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§5 The Responsibility of Privilege (Rom. 2:1–16)

The discussion of the guilt of humanity in 1:18ff. presupposes the Gentile world, that is, humanity without special revelation from God. The prominence given to homosexuality in 1:26–27 and the list of vices in 1:29–31 typify Jewish prejudice against “Gentile sinners,” as Paul once referred to them (Gal. 2:15). We noted how clearly 1:18–32 echoes the Jewish indictment of Gentiles from the Wisdom of Solomon (chs. 11–15). Gentiles could have known God from creation. “They live among his works,” says Wisdom of Solomon 13:7, yet they “did not recognize the craftsman while paying heed to his works” (13:1). Therefore, they “are [not] to be excused,” for “they had the power to know so much,” yet “[failed] to find sooner the Lord of these things” (13:8–9). For these reasons they became “hateful to God” (14:9) because of their “confusion over what is good [and] forgetfulness of [God’s] favors’ (14:26). Their idolatry led to sexual perversion (14:12), and they were forced to “learn that one is punished by the very things by which he sins” (11:16). These quotations and ideas from the Wisdom of Solomon find a striking parallel in Paul’s exposé of Gentile guilt in 1:18–32.

Jewish readers and perhaps even moral Gentiles such as Stoics would have found little discomfort and much to applaud in Paul’s castigation of Gentile humanity. The morally upright have a sharp eye for the faults of the wicked. There were, we may be sure, no fewer Caligulas or Neros then than there are Stalins and Hitlers today.

The judgment which Paul hurled at unrighteous Gentiles in chapter 1 comes whirling back like a boomerang on heads held high in moral satisfaction in chapter 2. True, Jews are not named until 2:17, and it is possible to regard 2:1–16 as directed to moral humanity in general. This would include Jews as well as Stoics, for example, who were renowned for their moral philosophy. Nevertheless, although Paul does not mention Jews by name in this section, it is fairly certain that he is speaking to them, for when he mentions Jews in 2:17 he does not appear to introduce a new subject, but to identify a subject already under consideration. Moreover, just as 1:18–32 echoed many of the ideas from Wisdom of Solomon 11–14, chapter 2 echoes Wisdom of Solomon 15, which asserts the moral superiority of Jews over unrighteous Gentiles: “But thou, our God, art kind and true, patient, and ruling all things in mercy. For even if we (= Jews) sin we are thine, knowing thy power; but we will not sin, because we know that we are accounted thine. For to know thee is complete righteousness” (Wisd. of Sol. 15:1–3, RSV).

Against this attitude Paul launches phase two of his indictment of humanity. The present task is more difficult, however, for the morally upright are less obviously in need of God’s righteousness than are the unrighteous. Nevertheless, the self-righteous are as culpable as the unrighteous, for the self-righteous live under an illusion, failing to see that their value judgments of others ultimately condemn themselves. Paul condemns Jews in the same language with which he condemned Gentiles: “You … have no excuse” (2:1; see 1:20).

The prophet Nathan condemned King David with his own value judgment, “Thou art the man” (2 Sam. 12:1–10). John the Baptist warned the Pharisees and Sadducees not to presume on their ethnic status: “Do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham” (Matt. 3:7–10). Jesus too burst the balloon of moral superiority: “For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you” (Matt. 7:2). Likewise, the apostle turns from the dives of sinners in 1:18–32 to the parlors of moral respectability in 2:1ff. to evince that it is not knowledge of God’s will, nor even the status of election, which exonerates Jews before God, but the doing of God’s will. God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth and impartiality (2:2, 11).

Paul proceeds with the present argument in three stages. In 2:1–3 he adopts a style of argumentation called diatribe. Especially common among Stoics, a diatribe was a literary technique in which an imaginary heckler or opponent was engaged in lively argumentation. Paul’s opponents, of course, were not imaginary. In the synagogues and marketplaces of his missionary travels he had encountered the attitude of moral superiority and divine favoritism expressed in 2:1ff.; indeed, he had once been part of it (see Phil. 3:4–7). Paul was no friend of the illusion that the sunlight of privilege exempts one from the cloud of divine judgment.

Once the universality of God’s judgment is established in 2:1–3, Paul proceeds to challenge another illusion: is not God’s silence in the face of wrongdoing indicative of a lack of divine retribution (2:4–11)? Quite the contrary. God’s continued goodness in the face of evil is intended to melt the icy heart of the sinner. Patience is extended in order to lead to repentance, and presumption on that patience is a fatal mistake. God is an utterly impartial judge (v. 11) who judges deeds (v. 6). No sporadic ethical refurbishment, no turning over of new moral leaves, lays a foundation for acquittal before God, but only practical evidence of new life (vv. 7–10). This applies to all people, to Jews as well as Gentiles (vv. 9–10). There are no incumbents, no ex officio members, in the kingdom of God. Knowledge of the truth, even (as in the case of Jews) inheritance of divine revelation, does not satisfy God, only a life of repentance (v. 4) and renewal (vv. 7ff.). The “obedience [which] comes from faith” (1:5), which Paul noted at the outset of Romans, controls the present thought: the evidence of faith is not good intentions or verbal confession but “persist[ence] in doing good” (v. 7).

The third stage of the argument comes in 2:12–16, in which Paul shows that God’s judgment is absolutely just. If Gentiles cannot take sanctuary in the plea that they have no knowledge of divine law, neither can Jews take refuge in divine revelation. In the former case, God’s judgment appeals to a rule of conscience “written on their hearts” (v. 15), a principle which the Wisdom of Solomon expressed in the words, “thy immortal spirit is in all things” (12:1). To this principle Gentiles were obliged to conform. In the latter case, God’s judgment falls on Jews because they fail to keep the revelation they have received. At the end of time the secrets of all hearts will be revealed and judged according to the gospel of the Righteous One, Jesus Christ.

2:1–3 / Jesus once told a parable about a Pharisee who stood in the temple and prayed, “God, I thank you that I am not like other men” (Luke 18:11). In 2:1–3 Paul declares that there is a Pharisee in the heart of everyone who esteems his or her own morality. Their error, says Paul, consists in passing judgment on others, for in passing judgment one supposes oneself apart from humanity, whereas in truth one is always and only a part of humanity. The accent here falls on doing. It is often said that it is not what you know but who you know that counts; Paul would have said that it is not what you know but what you do that counts. He says bluntly, you who pass judgment … do the same things. Such a statement rankles those who consider themselves “good people,” for they, like the Pharisee in the temple, claim not to do the things they despise in others. And often they do not. Perhaps they reason, as Paul says in 1:32, that if applauding evil is as bad as doing evil, the opposite must also be true, that condemning evil is as good as not doing it, and that by condemning evil one can avoid the consequences of it. But this is treading on casuistic thin ice, for there are more than enough pitfalls listed in 1:29–31 to catch the most scrupulous and wary moralist.

There is still more to Paul’s concern over judgments. Do not even truly moral individuals discover to their acute disappointment that the evils they detest and strive to overcome are also in themselves? It is no coincidence that we have learned more about the meaning of evil from the saints who have forsaken this world than from any number of moral idealists. Little is learned about temptation by surrendering to it; but whoever tries to resist evil learns its force firsthand. It is senseless to judge faults by degrees of badness. Left to themselves and given time, even seemingly innocuous faults become loathsome evils. Franz Leenhardt says it is futile to use “the vices of others, even their worst, as a screen for our own faults, even the slightest” (Romans, p. 74). In comparison to the worst in others nearly anyone can look good, but that is only because, in the words of Luther, “The unrighteous look for good in themselves and evil in others; the righteous are eager to see the good in others and overlook their own” (Epistle to the Romans, p. 36). What counts is not the evil one avoids, but the evil one does. Most honest people are not fooled, and neither is God. “God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows” (Gal. 6:7).

Who is this (self-) righteous judge who is snared by the traps he sets for others? A literal translation of 2:1 reads, “Therefore you are without excuse, O man, you who judge.” Paul wheels around on the morally satisfied who would have applauded his condemnation of Gentiles in 1:18–32 and addresses them in the second person singular, “Thou art.” Direct address was not only characteristic of the Hellenistic diatribe, it is also more personal and universal. It intensifies the argument for the very persons who thought themselves exempt from it! C. K. Barrett and others suggest that the moral prosecution here takes the form of a dialogue. Thus, verse 1 is Paul’s initial charge; verse 2, the opponent’s defense; and verse 3, Paul’s concluding charge (Romans, pp. 43–44).

The word judgment (krinein) appears in one form or another seven times in verses 1–3! This indicates how thoroughly the theme dominates Paul’s thought. In contrast to self-serving human judgments that stack the deck in one’s own favor, Paul says that God’s judgment … is based on truth. We know this, says Paul. It is something we can be confident of because God’s judgment is true and impartial (v. 11), an immovable rock in a sea of moral equivocation. The reappearance of on truth here is not without significance. Earlier Paul argued that idolatry and wickedness were a revolt against the truth of God (1:25). But moral casuistry and manipulation are equally odious to God, as Jewish sages agreed. First Enoch 52:7 is similar to verse 3: “In those days (the endtime) no one will be able to save himself either with gold or silver, and no one will be able to flee” (see also 1 Enoch 102:1). Nearly a century after Paul, Rabbi Akiba (d. A.D. 135) said, “The judgment is a judgment of the truth” (m. ’Abot 3.16). But in popular Judaism of Paul’s day there was widespread overconfidence that Israelites were secure with God by virtue of their heritage (John 8:33), and that their heritage would compensate for any want of conformity to the law’s moral demands. In 2:1ff. Paul goes nose-to-nose with this attitude of exemption and exclusion. Although he does not specifically call it a lie, his contrasting of specious moral judgments with God’s judgment in truth associates it with the lie of Gentiles in 1:25. Moral and religious humanity are also locked in battle against the truth!

The future orientation of verses 5, 6, and 16 indicates that God’s judgment is here the final judgment at the end of time. If God judges Gentiles in the present by handing them over to the sins they desire (1:24ff.), his judgment of Jews who judge will be in the future. But, as Paul affirms in verse 4, God’s delay in judging Jews cannot be mistaken as indifference to their sin. In handing over Gentiles to the consequences of their sins and in reserving judgment on Jews until the end of time, God has but one intent in mind, and that is to lead both to repentance (v. 4). God’s judgment is equal and impartial. Paul will later say, “There is no one righteous, not even one” (3:10). This includes Gentiles who know their guilt and Jews who do not; both are without excuse (1:20; 2:1). Until this truth is indelibly etched in their understanding, neither Gentiles nor Jews can understand why salvation is grounded in Jesus Christ alone. It is Christ’s righteousness, not human self-righteousness or supposed-righteousness, which justifies believers. Salvation rests solely on God’s grace toward sinners, not on sinners’ bargaining with bogus merits.

2:4–11 / The riches of God’s kindness, tolerance and patience are grace. Grace is shown not only in the gift of salvation, but also in God’s patience with sinners until they receive it. Paul chides his Jewish opponents for their contempt of God’s kindness, for not realizing that God’s patience has a saving intent. And well he might, for although the idea is nowhere expressed as supremely as in verse 4, its rudiments were present in Judaism. God’s patience ought not be confused with weakness or indifference, however, and anyone who interprets it as leniency toward sin is simply abusing divine benevolence. The act of judging others betrays this tendency, for those who judge claim God’s patience and goodness as a confirmation of their judgment, indeed as a reward for it. On the contrary, says Paul, the proper response to grace is repentance, not indulgence.

The Greek word for repentance, metanoia, was relatively uncommon in Greek parlance; the biblical usage reflects the Hebrew, šûḇ, meaning “to turn around.” Metanoia means to recognize one’s condition and do something about it, to change one’s mind and make a decisive turn. It is not primarily a feeling or intention, but an attitudinal change accompanied by action. Repentance is not coerced by fear but evoked by love. People are led to repent by God’s goodness and patience. The religious and moral person always stands in danger of separating God’s gifts from the claims and responsibilities which attend them, of thinking that God’s gifts bestow righteousness, whereas, in fact, God’s gifts call one to it.

The greatest obstacle to God’s will is the “hardened” or “uncircumcised” heart (v. 5). Because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself. The Greek word for stubbornness, sklērotēs, means “harshness,” “callousness,” or “hardness.” One might expect that the hardened heart would characterize the heathen and pagan world, but it is not mentioned in 1:18–32. The hardened heart is rather the problem of Jews, of religious and moral humanity. One would expect gratitude and joy in response to God’s kindness, tolerance and patience in verse 4. But this is not so. God’s gifts and God’s goodness are met by the elect with stubbornness and unrepentant hearts. Those with most reason to honor God disobey him. This truth is written deep in the history of religion, from the OT to the modern church.

But if one were to accumulate capital in heaven from works of merit, then the reverse must be equally true, that resistance to God stores up judgment for the day of God’s wrath. To describe that fact Paul chooses a rare Greek word, dikaiokrisia, translated righteous judgment, which combines the motifs of righteousness (1:17) and wrath (1:18), thus establishing that these are not contradictory attributes of God’s nature, but inseparable consequences of his sovereign lordship. For those who respond in faith, God’s lordship results in righteousness; for those opposed to his righteousness, that lordship results in wrath.

Paul earlier averred that God’s judgment is based on doing his will, not simply knowing it (vv. 1–3). Verse 6 repeats and concludes this idea: God’s righteous judgment will give to each person according to what he has done. God’s judgment looks to deeds, not to privilege. This thought is so close to Psalm 62:12 and Proverbs 24:12 that the editors of the NIV place it in quotation marks. Evangelical Protestants may sense that this verse contradicts Paul’s teaching on justification by faith. It cannot be denied, however, that both Old and New Testaments teach that God judges according to deeds. Romans begins and ends by speaking of faith as a deed, as “obedience” (1:5; 16:26). In 1 Corinthians 3:12ff. Paul speaks of “each man’s work” as a “foundation” which “the Day will bring to light.” Deeds are not external appendages of personhood but expressions of personal values. The Bible refers to them as “fruit,” i.e., as organic growth in continuity with the stock (Amos 6:12; Matt. 7:16; John 15:5ff.; Gal. 5:22; Heb. 12:11). Far from constituting a claim on God, as the inevitable outflowing of intent, works express faith and repentance. They are not competitive with faith, but effects of it. At the last judgment no one can claim the spiritual bank account of nation or class or race or church or home or even personal achievement. Each must present his or her own deposit book, so to speak, to receive what has been stored up (v. 5).

Verses 7–10 elaborate the idea of verse 6. The structure of the verses is puzzling: there are no verbs, and the argument seems circular. Verses 7 and 10 combine to explain the character of good works, whereas the intervening verses describe the character and consequences of evil works. If there is any dislocation it may be due to the problem of oral dictation (see 16:22), with Paul’s mind returning in verse 10 to clarify the content of verse 7. But closer study indicates the probability of a literary pattern, a chiastic structure (A-B-B′-A′). Thus,

A—works which lead to eternal life (v. 7)

B—works which lead to God’s wrath (v. 8)

B′—God’s judgment against bad works, of both Jew and Gentile (v. 9)

A′—God’s reward of good works, of both Jew and Gentile (v. 10).

The discussion of works in verses 7–10 can be summed up by “character” or “orientation.” Paul is less concerned with the exceptional deeds which all people do—whether the heroic deed on the spur of the moment, or the plunge into sin. Occasional good and bad deeds are usually extremes of an individual’s moral continuum which, in the overall balance of life, might be said to be “out of character.” The apostle is concerned instead with root desires and fundamental orientation in life, which, in the case of good works, he identifies as glory, honor, immortality, and peace. Thus the first characteristic of good works consists in an altruism beyond self and orientation to others and God. Moral ends, of course, must be pursued by moral means. Paul expresses it thus: Those who by persistence in doing good works seek such things will receive eternal life. This constitutes the second characteristic of good works, which is contained in two key words. The first, seek, occurs in Greek as a present active participle and carries the idea of pursuance or continuing to seek. The second word, persistence, comes from the Greek, hypomonē and means “continuance” or “endurance,” conveying the idea of consistency. It recalls the thought of 1:5 (“obedience that comes from faith”) and implies the sum total of one’s life and works. The character of good works, then, consists in both goal and means, altruism and consistency.

Verses 8–9, by contrast, speak of evil works and recall the language of 1:18ff. God’s wrath and anger are directed against those who reject the truth and follow evil. We noted in the discussion of 1:25 how exchanging “the truth of God for a lie” leads to idolatry. The word above rendered evil is adikia, “unrighteousness” or “wickedness,” the same word to which Paul contrasted God’s righteousness in 1:17, and with which he began his discussion of the guilt of humanity (1:18ff.). Rejection of the truth and the resultant evil are characterized by self-seeking (v. 8). A very rare word in Greek, eritheia means “selfishness” or “selfish ambition” and forms a blatant contrast to altruism and consistency. Selfishness and egotism lie at the root of sin and are the first steps of those who reject the truth and do evil. In consequence, God’s wrath brings trouble and distress. In Greek these two words connote “outward affliction” and “inner anguish,” respectively.

In summary, works ultimately fall into two categories, those which serve and maximize self and those which serve and maximize the glory of God. The former meet with God’s wrath, the latter with eternal life. One recalls the words of George MacDonald, “There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says, in the end, ‘Thy will be done’ ” (C. S. Lewis, Great Divorce, p. 72). The seeking of self or the seeking of God can, of course, describe a religious person as well as a pagan. That is why Paul applies these verses to both Jew and Gentile—First for the Jew, then for the Gentile. He may begin with Jews in order to acknowledge their priority in the history of redemption (see Amos 3:2; Luke 12:48), but he does so with the reminder that priority in redemption entails priority in judgment!

“Paul’s whole point here is that the terms of judgment are precisely the same for everyone” (Dunn, Romans 1–8, p. 88). This is the meaning of verse 11: For God does not show favoritism. The word for favoritism, prosōpolēmpsia, means “to look only on the face of things” or “to see only the masks people wear.” It occurs several times in the NT (Acts 10:34; Gal. 2:6; Eph. 6:9; Col. 3:25), but always negatively, suggesting that the face or mask does not reflect the person behind it. God, says Paul, sees the person, not the mask; he sees the character of the actor, not just the role played. The character of the Gentile has been unsparingly exposed in 1:18–32, but Paul is equally severe with the Jew. It would be disastrous to mistake knowledge of the law for obedience to it, to equate the privilege of the covenant with responsibility to fulfill it, to mistake election for salvation.

2:12–16 / The discussion of Jewish and Gentile culpability is now continued from the standpoint of the law. Gentiles and Jews are not named, but the reference to those apart from the law and under the law (v. 12) clearly intends them. The law is the Mosaic law which included not only the Ten Commandments but the whole body of decrees and ordinances in the Pentateuch, which, according to rabbinic count, totaled 613 commandments (365 negative, 248 positive). Verses 12–16 argue that the law is an impartial standard of judgment, and they illustrate the principle of verse 11 that “God does not show favoritism.”

The cutting edge of Paul’s argument is verse 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. This verse, which recalls James 1:22, 25, asserts that it is not knowledge of the law (for all know it, at least in part, either by revelation or by conscience), but obedience which matters. “Cursed is the man who does not uphold the words of this law by carrying them out” (Deut. 27:26).

Verse 14 addresses the problem of Gentiles and the law. Since Gentiles have not been given the Mosaic law, ought they not be free from its stipulations? False reasoning, says Paul. When Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law to themselves. Here, and in verse 15, where Paul speaks of the law written on Gentile hearts, he argues that even people without religious instruction are responsible moral agents. Cranfield understands Gentiles here to mean Christian Gentiles, but that is surely reading too much into the verse (Epistle to the Romans, vol. 1, pp. 155–56). Paul has not yet introduced Jesus Christ into the discussion of Jews and Gentiles (with the exception of 1:16–17). His whole argument depends on the premise that apart from Christ Jews and Gentiles are deserving of God’s wrath. Paul is contending for an innate moral sense in humanity, to whose voice Gentiles are as bound as are Jews to the Torah. In so arguing he is in good company, not only with the Jewish tradition, but also with the pagan. There is within humanity a rudimentary but undeniable moral sense, an “oughtness,” which the Hebrew tradition regarded as the “heart.” Paul bears witness that it is written on their hearts. To the requirements of the law the Gentiles are responsible, and by it they are condemned.

On the Last Day God will reveal the hidden recesses of human hearts and judge them accordingly (v. 16). Although humanity’s guilt will be established by the law, judgment will be rendered through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares. This verse states explicitly that there is no judgment apart from the gospel. In his inscrutable wisdom (11:33) God will judge men’s secrets only through Christ, whose perfect love satisfied God’s exact justice. Thus, in the midst of humanity’s dire condition and inescapable guilt, Paul introduces a harbinger of grace. The Judge, it is true, brings lethal charges against the accused, both Jews and Gentiles, but the same Judge will be no less valiant in his defense for the accused through Jesus Christ.