Judgment – Facing the Facts (Romans 2:1-16)
Billy Milton - January 16, 2005
Just a quick reminder of where we are so far in this book of Romans. The blue sheet will give you a good summary of the main background details but Paul’s primary concern in this letter is to remind/persuade the Roman believers of the power of the gospel to change lives. The key verses are 1:16-17 where he assures them that he is not ashamed of the gospel, as the Judaizers were, and he makes it clear that it is only by faith that anyone can be saved.
Having stated that the gospel is the power of God for salvation, Paul, from 1:18, begins to address different groups of people one by one to make them aware of their need of salvation. Last week we looked at his warning to the godless Gentile, and we saw the type of behaviour that constitutes godlessness. In fact, ch 2 of Romans was written for those of us who liked ch 1 a bit too much! There’s a sense in which Paul set us up in ch1, because he described human society at its worst, and those of us who aren’t as bad as that were silently applauding his description. “Yeah, preach it Paul. But I’m a law abiding, home-loving, family values, clean-living, person. Surely you can’t mean me?” Paul must be talking about really bad people, but not good, moral, upstanding citizens like us. So now Paul turns his attention directly to the moral, upstanding, church member who can easily find themselves sitting in judgment on other people. We’ve called this talk, “Judgment – facing the facts.”
Now, making an informed judgment is one thing, and on many occasions a perfectly valid thing to do, but having a ‘judgmental attitude’ is quite another. Look at the words of Romans 2:1 - “You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else…” >(2:1) and then the words of Jesus in Matthew 7:1 - “Judge not that you be not judged.” (7:1) (Possibly one of the most quoted verses by those who never read their Bible)
The Bible seems to say quite clearly that it’s wrong to judge others, so isn’t Paul guilty of double standards here? With one breath he’s saying ‘don’t judge’ and with the other he is quite definitely judging… is he not? What’s all this stuff about homosexuality in ch1 if we’re not supposed to judge? Well, before we conclude that Paul was a hypocrite, we need to look carefully at what he was actually saying and not just make wrong assumptions.
First of all 2:1-16 does not say it is wrong to judge others. What it does say is that it’s wrong to judge others for their sin and then think that God will overlook your sin. When v2 says you are condemning yourself… it doesn’t say that you are condemned for judging. It says that you are condemned because you set a certain standard for others… and yet you did not live up to that standard yourself. Look at what it actually says — “…because you who pass judgment DO THE SAME THINGS.” It’s not the judging that was wrong… it was that YOU DO THE SAME THINGS. So the first fact we must face regarding judging is rather personal, don’t judge if you are guilty of the same thing yourself! As a Pastor I find that fact particularly challenging.
But, why is this so is dangerous? Well A JUDGMENTAL ATTITUDE LULLS US INTO A FALSE SENSE OF SECURITY. You know what a lull is don’t you? You’re lulled when you’re gradually soothed and calmed into thinking that everything’s okay. When we set ourselves up as judges over other people, we can become lulled into a false sense of security. We figure God’s attention is focused on the homosexuals, so he doesn’t notice our problem with pornography or slander or lying. All of us tend to divide sins into two categories: My sins and their sins, and of course their sins are always worse than my sins. But be careful, don’t judge if you’re guilty of the same things yourself. Don’t get lulled. Don’t become darkened to the sin in your own life.
The second fact we need to face can be seen in v2 – “..God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth.” How many of you have passed judgment on someone without being aware of all the facts? I know that I have, especially people in the public eye. I’ll make a snap judgment and then discover later that I was not in possession of all the facts and so my judgment was wrong, and maybe even harmful.
I remember years ago when I was in my early twenties I was invited to speak at a big church in Scotland where there were about a dozen people being baptised that morning. The place was absolutely packed and they opened the sliding doors to a back room and squeezed people in there as well. There must have been 300+ people there and I was a very nervous young preacher without much experience. I almost got stage fright and felt I couldn’t do it but the guy who was leading assured me that I’d be fine and made me do it. It turned into a nightmare for me! As I looked across the church, directly in my line of vision was a man who, every time I made a point, would jerk his head backwards in a disapproving way and blow out his cheeks and make a noise with his lips. I became more and more nervous, forgot my words, began to doubt what I was preaching because this guy so obviously hated every word I was preaching. I eventually gave up and sank into my seat in embarrassment, absolutely seething at this guy’s rudeness and I made up my mind that I would challenge him at the end regarding his behaviour. As the service closed I apologised to the guy who had invited me and explained about this ‘idiot’ who had puffed and blowed his way through my message and how I was going to sort him out at the end. He said, “Oh no, don’t worry. He wasn’t disagreeing with you – he has a nervous condition and he just puffs and blows and twitches all the time!”
I couldn’t believe it. I had judged this man to be an insensitive, oaf – probably an atheist, and all the time he was just ill. I learned a few lessons that day, I can assure you! If we are going to judge, and the Bible actually says we should, then it needs to be based on the truth, all the known facts, or else we should withhold judgment. When we stand before God one day we can be absolutely sure that he will have all the facts – his judgment will be absolutely true.
The third fact that we need to face when thinking about judgment comes from God’s perspective. It might come as a bit of a surprise to you given my continued emphasis on salvation by grace through faith, and it’s found in vv 5-6. It relates to God’s judgment of us, “…when his righteous judgment will be revealed. God will give to each person according to what he has done.” Now I don’t know about you, but to me this sounds suspiciously like a works-based gospel. It isn’t …but let me explain.
Over and over again in the NT the writers affirm that salvation is by faith alone, but, and this is very important, they also repeatedly talk about the fruit of that faith showing itself in works. In fact James in 2:14-26 goes as far as to say that, “faith without works is dead.” Jesus in Matthew 7 tells us how we will know a true believer – “by their fruits.”
Remember I said at the beginning last week about the two rival factions who were active in the early church? One of them, the Antinomians, would be dismayed at this teaching of Paul. They believed that once saved you could do what you wanted. Paul is saying – no way – once saved we do what God wants or as Ephesians 2:10 says, “We do the good deeds set aside for us by God.”
So, using a bit of technical language, whilst we are justified by faith we are sanctified through works. Let me say that again in simpler language. Whilst we are made right before God instantly by faith in Jesus Christ (justification), the process of becoming more like Christ (sanctification) is a lifetime process and is evidenced by the works we do for God. Does that make sense to you? If not, come and see me afterwards and I’ll explain it in more detail. In other words, works are important both for the non-believer, in their case, godless and wicked works leading to judgment, and for the believer, the works that God has given us to do, leading to reward. If we do not see the ‘fruit of the Spirit’, as Paul puts it in Galatians 5, then the mature believer has every right to question that person’s salvation. i.e. he has the right to judge them!
The fourth and last fact that I want us to face is found in v11. “God does not show favouritism.” That particular phrase would have puzzled the good Jew who was 100% convinced that they were God’s favourites. Perhaps you believe this as well. Paul says, sorry lads, God has no favourites. You’d actually have thought that Israel would have learned that fact after God allowed them to be captured and exiled… twice! But still they had this belief that God loved them more than he loved the Gentiles. After all, hadn’t God given the 10 commandments specifically to them? Whist that is true, Paul says that both Jew and Gentile will be judged by the same standard, because even the non-Jew has the law written in their hearts (v15). I guess we’d call that our conscience but, call it what you want, God says that we are without excuse. So, because all of us have knowledge of God’s standards, when the Day of Judgment eventually comes, each of us will stand before God with no excuse. But, here is the crucial point of all this – ultimately it will be the all-powerful, all-knowing God who judges… not me or you!
So having faced a few of the facts of judgment, what should I do? Well, the opposite of being judgmental is being humble. It’s looking at ourselves and our own failures first. It’s admitting that we fail as much as other people, that we violate God’s law just as irreligious people do. It’s no longer pretending that we have ‘got our act’ together, but admitting that only by the loving grace of God can any of us be made right with God. And we are best to do that now because as Paul concludes in v16, “This will take place on the day when God will judge men’s secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares.”
Confess it now. Accept God’s forgiveness. Have the slate wiped clean. Or face the facts - God the righteous judge will reveal all your secrets on that day.