Romans 2.8-The Unbeliever Will Receive Wrath and Indignation For Disobeying the Truth
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Sunday August 12, 2007
Romans: Romans 2:8-The Unbeliever Will Receive Wrath and Indignation for Disobeying the Truth
Lesson # 48
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 2:1.
This morning we will continue with our study of Romans chapter two and the twelve principles of divine judgment that are contained in this chapter.
On Thursday evening we began a study of 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.
We began this section by noting 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 for diligently and tenaciously pursuing eternal life, i.e. Christ-likeness.
This morning we will study Romans 2:8, which teaches that the unbeliever who is motivated by inordinate selfish ambition and disobeys the truth while obeying unrighteousness will be the recipient of God’s righteous indignation at the Great White Throne Judgment of all unbelievers throughout history.
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.”
Now, let’s look at Romans 2:8 in greater detail.
Romans 2:8, “But to those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, wrath and indignation.”
“Selfishly ambitious” is composed of the preposition ex (e)c), “out from” and the genitive feminine singular form of the noun eritheia (e)riqeiva) (er-ith-i-ah), “inordinate selfish ambition.”
Philippians 2:3, “All of you continue thinking the one thing. Never (thinking) according to inordinate ambition nor according to self-deception but with humility.”
Eritheia denotes ambition, which is excessive, sparing no expense at attaining one’s goal even to the point of attempting to discredit a supposed rival through gossiping, maligning, judging, vilification, or even violence.
The word describes a person who builds himself up by tearing someone else down and advances himself by using flattery, deceit, false accusation, contentiousness, and any other tactic that seems advantageous.
Therefore, the noun eritheia, “inordinate selfish ambition” is a mental attitude sin that is pre-occupied with self to the extent of sparing no expense at attaining one’s goal even to the point of attempting to discredit a supposed rival through gossiping, lying, maligning, judging, vilification, or even through violence.
The noun eritheia is a genitive of source and along with the preposition ek, which is a marker of source denotes that inordinate ambition is the source of motivation from which these unbelievers live their lives.
James teaches that eritheia, “from inordinate selfish ambition” is demonic.
James 3:13, “Who among you is wise and understanding? Let him show by his good behavior his deeds in the gentleness of wisdom.”
James 3:14, “But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth.”
James 3:15, “This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic.”
James 3:16, “For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing.”
James 3:17, “But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy.”
James 3:18, “And the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.”
The unbelievers who are motivated by inordinate selfish ambition are following in the footsteps of their father, the devil whose “inordinate selfish ambition” to be “like the Most High” led him to rebellion against God (Isa. 14:13-14).
Isaiah 14:12, “How you have fallen from heaven, O star of the morning, son of the dawn! You have been cut down to the earth, You who have weakened the nations!”
Isaiah 14:13, “But you said in your heart, 'I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God, and I will sit on the mount of assembly in the recesses of the north.”
Isaiah 14:14, “I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.”
So the unbeliever follows in the footsteps of their father, the devil by being motivated by inordinate selfish ambition.
Romans 2:8, “But to those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, wrath and indignation.”
“To those who…do not obey” is the verb apeitheo (a)peiqevw) (ap-i-theh-o), which is attributed to the unbeliever who refuses to comply with God’s truth as indicated by the verb’s direct object, the articular form of the accusative noun aletheia, “truth.’
In order to understand the meaning of the verb apeitheo, it is essential that we understand that the stem peith has the basic meaning of “trust.”
This stem is also the basis of the formation with pist-, the root of pisteou, “to have confidence in, to trust in, and to have faith in.”
Trust can refer to a statement, so that it has the meaning to put faith in, to let oneself be convinced, or to a demand, so that it gets the meaning of obey, be persuaded.
Therefore, in the Greek New Testament, the verb apeitheo does not stand in contrast with the Greek words for “obedience” but rather it stands in contrast with the words that denote faith.
Faith is demonstrated by obedience to God’s commands whereas unbelief demonstrates one’s disobedience to God’s commands.
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.”
In Romans 2:8, the verb apeitheo is used with reference to the unbeliever and describes them as not being persuaded by the gospel message that they are sinner in need of a Savior who is Jesus Christ and that if they believe in Him they will receive eternal life and the forgiveness of sins.
The word describes their disobedience to the truth of the gospel to believe in Jesus Christ in order to receive eternal life and avoid the wrath of God.
In Romans 2:8, the verb apeitheo refers to the unbelief in the gospel message of Jesus Christ, which manifests itself in disobedience to the command to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ in order to be saved.
The fact that the verb apeitheo refers to unbelief that is manifested by disobedience to the commands of God indicates that in Romans 2:8, the noun aletheia does “not” refer to the truth of God in creation since creation does not offer mankind a command but simply manifests the reality of God.
Therefore, the noun aletheia refers to the truth that is presented in the gospel message to the unbeliever that whoever believes in Jesus Christ will receive eternal life and is not under eternal condemnation.
Romans 2:8, “But to those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, wrath and indignation.”
“Obey” is the verb peitho (peivqw) (pay-tho), which means, “to be persuaded and to cause to come to a particular point of view or course of action, which results outwardly in conduct as a result of this inward persuasion.”
The noun adikia, “unrighteousness” refers to the old Adamic sin nature and so therefore, the verb peitho refers to “obeying” unrighteousness in the sense of obeying the old Adamic sin nature, which results in committing acts of sin, whether, mental, verbal or overt.
1 Peter 2:11, “Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul.”
“Unrighteousness” is the noun adikia (a)dikiva) (ad-ee-kee-ah), which does “not” refer to personal acts of sins but rather it refers to the old Adamic sin nature since personal sin is the direct result of obeying the lusts or the desires of the old Adamic sin nature.
The noun adikia refers to the fact that the old Adamic sin nature has “no” integrity in the sense that its character is “not” sound, and does “not” adhere to the will of God, and does “not” love, and is “not” upright, honest, perfectly whole, is “diminished,” and “unsound,” “impaired” and in a “bad” condition.
It describes the old sin nature as having “no” virtue in the sense that it has “no” moral excellence, “no” goodness, and its conduct does “not” conform to the will of God.
The noun adikia refers to the fact that the sin nature can “never” fulfill the obligation to love both God and men or in other words, doing right by both of them.
“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.
It is not the momentary, emotional, and often uncontrolled anger to which human beings are prone and does not refer to an explosive outburst but rather it refers to an inner, deep resentment that seethes and smolders, often unnoticed by others as in the case of God’s wrath.
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.
“Indignation” is the noun thumos (qumov$) (thoo-mos), which refers to the manifestation of God’s righteous indignation against sin, which is an expression of God’s holiness.
The noun orge emphasizes God’s “attitude of righteous indignation” toward sin proceeding from His holiness whereas the noun thumos emphasizes the “manifestation” of this righteous indignation as an expression of His holiness.
The manifestation of God’s righteous indignation against sin will be on display at the Great White Throne Judgment when the Lord Jesus Christ will execute the sentence of eternal condemnation upon those who rejected Him as their Savior and followed Satan in his rebellion against God.
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.”