Everyone needs the gospel

Reading Through Romans

Chapter 2

As part of Paul’s presentation of the gospel, he explains why it is needed. Paul begins with a typical Jewish criticism of Gentiles, which says that people ought to know God but are willingly ignorant and therefore deserve to die. But there is something wrong with this view, Paul says.

In Romans 2:1 Paul says, Therefore, you have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things.

Does Paul mean that if you accuse someone of murder, you have committed murder? No; we need to see the context. In Romans 1:29-31, Paul had mentioned a variety of sins: “They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy.”

In Romans 2:1, Paul is saying that whenever people pass judgment on someone else, they are guilty of the same kind of thing—a sin. We are all guilty of something, so we should not judge other people. (Paul will say more about that in chapter 14.) If we condemn someone, we are saying that sinners deserve to be punished (1:32). But since we have sinned, we also deserve to be punished.

Paul says: God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth (2:2). Yes, what they have done is wrong. We have done wrong, too.

So when you, a mere man, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment? (2:3). Everyone will be judged, so no one should be pointing fingers.

Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance? (2:4). If we judge others, we are showing contempt for God’s mercy—not only his mercy toward them, but also his mercy and patience toward us. God's patience toward sinners should make us have a change of mind and be patient toward sinners, too.

In verse 5, Paul is still talking to the person who passes judgment on others: But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. If you persist in judging, it will be worse on you on the judgment that you like to talk about. God's righteousness cuts both ways.

In the traditional view of judgment, God will repay everyone according to what they have done. To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life (vv. 6-7). If we take this out of context, it suggests that people can be saved on the basis of good works. But as he will soon argue, no one is good enough to earn eternal life through their works. This verse is part of the view that Paul is critiquing—he is not endorsing it. He is showing that this view of God's righteous wrath leads only to universal condemnation and despair. It is not good news.

But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile (vv. 8-9). This is where Paul wants to go—applying this Jewish worldview to the Jews. If God is in the business of applying righteous punishment on all sinners, he will do it for the Jews as well as the Gentiles, because God does not show favoritism (v. 11).

God will give glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile (v. 10). Paul will soon say that all have sinned; no one deserves glory, honor and eternal life. In these verses Paul is describing a judgment of rewards that will never actually happen because no one will ever qualify in this way. This is not a "straw man" that doesn't exist, or a hypothetical situation that Paul made up just for the sake of argument—it was a view being taught by some people in the first century. Paul is showing that this religious belief is wrong; the gospel reveals that God envisions a much different outcome for humanity.

All who sin apart from the law [Paul is referring to Gentiles here] will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law [Jews] will be judged by the law (v. 12). No matter who you are, if you sin, you will be condemned. This would be terrible news, if it weren’t for the gospel. The gospel is news we desperately need, and news that is very good—but it is especially good when we see how bad the alternative is.

Verse 13: For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous. Paul is not saying that people can actually be declared righteous by their obedience—he says that no one can be justified in this way (3:20). Is he spinning in circles, or is he inconsistent, as some scholars claim? No, not when we realize that these words are not his own view, but the view of his opponents. He is showing that this way does not work.

How can God condemn Gentiles for breaking his law when they don’t know what it is? The traditional view said they had a chance, but they blew it (1:19). It said that if they would have heeded their conscience, they would have done what was right: When Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them (2:14-15).

As everyone will admit, Gentiles keep some things required by the law. They teach that murder and adultery are wrong. Gentiles have a conscience, and it sometimes says they did well—but sometimes it says that they did not. Even by their own standards, they fall short. That is how they can "sin apart from the law" (2:12).

Paul resumes the discussion of the judgment in verse 16: This will take place on the day when God judges everyone’s secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares. Paul agrees with his opponents that there will be a day of judgment—but he introduces a big difference—this judgment will take place through Jesus Christ (cf. Acts 17:31).

This changes everything. People will be judged not on the basis of their own works, but will be declared righteous on the basis of what Christ has done. Paul is turning the traditional concept of judgment upside down. But that is getting ahead of the story. Paul has not yet unfolded that part of the gospel because he has not yet finished showing the futility of the opposing view.

In verse 17, Paul begins to address some arguments that Jews might have: If you call yourself a Jew; if you rely on the law and boast in God; if you know his will and approve of what is superior because you are instructed by the law; if you are convinced that you are a guide for the blind, a light for those who are in the dark, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of infants, because you have in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth... (vv. 17-20).

If you have these advantages, Paul is saying, you, then, who teach others, do you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal? You who say that people should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? (vv. 21-22). An individual reader might object: “I don’t steal and commit adultery.” But Paul is speaking of Jews as a group, and everyone knew that some Jews broke their own laws, even stealing from their own temple (Josephus, Antiquties 18.81-84).

Verse 23: You who boast in the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law? If you have ever broken a law, you have dishonored God, and you are in the same category as thieves and adulterers—“sinner.” You know what you should do, and yet you fall short.

Paul uses Scripture to illustrate his point: As it is written: "God’s name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you” (v. 24). Ezekiel 36:22 says that the Jews had caused God’s name to be blasphemed. Jews are not immune to sin, and not immune to judgment. The "judgment according to works" view has nothing good to say to them.

In verse 25, Paul comments on an advantage Jews thought they had: Circumcision has value if you observe the law, but if you break the law, you have become as though you had not been circumcised. As Paul will soon argue, everyone has broken the law—and circumcision doesn’t rescue anyone from anything.

If those who are not circumcised keep the law’s requirements, will they not be regarded as though they were circumcised? The one who is not circumcised physically and yet obeys the law will condemn you who, even though you have the written code and circumcision, are a lawbreaker (v. 27). Some Jews taught that Gentiles could be saved if they obeyed the laws that applied to Gentiles, without being circumcised. So in such a case, the Gentile would be better off in the judgment than the Jew—a reversal of the picture that Jews usually drew.

A person is not a Jew [that is, not one of God’s people] who is one only outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. No, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a person’s praise is not from other people, but from God (vv. 28-29). Just as Deut. 30:6 said, circumcision should be in the heart, not just in the flesh. Just because someone is circumcised on the outside does not mean that he is truly part of the people of God who will be accepted on the day of judgment.

Paul is rattling the underpinnings of the traditional view—but he is not yet done. He is pulling his punches as part of his rhetorical strategy. He is saving his most powerful arguments for the next chapter—at this point he wants people to keep reading even if they sympathize with the opposing view. His opponents would have to agree in principle with what he says so far, though they might be a bit uncomfortable with it. Paul wants them to keep reading, and we need to do that, too, if we want to see what the gospel reveals in contrast to the traditional view.

God is perfectly fair. Some Gentiles do what is right, and some Jews do what is wrong. But if both peoples are judged by what they do, then what advantage is there in being Jewish? That is precisely the question that Paul raises in the next chapter.