Judged by Works?
What is Paul Thinking?
The Book of Romans is Paul’s most organized and comprehensive theological writing. He begins this treatise with a discussion of the state of humankind and the reason for God’s wrath and judgement. We have divided this portion of the writing into three chapters.
In this study, we will be looking at chapter two and verses 5-16 in particular. To understand this passage accurately we must familiarize ourselves with what Paul is saying in this part of his letter.
Let’s begin by reading
Romans 1:16–20 NIV84
I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”
The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
John R.W. Stott in his wonderful book, “The Message of Romans” helps us see the reason that Paul wants to share the Gospel. He does it by engaging the Apostle in a dialogue.
The Message of Romans 4. Depraved Gentile Society (1:18–32)
Paul: I am not ashamed of the gospel (16a).
Q: Why not, Paul?
Paul: Because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes (16b).
Q: How so, Paul?
Paul: Because in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, that is, God’s way of justifying sinners (17).
Q: But why is this necessary, Paul?
Paul: Because the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness (18).
Q: But how have people suppressed the truth, Paul?
Paul: Because what may be known about God is plain to them … For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities … have been clearly seen … (19–20).
The Gospel reveals the righteousness of God and that is desperately needed because God’s wrath is currently being revealed against the evil being practiced by those who rebelliously and obstinately reject God.
This is the reason for Paul’s letter and it also functions as something of an outline for the first three chapters.
He goes on to show that this godlessness and wickedness is not accidental, nor does it spring from simple ignorance. He lists several ways in which God has made Himself known to all people and then goes on to list some of the ways people suppress this knowledge. That reveals that they are wilful in their self-righteous and self-centered manner of living.
As the discourse crosses from chapter one to chapter two, the Apostle explains that such people will be judged by God, whose judgment will include people who judge others, yet do the same kind of things themselves. Hypocrisy is ungodliness and since everyone has sinned, we are hypocrites when we pass judgement on others who sin differently than us because it’s really all the same.
He reminds us in
Romans 2:2 NIV
Now we know that God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth.
God is a righteous judge because God is the Righteous One. This is pointed out again as Paul closes this part of his logical argument in
Romans 3:26 NIV
he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.
God is just and God is the one who justifies. God does what He does because He is who He is. Whenever we approach difficult passages like the one we are currently examining, we are well served to keep that statement in mind. Our Father is Love and Love does no wrong to others as Paul points out in
Romans 13:10 NIV
Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.
With this overview in mind, let’s begin examining
Romans 2:5–16 NIV
But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. God “will repay each person according to what they have done.” To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor 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, honor and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For God does not show favoritism.
All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law. For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous. (Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts sometimes accusing them and at other times even defending them.) This will take place on the day when God judges people’s secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares.
Romans 2:5 NIV
But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed.
When people set their minds against God, preferring instead to determine for themselves what is right, they are storing up wrath for themselves. They store up the very thing they are trying to avoid because they are trying to do it themselves, thus making themselves out to be gods by asserting that they know better than the One who created them.
Wrath is understood by many to mean anger and wrath certainly carries that meaning. Here we are talking about the day of judgement, and God’s wrath is the retribution, or the just consequence, of elevating self above God. God has strong indignation toward wickedness and evil. It cannot exist in His Kingdom. This isn’t anger directed particularly at people. Rather it is indignation at that which seeks to harm His children. The wrath of judgment is the necessary first step in the eradication of wickedness and evil is all its forms.
God is just; and therefore, God treats everyone justly. Those who reject His offer of reconciliation and Love are rightly judged as not desiring relationship with God. On the day when God’s righteous judgment is revealed they will find themselves separated from God, just as they wished.
Romans 2:6 NIV
God “will repay each person according to what they have done.”
This verse can leave us a little nervous.
Have we done the right things?
Have we done enough?
Are we going to measure up?
But when we think this way, we are forgetting that we have One who did the deeds for us. The Lord Jesus did the deeds on our behalf. He forgave us of all our wickedness and evil. Dying on the cross, He served our sentence for us. Then He rose from the grave because He was perfect and therefore death had no claim on Him. The work that He was doing in His death and resurrection was to reconciles us to God. This is made clear in
2 Corinthians 5:19 NIV
God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them.
Regarding what Jesus did, He said this in
Matthew 5:17 NIV
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.
Paul picks up the theme of fulfilled law in
Romans 8:4 NIV
in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
Do you see it?
Jesus did all the things that need doing and gave us the credit. We are judged by what He did. For God to judge us otherwise would be unjust because Jesus took our place, took our sin, took our punishment—that’s mercy! Then Jesus conquered death, rose to Life, and gave us His righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21), gave us His indestructible Life—that’s grace!
We get further insight from
1 John 4:15–17 NIV
If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus.
This will help us understand what comes next in our Romans passage.
Romans 2:7–11 NIV
To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor 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, honor and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For God does not show favoritism.
We just read that God dwells, or lives, or resides, in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God and that they dwell, or live, or reside, in God. That is as persistent as it gets. God is not moving out, and we cannot move out.
The point is that Paul is excluding everyone who is not in Christ, everyone in whom the Spirit does not live. That includes any who might claim to follow Jesus or even claim righteousness, but are not born of the Spirit. False professors of faith are not among those who persevere, persist, and patiently continue. They are seed that falls on rocky soil, spring up, and then fade away when bad weather comes.
This persistent indwelling is true whether one is a Jew or a Gentile. Jesus came to the Jews first. He was revealed as savior of the Gentiles a bit later.
Romans 2:12–16 NIV
All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law. For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous. (Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts sometimes accusing them and at other times even defending them.) This will take place on the day when God judges people’s secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares.
At this point Paul introduces law into his presentation. Here’s what’s going on. Paul is logically presenting the idea that those in depraved Gentile society, critical people judging morality based on the law innate within them whether Jews or Gentiles, self-confident Jews who trust their knowledge of the Law of Moses, and indeed all humanity, is lost without the Lord Jesus. Everyone is guilty. As he draws his argument to a close he will say in
Romans 3:23 NIV
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
Let’s notice a small, but not insignificant detail in verse 12. The text reads “For as many as have sinned without the law, anomos, shall also perish without the law: and as many as have sinned in the law en nomos shall be judged by the law.”
The King James Version removes the definite article “the” before the first two occurrences “law.” It reads “who have sinned without law.” Other translations generally footnote this section to show that the Greek does not contain “the” before “law.” In their defense, this is a judgment call because Greek sometimes employs the definite article differently than we do in English.
The question hinges on the Greek phrase for “sinned in/under the law en nomos.” I agree with the translators of the KJV here because the Gentiles were never in/under the Law, but the Jews certainly were. Consequently, I think Brother Paul intends that the occurrences of “law” in the early part of the verse refer to the innate law Father graciously placed within every person and “law” in the latter part of the verse is referring to the Law of Moses.
Given that background, notice that it says those who have sinned “without law” anomos shall be judged “without law” anomos and then it says those who have sinned in “the law” en nomos shall be judged by “the law.”
Hold this thought for a moment and let’s continue unpacking this.
Verse 13 reads, “For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous.” Here again, the definite article “the” is not present in Greek. Here however, it seems clear that Paul is referring to the Law of Moses because the natural law within people is not “heard” by anyone, but the Law handed down by Moses certainly was. It contained the terms of the Old Covenant between God and the Hebrew people and it was read to them immediately when it was established and repeatedly afterward.
Now Paul is going to add some detail that helps us understand why he wrote verse 12 the way he did.
Verses 14 & 15 say, “Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts sometimes accusing them and at other times even defending them.”
So there is “the Law”, that is, the Law of Moses. The Hebrew people were subject to this Law. It was given by God on Sinai and handed down by Moses. But everyone who was not a Hebrew was excluded. We read in
Ephesians 2:11–12 NIV
Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called “uncircumcised” by those who call themselves “the circumcision” (which is done in the body by human hands)—remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.
The Hebrew people were raised to keep the Law, but they could not succeed. The Law was designed to show them their weakness and cause them to look to God instead of behavior deeds for salvation. Those who trusted the Law rather than God will be judged by the Law.
Meanwhile the poor heathen Gentiles did not have a law from God written on stone and scroll. However, God being Love, had not left them completely bereft. He instilled a natural sense that some things are right and others wrong. It has been fashionable in recent years to question the existence of absolute truth. Nevertheless, no one would think it was okay for someone to break into their home, beat them senseless with a baseball bat, and make off with their property. Everyone knows this.
More to the point, people know instinctively whether what they are doing is right or not. The fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil saw to that way back in the garden. Indeed this is what it means for every human to have been born into sin. The power of sin entered the world at that time. Sin brought with it the idea of self-determination, which is the thought that people can determine for themselves what is right and what is wrong—effectively making them into gods. Once people knew good and evil, they could not help but judge between them. One need only browse around YouTube or watch the evening news to see the truth of that.
This natural inner law is what we refer to as the conscience. Verse 15 talks about this. It says, “They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts sometimes accusing them and at other times even defending them.” Paul is pointing out that law is law, whether it is the Law of Moses or the innate law of conscience.
Now when we read “All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law.” we can understand that Paul is speaking of the Gentiles. Likewise, when he says that “all who sin under the law will be judged by the law.” he is talking about the Jews. Indeed we can now understand his statement in verse 11 that God does not show favoritism. He treats everyone justly, Jew, Gentile, or whomever.
Verse 16 concludes that “This will take place on the day when God judges people’s secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares.” That’s what he meant back in verse 5 when he referred to the revelation of the righteous judgement of God. Judgment is a given. Justice requires it. On the day of judgment, the just judgment will be revealed and there will be no speculation.
The translators of the NIV did us a favor in this passage by including parentheses around verses 14-15. The translators of the King James Version also included verse 13. If we accept this punctuation and remove the parenthetical statement (verses 13-15), the thought Paul is communicating is this.
“All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law. This will take place on the day when God judges people’s secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares.” Romans 2:12 & 16.
The parenthetical statement in 13-15 is an explanation or elaboration describing the two forms of law.
What Does This Mean for Believers?
The elephant in the room however is still largely undiscussed. The plain reading of the text indicates that everyone will be judged/repayed according to what they have done (verse 6).
The reason for this is that Paul is building a logical framework upon which he will hang his case for Jesus Christ. In this section of his letter he is establishing that God exists, that people know this, and that wickedness and evil are the result of obstinate refusal to agree with God that He is their only hope. He shows that everyone falls short of the righteousness required for relationship to God.
As this letter progresses, Paul will expound on the mechanics and benefits of spiritual rebirth, the difficulties and rewards of Life in Christ, and practical guidance about living a life of Love.
In this section then, we are considering those who are not in Christ. Those in whom the Spirit does not dwell.
We learn in
Romans 8:1 NIV
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,
We have come full circle to 1 John 4:16
1 John 4:16 NIV
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.
Folks, we are joined to the Lord in a mystical one-spirit union (see 1 Corinthians 6:17).
Jesus says in
John 5:24 NIV
“Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life.
Paul says in
Colossians 3:3 NIV
For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.
No judgement for things we do in the flesh will be ours. Every ungodly thing we have done has been wiped away forever, subsumed in the Love, mercy, and grace of our lovely Lord Jesus who summed it up well in
John 3:18 NIV
Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.
Saint, your judgment is done. The verdict was not guilty. The result is freedom.
