Back to the course: Gospel in Romans
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📖 Memory verse: “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, then to the Greek.” (Romans 1:16)
📄 Read the words of this video
Welcome back. In chapter one, Paul described the pagan world, with its idols and its sins. Some of his readers would have nodded along, thinking: yes, those people are terrible. Respectable people. Religious people. In chapter two, Paul turns to them.
His first point is this: those who think they are better will be condemned. Read Romans chapter two, verses one to three.
You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on another. For on whatever grounds you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. (Romans 2:1, BSB)
You who pass judgement do the same things. Perhaps not the same outward acts. But the same pride, the same greed, the same lust, in a more respectable form. And when we judge someone else, we show that we know the standard. So we condemn ourselves. For every finger we point at someone else, three point back at ourselves.
Think of King David. He had taken another man's wife, and had the man killed. The prophet Nathan came and told him a story about a rich man who stole a poor man's only lamb. David burned with anger, and said: the man who did this deserves to die. And Nathan said to him: ‘You are that man!’ David had condemned himself out of his own mouth.
And notice who David was: the king, the man with the greatest privileges in Israel. The order of privilege is the order of condemnation. The more we have been given, the more will be asked of us.
Paul's second point: mankind is condemned, whether Jew or Gentile. The Jews had God's moral law, the Ten Commandments, and they disobeyed it. But what about people who never had it? Read Romans chapter two, verses twelve to sixteen.
Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. So they show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts either accusing or defending them… (Romans 2:12–16, BSB)
The work of the law is written on their hearts. Every people on earth, even those who have never seen a Bible, knows that it is wrong to murder, to steal, and to betray. Where does that come from? God has put an inner sense of right in every person. And conscience confirms it, either accusing us or defending us.
So the Jew is condemned for disobeying the written law. And the Gentile is condemned for disobeying the law within. No one has even lived up to their own conscience.
Here, then, is a question many people ask. How acceptable to God is a good-living person, who may not even believe in Him? Paul's answer is that there is no such thing as a person who has always done what they knew to be right. And verse sixteen says that God will judge men's secrets. Not only the life our neighbours see.
Paul's third point: it is not enough to have God's law. God gave the law so that we would see how holy He is, and how far short we fall. What He wants is that people turn from their sins, worship Him, and give Him the first place in their lives. Now he speaks directly to his fellow Jews. Read Romans chapter two, verses seventeen to twenty-nine.
A man is not a Jew because he is one outwardly, nor is circumcision only outward and physical. No, a man is a Jew because he is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a man’s praise does not come from men, but from God. (Romans 2:28–29, BSB)
The Jew taught the law, but did not keep it. Paul asks: you who preach against stealing, do you steal? And the Jew had circumcision, the mark of God's people. But he did not act like one of God's people. A mark on the body is worth nothing, Paul says, if the heart is unchanged.
Now bring that home. Put church membership in the place of the law, and baptism in the place of circumcision. A Christian in name only is just as condemned as the Jew Paul speaks of. A wedding ring does not make a faithful husband. And a Christian name, a Christian family, or a place in church does not make a Christian. What God looks for is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit.
Below this video, you'll find the passages from this part, with a question for each.
Then mark this part as complete and continue with part three.
Both guilty (chapter 2)
1. Those who think they are better will be condemned (2:1–3). They condemn themselves when they judge others and yet do the same things (v. 1). The order of privilege is the order of condemnation: think of how David condemned himself when he judged another (2 Samuel 12:5–7).
📖 Read Romans 2:1–3
What happens when we judge others for the very things we do ourselves?
1You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on another. For on whatever grounds you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. 2And we know that God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth. 3So when you, O man, pass judgment on others, yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment?
Romans 2:1–3 (BSB)
See also: 2 Samuel 12:5–7.
2. Mankind is condemned, whether Jew or Gentile (2:12–16). Jews, by disobeying God's moral law – the Ten Commandments and so on (v. 12). Gentiles, by disobeying an inner sense of right, confirmed by conscience (vv. 14–15).
📖 Read Romans 2:12–16
What do people know in their hearts, even without God's law? Can a good-living person who does not believe in God be right with Him?
12All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law. 13For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but it is the doers of the law who will be declared righteous. 14Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. 15So they show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts either accusing or defending them 16on the day when God will judge men’s secrets through Christ Jesus, as proclaimed by my gospel.
Romans 2:12–16 (BSB)
3. It is not enough to have God's law (2:17–29). The Jew teaches the law but doesn't keep it (vv. 17–24). He has the mark of God's people – circumcision – but doesn't act like one (vv. 25–29).
📖 Read Romans 2:17–29
What was wrong with the Jew Paul speaks of? Why is someone who is a Christian only in name in the same danger?
17Now you, if you call yourself a Jew; if you rely on the law and boast in God; 18if you know His will and approve of what is superior because you are instructed by the law; 19if you are convinced that you are a guide for the blind, a light for those in darkness, 20an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of infants, because you have in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth— 21you, then, who teach others, do you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal? 22You who forbid adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? 23You who boast in the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law? 24As it is written: “God’s name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.” 25Circumcision has value if you observe the law, but if you break the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. 26If a man who is not circumcised keeps the requirements of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? 27The one who is physically uncircumcised yet keeps the law will condemn you who, even though you have the written code and circumcision, are a lawbreaker. 28A man is not a Jew because he is one outwardly, nor is circumcision only outward and physical. 29No, a man is a Jew because he is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a man’s praise does not come from men, but from God.
Romans 2:17–29 (BSB)
Scripture quotations are from the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), which is in the public domain. They keep its American spelling. Like many English Bibles, it often says ‘man’, ‘he’ or ‘brothers’ where it means people in general, men and women alike.