Romans 2

What’s happening

Paul turns to someone listening: "Therefore you are without excuse, O man, whoever you are who judge. For in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself. For you who judge practice the same things." God's judgment is according to truth against those who practice such things. "Do you think this, O man, who judge those who practice such things, and do the same, that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you despise the riches of his goodness, forbearance, and patience, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?" By your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who "will pay back to everyone according to their works": eternal life to those who by patience in well-doing seek glory, honor, and incorruptibility; but to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, wrath and indignation, affliction and anguish on every soul of man who works evil, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek; but glory, honor, and peace to every man who works good, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. "For there is no partiality with God." Those who have sinned without law will also perish without law, and as many as have sinned under law will be judged by the law. "For it isn't the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law will be justified." When Gentiles who do not have the law do by nature the things of the law, these, not having the law, are a law to themselves, who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts accusing or else excusing them, in the day when God will judge the secrets of men, according to Paul's gospel, by Jesus Christ. Then he addresses a Jewish hearer: "But if you bear the name of a Jew, and rest on the law, and glory in God, and know his will, and approve the things that are excellent, being instructed out of the law, and are confident that you yourself are a guide of the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of babies, having in the law the form of knowledge and of the truth, you therefore who teach another, don't you teach yourself? You who preach that a man shouldn't steal, do you steal? You who say a man shouldn't commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who glory in the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law? For 'the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you,' just as it is written." He says circumcision is of value if you keep the law, but if you break the law, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision; if an uncircumcised man keeps the righteous requirements of the law, will not his uncircumcision be accounted as circumcision? Such a man will judge you who, with the letter and circumcision, are a transgressor of the law. "For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, neither is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit not in the letter; whose praise is not from men, but from God."

Who’s in this chapter

Talk it through

1. Paul lures the reader into agreeing with him and then says, "You are the one." Why use that move?
2. "The goodness of God leads you to repentance." How is that different from judgment leading to repentance?
3. Gentiles show "the work of the law written in their hearts." What do you think Paul means by conscience here?
4. "A Jew who is one inwardly." How does Paul honor Jewish identity here and how does he challenge it?