Romans 2:1–29: God's Impartial Judgment and the Circumcision of the Heart (two sessions)
God's righteous judgment, without favoritism
See how Paul brings the one who judges others under the same verdict as 1:18–32. God's kindness is meant to lead to repentance, and God will judge every person according to his deeds and without favoritism, Jew and Gentile, with the law or without it, on the day when he judges people's secrets through Christ Jesus. Judgment according to deeds is real, and it is not a second way of salvation alongside faith.
Outline
- The one who judges others is without excuse; God's kindness leads to repentanceRom 2:1–5
- God will repay each one according to his deeds; God does not show favoritismRom 2:6–11
- Not the hearers but the doers of the lawRom 2:12–13
- The work of the law written on the heart, and the day of judgmentRom 2:14–16
observation · 4
Read Rom 1:32 and then 2:1–3. Whom does Paul now address? What does he say this person does, and what happens when he judges others? Compare “without excuse” in 1:20 and 2:1.
In 2:4–5, list the three things Paul says belong to God's “riches.” What is God's kindness meant to do? What is the hearer “storing up” instead, and for what day? Compare Exod 34:6.
Rom 2:6–11 is built like a ring. Find the opening statement (2:6) and the closing statement (2:11). Between them, what two kinds of people and what two outcomes does Paul describe? Where does “first for the Jew, then for the Greek” appear, and where have we seen it before (1:16)?
Read 2:12–16. What two groups does 2:12 describe, and what happens to each? What does 2:13 contrast? What do the Gentiles of 2:14–15 do, what is “written on their hearts,” and what do their consciences and thoughts do? When and through whom will God judge (2:16)?
interpretation · 6
Why might someone take God's patience as a sign that he will not judge? According to 2:4–5, what is God's patience for? How does “the day of wrath” in 2:5 relate to the wrath already “being revealed” in 1:18?
Paul says God “will repay each one according to his deeds” (2:6), yet later says “a man is justified by faith apart from works of the law” (3:28). Read 2:6–11, 3:20–28 and 2 Cor 5:10. How can both be true? What do the two common conservative readings of 2:7 and 2:10 say?
What does Paul mean when he says that “it is the doers of the law who will be declared righteous” (2:13)? Read Lev 18:5 and Rom 3:20. Weigh the two readings: is 2:13 the law's standard that no one meets, or a description of believers whose obedience is the evidence of faith?
Implies “For” (γάρ, gar) gives the reason for 2:12: having the law, and hearing it read in the synagogue, does not protect the hearer at the judgment. δικαιωθήσονται (dikaiōthēsontai, “will be declared righteous”) is forensic: a verdict about a person's standing in God's court, as “righteous before God” in the first half shows.
Uncertain Whether νόμος (nomos, “law”) without the article in 2:12–14 means the Mosaic law or law in a general sense. The commentary leans to the Mosaic law, since Paul uses the anarthrous noun of the law of Moses elsewhere (3:20, 31) and 2:17–27 is plainly about that law; the main alternative is law as a general category.
Uncertain Whether the future refers to the last day or is a logical future (“will be counted righteous whenever this is so,” literal). The commentary leans to the last day, since 2:5 and 2:16 frame the passage with “the day”; the logical future is the main alternative.
Uncertain Who the doers of 2:13 are, and with them the people of 2:7 and 10. Use the two readings set out in the leader note to s1.int.3, the law-standard reading and the evidence-of-faith reading, on equal terms; neither is the team's view. Here the group can test each against Lev 18:5 and Gal 3:10–12 (the law's own condition, which no sinner meets) and against 2:26–29 and 8:4 (obedience the Spirit gives).
Interpreters by name (reported, not the team's view): Calvin reasons from 2:13 that no one is justified by the law, since no one fulfills it, and Hodge, Haldane, Murray and Moo read the verse in a similar way. Augustine read 2:13 to mean that God's justifying makes people doers of the law, not that their doing earns it. Schreiner argues that the doers are those whose obedience comes from the Spirit and is acknowledged at the judgment. Snodgrass argues that the passage is not hypothetical.
Leave both readings standing. The firm boundary is the one both share: works never form part of the ground of the verdict of justification.
Who are the Gentiles of 2:14–15, who “do by nature what the law requires”? Gentiles in general, Gentile Christians, or a supposed case? Compare Jer 31:33 with Rom 2:15. Why does it matter that Paul says “the work of the law,” and that their thoughts are “accusing or defending them”?
Rom 2:16 has no main verb of its own. Which earlier statement does it complete: 2:15, 2:13, or 2:12? What does it mean that God will judge people's “secrets,” and that he will do it “through Christ Jesus”?
application · 2
Paul says that those who judge others “do the same things” (2:1). Where are you quick to condemn in others what you excuse in yourself? How should knowing that God's judgment “is based on truth” (2:2) change the way you examine yourself before you judge anyone else?
Have you ever taken God's patience as permission to keep sinning? Romans 2:4 says his kindness “leads you to repentance.” What would turning from a specific sin look like for you this week, and how does God's kindness make that turn possible?
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