Romans 2.16-God Will Condemn the Secret Selfish Motives of Men Through Christ Jesus
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Tuesday August 28, 2007
Romans: Romans 2:16-God Will Condemn the Secret Selfish Motives of Mankind Through Christ Jesus
Lesson # 56
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 ten and this evening we will study Romans 2:16, which presents the eleventh principle that God will condemn the secret selfish motives of unregenerate mankind through Jesus Christ.
Romans 2:1-16, “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 when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves, in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them on the day when, according to my gospel, God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus.”
A comparison of Romans 2:14-15 with the prepositional phrase “on the day” in Romans 2:16 indicates that the conscience of unregenerate Gentiles will be in agreement with the Lord Jesus Christ’s judgment of them that they are guilty and have not lived up to the moral code inherent within them and thus are worthy of eternal condemnation.
The Gentiles are judged by God as guilty because they have an inherent law within their souls, which is manifested through the function of the conscience.
Thus, although the Gentiles did not possess the Law like Israel, they still possessed inherently a law that governed their conduct and was manifested through the function of their conscience.
Therefore, the Gentiles are guilty before a holy God even though they did not have the Mosaic Law since their conscience would convict them of sin when they committed an act that was in opposition to this inherent law.
The testimony of their conscience will convict them that they are worthy of eternal condemnation before a holy God.
“On the day” refers to a specific period of history called the “Great White Throne Judgment,” which 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 20:11-15, “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. 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. 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. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.”
The only way to avoid God’s righteous indignation at the Great White Throne Judgment 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.”
Romans 2:16, “On the day when, according to my gospel, God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus.”
“God” is the noun theos (qeov$), which refers to the Trinity, namely, who are God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit functioning in their role as the Supreme Court of Heaven.
The prepositional phrase dia Christou Iesou, “through Christ Jesus” indicates that the Lord Jesus Christ is the member of the Trinity who is the Agent of divine judgment representing God the Father and God the Holy Spirit.
God the Father rewarded the resurrected impeccable human nature of Jesus Christ for His voluntary substitutionary spiritual death on the cross by bestowing upon Him the sovereign rulership over all creation and every creature and the power and authority to conduct the Great White Throne Judgment of all unbelievers (See Philippians 2:5-11; Hebrews 1:1-3).
Acts 17:30-31, “Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.”
“Will judge” is the verb krino (krivnw) (kree-no), which means, “to distinguish between good and evil, right and wrong,” and by implication, “to pass judgment upon someone or something as evil or wrong after weighing the evidence and without reservation,” hence, “to condemn.”
“The secrets” is the articular form of the adjective kruptos (kruptov$) (kroop-tos), which means, “the hidden things” since the definite article preceding it functions as a “substantiver” meaning it converts the adjective into a noun.
“The hidden” or “secret things” refers to the motives that lie behind the actions of men.
Therefore, an unbeliever’s good works can never please God since they are not motivated by love for Him and obedience to His will but rather are accomplished independently of Him.
The unbeliever’s rejection of Jesus Christ as Savior demonstrates he arrogantly presumes that he can co-exist with God with his own relative righteousness, which does not measure up to the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
Thus, any actions that the unbeliever produces are rejected by God since their motivation is not based on love for the Lord Jesus Christ, thus done in disobedience to the will of the Father.
The fact that the verb krino means, “to pass judgment upon someone as evil or wrong after weighing the evidence and without reservation,” hence, “to condemn” indicates that the “secret things” are motives worthy of eternal condemnation.
Therefore, all good works performed by the unbeliever, whether Jew or Gentile are worthy of eternal condemnation because they were not motivated out of love and obedience for the Lord but rather selfishly motivated by a desire to live independently of the Lord and to bring glory to self.
Thus, the Lord Jesus Christ who is omniscient is able to infallibly read or understand the motives of every human being and thus determine whether or not the good they performed was divine in character and quality or human in quality, out of love for Him and obedience or not.
Hebrews 4:12-13, “For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.”
Romans 2:16, “On the day when, according to my gospel, God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus.”
“Of men” is the noun anthropos (a*nqrwpo$) (anth-ro-pos), which is used in a generic sense for unregenerate humanity, both Jew and Gentile and expresses the impartiality of God.
“According to” is the preposition kata (kataV) (kat-ah), which is used with the accusative form of the noun euangelion, “gospel” in order to specify that the Lord Jesus Christ will condemn unregenerate mankind at the Great White Throne Judgment in accordance with the teaching of Paul’s gospel.
Therefore, the preposition kata with the articular accusative form of the noun euangelion indicates that God will judge the secret selfish motives of mankind through Christ Jesus according to the teaching of his gospel.
Thus, we can see from the original text of Romans 2:16 that Paul’s gospel is not the standard of God’s judgment but rather the idea is that the righteous judgment of God is an essential ingredient of his teaching and the reason why men should trust in Jesus Christ as their Savior, whether Jew or Gentile.
John A. Witmer commenting on Romans 2:16, writes, “In this section (2:1-16) God is seen as the Creator-Sovereign of the universe conducting the moral government of His human creatures. God’s absolute standards are known. God punishes the wicked and rewards the righteous impartially according to their works, which reveal their hearts. Since no human being-Jesus Christ excepted-can be declared righteous (justified) by God on the basis of his own merit, every human being is condemned by God. At this point in Paul’s argument the way a person can secure a righteous standing before God has not yet been presented. Here the emphasis is on the justice of God’s judgment, leading to the conclusion that nobody on his own can be declared righteous by God. (The Bible Knowledge Commentary, New Testament Edition, page 446)
“My” is the personal pronoun ego (e)gwv), which emphasizes that Paul received the gospel by direct personal revelation from the Lord Jesus Christ (Galatians 1:12).
Galatians 1:11-12, “For I would have you know, brethren that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.”
The personal pronoun also emphasizes that he personally taught that God will judge the secret selfish motives of all mankind through Jesus Christ.
“Gospel” is the noun euangelion (eu)aggevlion), which means, “good news, victorious proclamation.”
In context, the articular construction tou euangelion, “gospel” here in Romans 2:16 contains the figure of speech called “metonymy of cause” where the instrument is put for the thing effected meaning the Gospel is put for its instruction.
This instruction concerns the whole realm of Christian doctrine: (1) Christology (2) Soteriology (3) Pneumatology (4) Eschatology (5) Ecclesiology (6) Bibliology (7) Angelology (8) Anthropology (9) Eschatology (10) Spiritual Life.
Therefore, in Romans 2:16, the apostle Paul is informing his readers and in particular the self-righteous unregenerate Jew that the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God will judge the secret selfish motives of all men at the Great White Throne Judgment according to his gospel teaching or instruction.
Thus, the gospel message not only contains the teaching that Jesus Christ died for the sins of all mankind and was raised from the dead on the third day and that whoever believes in Him shall have eternal life but it also contains the teaching that men will receive eternal condemnation for rejecting Jesus Christ as Savior is a part of the gospel message.
This is illustrated by the Lord Jesus Christ in John 3 when He gave the gospel to Nicodemus, a self-righteous, unsaved Jew.
John 3:14-21, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.”