Romans 2:1-4
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?
In school there are many classes that are only open to those who have completed the prerequisites. In this section Paul explains that the prerequisite to repentance is acknowledgement of guilt before God. Paul shows that it is insufficient to know about or even approve of God’s moral law. It is necessary to measure up to its perfect standard. The bad news is no one can measure up. The good news is that God has given us the opportunity to repent.
In the first chapter Paul described the decent of a human soul that rejects the knowledge of God. Everyone is born with a God shaped hole in their being. The soul begins with trying to fill the God shaped hole with other things. When everything tried fails to fill the hole, the soul, remaining unrepentant, turns to spite and envy. The eventual condition of an unrepentant life is terrible. But even as we look in pity and disdain upon such a sorry sight, we feel the weight of the gravity that pulled them down tugging at our own souls.
You personally are responsible. Pointing to hypocrites in the church or denying the reality of judgment or appealing to a lower standard of goodness or any other attempt at evasion will not change the fact of your guilt before God. The word rendered ‘no excuse’ is anapologētos. It is the negative of apologetic. We understand that an apologetic is the reasons for our faith. There are many apologetics for our Christian faith but Paul says here that there is no apologetic, no reason for rejecting the knowledge of God.
Some translations have begun omitting the ‘O man’ here but I think it’s important because the key to these verses is the contrast between fallible, limited, mortal man and the perfect, holy, omnipotent God.
Paul is calling us to recognize the reality of our state and position. James 4:14, “yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.”
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing. – W. S.
What a piece of work is a man, how noble in reason, how
infinite in faculties, in form and moving how express and
admirable, in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like
a god! the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals—and yet,
to me, what is this quintessence of dust? – W.S.
Memento Mori means, remember you will die. It is good to remember that we have only a short time in which to come to repentance. Psalm 90:12, “So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.”
It is upon this platform of mortality, frailty, and limited knowledge that we build our judge’s bench. Everyone judges. It is not possible to reasonably navigate life without judging. Judging in the sense of distinguishing or discerning is necessary everyday.
However, when we judge others but excuse ourselves we fall into a trap of judging persons instead of actions. Lady Justice holds a two edged sword because judgment cuts both ways. Matthew 7:1-5, “Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.” I have to take this personally because it is certain that whatever annoys me the most about another person annoys me because I know I am guilty of that very thing.
We all know, though we often refuse to acknowledge, that perfect justice issuing from omniscience is due to every one of us. God’s judgment goes beyond discernment. It becomes what our judgment cannot, a verdict. Verdict comes from the Latin phrase verum dictum which means, true word. When God issues His verdict it is absolutely a true word. The true word of God falling like an iron rod on sinners is gravitational in its inevitability. Psalm 110:9, “You shall break them with a rod of iron; You shall dash them to pieces like a potter’s vessel.’ ”
It’s easy to judge someone who has obviously destroyed their life with bad decisions. But do we realize that none of us gets through the day without sinning? The difference between the life destroyed by sin and the life set free from the law of sin and death is repentance.
The list of terrible things from the end of chapter one; envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness gossip, slander, hatred of God, insolence, haughtiness, boastfulness, inventing evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless, is not a list of what others do. It is a list of what is in my heart, of what I do, of what I am absent Christ.
It is natural to not believe that bad things can’t happen to us. Lots of people die in car wrecks but none of us will give up driving and this is partly because we really believe that it won’t happen to me. Similarly, it is possible to recognize the inevitability and justice of God’s judgment on others but fail to acknowledge that the same judgment is coming to me.
We create imaginary us and them lines that allow for the justice of God but somehow exempt ourselves. We are good people who know and approve of what is right. Therefore judgment is for them, not for us. Luke 3:8, “Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones.” We engage a selective ignorance of our own culpability. We become the proverbial pot calling the kettle black.
Ultimately, this game will fail because conscience can be drowned out or ignored for a time but it can never be completely killed. The truth of our condition before God will arrest our attention sooner or later. If sooner, we may be given the grace of repentance.
The other possible explanation for this selective judgment is arrogance. It is pure presumption upon the grace of God to judge others without judging oneself. How else could you have the chutzpah to look down your nose at others? We know that God is kind and patient but to presume that God’s kindness and patience is owed to us because we’re so good is also a sin. This kind of presumption demonstrates a different kind of ignorance.
It is an ignorance of the purpose behind God’s kindness. When we’re assuming that God’s kindness is earned by our good behavior we can’t learn about its true nature. The real reason God is kind and patient is so that we might have the opportunity to repent. In fact God is attempting to show us the way to repentance like a shepherd shows the way to his sheep.
Psalm 23:1-3
The Lord is my shepherd;
I shall not want.
He makes me to lie down in green pastures;
He leads me beside the still waters.
He restores my soul;
He leads me in the paths of righteousness
For His name’s sake.
We need leading because we don’t know where to go. Look at the multitude of religions and philosophies that try and fail to answer human need. We need Jesus because we live in the valley of the shadow of death. John 14:6, “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
We need Jesus. We have to repent to get Jesus. We have to recognize our guilt in order to repent. Judging others is not the same as repentance no matter how knowledgeable in matters pertaining to morality we may be. Knowing about the justice of God’s judgment or even approving of God’s judgment on others is not the same as repentance. I hope that you take this personally because the only way to repentance is to take the issue of sin, guilt, justice and judgment personally.
brotherpayne 