Monday, April 17, 2017

Religious vs. Righteous - Romans 2:12-16

When I was coming up in high school I had two sets of friends. My high school friends and my church friends. I did not differentiate the bunch for any other reason other than my school was relatively far away from my church, meaning that those I went to class with were distant from where our family served. That said, if we were to mix the two groups up and put them in a line up with a brief description of each, I’m sure you would have a hard time differentiating which friends were from which place. Most of my friends (from both places) had excellent families, parents were married, good jobs, excellent citizens, morally upright, involved in the community, helpful, kind, etc. Though, to be sure, not all of my church friends may have been saved and not all of the school friends may have been lost, it proved difficult for me not to assume that people knew Jesus the way I did. After all, they looked the part and, in many cases, acted the part also.



This phenomenon never ceases to amaze me, event to this day. In my many interactions around town and at the hospital I am often struck by how “good” some people behave and yet, after some digging, how lost and in desperate need of Jesus they really are. How does this happen? Thankfully, Paul provides an explanation in Romans 2:12-16. In this passage Paul answers three questions that describe the culpability of the lost—even those of a religious and relatively moral sort.

1) How is one Lost?-2:12

In the brave new world in which Paul was writing, there were several different kinds of lost people: the irreligious (those who were lost and couldn’t care less), the religious Gentile (those who tried their best to be morally upright), and the Jew (those who had been given and sought to follow the Law of God). Paul seeks to address each of these groups in a systematic way in order to demonstrate a crucial truth concerning the Gospel—that all are in desperate need of what only Jesus can give. In Romans 1 (particularly, vv. 18-32), Paul uncovers the culpability of the irreligious lost. Though these were given the truth of God in creation, these suppressed the truth and were handed over to their sins. In Romans 2:1-16, Paul describes the culpability of the religious Gentile—that is the merely religious. Devoid of a real relationship with God, Paul makes the case that it does not matter how religious one is, God will judge the religious by the same standard that the religious often judge others! We pick things up in vv.12-16 as Paul is demonstrating how religious Gentiles are culpable before God.

To this end, Paul answers the following question: “How does one become lost?” To this inquiry Paul gives a twofold answer. First, Paul deals with those without the Law (again, religious Gentiles)—“…For all who have sinned without the Law will also perish without the Law,…” (2:12a). Here, Paul suggests that sinners are guilty whether they have a formalized law or not!

Though my wife and I have laid out rules for our children, there are certain things that they do that fall outside the scope of what has been specified or formally articulated. That said, when they discover new “activities” (not yet specified in the house rules that my wife and I are building) that are either dangerous and/or annoying, they are disciplined, regardless of there being a “law” yet present. Why? Hesitation and a second glance gives them away every time. Some things do not need to be written out and children are far more sophisticated morally than many given them credit for. You have heard it said, “If a tree falls in a forest and there is no one around to hear it, does make a sound?” Paul here is asking and answering a similar question. “if, say, an atheist steals his brother’s wife in a third world country, having never seen a Bible or having never heard a law against the matter, did he really sin?” Paul says that the answer is a resounding “Yes!”  Not only did the man in question sin, according to this passage he will be held accountable for his sin.

However, inasmuch as “there is no partiality with God,” those who sin under the Law will also be judged—“and all who have sinned under the Law will be judged by the Law” (2:12b). In other words, for those who have a sophisticated set of rules that guide righteous living, disobeying the law lands them in the same trouble as those who sin without such a law. These will be judged by the law—that is evaluated and condemned for their transgressions.

Going back to the previous example, when my children disobey rules that have been articulate, they are in trouble—they have heard the law and have disobeyed it. It is not only the act that renders them culpable, but their transgression of the law that has been made explicit. Similarly, if our third world atheist is made aware of the law against adultery and then commits it, he is now guilty in light of the law.

Therefore, as far as gentile culpability is concerned, for Paul, it doesn’t matter if they have a codified set of ordinances or not, they are guilty—just as guilty as those with a law (namely, the Jews). Jew and moral Gentile alike are guilty of sin—Gentiles without a law and Jews with one. The sin of both groups are just as lost as those Paul discussed in Romans 1:18-32. The answer to Paul’s first question—“How does one become lost?”—is simple: they sin (with or without a law present).

2) How is one Justified?-2:13

In a quick shift, Paul moves to answer an equally important question in verse 13—“How is one justified?” In answering this question, he dispels a nasty rumor that has percolated among the religious for thousands of years. This rumor takes on many forms but it ultimately be distilled as follows: as long as I know the right stuff, I’m good to go with God. Paul blows this out of the water with the following remarks: “for it is not the hearers of the Law who are just before God” (2:13a). In no uncertain terms, Paul says that hearing the standards of God or being superficially familiar with these standards is not enough to be right with Him.

Too often people in Paul’s day equated information with transformation and familiarity with doctrine with acceptance of a robust gospel. However, hearing something long enough doesn’t necessarily lead to moral maturation nor does learning necessarily equal discipleship.

I could hear all day long that Dr. Pepper is bad for me and yet, unfortunately, I continue to drink it, and do. . .lots of it. Though I’ve been made aware of how much sugar is in Dr. Pepper and know the health risks, simply learning this information has not led to, at least up to this point, any transformation in my life.

Paul’s comment here is directed to the Jews in his audience. Feeling as though they had a special relationship with the God that the Gentiles did not share (because they had been given a law that the Gentiles did not receive), Paul says, just because you have heard what God gave you doesn’t mean you have been transformed by it!

Instead, “the doers of the Law will be justified” (2:13b). Those who actually refrain from drinking too much Dr. Pepper will be healthier. Those who practice what God has said, reveal that they have been transformed by Him and belong to Him.

One must be careful not to misinterpret Paul here. Paul is not saying that people are justified before God because of their works. In fact, notice what he will say in just a few verses:

Romans 3:20-“because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in HIs sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.”

Not only that, but remember what Paul says elsewhere in Ephesians:

Ephesians 2:8-9-“for by grace you are saved through faith and this is not of yourselves; it is a gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast.”

So what is Paul saying when he says “but the doers of the Law will be justified?” Paul is teaching that those who do the Law of God reveal by their doing it that they have not only heard it, they have taken the added step of being transformed by God so that they can obey it. “What the law requires is ultimately neither ceremonial nor moral conformity…but believing obedience, or obedient faith” (Barrett, Romans, 51). “Unless hearing becomes doing, it has no particular benefit.”

James 1:22-25-“but prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the work and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does.”

This applies to Jew and Gentile both. For both groups “passive agreement” does not equal “action.”
However, let’s be fair, how is it that we can really hold people accountable for something when they do not have a law under which they operate?

3) How is this explained for the Gentiles?-2:14-16

Paul reveals how this takes place when he answers the third question we will ask in light of this passage –“How is this (that is guilt and justification) for the Gentiles?” He states “For when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves?” In other words, whenever Gentiles, by natural instinct, did what the Law of God required, they demonstrated the existence of a guiding principle within themselves (Mounce, 94). Caring for the sick, looking out for the less fortunate, keeping from murder and adultery, etc. are all things that both Jews and Gentiles alike are capable of doing irrespective of their knowledge of the formal Law of God.

What gives men and women this capacity? From where does this “instinct” come? The answer lies in the imago Dei. Calvin called it, the sensus divinitatis and we know as the image of God in mankind. Because we are made in God’s image, we cannot help but know something of what is morally right, even as fallen and desperate as we are. Therefore, anytime anyone choose to do good or, on the flipside, chooses to go against what some might call an instinct or his/her conscience, he/she is transgressing this very part of who he/she is, rendering him/her culpable before God.

Paul explains it this way—“in that they show the word of the law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them…” (2:15). Paul is not saying that the Gentiles know the Law that was given to Israel instinctively. Instead, he is saying that “in a broad sense what was expected of all people was not hidden from those who did not have the revelation given to Israel” (Mounce, 95). Some commentators suggest that in the pagan world the conscience acted in roughly the same way as the law behaved for the Jewish community.

Interestingly, in this singular verse, Paul says that three things in the life of a religious Gentile render them culpable before God: 1) the law (written on their hearts), 2) his conscience, and 3) his thoughts. It is that hesitation I see in my children when they do not immediate obey. In them there appears an internal struggle that says “I know what I need to do, but I am choosing whether or not I’m going to do it.” The same happens in those without the law of God. People are far too sophisticated to get out of guilt by claiming that they have not seen the law of God spelled out for them on paper. In the same way my kids are not going to get away with things because I haven’t explicitly told them this or that. Paul says and I concur—they know better!

And because they do, “on the day when, according to my gospel, God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus” (2:16). Many Bible scholars consider vv. 14-15 to be a parenthetical remark (i.e. a brief rabbit trail for emphasis and explanation). That said, Paul picks up the thought of verse 13 (“For it is not he hearers of the Law who are just before God, but the doers of the Law will be justified”) in verse 16 here “on the day when, according to my gospel, God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus.”  

Paul had an intimate connection with Gospel message. In fact, he calls it hear “my gospel” meaning that it was given to him to share by revelation from God. Therefore, Paul knows it backwards and forwards. According to it, God will judge the secrets of all men (Jew and Gentile alike) because, as he has made abundantly clear, all are guilty—even those without a formal law!

So what?

What about this passage could possibly be applied to my life? Consider this a warning. Affiliation with, knowledge of, and even respect for the Law of God, the Word of God, and even the Son of God, is not going to cut it. Paul says here that transformation must take place in the life of an individual—the kind of transformation that turns passive hearers of the Law into active doers. No one is going to be able to say when he/she stands before God that they didn’t know better. Either they have been given a law that explicitly points out their error and need for salvation, or they have a conscience that bears witness to the fact that they are in desperate need of what only Jesus can satisfy.

My heart breaks for this nation in general and our community in particular as so many I come into contact are like the ones spoken of in this passage—merely religious. They know just enough to feel safe, do just enough to fit in, and appear good enough to fool those around them and themselves that they are without fault. The problem is, the little they do know renders them just as guilty before God as anyone else and, by proxy, in desperate need of Jesus. Perhaps this is why Jesus has brought us here to South Roanoke and left us here. Perhaps this is why Jesus showed us our need and saw fit to transform our lives from passive hearers to active doers—so that we might take this message to those who feel safe but are anything but.


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