The Impartiality of God's Judgment
Romans • Sermon • Submitted
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Introduction
Introduction
SCOTUS shows us that there are no impartial and completely wise human judges.
Paul turns his focus to an arrogant, culturally separated, infighting church.
Paul is going to use the gospel to to level the field for everyone.
Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things.
We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things.
Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God?
Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?
But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.
He will render to each one according to his works:
to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life;
but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury.
There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek,
but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek.
For God shows no partiality.
They Should Have Known Better, What’s Your Excuse?
They Should Have Known Better, What’s Your Excuse?
Sinner who has taken the name of Christ, what is your excuse for your unrepentant sin?
If we step back one verse we get the context for our Therefore
Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.
Though they knew better, they did it anyway, and approved of others doing it.
Paul says in verse 2
We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things.
Sinners deserve judgment. It is an easy truth.
They Should Have Known Better, What’s Your Excuse?
They Should Have Known Better, What’s Your Excuse?
They knew of God, understood some basic truths about the way God works through how He designed the world and has it operating.
They decided to be wise in their own thinking and try and play against the rules.
God responds with judgment.
But Paul calls out the hypocrisy of the church in Rome.
Why are you judging them when you do the same thing?
Why are you judging them when you do the same thing?
You have more truth than they do, and you have acknowledged that truth in some way, and agreed to it, but you still don’t follow it.
Does Jesus have your sin covered?
This is not a condemnation of sinning as a child of God.
It’s About Hypocrisy
It’s About Hypocrisy
The first step of the argument is that you should know better, but the second step is that you have the gall to judge someone else while committing the same sin.
It is the great sin of the humanity to be a hypocrite.
It is also a great sin in the church.
How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother’s eye.
Paul’s argument is a little more specific. Paul claims that you have the same sin. explain with stealing
Hypocrisy brings judgment on both parties, and often fails to accomplish the real goal of correction.
But Paul takes it a step further, to what I believe is the real crux of the argument.
Not only are you without excuse, you misunderstand your position with God.
Is There No Judgment for the Child of God?
Is There No Judgment for the Child of God?
Most of us have hung our hats hard on the doctrine of justification, and I think rightly so.
However, think about what some of us presume.
Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God?
When the pendulum of our doctrine swings too far towards freedom and forgiveness, when we put all of our emphasis on eternal security to the detriment of the necessity of sanctification, we err in a way that may bring down our house of cards.
I read a lot of commentary this week, because I found myself at odds with many of my most trusted teachers.
You all may want to discuss my position later after I am through disseminating this perceived truth.
But I read over and over again as scholars did acrobatics to get this passage to mean precisely what a simple reading refuses.
Let me make 3 points
First, Paul is Speaking to People He Labels as Christians
First, Paul is Speaking to People He Labels as Christians
Look at Romans 1:7
To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
They are beloved of God and called to be saints.
He is not talking to lost Gentiles or Jews.
Second, Paul Has Now Turned to Speak to the Church
Second, Paul Has Now Turned to Speak to the Church
A pronounced shift in the dialogue has occured.
In the prior texts in chapter one he used a lot of third person plural pronouns like they and them.
Claiming to be wise, they became fools,
Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves,
And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.
but the first verse of chapter 2 says
Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things.
If you make this about any group but the church you lose the whole point.
Third, Paul Says There is Judgment for the Church
Third, Paul Says There is Judgment for the Church
He is going to say in verse 5 that these hypocrites are “storing up wrath” for the coming day of judgment.
This is where many begin their tumbling routines.
It’s actually more like parkour, do you know what that is?
It makes an obstacle course of everyday structures.
In that way scholars try to find a way to make this fit what they believe about wrath and those saved from it.
No doubt you will quote to me
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
To which I say Praise God and Amen!
Can this verse stand without reading further to
So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh.
For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
There is no condemnation for those who are In Christ Jesus, those who are truly led by the Spirit of God.
Those who are in Jesus, Paul assumes are living in the Spirit.
May I counter with
Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality,
nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
Are those verses hard to understand? Is that not as clear as the others?
Why is it so clear that there is no condemnation for those in Christ, but not clear that those in Christ will not be the unrepentant sinners they were before they met Christ?
Do You Presume on the Riches of His Kindness and Forbearance and Patience?
Do You Presume on the Riches of His Kindness and Forbearance and Patience?
Do you think that God is mocked by your taking of His name and calling yourself a Christian and then openly violating His laws of love and thinking there will be no corresponding correction or judgment?
As obvious as it is that God has created this world in all its splendor, and as obvious as it is that God judges and brings wrath upon the evil, it is equally as obvious that some who take the name of Jesus are not really his, because it is obvious that they are still doing evil.
And those who continue in sin are not met with great grace, but with punishment.
Do you believe, O Human, that by claiming Christ He is now no longer bothered by your sin?
Can you stomp on your neighbor and have God say “Well, sinners will be sinners.” and laugh it off?
Is He now pleased with your sin?
When we claim to be wearing the righteousness of Jesus, that God sees Jesus instead of me, that God is somehow not privy to your dark behavior under that cloak?
where is the hope for such a person?
Because of Your Hard and Impenitent Heart You are Storing Up Wrath for Yourself
Because of Your Hard and Impenitent Heart You are Storing Up Wrath for Yourself
Sin will always be punished unless it is truly repented of.
It is not your sin that stores up wrath, but your hard and impenitent heart.
You have but to repent and be spared.
God has mercy on those who seek it.
He is always seeking a particular heart.
All these things my hand has made, and so all these things came to be, declares the Lord. But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.
God doesn’t change in character.
Verses 6-11 simply state the truth that it is still those who do good that receive blessing, and those who do evil that receive wrath.
He is not partial to the Jew nor to the Greek.
God’s judgment is meted out in perfection
God’s judgment is meted out in perfection
If you want true justice you cannot look to the courts of this world, but to the heavens.
In this life we choose judges for human courts, but they all sit under the judgment of the Almighty, because they are incapable of impartiality.
The left and the right argue relentlessly as if they each are the arbiter of Truth, but we as Christians know better.
How Will God Judge You?
How Will God Judge You?
Christian, have you been presuming on the kindness of God?
Is your heart hardened in some way, testing the patience of our most Benevolent God?
For You I offer
Though you wash yourself with lye and use much soap, the stain of your guilt is still before me, declares the Lord God.
How can you say, ‘I am not unclean, I have not gone after the Baals’? Look at your way in the valley; know what you have done— a restless young camel running here and there,
a wild donkey used to the wilderness, in her heat sniffing the wind! Who can restrain her lust? None who seek her need weary themselves; in her month they will find her.
Keep your feet from going unshod and your throat from thirst. But you said, ‘It is hopeless, for I have loved foreigners, and after them I will go.’
“As a thief is shamed when caught, so the house of Israel shall be shamed: they, their kings, their officials, their priests, and their prophets,
who say to a tree, ‘You are my father,’ and to a stone, ‘You gave me birth.’ For they have turned their back to me, and not their face. But in the time of their trouble they say, ‘Arise and save us!’
But where are your gods that you made for yourself? Let them arise, if they can save you, in your time of trouble; for as many as your cities are your gods, O Judah.
That is God against His own people. They were without excuse, and so are you if you remain committed to sinfulness without repenting.
Repent.
And to those who have never made a claim to following Jesus, how do you think God will judge you?
Do you believe that He will judge you as you judge yourself? Or as others judge you?
If you don’t repent of your sinful ways and bow before Jesus as Lord, you will not enter the Kingdom.
If you don’t repent of your sinful ways and bow before Jesus as Lord, you will not enter the Kingdom.
no matter how good you think you have been, you have fallen short of the perfect standard.
If God does not judge unrighteous unloving acts, then He is not just.
There is forgiveness and mercy, but only if you turn from your sin and turn towards Jesus.
God’s kindness, that He has not punished already for your unloving ways, is meant to to you to repentance, He says in verse 4 of our text.
This is what His kindness and forbearance and patience has been for.
You are here today by the mercy of God listening to a message from Him so that you might repent and be changed forever.
Why would you not commit to the perfectly loving Ways of Jesus?
In our time of worship won’t you tell God that you are sorry for your sinfulness and that you want to turn away from it and learn to follow Jesus, His Son?
I invite you to Bow before God Almighty and repent and believe.