Passing judgment

Reflections on Romans 2

Romans 1:18-32 seems characterised by the words ‘they’, ‘their’ and ‘them’. ‘They are without excuse’, ‘they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images, ‘God gave them up’, ‘they were filled with every kind of wickedness’. God’s wrath seems to be ‘against those people over there’, but Paul is just setting us up for chapter 2.

Roman 2:1 begins with a big ‘therefore you’! Catching us while we are in the process of joining God in his judgment on ‘them’ he swings round the spotlight on us. We do ‘the very same things’ as them, so if we can judge them then we must judge ourselves the same.

God is kind to us now, but we cannot presume that will last when ‘God’s righteous judgment is revealed’. We cannot rely on past kindness because circumcision can become uncircumcision (2:25). God’s past kindness was not faithless but was meant to be lived out going forward in repentance (v.4). Not only was the past to be lived out going forward, but also the external was to be lived out internally in our heart (v.28). God's judgment is thorough and impartial. We cannot stand before the judgment of a God who judges the ‘secret thoughts of all’ and sees impenitent hearts.

Suddenly we who felt so complacent in judging others are fearful of the coming ‘righteous judgment of God’ which ‘will be revealed’. But then we remember that ‘the righteousness of God’ has already been revealed (1:17; 3:21-26). By faith we saw it at the cross where Jesus Christ was crucified. There our pride was put to death, and our ability to lord it over others in judgment. But three days later Jesus Christ was raised and was justified, and if we saw our death in his we also see our justification in his.