Romans 2.7-The Believer Will Be Rewarded with Glory, Honor and Immortality for Pursuing Eternal Life
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Thursday August 9, 2007
Romans: Romans 2:7-The Believer Will Be Rewarded with Glory, Honor and Immortality for Pursuing Eternal Life
Lesson # 47
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 2:1.
This evening we will continue with our study of Romans chapter two and the twelve principles of divine judgment that are contained in this chapter.
This evening we will begin a study the seventh principle of divine judgment, which is taught by Paul in Romans 2:7-10, namely, that man reaps what he sows in that obedience will be rewarded whereas disobedience will result in judgment.
This evening we will note Romans 2:7, which teaches that according to the believer’s perseverance, which produces work that is divine in quality, glory, honor and immortality will be rewarded to them at the Bema Seat by the Lord Jesus Christ for diligently and tenaciously pursuing eternal life, i.e. Christ-likeness.
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 2:5-8, “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 who WILL RENDER TO EACH PERSON ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS: to those who by perseverance in doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life but to those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, wrath and indignation.”
Romans 2:9-11, “There will be tribulation and distress for every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek, but glory and honor and peace to everyone who does good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek for there is no partiality with God.”
In Romans 2:6-11, Paul is “not” teaching that salvation is by works but rather he is explaining another basic principle regarding divine judgment since this is what he has been teaching about in Romans 2:1-5.
Romans 2:6-11 is dealing with the “basis for judgment” and “not” the basis for salvation and it does “not” deal with the subject of “justification” but rather “judgment.”
In Romans 2:6-11, Paul is contrasting God’s dealing with each person according to his works in the sense that God rewards those who are righteous for their actions that are the result of habitual obedience and He punishes the unrighteous for their actions that are the result of habitual disobedience.
Romans 2:7, “to those who by perseverance in doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life.”
“To those who…seek” is the dative articular masculine plural present active participle form of the verb zeteo (zhtevw) (dzay-the-o), which means, “to give top priority to diligently, earnestly and tenaciously pursuing after something, sparing no effort or expense, for the object sought is of the highest value.”
The object that the obedient believer has made as his top priority in diligently and tenaciously pursuing after, sparing no effort is “eternal life” (zoen aionion) since this object is of the highest value.
“Eternal life” refers to a particular quality of life, namely, eternal life, the life of God, which is signified by the adjective aionios, “eternal” that is modifying the noun zoe.
Eternal life is received as gift from God the moment you believe in Jesus Christ as your Savior.
John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His uniquely born Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”
The Lord Jesus Christ is the incarnate Son of God and therefore He is also the incarnate eternal life of God and to reject that He is God is to reject eternal life.
John 11:25, “Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies.’”
The incarnate eternal Word of life came into the world in order that He might give eternal life to men so that they could have fellowship with God.
1 John 1:1, “Who has always existed from eternity past, who we have heard, who we have witnessed with our eyes, who we observed, even our hands touched concerning the Word who is the life (of God).”
1 John 1:2, “That is, this One who is the life (of God) was revealed (by the Holy Spirit) and we have witnessed and we testify and we are proclaiming (from God) at this particular time for the benefit of all of you this One who is the eternal life (of God), who indeed by virtue of His divine nature has always existed face to face with the Father and was revealed (by the Holy Spirit) for the benefit of all of us.”
1 John 1:3, “Who, we have witnessed and we have heard, we also are proclaiming (from God) at this particular time for the benefit of all of you in order that all of you without exception might also continue to experience fellowship and this fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus who is the Christ.”
In His “bread of life” discourse recorded in John 6:22-69, our Lord taught that the eternal Word of God became a human being in order to give eternal life to those who would believe in Him.
John 6:51, “I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh.”
Experiencing eternal life after salvation is described by Paul in Romans 6:4 as walking “in newness of life.”
Romans 6:4, “Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.”
The believer experiences eternal life in time and thus experiences fellowship with God in time by obeying the will of the Father of life, which is revealed to the believer by the Spirit of life through the communication of the Word of life.
As the believer appropriates the Lord Jesus through faith in the Word of God, the Lord becomes the believer’s life.
Colossians 3:3-4, “For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.”
Romans 2:7, “to those who by perseverance in doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life.”
Now, all the English translations render the Greek text as teaching that these obedient believers are pursuing after glory, honor and immortality with the result being eternal life but this is not the case.
Rather, Paul is saying that these believers are pursuing after eternal life, which results in the Lord Jesus Christ bestowing glory, honor and immortality at the Bema Seat Evaluation of the church.
The reason why the translators miss this is that they are viewing eternal life as being received in the future rather than from the perspective of fellowship with God in time and as a quality of life to be experienced now in time.
Also, they fail to see that Christ is the believer’s eternal life, thus they fail to see it is a reference to living the spiritual life.
In fact, in 1 Timothy 6:12, Paul commands Timothy to take hold of eternal life.
1 Timothy 6:12, “Fight the good fight of faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.”
So glory, honor and immortality are received as a reward for living in eternal life in time and producing divine good rather than eternal life being the reward for seeking after glory, honor and immortality!
“By perseverance” is composed of the preposition kata (kataV) (kat-ah), “by,” which has as its object the accusative feminine singular form of the noun hupomone (u(pomonhv) (hoop-o-mo-nay), “perseverance.”
The preposition kata with the accusative noun hupomone, “perseverance” specifies that the “standard” by which the Lord Jesus Christ will recompense or reward believers is perseverance, which produces works that are divine in quality and character and should be translated “according to.”
In Romans 2:7, the noun hupomone means, “perseverance,” which is steady persistence in a course of action, a purpose, and a state and suggests activity maintained in spite of difficulties, steadfast and long continued application.
For the Christian, “perseverance” is remaining faithful and obedient to the Word of God despite the obstacles in life such as the old sin nature, self, the cosmic system of Satan and underserved suffering.
James 1:2-4, “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”
Romans 2:7, “to those who by perseverance in doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life.”
“In doing good” is composed of the genitive neuter singular form of the noun ergon (e&rgon) (er-gon), which is modified by the genitive neuter singular form of the adjective agathos (a)gaqov$) (ag-ath-os).
In Romans 2:7, the noun ergon means, “work” and is used in reference to believers and denotes the attaining of spiritual maturity or Christ-likeness, which is the maximum production of Christ-like character produce by the Holy Spirit in the believer who executes Father’s plan to become like Christ.
In Romans 2:7, the adjective agathos is modifying the noun ergon and describes this work as being “divine in quality and character” since it is produced in the believer by the Holy Spirit when the believer is obedient to the Word God.
This obedience is motivated by love for the Lord and is reflected in one’s thoughts, words and actions.
The believer’s love for the Lord is the response in his soul to the love, which God has exercised towards him at the Cross and in raising and seating him with Christ at Father’s right hand.
1 John 4:19, “We love, because He first loved us.”
Therefore, the believer’s perseverance in learning and obeying God’s Word and thus executing the Father’s plan will produce work that is divine in quality, i.e. spiritual maturity since it is motivated by love for the Lord and which love is the response in the soul to the love that God has exercised towards the believer.
In Romans 2:7, the noun ergon, “work” is a “genitive of product” meaning that it is the product of the noun hupomone, “perseverance” thus perseverance “produces” this work that is divine in quality.
The work that is divine in quality and character is spiritual maturity, which is synonymous with Christ-likeness and is the result of executing the Father’s will from eternity past for the believer to become conformed to the image of Christ.
Romans 8:29, “For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren.”
As is the case in Romans 2:7, the noun ergon appears in Philippians 1:6 with the adjective agathos modifying it.
Philippians 1:6, “I am confident of this very same thing, namely that, the One (God the Holy Spirit) who began in all of you a good work that is divine in quality, will bring it to completion up to the day of Christ who is Jesus.”
“Glory” is the noun doxa (dovca), which refers to the praise, recognition, rewards and position of authority that the believer will receive at the Bema Seat Evaluation of the church from the Lord Jesus Christ for executing the Father’s will in growing to spiritual maturity, i.e. Christ-likeness.
2 Corinthians 4:17-18, “For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”
This glory will be received in the form of rewards from the Lord Jesus at the “Bema Seat Evaluation,” which takes place immediately after the Rapture and is an “evaluation” of the believer’s life after salvation to determine if they merit rewards or not (Romans 14:10; 1 Corinthians 3:11-15; 2 Corinthians 5:10; 1 John 2:24).
2 Corinthians 5:10, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.”
“Honor” is the noun time (timhv) (tee-may), which refers to the recognition of the dignity of the position of authority with its responsibilities and privileges that the believer will receive from the Lord Jesus Christ at the Bema Seat for executing the Father’s plan and will enjoy during the millennial reign of Christ and eternal state.
“Immortality” is the noun aphtharsia (a)fqarsiva) (af-thar-see-ah), which does “not” refer to the resurrection body of the believer since all believers will receive a resurrection body regardless of whether or not they executed the Father’s plan for their lives (See 1 Corinthians 3:11-15; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18).
Rather, the noun aphtharsia refers to immortality in the sense that the believer will be remembered and celebrated throughout Christ’s millennial reign and in the eternal state for executing the Father’s plan in time.
The word is related to the glory and honor that the believer received for executing the Father’s plan and describes this glory and honor as enduring throughout the millennial reign of Christ and into the eternal state.