God's Rightoues Judgment

Lesson 9 - Romans 2_1-3

Sunday, March 3, 2019

3:25 PM

Review -

Last time we talked about the Three Exchanges

23: Exchanged the glory of God for images

So God gave them over to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts. Exchanged the truth of God for a lie verse 25

Were given over to vile affections or shameful lust Exchanged the natural relationship for unnatural ones

Given over a reprobate mind 28 Then a list of 23 sins and vices

I want us to notice something I did not mention last week - Most of these are gentile sins. Paul is talking to the gentile people Now in Chapter 2 Paul switches things up a little bit. Now Paul makes a powerful argument: He's trying to prove:

Jews are accountable to God for sin (2:1-3-8 Therefore: This is usually a connecting term. It normally introduces the result of that which immediately precedes. But in this section it is both unexpected and unclear.

Two possible answers

Paul's target in 1:21-32 may be wider than the Gentiles. He is talking to people who have had natural revelation which definitely includes all people.

While the Jews also had Special Revelation Another possibility Paul is not referring to the exchange passages but rather verses 18-20 the universal indictment because all are oppressing the truth. Whichever you take Paul is trying to prove that all (Jews and Gentiles) are "without excuse."

The Inexcusable Man - Notice Paul addresses a person in the singular "Oh man." A device used by the Greeks called a "Diatribe" kind of a teaching device, where you address a single person with whom you're in conversation. It’s a way of letting other people hear a dialogue you are presenting in order to teach them.

The "Man" or in other versions "You" is not an actual person Paul is addressing. Nor does it seem to be a member of the Roman church. It’s a vague reference - "You" whoever you are passing judgement.

It would seem that Paul is referring to a Jew, but is approaching it in a very delicate manner using this teaching device. He is rhetorically by not calling out a person, he is inviting this person to discover himself in what he is preaching.

You might picture Paul who has been preaching the Gospel for twenty years now. He kind of knows how people are. See him preaching in the open the first chapter crying out against all of the sins he has listed - and the good strong Jewish followers are standing over there crying out "Amen" "Preach at those Gentiles brother Paul."

This is when Paul brings out this device. They are to imagine the apostle face-to-face with a heckler who interrupts his argument from time to time with objections. Paul anticipates potential objections based on more than two decades of missionary preaching. He heads off false conclusions with a “By no means!”

Greathouse, William M. ; Lyons, George: Romans 1-8: A Commentary in the Wesleyan Tradition. Kansas City, MO : Beacon Hill Press of Kansas City, 2008, S. 85

Earlier we learned that Gentiles who rejected the revelation of God in nature were without excuse (1:20). Now we learn that Jews who passed judgment on their pagan neighbors had “no excuse” (2:1).[

Robert H. Mounce, New American Commentary – Volume 27: Romans, (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman, 1995), WORDsearch CROSS e-book, 87.

Judging

Jesus warned against condemning others.

In the Sermon on the Mount he said, “Do not judge or you too will be judged” (Matt 7:1). The kind of judging both Jesus and Paul referred to was not a sane appraisal of character based on conduct but a hypocritical and self-righteous condemnation of the other person. In the same context Jesus told his followers to watch out for false prophets (v. 15), who are to be recognized by their fruit (vv. 16–20). That would be difficult, to say the least, apart from determining which actions are moral and which are not. Evaluation is not the same as condemnation. It is the latter that passes sentence.

Robert H. Mounce, New American Commentary – Volume 27: Romans, (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman, 1995), WORDsearch CROSS e-book, 87.

Paul … will address the subject of judging one another as it relates to the church in Rome (Rom. 14).

But the issue he deals with in that passage is Roman believers judging the conduct of other believers, not the judging of unbelievers in order to justify oneself, which is the focus of this passage.

Clarence Bence, Wesleyan Bible Commentary – Romans, (Indianapolis, IN: Wesleyan Publishing House, 1996), WORDsearch CROSS e-book, 45.

God's Principles of Judgment 2:2-16

2-5 - The judgement of God is according to truth 6-15 - The Judgement of God is According to works

Next time we will discuss these further - what they mean