1 Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are who judge, for in whatever you judge another you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things. 2 But we know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things. 3 And do you think this, O man, you who judge those practicing such things, and doing the same, that you will escape the judgment of God? 4 Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? ~ Romans 2:1- 4
Today, we transition into Romans 2 where we find ourselves in the middle of the Apostle Paul's scathing description of the unsaved man. When man rejected the true God he had nowhere else to turn but to himself, and, when man turns to worshipping himself, he inevitably ends up in destruction.
In v.1 of today's passage, we read, "Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are who judge, for in whatever you judge another you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things."
Whenever we encounter a "therefore" in the Scriptures, we must always ask, "what it is there for?" Having described those who rejected the truth of God and the God of truth in Romans 1, the Apostle Paul turns our attention to those who pass judgment on those who deserve Hell. The people Paul describes here in today's passage were moral people who looked down their nose on those who had just been described in Romans 1:19-32.
Anyone who sits in the seat of moral judgment proves he is inexcusable if he can condemn other people, since he knows the standard, and, in reality, does the same thing, even if in a secret and hidden fashion. No one can escape the penalty of his sin on his own. Especially can the moral man not escape the judgement of God, because he has been exposed to the standard and to the goodness of God. Morality and spirituality are not one in the same.
We are really good at pointing out other people's faults while we ourselves have those faults ourselves. We all find it very easy to point out others sin, but we hope others do not see ours. In the context of all of this, we forget that we can not possibly know what's going on in other people's hearts. Only God can do that. We tend to be hard on others and soft on ourselves when it comes to passing judgment. The self-confident moralist hopes that God will grade him on a curve. But, the obvious truth is we are all deserving of Hell.
In v.2-3 of today's passage we read, "2 But we know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things. 3 And do you think this, O man, you who judge those practicing such things, and doing the same, that you will escape the judgment of God?"
God judges based upon the truth which does not change. And, God judges also on the basis of our practice. This word "practice" denotes that the sins listed at the end of the previous chapter are descriptive of the person's lifestyle. The Apostle Paul was not writing about those who have temporary slip-ups with said sins. He was addressing those whose lifestyle is regularly described by those sins. He was addressing those who had rejected God and His truth.
The fact that God judged the Lord Jesus while He hung on the cross on the basis of the truth, underscores the preciousness of that voluntary act done by the Lord on our behalf. If He had not gone to the cross and be made sin for us, we would have absolutely no hope. But, since the Lord Jesus did, we can escape the judgement of God by depending upon His work on that cross for the forgiveness of our sin.
In v.4 of today's passage we read, "Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and long-suffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?"
It is the goodness of God that leads us to repentance, to turn away from self to be defined by Him. God's goodness, tolerance, and patience are exhibited by the fact that He gives us the chance to own up to our utter wickedness, to confess our need of Him and the depend upon His Son's death on the cross for the forgiveness of our sin. And, once we do that, we should not be judgmental of others.
Kindness is a better way to explain God's goodness here, because it is not goodness as opposed to badness. It is that He is good in the sense of being benevolent, generous, merciful, and kind. God does not just see our sinful deeds, He also sees our sinful condition. We have to see all our life in this respect. A faithful God, judging the inner part of our lives gives us these opportunities. He knows we are blind to our sinfulness. He knows that we often struggle at recognizing what is wrong in our lives, and so He gives us these opportunities to turn away from self and to turn to Him. These moments of truth are very important.
The repentance the Apostle Paul writes about here is repentance from our way, dependence upon self. The man who equates spirituality with morality does not get what it is really all about. He sees himself sharing the throne with God. He sees Himself as earning God's favor. But there is a problem with sharing the throne with God. We can't! We are still flawed and not consistent with "the Truth." And if we have experienced the kindness of God, we will not be judgemental.
Have you ever noticed that we do not judge the ones we love? It bears to reason, when we judge, we have a love problem. This is why in Romans 5 the Apostle Paul writes about the love of God being poured out in our hearts. This is Paul's argument and he is nailing the Jewish Christians in Rome with his words "But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger."
Finally, it appears that that Paul is saying that we earn our salvation, but as we have pointed out over and over before, how much goodness on our behalf is enough to merit God's favor? Of course, the answer is we can not be good enough. We will see that the key to our rightness with God is not the amount or quality of our goodness but the object of our faith in His goodness that makes us right with God.
