Romans 2:12-16
God will judge without favoritism (v. 11…”for God shows no partiality”). He does not look at the person on the outside, nor judge on the basis of the surface. Partiality is the sin of someone who rules in a person’s favor based on what he can see on the surface. God despises injustice because it is the opposite of His character. Many justice experts have risen in the past decade who have no connection to the Lord and His Word, and apart from the Lord, you can be sure the sin of partiality is at work. Because God is impartial, multitudes of the poor, sick, and destitute have been received into His kingdom. If God were ever to have been partial, it would have been with Lucifer, and yet He rapidly dismissed that wicked one from His presence and His heaven.
And while everyone will be judged by Him, not everyone will be judged on the same basis (v.12). If you don’t have the law, you will be judged as one who didn’t have the law. If you have the law, you will be judged as one who had the law. God is a just God.
Let’s consider those without the law (v.12a). Paul would possibly regard the law as the books of Moses, the prophets, the Psalms. On different occasions the Lord spoke of the Law and the prophets (Matt 5 and 22); Moses and the prophets (Luke 16 and 24); and the Law, the prophets, and the psalms (Luke 24). So these people Paul described do not have the Scriptures, the written Word. This describes the majority of people who have ever lived in the world. Will God judge them? Yes! If they never heard the Word, the gospel are they responsible? Yes! Notice the word “perish”…ruined as to their created purpose. The punishment will be consistent with those who never had the written Scripture. Why punish them? Notice the word “sinned”. All people everywhere sin against God with or without written Scripture. We are guilty and without Christ, people perish. But the greater punishment will be for those who knew the most.
Let’s look at group 2 (v.12b). Those who have the Word will be judged according to the greater light, access, and privileges of having the Scriptures. The strictest punishment is for those who know the most and reject or disregard the Lord. To know the truth and repeatedly turn away from it….that’s a fearful thing. Now Paul, based on his own zealous background, knows the religious type is going to question this. “I’m exempt. I’ve got a Bible. I go to temple, chapel, synagogue, or church all these years. I’m protected.” Paul replies v.13.
Oh my! He sounds like James! Despite attempts to pit those brothers against each other, they were in complete agreement. The law does not protect its hearers from judgment. The more you hear, the deeper the judgment if you disregard Christ. So here is the frustration. You can’t obey the law in your own strength, and that backs you into a corner. God demands perfect obedience, yet we fail over and over. The law is meant to drive us to desperation where we turn to the Lord for mercy and deliverance and strength to do what we otherwise cannot do. Paul answers the religious person’s objection.
A Gentile (pagan) may question this, “we never had the law; how can we be condemned for not obeying?” The Jew says ‘we’re religious, special, chosen….exempt’. God says no. The Gentile says ‘we’re exempt because of ignorance.’ God says no. (v.14-15)
You do not have to have the written law to be responsible and accountable before God. All of us have a law written on our conscience and thoughts. Pagans all over the world do many things written in God’s Word, without ever reading or hearing it. Our conduct proves that everyone has a sense of right and wrong. Pagans pay debts, honor aging parents, care for wives, feed children, believe it’s wrong to kill, help the sick, feed the hungry. A guilty conscience is proof of the law already within you. Everyone is a sinner with a death sentence, yet no one can claim ignorance. Consider this: most people in this country are outside the prisons, right? There is a sense of right and wrong in every person that keeps us from being as bad as we possibly could be…the law of God written within.
“conscience”…knowledge of/with oneself. Inner sense of right and wrong. I remember reading about an aboriginal tribe’s method of determining guilt (a hot blade to the tongue…a guilty conscience causes the mouth to the dry). The conscience bears witness, but it can become seared or scarred and have little feeling. This usually happens when someone repeatedly violates their conscience. Rom 14 and I Cor 8 warn us against violating our conscience; it doesn’t matter if someone else tells us it’s OK. Every time you violate your conscience, you scar it and lose some of its feeling and experience the dulling effect of that sin. The lies of a little kid prove the law written within us.
The testimony of Augustus Marway (born in a tribe in Liberia) is a remarkable statement about the light of creation, the light of conscience, which led him to immediately believe the Lord Jesus Christ the very first time he heard someone preach the light of the world from the Word of God.
v.16 concludes this paragraph. God will judge the secrets, even the motives. He will not only judge our works with impartiality, but also the motives. We can falsify a deed, but we can’t falsify the motive. And everything will come out on the day appointed by God when Christ will judge all of us. Everything we do is for the glory of God or the glory of self.
Key Takeaways:
– To unbelievers, if you continue in sin and unbelief, the Law of God says you are guilty and you cannot escape. The only rescue from the Law’s death penalty is the blood of Jesus Christ. Whoever calls upon His name will be saved!
– To believers, these principles of judgment (knowledge, truth, guilt, deeds, impartiality) reveal God’s character. As followers of Christ, God is conforming us into His image. Our character is being shaped like Christ’s. Therefore, these principles should be at work in our lives. We discern based on truth and facts, not gossip or suspicion. We discern without favoritism based on outward appearances.