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MBC - 9~/19~/2004 - Pastor Doug Thompson
*/“How Will God Judge Men?”/*
Romans 2:6-16
 
ROM 2:4 Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?
ROM 2:5 But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God,
ROM 2:6 who will render to each person according to his deeds:
ROM 2:7 to those who by perseverance in doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life;
ROM 2:8 but to those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, wrath and indignation.
ROM 2:9 There will be tribulation and distress for every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek,
ROM 2:10 but glory and honor and peace to everyone who does good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
ROM 2:11 For there is no partiality with God.
ROM 2:12 For 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;
ROM 2:13 for it is not the hearers of the Law who are just before God, but the doers of the Law will be justified.
ROM 2:14 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,
ROM 2:15 in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them,
ROM 2:16 on the day when, according to my gospel, God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus.
*Explain the problem in this section. .
.*
In Romans, Paul is giving a systematic presentation of the Gospel--how sinful people can be forgiven of their sins, have a relationship with a holy God, and know that they are going to heaven when they die.
And he begins by showing that no person can /ever/ be good enough to go to heaven.
We’ve all been watching over the last few weeks as the prosecution in the Laci Peterson murder trial put together their argument for Scott Peterson’s guilt, piece by piece, and disproving his innocence.
Paul is doing the same thing here, like the consummate prosecuting attorney, bringing forth a mountain of evidence of our guilt, and demolishing every defense and excuse and alibi that we could possibly bring up.
Ø      He has to get us convicted before he can get us acquitted!
You see once the Word of God brings us to see our utter guilt and sinfulness before God, so that we throw ourselves at the mercy of the court, then we are ready for the good news of the Gospel: There is an Advocate--a divine defense attorney for sinners--Jesus Christ the Righteous.
He will obtain forgiveness and eternal life for all who come to Him, broken and repentant.
He has never lost a case because--/the Judge is His Father!/
 
Ø      But you only get this Advocate when you plead guilty.
As long as you are holding on to even a shred of your own innocence, or hanging on to one little piece of goodness that you want to show the Judge--Jesus won’t represent you!
How can He when you seek to represent yourself?
In ch.1, he showed that Gentiles, non-Jews stand guilty and condemned and need Jesus Christ to represent them.
That wasn’t a hard sell--especially to the Jews!
They were cheering Paul on, but when he turns his attention to the Jews, good, moral, lawkeeping people, and tries to show that /they /need divine representation before the court of heaven, they begin to howl!
 
“We are sinners like the Gentiles?
Are you kidding?
God won’t accept us on our own merits--and you used to be a Pharisee, Paul?”
So in ch.2,
I believe Paul is taking on these imaginary Jewish challengers, and I believe he is saying, “So are you saying that you want to be judged by God on your own merit?
Is that what you want--to stand before God and be judged on the basis of the good that you have done?
Because if that is what you want, God will oblige you!
He will judge you on the basis you choose, but I need to remind you how you will be judged.
I need to tell you what the standard is that He will be using.
Now please try to keep in mind all that I have just said as we look at this passage this morning, because this chapter is one of the most difficult chapters to interpret in the NT.
And this is going to be a different type of message because we are going to spend our time this morning looking at how to interpret it.
Some of you noticed some strange sounding phrases in what we just read.
Here we are, in the middle of Paul’s argument that all are hopeless sinners who desperately Christ and His righteousness in order to stand before God, and we read statements like this:
 
Ø      ROM 2:7 to those who by perseverance in doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, [God gives] eternal life;
 
Ø      ROM 2:9 There will be tribulation and distress for every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek,
Ø      ROM 2:10 but glory and honor and peace to everyone who does good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
Ø      ROM 2:13 for it is not the hearers of the Law who are just before God, but the doers of the Law will be justified.
This sounds like the opposite of what I just explained.
And how does it jive with what Paul says--
 
Ø      ROM 3:9 What then?
Are we better than they?
Not at all; for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin; [how do you reconcile all being under sin with some who persevere in doing good, seek for glory, honor, etc.?]
 
Ø      ROM 3:12 All have turned aside, together they have become useless; There is none who does good, There is not even one."
[Again, who is left to persevere in doing good and find eternal life?]
 
Ø      ROM 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.
[Then who are the doers of the law who are justified??]
 
Do you see the dilemma?
The truth is, if you just picked up your Bible, and read Romans 2, all by itself, you would probably walk away saying, “It’s very clear.
We are saved by being good, doing good and keeping the Law.
God judges people based upon whether they have been good enough to go to heaven!”
 
Now before I tell you how I resolve this dilemma, let me give three other approaches:  
 
*/1.)
Paul is not speaking of how we are saved, he is speaking about the evidence of our salvation./*
Look again at v.7: “those who by perseverance in doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, [will receive] eternal life.”
This view says, “They aren’t earning salvation through doing good, but this will be true of every truly saved person.”
So Paul is not talking in vv.7,10,13 about how a person is justified, but about sanctification--the changes--that will be evident in the life of a justified person.
And what we read in vv.7,10, and 13 is not perfection, but pursuit.
Now this is the view of John MacArthur, John Piper, and many other great Bible scholars.
They say, “We are saved by grace alone through faith alone, but the God who justifies also sanctifies, so there will be evidence--fruit--good deeds--in the life of every true believer.
So that when a Christian stands before God, he is already just before God through faith in Christ, and his works will be the evidence that he belongs to Christ.”
They would go on to say that when Paul says in v.13 that it is not the hearers of the law but the doers who will be justified, he isn’t saying that we are justified by our works, but that those who are justified by grace alone through faith alone, will be doers of the law--not perfectly--but that is the new direction of their lives.
They would say that Paul is just saying what James says in Jms.2:
 
Ø      JAM 2:17 Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.
Ø      JAM 2:21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar?
Ø      JAM 2:22 You see that faith was working with his works, and as a result of the works, faith was perfected;
 
Now I don’t think James and Paul are talking about the same thing at all, but if you know your Bibles, you can see that what these men are saying is biblical!
We are going to see this truth when we get to Romans 6: those who are justified will also be sanctified!
We are going to see it as Jim opens up 1 John to us.
And I believe that it is true that when we stand before God on the day of judgment, our works will be judged:
 
Ø      2CO 5:10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.
This includes Christians!
Their salvation is not in question at the last judgment, but their works will be judged and those that were done out of faith and in the Spirit will be rewarded, and yes, they will serve as a testimony to all creation that God was truly at work in all of His children--
 
Ø      1CO 3:13 each man's work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man's work.
Ø      1CO 3:14 If any man's work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward.
Ø      1CO 3:15 If any man's work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.
Now get what I’m going to say here: The question is not whether or not these truths are in the Bible, the question is: “Is that what Paul is teaching here in Romans 2?” I don’t think so, but let me give you another interpretation.
*/2.)
Paul is speaking about the basis of our future justification./*
I.e.
vv.7,10,13 are not just /evidence/ of the way a justified person lives, they are the /basis /for justification.
It’s not just that when God justifies a person He also sanctifies that person so that they do good things.
This view says that it’s because a person does good things that God justifies that person.
We are saved by faith and works.
God justifies, not the ungodly, but the godly.
This is the way cults and false religions would interpret this passage: “Good people go to heaven, of course!
If you want to go to heaven, you had better be really good!”
For example, 7th Day Adventists appeal to verse 13 as proof that we must keep the law to be saved--even though the whole book of Romans and Galatians teach exactly the opposite!
Ø      Our 25th celebration is coming up.
Some folks remember our big 15 year celebration with the tent.
After one of our evening meetings, we found that the local Adventist Church had canvasses our parking lot and put a booklet on each windshield.
In that book it said that anyone who fails to keep the Saturday Sabbath will go to hell, and anyone who violates the OT dietary laws and eats unclean animals will go to hell.
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