the accumulation of guilt.
Romans 2:1, “Therefore you have no excuse, everyone of you who passes judgment, for in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things.”
Romans 2:2, “And we know that the judgment of God rightly falls upon those who practice such things.”
Romans 2:3, “But do you suppose this, O man, when you pass judgment on those who practice such things and do the same yourself, that you will escape the judgment of God?”
Romans 2:4, “Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?”
Romans 2:5, “But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.”
Corrected translation of Romans 2:5:
Romans 2:5, “But according to your obstinacy and unrepentant heart, you are, as an eternal spiritual truth, storing up for yourselves righteous indignation on a day characterized by righteous indignation, yes, when the righteous judgment executed by God is revealed.”
“But” is the “adversative” use of the post-positive conjunction de (deV), which introduces a statement that presents a contrast with Paul’s rhetorical question in Romans 2:4 that demands a positive response.
Therefore, the conjunction de presents a contrast between the following: (1) Grace of God and the unregenerate human heart. (2) Ignoring infinite divine kindness and storing up wrath. (3) Repentance and impenitence.
“Because” is the conjunction kata (katav), which is used with the accusative case specifying that the “standard” by which God will judge the self-righteous Jew is the hardness of their unrepentant heart and should be translated “according to.”
Therefore, the preposition kata with the accusative case indicates that the self-righteous Jew will receive eternal condemnation because of their own bad decision to not respond to God’s kindness, tolerance and patience by trusting in Jesus Christ as their Savior.
“Your” is the genitive 2nd person singular personal pronoun su (suv), which emphasizes the self-righteous Jew since in Romans 1:1-17, Paul uses the 2nd person plural to address the Roman believers and when referring to the Gentiles he uses the third person, thus through the process of elimination we know that Paul’s is speaking to the Jew.
“Stubbornness” is the noun sklerotes (sklhrovth$), which refers to “a stubborn or obstinate attitude with regard to any change in conduct or behavior.”
The word “stubborn” means, “unreasonably obstinate” while to be “obstinate” means to firmly or perversely adhere to one’s purpose, opinion, not yielding to argument, persuasion, or entreaty and is characterized by inflexible persistence or an unyielding attitude and implies resistance to advice.
Pharaoh had this spiritual obstinacy of heart in the sense that he was unresponsive and insensitive to the commands of God.
Exodus 11:10, “Moses and Aaron performed all these wonders before Pharaoh; yet the LORD hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he did not let the sons of Israel go out of his land.”
Proverbs 29:1 teaches that this spiritual obstinacy can get to the point as in the case of Pharaoh in which it cannot be healed.
Proverbs 29:1, “A man who hardens his neck after much reproof will suddenly be broken beyond remedy.”
Also, the Exodus generation in Israel suffered from spiritual obstinacy.
Psalm 95:8-11, “Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as in the day of Massah in the wilderness, when your fathers tested Me, they tried Me, though they had seen My work. For forty years I loathed that generation, and said they are a people who err in their heart, and they do not know My ways. Therefore I swore in My anger, truly they shall not enter into My rest.”
The writer of Hebrews warns the Jewish Christians to not follow the example of the Exodus generation in their unbelief and obstinacy of heart (Hebrews 3:17-4:13).
Hebrews 3:14-15, “For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end, while it is said, ‘TODAY IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE, DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS, AS WHEN THEY PROVOKED ME.’”
Paul teaches that God has temporarily set aside the nation of Israel during the church age and times of the Gentiles because of the hardness of the nation’s heart in rejecting her Messiah, Jesus Christ.
Romans 11:25, “For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery so that you will not be wise in your own estimation that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.”
Romans 2:5, “But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.”
“Unrepentant” is the adjective ametanoetos (a)metanovhto$), which is composed of the alpha privative a, “without” and the preposition meta, “change” and the noun nous, “mind,” thus the word literally means, “without a change of mind or attitude.”
In Romans 2:5, the adjective ametanoetos is used in contrast with the noun metanoia, “repentance” that appears in Romans 2:4 and describes the unregenerate heart of the self-righteous Jew as being “without a change in attitude” towards the Savior Jesus Christ.
“Heart” is the noun kardia (kardiva) (kar-dee-ah), which refers to the dominant right lobe of the soul, where the mental activity or function of the soul takes place.
The unregenerate heart is deceitful and desperately sick and only God can understand it.
Jeremiah 17:9, “The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; Who can understand it?”
The Lord Jesus Christ taught His disciples that verbal and overt acts of sin originate from within and out of the unregenerate heart.
Mark 7:21-23, “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness. All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man.”
“You are storing up” is the verb thesaurizo (qhsaurivzw) (thay-sow-rid-zo), which refers to “the action of bringing something to a storehouse or of gathering a treasure.”
In Romans 2:5, the verb thesaurizo is used in a figurative sense and pictures a person storing away wrath or eternal condemnation as in a treasure or as if they were building up a fortune of gold.
“For yourself” is the reflexive pronoun seautou (seautou) (she-ow-too), which indicates that the subject, the self-righteous Jew is also the object of the action of the verb thesaurizo, “to store up, accumulate” and highlights the participation of the self-righteous Jew in his own condemnation.
“The day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God” refers to the Great White Throne Judgment, in which every unbeliever in history will have to stand before Christ and will take place at the end of human history and is the judgment of all unregenerate humanity in human history for their rejection of Jesus Christ as Savior (Rev. 20:11-15).
Revelation 20:11, “Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them.”
Revelation 20:12, “And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds.”
Revelation 20:13, “And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds.”
Revelation 20:14, “Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.”
Revelation 20:15, “And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.”
Unbelievers will “not” be judged according to their sins at the Great White Throne Judgment since Jesus Christ died for all men, Jew and Gentile and for every sin that they have committed-past, present and future.
The unbeliever will be judged according to their self-righteous human good works, which do not measure up to the perfect work of the impeccable Christ on the Cross (Rev. 20:11-15).
The unbeliever goes to the lake of fire because of his rejection of Christ as his Savior since 1 Timothy 2:4 and John 3:16-17 clearly indicates that God desires all men to be saved, thus, He has made provision for all men to be saved through the Person and Work of Jesus Christ on the Cross.
Those who reject Jesus Christ as Savior will be thrown into the eternal Lake of Fire forever and ever at the conclusion of human history.
Romans 2:5, “But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.”
“Wrath” is the noun orge (o)rghv) (or-gay), which refers to God’s attitude of “righteous indignation” in response to any thought, word, or action of mankind and angels, that is opposed to His holiness and manifests itself in actions that judge and punish the guilty.
The difference between righteous indignation and anger is that the former is based upon concern for the holiness of God whereas the latter is emotional, selfish, self-centered, vindictive and intent on harming another and lacking in self-control.
God’s righteous indignation is the legitimate anger towards evil and sin since both are contrary to His holiness or perfect character and nature.
God’s holiness refers to the absolute perfection of His character, expressing His purity of His character or moral perfection and excellence and intolerance and opposition and rejection of sin and evil, thus God is totally separate from sin and sinners.
The only way to avoid God’s righteous indignation is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
John 3:36, “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”
“Revelation” is the noun apokalupsis (a)polkavluyi$) (apo-ka-loop-sis), which is composed of the preposition apo, “from” and the verb kalupto, “to cover, hide,” thus the word literally means, “unveiling, revelation” and denotes the unveiling of something previously hidden.
Therefore, the noun refers to the “revelation” of God’s righteous judgment at the Great White Throne Judgment.
“Righteous judgment” is the noun dikaiokrisia (dikaiokrisiva) (dik-ah-yok-ris-ee-ah), which is a compound word composed of the adjective dikaios, “righteous” and the noun krisis, “judgment,” the word literally means, “righteous judgment.”
“Of God” is articular genitive masculine singular form of the noun theos (qeov$), which refers to the Lord Jesus Christ who will conduct the Great White Throne Judgment of unbelievers.
The fact that unregenerate man will receive eternal condemnation in the lake of fire forever and ever is a righteous judgment since as sinners they can never be justified before a holy God and have rejected God’s only provision for sin, which is the Person and Finished Work of Jesus Christ on the Cross.
God who is holy and cannot tolerate sin is justified in throwing His creatures into the lake of fire for rebelling against Him but also God, who as to His nature, is love, did everything He could to prevent any of His creatures from going to the lake of fire forever and ever for their rebellion against Him.
The fact that God did not immediately deposit all mankind in the lake of fire for their disobedience is incontrovertible evidence that God loves His creatures and desires none of them to go to the lake of fire.
The fact that God the Father sent His Son into the world to become a human being to satisfy His righteous demands that the sin of men be judged is also incontrovertible evidence that God loves His creatures.
The Lord Jesus Christ will conduct the Great White Throne Judgment as He will all judgments since God the Father has promoted Him to sovereign ruler of creation as a result of His voluntary substitutionary spiritual death on the Cross (See Acts 17:30-31; Philippians 2:5-11; Hebrews 1:1-3).
Acts 17:30-31, “Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.”
Psalm 9:8, “And He will judge the world in righteousness; He will execute judgment for the peoples with equity.”
Psalm 119:137, “Righteous are You, O LORD, and upright are Your judgments.”