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Romans

Romans 2 – The World’s Guilt (Moralists & Jews)

Published since 02. Dec. 2025
Bible passages:
Romans 2
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The heathen world of nineteen centuries ago included, however, a number of highly civilized peoples. The apostle Paul knew that, with regard to the Gospel, he was just as indebted to the educated Greek as to the uneducated Barbarian. As we open chapter 2, we find him turning from the one to the other. His style becomes very vivid. It is almost as if he saw a refined and polished Greek standing nearby, approving Paul’s denunciation of the gross sins of the Barbarians. So Paul turns toward him and boldly charges him with doing, in a refined way, the very same things he condemned in the Barbarian in their more blatant forms. By doing this, he too stands before God without excuse, for in judging others, he condemns himself.

Under the term Greek, the Apostle included all those peoples who had been educated and refined under the influence of Greek culture. The Roman himself would fall under this category. They were admirable outwardly—intelligent, reasoning, and cultured. In the first eleven verses of this chapter, Paul reasons with them about righteousness and coming judgment, and it would be hard to find anywhere verses more forceful, concise, and powerful.

The Greeks had a certain standard of outward morality. They admired beauty and strength and trained their bodies accordingly. This alone kept them from the extreme excesses of the Barbarians. Yet they knew how to indulge themselves discreetly—how to sin “scientifically.” The same trait marks our own age. A modern slogan might be, “Do not sin crudely or clumsily—sin scientifically.” Under such conditions, it is very easy for people to deceive themselves; it is easy to imagine that if one approves good things in theory and avoids the coarser forms of evil, one is safe from God’s judgment.

Notice three steps in Paul’s argument:

  1. “The judgment of God is according to truth” (v. 2).
    Truth means reality. Nothing unreal will stand before God; everything will be exposed as it truly is. A grim prospect for the Greek, whose virtues were only superficial.
  2. There is also “the revelation of the righteous judgment of God” (v. 5).
    A criminal may have the facts of his crime brought to light, but if the judge is corrupt, he may still escape. God’s judgment, however, is both true and righteous.
  3. “There is no respect of persons with God” (v. 11).
    In some countries, favoritism or influence allows a guilty person to escape punishment. This will never be the case with God.

Therefore, there is no escape for the refined sinner or the mere moralist. In fact, he may face even more severe condemnation. His knowledge increases his guilt, for repentance is the aim toward which the goodness of God would lead him, but he despises that goodness in the hardness of his heart and thus stores up wrath for himself.

The statements in verses 6 to 11 trouble some people because they do not explicitly mention faith in Christ. Someone may read verse 7 and say, “There you have it—keep doing good and seeking good, and eternal life will be yours.” But if we read a little further, we find that no one does good or seeks good unless he believes in Christ.

The ground of judgment before God is our works. If someone truly believes in the Saviour, he experiences salvation and therefore has the power to do what is good and continue in it. Moreover, the entire aim of his life has changed, and he begins to seek glory, honour, and that incorruptible state that will be ours when the Lord comes. On the other hand, many refuse to obey the truth by believing the Gospel and instead remain slaves of sin. Their works will rightly receive condemnation on the day of judgment.

At this point, someone might object: “But these people never had the advantage of knowing God’s holy law as the Jew did. Is it just to condemn them?” Paul anticipates this question and adds verses 12-16. He states that the law will judge those who have sinned under the law in the day when God judges by Jesus Christ; while those who have sinned without the law will not be held responsible for light they never had—yet they will still perish. Verses 13 to 15 are a parenthesis. To get the flow of the argument, read from verse 12 directly to verse 16.

The parentheses show that many of the things the law required were of such a nature that people knew they were wrong even without the law. Furthermore, they had the warning voice of conscience concerning these things, even if they did not know the law of Moses. Wherever you go, you find that people—even the most degraded—have some natural moral sense about right and wrong. They also have a conscience, with thoughts that either accuse or excuse. Therefore, there is a basis for judgment against them apart from the law.

When God judges people through Jesus Christ, a third basis of judgment comes into play. Not only natural conscience and the law, but also judgment “according to my Gospel.” Judgment will not begin until the full testimony of the Gospel has gone forth. Those condemned in the light of the Gospel will fare far worse than those condemned under the light of the law or of conscience. And in that day, the secrets of people’s hearts will be judged, though their condemnation will still be based on their works.

Oh, what a day the day of judgment will be! May we have a deep sense of its coming terrors. May we earnestly labour to save at least some from ever having to face it.

Having addressed the Barbarian and the Greek, proving both equally without excuse and subject to God’s judgment, the Apostle now turns to consider the case of the Jew. The vivid style with which he began chapter 2 continues to the end of the chapter. He seems to see a Jew standing there as well as a Greek, and in verse 17, he turns to address him.

The Jew not only possessed the witness of creation and of natural conscience, but also the law. The law gave him knowledge of God and His will, placing him far above others in religious privilege.

But he made one great mistake. He treated the law as something in which he could boast, and thus it fed his pride. The Apostle says, “You rest in the law and boast in God.” He did not realize that the law was not given as something to rest in, but as something to test him.

The test is applied from verse 21 to the end of the chapter. The result is that his reputation collapses completely. True, he had the form of knowledge and truth in the law, but this only made the situation worse. He had been so occupied with turning its sharp edge against others that he never applied it to himself. He viewed it as a standard—a plumb line or level—for others, but for himself, he regarded it merely as a personal ornament, a feather in his cap.

We should not be surprised that he did this, for it is exactly what we all naturally do. We boast in our privileges and forget the responsibilities that accompany them.

Each question in verses 21, 22, and 23 is like a sword thrust. To each implied charge, the Jew had to plead guilty. He had the law, certainly, but by breaking it, he dishonored God, whose law it was. Their guilt was so obvious that the Gentiles looked at the Jews and blasphemed God, whom they represented.

Given this situation, it was useless for them to appeal to the fact that they were God’s circumcised people. The argument of verses 25 to 29 is very important. It is not external position—something outward—that counts before God and corrects what is wrong. It is the inward reality that God values. God would regard the one who obeys, even if he were an uncircumcised Gentile. He would reject the one who disobeys, even if he were a circumcised Jew.

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