Romans 2:1-5

 

At the end of chapter 1, Paul was painting with a dark brush the utterly religious and ethical degradation of the heathen world. And many of the people to whom he wrote would have been included in this number. Many of the Roman Christians had once been part of that world--they had been idolaters and had committed some of those acts of corruption.

As we read it, we can feel a little smug because we, of course, have never been part of that world. And Paul knew that the Jews in the Roman church might be tempted to exactly that smugness--to thinking that they were better than that because they were Jews, because they had been raised knowing God's word and had never sunk down into the slough of corruption. And so Paul begins chapter 2 with an almost explosive abruptness, addressing this attitude: “Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest.”

The chapter begins with the word therefore which is a connecting word; it points us back to chapter 1 and perhaps specifically to Romans 1:32: “Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.” This is the principle of condemnation. The terrible thing is that man, knowing God's law, and knowing God's judgment, would continue to practice sin. Condemnation goes with knowledge. (See Luke 12:47-48 for a description of this concept.) 

The judgment and condemnation of sin go with knowledge or at least the possibility of knowledge. THEREFORE, thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest. Chapter 2 is specifically addressed to the Jews, but that whosoever applies to anyone. Anyone who looks at sinners with judgment and self-righteousness is inexcusable. Why? Because if you are judging someone else, you are admitting that you know the law. You are claiming to have a competent knowledge of God's requirements or you couldn't judge others. To say that God will judge sinners such as those in chapter 1, means that you recognize the truth of 2:2: “We are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things.” And if God will judge other people with such certainty and accuracy, how can we think WE can escape His judgment? 

The point to remember is the end of verse one: “Thou that judgest doest the same things.” The Jews looked down on the Gentiles for their sins, but they couldn't escape the fact that they too had sinned. Historically speaking, the faults of the Jews are clear throughout the Old Testament. And interestingly, the problems of the Jews (historically, as a nation) began exactly the same way as the Gentiles: “Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.” (Romans 1:21) That is the history of Israel in the wilderness. They knew God, but they did not worship God and they were not thankful and instead became vain in their imaginations and built a golden calf. All a Jew had to do was read the Old Testament to realize that his race was not superior to the Gentiles. And even if, at that time, the Jews had mostly escaped the snare of idolatry, the essential character was the same.

They were sinners. They may not have committed all the atrocities of chapter 1, but they were not, in essential quality, any better. And if the Gentiles had no excuse, because they had God's revelation in nature and conscience, then the Jews had even less excuse, because they had God's law. And even more, they had experienced God's goodness. God had manifested himself to them. They had seen the treasures of his goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering. And instead of letting them to guilt and repentance, they despised God's mercy and used it as an excuse for their continued sin.

And for that reason--and because of the hardness and impenitence of their heart--they would know a different kind of treasure, the treasure of God's wrath. Remember what we learned in chapter 1. So long as we have the Righteousness of God and the Unrighteousness of Man, then we will always have the Wrath of God being revealed from Heaven. The Jews thought they were better than the Gentiles, but in the end, they were just as unrighteous. Maybe they hadn't committed as many sins or as bad of sins, but they had also sinned against more light and against the goodness of God, and therefore they stood equally condemned and therefore under the wrath of God.

Before, Paul spoke of the wrath of God being revealed in the present. Here he is looking to the future, to that day when the wrath of God will be finally and fully poured out, to the final judgment. This is partly transitional since the next section will look mostly at that judgment. But there may also be another thought here. Many sins have their judgment in this life. But some sins can go mostly unnoticed here and now. And a judgmental, self-righteous person is much more likely to go through life without experiencing adverse reactions to his sins than the kind of man Paul described in chapter 1. But here is the assurance that they will be judged sometime. God's wrath is not always poured out now--often because of the goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering of God. But it is coming and that is the definite certainty.

Paul will expand these ideas more in the next section, but before we close these verses there is one thing we need to remember. Those of us who have grown up within a semi-Christianiafied western civilization, and especially within the church, are in the same position as the Jews--that is, we have learned God's word and we know God's law, meaning that we are without excuse. If we have broken God's law, if we have done things we shouldn't have done, then we are in no position to judge either the heathen world of Paul's day or the wickedness of our own world outside the church. And if we have seen God's goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering either in our own life or in the lives of those around us, then we have even less excuse for our sins. God's judgment is impartial, as Paul sets out to show in the next several verses.