Judgement By Works
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 judgement will be revealed. God “will repay each person according to what they have done.” To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honour and immortality, he will give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile; but glory, honour and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For God does not show favouritism. Romans 2:5-11
Most of us have known times when we have sinned big time. The more sensitive and emotional our nature, the more likely we’ve wallowed in condemnation and the overriding feeling we’ve let God (and ourselves) down. We’ve felt estranged from Him, spiritually emptied, useless and good for nothing of any divine value and purpose.
Terrible though this reaction is, the opposite extreme is even worse. To sin with no conscience and to knowingly continue doing wrong thinking God’s grace and forgiveness is automatic, takes us down a pathway to destruction. God’s ‘kindness, tolerance and patience’ (2:4) in the face of sin graciously gives the sinner time to repent and can never be presumed upon. Any thought that “God hasn’t stopped me so I’m alright” is a clear sign of ‘your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart’ (2:5). There can only be one end. We are not ‘storing up’ for ourselves a treasure (the normal meaning of the verb ‘to store up’) but the certainty of ‘wrath’ on ‘the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgement will be revealed’ (2:5). Far from escaping God’s judgement, we are guaranteeing it.
God assesses the Jew, the Gentile and the moralist on exactly the same basis. There is a level playing field when it comes to God’s ultimate verdict. The Jew, simply by being a Jew can never claim immunity from judgement. The moral person, whether Jew or Gentile, faces the same future. Paul’s argument follows a pattern called a chiasm, from the Greek alphabetic letter for X.
A God will judge everyone according to their works (2:6)
B People who do good will attain eternal life (2:7)
C People who do evil will suffer wrath (2:8)
C1 Wrath for those who do evil (2:9)
B1 Glory for those who do good (2:10)
A1 God judges impartially (2:11)
The principle point lies at A and A1. God’s judgement of every human being is according to their works (NIV “what they have done.”) The quote is possibly from Psalm 62:2 though Proverbs 24:12 and other Old Testament scriptures make the same point (Hosea 12:2; Jeremiah 17:10; 32:19). Other New Testament scriptures repeat the principle (Matthew 16:27; 2 Corinthians 5:10; Revelation 2:23; 20:12f; 22:12).
This is a surprise to many Christians. How do we reconcile salvation by faith alone (1:16,17) with this scripture? Justification (God’s future declaration of our sins forgiven and our righteous standing before Him – both anticipated now through our trust in Christ) is by faith but judgement is by works. The day of judgement will be very public. Its purpose will be to announce and vindicate God’s judgement. The divine judgement, which is a process of sifting and separating, is going on all the times people range themselves for or against Christ. On the last day its results will be made public. God’s public verdict and public sentencing will be based on public and verifiable evidence and the only public evidence available will be our works, what we have done. The presence or absence of saving faith will be clearly evidenced by the presence or absence of good works of godly love in our lives. Authentic saving faith shows in our lives and if it doesn’t, that faith is dead. ‘I will show you my faith by what I do’ wrote James (2:18); ‘Faith [works] through love’ echoes Paul (Galatians 5:6).
Romans 2:5-11 is not an easy passage to work through. Paul is explaining the basis on which, outside of Christ, God judges people. He will go on to argue that no one (again outside of Christ) can persist in good works adequately enough to earn salvation (3:9,20). Only Christians, through union with Christ, are able to produce works acceptable to God in the judgement. Paul is still building his case. But how important is it for us to live in daily fellowship with Christ, seeking ‘glory, honour and immortality’ (2:7)