A Study by Scott Sperling   Romans 2:1-5 -  The Condemnation on Those Who Judge Others   1  You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. 2  Now we know that God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth. 3  So when you, a mere human being, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment? 4  Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance? 5  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. In this section of the epistle, beginning from Romans 1:18 and continuing here, Paul is exposing to the reader the universality of sin, and thus also, the universality of the need of all people to accept Christ’s sacrifice for their sins, in order to survive the judgment day. In the previous section, Paul wrote of those who are not involved in the worship of the True and Living God, who do not have the revelation of God and his law through the Bible (the so-called heathens). Paul showed that they are “without excuse” (Rom. 1:20) because, even though they are not exposed to the revelation of God in the Bible, they are exposed to the revelation of God through the Creation. They, in fact, “suppress the truth” about God (1:18), and follow their own path of a life of sin and rebellion against God. Paul ended chapter 1 with a catalog of sins that heathens practice, as proof of their rebellion against God. Starting here in chapter 2, Paul turns to those who have the revelation of God’s law, and who know objectively right from wrong through it. He begins: “You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things” (vs. 1). “Paul now moves on to show that those who sit in judgment on their fellows are as guilty as those they judge. There is a natural tendency to justify ourselves for the wrong we do by condemning people who do other evils that we think are worse… Paul’s point is that we are all involved in a solidarity of sin that embraces the whole human race” [Morris, 138]. “Paul enables his readers in Rome to share in the discovery process that he probably used when he preached his gospel to mixed audiences. We can imagine many self- professed moral people adding their ‘Amen’ to the kind of denunciation of ‘heathen’ sins that we find in 1:18- 32. Suddenly, however, Paul turns on these people and accuses them of doing ‘the very same things’” [Moo, 129]. Note Paul’s change of style here. He directly addresses his reader, saying “You…”, and then Paul imagines the objections and responses of the reader to what he is writing. Paul is using here, and in many places in this epistle, the literary style called diatribe. This was a common style used by Greek philosophers, especially those writing about ethics. It is effective because it personalizes what Paul is writing to the reader’s experience. It shines the light directly on the reader’s thoughts and actions. This rhetorical style “allows for spirited argument between the writer and his readers” [Morris, 140]. The “you” to which Paul is speaking is presumably a Jew (see vs. 17), though these words could apply to anyone who is self-righteous and quick to condemn others for their sins, while ignoring their own. Paul’s ultimate goal, as stated, is to show that all, Gentile and Jew, need the salvation of Jesus. The case of the Jews is handled specifically here, because the Jews felt that their salvation was assured just by being Jewish. Their natural attitude when presented with the gospel message was that they did not need salvation through Jesus. “Yes (the Jew might say), all that you have just now said concerning the moral condition and consequent misery of the Heathen is true. But what is that to us? We are God’s elect. We are His privileged people. We have His Law. We have the Holy Scriptures” [Wordsworth, 212]. “In order to appreciate the force of the apostle’s reasoning in this and the following verses, it should be remembered that the principal ground on which the Jews expected acceptance with God, was the covenant which he had made with their father Abraham, in which God promised to be a God to him and to his seed after him. They understood this promise to secure salvation for all who retained their connection with Abraham, by the observance of the law and the rite of circumcision. They expected, therefore, to be regarded and treated not so much as individuals, each being dealt with according to his personal character, but as a community to whom salvation was secured by the promise made to Abraham” [Hodge, 47]. “The Jews would at once assent to the truthfulness of the previous description [of the sins of the heathens]; but while condemning the Gentiles, they would mentally excuse themselves” [Schaff, 30]. Paul goes on to tell his reader, the “you” of vs. 1, exactly why, by judging others, he is condemning himself: “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 you will escape God’s judgment?” (vss. 2-3). Even the Jew, who is familiar with the perfect righteousness of God, would have to agree that God’s judgment is “based on truth.” “Paul thus introduces what he regards, and what his readers regard, as an undoubted truth” [Schaff, 31]. “In claiming that God’s judgment is ‘according to truth’, Paul is affirming that God’s judgment against sin is fully in accord with the facts, that it is just. This tenet was one on which both Paul and his dialogue partner could agree, it being a standard Jewish teaching” [Moo, 131]. “If God decides any matter, rule, right, character or destiny, he does it according to truth, and truth is eternal and unvarying” [Plumer, 89]. “If God should sentence Gentiles to condemnation for transgression of the work of the law written in the heart, and pass a different sentence on Jews transgressing the law of Moses, His judgment or sentence would not be according to truth. If some transgressors escaped, while others were punished, the truth of the threat or penalty was destroyed” [Haldane, 76]. “God’s judgment is according to truth, i.e., it is righteous and proceeds from the exalted nature of God. It is not capricious. The Lord does not condemn in one man that which he commends in another. He does not look upon appearances, professions and plausibilities. What he loathes in a Greek, he abhors in a Jew” [Plumer, 84]. And so, given that God’s judgment is “based on truth”, then any sinner, whether heathen, Christian, or Jew, needs to be in fear of God’s judgment, for they will not “escape” judgment based on what they have done. We all, I am confident to say, have “done the same things” that Paul accused the heathens of doing in chapter one. Let us look again at the catalog of sins that Paul leveled against the heathens (see 1:18-32). Have we been sinless in regards to “sexual impurity”  (vs. 1:24), and “shameful lusts” (vs. 1:26)? If we can say we are sinless in that regard, well then, have we ever displayed signs of “wickedness” or “evil” or “greed” or “depravity” (vs. 1:29)? Or have we ever practiced “envy” or “murder” or “strife” or “deceit”  or “malice” (vs. 1:29)? Or have we been “gossips” or “slanderers” or “God-haters” or “insolent” or “arrogant” or “boastful” (vs. 1:30)? Have we ever “invented ways of doing evil” (vs. 1:30)? Have we ever “disobeyed our parents” (vs. 1:30)? Have we ever been “unfaithful” or “love-less” or “merciless” (vs. 1:32)? Certainly, none of us can travel this gauntlet of sins and remained unstained. Undoubtedly, Paul is speaking truth, when he states, that we all “do the same things.” Given this, it is absurd to think that we who “do the same things” will “escape God’s judgment.” On the contrary, we who have the revelation of God’s law are more blameworthy, more deserving of judgment, because we “do the same things” with the full knowledge that they are abhorrent to God, and deserving of His righteous judgment. “Every judgment pronounced on another becomes the self- condemnation of the one judging; for he is in the same condemnation with the one who is judged by him” [Lange’s, 94]. “The Gentile sinner is without excuse; and his critic—whoever he may be—is equally without excuse, even though [like the Jew] he imagines himself to be on a platform of lofty superiority. No such platform really exists. In fact, the critic only passes sentence upon himself, for by the fact of his criticism he shows that he can distinguish accurately between right and wrong, and his own conduct is identical with that which he condemns” [Sanday-Headlam, 53]. “The truth that God’s judgment is just, and will fall on those who themselves commit the sins which they condemn in others, is so plain, that the apostle exclaims at the folly of those who seem to deny it” [Hodge, 48]. The self-righteous people who judge others, yet “do the same things”, and who well know God’s requirements under the law, multiply their sin even more, because they show contempt for God by flagrantly defying him: “Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?” (vs. 4). “Every sin against God has in it more or less contempt of his glorious excellency” [Plumer, 89]. Many see God’s delay of punishment for sin as either proof that God does not exist, or as proof that God does not care if we sin. Rather, we should view God’s delay of punishment as “riches of his kindness”, and these riches are “intended to lead us to repentance.”   “The goodness of God has both the design and tendency to lead men to repentance. If it fails, the fault must be their own… It is a great abuse of the divine goodness and forbearance to derive encouragement from them to continue in sin. Such conduct will certainly aggravate our condemnation” [Hodge, 58]. “By every year which rolls over our heads—by every morning in which we find that we have awoke to the light of a new day instead of awakening in torment—by every hour and every minute through which the stroke of death is suspended, and you still continue a breathing man in the land of gospel calls and gospel invitations—is God now justifying His goodness towards you… It were offence enough to sin against the authority of a superior; but to sin against his forbearance forms a sore and a fatal aggravation” [Chalmers, 40]. When we ignore the “kindness, forbearance and patience” of God, by continuing in sin and not seeking His forgiveness, there is a penalty to be paid: “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” (vs. 5). By continuing in sin, and by taking advantage of God’s patient forbearance, we are “storing up wrath” against ourselves. So, in effect, by ignoring the “riches” of God’s kindness (see vs. 4), we are storing up “riches” of “wrath”. “The treasure of wrath is substituted by the impenitent for the wealth of the Divine goodness” [Liddon, 42]. “Sins will be punished according to their accumulation. A man is rich according to his treasures. The wicked will be punished according to the number and aggravation of their sins” [Haldane, 80]. “God’s patience with sin must not be taken as a sign that he is weak or that he will withhold his judgment forever” [Moo, 134]. “Ironically, the delay in divine retribution gives one even more time to accumulate a store of wrath” [Mounce, 64]. It is a “fearful delusion of the man who expects advantage from sin” [Robinson, 133]. “This spiritual hardness accompanied by impenitence causes one to store up wrath, a metaphor drawn from commerce for accumulating wealth, literally ‘storing treasure.’ The picture here is the progressive accumulation of sin throughout one’s lifetime that will end with the final judgment before God’s judgment seat, called the day of God’s wrath” [Osbourne]. Make no mistake, there will come a time when God’s patience with sin will come to an end, and He will judge every single person, according to what he has done. This will be “the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed” (vs. 5). “We should not miss Paul’s point that sin will inevitably reap its due reward, and that God will be active in the process” [Morris, 146]. We are told elsewhere by Paul: “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad” (II Cor. 5:10). “It will be a day when His righteousness shall be universally manifested and magnified; when all His attributes shall be glorified; His wonderful clemency sweetly displayed; His exact justice terribly demonstrated; His perfect wisdom clearly unfolded; all the knotty plans of Providence wisely resolved; all the mysterious depths of His counsels fully discovered; and His injured honor and glory clearly repaired, to the joyful satisfaction of all good men, and to the dreadful consternation and confusion of the wicked and impenitent world” [Burkitt, in Lange’s, 106]. On that day, God’s judgment will be a “righteous judgment”, in accordance with the perfectly righteous character of God.  “There is no judgment of God which is not according to strict justice; there is none that is a judgment of mercy. Mercy and justice are irreconcilable except in Christ, in whom mercy is exercised consistently with justice. There is no judgment that admits repentance and amendment of life as satisfactory to justice. Repentance and amendment are not admitted to stand in the room of righteousness. It is a truth to which there is no exception, either with respect to God or man, that righteous judgment admits no mercy. The acquittal of the believer in that day will be as just as the condemnation of the sinner. It will be the day in which God, by Jesus Christ, will judge the world in righteousness, according to the strict rules of justice (see Acts 17:31), in which none will be acquitted except those whom the Lord, in His representation of the judgment, calls the ‘righteous’ (see Matt 25:31-46); and He calls them righteous because they are really so in Christ Jesus” [Haldane, 80-81]. Click here to see Bibliography and Suggested Reading