Just as a recap. Last week we started on chapter 2 of the book of Romans. We read that what’s in my heart is more important then what’s on the surface. What’s in my heart will render out, it WILL effect my appearance, my conduct, my moral standards. And instead of focusing on the visible side of things, we should promote inner change, which come though our faith in Jesus Christ. Which comes though the work of the Holy Spirit.
And today we will continue to drill into this chapter, as well as into the area of internal vs external. In this and the following chapter Holy Spirit through Paul lays down a new foundation, new “evaluation system” if you will, of one’s righteousness. Which is not actually “new”, but I would referred to it as an original.
To get more holistic view of today’s topic we need to jump back a few verses. We will start reading from the verse 6:
Romans 2:6-11
⁶ He will render to each one according to his works:⁷to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life;⁸but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury.⁹There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek,¹⁰but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek.¹¹For God shows no partiality.
You know, we read this verses and it does sound appealing. Especially if you like me, who was born with a hypertrophied sense of justice. It ignites a little sparkle inside of you, that for once there will be some real justice.
But I think greater takeaways are that:
- FIRST. God WILL judge the world. It will actually happen but because it takes so long, some people start to believe that it will never happen for real. Because, Jesus were kinda hinted that it almost gonna be tomorrow but, here we are 2000 years later. And since it takes soooooooo long people stop considering it for real. And even if God will “judge” the world. At the end of the day He is so loving, He’ll forgive everyone anyway.
Which is not what we read in the bible. God patiently waiting, giving us time to repent. We talked about it last week. But the day WILL COME. God will not only judge peoples works. BUT He will also judge secrets of man. God will judge secrets or κρυπτός [ kroop-tos’] as it is in original language. So, all who is in Crypto are in shambles right now)). But jokes aside, God will judge inward, hidden side of man. Some bible translations say, “judge thoughts” of people. So, our fist take away is that God WILL judge the world
- Second takeaway is that not only God will judge the world, but he will RENDER to each one according to his works. And again idea that God will forgive anyone regardless of what they did does not align with the scriptures. Picture that people portray is that God will shake his finger at those who did not follow him, as a strict teacher. Telling them that they were naughty kids and that’s about as far as punishment will go. But what God’s word actually says is that:
Those who obey the truth gonna get: eternal life, glory, honor and peace.
But those who obey unrighteousness will get wrath, fury, tribulation and distress.
Which category you wanna end up in? I really like the first one. It has everything I love. Peace, eternal life. I’m not too much into glory and honor to be honest, maybe some of you would think the same. But it is most likely because we treat this words differently this days. They do not mean the same to us as to original readers of the letter. Those were very important things in the time of Paul. Pretty much essential for life in community. Oversimplified explanation would be that it means that you will be treated with respect like an honorable person, and not just worthless slave.
God will render ACCORDINGLY to each one.
- Third takeaway. Which get’s really stressed out through the whole chapter. It is that God shows no partiality. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but again and again Paul says something along the lines “to the Jew first, but also the Greek”. It is very, very important.
Remember that the standard way of following God was Judaism. And for many Jewish followers of Christ, it was pretty standard view of the world. To belong to God and be the Jew was pretty much the same thing. Every Jew considered himself a part of God’s promise, based on the national factor. Based on them being God’s special people. Having his law and etc.
Which means other nations are not part of God’s promises by default. Because they are NOT his special people. Because they do not have “the law”.
And true following and salvation is only possible threw knowing/following the law AND becoming a Jew.
Keep that in mind as we read forward.
Romans 2:12-29
¹²For 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.¹³For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified.¹⁴For 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.¹⁵They 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 them¹⁶ on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.
Believe me or not but this was a revolutionary statement for the Paul to make. The idea that God will judge everyone in the same way was something that we would call a new revolution. This passage answers few questions for us. It shows us the justice of God. But also it brings us all, Jews and Gentiles into the same position before God.
Everyone will get what they deserve according to their works.
Some people ask:
“How God is going to judge those, who never heard about Him? It unfair to judge them, because they didn’t know.”
In this passage bible sheds some light on this issue. We all have knowledge of what is right. We have our conscience and even more then that. The ancient writers referred to this phenomena as “unwritten law” or “law that is written on the heart”. Internal moral compass that lead man to what is good. Ever one of us have one of this.
Bible clearly say that creation screams about God. Pointing out to it’s creator if we willing to pay attention. We have to plug or ears and close our eyes in order to not notice all that. People constantly having to come up with clever(or sometimes not so clever) ideas of why certain things are certain way, in order to avoid admitting that there is God who thoughtfully created this world. We talked about all that in previous Sundays.
And today we see that God not only left the evidence of Him around us. He also left the evidence inside of us. And therefore we have no excuse when we do evil, even if we don’t have God’s written law. Because this internal compass points to the truth, that we are not doing right, and we chose to ignore it. And then our conscience accuses us, because we went against something we knew was right.
As for those who had God’s written law. They will be judged accordingly to that law. But judged never the less.
Because God does not respect outwardly circumstances of the man. He does not look at the face, nation, social status, power of wealth. He shows no partiality.
Example
Imagine the situation. There are two tradesman. Electricians. One is generational Electrician. He’s dad was electrician, same as he granddad. The guy went through collage and special training. He has a certificate. Probably more then one. He is considered qualified.
Also we have our second tradesman. He is nothing like that. He is just a self taught type. Who just watched other people work. And with trial an error kinda figured it our. He does not have generational experience and extensive education. But, he does work.
They both get hired to the work. Construction site is huge, so there is room for more then one worker. The first guy loughs when he sees seconds guy work. He pridefully comments on the things that he is not doing right. Going on an on about how they actually should be done. Using fancy terms like impedance, cross section, resistance an etc. He obviously knows about this work a lot more.
But one day they building get’s caught on fire. With the reason being that electrical work were done wrong. Insulation of the cables were damage during installation phase. Wrong type of fuses were used, as well as a wrong type of wire. Commission figures that both of the workers failed to do the job correctly, which ultimately lead to a fire. And now they are both under the trial. And both of them will be judged.
Because it is not knowing what needs to be done. But actually doing the work properly what matters. Same when with our life. It is not knowing what the bible says, but living according to the word what actually matters. And at the end of the day. If you failed at that your degrees will not matter. Your generational experience will not matter. All that does not counts. Because God shows no partiality that’s the third take away.
So our three highlight is that:
- God WILL judge the secrets of man
- He will render according to the works
- Without partiality
Romans 2:17-24
¹⁷But if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the law and boast in God¹⁸and know his will and approve what is excellent, because you are instructed from the law;¹⁹and if you are sure that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness,²⁰an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth —²¹ you then who teach others, do you not teach yourself? While you preach against stealing, do you steal?²²You who say that one must not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?²³You who boast in the law dishonor God by breaking the law.²⁴For, as it is written, “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.”
²⁵For circumcision indeed is of value if you obey the law, but if you break the law, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision.²⁶So, if a man who is uncircumcised keeps the precepts of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision?²⁷Then he who is physically uncircumcised but keeps the law will condemn you who have the written code and circumcision but break the law.²⁸For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical.²⁹But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God.
Here we can see how the paces of the puzzle come together. We can see that justification does not come through knowledge. It does not come by belonging to a nation or the group of people. None of those outwardly things matter, if inwardly you are not born again.
Circumcision was a sign of being devoted. People of Israel were separated from rest of the word. They were dedicated to God. They were called to be different. They were called to live by God’s standard regardless of what the world around them live by. They were called to be all those things from the verses 19 and 20. But kinda failed.
Today we read that belonging to God’s holy people is not about national factor. It is not about the sign that you carry on your physical body. It is about your heart. Your heart should be devoted, dedicated to God. True people of God are circumcised at the heart level. Not the physical muscle that pumps the blood. Not that one. But your inward self. At the level of your mind and soul.
We can see that old way, old paradigm of following is fading away. That following God is not about belonging to the certain group of people. It’s not about knowing the rules.
It does not matter how long you go to the Church. It does not matter how well you know the bible. If you go against God’s word. If you do not live by it, all those other things are done in vain. Today we live in different times. But we face the same challenge. The message remains relevant.
If we focus on outwardly matters. When we become merely religious people. “Do the right thing”, “come to church”, “Do that, don’t do this”.
Like one minister said to a yang lady in the Church(not our Church). “You should not wear this and thins on Sundays. But how you dress any other day does not matter”.
Behave properly in the Church and what you do on the week day does not matter. Slowly but surly this approach will trains us to create an “church appropriate version of ourselves” which we put up when among the Christians. And then when we leave the church we turn into a completely different creature.
How many stories of a fathers who are close to “as holy as Jesus” state while in the Church. They do the right thing, talk the right talks. But then go home and abuse and bit up wife and children. I’ve heard this more then once.
People learned the “rules of the game”. And now while they at the church they simply play their role. For some it might be so natural that we do not even notice it anymore.
Friends, Church in not a theater. We not gathering to “do the right thing” for once. Our gatherings should not be religious habit, which we practice to keep God happy. We are not called to be religious. Religion does not save people. Being religious did not help Jews not gonna help you.
For no one is a Christian who is merely one outwardly, nor is the following outward and physical.
Circumcision of your heart by the Spirit, that’s what we after. That’s what pleases God. Inward change that renders out. And today is the time to start. Because God WILL judge the world. And you don’t want to be on the wrong side when that happens.