Romans 2:12-16

Coram Deo Reformed Baptist Church

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Today we'll be going through verse 12 to 16, Romans chapter 2, starting in verse 6.

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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.

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But for those who are self -seeking and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury.

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There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the

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Jew first and also the Greek. But glory and honor and peace to everyone who does good, the

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Jew first and also the Greek. For God shows no partiality.

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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.

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For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified.

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For when Gentiles who do not have the law by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves even though they do not have the law.

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They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts while their conscience also bears witness and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them on that day when according to my gospel,

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God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus. Last week in 6 -11,

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Paul talks about how you will be judged on the fruit that you show in your life.

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In 6 -11. As we go through 12 -16 here, he is posing another issue or another aspect of God's judgment to the people to which he is speaking.

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Now remember, he is still speaking to the Jews that agree with him on everything he said in chapter 1.

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He's still addressing them. Verse 12.

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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.

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God's judgment is fair. Period. Those that have sinned with only the knowledge of general revelation are judged based on the fact that they only know general revelation.

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God does not judge a Greek or a Gentile by the law because they do not know it.

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They don't. That wouldn't be fair.

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Going back to Romans 1, 19 and 20.

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For what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them.

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For his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world and the things that have been made, so they are without excuse.

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They know of God's existence. They might not have the law as the

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Jews do, given through divine revelation, but they are guilty nonetheless. Those that have sinned with the knowledge of the law will be judged in accordance with that.

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And I did not put the reference in here, so I apologize. But it's verse 19.

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Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world may be held accountable to God.

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For by works of the law, no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes the knowledge of sin.

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Paul here in verse 12 is speaking of the difference between Jews and Gentiles and the knowledge that they have of general revelation or the knowledge of the law given through Moses in Deuteronomy to the

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Jews. Paul isn't speaking necessarily about the ceremonial law he's speaking of.

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He's speaking about the moral law. That becomes more clear as we work through these verses.

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Now that's not to say that Greeks don't know the law, and he gets to that in just a few.

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For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified.

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In the previous verse, we see that Jews and Gentiles are judged fairly by their knowledge of the law.

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In this verse, Paul addresses a common belief in the Jewish community at the time and now that they are particularly special on the basis that they have the law.

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They grew up hearing it every week in synagogue, and they live under what was supposed to be a theocratic monarchy.

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You're not familiar with what a theocracy is. It's a governmental system that is governed by God, Theo.

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The assumption was by knowing the law, they were somehow above judgment or above the judgment that was to come.

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But Paul is saying, no, you're not. You're absolutely not.

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Get that out of your head. For Paul to make this statement at the time is particularly profound.

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That in the final judgment, simply being a Jew is not going to help you. Being from that particular region at any particular time, that's not going to help you and your ethnicity isn't going to help you in the eyes of God.

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Only those whose belief, like Abraham, rests in God, the

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Son, the promised seed, only those will be justified and will be given the

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Holy Spirit that gives them the fruit of obedience. They will be declared not guilty.

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Please turn with me to Galatians 3.

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Starting in verse 1, O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you?

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It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed and crucified.

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Let me ask you only this. Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith?

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Are you so foolish, having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?

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Did you suffer so many things in vain? If indeed it was in vain, does

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He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law or by hearing with faith?

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Just as Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness, now then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham and the scripture foreseeing that God would justify the

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Gentiles by faith, preach the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying,

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In you shall all the nations be blessed. So then those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.

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For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse, for it is written,

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Cursed be anyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law and do them.

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Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for the righteous shall live by faith.

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The law is not of faith, rather the one who does them shall live by them.

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Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written,

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Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree. So that in Christ Jesus, the blessing of Abraham might come to the

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Gentiles so that we might receive the promised spirit through faith.

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And I had written out a paragraph here being full disclosure, but the 1689 says it a whole lot better than I could.

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In chapter 12, section 1, it says this,

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All those that are justified, God conferred in and for the sake of His only

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Son, Jesus Christ, to make partakers of the grace of adoption, by which they are taken into the number and enjoy the liberties and privileges of the children of God.

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Have His name put on them, receive the spirit of adoption, have access to the throne of grace with boldness, are enabled to cry

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Abba, Father, are pitied, protected, provided for, and chastened by Him as by a father, yet never cast off, but sealed to the day of redemption and inherit the promises as heirs of everlasting salvation.

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Those folks, the church, Paul is saying they are the only ones that will be justified.

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And I included the adoption clause in there because, well, to be honest, we often forget about that fact, that we're justified, adopted, sanctified, and glorified.

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I don't think that it's taught about enough. Verse 14,

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For when Gentiles who do not have the law by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law, they show the works of the law is written on their hearts while their conscience also bears witness and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them.

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If you have ever done any sort of evangelism with anyone you've ever met, you've heard this question.

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How can God be fair in judging people that have never heard of Him or the

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Ten Commandments? After all,

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Gentiles have never been given the law, yet we see them now and in history doing exactly what

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Paul is saying. The universal understanding that murder, theft, adultery, disobeying your parents, is universally wrong across all cultures, across the entire planet, throughout history.

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Governments are based on these and around these particular principles.

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Don't murder. Don't steal my stuff. Even though Gentiles did not have the law like we do today, they still know right from wrong.

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They have this knowledge because they are image bearers of God. It is, as Paul says, written on their hearts.

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It is woven into the very fabric of the human being. Because of this, natural man bears witness to his own conscience, and at the final judgment, not only will their actions bear witness, as we talked about last week, but because of this, their thoughts will as well.

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That's what Paul is saying. And it will either be convicting or it will excuse them.

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As a side note to this, and I say it as a side note because this is like a whole thing in and of itself, but as a quick rabbit trail, one particular person who

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I don't agree with everything that he says is Thomas Aquinas.

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If you've ever heard of him. Articulated this exact thing that Paul is talking about in something that he called the theory of natural law.

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Wrote extensively about it. And this led other philosophers like John Locke and Thomas Hobbes to theorize about natural rights, which led directly and contributed to these words that were penned by Thomas Jefferson.

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We hold these truths to be self -evident that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

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This is universally understood. That people know right from wrong, and from that, they have a right given to them from God to certain aspects of their life, to control certain aspects of their life.

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That's why this country exists. So you can't deny the fact that in speaking with someone, and they say, well,

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I don't know. You absolutely know. History says, all of human history says that you know.

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And in verse 16, on that day when according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ.

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Now Paul here, when he refers to my gospel, he's referring to the one that he preaches, not another one that he wrote.

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But he closes by informing those that he is speaking to that not only will your fruit bear witness to what camp you truly belong to, but also, as I said before, your thoughts will bear witness.

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Those things that no one can see, that no one knows of, those things, for lack of a better term, that you do in the dark.

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God's judgment is fair and all -encompassing. And the only people who will escape it are those who by grace are saved from it.

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John 5, 22 through 29. For the

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Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the

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Son, that all may honor the Son just as they honor the

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Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.

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Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life.

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He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.

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Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and is here when the dead will hear the voice of the

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Son of God, and those who hear will live. For as the

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Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself.

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And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the

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Son of Man. Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out.

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Those who have done good to the resurrection of life and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.

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Our Lord came the first time to save both

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Jews and Gentiles, Jew first and also the Greek.

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When he comes again, having been given all authority in heaven and earth, he will be coming to judge.

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There is not a second chance. The reality is that very few of the people that Paul is talking to, he's talking to the church in Rome, but very few of people in the world will be resurrected to life.

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The vast majority of people will be going somewhere else that is described in Scripture as hell.

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That's what we call it. And we know people who are going to both places.

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So what we should do for those without the gospel, while we have the opportunity to do so, while God is patient with us, we know them and we love them, we should be doing what we are told, sharing the gospel with them.

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And not only the good news, but the bad news as well, because that's the gospel. If we love them, that's what we'll do.

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It's very difficult to have a conversation with someone knowing that what you're about to say is offensive.

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We suffer from this thing, especially in our culture, known as the fear of man.

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What will they think? They'll think I'm stupid. Or they'll laugh.

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And we are the very few people who have the opportunity to live in a country where we're even allowed to do it.

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Don't let that stop you. And we must also at the same time be prepared for the reality that the gospel is absolutely offensive.

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And by sharing it, we will most likely offend the people that we're sharing it to. And we may lose friends.

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And we will lose family. We might lose our jobs.

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And we may one day even be legitimately persecuted. Not put in jail, which is persecution, but not soft persecution.

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Persecution like they suffer in Africa, in China, in the Middle East. But there's no greater message, a message to be given, and no greater a concern to be had than for the lives of those we love.

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There are martyrs upon whose shoulders we stand today. The reason that we can come together and worship as we do, just in English, is because of them.

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And while just one of us might not be loud enough in a public space, certainly the church is.

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So not to get off on this story, but I'm sure all of us have been walking around town, or not this town, but Charlotte or somewhere and saw a street preacher.

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Did you just pass on by, or did you talk to him? Did you find out what his theology was?

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Did you join him? I'm not saying that you have to, but keep in mind, that's what we're supposed to be doing.

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Now whatever form that you want that to take, what we're supposed to be doing is sharing the gospel, both individually and corporately.

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Come here to be trained and to commune together and to worship, and you go out there to do the

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Great Commission. Because at the moment, there is another church with a different gospel, and unfortunately, they are much, much louder than we are.

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And I won't stand up here and say that they're winning, because they're not. They may think that they are, but with a different gospel, you are most certainly not winning.

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The people in these churches, you could ask them about the doctrines of grace, even about the solas, the central tenets of Christianity, even about the doctrine of the

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Trinity, much less the law and the gospel, and they would not have a clue.

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It's not an Apollos where he goes around preaching the baptism of Christ, and then

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Priscilla and Aquila take him aside and teach him all the rest of the way through, and he's like, oh, wonderful, and then he continues.

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No. No preacher's kids and other folks who are modalists have no idea what the gospel is, but full well are running as fast as they can to hell and praising

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God all the way there. But as Paul is talking about, in the day of the final judgment, you are judged by the fruit that you bear and by the thoughts that you have, and for everyone across the planet, that should be the scariest thing you could possibly hear.

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Well, he knows what I think. I'm going to be judged based on that? Absolutely. What does

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Christ do in the Sermon on the Mount? He elevates the law, right? If you've hated, if you've lusted, but for those of us who are in Christ, indwelt by the

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Holy Spirit, adopted, justified, that should be the most wonderful news what

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Paul is talking about, because as we stand before God on that day, he will see

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Christ and Christ's righteousness, and he will also see us, and not count us as sinners or as haters of him or as lawbreakers, but as children, his sons and his daughters.