Outline / Clarification of Romans 2:1-3:20

Romans 2:1-16 – Paul turns toward an audience that is condemning of others (probably condemning those just mentioned) and yet guilty themselves (this is most likely a Jewish oriented crowd)…

• There is no excuse for anyone (Gentiles have knowledge through nature and the Jews have the Torah)
• In passing judgment (making a moral condemnation) a person is implicitly establishing the universal claim of morality – thus indicting his or herself (Paul’s sub-point). More importantly, very often the same people condemning others are doing such things themselves (hypocrisy).
• Don’t suppose that just because you are “aware” of morality and skilled at judging that you will not be called to account
• Don’t take God’s patience with you to mean that God won’t hold you accountable (since you haven’t seen lightning bolts yet). Instead, God’s patience and kindness toward you ought to lead you to repentance.
• In reality your hard-heartedness is piling up a heap of judgment waiting for you on judgment day!
• God will judge all of humanity according to each person’s actions (works / deeds)
• To the people who patiently persist in doing good – seeking the noble life of glory and honor (a mere reflection of God’s glory and honor) that God intended for humanity with a view toward living eternally (not just for the moment or passing pleasure). To these people God will give Eternal Life
• To those who are self-seeking, who disregard truth and embrace wickedness, these people will receive the full measure of God’s wrath
• It won’t be pretty for those who do evil
• Because the Jew knows more, he will be judged harsher
• But the non-Jew will also have judgment according to what she knows
• For those who do good there will be glory, honor and peace
• Rewards according to opportunity and knowledge (Jew first, non-Jew second)
• God is not unjust (there are no favorites for God, and God takes knowledge of His will into consideration)
• People who sin without the special awareness that comes from being under the tutelage of Torah will still die from sin (because sin is toxic)
• People who sin while under the tutelage of the Torah will be condemned by that very tutor (and are thus under the same condemnation as those who don’t have Torah)
• Just possessing or hearing the Torah does not give you a special “favored nation ” / “vindicated” / “right” status with God
• You have to DO what the Torah says to be considered “right” in God’s sight. It is only those who actually DO what the Torah says who will be declared vindicated and just (in the right – justified) on the judgment day.
• When non-Jews who do not possess the Torah DO instinctively what the Torah requires (righteous requirements), they demonstrate a sense of conscience that shows they have the essence of the Torah within them on their hearts… which means they will experience a sense of accountability (their own soul on the witness stand - at various times affirming, sometimes condemning). All of this will happen on the day of judgment when God will judge all of humanity (including all their secrets) THROUGH Jesus.

Romans 2:17-29 – Paul brings the straight-talk to people who want to hide behind the covenant signs and symbols as a way of side-stepping their accountability before God… in doing so he redefines who the real covenant heirs are (the true Jews)

• So you think you’re a Jew… huh?
• You rest in the fact that you possess the Torah
• You celebrate your rich history of God’s special relationship to the family of Abraham
• You know God’s will and what is the best way to live because of the teaching of Torah
• You are confident that you can lead those poor, blind Gentiles… in fact you see yourself as a light shining in the darkness – the lighthouse on a dark seashore
• You are the world’s teacher… the corrector of the foolish – because you have the teaching of Torah – the embodiment of all worthwhile knowledge and truth
• Then why don’t you actually teach yourself a thing or two?
• You are a people railing against stealing, yet there are thieves among you
• You are a people who take marriage serious – forbidding adultery, yet your people are thick with adulterers
• You wouldn’t possibly bow down to those ridiculous pagan idols, but you are just fine with stealing from the temples of idols? (Huh? Are you a slave to greed?)
• You celebrate the possession of the Torah… but you dishonor the one who gave it to you because you don’t actually pay any attention to really living by its teaching. You have broken the covenant agreement (Torah)! In fact, there is a text about you… “God’s name is laughed at, mocked among the nations because of your tremendous hypocrisy.” There is nothing to be proud about being “marked out” as being YHWH’s (disobedient) people right now… You need the covenant curse taken away! You need a new covenant.
• You think that the covenant marker of circumcision is going to be something you can rely on? Here’s the truth: Circumcision is only of value if you actually obey the Torah’s teaching. If you don’t, your circumcision has made you like the non-Jew (marked out for God’s wrath / curse… Remember the deal? If you as a people obey…blessing! If you as a people disobey… curses!)
• If someone who is not Jewish by ethnicity / nationality (uncircumcised) does the essence, the ethical requirements of the Torah, can’t you see that God will treat them as under “blessing?”
• Actually there is a major reversal at work here:
• The non-Jew who obeys Torah will stand in judgment of you the “Jewish” possessor of the Torah who doesn’t obey.
• A person isn’t a Jew because of some snipped skin on the penis… it isn’t about outward signs. It is about an inward reality of the heart – where the spirit of Torah is being done rather than just talked about or referred to in some written document. It is the person who has the essence of Torah written on the inside that gets the approval of God and is the heir to the covenant blessings.

Romans 3:1-8 – Paul, after giving some stiff words to his ethnically / culturally Jewish audience members addresses their concern about the possible advantages of being “elected”

• What advantage is there to being ethnically / culturally Jewish?
• Much in every way
• First (with no following 2^nd, 3^rd, etc – but picked up in chapter 9), you were given the very oracles, the written documents of God (Torah)
• But is any of this any good since some have been unfaithful to actually doing Torah? Will God be unfaithful to His end of the covenant bargain because of the people’s unfaithfulness to covenant?
• Absolutely not! Even if every other mouth on the planet spews lies, God’s does not! He is faithful.
• You’ve read that text, “You know that God is truthful and honest (righteous / just) in His words because He is judging things as they really are – condemning my wrong action” (Psalm 51 is David asking God for mercy because he (David) has been unfaithful and is affirming that God’s judgment over him is correct and honest)
• If our unfaithfulness / injustice (wrong behavior), which is rightly condemned by God, actually confirms that God is truly just (because of His right judgment), can we actually say that God can really punish us since we are making Him look especially just – for judging His own people?
• Paul says, “This is ridiculous – it’s a dumb human argument”
• How could God actually judge the world within this crazy logic?
• If my dishonesty makes God look really honest and really good, shouldn’t he high-five me instead of condemn me? As some people mistakenly say that Paul says, “Let’s go sin so that God looks good”
• Paul: What the heck? This is insanity. People who say this have a depraved, twisted mind. They deserve condemnation!

Romans 3:9-20 – Paul again returns to his theme of universal culpability. All, both Jew and non-Jew are rightfully under the condemnation of God… there is no wiggle room – especially not for those who want to hide behind the possession of the Torah.

• So, is the ethnic / cultural Jew any better off? Nope.
• All (Jew and non-Jew) are under the power of sin
• To reinforce the fact that no person under the tutelage of Torah will find vindication in such, Paul assembles a litany of scriptural quotations (which should be understood as alluding to whole passages) which drive home his thesis that the Torah stands with a finger of judgment pointing at those under its tutelage… the bearers of the covenant marks are under God’s covenant curse / wrath.
• Whatever Torah teaches is addressed to those who are under its teaching
• Thus, the whole world is under curse / wrath and are thus accountable to God
• Non-Jews (the point Paul already made - see Romans 1:18-32)
• Jews, due to Torah’s condemnation of the covenant community for disobedience, violence, and vile behavior
• Nobody will be declared “right” in God’s sight by evidence of Torah observance – specifically, having the distinctive markers of the covenant people: the “works” of Torah (Circumcision, Sabbath, Purity laws)
• For through the Torah human awareness (knowledge) of sin is increased