No One is Good Enough. Romans 2:5-16

Throughout time, from Genesis chapter three when Satan tempted Eve all the way up until the end of the millennial kingdom, as described in Revelation chapter twenty, the greatest enemy of God always proclaims the same truth: man can somehow come into God’s favor on the basis of his own good works, on the basis of his own morality, on the basis of his own ethics. We see this conflict in Genesis chapter four when, after God had taught the principle of animal sacrifice to Adam and Eve, Cain comes and instead of an animal for a sacrifice hr brings the fruit of his own effort. That was his offering to God; it was what he had done. But what Abel brought had nothing to do with his own efforts; it had to do with what God had provided. From the beginning of history there is this conflict between works and grace.

One of the difficult things with grace on the part of the people who believe in works is that they voice the rejection: Well, if God forgives, not because of what you do but because of what Jesus did, or He just freely forgives, then what keeps you in line? They forget that God keeps us in line. That is still principle. Belief that salvation is based on faith alone in Christ alone does not mean that Christians can just do whatever they wish to do whenever they wish to do and however they wish to do it. Grace does not mean antinomianism or licentiousness.

The focus in Romans is righteousness—the righteousness of God. And the issue in Romans is that man since Adam’s disobedience to God is not adjusted: he is not in line with and he does not conform to the perfect righteousness of God. Unless the creature conforms to the perfect righteousness of God he can’t have a relationship with God. God has standards.

Most translations end Romans 2:5 with a comma; it should be a period. This makes sense when we study through the context. There is a shift in verse 6 that goes down to verse 16 that takes us into another direction. To understand this we need to go back to Romans 1:17, 18. In 1:17 we have a statement of the theme: “For in it [the gospel] {the} righteousness of God is revealed…” His standard is revealed: man can’t get there on his own; nobody can get into heaven unless they meet His standards. If we who are creatures and are permanently flawed make one mistake, that’s it. God has a zero tolerance policy when it comes to righteousness. If there is one failure then you can’t get into heaven. You are a sinner; you are fallen; you are flawed. The only way to get in is on the basis of somebody else’s righteousness. And notice in this verse we have the word “revealed” here: “the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, ‘BUT THE RIGHTEOUS {man} SHALL LIVE BY FAITH.’”

In 1:18 we have a paragraph shift and there is this explanation that begins with the word “For”—“For the wrath of God…” This phrase “the wrath of God” is a dramatic way of expressing the harshness of divine judgment. God has provided the solution, but if the solution is rejected—which He freely gives—then He will on the basis of His own character bring about the just punishment. “…is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.” Then as Paul develops his flow of thought he is going to give two different consequences that flow from that, and he expresses this dramatically by using this unusual word to express “therefore.” The usual Greek word is oun [o)un], but what we have in 1:24 and again in 2:1 is the word dio [dio]. It has the same idea of drawing an inference or conclusion from a set of premises but it tells us that in terms of Paul’s flow here in terms of the structure there is the first set of consequences or results that occur from man’s rejection of God and his suppression of the truth in unrighteousness, and then there is a second line of consequences. These two lines of consequences characterize everybody in the human race—either flowing towards the first set which is immoral degeneracy or self-righteousness, which is moral degeneracy. Paul recognizes the basis principle here that there are those who are so arrogant and so filled with a sense of their own morality and so he says they who judge and condemn out of self-righteousness are without excuse. The self-righteous moral person is just as guilty of failing to live up to God’s standard as the immoral licentious person.

The point of verse 4 is at the end of the sentence: “the kindness [goodness] of God leads you to repentance?” Goodness is part of the essence of God. He is good to us, He is not mean or vindictive; He is a good God and He will do the right thing because He alone is righteous. So what Paul points out here is that God, by not lowering the boom on us when we are disobedient and sinful, not only gives us time to see how bad we can be and to experience the negative consequences of our bad decisions, but also He is wooing us, as it were, through His kindness and His goodness to turn back to Him. So God’s ultimate goal is that we turn to Him and have a relationship with Him. He is not sitting up there looking for opportunities to bring judgment upon us. But the self-righteous person despises that. He thinks that he is okay because God hasn’t really taken him through any extreme consequences for sin, and that he is moral and ethical and everything is fine with him. However, God is giving him time so that He can lead him to repentance. Repentance basically means to change your mind and to change your mind about God. Repentance also (from the Old Testament) has the idea of returning to God.

If we structure Romans with a break in verse 5 then repentance is in the context of divine judgment in the first section. Repentance is only used once in the book of Romans and it is not ever used by Paul in the context of justification. The word is only used about eight times in all of Paul’s thirteen epistles. The words believe and repent are not synonyms.

Romans 2:5 ^NASB “But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.” In the previous verse God has been forbearing, longsuffering, giving time to come to the right decision. But if there is continuing rejection of Him what we have in verse 5 is that that there is a storing up of wrath in the day of wrath. If we read that superficially it is easy to think that this is talking about a future day of judgment. But the way Paul uses the term “wrath” in Romans is not talking about future judgment in the Tribulation or eternal condemnation. He talks about it in the present tense; cf. 1:18, “the wrath of God is being revealed.” This is the judgment or the discipline of God upon rebellious mankind, both as a whole and individually, during history. Literally in the Greek here it doesn’t say “in the day of wrath,” it says “in a day of wrath”—no definite article there.

We see that there is a similarity in 1:18 to 2:5. This is like bracketing in literature. The similarities of vocabulary indicate that 1:18 starts the section and 2:5 ends the section. The word “wrath is used” once in 1:18 and twice in 2:5. Both verses use the word “revelation.” Chapter 2:5 talks about the righteous judgment of God with a different word. Righteous judgment has to do with diakrisis [diakrisij] which is a combination of dikaiosune [dikaiosunh] krisis [krisij], and this is expressed by the concept of the wrath of God being revealed in 1:18. So 2:5 is really the conclusion of this particular section, and Paul is talking about a temporal judgment.

The next verse starts anew. The way most translators handle this is to put a comma at the end of verse 5, take the relative pronoun that is found at the beginning of verse 6 and translate it as a dependent relative clause that goes back to what Paul has been saying in vv. 1-5. But verse 5 really ends the discussion that began in 1:18. This makes sense because if we think about the Paul lays down the principle of the wrath of God being revealed in 1:18-23, and then he gives the first consequence of suppressing truth in terms of immoral degeneracy in vv. 24-32. That is the immoral person. Then he gives the second example of the moral degenerate in 2:1-5. Then in v. 6 he shifts to talk about the end time consequences of disobedience to God and rejection of Him. He is now moving in a new direction and from v. 6 to v. 16 the focus is going to be on the final judgment of the unrighteous.

Who is Paul talking about when he is focusing on those from 1:24 down through 2:5? Christians or non-Christians? He is focusing on the wrath or judgment of God on those who reject the evidence of His existence in Romans 1:20. He is not talking about Christians at this point, he is focusing on unbelievers—the negative consequences, judgment in time of unbelievers for their rejection of Him. Coming out of verse 5 is the idea of what about those who have done well and those who have not done well? What about God’s final, ultimate judgment in terms of the moral people and the immoral people that we have just talked about?

People can get very confused in this next section because of the language. Romans 2:6 ^NASB “who WILL RENDER TO EACH PERSON ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS.” The first word should be translated as an independent clause where the relative pronoun is used as an independent pronoun. It should be translated “He.” “He WILL RENDER TO EACH PERSON ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS.” Paul starts this next section with a reminder of the principle that God’s judgment on mankind is going to based on works. This goes all the way through Scripture. The Greek word is ergon [e)rgon] and this is used again and again.

Psalm 62:12 ^NASB “And lovingkindness is Yours, O Lord, For You recompense a man according to his work.”

Proverbs 24:12 ^NASB “If you say, ‘See, we did not know this,’ Does He not consider {it} who weighs the hearts? And does He not know {it} who keeps your soul? And will He not render to man according to his work?”

Matthew 16:27 ^NASB “For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and WILL THEN REPAY EVERY MAN ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS.” He is talking about the second coming at that point. This judgment takes place actually after the Millennium at what is referred to as the great white throne judgment. This is described in Revelation 20:12 ^NASB “And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is {the book} of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds.” See also Revelation 20:13.

The problem that people have is that they make the mistake of thinking that Paul is somehow talking here of actually being able to become saved on the basis of works. But remember Ephesians 2:8, 9 ^NASB “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, {it is} the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.” Titus 3:5 ^NASB “He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit.” It is God’s work that saves us, not ours at all. Galatians 2:16 ^NASB “knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified.”

In 2:6 and 2:11 we have another bracket in terms of the concept. Verse 6 begins, “He WILL RENDER TO EACH PERSON ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS.” Verse 11 reminds us that He can do that because with God there is no partiality. So this next section is bracketed by a reminder of the character of the judge. Now Paul says, Romans 2:7 ^NASB “to those who by perseverance in doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life.” If you did it and you did it perfectly you’d get eternal life. The catch is, the moral person didn’t do it. That is what he is saying in verse 1. The moral person is just as guilty.

Romans 2:8 ^NASB “but to those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, wrath and indignation.” Everybody comes under that category; nobody qualifies under verse 7.

Romans 2:9 ^NASB “{There will be} tribulation and distress for every soul of man [every life] who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek.” Who does evil? Everybody. All Paul is saying in these verses is that God judges according to works. [10] “but glory and honor and peace to everyone who does good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” But nobody measures up. [11] “For there is no partiality with God.”

Romans 2:12 ^NASB “For all who have sinned without the Law…” That is a reference to the Gentiles. They don’t have the Law of Moses. “…will also perish without the Law, and all who have sinned under the Law will be judged by the Law.” How about those people who have never heard? Paul says they may not have that level of revelation but they did have some level of revelation. Explanation: [13] “for {it is} not the hearers of the Law {who} are just before God, but the doers of the Law will be justified.” It is not enough just to hear the Torah, you actually have to fulfill everything in it; not just some, but all. Paul later explains that the Law was nor designed to save people but to make them aware of their sinfulness.

Romans 2:14 ^NASB “For when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves.” What Paul is saying here is that there is a sense of right and wrong among those who have never received the Law of Moses. Every human being has a conscience. They inherently have a value system that tells them some things are right and some are wrong, and if they violate that they know they are guilty. So even the Gentile knows he is condemned because he has not lived up to whatever value system he has. [15] “in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them.”

Romans 2:16 ^NASB “on the day when, according to my gospel, God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus.” That is the great white throne judgment. What we have seen in our study is that the righteousness of God is going to be revealed in history as well as at the end of history. The evidence of God’s existence is clear to everybody and most people have a negative reaction. They are going to go in two directions. They are going to reject that truth and either take a high dive into immorality or stay up on the high board, look down at everybody and say they are better than everybody, therefore God will let me into heaven just because I am ethical. What Paul shows is that that is arrogance. That means that everybody has failed.

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