How God Handles Hypocrites (Rom. 2:1-5)

Romans 2:1 NKJV

Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are who judge, for in whatever you judge another you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things.

How God Handles Hypocrites

Romans 2:1-16

Now, in chapter 1, we talked about how God handles the heathen; in chapter 2, we’re going to see how God handles the hypocrite.

In chapter one, we saw the down and out; in chapter 2, we’re going to see the up and out.

Because Paul, who’s very smart and anointed by the Holy Spirit, knew that there were certain religious people who would listen with relish as Paul described God’s judgment upon the heathen—those who worship bugs and creeping things.

And they would say, “Well, we’re not that way, we’re not that way, we don’t do that.” And so they listened with these things in mind.

They were indignant at the sins of others, but indulgent about their own sins. And so in this chapter, chapter 2, we’re going to see how God handles the hypocrites.

1 God’s Judgment is according to Truth (Rom 2:1-3) (SEE AR FIRST)

In judging other people, we thereby condemn ourselves, because we who pass judgment do the same things (1).

For we know perfectly well that God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth (2).

How then can we suppose (we who, though mere human beings, play God and pass judgment on others for doing what we do) that we will escape God’s judgment (3)?

This is not a call either to suspend our critical faculties or to renounce all criticism and rebuke of others as illegitimate.

It is rather a prohibition of standing in judgment on other people and condemning them (which as human beings we have no right to do), especially when we fail to condemn ourselves.

For this is the hypocrisy of the double standard, a high standard for other people and a comfortably low one for ourselves.

Three mistakes the hypocrite makes in his thinking

A. Appearance is all that matters (Mt. 23:25-28) (SEE AR FIRST)

You’re in chapter 2; go down to verses 21 and 22, and look at it. “Thou therefore which teachest another, teachest thou not thyself?

Thou that preachest [that] a man should not steal, dost thou steal?” (Romans 2:21)

“Thou that sayest [the] man should not commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery? Thou that abhorrest idols, dost thou commit sacrilege?” (Romans 2:22)

You say, “Well, Pastor, I’m not an adulterer.” Matthew chapter 5, verse 28: Jesus said, “[If you] [look] on a woman to lust after her, [you’ve] committed adultery with her already in [her] heart.” (Matthew 5:28)

You say, “Well, I’m not a murderer!” First John chapter 3, verse 15 says that “whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer.” (1 John 3:15)

You see, so many times we think that it’s the outward part that matters, when the Bible says there’s no excuse and there’s no escape.

You know, you have to pity hypocrites because the problem with the hypocrite is on the inside, not on the outside, and so he’s a pretender.

You see, he doesn’t have the courage to out-and-out serve the devil, and he doesn’t have the true grace to really serve the Lord. And so he is a great big actor. He is a respectable sinner, but he is still a sinner.

B. Lack of trouble means I’m right with God (vs. 3-4) (SEE AR FIRST)

Sometimes, in a futile attempt to escape the inescapable, namely God’s judgment, we take refuge in a theological argument. For theology can be turned to bad uses as well as good.

We appeal to God’s character, especially to the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience (4a). We maintain that he is much too kind and longsuffering to punish anybody, and that we can therefore sin with impunity.

We even misapply Scripture to our advantage and quote such statements as, ‘The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.’

But this kind of manipulative theologizing is to show contempt for God, not honour. It is not faith; it is presumption.

For God’s kindness leads us towards repentance (4b). That is its goal. It is intended to give us space in which to repent, not to give us an excuse for sinning.1

1 John R. W. Stott, The Message of Romans: God’s Good News for the World

C. Delayed judgment means no judgment (2:5) (SEE AR FIRST)

Houdini was an escape artist, but he didn’t escape death, and he did not escape judgment. Now, today, you may escape; your sin may go undiscovered.

How many of you have ever broken the speed limit and didn’t get arrested? Your sin may go undiscovered. You may be un-apprehended, they may not be able to catch you, or you may go unpunished.

You may get a high-power Washingtonian lawyer, but you will not escape the judgment of God. You will not. You will not!

Do you think—have you connived, are you so intelligent that you think—that you shall escape? No! God will rip off the mask; the judgment of the hypocrite is according to truth. That’s the first thing.1

1 Adrian Rogers, “How God Handles Hypocrites,” in Adrian Rogers Sermon Archive (Signal Hill, CA: Rogers Family Trust, 2017), Ro 2:1–16.

2 God’s judgment is according to Deeds (2:6) (SEE AR LAST)

Here we have a basic principle of divine judgment. God will “give75 to each person according to what that person has done” (cf. Ps 62:12; Prov 24:12; Matt 16:27).

But you say, I thought Paul taught clearly that a person is saved by faith. That is true. A bit later he affirmed that a person “is justified by faith apart from observing the law” (Rom 3:18).

But in the immediate context Paul was not teaching how we are made right with God but how God judges the reality of our faith.

Faith is not an abstract quality that can be validated by some spiritual test unrelated to life. God judges faith by the difference it makes in how a person actually lives.

A. M. Hunter is right in saying that “a man’s destiny on Judgment Day will depend not on whether he has known God’s will but on whether he has done it.”

That is why Jesus taught that those who respond to the needs of the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the sick, and the prisoner will be rewarded with eternal life;

but those who fail in these down-to-earth tasks will “go away to eternal punishment” (Matt 25:31–46).1

1 Robert H. Mounce, Romans, vol. 27, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1995), 90–91.

Our deeds are seen in 3 different ways (SEE AR)

A. Actions (2:6)

B. Attitudes (2:7-8)

C. Advantages (2:9-14)

3 God’s judgment is according to the Gospel (SEE AR LAST)

  This latter alternative is preferable and means that one’s conscience will bear witness on the day when God judges the things that they have kept secret.

God’s judgment will be fair because there is absolutely nothing, not even the secrets of people’s hearts, that are not known to him.108

That judgment will be “through Jesus Christ” in the sense that God has entrusted all judgment to the Son (John 5:22).

This agrees with the gospel Paul preached. He called it “my gospel” because it was given to him by revelation from Jesus Christ (Gal 1:12).

In a day when so much preaching has sold its birthright for a pot of psychological porridge, the need for renewed focus on the essential gospel has never been greater.

The gospel is to be your gospel. God has entrusted it to you (2 Cor 5:19).1

1 Robert H. Mounce, Romans, vol. 27, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1995), 96–97.