Romans 2:11-16
God doesn’t Play Favorites No Matter What!
So if you didn’t know we are going through the book of Romans. If you haven’t been here or you just forgot here is where we are at up to this point.
Chapter 1: Paul starts of the book with a pretty sizable greeting. In it he really goes into great detail about himself and why he is qualified to write this gospel soaked letter. As he goes into the rest of the chapter he shifts his focus to the gentiles and why the gentiles are completely depraved and hopeless. God’s wrath is ready to be poured out on them as He gives them over to their own lusts and desires aside from God. We, the gentiles, have no excuse and we can not claim ignorance or good deeds because we fall so miserably short of God’s glory and standard of what is righteous.
Chapter 2: Paul turns to address the Jews and their sinfulness. They have no room to boast over the gentiles. They are hypocrites and have no basis to claim any goodness whatsoever. As the gentiles were given over to our idolatry, the Jews are no better off, in fact, are probably worse off because they were God’s chosen people and given the law in written form. They refused time and time again to acknowledge and accept Him as King.
This brings us up to date and leads us right into the next section of the text.
Isn’t it funny how we sit here and think of ourselves as righteous? I like how Pastor Mike put it last Sunday. “We know we aren’t perfect, but we think we are better then the rest of our friends or family or T.V. and movie stars.”
What is it that is inside of us that loves to watch other people fail? I know that Pastor Jake taught about our ingrained hypocrisy when it comes to how we view ourselves and how we view other people.
My wife and I were talking the other day. We both noticed that when you talk to somebody about heaven, the first thing they start talking about is the things that they don’t do which make them good. Our sinful nature gives us perfect vision of sin in everybody else’s lives but when it comes to our own sin, we don’t see too well.
So let’s start reading more of Chapter 2, here Paul unfolds how this thinking gives us no argument in front of God.
Read Romans 2:11
11For God shows no partiality.· So here what we see Paul saying is God shows no favoritism to anybody. Remember in this chapter Paul is specifically dealing with the Jews. The beginning of this chapter Paul lays out the case that Jews have no basis to claim favoritism with God.
· Having a right standing before God has no basis on ethnicity or anything else we are or do.
Example
Read Deuteronomy 10:17
17For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe.
· Our God is the supreme Creator, Ruler and Judge. He is completely sovereign and nothing we do, say or plead to Him with can sway His mind any different. He doesn’t owe anyone anything ever. Especially when it comes to salvation.
Read Romans 2:12
12For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law.
· In v.11, Paul uses that verse to cut off any other argument the Jews would have. Here in this verse, Paul makes his argument even more solid by taking the words out of their argument before they can even use it as a defense. The Jews were going to appeal to the Law of Moses as God showing partiality and favoritism here. The Lord gave the Law to The Jews and not the gentiles so their hypocrisy came from thinking God showed them favoritism and nobody else, as seen as the Law only given to them specifically.
· This is also that is something that includes everybody. The Law reveals God’s hate for sin, but the cause of sin isn’t in the Law, it is the sin that is so deeply rooted in our hearts.
Read Romans 2:13-15
13 For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified. 14For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. 15They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them
· Here Paul goes more in depth on his case that the Jews are not under any sort of favoritism by God through the Law given through Moses.
· The amount of revelation of law by no means shows favor. The Jews were given the Law in written form on stone tablets. The gentiles were given no such thing. What Paul is pointing out here is we are all created in the image of God (Gen 1:26-27) so the law is actually known by everyone (work of the law written on their hearts).
Example
Acts 10:34-35
34So Peter opened his mouth and said: "Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, 35but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.
· For this reason, no one (Jew or Gentile) can claim ignorance and Jews can definitely not claim any sort of partiality to anyone by their ethnicity.
· More importantly, they can not go to God with any sort of argument of ignorance or special privilege.
· One other thing that we see here that is interesting, on the Gentile side of things. We can not in any way claim ignorance in front of God. There is no way that we can be justified by any sort of personal righteousness. Paul points out that there is a universal (Jew and Gentile) presence of a moral standard and a common sense of and obligation to live by these standards which reveal a sense of an accountability to someone or something for a failure to live up to these standards. Essentially, we are accountable to God by our failure to live by this moral law that He has put into motion. Regardless of the amount of this law that has been made clear to us. This again is shown by the conscience.
Read Romans 2:16
16 on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.
· The gospel that Paul is preaching is the bad news of judgment which comes before the good news of grace.
· We also see that it is not the amount of revelation received but the response to the revelation itself that counts on this judgment day before God.
· I really want to focus on the last part of this verse.
Read John 5:22
22 The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son,· What we see here is the authority given to Christ by God the Father.
Read Hebrews 4:13
13And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
· Through Christ, who has all authority, everyone’s heart becomes transparent to Him, our righteous judge. Our thoughts, motives and everything on the inside that no person sees is made clear in the sight of God.
Read Matthew 7:21-23
21 "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?' 23 And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.'
· Just because we claim that we know God, doesn’t mean He actually recognizes us as His. We take comfort and assurance in our actions that we perceive we do in His name in order to merit us on the right side of His righteous judgment.
What does this mean?
What all this boils down to is we have no excuse whatsoever when it comes to our justification to God. Our merits, the things that we claim to do that are good are useless. Whether Jew or Gentile we can’t say either of us is better. The Jew can’t claim favoritism over the Gentiles as God’s chosen people. The Gentiles can’t boast over the Jews that they have messed up and claim ignorance to God because the Law wasn’t given to them as clearly as it was the Jews.
This is the gospel in its greatest form. We are nothing. No one will have any sort of excuse when we stand in front of the Great and Righteous Judge. The gospel message is what saves us; it’s what should encourage us daily, it’s what we should live our life for. There is such power and presence in the gospel message. No other religion has anything like it. Every other religion has some sort of way that you merit yourself to come into the good graces of some sort of god you will give you some sort of utopia.
This is the most ridicules thing. We serve a living and powerful God, Creator and Ruler. We also are so fortunate to have a mediator and Savior who identified with us to save us perfectly.
If there is one thing I want you to take from this message tonight is this. God doesn’t love us and save us because of who we are, but because of who He is! We are saved from God’s wrath purely by the Love, Grace and Mercy of the one true living and all powerful God. There is nothing we can do, think, say, argue, plead that will save us from the condemnation that we so rightly and justly deserve.
