The Impartiality of God.

Introduction

Last week we ended the sermon with the point that God’s Judgment is impartial.

This week we are picking up in Romans 2:12-16. Let’s read that text together.

Romans 2:12–16 ESV

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 righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified. For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.

Paul is honing in on this aspect of God—His impartiality.

And friends if God’s word is taking a deeper dive on this topic then so will we.

Main Point: God is impartrial to sin, but not indifferent.

“Man, have’nt we covered that?”

Remember, that Romans is a treatise on the gospel. Paul puts forth an argument—questions it—answers the question. Then he raises another question and looks at the gospel from another angle.

And each time we see this--- the gospel become clearer and clearer.

And as the the gospel becomes clear to us our lives are formed around it.

This is the aim of scripture to not only be hearers of the word, but also doers. Amen?

So how can we best understand this passage so we can apply it?

I. Major on the Main Thing (12), God’s Impartiality (12-13a), The Fairness of God (14-15), and What Really Matters (16)

I. Fair Judgment Considers the Individual (12)

Romans 2:12 “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.”

In our passage there are two sets of people under the judgment of God. Those who have been given God’s law. And those who have not been given God’s law.

How does God judge these people—surely he doesn’t judge them the same.

Let me put you at rest and let you know that God is fair—but it probably doesn’t look like you think it should.

There are varying degrees of punishment in God’s judgment of sinners.

Let’s look at Luke 12:46-48 “the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know, and will cut him in pieces and put him with the unfaithful. And that servant who knew his master’s will but did not get ready or act according to his will, will receive a severe beating. But the one who did not know, and did what deserved a beating, will receive a light beating. Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more.”

What do we see here?

The servant who knows the Master’s will but does not do it is beaten severely.

The servant who does not know the Master’s will and does not do it—will receive a light beating.

There is a variation in the punishment. The amount of knowledge one has about God’s law influences the severity of punishment a person receives when they reject it.

If you ingest mushrooms that you know are poisonous—that’s worse than ingesting mushrooms that you don’t know are poisonous.

Do you see the difference? Both folks are throwing up. But for the one who was told— “Hey, don’t eat those mushrooms, they’ll make you sick!” —>Condemnation is worse for them because they should know better. They are the bigger fool.

And this is the line that Jesus is drawing with this parable. And this is the line that Paul is drawing in Romans. There is greater condemnation for those who have the law than those who don’t have it.

There is greater condemnation for the Jew who knows God’s law and the promises and curses of God’s covenant with His people—than there is for the Gentile who does not know this law that was given.

There is varying degrees of punishment.

Luke isn’t the only place we see this.

Matthew 12:36-37 “I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.””

Hebrews 10:29 “How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace?”

God is fair—he doesn’t judge every sinner the same.

There are varying degrees of punishment. But friends, all these degrees take place in Hell.

God is fair in that all sinnners will go to Hell and God is fair in that not all sinners will experience the same suffering in Hell.

Here’s where I don’t want us to get mixed up. I don’t want us to miss what really matters here in v.12.

Here’s the simple formula of 2:12:

Sin without the law=perishing outside of the law.

Sin within the law=judgment by the law=perishing.

All the lost will suffer for their sin and for some sinners the suffering will be worse.

But both are in Hell. That’s the main point.

Two criminals are judged for bank robbery—they both robbed the bank but one was more heinous in his robbery than the other—he caused more hurt. He receives a triple life sentence in solitary confinement.

The other guy receives life in prison. He’s in gen. pop.

Friends, they are both going to spend the rest of their lives in prison. They will die in prison.

It can be theologically beneficial to think through and discuss the varying degrees of God’s justice and punishment—but let us not miss the main point.

People perish without Jesus.

Perish with the law. Perish without the law. One will be worse than the other, but they are both bad.

Transition: Fair judgment considers the individual and ...

II. Fair Judgment is Impartial (12-13)

Romans 2:12–13 ESV

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 righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified.

God is impartial in his judgment of sin. As he looks at sinners and judges them he is not influenced or swayed.

And we see this in at least 3 ways in our passage.

1. God is not influenced by race.

The divide between those who received the law and those who have not received the law is the divide of Jews and everybody else in the world.

Where you come from—the people that you come from do not influence God in anyway.

He is not leanient with the Jews and harsh with the Gentiles. The standard by which all people are judged is the same.

Why? Because the image of God is the same in every person from every nation of every skin color of every tradition.

Therefore, the sin of every person from every nation of every skin color of every tradition is an affront to the image of God in that person.

No person is more or less valuable in God’s eyes.

Application: Don’t be a racist. —If this is your first time with us, “Hi, I’m pastor Jacob and I don’t like to mince words.”

Brothers and sisters let there be no person on this earth that you judge based on anything but their conduct.

And sometimes this is very difficult. Sometimes you are raised with prejudices. Sometimes your life experience has helped you with your prejudices. Sometimes we are unaware of our prejudices.

But none of these things are an excuse for partiality in us.

Here’s a test for you to test whether or not you are impartial, like God is, when it comes to race. —>Imagine that your son or daughter says, “Dad, Mom—I want you to meet someone really special.”

Is there a type of person that you really hope doesn’t walk through that door. Is there a certain color or culture you just can’t deal with? Well you might have some prejudice.

Listen, if Rebekah brings home a man or Noah brings home a woman—I have one main prejudice—are they following Jesus?

If they love Jesus I don’t care if they are purple with an extra arm.

When God looks at humanity he sees image bearers and there is no partiality in him when it comes to judging sin.

2. God is not influenced by varying levels of knowledge.

Our text says, “For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight...”

Hearing the law does not equate with righteousness. A persons knowledge of the law or the opposite a person’s lack of knowledge of the law does not equate with rightousness or a lack of righteousness.

The Jew would argue “But we have the law, we know the law, the promises are ours so we deserve special consideration here when it comes to whether or not we are pleasing to you God.”

The Gentile would argue “But we should have special consideration when it comes to whether or not we are pleasing to you God—we did not have the law. Our judgement should be excused.”

When God looks at the sin of a person he does not give special preference to a person’s knowledge or lack of knowledge as to determine salvation.

If a person has a greater revelation of knowledge—if someone has the Bible and another doesn’t—this will affect varying degrees of punishment, but not salvation.

3. God is not influenced by outward actions.

Romans 2: 13 “For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified.”

Now it is here that I have to repeat what we talked about last Sunday. What Paul is not saying here is that salvation is bought with our works.

What Paul is saying here is that when it comes to the law—who will be justified according to the law? It is not those who simply hear the law, it is those who hear the law and who do the law.

His point is not that you can be saved by doing the law—His point is to the Jews and he is saying, “Yes, you received the promises but receiving the law can’t save you. You have to do the law. And you can’t keep the law. So you won’t be justified by the law.”

Galatians 3:21-23 “Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law. But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed.”

Isaiah 64:6 “We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.”

God is not impressed by your filthy rags.

So the point here is not that you can earn your faith—it is that you cannot. Those who do the law are the righteous ones. But news flash—that’s not any of you or me.

God is not partial to your works. He doesn’t look at what you’ve done as he judges.

Transition: Fair judgment is impartial judgment. A fair judge impartially judges by the law. Our text tells us that God is an impartial, fair judge. He is not moved by what people group you are from, what knowledge you have, or what works you can do. These things don’t move God as it pertains to his judgment—so what is God looking at when he judges.

III. Fair Judgment Looks at the Heart (14-15)

If judgment comes only to those who have received the law—then all those who are ignorant of the law are exempt from judgment.

This is often a huge question in people’s mind. How can God judge those who don’t have his law? Scripture answers this.

Romans 2:14-15 “For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them”

What does scripture say? They do have the law!

Their nature is a law unto themselves. Human nature—when it judges right/wrong proves itself to be a law unto itself.

Outside of the written law of God—the law of God is written on human hearts. Why do people decided what is right and wrong. Where do morals come from?

They don’t have the written law of Moses but continuing in v. 15

Romans 2:15 “They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them”

They have a law written on their hearts. And they have broken the law written on their hearts. God’s written law reveals us to be law breakers and the law written on our own hearts reveal us to be law breakers.

God looks at our hearts. And friends our hearts condemn us. In relation to the written law of God. And in relation to your own moral standards.

Have you done something that you regret? Why did you regret it? Because you read the law and said, “Oh, now I feel bad.”—No because you violated your own conscience.

And let me make the point here. God is impartial—He is not indifferent.

God is a God of emotion. When we read the Bible we see a God who loves, who is angry, who has grace. We see beauty, and vibrancy, and life.

I don’t want us to make the mistake here that God is this impassionate, cold, robot God.

He is not indifferent to sin—to faithfulness--

But He is impartial—he judges the human heart impartially. Is the person a law breaker—and the judgment for every single person is that they are a law breaker whether they have the written law or they are violating the law written on their heart.

Romans 2:16 “on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men.....”

God judges the secrets of men. God knows the heart. God knows you better than you know you. He knows your real motives. And that is what he judges you by. Does anyone have hope to enter heaven? The resounding answer is no!

Transition: The impartiality of God in his judgment means that God will judge us fairly which sounds like good news—but what is revealed is that none of us escape the impartial judgment of God. Friends, what hope is there?

IV. Being Found in Christ (16)

Let’s read v. 16 again.

Romans 2:16 “on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.”

Friends, God is fair when it comes to judgment. He is impartial when he comes to judgment, but there is nothing fair about the gospel of Jesus Christ.

What do you mean pastor?

Paul build this whole argument. Last week we talked about the different characteristics of the judgment of God and we ended on God’s judgment being impartial.

And then Paul says, let’s talk about the impartiality of God. And we’re diggin in deeper here. And we find out that God does indeed understand the difference in sin. But it all leads to Hell anyway.

And those with the law and those without the law are both in bad spot because God looks at the human heart—and every human heart only convicts and condemns the person.

And as we talked about last week this is a just judgment of God. God’s judging sin is right and righteous.

So if that was the end of the story—if that was it—case closed—this would still be a story about a holy and righteous God who punishes rebellious people for their sin.

But it isn’t the end of the story! What does the last bit of v.16 say?

“According to the gospel....by Christ Jesus are the secrets of men and women judged!

God looks at us sees that we deserve judgment—but when he sees Christ we receive pardon!

There is nothing fair about that.

Jesus was a doer of the law, Jesus’ heart was pure before God. Jesus deserves praise and honor and glory and grace.

And this is the shocking—unfair exchange of the gospel.

“Jesus was crushed for OUR iniquities. Jesus received the wrath of God for our rebellion. By the crushing of Jesus we are pardoned and healed.”

There is nothing fair about that! And thank God! His judgment is fair, but his grace to those that He is saving is wildly unfair—it is shocking!!

It is by Christ according to the gospel that God saves.

Your judgment is fair, your salvation is wild grace!

No wonder salvation by grace alone in Christ alone by faith alone has been fueling the worship of God’s people for thousands of years!! No wonder that the days of eternity will be filled with the praises of God’s people!

This is the greatest news on Earth.

You were lost now your saved, you were guilty and you’ve been pardoned. You belong to God and all your sin is as far away from you as the east is from the west!

And God is impartial here too. It doesn’t matter the gravity and ferocity of your sin—your past doesn’t count against you—If the blood of Jesus covers a person God impartially without holding anything against them welcomes them as a child of HIs because all of the punishment for rebellion was paid for in Jesus.

The Bottom Line

God is impartial when it comes to our sin, but He is not indifferent.

And we shouldn’t be indifferent either!

Friends, I’m not going to tell you that we are in the end times, if the Son doesn’t know the day he is coming back until the Father sends him, then neither do I.

But I do know that every day that passes means we are closer. I know that people are dying and perishing in their sin.

I know that people need to hear the gospel. I know that I and you know the gospel and we’ve been called and equipped and empowered to share this radical, wildly unfair, good news of the gospel.

So friends, LET…US…BE....DOERS....OF THE WORD!!!

Let us repent of our indifference of the lost. Let us repent of our indifference to the glory of God.

Amen?

Pray.