2018 STUDY OF ROMANS
Chapter 2, Verses 1-5
God’s Consistent Judgment!
[4-15-18] > [4-22-18]
Review: “The Wrath of God!”
Romans 1:16) [NIV] 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.
Romans 1:17-32) [NLT] This Good News tells us how God makes us right in his sight. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith. As the Scriptures say, “It is through faith that a righteous person has life.”
NOTE: The Gospel reveals to us how we sinners can enter into a relationship with a Holy God wherein He has absolutely nothing against us, wherein He declares us to be righteous in His sight! We remain in the state of being right with God the same way we entered into the state of being right with God; that way is to continue walking in faith. We must continue to believe we are righteous because God declared us righteous.
18) The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness,
QUESTION: Vs. 16 tells us that the Gospel has the power to save us. Vs. 17 tells us that the Gospel reveals to us how we can enter into a relationship with a Holy God where He holds nothing against us. Why do we need to understand those 2 verses?
ANSWER: According to vs. 18 we need to understand the Gospel message that teaches us how to be saved because a Holy God is justifiably angry with the sin of mankind.
19) since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.
20) 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.
NOTE: Vs. 19-20 tell us that God holds atheists accountable because He has clearly revealed Himself.
26) Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones.
27) In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.
NOTE: These verses are talking about Homosexuality.
32) Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.
NOTE: They didn’t want God in their lives, so He allowed the inevitable to happen; their minds became depraved.
NOTE: The sins listed in vs. 24-32 were the result of God allowing mankind to go his own way. These individuals knew that God will punish this kind of activity, but they continue to delight in sin, and in those who sin.
This Week’s Lesson: “God’s Consistent Judgment!”
Romans 2:1-5) [NIV] You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, 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 man, 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, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness leads you toward repentance?
QUESTION: How do these verses relate to our review, Romans 1:28-32?
ANSWER: Paul started the discussion with the familiar: Gentiles are a bunch of sinners. All the Jewish readers would have been shouting “Amen!” at those closing verses of chapter 1. Now, at the beginning of chapter 2, he switches to the unfamiliar: Jews are sinners to.
QUESTION: What was Paul’s accusation to his Jewish readers?
ANSWER: He told them they were practicing, on an ongoing basis, the very sins they condemned the Gentile unbelievers for.
NOTE: Paul wanted those Jews that believed that God would judge the Gentile sinners for doing these things, and rightfully so, but not judge them for practicing the same sins, to see the foolishness of their thinking.
QUESTION: Who were these Jews that Paul was writing to?
ANSWER: They had to be Jewish “Christians” in the Christian Church in Rome.
QUESTION: Why would “Christian” Jews think this way?
ANSWER: They brought their old faith into their new faith, like many of us do.
QUESTION: What are we doing when we judge others this way?
ANSWER: We’re showing contempt for God’s very kindness that led to our salvation.
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.
“unrepentant,” – “admitting no change of mind, unrepented, impenitent” [Thayer].
QUESTION: Were these Jewish believers genuine believers?
ANSWER: You could make the argument from this verse that they were not. However, it’s possible that Paul is getting at something else.
Concerning these Jews in Rome – “They had received him, as their Lord and Messiah, but they have not yet understood the meaning of his salvation” [godswordforyou.com].
“Do you realize what you are actually doing when you relate to other believers on the basis of law and judgment? You are stubbornly living as though the Gospel was not in place, as though you will face God’s judgment on the basis of your own law-based performance. (You are living as though Jesus Christ had not died!) And what happens if there is no death of Jesus? What happens is, as the whole world knows, that ‘God will give to each person according to what he has done’, that the Jew, as well as the Gentile, will be assessed on the basis of how they lived” [godswordforyou.com].
Matthew 7:1-5) [NIV] “Do not judge, or you too will be judged.
2) For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
3) “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?
4) How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye?
5) You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.’”
QUESTION: What is the spiritual principle Jesus is teaching us here?
ANSWER: We will be judged in the manner that we judge others. Do you want to be judged by a Holy God for every sin you commit? If not, then don’t be so quick to judge others for their mistakes.
QUESTION: Is this teaching that judgmental Christians will go to Hell?
ANSWER: Christians go to Heaven; non-Christians don’t. Consequently, when applying this principle to the church, one of two things is true:
- “Christians” who judge others aren’t really Christians.
- It’s the principle of giving to others what you receive from God that is being taught.
NOTE: If the latter is true, then God is going to be working non-stop with believers to get them to the place where they understand grace. When we don’t give grace; we don’t understand grace. If we believe that we’re going to Heaven in spite of our being less than perfect, but we believe that others won’t, then we believe that God is grading on the curve. At that point, we believe we’re going to Heaven because we are better that those other folk.
QUESTION: What do you think the “plank” represents that is so bad it’s huge when compared to the “speck”?
ANSWER: I believe it to represent a judgmental attitude that causes us to become the “god” who passes judgment on others for their sins all the while we excuse ourselves for our sins.
A CLOSING NOTE: Our being better than others will not get us to Heaven! All of our sins must be washed away and we must be hid in Christ and closed with His righteousness in order to enter that Holy City! God does not grade on the curve! You must be clothed in the perfect righteousness of Christ to gain heaven!
2018 STUDY OF ROMANS
Chapter 2, Verses 6-16
Is Trying To Keep the Law Good Enough?
[4-29-18]
Review: “God’s Consistent Judgment!”
Romans 2:1-5) [NIV] You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, 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 man, 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, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness leads you toward repentance?
NOTE: Paul started the discussion with the familiar: Gentiles are a bunch of sinners. All the Jewish readers would have been shouting “Amen!” at those closing verses of chapter 1. Now, at the beginning of chapter 2, he switches to the unfamiliar: Jews are sinners to. He told them they were practicing, on an ongoing basis, the very sins they condemned the Gentile unbelievers for.
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.
James 2:8-12) [KJV] If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well:
9) But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors.
10) For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.
11) For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law.
12) So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty.
NOTE: We will be judged in the manner that we judge others. Do you want to be judged by a Holy God for every sin you commit? If not, then don’t be so quick to judge others for their mistakes.
A CLOSING NOTE: Our being better than others will not get us to Heaven! All of our sins must be washed away and we must be hid in Christ and closed with His righteousness in order to enter that Holy City! God does not grade on the curve! You must be clothed in the perfect righteousness of Christ to gain heaven!
This Week’s Lesson: “Is Trying To Keep the Law Good Enough?”
Romans 2:6-16) [NIV] God “will give to each person according to what he has done.”
7) To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life.
*QUESTION: Is the above passage teaching us that we go to Heaven as a result of our doing good?
ANSWER: No! It is reaffirming to us that we who put our faith in Christ seek to do the right thing.
Luke 8:15) [ERV] And what about the seed that fell on the good ground? That is like the people who hear God’s teaching with a good, honest heart. They obey it and patiently produce a good crop.
Luke 6:43-44) [ERV] “A good tree does not produce bad fruit. And a bad tree does not produce good fruit.
44) Every tree is known by the kind of fruit it produces. You won’t find figs on thorny weeds. And you can’t pick grapes from thornbushes!”
Ephesians 2:8-10) [KJV] For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
9) Not of works, lest any man should boast.
10) For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
QUESTION: What do we need to learn from the 2 Luke passages and the passage from Ephesians?
*ANSWER: Doing good things isn’t what gets us saved; but rather, when we are born again/recreated in Christ we are created to do good things. The doing good things is a result of our new birth, not the cause of it.
8) But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger.
9) There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile;
QUESTION: Are vs. 8-9 teaching us that those who are doing evil things will go to Hell?
ANSWER: Yes! But if that’s all you see here then you are missing the point. People do those evil things because they “reject the truth!”
NOTE: In both cases, doing what’s right or doing evil, is simply the fruit one bears as a result of how they handled the truth of the Gospel.
10) but glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.
11) For God does not show favoritism.
QUESTION: Again, is the doing the good things result in our inheriting “glory, honor and peace?
ANSWER: No! Our doing good things is simply the fruit we bear as a result of our having trusted Jesus.
12) 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.
QUESTION: When Paul wrote vs. 12 whom did he refer to when he wrote “who sin apart from the Law”?
ANSWER: He was referring to those sinner Gentiles/non-Jews.
QUESTION: Who was he referring to when he wrote “who sin under the law”?
ANSWER: He was referring to the Jews.
13) 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.
QUESTION: What is Paul trying to drive home to his Jewish readers in Rome?
ANSWER: Putting your confidence in a Law that you don’t keep won’t make you “righteous in God’s sight;” but it’s only those “who obey the law who will be declared righteous.”
Exodus 15:26) [ERV] He said to him, “I am the LORD your God. If you listen to me and do what I say is right, and if you obey all my commands and laws, then I will not give you any of the sicknesses that I gave the Egyptians. I am the LORD who heals you.”
*QUESTION: What is the problem with vs. 13 above?
James 2:10-12) [KJV] For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.
11) For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law.
12) So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty.
ANSWER: For the Law of Moses do benefit you in the area of be declared righteous before God you would have to keep all of it! If you break just one single commandment then you are “a transgressor of the law.”
14) (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,
15) since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them.)
QUESTION: What is Paul actually teaching us in vs. 14-15?
“Some understand this of nature assisted by grace, in converted Gentiles, whether before or after the coming of Christ; others expound the phrase, by nature, freely, willingly, in opposition to the servile spirit of the Jews, in their obedience to the law; though it rather seems to design the dictates of natural reason, by which they acted” [Gill].
ANSWER: I agree with those who understand these 2 verses to be referring to born again Gentiles. I believe Paul is speaking of the contrast between Jews having the Law but not being found righteous and the non-Jews not having the Law but having faith in Christ ignite their conscience to do what’s right.
16) This will take place on the day when God will judge men’s secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares.
QUESTION: What is the Apostle showing us in verse 12?
ANSWER: He is showing us that sin takes people to Hell who never had Moses’ Law, or those who did have Moses’ Law but failed to obey it.
QUESTION: What are verses 13 & 16 telling his readers?
ANSWER: He’s telling the Jewish readers in the Roman Church that having the Law of Moses, which was given exclusively to the Jews, doesn’t save you; only by obeying the Law can you be declared right with God.
NOTE: Paul’s telling his readers that when a non-Jew does something good that the Law teaches that it is demonstrating that the non-Jew has the Law “written on their hearts.”
- Paul is teaching that God’s Law is written on the very conscience of man.
- Or, Paul is teaching that the non-Jews in the Roman Church are living right, even though they never were under the Law of Moses, because they are new creatures in Christ.
2018 STUDY OF ROMANS
Chapter 2, Verses 17-29
Will the Real Jew Please Stand Up?
[5-6-18]
Review: “Is Trying To Keep the Law Good Enough?”
Romans 2:6-16) [NIV] God “will give to each person according to what he has done.”
7) To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life.
*QUESTION: Is the above passage teaching us that we go to Heaven as a result of our doing good?
ANSWER: No! It is reaffirming to us that we who put our faith in Christ seek to do the right thing.
Ephesians 2:8-10) [KJV] For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
9) Not of works, lest any man should boast.
10) For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
QUESTION: What do we need to learn from the passage from Ephesians?
*ANSWER: Doing good things isn’t what gets us saved; but rather, when we are born again/recreated in Christ we are created to do good things. The doing good things is a result of our new birth, not the cause of it.
8) But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger.
9) There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile;
NOTE: People do evil things because they “reject the truth!” In both cases, doing what’s right or doing evil, is simply the fruit one bears as a result of how they handled the truth of the Gospel.
12) 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.
13) 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.
NOTE: Putting your confidence in a Law that you don’t keep won’t make you “righteous in God’s sight;” but it’s only those “who obey the law who will be declared righteous.”
14) (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,
15) since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them.)
NOTE: I believe Paul is speaking of the contrast between Jews having the Law but not being found righteous and the non-Jews not having the Law but having faith in Christ ignite their conscience to do what’s right.
This Week’s Lesson: “Will the Real Jew Please Stand Up?”
Romans 2:17-29) [NIV] Now you, if you call yourself a Jew; if you rely on the law and brag about your relationship to God;
18) if you know his will and approve of what is superior because you are instructed by the law;
19) if you are convinced that you are a guide for the blind, a light for those who are in the dark,
20) an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of infants, because you have in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth-
QUESTION: What is Paul telling his Jewish readers in Rome?
ANSWER: You have so much confidence because you have the Law of Moses, something no other country on the planet has. You’re confident you can teach others and show them the direction to go. The problem is you’re not going the direction you’re instructing others to go!
21) you, then, who teach others, do you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal?
22) You who say that people should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?
23) You who brag about the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law?
QUESTION: What are verses 21-24 telling his Jewish readers they were doing?
ANSWER: Please note:
- They teach against stealing; but they themselves steal!
- They teach against committing adultery; bur they themselves commit adultery!
- They teach against idol worship; but they themselves “rob temples!”
- They brag about having the Law; but they themselves break the Law!
Regarding “do you rob temples,”
“Morris on the idea of robbing temples: ‘Clearly some people held that a Jew might well make profits from dishonest practices connected with idolatry, and Paul may well have had this in mind’” [Guzik].
The “Jews, after the Babylonish captivity, had never fallen into it. But then, though they had not the form, they might have the spirit of idolatry. That spirit consisted in withholding from the true God what was his due, and bestowing the affections upon something else” [Barnes].
24) As it is written: “God’s name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.”
“There are two passages in the Old Testament; which will bear on the case, and perhaps he had them both in his view; Isa 52:5; Eze 36:22-23. The meaning is not that the passages in the Old Testament, referred to by the phrase, ‘as it is written,’ had any particular reference to the conduct of the Jews in the time of Paul, but that this had been the character of the people, and the effect of their conduct as a nation, instances of which had been before observed and recorded by the prophets” [Barnes].
QUESTION: What is the truth Paul wants Jewish believers to understand?
ANSWER: Throughout history the Jewish people had the Law but often represented God extremely poorly.
QUESTION: What about us who are living under grace?
*ANSWER: We can also represent God badly; but if we do so it should not be because we profess to keep all of the rules all the while we are breaking them. We should always present ourselves as forgiven sinners, not as accomplished saints.
25) Circumcision has value if you observe the law, but if you break the law, you have become as though you had not been circumcised.
QUESTION: What was the value of the rite of circumcision?
ANSWER: It initiated Jewish boys into the Mosaic Covenant. However, if those Jews didn’t keep the Law once they were initiated into that Covenant then circumcision had not benefited them.
26) If those who are not circumcised keep the law’s requirements, will they not be regarded as though they were circumcised?
QUESTION: What does Paul argue here?
ANSWER: If vs. 25 is true then it stands to reason that those who “keep the law’s requirements,” i.e., live right will be “regarded” by God “as though they were circumcised.
*NOTE: Basically Paul is telling them that the way one is initiated into the Covenant of Grace is through accepting Jesus, becoming a new creature in Christ, and consequently, living right.
PLEASE NOTE: The “law’s requirements” in the Old Testament were that the Jews had to keep all of the laws of God. The “law’s requirements” in the New Testament are that we must have faith in God and love His people.
27) The one who is not circumcised physically and yet obeys the law will condemn you who, even though you have the written code and circumcision, are a lawbreaker.
QUESTION: What is Paul’s point in vs. 27?
ANSWER: The conduct of uncircumcised non-Jews who live right will condemn the circumcised Jews who have the Law but are lawbreakers.
28) A man is not a Jew if he is only one outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical.
29) No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a man’s praise is not from men, but from God.
NOTE: In this new dispensation of the Gospel many Gentiles who weren’t circumcised, and who never had Moses’ Law, were keeping the moral part of Moses’ Law. Paul states that they are in right relationship with God.
QUESTION: What are his concluding thoughts in this chapter?
ANSWER: When he talks about an inward Jew versus a physical Jew he is basically talking about who are God’s real people. God’s real people are the ones who live right, not the ones who are merely physical descendents of Abraham. In other words, all who have placed their faith in Jesus, rather Jew or non-Jew, are now the Covenant people of Almighty God.