Lesson 6 - Romans 2

[Music] [Music] I think it's fair to say that in Bible study context is everything although you wouldn't think so sometimes so before we open chapter two of Romans let me say something I probably should have said a few times about chapter one chapter one was primarily although not exclusively speaking to Gentiles it was speaking mostly to people who were not familiar with Hebrew culture and thus things like sexual perversion which was generally accepted as normal in the Gentile world even though it was traditionally rejected by the Jewish world these things were being addressed by Paul now remember that this letter when I repeat myself on this several times until the impact really starts to get you this letter was meant for the believing congregations of Rome this was not an open letter to the citizens of Rome these believing congregations of Rome were a mix of Jews and Gentiles and so the serious sins that Paul was so strenuously and sternly teaching against were not hypothetical he saw them as a threat to the believing community of Rome apparently he had received word that some believers living in Rome were directly involved to some degree or another in these sinful behaviors and he responded with what we know today as the book of Romans well how could believers engage in such sins and think it's all right you know it's a fact of life that we all view the world through the lens of our culture customs and habits that are accepted as long-held norms are rarely re-examined to see if they're right or good in God's eyes for example in France much to my surprise when we went there it's customary for women to go topless at the beach now of course this is utterly shocking it's it's it's it's unacceptable to most of the rest of the world and in most places it could lead to arrests for public nudity in Islamic nations it would bring the death penalty but the vast majority of these same French women who would go topless at the beach would never think to do so anywhere else if they're churchgoers they would dress modestly for a Sunday service and the congregation would find nothing in congruent or hypocritical with their faith if the day before at the beach they were spotted wearing nothing more than a tiny bikini bottom see in Rome in Paul's day sexual immorality homosexuality in specific was so rampant that the average Gentile Roman thought nothing of it and so average Gentile believers didn't factor that into their faith because it was just embedded in their culture thus in Romans chapter 1 Paul was addressing primarily the Gentile believers of the city of Rome as it applied to sexual perversion although not everything is he said applied only to Gentile cultural norms now chapter 2 well that switches gears on us and primarily addresses the believing Jews of the city of Rome now I'm going to repeat that the book of Romans is not addressed to Roman citizens of the Roman Empire in general it rather to the believers in the city of Rome now certainly in its principles can be applied as universal but as was Paul's custom all of his letters dealt with specific issues that he perceived as needing to be addressed by the specific congregation he was writing to the unusually long length of the letter to the Romans tells us that Paul had a lot to say to that Roman congregation probably because he thought there were many issues that needed to be addressed however this also had at least as much to do with the fact he had never been to Rome and the believing congregations there had been founded by others so he wasn't the one who had selected their leadership he wasn't the one who had instilled what he felt was proper doctrine so he was trying to do so from far away by sending them this letter so let's read Romans chapter two together open your Bibles to Romans chapter two if you have a complete Jewish Bible it's page 1403 Romans the second chapter follow along with me please therefore you have no excuse whoever you are passing judgment for when you judge someone else you're passing judgment against yourself since you who are judging you do the same things he does we know that God's judgment lands and partially on those who do such things do you think that you a mere man passing judgment on others who do such things yet doing them yourself will escape the judgment of God or perhaps you despise the riches of his kindness forbearance and patience because you don't realize that God's kindness is intended to lead you to turn from your sins by your stubbornness by your unrepentant heart you are storing up anger for yourself on the day of anger when God's righteous judgment will be revealed for he will pay back each one according to his deeds under those who seek glory and honor and immortality by perseverance and doing good he will pay back eternal life but to those who are self-seeking and who disobeyed the truth and obey evil he will pay back with wrath and anger yes he will pay back misery and anguish to every human being who does evil to the Jew first then to the Gentile but glory and honour and Shalom to everyone who keeps doing what's good to the Jew first then to the Gentile for God does not show favoritism all who have sinned outside the framework of Torah will die outside the framework of Torah all who have sinned within the framework of Torah will be judged by Torah for it is not merely the hearers of Torah whom God considers righteous rather it's the doers of what Torah says who will be made righteous in God's sight for whatever Gentiles who have no Torah do naturally what the Torah requires than these even though they don't have Torah for themselves our Torah for their lives shows the conduct the Torah dictates is written in their hearts their conscience is also bear witness to this for their conflicting thoughts sometimes accused them sometimes defend them on a day when God passes judgment on people's inmost secrets according to the good news as I proclaim it he does this through the Messiah Yeshua but if you call yourself a Jew and you rest on tour and you boast about God and you know his will and give your approval to what's right because you've been instructed from the Torah and if you are persuaded yourself that you are a guide to the blind your light and the darkness and instructor of the spiritually unaware on teacher of children since in the Torah you have the embodiment of knowledge and truth then you who teach others don't you teach yourself preaching thou shalt not steal do you steal saying thou shalt not commit adultery do you commit adultery detesting idols do you committed ultras acts you take such pride in Torah do you by disobeying the Torah dishonor God as it says in the Tanakh for it is because of you that God's name is blasphemy by the Gentiles for circumcision is indeed a value if you do what Torah says but if you're a transgressor of Torah your circumcision become uncircumcision therefore if an uncircumcised man keeps the righteous requirements of the Torah won't his uncircumcision be counted his circumcision indeed the man who is physically uncircumcised but Abbes the Torah will stand as a judgment on you who've had abrete Malad circumcision ceremony and have poor written out what you violated for the real Jew is not merely Jewish outwardly true circumcision is not only external and physical on the contrary the real Jew is one inwardly and true circumcision is of the heart it's spiritual not literal so that his praise comes not from other people but from God and Romans chapter 2 Paul uses a well recognized literary style prevalent in his era called diatribe the author of the book of James by the way uses diatribe as well now in diatribe a straw man is created that is an imaginary dialogue with an opponent maybe even a student of yours is set forth now a line of arguments presented and then emphatic rejections of possible disagreements with what that line of argument incorporates is forcefully responded to diatribes are usually frank and passionate with no room for tolerance or compromise in other words Paul is not talking to he's not debating with any particular individual because he doesn't seem to know any of the believers in Rome Paul doesn't refer to any congregation member by name rather he's sort of creating some conversation partners and then he's rebuking them for their beliefs or their behavior the bottom line is in Romans chapter 2 the Paul says that Jews sin too and simply being Jews doesn't give them a pass in God's eyes therefore they're going to face judgment just as do Gentiles now let me repeat something critical for our understanding so that we understand exactly who his conversation partners are Paul assumes he's speaking to Jewish and Gentile believers in his letter to the Romans speaking to us verse one accuses the believing Jews of Rome of passing judgment on the behavior of the believing Gentiles of Rome and he says when they do this they're essentially passing judgment on themselves because they commit the same sins the argument is really about why God's wrath should fall on all people without exception in Chapter 1 Paul explained the Gentiles have no excuse for their sin because natural law that is what can be seen from Crete Asian itself what's known innately within all mankind sets down the basic commandments of God for all people and especially for the vast majority of people who have no knowledge of the Torah but as concerns Jews which is the primary subject of chapter 2 Paul explains that they also have no excuse for their sins because not only do they have the natural law they also have God's Torah then they violate it Paul back set this line of thought in verse 2 by saying that God's judgment lands impartially on all human beings who do wrong things now I want to caution you right now those of you who have been taught perhaps continue to insist that works have nothing to do with your redeemed life are in for a shock because we're going to do what we always do we're going to let holy scripture speak for itself we're not going to try to twist it around or find a way around it this entire chapter is much about works and deeds and their pivotal role and how God will judge you and judge me and judge everyone I'm going to say this again and again and again Paul is speaking only to believers he is not addressing the general public of Rome nor his his diatribe even against pagans are non-believers no where is he warning non-believers this is not an evangelistic message rather he's speaking to both Gentile and Jewish believers making clear exactly where the Apostle John plainly speaks and first John chapter 3 in verse 4 everyone who keeps sinning is violating the Torah indeed sin is violation of the Torah Paul is telling us that sin is sin in the sense that it doesn't very individual to individual it doesn't vary based on whether one is a Jew or a Gentile further there is only one divine law even if God has given it to humanity in a couple of different forms the natural laws one form the law of Moses is it the other form even so the requirements of the natural law are no different from the requirements of the law of Moses they express the same ideals the same principles of the same God the difference between them is that the natural law is more general and it's not written down while the law of Moses is much more nuanced and specific and it is written down think of it like this a kindergartener first grader perhaps is taught to read in only the most basic fashion they learn a few words using the simplest words to form a extremely limited sentences about things that a five or six year old can relate to and their children's world but in the adult world reading consists of a larger vocabulary using many difficult world words sentences are complex too full of new nuances and variations yet the words and the meaning of those individual words and sentences the kindergartner learns to read don't amount to meaning something different from what an adult reads the don't words don't change your overturn the meaning of the same words that the five-year-old reads it's the same sort of relationship between the natural law and the Torah the former is the Reader's Digest version of the latter and Paul is going to flesh this reality out for us over the next several verses so at the end of verse three paul asks his jewish strawman a question that is actually an indictment do you think because you throw the spotlight onto the sins of gentiles that somehow the very same sins you commit are excused by God or that if a Gentile commits the sin and a Jew commits the same sin that God will punish the Gentile but not punish the Jew let's not overlook a very basic principle that Paul and Judaism believed one I think modern day believers often forget God rewards our good deeds and he punishes our bad deeds or God blesses our good works and he judges our wronged works or aren't lack of works that does not end when we become saved but let's not miss the precise point that's being made here by Paul God is the judge and we're not ironically for us to judge someone who commits the same sins we commit brings judgment on us it doesn't matter if it's a Jew judging a Gentile a Gentile judging a Jew a Jew judging a Jew a Gentile judging a Gentile when Paul is standing on what Paul standing on is this fundamental Jewish understanding of the biblical principle of measure for measure proportional justice measure for measure no one is special enough to hold themselves outside of humanity expecting preferential treatment from the Lord no one now verse 4 essentially repeats to Jews the same warning Paul gave to the Gentiles in chapter 1 verse 21 it is that to sin and then believe one can find a way to avoid judgment is to show contempt for God's mercy when Paul speaks of forbearance and kindness and patience he is saying that God and his loving-kindness often with holds immediate judgment in hopes that the center will repent the thought Paul is getting at is that perhaps a believer does something wrong but nothing bad happens to him in the days following so he says to him or herself I knew it I'm okay God loves me so much that even what I do wrong he won't do anything to me so I can just relax I can know that doing a wrong thing here and there that's not going to cause me any problems see this kind of an attitude is not only an affront to God's character of loving-kindness it is the point of why it is that God typically doesn't immediately punish his purpose is not to overlook sin but rather that perhaps the sinner will come to realize his or her sin and change their mind his hope is that the sinner will notice this great mercy that God has shown him and we'll take this opportunity to turn from that sin if nothing else as an expression of gratitude to God for not being so quick to punish the wrong kind of attitude assumes that either God is weak or that he is a kindly grandfather who just can't bring himself to punish his grandchildren he just winks at sin see this is a truly dangerous sense of false security and while this principle this principle applies equally to both Jew and Gentile Paul is currently aiming this mostly at the Jews for a very good reason it was commonly held within second temple Judaism that merely being a Jew granted you a get-out-of-jail-free card it reflected the belief that while Gentiles were inherently evil in God's eyes Jews were inherently good it exposed a mindset among Jews that they were privileged and operated by a different set of rules than Gentiles being a Jew meant generally speaking immunization against God's wrath Paul is trying to dispel this mistaken belief among Jews and apparently the believing Jews of Rome must have felt exactly the same as their non believing brethren otherwise Paul had no reason discussed this matter at such length when verse six we see that Paul has Psalm 62 in mind such that he quotes the last few words of Psalm 62 verse 13 he God will pay back each one according to his deeds now let's look at the words of Psalm 62 that precedes this Psalm 62 verses 11 through 12 do not put your trust in extortion don't put false hopes in a robbery even if your wealth increases don't set your heart on it God has spoken once I've heard it twice strength belongs to God also to you odd and I belongs grace for you reward all as their deeds deserve a day is coming since says Paul when God's pent up anger against you for your sins will manifest those with an unrepentant heart are in for a pretty big surprise it turns out that whatever they counted on to keep them safe from God's wrath was a false hope there is no safety from God for your sins when you refuse to repent once again Paul is addressing believers not pagans your salvation is a mirage since Paul if you do not have a repentant heart your salvation is a millstone around your neck if you think you can go right on sinning contemptuously as before you're supposed redemption because it will not deliver you from God's wrath Hebrews 10 26 and 27 for if we deliberately continue to sin after receiving the knowledge of the truth there no longer a sacrifice for sins but only the terrifying prospect of judgment rather says Paul echoing Psalm 62 each person will be paid back according to their deeds oh I mean how can this be it's the standard kit Christian doctrine that once we've prayed the sinner's prayer henceforth our deeds count for nothing fact even good deeds can be a bad thing because works are for Jews not for Christians I mean certainly this can't be but then comes Romans 2 verse 7 to those who seek glory honor and immortality by perseverance in doing good he will pay back with eternal life I mean what believers who seek eternal life by doing good God will pay back with eternal life let's put that in the proper context for the passage we're in for those who seek eternal life by doing good deeds God will reward them with the eternal life that they seek now listen to me doing is not the belief in an ideal doing is not merely possessing a good intent neither are doing and faith synonymous terms and doing is especially about not about any warm fuzzy feeling in our hearts doing is a verb it involves tangible action it is usually about our behavior doing can only be about a deed or a work which is exactly what Paul is literally saying needless to say these passages about doing and works and deeds have caused great heartburn especially among the evangelical denominations because it sounds as though it's a direct Pew d--ation of Paul's other statements that salvation is by grace and grace alone listen to Ephesians 2 verses 8 9 for you have been delivered by grace through trusting and even this is not of your accomplishment but it's God's gift you are not delivered by your own actions therefore no one should boast so what are we to think how are we to deal with this conundrum in Romans chapter 2 Paul is clearly focused on our works and deeds as playing a big role in our salvation yet in Ephesians he seems to be contradicting himself and we're going to talk about that a little more in just a bit but one thing is clear there's only two possible outcomes for every human being as they stand before God to be judged we will either receive eternal life or her will receive God's wrath there is no middle ground there is no third option and as Paul is making abundantly clear this reality applies to all humans Gentile or Jew and verse 9 gives us a clue as to where Paul's going with this line of thought because there he highlights disobedience to the truth as what it is that brings on God's righteous wrath then he goes on further he says as regards laughs because of our disobedience it is to the Jew first then to the Gentile what this means to us and our modern English vocabulary is to the Jews especially and there is a reason for this as God's chosen people they bear a greater responsibility to God to obey Him Jew get a priority the holy scripture makes it clear Jews get a priority when it comes to blessings therefore in measure for measure they also get a kind of greater priority for wrath but Gentiles are still liable as well so you know this brings up another issue since it is disobedience that brings on God's wrath and obedience brings the same negative consequences to either Jew or Gentile then what is this disobedience in reference to disobedience to what I mean are we to think that the Jews are to be obedient to one thing Gentiles are to be a obedient to something else because if that's the case then sin for a Jew is fundamentally different than sin for a Gentile folks I hate to tell you this but a goodly portion of Christianity says yeah yeah that's right sin is different for a Jew than it is for a Gentile a Jew is to obey the law of Moses Gentiles are to be the law of love in fact it is thought by much of Christianity that for a Gentile Christian to obey the law of Moses is itself sin even more common refrain among Christians is what is sin for me isn't necessarily sin for you or whatever the Holy Spirit tells me as sin is only sin for me whatever the Holy Spirit tells you a sin is only sin for you so the idea is there is no standard for sin any longer since Christ has come sin has been fully customized individual by individual kind of a Burger King approach have it your way now if that's the case that our God has set a double standard one for the Jews different one for the Gentiles one law offered Jews another law for Gentiles maybe even a different and unique standard of sin for every single Gentile believer numbers 15 verses 15 and 16 for in this community there will be the same law for you as for the foreign or living with you this is to be a permanent regulation throughout all your generations the foreigner is to be treated the same way before God as yourselves the same Torah same standard of judgment will apply both to you and to the foreigner living with you a foreigner means a Gentile and this passage is emphatic that there is but one law one regulation for everybody Jew and Gentile James 4:12 there is but one giver of the Torah he is also the judge with the power to deliver and destroy why do you think you are who do you think you are judging your fellow human being so we learn from Holy Scripture that there is one law one judge one lawgiver therefore disobedience can only mean disobedience to the same law since there's only one and Gentiles and Jews are beholden to the same judge who judges us under the same standard because there's only one judge and so there's only one standard that's not so hard what do we do then with Paul's declaration the good deeds lead to eternal life bad deeds leads to God's wrath Paul is not claiming that salvation happens by good deeds rather it is that good deeds are the obvious expected outward fruit of salvation if good deeds are not president then it completely defies a person's claim to a salvation but even more judgment is part of the future for all people saved or not we are all going to be judged by our deeds in the end listen yet again to Matthew 5:17 through 19 yet I have this one memorized by now don't think I've come to abolish the Torah or the prophets I've come not to abolish but to complete yes indeed I tell you that to hell heaven and earth passes away not so much as the utero a stroke is going to pass from the Torah not until everything that has happened that must happen has happened so whoever disobeys the least of these Commandments and they teach others to do so will be called the least in the kingdom of heaven but whoever obeys ease them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven so here we see that one is woven together what Paul says of what Christ says gives us a better picture of the place of obedience and works and deeds and the lives of believers I'm gonna say it again Paul is talking only to believers everything he has to say about the importance of works and deeds as it applies to our coming judgment before God he is saying it only to believers so indeed salvation by grace makes us a member of the kingdom of heaven but thereafter our obedience to God's Torah Commandments the law of Moses has a substantial determination at judgment on God's determination of our level of status in the kingdom of heaven apparently a status that shall remain unchanged for an eternity I've never seen anything that said otherwise I don't think we get a second bite that Apple in a sense the salvation granted by God for the person who trusts in his son Yeshua is taken into account at the time of judgment when our deeds are weighed our salvation grants us membership in his kingdom of heaven however it's our works it's our deeds that happen during our lifetimes that confirm our actual level of faith and trust in God and therefore measure for measure that level of faith and trust will determine our level of status within the kingdom of heaven 2nd Corinthians 5:9 through 10 therefore whether at home or away from home we must try our utmost to please him for we must all here before the messiah's court of judgment where everyone will receive the good or bad consequences of what he did while he was in the body Paul makes it clear in his second letter to the Corinthians that everyone will appear for judgment in front of Messiah our Lord and what is it that we will be judged upon what is it Paul says it's upon what we did while we were in the body while we were alive and yet there is another aspect of good deeds versus bad deeds of obedience versus disobedience it is as Paul explained in Romans chapter 1 that when we don't know God that's always because we don't want to and God has therefore abandon us to our sins into our lusts when we adopt lifestyles of sexual perversion and greed and dishonesty and a whole laundry list of other vices these wrong behaviors are the outward proof of our inward condition and that is regardless of what we may claim or even think of ourselves that is claiming that we're believers while at the same time being disobedient and knowingly doing evil things the fruits of our wickedness reveal who we really are so while we can't merit our deliverance and redemption by our good deeds it's by grace alone nor necessarily be refused for our past deeds if we've repented and changed if we're accepted into the kingdom by means of our faith and trust in Yeshua that our status before God after our death will be judged solely by our deeds while we were still alive says Paul folks these lives matter your life matters what we do matters in fact our deeds of Works matter infinitely more after we're saved than before that's when the rubber really hits the road so if you are allergic to the Bible fact that your works and deeds are critically important in your relationship with God and that will be to your dying dying breath therefore into eternity and you need to get over it in a hurry sadly most of the time worshippers of God think this way it's because some pretty bad doctrine has been taught and a number of our mostly evangelical denominations doctrines that simply defy the holy scripture verse 3 rep 3 verse 13 of chapter 2 of Romans continues with this same theme of doing there it says for it is not merely the hearers of Torah whom God considers righteous rather it's the doers of what Torah says who will be made righteous in God's sight Paul is primarily talking to Jews believing Jews so Paul continues to demonstrate that he thinks the Torah must be continued to be observed at the same time Paul's also making it clear to Jews that just because they listened to the Torah doesn't mean that they will do the Torah God is not impressed with career students he's impressed with career doers but before Paul says this let's back up one verse to verse 12 here he says something that can be pretty confusing to the casual reader when Paul speaks of those operating he says without the Torah he's speaking of Gentiles in the sense that it wasn't the Gentiles who received the Torah from God therefore when he refers to those operating within the Torah he's referring to Hebrews Jews because God gave the Torah to them through Moses at Mount Sinai so Paul is not thinking of the Gentiles in terms of being lawless not as Gentiles as being outlaws and thugs rather it is that the law of Moses the Torah which makes the Jews who they are this is what defines Jews this is their identity this is what sets them apart as God's people so the distinction between Gentiles and Jews to Paul is that the Jews live within the sphere of the law Gentiles live outside of it he is saying this those who sin outside of the sphere of the law Gentiles will perish just as those who sin inside the sphere of the law Jews who will be judged by that law now remember Paul has already explained that the natural law that Gentiles follow is essentially the same is the law of Moses that the Jews follow so the sin of Gentiles will be judged according to the natural law and the sin of Jews will be judged according to the law of Moses the standard of judgment and the outcomes for both people groups therefore is the same so back to verse 13 it is because of this logic then that Paul can say that even those who live according to the law of Moses the Jews will nevertheless be condemned by the law when they sin and since we have carefully studied the Torah the law here at seed of Abraham Torah class then we know what that means the law of Moses not only defines behavior in a nuanced and extensive way it also lays out the penalties for violation of these defined behaviors these penalties are called the curses of the law they vary from restitution for stealing all the way up to the loss of life for kidnapping and murder and other things Paul expands on this line of thought in verse 14 as it applies now to Gentiles he says that when Gentiles who don't have the law of Moses nonetheless follow the spirit and the principles of the law then they themselves he says are wrong or are the law again this means that they are following the natural law which is just a general version of the law of Moses being themselves a law simply means that the laws within them it's made part of them the law I mean the natural law is contained in their innate sense our innate sense right and wrong this is something all humans have in common then we get a familiar promise from a distant past in verse 15 Paul says that the lives of these Gentile believers demonstrate outwardly the behaviors that the law of Moses demands and this is because the desire to do what is right before God that is the desire and the knowledge to follow God's laws is written on their hearts where we heard this Fayette phrase written on their hearts as regards the law before Jeremiah 31 verses 30 to 33 here the days are coming says Adonai when I'll make a new covenant with the house of Israel in the house of Judah it will not be like the Covenant I made with their fathers on the day I took them by their hand and brought them out of the land of Egypt because they for their part violated my covenant even though I for my part was a husband to them it says that an eye for this is the Covenant I'll make with the house of Israel after those days that and I'll put my Torah within them and write it on their hearts I'll be their God they'll be my people Jews have the natural law written on their hearts since even though they are set apart from Gentiles yet they obviously remain part of humanity in general so since the natural law is written on every human beings heart since the days of Adam and Eve then why and Jeremiah do we find that the law will at some point be written on the hearts of the houses of Israel and Judah as a sign of a new covenant with God because the law of Moses which was given to Israel on stone tablets something external to them will eventually be given to Israel in their hearts will it be entirely a different law than the Mosaic law or the natural law which itself is nothing more or less than a condensed version of the law of Moses no it is as david stern's the author of the complete Jewish Bible says God will put the Torah the law of Moses and to Israel's heart because it is fully compatible with the natural law that's already in Israel's heart in fact it is the completed pora that will be written on their hearts just as Yeshua said what he did not come to abolish but he came to what complete the Torah he'll continue with Romans chapter 2 next week [Music] you

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Length: 50min 56sec (3056 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 20 2018