In Hebrews chapter one the author quotes a Psalm concerning the nature of the Messiah, who is Jesus Christ. And at the beginning of that book, he states that Jesus is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact representation of His nature. So then what the Psalmist says about Jesus is also true of God. The Psalmist says in Psalm 45:6-7 “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever; A scepter of uprightness (or justice) is the scepter of Your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You With the oil of joy above Your fellows.”
Justice is a primary aspect of God’s character, and thus judgment is a primary extension of His character. Justice, or the judgment of God is not a character trait that we like to focus on. We would much rather focus on the more benevolent aspects of God’s character like love and mercy. But understanding that God is a holy God of justice and righteousness is paramount for a true knowledge of God, and to be able to worship God in spirit and in truth. Our faith must be informed through the truth about God and founded on the knowledge of God as revealed in His word.
So, God’s justice and righteousness results in HIs judgment against sin. This subject of God’s judgment is something that Paul is addressing here in the first three chapters particularly, and he wants us to fully understand this doctrine of human sin and God’s judgment against it. He wants to make sure that when it is all said and done, we will take refuge in nothing other than the mercy of God and the righteousness of Jesus Christ which is applied to our account by grace through faith. He wants to make sure that we do not hold on to some measure of self righteousness or assurance due to what we think are our own merits, but will fully trust in the righteousness of our Savior.
The principle of justice reminds me of the story from many years ago of the very fashionable lady who went to a photographer to have her picture taken. She thought she was very good looking, but she really was not. She struck her best pose and said to the photographer, "Now, young man, I want you to do me justice." And he said, "Lady, what you need is not justice, but mercy." And so also in this passage, what Paul shows us is that we are all deserving of God’s justice, but thank God that mercy has triumphed over judgment, because if we got what we deserved, we would all receive the condemnation of death.
God’s justice and His mercy must both be satisfied. And justice and mercy are satisfied in Jesus Christ. As the Psalmist says in Ps.85:10, “Mercy and truth have met together;
Righteousness and peace have kissed together.” God’s justice against sin was poured out on Jesus Christ, that He might show mercy towards sinners.
Now we have already seen in the first chapter that man in his human nature is born in sin, and sin totally corrupts, and thus men are totally depraved and deserving of the judgment of God. To summarize the end of the first chapter, Paul says starting in vs28 “And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, being filled with all unrighteousness,(he then goes on to describe that unrighteousness) and then concludes in vs 32 saying, “and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.” So Paul says that they are worthy of God’s judgment against their sin, and that judgment is death.
Then in chapter 2, Paul includes in that judgement those who judge others as sinners while they themselves are guilty of doing the same things. Rom 2:1 “Therefore you have no excuse, everyone of you who passes judgment, for in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things. And we know that the judgment of God rightly falls upon those who practice such things.” So he is saying that even those who recognize sin and think they are morally superior to those who blatantly sin, are guilty of doing the same things themselves. And so all men are sinners.
However, even though Paul wants to deal with man’s condemnation and God’s righteous judgment against sin, yet he cannot help but give a brief glimpse of God’s mercy which is salvation. Paul says in ch.2 vs 4 that God gives time for the sinner to repent. And we spent a lot of time last Sunday talking about the fact that the kindness of God is expressed as patience - intended to produce in sinners repentance so that they will escape the judgment that is coming upon the world.
Then Paul goes on to reemphasize that the judgment is coming and that it is the due penalty of God’s justice against sin. He says in vs5 “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, who WILL RENDER TO EACH PERSON ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS.”
And in that statement, that God will render to each person according to His deeds, Paul changes gears in his argument. He now begins to delineate God’s judgment on the deeds of the unrighteous as opposed to the deeds of the righteous. Those who do good, he says get eternal life. Those who do evil, get wrath. And Paul adds, there is no partiality with God. He doesn’t judge on the basis of race, or religion or position, or prestige, but he bases His judgment on their deeds.
In John 5 verse 28, Jesus said, “Marvel not at this for the hour is coming in which all that are in the grave shall hear His voice and shall come forth. They that have done good, unto the resurrection of life. And they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.” Jesus is saying exactly what Paul says here, that judgment will be made on the basis of their works.
Now good works are not the means of salvation. Salvation is a gift of God, not on the basis of our works but on the basis of God’s mercy. But good works are the evidence of salvation for in Eph.2:9 where it says “not by works lest any man should boast,” the next verse says, “we were created for good works which God has before ordained that we should walk in them.” So our works are the evidence of our faith by which God will judge. Romans 3:23 says, the wages of sin is death. And in Romans 1:17 it says, the just shall live by faith (obedience to faith). So you have two outcomes, one for works of sin, resulting in damnation, and one for works of righteousness, resulting in life.
What Paul then is going to show here in the remaining verses of chapter 2, is that the people that considered themselves righteous, namely the Jews, because they had the law and they had been taught the law, they were in fact guilty of sin. This argument is going to conclude in chapter 3 vs 10, that “there is none righteous, no not one.” Both the Jew and the Gentile are sinners. Both the religious and the pagan are sinners. Both the moral man and the unmoral are sinners. And so all men are sinners, all are lost, all are going to be held accountable for their sins, and they will be judged at the last judgment, and that judgment is eternal death.
Now, notice in verse 12, then, we have two distinct groups of people. First of all, “As many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law.” What law is he talking about? The law of God, the Mosaic law. He is describing Gentiles who did not have the written Scripture. Most people who have lived on this earth have not had the law of God. They have not had the written Scripture. And so the question is, what about them? Will God judge them when they never had the law? Yes, Paul says, but He’ll judge them as those who have never had the law. Vs 12, “For all who have sinned without the Law will also perish without the Law.” So the punishment for sin is still the same, death is the wages of sin. And he has already made it clear that they knew that they were guilty of sin even though they did not have the written law.
But there is another group in vs 12, and that is those who had the law. “And all who have sinned under the Law will be judged by the Law.” This refers to those who had the Word of God, particularly referencing Israel who knew the truth of God. But it also can be related to people today who sit in the church, people who know the truth, people who are in a Christian society. They will be judged according to the greater light that they received.
Someone came to Charles Haddon Spurgeon one time and said, "The Bible is the light of the world." Mr. Spurgeon objected. He said, "No; how can the Bible be the light of the world when the world never reads the Bible?" "The Bible," he said, "is the light of the church. The Christian is the light of the world. The world reads the Christian, not the Bible."
So the argument with Paul’s reasoning then that might have been made, in fact, it still may be made today, is; “We who have been the custodians of the scriptures, we should have the higher honor, not the greater condemnation. We who have possessed the law should be protected from God’s wrath.” And today someone might say, “I’ve gone to church all my life, I’ve been religious, I possess a Bible. Why should I be condemned along with the pagan?”
And Paul gives the answer in vs 13, “for [it is] not the hearers of the Law [who] are just before God, but the doers of the Law will be justified.” James says something similar in James 1:22 “But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves.” God’s law doesn’t protect hearers from judgment. No, in fact the more they hear, the greater the judgment.
Jesus said in Luke 12:48 “From everyone who has been given much, much will be required; and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will ask all the more.” So the principle is that the more you know of God’s law, the more it intensifies the judgment unless it is obeyed.
But here’s the conundrum: you can’t obey the law in your own strength. And so Paul’s argument literally backs them into a corner. He says, you’re constantly hearing the law but you don’t do it. And so there is a judgment against you. As verse 13 says, the doer of the law shall be justified, not the hearer.
So the righteousness and justice of God requires perfect obedience. God requires a manifestation of righteousness but no one can do that. Thus, the law is meant to drive us to a recognition of our need for a Savior, and to cause us to recognize our hopelessness so that we turn to God for the power to do what we otherwise couldn’t do. To see our need to be born again, to be made into a new creation whereby we have the power within us to do works of righteousness.
So Paul says the Jew, or the person who possessed the law is under condemnation because though they knew the law, they couldn’t keep it. Then what about that pagan? What about that the person who never read the law of God, never read Scripture, never heard the gospel? Can you condemn them for not obeying the written word?
Paul answers that objection as well in vs 14. “For when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves, in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them.” What Paul is saying is simply this: You do not have to have the written law to be responsible because you have a law within you manifest in your behavior, manifest in your conscience, and manifest in your thinking patterns.
Paul has given us four reasons why the pagan is lost. Reason #1, creation. Rom 1:20 “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.”
Reason #2 the pagan is lost is because of conduct. Ch.2 vs 14, “For when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves.” In other words, they don’t have an outside law, but they have an internal law that makes them a law unto themselves and it is manifest in their conduct. Pagans naturally recognize certain things which are in the law. Their conduct shows that they recognize right and wrong.
For instance, unbelievers recognize it is right to pay their debts. They know that children should honor their parents. Unbelievers may love their wives, or husbands and they love and care for their children. They recognize that it’s wrong to kill. There are many unbelievers who know it’s good to feed the hungry, who would help a man who was sick or a woman who was sick. Pagans recognize that it’s right to tell the truth. They may seek after justice. They may struggle for fairness. All of these things, their conduct, reveal an internal human code of ethics that is the law within them.
There is a third reason why the heathen are lost and that is conscience. Vs15, “in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them.” Conscience means co-knowledge.
And conscience is something in you that recognizes what’s right. It refers to a person’s inner sense of right and wrong, the moral consciousness that pronounces judgment on thoughts and attitudes and speech and deeds. I read a quote by an 19th century theologian by the name of William Arnot the other day. And though he was speaking of the difference between a believer and an unbeliever, I think that there is a principle in his statement that applies to conscience as well. He said, “The difference between an unconverted man and a converted man is not that one has sins and the other has none, but that the one takes [sides] with his cherished sins against a dreaded God, and the other takes [sides] with a reconciled God against his hated sins.” Now what he is getting at is this agreement with God, this recognition that we have about our sins which is in agreement with God.
And I suppose that principle is applicable to the idea of conscience as well. It is something within us that is given by God, which recognizes wrong doing and thus is in agreement with God in regards to it as sin. There’s a thought process in you that knows right and knows wrong and deals with you when you violate it. And that inner law is in agreement with the law of God.
So the unbelievers are lost because of creation, conduct, conscience, and lastly, they are lost because of contemplation. Paul says in vs 14, “their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them.” In other words, there is in us the capacity to contemplate or to reason and to determine what someone does is right or wrong.
That’s why we have a system of justice in our country, and in fact, all civilized countries have a justice system. Because we have the capacity to accuse or excuse behavior on the basis of law. They know that there should be, or needs to be punishment to fit the crime. So all of these four reasons, creation, conduct, conscience and contemplation all show that the law of God has been instilled within them. And so they have no excuse. Because if they would just respond to the light that they are given, then God would give them more light, even to the point of receiving the full light of Jesus Christ so that they would be saved from their condemnaton.
Now there is a final aspect of God’s judgment that we will look at this morning briefly, and that is found in vs.16. God will not only judge on the basis of men’s deeds, but on the basis of their motives. God will judge on the basis not only of what a man’s deeds are but what his reasons were. And at this point, I’m afraid, is where most of our works of righteousness which we think we can claim become undone - on the basis of our motives. Even our works of righteousness are as filthy rags because we do them with impure motives. Paul says in vs.16 “on the day when, according to my gospel, God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus.”
So the secrets of a man are bound up in his heart. But God sees the heart. He knows our motivations. Jesus said in Matt. 15:18-19 "But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders.”
Jeremiah 17:10 puts it this way: “I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind even to give to each according to his ways, according to the result of his deeds.” Yes, God judges deeds. Yes, He judges ways. But He judges the motive behind them as well.
James says in chapter 4 vs 3 “You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend [it] on your pleasures.” God knows the motives of our hearts, and He will judge us according to our motives. You either do what you do for the glory of God or you do it for the glory of man.
I believe that what Paul is indicating here is that it’s possible to do good deeds with bad motives. I think we see that in Christendom all the time. That was the recurring sin of the Pharisee in Jesus’s day. And it’s the prototypical sin of the church today. It’s hypocrisy. The sin of impure motives. Someone said once, that the the sin of hypocrisy is failing to live up to the truth that you claim to have. And that seems to be true.
Paul reemphasizes in vs 16, that there is going to be a day of judgment. “On the day when, according to my gospel, God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus.” Jesus said in Luke 8:17 "For nothing is hidden that will not become evident, nor [anything] secret that will not be known and come to light.” God will judge all men, and all deeds, on that day of judgment. All things will be revealed, even the thoughts and motives of men’s hearts.
2Cor. 5:10 says, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.”
If your sin hasn’t been dealt with before that day by the shed blood of Jesus Christ, if you haven’t confessed Jesus as Lord and accepted His sacrifice on your behalf and His payment for your sin, then you are storing up wrath against the day of wrath. There’s going to be a judgment from God that will cause you to be cast out of His presence forever into the Lake of Fire. And no one will escape that judgment unless they can claim Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord. He alone has satisfied the justice and righteousness of God, that He might show mercy to those who are under judgment. I pray that you have claimed His righteousness and His sacrifice on your behalf that you might not be condemned with the world.
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