Romans 2:1-5: "God's Judgment"

Paul has just finished speaking of man's abandonment of God and turning to debase sins to fulfill their lusts. He spoke of things which most people would find immoral and wrong. He now turns his attention to those who think they are religious and superior to those spoken of at the end of chapter 1.
Often I can find myself looking at the foolish decisions made by unbelievers and detect a wave of pride coming over me. I can feel a sense of superiority over them because I do not partake of the same gross immorality that they do. This section is a slap in the face when we are feeling that way. We must understand a couple things. First, sin is sin. There is not one sin that overlooks and there is not one sin that is looked upon as "less" than another sin in God's eyes. Sin comes from the idea of missing the mark. To God, perfection is required to be declared righteous, anything less is sin. Therefore, when we have a bad attitude while doing chores, it is just as much sin as murder. There are obviously different punishments and earthly consequences between the two, however, we cannot look at ourselves as "less sinners" than anyone else. Once we recognize that and understand that, it should bring us to our knees and thank God for all He has done for us.

What Paul is telling us in this next section is that we cannot judge those around us as if we are more spiritual than them when we are just as sinful as they are. More specifically, it's as if he had captured the Jewish audience who would most likely shake their head in agreement to what had been spoken of in the previous section, and now turned the tables on them to look into their own lives.

MacArthur sets up the background of Paul's audience, "Most Jews of Paul's day believed in the idea that performing certain moral and religious works produced righteousness. Specifically, they could earn God's special favor and therefore eternal life by keeping the Mosaic law and traditions of the rabbis. Many even believed that if they failed in the works effort, they might forfeit some earthly reward bt were still exempt from God's judgment simply because they were Jews, God's chosen people." Paul is now speaking to the self-righteous who seek to climb there way into heaven by putting them on the same level as the grossly immoral previously spoken of. Paul's goal is to ultimately help them to understand that "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" and that "none are righteous not even one". He is putting us all in the same camp and saying only those who believe and trust in Jesus Christ will be saved. No lineage, works, or moral behavior is going to get you into heaven.

Paul reminds us that we are "without excuse" and that we have been given us creation and our consciences to know of His existence. MacArthur then explains, "In that you judge another, he points out, you condemn yourself, because you obviously have a criterion by which to judge, meaning that you know the truth about what is right and wrong before God. Even the Gentiles know the basic truth of God's eternal power and divine nature through natural revelation (1:20). They also have a sense of right and wrong by conscience (2:15) . . . Such knowledge would have made them still more inexcusable, in that their greater knowledge of God' truth would have made them more accountable to it." What made it worse is that those who would stand in judgment over these actions would "practice the same thing". Self-righteous people will most likely underestimate God's holy standard of perfection and think that they are "good enough". They will also most likely underestimate their own sinfulness as their own unrighteousness has calloused and desensitized their hearts.

Paul in verses 2 and 3, than asks a rhetorical question to get the self righteous to honestly examine themselves. He first makes a true statement that they 'already knew' the "judgment of God rightly falls upon those who practice such things." He knows his Jewish audience would all agree that those who practice immorality (sin) deserve the judgment of God. Therefore, he then uses this fact to ask a question that if answered honestly should receive the same answer. That anyone who would sin and commit immoral acts and then judge others for doing the same would rightly be judged by God also. MacArthur states, "Man's judgment never squares completely with the truth, because he never know the complete truth. When the proud moralist judges and condemns others, while thinking he himself is acceptable to God, it is only because he is judging by his own perverted perspective, which fallen human nature always skews to its own advantage." We must understand that not only does God see everything we do, he knows every pretense of our heart and thoughts. This would condemn any of us. Paul wanted the self-righteous Jews (and us) to understand that God's judgments are right and we deserve nothing. Nothing we do is good enough for God apart from Christ.

In verses 4 and 5, Paul puts everything into proper perspective for the self righteous and helps them to see that it is only in God that salvation comes and that we left to ourselves would die in our self righteousness. Matthew Henry commentates on this passage: "There is in every willful sin a contempt for the goodness of God." Every time we sin we are presuming upon God's love and kindness and patience with our sinful selves. God has the right and ability to take our lives at anytime the second we sin (which is conceived at birth). Not only does He have that right, but it is amazing He does not do it more than He does. It is only by God's grace and "kindness of God [that] leads you to repentance". When we believe that we can do it ourselves and that righteousness can be found in anything we do, we are forgetting that repentance in our lives was nothing from us, but it to was a gift from God, just as the grace to save us was. Paul now turns up the heat and lays it out for them. By now Paul had hoped his audience could see that they were guilty of sin even if they lived morally, and now he wanted them to understand that when they lived in self righteousness that they were merely being stubborn. Paul writes, "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". He warns those who live in self righteousness that they are avoiding repentance and the humility to fall on their knees and acknowledge Him as Lord, that they are "storing up wrath" for themselves. Paul was hitting them hard with the truth that they are not exempt from God's judgment, and on the "day of wrath and revelation" they would receive all the pent up wrath God had for them if they did not except Christ.

This should be a sobering reminder to us that we are never righteous or holy but what we do, but by what He did. We should be thankful to God everyday for the fact that He allowed us to come to our knees and repent. We should be grateful that Christ took the stored up wrath. Lastly, we should never have a sense of superiority over those who do not have Christ, but rather, a heart of concern and love for them to come from what we once were, to what we are now.