Self-righteous Gentiles are Still Sinners: 2:1-11

Welcome back to Episode 5 of Series 1. Good to have you with us as we continue the journey through Paul’s thinking about the gospel.

Background and Recap

If you have followed the series from the beginning, you will see how his ideas have developed and how he is very keen to explain why the gospel is so powerful in human life and can bring complete transformation. In order to do that, he has to deal with the fundamental question which we all wrestle with, which is the nature of what has gone wrong with humanity. People have so many different opinions about this issue: for some people it is the fault of the government; for some it is the fault of parents, or society, or education, or poverty, or war, or a famine that took place in your country. There could be any number of explanations of why we think things have gone wrong. Some people blame another race and see them as the cause of evil in the world.

The Christian message has a totally different explanation - a more radical and challenging explanation. This is what Paul is talking to us about in the second half of Romans chapter 1, and chapter 2, and the first half of chapter 3. He is explaining in detail what the problem is with the human race. It centres on the concept of sin - separation from God. I described this in previous episodes. It works out in our life by living independently of God. Paul has been describing the great mass of humanity as having fallen into a particular negative way of behaving which he describes as idolatry. Put simply, this means something else, or somebody else, is more important in your life than God himself. We described many forms of idolatry that we might experience in the modern world: the pursuit of money, success and power, sexual relationships, leisure, entertainment, self-fulfilment, and respect in community. All sorts of things that we can make the driving goal of our lives. They all end up being idols; something that is so central, it consumes our imagination, our heart’s desire, our thinking and our energy. That is idolatry and Paul addressed it earlier on.

Now he is beginning to look at the outworking of that idolatry. In the last episode, he described many different things that people do, think, and say which reflects this idolatry. Some of them were various forms of sexual behavior outside marriage. Some were negative ways of thinking, hostile words towards other people, and others were unloving actions towards other people. He has painted a very negative picture of humanity, as if we are all engrossed in this sinful independent lifestyle and alienated from God. That is Paul’s view.

As he has painted this dramatic picture, a question comes to mind. People reading this may get more and more agitated the longer Paul goes on, and say to themselves, ‘Well, surely not everyone is that bad’. Maybe you thought that as we were reading the text. Surely there are good people amongst the bad people; we must see a distinction in people between the really nasty, depraved people - the murderers, the thieves, and the people who do terrible things to others in their families on the one hand - and those who are trying to live a good life. Paul realises that people will be thinking this way.

Good and Bad People?

In this episode, he begins to address that attitude, and tries to work out whether there is an absolute distinction between good and bad people in humanity, or not. It starts with an opening statement in which Paul imagines somebody arguing against him. In chapter 2 he is going to imagine two people who argue against him. The first one appears in verse 1. This is an average Roman - someone who might be living in Rome and reading this, and saying, ‘Hang on a minute. I don’t think this is true’. And in verse 17, he is going to bring another challenger, who is a Jewish person saying, ‘Hang on a minute Paul, I don’t think you’ve got your understanding of the Jewish people right either’. First, it is the average Roman or Gentile - the mass of humanity.

“You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgments on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things.”

Romans 2:1, NIV

Paul is saying, some people look down on other people in society and say that they are the bad people but they themselves are not one of them. Paul responds by saying that they are not any different from them in reality. In fact, they are adopting a very judgmental attitude. He is introducing an interesting idea into his argument. Many people like this exist in our world today. In fact, it is a very common way of thinking. If you apply this to religion, you get the view that God is the ultimate judge and he will weigh up your life at the end of time to see whether you have done more good things than bad things, or more bad things than good. If you have done more good things than bad things, then you will be redeemed, or saved, or you will go into the eternal world. This is what many millions of people believe. They believe themselves to be in the good category. They are trying to be in the better category, and they are drawing a distinction between them and the people who are more evil than they are.

Paul is going to challenge this very directly. But before we get to Paul, it is interesting to note that this same question came up in Jesus’ ministry. People often came to him and said, ‘Look I do this and I do that, and I am trying to follow the right way. Aren’t I doing enough? Surely I am going to be justified’. Jesus had a similar answer to this question as Paul. An example will help to understand the biblical perspective on this situation. Jesus once told an interesting parable about a Pharisee, who was one of the most morally upright people in that society, and a tax collector who, in Jesus’ day, was considered very selfish, and worked for the Roman authorities in Judea who were the occupying power. Tax collectors were not religious; they tended to make a lot of money by the way they dealt with people and took too much taxation money from them. Jesus tells a story about these two people.

Luke 18: 10.“Two men went up to the Temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.” The Temple was the Jewish centre of religion, the place where you wanted to go to do business with God. Jesus chose a contrast - the most moral person you can think of and the most immoral person. The contrast is huge - similar to the contrast that is developing in Romans 2. The Pharisee and the tax collector went up to the Temple to pray.

Luke 18: 11“The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed, ‘God I thank you that I’m not like other people, robbers, evildoers, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and pay a tenth of all I get.’” Here we have somebody in the Gospel story doing exactly what Paul is describing in Romans 2: 1 saying, ‘I am not that bad, I fast twice a week, give a tenth of my money into the Temple treasury to pay for my religion. I am not like the robbers, the evil doers the adulterers, or this tax collector who is taking money off people that he shouldn’t be taking and becoming rich. No, I am not like that at all. I am above all those things. Human society is divided between the good and the bad. The bad are bound to be condemned by God but surely the good will be accepted by God’.This is what the Pharisee was hoping.

“But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me a sinner.’ I tell you that this man rather than the other went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled and those who who humble themselves will be exalted.”

Luke 18:13-14, NIV

All the religious works of the Pharisee were not enough to get him into a right relationship with God because pride, judgmentalism and self-righteousness was right inside him. As soon as the Pharisee saw the tax collector, his thought was, ‘What is he doing here? He never comes to the Temple – he must be in a desperate situation. Surely God won’t listen to his prayer; he never comes to the weekly service in the Jewish synagogue (the equivalent of church)’. This is exactly the type of situation Paul has in mind here in Romans 2. ‘You have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else’. He is pushing forward his argument that even people whose lives look relatively good, still have that selfish independence from God, that sense of self-righteousness, earning their way to salvation, making things work themselves, within them.

Judgmental Hypocrites

“Now we know that God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth. So when you, a mere human being pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think that you will escape God’s judgment? Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realising that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?”

Romans 2:2-6, NIV

Paul is speaking to these people and saying that their judgmental attitude is destroying them, and that they are hypocrites because they tend to do the same things as other people but in a more secret, less obvious way. That is exactly what happened with the Pharisees. The Pharisee in the Temple that we just described looking at the tax collector, described him as a robber, someone who takes money from other people. But we find elsewhere in the Gospels, that the Pharisees are described as people who love money. So they became quite rich, too, but in a religious way that nobody really noticed.

Similarly here, we have people who claim to be good and morally upright but are hypocrites. All the way through society, we will find people who claim a strong moral stance on one issue, or another, who are inconsistent. A recent example has been found in how government officials have dealt with the restrictions that have been put on their societies to do with the Covid pandemic. All the way across the world, corrupt officials have been found to be breaking their own rules. They stood up one day and told the people what to do, and the next day they were found to be breaking their own rules. This has been found in many different countries. This has created a sense of anger and upset amongst people. It is an illustration of what Paul is describing here. People who say they are morally upright always have some secrets to hide, a degree of hypocrisy.

God’s Judgement

“To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, and honour and immortality, he will give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile; but glory, honour and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For God does not show favouritism.”

Romans 2:7-11, NIV

Here we have the contrast and although Paul doesn’t state it explicitly here, it appears from the rest of the book of Romans that he is describing the attitudes of Christians ‘seeking glory honour and immortality; they will be justified.’ There is a threat here of God’s judgment again and we have seen the theme of God’s judgment in earlier episodes. If we go back to Romans 1:18, we see Paul talking about the ‘wrath of God being revealed from heaven’ and constantly in the book of Romans Paul has in mind the fact that after we die comes judgment, and then comes the decision of God as to whether we have believed the gospel and trusted in him, or trusted in our own righteousness.

Reflections

What things can we learn from this rather challenging passage where a hypocritical person is being identified, who says that they are morally better than everybody else but it turns out that they are very judgmental, and often do the same things that other people do but probably secretly and in a way that can’t be noticed.

My first reflection is, it is so easy to be judgmental, isn’t it? Christians can fall into that habit themselves. In society generally, and when you are talking to people on the street and in the workplace, the easiest thing to fall into is conversation where we casually criticise other people and put ourselves above them. Judgementalim is putting people into a box; not just assessing them but defining them, defining them as having failed in some way. The wife who says to the husband, ‘You didn’t listen to me; you never listen to me, you will never change’. She has moved from an incident, to a definition of her husband. The father who says to his son, ‘You are lazy; you are always lazy. You will never succeed.’ This is a judgmental attitude trying to define the son. It is very easy for us to be judgmental and to look around and say those people are doing what is really wrong, that is really bad in society; if I was running that, then the thing would be a lot better here. We can easily become judgmental. Paul is warning us not to be judgmental.

He is warning us about hypocrisy - saying one thing and doing another. He defines this as a characteristic of human behaviour. That is what we tend to do; we say one thing but we live another way. Sin is a state of being that affects everybody - even the outwardly good people. There are such people in every society but sin is still in their living independently of God, being judgmental, being hypocritical at times and having double standards.

Paul is gathering his argument together giving it real strength because he is trying to focus people’s minds on the power of the gospel because he passionately believes that none of this has to exist. We can break free from all the power of sin which is so great in our lives because Christ has come to set us free - completely, and utterly, and totally. That is the message that Paul is going to come back to in the second half of Romans chapter 3.

In the meantime, my final reflection is, there is something very interesting that Paul puts in this passage that is often forgotten. Verse 4 “Do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realising that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance”. He suddenly brings in the idea of God’s kindness in the middle of the discussion of wrath and sin. What is God’s kindness to us who don’t believe? God’s kindness comes in two things - one is sending people to preach the gospel to us, and two is in the form of time to repent.

“The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead, he is patient with us, not wanting anyone to perish but everyone to come to repentance.”

2 Peter 3:9, NIV

God is patient and kind. This is a prevailing thought in Paul’s mind at this point.

He wants people in Rome and elsewhere to be saved. He doesn’t want these negative thoughts about judgment to be the actual reality that they experience. In fact, he has dedicated his whole life to preaching the gospel so people can be set free from the terrible power of sin that he feels so deeply about. He remembers when he was trapped by sin. Paul was trapped by a tremendous sense of hypocrisy and self-righteousness - probably more than almost anyone else he was speaking to in this letter. He was a Jew who followed all the religious rules and regulations and yet he described himself as struggling to live by the Ten Commandments. He described all sorts of anger against the church and against Jesus Christ that he felt, and all sorts of unbelief. He was a hypocrite; he was self-righteous; he was the person that he describes in the beginning of this chapter. He knows what it feels like to feel you are above everybody else and yet sin dominated Paul’s life until he met Jesus Christ.

Paul’s arguments will continue. He has more to say. First of all, in the next episode, we are going to have a look at the question of conscience in more detail. It is a very important issue in Paul’s argument. What is the place of conscience in human life? One of the signposts that God has given to lead us towards him. Then later on in Romans 2 and the first half of Romans 3, he is going to talk about the situation of the Jews at that particular time. They had special revelation from God through the Old Testament. How did that leave them, in terms of the gospel? Where did they stand? Did they need the gospel or not? Were they in the same position as the Gentiles, or not? These are questions that Paul is going to answer as we carry on our study.

But for now we end with the thought that God very graciously has intervened. He is coming to humanity, offering salvation; he is offering the gospel. Paul is the number one agent of the gospel in this context. He is desperate to come to Rome. He says in an earlier part of chapter 1 that he wants a harvest there. That means he wants to see more people saved in that area - released from the power of sin. He knew what it was like to be under the power of sin. He describes it here in graphic detail. There is no place in the New Testament that describes the power of sin so strongly and as graphically as Paul does here. He leaves nobody with any excuses. He keeps closing doors to different excuses that might come, saying to the person who thinks they are above other people, ‘No, you are not. There are double standards; there is hypocrisy; there is judgmentalism’. You have failed to live up to your conscience. You fail to live up to God’s standards and you too need salvation.

With that thought, we will leave the episode here. Thank you for joining us and do continue with us, as we follow Paul’s arguments onwards from here.