BR – Overview:
Prologue – 1:1 – 1:17 (BR1)
Romans 1:1-7 – Paul’s introduction of the promises of the Gospel
Romans 1:8-15 – Paul’s intention to preach the Gospel at Rome
Romans 1:16-17 – Paul’s insistence on the power of the Gospel
The Proof of Man’s Sin – Romans 1:18 – 3:20
Romans 1:18-32 – The perversion of the Gentiles (BR2)
Romans 2:1-16 – The presumption of the moralist (BR3)
Romans 2:17-29 – The privilege of the Jew (BR4)
Romans 3:1-20 – The proof of God’s faithfulness & pronouncement of universal guilt (BR5)
God’s Person, God’s Attributes:
Eternal
Immutable
Omnipresence
Omniscience
Omnipotence
Any good news? YES,
God is love so in V4 “goodness and forbearance and long-suffering”
God’s Actions, Creation, Provision of Salvation (Heb 2:3 a way of escape) and
His JUDGMENT
Kata: in agreement, keeping, line in conformity with
EIGHT PRINCIPLES OF GOD’S JUDGMENT
1. According to truth (Romans 2:2).
2. According to accumulated guilt stored up(Romans 2:5).
3. According to works (Romans 2:6).
4. According to what God calls good works (Romans 2:7).
5. According to equality, no respect of persons (Romans 2:11).
6. According to doing God’s will, not just knowing it (Romans 2:13).
7. According to my gospel (Romans 2:16).
8. According to reality, not religious profession (Romans 2:17–29).
ACCORDING TO TRUTH,—NOT HUMAN IMAGININGS
God’s motive:
Rom 2:4 (NLT) 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?
Romans 2:1-16:
The moralist, “respectable persons”, full of self-love and self-flattery 2 Cor 10:12 “comparing themselves among themselves”
Three “not wise” things – alcohol, Thinking too highly of self, and “comparing themselves among themselves”
Compare yourself to Christ, seek to be conformed to His image. That is a safe exercise, and a safe goal.
First, Those who look down their nose at the “openly bad” of humanity, considering themselves “better”—because of race, money, environment, education, or culture; and,
Second, Those who look down their nose at the bad, thinking themselves “better,” because of their religion,—the possession of the Divine oracles: these, of course, were, in Paul’s day, the Jews (Romans 2:17).
Newell, W. R.
Inexcusable – as Rom 1:20
Man OR Men is found 6X in our section and 3X more to the end of the chapter.
Law 78X in Romans, 21X in Chapter 2, 23X in Chapter 7
Judge – 24X in Romans, 10X in chapter 2
Justify in all forms is found 15X
Newell, on Romans
“righteousness of God” 8X, 5X in Romans
God’s truth is absolute since He is omniscient!
He knows the sin, and the motive for it.
His judgment will be absolutely just.
God, in love, wants to drive us through repentance to Himself! Rom 2:4
He that judges the actions of the unsaved also judges the faith of the Christian.
He must judge, and it must be “according to truth,” according to the facts, the realities which are, of course, known to Him.
He needs no “jury” to decide any case.
He is Himself Witness, Jury and Judge
Romans 2:7
To Abel, “well-doing” meant approaching God by a sacrifice
To Noah, “continuance in well-doing” meant building an ark
To Abraham, it meant leaving his country, his relatives
To Job, it meant his God-fearing, evil-rejecting life; and afterwards, in the midst of his great affliction, bowing before the presence of God in dust and ashes.
To Matthew the publican, it meant rising from his business and following the Lord Jesus;
To Cornelius the centurion, a life of patient prayer and generosity,—and believing the gospel
To Lydia, it meant humble and faithful attendance at “the place of prayer” till Paul came and “her heart was opened” to give heed to the gospel of grace spoken by the apostle,—whence followed her “obedience of faith.”
Cause and effect:
Romans 2:9 Tribulation and anguish, trouble and suffering, affliction and distress
Romans 2:10 But God in love, shows in contrast those working good: glory, honor, peace,—to every such soul, Jew or Greek!
Romans 2:2 But we are sure that the judgment of God is in agreement with truth against them which commit such things.
Romans 2:5 But in agreement with thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God;
Romans 2:6 Who will render to every man what is in agreement with his deeds:
Romans 2:7 To them who in agreement with steadfast endurance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life:
Romans 2:16 In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ in agreement with my gospel.
A few of the contentious, the factious:
Cain who was angry, and hateful at God’s accepting Abel’s sacrifice; an
Esau who despised his birthright and hated to the end the people of God; a
Pharaoh who said to Moses, “Who is Jehovah that I should hearken unto His voice?” A
OT Saul who despised the word of Jehovah and sought to destroy His elect king, David; a
Jehoiakim, apostate king of Judah, who “cut with his penknife” and burned the prophecies of Jeremiah;
scribes and Pharisees, who rejected John’s baptism of repentance,—and, consequently, our Lord’s loving offer of eternal life for sinners through faith in Himself alone;
infidel Sadducees, who obeyed not the truth, by ridiculing it, as Modernists do today.
All about us we perceive them,—“the factious,” those who oppose to Scripture their notions or arguments, and continue to obey unrighteousness.
The world is filled with them, and they will fill hell shortly!
what God declares will befall these “factious” unbelievers: Wrath—indignation—tribulation—anguish
John 3:36
Newell, W. R.
Romans 2:15, 7:23, 25, 8:7, Heb 8:10, 10:16
Law of:
God, Lord, Christ, Spirit,
Moses, fathers, Jews,
righteousness, faith, liberty, works, mind, sin (and death), commandment contained in ordinances
Library
WBT Romans 3:27:
The law or principle or plan which now has divine authority is that of faith,
inseparably bound up in the terms of the gospel.
The righteousness of God is declared in its message.
It intimates that those who believe in Jesus will be justified.
It is universal in its scope.
All men everywhere, regardless of nationality, can come into its blessings,
but only on the principle of what Paul terms here, the law of faith.
Gentiles:
the principles of their moral conscience, their inward sense of moral duty.
their moral compass pointing out right and wrong
God revealed in creation
God revealed in the conscience, the law written in the heart
God revealed in His revelation to Israel
God’s actions and God’s motive