PAUL’S LETTER TO THE CHRISTIANS IN ROME

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Chapter 2

Paul talks here about two people. When we reach verse 17, Paul makes it plain to us that one of them is a Jew. So there are different ways to read the first part of the chapter. Here, too, it is likely that Paul talks about a Jew and someone else who is not a Jew. Probably they are not Christians.

Two things will help us to understand the chapter. Your Bible may have verses 14 and 15 in brackets. This is helpful because Paul’s thoughts in verse 13 carry on in verse 16.

Then we should look at verses 6-11. What verse 6 says is rather like verse 11. Then verses 7 and 10 say very much the same thing. Verses 8 and 9 give us the same teaching in rather different words. This ‘shape’ is called a ‘chiasmus’. These verses can be difficult if we do not see this shape in them. Verse 5 is not so close in meaning to verse 12. [2.1]

Verses 1-4 Is man or God the Judge?

Paul had often argued with people in this way. One reason why God has the right to judge us is that He is righteous. Now in verse1, Paul speaks to a Jew. The Jews thought that they were good because they did not worship false ‘gods’. Paul seems to say:- ‘That does not give you the right to say that someone else is all wrong. You sin, and you sin in just the same way that the other man does.’ The Jew thinks that God will show him special favour just because he is a Jew. In fact, he tries to push God off His throne, when he judges other people.

In verse 2, we have a second reason why we must not judge one another. When God judges He gets it right every time. He knows all that He needs to know so that He can judge. We never know enough, so when we judge we usually get it all wrong.

So in verse 3, the Jew is only a man - ‘a mere man’, and not God! He judges people who are not Jews. He says that their sins are wrong, but he does the same wrong things himself. It does not add up. God will judge both the Jew and the other man. (verse 4). Now, Paul says, it is true that God is full of grace. Paul uses three words. God is first of all ‘good’ or ‘kind’. Paul uses this word three times in 11:22! Then ‘forbearance’ or ‘tolerance’ is a word which means that God ‘holds back’. He holds back His anger against sin. ‘Longsuffering’ or ‘ patience’ is the third word and it is very much like the second one. God gives us plenty of time to leave our sins and to turn to Him. He is not quick to punish our sins. Men do not understand this at all. See Ecclesiastes 8:11 and 12. Now Paul says that God does not just have these things. He is ‘rich’ in them. So here is another reason why God alone is the Judge of all men. He does not judge too quickly. Men who judge are often too quick and that is why they get it wrong (1Corinthians 4:5). Yet men do not honour God for this. Instead they ‘despise’ or ‘show contempt’ for God’s kindness.

Then Paul tells us why God is so kind. He wants us to ‘repent’. He wants us to change our minds and leave our sins. He mostly give us plenty of time for this. Men either do not know this, or else they live as though they do not know what God wants.

In verse 5, Paul still seems to have a Jew in mind. This Jew has a hard heart and he does not repent. He gives God reason to feel wrath against him. All his life he stores up sins against which God is angry. Then the one great day will come. God will judge all men and when He judges, it will all be fair and open. At present it is as though a curtain hides God’s judgment from us. Then the curtain will go away. Not only will all men see that God is the only Judge. They will see too that He is always right.

In verse 6 Paul uses the second half to show that God will judge all men, whether they are Jews or not . God will judge men by what they have done (Matthew 25:31-46). God will give a reward to those who have done what is right and good.

Verse 7 begins to explain what God’s judgment will be. [2.2] Christians do not look for praise or any reward from men. The word for ’patience’ or ’persistence’ is ’hupomone’. The idea in the word is that we carry a load or ’burden’ in life. We do not try to get out from under it. So when Christians do good they do not look for a quick reward. They look for the praise that God will give. They look for the honour which God gives. In this life, we know that we shall die and that our bodies will ‘go bad’ or ‘decay’. We look for the life which God will give and which will never go bad.

When we come to verse 8, Paul speaks about people who look at life in a very different way. They are like people who are paid for their work at the end of each day. So they only think about today. They do not think much about tomorrow or next week. We can be sure that they do not think about glory! [2.3] This is the picture behind the word ‘factious’ or ‘self-seeking’. These people do not obey the truth (1:5) but they do obey what is not righteous. They take what is wrong for their guide. [2.4] Such people will meet with God’s wrath and anger. ‘The truth’ here may mean ‘the way of truth’.

Paul finds different words to say much the same thing in verse 9. ‘Tribulation’ or ‘trouble’ here is a word which speaks of a weight which presses down on you and which crushes you. The other word, ‘distress’ has the idea in it of a very narrow place. There is no choice or room to move about. Every ‘soul of man’, whether Jew or not, will share in this. Paul does not speak about God just here, but he means that God will bring all wrong-doers into this state. Whether God gives pain or (verse 10) joy, the order is the same. The Jews heard the Good News first, and the Jews will be judged first.

We have seen that verse 10 is very much like verse 7. Verse 11 is like verse 6. God will be quite fair to all men when He judges them (Acts 10:34; James 2:1). When we stand before God, we cannot act a part, or put a ’mask’ on our faces.

Paul uses the word ’law’ for the first time now. This is another great word which need not always mean quite the same thing. People still argue about the word. When you come to it, you may have to ask which of these is the best meaning.

Now here in verse 12, ’law’ could just mean the laws of men. Most likely it is the law of God. Some people will be able to stand in front of God at the last day and say:- ’I did not know your law’. God will judge them fairly. In verse 13, ’those who hear the law’ are the Jews who hear the ’Torah’ the Law of Moses, read in Jewish worship. They hear it in the synagogue, the Jewish place of worship.

We should remember that in Paul’s day, many people who were not Jews by race went to Jewish worship. They thought highly of Jewish worship and life. They were so much purer and better than the life and worship of other people. It was easier for a woman to follow the Jewish way of life. It was harder for a man. People who did follow Jewish ways were called ’proselytes’ or converts. Many of them became Christians when they heart the Good News about Jesus. Some of the time, Paul may have these people in mind as he writes.

So it is not enough to hear the law. We must do what it says. As we have seen, verse 16 carries on the thought. God will declare righteous anyone who really does keep the law. There will be a day of judgment. God will judge not only what we see, but also men’s ’secrets’ (Ecclesiastes 12:14). He will do this ’through Jesus Christ’, and this is all part of the Good News which Paul preaches.

So we need to go back to verses 14 and 15. Here Paul looks at people who are not Jews. They do not have the Law of Moses at all. Yet they sometimes do the very things that the Law would tell them to do. They have a sense of what is right and wrong. This is their conscience. The work which the law should do is to show them what is right and what is wrong. But God has already written this on their hearts. [2.5] The last part of verse 15 pictures the man’s heart as a court of law. Their conscience sets out the ’evidence’, that is, the facts of the case. The mind changes sides. Sometimes it says:- ’You are quite wrong’. It accuses. Then another time it says :- ’You have got it right’. Now it defends. What Paul means is that without the law to help them, people are much less sure. People show this or give proof of it.

Verses 17 - 29 The Law and the Jews

Paul wants to show the Jews that they are sinners. They are a little better than other people, perhaps. Still, we are all sinners. Paul cannot really teach us about the wonders of God’s grace until we all agree about that.

Now, of course, most of us do not call ourselves ’Jews’. That does not mean that Paul has nothing to say to us here. We may have pride in our church. We may be proud of our worship. All sorts of things can get in the way of faith in Christ to save us. If anything pushes Jesus our Saviour to one side, then we need to listen with care to what Paul says here. So now in verse 17 Paul speaks about someone who is not just a sinner (verse 12). He calls himself a Jew, so he is that much better than other people. He trusts in the fact that he has God’s law. He is rather proud that he has a special place with God. Perhaps, though, he forgets that this God is his Judge. He forgets that all he has, God gave to him. God gave it, not for himself but for the whole world.

Verses 18-20 sound like a Jew who talks to Paul about his special place with God. Paul says he knows THE will - that is, God’s will. The first part of verse 19 may make us think about Matthew 15:14. In verse 20, ‘embodiment’ means a rough drawing - an ‘outline’ or ‘sketch’. It is not enough to have knowledge and truth, that is, true knowledge. We also need the strength to obey God. We need the power to do His will. The law did not give this power to the Jews. The Good News tells us not only that Jesus died to put away our sins. Also God gives His Holy Spirit so that we have the power to do His will.

There may have been some Jews who did the things that Paul speaks about in verses 21-23. Yet we know that mostly the Jews in those days lived better lives than the heathen people around them. So perhaps we may think about Psalm 50:17 and 18. It is better to think about Malachi 3:8, where the prophet tells the people that they steal from God. They do this when they do not give to God all that they should (verse 21).

In verse 22, Paul may mean that some of the Jews have sex with other men’s wives, that is ‘adultery’. On the other hand, Jeremiah 3:8 is only one verse of many like it in the Old Testament. There ‘adultery’ means that the Jews worship false ‘gods’; they are not faithful to their God. This may be what ‘adultery’ means here too.

The heathen temples were very rich because often people with money gave a lot to the ’gods’. The temples were thought to be very holy as well. The Jews hated the idols of the false ’gods’, so they may not have shown honour or ’respect’ for the temples. This would make the heathen very angry, and this helped no one. See Acts 19:37. If we spread the Good News, the time will come when everyone will forget the false ’gods’. We do not need to make those who worship false ’gods’ hate us. People who were not Jews thought that the Jews stole from temples.

In verse 23, Paul adds that it is our duty to honour God and to give Him glory. Now the Jew can do this best if he obeys the Law. If he breaks the Law, people will not honour the name of God. You will find the thought of verse 24 in 2 Samuel 12:14, Isaiah 52:5 and Ezekiel 36:22. God’s will was that Israel should be a blessing to all the nations. This did not happen!

In verse 25, Paul writes about ’circumcision’ for the first time in this letter. See Genesis 17. Verses 10-14 tell us how God told Abraham to circumcise the males in his family and house. Verses 23-27 tell us that he obeyed God. See also Joshua 5:2 and 3. The Jews were not the only people who circumcise their sons. Yet the practice was a sign that a man was a Jew. It was part of the law. So now Paul says:- ’It is a good thing, but only if you do what is right. We can put it the other way round. If you do what is wrong, circumcision had done nothing for you‘.

In verse 26 it may be Christians who are not Jews who are ‘not circumcised’. They do what is right. They keep God’s Law. So God will look at them as members of His people. In verse 27 there is a man who does not just keep the Law. He does more. He ‘full-fills’ it or, as we say, he ‘fulfils’ it. This man stands before God with a Jew who has the law, but who does what is wrong. God, says Paul, will judge in favour of the Christian.

Verses 28 and 29 finish off this part of Paul’s argument. God is free. We cannot control God. If God says:- ‘This man does not keep the Law. So he is not a Jew’ - we cannot argue with God. If God says:- ‘This man keeps My Law. So he really is a Jew’ - we cannot tell God that He is wrong. God, not man, decides what it means to be a real Jew. It needs the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. Now the very word ‘Jew’ comes from the name ‘Judah’, and that name means ‘praise’. See Genesis 29:35. So at the end of the verse, Paul says:- ‘A Christian has the Spirit of God in his heart. His praise - his ‘Jewishness’ - comes from God’.