Romans 2.13-The Doers and not the Hearers of the Law will be Justified Before God
Prairie View Christian Church
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Wednesday August 22, 2007
Romans: Romans 2:13-The Doers and not the Hearers of the Law will be Justified Before God
Lesson # 53
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 2:1.
This evening we will continue with our study of Romans 2, which contains twelve principles regarding God’s judgment of mankind.
Thus far in our studies of this chapter we have noted the first eight, which are the following: (1) Man is judged by his own standards (Romans 2:1). (2) Man is judged according truth (Romans 2:2). (3) God’s judgment is inescapable (Romans 2:3) (4) God’s judgment is delayed because of His kindness, tolerance and patience (Romans 2:4). (5) God’s judgment is measured out according to the accumulation of guilt (Romans 2:5). (6) God judges man according to works (Romans 2:6). (7) God judges man according to obedience or performance in that God rewards obedience and punishes disobedience (Romans 2:7-10). (8) God judges without respect to persons since He is impartial (Romans 2:11).
On Tuesday we began a study of the ninth principle of God’s judgment of mankind that appears in Romans 2:12-13, which is that God judges according to obedience and not knowledge.
In Romans 2:12, the apostle Paul presents an illustration of this principle by teaching that the Gentiles are condemned without being exposed to the written form of the moral code of the Mosaic Law since they have it written in their hearts by God and is manifested through the function of the conscience of man.
Also, the Gentile will receive eternal condemnation because they rejected God’s revelation of Himself in creation.
On the other hand, in this passage, Paul teaches that the Jew who was placed by God under the jurisdiction of the Mosaic Law will receive eternal condemnation and will be judged according to their disobedience to this body of truth.
This evening we will study Romans 2:13, in which Paul continues the illustration of God’s impartiality that he began in Romans 2:12 by noting that the doers of the Law and not the hearers of the Law will be justified in the sense of being approved by God.
Romans 2:1-13, “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. And we know that the judgment of God rightly falls upon those who practice such things. 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? 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? 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. 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. 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 just before God, but the doers of the Law will be justified.”
“For” is the “explanatory” use of the post-positive conjunction gar (gavr), which introduces a statement that explains Paul’s last statement in Romans 2:12 with reference to the Jews, “as many as have sinned under the jurisdiction of the Law will be condemned by means of the Law.”
This statement teaches that the Jews who were given the Mosaic Law and were under its jurisdiction will also receive eternal condemnation and the conjunction gar introduces a statement that “explains” why this is the case.
We know that Paul is referring to the Jews in Romans 2:13 since the Jews were given the Law by God.
Unlike the Gentiles, the Jews heard the Law read and taught by the Rabbis in their synagogues and the Herodian Temple when it stood in Jerusalem.
Paul is saying that even though this was the case, they are still condemned before God because to hear the Law was not enough since God demanded obedience to it.
“The hearers” is the noun akroates (a)kroathv$) (ak-ro-at-ace), which pictures the Jew listening to the Law as it is being read and taught by the rabbis in the synagogues and the temple when it was standing.
In Romans 2:13, the apostle Paul does “not” use the usual Greek term for hearing, which is akouo but rather he uses the word akroates, which was used of those whose business it is to listen.
The idea behind the word can be equated to a college student whose primary purpose in class is to listen to the teacher’s instruction.
Normally, he also has the responsibility of being accountable for what he hears and is tested on it.
If he is simply auditing, however, he is required only to attend the class sessions and takes no tests and receives no grade.
In other words, he listens without being held accountable for what he hears.
In many synagogues during Paul’s time, teaching did not focus on Scripture but on the system of man-made traditions that the rabbis had developed over the centuries since the Exile, which Jesus rebukes in Mark 7.
Frequently, God’s Word in the Old Testament was merely read and listened to, without explanation or application.
James 1:22-25, “But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does.”
Throughout the Bible, believers are commanded to not only hear the Word of God but are also commanded to put it into practice through obedience.
Deuteronomy 4:1, “Now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the judgments which I am teaching you to perform, so that you may live and go in and take possession of the land which the LORD, the God of your fathers, is giving you.”
Romans 2:13, “For it is not the hearers of the Law who are just before God, but the doers of the Law will be justified.”
“Of the Law” is the noun nomos (novmo$) (nom-os), which is a reference to the Mosaic Law.
“Not” is the objective negative adverb ou (ou)), which is in the emphatic position of this declarative statement and is employed with the indicative mood of the verb eimi and emphatically negates the statement that the hearers of the Law are just before God.
In emphatic terms, Paul refutes the delusion of the self-righteous Jew that he can be just before God by only being a hearer of the Law and not a doer.
“Just” is the adjective dikaios (divkaio$) (dik-ah-yos), which describes the state or condition of possessing righteousness.
Therefore, Paul is saying that the hearers of the Law are not righteous before God in the sense that they have “no” virtue in that they have “no” moral excellence, “no” goodness, and their conduct does “not” conform to the will of God.
The hearers of the Law are not righteous before God in the sense that they have “no” integrity in that their character is “not” sound and does “not” adhere to the will of God.
Adhering to the will of God involves obeying the command to love God and your neighbor as yourself.
Thus, they do “not” love and are “not” upright, honest, perfectly whole and are “diminished,” and “unsound,” and “impaired” and in “poor” condition.
Of course, only the Lord Jesus Christ was dikaios since all members of the human race are sinners.
Also, in Romans 2:13, the adjective dikaios describes the state or condition of a person who has fulfilled his obligations to both God and men, which is to love God and your neighbor as yourself.
Therefore, Paul is saying that the hearers of the Law do not fulfill their obligations to love God and one’s neighbor as himself.
“Before God” means that those who are merely hearers of the Law are not righteous in the presence of Jesus Christ to whom they will give an account.
“God” refers to the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ representing the Trinity as the Judge of all men.
Romans 2:13, “For it is not the hearers of the Law who are just before God, but the doers of the Law will be justified.”
“But” is the adversative use of the conjunction alla (a)llav) (al-lah), which introduces a statement that presents a contrast to the preceding statement that those who are merely hearers of the Law are as an eternal spiritual truth absolutely never righteous before God.
“The doers” is the noun poietes (poihthv$) (poy-ay-tace), which means, “one who does something that is prescribed or commanded, one who obeys or fulfills what is commanded in the Law, one who does what the Law requires.”
“Of the Law” is the noun nomos (novmo$) (nom-os), which again is a reference to the Mosaic Law.
“Will be justified” is the verb dikaioo (dikaiovw) (dik-ah-yo-o), which means, “to declare or pronounce righteous.”
The adjective dikaios, “righteous” refers to a person as having virtue in the sense that they have moral excellence, goodness, and their conduct conforms to the will of God.
Therefore, the one who obeys the commands of the Law in the eyes of God has integrity in the sense that their character is sound and adheres to the will of God.
Thus, they truly love and are upright, honest, perfectly whole and undiminished, sound, and unimpaired and in a sound or good condition.
The adjective dikaios describes the state or condition of a person who has fulfilled his obligations to both God and men, which is to love God and your neighbor as yourself.
Therefore, the one who obeys the Law fulfills his obligation to love God and his neighbor as himself.
Since, the Lord Jesus Christ was impeccable, He was the only member of the human race who was truly righteous in the eyes of God and who truly loved God and His neighbor as Himself.
In Romans 2:13, Paul teaches that only the doers of the Law and not the hearers of the Law are justified before the Supreme Court of Heaven.
However, there is never been a human being that has ever kept the Law except Jesus Christ.
As we noted earlier in our study of nomos, “Law” the presence of the sin nature and the volition prevents any human being from keeping the Law perfectly.
As we noted in our study of nomos, “Law,” the Mosaic Law cannot justify an individual before God (Romans 3:20-28; Galatians 2:16) and could not provide eternal salvation for men (Galatians 3:21-26).
It could not provide the Holy Spirit and could not solve the problems of the old sin nature (Romans 8:2-3) and it could not make perfect, or permanently deal with sin (Hebrews 7:19) nor could it sanctify (Galatians 3:21; 5:5; Romans 8:3).
However, the Lord Jesus Christ fulfilled the Law by living a perfect and sinless life (Romans 10:4).
Therefore, the moment a person exercises faith in Christ as his Savior, God the Father imputes Christ’s righteousness to him resulting in his being justified before God (Romans 4).
This also results in the fact that the Law can’t condemn the believer in Jesus Christ since Christ fulfilled the righteous requirements of the Law (Romans 8:1; 7:1-6; Romans 5:1; 4:4-8).
The Lord Jesus Christ fulfilled the ceremonial ordinances, the shadows and types of His person and work, by voluntarily dying a spiritual death on the cross as our substitute, which demonstrated God’s love for the sinner and His hatred of sin.
The penalty, which the Law exercised, was paid in full at the Cross and so there is no condemnation for those who are “in Christ” (Col. 2:14; Romans 3:24-25).
Christ is the end of the Law and church age believers are not under the Mosaic Law but under grace (Rom. 6:14).
Since the Lord Jesus Christ fulfills the Law by His person and work at the Cross, church age believers are to live their lives by the Spirit of Life through faith in the Word of God (Romans 8:2-4).
If the believer is led by the Spirit, then he is not under the Law (Galatians 5:18) and there is no law against those things that are produced by the Spirit in the believer who is obedient to the Word of God, i.e. the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23).
The reason is that the believer is operating under the highest law, the standards are met as he walks by the Holy Spirit and grows in the Word (Gal. 5:22).
The believer is never saved by keeping the Law (Galatians 2:21) and he is not under the Law as a rule of life, i.e., sacrifice, Sabbath keeping, tithing (Rev. 6:14; Acts 15:5, 24).
Therefore, he does not walk by the Law but by the Spirit, which is the new law for the church age believer (Romans 8:4; Galatians 5:5), which is law of liberty through faith in the power of God.
The believer is dead to the Law (Rom. 7:1-6; Gal. 2:19) by virtue of his identification with Jesus Christ in His death, who fulfilled the Law.
The Law given at Mount Sinai to Israel was to reveal a holy God and to demonstrate the reality of an infinite gulf that separated man from Him.
It was given to identify sin and reveal man’s sin and spiritually bankrupt condition as guilty before God (Rom. 3:19f; 7:7-8; 5:20; Gal. 3:19).
The Law reveals to man just who and what he is, namely, sinful and separated from God by an infinite gulf that he is unable to bridge in his own human strength.
It was given to shut man up to faith, i.e., to exclude the works of the Law (or any system of works) as a system of merit for either salvation or sanctification and thereby lead him to Christ as the only means of righteousness (Galatians 3:19-20, 20-24; 1 Timothy 1:8-9; Romans 3:21-24).