THE GOSPEL OF GOD
Meditations in the Letter to the Romans
THE STRICT JUSTICE OF GOD
Romans 2:5-10

"God will give to each person according to what he has done" Verse 6.
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THE ARGUMENT and message of Paul in these six verses revolve around verse six, and the message he is seeking to get over is the strict justice of God to all, to the Jew as well as the Gentile. God treats everyone in the same way, and there is no favouritism to anyone or to any class of people. Paul is seeking here to bring to the understanding of the Jew that they need the gospel as much as any Gentile, and that they can't depend on their being Jews, or that because they are Jews they are in a privileged position with regard to the favour of God. Further Paul is seeking to convince them that any reliance on their religious culture and life also will be of no avail. Even though God gave them this culture, they had to see that it was a means of pointing them to Christ, and that it was not an end in itself.

As Paul speaks to the Jews in this way, he also speaks in our day to all people who are religious in the same way as the Jew of New Testament times, who are depending on their goodness, their moral standing and their religious practices to gain acceptance before God. God treats all alike. He treats the religious person with the same strict justice as the godless and irreligious person. God requires of all of us total conformity to his holy standards, and if we fall short of this, we come under his strict justice and necessary condemnation. This is why the gospel is needed by all, for it is only in the gospel concerning Christ's work for us that we are provided with righteousness, by gift of grace, that meets all the holy requirements of God.

Paul addresses first in verse 5 a universal condition of all religious people who are seeking God's favour through their religion and moral standing. The condition is in their hearts. Their hearts are stubborn and unrepentant. This may seem to be a false statement when we see that confession of sin is a constant aspect of their religion. The Jews confessed their sin. Indeed their repentance was part of the religious practice that made them feel they merited God's favour. This is true of all religious people. All religious acts, in a deep seated way, are believed by merely religious people to be part of the reason why they are in a special relationship to God and so merit his favour.

The problem is that in all this religious activity there grows a sense of doing good. The purpose of such activity is to do good and so gain glory, honour and immortality. But in this activity and belief grows an insensitivity to sin in general and the sins of omission and commission which we all commit every day, and so every day fall short of the glory of God. Although there is the desire, by constant doing, to be good, real perfect goodness is not achieved, and this is what the religious person can't see. Their heart is stubborn and will not face this fact. Because of this, with all their constant acts of repentance, their heart is still an unrepentant heart because they will not face the truth about the sin they commit and the sin within them, which makes them fall short of the glory of God continually.

Religious people, far from gaining glory as they suppose, are in fact storing up wrath from God, which will fall upon them with devastating awesomeness on the day when they face God on his throne of justice. Though the aim of their religion is to be repentant, they are unrepentant because they will not admit or face the truth about how they daily fall short of the glory of God. The gospel of God's grace in Christ is the only way to become right with God.

Verse 7 speaks further of the motive in life of religious people, which is their downfall, and their blindness. It is easy to miss this if we do not read carefully. The message is in one word. This is in the word 'seek'. The Jews, and all religious people, have one motivation. They seek by their religious works and moral rectitude to gain glory, honour and immortality. They are seeking a reward for their labours. Their life is one of meriting God's favour and earning their place in heaven.

This is the way of the world. It is the old and first covenant of God, written within them, that is being expressed. The means of life is the good works that are done. The reason that life is expected is that there is a feeling that such good works deserve to be rewarded by God. Glory and honour and immortality is seen as a reward and a right. Notice again the way Paul writes.

Paul says at the end of verse 7 that God will 'give' eternal life for goodness. Firstly it has to be remembered that when God speaks of goodness he is speaking of the goodness that is in himself. God is speaking of the essential perfection of his character. Good people to whom God will give eternal life is to people with perfect goodness equal to God's goodness, where there is no falling short of his glory in any way whatsoever. Further God will 'give' eternal life. Even if a person could or did live perfect goodness, that would not merit eternal life. Perfect goodness is our duty as beings created by God, and eternal life is not our right because of it. God promised in grace that he would give Adam and Eve eternal life if they obeyed him perfectly, but it would have been a gift even then, not a deserving or a reward. The idea in religious people that eternal life can be earned is false. Perfect goodness is our duty to God. This is a duty we can't escape, but it does not earn anything for we owe it to God by creation.

This does not mean that perfect goodness is not necessary before God can in grace bestow eternal life. This is the wonder of the gospel. In the gospel God has provided in Christ this perfect goodness, which is bestowed by gift. In the light of this goodness, God justly and graciously bestows life to us. However there is no other way than in the Gospel that true goodness may be found. Christ is the only one who can bestow such goodness. The way of reward endemic in the thinking of all religious people always stores up wrath. It never brings salvation.

In verse 8 Paul speaks of people rejecting the truth. This is not just the truth about sin and goodness, but also the truth about the gospel. Religious people reject the truth in both these ways and this is the folly of their thinking.

The Jews rejected the truth of God concerning their sin and sinfulness. Jesus spoke concerning the Pharisees that they were like 'whited sepulchres'. In other words they were beautifully clean on the outside, but inside they were all corruption. The Jews could not see this. To be free from sin for them was keeping the multiplicity of rules and regulations outwardly, but it had no concern for the heart and its condition. God starts by looking at the heart. Jesus spoke of all sorts of corruption coming out of the heart. This was what defiles a person, Jesus said. The Jews rejected this truth. The Pharisee, whom Jesus describes in the Gospels, praying in the temple and telling God how good he was, illustrates how the Pharisee missed the truth about himself as falling short of God's standards and of the real holiness of God. On the other hand the tax collector who prayed in the corner 'God be merciful to me a sinner' accepted the truth about himself that he was a sinner before God and that he fell short of the holiness of God. The tax collector was justified before God whereas the Pharisee was rejected.

Then religious people, like the Jew of Jesus' time, reject the gospel. They do not see the need of any gospel. They feel that their good works will win them glory, honour and immortality. Indeed if they consider the gospel at all it is to criticise it as being immoral and encouraging sin, and even that the gospel is immoral because it does not require effort and doing on the part of the sinner.

The Gentile and irreligious people do indeed reject the truth, but the religious people do so as well even if they do not realise or accept that they do.

That God treats everyone before his justice in exactly the same way is the essence of Paul's argument in these verses. This is the thrust of our text, and of also verses 9 to 11 which end with the words "there is no favouritism with God". Paul was particularly writing for the Jew, and addressing their belief that they were in a particularly favourable relationship with God, because God had chosen them as his people throughout Old Testament history. Paul was also addressing the Jew's belief that their keeping of the religious rules and regulations earned for them God's favour. Paul's words also have special direction towards the many religious people in our churches today, and, for that matter, in other religions, who believe that it is by their diligent observing of religious duties, and their moral rectitude, that they are earning for themselves acceptance with God.

In verses 9 and 10, Paul is simply stating the fairness of God. He is not suggesting that anyone is able to do good in the way that prompts God to give eternal life. Paul is simply stating the exact fair way God acts. Whether we are a Jew or Gentile; or whether we are religious or whether we are not, God treats us the same. God will look at our thoughts, motives and actions, and if we do good according to his holy standard he will give eternal life, but if we sin he will bestow trouble and distress. Everyone of us is treated exactly the same.

The way God acts is in strict justice. Paul is showing the Jew that it is no good placing dependence on their national heritage, or even their religious culture. These are not the important things. What is important is whether a person fulfils strictly all the requirements of God's holiness. God promised Adam in grace that if he was perfectly obedient he would receive immortality, but Adam also was told that if he was disobedient he would suffer the penalty of death. Adam was disobedient and he did suffer the penalty which all humanity, Adam's posterity, endure now. The great question that the justice of God raises in the mind and heart of all serious and devout people is - How can a person be truly good in God's estimation? How can a person fulfil perfectly God's law and so be just in God's eyes? When this question is asked then there comes the answer that no one can, of or by themselves, meet the holy demands of God. It is in this way that Paul brings us to see our need of the Gospel. It is only through the Gospel that we can receive the righteousness of God which accounts us just before God.

There is no way any one of us can claim special favour before God. It does not matter whether we are highly religious, diligent in all religious forms and duties, or whether we are not. What is important is whether we are good as God looks for goodness. We need the goodness of God. It is only if we can be good as God is good that we can look for the blessing of the gift of eternal life. The fact is that whether we are religious or whether we are not, everyone of us has fallen short of the goodness of God, and so we all come under the just condemnation of God. Our only hope is that there is some means outside ourselves whereby we can be counted good in God's estimation. In this way Paul brings us to our need, as sinners, for a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we are provided with a righteousness that meets all the demands of God - the righteousness of God which is from faith from beginning to end (ch. 1 verse 17).