Right with God - Romans 2

As you would know, we're in a series called Right With God and we're stepping through those first eight chapters of the Book of Romans. So a book, a letter, rather, written by the Apostle Paul to the church in Rome. And we're building towards answering that question, how are we made right with God? And so Pastor Simon has taken us through those opening verses in chapter one, and this kind of sets the scene. Paul introduces himself, he gives us a summary of the gospel right up front.

He tells us who Jesus is and what he's done for these people. And according to Paul, this is good news that has the power to transform them, anyone who believes in it. And importantly, it tells us how we are made right in God's sight. And so from here onwards, we start to see the reason, I guess you could say the reason, the purpose for which this letter was written. It becomes apparent that the church in Rome is divided.

And Paul has written this letter because he wants them to become unified once again. And so part of that division stems from the fact that this church is made up of lots of people with different backgrounds. In particular, it's made up of both Jewish and non Jewish followers of Jesus. And there's a bit of interesting and important history that goes along with that. At one point, the Roman emperor, at the time Claudius, exiled the Jewish people from Rome.

And then about five years later, the Jewish people were allowed to return. And what happened was this church essentially lost those Jewish followers. And then they returned and they found that the church that they had left had become very different to what they were used to. So in particular, those Jewish customs and those practices that they were used to, the Jewish Christians still performed had been removed. And the Jewish Christians thought that these were actually really important practices and that they were necessary to be a follower of Jesus.

And so what this resulted in was people essentially disagreeing about how to follow Jesus. Things like the Sabbath, eating kosher food, practising circumcision, they were points of debate. And this created a lot of tension. And because of that, the church in Rome was divided. And so Paul, he's written this letter to address that and to reunite these people once again.

And the way he does that is by giving them the fullest explanation of the gospel that he possibly can. This is Paul's fullest explanation of Jesus, life, death and resurrection.

And so this is showing you what Pastor Simon covered last week is chapter one, verses one to 17, that introduction and Gospel summary. And if we pick up from where Simon left off the next section, there is the second half of chapter one. And in this, I'm just going to paraphrase this part for you because I want to get on to chapter two. So in this, Paul, he essentially just outlines the dire state that the world is in. Everyone in the world is trapped in sin and needs to be rescued.

And interestingly, this part of the letter, it's a creative retelling of Genesis, chapters 3 to 11. So think about the fall. Think about Cain and Abel, the stories about the Flood, the Tower of Babel. All of those stories are summarized here, really. And they all have something in common.

They're showing time and time again how people have rebelled and turned away from God and they've chosen to embrace idolatry. And so they're essentially given their allegiance to and chosen to worship things that are not God. So that they made idols. They sought after their own desires, they even found significance in created things. And so Paul outlines in this section of the letter how this results in destructive behavior and actually a distortion of.

Of what it means to be human. And so it creates a world where there is injustice, where injustice can thrive. And what's left is a humanity that stands guilty before a just and righteous God. And so Paul is making this point that the human heart, the human mind, it's broken. It's broken.

And humankind is trapped in this downward spiral of sin and selfishness and the need to be rescued. And at this point, you can kind of imagine those Jewish Christians who this letter is written to. They're reading this, and they're probably agreeing wholeheartedly to it. They're saying, yes, the world is in a dire state. You know, those people, they don't know God.

They're. They're sinful. They stand guilty before Him. Thank goodness we're not those people. You know, thank goodness we have the laws of the Torah.

Thank goodness, you know, God saved us up out of Egypt. And now we do things like observe the Sabbath, we practice circumcision, we eat kosher food. And because we do those things, we've proven that we are God's holy people. And Paul's response to that is, not so fast.

And so this is where we pick up again. We're in Romans, chapter two. We're going to step through a few of the verses, starting with verse one. This is Paul's response. He says, you may think you can condemn such people, but you are just as bad and you have no excuse.

When you say they are wicked and should be punished, you are condemning yourself. For you who judge others do these very same things. And so as we get into chapter two here, Paul is, he's primarily speaking to those Jewish Christians and he's calling out their hypocrisy. So Paul says to them, you are just as bad as the rest of the world who are stuck in sin and need to be rescued. And you get the sense here that the Jewish Christians, they were claiming that they had the morally high ground, that they were pointing their fingers at the rest of the world and even those other non Jewish Christians within their church and just calling out their faults.

All right? But the problem is that according to Paul, they're doing those very same things. He goes on to say this, and we know that God in his justice will punish anyone who does such things. Since you judge others for, for doing these things, why do you think you can avoid God's judgment when you do the same things? So he's saying every time you criticize someone else, you're condemning yourself because you're not living up to the standard that you yourself claim to hold to.

So he's highlighting here a problem that they have, that they themselves, rather highlighting other people's faults and using that way, using that as a method to divert attention away from themselves and their own faults. But Paul is reminding them here, he's saying God is not so easily fooled. You can't divert God's attention away. God sees actually the reality of the situation and his judgment reflects that too. So his judgment is based on the reality of the situation.

And so this is really a call for these people to become more self aware, isn't it? To spend some time analyzing their own hearts, their own motivations for the things that they do and do that before they start calling out other people. Paul goes on to say this. Don't you see how wonderfully kind, tolerant and patient God is with you? Does this mean nothing to you?

Can't you see that his kindness is intended to turn you from your sin? That's, I think, an interesting point for Paul to raise in the middle of this section. It seems that some of these people were thinking they could actually act how they wanted because they knew that God was kind, tolerant and patient towards people. And they have taken that to mean that God would give them special favour, that actually he'd be lenient with them, but not lenient with the rest of the world. And that despite their failures, that God in his kindness would say, don't worry about it.

As long as you're sticking to those traditions that I've given you, don't worry about it. But Paul Says, actually God's kindness is intended to turn you from your sin. So God does two things, I think, out of kindness. The first is that he reveals our sin to us. And the second is that he gives us a way to deal with that.

And so God is not content to leave us in the state that we're in. And he starts by revealing the true source of the problems in our lives. And so he reveals the destructive behaviors that we engage in, the injustice that we contribute to our selfish desires, all of it. Out of kindness, he shows us clearly where the problem lies in our hearts, in our minds. Also out of kindness, God gives us a way to deal with that.

God invites us to lay everything down at his feet, to come to him with our failures, knowing that actually he will respond to that with kindness and with grace. And so that means that we can come to him with anything. And that's part of what transforms us. And so Paul says that kindness, God's kindness, it's intended to turn us from our sins, not keep us in it.

In verse five, he says this. But because you are stubborn and refuse to turn from your sin, you are storing up terrible punishment for yourself. For a day of anger is coming when God's righteous judgment will be revealed. So God is kind, but he's also just. Paul says, don't mistake that kindness for thinking that anything goes.

If you go on this unrepentance, if you're living as if you have no need to be forgiven, not making that effort to turn away from your failures, then you're going to end up being judged for it. And he says, the way that we will be judged is like this.

God will judge everyone according to what they have done. He will give eternal life to those who keep on doing good, seeking after the glory and honor and immortality that God offers. But he will pour out his anger and wrath on those who live for themselves, who refuse to obey the truth and instead live lives of wickedness. So God's judgment, it's based on what we have done in this life, the kind of person we've been, the things we've sought after, the actions that we've taken. Those things, they reveal something about us.

They reveal where our know true desires lie. They reveal where our identity comes from. And Paul says our actions will reveal whether we fit into these two broad categories. So he says, either people will be living for God or they'll be living for themselves. And he contrasts those two motivations by highlighting two different results.

The first leads to eternal life, and the second leads to God. Pouring out his anger and his wrath. So important to point out here that Paul isn't saying that we're made righteous or that we're saved by our good deeds. I think it's easy to read those verses and misinterpret them in that way. Paul isn't saying we're saved by our good deeds.

The point he's making here is that for those who claim to be followers of Jesus, there should be something different about the way you behave. It's as simple as that. Followers of Jesus should naturally have good deeds in their life. They're the outworking of a person who has been transformed. He then continues contrasting these two categories.

He puts it like this. He says, there will be trouble and calamity for everyone who keeps on doing what is evil. The Jew first and also the Gentile. But there will be glory and honor and peace from God for all who do good for the Jew first and also for the Gentile. For God does not show favoritism.

So he keeps contrasting these two categories. But now he includes specifically Jews and Gentiles, or Jews and non Jewish people in both of those categories. And he uses an interesting phrase there for the Jew first and also the Gentile. So the Jewish people, they were the first to hear the Gospel message. And Paul tells us that back in Romans 1.

And so his logic here is that they're first in line to receive a reward, but they're also first in line for judgment. And he's making clear what he means by that. Here he says in verse 11, God does not show favoritism. It's not going to matter if you are Jewish or not. It's not going to matter if you have the law, the Torah or not.

God's impartial, and he's going to judge everyone equally. And so he continues with the same line of thought into verse 12.

When the Gentiles sin, they will be destroyed even though they never had God's written law. And the Jews who do have God's law will be judged by that law when they fail to obey it. For merely listening to the law doesn't make us right with God. It is obeying the law that makes us right in his sight.

Even Gentiles who do not have God's written law show that they know his law when they instinctively obey it, even without having heard it, they demonstrate that God's law is written in their hearts for their own conscience and thoughts either accuse them or tell them they are doing right.

So in those last two verses there, 14 and 15 Paul is saying all people, whether or not they have an understanding of God's law or not, have some deep sense within them, their own conscious, their heart, about what is morally right and wrong. And so Paul is. He's not saying that these people are doing everything right in their life. He's not saying that they know what's in the law already and therefore don't need to study it. But what he is saying is that there are some things that people know simply by virtue of being human, by being made in God's image.

Deep down, whether they acknowledge it or not, they know that there are moral absolutes. That's what he's getting at here. There are moral absolutes and there's a God behind that. And so for us today, there are lots of people that haven't read the Bible, for example, but all people know on some level that some things are actually objectively wrong. That's the point Paul is making here, that there are moral absolutes.

And then going back to verse 12 there, that's why Paul says, when the Gentiles sin, they will be destroyed, even though they never had God's written law. So because the law was written on their conscience, they still knew on some level that what they were doing was wrong. That's Paul's logic there. But the message here is not to those Gentiles, it's to the Jewish people in this church, right, the Jewish Christians. And Paul says that doesn't mean that they have it any better.

They had the law and actually they should have known better because they had the law, but they still failed to obey it. And the point Paul is building towards is this is verse 16, he says, and this is the message. I proclaim that the day is coming when God through Christ Jesus will judge everyone's secret life. So everyone's secret life will be judged. Every part of our lives that we thought was hidden, every failure that we thought was concealed, it's going to be judged.

And if that's the case, then everyone is going to fall short. Everyone's going to fall short. All people have sinned, no matter what standard of good or evil they claim to hold to. And that sounds bleak, doesn't it? What hope do we have if that's the case?

How can we be made right with God?

And Paul, he gives us a hint here. He gives us a hint. He says judgment will happen through Christ Jesus. God has actually appointed this judgment to Christ, right? And actually that's good news.

That's good news. That's good news because we know what Jesus is like. We know what he has done for us. We know that, you know, Jesus came as our Savior and actually he dies on our behalf, right? Instead of holding all of humanity guilty, Jesus chooses to take that all onto himself.

He becomes our representative, if you will, and he takes on himself all of those failures, all of the pain, the injustice, the death that we cause in this world, and he lets it kill him. He pays a price that we would have otherwise had to have paid. But we know the story doesn't end there. We know that Jesus rose from the dead. He proves his power over sin and death.

And it's through that resurrection that we are offered new life. And that's what Paul is pointing towards here. I don't want to go into that too much this morning, because that is the topic for next Sunday, right? That's the answer to the question, how are we made right with God? Is the focus of the next chapter of Romans.

And so just letting you know where we're sitting in the book of Romans at the moment, we've covered this morning, that second half of chapter one where we come to the conclusion that all of humanity is trapped in sin and needs to be rescued. And Paul's message to the people in this church is that that includes everyone. That includes the religious people, too. That includes the people who hold the laws of the Torah as well. Stuck in that as well.

But Paul doesn't leave them without hope. He points us towards what he's going to talk about in this next chapter. That rescue will happen through Jesus who makes us righteous. That's what he's pointing towards. And so there are two things that I take from this chapter two of Romans this morning.

The first is we are given a reminder, a simple reminder that everyone falls short. I think it is. It's very easy to fall into that trap of us and them, to divide the world into the people who know God and the people who don't. And what Paul is doing here is he's stripping away any illusion that we might have that we're better than other people because of our background, because of our appearance, our religious identity, any of those things. The second thing I think you can take from this, this morning, is a challenge.

It's a challenge to look inwards before you look outwards. In other words, to be self aware. These verses, I think they confront the tendency that we all have to judge other people while ignoring our own faults. And so for you this morning, this is a call to examine your own heart, to look at yourself and ask, am I living with this humility, with this self awareness, with this sincerity that God expects of me. It's a good time to ask yourself, am I more concerned with other people's shortcomings or with my own transformation?

And to that I'd say, let the knowledge that everyone falls short fill you with humility. Let that just level the field and strip away any pride that you might have. Everyone falls short.

Ask yourself, am I self aware? Do I take the time to look at my own heart, my own desires, my own motivations for what I do? And to that I would say, let the knowledge that God will judge everyone's secret life fill you with and motivate you to be more self aware. Let that prompt you to analyze the way that you live. Ask God to reveal those things in your life that are not of him.

It's a good time to ask yourself, when God highlights my flaws, do I see that as an invitation to grow or do I get defensive? Do I ignore it? And to that I'd say, let the knowledge that God is kind help you work past that God is kind and let that help you be honest and sincere with him in return. Lay those things down at God's feet and receive that forgiveness and that healing that you need from Him. Let's pray.

Dear Lord, as we come before you this morning, as we read Romans 2, Lord, we are reminded that all of humanity is trapped in sin and needs rescuing. And that includes us. And so we pray, Lord, that you would open our eyes, that you would steer us away from hypocrisy. And instead, Lord, we ask that you fill us with humility, with self awareness, Lord, with honesty and sincerity in our lives. Lord, we want to be transformed people, to spend that time looking inwards more than we do looking outwards.

Lord. And Lord, we know that you don't just leave us without hope, you don't leave us in our despair. And Lord, we just want to thank you this morning for the gift of your Holy Spirit, your presence that is alive in us, Lord, and that's what makes it possible. Lord, we just want to give you all the glory and the praise this morning. You are the one.

It's your Holy Spirit transforming us that gives us that humility, that ability to be self aware, that honesty and that sincerity. Lord, we pray that you transform us, Lord, that we lay those things down before you this morning and we thank you for that forgiveness, that healing, and for your transformation. Amen.