The outline:
1) Human partiality. (Romans 2:1-5)
a) A common standard.
b) A revealed truth.
c) A kindness ignored.
2) God’s impartiality. (2:6-16)
a) A coming judgment.
b) A universal judgment.
c) A fair judgment.
There seems to be the problem that those addressed in verses 1-5 had fallen into a belief that having the covenant and the written commands of God guaranteed that they were not going to be judged. While they condemned those who engaged in the behaviour described in the second half of chapter 1 they displayed the double standard of actually committing many of the same acts themselves but without any conviction that they too were under God’s judgment.
This is the opposite reaction to that which they should have had. God’s patience and kindness should have left their consciences softened, not hardened, and they should have repented instead of condemning others and being complacent themselves.
Verses 6-16 outline God’s impartial judgment of all humanity.
A couple of ideas will be used to illustrate the points here.
Firstly this text affirms that those without the written law will still be judged. It does not teach that some are exempt because they do not have that which others do. Their own consciences speak them of their condemnation.
Those who have the written law are judged to a more exact standard, but they are judged too. I think the flood is an analogous. All humanity was judged. Noah’s preaching of righteousness was primarily building a boat.
Secondly some background to the judgment. We’ll spend some time thinking about Matthew 25:31ff, the parable of the sheep and the goats.
The following points, composed by Kanishka Raffel are relevant for our consideration of Romans 2:6-11.
Four signs of evidence that this work is God’s and not ours:
i. Sheep are called ‘The blessed of my Father’;
ii. They receive an inheritance, which is a gift, not a wage;
iii. ‘From the foundation of the world’ shows a plan that could only have been God’s; and, finally,
iv. Their surprise shows they were not working at achieving this state.
We’ll spend some time thinking about what a person’s works reveal about their spiritual state, and also how that relates to people from both Jewish and Gentile backgrounds.
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